"You have no right to keep me here," Judas asserted as Ripley kept him in the showroom with the egg. Ripley coldly replied, "You had no right to take her egg."

Judas threw up his arms and insisted he had no way of knowing it was an actual egg and that Its mother would've come for it. Ripley shook her head at this claim and stated, "There were warning signs, Judas, you just didn't care to pay attention to them. You should've known that something was wrong the moment they found it unscathed in an abandoned ammunition factory and nobody wanted it despite it's value. There are people who know about them, too, Judas, and they're well aware of the carnage they can do when provoked. There's reasons to be afraid of the unknown Judas, there's more when you know what those are."

She made it clear that there are others, government officials, who knew about them. It's a well-kept secret that officials take to their graves, rather have everyone and their mother know about it. Despite the risks, they chose to remain quiet about it, and see the Drekker as the garbagemen of society, diseased people and animals die, but none of the healthy ones.

It's a common platform that officials see Drekker as useful in culling the homeless, since they tend to have more illnesses and diseases, getting rid of them, and knew nobody would've wanted to waste resources investigating mauled homeless with missing organs. Homeless camps either become empty or abandoned and there's less homeless roaming the streets. If the Drekker aren't provoked, they tended to leave everyone else alone.

As for the Sabbek, officials haven't reached a consensus, but few spoke about letting them go, since they're intertwined with the Drekker and people go missing all the time, for a few people going missing every now and again, they wouldn't have to deal with outbreaks as much as other places.

There's a reason only a few people knew about them, because while there's unscrupulous men and women who would've turned a blind eye on Drekker eating sick homeless, there are some who would've decried the practice and would've fought to dissuade or even kill Drekker. Which none of the officials want, because they know what happens when someone kills a Drekker.

"Nobody in their right mind would've helped you, Judas, already they're writing reports in case anyone cared to look into your death," Ripley informed him that by the time the dust settled and people found his carved body, certain officials would've already ensured the cause of his death forever remain shrouded in mystery, they're that afraid of people finding out about what is out there, beyond the norm.

Judas tried to call her bluff, but she pointed out that for something as expensive as the opal, nobody claiming a stake in it, or even trying to take it for themselves, should've been a sign that something about it was wrong.

"Men bled for gold in California, men bled for Indian diamonds, men would've bled to have this, if they didn't know," Ripley asserted. "They will not bleed for this, the price to take something like this, only death. When your common thief knows better to steal something like this, you should be worried."

Judas shirked in his seat as Ripley spoke. He realized she was right, people would've jumped at the chance to buy stakes in his opal, stakes in the museum, everything, but the only people he could've mustered were the ones hidden away, afraid. Ripley wasn't wrong when she told him about the criminals. Thieves stolen great works of art without a drop of the hat, not even the size and weigh deterred them.

The fact there haven't been any threats or indications of thieves attempting to steal the opal, it unsettled him. It unsettled him more when he realized that despite the opal found in Germany, Germany wouldn't take it back, and outright refused to acknowledge it. Something like that, a country wouldn't ignore or disregard, unless it knew what it was, and the blood spilt from whoever owned it.

"What am I going to do?" Judas raised his hands up as he begged for Ripley's help. Ripley looked up to the glass ceiling, the Big One looked down to the egg and smaller shadows hobbled around the glass, looking down, they've followed their movements.

"I suggest you pray. I cannot promise you that you'll walk away from this with your limbs attached. To tell the truth, Judas, I've never experienced them firsthand, I only know so much about them from listening, you should consider doing the same," Ripley admitted that she truthfully had no idea how to deal with the mother.

She turned her head when she saw Matt and the others rushing into the showroom, they told her that none of them found the mother, everyone's accounted for, and there's no extra person among the group.

Ripley frowned as she realized, of course, even though it would've been ideal to gone with the guests and blend it, a mother would never leave her vulnerable children alone.

She calmly told them to go back to the guests, Matt didn't want to, but she made him. She reminded him, "You have the key."

He frowned as he uncomfortably left the room with the others back to the guests and Judas gestured.

"What's wrong, now?" Judas asked her.

Ripley told him, "She's been here all along."

She rose her voice, "I know you can hear me, so stop hiding, there's no one here but us."

Judas jumped as something moved in the darkness and he heard the same noise, but it was in the same room as them.

Thud… thud… thud…

"How did you know?" Ripley heard a woman ask. Ripley pointed out, "A mother never leaves her child alone, especially in their most vulnerable state."

The incredibly tall and slender woman chuckled as she came towards Ripley and Judas, in the moonlight, she wore a silver shawl that draped over her entire body from the neck down. Her long blonde hair flowed down her back like a river, parts in braids, and her eyes the colour of ice.

"You know our ways, how does a girl like you know them?" the woman inquires how Ripley knew so much about them. Ripley responded, "As I said, I listened. Now, listen, nobody must die. He's willing to make amends for his sin."

The woman turned her attention to Judas and he felt her cold stare as her icy eyes pierced his dark eyes. She shook her head as she responded, "I do not like my child being on a pedestal, girl."

Ripley begged her, "You already killed the men who took her from your nest. You can take her back, you don't have to kill anyone else."

The woman tilts her head wearily at Ripley as she reminds her, "He took my child."

Glancing up, Ripley saw taloned hands touching the glass, faces peering down on them. She looked down and responded, "Yes, but he didn't kill her, she's okay!"

Judas hid behind Ripley as the woman came close to him, he felt her eyes stabbing him. He begged Ripley to save him, Ripley would've just let the woman take him, but the voice in her head warned that she shouldn't.

"Why would you care what happens to him, he isn't your kin or mate?" the woman asked why Ripley would risk her life to save a loathsome man like Judas.

"I might not like him either, but he doesn't deserve to die. Arrogant, stupid, maybe, but he didn't know, you made your point, you're willing to rip him apart for stealing your daughter," Ripley tried to save Judas' life from the wraith of the woman.

The woman's impressed that Ripley held her own and she inquired, "What is your name, girl?"

Ripley knew better to lie, so she told the truth. "My name's Ripley, your turn," she waited for the woman to tell her name.

"Hera," she heard the woman call herself.

Ripley haphazardly asked, "I don't suppose there's a compromise that doesn't involve someone getting torn in twine, is there?"

Hera turned her head to see Judas, shirking as he hid behind Ripley, afraid of looking at Hera. Hera softly growled as her eyes narrowed on him. She shook her head, "I do not see a reason to let him live."

Ripley suggested, "If you let him live, he'll become your herald, he'll speak of your words, warn others of their consequences for trespassing you. He'll honor you in body and name, with statues and paintings."

She tried to offer a deal where, in exchange for his life, he'll do everything in his power to spread her messages to the world, produce arts in her likeness, anything to help Judas stay alive.

"There was a woman who made a statue in one of my sisters' likeness, but it was destroyed. I want one like it and I want it where the sun always touches it every morning," Hera demanded a statue similar to the one that a woman made.

Ripley turned her head to Judas. Judas profusely nodded as he responded, "Of course, madame, it'll be the largest statue in all of England!"

He promised, with his literal life, he'll create a statue in her honor.

It's an unusual request, but anything to stop a bloodshed, and Ripley inquired, "Anything else?"

Hera pondered and outstretched her arm, her long talons glowed under the moonlight as she lightly touched Ripley's hair.

"Pity, if only you were clean," Hera displeasingly said about Ripley. If Ripley was "clean" Hera would've dragged her out of the museum and into the night sky to become one of her daughters. However, Hera's heightened senses can discern that Ripley wasn't "clean".

"What do you want?" Ripley cautiously asked what Hera wanted to ensure that an acceptable agreement could've been reached.

Hera frowned, she couldn't have Ripley as one of her daughters. Unclean, she can smell the impurities in her arm, knee, mind, and heart.

"If you were clean, I would take you," Hera made it clear. "But you're much too useful for me to let you go so easily."

She might not be able to have Ripley as a daughter, but due to Ripley knowing about them, it could prove vital.

"In time, I will call upon you," Hera told her. "For his life, you will pay me in a favor."

On top of the statue, Hera wanted a favor, and Ripley knew nothing else but killing would've satiated her.

Ripley knew that favors never end well, especially when it comes to a species such as Sabbek. The Drekker, they don't really talk and simpleminded compared to their female counterparts.

However, for this, she had no choice. "What's the favor?" Ripley asked Hera.

Hera didn't tell her initially, she only replied, "In time, I will need your assistance."

Ripley knew that Hera would've tried something and sharply asked, "What do you have in mind?"

She knew that Hera's favor was intentionally vague and knew the price for her favor easily outweighed the price for Judas' life.

Hera chuckled, she noted Ripley's wiser than she looked, not blindly accepting the deal. She admits that because Ripley understand them, she had uses. "In time, there will be a day where you might prove useful, on that day, I expect you to be my hand."

Hera demanded that Ripley come to her when asked, else she threatened to kill everyone she comes across for the slight. She wasn't joking either, Sabbek never joke about this sort of thing. If Ripley, for whatever reason, didn't keep her end of the bargain, Hera will ensure there's deaths.

Knowing Hera wouldn't alter the deal, Ripley decided to set the terms. "I will not help you bring others into your flock, so don't even ask," Ripley made it clear that she wouldn't help Hera if asked to bring unfortunate men and women to her flock.

Hera made note in the tone of Ripley's voice and reminded her, "Girl, like I'll let you muddle in our affairs. I only need you when."

She wouldn't dare let Ripley become involved in the process that brought others into her flock.

"Listen, I usually travel, places where you and your flock won't find me, how'll you get in touch with me when the time comes?" Ripley inquired how Hera expected her to come when she calls upon her, omitting the police box. She made it explicitly clear she wasn't going to run after accepting the deal, but she needed to know.

Hera only replied, "Accept and you will know."

"If I accept, will you let him and everyone here go, unharmed, untouched. If I accept and you call upon me, will you turn on me and kill me, too, or will you mercilessly break me down trying to keep me under your talon?" Ripley asked her. She wasn't going to accept the terms without ensuring that Hera kept her word.

Ripley accepts, Judas will enact a statue of Hera's likeness and she will only help Hera once and that's all.

The two women stared at each other, but due to Hera's height, Ripley had to stare up at at her and she had to stare down at Ripley.

"You have my word," Hera asserted that she wouldn't go back on their deal, but made it clear that she will only keep the deal if Ripley does.

Looking towards Judas, Ripley informed him of his end of the deal, "If I have to come back here and entomb your arse in granite to get a statue of her made, I will do it, you understand, Judas?"

Judas nodded, aware of the consequences if he didn't hold up his end of the deal. He asserts, "It'll be beautiful, madame, more beautiful than anything Da Vinci could ever make with his own two hands!"

"So, is it a deal?" Hera asks Ripley. Ripley replied, "Only if you keep your end."

Hera grabbed her left arm with one hand. With her other hand, she pulled the blue cardigan sleeve and marked her arm with a symbol, using her sharp talons. "No matter how much you try, it will never heal. No matter how much you cover it up, my kin will smell it," Hera told Ripley as she used her talons to cut deeply into her arm.

It was over in seconds and Ripley hobbled backwards holding her bleeding arm. Barely feeling the pain, she watched the blood oozing out of the wounds. She saw the carvings of a symbol, the symbol of Hera.

Hera turned her attention to Judas and warned him of his end. With the deal made, Hera asked for Judas and Ripley to leave the showroom and go to the others.

Without hesitation, the two hurried out of the showroom, wisely not looking behind as they reached the others.

Matt hugged Ripley the moment she stepped through the threshold. The others followed him and they worryingly looked at Ripley and noticed her bleeding arm.

"Everyone okay?" Ripley asked them. Micha told her that they were about to leave in the police box when she and Judas showed up.

Matt worryingly looked at Ripley's arm and tried to take it into his hands, but she jerked it away and told him, "I'm fine, just a cut."

Looking at her arm, he saw blood seeping through her sleeve, he wanted Arthur to check her arm after they get back.

In the distance they heard the glass ceiling break and glass spilling in the showroom. Ripley and Judas held a look on their faces and both shared looks with each other.

"Doctor, is it safe?" Micha asked Ripley. Ripley nodded. "Yeah, everyone get out of here," she coughed and he and the others led everyone out of the museum quickly and safely.

Once everyone fled the museum, Judas checked the showroom to find the glass ceiling completely gone and so the egg. Mixed with the glass, the white pieces of the egg shell.

Judas hobbled like his legs turned jello and he nearly collapsed as he held his heart. The experience was enough to last him an eon. He recovered and set to work to keep his end of the bargain, demanding Ripley and the others depart from the museum immediately.

Returning to the police box, Micha and Ripley talked briefly.

"Will she come back?" Micha asked. Ripley frowned as she nods, "They live a long life, she'll be in her 80s and still willing to maul me."

Micha handed back her C.S.S and noticed the expression on her face as she awkwardly took it from him.

He asked her, "Doctor, what have you done?"

Ripley awkwardly lowered her arm as she responds, "What I needed to do."

Micha shook his head as he pointed out, "Do you think she'll let you go?"

Ripley knew she needed to consider the chances of Hera going back on her deal and Ripley nods.

"I did what I had to do," Ripley affirmed she did it for them.

Micha warned, "But at what cost?"

Ripley looked down to the ground and shook her head. "The costs of saving the lives of many outweigh a git like me, I'll be fine," she assured him, but he didn't seem to share the outlook.

They talked and eventually, Micha stated he planned to leave for Calgary. Ripley asked if he had a wife and children, but he told her he devoted much of his life that it's too late for him.

"No, it ain't, that's not the Micha I knew," Ripley smiled as she encouraged him. "You done enough and because of you, there won't be a massacre in the papers covered up by officials. I think you've earned a break."

They shared a smile and hug, Ripley mentioned she didn't think Micha would've grown as handsome as she thought and Micha smiled.

Micha saw her off as she entered the police box and it dematerialized before his very eyes.

Upon arriving back at the shop, Arthur treated Ripley's arm, her cardigan completely stained with blood, giving her forearm's sleeve a purple appearance. The appearance alone made Ripley uncomfortable, that once Arthur cleared her, she disappeared up to her flat to change clothes and toss out the cardigan. She didn't want anything to do with it now it was stained purple.

"Ripley, what happened?" Matt asked her when she came downstairs. She frowned as she told him, "I took care of it," she told him as she hobbled past and sat down in her chair.

"What were those things?" Arthur asked her. She responded, "Death from above."

Matt sighed as he went over to her and poked her. He scolded her, "Don't do anything like that again, you could've died!"

Ripley dryly responded, "Wouldn't be the first."

She didn't elaborate and Karen asked, "What's going to happen now?"

"You'll be fine," Ripley told her. "They won't bother you."

Arthur reminded her what she said and she sighed. "They'll live as long as any human, maybe longer, but even they can't escape the confines of time," Ripley asserted.

They'll live and die like any other creature and for the males, they'll have a shorter expectancy because of their diets. For females, eventually, they'll die from energy deprivation due to their high metabolism. Their mother will live long enough to ensure another generation is formed before her own death.

"What happened to the mother?" Karen asked her and Ripley shrugged.

"She's in the wind," she listlessly replied.

Arthur told her she'll need to get her arm checked out, but she gave a dry response instead. Knowing her, Arthur instructed her, "At least keep it from getting infected, yeah?"

Ripley told them they can leave her shop and only Matt stayed back. He handed her back the key and she struggled to grab it, but managed with a sharp exhale. "How do you know them?" Matt asked her. "Don't tell me you listened either nor I don't want to know."

He wanted to know how she knew about the Sabbek and Drekker as intimately she did. They never encountered anything like them in all their adventures and all he knew Ripley only used the police box on her own to help Micha when he was a boy.

Sighing, Ripley responded, "It's a long story."

Matt told her he had plenty of time to listen, but she told him that he's better off not knowing. He furrowed his brow at her as he asked her why she wouldn't tell him.

"I barely told you about them, that should've been enough for you," Ripley eyed him. "Please, you don't want to know, it's better if you don't. Go, you have Thanksgiving tidings to deal with."

She led him to the door and he stopped short of the threshold. "When are you going to tell us?" he asked her. Ripley sharply told him, "Never."

She wouldn't tell him and told him she will see him after Thanksgiving.

Matt looked frustrated as Ripley gently pushed him out of her shop and she locked the door. She ended up closing the shop and headed up to her flat where she looked at the cuts in her arm.

"How can I tell them?" Ripley's voice wavered. "What would I tell them?"

She ended up eating whatever she found in her fridge, took some sleep aid, and gone to bed. By morning, the pain she barely felt subsided and the markings stopped bleeding, revealing a ruby mark on her forearm.

One day Hera will collect her end of the deal and Ripley knew it.

She knew she couldn't keep the secrets from Matt and the others forever, but she did't know how to tell them.

Disturbingly, Ripley would've rather them forgo their friendship out of frustration with her than have them know the truth.

Sighing, Ripley sat at the table as she looked at her arm, the Mark of Hera etched in her arm. "They're safe, that's all that matters," she told herself. "They don't have to know."

The End