Author's Note: Gahh I feel stupid I accidently posted the same chapter twice! I apologize isanely for that! Since there are obviously many Yautja to be found to the ship there will also be the introduction of several Original Characters for the purpose of filling up the ship.
Warning: I read that there is a deleted scene where Lex tells Miller that she has a sister in Florida, so I have brief mentions of that. This story is going to be massively AU from this point on, most of my depiction of the Yautja culture is based off commonly accepted theories, but overall I AM MAKING IT UP based on my own knowledge of how successful cultures operate. If anybody has a problem with how I write them, I am open to suggestions. Text in bold is Yautja, unless noted otherwise, the rest of the dialogue is English. BEWARE: some of the characters will speak English, but not very well so their dialogue might be a little hard to read, keep some Tylenol handy.

Disclaimer: If you don't recognize it, its mine, if you do, its not.

Haven

Sunlight warmed her face and cool wind sent shivers down her back.

She must have been six or seven years old, Alexa Woods dashed down to the water for one last look at the ocean. Salt air greeted her, and gulls cried out welcomes for the sky, while the waves themselves tickled her bare feet. Lex giggled and splashed around a moment before her eyes were drawn toward the massive rock just off the shore.

She waved good bye to the starfish and mussels, the anemone and crabs. A sudden red light passed her eyes, hurting them for a moment before it vanished away again. The little girl looked to the top of the rock to see if she could find the source.

At first she saw nothing, but then she noticed a distortion in the air on the rock like a ripple in the waters. She stared at it a moment, trying to discern what it was. It seemed humanoid in shape, Lex decided, lifting her arm and waved hello. Whatever it was stood still for a moment before a warp in the atmosphere in the shape of an arm raised and mirrored the action, Lex giggled.

"Lexie!" Her father called from the dunes above, "Come one Babydoll! I thought you wanted to go to the mountains!"

"Cooooomiiing!" She shouted back in a sing-song voice before turning back to the strange shape she saw and the rock and waved good-bye to it as well before she dashed back up the hill to the car where her family was waiting. She slipped her sandals back on and climbed in next to her sister.

"I hate snow!" The other girl complained, "Can't we stay on the beach?"

Their mother turned to them with a smile, "Come on now, we did your thing, its Alexa's turn." She explained

"Besides," their father added as he started the car, "I'm on vacation too; I think going to the mountains would be fun!"

"But you go to mountains all the time!"

Alexa stopped listening at this point, her attention was focused out the window, to the rock, where if she squinted, she thought she could still see her invisible friend. "Daddy?" she asked suddenly, "How did the story about the little girl who wouldn't stop crying go?"

"If you don't think hiking is a fun thing to do on vacation, young lady, it's a long walk home." Alexa's father warned her sister, while he wasn't looking at her, she stuck her tongue out at him, "I'm sorry Lexie, what was that?"

"The Indian Legend." His wife told him, "Alexa asked how it went."

"Oh, yes…" He paused for a moment as he turned the car into the open road. "Well, I'm not sure if this is exactly how it goes, but the story tells about a little Indian girl who would cry for no reason-"

"-Like Lex?" her sister teased.

"Shut up!" Alexa barked.

"Girls!" The storyteller cautioned, "Anyway this girl was warned, that if she didn't stop crying, the spirits would take her away.

"That's right Lex," the Alexa's sister whispered, "If you don't stop, the spirits will take you away."

"Brat!" she hissed back.

"Behave you two!" Their mother warned, "And so what happened?" She asked turning to her husband, acting as if she'd never heard this story before.

"Well, the little girl didn't stop her crying," he continued, "And one day, her mother and the village elders heard her scream for help. They ran to find her, and where she was playing on the rocks they found that her feet were beginning to change into stone. They tried days and nights to free her, but at last the stone had grown too much on her and she became nothing but rock." He pointed out on the ocean where beyond the rock Lex had made her friend, was another larger rock, where they could see the form of a boulder on top. "They say, that every once in a while you can still hear her crying." He finished. Her mother applauded, and even her sister seemed to have liked this story, but Lex only frowned.

"She didn't turn into a ghost?" She asked.

"Nope." He replied.

"Are they any ghost stories about this beach?" She looked back at her rock.

"Not that I'm aware of, Babydoll." He looked at her through the rearview mirror, "Why do you ask?"

"'Cause I saw one." She said, "Out on the rock, closer to the beach." She pointed to it.

"You did not see a ghost!" The other girl told her.

"Yes I did!" Lex insisted.

"No you didn't, you were imagining things!"

"MOM!"

"Girls! I swear, if you two don't start behaving, I'm going to make Alexa walk home, and you can hike the Mountain twice!" their mother threatened.

"Why would I have to hike the mountain twice!? I don't even want to hike it once!"

"Exactly!"

"Hey, guys, we're leaving town." Their father cut in, "This is the last town for a little bit, say bye-bye!"

Lex complied, waving good-bye to every house, tree, and market. Her sister simply rolled her eyes. "When I grow up, I'm moving to Florida!"

Beep…Beep…Beep…Beep.

The dream faded away. Lex slowly opened her eyes and blinked at the ceiling for a moment. "Wha-?" she murmured to herself, taking in her surrounding. It was a hospital, but unlike any she'd ever been in. She couldn't process what exactly was different though "That was weird…" her eye opened wider and she gasped as she recalled the shape from the rock.

No way.

She remembered that trip to the beach and mountains. Not very well, but still…Her head was swimming, she couldn't pick out which parts of that were memories and which parts were dreams. She tried to calm herself down and breathe slowly. She recognized that shape…

"Ahr yew A'wake?"

At this point she jumped up, crying out in surprise, then sharp pain, and light embarrassment as the coverlet wrapped around her fell, revealing her almost naked body, covered only by her bra, underwear, and bandages. She quickly lay back down and pulled the blanket back up. She looked for who has spoken and was at the very least comforted by the fact that the speaker had looked away while she was indecent.

"Um…I, uh…Wha…Where…?" Lex braced herself as the creature turned, her heart pounded furiously as she tried to comprehend what was happening.

"Call'hm. Yew muss't no't hert yewrself." He commanded, the accent was thick, but Lex understood every word.

"You speak English." She marveled. The Predator replied by rising his hands, clutched between them was a book. It took her a moment to understand, but at last she saw. Its cover had been torn off, the pages were yellow, and the ink had faded, but she could make out the words inscribed on the discolored paper: WEBSTER'S DICTIONARY.

Her eyes drifted from the dictionary to the Predator. He had the same muddy amber eyes as Scar, and the same flesh yellow face, but his was covered with dark bristles, as sure of a sign of age as wrinkles she supposed. His eyes were filled with, not only intelligence, but the wisdom of many years on the hunt

"Yew ahr Lhrueckz, rite?" The old Hunter asked. She nodded, "I am Kru'saad, cheef El'der of tha Clann."

"Kr..Cru…Crusade?" she repeated, she eyed the dictionary in his hands and wondered if it was a coincidence that his name resembled an English word. She shook her head, "How'd you know my name?" she asked. Crusade nodded to the left of her. Glancing over she saw her friend from the Pyramid, "Scar!" She looked back at the Elder, "Is he-?"

"Mai son sleepz." He answered, "Tuld me everi-thingh, Sckeahr has bluh'd'ed yew."

"Son?" She repeated in awe, "Blooded?"

Crusade reached forward and touched the mark on her cheek, "Yew ahr mahrk'd az Hun'ter."

She recalled what Sebastian had said to her in the crevice, "Like, part of your, tribe-er-clan, or whatever now?" She stopped, glancing around the room again and noticing the lack of Italian men "Where's Sebastian?"
Crusade snorted, contemplating his answer, "No't x'act'ly." He cautioned, "Yew bare tha mahrk, but meny do no't thin'k yew true'ly deser've iit." He thumped his chest, "Yew've twoo, choi'ce's, but yew muss't thin'k well, yewr liif d'pends on this choi'ce."

He looked her in the eyes as he said this, and Lex had the feeling that she wouldn't like either option, "Okay…What are my choices."

"Yew, can chuse to staa wi'th tha Clann; proo'v yewr ski'llz az a Hun'ter, you muss't tay'k a nuu tess't, to proo've yew ahr wor'thy to be in tha Clann." Lex nodded, her heart pounded, she didn't think if she really had a choice she'd want to stay with these hunters, if those aliens where what juveniles hunted to prove their manhood she didn't really want to know the adults hunted. "Or, yew can go, baa'k to yewr plan'it, an say good-bi. Yew hav seen too mut'ch. If yew return, we muss't ki'll yew."

"K…Kill me…?" this hardly seemed fair to her, couldn't she just take an oath of silence or something. But she supposed, looking at the Dictionary, that they'd had similar encounters before, they couldn't risk their culture being exposed.

"Yew hav time to may'k yewr choi'ce." Crusade repeated. "Thin'k well." With that the elder stood and turned his back, walking out of the room mercilessly. From her bed, she could see a little ways into the hall, just outside the door was a glass case which she could see was filled with skulls, one of them, even from this distance, was distinctly human. Lex was sure that Crusade had already shown her plenty of mercy.

"Lhrueckz?" Scar was awake; he flinched as he pulled himself into a sitting position. Lex noted that he too was stripped down to bandages, "Ell-osde nan-ku." She wasn't sure at all what he had said, but his eyes told her he was happy to see that she was awake. Lex smiled and waved her hand at him; without the weapons and armor he seemed less intimidating, but hardly harmless, considering his large talons, fangs and muscles. Scar trilled and thumped his chest with a fist. "Gkei'moun!" he declared, his eyes burning with pride.

Lex giggled, he certainly had the cocky arrogance of a teenager. But then she turned away, she had problems…She had a choice. Either one would end in her death. If she decided to go back home, she would be given a quick intentional death (At least she hoped it would be quick), and if she stayed she ran the risk of a horrible, painful death.

On one hand, if she stayed with the Clan, there was a chance she'd live a lot longer, and maybe…just maybe she'd live long enough to be spoken about in legends in a few generations. But what about her family? If she went home, she'd at least get to die on her native soil, and Crusade had said something about saying good-bye. Perhaps she could at least visit her sister (who had long ago kept her promise to move to Florida) long enough to tell her what was happening.

This was a really tough decision, Lex felt her eyes burn with the threat of frustrated tears.

"Lhrueckz?" Scar chirped. She looked over at him, the young hunter continued to growl in his own language, his eyes informed her that he knew of the choices she was faced with; he was trying to help her. She smiled and shook her head lightly.

Then for the first time factored Scar into her dilemma. What would happen with Scar? Since he was the one that 'blooded' her, she made a safe guess that if she decided to go home, it would be his responsibility to be her executioner. Could he do that? Could he kill her? Could she make him do that?

She considered her other option. Stay with the Clan. Stay with Scar. Lex looked at him, his shoulders were sagged and he was still growling, he appeared to be worried she'd pick to go home. She glanced around the room, there was a window to her right, and out it she could see the stars, and more importantly Earth.

"Lhrueckz," Scar said suddenly, causing her to look back at him, "F'rend."

Friend. That's right they were friends.

Then it was clear to Lex what she had to do. She looked back at Scar with a smile, and tried to communicate her decision. After a while it she gave up, she hoped he understood that she had a least made her decision.

They'd still not left Earth's orbit when they heard footsteps approach, Crusade returned followed by two other Predators carrying bowls. A delightful aroma filled he nostrils and Lex was suddenly aware of how hungry she was. The Predators each gave a bowl to the two patients. Lex accepted it politely, not caring what was in it.

Crusade approached dismissing the other two, whom the dark haired woman presumed were doctors of some kind. He stopped at Scar's side and the two chittered at one another before the elder turned to Lex, noting how she ate the meal given to her without question.

"S'pke," he said, "Froot stue. Doo yew lyke iit?"

She nodded, "It's good, believe me I've had a lot worse." This made Crusade trill, the Predator laughed her, and suddenly she thought perhaps she was making a good impression.

"Yewr a lot differen't than he was." Crusade muttered.

"He?"

Crusade shook his head, "An'othur tyme. How do yew fiel?"

Lex took another mouthful of the fruit stew and politely waited until she'd swallowed before answering, "Much better, though at this point you could give me a biscuit full of maggots and I'd feel the same way. Thank you."

Crusade laughed again, Scar chirped to get his attention "What are you saying to her father?" He asked.

"Quiet." His father snarled, "I'll tell you if something important comes up."

Lex didn't know what was going on, but then it dawned on her that Crusade spoke English, and his own language, she could tell him her decision and have him translate for Scar. "Excuse me." She interjected, "I…uh…I've made my choice."

The Elder looked back at her, "Alred'y?" he asked, with a curious chirp and a raised brow. Scar spoke again, and Crusade translated Lex's comment for him. Scar glanced towards her, his eyes filled with panic and concern.

She met his gaze, understanding that he was pleading with her. She smiled at him, "I'll… take that test…I want to join your Clan." Crusade translated, Scar's eyes filled with relief and excitement, Lex wanted to giggle, but stopped herself, because there was an important matter she needed to understand. "What are the conditions of this test?"

"Would you calm yourself Sckeahr, you are acting like a little child!" He snarled at his son, who was chittering unintelligibly. He turned back to Lex, "Yew will be re'quire'd to join a Clann hun't, but d'talez will be explain'd lat'ur. For now, res't. Yew will need yewr stren'th."

Lex nodded, "How long will I have to prepare for this hunt?" she asked.

"Tha hun't will be a whi'el yet, th're still meny Jehdin who must tay'k thar Kainde Amedha Chiva. Yew will hav plen'ty of tyme to res't and trane." Crusade explained.

She bowed her head respectfully, "Thank you." She muttered. Crusade dipped his head as well and again told her to rest, and left the room. Lex gave the blue planet outside the window a final longing gaze. She'd be home sick of course, "But…" she turned to Scar, "Looks like I have a new home now."

Scar replied with a delighted trill.

Author's end note: And so Lex's trial begins. I've read a few fics where she joins Scar's clan, but all of them seemed to have something missing, or too quickly paced and there are certain things I've noticed in a few of them that I actually want to avoid. Also I want to make it clear that despite that this no longer takes place on Earth, this is STILL Alien VS. Predator and the Xenomorphs will still be included in this fic.

Editor's note: He heh, I hope Crusade's dialogue wasn't too much of a headache, I know the spell check had a Bitch fit with it. For future reference, yes, they will be continuing to speak like that in the future so keep that in mind as you continue to read. The reason we have them speaking like that is because while watching Predator 2 we noticed that the predator's don't really have tongues and therefore probably cannot pronounce some English words. We have our own little theory about their mouth anatomy that explains a little bit about how they speak that we will be working with. This theory is that the Predator's probably have some kind of muscle, most likely deep in their throats that works like a tongue, hence why the Yautjas in the Predator movies are able to say such things "Shit happens" and "What the Hell are you?".

Ell-osde nan-ku - "Ell-osde" meaning 'you', and "Nan-ku" meaning 'alive' hopefully translating to something along the lines of "You're alive."

Gkei'moun - All too easy

Jehdin - Individual, one, or (Such as in this case) un-blooded warriors.