Hello people reading...

Demon Stars Revival: hope this chapter is better, theres's nothing worse than reading stuff that's confusing : ( reviews like that are good, I've not written anything other than science reports for so long I need reminding have to write creative stuff properly : )

Greenleaf7: glad you liked, despite the confusing talking. I'm trying to update while I still can, because in a week I go back home where there is no internet! So unless I can get online at a mates house it will be a Christmas without fanfiction for me!

To make up for the poor last chapter, we did draw some lil Pred Alien chestbusters... but turns out I can't post the url in here. Damm it.
Oh well, enjoy : )


'SMACK!' A powerful crescent kick sent Cth'ctchi reeling to his left, the impact re-opening the clotted mess that had been one of his mandibles. He roared with fury and frustration, he had not received such a beating like this since… since before he took the limulia!
Without the psychic abilities which he depended on so much his reflexes where not sharp enough to evade D'ran's blows. He was so out of practise!
He managed to catch D'ran's leg as it began a second, outward crescent kick and pushing the leg upwards he dropped into a sweep, knocking D'ran off his feet. The predator fell to the floor with a heavy thud, and Cth'ctchi brought his own leg around and downwards in an axe kick, which would crack D'ran's ribs apart if it connected. But he wasn't quite fast enough, and D'ran rolled sideways so the kick landed in the space beside him. In return D'ran kicked upwards towards Cth'ctchi's exposed knee joint from the floor.
Cth'ctchi once again brough his leg upwards and then downwards in another axe kick, avoiding D'ran's strike and aiming this time for the head. D'ran swerved his face out of the way but Cth'ctchi caught a lot of his dreadlocks underneath his foot, trapping his head. Not hesitating to take advantage of D'ran's position Cth'ctchi punched downwards, hard, with his wrist blades fully extended. D'ran wrenched his head free at the last minute, tearing many of his head chords off. This time he rolled out of Cth'ctchi's range, and for a minute they stood staring at each other, trying to catch their breath.

"See?" Cth'ctchi said, quickly snatching up some of D'ran's fallen dreadlocks, "I already am making a trophy of you!" His words where slurred from the missing mandible and the pain clouding his mind, but were still clear enough to understand.

"You have not beaten me yet, you wretched coward! I always knew that without those God forsaken tricks you were nothing!" D'ran bellowed back, sentences punctuated by the heavy gasps he was taking in.

Cth'ctchi's brows furrowed as he tried one again to use his mental powers to attack D'ran but all he achieved was another series of blows from the Queen's mind, ever present in his. Howling he sank to one knee and D'ran, seeing this moment of weakness, rushed in to try and finish him. Cth'ctchi managed to dive out of the way, coming out of the roll standing and facing D'ran's back. While D'ran whirled around a darting movement caught his eye. The conscious human had stood up and swiped something over the panel for the door it controlled. Soundlessly it opened, and the human was now trying to drag the other into it. Cth'ctchi, upon realising where D'ran was looking snarled angrily and charged towards the pair, only to be intercepted by D'ran charging into him, knocking them both to the floor.

"No!" Cth'ctchi hissed, "They cannot be allowed to lock themselves in there! That's the control room! Imagine what damage they could do to us, to the ship!"

D'ran punched him squarely in the face, and again. The Queen twisted and spiked his mind all the while.

"I don't care!" D'ran shouted, continuing his storm of blows, "not about anything else until I have defeated you!"

Cth'ctchi's hands snapped out around D'ran's throat, trying to throttle him. D'ran rammed his chin downwards, trying to crush or cut Cth'ctchi's hands with the rim of his hunting mask. Cth'ctchi bleakly held on, tightening his grip with all his strength but their species had tough windpipes and D'ran's was no exception. The mask's edge began to bite into his flesh and he wished he had not been separated from his own so early in the fight. There had not been a long enough pause in the battle yet for him to look for it let alone re-attach it. D'ran continued to punch at his head, the blows coming slower but by no means any gentler. Cth'ctchi let go of D'ran's neck with one hand and turned it over, quickly dragging it back so that the wrist blades would slice open his neck. D'ran threw himself backwards, Cth'ctchi's blades leaving twin gnashes on his neck, vivid blood spurting outwards. Cth'ctchi watched the spray to see if he'd cut the main artery but the small gushes told him the cuts where not deep enough. So close…
He glanced over to the humans, the female had not gotten very far trying to drag her companion. He could still stop them from entering the control room if he hurried and defeated D'ran soon. The pain in his head was near unbearable, he'd never known anything so powerful…yet he knew he must shut it out! He must keep fighting, and win, so he could have his revenge.
He whirled to his feet to meet another of D'ran's charges. He could not loose!

"Joanne? Are you ok?"

Kelly cautious question whispered through the tunnel. Joanne had been sitting besides the dying hunter for quiet a while now; expression incomprehensible if a little shocked. She was also starting to shake.
Kelly approached her slowly, then gently reached out and touched Joanne's shoulder. Joanne jumped back as if she'd been shocked, breaths coming in hurried gasps. She stared wide eyed at Kelly, almost as if she didn't understand where she was.

"Joanne! Calm down! C'mon, deep breaths, slow it down!" Kelly chattered, trying to distract Joanne from whatever was holding her attention. She grabbed both Joanne's shoulders and shook her, trying to snap her out of it.

"NO! It won't let go! It doesn't want to, it wants me to stay, to stay with it…" Joanne babbled, words high pitched and tumbling from her mouth as if she had no control. She was shaking worse than ever now, and Kelly tentatively hugged her, as if the contact would bring her back to the real world, but not knowing what to do. After a short while Joanne's breathing slowed and Kelly felt relief wash through her. She needed Joanne. She was the special one with the powers and the knowlage about the vicious hunters.

"Kelly?" Joanne said, her voice so faint.

"Yeh?" Came the reply.

"This thing is like nothing I've ever felt before… I can't even begin to describe it." Joanne shuddered once more. "It was waiting for me! Like it knew I was going to contact it!"

Kelly remained silent as Joanne leant back from the hug, eyes still huge as she spoke in a whisper.

"It won't let go either! Now there's a link it won't let go, I can feel it now! I can feel its thoughts, how cramped it is, how it wants to be out so it can join… so it can join me! It wants to be with me!" Joanne's voice rose upward in anguish.

"Can you control it?" Kelly interrupted, trying to get Joanne to focus on the reason she had contacted the creature, rather than the experience itself.

"I'm, I'm not sure, I think so." Joanne managed, looking now at the ground. "but its not control, its almost like it wants to do what I say!"

"But could you control it? If we needed to?" Kelly demanded. What would it take to snap Joanne out of this?

"I, I don't know… Oh God what's it doing?" Joanne exclaimed, snapping her head round to look at the Predator's body. Kelly followed her gaze but could see nothing. Maybe Joanne had been right she thought, maybe this was too much for them to handle...

Muscles twitched. Nerves buzzed. Tendons stretched taunt.
It was time!
It was aware of itself now, the contact with the Queen had triggered a whole flood of changes, yet its mind had nothing to do with the quivering, tensing contractions that pulsed through its young body. Hunger drove it on too, before it had not needed sustenance but now, now it did. Jaws worked against the soft surroundings between the spasms that ripped through its body, but to no avail. Something was blocking its throat, and it could not swallow what it tore off.
Countless years of evolved instinct forced its body to push against what held it, and its jaws gapped in a soundless scream as the prison did not give way, its soft worm like body crushing against solid structures.
Then its jaws gapped even wider as instinct took hold of them too, retching and choking as a thick membrane covering its throat was scrapped off and thrown up.
But now liquid was pouring into its lungs! I could not breathe! Its young mind raced with its need to escape, body rippling outward again to shove against barriers it couldn't see. Only one area did not hurt, its head, protected by a hardened case designed especially for this moment but it did not know that.
All it knew was come the third convulsion the area in front of its head gave a loud crack.

Rea'gul was lost.
His mind drifted through shapeless dreams, tinged with shadows of pain as his life blood continued to bleed out.
Everything was fading, falling from him into darkness. He could no longer hear his faltering breaths nor feel the throb of his heart.
Eyes stared unseeing, pupils dilated, thoughts slowing as though moving through treacle. Nothing could reach him as he continued towards oblivion.
Nothing except the splintering pain, which suddenly exploded in his chest.

Eyes snapped into focus, spine arched, mandibles flared as Rea'gul woke, his roar of pain weak, bubbling with his own blood.
The two girls jumped backwards. They had been standing close to him when he woke…
Rea'gul rolled onto his side, writhing, then suddenly arching backwards again. He tore at his chest with his remaining arm, great claws gouging deep rents in his own flesh. The tunnel seemed to glow as more of his blood fountained from his mouth, a strange cracking noise sounding on top of his howls.
The humans could only stare as his chest heaved and pulsed, ribs snapping with ear splitting cracks as the worm rammed itself against Rea'guls sternum, its thrusts getting more and more urgent until…

'CRACK!'

The chestbuster's screams of triumph as it gulped in fresh air joined the human's screams of terror that echoed throughout the tunnel.