Aki woke to the sound of gentle waves lapping against a stone shore. For a moment he thought he was dreaming, but then he realized he wasn't. He was lying on his back on a smooth stone, in the pitch dark.

"Eran?" His voice was slightly creaky, and, to his horror, wavery.

There was a rustle beside him, and he felt something brush by him. Pushing himself up, he held his breath and strained his ears. He heard a clatter of hard claws on the stone, and then a sleepy voice clicked: "Aki?"

"Eran!"

"I'm herre…" came the slurry clicks.

"Where are we?"

"It's an underground river… and it stops here… I pulled you on one of the stones on the side…"

"What do you mean stops?" Aki noticed that with every conversation, the Xeno's grasp on the yautjan language improved significantly.

"It stops, it goes underground into a tunnel. I dived down at least a hundred metres while you slept and the current increases so I came back and had rest as well"

He could feel the xenomorph uncoil beside him, and he supressed the urge to reach for him. This situation was testing, and he had to stay strong.

"How long do you think it goes on?"

"I don't know." The xenomorph hissed "It can't be too far."

"Why?"

"Because as I reached the place where the flow increases, I thought I saw light. It can't be far…"

"How well can you see in the dark?"

"I can see okay. You?"

"To be honest" the yautja shivered slightly "I can't see a damn thing."

Eran made sympathetic clicking noises. Aki could've swatted him for that. He didn't need sympathy.

"I can guide you."

"Have you checked for another way out?" Damn, he hated depending this much on Eran.

"I have and it's no good. The tunnel walls are very smooth and hard to climb"

"So we chance our luck along the river, or die of starvation here?"

Eran moved in the dark, Aki concluded the xenomorph was nodding.

"How do we do this?"

Eran moved and took Aki's talons in his. "You hold on to me. I think its best if you hold on to my body, then I have my hands and tail free to swim. I am a strong swimmer. All of my kind are."

Slowly, Aki felt being pulled towards the water by gentle force. He breathed in deeply. "You tell me when we dive."

"Yes. I will. Whatever happens, don't let go."

He felt the cold of the water envelop him, and the tug of the current pull him. Eran was holding his hands, and, with a gentle voice, asked if he was all right.

"Of course I'm all right. I just don't want to drown down here" he replied gruffly.

"Neither do I"

"You can't drown"

"I don't know for sure, but if I stay down below too long I get very faint"

"Fancy telling me this now!"

The current sped up, pulling Aki'ru's legs and his body armour downwards. He suddenly felt Eran's arms reaching for him, pressing him tight against the xeno's body. He reached around the slender frame, and interlocked his arms, and he felt Eran's head against his shoulder. "Lock your legs around my hip!"

The yautja did so. He felt strange, so close to the xenomorph, in this cool water…

"Take a deep breath, and hold on to me!"

Aki felt the Xeno tense, he took a deep breath, and closed his eyes, feeling the water envelop them.

Eran powered them along with smooth strokes from his arms and his tail, and Aki opened his eyes again.

There was nothing. It was pitch dark. He could only feel the water rush against his skin, and the smooth form of the xenomorph to which he was holding on.

Seconds passed, turned into a minute.

Then another one.

Aki'ru slowly felt the need to breathe. Eran had said one hundred metres, but they must have surely passed it already.

His head was starting to thump, and he felt the weight of the water that pummelled him with increasing ferocity

He had to breathe, but the darkness was still absolute. What if they weren't going to make it?

Suddenly, the current jack-knifed, its ferocity tearing him away from the Xenomorph, and slamming him into a rock. The impact forced the breath from him, and as he inhaled greedily, he tasted only water. The current grabbed him again, and spun him, tearing him downwards into the dark.

He hit the floor another time, and was ripped upwards like a doll gripped by some enormous hand. He prepared for the next impact, sure that it would be the last one, but nothing happened. He was sucked upwards, and all of a sudden the water was not black anymore but blue, and seconds afterwards, he was pushed through the surface, into the blaring sunlight. Coughing and gasping for breath, he had only seconds before the current gripped him again, forcing him under. With renewed vigour, he swam for the surface, popping through the churned waters, and taking another breath.

He had surfaced inside a gorge, created by the roof of the cave falling in, the Cave-in creating a headland, around which the river was churning. Aki swam towards it, being pulled under repeatedly, until he reached the shore, where he clung on to a rock, desperately, not to be swept away again. Slowly, painfully, he pulled himself up, out of the water.

The river lay before him, like a sinewy snake, disappearing back under the rock.

Where was Eran? Aki looked about him, sure that the xenomorph was already waiting for him. He was after all a stronger swimmer. But he wasn't there.

There was no sign of him.

Aki started to scout the river, looking up and down, waiting, even hoping for the long black head to appear above the waves.

When he finally saw the Xeno surface, he immediately knew that something was wrong. Absolutely wrong.

Eran wasn't swimming. He was floating.

And his spear, the one he had given him, the one that Eran hadn't let out of sight, was produting at an odd angle from his back.

"ERAN!" It was supposed to be a roar, but it came out a choked croak.

The xenomorph floated by, now only metres away from the dark hole in which the river disappeared.

Aki'ru took a deep breath, and leapt into the water after the Xenomorph

The water was colder than he remembered it, and it pulled him under mercilessly. But the cavern the river swept them into wasn't as dark as before. Enough light to see, and to swim by. But the roof started to close in again, and he had to hurry. A few strong strokes brought the Yautja to the side of the xenomorph. The water tasted tangy with all the diluted blood that flowed from the wound.

The spear had pierced the lower side of the creature. Aki grabbed Erans talon, and felt him return the grip feebly. He was alive!

"Eran!"

"Aki…" he gurgled. There was blood coming out of his inner maw, yellowish xenomorph blood, being diluted and washed away by the river water.

"Hold on! We need to get out of here!"

The Yautja looked along the tunnel. It had looked like the river was going to submerge again, but right now, Aki could see that it did not. It turned, the passage widened, and light filtered in through the large hole. The river thundered on, into the nothingness, and then disappeared, going over the ledge with a thunderous roar, like a thousand booster rockets starting at once. It assaulted Aki's ears and immediately instilled him with a sense of dread.

A waterfall!

"Eran, I need you to hold on to me!" The Xeno's grip was feeble, too feeble. Aki grabbed the tail, and wrapped it around his bad hand. He was going to need the good one.

Pulling the xeno behind him, he struck out for the edge of the river. The wall was still smooth from the water, but if his luck held, the passage would widen a short time before the fall, and that would be their chance.

The current pulled them on relentlessly. Only forty metres separated them from the thundering cascade, and he wasn't swimming fast enough. He doubled his effort, his bad hand straining and throbbing under the effort of pulling the xenomorph.

He was not going to make it.

Only ten metres separated them from the drop.

Finally, his feet reached the ground, and his fingers found a ledge, and grasped on to them, hauling himself upwards, until his upper body was out of the water.

Suddenly, he felt the pull on his bad hand increasing. The current had grabbed Eran's prone form, and was dragging it over the ledge. His hands lost purchase on the stone, and he was dragged across the rock, his body armour snagging on an outcrop, stopping his slide. Quickly, panting with exertion, feeling the muscles in his arm bulge, he pulled the xenomorph out of the current, and on the ledge beside him, finally removing both of them from the terrifying grip of the water.

He dropped flat on his back and with a shudder, disgorged the water he had swallowed during their ride.

His ribcage ached, as he bent down, and had a look at the damaged xenomorph. The Spear had torn an ugly wound, but it had not penetrated as far as the vicious barbs that were attacked to the handle.

Corrosive blood was flowing from the wound, melting the rock around it. He had no way of knowing if it had penetrated any vital organs. He didn't even know if xenomorphs had any vital organs.

It had to be removed, and he had to staunch the flow of blood somehow.

"Sorry, Eran" he whispered, as his grip tightened on the spear. He had no way of knowing if the Xenomorph still lived, but the spear had to be removed, and there was only one way.

The muscles in his good arm tightening, he tore the spear backwards, out of the xenomorphs flesh.

A spurt of blood followed it, fizzing when it hit the rocky wall of the cavern. Eran screeched, blood mixed with saliva flowing from his mouth.

The creature writhed in pain, and something small broke within Aki'ru's heart, something he had buried so deep he never wanted to experience it again. This couldn't end well.

Aki couldn't wait any longer. No matter if this was outside the code, fuck the code, he had broken it a few times anyhow in the last few days. And besides, why should the code be right, how could this be wrong, when it was so powerful, so overwhelming. How could he hate himself for what he was? He didn't want Eran to die. He grabbed the Xeno's talon, in his and pressed it hard.

"DON'T DIE, PLEASE DON'T DIE! I CAN'T GO ON WITHOUT YOU! PLEASE!