Water brought little relief. Kaylin shuddered with her knees in the mud, whimpering as the chill of a river stung at her injury, washing away stained with red. Grunting and gasping, she finally removed her hand to assess the damage fully. A single finger, her index, and a thumb was all she had left at the quivering end of mottled stump. She inhaled sharply and whimpered as she quickly took the strips of cloth she had cut from her jumpsuit and bound up her arm.

Jitar stood nearby, on watch and out of breath, despite having stood there for some time. Looking over at him, Kaylin wasn't sure how well the impending surgery was going to be with her current state, but there wasn't much choice. At the very least, though, she could get help. Bandaged and feeling colder than before, she moved over to Jitar, cradling the wounded arm to her chest.

"Jitar?" a pair of yellow eyes flashed at her, "we need to go back to the town."

The large alien rattled, heaving a sigh and standing a bit more upright, putting his mask back on.

"Go back to the town," her voice repeated back to her.

She nodded, looking up at the sky, then looking back at where they had come from. Lavender Hill was back there, and the sun was setting, letting her know what direction she was facing, "this way," she said softly, leading the way at a light jog.

Every step was painful, but she couldn't imagine what it was like for Jitar, having a steadily growing serpent coiled right against his heart.

Time was irrelevant as they moved, all Kaylin knew was that her surroundings were starting to become familiar when Jitar roared loudly. She nearly fell to her knees at the sound and stopping as quickly as she did, turning and running back to the large alien doubled over and clutching his chest.

"Alright, alright," she consoled, touching him gently, trying to encourage him to lay down, "we'll do it here."

Jitar sank to the grown, following the guidance of her touches to laying on his back, after removing the pack on his back and setting it down, opening it for her at her request. She kept an eye on him in her peripheral vision, studying the contents of the pack and gathering up what she needed. His breathing was labored and wet-sounding, possibly due to damage to his lungs from the pressure of the xenomorph nymph pressing against his organs.

She had the liquid she needed mixed in the strange folding bowl from the pack, and poured the contents into the empty syringe she had.

"Alright Jitar," she said calmly, turning towards him on her knees. She felt along his arm, finding the artery along the muscle on the underside of it, and looked to the large alien. She could not see his face, his expression or his eyes. She had no idea if he had fear or was calm. Humans had hurt him badly before with their medical procedures, by injecting things into him and cutting him open. It was a trauma she was sure he would never forget, and likely never forgive, and here she was about to do basically the same thing to him.

His muscles tensed under her grip, but he gave a single nod, and she injected the serum into him. She felt his arm turn to iron as his fist clenched, but he made no sound. Kaylin tried to sooth him with shaky strokes to his arm and shoulder, watching as his head slowly laid to the ground. She counted the time in her head and once two minutes passed, she leaned over and put her ear to his chest.

His heart beat slow, and there was no movement from the nymph inside of him. Wishing she had more tools to work with, an actual operating table and something to make sure he kept breathing and did not drown in his own fluids, she found the clasps for and undid his armor, then pulled the chain-link suit down around his shoulders so that his chest was exposed.

Cleaning off her hands on her jumpsuit as best as she could, she looked over at the medical kit to see what she had left to work with, and reached for the small sickle-headed blade inside. She used her fingers to feel for the space below his sternum, where she would have to make the incision, and stopped.

She could not risk doing the procedure with her damaged hand, with only a finger and thumb and shaking as badly as it was. Performing it left-handed would be only slightly better, being her non-dominant hand and shaking only slightly less than the other, but it was his only chance.

Biting her lip and fighting back tears, she shifted so that she was better able to make the cut with her left hand, moving very slowly, knowing how wrong it could all go.

"Kay!"

The knife almost fell out of her hands as Kaylin jumped to her feet, brandishing the tool and looking wild-eyed at the intruder. Intruders. It was a small group, a mix of a few of the gangs.

And Tyke.

"Kay!" he called again, running up to her as she sank to her knees, "we found you Kay!"

Gasping, Kaylin opened her arms and embraced the young boy, who held her back still yelling into her shoulder, "I thought you died! Don't go away again!"

"I'm alright Tyke," she sniffed, "I'm alright."

"Kay... your arm..."

Kaylin looked up at Cee, then at her arm, something Tyke did too, eyes wide.

"Acid burn, I'll live," she assured, sniffing and wiping her nose on her sleeve, turning to look at Jitar, moving to his side again, "now I need to make sure he lives also."

"He saved you from the explosion?" Tyke asked, as Kaylin put shaking blade to flesh.

"He saved me from a lot of things."

Taking several deep breaths, Kaylin tried to block out the presence of those there, moving around her now, watching curiously as bright phosphorescent blood welled up at the edge of the small knife.

"Kay?" she snatched the knife away from Jitar's skin and looked at Tyke, breathing heavily. The young boy looked at her, pouting, dark eyes flashing from her to the alien creature, then back to her, "do you need help?"

Kaylin's lips parted, but no voice came out.

"Leave her alone Tyke she knows what she's doing-."

"Yes Tyke," Kaylin said quickly, breathlessly, interrupting Kair, "I need your help."

Tyke nodded vigorously and knelt down on the other side of Jitar's body, looking at the small wound on the alien's chest. Kair sniffed and swallowed, likely not liking the idea of the boy being so close to Jitar.

"Alright Tyke," she said quietly, "Jitar has a bug in his chest, do you know what that is?" Tyke shook his head, "okay, it's a very bad thing that looks like a snake, and it's sitting right on his heart, so we have to be careful."

Kaylin reached over and handed Tyke a pair of large tweezer tools, "I'm going to cut open his chest here, and then what you do is reach in with the forceps and grab the bug, gently, and slowly pull it out, you think you can do that?"

"Shouldn't one of us do that?" asked Cee and Kaylin shook her head.

"Tyke's young, his hands are the steadiest of all of us."

"I'm going to reach inside him?" the young boy asked in horror and Kaylin nodded.

"Otherwise he'll die."

Tyke was silent, his eyes wide, but he swallowed and nodded. Kaylin nodded back, shifting and putting the knife to Jitar's chest again. Wincing, but focusing on keeping her hand from shaking, she cut along the same scar-line from nine years ago, creating a large enough hole where she could hold it open and Tyke could get inside. Blood poured out from the incision, slicking her fingers, making her more glad now that she had help, and once it was done, she held the two sides of the wound open.

"It smells gross," Tyke hissed, scrunching his nose and Kaylin looked at him, unable to not smile.

"Okay, your part now," she whispered and he nodded, shifting his seat, "put the forceps into the hole, with the ends pointing up towards his head."

"Am I going to hurt him?"

"He's asleep, he can't feel anything right now."

"Okay," whispered the child, scrunching his nose again as he slowly put the tool into the incision.

"Keep it pointed up towards the ribs, not down. That's good, you should feel almost right away some resistance, your forceps are going to hit something soft, that's going to be the bug."

"Right there," Tyke gasped and Kaylin nodded.

"Okay, now close down on the forceps, and very slowly pull back."

Tyke thinned his lips and did as he was told, flinching suddenly which caused Kaylin's heart to jump in her throat.

"I slipped!" he cried.

"It's okay, it's okay," Kaylin assured, "just grab it again, a little harder, try again."

"Okay," whispered Tyke, jittery now, making Kaylin nervous, "okay."

"You're doing great," she assured quietly.

Tyke again thinned his lips, clamping down on the tool in his hands and began to pull back. Kaylin's wary eye flickered from Tyke to the hole, where already she could see part of the long thin body. It was almost fully grown, judging by the thickness, she had administered the slowing agent just in time.

She had to resist the urge to reach in and just grab it and pull it out.

"I see it," Tyke said, then grunted, "it's stuck."

Kaylin reached for his hand, resting hers over his and guided it gently back and forth, "wiggle gently, like this, back and forth, keep pulling, that's it."

Slowly, more and more of the serpentine body was revealed, Tyke had grabbed onto it somewhere near the middle, just where the protolimbs where beginning to form. Then, the head snapped out from beneath the sternum. It was not the smooth fleshy node she was used to; it was rigid, bumpy, already blackened around the edges.

A queen.

A queen with little lumps for tendrils under its crest, and four mandibles opening and closing slowly. It was still awake, but barely.

Kaylin's heart pounded as she again reached for Tyke's hand, this time to encourage him to go slowly as he was about to yank the tweezers like one would with a pole with a fish on the end.

"Go slowly, the tail's still inside," she whispered. Tyke nodded and pulled slowly up, once the tail was out, Kaylin grabbed the thing and pulled the tool off of it. It lolled weakly in her hand at the touch of warmth, its mandibles spreading in a slow groggy cry. Kaylin stared at it, like it was the only thing that existed in the world, then smiled at Tyke.

"You did it," she breathed with one soft laugh, "you saved his life."

Kaylin could not even begin to describe the look the child gave her, arms covered in glowing blood. It was like shock, and horror, and enlightenment and awe.

"Good job kid," Cee said first.

"Great job Tyke," Kair followed.

Around him the others, people from different gangs, the Skulls, the Mels, the Keys, the Cazadores, congratulated him on a job well done.

The boy grinned.

Kaylin moved the queen nymph away from Jitar's body and the others, lying it on the ground away from everyone else. It writhed sleepily, slowly coming to, seemingly aware that it was outside of its host, its natural instinct now to flee as it was in danger.

Kaylin found and lifted a rock the size of her head and rushed back over to the screeching creature, looking down at it as it tried to snap out of its daze, afraid, seeking safety. Kaylin hoisted the rock over her head, and smashed it down on the queen's crest, dashing out of the way of the blood splatter. She stared at the rock, the yellow-green acid around it hissing and bubbling as it ate into the earth. She was breathless, eyes wide, cradling her injured arm, and felt a tear roll down her cheek.

There now poor thing, your pain is over.

"Kay he's still bleeding!"

"Yes Tyke this part's easy, I'll do it."

Kaylin returned to Jitar's side, reached now for a small vaguely horse-shoe shaped tool in the kit. She took it in her left hand, and pinched the two edges of skin together and began to staple them closed with small black metal rings.

Finally, she sat back, her hands falling down in her lap, looking at the blood-covered but closed wound, the chest steadily rising and falling, then at Jitar's mask, then at Tyke.

She smiled at Tyke.

Tyke stared at her, then smiled back.

Those around her looked on as she reached over and embraced the child.

"It's over."