The drive was not far, Troy was not a very big city. One where almost everybody knew everybody, and she knew no one. Hannah recognized the name of the place they pulled up to, Lake Creek Inn. She'd never stayed there, obviously, and she didn't know what it was like. But if it was the motel of choice for someone who's been trying to hide, she'd trust it, for now.

Jacob seemed to understand the idea of 'discreet' and didn't park right in the front of the building, but rather across the street from it. Hannah got out of the car, as quiet as she was for the ride, and followed the brothers into the inn. It wasn't a bad place, was decorated in a rustic way, the way that she liked it, but as inviting as it was, Hannah couldn't wait to leave.

It was almost literally ten feet forward and a left turn down the hallway to where Ms. Wood's room was. She could hear talking inside, and Jacob did the knocking. Three knocks, then an answer: "girl scout cookies?"

"No, ducks," Jacob replied to the man's voice. The door was unlocked, and Hannah was let in.

"We brought her," said Scott, finding a place to sit, which left only one other place to sit.

"Thank you for coming Hannah," said Jacob, Hannah didn't really hear, she was looking at the woman who, like her, was on that cusp of the age of being 'old' but she had bags under her eyes. Alexa Woods was sitting on one of the beds in the room. There was still that strange scar on her cheek, but now it was healed and faded, rather than fresh.

"Who's the other one?" she asked, indicating the man in the chair at the only desk in the room.

"Junior," he introduced, himself, extending his hand, "Mark Verheiden Junior," he received the same response Jacob had, "sorry for the weird secrecy, but as it is, Weyland's got it out for Alexa."

"We were the only ones she knew from our father, she's been writing us letters, luckily we're smart enough to break the code she wrote them in. We've been planning this meeting for quite a while, but we needed Weyland to lose track of Alexa first," Jacob explained.

Hannah looked over at the woman, who gave her a smile as Scott added, "then we hunted down Mark, it was lucky he was named after his father, finding you was the hardest, we've been looking for almost a year."

"So what now?" Hannah asked, leaning against the closed door.

"Now," Alexa began, shifting her seat on the bed, "I'll tell you what happened, what really happened."

Hannah set her jaw. She had been waiting for this her whole life, and now she was going to get it, whether she liked it or not.

Alexa classed her hands in her lap and looked at them, as if figuring out how to began, "as you all know, your parents and I were hired by Weyland to do a job in the arctic."

"Some, biological dig and ice-cuts is what our father told us," said Scott

"Digging for oil was my father's excuse," Junior added.

Jacob looked at Hannah, and she said quietly, "my mother was a mercenary. She just said she would be back in a month or so."

Alexa's face softened and Hannah set her jaw again. She didn't need to be felt sorry for.

"There was another man named Sebastion, who was an expert on archeological places and artifacts and ancient cultures," the sudden odd look was unanimous, what was that kind of person doing on a team in the ice? "We weren't there for ancient bacteria, or oil. Weyland's satellites had picked up a sudden heat-bloom under the ice of Bouvet Island. It revealed a pyramid buried several miles under the ice."

Alexa took a breath and began to explain, "when we arrived, there were plans to dig a hole down to the pyramid, but we found that someone else had already done that, the tunnel appeared within a day. Weyland wanted to be the first down there, so without proper training or investigation, we went down through that tunnel, and we found the pyramid. We didn't know what was waiting inside," Alexa suddenly looked old as her focus faded slightly. She wasn't seeing them anymore, she was seeing the temple under the ice, untouched by millennia.

"When we went inside, Sebastian confirmed hieroglyphics from all three cultures, and we found the entrance to a sacrificial chamber and beneath it a sarcophagus. We had split into two, one to stay in the chamber, the other to check below. Your mother was one of the ones that stayed behind."

Hannah felt tightness in her chest and her throat felt dry. She tried to swallow past it but couldn't.

"We found weapons in the sarcophagus, that when we removed them it caused the pyramid to shift. We heard screaming above us, and tried to make it back to the others, but we never made it."

Hannah let out a breath. So even the one who was there, didn't know how her mother had actually died. It was disappointing, but it was more than Weyland ever gave her.

"As we kept moving, we soon realized we weren't alone. Someone had started killing us, trying to get the weapons back. Some kind of alien hunters. They killed Maxwell, one of Weyland's personal guards, and a few others, but then a black serpent creature killed one of them. Turned out that's what they wanted to hunt in the first place, and they had lured us into the pyramid to spawn them, they need hosts to incubate in, and so these hunters needed sacrifices to have their hunt. "

Hannah's brow furrowed, the same sort of confused skeptical look crossed Mark's face, but from the looks of it, Scott and Jacob had the basic idea of what had happened already. Hannah couldn't shake the sudden chill though. Other people knew about aliens and were hunting them, she though having Jar-hidda was a problem, why invite a bunch of parasitic black bugs to come play? She had a sickening feeling about what had happened to her mother.

"We were able to escape in the confusion; the hunters forgot all about us, that was when we got separated from Graeme and Verheiden. As we were trying to leave, one caught up with us, and Weyland stayed behind to try to buy us some time, which is when we last saw him. Sebastion and I we…," she sighed, "that's when we found out about the hunters and the serpents and the reason we were even here. Despite this we… we decided to help the hunters and return the gun that we had, but Sebastian was dragged away by one of the serpents. I met up with one of the hunters soon after that, I returned his gun and… I don't know why, but he took me along."

Alexa looked like she was in pain, biting her lips, but steadying herself to continue, "we found the nest of the serpents, which is where I found Sebastian, Mark, and Graeme, they had become hosts to the serpents and had died. The hunter I was with decided that the hunt was a lost cause, and planted a bomb in the nest. We escaped out of the tunnel, and he destroyed the pyramid to make sure none of the serpents reached the surface. He took his mask off, he was, pretty ugly actually," she joked through her pain, "kind of like a crab with a face."

Hannah felt like she had been punched in the gut. Breath left her and she stared wide eyed at Alexa as pieces began clicking. She hadn't meant humans that hunted aliens, but aliens who were hunters, "he gave me this scar as a mark of honor," Alexa sniffed, her eyes wet with tears. Hannah felt light-headed, "then the serpents' queen broke through the ice and attacked him. We managed to get her tied down to a water tower, but she killed him just before she fell into the ocean. Then others came and took him away," Alexa sniffed again, tears staining down her cheeks though she kept a solemn face. She reached behind her, pulled up a parcel that was hidden between the wall and the bed, and tenderly unwrapped it.

One look and Hannah was done. The edges of her vision went black and she had a vague sense of falling down. She was awake an instant later, the cold air hitting her face causing her stomach to churn and she was sick in the snow.

"Okay, maybe getting her air was a bad idea," said one of the brothers.

Breathe Hannah, breathe," said Alexa who was holding her shoulder, rubbing her back like a child. Hannah was shuddering, sputtering, trying to pull herself back together but couldn't.

"Jesus Christ," said Junior, "aliens, honest-to-god aliens killed our parents, and you expect her to not freak out like that?"

"I'm sorry Hannah," said the other brother.

"I know it's a lot to take in, but calm down, we need to get back inside."

"That thing- that thing-," she gasped hyperventilating, she knew what it was, she had seen one like it. She couldn't grasp it, could believe that this entire time, for the past two months, she had been housing, taking care of, and helping a member of the people responsible for her mother's death.

Alexa had a strange look on her face, she removed her hand from Hannah's back and looked at it, then at Hannah. Hannah looked at Alexa and her face twisted in a slew of agonizing emotions.

"These alien hunters," she said quietly, "have four mandibles over a smaller inner mouth, and have black dreadlocks, right?"

Alexa slowly moved away from Hannah who coughed and spat on the ground. The younger woman forced herself to her feet, still feeling ill, but reached up to her jacket's zipper and undid it, showing to Alexa the wire mesh suit peaking above the collar.

"One of these… crashed into the mountain above my house in December."

She could see the looks of disbelief on the others' faces; disbelief and yet a horrified acknowledgment that what she said was true.

"He was seriously injured, and Weyland's people came to get him, nearly killed him. I… I healed him up, and I've been helping him fix his ship-."

"What!? Why?" yelled Mark

"I didn't know what he was, I just thought he was some alien who crashed here on accident!"

"So you helped him!?"

"I was under the impression that having a member of an alien species gunned down by a bunch of humans may give rise to an alien invasion, I was trying to prevent that!"

"Guys, not here, not in the open," begged Jacob and Hannah shut her mouth but Mark kept going.

"These things killed our parents."

"I didn't know that until two minutes ago, and neither did you!"

"Calm down, calm down. Hannah," the exasperated young woman looked over at Alexa's concerned gaze, as she gripped Hannah's shoulders and made her focus on her.

"Is he alone?"

"Yes," Hannah breathed, feeling like she was going to pass out again.

"Have you run into any of the black serpents?"

"No, just him."

Alexa sighed in relief, "get him off this planet as soon as possible. You can't let Weyland get to him. Who knows what they will do with him, and with his weapons."

Hannah fell deathly silent. Somehow, hearing what she needed to do from someone else, made doing it seem less crazy. Mark was upset, he was walking around running his hands through his hair and cursing, and if Scott wasn't standing directly in his way, Hannah was sure he'd come over and hit her, if only because he needed something to hit.

"You need to go Alexa," Hannah said, whispering, but not because she was trying to be quiet. Her eyes were red, "Weyland's been crawling all over this place looking for this alien. You can't let them find you."

Alexa looked at Hannah, and nooded, looking to the other men and saying, "we need to go. We'll come find you later," she looked back at Hannah, "when it's safe."

Hannah nodded and followed everyone inside.

"Feeling better miss?" asked the gentleman behind the desk.

"Yes, thank you. Can I use your phone?"

As Alexa and the three gentleman were packing up, Hannah made a call to Ellen. The old woman was pleasant until she heard Hannah's voice, then knew instantly that something was wrong. Hannah wasn't specific about what had happened, in fact she omitted most everything but simply asked, "do you think I can stay for just the night?" she spoke quietly, least Alexa overhear and insist that Hannah put her effort into helping Jar-hidda. She was going to, but… she wasn't sure she could handle being near the alien, so soon after finding out.

"O-of course dear, I'll get the guest room ready for you, drive safely."

The five of them somehow managed to fit, uncomfortably, in the small gray Subaru, and Jacob dropped Hannah off at Mike's gas station. The old man peered curiously out the window. Jacob got out along with Hannah.

"Give me your phone," he asked, but didn't demand, "I don't have one," she said, passing him instead her little address book. Jacob wrote down something inside as Alexa slammed the trunk down, "it's my number, mine and Scott's call if you're in trouble," Hannah flipped the book closed and put it in her inner pocket.

"We're in this together now," Hannah looked up at Jacob, her gaze intense, and unsure. He gave her a reassuring smile, then looked over at Alexa who was waiting.

"Here," she said, handing Hannah the bundle that had the spear in it, "have him take this with him. It's dangerous if it stays here."

Hannah blinked and looked at the bundle in her hands, then at Alexa, who looked like she had just passed her only child into Hannah's arms to be taken away. She looked at Hannah out of tired eyes and nodded in affirmation, "we'll find you when it's safe," she insisted again, then moved back to the car. Hannah stood still as they drove away, leaving her in the deafening silence of the city, where a cold wind was beginning to blow.