Disclaimer: We do not own anything related to AVP. We also apologize to BlackAngelBlood for not updating before that person left for boot camp. We were suffering from writer's block. Enjoy!

Ta ta,

A

AVPAVPAVP

The two women were careful not to move as they stared at the silent, adult yautja standing in the hatch. He moved to the side and made a kind of scooping motion with one arm.

"I think he wants us to get out," Sky said, interpreting the gesture. She got out of her seat slowly and moved toward the doorway. Her knuckles were white and her fingers hurt because she was gripping the collapsed spear in her right hand so hard.

The tall alien's head turned to follow her as she passed him, but that was all the movement he made.

"Come on, Allison," Sky said quietly to encourage her friend into movement.

Allison, seeing that Sky had passed the yautja without harm, followed Sky out at her prompting. Once together, the two observed details of their location.

They were in a large hangar for drop ships. Extending from one wall was a long platform. Individual ramps extended from this and either attached to drop ships or hung down unused. The pair stood at the top of one of the ramps with one yautja behind them and a second at the bottom of the ramp waiting.

The alien behind them stepped forward as the hatch of their "escape" pod closed. He made a motion to indicate that they should move forward.

Allison was wide-eyed with fear and silent. Sky, also silent, had put up her poker face, but the fact that she still gripped her spear so hard that circulation in her fingers was limited showed she was thoroughly unnerved. Allison also held her spear in a secure grip.

The two women moved forward, Sky leading. When they came within three meters of the second yautja, he turned and walked a short distance, then turned to look at them. They followed obediently with the first yautja in tow.

Their guard escorted them through the ship, past more yautja—some armored and some not—and to an elegantly decorated doorway. The two door panels slid apart, separating the yautja warrior and xenomorph depicted in battle upon the surface, and revealed a moderately sized room. The walls were also decorated, and many skulls were hung on the walls as trophies. I the middle of the room, close to the back wall, was a raised platform. On the raised platform were four yautja. The tallest one was female and pale green in color with blue and white streaks and very long dreadlocks. The second tallest figure, much broader than the first, was male. He was dark orange with brown splotches and red streaks. He had many pale green lines on his skin, scars from many battles. The armor he wore was more elegant than average and a wine red cape was affixed to his shoulders. He also had long dreadlocks. The last two yautja were the children rescued from before.

The two oomans were pushed into the room by their escort and the doors shut. Doubtlessly the two guards would be waiting on the other side of the door. Sky and Allison tried to make themselves smaller under the gazes of the four aliens.

"Come," the warrior growled.

Sky and Allison stepped forward a few feet. Sky was trying to look at them without meeting their gaze and Allison was looking about the room, her head moving in nervous jerks.

"What are you called?" he next asked in a slightly softer growl. His tone was probably trying to calm the visitors down, though it seemed to do nothing.

"Sky," Sky said. "This is Allison," she indicated her companion when she didn't say anything.

"I am Elder Gu'un'ka."

"Elder? To what honor do we owe this meeting?" Sky decided it would be best to be polite and avert rudeness. She would rather not die for bad manners if she had a chance for living.

"You freed two of our warriors and returned their equipment to them and saved two of our young. My two young."

"Your…?" Sky could hardly believe what she was hearing. She gaped up at the elder.

With a clang, Allison's spear hit the ground. She had been so surprised that she had dropped it. No one took notice.

"Those two warriors also tell me that you killed one of the kainde amedha."

"Kainde amedha… The black creatures?"

He nodded.

"Yes." Sky dropped her gaze, embarrassed. "We both did." She rubbed absently at her cheek and smeared a streak of blood from a wound that she hadn't had time to bandage.

Allison finally spoke up. "So…you brought us here…to…thank us?"

"Yes."

Suddenly, the day's exertions caught up with the two women. They ran out of adrenaline. Their bodies ached from all of the physical exertion and the beatings their bodies had taken, they felt sick from nerves, and visibly wilted before the four yautja.

"Guards!" the elder rattled in yautjan, The two from before entered the room and flanked the doors. "Take these oomans to a private room. They need rest." They came forward and stood on either side of them.

"Go with them," the Elder said so they could understand.

To tired to resist, or even care, Allison and Sky left with the two warriors. As they made their way down hallways, Sky dimly noticed that Allison had picked up her spear from where she had dropped it. Then they were in a small room with a single bed that looked like an oversized examination table with padding. Neither could remember the two yautja leaving or the door closing. They automatically climbed up onto the bed. Allison lied down and instantly fell into a dreamless sleep and Sky crawled into a corner and sat there where she too was consumed by the darkness of exhaustion.

They didn't wake up until hours later. Sky sat up—she had fallen over while sleeping—and massaged her sore neck, then coughed once when the air caught in her throat. She nudged Allison, who hadn't moved an inch, into wakefulness with her foot.

"Wha…?" Allison also sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. With a sickening feeling, she realized where she was and that yesterday's events really did happen.

Sky fell backwards in an exaggerated expression of exhaustion and something caught Allison's attention. "Hey…" She crawled over to her friend and pulled up the bottom of her semi-transparent undershirt and whistled.

"What?" Sky sat up to look at whatever had caused Allison's reaction. Across the exposed skin of her stomach was a humongous bruise that had blossomed spectacularly over night. She winced when she touched it. "Ouch." She recalled everything that had happened to her lately. "I bet my back looks worse," she mumbled to herself as she pondered her stomach.

"Let me check," Allison said and Sky rolled over compliantly. Allison lifted the back of her shirt and hissed.

"How bad is it?" Sky asked.

"You look like kinder gardeners used your back as a canvas." Meaning it was a splotchy mess. "There's a thick line across your lower back. When did that happen?"

"Probably when the black thing hit me with his tail and knocked me into that table." Sky pushed herself up into a sitting position and pulled her shirt back down. "Let me check you." Allison turned around to let her friend check her back. Sky rolled up the thick material of their regulation shirts and the undershirt and then gave results. "It's all splotchy, but it doesn't seem too bad." She coughed again.

The door slid open to reveal a younger yautja with dried meat and water. Sky coughed a few more times as she took it and he departed.

"Sky, are you okay?" Allison was concerned.

"Yeah, I think it's just the air. It's different on this ship."

They nibbled on the jerky which had a strange, though not unpleasant, flavor.

Hours later, they were inexplicably worse for wear. A healer had come to check up on them when he overheard a youngling telling a companion about the strange sound of an ooman coughing.

That's odd. They should be able to breathe the air here easily, he thought as her walked down the halls to their room. What he found were too very pale ooman females who appeared to be ill. There was a half eaten plate of dried meat on the bed with them.

Alarmed, the healer used the medical scanner equipped into the mask he always wore (to show that he was a healer and because he always needed to be prepared in case of emergencies) but could not find any poison in the meat or water. So that could not be the cause. He turned the scanner onto one of the oomans and what he found surprised him; they had contracted a common yautja illness. Their bodies had no defense against the foreign bacteria, so they got an extreme version of what would be mild to a yautja.

The long-haired one looked up when she realized that the healer was there. She was sitting in a corner and clinging to her curled up legs. A spasm of pain crossed her face and she dropped her head back to her knees. The larger one with the curly hair was sitting against a wall opposite her companion and suffering a violent coughing fit.

The healer approached them took the arm of the long haired female in a gentle grasp. When she looked up, he pulled slightly and loosed her grip. She uncurled and crawled off to stand on the floor. She coughed a few times and clutched at her chest just above the sternum. He did the same with the other ooman, but the response wasn't as willing.

Allison felt someone grip her arm in a gentle but firm grasp and pull lightly. Eyes watering, she looked up and saw a yautja who was holding Sky with his other hand. Paranoid from illness and slightly irrational, she backed further away.

Seeing panic and resistance from the ooman, the healer went to the door and summoned another yautja, a young warrior in training. He came obediently and picked up the defiant ooman who was too weak to resist and carried her after the healer who partially supported the other oomans weight as they walked to the infirmary.

Upon arriving, Sky got onto the bed she was led to by the healer. She was too distracted to really notice anything.

In the other yautja's arms, Allison watched and looked at the strange medical devices that were in the room. She tried to squirm out of his grasp and succeeded, mainly because she caught him by surprise, but he still had a grip on her arm.

Allison was definitely freaked out. Who says they hadn't just decided to kill her and Sky? She made one last effort to escape before she fell to her knees and vomited on the floor. The young yautja let go in disgust and left the healer to take care of the sick oomans.

When Sky woke, the first thing she experienced was disorientation. The air smelled plain, like it had been recycled and she couldn't see anything. Oh, wait, her eyes were closed. She opened them and saw white. Odd. She reached fingers out and touched a screen that moved at her touch. She drew her arm back and felt the surface she was lying on. It was hard, like metal, and pleasantly cool to the touch, not uncomfortably so. But her skin felt weird. She held still and tried to interpret the sensations that would tell her why. Her front, all of it, was in contact with the metallic surface of whatever she was lying on. Meaning, no clothing. Her back was completely exposed to the air, too. But not all of it. There seemed to be a strange goop spread irregularly across the surface of her skin. There was also a large patch of the stuff on her stomach and small spots on her cheeks.

Finally deciding to move, Sky pushed herself up and sat Japanese style on the metal table. She pondered her predicament. She was in a strange place, though probably still on the yautja's ship, and had been stripped on clothing. She looked down at her stomach and the bruise there and saw that it was covered in what appeared to be a blue transparent gel. It was drying out, though, and appeared to be cracking. Also odd was that the bruise was the unpleasant green and yellow shades that were a sign of being nearly healed. That should take weeks. How long had she been here? Why was she here? She dredged up her most recent memories, memories of being very ill and a yautja coming for her. Oh. This must be some kind of infirmary. Sky looked around and was glad that there was a curtain to shield her from view.

Something else caught her attention when she moved her head. Her hair felt different against her back. She grabbed a clump of it to inspect and discovered that it had been bound into long, thick cords with metal clips to hold them into place. It had also been soaked in some strange substance that kept the hairs together and made each yautja-like dreadlock slick and kind of shiny. As she fiddled with one, noticing how it resisted coming apart with determination, she wondered where Allison was and how she was doing.

The healer yautja pulled the curtain back slightly to slip inside and check on his patient. He thought about how surprisingly well she had responded to their medicine and wondered if there would be side effects, and then realized that she was awake.

A yautja slipped past the curtain and Sky stared at him. He seemed to be pondering something, but looked up when he realized she was staring. The dreadlock in her hand sat forgotten as they stared at each other, unmoving.

Eventually, and with a thick accent, he said, "You are awake."

"Yeah." Sky felt relief that he could speak her language, albeit not as well as the elder she had met before.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better."

There was more silence.

"Can I have some clothes?"

"Oh. Yes, of course." The yautja left, quickly returning with spare clothing.

After figuring out what went where and how, Sky got on the strange synthetic clothing and was decent once more. It was a bit like a bathing suit. A bikini bottom with a strip that rose from the center of the back and split in two. The two strips widened and wrapped around her front, then thinned again after making her chest decent. They then crossed at the nape of her neck and wrapped around it to clip at the back of her neck. The strange material, brown in color, seemed to stick to her skin. It stretched and moved with her but did not dislodge or even shift.

"Um, what happened?" Sky asked the yautja, who she realized must be a healer because he wore a different mask

"You contracted a common illness, but don't worry, for you are now healed."

Sky picked at the gel on her stomach. "What's this?"

"That is fire gel. It is used for healing wounds."

"Why's it called fire gel?"

The healer raised an eye ridge and left, only to return with a small tub of fresh blue gel. "Turn around."

Sky had the feeling that whatever was about to happen would not be pleasant, but she had asked, so she turned her back to the healer. He rubbed the old gel away from her entire back. Most of the bruising was a pale shade of yellow and nearly gone, but a stripe on her lower back, like on her front, wasn't so far along. The healer's touch withdrew for a moment, but then fresh fire gel was spread on the bruise. Sky immediately knew why it was called fire gel and her breath escaped in a hiss and she flinched away.

"Turn around again. I have to get your front."

Sky reluctantly obeyed. She tried to block out the burning while the old gel was rubbed off her stomach.

"This is a diluted form. Full strength is only used on open wounds."

Sky was skeptical as more of the fire was applied to her stomach. She rubbed the stuff from her face and hoped none would be applied there. She was relieved when the small tub was returned to where it had come from. "What about Allison?" she asked after the fire grew less intense.

"Allison? Ah, your companion. She has also recovered and should wake soon."

"That's good." Sky's stomach growled.

The healer made and odd clicking noise which could be interpreted as laughter and left, returning with more of the dried meat from before, then left again, presumably to check on Allison.

Allison's reaction was much less calm when she woke up. She heard her friend and an unfamiliar, growling voice talking. One of the yautja. Suddenly the voices stopped and footsteps drew near to where she was. At that moment, she realized that something important was missing.

As the healer appeared, Allison screamed, "Oh my god, where are my clothes!"

Sky, who had been getting off her bed to stand on the floor and stretch, fell to the ground in surprise.

The healer, who had frozen in shock, knelt down and picked up a pile of folded clothing that had been sitting on the floor and gave them to the ooman. Then he left because this ooman was obviously offended. He thought that very strange indeed because it had not been necessary to remove all of her clothing, as it had with the other who had been considerably calmer.

Allison hurriedly donned her pants and shirt and then peeked around the curtain around her bed because she heard voices. She saw the yautja and, past him and partly concealed, her friend Sky.

"Sky!" She called out.

Sky and the healer abruptly stopped talking and she sidestepped to better see her friend. "Hey Allison." Then she frowned. "How come you got your clothes back?"

The healer answered. "Your clothes were damaged and not worth keeping," he said, looking at Sky.

"Oh." Sky looked down at the skimpy garment she wore. "I like this better anyway."

"You're lucky. That so wouldn't look good on me…" Allison pretended to whine.

"You pessimist," Sky responded without feeling.

"What's that stuff on your stomach?"

"It's some healing substance called fire gel. Pray you never discover why."

The healer interrupted the oomans' conversation. "I must tell the elder that you are well. Please remain here." He left.

Allison spotted Sky's hair. "When did your hair get like that?"

"Hm? Oh, I don't know. Probably while we were unconscious. You have them, too."

Allison fingered her much shorter dreadlocks. "Wonder why."

"Maybe he was bored," Sky speculated.

"'He'?"

"The healer."

After a moment of silence, Allison blurted, "We look like gorgons!"

Allison and Sky both laughed for a minute and then fell into silence. They mostly looked at the floor but would glance at each other. Then two yautja entered. They were the two small children from before. And they were both holding something. Sky crouched down to their level and one of them handed an elegantly carved dagger to her.

She admired it. "Thank you." She also bent her head in acknowledgement. He chattered back.

Allison was presented with her own special dagger and also thanked them.

They fled as if afraid of being caught. Sky and Allison found their spears on a small table and grabbed them.

When the healer returned, he found both oomans sitting on the calm one's platform. They had discovered their combi-sticks and were looking at them in detail. He noticed that the calm ooman had a dagger tucked against her hip that she hadn't had before and hadn't been in the infirmary.

"Where did you get that?" He pointed at the weapon.

"It was a gift," she said cryptically. "We both got one."

He understood. "The younglings showing their gratitude, are they?"

"How did you know?"

"Gifts are given as rewards or as shows of gratitude." He shifted his stance. "Since you have recovered, the elder would like to see you."

"Right now?"

He nodded.

Both women got up off the table. "Okay then." They followed the healer out.

They were taken to the same room as before, but this time the elder was with other warriors. Unsurprisingly, they were all decked out in full armor and equipment.

Elder Gu'un'ka went straight to the point. "Since you have already killed a kainde amedha on your own, and since you rescued two younglings and two young bloods, you are given the choice of participating in a Hunt on the ooman base."

"What would we be hunting?"

"The Hard Meat, of course."

Allison and Sky were silent as they thought.

Sky answered first. "Yes, I would like to join the Hunt." Though she was terrified, though her instincts were screaming at her not to, something stronger, more primal than fear, pulled at her to join the warriors. She was surprised at herself, but she did not second-guess her decision.

Allison looked up at her friend in surprise. The yautja turned to her. Allison was torn. She was experiencing similar feelings as her friend, but the call of the Hunt was not as strong in her. The deciding factor was her friend. "Me too," she said.

"Then you shall need awu'asa."

"Awu'asa?"

"Armor."

"Oh. Yeah, armor would be good."

The elder arranged his mandibles in the yautja version of a smile.

AVPAVPAVP

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