Okay, this is to the people who did not understand.
The story is not over. There is no way in HELL I would end something like that. I would rather shoot myself than write an ending that crappy.
Not to mention, I will mark the story as COMPLETE when it is finished. So try to notice that BEFORE flipping out and reviewing with pointless concerns?
Thanks for listening to my condescending rants. :D
Mat woke up with a start.
"Where am I?" He thought as he studied the room he was in.
Plants were all over the place. What used to be a doctor's checkup room was overgrown with moss and a small tree.
"It awakens?" He heard the familiar voice.
The "Spriggan" from that they had helped showed herself.
It was fully healed, but he knew her from the scar that the hybrid had left on her face, crisscrossing her left "eye". Even her aura was shining bright green.
"…What happened?" He asked quietly, rubbing his eyes sorely.
"The other one, the one with the mask, detonated some form of contained fire. It destroyed the entire construct in which you brought me to." She explained, and he noticed her voice was stronger, sounding almost like a harp.
"…Is Phoeba alive? Is there any chance?" He whispered hopefully, knowing it was not possible.
"No. The contained fire consumed her, as with the silver one. But the silver one survived. Meri thesi." She answered, but he didn't understand her last words.
"What?" He asked.
"Meri thesi? Juia Biha. Yui aga pui nidesi." She continued, looking at him with a quizzical stance (she didn't have a face technically, the wood that she was made of only shaped to a female form).
"I don't speak that language. I only speak human language. English." Mat tried to explain.
"Ooman? Human? I do not understand maa hii. What is this English?" She was confused.
"Me. My kind. People that look like me." He continued trying.
"Ah. I see now. Humans. You." She finally understood.
"Okay…now that we've got some ground…what's your name?" Mat asked with a friendly, albeit tired tone.
"Name? You mean buio pilo? My kind have few names. Only those who lead the will of the green have names. I am referred to as Jai Mariq. It means in your language Flowering One." She responded.
"Jai for short, then. Anyway, what about my other friends. Deneve and Marc?" Mat asked, finally getting somewhere.
"…The silver eyed one is broken. It refuses to talk about anything. Refuses to eat. Refuses to live. The other is in panic. It clearly has not experienced this before. It is worried because the silver eyed one refuses to see it." Jai answered hesitantly.
"…Can I see her?" He asked slowly.
"Perhaps. It would be best to fix the broken one before meeting the Greenmother and the Chief." Jai extended her hand. Although clawed, she seemed incredibly fluid and gentle.
He took the gesture and she led him out of the room.
What greeted him was a shock.
The Mojin. They had the size and appearance of Earth gorillas (he thought, since he had only seen them in pictures), but were pale blue in comparison. Not to mention they wore clothes and armor.
It was little more than roughly hewn metal plates that they had strapped to themselves and molded together.
Spriggans mingled with them, walking beside them in complete friendship…no. Family. That was the relationship he could tell they had.
The gigantic forest-like clearing was definitely an old hangar that had long been overgrown with trees and plants. Rusted old spaceships that were no longer working were evident, buried under trees and grass.
The old technology made him remember. They were too late.
The terminal that controlled the superlaser that Volcarona had warned him about. It had been disabled when they entered. When they came out and found Elijah, it was on and calibrated. Now there was no way to turn it off.
"This way." He heard Jai and cut off his thoughts to follow her.
Several Mojin stood guard at another lab door.
"It is inside. When we tried to speak to it, it refused to respond in any way. Like I said. Broken." Jai reminded him, and she clicked a button. The door slid open with a hissing sound.
"Could we talk alone for a moment?" He requested. Jai nodded willingly and shut him in alone with her.
It was very dark inside the room, the only light coming in from a half-dead lamp nearby.
"Deneve?" He called quietly.
Instantly he saw her silver eyes flicker. They were much dimmer than he remembered.
"…What is it?" She asked tiredly. Her voice sounded slow and basically broken.
"Do you want to talk about what happened?" He asked carefully.
As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he realized where she was. She had stripped her uniform off and was trying to sleep on the cold steel examination table without clothes.
"…No." She responded quietly.
"Come on. There is something clearly wrong with you." He pressed.
She sat up angrily.
"Aside from the fact I'm an experiment? I'm a tool? A mistake? Nothing more than a replica?" She spoke evenly and darkly.
"That's not what I—" He began, but she cut him off.
"…Just leave, Mat. Save the others. I'm not worth it." She interrupted with a submissive sigh as she lied back and turned her back on him.
"That's not true." He quietly spoke.
"Prove me wrong. You've seen what Elijah is like. He has a hold on me now. And he's going to use that power over me for all it's worth." She sighed.
"You've done more good than you'll ever do bad. You're not destined to be his slave, Deneve. You walk your own path, and don't let anyone tell you different. I may not know everything, but I know you are a force for good in this place. No matter who or what created you." He spoke boldly and truthfully, yet she didn't shift.
"I'm a tool. He used me. He's still using me." She sighed with a depressed tone to her voice. But he detected something else. The sound of her voice breaking. Almost crying.
"That doesn't matter. It never will matter. You can have your own future. All you have to do is step up and claim it." Mat continued, unwilling to give up.
Finally she sat up and looked at him directly. On instinct he shuddered.
"…It's your fault, Mat. He tracked your scent." Her voice wasn't breaking into tears as he thought. Her voice was breaking into a rage.
"What? How did he do that?" Mat looked at her in disbelief.
"…You left something back at the camp." Her voice was getting hostile.
"I still have my belongings, everything important from the wreckage. What could you possibly mean?" Mat retorted angrily.
"…Who said our camp? The dogs that Elijah sent to the Xenomorph Hive weren't there for us. They were there for your violin." She revealed.
"The attack was a cover for a pack to find the instrument and catch the scent. Using that Elijah tracked you." He was speechless as she finished.
"You come in here…you tell me it's going to be all right. What do you know?" She stood as she continued.
"Deneve…" He tried to talk.
"Because of you Phoeba is dead. Because of you Marc is injured. WHAT DO YOU KNOW!" She screamed in rage as she somehow rushed forward at an incredible speed, gripping his throat and slamming him against the door. Her entire body was revealed by the lamp's dim lighting. Half her body was completely scorched beyond recognition. Half her face was burnt as well, only her silver eyes giving any hint of this being a human woman. The flames had clearly gone deep when the explosion set off. Part of her jawbone was exposed on the left side of her face. Most of her left body, in fact, had taken most of the damage. Her left breast was unrecognizable as being more than a burnt side of flesh. Her leg was scathed a red and black color along with the rest of her wounds. Ironically enough, her extremely short hair hadn't been touched other than being singed black at the edges.
"De…ne…ve! I'm…sorry!" He choked. Every attempt he made was fruitless at fighting her strength.
"No you're not. Not yet." She whispered and gave him the hardest blow she could give on his cheek.
But the results were different.
Instead of feeling pain, he felt nothing.
Deneve's strength was more than enough to overpower even the strongest human weightlifter, equal to almost the strength of mythical Hercules. Yet her punch felt like being slapped by a penguin with flipper problems.
She clutched her fist in pain, letting him go.
"W-what the hell are you?" She looked at him in shock.
He had no way to answer that question as she stepped back.
"Get out." She simply stated angrily before walking back to the table and lying back down on it.
"I…Deneve…" He tried to speak, but he was just as unable to explain anything as before.
"GET OUT!" Her voice rose.
He had no other option. He clicked the intercom.
"Jai, open the door." He sighed.
Bright light shone in for a few moments as he stepped out and the door sealed shut once more, leaving the room in darkness once more.
"Well? Is the silver-eyed one fixed?" Jai asked expectantly.
"No. She doesn't…she doesn't want to be fixed." He responded dejectedly as he walked off back to his room looking depressed.
"Tomorrow we will meet the Greenmother and the Chief. Get much rest, human. Echa mensi!" She called before walking in a different direction herself.
He simply sat back down on the table and stared at the ceiling.
Is it my fault?
Did I bring this upon us?
Am I responsible for Phoeba's death?
What am I going to do?
Does Marc know about her…?
Will Deneve recover?
Those questions dominated his mind for the rest of the day.
And he could not find even a few moments of peaceful sleep through most of the night. When he did eventually doze off, those questions still were left unanswered.