Author's note: What's this? An update? Not even 24 hours after the previous one? I think I've gotten lucky with my creative bone these past few weeks. Now, to see if it holds out and boy do I hope it does...

Anyways, cross your fingers and wish me luck. I think I might need it for the next week. I might not post anything during that time, mostly because I'll be doing a course that is jam-packed with a few nuts of information for a job that hopefully, I get. If not, I will at least have a certificate in hospitality in my back-pocket.

So, 'see' you all when I 'see' you and you're all awesome!

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Chapter 37

Vayuh'ta was not quite sure how to handle this new information. His mother had shown a great sense of empathy and ability to love, because come on, back in the day no one would have just helped a yautja if they crash-landed on Earth. They were more likely to turn tail and run if they weren't the kind thrilled by the prospects of finding out all the differences through… experimentation. This had been way, way before the 20th century, which had made it all the more remarkable. Not only had she not run to inform everyone, she had hidden him away in a safe place to heal.

It took a year for them to, well… consummate their curious desires and nine months later, Vayuh'ta had been born in the wilds… fatherless.

Elisa, his mother, had cared for him diligently and all by herself, but it had been taxing on her. His birth especially had taken away any further ability to be a mother once more. He would be her only child. Even so, Vayuh'ta had never doubted she loved him and he had grown up at first being protected, to turn into a fierce protector of the more fragile woman. He was taller than the average male, but shorter than the average yautja, which was something he would learn to overcome much later in his life.

It had been during a very hot summer that Wolf had returned… to find an almost fully grown half-breed that could only be his son. After a few hours of… intense fighting where Vayuh'a disagreed with everything he said and Wolf trying to explain not only what and who he was, but also why he had left. His mother, by then, turned fifty. Much of her youth had been spent alone and caring for him.

She had proved her spirit in a way only females can… Vayuh'ta would never forget the terrified, surprised look on Wolf's face as she berated and screamed at him.

To put it into perspective: Elisa was only four foot nine and dwarfed completely by Wolf's seven-foot of solid muscle.

Eventually, they went off into a corner for a more... calm discussion that ended with Vayuh'ta separated from his mother and to join his 'own kind' with Wolf.

It had not been an easy transition. His mother had been his entire world and his only friend and companion, and to be torn away from her by a stranger had been… difficult. In the end, she had managed to convince him it was for the best. She would not live for much longer, as Wolf would later admit she was suffering from a terminal illness that would have taken her from him within the next five years. She had wanted Vayuh'ta to remember her as she was: full of life and love and in the end, he could only respect her wishes.

Even so, he had kept her necklace he had made for him on his eleventh birthday and a watch that had been her father's. It had taken a bit of adjusting, but he kept it on his wrist.

His room held an image Wolf had taken to cement the memory of Elisa forever. It was small things like that, ensured Vayuh'ta that his father had cared about Elisa… in his own way. Yautja did not allow what they considered a weakness to exist within them and frankly, they did not know how to deal with feelings of affection or love outside a mother's love and fierce protectiveness of her children. Their range of their emotions was varied, regardless, just not as easily accessed or felt as a human.

He had been an orphan, essentially. To his knowledge, Wolf had never had any other child and to find that he had pseudo brother was… odd.

As Tarei Hsan, he knew that he would have to wait to accept or reject him as a brother.

Looking back at the half-breed, noting the determination in his gaze, Vayuh'ta knew he was going to have to give him a small benefit of a doubt. If his mother had been capable of learning to care not only about an alien species known for its aggression, and even carry a child from the union and care for it as she would a 'normal' child, then he could give his half-brother a chance to prove his worth.

He nodded, and the action prompted the realisation that he was actually looking forward to having a brother, not just a hunt-brother.

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Raz stopped at the entrance of the cavern Vayuh'ta was leading them, and was hesitant to move any further. There was a scent on the wind that made his skin crawl…

"Caution," he warned in a hissing whisper, latching onto Vayuh'ta's arm to pull him back. "There's something… different," he chewed over the word, his tail flicking and curling agitatedly behind him.

He crouched down, focusing his senses on his smell and sought through the mud, muck and blood that saturated. There, he could smell it. Something strong, powerful and… male. He stiffened, lips pulling back as he almost let out a challenging screech. The only thing holding him back was that he did not know what his enemy looked like. From what he had gathered from the subtle body language and pheromones between Haimon and Vayuh'ta as they had talked privately before they had gone their separate ways; Raz had the feeling that whatever this 'King' was: it was not something he should engage in battle lightly. Hell, he had only fought with a few Queens and they more often than not had him on his back.

"It's probably the King," Tarei Hsan confirmed his suspicions, folding his arms as he glared into the darkness. "He's bigger than a Queen and some might argue more dangerous… He'll attack anything that is not the Queen, however," he trailed off, this time there was worry and fear making his scent sharp and almost sweet, "they only come around to propagate."

"Speak plainly, Hsan!" Vayuh'ta barked, shaking off Raz's grip and turning suddenly to face 'the unworthy'.

Tarei Hsan shot him an icy stone glare. "They mate with a Queen to produce offspring. Two possible scenarios: the Queen needs fresh DNA or a new Queen is about to be 'born'."

Raz froze, instant realisation rushing through him. Ciara had given him many memories and one in particular stood out. "Joy! She is becoming a Queen!"

He nodded in response. "If the King is already here, then that means the moulting process will be over soon. It never takes as long as you might think," he shrugged at Vayuh'ta's expression and turned away. "Dunstan theorised that Joy's survival instincts would outweigh her empathy and unwillingness to fight and hurt someone. And that when she challenged the Queen, she would take over the Hive," he sighed and rubbed at a spot between his eyes, his posture screaming 'I am fed up with this asshole because he pains me in ways you cannot even imagine'. "My guess is that he thought Joy would be a Queen that he could manipulate to get whatever the hell he wanted from this Hive. Everyone thought that Ciara would be a Queen, and in some ways she is, but only her mind possesses the ability. Not the entirety of her being. She can only manipulate the strings of any Hive mind, but cannot fully take control. Joy can."

Vayuh'ta was silent for a few moments, then lifted his gauntlet and began to fiddle with the controls.

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Scar looked down at his gauntlet, a silent alert on running along the vid-screen of his mask informing him of a message from Vayuh'ta. He was asking if he knew about knew about the King. He responded that, yes he did and were on route to go around him so everyone could escape. He also added that Joy was currently moulting, the processes quickening as vibrations had begun to appear within the cocoon.

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"Pauk! C'jit!" Vayuh'ta snarled under his breath, knowing that the only reason the King had not charged at them was because they were downwind. However there was good news: Scar, Taisto and Blade were ok. Even Ash'tas had managed to survive, not that he was surprised. That pup had trained under Scar, Taisto, Vayuh'ta and Haimon himself. Thwei had also received training, but he had preferred the company of his father. "We have good news and bad news."

"What's the bad news?" Raz immediately asked, but his attention was locked onto the darkness and had not looked away from it, not once.

"Bad news is yes, Joy is turning into a Queen and her cocoon is cracking and the King is wrapped around her."

"And the good news? If there's actually any?" Tarei Hsan asked dryly, looking up from his 'stretching', which involved most humans reaching down to touch their toes for some reason. This one had his palms to the floor.

He blinked a little at that flexibility. Not many could pull that off, and what was even more surprising was when Tarei Hsan twisted to fall into a 'split'.

"They're at the end of the tunnel," he managed to say as he instinctively pressed his legs together, thinking back on the burn he had felt when he had done that once. It had not been voluntary, however.

Tarei Hsan froze mid-stretch and then twisted back around. "That does not reassure me," was the even dryer and growling voiced response as he lifted climbed up in the reverse of the 'down' motion, and stretched one more final time. "A King has better sight, hearing, smell and taste than your average xenomorph. Unless," he trailed off and then smiled a little. "Ah yes, they're playing Reaping Death… I almost forgot that. The little sneaks, they might actually pull it off," he chuckled and then blinked at his audience who had exchanged looks as he started talking to himself. "When they were younger, they would play Hide and Seek in a different form. The person that was 'it' plays as Death who, if they even saw a shadow of the other players, where 'reaped'. They had a chance to hide if they managed to block her attacks, or get away from her. But once she held for ten seconds, you were 'dead'. She always played as Death, so the others decided to attack her on three fronts so as to heighten their chance to 'reap death'."

"They are playing a game?" Raz stared in disbelief, and then thought about the memories he had seen, and deduced that perhaps they probably saw every encounter with danger as a game. "And you think it will work?"

"It won't be without its dangers, I'm certain," the former scientist admitted and stepped towards the darkness. "So, we might as well get as close as we can ourselves, and distract him if they fail to remain hidden."

"You know this… Ciara, very well," Vayuh'ta mused thoughtfully as he began to follow. Tarei Hsan did not verbally reply, but there was a tension as he stiffened slightly that had Vayuh'ta very curious.

"Watching someone grow up does that," was the toneless response and Vayuh'ta cocked his head, considering whatever implications there might be behind that 'no reaction'.

He might have to watch those two together to see if his hunch was correct…

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"We can only give them five more hours, Haimon," the matriarch was blunt and her word final.

Haimon bowed instead of arguing and retreated from the room. He marched down the hallway and all in his path cleared it even before they saw him coming. He was emitting a very pungent musk of anger and he was well and truly ready to tear the spine out of anyone that even dared look at him wrong. The Matriarchs were the unofficial leading body when the Elders were otherwise engaged. They were a group of elderly females, all respectable warriors in their own rights who had long since passed their primes. They were aging, but wise and much less ruled by their anger. That was not to say they still couldn't take a fully grown male by the mandible and treat them like they were a pup in need of a good spanking.

More than a few had been embarrassed quite thoroughly…

Coming to a stop outside the entrance leading back to the helm of his ship, he breathed out and attempted to calm the rage coiling like a savage, raving hungry beast. It was not easy, but he managed to shelf the worst of it, leaving some out to use as fuel. He barged in, his sudden appearance both expected and a surprise. Naxa, for one, did not even turn around but waved a greeting over his shoulder. He was ready for orders and that was what Haimon loved about the other male most. His 'can do' and 'always at the ready' attitude. If only the rest of his species were like that…

Ni'-ithya, however, had unceremoniously tripped right over his own chair, startled by Haimon. It was a rare day that happened, so Haimon knew that he had been listening in on his conversation with the matriarch.

"You have been told, many times, not eavesdrop on conversations with the Matriarchs," he told his nephew, still very angry but this time, in suffering tiredness of having to repeat himself a thousand times. Literally.

Instead of looking abashed or apologetic, his nephew looked as enraged as Haimon felt. That was also rare. Unlike most, Ni'-ithya had been born without the gland that set off a chain reaction of aggression in their species. That was what made him an excellent co-pilot, navigator and general mediator of arguments, disagreements or hand-to-hand combat performed when everyone was feeling stressed and carrying tension. But he wstill got angry, and on those rare occasions that he was: he was controlled.

"Scar, Vayuh'ta, Taisto, Blade and Ash'tas are down there, Haimon," the half-breed growled as he smoothly climbed to his feet. Every movement was saturated with an energy waiting to explode into action, but was resisting the urge to go on a rampage. "Even if they manage to slide past the King unnoticed, we still need to extract them. If they make one mistake," he trailed off, unable to say the words but the underlying message was clear.

There was a high chance they might die.

"Has anyone else successfully completed their hunt?" Haimon asked, ploughing forward as he gestured for Naxa to ready the ship to disconnect.

"This bunch showed impressive skill," Ni'-ithya returned to his station, still coiled like a snake waiting to strike. "More than half have made it to the extraction points."

"Has Vayuh'ta contacted you?"

Ni'-ithya nodded thickly. "There is a King between them and Joy's metamorphosis has almost neared completion. Scythe, one of the hybrids, is adamant to get the group out of the way and possibly take Joy either peacefully or unconscious with them," he continued and shot Haimon a glance over his shoulder. "We will need to check the holding cells are completely operational. We do not want a pissed off newborn Queen loose in the ship."

Haimon rumbled in agreement, and turned to face two other of his Clan-brothers. They bowed slightly and headed off the cells. It was not often a Queen was brought aboard and they would have to ensure the restraints had not weakened over time. "Shra'na," he pointed at a young female who had a genetic disorder preventing her from reaching her full height. She was smaller than the average male, which made her target for some males who had not succeeded in impressing a female where she accepted to mate with him. She showed them, quickly and bloodily, that while she may be small she was a fierce, formidable and cunning warrior.

She stepped away from the wall she often occupied. Her status on the ship was his personal eyes and ears on what happened on his ship. She was the resident enforcer of the rules and often spent time with each unruly male in the combat arena, knocking them on their asses. Because of her smaller form, coupling with a male in a mating frenzy was dangerous for her. Her bones were slightly weaker than average which meant that a male could accidentally crush her bones. Even so, she had remarkable endurance and could muscle through great amounts of pain. With eyes of heated coals and black skin with brown markings, she was a striking female.

"What is it you require?" she asked her voice rich and purring. She was one of the few that could speak ooman English almost perfectly.

"I need you to take a smaller vessel down to this location," he said, and pulled up a map on the screen, pointing to the same place he had dropped Vayuh'ta off. "Once there, inform Vayuh'ta of your position and learn his status. Take this," he plucked one of his guns from his belt and handed it over. "Use it on the hybrid, Joy, if she proves to be aggressive but do not kill her. If you encounter the King," he added as he pulled up a dart that was filled with a bright orange liquid. "Use this. It will temporarily paralyse and confuse it long enough to get everyone aboard safely, should it try to follow. Return here in under five hours."

Shra'na's mandibles lifted into a thrilled smirk. "It will be as you say," she bowed and spun on her heel, exiting the ship to commander are fast, reliable ship. She would have to fit a lot of people….

And she had just the ship in mind…

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The King purred, his attention focusing on the form he was curled around. She was different from any other female he had come across.

Her cocoon began to crack and the movement had his tail curling with a joyful flick as he stood to his feet, backing up slightly to give her room.

As his instincts demanded, he fell into a respectful, submissive pose at her feet, awaiting her inspection.

He was prepared to fight to earn her interests, as was her right.

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