Chapter IX

She kept up the torture for a couple of minutes longer before she raised the dagger in her left hand and released the same poison as before and slashed at his throat making sure to cut as deeply as possible.

Once her enemy was dead her logical side returned and pushed the instincts away. Lex jumped to her feet and crouched down facing the other Yautja for a moment, before she moved and collected her dagger from the chest of his comrade. She kept him in her line of sight at all time, every movement that he made she shifted, never allowing him to get behind her.

Range had watched as the female Ooman had tortured Taro, he had seen the satisfaction at Taro roaring his pain for all to hear cross her face, he didn't know how the Ooman could dish out such torture unless, of course she had been tortured in such a manner.

"Your companion was weak." Lex said after a while of watching the other Yautja. "I could take that level of pain when I was six." She continued before she turned and used one of the pillars as a spring board up to the room above, once there she collected her other dagger and left to track down Sebastian and Weyland.

Range looked at where the Ooman female used to stand for a moment.

#Scar.# he called through the communications line.

#Yes Range.# Scar replied.

#Since you have studied the Ooman's most used language would you mind translating something for me?# Range asked as he selected the audio that he copied and sent to his friend, minutes passed as Scar listened to it a couple of times to be sure that he translated it right.

#It seem that she was saying 'Your companion was weak. I could take that level of pain when I was six.'# Scar translated.

#So does that mean that she underwent training of a higher level than us Yautja have to deal with, or does it simply mean she has some fighting prowess and was primarily trained to ignore pain?# Range asked as he stared at the hole in the ceiling.

#I do not know mei'hswei. I do not know.# Scar replied.

Lex ran through the corridors of the pyramid following her visions to find Weyland and Sebastian, it took her two reconfiguration's of the pyramid before she found them climbing a stair case.

"What was that thing?" Sebastian asked once Lex had caught up with him and Weyland.

Lex looked at him for a moment as she moved forward, then she grabbed Weyland's other side. "I know what they are but you'll call me crazy and not believe me." She replied.

"I have to stop!" Weyland interrupted them as he fell to his knees half way up the stair.

"Take it easy." Lex said as she helped the man sit down, she saw that he wasn't listening as he was panicking. "Look at me..." she continued as she grabbed Weyland's head in her hands. "You've taken too much air into your lungs. They're starting to freeze." She said in a soothing voice, not breaking eye contact. "You have to control your breathing. Slow steady breaths. Slow... steady... that's it." She said once Weyland's breathing had calmed down a bit.

"I'm okay... I'm okay." Weyland said after a minute.

"Come on." Lex said as she started to haul the man to his feet.

"No, I can't." Weyland denied. "It's hard enough to stand." He continued as he slumps against that wall.

"Weyland..." Lex trailed off.

"Don't..." Weyland interrupted her.

"I'm not letting you die down here." Lex said firmly.

"You didn't Lex." Weyland rebuked. "Go. I'll buy you whatever time I can." He continued, before a Yautja appeared in the doorway that they had gone through minutes before, Weyland saw this and grabbed the ice axe that he carried and made his way down the stairs ready to buy the others as much time as he could.

"There's another one!" Sebastian called out. "We have to go! Now!" Sebastian yelled.

"Go!" Weyland yelled back at the two behind him. Sebastian obeys and grabbed Lex who looked like she was ready to stay back and fight the Predator. Lex glanced back at Weyland, the look on his face was of someone that would sacrifice their life for another. "Run!" Weyland encouraged them.

Scar faced the old Ooman, who drew himself up to his full height, as the Ooman swung at him he was able to see the female Ooman and another male Ooman make their way up the stairs, he felt a rush of jealousy at the fact that the male Ooman had his arm around his female counterpart.

Scar wrapped his hand around the Ooman's neck after he had batted the feeble swing away, he lifted him up and scanned his body; the Bio-mask picked up that the Ooman was sick, his body was riddled with disease. Scar shook his head, this was not an honorable kill so he dropped the Ooman and walked up the stairs, ready to hunt the other Ooman's down.

"Don't turn your back on me you son of a bitch!" Weyland said fiercely, he wouldn't make it easy on the hunter to go after Lex, she had been one of the only ones that had cared about his health and he was going to repay that kindness with giving her a chance to live.

Scar ignored what the Ooman male behind him had said. Weyland saw that the hunter wasn't listening, so he pulled his oxygen tank and a flare out of his jacket, he lit the flare by striking it against the ground where he was kneeling.

"If I can't get your attention with words then I'm sure I can get it through actions." Weyland said, before he put the flare in front of the tank and opened the valve, a jet of flames was the result of the mixture, and it engulfed the hunter, Weyland felt some satisfaction that he had managed to get his attention.

Scar spun around when the Ooman had attacked him with a jet of flames, for the creativity Scar had to admit that the Ooman would have made a great hunter, but that didn't change the fact that the Ooman had attacked him. Scar withdrew his spear from its sheath and approached the old Ooman, once Scar was standing in front of the one that had attacked him he thrust his ki'cti-pa forward impaling the Ooman. After Weyland had died Scar roared out his triumph, before he turned and made his way up the stairs to follow the other two Ooman's.

Lex and Sebastian had just left the maze of a labyrinth when they heard the Predator roar out his victory. Lex paused and looked behind her wondering how long it would be before they had to run from the very same Yautja that had just killed Weyland.

"Weyland!" She called once she had realized what she had thought.

"You can't help him." Sebastian said before he dragged her away. "We have to go." He continued and that seemed to unfreeze the female, as she turned around and followed her companion.

They ran into a big chamber that was lined with pillars and statues, it was dark inside the chamber, but that didn't hinder Lex at all thanks to her night vision given to her by her feline side.

Lex looked at her wrist compass. "We keep moving and stay on this heading. We keep it together, make it to the surface." She said once she took in the readings.

Range watched as the Ooman's moved through the dark chamber, he zoomed in on the Sivk'va-tai that was on her back. He cursed, he didn't want to go against the code and have his honor stripped from him but he and Scar really needed that weapon if they wanted to stand even a remote chance of getting out of the chiva alive.

#Scar, we have a slight problem.# Range said over the communication line.

#What problem? Other than being constantly evaded by two Ooman's, of course.# Scar asked as he ran to catch up to the Ooman's.

#The female Ooman is now the one that carries the sivk'va-tai.# Range replied and was rewarded with the sound of Scar cursing.

Lex and Sebastian were startled when the alarm sounded. Both looked at each other. "Shit." They said in sync.

"It's moving!" Sebastian yelled as the pyramid began to reconfigure itself.

"State the obvious would you." Lex retorted as they began to move.

"Through here!" Sebastian called as he led the way to a stone slab that rose from the ground to seal the exit. "Hurry!" he urged, as he helped Lex through the doorway, he then jumped and hauled himself over the edge and scrambled through the ever smaller gap between the floor and the ceiling, he slips over the edge and onto the floor next to Lex moments before he would have been crushed.

They relaxed thinking that they were safe when a chakt-ra suddenly flew between their faces and embedded into the wall behind them, sending bits of stone flying and dust to fall.

Scar appeared in front of the stone slab that blocked him from the Ooman's, he growls in frustration he knew that his father was watching the live footage of his hunt and he was probably laughing at the fact that a couple of Ooman's were out witting a Yautja.

Scar turned and saw that there was a Kiande Amedha facehugger, it launched itself at him but he just cut in half using one of his chakt-ra, he rolled his eyes; when was he going to find a fully grown Kiande Amedha?

That question was soon answered when he sensed that one was right behind him. He spun after he caught the chakt-ra and cuts the lower half of the Kiande Amedha's face off, the part that he had cut off fell to the floor then the body fell. He turned and saw the size of his kill, he knelt down and removed his mask, then he cut off one of the Kiande Amedha's talons and wrote the symbol of a Blooded Warrior onto his mask then he raised the talon and marked himself.

Lex watched as the warrior killed the facehugger, then the fully grown Serpent; she admired his skills and he made her wish that his race accepted Ooman's as equals so that she could claim him for her own, he had proved his worth and she knew that in the future he would be a great warrior.

Once Scar finished the marking ceremony he reattached his mask, it alerted him to the fact that there was another facehugger above him, he spun and unsheathed his dah'kte and sliced it in two like the first one that had tried to impregnate him.

"He's 'blooding' himself." Sebastian said as he watched the scene standing next to Lex.

She turned to the Mexican next to her with a frown. "What?" she hadn't heard him as she had been lost in wistful thoughts.

"Ancient tribal warriors would mark themselves with the blood of their kill. It's a rite of passage, a sign that they have become a man." Sebastian explained before they jumped down from the perch that they had stood on to see through the peephole.

"This is starting to make sense." Sebastian continued as he examined the hieroglyphics on the floor and ceiling.

UUUU

Miller, Verheiden and Connors were close to the entrance, only needing to transverse a couple more corridors and they would be free, they hadn't encountered anything dangerous yet and that made them thank their lucky stars.

"I don't feel right not going back to see if we can find the others." Miller said quietly.

"I don't either but we aren't even sure if we can go up against whatever those things were, it's better to get to the surface and regroup at the Piper Maru." Verheiden whispers.

"Besides Lex told us that the priority right now was to get to the surface and the Piper Maru, we're just following her orders." Connors said just as quietly as the other two. "Lex will be hailed a hero for saving the three of us, because she ordered us to get to the Piper Maru and not look back, we just have to say that she stayed with Weyland because of his health and because she was a kind woman she wanted to help him make it back but the pyramid collapsed killing all of the others." He continued.

Miller and Verheiden paused and looked at Connors; they were surprised that he came up with a believable story so quickly.

Up a head Connors paused when he heard that he wasn't being followed, he turned and looked at them. "What?" he asked.

Miller shook his head. "I wish that I had known you when I was a teenager." He muttered. "Would have saved me a lot of trouble." He continued as he caught up with the man.

"Me too Miller, me too." Verheiden said as he followed the scientist. "We'll continue walking Connors, we aren't any safer and we aren't getting any younger." He continued.

Connors was jolted out of his surprise by what Verheiden had said at the end, making him turn around and start the trek up again.