Author's Note: I've been envisaging this scene for some time, it's nice to have finally reached the point where I can write it. Alec may have shown Piusnex his world, now she gets to return the favour.
Alec squirmed in his bindings, though not very effectively. Chrome had rather skilfully stuck him to the wall with whatever it was that xenomorphs used to make their hives. His research had been shockingly lacking in that department, the production of a good solvent for the stuff well beyond his knowledge and equipment.
The praetorian, whom he'd regarded until a few hours ago as a friend, had been remarkably thorough, making the coating particularly thick on his joints to limit his movement as well as glooping over his mouth, rendering him voiceless.
The xenomorph had ambled away just ten minutes and already he was going mad from pent up energy and anger. Unable to move his only option was to stew in his thoughts and marinate in his outrage, whilst pondering what Chrome had in store for him; afterall if the praetorian wanted him dead then he would be, and there were no eggs in the room with him. Her motives were very much a mystery then.
He was also becoming increasingly fearful, all it would take right now is a single drone or praetorian to walk past and his death would be inevitable.
Stuck with just his thoughts for company, Alec waited for Chrome's return.
Piusnex made her way to her mother's chamber with a combination of trepidation and dread. She had stepped way out of line in her confrontation, and knew it, but some things were more important than a fear of rocking the boat. Her human was more important.
As she walked into the Queen's chamber she made a point of standing tall, putting on a front of bravery she certainly didn't feel.
"You defied me." The statement was cold and somehow still astonished.
"It was needed. I had things to do." Piusnex tried to respond in the same cold manner, keeping it factual.
"What could be more important than my will?"
Upon a time the answer would have been nothing, but now the praetorian could think of a plethora of things she would qualify as more important. Her mother may have been an efficient leader but she had no appreciation for anything beyond simple survival, it occurred to her that xenomorphs could be so much more than that.
In way of actual answer Piusnex said, "I was captured by the human, now I am back I needed to know if the hive had changed much while I was gone, I wanted to feel at home again." It was only half a lie.
"I will allow it to pass this once, don't make a habit of it."
"I won't mother, I won't."
The Queen suppressed her happiness, the child had been surprisingly easy to deal with. It was after all, a mere moment of exuberance at being home rather than the fully fledged rebellion she'd been preparing to put down. Still she would have to ensure her daughter was kept away from the new praetorians, they were too young and impressionable, a scouting mission deep into the enemy hive's territory was likely called for, a permanent mission.
Problem dealt with the Queen turned to her latest brood, a clutch of Ravager eggs, one of the tree war machines of the xenomorph race, mindless creatures of pure destruction, guidable only by her and able to follow only the most basic instructions, few Queens would dare to create such a weapon, a ravager, if it got outside her influence, would be like a deathblow to any ecosystem it found itself in. Now she merely needed the hosts to hatch them.
Author's Note: Naturally I'm apologising for my tardiness, but for once it isn't the fault of laziness or workload, I lended my friend my laptop for a couple of hours and he deleted the file by accident, over a thousand words lost, it took me two weeks of staring at the screen to hack this out.