Okay... IT'S UP! Finally, I managed to quell the writer's block and end this unannounced hiatus! I tell you, it feels like I've lifted a great weight off myself to finally post this chapter. I will be posting chapters for this fic regularly again until the end. And again... I deeply apologize, to you all. So, with that out of the way, let's keep this story going!
Kira raced as quickly as she could to get back to her home, her rage fueling her the whole way. Never could she fathom that she could be so angered.
"I can't believe this is all happening," she thought. "But we've come too far to stop here! Dr. Meyers, needs to see what comes of messing with my friends and family!"
As she made her way through the open fields, all she could think of was the circumstances surrounding Aster's supposed death. The fact that Star did everything she could to save her father, only for her to be forced to abandon him to save herself... Kira was still unwilling to believe that she lost the love of her life.
She could almost still hear his voice playing in her head. It was akin to actual telepathy, but very distant, as she knew it was her memory... or was it? Stopping for a moment, she tried to think of other things and other sounds, but she could still hear a familiar, male voice in her head, and it seemed to be gradually raising in volume from a whisper.
Kira stood there for a long while, trying to get his voice out of her head. Just hearing it was absolutely painful for her. However, some authentic sounds caught her off guard.
"Gotcha!" Came a man's voice.
Looking back, Kira saw Meyers, accompanied by Baldwin, leveling a handgun at her. Instinctively, she held her hands up, her eyes wide and her heart now pounding.
"Gotta say, girl," Baldwin remarked, "you're a fast little one."
"Wh-what do you want from me...?" Kira asked.
"We'd like for you to come back to our car for a little ride," Meyers said.
Knowing full well she would likely be shot if she didn't comply, Kira followed Meyers and Baldwin, being held at gunpoint the entire time.
(XXXX)
After making it back to Kai's house, Sugarcube allowed Chase and Star inside for the time being. One of the two younger ones, however, was far too restless to give herself a moment to rest.
"Star, please try to settle down," Sugarcube said.
"I can't!" Star responded. "My mom might be in trouble!"
Chase placed a hand on her shoulder. "Star, listen... I'm sure she'll be okay. Besides, my father always told me they've been through some bad situations before."
Star wasn't having any of it, however, and she made her way over to the front door again.
"Wait!" Sugarcube said, going after the younger female drone. "Where are you going?"
"I can't just stay here!" Star said. "I have to go back for my mom!"
"No, it's too dangerous!" Sugarcube said. "If those two maniacs catch you, or any other humans for that matter... one could only guess what would happen to you!"
Star shook her head. "Through thick and thin... I will always do everything to help my family!"
"Star... it's just..." Chase spoke, "...I don't wanna lose you, too!"
Star stopped after hearing this, turning back to her friend. She stared at him for a long while, processing what he said. Finally, she took some steps back in his direction, stopping when she got in front of him.
"Chase..." she said, "...I promise you won't lose me. Thing is, I just have a score to settle with that evil Dr. Meyers... and to avenge... m-my Daddy..."
"I know, and I'm sorry, Star," Chase said. "But, if you really want to do this... I'm in it with you!"
Sugarcube stepped into the huddle as well.
"Look, you two..." she said, "...I really don't want to allow you both to walk into danger. I just couldn't live with myself if anything happened to either of you, especially you, Chase."
"Mom," Chase said, "I'm not a kid anymore! I'm ready to fight for what's right! It's in my blood! It's MY time to take the spotlight! Dad kept us safe... so it's only fair that I fulfill my end of the matter."
Sugarcube pondered for a moment, before she finally looked back up at her son. "...Okay, son. Do whatever you have to do... but just please, come home safely!"
"Mom..." Chase said, "...I will. And I'll make sure Star does the same."
"Alright," Star said, "let's do this!"
Without saying much more, the two young xenomorphs set off under the cover of the vegetation, using their instincts to remain stealthy, to rescue Kira, and hopefully, Kai, from meeting a terrible fate with the lifelong enemy of their extraterrestrial parents.
(XXXX)
After a long escort on foot, and later by vehicle, Kira found herself tied to a chair in an abandoned, reinforced building, akin to a prison. In front of her were Meyers, Baldwin, and a woman in business attire.
"You should've known better than to stick your nose where it doesn't belong, Ms. Sykes!" Meyers said.
Kira sighed. "Still on about what happened years ago? You do realize Aster escaped on his own, and came to me, right? Not the other way around."
"That doesn't matter!" Baldwin said. "You're involved, and there's no goin' back from that!"
"Why are you doing all this?" Kira said. "What are you hoping to gain from it?"
Meyers raised a brow. "What am I hoping to gain from it, she asks? Well, what I am attempting to do... is rid this universe of a flawed, malicious, hypocritical species, that is humanity!"
Kira's eyes went wide. The three criminal affiliates all basked in her shock at how Meyers described his end goal.
"So, you see, Ms. Sykes..." Meyers began. "...Margret here has managed to... pull a few strings and utilize my frozen money through her bank account to... bail us."
Margret nodded. "I have cleared the criminal histories of these two gentlemen, and they are now able to walk freely among society once more. In addition to that, I have organized some things within Weyland to have Dr. Meyers... redeem himself, so to speak."
Kira narrowed her eyes. "Redeem himself? Don't make me laugh..."
"Mind your tone, girl!" Baldwin snapped, keeping his teeth clenched as he spoke.
"As I was saying," Meyers said, "Weyland-Yutani, as I am sure you know, is launching their next operating system, OS-Omicron, the most secure operating system ever written to date, later this afternoon. However, thanks to Margret... it will instead give the whole world a much different surprise than receiving a free OS upgrade."
"The Weyland exposition..." Kira uttered, lowering her gaze as the realization hit her, "...I just remembered! And I was actually planning on attending before all this shit went down..."
Meyers continued: "Now, one man in particular, who was the biggest bully of my childhood, will be the one hosting the launch of OS-Omicron. And that man is... Sir Peter Weyland."
Kira just stared, awestruck by how much leverage and business connections must have gone into this plan.
"Now..." Meyers spoke, "...what's going to happen is, Weyland himself will press the button that will, according to public information, distribute WY OS-Omicron over the WorldWide Web, available to the public, and automatically upgrade any pre-existing device without suspending its operation... but in actuality, it will send out a computerized command to all nuclear defense mainframes to detonate their warheads, as well as destabilize nuclear power plants across the world to add to the fallout!"
This was all starting to make Kira's head spin. First, Meyers tries to create a bunch of xenomorphs to put under control of his Queen, for the purpose of taking control of the world, but now...
"...You're gonna blow this entire world to Hell and back..." Kira spoke. "...you're gonna end millions of innocent lives... just because of your childhood?"
"Oh, no no no..." Meyers said. "...I'm not going to kill millions of people... I'll kill billions!"
Kira shook her head slightly, her jaw agape. "You monster...!"
"And now that you know..." Meyers said, "...you can't ever walk free from us again! So, I bid you adieu, Ms. Sykes! We shall let Margret, here, have her own way with you to finish you off."
"With pleasure, Dr. Meyers..." Margret said, grinning in a wicked manner.
(XXXX)
After Meyers and Baldwin departed in preparation for the exposition, Kira ended up being locked in the room on her own, and a single xenomorph egg recently taken out of stasis was placed inside before it was sealed.
The specimen was awakening from its stasis, and the egg began to shudder. This really put the tied-up young woman on edge.
Kira struggled against the ropes. "LET ME OUT!"
"The facehugger cannot overpower you, Ms. Sykes," Margret spoke over the room's PA as she watched from an observation platform, behind glass. "It is, as you know, smaller than you. However... you will tire in your struggle against it. It shall embrace your cranium, and then..."
She smiled evilly at Kira, who knew all too well what would happen then. Margret then pulled out her smartphone, snapping a photograph of Kira tied down in the chair.
"...Souvenir for Dr. Meyers," Margret said.
Kira knew she had to work fast to try and get loose, so as not to be in the facehugger's line of sight once it hatched. The rope, however, was quite thick and stiff. It did not help that the chair had been welded to exposed rebar in the floor. Margret, meanwhile, was making liberal use of the camera on her phone as her hostage struggled.
"Say 'cheese'!" Margret taunted, continuing to snap photos of Kira.
Just when she was about to resign herself to inevitability of death, Kira remembered what happened to her around the time before Star was born with her genetics being thoroughly spliced with Aster's xenomorph DNA. Closing her eyes and focusing her instincts, she began to channel her strength, centering around her tied-down arms.
Margret stopped taking pictures, and lowered her phone, carefully examining Kira, given the latter's bizarre facial expression. Using her mutation-enhanced strength, Kira broke through the rope keeping her bound to the chair. And the timing could not have been better, as the egg hatched, releasing the facehugger within.
With her instincts still at their apex, Kira was able to react in time as the facehugger leapt at her, catching it by the legs. The incubatory creature writhed against her, whipping its tail around.
"What are you DOING?!" Margret shouted.
The criminal woman drew a compact handgun and made her way downstairs to the entrance of the cell, and this is when Kira knew to make her move. Fighting to keep the facehugger under control, she went over to the entrance of the cell. Just before the door opened, Kira ducked off to the side, and once Margret walked in, she tossed the facehugger directly at her.
"AAAAAHHHHH...!" Margret shrieked.
She was unable to raise her weapon in time before the facehugger clasped down on her head, forcing her to drop the weapon and fall to her bum. Kira wasted no time, picking up the dropped gun and leaving the cell, closing the door behind her to ensure the chestburster could not escape, and would hopefully starve to death so long as no one discovered the place.
Before leaving, Kira went up to the observation platform where Margret had previously been, finding her purse there. She opened it to find a number of useful items, taking the handgun's spare magazines, as well as her satellite phone and a switchblade stiletto knife, before she went on her way to get back out of the place.
(XXXX)
Sam, still at Kira's house, spent hours waiting for her flatmate to return with her extraterrestrial daughter.
"I sure hope everything's okay..." Sam said to herself, "...where the hell are they?"
"I calculate an eighty-percent probability that Kira and Star have encountered an unavoidable obstacle that has prevented them from returning to their residence," SORIA said.
Sam sighed. "Yeah, no shit."
SORIA paused for a moment before responding. "I fail to understand the relevance that excrement of any kind has to this conversation."
"Never mind," Sam responded.
She pulled down an opening in the window blinds with her finger, peering into the distance. There were no signs of life in the vicinity of Kira's house.
"Maybe I should go out and look for them..." Sam thought out loud.
"Given the present circumstances, do you consider that to be a wise course of action, Samantha?" SORIA asked.
"At this point, it's all I can think of," Sam said. "Besides, I'm sure nobody would suspect me, since they probably don't know I'm involved."
She then went to put her sandals on, and grabbed the pepper spray from her purse before she went out to her car. At this point, she had no idea where Kira or Star could be, but she was willing to go on a search for her friend. After all, she was in debt to Kira, in more than just finances...
Hope this helped to finally piece some things together with the story, and get the hype back up for more to come. And thing is... I have a stockpile of pre-written chapters I've been working on at my place of work (trust me, it's possible to do it at my job :) ), all for the purpose of giving myself a little leeway, and upholding my commitment to completing this story. Hope this entices you all to see it through to the end! Keep holding on...