Sorry this took so long again. :P Really big thanks to all of you for reading and commenting and having the patience to wait. :)
NightmareAngel365: Yay, thanks! I just love it when my characters get compliments. :D
tain89: Thanks! And i can't wait to reveal what will happen in the end, but unfortunately that will probably take some time. :)
Fantasy Loremaster: Thank you for the compliments! Stealth was actually originally supposed to be the ultimate bad guy in the story, but he surprised me. :D And the question about the sequel... i'm afraid i can't answer to that. xD
FallenAnge1: Heh, i'm glad that someone likes Annie too, though i haven't written much about her yet. :)
Artemis Fowl Fan101: Sorry, those questions don't get answered yet in this chapter, but i'll promise they'll be revealed later. :D
Crooked: Whew, great that most of you seemed to recognize the creature to be an alien, i was a little worried about that. And i agree, Lex is great in the movie, they should bring her back in avp3, presuming that there'll be one. Many thanks for the compliments. :)
Harlequin Jade: Well, i just couldn't make an avp story without the aliens. :D
limnamae: Heh, don't worry, no one's saying you would have to rewiev on every chapter. :D I know many of you would love to see Lex and Scar getting a happy ending, but i can't even give you a hint of what the ending will be like. I'm tempted to, but can't spoil anything. But yes. Stealth needs a girlfriend. Or the help of some daiting show. That is too funny of an idea to ignore. xD
OSR4ever: Thanks! :D Haa! (writing down the comment about the cliffhanger) Hell yeah, i'll remind you when you make a cliffhanger. XD
Elunara: And your comment made my day. :) Thank you and no worries. :D
KittynJenn: It's going to get worse for the elevator group. xD
EspeonAngel: I'm glad you guessed it was an alien, i was worried that no one would have any idea what the hell it was. xD Thank you for the many kind words. :D And for the sympathy on my drawing problem. xD
vleicious: Thanks you so much for the compliment about the action scenes. I've been really worried about them, since i haven't written those before. But your comment eased my mind. :) I agree with the *pressure relief* for Stealth and i guess sooner or later i will have to write about him finding that devil incarnate female. xD
Taladarkiejj: Weeell, throwing star/shuriken... same thing (i guess ;D) But thanks! :)
Pampers Baby Dry: Thanks! Okay, you go catch a bug. That is if you can beat Scar and Stealth to it. XD
I doooo noooot oooown Scar or Lex or anything from the movie.
"…Xenomorphs", Vincent finished his sentence and paused for a dramatic effect. "The very same creatures you faced in Antarctica."
Lex felt icy fingers closing around her heart, causing it to miss a beat. No. It wasn't possible. How did they even know about Antarctica? Coldness spread throughout the woman's body and she had to clench her fists tightly to keep them from shaking.
In a flash she was back in the pyramid. Back in the dark, death exuding corridors, running away from her worst nightmares that had now returned. Or to be more precise, she had returned to them.
Lex could still hear Sebastian's voice in her head clearly as if the man had been standing next to her. They mustn't reach the surface. What if they would this time?
Where the woman was struggling to control the sickening fear, Scar and Stealth had found at least one thing they could both agree on. Things had taken an interesting turn. If the human male was speaking the truth, they would get a chance to gain more honourable trophies than they had anticipated.
Interesting wasn't the word Lex would have used. Her eyes as well as her thoughts had wandered somewhere else for a moment, but now she forced them to concentrate on Vincent again.
The man took some kind of a device from the pocket of his white scientist's coat and glanced at it briefly before putting it back. "It is futile for me to tell you anything else, since you'll be dead soon, but one thing I'm going to say to ease your mind. These xenomorphs have been… processed, so to speak, and we've taken all the necessary precautions to make sure they don't escape. Everything is under my control."
As the man cast one last scornful look at them and walked out of their sight, Lex didn't know whether to hope or fear that.
The creature with a shining, black head seemed to be watching the terrified people, which was quite fascinating in itself, considering that it had no eyes at all. Nobody moved, nor even dared to breathe too loudly, hoping that it would lose interest in them eventually.
The long-shaped head came slowly lower, almost dripping a trail of drool on Mark. The big-eyed youngster's eyes became, if possible, even more wider as the monstrous being turned to him and hissed softly.
Two deafening bangs made the hissing change into a furious screech that echoed in the air still after the creature itself had vanished back into the dark elevator shaft. Three faces, white with shock, turned to look at their unexpected saviour.
Keith's hands rested by his side, but the gun he was squeezing tightly, was an indisputable proof that he had just probably saved them all. Or at least bought them more time.
"Holy hell, Keith!" Antonio burst out. "You couldn't have chosen a better time to wake up."
The robust man was barely conscious, but it didn't stop him from giving Antonio an irritated glare. "What are you waiting for? Get out!"
His words got more weight when a single drop fell from the ceiling, right in the middle of the floor, leaving smoking holes to both of them. Everyone raised their eyes up, just to see several other holes already appearing.
"Their blood is… extremely strong acid." Keith's concentration was beginning to flag and forming words was quickly getting harder. "Leave… me…"
"Don't be a fool", Mark snapped, moving beside the man. "We left you behind once already and look at you now."
Keith couldn't have said much to that even if he had still been able to talk. He was, however, slipping back to unconsciousness and didn't react when Annie and Antonio lifted him up.
"You first Mark", the woman said with a strict tone. The young man had no objections, so he climbed nimbly out of the elevator and turned to help with Keith. Pulling the man up, he caught sight of the yellowish blood coming from the ceiling. He was gratified to notice that there seemed to be plenty of it. Keith must had gotten a good shot. The large man was almost out of the elevator when Mark noticed something that started troubling him. The first drops had fallen to the centre of the floor, but most of the acid-corroded holes were forming a fast completing semicircle on the other side of the elevator. Like the creature was doing so on purpose.
Annie saw the youngster's hesitation. "What is it?"
Mark met her eyes and shook his head. Now wasn't the time to start imagining things.
They got Keith up without problems and the monster hadn't still come back. Antonio stayed behind to pick up the gun that had fallen from the injured man, watching carefully not to get any acid on him. The elevator had suffered quite a lot of damage in a short period of time. Why wasn't the creature attacking? Was it afraid of the weapon that had harmed it?
Annie had gotten out when Antonio turned around to follow her. Mark just couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong. Blood had suddenly stopped coming through the roof and for a fleeting moment the blue-eyed youngster hoped that the creature had simply left.
As a shadow moved in the darkness outside the elevator, he knew they weren't that lucky.
Mark acted before he could even think about what he was doing, pushing Antonio, who had just gotten into the hallway, down onto the floor. At the same time he did that, something dived from the darkness and crashed into the wall right next to his head. The young man stared stupefied at a long, serrated tail, until he felt something running down his forehead.
Before Antonio could get up or Mark could realize that it was his own blood, the sharp-ended tail came whipping out of the wall and sent the youngster flying backwards into the air. With his breath cut short, he could only let out a smothered sound when he hit the back wall of the elevator and fell, to the others' horror, onto the floor and straight through it.
"Mark!!" Annie screamed in panic as the corroded floor collapsed under the dazed youngster, leaving him reaching for anything that would stop his fall. All he managed to do was cut his hand to the sharp edges before disappearing into the darkness.
Antonio sprung to his knees, barely catching the woman before she would have jumped back into the elevator.
"Let me go!" Annie screamed, fighting desperately to get past the man. "He might still be there, I have to save him! Mark! MAAARK!!!
Crushing the woman's already faint glimmer of hope, a part of the ceiling caved in as the creature clawed its way through it, dropping into the elevator and revealing itself to the humans for a second before continuing through the floor to pursuit its first prey.
"What a nightmare", Lex moaned, pulling her hand through her hair with her eyes closed. "And it just doesn't end."
Scar couldn't agree with that. He had been given one of the two things he had occasionally imagined when he had been thinking about Lex. A chance to hunt with her. He had to constantly remind himself that humans didn't understand hunting like his kind did, but nonetheless he enjoyed the situation.
Still the warrior kept a straight face when Lex turned to look at him.
"We have to hurry. The others have no idea what that bastard has set free."
"Do… what you will", Stealth stated before Scar could answer to the woman. "As long as… neither of you… get in my way."
Having said that the predator turned his back to them and marched towards a door that was opposite of the one they had come in from. Scar and Lex were both relived, though for different reasons. One thing, however, kept worrying the woman so much that she called for the leaving hunter.
Stealth stopped and glanced indifferently over his shoulder. Lex was hesitant to say what she had to say because of Scar, but she had to ask something.
"Please… if you find other people, leave them be."
Stealth turned so that he could se the woman's eyes when he said the thing he knew she didn't want him to say. "The deal… included only your friends."
Scar's entire body tensed ominously when he heard the word Lex had been afraid of. "What deal?"
Stealth couldn't resist but to twist his mandibles to a mocking sneer. "Ask… your woman."
Satisfied with the confusion he had caused, the warrior walked out of the door, leaving Scar to stare demandingly at Lex. The woman doubted she could simply shrug off the conversation, but decided to try anyway.
"It's nothing", she said shaking her head and conjured a careless smile on her face. "Don't take it too seriously; he's just doing everything to piss you off."
Lex couldn't stay under Scar's relentless gaze that was working like a lie detector, breaking through her phoney smile. She walked quickly away from the predator, heading for the backpack by the door where she had left it earlier, all the while trying to come up with possible explanations. She could feel Scar's suspiciousness as he came after her.
"Stealth doesn't joke around. If he said you have a deal then you have a deal."
Lex didn't stop nor even show in any way that she would answer to Scar, which caused him to grab her arm a little more roughly than he had intended.
"What deal did you make?"
Lex was now starting to get angry of the warrior's persistence and had to use all of her willpower to keep her voice calm. "I already told you, it was nothing you should worry about. I tried to keep him from killing anybody, which wasn't going so well as you must've seen when you came here. Now if you don't mind, I would like to go patch myself up before anyone else tries to puncture me."
That hit the target. Guilt weighed heavily on Scar's mind as he remembered the woman's injuries he himself had inflicted her. He was too terrified to even think how close she had came to dying by his hand. Normally he wouldn't have given up when he wanted answers, but how was he supposed to demand them now?
Lex tried not to look too relieved when the predator released her arm, looking somewhat tame. She wondered if she had gone a little too far by mentioning her wounds, even though she knew how terrible Scar felt about them. She just would do everything to avoid talking about her deal with Stealth. The whole thing was too much for her to even think of yet. Still, she hadn't been fair to the warrior.
Lex sighed at Scar's dejected expression, threw her spear next to her backpack and her arms around Scar's neck, pressing her head against his broad chest for a while. "You're here now and we're both fine, so quit complicating things."
The woman ended the hug and turned away before the predator would have returned it. "Besides", she continued with a little more believable smile while walking to her pack. "Do you think Stealth will dare to pick on me anymore now that you're here?"
Scar let out a brief laughter and a playful glint lit up in his eyes. "No, I'm the only one who is allowed to do that."
The hunter followed the woman with stalking steps, something in his mind that she definitely wasn't expecting.
Lex nearly jumped into the air when she felt a slap on her butt. She spun around, giving the predator an angry glare, but when she saw him grinning there like a mischievous school boy, she found out to her annoyance that she couldn't maintain her anger. She turned away again, rolling her eyes and muttering to herself as she knelt down to open the pack.
"I don't even want to know where you've learned that from."
Scar squatted down beside the woman, following disturbingly closely her every move. Lex pretended she didn't notice it at all, but felt embarrassingly clearly her cheeks starting to burn. She went through her backpack more frantically, managing to find the rest of her first aid supplies and dropping half of them when she forgot how much her other hand hurt.
Immediately Scar leaned closer, reaching out his clawed hand to carefully take hers and bring it closer to his face for examining. From the bruises his eyes travelled to Lex's shoulder, where the evidence of her earlier fight with Stealth could still be seen.
The woman knew without a doubt that the warrior would guess where those injuries had come from, so she prepared herself for another questioning. Scar raised his eyes, but instead of worry or anger, Lex could've sworn she saw only pride.
"I was wondering what had happened to his shoulder", the predator practically rubbed his hands with pleasure. "I knew you were a warrior."
Lex could only stare at Scar, not believing her ears. How could she possibly ever understand him or any one of his kind? It was utterly incomprehensible how everything Stealth did that had something to do with her enraged Scar, but when he heard that she had gotten into a fight with the other hunter, he looked like he was about to pat her on the head and say: good girl.
No, she wouldn't even try to understand.