Athena stared from the floor as Celtic advanced on the thrashing Xenomorph. He was taking his sweet time getting there, which gave the hard-shell alien enough time to break free. Its acidic blood melted the net enough that it burst free and lunged at Celtic, knocking him over.

'This is my chance!' Athena thought with relief.

There was a door open behind her that led out of the room that she finally noticed was covered in bones. She turned to go, but then paused. Her thoughts went back to Maxwell. He had been killed by the black, almost bug like creature. The thing seemed to be more animal instinct than intelligence.

She realized several things at that moment.

Whoever won would be after her. She doubted she could escape either, despite how athletic she was. If the humanoid won, she had a fraction of a sliver of a chance to maybe form a shaky alliance until they got out of there. If the black alien won, she doubted she could do anything to tame it.

Looking back at the two, she saw the humanoid on the floor. He (Athena assumed it was a he) seemed resigned to his fate and looked up through his mask helplessly as the other creature loomed over him.

Athena's decision was made in an instant.

With rising rage at the black alien for what its brother did to her long time friend and coworker, Athena charged at it. Neither acknowledged her presence, too focused on their own situation to notice a human. That is, until she grabbed the partially severed end of the xenomorph's tail.

With nearly inhuman strength, she yanked with all of her might and sent the unsuspecting creature down the pile of bones. It shrieked as it fell down and kept sliding on down from stumbling over the bones. When it landed hard on the bottom, it's feet got tangled up in the previous netting and the thing thrashed about trying to knock the trap off.

Athena looked back to see that Celtic had risen to his feet.

Celtic was livid. At first he had been shocked when he saw the ooman lou-dte-kale yank the r'ka off of him and brutally throw it to the ground. He had heard few tales of oomans with thar'n-dha like that, never mind a ooman lou-dte kale!

But then his rage kicked in.

This ooman had just denied him an honorable death. To be killed by a r'ka in battle would have put him in good views with his clan, even if he hadn't been blooded beforehand. If he wasn't strong enough to kill a r'ka, then he had to let himself be killed or kill himself with his akrei-non. Celtic knew he couldn't do the second option with Chopper and Scar still in the pyramid somewhere. That would bring back the dishonor if he killed them with the explosion too.

So he was left with no choice but the first. To let himself be killed by the kiande amedha. But this ooman took that from him!

Rising to his feet, his rage filled mind let him bitterly think that she might have been a poacher as well. A poacher here to steal his kill. He was about to charge at her and fight her instead when she did something unexpected. Turning towards him, she kicked up the spear that he had abandoned with her on the surface. It had fallen down with her and he never even noticed its presence. Then she thrust it into his hands forcefully and pointed back at the kiande amedha that had by now freed itself of the leftover net.

Her meaning was clear, despite having said no words. Finish the job and kill that thing.

In an instant, his rage at her softened until it was just a mild irritation now. He realized with relief that she wasn't here to steal his kill or deny him an honorable death. She was giving him a second chance to prove himself. Something he knew none of his own clan would have done if they had taken her place here.

The r'ka charged up the pile of bones at them and this time Celtic was ready.

With a leap of grace, he flew through the air towards the Xenomorph and brought the spear up for impalement. Athena just stood by and hoped she had chosen the right side.


Chopper was still sitting on the floor and cradling his arm in pain. The stupid tail of the alien had impaled his arm all the way through, breaking his bones and adding more pain as well. He tried to gently pry off his now useless wrist gauntlet, but stopped when he realized it was too painful to do one handed.

Suddenly, a soft hand touched his bent knee.

His good arm shot out and grabbed said hand, causing a squeak of fright from the creature. Looking up, he realized with shock that it was a ooman child! Releasing the child lou-dte kale from his grip, the creature snatched her hand away and looked at him apprehensively. Though he still couldn't read ooman facial expressions that well, he could see by her eyes that she was uncertain.

Seeing her here filled him with anger at the ooman species. 'They bring a child to a place like this?!' He thought venomously.

His kind abhorred killing children. They saw it as cowardly that one would feel the need to demonstrate their strength and power against something that clearly had no chance against them. On top of that, preservation of the species was in question as well. They knew not to hunt a species to the edge of extinction. Oomans, although there were many, were no exception.

He stared at the child as she cautiously approached again. "I'm not going to hurt you." She repeated.

His translator relied the message back to him and he wanted to scuff at the thought that a mere child thought it could do any harm to him, but he knew what she actually meant. She wasn't here to make an enemy of him by her actions.

Then what did she plan to do?

Gently reaching out, hands softer than anything he had felt before grasped his own hand that belonged to his damaged arm. A twinge of pain shot up his arm, but he held still for her. She looked back up at him, her eyes full of wonder. He figured she was shocked by the feel of his skin like he was with hers. She frowned at him.

"Lift up your arm." She gently said.

He cocked his head at her questioningly and she explained. "I can slide my hands underneath that. . .thing and you can slide your arm free."

His translator explained what she said to him and he wondered what strength a child could have. Much less enough that could stretch his wrist gauntlet enough for this. Deciding no more harm could be done than what already was, he gingerly lifted his arm up for her. He didn't expect anything, but he was sorely surprised.

With gentle fingers, Lucinda slipped her hands underneath the sides of his gauntlet. She slid her hands all the way in to her wrist and then began to pull outwards with all of her might. To both of their surprise, the gauntlet stretched with her hands, just enough for him to slip out.

He did so, but cringed in pain from having to flex the ruined muscles.

Lucinda held up the gauntlet to examine it before gingerly setting it down in front of him. Chopper looked at the ruined piece before angrily kicking out and smacking the equipment into the wall. He seemed to grumble under his breath before looking up at Lucinda with a cocked head.

Lucinda tilted hers as well, showing equal curiosity in him. "Who are you?" She asked.

For several seconds, they just stared at each other, not moving a muscle. Suddenly, the humanoid reached up and unplugged two tubes from his mask, each making a hissing sound when they came off.

Lucinda grew excited. She had felt his hands earlier and noticed the odd, scaly texture. It was too dark to tell if that was his actual skin or just his clothing. But the light was brighter on his face, and so she knew she'd get to see that at least.

When he took off his mask, she reeled back in shock.

He stared back at her, equally intrigued. He knew ooman children were easily scared, but she wasn't screaming. He could see in her eyes that they were wide in shock, but that was it. Just shock, no fear. It slowly turned into curiosity. Tilting his head at her, he decided to see if she really was scared of him and was just good at hiding it. Stretching his mandibles wide, he roared at her.

The child stumbled backwards, but it was still just shock he saw in her eyes. No fear.

He tilted his head at her again as she slowly came back and stood before him. 'Strange child.' He thought.

What was even stranger was when she still spoke to him. "I-I'm L-Lucinda." She introduced, stuttering from having suddenly been roared at. His translator had a hard time working through her stuttering, but when it finally got there, he tried to pronounce the child's name. "Lu. . .ssseen. . .ta." He knew it was nothing like how she pronounced it, but it was the best he had for now.

To his surprise, the child giggled. "Close. Just try Luci for now." She suggested.

Being a naturally curious person, Chopper wondered why she'd have two similar names. He tried to say her second name anyway. "Looo. . .seeee." Lucinda smiled at him, a ooman gesture he was unfamiliar with. "Close enough. What about your name?" She asked.

Well now he had a problem. His mask could automatically translate her words into his for him. It was designed to do that. But in order for him to try and talk back, he'd need to manually type his words in and say them back.

Which was now impossible to do without his gauntlet.

"Pauk!" He unintentionally cursed out loud. Lucinda tilted her head at him. "Your name is Pauk?" She asked, barely making out the word he pronounced. His eyes went wide and he tried to shake his head no at her, but her attention was distracted when the walls began to shift. Lucinda stood up and faced the brand new door that had just appeared.

"Come on Pauk." She said to him, not looking behind herself to see him slam his good hand over his face. "We can get out of here now."

Chopper, now named Pauk by Luci, tried to stand but slumped back to the floor when his arm practically screamed at him.

He'd have to fix it first.


Author's note: Translation time!

-ooman: Human

-lou-dte-kale: Child bearer/ female

-r'ka: Xenomorph

-thar'n-dha: Strength

-akrei-non: Bomb

-kiande amedha: Hard meat/ xenomorph

-Pauk: F**k

For those that might be confused, no, Lucinda is not actually a child. She's just short. And I didn't do Lex's and Sebastian's point of view because Lex doesn't actually befriend Scar until much later.