Be advised, I claim no right to ideas/characters/ ect contained herein. I do not claim responsibility for Hetalia, or any affiliated licensed ideas.
For those of you who have been waiting so patiently for more Predator storyline!
Rated M.
OoOoOo
In all her years, Kathy had never realized how hard a single breath could be. It struggled to gain access to her lungs. Burning as she attempted to pull in the precious air into her quaking lungs. The room was spinning, and she was numb. In a sense at least. It was all too much, and even her preservation instinct was shutting down. Her mind began to drift to frivolous things.
What had been the name of that supporting actress in Overboard? When was the last time she'd had a decent bath? Did the Monty Python people ever get back together? Had they actually broken up in the first place? Was it starve a cold or feed a fever? She could never remember. It was like she couldn't think clearly, but then she couldn't stop thinking. Goosebumps raced up and down her arms, her body tingled and felt like it was falling asleep all at once.
Then Gk'yaun moved, or she thought he did. Her whole body and mind became riveted to that subtle movement. Was something going on? It all sounded like roars and clicks to her. Nothing that made a bit of sense. She couldn't take any cues from the way they spoke, or how they stood. Her eyes were blurring, and she couldn't look up. The mere thought of it seemed akin to a death sentence to her. Negative whispers floated through her thoughts.
She was going to die.
That was suddenly all she could think of.
And, though the thought was never far from her mind, she wasn't entirely sure that she wholly cared anymore. Part of her was fiercely attached to making it to the reserve planet. To rebuilding what humanity had lost. To preserving her people and their precious accomplishments. The art, the history, the language. Everything.
But the other part...
Well, it was ready to give up. Bathed in apathy and a bone-deep sense of weariness. The want to rest and never be afraid again. To sleep in the embrace of eternity and never have to awaken to the hell of the reality before her. There was no other feasible escape. And, even if she did rely of Gk'yaun, what was one Yaujta versus an entire ship of Predators? Really, there was no way he could take them all on. Logically she knew that. However, she still could not emotionally separate herself from the perverted need to be in his presence. To be with him.
She couldn't control herself.
Her human instincts wanted to let her whimper and scream. Wail and gnash her teeth to the heavens. To be free of the burden and chains of thought and rationality. It was all too much, yet never enough.
There was an undertone of desperation. Always desperation. With desperation came stupidity and bad choices. Yet, Kathy had no real and clear choices available to her at the moment. The hissing of the PRedators rebounded in her ears. It made her feel more and more like a caged animal on display. even as the smaller Predators seemed to be leaving. She glanced out of the corner of her eyes, until the muscles pulled and caused some discomfort. There was nothing she could do.
Nothing.
Except await her fate. But, even knowing that, she felt a strange sense of calm. Like an animal does after its been shot. The sense that she was going to die, and that was alright. It was acceptable to give into the siren sweet lullaby of the encroaching abyss. It jarred at her insides, butting them up like a hot knife. It twisted in her guts, but gave her a strong sense of finality.
The room grew silent. Still.
At the end, it was all still, wasn't it? Kathy felt as if time had no true meaning.
"Human." A calm and refined British male voice rings out. "I would have a word with you."
Several voices. Layer upon layer. Male, female, young and old. Accented and not. Kathy stills. A cold sweat breaks out at her temples. She had almost forgotten that they spoke this way. Predators. Mimicking her species and then using that mimicry to mock them. Icy numbness washes over her.
Then, someone clicks, causing the muscles in her legs to jump, but they are barely supporting her as it is. The stray and errant thought floats through, that she might be ready. Gk'yaun moves, her gaze snaps toward him, involuntarily the world shifts back from the edge of the void and Kathy is instantly alert. Awake.
Alive again.
No. NO. It's not time yet! Her thoughts scream at her, internally she is ripping apart, terrified that he will leave her alone. No. No. She can't be alone. Solitude is worse than death. A slow decent into madness a second time would be far too cruel. To much to even consider, as the blood roars in her ears. Her chest tightens painfully, the air feels to heavy to breath. She pants.
She can only raise her head slightly, and blink as he takes another step away from her. Hysteria paints her actions, her voice is four or five octaves far too high as her arm lurches out to grab at him. Warm fingers slide across cool metal. The touch is shocking as it is unintended.
"Wait!"
Lumincent, wide, and large human eyes land on the obvious scaring on his mandibles. Kathy freezes, realizing that quicker than she could fully comprehend he has turned around to face her. Allowing the touch. Here. In front of everyone. Mortification, terror, and shame carve a path up her chest, still tightened from her panic. He couldn't leave her to die alone.
Anything but that.
She says the only thing she can think to say. There is no tattered human pride left. There is only this moment. This one never-ending moment of fear where she lowers herself to asking something... of an alien.
"Please," she whispers unable to look at him. Unable to stop herself. He and the slim chance he offers are the only things holding her together. "Don't leave me."
The room is bathed in a plated silence. The beady eyes of the Predators watch them from all around. Her skin crawls, and the hair at the nape of her neck stands on end. But Kathy..
Kathy needs him to stay.
OoOoOo
The matriarch observes the scene without letting even a moment of it surprise her. Outwardly. She had seen many cycles. Each with their own challenges that had to be met and then thoroughly crushed. As any honorable warrior would do. She has ripped flesh apart on the battlefield. In the days of her youth she was a fierce as any female ever birthed with the sole intention of brining more honor to her clan. To her ancestors.
The dishonor heaped upon the Oomans by the weak and disgraced ones that permitted such an atrocity caused her blood to boil. The creature before her was hardly a threat. Its soft skin and large eyes were too fragile. If this was the apex predator of the planet that had been destroyed, then her vengeance on their behalf to restore the debt owed would be swift and without leniency.
Her species as a whole, their honor had been called into question by the actions of the dishonorable. The need to cull was causing her to thrill with agitation. Which caused the males to adjust their stances to appease the Matriarch more. Gk'yaun bowed his head toward her. She had commanded him to leave, and be retire in quarters prepared for him. He would be treated as any bad blood until she reached her decision.
She would not allow any weakness to thrive in her clan. Gk'yaun had disgraced himself, but had also become protector to the Ooman before her. She needed the statement from the one called 'Kathy'. From the creatures lips, the retelling of the violation against the Ooman's would be heard in its fullness. Though she had heard the account of the warrior 'Deuub', she could not wholly place value in a sullied warrior's depiction.
Yet, the Ooman showed signs of distress at Gk'yaun being taking to a holding cell. The Matriarch trilled lowly in her throat.
"Dishonored Gk'yaun."
"Matriach."
"You are permitted to stay. The Ooman 'Kathy' must tell me the truth of the matter, as she has observed it." The command was clear, and no one would dare go against her decision.
The bad blood tilted his head downward more, a sign of respect to his barer's, barer's, barer and returned to his original position.
OoOoOo
Gk'yaun noted the changed readings on Kathy's vital signs. Her breathing and heartrate were elevated. She was outputting more heat. A clear sign of distress. Gk'yaun concluded that his colony ship's atmosphere might not be ideal for the Ooman. However, it would not harm her. That he knew for certain. Her continued health was the Caln's responsibility now.
The Matriach require Kathy to speak, to tell as she had told him upon fleeing from the warrior 'Deuub'.
Gk'yaun shuffled slightly, adjusting his stance so as to address Kathy. Her position and place of honor differed from that of the honorable Matriach, but was no less respected by Gk'yaun. Ooman eyes watched him, blinking more than a Yaujta would ever have need of. Slowly, her heart rate lowered, and her breathing evened out, rasiing her oxygen levels to acceptable parameters.
Oomans were still rather fickle and odd creatures, under his observation. They had changed much since he had hunted them last. They had grown less warrior-like. However, there was s sense of resolve in this Ooman that caused him to feel a sense of kinship and respect. As well as his obligation upon his oath. He would do anything within his power, break his body in any way necessary to give back to Kathy what had been taken from her so dishonorably.
He took great care to enunciate his Ooman speech, in the way that she responded well too.
"Kathy?"
Her hand trembled on his armor. Yet, still she did not let him go. It was a blatant display that she found him acceptable, which none dared to comment upon. Gk'yaun did not fully understand why the Ooman chose to show her interest in him in this manner, but now there were far more important matters that had to be dealt with.
"Stay, please." She said in her heavy Ooman voice. It warbled and further indicated her distress.
"I will not leave." He replied calmly.
She stared at his mandibles a moment longer, before giving a jerky movement of her head to the affirmative. His mandible closed, a bit more, the scarred one gaped a bit more than it should have. Gk'yaun was aware of his disfigurement. It bothered him naught. It was proof of a once great hunt.
"The Matriarch requires you to tell her what happened."
The Ooman's face reveals nothing, but her heart rate speeds up once more.
"When?"
"Start with the destruction of your planet." To Gk'yaun it seems the logical place to start.
OoOoOo
To Kathy, that was life time ago.
So much has happened between now and then, that she does not at first fully comprehend what he is asking her to do. Her mind centers around the fact that he hasn't left her. He listened. She wasn't alone in this dreary abyss of uncertainty. Gk'yaun was a constant. A fissure begins to form in the reasoning that she should not become attached to a Yaujta.
Yet, in the midst of that, and the eerie silence that flows all around her, Kathy cannot look up. She cannot emotionally process the way he has said it. 'Start with the destruction of your planet'. Start with it? That was everything. That was...
Her planet.
Her people. Her heritage. Her life. Her future. Her hopes and her dreams. Her disappointments. Her sorrows. Her moments of triumph. Her small pleasures. Earth was- Earth had been everything. Dumbly, she stands as still as a flesh covered statue. Her hand falls from Gk'yaun's armor. She barely registers the way her arm drops and moves her body with it.
The numbness seeps in again and it is a blissful relief from having to feel so much. Too much. Emotions were almost like a sickness to her in the moments when she was surrounded by aliens. Forced to try and explain the facets of humanity to aliens. Predatory, beady-eyed, and unfeeling bastard Aliens. Those that had taken everything from her and billions of others. Millions might still be alive, in various ships just like this.
Metal prisons without end at the clutches of cruel monsters with fanged mandibles and reptilian skin.
Might still cling to sanity for brief moments. If they hadn't taken their own lives... if they hadn't succumbed to the harsh treatment and the pain. If... and If... always 'if'.
Robotically, as if she too has no feelings, Kathy pulls on some sort of numbed strength. She despondently opens her mouth. The tale pours forth of its own volition.
"My name is Kathy, and I was on a list of women to be 'given' to the Predators in exchange for the Earth being spared."
She licks her dray lips and her tone is flat. Void of any trace of feeling.
"It wasn't."
OoOoOo
It takes all of the Matriarch's many cycles not to tear something apart. By the time the Ooman finishes recollecting the harvesting of her genetic material. The 'hunt' she described was so far from the bounds of any sort of honor, that the Matriarch could place no name to something so disgraceful. The Ooman had been stripped of her ability to bare sucklings. Something so heinous that it was the most vilified crime. Then to learn that her offspring would be given to the wombs of unworthy and dishonorable mothers who must have, by the Matriarch's reasoning, been aware of the unscrupulous origins.
It was not to be tolerated. The culling would reach much more now. Not even the females would be spared for allowing this stain upon the honor of all Yaujta. She had given thought to the possibility that the Elders had acted independently, but now that was clearly not the truth. The Truth was far more cunning of a crime than she first had anticipated. The recollection told to the Matriarch was nearly unbelievable.
However, nine accounts corroborated the Ooman Kathy. The Matriarch listened with acute interest to the tale when it came to the bad blood Gk'yaun and the honorable actions which had been shown by her former clan member. A descendant of her very line. Though, there was still more to see and listen too, the Matriarch could see that the oath made was binding. As honorable as a Bad blood could be.
Though the Ooman did not know it, the speech that tumbled from the strange creature's lips, had spared Gk'yaun's head.