Well, time for yet another thing to get ugly in this story! And from how things are looking, it probably won't get much better anytime soon! So, let us continue, shall we?

Kira, under the Queen's influence, slowly made her way towards Kai, the 2x4 in her hands, ready to be swung. The latter staggered backwards in shock and confusion.

"What the hell are you doing, Kira!?" Kai said.

Kira continued to glare at him with her yellow, unholy eyes. "...I must... serve my Queen..." she repeated.

Hesitantly, Kai raised his fists and assumed a fighting stance.

"Okay, Kira... I'm afraid you've left me no other choice..." he said.

Without the slightest sign of holding back, Kira swung the wooden beam at Kai, which he was able to dodge. She brought it back to try again, but Kai managed to pin his foot over it to keep her from picking it back up. As she struggled to do so, Kira looked back up at him... and punched him in the stomach, hard. He staggered backwards bent over with his hands on his front.

"Kai!" Sugarcube shouted, rushing over to Kira and tackling her.

As Kai managed to look up, he saw his mate struggling with his female friend in what looked like very crude wrestling. He hastily rushed behind the garage portion of Kira's house to avoid becoming another target for her blows. Aster followed after him.

"Kai... do you have any idea why Kira's gone off the rail all of a sudden?" Aster asked.

Kai definitely had the answer, having carefully assessed the situation prior to Kira's assault on him. However, he assumed Aster would not like to hear it, especially since it concerned a similar event that happened at an earlier point in time...

"The Queen's taken over her mind!" Kai said.

Aster sat upright in shock upon hearing this.

"What? You mean... just like with me a few years ago?" he asked.

Kai nodded. "I'm afraid so..." he said.

"No..." Aster said, hanging his head down and letting out a depressed hiss. "...not Kira! Why!? Why did she have to suffer the same fate as me!?"

Years ago, shortly after first meeting Kira, Aster was captured by Dr. Meyers, and, to ensure he would cooperate with him, allowed a Queen to take control of the male Xeno. This forcibly made him a servant to the Queen, and by extension, Dr. Meyers himself... and he was unable to disobey.

"We need to help her! She has to be freed from that... evil hold... over her mind..." Aster said.

"Well... I couldn't begin to tell you how we could do it." Kai said. "I still don't know how Xenomorph telepathy works, entirely."

"That's not my point! Do you even know what it's like to have control of your mind and body taken away from you?" Aster asked.

"No... because it's never happened to me... at least, not in a way this extreme..." Kai said.

"Well, it's HORRIBLE!" Aster said. "It's SCARY! Even though Meyers' Queen was directly controlling my brain that one time... I still recall everything that happened very clearly. The worst part... I actually felt like I WANTED to kill Kira! Not only that, but... my memories of her... of our times of happiness and bliss... they were slowly fading away from me over the days! That's the scary part! I don't WANT to ever feel like I want to kill the girl I truly love... a-and... I don't want to forget... how much I l-love her..."

Kai sighed in regret, looking at the ground.

"...and for her to experience that for herself... oh, Kira..." Aster said.

Concerned that her memories of him, and her overall human nature, could be in danger of being lost forever, Aster made a critical decision to help bring Kira back to the light.

"...I know how to get her back." Aster said, walking over to Sugarcube, who still had Kira restrained.

Kai raised a brow and tilted his head. "What are you gonna do?" he asked.

"The same thing she did to save me and my memories from the Queen's hold, years ago." Aster said. "I'll make her remember that, deep down, she loves me."

Determined to get his mate back, Aster walked back over to where Sugarcube was restraining her. She looked up at him with her devilish eyes, fighting furiously against Sugarcube's hold.

"Just try to talk her down or something..." The female Xeno said. "...she's putting up QUITE a fight..."

Aster knelt down in front of Kira, who continued to struggle against Sugarcube in a rageful frenzy.

"Kira..." Aster began. "...it's me, Aster... just listen to my voice... calm yourself... focus on just me..."

She was not listening, continuing to try and break free of her restraint to attack him.

"...Must serve... will serve..." Kira said in a monotone.

Aster gently brushed her hair behind her ear, despite her physical protest.

"...I love you, Kira..." Aster said. "...you rescued me... you gave me a new, happy life... we mated... and you carried our daughter. Please... please remember, Kira..."

For a moment, Kira stopped, staring at her Xeno mate. Despite her eyes still having the evil yellow color about them... her pupils widened slightly. They were still fairly constricted, but visibly opened up the window to her very soul.

But it only lasted for a brief moment, as her pupils became scarily tiny again and she resumed her feeble attempts to break free from Sugarcube's arms and legs binding her. Aster made an audible moan as he hung his head down, tears streaming out from under his cranial carapace.

"Kira, please... y-you're hurting me... you're r-r-ripping yourself away from m-me..." he said, sniffling.

It was not working. His words... his pledge of love to her... they were ineffective against the level of influence the Queen had placed into Kira's brain. Aster, thoroughly heartbroken, fell to his knees, putting his face into the grass and grabbing his head.

Kira continued to struggle against her holder. She was, at this point, showing nothing less than pure, utter hate. She clearly wanted to kill Aster, despite not having the physical capacity to do so... but just the desire to do so made Aster all the more hurt.

Th-this can't b-b-be... Aster thought. ...I-I... I've lost her...! I've lost m-my... mate...!

He completely surrendered himself to the idea that her memories... her personality... all of it was in the process of being permanently destroyed, leaving only the hollow shell of his mate, inhabited by pure, primal rage. However...

"Wait..." Aster said, picking his head up. "...I'm different than other Xenos... maybe my... ability... can help her..."

"N-ngh...!" Sugarcube strained, trying to hold Kira in place. "...What are you... g-gonna do...?"

"...Bring Kira back into her body." Aster answered.

After speaking, he began to use telepathy on Kira in an attempt to make his presence more familiar for her, and to try and invoke her memories of him. While he was in the middle of focusing, while locked in a heavy trance... a green light flashed inside of his chest with an audible pulsation. It faded after a second. Both Kai and Sugarcube stared in surprised.

"Wow..." Kai said.

"He's using... his special gene... again...!" Sugarcube commented.

Aster had a very unique gene in his DNA that made him different from any other Xenomorph in existence. It was the Royal Gene, and it allowed him to tap deep into his psychic and physical abilities, which would allow him to accomplish tasks that a regular Drone would otherwise be incapable of, even if they were genetically engineered like Aster. It was powered from positive emotions... and the purest form of it, which Aster was invoking right now... love.

"...Let go of her, Sugarcube." Aster said.

"Well, okay..." Sugarcube said, hesitantly standing both herself and Kira up, and releasing her.

Kira stood motionless for a moment, under heavy hypnosis from Aster. While it did not seem like much was happening... the memories from her heart were overpowering the implanted memories in her brain. She began to have flashbacks of all the happy times she had with Aster, as well as all of the life-threatening situations they had involving Dr. Meyers, and especially... bringing him back from the Queen's control by reminding him of his love for her.

Eventually, Kira's eyes faded from yellow to green, and then back to their regular blue color. She stared at Aster for another few seconds, before she opened up her eyes wider, as if in realization.

"Ahhh..." Kira breathed as her eyes rolled upward...

...And then she collapsed. Sugarcube was quick to catch Kira, but Kira herself was unconscious. Aster knelt down to examine her. He placed his hand on her forehead, shifting it around slightly.

"...As much as I hate seeing her faint... I think that did it. I think she's back to her regular self." Aster said.

"Is she alright?" Kai asked.

"She's still alive; I can sense her heartbeat and brainwaves." Aster said.

"But... she won't... die... like how you almost did, right Aster...?" Kai asked.

"She WILL be okay." Aster said. "I've purified her mind; anything the Queen did to her brain, I have undone."

"I'm sure all she needs now is a good rest." Sugarcube said.

So, Aster picked up Kira in his arms, and carried her up to her bedroom, where he pulled back the sheets on her bed, removed her clothing (by slicing it with his claws), leaving only her undergarments, laid her in the bed and resting her head on the pillow, and pulled the sheets back over her. From there, he carefully put a pair of wireless, noise-canceling earbuds, sitting on her nightstand, into her ears, followed by closing her blackout curtains. He then left the room so that she could sleep in near-total sensory deprivation, which would allow her overwhelmed brain to recover from telepathic possession followed by cleansing shortly after.

Yeah, kind of a shorter chapter. What can I say? I'm getting kinda lazy, having to put my writing effort into school projects and whatnot. XD Anyways, I hope you all are liking the twists so far, and I'll keep up the pace as best as I can with this fic! Wish me luck! Keep holding on...