Disclaimer: Though I share the same plot in which you see Scar dead... This does NOT mean I'm trying to say I own AvP. Because I don't.
A/N: -sighs- I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks Scar is awesome. Too bad he wasn't paying attention and got stabbed. -shakes head sadly- He should have been paying more attention...
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Before: Lex doesn't take her entrance into their Clan very well. Her behavior starts to irritate Rave, who half-believes she can't be the same person he owed a life debt to. Scar laughs his head off before Lex accidentally offended him with her continued refusals to accept she was now part of the Clan. Pissed and not paying attention, Scar gets viciously impaled by a Warrior hard meat. Erupting in rage, Rave bellows and charges head on to kill the Alien. Lex, though she could have escaped, chose to stay be Scar's side. Her tears and apologies struck Scar deep, her embrace chiseling away the last chink of armor holding his anger against her. Before the darkness takes him, Lex hears him pardon her of her wrongs and insists his death isn't her fault. Grid appears and takes her away. Shortly after killing the Warrior, Rave follows.
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"Let GO you SLIMY BASTARD!" Lex demanded, attempting to break free of Grid's hold.
But her arms were pinned, unmoving at her sides, while whatever part she managed to kick had no visible affect on her kidnapper.
The tears on her cheeks had long dried away and she felt her strength returning. Unfortunately, Grid had foreseen this sort of thing and had prepared for it by trussing her up to be as harmless as possible. Much to Lex's distress, it had succeeded.
As she continued thrashing within its bony arms, Grid began to hiss its annoyance.
"Good. BE mad, you little piece of SHI-" Lex started to snarl.
But Grid had had enough of her being difficult. Whipping its head near her face, it gnashed his teeth dangerously closer to her face, its lip twitching as it hissed venomously. She stared at it with just as fierce an expression on her face. No more than half an hour ago, she had seen the Yautja die right before her eyes. He had been slain by a Warrior hard meat. But he hadn't died full of rage. Before he had lain still, he had forgiven her. He had forgiven her for her faults.
His lasts words were that his death was not her fault.
Lex felt a deep loss. Somehow, she felt that things between her and Scar could have taken a very different path if they had just resolved their differences sooner. If she had just accepted her place in the Clan...
She had been filled to the brim with sorrow. But now... NOW there was no more room for sadness. Or fear. She could only feel a burning rage flaming inside.
"I'm not afraid of you." Lex stated with great conviction. Her eyes were narrowed, her jaw clenched.
Grid actually paused in its tracks, its full attention drawn to the fragile soft meat now in its arms. How could such a puny thing make such declarations? Grid wanted nothing more than to snap that irritating skull off her little neck. But despite its own wants, Grid knew its place. The Queen wanted her alive, so alive it shall deliver her. Its bony spikes rattling in displeasure, Grid hissed angrily before continuing on its path. The sooner it rid itself of this aggravating prey, the better Grid would feel.
It was disappointed that it could not have stayed to finish off the second Yautja it had obviously failed to kill before. Grid could have sworn its inner jaw had pierced the bigger Yautja's mask days before. But Rave was obviously alive and kicking. Not to mention unstoppable with the way he was fighting Grid's Warrior brethren.
"HEY. Don't ignore me!" Lex shouted when she noticed the Alien began to pointedly look away from her.
Despite its lack of eyes, Lex sensed the Alien was definitely trying to shun her presence even as its death-like grip kept her near its angular chest.
Raptor-like cries pierced the still air and suddenly a horde of Aliens converged on their position. For the first time in a long while, Lex felt a pinprick of fear. Grid didn't stop or slow down as the tide of sleek black forms sidled next to it. Lex didn't quite know what was happening, but she knew one thing, at least.
They were heading somewhere.
-o-o-o-
Rave restrained from punching his fist raw on the stone walls he nearly flew past. He wanted to bellow his grief for all in the temple to hear.
But that wouldn't help him be sneaky, now would it?
For the second or third time during the whole Hunt, Rave was only a ripple of airspace moving at great speed. Since his cloaking was on, he knew to move fluidly or not at all in the presence of other beings. But he had to catch up soon or he might lose the Ooman.
He couldn't track as well as Scar. It was one of the skills he had been severely marked down on. Cheating off of Scar was the only way Rave had been able to fully past the training at all. If it hadn't been for his smaller friend, Rave wouldn't have been here at all.
(Scar...) Rave clicked sorrowfully, his voice wavering. Abruptly, the big Yautja shook his head fiercely. He had to focus.
Growling, Rave stepped up his pace.
Out of one of the side passages, a Drone appeared, its stance rigid. It felt the vibrations in the air, but for some reason it couldn't quite pick up just where the noise was coming from. This was, obviously, thanks to the Yautja's cloaking technology.
The huge Yautja didn't slow down one bit as the Drone paused hesitantly in the middle of the hall, its head swinging left and right in confusion.
His mandibles stretched in a silent roar, Rave snapped out his wrist blades and plunged them into the unsuspecting hard meat before him. Without even pausing, Rave continued on, wrist blades retracted even before he heard the 'thump' of the dead Alien body hitting the floor.
Rave's blood was pumping. And he wouldn't be sated until EVERY single one of the hard meats inside the structure was dead.
Forget that it would be suicide. Forget that he couldn't possibly hope to survive under the current circumstances. FORGET that he had dozens of wounds already, his arm still aching from being trapped under the stone wall.
What he couldn't forget... what Rave would NEVER forget... was Scar impaled on the Kainde Amedha's tail.
For that he would never forgive any hard meat. For that he would never forgive Scar. Or himself.
HE should have been there to ward off the Alien's blow. To, at the very least, WARN Scar about the impending danger. And now... NOW...
Now he had the responsibility of saving their newest Clan member.
He had to save Lex.
-o-o-o-
A large gush of air forced itself out of her lungs as Lex was thrown carelessly to the ground. Calloused hands gripping frigid unyielding stone, Lex pushed herself off the floor, her eyes hardened in preparation for whatever would come next.
Springing to her feet, Lex whirled around, crouching in a defensive stance. She didn't know where all the hard meats that had been traveling with them had gone, but a half dozen remained, Grid included.
When none of them made any moves, Lex snarled, "Well? What are you alien bastards waiting for! Are you gonna kill me?"
Six. There were six of them. Lex could take six hard meats on. Couldn't she?
Maybe.
That's when a thundering footstep was made behind her.
Wavering on her feet, Lex's eyes widened. She didn't even attempt to make herself believe it was the pyramid shifting.
Another step was made and slowly, Lex turned around. The Ooman female couldn't stifle a sharp gasp as she tried to take in the large form her eyes saw before her. It was a Kainde Amedha, there was no doubt about that. But it was a freakin' HUGE one.
The forehead crest itself was larger and wider than four Drones put together. Not to mention that a single Drone barely made it up to her knees.
Eyes traveling up the Queen's large form, for the name 'Queen' had surfaced suddenly in her mind, Lex took an unconscious step back.
This definitely put her at a great disadvantage.
Lex attempted to take a few more steps back, but behind her Grid snarled, butting her forward with its large forehead. Severely wishing she had some sort of Yautja blade with her, Lex spun and resorted to simply snarling back, instead, "Don't TOUCH me."
Taken aback at her sudden ferocity, Grid jerked its head. But it recovered a moment later, snapping its own jaws forward in a threatening manner.
But Lex just glared back, un-phased.
That is... she really WAS un-phased until she felt a large gush of hot air rush over her back. Rigid, Lex turned back around, her brown gaze locked onto the Queen's feral face looming inches before her. It was close. Too close.
The Queen hissed slowly as she drew her head even closer, making Lex turn her head slightly to the side. But the black woman never looked away. She couldn't look away. THIS was the hard meat that had mothered all the ones in the pyramid. SHE was the one who had the Warrior hard meat kill Scar.
Lips drawing back in a snarl, the Queen, still crouched to be face level with Lex, let out a vivid escalating shriek. The air from her tyrannical roar was stifling and hot as it streaked across Lex's face, whipping her dark brown curls behind her. Lex had to squint her eyes in order to even keep them open. Behind her, Lex knew the other hard meats were cowering. But she would not.
She would die rather than show fear to a hard meat ever again.
-o-o-o-
Blackness...
There was so much darkness around him. Beckoning him towards it...
The blackness whispered promises. No more pain. No more anger. No more fear...
Dripping like honey, the promises covered every memory he ever had, slowly clearing them from his mind. He could feel his memories slipping. Memories were what made him who he was. They were the unorganized collection that made a person the way they were.
And right now, with little registered care, he could feel them being achingly torn away in slow, unending torment. Except that it WOULD all end.
It would all end soon.
-o-o-o-
The shriek of the Queen was ear-shattering.
But Rave endured it, glad only that it had helped him locate the Ooman.
And there she was, a few yards from his position, crouching well within the shadows of the pillars lining the large cavern. The big Yautja barely registered that the chains on the Queen were broken and worn like jewelry rather than the restraints they had been designed for. He noted the large amount of hard meats, always one to eagerly assess the foes he was about to kill. And there were many of them to kill indeed.
But he found his eyes unusually drawn to the smallest figure among them. Dwarfed especially by the enormous bulk of the Queen hard meat. She stood her ground, her body facing squarely with the mother Kainde Amedha herself.
But most of all, she showed no fear.
Rave found an unbidden smirk twisting his mandibles.
There was no doubt about it now. She may be strange at times. She may be tiny. But she had a warrior's courage. He liked this Ooman.
And that was a lot to say, considering only a handful of days ago he wouldn't consider giving an Ooman a passing thought much less aid in an Ooman's survival. But this was different. She had killed hard meats. She was part of the Clan. No matter how blind Scar had been to it himself, Rave KNEW his smaller companion had started feeling for her.
Not only that, but now traits belonging to only those of the fiercest warriors were shining through. She had potential.
And Rave admired potential a lot.
-o-o-o-
Feeling half-deaf even after the Queen stopped shrieking aloud, Lex only stood and stared, awaiting what was to be her fate.
To be extremely truthful, Lex thought she was going to die on the spot. Have the Queen snap her head right off. Hell, why stop at the head? The huge hard meat would probably snap her body in half with one small bite.
But in a few moments Lex realized her fate was meant to be worse than that.
Movement to the side of the Queen caught her eye, and for some reason Lex felt an ominous urge to tear her gaze away for a moment. And true to the feeling in the pit of her stomach, what Lex saw made her guts tighten inside.
It was an egg. One of the Alien's eggs.
And the top of it was opening.
"Shit." Lex cursed, wanting to lead into a whole string of curses. She had no doubt who the egg was meant for.
But she did doubt whether or not she could come out of this one alive.
Noticing suspicious movement around her, Lex crouched low. She looked feral as she whipped her head around, careful to watch the dangerous environment that had never let up since she stepped inside.
Life or death. The thought struck her hard. It had always been life and death. But never more so than at THAT exact moment. Her humanity couldn't save her now. She couldn't depend on nonexistent compassion from the hard meats. She couldn't depend on mercy.
Lex felt herself slipping more and more into the only place she was safe. Her personality... her HUMANITY... was receding into her mind. And as it receded, something else more untamed and wild started to take over. Instinct wove itself more firmly into her limbs, swiftly disconnecting any slight hesitation.
Hesitation was death.
She... she wanted to live.
Rave could hardly believe the Ooman crouched in the middle of the room was the same person. It was as if a sudden change had come over her. She looked like a bundle of compressed muscles barely waiting for the moment to spring into savage action.
He almost didn't catch when the fight started, so surprised was he. Of course, later on if he survived he would never admit he was surprised. Rave? Surprised? Never.
Caught off guard? Possibly.
It was only when a Kainde Amedha suddenly hit the ground that Rave realized he had missed something. The Ooman was a whirl of movement, her medium length locks whipping behind her furiously fast form. The Queen shrieked her anger and slight delight, commanding her children subdue the soft meat immediately. She truly was a perfect candidate for one of her stronger breed.
Rave almost thought about surveying the battleground. He almost thought to wonder where his support would be most needed. Almost. But since Scar's death, he realized he no longer gave a fuck where the hell he was needed. This was a fight and he would do what he did best.
He would KILL all who opposed him.
Bellowing his presence in an honorary battle cry, the big Yautja was an explosion of muscles as he bounded head on into the fray.
