"I don't understand…" Diana Weyland was frowning at her in perplexity.

"Iversson said the exotic came to Nevada to rescue you, if he's so terrible why in God's name did you go with him? And why did you stay with him for six years?"

"Do you think he'd let me leave? Have you seen him?" Lex reached out and gripped the other woman's hand making Weyland start backwards in surprise "Can you imagine being kept as a slave – no worse, a pet! – by that sadistic beast all that time? Just thinking about him makes me feel sick!"

She trembled, then gave a sob and covered her eyes.

Weyland seemed at a loss for what to do or say. Her expression was a mixture of astonishment and poorly hidden curiosity. She attempted to cover it by getting up and crossing over to her desk.

Lex cried on for a few moments, then made a show of pulling herself together. She offered silent thanks Iversson wasn't here as she'd have found it a lot harder to tell such barefaced lies in front of the Professor, who she actually had some measure of respect for.

The CEO came back with a lacquered tissue box, handed it to her "If you've been his prisoner all this time, why didn't you say anything?"

Lex took a deep shuddering breath "Well," She said "Professor Iversson isn't easy to talk to. She's spent so long in the lab I think she's forgotten how to speak to people…"

She was about to add "Not like you!" but stopped herself, "I don't want to overdo it. Weyland's malicious and greedy, but she's not an idiot!"

She was a little worried that her plan might backfire, but not much – she thought she had the measure of this woman.

Weyland nodded to herself with a self-satisfied smile; clearly she found it both easy and gratifying to believe that she had managed to succeed in getting the prisoner to open up where Iversson had failed.

"If you're right Lex, and he is a monster," She said "Then that makes it all the more your duty to help me."

"What do you mean?"

Weyland leaned forward "You speak his language, you can talk to him. You could ask him about how his technology works. Persuade him it's in his best interests to tell us – "

Lex stared at her in panic "I can't see him!" She said, her voice breaking with hysteria "Don't make me see him again!"

"I guarantee you would be quite safe."

"No please, I can't!"

"I must warn you Lex, my patience will not stretch indefinitely." A note of irritation entered Weyland's voice now "You owe it to me – and to humanity to help uncover his secrets. Then we would have the technological edge on them."

"Please… don't ask me to do this!" Lex begged "You don't know what it'll do to me if I have to face him again – "

"I'm not asking you!" Weyland snapped, her pose of tolerant sympathy evaporating "After all I've done for your son – after all I'm continuing to do for him – don't you think it's the least you owe me? Just imagine what would happen to Selim if suddenly all that medical care came to an end. Not only that but I'm sure the FBI would really love to get their hands on you."

Lex's jaw dropped at the sudden venom in her voice "Are you threatening me?"

Weyland's eyes seemed eerily enlarged in her bone white face, gems in a porcelain skull "It's not a threat, I'm just telling you what the future holds if you don't start being a lot more co-operative." She said "I've spent a great deal of money on you and your son and so far you're not providing me with much of a return on my investment. I might decide the best course of action would be to turn you in for the reward money."

Lex stared at her in horror "You wouldn't do that, after I trusted you?"

"Want to bet the rest of your life?" Weyland said brutally "Because once you're in federal custody I doubt you'd ever get out. It'd be either the death sentence or a lifetime of incarceration for you. You'd never see your son again."

"Please." She whispered "Please no. I couldn't bear it."

Weyland gave an unconcerned little shrug, the silk lining of her jacket whispered "Well it's entirely your choice but, unlike your former self, I'm not running a charitable organisation. So what's it going to be?"

Lex shrank against the back of the chair but finally nodded her acquiescence.

"Good." Weyland stood up "Rathbone! Vincent! Get in here."

The two men appeared in the doorway

"Cuff her. Ms Woods and I are going for a little walk." Weyland gave a cold little smile "No time like the present."


Lex maintained the appearance of pitiful distress as they made the long and increasingly cold journey over to Island North but inside she felt quiet satisfaction.

"Couldn't even wait until morning to see me suffer." She thought as Diana Weyland seated herself on the rail car, hands folded demurely in her lap "I'll bet it's mercury that flows in those veins, something cold and poisonous anyway. Lucky for me I'm not really some poor shattered victim; imagine having to throw yourself on her mercy!"

As the spray covered windows flashed by, she looked out into the night "At last, I'm going to see Scar," She thought, then offered up a silent prayer "Oh please God, please let them not have done anything terrible to him, please let him be alright! I don't know what I'll do if he's … if he's not."


"What is she doing here?"

Professor Iversson spun round in alarm as Lex came through the door of the holding cell alongside Weyland and the two heavies. She'd been sitting at the monitoring desk with Lloyd but the moment she saw them she shot to her feet, her usual equanimity deserting her "Get her out of here! She has to leave right now!"

"Oh Jeanette, do calm down." Weyland snapped "I've just brought her down for a little chat –"

"Ma'am, you can't mean to let her see the exotic?" Iversson was appalled.

"Certainly I do," Weyland said "Now that Lex has told me how awful it's been for her being held prisoner all these years she's agreed to do what you're seemingly unable to: Get him to talk to us!"

Iversson turned to look at Lex, who returned her gaze blankly "Ma'am I don't know what she's told you but I would suggest you treat anything she says with extreme scepticism. It's beyond doubt that she and the exotic were working together when he broke her out of the Nevada facility. She admitted as much to me herself!"

"With all due respect Jeanette, you're not exactly good at reading people are you?"

"Ma'am, I can't let you take her in there." Iversson folded her arms "We can't let them speak to each other when we can't even understand what they're saying!"

"You won't let me?" Weyland said, with blue-blooded disdain "Tell me Jeanette, who owns this facility?"

"The Corporation owns it and I am the Corporation's head of Life Sciences. You hired me for my expertise in this field and I'm telling you – "

"I own the controlling interest in Weyland Corps, might I remind you. Ask yourself: whom do you think would retain custody of Isaac if I ever decided to terminate your contract?"

Iversson stopped dead "You wouldn't!"

Weyland tapped one long polished talon on her forearm "Care to test that theory?"

"No I… ," Iversson stuttered to a halt. Lex could see her weighing up her chances of winning this battle; then clearly she decided there was no point in fighting. Weyland held all the cards.

"Alright," She said, her face looking suddenly drawn "But she has to stay on this side of the glass. She can speak to him through the intercom."

"Of course."

With a terrible sense of foreboding Lex stepped up to the huge viewing window. The lights in the next room were quite low, all she could see was her own face reflected in the dark glass.

"She can't talk to him if he's sleeping," Said Weyland sharply "Wake him up!"

Iversson touched a control and harsh fluourescent lighting blinked on in the next room. Lex had to remind herself not to gasp in horror.

Thick strips of metal around his arms and legs and chest and throat and waist restrained him on a giant slab-like table. There were so many tubes and wires and sensors attached to his flesh that he looked almost like a machine himself. His eyes were closed but even from here she could see they were sunken and surrounded by dark shadows.

He looked sick, almost as sick as Selim had looked when he came out of surgery. "What the hell have they been doing to you?" She thought.

"Can he hear me?" She asked aloud.

"No." Iversson reached over and pressed another control and the intercom light blinked green. Lex leaned forward, closer to the mic.

"S'Kia?" She said in his language "Are you conscious?"

At the sound of her voice his eyes snapped open.

"Lexssssss!" He said "How is – "

"Selim is better!" She cut in, knowing exactly what his first question was going to be "Much better, they took out the lump. He is healing, getting stronger each day." Even if they didn't let her say anything else, she wanted to make sure he knew that. Wanted to spare him the agony of not knowing.

"Good," He took a deep breath "I am glad." He shut his eyes for a moment then opened them again and scrutinised her more closely "How did you persuade them to let you speak to me? I would hazard a guess it was not to reassure me!"

"No," She made sure not even a hint of a smile touched her lips "I told them that you are a violent and abusive sadist who held me in captivity for many years and that I would be incredibly distressed by seeing you again, so – "

"So naturally they could not wait to throw you in here with me!" He gave an evil little smirk "You are still shameless, female!"

"You look terrible," Even though she could keep the distress off her face she couldn't keep it out of her voice "What have they been doing to you?"

Suddenly he wasn't laughing any more "Lex I cannot move," He said "They have put something in my spine. It has paralysed me. I cannot move even my fingers. I cannot feel anything from my neck downwards."

A thrill of horror ran down her own backbone. Paralysed! Now she noticed, he was holding his head was at an odd angle. But Iversson surely wouldn't do something so wilfully destructive, would she?

"Is it … is it permanent?" She whispered.

"I do not know. They… have not said whether or not it can be reversed. I feel nothing."

Weyland called her attention back "Have you asked him about the devices yet?"

Lex thought quickly "He's confused from the sedatives," She said "He keeps asking me where this is and how we got here. Give me a minute or two to talk him round. Hopefully then I can get some sense out of him."

She turned her attention back to Scar "She wants to know how the cloaking devices work - "

"I know what she wants!" He interrupted "This little white maggot has been spitting poison in my ear for days. Tell her to go and fuck herself with them!"

"Can we not just tell her how-"

"Never!" He snarled "Even if I were a scientist to explain such things I would die before submitting to such as she is. And once she knows you think she would release me? What is to stop her then disposing of both of us just as she likes? She wants to learn about yautja weapons – if I ever get free I will give her a demonstration of mine!"

"There must be something I can do, some way I can get you out –"

"Forget about that!" He interrupted her "There are things I need to tell you so be quiet and let me speak them before they take you away again. Lex, the hard meat are here."

"What!? How can you know that, have you seen them?"

"I smell them." She could hear the growl rise up in his throat "The sickly female has the scent of them on her sometimes when she comes to question to me. The darker headed male also."

She made herself not glance across at Danzig. The hard meat, here? It sounded too awful to be true. She wondered if it was his mind playing tricks on him, some sort of feverish hallucination.

"Are you sure you did not dream this?"

"Do you think I could ever mistake that stink? It burns my scent ducts!" His jaws twitched in frustration "If an opportunity arises you must take Selim and escape; do not try to help me. If I am indeed paralysed you will not be able to move me and… I would not want to live anyway."

"What about what I want?"

"Just say you will not try."

Leave him here to be used as a living cocoon for those vile creatures? She fought down a shudder "I cannot promise you that."

"Just do it."

Diana gripped her arm "I have to know what he's saying to you!"

"It's hard to persuade him Diana," She said in a quavering voice, not needing to pretend when the distress she felt was completely real "He's very angry and he suspects I'm in league with you, I'm not sure I can go on with this."

She hoped that was convincing, to the human ear yautja always sounded angry and aggressive even when speaking normally, and Scar was close to losing his cool. She could see that he was struggling to contain some strong emotion.

"You can't back out now." Weyland said dismissively, clearly unmoved "Just think about what I told you earlier."

Lex gave her a harassed look. Then she turned back to the glass and said quickly "You said you had something else to say; do it fast, what else do you have to tell me?"

She braced herself, wondering what could be worse than his being paralyzed and having those vile things lurking here somewhere.

His yellow lynx-eyes rested on her face.

"R'Zuul asked me once if you were worth making myself a renegade and abhorrent to all my species for. You are. To me you are worth it all. The last six years I would not change… even if this is how it ends. You are always in my mind. I think of you constantly and I cannot help myself. It occurred to me that I have never made you aware of this. I thought I should do so now, as I doubt we shall speak again."

She felt as if he'd punched her in the gut, it was all she could do not to fold up on the floor. In all these years he had never once said that he loved her and she had always assumed he didn't. That he wasn't capable of it.

"It's not his fault." She had told herself "Love is a human concept; his species don't even have a word for it. Of course he doesn't feel it! He hasn't had the cultural conditioning."

Now she realised she had been wrong. He did feel it and thinking he was going to die, he had lain here in the dark and thought of a way to say it. She could tell that he'd given it very careful consideration and that alone was enough to make her want to cry.

He was watching her, frowning suspiciously "Do you understand what I have said?"

"Of course I understand! Why do you think I have stayed with you?"

"I thought it was for Selim, because you wanted him to know me."

"No you Bonehead, it is because I feel the same about you!"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth she suddenly realised it was true. She did love him. She had never made this terrible admission before, not even to herself, let alone to him. He was the only person she'd ever met who accepted both the good things and the bad about her but was still exciting enough to make her heart pound in her chest. She'd never felt about anyone else the way she did about him

His jaws bent into a lopsided grin "That is just what I hoped you would say. Now I have said what I wish to, you must leave."

Lex stared at him, the full horror of the situation only now dawning on her. She loved him... and he was going to die.

Her expression remained neutral but her eyes began flitting round the room the room furtively "Surely there must be a way!" She thought "Maybe I can steal a weapon, take Weyland hostage!"

"I have to at least try to get you out!"

"No. Just go. Before they realise you are deceiving them. Let us make it convincing."

"I am not leaving!"

"You infuriating bitch!" He snarled at her, as if enraged, his voice getting suddenly louder "Do you not realise this is torment for me, having you see me when I am powerless? Do you not understand you must do whatever it takes to protect yourself and Selim! Tell them I kept you prisoner or that I tortured you – tell them whatever you want, JUST GET OUT!"

It took all her self control to keep her face impassive. She turned and started towards the door "Let me out of here!" She said thickly "I can't stand it."

Weyland grabbed her arm furiously "You're not going anywhere until I get the information I want! What did he tell you?"

Lex turned on her "He told me that I am a contemptible human bitch for betraying him! Is that what you want to hear?" She spat in Weyland's face "He told me he should have skinned me years ago and if he could move he'd do it right now! He isn't going to tell me anything else now that he knows I'm here to help you interrogate him!"

Weyland opened her mouth to retort but to Lex's surprise it was Professor Iversson who came to her rescue "Ma'am I think this has gone far enough." She said, stepping in between them.

"I'm warning you Jeanette - "

"And I warned you that this was completely ill-advised." Iversson said, in cutting tones "I told you that it was a risky strategy and would not achieve anything. I am not prepared to see my two subjects further distressed whilst they are in my custody. Now I am taking Alexa upstairs and I strongly suggest you leave the exotic to cool off before anyone speaks to him again."

"Are you sure about that, Professor?"

Iversson drew herself up to her considerable height, towering over her diminutive employer "Quite sure."

Weyland might be used to commanding obedience from her staff, but she was no match for the steel in Iversson's gaze. She looked up at the older woman in surprise. Then she turned and left without another word.

The Professor gazed after her thoughtfully.