Kaylin was already awake when she saw the curtain move away from the small wing, and Jitar stepped out. Its grey mask looked directly at her and the alien rattled, stepping forward and letting the cloth drop behind him. Kaylin gave a bow of her head as an acknowledgement, then looked back to Tyke, petting his hair.

The boy had finally gone to sleep, just as the sky outside was beginning to lighten to a lavender color. She shifted slowly, as best she could, off the cot so as not to disturb the boy. She had done a little cleaning up, but the hut was still pretty much in shambles, and there were broken pieces of, well, almost everything littering the floor.

The alien swung its head as if to survey the damage, then with a snort shook its head and turned towards the door.

"Wait!" she called as quietly as she could. She was even worried he hadn't heard her as he took a few more steps towards the door, but then he paused. She could see the muscles in his back were tense as his fingers spread then clenched into fists.

He turned his head swiftly, the leathery dreads flaring out across his shoulders. She froze in her step and held her hand pressed to her chest. Suddenly at a loss for words she looked at the ground and bit her lip.

"Don't go, just yet. I want to help you."

A slow rattle came from somewhere behind the mask, and Jitar turned slowly towards her, tilting his head to the side. Kaylin felt like she should step back or step down, the way he was holding himself was intimidating, almost threatening, but she didn't. She didn't let herself get bullied by the prisoners here after all, why should Jitar any different?

Kaylin looked over at where Tyke was laying and pondered on her dilemma. It had been the thought that had kept her awake all night. She wanted to help Jitar, needed to help Jitar, but she couldn't leave Tyke alone, and she couldn't take him with either, but there was nowhere else for him. Given the choices having him stay at the hut was going to be the safest for him, but with the Colonial Marines wandering around, it wouldn't be one-hundred percent safe.

Jitar whipped back around towards the door. He wasn't going to wait for her to make a decision, forcing one on her.

"Wait! Wait, let me just get some things."

Jitar's cold mask turned to look at her over his shoulder but he did pause and wait, fists clenched, Kaylin hurried back into the hut and grabbed a bag and grabbed what was, essentially, her first aid kit. She then went to Tyke and petted his head gently.

The boy stirred and opened his eyes a little bit, "is the alien gone?"

Kaylin smiled, "no, the alien and I are going to go find his ship so that he can go. Okay?" Tyke's eyes closed for a long time before he forced them open again, "I need you to stay here and take care of Algae. If anyone comes, you need to take her and hide, okay? In the jungle, until I come back okay?"

"You will come back right?"

Kaylin felt a twist in her chest, but heard a growl behind her, leaving her no room for second guessing, "I will, I promise, okay?"

"Okay," Tyke said and laid his head back down. His eyes closed and just a moment later, his breathing became deep. Kaylin stood and turned, jumping with a start as Jitar was right behind her, grey mask angled at her. He was impatiently waiting and she was trying his tolerance.

"Okay, okay, we can go now," she nodded and walked past him, leading the way to the door. She opened it and stepped out into the light of the dawn, feeling the sunlight touch on her face where it broke through the trees. The morning mist was settling and to her horror, just a few paces away, armed with a very large gun, was Cee.

Kaylin dropped her bag off her shoulder and it thudded to the ground. Instinctively she jumped between Cee and Jitar, hands outstretched calling silently for a ceasefire before the shooting even began.

Behind her she heard Jitar roar, and the slick sound of unsheathed metal, as Cee sputtered out loud profanities and pulled up his gun. From within Tyke awakened screaming her name.

"What the hell is that!?"

"Kaylin!" called Tyke again.

"Wait! Wait!" she yelled, first to Cee and then to Jitar. Thankfully, they both held their actions. She stood still, breathing heavily as adrenaline pumped through her system. Once things went still, she turned to face Cee, both hands held open towards him, as she felt he was the greater danger here.

"Cee, I can imagine what you're thinking."

"What the fuck is that thing!? That's what I'm thinking!"

"I understand it's an alien-."

"No shit!"

"He just wants to go away. But the Colonial Marines took his ship."

Cee blinked, then narrowed his eyes and lowered his gun, "Colonial Marines?"

"Yes."

"What the fuck are they doing here?"

Kaylin swallowed. She didn't know the for-sure answer to that question, "I think they came here for him."

"Well let them have him I say," Cee said, pulling his gun up again.

Kaylin heard a growl behind her, whether it was because Jitar was becoming impatient again or he understood what Cee said, she wasn't sure. She moved so that she had her hands facing both males again.

"Look, Cee, please just put the gun down—."

"Kay?"

Kaylin looked back at Tyke who had come through the door. Jitar was already angled to see the small boy, probably having heard him before she did.

"Tyke, I need you to go back inside."

"Are we in trouble because the bleach boy knows about the alien?"

"You little shit!" Cee took aim for Tyke.

Jitar roared and stepped in the way of the gun.

"Everyone calm the fuck down!" Kaylin screamed in fury, "please!"

Cee blinked with wide eyed surprise and slowly lowered his gun. Tyke had gone deathly silent as well, as did the surrounding forest. Jitar's breathing and growling was the only sound.

Kaylin sighed, pressing her hand to her brow as he shoulders slumped, "thank you."

"Kay… you swore."

"I know Tyke, it's bad, I'm sorry."

"Damn Kay."

"Okay, look, Cee, the alien and I are going to go back to where I found him, and we're going to trace back to where they took his ship. I… hope to be back soon."

"You mean you hope you'll be back at all," growled Cee, "little you going up against Colonial Marines is not going to end well for you. I bet it would hardly end well for this dinge alien."

Kaylin frowned deeply. Naturally, Cee had to be derogatory to the alien because of its black color.

She heard a rattle and turned, prepared to stop a fight, certain that if anything Jitar had picked up that he was being insulted, but his wrist blades retracted, and he made a motion with his hand. She furrowed her brows in confusion. He rattled.

Kaylin watched him make the motion again, an open hand on his chest, where the horrid scar lay, then pointed at Cee.

Kaylin furrowed her brow, "you're here, for him?"

Jitar tilted his head, making the clicking noise. Kaylin looked from him to Cee, who looked really nervously back at her.

"Why?"

Jitar rattled and moved, his muscles all bulged as he lifted his hands up in fists, in something that resembled a fighting stance. The humans tensed for a moment, unsure of what he was about to do, but when he relaxed, they relaxed.

"You're here to fight them?" Kaylin asked, not once considering that asking a creature that didn't understand her spoken language was futile.

Jitar tilted his head and clicked again.

Kaylin bent her brow again in concentration then asked once more, "why?"

Jitar tilted his head upright again, rattling. For a while, he didn't give anything as an indication that he understood, and then he lifted a hand, and pointed at the gun Cee was holding, finger still on the trigger.

Kaylin's lips thinned. It was because they were armed that he even came here to fight them. Which meant it was probably something he was expecting to be to the death.

Her attention was grabbed once again as Jitar bent, resting on the balls of his sandaled feet, one claw to the ground and he began to carve into the dirt, long sharp angular lines. When he was finished, the symbol was unmistakable; a 'W' and a 'Y' combined together.

Jitar wouldn't have been here if Weyland-Yutani hadn't dropped the weapons.

… And had Colonial Marines, waiting for him to take the bait.

"They used you as bait to bring him here," she said, barely a whisper, and looking to Cee. The man mirrored her own wide-eyed expression, except his was rage.

"Those mother fuckers did what!?" Cee whipped around, storming and cursing, waving the gun around. Kaylin was caught by the shoulder and moved suddenly behind Jitar, and she instinctively grabbed Tyke and kept him behind her. His massive body was now between her and Tyke, and the rampaging Cee, and when the human man saw this, he stopped immediately.

After a moment of silence where Kaylin felt that nothing more was going to happen, she stepped forward, an idea striking her like lightning, "look Cee, you're right, if I go there alone, I'm not coming back, even with him around," she pointed at Jitar, "I need your help. I'm going to need everyone's help. We need to tell everyone."

"I'm not sure Mart will agree to helping out an alien—."

"No, Cee, I mean everyone."

Cee went silent for a second, figuring the math in his head.

"No, no way, absolutely fucking no!"

Kaylin frowned again and stormed over to Cee, "now you listen to me," she growled, grabbing his shirt and fisting it tightly, her other hand on the gun, "when I needed supplies Adolfo took a white flag went around to other gangs and got me the needle that saved your wife's life," Cee stopped breathing, "I'm asking you to do just about the same thing for a much bigger purpose and you're telling me you don't want to?"

Cee was dead silent for a long time, even after she let go of his shirt, but not the gun. The man looked at the ground, stepped away from Kaylin and fully lowered his gun, "alright Kay, I'll try, but I can't say if anyone else will be willing.

Kaylin let out a breath of relief and smiled, eyes watering, "thank you Cee."

"I thought we weren't supposed to tell anyone?" Tyke said and Kaylin walked over to the child, "we weren't but we need help to get him home. You want him to go home right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, then I need to go tell people what happened, then things can go back to normal, okay?"

"Okay," Tyke sighed, "do I stay here still?"

"Y—," Kaylin hesitated, looking over at Jitar. She probably shouldn't take him with her either, too many trigger-happy people with big guns, but then what proof would they have that what they were saying was true? Kaylin looked back at Tyke. She'd have to see in anyone was willing to listen first, then she'd worry about proof.

She stood and faced Jitar, who squared his shoulders and rattled at her, tilting his head, "can you," she said, pointing at him, "stay here," she pointed at the ground, "and watch over him?" she put her hand to her eyes and then pointed at Tyke. She hoped she pantomimed well enough, and waited for a response.

Jitar looked from her to Cee, then back to her, growling. He then bent and leapt up, higher than any man would have been able to, and landed in the branches of the tree. He didn't run off though, and perched there, observing and going dead silent.

"Guess that's a yes?"

"Guessing's all I've been able to do," she said sadly and turned Tyke towards the house, closing the door behind him, "it's all I was able to do nine years ago, too."

Kaylin picked up her bag and turned her doleful gaze to Cee, who was staring at her in confused horror, "I think… I'll tell you what really happened that landed me here, on our way to your territory," she walked up to and then past Cee, rubbing the scars on her hand.