Well, I figured I'd start working on this fic more frequently, since I've finished another one I had previously been dedicating more attention to. So, now let's see where the story picks up from here!

Kira began to slowly open her eyes. She felt a bit lightheaded. The environment around her was a bit dim. After rubbing her eyes, she saw that she was inside of a large glass capsule, and a helm-like device was moving upward relative to her, off her head. It took a moment for her to process what was going on, but then she remembered.

"We… we're back..." Kira said.

She was fully aware of the fact that she was back in her regular body, as indicated by the familiar sensation she felt once more… as well as checking her hands. She pressed the button on the side of her capsule, and it slid open. Slowly, she began to stand up, and noticed that Kai was already up. It seemed like he was waiting for her.

"...Welcome back to Earth." Kai said.

Kira chuckled a bit, despite still suffering a bit from her waking hangover.

"Well… now we just gotta get Aster and Sugarcube, then we'll get out of here." she said.

"Right." Kai said. "Then, we just gotta find a way to stop Meyers for good! We still can't report him ourselves, because then Weyland will find Aster and Sugarcube after he reveals them in his interrogation, and take them from us!"

"Ngh… shouldn't we just kill him?" Kira asked.

Kai sighed. "I don't think that's a good idea… according to the law, murder is murder, regardless of whether the victim is a criminal or not."

At that moment, two capsules in the room began to open up themselves… and the two who had already awakened saw that it was Meyers and Baldwin who were occupying them. The helm devices were just coming off of their heads, and they were just beginning to wake up. Plus… they had handguns with them inside their capsules.

"Shit!" Kai said. "We'll talk about this later; right now, we gotta go before they get us!"

The two proceeded to quickly open the door to the Xenomorph mindlink chamber, having to hastily disable the locks, and then finding that Aster and Sugarcube had already woken up and left their capsules.

"Hey, Kai..." Sugarcube said, sleepily.

"Ah… it feels great to be back in my regular body!" Aster said, stretching his arms.

"You can celebrate waking up from Virax later, Aster… because right now, we gotta get the hell outta here!" Kira said.

The two proceeded to try and escape from the supercomputer mindlink chamber… but they were unfortunate enough to be spotted by their captors as they had emerged from their capsules already.

"They're still here! Get them!" Meyers said, drawing his gun.

All four shrieked as they rushed to escape. Gunfire rang out as the two madmen tried to shoot the pair of lovers, but missing every shot. They were making their way through the maze of rooms and hallways, shutting and locking doors behind them in order to slow down Meyers and Baldwin.

Eventually, Kira, Kai, Aster, and Sugarcube all managed to get away and out of the basement of the tower. Fortunately, there was still no WY staff anywhere that could spot them. Still, Kai had to quickly use his laser pointer to blind security cameras that the foursome came across. Once they got to Kai's car, which was still parked in its original spot, they started up the engine, finding that it was still warm, and stormed off.

Meyers and Baldwin both made it to the front door of the tower just as they saw Kai's car storming off in the distance, back towards the city.

"Damn it!" Baldwin said. "They got away from us again!"

"Well… no matter." Meyers said.

Baldwin sighed impatiently. "What other 'bright ideas' d'ya got up your sleeve this time?"

"I'll file an anonymous online tip with WY!" Meyers said. "We'll get those two brats away from their abominable 'mates' soon enough!"

"You're gonna tell WY directly? What if they find out it's us reporting them? They'll track us down for sure! They'll know we're back on Earth!" Baldwin said.

Meyers shook his head.

"There exist ways to mask a computer's IP address, as well as remain confidential with the report, as I had just mentioned. I know I said that reporting them to WY would be a last resort… but from what I have observed, separating Ms. Sykes and Mr. Ripley from their 'secret, forbidden friends' will be FAR more devastating for them than death!" he said.

Baldwin rubbed his chin for a moment, nodding in agreement.

"Yeah… yeah, that just might work out!" he said. "Once Weyland takes them and locks 'em up in separate cells for the rest of their miserable lives, they'll suffer for the rest of their days… at least, what little there is left of them!"

"Exactly!" Meyers said.

With that, the two went straight back inside and began their work to access the lobby computer so that they could report Kira and Kai…

(XXXX)

Kira, Aster, Kai, and Sugarcube all drove straight back over to Kira's house, exactly as it had been when they left it. They went inside to find that Sam, Star, and Chase were all asleep, and SORIA was in a standby mode.

"Hey, we're back!" Kira said.

Sam, Star, and Chase stirred, while SORIA booted back up.

"Welcome back, Kira." SORIA said. "There was nothing out of the ordinary that I had recorded in your absence."

Sam yawned, stretching her arms. "Aah… so… what did you find out?"

"Well..." Kira began.

She began to explain how Meyers assisted in the development of the virtual world Virax for Project: SUBCON, which was intended to create an environment that was easy to manipulate, where they would upload Xenomorph specimens' minds as a means of testing their responses to particular situations. But Meyers secretly intended to use a unique protocol that allowed for an uploaded user to enter the body of another currently linked to the mainframe in order to presumably take control of a Xenomorph with the Royal Gene and be the center of a collective, worldwide hive-mind of Xenos.

"So… this Meyers guy… he wants to take over the world?" Sam asked.

"That was his original plan..." Kai said. "...but since we ruined his chances of it ever happening, now his goal is to destroy the world."

Sam looked completely dumbstruck.

"What would he gain from that…?" she asked.

Kira sighed. "Apparently, he had a horrendous childhood that he just couldn't let go. Now he wants revenge on everyone, since he blames the world for his problems."

"That's just stupid!" Sam said.

"I know..." Kira said. "...but he's clearly not going to stop. This means we need to find a way to stop him ourselves!"

"And… how do we fit into all of this?" Chase asked.

"Well, you were originally intended to be part of his secret plan to take over… at least, your mother and Aster were, son. But now… I think he wants nothing more to do with Xenos. Hell, he just wants all of us to suffer!" Kai said.

"So, like… what do we do?" Sam asked.

"We're gonna try to find a way to stop him." Kira said. "To do that… we're gonna need to anticipate his moves before he figures out what we're up to!"

Sam sighed impatiently. "So, like, if this guy is as dangerous as you say he is, I think you should call the police and tell them, right?"

"Well, we would, but..." Kira began. "...if that were to happen, they would place me and Kai under heavy surveillance, and then Aster, Star, Sugarcube, and Chase would be found! And I'm sure you know that I never want to lose my family!"

"Well… let's not try to worry too much about it tonight. For now, we should just get some shuteye. Tomorrow, we'll be able to come up with a plan." Kai said.

"Okay." Kira said. "You're right, Kai."

All of them could agree that Meyers would probably want them to be worried, so that they would eventually become too tired to keep their guard up, and ultimately wind up being outsmarted by him and Baldwin.

"Well, I guess we'll be heading back to my place." Kai said.

"Okay." Kira said. "Just be on the lookout in case anything happens. Hopefully, Meyers doesn't know where you live."

Kai nodded. "In any case, stay safe! I'll stop by tomorrow to check up on you all!"

Star and Chase were both off to one side, having their own conversation.

"To think we could be in real danger..." Star said. "...are you scared, Chase?"

"Well, yeah… but… I'm scared for you, Star..." Chase responded.

Star was taken back a little bit by what he said. It came a bit out of nowhere, but at the same time… it was very flattering.

"Aw, I'm glad you want to look out for me!" she said.

Chase placed a hand on the young female Xenomorph's shoulder.

"I give you my word, Star..." Chase began, just before pulled her into an embrace. "...I would DIE to save your life."

Star wrapped her own arms around Chase.

"Oh, Chase, you're so sweet." she said.

The two slightly separated to be at "eye"-level with each other… staring at each other… both of them subtly rubbing the side of each other's head… slowly leaning closer… holding out their tongues… ready to have them make contact…

"Chase!" Kai said. "C'mon! We gotta get going for the night!"

The two young Drones retracted their tongues before they even touched.

Chase sighed, disappointed.

"...I'll see you soon, Star." he said just before he began to reluctantly walk away.

Star waved at her male friend.

"See ya, Chase!" she said.

After the Ripleys left… Star stood at the window as she watched them drive away… putting her hand up to the glass in the vain hope of reaching Chase…

Why can't I just say it to him…? She thought. Why can't I do the simple thing of bringing myself to tell Chase that I love him…?

"C'mon, Star." Kira said. "It's time to go to bed."

Star sighed as she came away from the window.

"Yes, Mom..." she said.

(XXXX)

It was late in the night. Kira, Aster, and Star were all asleep. There was absolutely nothing that could disrupt their peaceful sleep in the hopes that they could ready themselves against Meyers… except…

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.

There was a loud beeping sound, which woke Kira and Aster with a jolt.

"...H-huh…?" Aster stammered. "...What's going on…?"

"Kira, my motion sensors have detected intruders to on your property." SORIA said.

"Huh…?" Kira said, suddenly fully awake. "What do you mean?"

"They appear to be in a group of roughly ten individuals, and they have arrived in two armored vehicles." SORIA responded.

Using her heightened sense of hearing, Kira was able to hear the people at the front door.

"Weyland security! Search warrant!" came the rugged voice of a loud man.

Kira gasped. It had fully hit her in a few milliseconds that her worst fear had come to fruition; Weyland had come to take her family from her.

"I-it's… WY security..." Kira said.

"What!? No!" Aster said. "No-no-no-no… I don't wanna go back to that awful lab! And… I ESPECIALLY don't want Star to EVER suffer what I did!"

Kira decided what she needed to do… even if it meant taking a major gamble with her freedom, all she wanted was for her family to be alright.

"Aster..." Kira began. "...get Star out of here. Get her to someplace safe."

"What!? But… but what about YOU, Kira!?" Aster said.

"Just trust me… there's no way I'll get out of this like last time." Kira said.

She was positive that WY would continue to chase her down, if they had indeed discovered that she was hiding Xenomorphs from them. If she let them take her, and they did not find out about Aster or Star, hopefully they could let her go. If not… she would use her mutated Xeno DNA to her advantage and escape.

"SORIA… I need you to encrypt any data on Aster and Star to a point where it is near-impossible for anyone else but me to access. Can you do it?" Kira asked.

"I can, Kira." SORIA responded. "I will compress and encrypt all data on your family into a hidden partition on one of my secondary drives. From there, I shall deactivate it should the computer analysts perform diagnostics on me."

"Okay..." Kira said, turning to her mate. "...please get somewhere safe. I'll make short work of this… especially if Kai has been found out, too..."

"...Alright, Kira. I-I'll see you soon..." Aster said.

Reluctantly and with a bit of hesitation, he rushed into Star's room just as she was beginning to wake up to the sound of the WY agents using a battering ram to try and break Kira's front door in.

"...Ahh..." Star groaned, stretching her arms. "...Dad…? What's going on…?"

"Bad people are here! We gotta get to safety!" Aster said.

The male Drone took his daughter by the wrist and started rushing her out of the room to a back door of the house.

"B-but what about Mom?" Star asked.

"She's not coming with us; she's gonna stay behind and deal with them. If I know your mother, she knows how to solve problems like this." Aster said.

Star glanced back at the part of the house where Kira was. There was a loud banging on the door as the Weyland security team was attempting to bash the door open.

"Why can't she just run away from them if they're bad people?" Star asked.

"Because they'll keep chasing her down until they've caught her. It's too risky for her to come with us. As long as they don't find us, we'll have a better chance of seeing her again." Aster said.

Star let out a sigh. "...Okay."

The two Xenos made their break out of the house as quickly as they could, rushing off into the darkness of the night. Kira, meanwhile, was standing in the foyer of her house, waiting for her door to break… again.

Once it did, she was met with rifle-mounted flashlights all being pointed at her.

"FREEZE! PUT YOUR HANDS UP!" one Weyland agent shouted.

Kira did as he said and held up her hands as the rest of the squad surrounded her.

"Hey, hey! Don't move!"

"We have you surrounded!"

"Stay right where you are!"

The security team apprehended Kira, just as she willingly intended. They took her and locked her in the back of one of their armored trucks… but never even said a single word, even when they tried asking her questions, threatening to get violent if she did not answer. However, nothing came of it.

Regardless, Kira was still anxious about being transported to where she was going. She was unsure about how to avoid coming off as lying if they were going to interrogate her. All she needed to do was completely convince herself that she knew nothing of Aster or Star…

...but while she could suppress her knowledge… she could never do so with her love for her family. She hoped they would be alright…

This is gonna get ugly, isn't it? Well, like I said, I'll be able to start uploading chapters more frequently. But, fair warning, the story is gonna start to get really SAD from this point onward. If you are sensitive and cannot handle these kinds of things, then it might be in your best interest to stop here. If not… then keep reading as the chapters come. Thanks for continuing to follow me, and I'll catch you all later! Keep holding on...