Danger often strikes when people feel safest. It is perhaps one of of the cruellest of life's great secrets. A dark prophecy whose sole purpose is self-fulfilment, for it is only when people feel safe that even the most paranoid may drop their guard, and thus, alas, Piusnex was feeling very safe indeed as she returned home from the Queen's cavern, with the Queen's blessing, however conditional and reluctant, there was no longer the constant fear of discovery, her home felt like home once more. Despite this she couldn't entirely shake the feeling she'd forgotten something.
The something she'd forgotten barrelled into her side, several hundred kilos of furious praetorian all put towards the singular goal of killing her as messily as possible.
Piusnex went sprawling, the human fall from her arms, his small frame tumbling across the ground even as she collided head first with a wall.
Blindsided as she had been, there hadn't even been time to brace against the impact.
Groggily she rose to her feet to see Desturbation bearing down upon the defenceless human, Alec still rubbing his head, vision blurry and ears ringing, the human already fearing a mild concussion, yet to get back to his feet as he ran a quick catalogue of his injuries.
She didn't even hesitate, crossing the distance in a single bound to tackle the smaller praetorian to the floor, barely remembering in time to use fist rather than claws. Each strike drawing a small thunderclap from her foe's domed skull.
Desturbation was under no such handicap and thus his claws began the violent process of making bloody shreds of the elder's praetorian's chest, though as bad as the wounds looked, Piusnex's thick chitin armour reduced all the cuts to little more than superficial scratches, the praetorian's age particularly telling in the strength and thickness of her armour and so, though the cuts bled profusely no real damage was done.
As his claws tried to slice open her chest, Desturbatio's tail was also in play, poised to strike cleanly into Piusnex's back and through to her heart, the organ still recovering from its gunshot wound and emergency surgery.
The strike never happened, unprepared and overwhelmed as she was, Piusnex still had volumes more fighting experience than her opponent, her own tail wrapping around his, her greater strength showing through as she pinned his tail to the floor with sufficient force to snap the tip.
Desturbatio roared in anger and wounded pride but try as he might the fight seemed a stalemate as his foe grabbed his wrists, neither able to land a telling blow any more. Short of waiting in vain for the struggling Piusnex to bleed out, or for the weaker praetorian's strength to give out, there seemed little that either of them could achieve short of a headbutt, and neither of them was fool enough to get close to the punching inner jaws.
Neither of the had reckoned upon Alec, the human having gotten shakily to his feet to the sight of his closest friend in a tense deadlock, fighting for her life. For a moment his mind flashed back to the last time he'd been in this position, a different friend, a different time in his life. He'd ran then, ran and not looked back, to the sound of desperate pleas eventually, mercifully, cut short.
He didn't run this time.
Cautiously he skirted around the wrestling pair the human stopped at their heads, carefully reaching through the melee to fasten both hands around the smaller praetorian's throat, squeezing down with his fingers as he drove his thumbs into the lightly protected cartilage.
Panicked, Desturbatio's struggles redoubled but slowly grew weaker and weaker until ceasing altogether.
As Piusnex disentangled herself from her foe, Alec could feel the life beneath his fingers begin to ebb.
He pondered what to do next, almost detached, as if it were someone else's hands that were currently choking someone to death, eyes drawn to the two missing fingers on his left hand, noting the puckered flesh that had healed over the formerly burnt flesh. A moment of perfect awareness and clarity as his mind ran in the background, seeing without seeing as he considered whether to keep squeezing until that weak puled faded forevermore or to show mercy to a creature which had met such attempts with merely further violence.
Alec let go. Not yet willing to cross the line would make him a murderer, for he knew that should he step over it, as small and easy as it seemed, it was line he could only ever cross one way.
The human was jolted from his reverie as a single clawed finger gently tilted his chin up, forcing him to stare into the face of death.
He smiled up at her, examining Chrome with the same concerned intensity with which she examined him. He imagined he could feel the infrasound pulses washing over him as she checked him for even the slightest bruise.
Concluding her charge was safe, Piusnex gently, almost tenderly, lowered her forehead to his, noting with mild hurt the momentary stiffness to his form and pheromonal fear in the air as the deadly jaws – easily capable of punching cleanly through his skull – entered what in most circumstances would be considered optimum range. Fortunately for their friendship and budding, if one-sided, romance it was merely a moment of misplaced instinct and her human more than made up for it as he wrapped both arms about her neck, pulling, by trust alone, the heavier praetorian into a close hug, Chrome having to stoop significantly to avoid the awkward situation accidentally lifting him into the air; presuming Alec's arms had the strength for it.
The stoop should have made her uncomfortable yet, somehow, Piusnex had never been so comfortable in her life, chest full of a strange warmth she couldn't quite name, a mix of contentment, joy and something else.
Alec had a similar experience, for though the praetorian's armoured form had about as much give to it as the average wall, as Chrome's arms encircled him, the simple inestimable warmth of knowing there was someone who game a damn if you lived or died.
The two held each other for but a few tender moments before Alec was forced to pull away, acidic blood from her wounds raising blisters on his skin after having successfully burnt through his increasingly ragged and tattered shirt.
Piusnex looked apologetic, realising what had happened from the slight wince that even Alec's exception tolerance to pain could not entirely conceal. Fortunately the bleeding has slowed to little more than a lethargic ooze as the wounds scabbed over; they'd continue to hurt for hours but, as long as she didn't overexert, would prove no real danger to her health. With the highly acidic nature of xenomorph biochemistry only the most aggressive and durable infections stood a chance of taking residence in her wounds. Though conversely, as this meant that as a species they'd never had to evolve an effective immune response, any infection that took hold was almost invariably fatal.
An awkward stillness descended as both pondered their next move, or rather they both pondered Piusnex's next move, Alec fully aware that within the confines of the hive his free will would seldom see more than lip-service.
With a hissed sigh the elder praetorian picked up her younger brother's insensate body, hoisting him unceremoniously over her shoulder before lifting Alec rather more gently up onto the other shoulder despite a token protest from the human.
Annoyed beyond measure by this latest development, and buoyed by the adrenaline from the fight, Piusnex had little trouble carrying them both as she returned once more to the Queen's chamber in the hope that her mother would still be in a reasonable enough mood not to rescind Alec's promise of safe passage within the hive and would instead focus her ire upon the luckless Desturbatio whom even the most subjective observer in all of known history, human, xenomorph or otherwise, would be forced to admit was not having a good day, as self-inflicted as it may have been.
Within her chamber the Queen was deep in thought, slowly mulling over the miraculous, possibly even unique, circumstances which had, unasked and unsought, befallen her hive.
She knew how dangerous humans could be, especially at a distance, and the thought of human weapons turned to her benefit was an enticing thought indeed, almost as enticing as catching one of the dreaded yautja alive, though the chance of obtaining a xenomorph-yautja hybrid was essentially nill, the hunters preferring to kill themselves rather than be captured alive.
Without anger clouding her judgement she could easily see that letting the human live had been the correct decision, particularly as it ensured Piusnex's continuing loyalty and it would provide valuable leverage should her eldest daughter show any further signs of rebellion or independence, as synonymous as the two concepts seemed to her. There was however a single change she planned to make to their deal, Piusnex was far too skilled a commander to be wasted on looking after a human.
Should they both return alive she would have to place the human under the care of one of the younger praetorians, Natus-Occisionis perhaps, her youngest daughter, or perhaps Desturbatio, the praetorian may have been less than a year old but he'd shown great competence thus far.
No sooner had the thought passed across her mind, Piusnex entered like a poorly placed plot device, gently putting her ward down upon his feet before roughly throwing Disturbatio's battered form unceremoniously to the floor.
With slow deliberation, the Queen drew herself up to her full height, towering over even the praetorians. "Explain the meaning of this, my daughter." She demanded imperiously, not angry yet but certainly concerned.
"The praetorian tried to murder my human." The elder praetorian stated, keeping her story simple and true if not technically honest, lies of omission requiring less memory and imagination. "I took great exception to this."
"Why not explain it to him?" She asked with something approaching sweetness, an emotion that very much put her daughter on guard, usually that tone of voice meant something very bad would be about to occur.
"He didn't really give me the opportunity." Piusnex snarked, unable to entirely maintain the level of submission the Queen was used to despite her diplomatic intentions.
To her surprise her mother merely bestowed upon her a tolerant smile, "Go, rest, I will explain the situation to him once he awakens." The Queen assured, effectively dismissing two of the intruders from her inner sanctum.
Relieved, the praetorian left with nothing more than a respectful nod, casually scooping her human into her arms as she moved past him, Alec's struggles even less than half-hearted, more for his dignity than anything else.
Growling darkly the Queen waited for her errant son to wake from his oxygen deprivation induced slumber.
Author's Note: Apologies for the long delays between updates, over the last few chapters I've taken to writing on paper then typing it up as I find the quality is much better though I'd be interested to see if that's a conclusion you agree with. As always please leave a review, they really make my day.