Chapter 15: Time to go

They had been careful, Amun hoped it had been enough. They had done everything they could to hide their actions from the company that they knew were somehow watching them. He hoped and prayed to anyone who would listen that it had been enough. As he sat in the tree beside his sleeping Queen, he looked out over the many branches that were now cover in her eggs. He mentally counted them over and over to calm his mind. He knew that they were only one away from the one hundred that they wanted, but he counted them anyway. As he sat in silence, he felt his two daughters nearby approaching from their nights task.

"Father, there is enough!" Bobby said as she came to sit beside him, her sister Abby began to climb upon his back and curled in beside one of his back tubes. Amun had sent the two sisters off to do a head count of the cows at the farm nearby. They wanted to make sure they would not waste any of the facehuggers when they went. "Has mother laid the last egg?" Amun raised his head to look and was not surprised to see a vacant spot near the end of her egg sack.

"No, not yet." His words came out with concern and his daughters easily picked up on it.

"What is wrong Father?" Abby asked from his shoulder. Her question gained a long, drawn out sigh from the King.

" I am afraid...I do not want to lose another daughter...not one. I fear that this plan will fail and I will end up losing all of you. Especially you Abby, with you being kidnapped with me, so much could go wrong." He listened as his daughter moved to his shoulder and began to purr and nuzzle her head into the side of his neck.

"You can trust us Father. If this plan goes well, none of us will be in danger. And once I set you free, I will hide where I can until you come for me. I promise." He knew he could trust his daughters, but there was still something biting at the back of his mind. Something telling him that this would go terribly wrong. He remembered what they were doing this for, how important the end goal was. To live without fear for the rest of their days and finally be free. He looked down to Bobby who was sitting in silence and picked her up. He then plucked Abby from his shoulder and brought both of them into his gentle embrace.

"We love you too Father, we will finish this once and for all. Then we can be free of this." Bobby said from their hug.

"Yes my daughter, yes we will." Emilia said from her suspended position in the trees. Amun looked towards her and mentally smiled. She reached her one arm out towards them, wanting to join their physical contact. Amun happily carried his two daughters over to their Mother where she glad fully took them both, Abby in her smaller set of arms and Bobby within her larger hand. She pulled them in tight while Amun rubbed his crown against hers. "Tonight...we begin."

Amun pulled his head away from hers and noticed the last egg they needed slowly emerging from her egg sack and rested upon the tree branch. Abby and Bobby both quickly went to move the fragile item somewhere it would be safe for the rest of the night. Emilia watched as the two sisters work together to move the egg. Amun felt the feeling of love radiating off of them as well as their Queen which he still embraced happily. She pushed back to the King that was before her and rested her hand upon his shoulder. Amun was a bit confused as to what she was doing, but when she began to stretch her legs he understood. He placed his large hands around her hips to help her pull away from the egg sack and resin that suspended her. He listened as everything began to crack and break from their fixed positions on the trees around them.

Emilia began to push with her feet while Amun gently pulled, with both of them it was easy to pull her away from the now useless egg sack and armatures. Once free, Amun held Emilia in the air, suspended above the tree. He looked over her graceful body and admired its beauty. The smooth lines that contradicted the sharp spikes that covered her bodycreated a beautiful mosaic of shapes on every part of her more feminine exoskeleton. She was beautiful.

"Amun, What is wrong?" She asked as he held her in the air, hands still around her hips. He mentally smiled at her and shook his head.

"You are beautiful Emilia, I want you to know that." He felt her feelings of embarrassment. She tried to change the subject.

"You should have seen me when I was human." Again he shook his head.

"I don't need to." He brought her in close and kissed her on the lips. She wrapped her tail around both their bodies and pulled tight. They stayed like that for a enjoyable moment. It was a happy moment that they both embraced. It was the small mental giggle that they both felt that finally brought them back to reality.

They both turned their large crowns over to see Bobby and Abby poking their heads over a branch, watching their parents. The sight made Amun laugh. A creature that could be beyond deadly, giggling at the sight of a kiss. Amun finally placed Emilia onto the large branch, letting her legs slowly take her weight.

"Why don't you take your mother for a walk? She could probably use it." Amun asked his two daughters.

"Yes Father." They both said in unison. Emilia placed once last kiss upon Amun's crown before making her way down the tree with her two daughters. Once alone, Amun let out a long sign. He once more looked out over the branches of the tree that was littered with the eggs of his new family.

"Tonight my little ones, we become a family."

Later that night, after the temperature had dropped and Amun knew the sun had been gone for more than a few hours, Amun and his daughters sat quietly in the trees. They were all watching Emilia who was now mentally reaching out to every one of her eggs, commanding them to now wake and emerge. It was no easy task to do, her mind was stretched thin over so many small minds at once. And because of their more simple intelligence, she had to focus even harder to control them. As Amun and his daughters watched, they noticed one, then five, then ten eggs begin to open. Before they knew it, the fins of every egg were moving and the small,yellow facehuggers were slowly crawling out. Abby got a bit too excited and ran towards the nearest egg, picking up the face hugger that came forth from it.

"Father, I can hear her! She called me sister!" She exclaimed as she turned and showed the king the spider like creature. Amun reached out to the small alien to see if he could hear her as well. It came as nothing more than a whisper with more of the feeling behind it than the actual word.

"Family?" He felt it ask. Amun sent it a feeling of agreement, it responded with that of happiness. Amun looked to his Queen who now had most of the facehuggers gathered in front of her.

"Emilia?" He asked. "Will they be able to understand us well enough?" Emilia turned to face him, then looked down to the small creatures that covered the branches of the trees. Suddenly and in unison they yellow spiders all began to climb her body, settling down where ever they could. He then felt something crawling up his legs. Looking down he watched as another pack of facehuggers began to make their way up his body as well.

Amun and Emilia stayed as still as they could, not wanting to harm any of the newly born creatures. They waited as all one hundred of them found a spot to hold onto for the journey. Amun jumped a bit when a few of the little critters were crawling along the bone ridges of his tail, tickling him. It did not take long before he felt nothing else moving upon him. He looked up at Emilia who was also covered and smiled, it was a rather strange sight.

"Shall we?" She asked. Amun felt his excitement grow as she walked towards him. Not for the revenge that they would have, but for the family he was about to re-gain. Amun looked towards his smaller daughter and smiled as he saw Abby and Bobby with a few of the facehuggers upon their bodies as well. He brought his large head back towards Emilia.

"Yes my Queen." Bobby and Abby both made their way towards the edge of the tree before dissapearing over the edge. Emilia then made her way down the tree, using her tail blade as a hand.

"Hang on everyone."Amun then followed, being as gentle as he could so that none of his facehuggers would come to harm. Digging his claws into the meat of the tree, he descended, leaving long claw marks in the side of the trunk. He impacted the ground a bit harder than he had intended, but got to the ground in record time. Once he was recovered, he was meet with the gaze of Emilia who was not overly impressed. "Sorry love."

After that, Emilia turned and took off running at a medium pace, she did not want to lose any of her babies. Amun quickly followed suit and darted into the forest, following closely behind his queen. In the pitch black, they both moved with such speed and grace, their vision having no hindrance. Twisting through threes and leaping over larger obstacles, they perfectly kept up their pace with one another. Amun moved to run beside his Queen and shot her a quick glance and a feeling of excitement. He felt Emilia return the feeling and then took off at high speed.

"Catch her Father!" Cried Abby from her place behind him on the ground. Amun did as asked and accelerated to top speed. He easily caught up to Emilia, but she had better control of her direction at these speeds than he did. Where he himself would usually have to lower his head and smash anything in his way, Emilia gracefully twisted and turned around every obstacle. She almost moulded around a few of the tree with such accuracy that Amun thought she had hit them. With his much larger mass he had to choose a slightly straighter path than the gliding Queen. He had to make sure not to hit anything with such precious cargo.

It seemed like no time that their chase began that they both began to slow down. Not because they were tired, but because they both knew the farm was fast approaching. As Amun came to a walk about thirty yards behind Emilia, he could feel her excitement grow and grow. He soon joined her at the tree line of the property of the farm. They both looked out over the ocean of gray that was dotted with small clouds of colour. The cows came as a mix of brown and green pheromones to his vision and was easily seen against the gray.

"Bobby, Abby, why don't you lead your new sisters to their hosts. Just make sure the farmer and his family stay safe, understand? We want no one hurt tonight." He asked as he looked at both his daughters who were down to the ground in front of him.

"Yes Father." They said at the same time, happiness covering their words. Amun looked to Emilia who knew what he was asking. Amun felt her mentally reach out and tell every facehugger what to do. Almost instantly Amun felt every inch of his exoskeleton begin to crawl as fifty or so tiny creatures began to move. It was a rather strange feeling that tickled him in more places than just his tail.

He looked over and saw the army of spiders leaving the Queens skeleton and making their way to the ground below. It was a rather beautiful sight to see. As the facehuggers left, their pheromones being a subtle orange, slowly revealed Emilia's purple mist that was coming from her own body. Just another thing he loved about her.

Amun turned back to the task at hand. Once he felt that everyone was off, he gestured to Bobby to take them out. She did not question and began to walk into the field before her. Abby moved to be thirty or so feet to her sisters side, leading the other half of the army of facehuggers into the grass. Amun and Emilia both watched as their two daughters lead the wave of orange creatures out into the gray.

As Bobby and Abby approached the herd of cows, the facehuggers did what they do best. One after another of the large animals made muffled screams of concern before falling to their sides. As the two royal Xeno's watched from the trees, they both started to purr softly, both excited for their new family. Amun's day dream was cut into as his daughter's cry cut through his thoughts.

"Father! GUN!" Amun's gaze snapped to the farm house where no one had noticed the farmer moving upon the porch. He did not hesitate and took off into a full sprint. He covered half the field in no less than three seconds, but knew he would not make it in time. He could see the farmer had moved to the fence and was taking aim into the field. So Amun leapt.

Through the air he flew in silence and with perfect camouflage in the darkness. With a earth shattering crash, he landed just in front of the farmer just as the shotgun flashed. Amun felt the buck-shot bit into his crown that he had used as a shield to protect his family. He quickly shot forward and took the tiny gun from the hands of the farmer, crushing it between his fingers.

The farmer began to emit a cloud of yellow and black mist, but did not move a muscle. Amun stood to his full height and let out a low thrum from his throat, just as a simple warning. He then bent low and began to write in the dirt. He wanted to tell the man something before he came to his sense and ran.

"SORRY. NEED TO BORROW COWS. REPAY SOMEDAY."

"What the..." Was all that slipped from the farmers mouth before he fell to the hard ground, sent to sleep by a small nick of Bobby's tail. She had snuck up behind him in perfect silence just in case she was needed. She had been smart enough to use Amun as a distraction to get close enough behind the unsuspecting man to knock him out without harming him.

"Father, there are others in the house!" Abby exclaimed and she crawled upon the farm house's roof. Amun looked up to see a woman and a child in one of the second floor windows, hiding in a corner of what he guessed was a bed room.

"Abby, cut the power to the house. It will be a metal box somewhere on the outside of the house with the large wires or tubes running into it. Bobby, quickly gob lock the door to the room they are in. Just enough resin to keep them in till morning." His two daughters moved quickly. Amun reached down and picked up the slumbering man and placed him gently down on a chair on the porch. "Damn it...I did not want this."

He turned to look out over the field again where he saw Emilia looking over the cattle that their facehuggers now clutched to. She went from one to another, checking on them like a concerned mother would. Amun went to join her, knowing that his daughters would complete their tasks. As he approached the Queen, she was bent low, purring loudly near one of the sleeping cows.

"I can feel them Amun, I can feel their minds already. Our family will be here by morning." Amun let out a low thrum and embraced his queen.

"Yes they will be."