Blurred vision, Asuka rummaged around the forrest floor nearby where she collapsed and fell asleep for a short while to try and find her glasses. They must have fallen off as she stumbled and crashed out on the slightly muddy ground. The poor girl managed to regain most of her physical strength, however she was afraid, like the other times Cyrus had laid hands upon her, that event would be etched in her memory forever.
Asuka found her glasses on the floor, but one of the lenses was slightly cracked. Not beyond being able to see out of both eye, but just enough for it to be annoing and noticable. Sort of like when a touch screen cracks but the device is still usable. She cleaned her glasses with a shred of her jeans and put them on, relieved to be able to see again. Shaking with still weak legs, Asuka attempted to stand up and walk, but could only do so for a short moment before she had to lean against the closest tree.
"Fuck... Cyrus really hammered it into me this time... ow..."
Anyone not knowing her full story and just found out she was raped by her fiance would undoubtedly be in shock of what a small reaction she was pulling and how quickly she recovered from a period of crying. But she had sadly grown more and more numb to Cyrus' treatments of this kind over the years, reacting less and less with every slap, every grab, every punch, kick, grope, claw, touch, thrust... She just wanted him to pay for what he's done to her. No doubt he would come to look for her later with her parents, putting on another "i'm glad you're safe, I thought I lost you" act so the cycle can repeat itself all over again.
After a few minutes of walking practice and feeling like a self trained toddler, Asuka manaed to find her feet and walk with a slight limp further into the natural environment. However, she could only walk a short distance before having to stop and rest her exhausted legs, mainly around the inner thigh area that was feeling rather sore and aching. She sat down on the floor, resting her back up against a large tree trunk.
"Dammit. What do I do now?"
The tired girl was about to close her eyes for another rest, but then her senses peaked in an instant reflex towards a large bush beside a couple of fallen trees begin to rustle. 78 needed to stop. He was exhausted and had been running non-stop for over an hour at full srinting speed on all fours. But he had to trust his gut instinct with him on this one and he could feel the source of it close by.
"Damn! Wheres my-... er the human that saved me hiding?"
The worried xenomorph climbed a tree to try and get a better view of the surrounding area. He searched around for a brief moment until from the direction he was originally heading he heard a loud screaming and bolted, despite being exhausted, finding a willpower within him to keep going.
"AHHHHHH!"
Asuka screamed as she saw a huge wild bear emerge from the bushes, stand up on it's hind legs and roar at her. Terror and fear just wouldn't let her rest. There wasn't many bears left in the wild, since there wasn't many wild environments left so most wildlife researchers would kill to see a bear up this close and Asuka didn't want to be killed because a bear rocked up out of nowhere.
The terrified teenager prepared for the worst, curled her knees into her chest and covered her face with her arms and squeezing her eyes tightly shut. She was waiting for her fate to slash her open, but rather than feel a painful claw or bite, she heard a loud roar accompanied by an equally, if not louder, screech of a familiar sound.
Keeping her eyes shut, a split second later she heard an almost disgusting sound of something being ripped apart, followed instantly by the feeling of a cold, wet fluid splash all over her. She didn't want to open her eyes, but something inside of her told her that it'd be alright. Asuka slowly opened her eyes, followed by lowering her arms from her face and looking down at herself to see she was covered in blood of another living thing.
Her eyes followed the blood from her body, along the ground to come across a couple of bear limbs torn to shreds, reluctantly continuing to follow the trail to soon lead to a carcass that was once a bear. A giant hole ran through it's dead body, assuming something had punctured through it. Beside the dead bear sat a familiar jet black creature, whom Asuka recognised in an instant.
"78?! Is that you?!"
78 let out a high pitched hiss and crawled over to her to greet her properly, placing his forehead against hers to reassure the frightened human of his presence. Tears began to flow from her face.
"Oh 78, I thought i'd never see you again. I was so scared..."
The xenomorph crawled back a little, taking a better look at the poor girl. In a few mere seconds, his small purrs changed into a furious hiss at her tattered and beaten up appearance.
"What the FUCK happened to you, Human?!"
Asuka jumped a little in shock from hearing his sudden mood shift, but noticed him staring at her torn up clothes, cuts and bruises.
"oh... right. Well... Cyrus escaped the facility..."
that BASTARD
"and he put me on a drug, one strong enough for... for a xenomorph."
WHAT
"then he took me back to his house and... and..."
She was normally used to speaking about her ordeals with Cyrus, so why was it different when she was speaking to 78 about it? She didn't understand, but she had to get it out of her system.
"He raped me, 78. It's like... A forceful mating that one pushes the other into when they don't want it from them."
78 went silent. He was in utter disbelief at how foul and sickening this race really was and he thought being behind glass and tested on was bad, it seems that was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to these humans. Then finally tiled his head back and let out a loud screeching hiss at the sky in fustration.
"I'm gunna KILL THIS FUCKER!"
His screech sent shivers down Asuka's spine. She was both feeling fearful of what would happen next, but at the same time she wanted nothing more than to lead 78 to Cyrus' house and not just watch but film his murder and upload it to the internet. Then she remembered something.
"My spaceship part!"
Her tears stopped streaming down her face as she remembered that she had to go back to Cyrus' house to get it back. Originally she planned to sneak in while he was meant to be sleeping, but now she had 78 with her, things could get interesting. But for now, they both needed their rest. Asuka tried to reason with 78 that now wasn't a good time to be charging into Cyrus' well guarded house shortly after a violence incident and that they should strike when he least expects it. The warrior was filling up with hatred and adrenaline for Cyrus as each millisecond passed.
The ony reason he was able to contain himself was because he was in Asuka's presence, but he didn't know why that was. The human and Xenomorph climbed a nearby tree (not the one with bears blood beside and all over it's lower trunk, that might catch attention from animals and people if they were nearby and were found), climbed it, though Asuka needed serious help from 78, and they both perched on a large branch that could hold both of their weight. 78 leaned against the high up trunk sideways, there not being enough hours in the evening to build a miniature mucus nest that the large xenomorh hives are made from so perching was all he could do.
Asuka on the otherhand couldn't sleep. Not just because she was sitting upright beside 78, but because of everything that's happened today and the fact that she passed out beforehand which rested her up a bit too. She leaned against 78's cold, hard shoulder and began to speak. "hey 78..." The xeno turned his head to face Asuka.
"How do you talk? I mean, you can understand me but... I can't understand you apart from a few gestures and body language."
78 never thought about that. How WOULD they be able to communicate if one day body language didn't explain something or wasn't enough? He hissed a low deep sound and nuzzled his head against hers.
"I'd ask how you talk to the other xenomorphs... but you can't sa anything to me so what's the point in asking?"
She sighed. But then an idea struck her.
"oh! I know!"
78 turned his wholebody around to face her now in interest.
"Me and my best friend Marie used to volunteer down at the orphanage for disabled children. There were many kids there that couldn't hear so me and her learnt sign language! it's where you talk, but you use your hands to generate symbols with a meaning for a words or letter. They also use it for animals, such as gorillas and monkeys, who have the same issue with english speech as you do."
78 tiled his head to the side.
"here, lemme show you. Like this symbol here means hello."
She formed her hands into a few dfferent symbols and shapes.
"and this means, 'my name is Asuka'."
She did the same again, but different patterns and symbols. 78 gave a low pitched hiss and gently pressed his forehead against Asuka's. First she helped him escape and re-build his hive, next she found a way for him to communicate to her since he couldn't actually speak English. Asuka started to show him all the letters of the alphabet, getting him to try it out too. They went through it over and over for a while, until she believed that 78 had grasped most of the letters.
"Alright, you think you got all those?"
78 began to make symbols with his hands.
"Piss easy, human. My siblings and I are much better and faster learners than that of your race."
"Well, you get straight to the point don't you?"
She smiled, liking that he had a personality and a slight attitude under that hard skin.
"But i won't deny what you're saying, 78. That's for sure."
Then it hit her. She had only known this Xenomorph by it's lab experiment number. Surely there must be something else suitable that he's called.
"Hey 78? What's your actual name?"
"name?"
"yeah, like how i'm Asuka. Thats what people call me. So far I only know you as '78', your lab experiment number. Surely you've got another name, don't you?"
"No. We're not givin individual titles of our own. If mother wants to speak with us, she calls us 'children' or individually as 'my child'. Siblings are the same, we know each other by just 'brother' or sister'. We're not given the priveliage for something like names. Theres simply no need for it."
Asuka looked a little glum at hearing this. Not have a name? Surely he would want to feel like he wasn't simply a part of a matching set or just another number in an indentical flock. She felt almost sad for 78, but he had known that his whole life, just like she had known no freedom of choice.
"Would you... like a proper name?"
78 became confused by this suggestion.
"meaning?"
"well, i'm not a xenomorph like you, so I can't call you 'brother', it wouldn't feel right. Plus the name '78' is old and in the past, reflecting on nothing but those days you spent in a cell. So I was wondering if you were alright with me giving you a new name, something that only I called you by. Something to show you a small glimpse of individuality amongst your many siblings."
Asuka blushed a little and looked away from 78. She wasn't sure why but something about what she said made her feel a little embarrassed, as if her words had some kind of other hidden meaning to them that even she didn't know about. 78 leaned his head into the side of Asuka's face and started purring slightly, then he backed away, placed one hand on her cheek and turned her head to face him as he then signed.
"you know what, I think I'd like that... Asuka."
They were both feeling a little embarrassed now, neither entirely sure why. Asuka started to speak again.
"I think... you would sit the name... Lucifer."
"Why Lucifer?"
"well... because my parents are horribly religious, they made me attend some sort of sunday school. I'll explain school another time, it's too annoying to even think about. Anyways, and there was this story about an angel called Lucifer who did a bad thing and ended up being satan. Or something, i didn't really pay attention."
"If you hated it so much, why did that name of all names come to mind?"
"Maybe it's because..."
Asuka blushed a little deeper.
"Because to everyone in my race, you look and appear to be similar to a demon but... to me you're always going to be an angel that saved me."
78 had no idea what an angel or a demon or whatever she was going on about, but he got the picture that it was symbolic in some way towards how he's one thing to many, but something different to her.
"Lucifer, huh? I can live with that."
"R-really? *sigh* Glad you like it."
They pressed their foreheads together, just sitting there for a while, enjoying each others company in a world where it would be considered strange or disgusting. Until Asuka spoke quietly over the sound of crickets nearby.
"C'mon. Lets get some sleep, i'm exhausted."
Lucifer couldn't agree more. He watched as the human in front of him struggled to get comfy on the tree branches. He picked her up and pulled her in close, carrying her in one arm as he easliy manuvered his way around the tree, looking for a much thicker branch a little lower down the trunk, but still relatively high up. He sat her down beside the trunk.
"we'll sleep here. You're race isn't built for trees."
Asuka was in slight marvel of how considerate Lucifer was, but maybe that was ust him repaying her affectionately for giving him a name. A sense of identity. Lucifer curled up like a large cat, hanging a couple of limbs over the edge. But not a second later, he sat up and decided he would pull Asuka in close to him, and lie back down with her cradled safely underneath his armoured body. The confused girl lied there between a large branch and a large alien body drifting off to sleep.
She was almost bright red in the face, but honestly couldn't understand why. He was just protecting her, right? The two of them lied there, close together in the tree, feeling each others bodies heat radiate off one another. Lucifer had something on his mind though. He should really head back to his hive soon, the queen would be wondering where he is since she would know if he were dead or not, she had a knack for sensing these things. But first, in the morning before he finally returned to her side, there was one last thing he had to take care of.
The one that hurt the very human that saved him.
Cyrus.
He was going to get what he deserved.
WEL, heres another chapter I tried to shove out as soon as I could! XD
Once again, thanks for reading, I hope you like it so far, no spoilers but you're in for something in the next chapter as you can imagine. ;D
I love reading all your reviews and i'm gunna start replying to them all! So don't feel shy to drop me your opinion or even a simple "i like it so far." XD But i'll take any criticism too if you think theres something I should improve or if anything doesn't add up so I can fix it. XD
Hang around for the next chapter! chapter 6: Mission impossible! :D
I'll try not to keep you waiting long. XD