Disclaimer: I don't own Aliens or Predator, and everyone knows the rest of this part.

CHAPTER 4:

The Hunter and The Princess

Kiara stared up at the being holding two knife-like daggers at her from his right hand. The way the creature stood easily reminded her of that tall, angry being who had scared her years ago and had taken the little one she'd met. Why was it here now? For what purpose? She didn't want that tall, muscular creature to fight her but if she had to . . .

Remembering the important matter at hand, she raised her weapon closely and looked back at him. She had seen him fall and wondered why he had fallen feet away from her while she had been on her search. Had he followed her or was he alone on a separate task? She had tried to be friendly but it didn't want her help. Now, here it was telling her to leave while on her investigation? Not a chance.

No one tells me what to do, she thought. I need to find that creature, even if I have to get through this being first.

"Do you even know who you are dealing with, ooman?" the being asked, coldly.

"No, but I'm on a mission and I intend to finish it" Kiara said, narrowing her eyes. "So no, I don't care."

"A mission? You?" the being said, loudly. It seemed to be laughing at her in a series of clicks.

No one laughs at me!, she thought quickly. Especially someone who doesn't know me.

"I have no time for you, out of my way!" Kiara said, annoyed.

She saw him look around the area slightly with his mask, then at her.

"I see nothing but a path behind you and the abyss by our side" Kaen'Dre said, laughing.

"Fool, there's a bridge behind you!" Kiara said, pointing her sword to the way it was, behind him.

She heard it growl beneath its mask which made her smirk. Guess he didn't like being indicated a direction unknown to him that had been so obvious to see. Men and their sense of directions.

"So, either move downwind or battle me" Kiara said, raising her chin. "What say you?"

He didn't move from his stance so she made up her mind. She charged at him and clashed her sword down against his blades. He tossed her back with a simple swing of his arm and brought the blades down at her. She ducked down and kicked him hard in its abdomen. The being backed away slightly while bringing its blades down again while she dodged to the side. She awaited for his next move calmly.

He circled around her like a leopard stalking its cornered prey. She made fake swipes at him to provoke him to come after her, which worked. She brought all her strength down with her sword onto his blades in a clash but his strength tossed her to the side like a ragdoll. She fell down on her back onto the dirt while he tried to bring his foot down to crush her weak human body. She dodged and quickly got up, pantin in relief. Before he could turn around, she hit him on the back with the bottom hilt of her sword. He roared angrily and hit her on her side with his muscular arm sending her flying back all the way to the edge of the cliff.

He walked over to her while she tried to clear her head from his hit. She saw his hand suddenly shoot down towards her head which immediately made her roll safely over to the side. While trying to scramble up, he quickly grabbed her from behind and shoved her in front to see her as an easier target. While seeing his bladed hand rise, she heard a hiss from the side.

Acting quickly, she kneed him in the stomach. She wouldn't hit below that since he seemed to be male and she knew how males acted when they got hit in the groin area. He released his grip slightly which allowed her to look in the direction of the strange hiss. Standing at the middle of the nearby bridge, she saw a black tough-skinned skeletal creature that stood on two legs, a tail, two clawed arms, and a banana-like head.

She quickly felt images flush into her head from her foresight. She saw the creature bursting into a home, screams and blood splattering, and a shrill screech in the distance. Getting back into reality, she saw the creature and immediately knew that it was responsible for her people's deaths. Shoving the creature in front of her back with all her strength, she started running in its direction. No armored warrior would be an obstacle in her path to carry out justice.

Feeling a warm, strong hand grab her robe from behind, she turned and kicked him in the knee with the heel of her foot. It roared in annoyance and grabbed her by the hair roughly. She grabbed his hand and dug her nails into it to release his grip on her while wincing in slight pain.

"Let me go, I have my own matters to attend to!" she yelled angrily.

"We are in the middle of a fight!" he roared back.

"Tell it to that thing!" she said, pointing in the creature's direction. "I have my own issues to solve with that miserable demon!"

He looked in the direction she pointed and let her go. Reaching back, he grabbed something hidden from her view until he held it in front. She saw him retract a metallic spear and head in the direction of the creature intead. She ran after him in the same direction, not daring to waste a second in case it decided to leave.

"Get out of here" the being said, quickly.

"No! That thing killed some of my people, I'm killing it!" Kiara said, defiantly. "You can follow along."

Kaen'Dre could understand why someone would want to protect their people, but she knew nothing about it. How could she stand up to a hard meat with no knowledge of them? It was suicide! Besides, this was his mission also: seek and contain or destroy.

"You don't know what you're dealing with, ooman!" he hissed angrily.

"I may not know but I do know my people need to be avenged" Kiara snapped angrily. "For a mysterious being of another realm, you should know."

A mysterious what?, Kaen'Dre thought confused. Who cares!

"That hard meat is mine!" he yelled.

"I don't care what you call it, I saw it first!" Kiara argued.

"I'm stronger!" he said, frustrated. "And taller!"

"I'm faster!" she said back.

While they argued on their way to be bridge, the black figure headed towards them in a hostile manner. The tall being with the weapon ran faster down the bridge, raising his spear to try to hit it. Kiara quickly got in front of him and raised her hand in front of her face. She concentrated and seconds later, the creature hit was thrown back all the way to the front of the bridge. She relaxed her mind and headed to the other side.

"How did you do that?" Kaen'Dre asked, surprised.

Oomans did not do that! Did they?, he thought. How could they? They're a backwater race!

"For a spiritual being, you don't know much, do you?" Kiara asked, panting. That simple action had practically depleted almost all her energy.

"Silence!" he snapped, insulted. She laughed instead to add injury to his ego. "Be quiet!"

"Just stick with me and you'll learn something" she said, running ahead. He snorted.

She ran in front of him while he kept his pace behind her in order not to shove her over. He smiled under his mask amusingly.

It would be easy to throw her over but she seems like an interesting adversary for quick fun, Kaen'Dre thought mentally.

He saw her reach the other side and charge at the hard meat. The clearing was small and was more of a cliff with no paths anywhere. So, only a lucky being would escape from here easily. It would not be the hard meat. It reached its claws out while trying to use its tail from behind. She circled it carefully and waited for it to come at her.

She used that technique on me, he thought.

The hard meat struck at her with a sharp hand while she jumped to the side and brought her sword down. It cut through the creature's arm and got embedded halfway through from its acidic blood melting the metal in seconds. She looked at it in surprise and horror while it tried to snap its tail at her.

"What kind of demonic being is this?" she said, quickly.

"One you need to be cautious around" Kaen'Dre stated.

Kaen'Dre struck back at it with his spear while it hissed. It thrashed its arm around trying to take the sword out. It scratched his arm with its claws from the unwounded arm which made him jump back. Kaen'Dre shoved the girl behind him and held his spear in front of him to protect them.

"I can fight!" she protested.

"You just lost your weapon, what will you fight with?" he snapped back. "I just got scratched, you'll get worse!"

"You judge me so easily for a high being" she said, reaching to her sides.

The hard meat yanked the sword out and threw it in his direction, which Kaen'Dre easily knocked out of the way with his spear. He was about to charge at it when it decided to jump over him, ignoring their existence. He heard the female gasp at its high jumping ability.

It headed back to the bridge, obviously wanting to escape. Kaen'Dre quickly reached into his belt and took out a shuriken. Popping it open, he threw it over the bridge to hit the wooden poles on the other side to cut the bridge out. With a cracking sound after a few seconds, the bridge collapsed onto their side. The hard meat hissed angrily from its only means of escape and turned back towards them, curling its black lips. Kaen'Dre grabbed his shuriken back from the air with precision while keeping an eye on the approaching hard meat.

"Did you have to do that?!" Kiara exclaimed.

"Yes, you ooman!" he snapped back. "Do you want this thing to escape?"

"No, you have a point" she said, nodding. "Let's do this then."

He saw her holding two daggers in her hands and wondered what else she had in her arsenal. Maybe she wasn't so useless after all. They waited until the creature jumped at them to start their attack. Before the creature struck any of them with its landing, Kaen'Dre grabbed the creature by its feet and slammed it harshly down into the ground with all his strength before it could react. Their tails had a tendency to stab or creep up behind you and he was having none of that.

Kiara looked through the loose dirt clouding the air while the creature tried to get back up again. She was surprised by how much strength the tall being had, what was he? She quickly reached her arm back and stabbed one of her daggers into the creature's back while its backside was turned. The creature hissed in pain and threw her back with its tail. She hit the ground on her butt and got up, while Kaen'Dre attacked it.

He brought his spear up and embedded it through the creature's middle. It thrashed while spilling out its yellow-green acidic blood all over the floor. He let go of his own spear while Kiara tried to find a way to attack it. Kaen'Dre quickly held her back with one arm.

"Don't get too close when it's thrashing like that! You'll be horribly burned" he said, firmly. "Let me do this."

"I can take care of myself!" she said, angrily.

He laughed at her stubborn shrilly voice and took out his shuriken again. Targeting his desired location, he threw it at the hard meat. Kiara gasped in surprise when the blade went right through one end of the creature's neck cleanly and out the other without a splatter. He grabbed it back from the air while the serpent gave its last shriek and a second later, the head slipped off the creature's neck in a slow slick movement. The head collapsed onto the floor and rolled twice. The body fell into a bloody heap over the hill.

It was over.

Kaen'Dre walked over carefully to the creature and yanked his spear back from the dead serpent while avoiding the pool of acidic blood. Wiping off the blood on the floor, he looked back to the human girl. Her hair was a mess in her ponytail with bruises and small cuts on her body, some partly from his fight. The human had actually helped out against the hard meat and held her own.

She must really have wanted it dead, he thought.

"I did not need your help with this" Kaen'Dre said, simply. Human or not, yautja did not need or desire aid unless they were weak and weakness was not tolerated.

"I did it for my people, besides I saw it first" she said, crossing her arms. Then smirked, "You just interfered."

"I interfered? I interfered!" he exclaimed, his voice echoing into the abyss. She laughed at his reaction. "You know nothing of this being, you. .you. .ooman!"

Great comeback, Kaen'Dre, he thought glumly.

"Stop calling me that!" she shrieked, annoyed. "You . . .I don't even know what the hell you are!"

He growled at her angrily, which made her realize he wasn't exactly weak. He could probably crush her easily and kill her like that black creature and leave her body in the jungle. She looked to the dead creature they had fought together and sighed. Looking back to him, she nodded to him slightly in regard. He did the same in return after a bit and took a step towards her. She stepped back involuntarily from the unknown creature.

"I will not harm you" he said, placing a hand up.

"You vow to it?" Kiara asked, nervously.

"You aided me, I will" he said, nodding.

"Now I aided you?" Kiara asked, smiling crookedly. "You didn't aid me?"

"We both aided each other, all right?" Kaen'Dre said, quickly. She smiled smugly.

"I don't want to fight you, I wanted to fight that thing" Kiara said, pointing to the hard meat. "My quarrel was with that and it's over."

"Then we accomplished it" he said, nodding. "We both completed our missions."

She nodded in return and felt a small cracking sound. She looked down and noticed the earth cracking and starting to crumble behind them. Finding the source of it, she saw the serpent's blood melt right into the cracks of the earth collapsing it. She knew this cliff was old and it would give way soon at the rate it was crumbling.

"We have to go now, this is going to collapse" Kiara said, quickly. "It's a very old cliff."

Kaen'Dre understood her and looked around to find anything to get themselves to the other side. He was not about to fall over a cliff again like a while ago, he didn't need another repeat. After finding nothing, he took out one of his shuriken again. He opened it up and went over to the edge of the broken bridge. He calculated a precise cut through his mask and threw the shuriken. It went down the cliff and cut the side rope of the bridge away from the wood floorboards, then went back to him when it finished.

Kiara looked back nervously as the ground still crumbled from behind them. She looked to the warrior while he caught his sharp bladed weapon back from the air. He started bringing in rope from below which she guessed he must've cut off the bridge. She ran over to him to help in order to get the job done faster. They pulled the entire rope onto the floor in a quick time in which he then cut off the rope hanging on to the stand in the floor. He tied one end of the rope between one of the spaces between the blades tightly and prepared to throw it.

"Wait, won't the blade cut the rope?" Kiara asked, instantly.

Kaen'Dre sighed mentally and showed her the shuriken with the rope attached. He traced his finger between the start of each blade which were dull and then shifted wider to make them lethally sharp.

"They are not sharp at the start" Kaen'Dre said, in which she nodded.

He raised the shuriken into the air and calculated it to hit a tall tree on the other side. It was wide enough to hold the shuriken and he needed to throw it with full force to embed it deeply, and it was tall enough to propel them to the other side safely without hitting the cliffside. He threw it as hard as he could to his desired place on the tree, then quickly grabbed the bottom of the rope.

They both waited until the shuriken hit the tree in which Kaen'Dre yanked it to make sure it was embedded. He looked to Kiara and extended his hand without a word.

"Are you sure it won't give out on us?" Kiara asked, nervously.

"I cannot assure it but it's the only way" Kaen'Dre said, quickly. "What do you choose? Death or possible survival?"

"Why did you have to cut the bridge?" Kiara groaned.

"I couldn't let the hard meat escape!" Kaen'Dre hissed irritably. "Are you coming or not?"

"What choice do I have?" Kiara sighed and waved her arms.

"Just trust me" Kaen'Dre said, sighing. She nodded, still reluctant on the idea.

She walked over to him in which he immediately draped his arm over her waist. She wrapped her arms around his broad chest closely while admiring the strength he seemed to have with just one arm. He also seemed to be extremely warmer than her which would've made her cozy if she had known what this being was. He secured her into his arm and then ran at full speed towards the edge. She dug her head into the crook of his neck and closed her eyes while he did his jump, praying to the gods the rope wouldn't rip in midway and ended with them at the bottom as roadkill.

Kean'Dre jumped over the edge and gripped the rope as tightly as he could. He prayed to the gods they'd get safely to the other side. He kept a focused gaze through the air and then averted his gaze down to the human quickly. She had her face buried into his neck like a small child, he clicked amusingly. Then, he shifted his gaze back to the other side.

How in the universe did I get myself into this situation?, Kaen'Dre yelled in his mind. Falling down a cliff is one thing, but sailing through the air over an abyss! Have I become a hunter with a suicidal wish already?!

Kiara yelped softly while they sailed through the air at remarkable speed. The being's arm kept a firm grip around her but she kept her hold over his sides tightly, just in case he wanted to drop her and lighten the load. She heard a loud crash behind her after a while but she didn't dare to look, so she kept her eyes down to make sure they got to their landing.

Kaen'Dre, on the other hand, looked back to see the old overhang collapse down the chasm below. He looked to the front quickly to make sure he headed in the right direction while keeping a firm grip. He kept the ooman close to him since she had helped him, he wasn't about to kill her. It was rude to interfere in someone's hunt but he knew she was only trying to help him along with her people and she did, so he owed her in a slight way.

Know? How the hell did I know?, Kaen'Dre thought suddenly. She's an ooman! They can't be trusted!

The wind raked through Kiara's hair so fast it was practically in every direction, which made her wonder how fast they were going. She closed one eye and kept the other open to see where they headed and to not get nauseated. The last thing she needed was to cover her savior in vomit. She felt as if she was literally flying and if it wasn't such a threatening encounter, it would've. Tracing her open eye over the warrior, she wondered who and what he was.

Kaen'Dre held on to the rope tightly and the human at the same time. He'd never done anything like this through the air in his entire life, good thing his friends weren't there to laugh at him in case he ruined something. He glanced down at the creature in his arm who had also been watching him with one eye open, which made her look away immediately. He clicked his throat amusingly, wondering if she was frightened of him. But at least he understood the being and so did she.

I guess learning the language had an advantage, Kaen'Dre thought.

He saw the cliff from the next side in close range. He calculated in his mind on how to land safely and on the ground. The rope was burning his hand slightly from both of their weights already.

"Hold on!" Kaen'Dre ordered.

He felt her arms tighten around him closely, which made him tingle strangely on the inside. Was she frightened of him that she thought he'd drop her? He wasn't that cold-hearted. He shook the strange feeling off and got ready to let go of the rope when the floor came up to meet them. When they were about three feet over the cliff, he let go of the rope.

"Oh dear!" Kiara yelped.

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End of Chapter 4. Thanks for reading and your reviews. Sorry if the entry's a bit late in hours, school, you know?