Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for your reviews! I think you are all awesome. And, I tried to answer some questions that were posed in this chapter. As for Kathy expressing gratitude, it is in her character to try and find some sort of silver lining. She has just been traumatized and is trying to keep herself from breaking under the pressure of what has happened. As for PredxHuman hinting in an earlier chapter, we are going to get to that, please be patient. Hope you enjoy it.

Rated M. I own nothing. Maybe a sensitive topic for some. Reader beware.

OoOoOo

Ysabel filled Kathy's mind with so much knowledge, that the woman feared there was no way she'd remember it all. However, as the clan-adopted woman reminded her, she had to. And, while that was not a complicated fact, it certainly was difficult. For five more hours they'd spoken at great length about all the things that were expected of Kathy. It did not escape Kathy's notice that Ysabel clearly resented the 'soft' women. It did not bode well that the last human she might ever see despised her for not having to go toe-to-toe with a creature far fiercer than herself in a death match.

There was also no way she could have survived against a xenomorph. The mere thought of one was terrifying enough to cow Kathy into admitting that the Predators might not be the worst thing out in space.

And, oddly enough, a part of Kathy could not blame Ysabel. However, another part reminded her quietly in the recesses of her mind that there were still very few humans left. Especially when she took the time to approximate what she thought their numbers might be compared to what they once were. There was a chance, she fervently hoped, that the surviving humans on the reserve planet Deuub mentioned could thrive again.

Yet, as she knew deep in her bones, it would take generations upon generations for their numbers to grow. It was also a sad fact, she felt, that their technology would be lost for countless generations. Even if the Predators had not dealt humanity a death blow, they had certainly crippled them beyond measure.

She studied Ysabel quietly, but took great pains not to stare at her in the eyes. That was a form of challenge, which explained the growling anytime she'd looked over long at the Predator's masks. The two women were nearly polar opposites. Kathy had never been in a fight in her entire life that had not been of a verbal nature. She was certain that Ysabel fought on a daily basis, and that seemed daunting to Kathy. Ysabel was well toned muscle and hard, demanding nature. Kathy was slimmer, thanks to her little romp on the alien planet running for her life, and of a more submissive nature.

She asked herself, and not for the first time, what kind of chance an average woman had in a race full of creatures whose lives revolved around hunting and killing dangerous prey? None of the answers she came up with ever filled her with anything except despair.

How many women, she wondered silently as she tried to pay attention to Ysabel, would be given this same information? How many would not? What was the defining line? What if the hunter was not liked by his associated female clan? Would his prize be subject to the whims of fate? How many would die? They had been given one pardon, but her mind strayed to women like Renata who would fight to the bitter end. Would they live much longer?

She prayed to God that they would. She prayed for strength and hope. She prayed for safety for the women. She prayed that if it came to the end, they had the grace to face death unafraid.

Did Kathy have it in her to fall upon the proverbial, if not literal, sword? She wasn't sure she did. She wanted to live. A part of her, which she blindly called human will, could not shake the desire to exist. Her life might be as a trophy, but she burned to see the other humans. She had to see them, needed to verify their existence with her own eyes. There might, just might, come a day when zooming amongst the stars she could see that they were thriving.

Perhaps if she could see that, she could stop caring about survival. It was a dark thought, and a primal one. There was very little chance that one could endure all she had and not risk walking with the black dog called depression. Was she afraid? Yes, she knew she was. Did she despise and resent what her life had become? More than she had ever felt that way toward anything before in all her years. However, humans could survive some of the worst hells imaginable. It seemed to Kathy that she was determined enough to find out what circle of hell she'd be trapped in.

She still had a hard time grasping the concept of flying through the stars on an alien space ship where her time would be reduced to a series of rooms. She sincerely doubted she'd be taken on hunts and that suited her well. She didn't want to see the Predators hunt and kill innocent beings. They seemed to thrive on extinguishing sentience as some form of sick need to prove themselves as great hunters.

Bastards.

The sudden sharp slap across her face caused Kathy to stagger to the side and gasp in pain. She glared heavily at Ysabel's smirking lips as she held a hand to her stinging cheek.

"You aren't paying attention," The woman warned almost amused. "Do you want to die? I can take care of that for you now."

"No," Kathy answered her, suddenly drained of anger.

"'No' what?" Ysabel challenged.

"No, I don't want to die." Kathy said it with such quiet dignity that if gave both women pause. Kathy had meant every word, and had only realized in that moment how much she did not want to die. She truly needed to survive this and see, if not try to help, the others.

Ysabel grew quiet and Kathy could feel her eyes appraising her. It did not feel condescending, but as if she was measuring the truth in the weaker woman's words. "Do you know why they hunted humans, Kathy?"

She thought about it for a moment. "Likely because we were intriguing prey." Kathy said slightly bitter. "Either for our cunning," she said slowly as she recalled Deuub's excitement of not finding her right away. "Or for the danger of it."

The last part seemed more to their disposition.

"You are mostly correct," the soldier replied matter-of-factly. "Both those things are true, but more importantly the Yaujta recognized humans as warriors in their own way."

There was something she was trying to convey to Kathy, but the battered woman couldn't quite figure out what it was. A humorless laugh escaped Kathy as she processed Ysabel's words. Sad eyes met the hard eyes of only 'warrior' in the room.

"I'm no warrior," she said honestly. It was not out of self-pity or to demoralize her. It was simply the painful truth.

"No," Ysabel agreed readily. "Not in the way I am."

She already understood that, and was a little miffed that the other woman felt she had to rub it in a bit.

"Remember," The clan tattoos on Ysabel were glaringly hard to miss and reminded Kathy that the woman had gone through far worse than herself. She felt deeply embarrassed for getting so upset. IT did not make her trials any less horrific, but it served to mentally put Kathy back in her place. She was not the only one who'd suffered. There was no way to tell how long Ysabel had been with the Predators, or what had happened in that time.

"They aren't humans, and you are a trophy. So act like it." The woman struck her shoulder gently.

Kathy nodded mutely. She would never be able to forget that part.

"Good," Ysabel said forcefully. "Now, you will not be on the planet much longer."

Kathy's head snapped up, but her eyes did not. They flicked toward the window which showed a world far more terrifying than her own. It was teeming with creatures that considered her whole species as trophies or prey. She'd leave here, and on that subject she had mixed feelings.

"How do you know?" She found that Ysabel possessing such knowledge would be strange.

The soldier's face gave away nothing. "He has submitted his success to the Female clan, and has also been granted a pardon by the Elders for his weakened line. He has no reason to stay, that I have been made aware of."

"So, I have to go back on the ship?" She muttered the rhetorical question to herself.

"Not on the ship you arrived in, no. It will be his ship and then he will pilot that to the territory currently occupied by his pack."

"What do I do?" She found herself asking subdued.

"When?" the shorter woman prompted after a moment in irritation.

"When I meet his pack," Kathy supplied resigned to forcing herself to live through this.

"You do nothing. You say nothing, and you do not under any circumstance look at them in the eyes or allow yourself to touch any of them. It would be extremely unwelcomed and you would not like the result."

"Ah," she said lost in herself briefly. A life without looking at anyone, without talking to anyone, and without touch; it was a slow form of hell then. Kathy wondered how long she could sustain such an existence in reality. Movies made it seem as if such things were easy to adapt to. However, Kathy had read stories about POW survivors. Granted, she would not be subject to the inhumane torture, but people were capable of breaking.

How long could she not break?

"You probably won't come across them, but stay away from the bad bloods," Ysabel warned lowly. "If you see one, be prepared to fight or die. You would not be able to survive them, in case you were wondering."

No, she hadn't been wondering. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask the other woman to elaborate, but the name 'bad blood' implied almost everything she needed to know. Were they also like the 'Engineers'? Were they a natural enemy of the Predators? Whatever they were, they apparently did not like humans and would not care that she was a 'trophy'. Kathy had the sickening suspicion they would hurt her because she 'belonged' to a Predator if they were-

Screw it; she was just going to ask.

"Why are they called 'Bad bloods'?"

Ysabel all but rolled her eyes at the Kathy. "Because they are bad and the Yaujta have cast their bloodlines out."

She digested that bit of information silently.

"Wouldn't that mean the castrated males would have been cast out since they have 'bad' offspring."

"No."

"Oh, well why not?"

"It's not the same thing," Ysabel bit out with clenched teeth.

Kathy prickled at her tone. She wasn't stupid, but she did not know anything about them and taking any fact for granted seemed foolish.

"Are they like the Engineers?"

Ysabel frowned, turning her mouth into one hard line. "Don't talk about the Engineers, but no they aren't like them. They are Yaujta that have been cast out due to crimes against the society or failing to follow the code of honor. They have no honor." Her last words were almost like a hiss of displeasure.

"I don't understand," Kathy said, "if they are outcast, how would I ever run into them?"

The soldier sighed as if Kathy was a four year old child who could not grasp some simple concept. "You won't likely come across them, but you will be with Deuub's pack." Her finger pointed upward. "In space. And, while space is a big, vast, place it is not 100% unlikely that you will see a bad blood or at least hear them spoken about. If they are seen, Deuub with either try to destroy them himself or alert an arbitrator." The sarcasm all but dripped off of her words.

"Arbitrator?" The question was asked in true curiosity.

"It's like a police officer, or Marshall, a Yautja that enforces the law." Ysabel explained with patience wearing thin.

"I won't see them, but if I do, Deuub will call the Predator Police?" It sounded so ludicrous that Kathy could not help but repeat her thought out loud.

It earned her another slap. The already battered woman touched her once more bleeding lip with a wince.

"Yaujta!"

"My mistake," Kathy muttered rebelliously.

"Do not make it again," Ysabel growled, "I did not just waste my time hear for nothing."

Kathy resisted the urge to point out that 'waste' already implied she'd done something for nothing. However, her face did not want be on the receiving end of any more reminders from the temperamental woman.

"I still don't understand something," Kathy hesitated to speak.

The shorter woman narrowed her eyes. "Why am I not surprised?"

The captive woman grimaced slightly. "Why did they even need us?"

"I have already-"

"No, I know why they needed the genetics," she could not bring herself to say 'eggs', "why did they need to keep the women? They could have bargained for just the DNA."

Ysabel's body language made it seem as if Kathy had two heads suddenly. "You think this is Star Trek where everyone suddenly is Liberals is space?" The woman voice was incredulous. "The Yaujta never specified what the women were for."

"Still, they must have had some idea," she hinted despretly.

A sigh greeted her ears. "Yes, I suspect they had a very good idea, but honestly do you think any woman could go back to life on Earth after giving up 'DNA' to the Yaujta?"

"What about fertility clinics?" Kathy pestered. "They could have just handed over embryos!"

"Embryos are not what they needed."

Silence persisted.

"They could have handed over frozen eggs," The human-trophy said after a few moments.

Ysabel cleared her throat. "Katherine, you and the other women are weak."

She blinked and considered risking another blow to tell Ysabel where she could stick it.

"And by weak, I mean genetically."

"What?"

"The women were not given by the government, but selected by the Yaujta. You and those other women have a higher amount of recessive genes for your respected regions or countries. And, yes, while it is true that people with darker eyes or skin color have a more dominant genetic pairing when compared to someone with the lighter equivalent; the DNA of the women selected is weaker and more easily manipulated. Your DNA was chosen for that reason, as was every other woman's here."

"But they took Nirmala and she's a genius," Kathy argued.

"Intelligence is a fuzzy concept at best, and no single gene is responsible for it as far as we knew."

Of course it was.

"But, why keep us? After our 'contribution' we do not matter to them. And, if Earth were still there we could have gone back."

Ysabel laughed mockingly. "Yes, and I am sure that once humans advanced more in technology, they wouldn't have come after the Yaujta for some form of 'revenge' even though they were part of the bargain and it wasn't actually forced on them."

She didn't have a rebuttal for that, it would likely have happened.

"Why keep us?" She tried again.

"This is a species that has centered all of its society around the hunting, stalking, and killing of prey for honor or status. Instead of a challenging hunt, they were given weak prey and told that if they did not procure one their balls would be sliced off. A society decides what is honorable and what is not, and who should be honored for what they have done."

Kathy felt the dread pool in her stomach. "And they have to take trophies from their hunts," she said bitterly. "So they kept us because it was part of their culture?"

"If course they did. That soft body of yours still houses a skull and spine. As far as I am concerned you are an uncleansed skull."

Well, wasn't that an appetizing thought.

"Will they all view me this way?"

Ysabel shrugged. "Possibly."

"And you are certain that they won't try to…"

"To?"

She blushed, and sputtered at the ground. The best she could managed was a hand motion. "You know?"

A stinging slap to the face stopped her question mid-sentence.

"Katherine, you are here now and soon I will not be here to hold your damn hand like a toddler as you ask a bunch of stupid questions." Ysabel snarled.

Oh good, she would take that to mean 'no'.

"When will Deuub be leaving?" Kathy asked, voicing her captor's name for the first time. The word was strange and made her tongue feel thick in her mouth. Her small rebellion against Ysabel went unnoticed as she voiced yet another question.

She detested it immediately, as she detested him and his species. Her eyes glancing back toward the window that only served to poke at her psyche that hers was gone. Earth was still gone, and Kathy was still to be drug around as a Kraken's living memento. She refused to allow herself to think about their soon to be mutant children.

"Soon," Ysabel answered unhelpfully, "provided that no female has need of him, he will depart quickly."

Quickly could mean anything to someone who had no way of telling the passage of time. And to 'have need' of someone could mean anything as well from lifting, to talking, to-

"You said he could mate at will," Kathy said thoughtfully, "but you also said he produced weaker offspring and that Pre-" the ache in her cheek reminded her promptly, "I mean Yaujta females would not mate with those that produced weak offspring."

She was given, what she was certain, was a withering look. Or at least she thought so; Kathy was not looking at the woman in the eyes again. "And?"

"So, if that is true. I won't have to worry about females being aboard the ship."

"I already told you that."

"You said he could become part of a mating pair with a female."

The soldier appeared unamused as she traced fingers delicately over the knife at her hip. Kathy was going to have nightmares about that, and everything else about these dammed Predators.

"I said 'if he were'. I can't see into the future, and unless there is something you haven't told me Katherine, neither can you."

If she could have seen into the future, she did not know what that would have changed, had it changed anything at all. Kathy sighed, because she knew that she was stalling. She did not want to leave here even though she did not know where 'here' was and did not feel particularly safe.

The mere thought of being alone with Deuub and his pack as her only companionship felt as if she was being sent to an execution. However, she would never know when the death blow was going to strike or who was going to give it to her. She'd constantly be on edge and keeping herself out of their way with no one to share her feelings of rage, sorrow, fear, hope, and purpose with.

Yet, she had to survive this for the chance to see others.

"What do you think my chances of living are?" She asked Ysabel without guile.

The other woman grew quiet, her eyes never leaving Kathy.

"If you are smart, and do what I have told you, I'd say they are decent." The soldier relaxed slightly and Kathy tried to find comfort in that.

She could work with a decent chance.