A/N: Yes I love you guys too, thou this chap gave me hell. //I had to literally rewrite the second half of it.// So I dropped a bombshell with Dr. Philips –audience whoops- …but it looks like the buckshot is about to wham you off your seats!

-xXx-

Weathered.

I could do nothing else but just stand there and stare blankly at my fallen creator. Everything had abruptly snapped into perspective by this point.

Every emotion I had ever experienced during my horrible upbringing felt heavy in my chest. I had kept it all back. I had constructed this wall of concrete to hold the water at bay and now that very wall loomed behind my eyes… steadily crumbling to pieces and it all threatened to come down like a tsunami and overwhelm me.
But as fast as it all went off with supernova effect, it all imploded into an almighty black hole. I was no longer aware of my own heartbeat. My lungs felt like they had been consumed in the blast. I felt cold and numb. I felt… empty inside.

The slums of the city lay deserted around me. The Erazers had got rid of the people that hung around these parts of town and no one else who had jobs or a home to go to would ever venture here. I could just pick up the sounds of engines, frustrated honking and angry voices coming from a main road a couple of blocks away.

Graffiti marked the walls, litter clung to curbs and corners and somewhere around here, bloody marks stained the walls in some forgotten rooms of darkness.
All the ill intent still hung like cobwebs in the air, strung between the buildings to last for years to come. I couldn't see them as they moved in the breeze, but the feeling of spiritual silky strands across my skin made it all the more real.

The ghostly hands fluttered further, the movement flowed through that proverbial gaping hole in my chest. Those umbilical cords of ectoplasm tugged and pulled at me... and with it all… was Tania.
Her whole spiritual essence was leeched away from me.

I was not impartial to this aspect of my sixth sense. I had felt this before back in the labs. Any of the other experiments I was ever close to, I could feel the bond between me and them slowly get shredded apart as their life force faded away. Like with Mr. Weyland, I would always know when another member has died before the Erazers gloated about it.
Call it a delayed reaction and I stopped, shell-shocked, staring ahead at a point between this plain and the next, listening intently. Some seconds passed before my gut revealed that her destiny had been fulfilled. Her purpose had been done.

My eyes traveled the wet asphalt road splitting off on either side of me and then…the emptiness in me suddenly manifested itself into undulated fear. In this heightened sense of awareness, the crossroad represented the phantom aspect in the path to my destiny with no indication of a wooden post to hint which way would lead me to a dead end or take me where I wanted to go.
Like the lost soul on the highway feeling gutted as another truck passes them, I was not going to chase after it.
Expecting another dismissal at the gates of the Yautjian Empire, I was not going to pursue the matter any further.

I took in a shaky breath as I looked back into the dull gray-green eyes of Dr. Philips. He never came back from the dead. His body never twitched from an involuntary brain wave. Those fully dilated pupils never constricted as lightning flickered above. A stinging sensation brought me out of my thoughts and looking down on my left ankle confirmed that Justin had left a nasty set of claw marks set in a purplish bruise A few seconds later, I looked up to the skies as thunder rolled.
All this over about a minute and a half.

I met Ray'jin's gaze for just a moment but my state of mind was just too fragile and vulnerable. I possibly wouldn't be able to handle another rejection like that again.
Could I? Even I didn't have the answer to that.
I'm sure that the expression on my face was as defined as a picture in a pop up book. Sharpened and torn between two pages.

Ray'jin cautiously placed his clawed hand over my shoulder, which snapped me out of it and reminded my lungs of their current lack of oxygen. I just stared into his visor as the adrenalin in my veins thinned out and time returned to normal.

Looking up to the rooftops over his shoulder stood Adrian and the husky looking Erazer; Rick. Adrian made a move to leap at me but Rick stuck out a burly furry arm to hold him back. They stared at each other intently. I figured that Adrian was the Alpha in this pack, then Rick must somewhat be his second-in-command despite the noticeable difference in size and brawn. Adrian did nothing to attack him for this obvious display of insolence, then that left only one explanation…
Adrian must value Rick's input when it came to complicated situations.

Adrian's ears peeled back and his features morphed into something not hostile or threatening but into an expression I couldn't quite describe.
Rick crossed his beefy arms and then did something I never thought I'd witness an Erazer do.
Rick let a warm genuine smile soften his features before he followed Adrian into the shadows.

The caped predator roared and the other hunters snapped their heads up and then pulled back in retreat. The Xenobot skulls strapped to their backs were the last to succumb to the light bending effects of their cloaks as they vanished.

Ray'jin gave off a hiss/ rattle, "We must get out of here fast, Shu're. My sire has planted a bomb to rid the evidence!"

I felt my eyes widen. "WHAT!" I started as he leaped across the road to retrieve his spear with the Xenobot still pegged like a flag on a pole.

I stood aghast, " Ray'jin wai- …Vanessa's still stuck in there!"

The caped predator rumbled beside me, " Storm, the one you speak of is holding onto it for as long as she's able. Hurry."

From my peripheral, Ray'jin ripped the head off the cyborg body before compacting his spear then I sprinted after them as they followed the others.

"I don't get it. What's wrong with her?" I yelled as I ran alongside Ray'jin.

His feet struck the ground heavily as he sped up the pace and the caped predator rattled before giving me the answer.
"The Hard Meat spawn claims her as we speak."

I said nothing as this crazy coloured picture slipped across my mind's eye like a projector slide, but the image was as brief and as bright as a camera flash. It looked as if I was inspecting an X-ray but some snake thing sat coiled around the person's stomach.

Now I understood as I clenched my eyes shut. 'Oh God.'

The twilight shadows clawed at the surrounding buildings as the hot orb of the sun got chewed up by the teeth of the city skyline. An army of trees came into view and we tore through the dripping foliage. I could hear Ray'jin's wrist computer chirrup as we dodged the tree trunks. He rattled something over my head and the caped predator responded in the same estranged lingo.

"There's a clearing just ahead. Sarket is setting the ship down now."

'Sarket. Now there was a name I hadn't heard in a long time.' I thought as we broke through the ferns as puffs of steam churned up from unknown points along the sodden grass. The air itself was warped up ahead and Ray'jin took my arm in our mid flight.
I barely noticed the sharp clinks emanating from his mask. Seconds later, I found myself running along warped air as he guided me before a red darkness set in.

The hot and humid air thrummed as the hatch sealed behind me with a dull thump. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the red haze pulsing as if the ship had a heartbeat of it's own when gravity shuddered from beneath me. Misty air coiled around my ankles as I followed the two predators further into the ship and into the control room to locate Sarket and Elder Dærensé. Sarket wrestled with the controls as the ship's engines continued to defy Earth's gravity.

I gasped as my lungs struggled to adapt to the soupy air, but their favoured atmosphere did little to weigh down the little pinfeathers sticking up at ninety-degree angles along my neckline. Again, that cautious cord in my mind struck a high note.

"We'll never clear it." I announced bluntly.

The predators stared at me when a sensor bleeped full pelt from the energy readings. Sarket turned in his seat to Ray'jin.
"If that goes off now, it will knock our cloak offline!" Sarket hissed.

Realizing the probability that the ship will be exposed in the pre-night sky, I stalked forward to the board between them.

"Ray'jin, remember how I survived?" I said as I faced him.

Ray'jin's head pulled back and he tipped his mask at the memory. "Yes." He rumbled.

"Forgive my impertinence. But tell Sarket to keep flying and tell everyone to be quiet. Now!" I asked, voice tremulous.

He rattled and clicked as I placed my hands palm down on the bare sections of the control board next to Sarket. Instincts screamed as I closed my eyes. With luck, pulling this stunt again should be a little easier.

The ship suddenly rocked!

I gasped with the strain and my eyelids mashed together as I struggled to keep a tight hold of the reigns as the ship surfed the crest of the shockwave.

Grounding my teeth together as the seconds passed by at a snail's pace, it was when the roller coaster ride suddenly felt like a boat on gentle sea swells, did I relinquish control of the field surrounding the ship and strong hands caught me as I descended to the floor.

Darkness tore at my vision as my mind clung tenaciously to consciousness. No longer feeling my own weight resting on my limbs, I felt my head bob on my shoulders as the sound of my predator name purring in a tone laced with concern signify my Star Of Bethlehem to keep me from being completely swallowed up in the senseless black sea of unconsciousness.

-xXx-

Ray'jin stood perplexed as Storm went completely limp in his arms. Sarket chattered as his biceps relaxed from releasing the controls.

Sarket looked up at Ray'jin, quite amazed himself. "We're in the clear. Cloaking systems are still engaged and holding strong."


Raji'tar and Elder Dærensé rumbled in response and slowly directed their gaze to the winged female in Ray'jin's grasp.
"Take her to the Medical Bay. I'll follow you shortly." Raji'tar mused. Ray'jin tipped his mask and Raji'tar resumed his position of looking back at the Ooman backwater planet slowly eclipsed from the dark sphere of the moon rolling across the void.

Elder Dærensé's mandibles lightly rapped together. "Incredible." He chattered in thought, "I never had any doubt in Shur'ie's capabilities. An extraordinary creature by any standard."

The arbitrator rumbled in approval, "Indeed Elder. Shur'ie has proved herself worthy in my eyes. I have no qualms with granting her passage into our clan."

"That's for the Ancients to decide, but my judgment agrees." Elder Dærensé rumbled in return, "When she's rested and able, we'll need to prepare her for what's to come as soon as possible."

-xXx-

… to be continued.

Cue the drum roll and the angry mob. XD Reviews peoplez … reveeeeeiiiwwwwss!!!
Gawds…I've been writing this for three years! O.o " … ^_^ yay for meh!

- §torm

"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust… sometimes I feel like giving up. Yeah… I said sometimes I feel like giving up. Cos me… I'm lost and I'm Weathered. Baby, hold it together. I'm covered with skin… it peels and it just won't heal…
I'm lost and I'm Weathered. Baby, hold it together. I'm covered with skin… it peels and it just won't heal… it just won't heal…no…

Today reminds me of you, and I hide your truth. The Earth is a voice speaking to you. Take out this pride and leave it behind. 'Cause one day it ends, one day we die. Believe what you will, that it your right. But I choose to win, I choose to fight!"

Song extract from WEATHERED by Creed.