Chapter 9: Frenemies.
"Wait. Let me get this straight, SHE saved you!?" Reaper exclaimed pointing at Macha as if he was accusing her of something heinous, the young Xenomorph queen was now pacing around the nest area her anger obvious for everyone to see.
Missy had been explaining how the two of them met to the human who called himself Reaper, but for some reason he just didn't seem to get it, this was the third time that Missy had told him how she'd saved her back in the alleyway and he still didn't seem to believe her.
"He's really starting to test my patience now!" Macha hissed, Missy glanced at her as she paced back and forth, her tail was twitching angrily at the silent accusations that this human seemed to be levying her way. Reaper looked right at her, but she didn't see fear in those bright ice blue eyes of his, or anger either come to think of it, instead there was something very different lurking there shrouded in deep intelligence and obvious cunning and it was driving her nuts trying to figure out what it was.
She'd even tried diving into his mind to see if she could pull out any info that way, but his mental fortitude was absolutely incredible, while his aura painted one picture of someone with an open mind to the world, his actual mind was like a steel trap. It was like someone had placed his brain in a Tritanium box locked it up tight and pitched the fucker into the ocean.
But there was one emotion that had wormed it's way out of that closely guarded mind of his, curiosity and it seemed to be aimed at her, but if he was curious of her why the hell was he being so hostile towards her, was he testing her?
Then it was like someone had switched a lightbulb on above Macha's head and instantly she understood, he WAS testing her, he was searching for chinks in her armour, he was playing dumb and intentionally trying to make her mad to see what she would do and how she'd react to it.
Suddenly she understood him a little better and this realisation made her smile, this human was cunning, very cunning.
But now she had the upper hand on him here as she could now see what he was trying to do, he was sizing her up and looking for weaknesses in the hope that he could set her off and prove his point of how dangerous she was, to be fair this very point did make her blood boil a little, she'd done nothing to him, well other than slam him into a machine downstairs, but to be fair he'd deserved that for shoving Missy over like that.
She was half tempted to show him how dangerous she really could be if she wanted, but she knew that doing so would simply prove him right and she was determined that wasn't going to happen, she was going to show him that Xeno's weren't just the killing machines that he seemed to think they were, so with that in mind she repressed her temper and calmed herself. As soon as her stance and demeanour changed she became aware of the human's eyes on her again, that look was back now as was the curiosity.
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No matter what he said or what he tried Reaper just couldn't seem to convince the young girl of just how dangerous her 'friend' was. He'd figured out early on that she could understand every word he was saying and had decided rather than just explain it to her he'd demonstrate it, so when he'd became aware of the Xeno's obvious pride in the fact that she'd saved and defended the young girl from whatever the hell was out there he'd pretended not to believe her.
For a little while this had worked and the Xeno queen that Missy referred to as Macha had begun angrily pacing the landing, he had to admit there was something rather amusing about a mighty Xeno queen becoming stroppy over the fact that someone didn't believe her story, though he was also acutely aware of the danger of the game that he was playing here and without his weapons he was pretty much defenceless against her if she did decide to flip out on him.
As he studied her he had to admit that she was a rather magnificent specimen of her species, she stood about ten feet tall with massive powerful and very sleek looking legs leading down into wide and clawed feet that were keeping her upright. Her arms were shorter than those of a normal queen but they were much thicker in the muscle department, in fact Aiden noticed that she looked pretty ripped with bulging biceps when she crossed her arms over her chest as she stropped about him apparently not believing her.
The next thing he noticed was that she seemed to be missing the smaller arms on her chest that every other queen he'd ever seen had, instead she seemed to have a curved carapace that almost looked like a breast plate that was protecting swells on her chest, she also seemed to have what looked like a six pack of abdominal muscles leading down into quite wide and flared hips.
But the two main things that gave away her difference from another queen of her species were the fact that her head while it had the long wide crest that signified a queen was decorated with long dreadlock like appendages that came halfway down her back. The other was that fact that she had a full set of Yaujta mandibles on her face.
This queen that Missy called Macha had obviously been born of a Yaujta host and if had affected her biology, he had heard of this particular blend but this was the first time he'd ever seen one up close and she looked every bit as fearsome as the stories had led him to believe. But he did have to admit that as dangerous and alien as she was to his human eyes there was a definite magnificence to her, the way she stood tall and proud, the way she moved had an almost feminine grace to it, he noticed that she even almost seemed to roll her hips slightly when she walked which caused her long and fierce looking tail to sway from side to side.
But while he could admire her alien beauty and the ruthless efficiency of her body he knew first and second hand how dangerous her species was, though he had to admit this was the longest he'd ever spent in the company of one without weapons being drawn and discharged, though he really didn't have his to draw at the moment but still.
The major point that confused him was why she was acting this way, never had he either seen or ever heard of one of the Xeno's ever showing caring or compassion for another race, but it was obvious to his eyes that she was fiercely protective of the young girl, her body language simply screamed 'Fuck with her and you fuck with me' at him every time he even looked at Missy, he'd had a sneaky suspicion as to why she was protective of her but this had been proven false when he'd managed to slip his scanner out of his armour bandolier without them noticing and scan the young girl, she wasn't carrying an embryo so why was she so protective of her and why wasn't she simply attacking them? These were questions he simply had to answer.
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"It's no good Macha I don't think he believes me when I say that you saved me from the crazies" Missy said as they moved away from the human in her bed and over to the other side of the landing,
"I think he believes you but he's playing dumb" Macha replied looking at the forlorn looking little girl who now looked up at her curiously,
"Playing dumb? Why would he be playing dumb?" she asked.
"He's trying to get me angry so that I flip out and prove what he's saying when he says that I'm dangerous" she said,
"But you're obviously dangerous I mean look at you" Missy said, this response caught Macha by surprise and it hurt her,
"W-W-What do you mean?" she stammered as the little girl's comment hit her heart like a spear tipped tail,
"I didn't mean to offend you, but you look mean but in a good way" Missy said noticing her friends hurt voice,
"How does one look mean in a good way?" Mach asked curiously,
"Well look at you, you're huge and you got more muscles in places than I have places, you look like you could tear crazies in half all day long for a laugh. Then there's that awesome looking tail of yours that looks like I could make a crazy kebab without even trying and with those legs you look like you could jump a whole building, so what I mean is you look awesome enough that no-one in their right mind would want to take you on and mess with you" Missy said smiling up at her friend.
Missy's kind words made Macha smile and it made her stand tall rising up to her whole height and puffing her chest out a little as they gave her a much needed ego boost, that's when she became aware of the human watching her curiously,
"Well no-one except for him" she said jerking her head in the direction of the human,
"Well I woulda said he was just dumb but I don't think so somehow" Missy said scratching her chin, Macha shook her head in agreement,
"He's not dumb, far from it I sense a deadly and fierce intelligence emanating from him" she said.
Missy smiled up at her again, "Well I guess that means that he's as tough as I thought he was then. I mean to want to pick a fight with you, you'd have to be really dumb or really tough and if he's not dumb then I guess that makes him really tough" she said which caused Macha to smile at her.
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It was only at that point and he really kicked himself for not even noticing this sooner, that he spotted that they could communicate with each other, at first he'd just thought that the little girl was talking to Macha and Macha was just following her around looking like she was listening like a pet would with its master, but with these two it was different, he seemed to be getting half of an actual conversation that was going on between the two of them.
"Hey Missy" Aiden called out as he decided that he'd had enough of sitting on the bed and he raised himself up to his feet, he was slightly unsteady at first as a bout of dizziness from the blow to his head hit him, but it soon passed and he steadied. As he did he looked up and noticed that Macha had moved directly to his right now and was less than six feet from him, he couldn't help but be impressed by how graceful she must be to be able to move that quietly while being that big.
"Yes Mr Reaper?" the young girl asked walking over to him,
"Does Macha speak to you?" he asked bluntly, he'd thought about trying to coax the info out of her using another approach but he got the feeling that with this girl the direct approach was the best one,
"Well yes and no" Missy said smiling at him, he cocked his head curiously at her,
"She doesn't speak using her mouth like you or me do, it more like I hear what she's saying in my head" Missy continued when she saw his obvious confusion, Aiden's jaw dropped open, he'd always had a suspicion that Xeno's were telepathic as their battle strategies and movements were way to precise to be uncoordinated, but there had always been the arguments for chemical signals, but he'd never heard of another species being able to understand them.
"Wow so she can actually speak then?" he said thoughtfully looking at her, Missy nodded,
"So what does she say to you?" he asked curiously, without a hesitation she looked him right in the eye and said,
"She thinks you're playing dumb to try and get her angry when you say that you don't believe that she saved me".
Aiden's mouth dropped open in shock, he was amazed that Macha had seen through his ploy so easily, he glanced now at the Xeno queen and he could have sworn that she had a smug look plastered across her face, a look that was instantly replaced with a look which could only be described as a mixture of shock and horror at Missy's next words, "Would you like to hear her too?" she asked.
Aiden looked at the young girl with look of surprise plastered over his face, to his left he couldn't see Macha doing 'No-way' hand signals to Missy who totally ignored her, "Wait you mean there's a way for me to hear her too?" he asked curiously, Missy smiled sweetly and nodded happily,
"Oh yes but for me to tell you it's going to cost you" Missy said now glancing at a now scowling Macha who looked like she was about to full on sulk, Aiden raised an eyebrow at her,
"Cost me?" he said curiously with a hint of worry in his voice, Missy smiled sweetly again but Aiden spotted the hit of slyness in her smile,
"Yup and the price is one kiss" she said with a big smile.
Aiden smiled and wiped his brow as he breathed a soft sigh of relief, "Well that's not too bad of a price, I think I can do that" he said with a grin, Missy smiled broadly,
"Ok then close your eyes" she said, Aiden grinned guessing the youngster must be nervous, so he closed his eyes as asked and pursed his lips for the kiss,
"Ok your up Macha" Missy's voice said from right next to him, damn the kid was stealthy he hadn't even heard her move, then his brain froze as it registered what she'd just said.
Aiden's eyes snapped open, stood right in front of his face was Macha the sulking hybrid queen Xenomorph and he was getting a really good close up of her face.
He had to admit there was something rather striking and regal about her features, her hide looked soft and very smooth, he was almost tempted to reach out and touch her, but then his brain fired back into what was happening here and he opened his mouth in shock to protest.
Before he could even think to speak let alone protest Macha opened her Yaujta like mandibles and her outer jaws along with them, then with one quick fluid movement she struck.
Seizing hold of Aiden's head with both her hands she moved forwards and clamped her mandibles to the sides of his face, to his surprise her grip on him wasn't painful at all, it was almost pleasant. Due to the closeness of their faces Aiden could feel the large lips that covered her mouth pressed against his own and to his shock they were really warm and soft, for some reason he'd always imagined that their skin would be cool to the touch, but hers most definitely wasn't, as his mouth was already open due to the shock she had no problem or resistance with the next part and Aiden felt her inner jaws and what could only be described as her tongue enter his mouth.
It was at this point Aiden's brain pretty much exploded with sensations, first there was the taste, it was like nothing he'd ever imagined in his life, given that he'd been up close with Xeno's on multiple occasions he'd always imagined that their saliva would be thick and viscous, not that he'd ever really had a reason to imagine what it tasted like but what he imagined was definitely not raspberries.
Then there was the feeling, her long, smooth, soft and powerful tongue simple pushed his much smaller one to one side, but not before pausing slightly to investigate it curiously, Aiden's tongue was pressed so tightly to hers that he could feel the dense and powerful muscles inside it and the blood pumping through them.
That's when he felt the sensation of something thick and kinda sweet being pumped directly into his throat and it nearly triggered his gag reflex, but before he could properly start gagging Macha released him and withdrew her tongue from his mouth, albeit rather slowly as she dragged hers along his on the way out.
As soon as she was clear she stepped back from him and Aiden dropped to his knees coughing violently, "This next part is not so pleasant" Missy said,
"W-W-Wha…." Aiden started to say but before he could finish a wave of blackness passed through his mind and he collapsed onto the floor unconscious.
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As Macha watched the human fall unconscious she felt a sudden wave of concern flash through her mind, she bent down and scooped him up from the floor and placed him slowly back in Missy's nest again, as she looked at his unconscious face a million and one emotions seemed to be swirling through her mind all at once, all competing for her attention.
As she looked at him she noticed some of his hair had fallen over his face when she'd laid him down. Reaching out with a long finger she gently brushed it back over his ear and out of the way. As she looked at his face she had to admit to herself that he was rather pleasing to look at, stubborn and sneaky but at least he was pleasant to look at.
As her finger made contact with his soft warm skin she felt a wash of emotion again, but this time it wasn't her own, it was his. What she felt was like a trickle at first but it rapidly grew into a full on tsunami flowing off him, for a second she struggled to understand what was happening as his emotions flooded her mind like a marching band bursting in while playing at full volume.
It took her a second to realise just what the hell was happening and when she did she stared at the unconscious human in utter disbelief, her royal jelly hadn't just created a bridge for them to communicate with, somehow it had created a telepathic link the likes of which was even stronger than that of the one reserved for Xenos of the same hive.
Macha suddenly found herself bombarded with Reaper's memories, the first of which became clear in her mind was his real name was Aiden O'Connor.
Her whole body went ridged as his memories flooded through her mind in waves, she experienced his entire life in a rapid fast forwards but each and every memory was a clear as if they were her own, that's when the pain came.
Macha collapsed on her back on the flaw and frantically began clawing at her own body, Missy ran to her and dropped to her side with fear and confusion painted all over her face, she started screeching and wailing at full volume, instantly Missy dropped to her side and tried to grab hold of one of her flailing hands, "Macha what's wrong? What's happening?" the youngster yelled, but Macha couldn't respond to her or even really acknowledge her as right at that second her entire body felt like it was on fire.
Eventually after what felt like an eternity but was really no more than a few seconds the pain subsided and passed, Macha slowly sat up on the floor panting like a hot dog, the first thing she saw was Missy's concerned face, "I'm ok now" she said to the youngster in a breathless voice,
"What the hell was that?" Missy asked concern in her voice,
"Memories, his memories" Macha said,
"Memories did that?" Missy said sounding both concerned and frightened, Macha looked at her right arm to make sure that it was really still there,
"Pain, so much pain. How is it possible for one being to endure so much pain and still be functioning?" she said quietly more to herself than to Missy who was looking rather confused right now.
Looking from her arm to the unconscious human the first thing that Macha's eyes locked onto was his mechanical right arm and again the pain associated with it flashed through her mind like a lightning bolt. Then another thought occurred to her, this bond that had just been forged between them was stronger than anything she had ever felt before, even stronger than the one she'd even felt with Tyler.
With him he'd allowed her to walk through his memories, but she'd always really only watched them as if she was an outsider but she'd never realised it, she's only ever really felt his surface emotions and feelings but now she realised that's all she'd really felt.
To her in her little pain filled dark world it had been such a wonderful escape that she'd clung on like it was real and only now that she'd been so desperate to experience these things that her own mind had filled in the blanks with what it approximated those missing feelings to be like, but with Aiden she'd gotten it all raw and unfiltered, every pain, every fear, every love and every triumph and she'd lived it in a few seconds as if it was her own life.
Macha was confused as hell by this, how could a human bond with her so completely like this? Even now as he laid there she could peer into his mind and she could see his dreams just like Tyler let her do, but unlike with him where she always knew that they were someone else's memories and dreams, with him they felt like they were her own.
She needed to clear her head, standing up and raising to her full height so suddenly that it startled the still concerned looking Missy who was still looking at her, "I'm going to get some air" she announced and before the young hatchling had a chance to respond she took a few fast steps and jumped from the platform and onto the wall, using her powerful claws she climbed the wall and disappeared into the shadows of the ceiling before opening a high window and climbing out of it.
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Aiden groaned loudly as his senses realigned, his head felt like it had a thousand angry Xeno's running around screeching their arses off inside it. As he struggled to sit up he became aware that it was a lot darker suddenly. "You're awake! Thank the gods I was beginning to think that you never wake up!" Missy's voice said from his left.
Slowly turning his head his eyes slowly focused in the soft flickering light of the candle she was holding on the concerned and relived looking young girl, the light seemed to give her fur a fiery sheen to it, "How long was I out?" he asked still trying to shake the cobwebs out of his head, he kept getting odd flashes in his mind of a cold and dark place and the face of a man that he was sure he'd never met before but for some reason seemed to know really well.
"About three hours" Missy said, Aiden's eyes widened in surprise,
"Wow I've known some good kissers in my time. But no-one who could knock a guy out for three hours with a single kiss before" he said more to himself than to Missy but she still giggled all the same,
"Yeah her kiss is really something isn't it?" she said, Aiden rubbed the back of his head with a little embarrassment,
"You got that right, not that I've ever really ever thought of kissing a Xeno before but I suppose life is all about experiences right? And as they go that's gotta be the king of all bragging rights, it's like oh you pulled a pretty girl? Well I snogged a fucking Xeno Queen!" Aiden said putting on a silly over macho voice causing Missy to laugh again.
"You almost sound like you enjoyed it" Missy said smiling at him slyly, Aiden quickly looked around himself and noticed that Macha wasn't anywhere nearby, then he looked back at Missy,
"I can tell you now kiddo, I've kissed a hell of a lot worse. On the grand scale of it all, she wasn't half bad" he said slowly getting to his feet, Missy grinned broadly at him,
"I'll be sure to tell her when she comes back" Missy said, Aiden shot her a glance,
"Don't you fucking dare" he said and Missy dissolved into fits of giggles.
Stretching his aching muscles Aiden looked around properly for the first time since he'd got here. The place was a heavy machinery factory that obviously manufactured heavy farming equipment. Moving over to one of the guard rails he looked down at the pitch black factory floor, as he did his night vision kicked in and everything took on a grey tone.
"Where's Macha gone?" he asked curiously as he noticed that he couldn't see the big Xeno queen anywhere,
"She said she needed to clear her head and she went out up there" Missy said pointing upwards to a window high above their heads,
"Clear her head why?" Aiden asked curiously, Missy just shrugged,
"Don't know but it could have something to do with your memories, they seemed to shake her up pretty bad" Missy said, Aiden's head snapped towards her,
"What did you say?" he asked with his voice taking on a much darker tone, Missy looked startled at the sudden change in him,
"Well when she kissed you, she said something about your memories and a lot of pain, in fact she seemed really shook up by it all" Missy said quickly, Aiden banged both his hands down on the guard rail with a loud bang, his mechanical arm bent the rail where it struck and the noise caused Missy to jump.
"She had no fucking right to go crawling around in my head!" Aiden said with a growl in his voice,
"I-I-I-I don't think she meant to" Missy said in rather scared sounding voice as she looked at the large dent that his mechanical arm had caused, glancing at her Aiden realised that he'd rather scared the poor girl with his outburst, taking a deep breath he forced himself to calm down.
"Sorry I didn't mean to scare you" he said his voice softening as he did, Missy gave him an indignant look,
"I-I-I wasn't scared" she lied which caused Aiden to smile slyly,
"Oh really?" he asked, as he did he gripped the rail with his mechanical hand and slowly closed it till it crushed the metal flat as paper between his fingers, as he did he saw her eyes widen and he burst out laughing, Missy glanced up at him and saw that his eyes were bright and happy again and she realised that he was just winding her up,
"That's not funny!" she said with a huff in her voice, Aiden grinned broadly,
"I beg to differ" he said.
Missy looked back at his mechanical arm again, "Just how strong is that thing?" she asked, Aiden glanced down at his hand and flexed the finger,
"Don't really know if I'm honest, I've never maxed it out, but I can punch through a Tritanium blast door with it" he said looking at the jet black coloured hand,
"How did you get it? What happened to your real hand?" Missy asked curiously approaching him for a better look at the arm, Aiden glanced at the curious young feline girl as she looked at his arm in fascination,
"Long story kiddo and not one I really feel like telling, suffice to say that it was painful" he said in a soft voice, Missy looked from his arm to his face and back again, her expression showed obvious disappointment that he wouldn't share it with her, but she nodded in understanding,
"Well will you tell me why you call yourself Reaper when your name's Aiden?" Missy asked which caused Aiden's eyebrows to shoot up in surprise, then he instantly figured out how she knew that,
"Macha told you that huh?" he asked, she nodded slowly while still inspecting his arm closely, it seemed the Xeno queen had been pretty deep into his mind which kinda worried him a little, what else did she know about him?
"Reaper is my codename, Aiden is my real name" he said slowly, Missy looked confused,
"Codename?" she asked,
"I'm part of a military unit called the Spirits, we are each given a codename to identify ourselves with, it's so people don't learn who we really are" he said honestly, he figured it would be pointless to lie to her as she could probably just ask Macha to tell her and he didn't know how much more she knew,
"Why wouldn't you want people to know who you really are?" Missy asked confused, Aiden smiled,
"Because the existence of my team is a secret" Aiden said, Missy nodded seeming to understand but she still looked confused a bit.
"So where is the rest of your team?" she asked, Aiden looked thoughtful for a moment,
"That's a damn good question, we all got separated on entry, we came down using high speed drop pods from orbit and we got shot at so our pods spread out before landing, add on top of that my radio is damaged so I can't call them, so they could be anywhere" Aiden said, Missy looked thoughtful,
"So you're all alone?" she asked, Aiden nodded and Missy looked sadly at the floor for a moment,
"I know how that feels" she said quietly, but then before he could say anything her head snapped up and she was smiling at him,
"But now I've got you and Macha, so I'm not alone anymore and you have me and Macha, so you're not alone anymore and Macha has you and me, so she's not alone anymore either" she said happily, Aiden couldn't help but smile at the young girl's enthusiasm.
A sudden crash behind them made them both jump and spin around to see what was going on, the sound had come from the factory floor in the direction of the blast door that Aiden had come through, "What was that?" Missy asked her voice sounding scared again, before Aiden could answer there was another crash, Aiden suddenly noticed a large dent appear in the frame of the blast door,
"Fuck they must have followed me here and now they're trying to get in!" he said,
"What followed you? The monsters in the sewers?" Missy asked, Aiden looked at her quickly,
"I need my guns quickly!" he said, without word she quickly ran off and retrieved Aiden's PIMP from where she and Macha had stashed it after bringing him up here.
Aiden quickly snatched it from her and flicked it into sniper mode, as he did another crash was heard but this time it was followed by another one as the door flew off its mountings and into the factory floor.