"Doctor Ambrose?"
It was almost an hour later when Ambrose turned and crinkled up his eyes to shut out the blinding flashlight the blonde police officer was shining in his face.
"Just calm down Doctor Ambrose," Paulson laid a hand on his arm, "Come away from the edge now, it's not safe."
"She came here to meet him!" He said, teeth chattering with shock, "She knew he was coming!"
"Now let's just chill out Doctor," Paulson said sympathetically as she drew him back from the edge. Hernandez wrapped a foil emergency blanket round his shoulders.
The two police officers were both feeling pretty shaken up themselves. After the light show in the sky had died down and after repeated attempts to contact Ostrowski and his team, they had gone up the track … and found a scene of unutterable carnage.
Mangled bodies lay everywhere, dismembered or burned or broken and crushed, faintly visible at the bottom of the gorge. Neither of them had ever seen anything like it. They had set about looking for survivors and initially they hadn't spotted Ambrose, huddled at the edge of the cliff. At first glance, Paulson had assumed he was dead, "Thank God I went to check him out." She thought.
"You don't understand, there was this terrible… creature here… in the river!"
"In the river?" Paulson frowned.
"No – he didn't come from the river. He fell into the river and… and then… then he killed everyone!"
"A creature killed everyone, huh?" Hernandez said sceptically, but Paulson waved him into silence. Ambrose was obviously in shock, but she didn't think he seemed crazy. Plus he was the only live witness they had come across so far.
"Some kind of plane or… or spaceship was here – I felt it take off!" He said gripping her arms urgently "And she said he had her children!"
"Whose children?" Paulson said, ignoring his claim about the spaceship, because that did sound crazy, "Who are you talking about?"
"Lex." He said, brokenly.
Her eyebrows lifted slightly before she could stop them "Alexa Woods? The fugitive?"
He nodded, "I couldn't help her, I tried! You understand I couldn't help her, don't you?"
"Yes, of course, Doctor Ambrose," Paulson said again soothingly, but she shot Hernandez a significant look over his shoulder, "Why don't we get you out of here and you can tell me all about that?"
They were about to start down the path when they heard footsteps and saw flashlights approaching "Stop right where you are!" Barked a voice.
"It's alright!" Paulson pulled her badge, she and Hernandez holding their hands in the air. "We're with the Colorado PD!"
"What the hell are you people doing up here!" A tall grim-faced man addressed Paulson, dressed in gear that identified him as one of Ostrowski's team, "The Major told you to stay clear. We could have blown your heads off!"
"Sir – "
"I'm Captain Decard."
"Captain," Paulson began again "We've been trying to raise Major Ostrowski for the last hour. We haven't been able to contact anyone from your team. What the hell happened up here?"
"That's outside your jurisdiction, Sergeant. This operation is under military control." Decard's chilly eyes flickered over to Ambrose, "And the witness comes with us. We need to talk to him."
Paulson's hackles lifted at this, "This man is in shock, Sir! He needs to get somewhere warm and safe so we can get him checked out and – "
"And I told you Sergeant, we're in charge here and I am ordering you to hand him over to us."
Paulson and Hernandez exchanged a glance, but both of them knew they couldn't refuse. With extreme reluctance she allowed Ambrose to be led away.
Decard turned to go, then something else seemed to occur to him and he turned back, leaning close to Paulson, "Oh and Sergeant," He said, "I would also strongly advise you not to talk to anyone about what you saw here."
Paulson's jaw dropped "Are you threatening me?"
"Not at all," He shook his head, though his eyes said something different "I'm just saying it'd be a shame if something like this were to go against you in future, on your permanent record."
With that he turned and walked away, limping slightly. Paulson and Hernandez watched him go.
"Did I just hear that right?" Paulson breathed.
Hernandez frowned "Let's just get the fuck out of here, I've seen enough freaky shit for one night!"
Lex's heart was a thunderstorm, battering the inside of her ribcage, echoing the hammering gunfire as Scar leapt from the clifftop. She could feel his blood pounding too, hot under her fingers that were around his neck, the booming of his pulse mixing with her own until she couldn't distinguish between them. She felt the void yawn hungrily beneath them but she had known that the windstorm must have been caused by a yautja ship – and guessed that he must be aiming for that ship, now hovering in the gorge, cloaked and invisible. They fell for what seemed like aeons, but in reality it was mere seconds before they hit. She felt rather than saw him grip the shuttle's armoured casing, talons scraping on the metal.
She didn't resist as he climbed down to the outer hatch of the airlock and pulled them both inside. The moment the lock sealed, the deck lurched under them and she knew the ship must be accelerating. She wondered who was flying it - or if he had somehow set the autopilot to do it. She waited for him to speak but he said nothing, nor did he make any move to put her down.
Her heart seemed to now be stuttering within her and she was almost nauseous at the swirl of warring emotions. When he had first appeared, materialising out of the water, relief had flooded through her at seeing him again – a giddy, drunken sense of relief, so strong it made her ashamed of her own weakness. Now, she looked up at the impassive, polished surface of his mask, and felt a sudden and terrible surge of rage in her chest.
"He walked out on me. He walked out on me and took Selim and Isaac!"
Ablaze with fury, she brought her hands up in a slicing motion between them, extending her dah'kte as she did so. The knives slashed him across the midsection and he immediately released her. In the same moment, she lunged and pulled his plasma sidearm from its holster, throwing herself back against the wall of the chamber where she stayed, panting, aiming the weapon at him.
He stood facing her, also breathing heavily. Green blood now ran from three, parallel cuts where she had caught him across the unprotected part of his stomach.
"Shed blood for betrayal not tears, isn't that right, Scar?" She gasped, "That isn't nearly enough of your blood to pay you back for what you've done to me, you double-crossing son-of-a-bitch!"
He didn't say anything, just leaned against the opposite wall of the chamber, watching her without speaking.
"You'd better answer me, because I'm only going to ask once," She snarled at him, "Where are my children, motherfucker?"
Still, he didn't speak but, slowly and deliberately, he reached over one long arm and pressed the button to open the inner lock. She turned, lowering the plasma gun and immediately sheathed her blades as she saw her two sons staring at her with huge, luminous eyes.
"Mei'Varsi!" She could tell Selim was struggling to hold back tears as he threw his arms around her.
"Mom!" Isaac grabbed hold of her at the same time, while she felt so dizzy with happiness and relief that she wondered if her legs would actually hold her up.
"I've missed you both so much!" She said finally, her voice unsteady, water squeezing from under her lashes, not wanting to let them go. "And you've both gotten so much taller since I last saw you, I can't believe it's been that long!"
"Mei'Varsi?" Said a small voice behind the twins and she released her hold on them to see Spyrro, peering at her from the cockpit, unusually hesitant.
She knelt down, holding out her arms, and the girl approached her with a reticence that was at odds with her usual bold, fearless demeanour. Right now, Spyrro didn't even seem to want to meet her eye.
"Mei'Savir says I must "apologise" to you for taking the Dragonfly and running away." She said, her gaze flashing past her Mother, to where her Father still stood, inside the airlock chamber, "I hope you will accept my "sorry", because I truly did not mean to put you in danger." She said, looking Lex in the eye at last, "I only wanted to find him… and my brothers."
Lex put her hands on the girl's small shoulders, trying not to smile at the strange use of the human word. She knew it wasn't easy for Spyrro to say it.
"I accept your 'sorry'," She said, pulling the child to her and folded her tight in her arms. "Spyrro," She breathed, "I did not think I would ever see you alive again!"
Spyrro blinked in surprise, as if she had expected to be scolded, then returned her Mother's embrace for once.
"I am glad you are alive also, Mei'Varsi!" She said earnestly, "I thought those other oomans would kill you! I am glad Mei'Savir was able to rescue you."
"Hmmm," Lex said, noncommittally, glancing round at Scar. He hadn't moved a muscle since opening the inner hatch.
Scar was still leaning against the wall of the airlock chamber. He reached down and touched his fingers to the blood that flowed from the wounds that she had sliced across his midsection. Then he held them up and stared dazedly at his fingertips.
Of course, he had been expecting her anger – he wasn't stupid! But then, he had been so absorbed in the hunt for her and the battle… it had caused him to temporarily forget the rupture between them. Her sudden violence had taken him completely off guard.
Now, he stayed leaning against the wall and gazing at his green-stained talons, unable to move. It wasn't exhaustion that held him pinned there, nor was it distress or pain. At this moment, perversely, he was almost shaking with lust. The instant he had seen the tears in her eyes, heard the rage in her voice and felt the kiss of the dah'kte on his skin, a tsunami of desire had been unleashed, crashing through his veins. Her strange mixture of vulnerability and ferocity had awoken that same strange, almost-madness that had driven him to give up everything for her all those years ago; that he knew had been lurking there all along.
At this moment, he felt that madness more strongly than ever: "I do not think there is anything she could have said or done – any way she could have come back into my life – which would have made me want her more!"
He was dimly aware that Spyrro had mentioned him, but he didn't trust himself to move yet. He stared at Lex and, as she turned briefly, he could sense the flamethrower heat of her anger and again the urge swept through him. Every yautja code of behaviour that had been instilled in him from infancy was telling him that, , whatever had passed between her and the human male, he should reassert his possession over her now. That by rights he should seize her, drag her into the sleeping quarters and… what? Take her back by force?
No. The idea repelled him for many reasons; then, his offspring would hate him – even more than they did now! Then, he would give her yet another reason to despise him.
"Then, she would also see just how much I want her still…" He swallowed and fought to get himself back under control, "No. I will not give in!"
Lex sat in the pilot's chair as her children competed to tell her of the adventures they had been through in her absence. She had been pining for all of them so long, now she was with her children again and all three of them talking excitedly at once, she didn't want to miss a single word. She made herself not look round when Scar entered the cockpit, though she could not help but be acutely aware of him as he stood against the console, watching them in silence.
"… and then we shot down one of their fighters, Mom," Isaac was saying "I mean, Selim did. I have been flying the Chameleon. I've been learning to do that since … since we last saw you." He finished awkwardly.
At this point, Spyrro used his silence to burst into the conversation "Mei'Varsi, I got captured by the Rough Skulls." She said, "They threw me into a prison cell!"
"A prison cell!" A horrified look flashed into her Mother's eyes. "Did they hurt you?"
"Oh no, they did not get the chance because Father rescued me." The girl said proudly, "He came on board the yautja ship and got me out. Is that not amazing?"
"I am very glad to have you back, Spyrro." Lex answered, "I thought I had lost you."
"And he defeated the female one who put me in prison." Spyrro continued, deaf to everyone else in her eagerness to tell all, "She said he was an outlaw, although she was smiling… so maybe that was a joke?"
"Is that so?"
"Yes! And he took me out of there and blew up some things on the way out and then Isaac and Selim shot the other spaceships and they exploded into little pieces!"
"How fortunate they were able to rescue you!"
"Yes, Mei'Varsi." Selim was standing at her shoulder, "Mei'Savir, said we had to go in search of Spyrro as soon as he saw your message."
"Did he?" Lex looked at her son, smoothing his brow fondly. She knew exactly why Selim was telling her this; he was trying to mediate between them as ever, wanting his Mother and Father to be in harmony with each other.
"Oh Selim, I know you want me to forgive him." She thought "But it's just not that easy."
"Yes, Mei'Varsi. We have all been very worried about you." Her son said, seriously. "Mei'Savir has not eaten or slept since we got your message."
"I see."
She glanced up at Scar again, to where he was watching them, his expression hidden under his mask. The wounds across his stomach were still bleeding, but he hadn't made any attempt to deal with them.
"All this time away from my children; all that pain and misery, it's all his fault!" She thought, "Am I supposed to be grateful to him now, after he left without a word?"
She felt the rage flare up inside her again, as they stared at each other; the atmosphere in the cockpit suddenly so tense that the air sizzled like an electrical field. She was only partly aware that all three children had fallen quiet and were watching them both, turning from one parent to the other. In the oppressive silence, she couldn't even hear them breathing.
"Selim, Isaac," she said "I want you to find somewhere it's safe to land the Chameleon, somewhere deserted."
"Are we going to be staying on Earth?" Isaac said cautiously.
"No." She shook her head "We just need somewhere we can set down where we won't be disturbed," She glanced at the map and then touched a location, "Somewhere round this place, in the Colombian part of the Amazon will do fine. It's relatively uninhabited and we can reach it in less than an hour."
Behind her, Selim said "But what for, Mei'Varsi?"
She rose to her feet, still staring at Scar. Finally, he stirred, like a statue coming to life, straightening up from where he had been leaning against the console.
"Why are you so eager to go back to the same hellhole of a planet we just pulled you out of?" He rumbled.
She crossed the cockpit and stood, looking up at him as he loomed above her.
"Because I have things to say to you." She said, still not taking her eyes off the hollow eyes of the mask. "And I don't want to say them in front of the children."
The chirruping and hissing of insects greeted Lex as she stepped out of the shuttle and walked down the gangway, the damp, clinging heat a strange and surreal surprise after the biting cold of Colorado. An animal screeched somewhere in the distance and all around she could hear the soft patter of moisture falling on leaf litter.
She set foot on the damp earth and breathed in deeply, trying to collect her thoughts in this velvety darkness. On her hip, she carried the plasma gun and she kept one hand on it.
"You are… angry."
She turned to see him standing behind her, an idol in a jungle ruin, still and remote.
"Angry?" The word lit the touch paper inside her again "I'm not angry, Scar, I am furious! You fucking left me and took the boys, without any explanation! I didn't know where you'd gone or why! You just disappeared! Not a word, not a word in all this time!"
"And so, you wish to… injure me."
"I wish to kill you!" She said hotly, "After what you've done to me, you deserve it!"
He didn't answer right away. Instead, he lifted his hands to his face and pulled his mask off. In the jungle gloom, his eyes were sudden pools of yellow light.
As she stared at his face, she felt a sharp pain in her chest and her own eyes prickled with tears. While he wore the mask, she could pretend that he was a stranger, some terrible stranger who had done those things which had almost destroyed her. Without the mask, she had to somehow face the fact that he was the same person she had allowed herself to fall in love with and that she had trusted him and that it was he who had hurt her.
"I saved… you." He said, "Those other … humans would have taken you prisoner if I had not … returned."
"I wouldn't have been in trouble if you hadn't run out on me!" She threw back at him "And what about Spyrro?"
"I retrieved Spyrro," His voice was level, but she got the sense of barely controlled emotion underneath, "You called… I answered. I came… when you called."
"Yes, to rescue our daughter!"
"If you had not… let her get away from you, I would not… have needed to."
"Don't you dare put that on me! She wouldn't have run away if you hadn't filled her head with all that bullshit about yautja honour!"
"She is yautja!"
"And she's also human! It's only you who's made her think that's something she's got to be ashamed of!"
He turned away from her and took a deep breath, as so often during their arguments she got the impression he was counting down, trying to master his temper, but she decided she wasn't going to let him. Some part of her wanted him to lose control completely, wanted to see him suffer the same pain and distress that was thudding in her chest. She followed him, forcing him to face her again.
"You took my boys," She said, "You knew how much it would hurt me! How the fuck could you do that to me, S'Kia?"
"You would not listen!" He snapped, his English always much less stilted when he was angry, "You tried to control me – "
"Control you?!"
"I told you that they need to learn to survive and you thought to get around me with trickery, like always – "
"I was trying to reassure you! To let you know we would deal with it together!"
"You think I am your slave, just as Khurshad said! You think all you need do is snap your fingers and I will obey?"
"Is that really how you see me? I told you we would deal with it and you left me! Can you even begin to know how that feels?"
He looked at her oddly for a moment, "Yes. I know how it… feels." He said "You left me. On the Void Cutter, do you not… remember?"
She stared at him, "Don't you dare say that's the same thing! You went crazy!"
"And I never reproached you!"
"Because I came back for you!"
"And I am back, here! Now! Because you called me here!" He growled, advancing on her until her back came up against a tree, "You think you can just… dismiss me?"
Blind with fury, she lashed out and hit him in the jaw with the butt of the plasma gun, so hard she knocked his head to one side. "And you think you can drop from the sky, massacre a bunch of people, and I'll just forgive you?! You don't get to walk out in a rage and then pick me up again whenever you decide!"
Blood smeared up the side of one jaw, he turned his head slowly back towards her and then he lunged, putting his hands either side of her, penning her against the tree. His eyes were burning like evil stars in the darkness, the pupils dilated and black.
She still had the plasma gun clutched in one hand and she lifted it so that it pointed at his throat, "Back the fuck off." She said, between gritted teeth.
"Not until you understand: What sort of father would I be if I let my feelings for you stop me… training my sons?"
"What feelings?" She yelled in his face, "You've never cared about anybody enough to have real feelings for them! Not me, not the children – you don't care how we feel!"
He stared at her, too angry to speak but she heard wood splinter as his claws bit into the tree bark.
"Did you make them do it, S'Kia?" She spat, in yautja, "The thing you betrayed me for? Did you make them face the trial?"
Before he could answer something flickered between them, a small glowing point. For a split-second she thought it was a firefly and then it settled on her chest. At that instant, he threw himself at her, knocking her to the ground as a bolt of white-hot plasma pulverised the tree trunk where they had been standing. They both came upright, Lex raising the plasma gun, Scar drawing his swords, as three points of vivid red light appeared on each of their bodies. Then she understood, with a feeling of sinking dread. The day she had feared for so long was finally here: the clan had hunted them down at last.
LovyDovy7: Obviously this answers some questions but your guess was correct. Being hunted by the humans is just the start of Scar and Lex's problems!
On a more positive note, thank the gods it's the holidays at last!