A/N: Any character or theme or name or creature and anything else from the movies I DO NOT OWN. The plot for this story I do own, as well as Xenayakata and the species Xenyautan. These two are my creations and mine alone so NO TOUCHIE! If anyone rips off my character or species I will send the real Xenayakata after them and she gets cranky when people rip her off.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Thanks to all reviewers; you guys keep my spirits up and keep me writing. If any one has any ideas they would like to mention or something they would like to see happen in the story, I'm all ears!(which isn't hard to believe when you consider my char is an 8 foot fox but...eh (shrugs) ) Thanks to the lurkers too but if you review, I'll give you cyber cookies! You gotta tell me that you were a lurker as well...then again... throws millions of cyber cookies out to all the reviewers You all get cyber cookies anyway!

Chapter 7 : It's My Yautja Instinct

The Yautja known as Tee'e'ka'cha silently watched the sentries that guarded the main gates of the ooman bunker.

The yautja didn't exactly know why he was drawn to this place of oomans; it was a feeling, a sense, his instincts- and no sensible Yautja ignored his instincts.

He was more than 84 ooman years old and that was far more than enough to have been blooded and be out on his own, hunting for glory.

He would rejoin his Clan again eventually, all predators did, but for now he only wanted to collect trophies, build a name for himself and win females to continue his blood line –all the things a relatively young male could find to keep himself amused.

That is, if his instincts hadn't gone haywire and he wasn't walking into the biggest mistake of his, as of yet, relatively short life. He had originally set down on this planet to hunt the kainde amedha his ship's scanners had indicated had a nest here but had been distracted by instinct that had brought him to this place of oomans.

No, they couldn't be wrong, he trusted his instincts. Something worth while was in there, waiting for him to come and get it, even if he didn't know what 'it' was.

Activating his cloaking device, he leapt from the branches of the old dead tree which had served as his lookout with ease and moved in on the base, completely unnoticed by the guards and slipped past the meagre defences.

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I'm in. I think to myself. How easy the oomans make it for me.

I can sense my prize near by. It is so close, I can almost taste it. Something is here, just waiting for me to claim it.

Oomans are too stupid to even know that I'm here. I could gut one right now and they wouldn't even know what had happened. They're everywhere and so easily I move through them.

I smell my prize. This is strange, I shouldn't be able to smell it. Unless…unless it is a female that I am smelling.

But what is a female doing here?

It must have been captured by the oomans; a female would never come anywhere near an ooman base willingly while in heat. Another puzzling question; it is no where near mating season so why is this female in heat now? Perhaps her heat cycle is off and she was caught unawares by it? It would not be the first time such a thing has happened.

I move through the halls silently, following the scent of the female. I know it is a female now, a young, strong one; the blood in my veins buzzes with the knowledge, the anticipation of a fight to win a female- I can smell a male yautja.

Surely this tormentingly tantalising scent would belong to a female sort after by many males? But how was she was caught?

Female yautja, both larger and stronger than males, would be hard to fight let alone be subdued and captured, especially one in heat. Even most male yautja will not take on a female unless absolutely necessary. Only truly brave yautja will fight a female for the right to mate rather than another male. This is the only explanation I can think of; that a male has fought this female for the right to mate and then the oomans took advantage of their distraction.

Though it would take a strong male to defeat and claim her, it would have to be a stupid one as well to stay near a human base long enough to be discovered and even attacked.

I grumble a little to myself.

Female yautja are stronger than males but it is still a male's duty to protect a female which he has won and this male has obviously failed that duty. I will not only win the female from him, I think to myself, I challenge him to jehdin-jehdin and I will kill him. He is undeserving of a female if he cannot protect even himself, let alone her.

I've come to a strange room now.

The scent of the female is here, but faint.

Mist swirls in this room and I can hear the spray of water.

And soft singing.

The tune is strange, almost familiar.

I walk towards the source of the sound, my curiosity getting the better of me; I want to know what makes this noise that feels known to me. With the touch of a button on my hunting mask, my vision changes; I can see through the mist now, I can see the heat that is an ooman's body, glowing white at its heart.

It is the ooman that is singing.

I move close, intrigued by the noises this ooman can make; no yautja can make noises like this. Some sound almost like the gurgling, cooing sound a female yautja will make to her young to make them sleep but they are softer, more high-pitched and even more relaxing than those of a yautja. Others sound like the hiss of a kainde amedha and a few, though not many, are the sounds I know to be ooman song, all accompanied by the gently falling of water. The sounds are very soothing to me and I've found myself leaning back against a wall, listening to them.

The female can wait a little while, I'm thinking.

The song of this ooman takes my mind back to the time when I was only very young, a tiny pup, and my mother would sing me to sleep. I yawn a little; this song is making me tired. I will leave soon but not yet, a little while longer, listening to this ooman's song….

The singing has stoped.

The water has stopped.

The ooman is looking at me.

No, it can't be looking at me. I'm still cloaked, nothing can see me.

But it sure looks like it's looking at me.

Maybe it can see me.

Oomans have done it before and yautja have died for thinking it impossible; I refuse to be so stupid. I'll have to kill it, stop it from alerting the others that I'm here. They might guess that it's the female I'm after, they might move her.

I almost unsheathe my wrist blades when the ooman looks to the left of me, then to the right and then behind it.

It doesn't see me at all. I almost sigh in relief before I realise what had made the ooman look in my direction in the first place; I had yawned a loud.

It had heard me.

And I had been stupid enough to make noise. I know as well as any yautja that being cloaked doesn't in any way hide the sounds we might make.

I want to kill the ooman now anyway. It made me forget my purpose and my mission. It made me forget all the precautions I need to keep my self alive.

I glare intently at the ooman, debating with myself the intelligence, or rather lack of, in leaving a dead body lying around ahead of schedule.

It's then that I notice something; the ooman is a female.

And in her belly beats another tiny glowing life.

She is carrying a child within her.

I forget my half-baked plans for killing the ooman.

To kill it now, knowing it is female and with child, would be to bring dishonour on myself. It is against the Code of the yautja to kill the weak and unarmed. Those that are unworthy to hunt are left unharmed unless they provoke us by attacking, and not even then if they are with child, not if we can help it.

The males of almost any kind are fair game as far as any yautja is concerned but what sport would there be if we did not leave at least some to continue the species and hunted them to extinction? As much as yautja are hunters, we respect life also and because of that it is part of our Code that females are strictly 'off' the hunting list for most species.

I will not dishonour myself because of my own stupidity.

I have no wish to become a bad blood.

I must find that female now, I think to myself. I've let myself get distracted for long enough. I turn and leave the room and the female ooman with her strange song behind.

I find the females scent again. It is stronger in the hall that leads right so I choose to follow that path. Behind me I hear the female leaving the misty room also, but her soft footfalls echo off in the other direction as they are swallowed up by the sounds of the heavier treads from other oomans.

As the scent of the female gets stronger, something about the female ooman and her song tickles at the back of my mind but I do not know what.

I push those thoughts away and concentrate on thoughts of the female yautja I will win and the male yautja I will soon face.

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I can't believe I've just come face to face with a Predator and that I let it go.

I wanted to kill it, right there but I would have to change to kill it and I can't risk someone seeing me as a Xenomorph. Not now, when I'm so close to obtaining freedom once and for all.

I must tell Mike and Tina.

As much as I despise them for what they have done, as much as they have lied to me and used me, I would not leave even them to the fleeting, if even existent, mercy of the hunter.

They must know that a Predator is loose on the base.

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This ooman base is a maze.

I have followed the scent of the female all over the base and still have not found her or the male but now the smell of the male is strong also. He knows I am here, knows that I am after his female and it angers him; I can smell it. I imagine him, probably a head strong, brainless warrior, nothing to me, the son of an Ancient Elder who is the leader of an entire Clan. Suddenly, the scent of the female grows overwhelming as I turn onto a new hall; she has past here recently, maybe only minutes ago.

And the male was with her.

I feel my anger rise up within me and my fingertips twitch at my sides; he still has the female near him.

Stupid oomans. I think to myself. They should have separated them.

If the two yautja had been contained since capture in the same area my chances were now a lot slimmer that the female hasn't been mated already. The male, especially one as cowardly and weak enough to let himself be taken alive, would not let capture get in the way of carrying on his genealogy.

But I will get in the way of it; I will not allow a weaker male than myself to continue his line instead of my own and waste the use of such a choice female.

And in any case, her scent is still pungent, she is still receptive, there is still time.

I continue down the hall, following the scent to a large door.

She is behind this door, I'm sure of it. Now I only need to get inside.

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I don't like this.

I feel a shiver go down my spine and shake it off, wondering what Tina hopes to achieve from this plan. I don't want to offer myself to this Predator, just like I didn't want to mate with the marine, Marker but Tina insist that they won't let anything happen to me, that they just want to catch the Predator.

I snort in disgust. Sure, they just want to catch it….and then do all sorts of horrid experiments and tests on it and god knows what else. I don't even know who I'd want to win this situation; do I want the Humans to get their little toy to distract them from my own escape and because I hate the Hunters or do I want to let the Hunter take make out and then let it take care of the Humans because they shouldn't be playing God like they have and probably will continue to do?

I don't even know why I agreed to help. Wait, yes, I do know.

If I just up and left, the Humans would come after me. This way, if I go missing they'll assume the Hunter got me. The only hard part is to make sure that the Hunter doesn't get me.

I can sense him nearby, read some of his thoughts; he is determined to win the female he believes is here, determined to win me and mate with me. I am disgusted at the thought of it and my grey, speckled skin shivers again; this form disgusts me also.

I don't like being in this form any more than I like the species.

I am the bait, the female Predator that the intruder is looking for, was looking for when we came almost face to face and I had to let it live.

I growl under my breath and then sigh.

What am I doing here?

I miss Xenayokoda. I can not wait till I am able to reunite with him.

I stretch out on the floor, thoroughly bored with waiting. The floor is scratchy against my skin so I roll over and try to get at an itchy spot on my back that I can't reach.

The cloth of my shirt tears and I wince as the scratching becomes painful.

I growl again, louder this time, cursing the situation.

Why did I have to wear these stupid rags? They don't seem at all what a Predator might wear and they make me feel more vulnerable somehow.

I sit up, my claws scraping against the concrete floor, and I let out a yawn.

Boy, am I bored.

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There she is, right below me.

The oomans must have taken her armour, I think to myself, because she is wearing something that looks like torn ooman clothing.

I feel my anger rising again. How dare these oomans treat a member of my race like this? And where is the male? I must deal with him before I can claim the female.

I move so that I can see the entire room as the female moves about, restlessly it seems, laying down then getting back up, only to sit down again. The male is not inside but the room reeks of oomans. They will be back, I feel sure, and I want the female freed before then.

The time to act is now.

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My eyes snap open and I jump as I hear a loud 'clang' and I see a vent cover drop from the roof.

The Predator.

I can't see anything, but I smell him. I feel the air shift just next to me and I turn slowly to see him standing there. My Predator eye-sight is poor but I can still make out his form fairly clearly; I can also make out all of his weaponry. I step away from him a little, intimidated by his size even though I am a bit taller than he.

He grabs my arm roughly and out of reflex I snarl at him.

He snorts, lets go of me and then removes his mask.

I almost gag at the sight of him. I have studied vids and images of predators but it hasn't prepared me for this. His four mandibles click in an unpleasant way and I feel he is displeased with my reaction.

"Where is the other male?" He asks in Yautjaian.

I find it strange that I can understand him but I don't waste time wondering why.

"There is no other male." I reply, hoping that I'm saying it right. He seems to understand me and I give an inward sigh of relief.

"The oomans killed him?" Three guesses what an 'ooman' is?

I don't know why he thinks that there was ever another male but I decide to try and appease his interest.

"Yes, the oomans killed him."

The Predator gives another snort.

"Then we leave. I'll take you to a secure location." He looks at me now in a way I recognise; he looks at me in the same way that Marker looked at me the first time he saw me in my human form. "Then we fight."

I contain my surprise at his words. Fight? I then pick up on his thoughts and discover that Predator males must fight and defeat other males or the females themselves before they will be accepted as mates.

He obviously thinks himself a match for me, just as Marker did. I motion for him to lead the way, looking back at the vent, anything to not have to see that look. I hear him replace his mask, the slight clacking chuckle as he passes me.

He doesn't know what he's up against. He won't defeat me. I'll disgrace him and wear him out at the same time so that Mike and Tina can capture him and perform their experiments. I will owe this male nothing. He offers me a boost to get to the vent and I snarl at him, my temper at breaking point.

"I am not decrepit, male and you would do best to remember it." With these words I jump to grab hold of a pipe which is below the vent and then deftly swing myself up into the vent opening.

He is next to me in moments. "Which way?" I ask, as if I didn't already know.

"This way." He tilts his head to the right and begins to crawl away, indicating for me to follow.

We travel in silence. We reach a fork in the path and he signals for a rest. I almost choke on a scoff. The Predator, while smaller than me in this form, is bulkier and finds it difficult to move.

The rest is short and I wait for him to continue but he indicates for me to go first. I don't like this, I sense he is up to something.

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The female is stronger than I thought. She does not move lethargically as most females do when in season and her temper is still quick. I can not believe that I am so lucky to have found such a female. And the other male is dead.

This confuses me a little but perhaps the scent of anger was an old one or maybe the oomans killed him only recently. It does not matter. What matters is that he is dead, which means I am free to court her myself without worrying about other males. It is very unlikely that any other males will be in this part of the universe. But this chance is too good, this female too good to waste. If need be I will fight any that challenge me, even the female herself if I have too, if my trophies and rescuing her are not enough to impress her. Who knows? I am not too young to start collecting females.

I will do all I can to have this female.

It's my yautja Instinct.

End Ch 7

A/N: Oooo! What will happen next? You'll just have to wait and find out!. Please review and tell me what you think! And remember all you lurkers out there; review and you get a cyber cookie!