"Are you sane yet?"

Scar's eyelids flickered open and he looked up to find Lex kneeling on his chest. He made as if to rise.

"Ah, ah, ah!" She held up a warning finger "No sudden moves. I still have this, remember?" She flourished a black cylinder in his face and he became still as his slitted pupils focussed on it.

It took him a moment to piece together what had happened in the last few seconds "You shocked me with the bug stick?!" He said incredulously.

"Damn right I did!" She said "Now chill the fuck out."

He leaned his head back against the floor and exhaled slowly. The electric shock had felt like being battered all over with a metal club - temporarily incapacitating to be sure - but the effects were wearing off surprisingly fast.

"That was not," He said, blinking "A very pleasant thing to do."

"I thought you said this little bug zapper could not seriously hurt you?" She said mockingly.

He measured the expression in her dark eyes, if he moved would she really shock him again? Now that he was calm he didn't think so.

He also realised that, given the imbalance in their respective size and strength, she couldn't possibly think her bodyweight was enough to keep him on the floor… could she?

She raised an eyebrow, as if she could see what he was thinking "Are you going to play nice?" She said.

Suddenly he threw her off, not needing to expend very much effort to flip her onto her back so their positions were reversed. He was now pinning her to the deck. The bug stick clattered out of her hand and rolled away under the console.

"As I said," He purred "That was not a very pleasant thing to do to me. I think you should beg for my forgiveness!"

"You deserved it." She said serenely.

He held up one fist, pressed the palm catch and the knives shot out, flashing and sharp. Even though he wasn't holding onto her wrists she didn't struggle, just held his gaze steadily. She didn't even glance at the blades.

Almost casually he hooked them under the front of her vest and pulled. There was the noise of splitting fabric.

"You idiot! I only have two of those."

"And now you only have one." His lower mandibles curled up "Every time you say something disrespectful to me, I am going to cut something off you. Are you sure you do not want to plead for me to have mercy on you?"

A slow smile was now playing across her lips and the pupils of her eyes were enormous, like dark windows into space "Go and fuck yourself." She said.

His jaws spread in evil glee "I hoped you would say that!"


"Still think I am trying to stop myself from getting pregnant?"

Scar didn't look round but he almost flinched when she asked him the question. He really didn't want to examine his own thought processes too closely in retrospect "Forget what I said," He answered finally "I was not thinking clearly."

"But now you are thinking clearly, are we friends again?"

"You really need to ask?!"

"You aren't giving me a direct answer, maybe I should zap you a second time."

That made him look round. He was still mildly astonished that she had used the bug shocker on him although he suspected he had deserved it. Astonished and – he had to admit it – impressed "Amazing," He thought "No weakness, no hesitation, she just put me down. She is magnificent!"

"So now you don't think it's my fault that we don't have more children?" She persisted, pushing him in the back with one naked foot.

He turned and seized her, crushing her up against him "You became pregnant the first time I had you - the very first time!" He said "It happened so easily I thought it was a vindication; that it meant I was justified and everyone else was wrong."

"And now…?"

"I still regret nothing!" He lifted one hand to her face, tracing her jawline with his talons "But… I do not understand why it has not happened again. I cannot comprehend how my instincts can be so… misdirected… it cannot be a mistake because…" He broke off frowning, not able to say what he was thinking: "…because I still want you so badly."

She looked up at him for a moment and then she said, in the manner of someone inching their way out over a deep chasm "If it is so important to you then why don't you just leave? Find a female of your own species and have more offspring with her. There is no sense in both of us being miserable."

Scar blinked in surprise. He didn't bother asking if that was what she wanted in the hope of hearing something that would justify his own preference. He suspected she would not have risked her life to save him back on Hirai if she was happy to give him up but whether that was because Selim needed him or because she needed him herself, he never could quite work out. He would have given quite a lot to know.

Now he considered her suggestion from a viewpoint of total self-interest: was that what he wanted?

For the first time in years, he tried to picture the females of his own species; bigger than the males, living their segregated lives "I probably could find one who was willing to receive the advances of an outlaw – indeed I am sure I could! More than one most likely, though I would have to best them in combat first."

He had no doubt that his size, strength, reputation and impressive kill list would most likely outweigh his outcast status in the eyes of many yautja females. From what he knew they were not especially interested in social standing except as a marker of ferocity and cunning – but he simply could not bring himself to contemplate the prospect with any enthusiasm.

There was no moral barrier stopping him from accepting her offer, quite the opposite in fact. His species had no concept of monogamy except as a contemptible failure to breed as often as possible. He just didn't want to.

"Why would I want some disinterested giantess who would simply tolerate me for a few minutes?" He thought "Whose only response would be to make my head ring with her huge fists as a parting shot? I cannot imagine it would be very enjoyable experience! Even for the sake of procreation…" He tried to envision actually wanting to do it but the desire eluded him.

Yautja females didn't hold the same fascination for him as she did. It was the lure of the forbidden, the exotic and alien, that kept drawing him back to her. He knew that his own personal gratification should be a minor consideration beside the cardinal importance of breeding. He also knew himself well enough to realise that he needed the former in order to achieve the latter.

And he certainly wasn't interested in other human females! All the days he'd spent in close confines with that female medic after their escape from Hirai he had been unmoved, although he'd watched her closely, trying to work out why this might be "I may be an abominable deviant so far as the rest of my species are concerned, but I have some standards." He thought.

Scar was bright enough to realise that if one human had traits he admired then some others probably would possess them too. As a result of his long association with Lex he had developed a better opinion of humans as a species but it was a very long way between his not thinking of them as dumb livestock and his wanting to go to bed with them.

His partiality for her over all others was bordering on obsession, he realised that, but there was very little he could do about it now.

"It is no use deceiving myself." He shrugged mentally. "Uncomfortable as it is to admit, I have no choice in the matter. She is the only female I want, the only one I have ever been interested in. If it means I only produce Selim and no other offspring then… so be it. I just hope she never realises how absolute her hold over me has become or I will be utterly in her power!"

He gripped her chin in his talons, looking her in the eyes.

"And what would I do with a female of my own species, hrrrrmmmm?" He said, with a totally straight face "Not one of them would be willing to perform any of the filthy human practises you have given me a taste for. In fact, I think some of them would be physically impossible!"

She laughed at that, perhaps she could guess what he was really thinking "You know just how to make a girl feel special." She said in English.

They grinned at each other for a moment. Then he asked "So… what would you have done if I had accepted your offer?"

"I'm not sure," She spoke right next to his ear, making him shiver "Perhaps I'd have killed you in a jealous rage."


When Lex woke up again, it was still dark. She pushed herself up on one elbow and squinted into the blackness. Some noise had disturbed her. She listened for a moment but couldn't hear anything.

She looked down at Scar, unusually the sound hadn't woken him and he was still dead to the world. She wondered if was something to do with being electrocuted or if he was simply drained by the argument… or its aftermath.

"Was I wrong to use the bug zapper against him?" She thought "Using violence against your lover can't ever be right – or I always used to think. I guess I just did it without even thinking about it. And Scar seemed like he was going to do the same to me so maybe it was self-defence but still...I don't feel all that proud of myself right now."

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation he hadn't seemed to hold it against her. If anything, he always appeared to enjoy pain, it excited him. "Crazy masochist!" She thought and yawned.

At least he now seemed to have come to his senses. Their relationship was still volatile and the fact that it had been just the three of them for nearly five years had not done anything to change that. The only time they came into contact with any other living thing it was generally to kill them. She knew he preferred it this way, he was still jealous.

Sometimes she thought this jealousy even extended to Selim. She remembered the few occasions when their son had woken up in the night and wandered into her room because he was upset or unwell.

He had not done it very often. During the day Scar had almost endless patience with him but at night his tolerance evaporated like water off a hotplate. If he happened to be present and not out stalking something, Selim would be rapidly ejected unless he was genuinely sick.

"I am now reconciled to your being entirely monopolised by him throughout the daylight hours." Scar had said to her once.

"That's very generous of you." She had interrupted.

"Yes it is," He said, unfazed "But at night I do not expect to have to compete."

"Maybe it would be better if I could get pregnant again." She thought "At the very least it would mean Selim had some company and it would make Scar happy – my God he'd be so happy!"

She remembered how enthralled he'd been by her first pregnancy and gave a little half smile in the darkness, part amused and part sad. It wasn't like she had any control over the matter. As she'd told him; it was just blind luck, the biological equivalent of Russian Roulette. He didn't like that. She knew he found it hard to accept that there was any aspect of life in which he was powerless.

There was that noise again, a gasp. Alarmed she sat bolt upright, it sounded like Selim! She rose and padded quickly down the corridor. His door slid open noiselessly when she pushed the control and she peered in. The darkness was so thick and black she could only just make out the shape of him lying there. Then she heard him gasp again.

"Selim?"

Pressing the control to bring up the lights she saw that he was retching helplessly. She rushed over and pulled him onto his side. His skin was clammy with sweat but cold, he didn't seem to have any kind of fever. He was coughing and sobbing in between heaves, obviously in great distress.

"What's the matter baby?" She said, smoothing his forehead with one hand while holding him up with the other. He was calling her, crying hysterically, he didn't even seem to know she was there. She just held onto him, not knowing what else to do but wait for the spasm to end.

She had never seen him in such terrible distress before and with no idea what was causing it. Now he was gasping for breath in between dry heaves. His small body suddenly stiffened and started to jerk and shake uncontrollably, his eyes stared at her unseeing and she realised he was fitting. She held onto him, trying to make sure he didn't hurt himself and spoke softly to him, told him it would be alright – not even knowing if he could hear her.

As she sat there holding him, Scar appeared in the doorway. He took everything in; Selim convulsing, her ashen face. Whatever horror or fear he felt, he didn't show it "What is wrong?" He said flatly.

"I don't know!" She was trying to be calm but she looked almost as ill as Selim "I just came in and he was like this, I don't know what's wrong!"

"He seemed healthy earlier." He said in the same emotionless tone.

She said nothing, watched the child's stricken face as his paroxysms grew slowly weaker. When he was finally still and his breathing had returned to normal he seemed to be asleep, the fit had exhausted him. She checked in his mouth with her fingers to make sure there was no vomit for him to choke on. He didn't wake up.

"Lex?"

She looked up, lost and miserable.

He held out his arms "Give him to me. We should put him in the pod. Scan him."

Suddenly she was terribly relieved that he didn't show any outward signs of distress. If he had, she thought she might have lost control herself. He took Selim out of her arms and carried him down the corridor, the boy's head lolling limply against his shoulder.

He laid their unconscious son in the large coffin shaped capsule where she had spent three months comatose. She stood there watching, fingers knotting and un-knotting anxiously as he tapped the controls that activated the scan.

As the indigo illumination from the scanner threw the room into an eerie twilight she watched the screen over the pod with her fingers pressed over her mouth. The schematic swept across showing heat signature, then muscle and tissue and finally bone.

"It has not found anything." He said, anticipating her question.

Frowning, he pressed a few more controls and the scanner began another sweep, malevolently slowly it seemed to her.

This time she recognised the green feathery graphic that showed EMI {electro magnetic impulse} frequency. A much more detailed picture of their son's shape began to take form on the screen. As the scan reached his head, a small mass of silver light appeared inside his skull, not even an inch long.

"What the hell is that?" She hissed.

Scar didn't speak, he touched the controls again and text began to appear, scrolling along the bottom of the screen. She recognised some words but in her distressed state she couldn't make head or tail of their meaning.

"Well?" She said impatiently "I can't read it, what does it say?"

"It is not… clear, some sort of lump." He said "Inside …his head. In his brain."

"What is it?" She asked tightly.

"I cannot tell. The pod will need longer… to perform more tests. Maybe thirty units…"

Almost a whole day until they could know any more. She stared at him, feeling like she was drowning in a sea of unknown horrors.


Twenty units, or roughly thirteen hours later, Selim still lay in enforced unconsciousness. The pod needed him to be still whilst it took samples from him, performed better, more detailed scans and then analysed data. Lex sat beside him calmly enough, but her eyes were surrounded by dark shadows. She was cocooned in a shell of misery, unable to think about or do anything else.

Scar was like a statue, he didn't speak or move at all, just stood by the medi-pod watching Selim hour after hour. Sometimes his gaze flitted over to her.

Finally he said "I am going out."

She looked up sharply "What?! How can you even think about hunting when - "

"Because you need to eat," He cut off her angry question "As do I."

Her eyes glittered "How can you even think of eating when –"

"It does nothing for Selim if we stay here not eating or drinking or sleeping. All that will be achieved is our exhaustion. What can we do for him then?"

She wanted to yell at him "How can you be so fucking calm, you cold blooded bastard? How can you even think of anything else when Selim is lying there and we don't even know what's wrong with him?!" She wanted to scream and howl and hit him but she did none of these things because she knew he was right. Even if his actions seemed unfeeling, logically they made perfect sense. There was nothing to be gained by hysterical shows of emotion.

"Alright, go kill something." She said wearily "Find some of those birds Selim likes, for when he wakes up."

He nodded, slotted his mask onto his face "Contact me if… if you need me." Then dipping his head he was gone, only too glad to escape she was sure. There was not much point in him staying, she told herself. Selim would be unconscious until the pod finished its further tests, until then he could do nothing except agonise uselessly as she was doing. She'd looked after him through various childhood illnesses. Generally he only caught them when it was necessary for one of them to come into contact with other humans or hunters and passed it on to to him.

One particularly virulent bout aged three had started with him covered in blisters and ended up with blood leaking out of the corners of his eyes. She had been taken aback, but Scar had been unsurprised "Sticky Tears," He'd said dismissively "I had it in infancy. Nothing serious." Sure enough, Selim had come through it unscathed.

This was different, she knew it, she felt it.

"He's my son, I should have noticed there was something wrong with him." She berated herself "I just thought he was tired because Scar was pushing him too hard but I should have realised he wasn't his usual self! He's always been such a cheerful, easy kid, I should have known. I should have known!"

She folded her arms and rested them on her knees, watching the light sweeping back and forth across her son's still, small body.