Disclaimer: Yeah right. Like I'd be writing a fanfic right now if I owned Alien vs. Predators. Haha, that's funny. In case it isn't clear by now: No, no I do not own any of AvP's original cast, plot, or just the whole movie altogether.

A/N: -grins uncontrollably- Wicked kool. Now an Irish person. A Russian, an Austrian, and now an Irish person. Such a small world we live in! -smirks- I just want to take the time to thank my reviewers for... well, for reviewing. Thanx all.

-------------------

Before: Scar took on another Alien. Lex, surprisingly, used the gun to kill two more. The fourth was killed by Scar with the gun, although Lex could've sworn the Hunter was about to let her die. They had a good laugh at the end.

-------------------

By the time their laughter had died down, Lex found herself leaning against the wall for support, nervousness bubbling up inside her. Still standing, the Yautja rolled his shoulders and tossed his dreadlocks to one side.

Rubbing her now sore sides, Lex found her attention drawn to the Hunter before her as he gave a short trill. Wondering what in the world he had just said, the black woman brought her brown gaze to meet his amber one.

They just stood there for a while, just... studying one another. 'I hope he doesn't have second thoughts about not killing me,' Lex found herself saying dryly in her mind.

What the Yautja was actually thinking ran along the lines of: 'Why does this Ooman fight, when she is obviously a non-warrior female?'

Her eyes traveled with apprehension along his well-muscled physique, taking in his strange armor and numerous tools and blades with a nervous crease of her brow. He had weapons she had never seen before. And though his armor resembled those of knights of the old days, she had the strange sensation that the metallic alloy used to create the protective casing, as well as his weapons, were not of this Earth. Though the netting, reminiscent to the style of gothic teens, made Lex pause questioningly.

"You're... a Hunter from another world. A Predator. Aren't you?" Lex commented aloud, raising her eyes up to his. She wasn't sure why, but classifying him with that word seemed... right. She wasn't expecting an answer.

And Lex was somewhat surprised to find that she was under the same scrutinizing gaze she had just been giving the Predator.

Scar clicked his mandibles absently in thought. Her hair, though thick and full, was not twisted and braided as was ritual with his species. Her brown face remained smooth and was downright unnatural without mandibles. She was adorned in layers of Ooman clothing. It may be adequate for warmth, but it did nothing to protect the body from physical harm. Unless she was hoping to get out of the pyramid without another encounter with the hard meats. At that thought, Scar couldn't help but snort in disbelief.

While her observation had been made under a thinly veiled air of fear, the human survivor felt the undercurrents of strong distaste emanating from the silent figure before her. Despite her situation, the brown-skinned woman bristled in response to her ego being stepped and spit on. Feeling that she didn't live up to his expectations, Lex narrowed her eyes, asking in a challenging tone, "What?"

Taking in the tone and stance of her body, Scar raised his brow ridge in surprise. Was she challenging him? Did she wish to prove herself here? Now? At the thought, Scar frowned. How would one accept the challenge from a female?

Lex didn't catch the frown, though, as she spotted the glint of something metallic on the ground. Stooping forward to retrieve it, she stood back up as she said, "Hey, you dropped your mask."

But at the last word, her eyes widened immensely, a single word escaping her suddenly frozen lips, "SHIT."

Now, Lex wasn't your typical horror movie-goer. Watch something scary. Scream your head off. That wasn't her style. She was more the type to freeze in numb horror with a ridged curse on her lips. This was one of those moments because right now, right over the Predator's shoulder, one of the Aliens slithered down the side of the wall. It was about to strike. And Scar was just STANDING there, facing her.

Before her lips could even form in warning, the hard meat struck. It was fast. But Scar was faster.

It had seemed like the Yautja had just been standing there, gazing at her shocked expression. But he had heard the thing coming before she had even bent down to pick up the mask. Scar may have been new to the Hunt, but he knew that sometimes the element of surprise and patience could ensure victory the same way bravery and brute strength could.

His hand delved into his pouch and whipped out at the Alien before Lex could even blink. It was only afterwards, when his arm wasn't a blur of motion, that she saw the wickedly curved blade in his palm. In no time at all, the humanoid was facing her again as though nothing had happened. The Alien was still poised directly behind the Predator, its fangs and talons raised and ready to strike. Unfortunately for the hard meat, today just wasn't its day. With ironically delayed timing after Scar's super fast movements, the top half of its head literally slid off before its body toppled to the ground.

Lex could only stare at it and think, 'Gross.' No thoughts concerning their health or safety or the Predator's near death experience. Just that one word. Gross. After all, the thing's gooey piss-colored brains were strewn out for the world to see. No one needs to see that. No one. And yet, there she was, staring away.

Scar shoved at the carcass with his armor-clad foot, clicking in a short burst as he wondered if it truly was dead. He remembered the old ones retelling their tales of the Hunt where a particularly large hard meat had killed a dozen Yautja. It had killed them AFTER its head had been torn off. Still… Scar grunted as he berated himself for thinking such thoughts. What? Was he still a youngling pup? Such thoughts were laughable. He was a warrior now. A fully blooded one if he got out of this alive. He had killed what his kind considered an admirable prey. A hard meat.

Several hard meats, to be exact.

And without any trophies to show for it.

Scar growled at the thought, kneeling next to the carcass without hesitation. How could he have forgotten to collect his trophies? Now he REALLY felt like an unblooded youngling. With a swift glance about the corridor, he counted three of his kills. He might as well make the best of the situation and gather trophies from his kills here.

"Um... hello?" Lex asked timidly, a few steps behind him.

Not sparing her a glance, the Yautja stood, inspecting his kills. He had no time for what he considered an unthreatening soft meat. Sure she had managed to decapitate a few hard meats on her own, but that was with HIS Plasmacaster. Could it be that the newly blooded Predator was... jealous? Scar dismissed that thought with a snort of disbelief. What was there to be jealous of? She was a soft meat. She was female. She was small.

And she was standing right in front of him, blocking his view of his kills.

The low clicking noise that bubbled from his throat rang with a suspended threat. If she valued her life, she would step aside.

"Look, uh, Predator... Hunter... uh, thing-" She started to say.

But the Yautja's mandibles twitched in a sudden surge of annoyance. It was true that their languages were two wholly different vocal patterns, but unlike Lex, the young warrior had undergone many sessions of studying her soft meat culture. He had an upper hand on her. Well, besides being an obviously better hunter, he also understood everything she said. And right now, he was not in the state of mind to be messed with.

Straining with muscles normally dormant and unused in his throat, the Predator snarled out one word, "Sshhkkaaarrrr."

He almost laughed at the sight reminiscent of eyeballs popping out of one's skull. Almost. But he remembered his sudden sour mood and quelled any thoughts of mirth. Scar had work to do. If he expected to get his trophies before any more attacks, he had to move fast.

Lex, on the other hand, was busy staring at him, wide-eyed in surprise. She hadn't known they could TALK. Not with mouths like those. She frowned as she recalled the exact sounds he had formed. It sounded like... Scar. Was that his name?

"Scar?" Lex repeated, brown eyes searching his amber ones, shying away from his pastey yellow skin mottled with brown spots. She also attempted not to blatantly stare outright at his mandibles. The four, crab-like appendages were each tipped with a hooked fang, encircling a mouth lined with sharp teeth. The prominent ridge and forehead almost reminded her of the early hominids. Cavemen. Except this caveman was in reptilian-like skin with wiry hair twisted into long dreadlocks. Overall, it was a face only a mother could love.

Nodding once, mandibles clenched, Scar made a point of stepping around her to look at his kills.

Crossing her arms at his abrupt rudeness, the soft meat female in sarcastic monotone, "Yeah, the name's Lex. Nice to meet you too."

Scar grunted absentmindedly in response, crouching near the closest Alien exoskeleton. Of all the trophies one could acquire, the skull was the most favored. But it was only worth taking if the size was one to proudly display. With grunt of disgust, Scar realized none of the hard meats he had killed were overly large. Mostly medium sized. Not something worth the time it took to wrench the skull free, drag it back to the ship while staying alive, and cleaning it afterwards.

Lex scuffed her boot as she stood watching the Predator warily. He was currently crouching, expecting his kills with a meticulous eye.

'He's like a kid at a toy store.' Lex realized, though a grin tugged at her lip as she noticed that he didn't look too pleased. Now that she was a little surer that he wasn't out to kill her for the time being, she allowed herself small luxuries like that.

As the Predator reached out for the dead Alien's tail, Lex found herself watching curiously. The wicked curve of the blade glinted in his hands as he worked the tip of the tail. The curved point of the dead Alien's anatomy reminded the black woman of an oversized scorpion's stinger. With a sickening 'scrunch', at which Lex made a face at, Scar managed to pry the stinger free in a matter of seconds. The Yautja held it away from him for a few moments as he let the acid blood of the hard meat drain from it. Though it was true Scar's species held certain properties that protected their own skin to an extent, the same could not be said of his armor and equipment.

Watching him inspect the large stinger in his calloused palm, Lex couldn't help looking at him incredulously, "You're… gonna keep that thing, aren't you?"

Brow-ridge raised, Scar turned his head slowly to look up at her. Did she EVER stop pointing out the obvious? Clicking wearily, he slipped the small trophy into a large pouch before turning to his other kills.

Lex sighed, clenching her jaw unconsciously. Sure, this was better than Scar being an enraged Hunter trying to kill her, but right now she wasn't even sure of what ground she stood on with him. Would he kill her after he was done chopping up the corpses? Wait, no, she's already thought through that one. The real question was... what was she going to do now?

She had SEEN Scar's companions kill her own. Was it right... was if fair and respectful towards their dead souls that she was with the Predator? His friends had killed her team. Despite their continued awareness of each other, and despite the fact he had not yet followed through with snapping her neck, he was still a threat. He was as dangerous as one of those sleek killers stalking them in the darkness. Watching him strip his kills, his movements precise and silent, she realized she was wrong.

Scar was deadlier.

'What am I doing hanging around with him?' Lex blinked, her thoughts rampaging inside her head. She could feel an immense headache welling up. But she had to stay true to her conscience. It wasn't right. Staying with him... it just wasn't...

Her face twisted into one of sorrow, 'Weyland... and Sebastian... they...'

Shaking his head at the remaining smaller-sized kills, Scar proceeded to half-heartedly pry a tooth here and rip out a well-shaped vertebrae there. Stuffing both pieces into his pouch, the Yautja stood and glanced over at the two hard meats the Ooman had incapacitated. He clicked in annoyance when he noticed that hers were slightly larger.

Jealous? He was not jealous. He was Fully Blooded warrior. He had the mark to prove it, too. So what if his kills were outwitted and outsized by a soft meat's? An Ooman who had none of the grueling training he had. Who had never prepared for the Hunt. One who had never dreamed of the day she would kill a hard meat since she had been a young pup. So what? He didn't care.

Of course his ego wasn't hurt the slightest…

Mandibles twitching slightly, Scar whipped his head around to give the female soft meat a scrutinizing gaze. She had been silent for some time now. Why would she-

Scar paused in mid-thought, his body tensing. How could he not have heard, or sensed anything?

The female was gone.

-o-o-o-

Was that the smartest move? Lex had no clue. But if, in fact, Scar HAD been planning on killing her it WOULD have been wise to leave while he was distracted. Which he was. And she had left. She just... wasn't sure if it was a smart move.

Here she was, in a pyramid that just might have been one of the first built in the entire world, and she was running for her life. She kept seeing the obsidian glint of the Aliens in every shadow, imagining just how ruthlessly they'd rip her apart. Here she was, all alone, when she just might have passed up the chance to survive alongside the Predator who had called himself Scar.

Gritting her teeth, Lex paused to run her hand roughly through her long black locks. She couldn't think straight. Ever since they had accidentally activated the Pyramid, the black woman found it hard to concentrate calmly on a single thought.

'Breathe.' She told herself, recalling many moments of panic during the times she would be scaling mountains hundreds of thousands of feet high. For fun. Fear was always an enemy she faced, where a rushed step or mistakenly moved hand could spell her death. Now was one of those times she needed to collect herself and attempt to think clearly.

"Breathe. Just breathe." She whispered to herself, one palm pressed flat against the stone walls. Walls that should be cold but weren't. Even now she could feel the stones beneath her hand thrumming. Thrumming with warmth and energy.

That's when everything started to shake.

Rumble-rumble. Rumble.

The walls were shifting again.

"Gah." She cried out as she wavered on unsteady feet. The floor was moving! But she was in a corridor! Where else was there to go but forwards and back!

Lurching ahead on her feet, Lex narrowly missed the sudden hole in the floor that was widening behind her. The walls were shifting. The floor was sliding, rising and falling in one motion. Lex couldn't get her bearings. Eyebrows scrunching in concentration, the black woman pelted ahead with determination.

The floor to her right shot upwards, making her wave her arms awkwardly in an attempt to stay on her feet. It was a lost cause, anyway, as a rectangular block from the wall suddenly jutted out. In order to avoid being smashed, she had to drop ungracefully to her hands and knees, face twisted in pain as the solid rock clipped her shoulder.

A raptor-like cry erupted behind her. Foreboding stabbed her spine as she whipped her head around, dreading what would meet her eyes. As she had feared, the obsidian figure was crouched not too far away. The whole structure shaking impaired the creature's ability to track by vibrations through the air. It was precariously perched, tail whipping in anticipation. But not all of its senses were subdued. It could still smell.

Her eyes traced the Alien's deadly, lithe form, its hard shell the color of a colder darkness than the shadows around it. The picture of Sebastian being dragged away from her very fingertips burned in her memory. Lex had heard the cries of Maxwell and the others echoing through the pyramid. It painted a gruesome image of their deaths.

She was deathly afraid. And it KNEW she was.

Hand clutching her throbbing shoulder, Lex stumbled to her feet, her boots echoing fast and hard through the shifting hallway as she ran with a renewed vigor. Her breathing came fast. Almost as if she was trying to breathe at the same pace as her wildly hammering heartbeat. Yeah, good luck with that.

'Run. Don't stop. RUN.' Her thoughts kept repeating over and over, getting louder each time and drowning out whatever other thoughts she might have had.

The very ground beneath her feet opened up. Crying out in shock, she poured every ounce of power she could to push off with the balls of her feet, barely managing to execute a proper jump. Was it enough to catch the other ledge?

-o-o-o-

Scar grumbled as he wrapped his fist around the Combistick, successfully retrieving it as it retracted itself into a smaller version of the spear. He stared down at the first hard meat he had killed, disappointed that it was so small and wondering if he should bother getting any trophies from it. Moments later, the pyramid began its shifting and Scar had to dispel the thought immediately.

The shifting of the pyramid kept the terrain from getting too familiar, catching the unaware by surprise. If you didn't pay attention, the ever shifting maze could even mutilate or decapitate you. The way Scar saw it, it just made the Hunt more challenging.

'Where had that soft meat gone off to?' the Yautja wondered as he raced down the corridor.

He might not have cared.

If only she didn't still have his mask.

Scar almost stopped dead in his tracks as the realization dawned on him. She. Had. His. MASK.

No one... NO ONE would get away with something that belonged to him.

-o-o-o-

Her fingers caught the edge, followed by the rest of her body slamming into the wall.

"Oof!" The breath was forced from her body. But one of her hands gripped something metallic and cold.

She blinked. She STILL had the Predator's mask?

Great. Like she needed more to be worried about.

Screeching aloud, the Alien bounded easily over the newly formed chasm, skidding onto the ledge Lex was clinging to. Its growl vibrating within its throat, the Alien prowled forward, placing itself just above her strained fingers.

Lex's eyes widened as the elongated head inched closer and closer, the Alien's slimy lips drawing back to reveal row after row of needle-like teeth. A breath away from her face, it bared its teeth and hissed at her.

The world continued to rumble around them.

Along with the hiss, spittle seemed to fly at her from nowhere, mixing a little disgust with her fear. Turning her head to one side, she grimaced, "Gross. Keep your spit to yourself."

Abruptly, the Alien drew his head back. The look on its face could only be described as startled confusion. Wondering if it had understood her, Lex eyed the Alien warily. Then suddenly, it was back invading her personal space, the hiss even louder.

Maybe it wasn't such a smart idea to make it mad.

But Lex's eyes could focus on nothing else but the fangs millimeters from her face.