Finally another chapter. Thanks for waiting and commenting. :) I've been having some computer problems since my old laptop was struck by lightning. xP Don't have time right now to answer to any comments, but really thank you for writing them.

I do not own anything else but my own characters.

Their trip to the elevator had made two things clear to Lex. Vincent really had carried out his threat and released the xenomorphs, and someone had already encountered and defeated one. Acid had been splattered all around the front of the elevator and a quick peek down the dark elevator shaft revealed one of the aliens, lying at the bottom of a small pit, made by its own corrosive blood.

At first Lex thought about Antonio and the others who had been on their way to the elevator. Had they done this? It was hard to believe when she looked at the alien carcass. As far as she knew, one couldn't blow away half of its head with just a pistol and she was pretty sure that was all they had had when they left.

Lex turned to Scar to ask for his opinion on what had happened, but held her question when she noticed the look of concentration on the face of the large predator. He was watching something at the bottom of the elevator shaft.

"What do you see?" Lex asked with a voice barely louder than a whisper.

Scar didn't answer right away. His eyes travelled up the walls and didn't stray from whatever their target was even when he grabbed the mask from his belt and put it on.

Lex let her eyes take the same route, but saw nothing of interest despite the dead xenomorph. Not until she looked straight up. She distinguished a light that must had caught Scar's attention. The light shone through a gaping hole in the elevator's floor. Lex tried her best not to speculate what might had happened up there, but her mind betrayed her, offering one grim option after another.

"There's blood."

Lex winced as Scar suddenly spoke. His voice sounded metallic behind the mask, echoing dramatically, like spoken by the grim reaper himself. It filled her with a strong ominous feeling that left her staring speechless at the masked hunter.

Scar took the mask off and glanced at the woman, misunderstanding the silence and her baffled look.

"Human blood I mean", he specified and squatted next to Lex. "Come."

The odd feeling Lex had had, was shaken off by the strange comment. "Where to?"

The grin that lit Scar's face was as foreboding as his voice of doom a second ago. "I presume you would like to find out what happened here? So we have to climb up."

"Climb?" Lex crossed her arms across her chest and cast a look at the walls in the darkness, which had worryingly little surface to hang on, and then back to the predator with one eyebrow lifted. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but people don't climb up elevator shafts with their bare hands if that's what you thought. How exactly were you going to get us up there?"

The mischievous look didn't disappear for a moment from Scar's face as he answered. "That's the fun part. Hop on."

"Piggyback ride?"

"You didn't seem too eager to climb."

Lex glared at Scar, but keeping her resolve proved to be quite difficult when the gigantic and deadly warrior raised his eye ridges and cocked his head to the side innocently. "So you want a ride?"

Lex couldn't help, but give a small smile as she moved behind the predator. "Fine, but you better not drop me."

She wrapped her arms around Scar's neck and barely got her hands locked together when he was already grapping her legs and standing up. Being suddenly so close to the hunter caused an involuntary reaction and Lex's cheeks began burning red. She was glad Scar couldn't see her right then.

Lex tried to concentrate more on finding a better spot in the middle of all Scar's equipment and less on what he smelled like and how she felt his hard muscles moving against her every time he moved and how much she enjoyed that…

"Ready", Lex dragged her mind out of the gutter. She had other things to think about right now. "Are you sure you can do this?"

Scar turned his head towards her and Lex realized she was pressing her hands on his dreadlock-like hair.

"Sorry", she said and quickly moved her hands so that they were under the long dreads. Against his bare skin.

It was indeed a good thing he couldn't see her face.

Lex couldn't see Scar's face either, but she was certain that he was still grinning.

"Hold on and I'll show you how were going to get up."

Lex squeezed her legs tightly against the hunter's sides as he removed his hands, a little worried that she might somehow hurt him by doing so, no matter how unlikely she knew that was. She didn't like the situation at all. Climbing a mountain with good equipment was something she would never say no to; clinging to someone's back in an elevator shaft was another thing. She hated it when someone else was in control and she could only watch and see what happened. She hated having to trust someone else completely.

"Hold on tighter", Scar advised, walking to the edge.

"You just concentrate on not falling", Lex answered with a slightly tense voice as she looked up into the darkness. She obeyed, however, when the predator crouched and prepared to… jump?

After that Lex didn't care whether she was hurting the predator or not. They were in mid-air before she had the time to realize he had really jumped, and hit the opposite wall before she could even gasp in surprise. Lex was holding on so tight, her arms and legs would soon surely cramp.

Scar's tentacle-like hair chafed Lex's face when he turned to look over his broad shoulder to check on her. He chuckled softly, noticing how much tighter the woman's grip had gotten and even though they had stopped, she still didn't relax.

Hearing the familiar, and at that moment irritating, sound made Lex snap out of her daze and feel embarrassed. Good thing she hadn't screamed at least.

"Is it too much to ask that you'd warn me next time before you do something like that?"

"But that wouldn't be as funny", the predator stated like what he said should have been obvious.

"Then let's put it this way", Lex lowered her voice, trying to imitate the voice of doom and moved one hand enough to reach one of the warrior's long dreadlocks and caressed it gently. "I wonder if it would be as funny if I was hanging on to these while you were jumping."

"I'd rather you continued that", Scar purred. "It feels good."

Lex's hand stopped in the middle of a stroking motion and she could immediately hear a bark of laughter. "I guess you didn't know that our hair is much more sensitive than yours."

Lex wished that the predator would continue jumping already.

"Good to know", she commented bluntly. "So it probably would be funny for me to hold onto it."

Scar didn't give up so easily, he was set on continuing on the subject later. He turned sideways as much as he could and soon another leap made Lex hold her breath. Scar was moving completely confidently in an almost impossible environment, as if gravity was unable to touch him.

After getting over the first shock, part of Lex's nervousness vanished, making way for excitement and awe as she had front row seats for the gymnastics show that the muscular hunter was performing. One second they were flying in the air, then the predator's biceps were tensing as he pulled them higher, but never did she see any signs that it would have been even a bit difficult for him to move with the extra weight.

Too soon they reached the bottom of the elevator and Lex had to remind herself of their situation and the reason they were there.

And what might be lurking above them.

Before they would find out anything, they would first have to get to the elevator. Lex examined the hole they were supposed to go trough. A predator could fit through it, though it was a pretty tight squeeze, its edges jagged and sharp. Together they couldn't get through there.

That, however, didn't seem to be a problem in Scar's opinion since he was already preparing for the final jump. Lex ducked her head instinctively as they neared the elevator. She didn't see it, but she felt a tug when the warrior grabbed something. She raised her head again and saw that they were hanging from the edge of the hole.

And then she felt another tug…

…And realized that the elevator was about to fall.

They were no doubt the strangest couple on earth, or that's at least how Annie felt walking ahead the alien hunter. They travelled in silence, Annie leading the way to the gun storage.

She still hated the predator, Stealth, but now she had had time to think things over and the sizzling fury had subsided to radiating hatred. Even though she hated to admit it, Stealth's presence was convenient and necessary at the moment, with enemies as dangerous as the xenomorphs. About the predator's own motives to hunt with her she didn't know and didn't care.

The storage room was approximately in the middle of the vast floor, behind heavy doors and offering her everything she would need.

Then it would be bug season.

Annie picked up her pace and didn't slow down until she found the right door. It was a big room, with a few doors. The impatient woman fished her keys from her pocket and slammed the door open, her eyes already searching for weapons.

She didn't have to search for long; she spotted them on her right. A wave of relief swept over the woman as she switched the lights on and almost ran to open the cabinet that held her life insurance. The guilty ones would pay, even if it was the last thing she'd do.

Annie ignored the predator stepping after her into the room and therefore didn't see him suddenly tensing. Her hands were already seeking the weapons that would keep her alive. The stun guns Annie passed by without another look and instead grabbed a belt with two Magnums. She took a hunting rifle hanging on the wall and threw it over her head and on to her back. It would have felted good to arm herself to the teeth, but she decided it would be better to be able to move as quickly as possible.

Something caught Annie's eye. An icing on the cake. A dry smile lifted the corner of her mouth.

There just happened to be a couple empty spots for hand grenades on her belt.

It might have been a little over the top, but right then Annie was pretty sure that seeing some bugs been blown up would be fairly enjoyable.

Before she could take them, a sound from Stealth got her attention. He let out a growl, sniffing the air. Annie forgot about blowing things up and walked beside the predator.

"What is it?"

Stealth didn't pay any attention to her and that annoyed the woman. If he wasn't going to tell her, she would find out herself. Annie was about to go around a row of shelves when a heavy hand grabbed her by the shoulder, stopping her. The touch lit the woman's rage again and her first instinct was to turn and slap the hand away.

It wasn't an option, though; she realized when her effort had no effect to the iron grip holding her. Annie didn't have a clue as to what the predator was thinking, but she was been held in place easily as if she was a child.

"What's wrong with you?" She snapped, counting the odds to her survival if she would grab a gun.

Apparently the predator wasn't even listening to her; he just growled again and pushed her back. The woman stumbled a bit before regaining her balance, during which Stealth had vanished behind the shelves.

"What an insufferable asshole", Annie murmured half aloud and pursued, striding decisively around the shelves.

The words she had meant to throw at the predator froze and died before she could say them. She didn't think anymore, she grabbed a gun and fired it. Only after that, the situation registered as words into her mind.

The other side of the storage room was full of slimy eggs, and one of them had been hatching. A limp, grab-like creature with long tail had slumped onto the edge of the egg, where she had shot it and was slowly sliding until it fell to the floor.

Stealth spun around sharply and Annie saw that he had extended his wristblades.

"Not… a good idea", the hunter stated darkly and soon the woman found out why. She had made a mistake that most had the opportunity to make only once.

One at a time, the eggs started opening up like some grotesque flowers, and from each one a bundle of long, probing legs emerged, lured by the sounds outside. There were about twenty eggs and only two of them.

"Not a good idea", Annie repeated seriously. She pulled out another Magnum and aimed.