.x.

I was pulled from sleep by a singular rap atop my head and a brief, barking growl. Blinking slowly, grimacing at the dryness of my throat, it took me a moment to realize I was now leaning completely against the solid frame of my hunter companion. Embarassed, flustered, I straightened with as much dignity I could muster and tried to ignore the soft, gravely trill of Scar's that I equated with a chuckle. It was nice to know he was entertained, because I had no idea anymore how I felt about this … situation. Rubbing at my eyes, which felt gritty with weariness, I found that I hurt, was ravenously hungry and desperately thirsty. The fact that I had none of the remedies for any of these problems was depressing, and so with a weary, resigned sigh I set about trying to stand.

Muscles stiff and cramped from being through the cave-in and sitting for God-knew-how-long in one position vehemently protested my decision, but with a great deal of silent cursing and careful, slow movements I managed to get my legs beneath me. I was aware I was being observed, which was the reason for my silence; however obvious it was that I hurt, I wasn't going to indicate it further by adding vocal complaint. I began to pace to and fro, willing my body to loosen its tight muscles. When finally I could bend my knees without too much resistance I stopped and looked to Scar, wondering again how the hell we were going to get out of our current prison.

The predator had apparently finished sharpening all his weapons, for they were all now in their appropriate locations. He came to his feet with an easy quickness that belied his large form and strode to where his mask lay. Crouching to retrieve it he glanced up at me with his unnerving amber eyes as I looked on in interest. His lower mandibles moved slightly as he chittered, and without further ado he reattached the mask, connecting the two small hoses to the upper right side with the hiss of pressurized air. Standing, he took from across his back his spear and tossed it to me. I caught it with a murmured thanks, grateful since I had lost my own in the struggle with the predalien.

I watched as Scar moved to the furthest corner of the chamber we were now trapped in, speculating as to how he'd manage to get us out of here. An instant later his cannon moved into firing position over his shoulder, and I was suddenly blinded by a flash of brilliant blue. Trying to see past the dots dancing in my vision, I eventually gave up and covered my eyes as the cannon fired several more times in even succession. When the noise from the last explosion died and I heard the whine of the cannon settling back against Scar's back, I opened my eyes, and after a moment my vision cleared enough to see that a large hole had been half-blasted, half-melted in the wall of fallen rock directly before the hunter.

Scar glanced back at me with a questioning growl, and I nodded my affirmation that yes, I was ready to proceed. He stepped through the hissing, steaming makeshift doorway, being careful not to touch the still hot sides, and I followed with even more caution. What we entered was the remnants of the chamber we'd encountered the predalien in—I could tell by the half-buried tunnel in the far wall. The air was thick and heavy here, as it had been in our small prison. It was dim and dust, unsettled by the cavern collapse, swirled about on whatever slight current of air managed to find its way in here. There was no sign anywhere of either my other two predator companions or the predalien, but laying not several paces from me was one of the hunter's shurikens, blades still extended in a circular array. Spotting it, Scar moved to retrieve it with a growl, retracting the blades and attaching it to his belt. I wondered then if Tank and Scale still lived, and was not just a little surprised to find that I fervently hoped they did.

My lips flattened into a thin, displeased line at this small revelation; I was concerned for their well-being. Oh, how far I had fallen …

Scar had moved to the tunnel entrance from which we had originally entered this chamber. He beckoned me to follow with one finger and I obeyed, wondering why we were backtracking but then recalling the myriad of different passage entrances we had neglected in choosing this path. It was a tight fit for Scar to slip past the boulders and pieces of stone that half obscured the entrance; I made it through easily. Once we stood in the rough-hewn corridor beyond Scar flipped open his arm device and pressed with one finger a symbol I couldn't decipher. Instantly a red laser holograph struggled to manifest itself, but after several moments of phasing in and out of existence it died away altogether. The hunter made a distinctly unhappy noise, tapping several other, equally foreign glyphs in quick succession, but to no avail. With a final, disgusted snarl Scar ripped the device from his arm and hurled it into the room behind us before stalking ahead, irritation radiating from his every step. Torn between grinning at his somewhat comic disgruntlement and being overly wary of his current mood, I hastened after him.

The pace he set was not a hard one for me to maintain, and we retraced our steps to one of the many intersections we'd come across on our original journey. Without hesitation Scar opted for the right path, and onward we marched. Like the others, this particular passage dipped and rose, twisted and turned, and even though I had no idea which direction we had first been headed I became quite thoroughly disoriented. Did Scar have any idea at all where we were going? I didn't really think so and suspected we were traveling on the basis we would have to eventually encounter something. Thinking of just what that something could possibly be made me distinctly nervous. Every now and then he would pause in his steps and tilt his head as he considered the paths before us and I wondered which we were currently searching for—friend or foe?

At one of the proverbial forks in the road he stopped for an extended length of time. Quite obviously he was attempting to make a decision of some importance, and so I stood quietly at his side and listened to the occasional low, ponderous grumble he would emit. Having apparently come to a final conclusion, he turned to me and indicated the tunnel to the left of us with one closed fist. I stared in the direction he pointed, nodding. Left it would be, then. When he shook his head with a chitter and gestured to me before again indicating the left path, however, I felt my eyes widen with incredulity.

"You want me to go in there alone?" I demanded, my voice rising slightly.

The noise he made then was one of impatience and authority, and I knew then that there really was no argument over this issue. It was obvious to me at that moment that we were seeking the other predators, and that the only reason he would direct me to do this was because we stood a better chance of finding them on our own … I nodded then, swallowing hard, for this sudden prospect was both highly unappealing and absolutely terrifying. I stared into the darkened depths of the path Scar had chosen for me with an almost overwhelming sense of foreboding.

I really did not want to go in there.

Scar's hand on my shoulder was somewhat reassuring, for obviously he respected me enough to believe I could handle myself on my own against whatever I could encounter. Although gratified by this, it wasn't enough to dispel my fear, and I clutched my spear tight with both hands before taking several deep breaths. A rough trill came from Scar, and his fingers squeezed my shoulder just once, gently, before falling away altogether. I turned to him again, watching as he held his now closed fist out to the right, to the passage opposite the one I was about to depart down, and then pointed at himself with a thumb. I nodded once more. He dipped his head once to me, reached out to lightly pat my mark, and turned and stalked into the tunnel.

Left suddenly alone, I contemplated only briefly running wildly after him. With a sigh of grim resignation I swiveled back around, steeled my nerve, and entered my own chosen path. I prayed that I would find Tank or Scale while simultaneously hoping with all I had that the predalien was dead and buried beneath the tons of rubble I'd witnessed fall.

I almost snorted. My luck wasn't that good. It never had been.

.x.

It was almost amusing, how much I took danger for granted when traveling with Scar and comrades. Alone, aware of how helpless I was by being so, every step I took was one that fairly quivered in trepidation. I expected at every turn submersed in shadows I could not penetrate some loathsome, detestable beast to lunge out at me. Relax, Lex, I told myself, eyes scanning frantically to and fro. You've killed things, powerful things …

Things that even now are most likely stalking your every steps, chimed in the negative part of my subconscious, and I found myself wishing it were a physical manifestation so I could punish it, hurt it, for making me think about things I really didn't want to think about.

I kept walking with all the determination I could muster, which admittedly wasn't much. My spear I held in both hands before me, reading to extend it at the first signs of trouble. I measured time by counting my steps. Somewhere around four hundred I caught sight of something in the dark ahead of me and came to a halt, squinting. It was illumination of some type, flaring and disappearing repeatedly from around a corner, and holding my breath I wondered if I should retreat. After a moment I crept forward, desperately curious despite myself; perhaps this phenomenon belonged in some manner to Tank or Scale …?

Too late I realized that the elusive flashes I was seeing were the beams of flashlights, and too late did I hear the hushed whispers of human voices. Even as I stopped dead in my tracks, even as I began to back away steadily, quietly, I knew what lurked just around the corner ahead. Don't let them find me, I plead silently, desperately. An instant later figures emerged from the shadows, unmistakably human and rounding the bend; I was suddenly awash in a blinding rush of light.

"You there!" Shouted a voice I didn't recognize. "Who are you?"

I shielded my eyes with one hand, the other tightly gripping my spear. "Who are you?" I yelled in return, although with a sinking sensation I feared I knew the answer.

"Ms. Woods!" Reed's voice called. "What a surprise." The inflection he added into the last part of his sentence let me know that it really wasn't a surprise at all. I could see him at the head of the group, silhouetted. A muscle in my stomach twitched abruptly and painfully as I recalled the dream and the all-too-believable way it had ended with vivid clarity.

Instead of replying I whirled about, intent on fleeing further into this cavernous maze and away from Reed Weyland and whatever inevitably unpleasant purpose had brought him down here. I hadn't made it but three steps when I heard the unmistakable sound of a gun safety being switched off. Reed's words rang out a moment later with unarguable authority.

"Stay here if they come this way," he ordered whoever it was that had accompanied him, then a set of heavy footfalls pursued me. Whatever he did now as head of a corporation, he hadn't been a slouch where military training was concerned. I kept expecting him to fall back at some point, hoped he would lag behind, but the bastard was gaining on me. I had a choice at one point – the tunnel split and I knew the automatic human response was to go to the right. I chose the left and prayed the shadows would hide me.

His footsteps slowed, became more deliberate. "Lex, Lex, Lex," he said, using my given name for the first time. "Come now, I just want to talk to you." The beam of his flashlight swept the tunnels, first one, then the other. I molded my body against the curve of the wall, hardly daring to breathe. "We have so much to discuss. Not the least of which," he ducked his head and moved a step into the tunnel I was in, "is why you left without saying goodbye." He withdrew and did the same to the other tunnel, judging by the sound of his voice. "I was very put out. And here I was going to invite you to dinner."

We both froze at the sound of something further down the other tunnel, gravel sifting or something clattering lightly to the floor. I could feel satisfaction radiating from him, even when he was silent. He moved like a hunter, not as graceful as Scar, but deadly nonetheless. "Lex," he murmured, the very tone he used sending a shiver up my spine, and then he was gone down the other tunnel.

For a moment I remained motionless, eyes closed in absolute frustration. Whatever was down that tunnel, whatever Reed was in the process of tracking now, may or may not have been one of the three hunters. If it was, and if he found them then he would radio the rest of his team, and armed to the teeth they would come for the sole purpose of slaughtering the predators for their technology. Even now I had my doubts that they could succeed, for I had seen Scar and comrades in action, and I knew that they were fierce beyond anything ever imagined in this world. A part of me yearned to see the clash, to see Scar, Scale and Tank rip apart Reed and shred him into insignificant pieces of nothingness, but it was my conscience, the conscience I was by this point really beginning to detest, that made my ultimate decision for me. Should Reed find one of the hunters there was a risk, however slight, that said hunter would be eventually overcome, and I simply could not let that happen. With a whispered, fervent curse I pushed myself away from the wall, tightened my already aching fingers around the haft of my spear, and began to run haphazardly through the darkness into the other tunnel.

I could see very little and I could hear very little beyond my own somewhat frantic steps and labored breathing. As I narrowly avoided tripping headlong over an upright stalagmite I flicked my finger against the indent on my spear, and the sound it made as it telescoped into its full length filled my ears.

Something struck me hard from the side, shaping itself out of the shadows and taking me down, down. And as I struck the earth, as I felt somebody straddle me, pin me—as I felt hands wrench the spear from my grasp with brutal strength, I realized with a swift and piercing dismay that I'd played right into Reed's hands.

"Tricked you," came his voice, taunting with all the triumph of a schoolyard bully and eerily detached from his darkened form where it loomed above me. I kicked and squirmed, reaching with my hands for his face, for his eyes, wanting to inflict an unholy amount of my wrath upon him and inwardly panicking. There was no predator around to assist me this time …

"You're really worried about them, aren't you?" he laughed, incredulous. His body was a heavy weight on mine. "Those ungodly-ugly things."

Suddenly both of my wrists were trapped by his hands, forced down and out so I had no leverage to move. Had I thought I was a good fighter? I couldn't even push him away, and my spear was out of reach. Reed moved down; I could feel him getting closer even in the darkness. "Now, let's talk about your future, Lex," he breathed, putting his weight on his arms and thus, my wrists. "The others know to look for alien friends; you're not needed any more. You're completely expendable. Convince me to let you live."

The exertion I'd put up trying to dislodge him had left me suddenly winded. I could kill aliens and even wound predators, but I couldn't get rid of this cretin, this vile sack of flesh, this parasite. The irony was enough to bring the harsh laughter of self-loathing to my throat. I forced it back down and stared up into the insidious gaze of Reed that I could not see, but could most definitely feel.

"You'll kill me either way," I whispered then, for I was fairly certain that would be the way it all would end.

I could feel him shrug. "Maybe. It all depends on you. I admit, it seems...wasteful, to kill you. After all, I don't want to seem ungrateful. That, and the prospect of sleeping with someone who wants me dead has a certain appeal ..."

I choked then. Perhaps it was to smother a rude noise, or perhaps my way of controlling my gag reflex. He chuckled at this, and when I could speak again I said with no small amount of venom, "You are out of your mind, Reed. I would never—"

He cut me off then, his words spilling intrusively over my own. "Never say never, Lex. No, no, don't argue with me, I know you hate me. That's half the fun. You're so easy to control." He shifted his position. "How about we discuss this later? We have things to take care of down here first."

"It won't happen!" I spat at him, my loathing and utter hatred of this man inciting my fury to roar greater than it ever had before. "They'll kill you first!"

The amused sound he made at this only fueled my rage, and with all my might I bucked up and twisted. Feeling him come slightly off center I ripped one wrist free from his grip and swung blindly for his head. I connected and the impact juddered painfully down the length of my arm, but I ignored the sensation and instead focused on the man above me. I'd apparently caused some harm, for his other hand came free from my wrist to clutch at his face. Vindictive satisfaction filled me then and with both hands flat on his chest I shoved as hard as I could, and he toppled from me to land sprawled on his back. I got to my feet swiftly, but so did he. Out of desperation I kicked out solidly, and had the distinct pleasure of feeling my foot impact squarely with his groin.

"Bitch!" To his credit, he didn't fall, but when he lunged for me it was clumsily, and I sidestepped to avoid him. Frantic, I stooped to retrieve my spear and didn't bother risking a backwards glance as I took off at a dead run further into the tunnel. Instead of instant pursuit I heard the crackling of a two-way radio, and knew then that he was summoning his reinforcements. There was no denying it now, for if they caught me I was most certainly a dead woman, and so despite the solid aching in my limbs, despite the throbbing agony of my tired lungs I ran ever forward, wishing, praying I'd find an ally somewhere in this labyrinth.

And quite suddenly I stumbled out of the tunnel and into a long, oval shaped room, and it was then I realized that you don't always get what you wish for.

Scar was here, yes, but he wasn't alone. He was locked in a grapple with the predalien, and from the looks of the many rivulets of neon green that painted his body, he was fighting a losing battle. He held no weapons I could see. I spied an instant later his shoulder cannon lying on the floor some several feet from me and a shuriken embedded firmly in the wall to my left. One of his powerful arms was acting as a barrier, holding the predalien's slavering jaws up and away from his own head. The other arm, wrist blades fully extended from his gauntlet, was gripping the wrist of the predalien, attempting to prevent the claws from raking his body more than they already had.

The predalien's long tail whipped about, spewing acid blood in its erratic wake and I saw suddenly that Scar had somehow severed a decent length of it. No longer could it be used to impale, but that wasn't really the issue anymore. The stalemate between the two combatants suddenly broke, as with a roar Scar surged forwards, ramming the body of his opponent into the cavern wall. The impact shuddered stones loose. Using his forearm now to pin the predalien by the neck, Scar lifted his wrist blades, preparing to slice the underbelly of the beast open—

A thunderous explosion sounded from behind me, causing me to fall forward in shock. Landing on my hands and knees, I looked up bewildered to see Scar totter on his feet and then stumble backwards, blood gushing up from a cluster of small holes punched through his lower back—

Even as I screamed, even as I came to my feet and lunged unthinking forward, another loud roar filled the chamber, and I watched as Scar's body jerked from the impact of the shot, more blood erupting. He staggered back and came up roughly against the stone wall, and the echoing cry that came from him was one of utter pain and fury. The predalien, instead of pursuing his now grievously wounded opponent, had focused on the origin of the new attack, and knowing what I'd find I spun around anyways.

Reed stood just within the entrance of the tunnel I'd only just left, a military issue shotgun similar to the one I'd wielded once before held secure in both hands. As he lifted his head away from the sights he smiled at me, and it was a vicious, malevolent movement of the lips. "Thanks," he said, and for a moment I lost complete focus as I threw myself at him.

I was close enough he didn't have time to get another shot off. As my body crashed into his we struck first the wall and then rolled to the ground. It was imperative, a part of me not clouded by insane loathing knew, that I not wind up on the bottom—I smashed the heel of my palm into his face even as he swung the butt of the shotgun at my jaw. My head snapped back from the blow and for a moment my vision danced with spots. When I could see again I was sprawled face down on the floor, and Reed was walking out into the chamber with his shotgun again raised and ready to aim.

"Reed!" I screamed, and was somewhat surprised when he actually halted and half turned his head at the sound of my voice.

"In a second, Lex," he said in a calm, almost singsong voice. His eyes snapped back to the predalien, which appeared to be sizing up its new opponent. "I have a few things on my plate at the moment."

His statement was true, although not to extent he thought it to be, for Scar had chosen to use my distraction as an opportunity and had hurtled full tilt for Reed. Reed saw him coming, was in fact diving to the side to avoid him when he struck. the force with which he did so had them both airborne. What occurred next was a sequence of events so swift I could barely follow—Scar reared up over Reed's stunned form, ready to impale him—

The predalien, having decided that the hunter was the deadliest of the three targets it was now presented with, gripped Scar by one arm and hurled him with incredible force to the rear of the chamber. The wall dissolved under the impact; and as Scar disappeared from view the entire room began to tremble, to quake in the manner I was by now familiar with. Screaming, the predalien leapt through the falling debris after Scar. As I made to rush after them I was brought up short by the barrel of a shotgun.

"Tsk," said Reed. He growled at the falling debris, then caught my wrist in his hand again with a lightning movement. Without another word, he was dragging me across to the other exit, since the one we'd come in was already blocked. I wanted to follow Scar! I pulled against his grip—

I found myself jerked forward, the shotgun pressed up against my back all without him losing stride. "MOVE," he commanded, pushing me along now to the relative safety of the exit. Safety, right, as if any place in this hellhole could be called safe.

A large slab of stone fell between us then, striking me on the shoulder and driving me forwards and down. I scrambled to my feet, glancing behind me. Reed was on his back and in obvious pain, but was attempting to rise …

I ran to him and stomped down hard on his outstretched wrist, savoring the sensation of bones grinding beneath my heel. He screamed, a sound pleasing to my ears in my current state of mind. As he thrashed about I stooped and secured his fallen shotgun and without further hesitation bolted headlong down the tunnel. The thunder of the collapsing cavern followed me, and I hoped with savage fervor that Reed was buried and crushed beneath the tons of subterranean stone.

And as the noise faded, as I continued running blindly, heedlessly, I wondered if Scar was still alive, and the piercing sorrow I felt realizing he may not have survived chilled me to the core.

.x.