Author's note: This is SUPER late I know. The blame can be pinned on one thing: Life. Lost my notes, had to rewrite them between classes, and then my computer stopped working and stuff just kept going wrong from there, I am so sorry and I hope this is worth the wait.

Warning: Meh… It hasn't been to long for you to not know what to expect, right? Hunting stuff, possibly gore, and Lex/Scar.

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's mine, if you don't its not. Wait. Strike that; reverse it.

Haven

Lex hadn't meant to dose off, she simply leaned her head back and shut her eyes, she thought for just a moment, but the next time she opened them the sun had moved to the center of the sky. She jolted upright, groaning when an ache coursed through her. Scar's roar rang out across the forest, he was close by. Close enough that Lex could be heard if she shouted.

"Scar!" She shouted, "Scar! This way!"

They shouted back and forth, like a game of Marco Polo, Lex was extremely relieved to see Scar's silhouette appear in the branches across from her. He was still far away, but the fact that she could see him made Lex feel a lot better than just hearing his roar. She was about to shout out again when movement on the forest floor below caught her attention.

A creature sniffed the tree, following her scent apparently. It had grey scales like a lizard, but was shaped more like a featherless turkey. Teeth in its beak indicated it was a carnivore, but Lex could see the creature was merely curious about the invading scent, not looking for a meal. It turned and began walking away, shaking a tail that spilt in two behind it. It moved in slow awkward movements that reminded her of a creature from an old clay animation movie.

Lex couldn't stop staring at it. And from the sudden silence, she knew Scar had seen it too.

After a few minutes of watching the strange turkey-lizard, Lex looked up to see Scar had finally managed to take his own eyes off it long enough to get closer to her, she took a step back as Scar jumped from the tree next to her, to her branch, where he stood at her side looking back at the creature.

It was just so funny to watch.

"Kik'itok." Scar said suddenly.

"What?"

"Kik'itok." Scar repeated pointing down at the turkey-lizard, "I killed one of those in hunting practice. They are weak, but smart."

"I see." Lex and Scar stood side by side watching the kik'itok until it vanished out of view, when it did Lex noticed Scar's hand on her shoulder. She leaned into him slightly. Lex thought about the crash, she too had a suspicion of who was responsible, but she was more worried about what would happen now that they had no transport.

Scar was apparently thinking the same thing, "Can you move?" He asked.

"I guess." She replied stretching out her limbs to work out her aches. Scar gave a nod and pointed in the direction of the mountains which they could see the tips of through the trees, and smoke from where their shuttle had crashed.

"Best see what we can salvage." The Yautja suggested, he backed into the trunk of the tree and broke into a run as he jumped into the next tree. Lex attempted to do the same, but her injuries slowed her down a bit, she missed landing on the branch with Scar's grace and clung to the edge of it, clambering to get onto it instead of hanging by her elbows.

Scar let out a trill of amusement as he reached down and lifted her with ease, Lex thought he would set her back down on the branch, but instead he held her in his arms bridal style and jumped into the next tree, and the next, despite Lex's protests and demands to be put down.

With Lex in his arms, Scar had to be much more careful in his calculation how far to jump and which branch would be stable enough to handle the landing. And Lex's struggling made it hard to keep hold of her. She was laughing, so Scar knew she wasn't mad at him, he had to trill again.

At last he put her down, but made sure she kept up, and didn't hurt herself. It was a long way to the crash site, and they had to stop every once in a while to rest since Lex was still injured and she didn't want to use too much of her medical supplies in one day, after all, it had to last them three moons.

Night started to fall, and they were still several miles from the mountain. "We should stay in the trees." Lex said, "We're too vulnerable on the ground."

Scar nodded, "I will stand watch, you rest."

Yautja could go longer without sleep than humans, a fact the Lex was a little embarrassed about, even though Scar didn't mind, Lex felt like she was slowing them down. The night was warm and moist with a cool breeze that comforted her as she leaned against the trunk and closed her eyes. The tree looked like what someone might think they'd see in a jungle, with mossy branches like ones in swamps, but the bark felt like a fir tree. The sudden sound of flapping wings made her open her eyes again.

At first Lex thought it was a flock of birds, but the large creatures flying by were more like bats upon closer inspection. It was dark and none of the vision modes on Lex's helmet would let her see details better. Scar stood over her watching them. Suddenly he jumped up and snatched one with his bare hands. Lex cocked her head, trying to remember if the Elders had said to bring back such a creature for study. Scar snapped its neck and it ceased to struggle and Lex realized with a certain 'duh' moment that Scar had just caught dinner. Her stomach growled to express its agreement.

Hours later, haven eaten and slept, Lex's energy was back and though it was still night, vision modes on the Yautja helmet allowed them to see very well where they were going. Lex and Scar hopped from branch to branch, making pretty good time, all things considered. It took three uneventful 'days' to reach the crash site and the closer they got to the mountain the air became crisper and the wind got colder as the trees started to dissipate.

The shuttle was not as in bad of a shape as it would have been expected. The hull was smashed and walls cracked open, but it was mostly still in one piece. It wouldn't fly, but when they worked their way inside, the computer still worked. Small creatures had slipped their way in and started eating their provisions, but there was still enough left to last them the entire three moons if they rationed them carefully, added some of the planet's bounty to their diet, and kept the wildlife away from it.

Scar went to work setting up some nets over the holes and Lex tried to send a message to the ship. They were only supposed to call back in an emergency, which they both agreed this qualified.

Lex could read the Yautja text, at least enough to get a simple SOS message across, but it was a while before they had any signs of a reply, which was spent helping Scar forage around for scrap metal they could use to replace the wire netting over the holes. They might need the nets later. When the computer beeped informing them that someone had gotten their message Lex let Scar take over.

As he relayed their situation, Scar spoke aloud, vaguely translating anything he knew Lex couldn't read. "Sabotage." He growled, "Stranded in the low mountains. Requesting pick up for science captures, and transport when we have killed Navt'ghil. "

He sent the message and they waited, this time only moments before a reply was received.

"Sabotage? Confirm. Perhaps navigation error. Planet largely unexplored Will send pick up and transport. Do not waste time." He growled irritably. "They don't believe that Dahrt did it."

"Well, we can't prove he did." Lex replied. She didn't like Dart, but she didn't want to be enemies with him. She really hoped that whatever was going on between him and Scar would eventually end and perhaps they could be friends.

Scar snorted, but didn't say anything as he collected a few things from around the crash site preparing to leave again so they could continue their hunt.

They spent the night in the ship before heading out again. The best way to approach this, they thought, would be to get the Navt'ghil skull first, and then start looking for the creatures that the science division had requested. Lex looked up at the mountain eagerly, it wasn't covered in snow, but rock climbing was perhaps the only thing she was better at the average Yautja.

Scar was less enthusiastic.

At the base of the mountain, Lex started to unpack her climbing tools, but Scar stopped her, wanting to make their hunting plan before they rushed into it, because as his father had warned them, the Navt'ghil had outwitted the Predator race before. Lex nodded and looked him in the face, "You first. What do you recommend as our course of action?"

Scar growled contemplatively, between the two of them he was the more experienced hunter. He was quiet for a couple of minutes then he kneeled on the ground and with his knife started to draw in the dirt. "We scout first." He said, "Get the lay of the land, find the Navt'ghil den and pick out the leader. We'll take a few days to study their behavior so that we can understand how they will attack and prepare our counter."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Lex agreed, "When they're asleep we can get in close and take a look at their body structure too, see if we can find their most vulnerable points for when we do this for real."

Scar gave another growl as he stood, dusting dirt off his knees and looked up at the mountain. Lex followed his gaze. Movement in the sky drew their attention and they both changed setting on their visors to catch a better look at it. It was far up, but the two warriors knew what it was, one of the Navt'ghil. It circled the peak and made a noise that was muffled by the wind, but loud enough that it caught the attention of others. Could it be the alpha female that they were looking at?

Lex and Scar started their climb, it was a long way up, and neither of them wanted an accident so it was slow. On top of that, Scar seemed to have a few 'issues' with rock climbing. She didn't want to say it out loud for fear of insulting him, but Lex couldn't help but be amused at the idea that Scar could very possibly be afraid of heights.

They reached a ledge a few hours later; it was going to be dark soon so they agreed here would be a good place to stop for the night, besides Scar looked ready to pass out. Lex stretched, it had been a while since her last good climb, and she was as exhausted as Scar was. They dipped into the rations they'd packed for their hunt which they agreed could take anywhere from one week to two.

Lex munched silently on a piece of dried meat, occasionally stopping to take a few breaths from an oxygen converter. The air on this planet was to thick for her, and she had difficulty breathing, but Scar had a much easier time, it being closer to the air of his home planet, though he still took the occasional breath from his oxygen converter as well.

It was growing cold, the fire they built did only so much to warm them, and as Lex started to lie down, Scar came over, purring softly and laid at her side. His arms slid around her and pulled her close. In his arms Lex felt small, knowing how easily he could crush her with them, but he held her gently, which let the human relax and she leaned her head into his chest, listening for the sound of his heart. Scar continued to purr, quietly, and soothingly. So soothingly in fact, Lex fell asleep to it…

The next day they reached the peak. Immediately they saw signs of their quarry, the rocks were covered with scratch marks, feathers and tuffs of fur littered the ground. Lex and Scar cloaked, the Navt'ghil were nowhere in sight, but as they knew all to well, just because you can't see something, doesn't mean its not there.

Scar led the hunt, Lex kept a watch on their backside, watching the sky for any signs of the flying felines. She bumped into Scar suddenly, though to the naked eye he would have been invisible, she could see his heat in the infrared vision mode of her helmet "Sorry." He said, and pointed down as he bent over and examined a pile of droppings.

It stank.

It was fresh.

Scar bolted upright at a sudden sound in the rocks above them, Lex reached instinctively for the dagger Scar had given her, but relaxed when she saw that it was nothing more than one of the bat like creatures native to the jungles below. There was a cave above them, just big enough for its kind to fit through, but little else. Lex's relaxation was put to an immediate end with a flash of fur and suddenly the creature was gone.

Lex turned her eyes to the sky after it. There! A Navt'ghil was landing on a rock just a few feet away, the bat like creature dangling from its teeth. The winged cat bit down on the weakly struggling animal in its mouth, and the struggling ceased. Scar touched Lex's arm and pulled her away. They needed to find the pack den. As the two hunters backed away, Scar accidentally hit the rock beside him, causing it to shake, and a smaller rock on top of it to fall down the side of the mountain.

The Navt'ghil snarled and looked up searching for the source of the disturbance. Its eyes scanned the area, fur bristling and nostrils flaring, using all its senses to try and find what caused the rock to fall. Its gaze fell to were Lex and Scar stood, and its muzzle pulled back revealing its teeth in an angry growl, and for a moment Lex thought the creature could see them, but to her relieve the eyes moved on, not staying long enough to indicate it knew they were there. They stood perfectly still, not wanting to risk any further noise while it was still on alert.

At last, the Navt'ghil seemed convinced that perhaps the rock had simply fallen because of a strong wind current, and resumed its meal. Scar started moving again, slow, and more carefully, Lex kept on her toes, making as little noise as possible until they reached a natural stair case in the rocks and climbed again. Over the ledge they stopped a moment to look down on the sight below.

They'd found the Navt'ghil den.

As planned, they spent a few days, almost a week, studying the behavior of the big cats. Like Crusade had said, the pack was lead by the alpha female, and had three other females, that almost acted like body guards for their pack leader, with the harem, consisting of five males, following behind.

They were lie-and-wait hunters, also like Crusade had said. The females hunted individually, usually a small thing for their own hunger, but occasionally Lex and scar saw them bringing back pieces of something bigger to share with the alpha. Males tended to be more pack hunters, hunting down bigger creatures and eating together, away from the mountain and the females. But there was nothing too special about their methods of attack, other than be big and strong, there was no real difference between the Navt'ghil and the mountain lions Lex had seen back on Earth.

At night the pack slept together on the rocks. Lex volunteered to go down and take a closer look at the feline's anatomy. There was, again, little difference between the Navt'ghil and the mountain lion, aside from the wings. From the looks of it, a good shot in the usual weak spots should be a killing spot.

However…The Navt'ghil were also aware that something was watching them. So it seemed at least. The first two days, the pack continued on with their daily life as usual, but on the third day Lex pointed out to Scar that the alpha female seemed to be searching the rocks, and the next the whole pack was on the look out. At night, one or two of the females stayed awake, and in a few hours were relieved by another one or two. During the day sentries sat on rocks and individuals would flare their wings as if sending communications to one another. Crusade had said they were smart, but Lex a little unnerved by just how smart they were, and her heart felt a little dread at the memory of his warning that these creature had outsmarted and killed the Yautja before.

"I think we should make a new plan." She told Scar the morning of their assault.

Scar glanced her way, she was sure that he was going to argue, but he nodded his head, "I agree. I don't like how alert they've been lately."

"Me neither. They're expecting us to attack, I think they've got a few tricks up they're sleeves themselves." She told him, then shook her head, remembering the Yautja's inability to comprehend ooman figurative language and common sayings "I mean, I think they've got their own counter attack in the making."

Again, Scar nodded, "What do you have in mind?"

Lex looked up at the moon, which was ending its first moon change since their arrival. "I think we should go back down the mountain." She suggested, "They're on the watch because they know we're here. If we leave they'll calm down. We can get some of those science missions taken care of and come back when they're less ready for us."

Scar was silent a moment, contemplating her idea. He really didn't want to have to climb the mountain again if he could help it, but he didn't want to fall into a Navt'ghil trap either. Finally he nodded, "Let's start back."

Armed, and cloaked they headed quietly back toward the trail they'd come up, but they didn't make it.

A single Navt'ghil landed in front of them, snarling. Scar jumped back, and Lex dived behind a rock, both narrowly avoiding a swipe from her long claws. Lex peaked over the rock. It was the alpha female, the ooman warrior wonder if the Navt'ghil could see them the whole time, and had been laying a trap, but the female glanced around in confusion, looking for the intruder she had thought was there. She sniffed the air, other female Navt'ghil started to circle the air above them, and searching for any sign they could give their leader about the location of the intruder. Seemed the males were guarding the den.

Lex glanced at Scar, the vision setting she currently had applied to her visor let her see him with enough detail that she could tell he was looking back at her. Scar made a signal using body language, pointing up to the sky and shrugging his shoulder where his plasma caster rested. He continued, pointing at her and indicating that she circle carefully around her rock and catch the alpha female off guard while he kept the attention of the rest of the females.

If they were fast enough, Scar could probably kill or at least scare off the others while Lex took care of the leader. They'd already worked out a signal they were going to use for their original attack plan, so Lex nodded and began to slowly creep around the boulder which would put her right next to the alpha female, and she would have a small window of opportunity to kill her. In the mean time, Scar was just as slowly backing up through the trail of rocks to a more open area where he had more room to maneuver, and outcroppings to duck under in the worst case scenario.

Lex gripped her combi-stick, still in its compact mode she prayed that when Scar gave his distraction she would have enough time to put it into weapon mode and kill the alpha female before the large feline joined the others in attacking Scar. Lex reached the other side of the boulder, and peeked her head around, the Navt'ghil was still staring at the place she and Scar had been standing, perhaps convinced that they were still there, and that she was staring them down in a challenge, waiting for a strike from an invisible enemy, to be matched with her extended claws.

Lex turned her head back toward Scar, he was still backing, but a few minutes later he stopped and glanced back in her direction. Lex made one stroke in the air with her hand in indication that she was ready when he was. Unfortunately, her hand bumped into the rock behind her, and a few pieces of gravel dropped onto the ground, the leader snarled and turned in her direction lashing out with her claws. The rock was still between them, and Lex was cloaked so the Navt'ghil didn't know where exactly she was, but the attack was enough to scare Lex into freezing a moment, and send the other females on the offensive, heading in the direction of Lex's boulder, the ooman warrior thought she was doomed for sure until a blast from Scar's plasma caster knocked one of the body guard females out of the air and she dropped lifelessly onto the rocks a good distance from Lex.

Surprised the two remaining ones flapped their wings sharply, pulling out of their dive, the alpha female jumped away from the boulder, her wide eyes searching desperately for where the shot had come from. The two females circled in a panic, the alpha female flapped her wings furiously on the ground, as if commanding them to return, one gave a freighted shriek of pain, and orange blood started to drive from, what to them would have looked like an unexplained wound, but Lex could see that Scar had thrown he combi-stick and grazed her shoulder, which reminded his partner on the ground that she had to get the alpha female.

Lex leapt from behind her boulder, the Navt'ghil was unaware of her presence, she was still trying to find Scar. Lex's combi-stick extended with enough noise that her prey could hear and turned fast, Lex thrust forward just as the leader's claws swiped at her. The two screamed at the same time, the combi-stick embedded in a non-fatal part of the Navit'ghil's chest, while claws left deep gashes in Lex's forearm that reminded her of the darkness of the pyramid where she had first met Scar, and of the monsters that had dwelled in those depths.

The alpha female reared up, roaring in agony and flapping her wings frantically, she started backing up, not a smart move; she was too close to the ledge, and with a roar that echoed for miles down, she fell over the cliff-side. The two remaining Navt'ghil panicked and took off full speed back to their den, Scar's plasma caster blasted after them, missing entirely on purpose, just to scare them into not coming back. Then for a moment every thing was quiet, and Lex collapsed, clutching her bleeding arm and holding back screaming by biting her lip as she sank to the ground.

Heavy footsteps announced Scar's arrival. "Help." Lex begged, squeezing her arm tightly trying to slow the bleeding. Without having to be told twice, Scar reached back to grab his medi-comp and began searching through the materials for what would be most appropriate for this type of injury. Lex's vision started swimming, even through the mask, and she started feeling faint. The scent of her own blood was growing sickening…

"Lekz! Lekz!" Scar roared shaking her roughly, for a few frightening moments Scar was afraid it wasn't her arm that was the problem, but within a minute Scar realized she had just passed out from the pain because the cuts were in fact quite deep. If she hadn't thrust out with the combi-stick when she did, the attack could have taken her whole arm off. "Lekz…" Scar purred softly as he started cleaning the wound.

It took several minutes for it to stop bleeding bad enough that he could apply the gel he prepared, and he was grateful at least that she was already passed out; perhaps she wouldn't feel this pain then. The gel hardened over the wound quickly, like a scab, it doubled as a sort of anti-bacterial gel to prevent infection. Scar considered them lucky that Lex's hand had knocked the gravel over. The Navt'ghil had been expecting one enemy and weren't prepared for an attack to come from two places, and the confusion caused by that fact was perhaps the only reason the battle hadn't been longer, with more serious wounds. Scar dug out a few more items, short metal poles, cloth and a strap. Lex probably wouldn't be able to move her arm for a while or else she's risk reopening the gashes, so he made a sling for her and began wrapping her arm up. There was only one thing left to do now, Scar lifted Lex gently and eased her carefully onto his back, wrapping her good arm around his neck and tying them together, not too tightly, with a cable in his supplies to make sure she didn't slip off and fall on the climb back down…

Lex started coming to about the same place they had stopped for their first night on the mountain, but blacked out again only a moment later.

When she opened her eyes again it was because of the feeling of being set down. She blinked groggily for a moment and the scent of mountain air made her think for a moment she was back on Earth, camping out just before or after a pleasure climb up some third-world mountain most of her friends wouldn't have heard of, but the sound of Scar's curious trill reminded her that she was on a not-so pleasure climb on an other worldly mountain that none of her friends had ever heard of. For a moment she felt homesick, but that was overcome by a sudden realization.

They weren't on the mountain.

They were at the base of it. It seemed Scar had carried her down from the mountain while she was unconscious. She looked up ready to apologize vehemently for thinking he was afraid of heights, but stopped seeing Scar a few paces away taking off his mask and looking ready to vomit. She smiled behind her mask, she'd better not let on she knew his secret, but at the same time she was very proud of him for facing his fear like that for her.

It was about then that Scar noticed she was conscious and straightened up. "The Navt'ghil…" He growled.

Lex tried to sit up, "Must have landed down here some where…" She felt dizzy and leaned back again.

Scar pointed upwards, "I saw the body on the way down. Scavengers are already on it, but all we need is the skull and your combi-stick."

Lex nodded, "Yeah, I supposed."

"You'll be alright here on your own for a little while, right?" Scar asked looking up at the mountain. For a moment Lex wanted to argue that he was not going to go up there by himself, but she was beginning to realize just how awful she felt, and that her arm was in a sling, so instead she nodded.

Scar took a moment to approach her, and handed her his combi-stick and rapped her gently on the head, "Just in case." She couldn't tell if he was joking or serious, this was still a largely unexplored planet. Who knew what other creatures lived here?

"Be careful!" Lex shouted after him as he began to climb again. Scar grunted a reply she couldn't make out. He was so brave…

Scar was up the mountain for about two almost uneventful hours retrieving the skull and combi-stick from higher up. Almost uneventful; because at one point Lex was half asleep when the sound of breathing jolted her awake, a few feet away one of the native mammals was approaching her curiously, Lex was almost surprised that she recognized it, and was wondering where from when it came back it was one of the creature Crusade said science had wanted them to pick up.

A Tattu'k (she'd spent hours memorizing its name and description), a baby one anyway, with a jaw that seemed disproportionate to its smaller body. It jumped back when she moved on its kangaroo-like legs to a distance that it deemed safer. It cocked its head at her curiously for a moment and bounced away toward the plains, its ringed tails twirling along behind it. It stopped again and looked back at her once more before continuing its bounce back to a larger creature that Lex could only assume was one of his parents, she felt really bad that they needed to bring one in for science. What if the male they brought in had a family?

When Scar did come back the Yautja had a braver face than when she had last seen him, but was definitely relieved to be back on the ground. Lex had to smile, and wondered if she spent enough time climbing mountains with him if she could get Scar to love it as much as she did. They traded combi-sticks and stories, Lex's encounter with the little Tattu'k made Scar trill in amusement, but while Scar had been on the mountain he'd had a misadventure of his own with a species his clan had not yet identified, which had no legs and slithered like a snake, had feathers, with two tails and a beak, and made a noise, "Like this." He said playing a recorded loop.

The sound reminded Lex of a rooster cawing at dawn. Scar took out his knife and drew a simple picture of it in the dirt. He looked up excitedly, "I think it was going to attack me, but it saw that I- well actually you killed the Navt'ghil but it didn't know that, and so it stayed away!" Lex rolled her eyes slightly under her mask, only the Yautja would get excited about the idea of an unknown species trying to attack them. "We should go back up when you're better and collect a specimen for the clan!"

"You want a specimen Scar, you go get it." Lex told him, she was less enthusiastic about the idea of intentionally intruding on a possibly hostile creature's territory. The idea of going back up alone silenced the young hunter. Lex's dizziness was gone so she tried to stand; Scar had to help her to her feet, but once she was upright Lex was perfectly fine on her own. "So, are we going to go after the Tattu'k now?"

Scar hoisted the Navt'ghil skull onto his shoulder. "I don't see why not, the plains are not that far, and we just need one male."

"Actually…" Lex mused, "We better go back and re-supply first."

Scar gave a thoughtful trill and nodded, "Maybe on the trip to the ship and back here you're arm will be well enough that you don't need that." He added pointing to the sling.

Lex shrugged, "Maybe, but its agreed then that we go back and then go after the Tattu'k?"

"Only if we don't run into those river-dwellers, the Whahali, first we might change are minds then."

Lex laughed as they started their walk back toward the crashed ship. "We might."

Author's end note: Again I apologize greatly for the delay in getting this updated. And also, I'd wanted to have the science missions written into this chapter and have something completely new for the next chapter, but I figured I've kept you waiting long enough, I should give you something to read while I'm still working on the rest of it. Hope you enjoyed!