Disclaimer: I don't pretend I own AvP. I just pretend the plot headed in a different direction...
A/N: Haha, kool. I'm glad people are enjoying the story.
-grins widely- And yes, Russian reviewer, I do envy those who can understand more languages than just their native tongue. -turns gaze to include Michael- Especially if they still make a good effort to understand. I only have English and what little Spanish that I learned in highschool. -looks thoughtful and points out with an appreciative smile- Knowing more than one language is useful, makes things interesting, AND is a nice ability to have.
I especially wished I understood Russian when I stumbled onto this wicked kool Predator site. Unfortunately for me, it was all in Russian so I didn't understand a word. The pics were still awesome, though.
Thanx all for reviewing. -grins- Oh yeah, and yes, Rave is that big Yautja also known as Celtic.
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Before: Rave half-believes Lex killed Scar, since she was wearing his mask. He's pinned, though, so he doesn't immediately kill her. An Alien interrupts their meeting, mercilessly striking Lex out of the corridor. Rave is eventually rendered helpless, and he roars out defiantly. Much to his surprise, Lex saves him, unconsciously adding a lift debt as well as doubts to kill her in Rave's mind. Lex scrambles for even ground on a massive rock wall. In the meantime, Scar still tracks Grid. He hears Rave's roar and begins sprinting towards his location.
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Scar's eyes narrowed as he realized the tracks of the hard meat he was trailing actually headed in the same direction he was sprinting. Towards the direction Rave had given a roar of such finality.
He knew he should be thinking of his own safety. Of his own trophies. Of his own fully blooded status and getting out of there alive.
But what he found himself thinking was of Rave and of the big brute's safety.
(Damn hot-head. He probably got HIMSELF cornered.) Scar found himself shaking his head, an ironic twist to his mandibles even as he feared for the big idiot's life.
Strength was a field Rave excelled in. Now if only the same could be said for intelligence and patience...
Growling, Scar skidded to a halt as the trail led him to a doorway. His dark braids swung forward, even as his body's momentum came to a standstill. Then as if second-guessing, the metal-banded strands swung back to hang low around the Predator's stoic features. He would have kept running. But there was a slight problem. The entrance led directly into open space with a drop that promised many broken bones. If it didn't take your life first, that is.
But it wasn't the drop that bothered him as much as it was the occupants of the vast room before him. A young hard meat Drone was scrambling up the rock face, seemingly trying to catch its prey. The silver glint of a face mask at first led Scar to believe it was Rave leading the young Alien tauntingly in a chase, as it was Rave's way to play with his prey before killing. That was before Scar factored in a few things.
First of all, the person scrambling up before the Alien was too small and too frenzied in motion to be Rave.
Secondly, the person was NOT a Yautja. It was, in fact, that very same Ooman he had encountered earlier.
And last of all, with an outraged trill, Scar realized that was HIS MASK on her face.
His previous quarry was utterly forgotten.
-o-o-o-
A pained cry was wrenched from her throat as she felt unrelenting claws dig into and around her padded leather boot. The grip had been strong enough to pierce through hide and some centimeters of skin. Clutching a stronger hold on the rock wall with her hands, she drew up her free leg and drove it downward with as much force as possible.
With a 'snap', the hard meat's head jerked to one side, its hold on her leg lost. Grimacing, Lex forced her wounded leg to take her weight as she scaled the wall even higher, putting more distance between her and the blood-crazed Alien below her. As her hand was reaching higher up for another hold, she immediately jerked it back. Her next breath was sharp, tinged with pain as she drew her hand before her, eyes tracing the slightly defined red streak along the appendage. She jerked her gaze upwards, catching the glint of a weapon above her.
It was one of those Predator's shuriken things. One of those thin, sharp star-edged disks that they threw was currently embedded in the rock face an arm length from her face.
Lex gasped as she felt the Alien's whip-like tail wrap tightly around her midsection. It was trying to pull her off! One tug had her scrambling for a stronger hold. But this type of surface didn't lend anything more stable for her to cling to. As a last ditch effort, she grabbed the Disc, ignoring the spiking pain of the curved edge slicing into her palm.
With a final tug, the Alien had her off the wall, its tail bringing her helpless form closer to its jaws and her inevitable death.
Lex couldn't think. Didn't have time to think.
She could only act.
-o-o-o-
Rave gaped at the scene before him. The Ooman stood no chance now as she was tugged away from the wall, held suspended in the air only by the hard meat's tail.
The big Yautja could only watch, unable to get anywhere with his arm pinned as it was. If it wasn't… what would he do? Help? Or simply kill her? The greenish-brown skinned Yautja shook his head with a low growl, his hair whipping around in a mirror imitation of his thoughts. He was not used to spending so much time thinking on soft meat prey.
(Looks like there may not be a life debt... to BE paid...) He said slowly, unsure of his feelings on the matter. Never before had someone intervened in a battle that was so out of his favor. Never before had he BEEN in a battle that had been so out of his favor. Not since... not since his childhood when he had met Scar.
And now, the only other person to have assisted him in any way was a soft meat. A soon to be dead one, at that.
(Maybe... maybe it is for the best...) Rave, though his confused and irritated clicks sounded hollow in his own ears.
-o-o-o-
Scar was transfixed by the sight before him. Never had he seen a soft meat retaliate with such vigor.
Though she had lost her hold on the wall, he could still see her struggling against her captor's vise-like grip. Even though for it to let go would spell her death on the floor so far below, she still fought.
Why didn't she just give up? In his mind, it seemed like a losing battle. A soft meat against a Drone? If it didn't accidentally kill her, it would drag her unconscious body back to the center of the temple, where Scar was sure the egg chamber was located. She was just lucky time had not passed enough for the Drones to mature into Warriors. Then she would have been dead hours ago.
Scar's fist clenched as he crouched down, one hand resting against the door frame. Maybe her fate was sealed, but what was HE to do? Would Scar wait 'till the Drone killed her? Would he just stand there, watching? All simply for a grudge? All because of the impossible matter of her even WEARING his mask, much less having it in her possession in the first place. Someone else wearing another's mask was unheard of. Impossible.
So why was it this Ooman was wearing his? She wasn't even the SAME race.
His clawed hand dug into the ground he crouched on, his thoughts a whirlwind with the Ooman at its center.
-o-o-o-
Lex blinked blearily as her vision grew out of focus. For some unknown reason, she could feel facts pouring into her head, though it was hard to sift through them as the Alien whipped her around. The obsidian skinned creature was climbing higher, her in tow.
Then suddenly, she knew exactly how to hold the Disc in her hands. She knew what it was called. She knew its qualities. But most of all...
Lex knew how she could kill the Alien with one swipe.
As the Alien whipped her around, Lex patiently waited for her chance.
'Closer...' She thought with gritted teeth, 'I need to be closer to its head.'
Suddenly her wish was granted. One swing of its tail brought the bound captive closer to the sneering guise of the Alien. Lex would not waste such a chance. With a thrust of her arm and a swift flick of her wrist, the Disc sliced cleanly through the Alien's head. Just as she had seen Scar do it. Just as... she had somehow seen it in her head.
Despite her victory, Lex frowned. How had she gotten all of this alien information all of a sudden?
Before she could contemplate further on the matter, Lex's body tensed as the dead Alien's grip on her didn't loosen. With rising panic, Lex understood her situation. Here she was, perched hundreds of feet from the ground, and she was stuck wrapped in the only thing keeping her aloft. Not only that, but the Alien's body was slowly slipping from the rock face. It would plummet back to the ground.
And Lex would fall right down with it.
-o-o-o-
Rave stared. She had... defeated it?
But what might have been hope stirring within him was instantly quelled as he took in the situation. The Drone was quickly stiffening in its death. Its grip on her did not waiver. AND it was falling.
The Predator tugged on his pinned arm. But it remained stuck, as it had the other hundred times he had tried.
His mandibles clenched in frustration. Why did he care about saving her so much? Was it just to repay the life debt he owed?
But there was another question that pounded in his mind, relentless in having itself heard.
WHY had she saved his life to begin with?
-o-o-o-
Scar blanched. She was falling!
Reacting instinctively, Scar threw himself from the doorway, one arm hooking and catching the edge. Clawed feet and hand gouged into the rock, the young Yautja warrior slid down the wall at an almost uncontrollable pace. His mandibles clenched as bits and pieces of stone flung back up at him and everywhere else as he continued his drop, his clawed grip on the wall the only thing slightly slowing and controlling his descent.
Somehow he managed to streak down past the Ooman and the deadweight hard meat still clinging to her. Deciding he had gone far enough, Scar slammed his other clawed hand into the wall before he bunched his muscles and sprang away from the wall entirely, launching himself in a trajectory that would intercept the soft meat's.
Lex's eyes focused only on the tail wrapped around her. Hand still clutching the Disc, she adamantly hacked at the hardened black coil, hoping to free herself before the unplanned landing. Maybe she could maneuver herself to land in a way that would... NOT kill her. If that was possible from this height.
But she didn't let herself focus on that thought. What she had to do right now was free herself. Would it help? Would it work at all? Lex didn't know. But she had to try something.
Lex had just severed through the bone, her hand jerking away as its yellow acidic blood spewed out, when something slammed hard into her side. All at once, the breath was knocked out of her, but at the same time she gasped with surprise. Her descent was slowed as she suddenly found herself going in a slightly different direction. Instead of falling straight down, she was descending at a less steep angle. But that was not the only thing to baffle her.
She was startled to find herself in the muscle-bound arms of a Predator. As her eyes traveled up to meet Amber ones, she realized this was not just ANY Hunter. It was Scar. A slightly queasy feeling hit her stomach. Lex wasn't sure what she should feel. Grateful for him saving her, or terrified of what he would do now that he had found her.
The moment Scar's armored feet had reached the ground, his muscled legs absorbing the shock of the fall, Lex pushed herself out of his arms. This made the Yautja jerk his head to immediately observe her. Would she attempt to run off with his mask again? Or anything else of his?
But that, in fact, was not the reason.
Apprehensive, Lex stared at the armored Predator before her with worried eyes. The mask muffled the sound of her quick breaths, her heart still attempting to slow down from the past adrenaline-filled moments.
The moment Scar's eyes laid upon his reflection in the mask's visor, his anger returned, full force. The painstaking toil of creating it flashed briefly in his mind. The relentless taunting he had received from fellow peers at the "plainness" of his smooth design. The way others had bullied him when he was a pup, beating him, taking and destroying his possessions. It all shot through his head at once, and in an instant he felt his blood boil and his vision cloud over with red. All through out his childhood he had to fight for what was his. He had to fight to keep what was his. To have his precious mask to be taken by a pitiful soft meat…
Unacceptable.
(WHY…) Scar snarled, taking a step forward menacingly, (did you TAKE my mask!)
Lex stumbled back two steps. To say his large form was slightly intimidating would be an understatement. But with the anger rolling off him in waves, Lex began to remember why the Aliens weren't the only things she should watch out for. But she had seen this Hunter mad before, and this new level he had taken it to was an extreme she had never thought possible. He was trembling with so much fury even the metal bands on his dreadlocks clanked together as they shook.
Terror stilled her voice and widened her eyes as Scar swiped at her with his claws. Ducking, Lex backed away another step. Within the mask, her jaw was slackened in bafflement. If she hadn't moved, that swing would have taken her head off. She couldn't believe it. Was this Predator really trying to kill her? Yeah, sure, he and his buddies had made mincemeat of Weyland's men earlier, but her recent encounter with this particular Predator hadn't been that bad.
Except that she had mistakenly taken his mask with her. Something he seemed to still be very sore about.
Deciding maybe it would be best to leave, the black woman started to turn around, preparing to run flat out. But Scar's eyes narrowed as he realized she planned to escape with his mask STILL on. Growling, his muscled arm snatched the front of her parka before yanking her off her feet once again. Lex's mind whirled at a blinding pace, her thoughts furiously trying to sort themselves out. The situation was agonizingly familiar. Lex dangling in the Predator's grasp, fear filling her as she realized he just may have decided to kill her after all.
Did he save her just to kill her? Would anything she say stop him!?
Scar snarled as he pulled her closer to his face, his mandibles twitching in agitation. Would she remain insolently silent after stealing from him not once, but TWICE now? Soft meat were hunters, as were his species. And with the exceptions of their obvious limits in strength and size, Oomans still remained one of the top hunter-type species in the Yautja's favored lists. Scar had believed it was their intelligence that had ensured their place as one of the prized trophies. So then why would one be foolish enough to take the possessions of a Yautja? Why would she take HIS possessions during one of the most IMPORTANT trials in a young Yautja's life!? At the thought of how terribly his Hunt could have gone, Scar's choking grip tightened around her neck. What was to stop him from killing her right now, in revenge?
That's when a familiar voice gave a loud and short bark, its tone commanding.
Blinking, his mind pulling itself from the infuriating haze of red he rarely fell into, Scar loosened his grip and jerked his head to look at a passage leading into the room. And sure enough there, sitting bloodied by the corridor's wall, was Rave.
-o-o-o-
Rave's throat had constricted painfully as he saw Scar save the Ooman only to crush her in his death-like grip. The soft meat must've angered the Yautja greatly to have provoked such an anger within Scar. But the big Yautja could not stand idly by as the one to whom he owed a life debt was to be choked carelessly by a fellow warrior. This would not be fulfilling the life debt.
It would be saving the soft meat's life from an end instilled by foolishness and stupidity.
(NO!) Rave repeated, his bark louder this time.
The big Yautja was not sure how to feel as Scar dropped Lex absentmindedly on the floor, his surprised gaze fixed on Rave himself. All he knew was that relief was mixed in there somewhere. The only thing that would make him happier was if his arm was free.
-o-o-o-
Scar found himself dumbfounded, the soft meat at his feet utterly forgotten.
(Rave...?) He said aloud, his tone half-hopeful.
Lex heard the name, her mind subconsciously filing the name away as something else to remember. But the woman knew a distraction when she saw one, and this was definitely one of the best ones she could have hoped for at the moment. Knowing the Predator would only be made angrier if she left with something of his once more, Lex grabbed at the sides of the mask, tugging it fervently.
Much to her surprise, it popped free, making her stare at it a few breaths from mere amazement alone. 'Well NOW it works' Her mind scoffed incredulously. Why had it been so hard to take off earlier? But she shook off her curiosity with ease, not sticking around to ask herself what the mask had done to her. For there was no doubt in that simple fact.
Somehow... somehow, the mask had CHANGED her.
She didn't know how. Or why. Lex only knew that staying with the Predator right now might not be such a good idea given his... temperament.
Noticing movement, Scar turned his attention downwards, only to receive a tremendous surprise as the soft meat delivered a swift kick to his temple. The Yautja staggered down to one knee, his gaze darkened a bit before he shook off the effects of the blow. The hit had been aimed with much accuracy towards one of the Yautja's few weaknesses. Had it been a lucky, glancing blow? Or a deliberately planned one?
He didn't have a chance to ponder as she darted off to a side passage. Scar clicked his mandibles in a curse. The old ones had been diligent in riddling the pyramid with many trails and passages. For once, he began to wish they hadn't been AS thorough.
Before he could attempt to chase after her, the structure rumbled its ominous warning before it began to shift once more. Scar switched his attention to his trapped comrade, acknowledging the fact that the life of a clansman was always priority. His boot connected with something metallic as he made his way over, and Scar's heart skipped a beat as his amber gaze locked with his hollow mask beneath him.
Scar's eyes flickered over to the corridor the Ooman's feet had led her. 'She had... LEFT his mask? Actually left it for him?' For some odd reason, the thought was enough to take Scar aback, pausing his movements before the shouts of his comrade brought him back to the situation before them.
(The CURSED wall refuses to move!) Rave growled aloud, his eyes taking in the moving environment around him.
Scooping the mask and putting it on without another thought, Scar jogged over to the bigger warrior, brow ridge crinkled in concern. If Rave wasn't free soon, the ceiling near the entrance to the passage would shut, crushing the pinned Yautja beneath it.
Rave, unfortunately, noticed this little fact as well as he snapped, (If you stand there gawking all day, Scar, I just may have to return from the Grave of Warriors and impale you with a Combistick myself!)
Grunting with slight amusement, Scar crouched beside the trapped Yautja, his hands slipping underneath the wall that pinned Rave's arm. 'This shouldn't be too hard,' Scar commented to himself. He was a young Yautja warrior, after all, and they weren't bred as Hunters all their lives to be mistaken as weak. Breathing in deeply, Scar pulled with all his strength, his arms straining to lift the two ton weight of the solid stone wall. He felt his leg muscles bunch as they took the brunt of the enormous strain, his clawed feet digging into the hardened stone beneath them. His start had been slow, but it became apparent that the wall WAS in fact lifting from the bigger Yautja's pinned arm.
The corridor's ceiling was closing in on them now, and Rave was all too glad to yank his arm out, barreling into Scar as he proceeded to get both of them away from its crushing grip. As the ceiling shut with a thick finality, the rumbling of the pyramid stopped, allowing both Yautja's to catch their breath.
(You're welcome) Scar said stiffly, shaking dust loosely from his dreadlocks as he stood.
He was too busy stretching his muscles to notice Rave rising tensely beside him. It wasn't until Scar noticed Rave's raised arm that he realized a blow was coming. Deflecting the big Yautja's fist with a swipe of his forearm, Scar stepped back and demanded, (What was THAT for?)
(THAT was for nearly finishing the Ooman in a fit of rage, which is something I never thought would overcome you. Rage does not fit you well, blood brother.) Rave commented bemusedly, lowering his clenched fist.
(What would it have mattered?) Scar replied, his gaze downcast as he felt a surge of guilt from what he had almost done, though he dared not show it. He continued, (She was merely a soft meat.)
Rave sighed loudly, turning his own gaze away. It was with some difficulty that he finally said, (Yes... but a soft meat I owe a life debt to.)
