Chapter 16

"Forgive me…" Terre screamed and struggled against the larger version of Damon with all her might.

"No! NO! god please no…" she whimpered and chocked on her own sobbing. "Help me. Somebody help me please. (Weep) please…" The large creature lain it's tail over her legs and held her still. It slowly lowered it's head to her neck and began rubbing his teeth against her. this made Terre cry louder, and Damon flinch. He turned and could only watch as his Queen was taken. Why can't I feel anything but guilt and self loathing over this? She is my Queen, he is the more experienced warrior and would make a better mating partner than me. so this is the best thing, right? Then why the hell do I feel like ripping his tail off for simply making her cry? The larger, silent warrior brought his head up and took a deep breath. Damon flinched again as the warrior, launched its inner mouth at Terre's chest and took a tight hold of her jump suit. It started to withdraw its inner mouth, pulling and tearing at her clothing at the same time. Terre was still thrashing and tears were flooding down her face more than they had ever flowed in her life. Even when she was nearly raped…but Kim had been there for her then. She wasn't here now. Now she was going to be raped and no one would come to her rescue. Not even Damon. "Damon…" Damon shuddered when she said his name. he felt terrible and it didn't help that something inside him, was burning and making his tail twitch, his claws stretch and made him bare his fangs. He was livid. At himself and this damn warrior that was taking his Queen. His Queen. What made him feel worse, other than hearing his Queen's cries, was that he wasn't feeling bad for solely going against his Queens pleas, but because it wasn't him that was helping her build her hive, her great and first empire. Some rogue warrior that had been weak enough o be captured by meat bags is the one fertilising his Queen and not him. he had planed to help her make her hive when the time was right. And he had finally finished changing into a warrior, only for this creature to show up. Damn it! he wasn't as big or as strong, that came with experience and age, but he wasn't going to be beaten for the right to his Queen! Not when she wasn't willing…

"Damn it!" he span his entire body round to face his weeping Queen. Her long blonde hair was fanned on the cold floor, her black bangs stuck to the mixture of sweat and tears on her face and her eyes were closed tight. If she was going to be taken, she wasn't going to stare into the eyes of her rapist. She didn't even want to see it, never mind see it. but she couldn't suppress a hopeless cry as the top half of her jump suit was finally torn to shreds, leaving her only in her bra (that they left her with) and her stomach was bare. The creature started hissing at her and it seemed to really piss Damon off. That bastard! He is laughing! He is loving this! Bastard! That's it. I don't give a meat bag's ass if it is for the good of the hive. I will not let anyone, ANYONE, touch MY Queen!

"Back off!" Terre turned her face to the side and finally opened her eyes. Damon had his back hunched, to make him look bigger and more dangerous, his fangs bared and his inner mouth vibrating with his low, murderous hissing and snarling. The warrior simply dug his teeth into her trouser leg and began to pull. "I said." Terre watched as Damon ran into a charge and brought one of his clawed hands down on the base of the warrior's tail and severed it clean off, sending a spray of bright green blood over Terre's boots. "Back off! She is MY Queen. And she DOESN'T want YOU to do ANYTHING to her. BACK OFF NOW!" He snarled and looked to Terre's red, tear stained face. Her face was still, no longer thrashing from side to side and her eyes were gleaming with awe. Her quivering lips curled into a sweet, thankful and weak smile. This feed Damon's fire that burned in his stomach. It grew inside him and seared in his chest. It erupted from his mouth in an almighty roar that made the cage bars themselves shake and quiver.

After losing it's tail, the large black warrior had released Terre's jump suit and arched it's back, screeching and wailing in pain from his lost appendage. It had stumbled sidewards, with it's new loss of balance, and into the side of the cage. Breathing heavily.

Terre clawed at the ground and scrambled over to Damon. She looped her arms around his neck and cried into his neck.

"Oh Damon. I lost all hope. I thought I was good as raped. Thank you, God thank you so much. (Whimper)I knew you cared. I knew you wouldn't just leave me."

"My Queen. Release me before." Terre screamed as the larger warrior launched towards them. Damon pushed her to the ground and tried to charge back. But the older warrior had a large weight advantage and easily pinned Damon to the floor. He pined his chest with one claw and brought the other up to slice his chest. Damon lashed his tail and smacked the warrior in the head, sending him flying off him and onto the floor. Damon hissed and quickly capitalised on his opening. He pinned it and lashed out with his own claws, slicing deep green weeping wounds in its face. He sliced again and blood spattered on Damon's face. The warrior roared and brought his claw up and smacked Damon in the shoulder, pushing him off. It go to it's feet and snarled at him. Damon launched his inner mouth out and tried to smash its skull open. But it lashed out with it's own inner mouth and sunk it's teeth deep into the flesh of his inner mouth, just after the teethed mouth. Damon wailed and tried to claw the older warrior's face to make it let go. But it sank it's teeth down hard. With one, sickening ripping sound, it tore Damon's teethed inner mouth from it's fleshy tongue it was attached to and yanked it off. Damon reeled back and blood slatted from his mouth. The taste of his own blood mixing with his saliva seemed to keep him going. There was no way that he would let his Queen down, let this 'creature' make her bleed like this. As being human will not exactly make her a perfect fit…

the larger Warrior hissed and flicked his head, spitting the bloody flesh to the other side of the cage. The warrior still hissed like he had won the battle. The inner mouth was the most deadly weapon of their kind, without it, he was worse off than a drone. Damon staggered backwards, dizzy from the loss of blood and searing pain in his mouth. his panting was making him sound beaten, and he almost thought that maybe, just maybe he was. but Terre changed all that.

"Damon! Please! I, I don't want you to get hurt! You mean so much to me. I, I don't want to be…taken by it. But…if it means that you are with me, then I will."

"NOTH!" His sloshing, bleeding tongue didn't help his speech. But the simple fact that he had interrupted her, and the word began with N. made her know that he wasn't going to give in. the Warrior seemed to hiss even louder and sat lazily on its back legs. In his eyes the battle was over. But Damon had seen into the heart of his Queen. She cared so much about him, like no Queen should. He wouldn't lose her to this, THIS pathetic creature. He wouldn't let his Queen down, he wouldn't. Even without his inner mouth, that he would miss, he was still a warrior. He would use his other natural weapons to win, like his claws, his tail, his wit. That's it! unlike this fighter, he had a mind, he had thoughts and intelligence. His Queen had given him the gift of will and thought. He made a plan to escape, he could out smart this empty skulled moron if he wanted to. He realised something for the first time since he started to think. He was the most deadly creature alive. He was an Xenomorph, with a mind. He was not only instinctively deadly, but now he was mentally deadly. He had a much dangerous weapon than that of an inner mouth. Drones had inner mouths. But they didn't have minds. And neither did this 'veteran' before him. The old fool didn't have the intelligence to win against him. Not know that Damon knew what he had to work with, and would win. He had the will to win, the need to win. He would beat this monster and earn the right to his Queen. He wanted it, ached for it. Victory would be his. He wanted it more; he was hungrier than this warrior and that, that would be the table turner. That is what makes him far more deadly than the older, more experienced warrior. The fighters spirit, determination and the mentality of never giving up, no matter what the odds.

Damon lowered his back to the floor, looked to his Queen that has started to quiver as the older warrior took a step towards her. but Damon wasn't going to let her get hurt, touched or 'served' in anyway by this thing in warrior's clothing. He waited until the warrior had his back turned, looking submissive. The warrior, thinking that he didn't have anything to worry about, started to stalk towards Terre as she huddled desperately in the corner. Just then, Damon launched onto the warrior's back and started digging his claws into his back and stabbing him over, and over again. Terre, seeing this from the front, crawled away and to the opposite side of the cage. She continuously looked behind her and crawled on her hands and knees. She shrieked as she tripped over the Warriors ex tail. Then something in her head just, clicked. She kneeled up and wrapped her tiny little hands around the tail, just under the spear tip and stood up. She put her foot half way down the tail and gathered all her remaining strength. She started screaming and pulling the tail with all her might. Sweating, her actions and plans were unnoticed by the fighting warriors. Damon had been thrown off, pinned again with all, all of his limbs restrained. His tail and legs were held by the older fighter's clawed feet and his arms were held at his 'elbows' by his claws. Damon grasped the older's arms back and tried to get it off. The Warrior hissed with victory and brought his head back. Damon knew exactly what it was about to do.

Terre heard an all too familiar sucking sound and knew that she had to hurry and fast. She screamed so loud, that both fighters stopped what they were doing and turned their heads in her direction. Something was happening to her, she could feel it. all her fear, all her frustration, all her anger was subsiding and quickly being replaced with livid rage, bubbling in her blood and coursing through her body. She could feel the strange and new emotion building up and flowing in her veins, which were slightly bulging in her arms. She screeched and her black eyes glint and shimmered. With one last effort, the hard tail snapped and cracked. The spear end of the tail was severed from the rest of it and she span round, madness dancing in her eyes.

"You want me you son of a bitch you come and get me!"

"NO!" The warrior doing as his 'Queen' had ordered, jumped from Damon and ran to fast for him to catch it. But he still tried. But it had reached the furious Queen before Damon could do anything about it. But Terre was ready. The Warrior launched at her to pin her, but she dropped to her back, held the spear ended tail erect from her chest and smirked evilly as the warrior was impaled in the chest, fatally.

"Die you son of a BITCH!" Terre pushed the spike upwards and the warrior screeched. Damon launched onto of the warrior, pushing against the spike and forcing it to come straight through its back. The creature hissed one last time, then went limp on Terre. Damon dug his claws into the dead creature and yanked it off her. She was still panting and holding the spear end upwards, like it was part of her. He crawled over her and looked eep into her eyes. They had dried but were now tearing again. She whimpered and threw the tail over to the sizzling corpse like it was the disgusting thing it was. Terre slowly looked up at Damon, he was panting and blood still dribbled down his chin. His chest heaved wit each breath and he didn't dare take his gaze from hers. Terre started to hiccup sobs and threw her arms in the air, sitting up and holding Damon tightly and possessively. "Oh Damon." Was all she could say through her crying. She kept repeating his name between sobs and held on to him for dear life.

"Fforfkivff me my Qffueen" (forgive me my Queen)

"What?" Then Terre remembered that Damon had lost his inner mouth in the battle and probably couldn't talk. "Hush. Don't try to talk. Here, let me see, open wide for me." HE sat up and opened his mouth wide. He simply watched as she tore the remains of the top half of her jump suit and used half to clean his wounds, and the other half to bandage it. he felt very uncomfortable with the material around his tongue, but it would heal his tongue. Then she ripped the bottom of her trousers into tattered shorts and used the new material to wipe him down. He simply sat there as she carefully, gently and lovingly cleaned every little cut and wound and clean it again. If he could have, he would have told her he loved her right then. He truly did. As strange as it sounds, a born, bred killer loving a human Queen of his kind. But he did, it was true and nothing would ever change it. But she would never know it. Because he would never tell her.

She sniffled and smiled with wet eyes. She wasn't crying anymore, but the tears were still there. She softly stroked his chest with the fabric and repeated the action over and over again. he hadn't taken his gaze from her the entire time, watching as she attentively cared for him. Damon lowered his head to rest on her shoulder and purred. It was the only noise he could make now. He pulled back when she started to quiver. Terre had started to cry again and it was hurting him still. Damon brought one hand up from the floor and brushed her bangs from her face. She smiled and beamed up at him.

"I, I thought I lost you back there." He shuck his head and winced, his entire body was sore and was finding it hard to hide. "Tell me where it hurts, please." The desperate tone in her voice made him think she was going to cry again with worry. So he lifted both claws and lightly cupped her face. He slowly pulled her closer and rested her forehead against his. Terre closed her eyes, feeling that this was his way of what humans would do as a hug. Damon removed his hands but still lightly pressed his forehead against hers. He placed one weak claw over her hand and loosely took hold of her wrist. He lifted her hand and placed it flat against his chest, where his heart was and held his hand over hers, keeping it there with both hands. "I thought I lost you. (Sniffle) never do that again ok. You mean too much to me. if I lost you, I don't know what I'd do." She rubbed her forehead against him slowly, from side to side and fought to keep her tears back. "You mean to damn much to me. you really do…" Damon released her hands and pulled away. But she leaned into him and placed a brief, sweet kiss on his forehead. He was stunned to the spot! "You asked me to forgive you. I forgive you and say thank you. Thank you for fighting for me. I will never be able to repay you enough for that. You were there for me…thanks." Damon finally nodded and laid down in the cage. Terre cuddled up to him like a kitten to a mother cat and he held her tightly. His entire body ached from battle, but the reward he has from victory is far greater. The safety of his Queen, his friend, Terre, was the greatest reward he could ever ask for. If she was safe, that was all that matters. He drifted off into a much needed sleep and his body regenerated itself as he rested, Terre sleeping like a baby in his sore arms. That day, they became closer. That day, Terre trusted him more than anyone. Even more than…Kim.