A/N: Any reference in the previous chapter to real life persons who may or may not be involved in the movie industry and is ruining my favorite IP are purely fictitious and should not be interpreted as disdain and loathing. Also, RWBY better not end on a huge cliffhanger this season, dammit.
/ /
Swinging to a breeze of rhythm no one knew, the young warrior intently watched the two pink-skinned creatures bound to the wall in front of her. Her tail was much, much longer than the rest of her and it was not that hard to suspend herself from the ceiling with just a properly embedded strike. She liked watching them as they rested, not making any noise. The others made a lot of noise, just like other prey did she supposed. Already she could feel her new siblings begin to form their first needs in the mindspeak.
Keteriya understood the concept of gender, but needed Tyver to help explain the difference between the two humans. Appearance-wise, one of them was skinnier yet had a different topography on their chest, which he said made her female, the other male by the nature of his build. It felt a little backwards, considering her elder sister towered over all save Mother, and there was not much else discernible between her and her brothers as the rank and file. He also said something about feeding, milk, mammal.
Oh well. Confusion could only be satisfied by curiosity. Besides, she was still somewhat weak from the last time she met a human, lack of soft pink skin notwithstanding. There couldn't be much threat from one of them stuck upside-down next to the other who was sideways on the empty cave's wall.
The alcove Tyver had hid his prey in was another room that her Hive was preparing to expand into. The resin slowly crept forth from its issuers as nutrients would allow, stopping in lean months when discarded hosts were difficult to come by. She ruffled herself in the still air, the lack of humidity in the cold depths of the mountain a slightly unpleasant sensation.
One of the softskins stirred, a long groan and shifting of the strange things it wore. 'Teri thought it was the female. Woman. Girl? Tyver liked to think of her as a young girl, whatever that meant, though she did not contest she was youngest of the Hive right now.
The Outsider had pulled some items from the intruders' belongings. One he had clicked a few times, making sure it did something. He said 'create light,' since his kind could not see like hers could. The warrior did not know exactly what, feeling a strange change in the air but more in that it thrust a single way and without bending, like the sun did in day. He didn't really stop to explain much after arranging those things, but he did tell her to watch over the pile of stuff.
So that's what she did, hanging over it with her tail.
Tyver, one is waking, she called out.
There was a silent reply, a feeling of acknowledgement. He was picking up on the lessons fairly well, all things considered. Keteriya felt the closing tremors his footsteps made, moving from the soft resins onto the cold, dead rock.
The woman shook herself awake, feeling her bonds. For whatever reason, Tyver requested them to not be complete, just enough to hold but still easy to break. A few quick grunts preceded the loud crash she made as the marine fell to the floor. The situation was awry from the start, a fearful expression and scent emanating from her position. A glance to her side caused her to spring into action and look for a way to free her companion. She slapped the side of his face, attempting to rouse the man before letting out an aggravated sigh. Looking for something, patting down her second hides, the rasp of blade leaving sheathe preceded the squishy sounds of the organic restraints being cut away.
Tyver up until now had been content with watching. He growled as the marine was halfway through her work. She froze. Keteriya could see fine little fuzzy things, feel them vribble and stand on end, cocking her head at the sensation this creature had created.
The silvery praetorian bent over and grasped the light making rock or branch. It gradually shone over him and her as he held it, revealing the kneeling giant xenomorph and the smaller counterpart hanging from the ceiling. Keteriya chirruped and cocked her head from side-to-side slowly.
Easy. Don't move too fast, he urged. I need them to be calm and-
The marine, who Tyver had led them on to be some type of younger praetorian in human terms, a fierce warrior that could kill by pointing stick that shot fire and sharp stone, screamed in abject terror, backing up against the resin she had fought so hard to get away from mere seconds ago.
So much for great and terrible fighter, she remarked, slipping down to the ground and sitting on her haunches. As if to punctuate the sentiment, the woman began babbling and crying, pressing a wiry cord and a box on her waist as steadily as she could in all of her blubbering like a newborn prey calf.
Tyver uttered the xenomorphized version of a sigh, a raspy wheeze that blew large strands of viscous spittle in the air in front of him. He picked up the second shoulder lamp, clicked it on, then slid it across the cave towards the female marine's half. She gradually quieted her wailing in confusion. He made a gesture as if for her to hurry it up, hand moving in a circular motion. In turn, the prisoner slid down the wall, crawled to retrieve the beacon of comfort, then back to her comrade. He had woken up, a gag across his mouth, nose flaring as he tried to breathe rapidly.
She made a sound. No, not sound. A word. A question? It wasn't a noise that belonged out in the wild, therefore it was probably a word.
Because I wanted you alive, Tyver responded.
Keteriya looked between the two. She heard him clearly, but the human apparently had not. Her features did not change between before and after the exchange.
A few seconds passed, the implications not lost on the praetorian. His tail thumped on the ground in annoyance, causing the lamp to shift up and down a degree much to the discomfort of the marine.
She responded with a loud outburst, a barrage of things Keteriya did not quite understand.
Because if I wanted to kill you, I would've done it soo- oh, well, shit, this isn't working. Tyver rose, trying to find a piece of gear he had taken off of the pair of humans. I hoped that this… I was fixed, my head.
Isn't that one of the sticks, a twig? the younger xenomorph asked as he took an L-shaped thing into his hand. It looked like a pebble in his palm, easily crushed. Watching with intent, he clumsily clacked a digit against the bend and with success something fell out of the bottom. It was a thinner stick, a shiny and hard-looking thing at its top. The clip clattered to the ground, harmlessly.
Yes. I'm trying to make a point. They don't work if they don't have a clip, or you break them. He tossed the pistol at the marine, useless without ammo. She caught it with her free hand, all other feelings replaced by bewilderment.
Then why are you giving it to her if it's broken?
Call it a gesture. Like how I met Jax.
Keteriya could feel a haughty sniff in the back of her mind. No doubt her sister was watching with interested disinterest while going about her duties, a perk of being part of the royal caste. A show of dominance, sparing an opponent when they were beaten, setting the tone of their interaction. She supposed that there was a lesson there that could be important, now that he was part of their hive.
He got onto his knees, then looked for a box and wire thing like the one the marine-praetorian had at her waist and threaded to her neck. Tyver held the box, then gently wound the wire around his arm. Slicing the insulating skin down part of it, a few sparks were coaxed into life from around his body's plates. At the end, one small current alternated between weak and stronger.
Suddenly, an unpleasant noise emanated from both him and the woman's box. A… radio? A radio, that was what stuck in Keteriya's mind. Another voice, a strange voice that sounded young and human came out of the radio. Tyver was staring directly at the marine. Were they talking?
They went on like this for a little while. Progressively the praetorian-pink skin eased up though kept a firm grip on her pistol despite its uselessness. Even the man forgotten and strung up on the wall had forgotten his predicament as the two parties conversed. A xenomorph with metallic hues having a conversation via radio in the voice of a boy, illuminated by two liberated shoulder lamps in the heart of a mountain which served as the middle of a Hive.
He's falling, Keteriya said, breaking the silence of the mindspeak.
Wha-
The second marine gave out a muffled squeal as his half-sawn resin prison could no longer bear his weight. He fell with a clatter of metal and body on the bare stone floor. Pulling the hardened spittle from his mouth, he rested his head on the cold floor, enjoying the feeling of terrain au naturel.
A series of spheres were jostled from a bandolier. One of them rolled directly towards Tyver's feet who regarded them slowly.
The huge praetorian began breathing quickly, near hyperventilating if human. He stood, shaking, taking the ball into his hand. Turning it over, there were two red bands encircling it, a large letter M stamped on a bald side. The radio on his arm began crackling, fizzing, the sound coming out of the woman marine's end breaking up and carrying the same tone not minutes ago she had been using in fear of her immediate future. Tyver cried and rapidly spat out questions.
Keteriya jumped back as the same white-blue lances began forming on his back, whimpering as she remembered the pain that had followed. She could feel his pain, anguish that seeing this small thing that shouldn't scare him this much. It was just a smooth rock!
He jumped up and pounced, grabbing the collar of the man. The woman yelled and shouted, wanting him to stop. Demanding him who he worked for. Who he worked for really. Was he a marine, like her? Who gave him the stone? All these things bled through the mindspeak, the raw feeling.
Tyver! STOP! You are hurting him! she cried out, jumping in front of him. Keteriya pulled down on his arm, barely budging it. Her warbling joined the human's plea.
"Max-imus," the drone-marine choked out, beginning to purple in the face, "hel-hel-ped. Establish!"
TYVER! Jaxella roared in mind and screech, rounding the corner and gouging the ground to brake herself. She growled at him from behind, ready to take matters into her own hands.
Tyver dropped him.
The fall was softened by both the young warrior and his fellow marine, a loud shuddering gasp for life-giving air sounding. Oum coughed multiple times, looking between his boss and the bug that had saved him. Tanya looked at the xeno that helped her out and, swallowing her fear, gave thanks with a nod. To her surprise, Keteriya gave one in reply as well before looking forlornly at her adopted elder brother.
I need to speak with Ecclesi. Now, he stated, pushing through Jaxella before she could protest.
Keteriya looked at the bag of little spheres of different colors, all with that small little symbol. What about them had Tyver act in such a way? Was it his past as a human?
Stay with the prey. We need to know more, keep them here, her sister commanded. 'Teri obeyed, gently leaving the two marines and deigning to cover up the source of Tyver's ire. Scuttling over to the pile of other treasures he had picked from them, she found another gun. She looked at the pistol, into the small empty hole.
Soon after her deft hands found the release and the second pistol was relieved of its clip. Her lips quivered in the equivalent of a smile in triumph. She looked over at the humans that were staring intently as another one of their weapons was rendered somewhat useless.
The warrior threw the gun towards the two marines, skidding to a stop right next to the lieutenant. Keteriya sat on her haunches, tail waving lazily with contentment. Tanya couldn't help but chuckle lightly at her antics.
It changed to a grim expression when the first scream and death cry of one of her men echoed through the tunnel halls. Downcast, the two humans huddled closer as they were forced to listen to the others follow suit.
/ /
Niara couldn't help it if she snored really loudly. It definitely wasn't because she was fat, in fact she was pretty skinny but not as skinny as Eriadel. Didn't change the fact that she was loud as hell at night, especially when she managed to shamble herself back into their room and get to sleep before she did. Beauty rest ruined, 'El had resorted to running around in the evenings and coming back around midnight instead. She'd found out real quick that waking her big sis' to tell her that she was powering a handcrank diesel motor, or trying to move her on her side with a pillow to open up the airways, was a bad move.
So, this was probably night three or four. Not getting her beauty rest made lab stuff real interesting when she wasn't supposed to drop shiny fragile things.
But… Mister Brandy was up to something.
And it was fun jumping from rooftop to rooftop trying to follow him.
Worst was probably a broken ankle or landing on an arm bad, since she was still that good, and the colony had a pretty regular organization to all its buildings and stories. And storm drains, yeah, with the easy to climb kind of rungs if you were tenacious enough and nimble enough like she was.
Oh, yes! Brandy!
He had been sneaking out of his room real quiet-like for a bit, even before she'd had it with the Snoozing Banshee. Errie just didn't want to investigate. She knew that he went to the top floor and did something up there. Maybe it was recharging his batteries? Which didn't make a lot of sense since he did it almost every day, maybe twice. Except the last two days, he'd gone from his room, up to that floor, then do a lot of other stuff, going back to that room, go outside, back to the floor, and-
Well, you get the picture. Suspicious. So, naturally, it was up to Eriadel to take self-direction and investigate.
It amazed her how such a big man robot guy could be so quiet when he wanted as she watched him leave the Maximus building. Hopefully he couldn't see her with his fancy android senses, especially with her being so high up and downwind. Well, upwind now. She took showers! Showers were nice, having all this water, so much you could waste it for almost thirty minutes on a shower before getting yelled at. And yelled at for taking the hot water! Not just water period.
Tonight, it looked like he was going towards Shanti's bar. Except, to an alleyway near it.
A small grunt, a jump, Eriadel hopped to somewhere with a good view. It was kind of hard to see, but it looked like Brandy was talking with… a lady? Errie wondered if androids could have ladyfriends. Like boyfriend and girlfriend. That's usually why people went to a bar anyways. She hated bars though, only adults were allowed in. Niara was able to pass usually and by then most of the peoples' credits were spent. That was only when times were lean and-
Well, they have to be boyfriend and girlfriend! The lady was obviously agitated about something. Brandy had his characteristic happy stance, arms crossed, unfazed by the tirade.
Then it looked like he was waving a finger, like a parent to a naughty child that wanted a present. Whatever he replied with, the lady slowly shook her head, straightening out her uniform. She walked out of the alley towards the street, towards where Eriadel was crouching.
With a quick gasp, she flattened herself against the roof. She heard the crunching of one, no both, pairs of feet get closer to her side of the avenue.
"You do realize that if this gets out, I can't guarantee the Company won't step in with force," Eriadel could hear when the lady got closer to earshot. "There's only so much I can do, even with the good doctor's… peculiarity."
"Little miss Admin you," was Brandy's lilting reply. "I'm just asking we both come together for once. Daidalos as always keeps out of our hair, making you the weak link. Just a week or so of radio silence. That's it. Then we can share all we want."
Brandy spread his arms. Or that's what Eriadel thought he would do. He was always trying to be friendly and empathetic, always joking.
"Beeesiiiiides, with a live one or three, the project could be done Latiana." Eriadel swore she had heard that name before. "Better yet if we could dip our fingers in some sweet au royaux. Tally says we got kids aplenty hungry, if you know what I mean."
The woman sighed. A boot tapped on gravel slowly.
"Special Order 937d is in effect. I can't help but go with it," she said in a monotone.
Eriadel at this point couldn't help but pull herself a few inches closer to the brink and bring the two figures into view. Latiana stood with head down, staring holes into the ground. Something was off about the way the rest of her face looked too. Brandy on the other hand looked smug this time, but… not in a nice way. Smug like he just kicked a small puppy, and not the kind that deserved it like those yappy rat kinds.
"Settled then. Cheer up, sister. You have the assistance of our glorious Maximus Corp behind your connections to the local marines."
"And what of your other HK units?"
"Oh, I may have a brother or sister waiting in the rafters for their time in the limelight. Don't you worry, no worry at all."
"Goodnight. We'll finalize things when the humans wake." Latiana sighed, turning towards her home on the edge of the beachhead.
Brandy bowed and tipped an imaginary hat, turning back towards the Maximus complex.
Eriadel took a moment to absorb the scene below. Company? Maximus? Order something something? And the way that Brandy treated that lady, Lattie-annie, was very ungentlemanly. It looked like take and take and take, and even the thing that looked like he was giving her help was more like he was something better. And her saying 'humans'! Whazzat mean?!
Figuring that little inner discourse as enough time for the two to not notice her getting back home, Errie crawled backwards a little and made to stand.
She collided with something quite solid, catching her by surprise. Please be a pipe, please be a pipe, please be a pipe- she chanted as she caught herself, stumbling forward. The girl turned and winced at the sight of the towering figure before her. Not a pipe. Crap.
Brandy stood with hands on hips, a disappointed frown on his face.
"It's rude to eavesdrop, little one," he stated. He flicked a flame from his thumb to illuminate both their faces more clearly in the poor moonlit night. "You might hear something you don't understand right now, but might later."
"Tsk, tsk, playing at spy, yes?" he continued on a different beat than before, stepping forward. He swiveled on that foot, much to Eriadel's great confusion. He moved in a semi-circle around her. "As the evil mastermind, oh what oh what am I to do with you-hoo-hoo?"
"Brandy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's just Niara kept snoring and I couldn't sleep and it was more cool to follow you at night than read a book and there's a lot going on here that's way less boring than working in the lab washing dishes and I'm sorry, please don't hurt me oh please don't please don't please-"
"Shhhhh!" Brandy put his non-flaming hand on her lips gently. His synthmetal features gradually softened into something like a parent's joke that went a little too far. "Why would I ever hurt you, darlin'? Why, striking a child is the worst crime in all the 'verse."
Eriadel's spine was ramrod straight, and if she were a cat she'd probably have all her hairs and furs up on end and jumping straight onto the ceiling too.
"So… not… gonna hurt me?"
"Oh ho ho, no, I have a worse punishment," Brandy began to cackle. "You. Get. To…"
"Be my lackey and follow me around forever!" With a dramatic flair, he guffawed up into the air, hands waving as well. Eriadel swore this could easily have fit into a really weird cartoon the way things were playing out.
"Uhm…"
"What, you like washing flasks and vials all day? If you want-"
"No, NO! I'd love to- I mean, oh nooo, not be your lackey!" Errie quickly replied, falling into the act as well. Mirth began to rejoin her features.
"That's the spirit! Now come on, let's get back before that stuffy old bellows of a friend of yours stops powering the windmill." Brandy scooped up the unsuspecting resource and slung her over his shoulder like a bag of rice. He looked over at her head, next to his. "Hey, you want to see what's on the top floor? I bet mister Alexander would love to show us."
The starry eyes of innocence looked into the empty irises of industry, never worrying of a thing.