Akkan felt disorientated and confused.
You are my child. I feel it within your mind. Do not be afraid.
Defensively, Akkan shot back. Who are you? What do you want?
I am your mother, Akkan. I was the one who bred you into this world.
It was a queen. A hive queen, here, within these walls. It just couldn't be… You must be the mother of many. What makes you so sure that I am one of yours?
The tone of the queen lost its soothing touch. Why do you doubt me? What makes you doubt me? You cannot do that. Now free me, and I will crush these humans here. Free me, and free your brothers and sisters, and I will make sure every prey will be harvested or devoured.
These words instilled a chilling fear in Akkan's heart. The Queen making contact with him had woken the old urge.
He had to help his hive. They were his kin, and he had to help them. But there was something else.
I will help you, queen. But under one condition.
Do not pester me with your conditions. You're a worker. I am your queen and you must obey me. At all costs.
You might be a queen-
I am your queen, child. I will ensure our survival, and you will protect me. Now come and free me. If you do not, you will not belong to this hive anymore.
Queen, there are two humans here whom I think highly of. One who is my mate-?
You will kill him. You will not mate. I am your queen, you are merely a worker. You will not be allowed to mate.
Akkan's heart hardened against the soothing voice. I will not free you. You will not hurt Paul.
The queen fell silent, and he continued his crawling along the tunnels.
What have you become? What have they done to you, my poor child? The queen's voice was soothing again, and Akkan could feel the pity and the motherly love within it. It was overwhelming him. He couldn't resist the pull, he had to help his mother.
No.
He mustn't abandon Paul
I will get my mate, and then I will free you.
You must leave him. You are not fit to mate. Only I am.
I will not leave him. If you want help then you must agree on that.
The queen was cunning. Akkan felt it through the unique connection that they shared. She was smarter than other Xenomorphs, that was evident in her ability to use a language to communicate with him, not just relate her general feelings.
He didn't know what language it was, but he didn't care right now. He had to get back to Paul, and see him returned to safety, unscathed.
And then he would find Schulz and rip out his gut.
Queen?
I am listening, child.
I have a quest of my own. Once I have finished it, I will see you be freed.
You have become one of them, child. You think like them, you speak like them. You even slight me for saving some worthless prey.
Akkan growled. He is not worthless. He has strength you have no idea about. He can do things you cannot imagine. If you so much as touch him, I promise you, you will feel vengeance.
The queen fell silent. He had confused her. It was not known to her for a xenomorph to behave like that towards her.
But she was still cunning. Not equipped with an intelligence on Akkan's or Paul's level, but still her instincts served her well.
Child, you are abusing your position of power over me.
Akkan ignored her.
I will agree on a deal with you, child.
He stopped crawling and sniffing his way around the tunnels and listened.
I will leave your mate alone. As long as you help me, I will leave any prey alone you tell me to, and I will tell the rest of the Hive to leave them alone.
She was unhappy, Akkan could feel it but her instinct of survival was too strong, so she subordinated to him.
And she would not lie. She couldn't. No xenomorph could.
I will free you once this is done. The words flowed so easy through Akkan's mind, but he knew their falseness in his heart. Weyland and his plan didn't include saving a queen, and he would have problems relaying it to Paul and Weyland convincingly.
But he wanted her on his side. He wanted her to shut up, more of it. She represented a pull, deep in him, a primal urge to defend his hive.
But he also knew that she was not his hive. His mate was.
And now Paul was suffering, maybe already dying somewhere in this bunker whilst he had chit-chatted with an imprisoned queen. He had to find him, and fast. Before something else happened to him.
Paul had almost fainted at seeing the familiar face looking at him.
"You…You…You..You.."
"Hey, Paul. Come on in." He shoved Paul inside the room, making the surprised human stumble and almost fall.
"Merrill! What are you doing here?"
"I'm doing what I can to help generous Dr. Schulz out on his quest."
"What do you want with me?"
"Well, after our small hiccup a few years ago, the only thing I actually want is revenge."
"It was-"
"YOU COULD'VE GONE AND SHUT UP ABOUT IT, PAUL. IT WASN'T RAPE, FAR FROM IT!" Merrill Burke's face was pulled into a vicious snarl.
"You raped me, Merrill. You hurt me and raped me, and then left me alone with my pain in your fricking cellar!"
"Listen, Paul." Merrill pulled their faces close together, breathing onto Paul's "You almost ruined my life. I almost got imprisoned. I almost ended up on a fricking prison colony! Me!" He laughed. "Did you really want that, Paul?"
Paul tried to get away from Merrill. "Yes. I wanted to see you dead."
"Really, Paul. What a shame. Because you won't."
Paul growled. "I hate you, Merrill."
"It doesn't matter now. I will see you suffer. Oh, it was such fun last time…" Merrill grabbed Paul, and hauled him over to a bench.
Paul knew what it was.
Merrill fastened his legs and arms down, not without getting a kick to his shoulder. "Oi! Stop it, you bitch."
"What do you want to do with me?"
"Schulz said we only need your blood, and I'm going to remove it from you. But first, I want a bit of revenge from what you did to me."
Laughing devilish, he rubbed Paul's belly.
Akkan had dropped from the ventilation shaft on the lower level, to investigate a scent he had caught.
He sniffed the wall.
It was Paul. Or rather, his scent.
He followed it, turning around a corner, and finding the scent stopping at one door. It didn't stop, to be precise. It mingled with something else. A smell of decay.
There was definitely a scent of decay on the air in the room around him.
Akkan scanned the walls. There were small doors set into the walls, and Akkan stepped over to one.
Weyland watched intently, as Schulz activated the prototype weapon
He was playing for time. Time, as he saw now, was wasted. They had found Akkan, and Schulz would show Weyland the weapon's lethality by killing Akkan. He only hoped Akkan would be able to best the weapon before it killed him, but if it did, he would cooperate with Schulz. He wouldn't gain anything by dying himself, and there were loads of possibilities to get back against Schulz if this went wrong.
He could see corridors pass along the camera's screen, and then a small door, like in a cupboard.
Schulz pressed a button, and the weapon opened the door, and burst out, on the surprised Akkan who was standing behind it.
The xenomorph hissed.
Akkan had examined the wall, until he heard rapid footsteps, and smelled a wave of decay run over him.
The door crashed open, and something burst out. Akkan was knocked to the floor. Turning around, all his strength drained from him, as he saw what was attacking him.
It was a xenomorph, but unlike him. Its skin was hanging in shreds from the exoskeleton, part of its head had dissolved, leaving nothing but stinking, oozing green patches. The xeno prowled closer, leaving the darkness of the cupboard, a darkness even Akkan's gaze couldn't pierce, and, hissing threateningly, advanced on him, tail raised.
Akkan wanted to flee, but his legs would not obey him.
The xeno advanced, and before it could bring down its tail, Akkan heard one last time a scream. It was a scream so devastating and fearful, so filled with despair and longing, his heart broke.
"AKKAN! HELP ME!"
It was like in his dream. Like his dream had been a premonition.
The creature prowled closer. It did not have a mind Akkan could reach out to.
It hissed, menacingly.
Paul was in danger. And whatever this was, it was going to kill him, if they didn't stop it.
It brought its tail down, the tail being tipped by a sharp metal blade.
Akkan rolled over, to his side, and jumped up again, energy coursing through his veins.
The creature hissed, and attacked him again, launching itself at him. Akkan tried to sidestep it, but he was brought down, and slammed into a wall.
He felt a fist connect with the side of his head, sending his vision spinning. Again and again the creature hit his head.
He screeched, and turned around, sinking his fangs into the talon.
A xenomorph's outer jaw is as powerful as its inner maw, even powerful enough to bite through steel.
And now Akkan closed it mercilessly on the talon of his opponent. He felt the teeth crunch through the exoskeleton and clamped his inner maw shut not to taste the xenomorph blood.
The creature squealed, and withdrew, blood dripping out of the stump on the floor, making the concrete fizz and dissolve.
The two xenomorphs circled each other, ever so other lunging at each other, but no one engaging definitely.
Akkan was angry, and confused. He wanted to help Paul, and he didn't want to fight the xenomorph.
But he had to help his lover.
Suddenly, he remembered a film he and Akkan had watched.
It was very old, and a human was acting in it, defeating evil humans to stop an even worse human from killing good humans.
He couldn't remember its name, but the gist was that the fighting human only relied on his hands to defeat his opponents.
He used a technique called Kung-Fu by the humans, and it involved cleansing one's mind of all that distracted.
To become one with your body.
Akkan now though of this. If the man could do it, he could as well.
He tried to let go of all the fear, and the anger, and the hate.
He was faster than all of them.
He was a xenomorph. A hunter.
Lashing out at creature with his tail, he growled viciously. His enemies answered with a swipe of the tail at Akkan's head.
Akkan saw the glinting tip flying at his head, and everything slowed down.
He bent his upper body backwards, stabilizing himself with his tail on the ground, and watching the creature's tail pass over him.
He lifted himself up again, grabbing the tail below the tip, and pulling it towards him.
The creature hissed, and Akkan yanked the tail, unbalancing it.
He launched himself towards it, and watched the creature sidestep his jump. He soared past it, swiping his tail at the head, leaving an oozing gash within the dome. He rotated around, stopping his fall, and brought his talon down on the creature lightning fast, striking its skull, and sending bits of slimy flesh flying.
And then, his talon impacted into something else.
Metal.