Sorry about the long delay, I was away for the weekend and then school... Anyway, here's the new chapter for you.

Chapter 3

"Lunch time X-13!" Hager called. He set down a large bowl of raw meat and watched a black shape leap down from a rope and bound towards him. He grinned at her exuberance and stepped away as she skidded to a halt.

"Will we play more matching games today?" signed X-13.

"Yes, we will play more matching games today. Because you did so well yesterday, I made it a little harder this time. Eat first though." She nodded and ripped into a chunk of steak.

.....

Later as Hager watched X-13 match up various brightly painted wooden blocks to their various labeled boxes, she looked up and signed

"When are the Xenomorphs coming again? I haven't seen them in a while." Though X-13 had been terrified of the 'Xenomorphs' at first, they had taught her to like them.

"They will be here in about an hour." replied Hager "If you are finished playing, you can go work on your agility until they arrive." X-13 grinned and hurriedly matched up a few more blocks, hesitating only once and bounded away to the various ropes, ladders and bars that decorated the room.

As X-13 leaped and swung from bar to bar she thought. She had seen something unusual about the Xenomorphs. While she was extremely fast and agile, they were slow and awkward. They didn't seem very strong either. The Xenomorphs were roped with muscle, but they never used it; they never moved with confidence and besides, it bunched in funny ways around their torsos and joints. She also thought she saw a cord extending from them to the door. Almost as she thought it, the door hissed open as she leaped from a suspended rope ladder to a horizontal bar. X-13 swung upside down above the newcomers. Dr. Hager called to her,

"Are you coming down or not? They came here because you wanted to see them..." X-13 blinked at them and wove her head around a bit. She shuffled over. Then she jumped.

As she collided with one of the Xenomorphs she heard a muffled scream! Ripping at the strange flesh and tumbling over from the force of the impact, she sought the source of the screams. X-13 came to a halt on to of the Xenomorph, the other Xenomorph was trying to run away, more humans than she'd ever seen were pouring into the room and aiming black things at her and Hager was screaming at everyone.

"What the hell are you doing?!? Don't shoot! Do have any idea how much it's worth!?! It has acid blood!!! Experiment Thirteen, get the hell off him!!!! What's gotten into you?!?" X-13 crouched and hissed at the new humans. She lashed her barbed tail in fear and anger.

"X-13, get off him now! Are you listening? They'll kill you if you don't!!" She climbed off and sat on her haunches. X-13 signed angrily to Hager

"Why did you lie to me? These are not Xenomorphs! They are people wearing clothes like a Xenomorph!" She continued in a more submissive way, "I did not mean to hurt them; I thought that I should catch them by surprise." Hager glanced wildly around the room and screamed hoarsely.

.....

After Dr. Hager had calmed down enough to stop screaming, he began to explain himself to X-13.

"The reason that we used fake Xenomorphs was because our two races are at war." This seemed to make sense to X-13.

"You were created to unite the two, when you are ready, we will send you into a hive to capture some Xenomorphs-including the Queen- and bring them back to us so that we can speak to them about ending the war. If you like, we can begin to teach you what to do..." X-13 stared at him for a moment with her big, shiny black eyes and jumped up and hugged him around the neck.

"YES!!!" She signed excitedly "I want to help! I want to learn! I want to meet other Xenomorphs!" Hager smiled

"Good. We will start tomorrow." X-13 let out a joyful squeal and bounced away. She didn't notice how thin and cruel his smile was.

.....

"That was a very near scrape today, Hager. I thought that she was going to kill him for sure." said Weir as he minced into the room.

"No. We were lucky. She was just curious. We don't need to worry; everything is going to plan..."