Author's Note: -nonexistent-
Warning: Gory imagery
Disclaimer: Still no

Haven

The little cargo ship had barely landed when the four young warriors leapt out with their weapons poised to attack. The launch bay was empty but for a few scattered bodies, Yautja who were either dead or dying. Some of them Lex reconginzed from their clan, but most of them she did not. She took a closer look at the Yautja she didn't recognize. On their helmets they too bore a mark etched from the blood of the Kainde Amedha, but it was not the same as theirs.

"A rival clan…" Dodge growled, "They want this territory."

Lex rolled her eyes slightly, "Some things are universal I guess." She muttered under her breath.

The four pushed forward, the halls were the same as the launch bay, virtually empty aside from the occasional Yautja who either didn't move or gave weak cries to be finished. Lex wanted to stop and put some of them out of their misery, but Burn, Dodge and Scar continued on, urging her to hurry as she slowed. Lex heard an irritating buzzing noise coming from deeper in the ship

The scent of blood was almost overwhelming. Lex felt sick to her stomach as they passed the remains of the battled that had gone through here. Yautja had holes in their chests from plasma blasts; others had combi-sticks still lodged in their abdomens. Lex almost vomited when she ran by a Predator that was practically cut in half with his bright neon-green entrails hanging out across the floor.

While Lex wasn't trying to survey too much of the carnage, she was also checking the Yautja who's masks had been removed, searching for familiar faces. So far she'd seen a few from their clan she knew by name, but no one she really knew that well, though her companions gave barks of anguish every once and a while when they came across old friends.

As they ran further and further the buzzing noise that Lex had heard from the launch bay became louder and clearer, until she could finally tell what it was. It was the sound of battle. A door opened a head of them and a Yautja came running toward them, he was looking back, they raised their weapons defensively, the other Predator turned and raised his sword-like weapon, catching Burn almost at the throat, but dropped it immediately.

"Javelin!" Lex cried with relief.

"Lehkz!" Javelin dipped his head in respect and congratulations for Lex and Scar and pointed behind him at the main deck where the battle was taking place, "Hurry, they need all the help they can get." He snarled.

Dodge looked at him, "What about you?" The young medical officer asked, "Where are you going?"

"I have an idea; just hold them off a little longer." Javelin replied, and resumed his original course "I'll be right back!" He promised behind him.

The door opened again and another Yautja, from the other clan ran after Javelin. Lex took him by surprise by firing her plasma cannon, Dodge and Burn ran up and got on either side of him, preventing escape, while Scar delivered the killing blow.

"Come on!" Scar roared beckoning Lex to follow them onto the main deck.

They pushed the door open and were welcomed by war cries and the rush of bodies as the clans clashed. Lex could hardly tell which Yautja was her clan and which was not. Scar, Dodge and Burn leaped into the fray, joining their clansman, taking down the intruder and moving on. Lex stood where she was a moment longer, surveying the battle trying to find a place where she was needed.

At last she caught sight of a mint-green Predator, and an albino who were cornered by four advancing Yautja. Without hesitation, Lex ran to help Strike and Tool. Her battle cry made one turn around and she swatted him in the face with her combi-stick, the force cracked his helmet a bit. Her arrival distracted the others enough that Strike and Tool were able to raise their weapons and attack.

The Predator Lex had assaulted advanced toward her angrily, but paused a moment and cocked his head, looking her up and down, obviously noting either that Lex was not one of the Predator species, or that she was female. Lex thrust forward catching him in the abdomen, the Yautja snarled in pain and yanked the combi-stick free, resulting only in making the wound worse than it would have been. He clutched his side and swiped at her with his own combi-stick trying to gut her like a fish, but Lex was too fast for him and he was slowing down as he lost blood. At last Lex's attacker fell to the ground, probably still alive for the moment but not for long.

She turned her attention back to Strike and Tool. One of the invaders scratched at Strike with his extended metal claws, catching him across the chest in a non-fatal blow, but left himself open for Strike to kick his stomach and blast his shoulder cannon off, resulting in the two fighting hand-to-hand.

Tool was a better long distance fighter, and kept himself just out of reach of the other Yautja's weapons…waiting for his opponent to get tired so that he could deliver his own assault. Lex's attention then went to the final Yautja invader that had been attacking the two of them when she arrived.

His skin was pale purple, and he was taller than any other Predator she'd ever seen, and thinner. He turned to her as well, and paused as the other Yautja had, distinctively noting that she was female, but his hesitance to attack didn't last long and soon Lex found herself having to parry his attacks. He didn't give her a moments rest, she couldn't afford to look and see if Strike and Tool were doing alright, otherwise she might leave herself open for a mortal wound.

She kept her eyes on him, noticing as she blocked his swings. That he wore his helmet with a strap, like she did, instead of with tubing like the other Predators. That little discovery made her look back at his hair, which she found with a little surprise that it was actual hair, short and dark purple, not tube-like tendrils, and realized she was fighting another creature who, like herself, had been deemed worthy by this clan to join the Yautja race as hunters.

He continued attacking her fiercely, and it took another moment to realize this, but Lex almost laughed when she figured out he was so determined to take her down because he thought she was actually a Predator female. Unfortunately his all out offensive strategy had one big flaw; he was tiring himself out more than he was tiring her. Lex backed away, and he followed her still thrashing almost blindly with his combi-stick until he slipped slightly, ending up on one knee with Lex's weapon to his throat. He dropped his weapon immediately and looked at her through his helmet waiting for her to finish him.

Lex didn't.

Instead she reached up to remove her helmet. The warrior jumped back a bit in surprise as her human face gazed down at him, she lowered her weapon, and without speaking he knew what she was telling him to do.

He reached up and removed his own helmet. Lex almost gasped at how ooman he looked, but held back to keep up the illusion she had planted in his mind that she was a non-Yautja warrior who had been with the Predators most of her life, and he didn't stand a chance against her.

He had thin lips, a ooman-like nose, and bright blue eyes that seemed too big for his face. His ears were large and pointed, like elves from ooman legends, but they were pointed down ward. His large eyes stared at her in awe for a moment before he gave her a respectful nod, which she returned and left him. She understood how he felt, and couldn't bring herself to kill him. He didn't pick up his combi-stick and attack her from behind, so she guessed the feeling must have been mutual.

Lex put her helmet back on and saw Strike running with Tool to the aid of another Yautja from their clan; beyond them she could see Dodge and Burn, both with fresh wounds, joining their father in attacking another group of intruders. To her left Lex saw Dart with Thug, fighting two of the other clan each and across the deck Lex saw Scar with his brother Fire, and Crusade. Lex ran toward them, they were out numbered three to six. Just as she reached them one of the intruders saw Scar look toward her and whirl around, slicing Lex's leg, ending her assault.

"Lehkz!" Scar roared.

The Yautja that had attacked her kicked Lex in the chest, knocking her to the floor; he raised his combi-stick to finish her. Lex screamed.

But the sound of her scream was drowned out by another, louder shriek. Every where Yautja stopped fighting, lowering their weapons and glancing about nervously as the ground began to rumble. Suddenly, a wall burst and through it burst an enormous grey mass that Lex took a moment to recognize was Xeira.

The large queen shrieked again and bucked, as if trying to throw something off her back. Yautja began to scatter, trying not to get stepped on as the queen thrashed about. Lex caught sigh of Javelin riding on Xeira's back, like a knight riding a horse, and noticed immediately that he was holding on for dear life, and that it was him that Xeira was trying to buck off.

Javelin gave a roar from Xeira's back, probably a cry for help as he struggled to stay on, but to Lex he looked like a cowboy waving his arm and yelling "YEE-HAH!"

Two things happened at the same time: The Yautja from their clan backed as far away from Xeira as they could, knowing perfectly well what the large queen was capable of; and the other clan, oblivious of what Xeira could do to them, ran in to attack.

Xeira ignored them at first, in favor of trying to throw Javelin off of her bacl, but soon enough she found the attackers to be more annoying that the Yautja Elder that was clinging to the spines on her back, and lashed out at them in return. Lex almost laughed at the pitiful attempts to bring Xeira down, and Xeira's attempts to get Javelin off her while at the same time defending herself from the attacking Yautja. Finally Xeira dropped to the ground and rolled, effectively knocking Javelin loose and crushing a few of her attackers. Xeira's tail flailed knocking Javelin in the chest and sending him flying, he landed close to Lex.

"Retreat!" Lex heard a someone cry, the word repeated through the rival clan and they all made breaks for the doors, wanting to get away from the queen as fast as they could, some helping their not-quite dead to their feet as they ran.

Once the attack stopped, Xeira swung her tail around furiously and turned toward Javelin and gave a defiant roar before swirling around again and stomping off back toward the science division and her cage where she promptly laid down and rested having exhausted herself.

There was a moment's silence before the entire clan burst into roars, and trills, congratulating each other on their victory and laughing at what had just happened. Yautja gathered around Javelin trilling hysterically and commenting on his brilliance.

"What were you thinking?" Wrath was laughing as he pushed his way toward his friend, "Did you honestly think that bitch would let you ride her?"

"I wasn't trying to rider her!" Javelin said in his defense, "I was just trying to lead her hear."

"Is that so?" Wrath pointed a finger at him in mock reprimand, "It looked like you were having a lot of fun up there."

"I thought I was going to die."

Lex smiled and shook her head she felt an arm on her shoulder and turned to see Strike and Tool who nodded their appreciation to her before turning away and going to Dart so that Tool could brag about how brave he had been.

Scar approached her next. He took her by the hand first, and then pulled her into an embraced that reminded the clan of the feat they had accomplished. Roars of congratulations went of, though some Yautja ignored it since they didn't care about the ooman warrior or that one of their own had taken her for his mate.

Amongst the crowd of Yautja that applauded, Lex felt strangely at home all of a sudden. After all her long hard training and fighting, she finally felt like she was actually starting to be accepted, and even liked among these hunters. She smiled under her helmet, but it faded when her eyes landed on Dart, who had turned away angrily.

Dart had already tried to tear Lex and Scar apart, and he was likely to have plotted their deaths with Sabotage, and the way he turned away so abruptly made Lex's heart sink in dread.

Somehow she was afraid the worst was yet to come…

Author's End Note: Boy have I been waiting to write that chapter ^^ (The non official term here is "The Rodeo Scene") I hope you all enjoyed!