Aliens/Predator 1. Prologue

_Part Two_

_The Hunt Continues_

Prologue:

_**Man'daca Spaceship  
Outside Earth's Atmosphere  
**__**October 11, 2004**_

Ci'tde followed his brother as they made their way into the _Man'daca_, leaving the loading ramp behind them. The hiss of the hydraulics drew his attention back to see their elder clearing the opening, just as it began to close. He stared at the barren wasteland outside, wondering briefly how his female might survive; the small _ooman_ had seemed sensitive to the cold that was in the pyramid. Outside the ship, the snow seemed to be falling harder now as the night grew darker and colder.

A bark from M'dli-te startled Ci'tde from his concerned thoughts. His eyes landed on the elder as he turned his gaze away from the now-shut door. The older Yautja was giving him a guarded look, his mandibles pulled in to his mouth as he growled. Understanding the hidden warning, Ci'tde turned back around and started walking once more, with Elder M'dli-te following silently behind him.

Beneath Ci'tde's feet, the metal shook from the force of the engine's roar. He hesitated for a moment, feeling the vibration of the ship as it began the takeoff procedures. Within minutes, they would be leaving the planet's atmosphere.

A growl from the elder had Ci'tde turning his attention ahead and he forced himself to move. His eyes fell on his brother as they entered the room that housed most of their clansmen. He found that Skl're hadn't stopped walking since entering the ship. His brother's mind seemed to be elsewhere and not on the cheering Yautjas who were praising their triumphant return. He huffed at his brother's back, but failed to catch the smaller warrior's attention. Growling beneath his breath, Ci'tde pumped his arm in the air and roared.

His clansmen cheered with him, their voices rising in unison. His brother turned to look at him then, a pained expression on his face, but instead of joining in on the celebration, Skl're continued to ignore it. The crowd hardly seemed to even notice the lack of enthusiasm from Skl're as Ci'tde roared their successful return. Tucking his mandibles close to his face, Ci'tde hurried after his brother, hoping to knock some sense into him.

_Why does he not cheer? _Had they not been at each other's throats before the hunt about who would have the better kill? They should be celebrating with the others, partaking in the festivities and enjoying a good drink. They had become Blooded Warriors together _and _they had killed a Queen! Ci'tde caught up with his brother, wondering what could be troubling him so much that he refused to join in their revelries.

Ci'tde had gone to Earth for his _Kiande Amedha Chiva _with his two brothers. Unfortunately, only two of them had made it back alive. Chulonte, the youngest sibling, had been too eager to add one more human kill to his name that he had not been careful about the hard-meats that had already spawned. For his carelessness, he lost his life. Losing his brother like that had not been easy for Ci'tde. Thinking back now, he was ashamed at how he had lost control over his rage.

While Ci'tde was the largest of the three brothers, he was not the smartest. He was quick to temper and, if he was goaded into one, quick to rush into a fight without any plan of action; the loss of Chulonte had been no different. Due to his rash decision, he had nearly not made it back from his _Chiva _as well. Slowing his gait, Ci'tde sobered with this realization. Was that why his brother did not boast their new status? Snuffling beneath his breath, he shook his head to clear it. Surely they had proven their honor by killing the Queen? Again Ci'tde huffed, unable to shake the feeling that maybe he wasn't as honor-worthy as the other Yautjas believed.

Eying Skl're's back, Ci'tde watched as his smaller brother rubbed his chest wearily. He wondered if he had been injured in the fight with the Queen. It hadn't seemed like it at the time, but during the battle, Ci'tde hadn't been able to keep an eye on everyone. That was how the small female had gotten hurt; he hadn't seen the Queen moving her tail to strike until it was too late. Thinking about that, he hoped Elli would be alright.

"_Mei'hswei_, are you alright?" Ci'tde asked as he jogged to catch up to his brother.

Skl're looked over, his face pinched as if in pain. "I need to get to the medical bay," he said, his breath coming out in short gasps. He was suddenly halted by a racking cough that had him doubling over and coughing up blood.

"_Mei'hswei!_" Ci'tde bent over his brother's body, grabbing him before he could collapse to the ground. "Medic, we need a medic!"

One of the Yautjas broke away from the crowd that had gathered to greet the newly Blooded Warriors. He approached quickly just as Skl're collapsed against Ci'tde, his body wracked with spasms. With great care, Ci'tde laid his brother down on his back, unsure what he should do for him. The medic withdrew a device that he used to scan the fallen warrior's chest.

"We need to get him to the medical bay now," the medic said urgently and barked an order to the other Yautjas standing nearby. They approached quickly – one on either side of Skl're, two at his shoulder and two at his feet – and kneeled by him, lying down two poles that formed a stretcher beneath Skl're's body. The four Yautja lifted and rushed the fallen warrior to the medical bay.

Concerned for his older brother, Ci'tde raced after them, pushing his way through the crowd. He would have followed them inside the room if the medic hadn't sealed the door shut behind him. Furious, Ci'tde pounded on the door, his mandibles spreading to a roar as he shouted to be let in.

_What are they going to do to him?_

A commanding bark behind him forced Ci'tde to go silent, his outraged roar coming out strangled as he snapped his mandibles close to his mouth. He laid his hand flat against the door and rested his forehead against its smooth surface. His body shook as he tried to regain control of the anger that wanted to be let loose. Closing his eyes, Ci'tde felt defeated. Not even while staring that hard-meat in the face as he waited for the killing blow made him feel as he did now. If he lost his older brother, he did not know what he would do.

"You have already defied me once, Warrior, do not think I will allow it a second time." The familiar commanding growl of the elder came from behind him and, reluctantly, Ci'tde pulled away from the door. He looked at the older Yautja from over his shoulder, slowly turning to face the elder while pulling his mandibles tight to his mouth.

Elder M'dli-te had trained all three brothers for their _Chiva_, but not only that, he was their sire, as well. The elder had similar coloring to the three brothers, but it was Skl're who resembled their sire the most; Ci'tde and Chulonte had taken more after each of their mothers' coloring.

While M'dli-te had sired over sixty sucklings, he had only trained a select few of them. Since Chulonte, Skl're and Ci'tde were all close in age, they had been trained together, but there was more than just blood that tied them; they were hunt brothers as well.

"Skl're will be fine," Elder M'dli-te said confidently. "Ne'jad-ke is the best medic on this ship. He will do everything he can to save him."

"I do not know what is wrong with him," Ci'tde admitted. "He was fine before."

"Follow me," Elder M'dli-te instructed and started down the hall, not even bothering to see if his former pupil would follow him.

Ci'tde hesitated for a moment, his eyes lingering on the closed medical door before deciding to follow the other Yautja. He had to jog to catch up to the elder, but once he had, he kept pace with him as they traveled through several corridors. At the length of time it was taking to get where Elder M'dli-te wanted to take him, Ci'tde was starting to wish he had defied the other Yautja and broke into the medical bay instead. Finally, they turned down one last corridor that led to a single door near its end.

His mandibles drew in tight at the sight of the door and the empty corridor they stood in. What was he doing here? He should have stayed and beat the door in with his fists till it caved. He would have gotten into that room, eventually, even if he had to use his plasma gun to break in. At least then, he wouldn't be lost in the ship with the elder while only Paya knew what was happening to his brother.

Only the honor and respect he had for the elder had him following the older Yautja to the only door that was halfway down the long, narrow hallway. Elder M'dli-te typed in a code that released the lock and allowed them entrance into the room.

Ci'tde had to admit he found himself curious as he had never come across this corridor in all his years on this ship. Other than the medical bay, he had never heard of a door that was locked unless it was a warrior's personal chambers, but they were on the wrong level to be entering someone's chambers. He hadn't realized during the walk that they had traveled to the other side of the ship and were now in a room that over looked the medical bay. The whole wall in front of them was a glass surface that looked into the large room on the other side of it. Ci'tde stared at the Yautjas who were surrounding his brother's body. They had him on a metal slab connected to several different machines.

Rage flooded his system at the sight of his brother's prone body. He did not understand what was happening, but that did not deter him from flying off into an incensed rage. He rushed forward with an angry roar, planning to break down the glass with his bare hands to protect his brother. However, a sharp smack to the back of his head had him faltering and falling against the glass instead of breaking through it. Growling, Ci'tde looked behind him to see Elder M'dli-te poised in a familiar fighting stance with his combi-stick held defensively in front of him. As if Ci'tde would be stupid enough to try and attack the seasoned warrior. Even in his enraged state, he knew better than to pick that battle.

Instead, he looked to the glass, his rage draining from him as he watched the medic crack his brother's chest wide open. They used a laser to cut back the skin and cut through the ribcage before using more tools to peel back his ribs to look inside. A sickened roar escaped him and he raised a fist, but a bark from Elder M'dli-te kept him from putting too much weight into the attack and Ci'tde merely hit the glass weakly.

Looking back at the elder, he found that the older Yautja had his mandibles tucked in tight to his mouth in form of a scowl. The bristles that lined the large crown of his head stood on end with the skin pulled taunt on his forehead. It was like the elder was daring him to try and defy him again.

Backing down, Ci'tde straightened from his stance and bowed his head in respect. "Forgive me, Elder M'dli-te," he growled out, wishing he had the ability to fight the elder and win. In truth, even in an unfair fight, he still would not be able to best the older Yautja.

"I allowed your insolence for the _ooman_ female's sake. I will not tolerate it on my ship," he said with authority. "Ne'jad-ke is doing everything he can to save Skl're. Once he removes the hard-meat from his chest, they will place him in an incubator chamber. Only time will tell if he survives this procedure."

Shocked, Ci'tde turned back to the glass to peer at the surgery happening in the other room. He watched as they cracked more of his brother's chest open and removed a not-so-fully-grown chest-burster. It was small still, smaller than when they exploded from their host's body. Maybe a few hours more and it might have torn its way out of his brother's chest and killed him.

"The cold temperature slowed the growth of the _kiande amedha_ inside Skl're, but once he returned to the ship, the heat onboard must have sped up the process," Elder M'dli-te explained to him. "Hopefully, we were lucky enough to catch it in time."

"This new _kiande amedha_ will prove to be quite the study for Ne'jad-ke," the elder said mostly to himself. "I have only heard of such a beast. It will prove to be quite the prey for our seasoned warriors."

Ci'tde watched as the small hard-meat opened its mouth and four mandibles stretched open into a grin. He had never heard of anything like it; a Yautja would never willingly allow themselves to be a host for a hard-meat. If they were ever put in such a position, they would never allow themselves to live with such dishonor.

Seeing that Ci'tde was placated for now, Elder M'dli-te decided to leave him alone. He could see that Ci'tde would no longer attack the glass to get to his brother – as it was in their best interest to leave the medic to do his work uninterrupted – and so the elder left, not even bothering to say goodbye to his former pupil.

Ci'tde remained in his spot, leaning against the glass to watch the rest of the surgery for a long time. They removed the hard-meat without any difficulty and quickly resealed the opening they had made in Skl're's chest. He watched as two Yautja struggled with the hard-meat as they carted it off into another room before returning his attention to his brother.

Ne'jad-ke had one of his staff help carry Skl're to the rejuvenation tank – it was only ever used when a warrior was gravely injured. They first placed a breathing apparatus over his face and connected several sensory cables to his chest and arm(s?). Finally, they lowered him into the tank and sealed it shut. Ne'jad-ke inserted some numbers into the computer which then began to fill the tank completely with liquid. The medic watched the screen that was still computing some data that Ci'tde didn't discern.

After he finished inputting data into the computer, Ne'jad-ke turned suddenly to look over at Ci'tde, the medic's face set into a serious expression. "Skl're must rest," the medic said firmly. "We will know more after several cycles." Ne'jad-ke then nodded his head to Ci'tde and headed for the room that they had taken the hard-meat.

Ci'tde watched over his brother's unconscious form. He had no sense of time as he stared at his brother floating in the strange liquid, but he hardly moved from his spot. Occasionally, his eyes would flicker to the computer screen that spouted off data he did not understand, but they always returned to his brother's face. There was no sign of him waking, no indication on whether he was recovering. Ci'tde's only hope was that his brother did not get any worse.

As Ci'tde watched and waited for any sign that his brother would live, he found his thoughts torn from his brother's health. His mind wandered back to his _Chiva _and his short stay on the small _ooman_ planet. The small backwater world had been a means to an end for him when he first arrived. His goal was mainly to kill as many hard-meats as he could find and return to the clanship honored. At the time, he couldn't think much beyond being Blooded and getting his first trophy.

Yet, an _ooman_ female had gotten a trophy before him. A small, puny soft-mead had killed a hard-meat while he could not. Even now, after he was finally Blooded and headed back home, the shame of this bothered him. He had been able to smell her fear when she had stumbled upon his fight with the hard-meat. At first, he had thought she was the one with the plasma gun, but it had been the female who had fled with the other _oomans_.

_Elli hadn't run though, not like those _Kwei. Even though she had been scared, she had stayed and even managed to save his life. As much as he hated to admit something so pathetic, it was true. She had killed the hard-meat and in the process, saved him from death. The female had given him a second chance to prove his honor; an honor he had earned by protecting her in return. While many in his position might have just killed her, even though dishonorable and a hard act to prove in a _Chiva_, he hadn't. Not when she had gone so far as saved him and had even offered him some of her food.

Her strange behavior for a human had intrigued him. Her honor and bravery had him dragging her along as he tried to get his first hard-meat kill. When they had been separated, he hadn't expected to find her alive. It wasn't until after he found her in that room trying to fight off several hard-meats, even though she was easily outnumbered and overpowered, that he felt compelled to Blood her; she had proven herself more than once that she was honorable and brave.

Thinking of her honor now had Ci'tde looking down at the trophies he had saved for her. She hadn't wanted them, something he couldn't understand, but she had allowed him to collect them for her, anyway.

Eying the tongue from her kill, he thought of a way he could give it back to her as it was hers by right. Her first kill, she should have such a fine trophy to display. _Perhaps a way she could wear it? _And then there was the finger he had also collected for her. _Maybe a weapon? _He would have to speak with one of the metal workers below and see what they could fashion for her. Then, he would have to find a way back to her and give her back her trophies.

Looking at his brother one more time, Ci'tde nodded his head before turning to leave the room. He had a lot of work to do before he could go back to the _ooman _planet. One way or another, he would find a way back to his female.

**_OoOoO_**

_**Earth's Orbit  
**__**Ner'uda Ship  
**__**September 30, 2008**_

A small Yautja shuttle neared Earth's orbit. They were passing through the galaxy looking for a viable planet to place the Predalien they had on board. It had taken them four seasons to learn all they could on the new creature.

The medic on board studied the specimen inside its cage. The large hard-meat stalked back and forth, studying the Yautja just outside its reach. It had tried to impale the Yautja who kept watch over it many times, but the cage that held it locked up kept it from doing any real damage.

The Predalien had proven that it would be quite the prey for them to hunt. While it lacked the same level of acidic blood its predecessors had, the creature had retained the oblong-shaped head, sharp talons and deadly tail that sharpened to a point on the end. The black exoskeleton was mottled with dark spots, much like the Yautja it had come from. The mouth on the hard-meat held mandibles, a new feature it had gained from its host. It still had the inner tongue that could be used both as a weapon as well as a way to feed itself.

Elder M'dli-te had finally gotten the approval from the other council members to place the new hard-meat on a new planet that they were planning to use for their _Chiva_. With the last training ground on the _ooman_ planet destroyed, this new one would prove to be quite the challenge for seasoned warriors.

The medic watched the scans that were being ran on the Predalien. They would be putting it into stasis soon to prep it for transport, as well as the smaller ones they had on board to create more hard-meats. The creature seemed to have quite the adaptation to tranquilizers and could build up a tolerance rather effectively, much like or even better than a Yautja.

Barking an order to one of the newly Blooded waiting nearby, the medic instructed his pupil to begin preparations.

The Predalien screeched, pausing in its pacing to race to the caged wall. It grabbed the metal, shaking its cage with another screech. It was as if the thing knew what was going to happen, only proving its intelligence to be exceptional. Before the Predalien realized it, the younger Yautja shot a tranquilizer at it, injecting their latest formula into its blood stream. It proved to be most effective as the Predalien seized up before crumbling to the ground unconscious.

The medic nodded his head to the other Yautja. "Help me get it to the tank," he instructed his pupil.

**OoOoO**

Blooded warrior Nev'ka hesitated as he stepped out of the _kehrite._ Behind his mask, he changed through the different visual spectrums, surprised by how dark and smoky the atmosphere was outside the training room. He had just spent a good half-day training while he awaited the call that it was time to move the Predalien. Having grown tired of waiting, he had thought that maybe he should check on the status until their destination.

A roar drew his attention away from his thoughts and Nev'ka whipped his head around to see a long tail vanish from sight at the end of the corridor. Withdrawing his combi-stick, Nev'ka settled into a defensive stance, his eyes searching the walls and ceilings for something that shouldn't be there.

He moved forward slowly. At the end of the hallway, he leaned back against the wall and peered around the edge. He watched as one of his fellow clansmen was lifted off the ground with a hard-meat tail and pierced through his chest. Seeing the creature distracted, Nev'ka leaped from his spot, charging the hard-meat.

To his surprise, the hard-meat whipped its tail around, throwing the dead Yautja at Nev'ka. The warrior roared in outrage as he was knocked back by the blow. Rolling the body off of him, Nev'ka jumped to his feet, only to find the creature gone. Growling beneath his breath, he shifted through different spectrums as he looked around quickly. He will have this hard-meat's head placed among his other impressive trophies.

A familiar hiss had him whirling around, but a blow from the hard-meat's tail knocked him forward onto his stomach. He landed with a grunt on the old grating, his combi-stick rolling from his grip. He pushed himself to his hands and knees and he shook his head as his vision wavered. The blow his mask had sustained when hitting the ground was affecting the vision, the image crackling with static.

Nev'ka roared as the hard-meat's tail pierced through his chest suddenly. He grunted, staring at the pointed tail sticking out of him, his blood already forming a pool beneath him from the open wound. The hard-meat lifted him off the ground, carrying his body to where it had been hiding in the piping above. Nev'ka growled, but his eyes widened at the sight of the creature staring back at him. This was _not_ the normal hard-meat he had been expecting.

The Predalien they had been transporting had escaped.

The mandibles that made-up the Predalien's face opened wide in a grin. From inside its mouth, its deadly tongue lashed out, effectively killing him in a single strike.

Triumphant, the Predalien threw its prey aside and roared its victory.

* * *

**AN: This chapter was revised on 11/07/2013. **

**A huge thanks goes out to my beta reader Welcome the Rising Sun, who is helping me with my horrendous spelling/grammer errors. Thank you so much for helping me out with this :)**

**So I really want to thank all of my reviewers from The Hunt Begins. Without you guys this story would probably still be sitting on my computer collecting nano-bite dust. You are all wonderful people. I love the good feedback, the criticism and the questions. I will admit though that I love hearing the feedback the most. I like understanding what you liked or didn't like. It makes me want to try harder to do even better.**

**Second of all, I don't own anything about Predator's, Aliens or Predaliens. But Elli belongs to me and as much as I would love to lay claim to Ci'tde I cannot *cries*.**

**Here are some Yautja words:**

**Ci'tde- Celtic  
****Chulonte- Chopper  
****Skl're- Scar  
****Man'daca: Large Yautja Clanship  
****Mei'hswei- brother  
****Paya- gods  
****Kiande amedha- hard-meat/ black aliens  
****Kwei- cowards  
****Ner'uda- A shuttle type Yautja ship  
****kehrite- training room**

**Alright I think that is all of them. Well I hope you liked the beginning to The Hunt Continues. I promise there is more to come, such as more usual comedy, horror, action and just plain silliness. Let me know if you loved/liked/hated it.**

**Inky out **


	2. Chapter One

Chapter One:

_**Eureka, California  
**__**A Local Bar called The Lounge  
**__**October 2, 2008**_

Tonight was going to be a good night, or so her mother tried to tell her. It had been a while since Elaina had allowed herself to live a little and socialize with people her age. She was twenty-two for crying out loud! She should be out celebrating and partying with friends and dating hot surfer guys. At her age, she should be confused and unsure what she wanted to do with her life and spend the next few years blundering through college while she continued a life of ignorance. At least, that is what her mother liked to remind her of every time they talked on the phone – which was about five-to-ten times a day.

Who would have guessed that a life-altering experience would not only change the way Elaina saw things, but also change the people around her? Even her own mother, who had been a flake most of Elaina's life, had become someone she could no longer recognize. Apparently, the near-loss of her only child was enough to turn Daphne Weyland into a more responsible person. Instead of spending every cent she got from child support and alimony on expensive clothes, beauty products/enhancements and extravagant trips with her latest boy-toy, Daphne made it her mission to involve herself in every bit of her daughter's life. Enough to drive Elaina crazy to the point that she wished she had her childish, irresponsible mother back sometimes.

Tonight's fiasco, for example, was her mother's doing and, like so many before it, it was not turning out so well. About a month ago, she had let her mother talk her into trying internet dating. Her mother was beside herself with worry that her only daughter would grow up to be a spinster and die alone with a thousand cats feasting on her dead corpse. A bit of an exaggeration, but her mother was still flaky in some aspects. Why her mother would even care about her love life or how many cats she might plan to own in her future was beyond her.

Now here she was at The Lounge on a date with a guy she knew nothing about. Her mother had picked him from one of the few that had tried contacting her on the profile her mother had set up without telling her. From the picture her mother had emailed of him, he seemed handsome enough. There wasn't anything physically wrong with him, at least, nothing she could see at face value. He had those boyish good looks that most girls found attractive; baby blue eyes, light blond hair and tall, at least a foot taller than Elaina when she wore heels. Had she been eighteen again, he would have been exactly Elaina's type and she would have flirted outrageously with him. She would have gotten his number and then would probably never bother to call him. Back then, making a guy chase her was too much fun to pass up.

However, Elaina wasn't that innocent teenage girl anymore. In the span of two horrific days four years ago, she had learned to grow up fast as she struggled to survive a horror that many had not survived. No one, save for one other person, really knew what had happened in that pyramid on Bouvetoya Island. Elaina couldn't forget it, even if she tried.

The news had called it a "Tragic Accident," caused by an explosion in an undiscovered pyramid 2000 feet below the surface on Bouvetoya Island. The explosion had killed at least twenty-four people, that being the majority of the expedition team. The only two survivors had been Alexa "Lex" Woods, an environmental technician and guide, and Elaina Ann "Elli" Weyland, daughter and sole heir to Charles Bishop Weyland, owner of Weyland Industries. Her father, who had funded and ventured the expedition, had been one of many who hadn't made it back alive. After her father's death, Elaina had inherited the Weyland Corporation and the family fortune. Wanting nothing to do with the business, she had left the company in the hands of a woman named Yutani, one of her father's many executives, and disappeared from the limelight.

The truth, the one hidden from the world, is that Elaina had barely survived in a war between two alien species. It was a truth she couldn't tell anyone, not even her own mother, unless she wanted to find herself committed to an institute for the clinically insane. And maybe she was insane, not because she claimed the existence of aliens and monsters, but because she was not the same person she used to be. There was just something not right with her anymore.

It was because of her experience in the pyramid that Elaina found it hard to reintegrate herself back into civilization. She had a hard time keeping friends, having given up keeping in contact with her high school buddies when she returned to the States, despite their love and support. She gave up dating as well as it was hard to connect with people on the same level anymore.

Tonight's date, Todd Sullivan, was attending a local community college to be a veterinarian. From the brief profile she got to see on him, they didn't really have anything in common. Her mother had emailed her the profile and his picture to her before telling her she had a date with him tonight at seven. Having just gotten home from the gym at five, she had to rush to clean herself up and get to the restaurant her mother had told the guy to meet her at. While she waited for him, Elaina rescanned the profile, trying to see if she could pick out any details that might tell her if this guy was a psychopath, sociopath or anything else unsavory. Unfortunately, it didn't really tell her much of anything about him.

Absentmindedly, Elaina drummed her fingers on the surface of the table as she sipped her beer. Probably not the most flattering thing to drink, but she wasn't here to impress anyone, especially a guy who couldn't even be on time. She was here because her mother had given her no choice in the matter. Sure, she could have stood the guy up, but that wasn't the type of person she was; at least, she wasn't anymore.

When she was younger she had been a spoiled brat, as her father had only known how to buy her love with expensive gifts. After he passed away, Elaina had learned that what mattered the most in life were not material things. Her mother might drive her insane with her constant nagging of her love life, or lack thereof, but she loved her mother. So she would do this to placate her mother and she would find the easiest way she could to turn the guy down. Plus, her mother knew her all too well; Daphne hadn't given her Todd's number or email, leaving her no way to contact him and cancel.

"Elaina?"

Looking up from the profile she had been studying, Elaina was greeted with the living version of Todd. His picture definitely didn't do him justice. His hair was longer than in the picture and it either had that windswept look or he had just run his fingers through it a few times. His eyes were greener than the picture made them out to be; the prettiest eyes she had ever seen and they reminded her of the color of the sea.

Elaina slowly blinked, dragging herself from whatever daze she had fallen into. "Oh yeah, yes, sorry," she apologized quickly. She had just been blatantly staring at him while imitating a fish out of water. She would have been completely mortified if she had started drooling in her stupor.

Getting up from her seat, she nearly tripped as the chair didn't move fast enough out of her way. Grabbing the table, she steadied herself before turning to her date. She held out her hand. "Yes, I'm Elaina and you must be Todd," she introduced herself.

Todd took hold of her hand, smiling down at their clasped hands as if he found the gesture amusing. "Yes, please sit. Sorry I'm late," he said, taking a seat on the other side of the table. "I was a little nervous about meeting you," he admitted truthfully. "The last date I had didn't turn out very well."

Elaina hesitated as she sat down, her brows rising as she looked at him from across the table. Slowly, she eased herself back into the chair. "So you what, scoped me out before coming over here?" She asked with a laugh.

"Um... well, yes, actually," he said, laughing along with her. "You can never tell with the internet." He reached up, running his hand through his hair nervously.

"Yeah, I guess so," she commented wryly. "So what happened with your last date?" She asked him curiously.

Todd groaned as he waved over one of the ladies that ran the bar. "Can I get a Corona, please?" He asked the bartender whose name tag readSusie_._ "Oh, and how about one of those nacho plates, please?"

"Sure, Hun," Susie said, winking at Elaina as she took his order.

"Anything for you, Dear?" The waitress asked, turning to Elaina. As she was still nursing her beer, Elaina shook her head no.

Once Susie left, Todd explained what happened on his last internet date. "Well, she looked nothing like her photo. I guess it was an old one or something, but she had gained, like, twenty pounds and had a couple kids since then; it was not a pretty sight," he said laughing. He thanked the bartender when she returned with his beer and took a sip from his drink. "What about you, any internet date fiascos?"

_Only this one,_ she commented silently. The guy got a ten on good looks, but a two for personality. "Uh, no, not yet," she answered.

"Speaking of photos, you don't look anything like the one on your profile," he said, his eyes appraising her. "Not that I'm saying you look bad or anything, but in your picture, you looked a lot younger."

She glanced down at herself as he said this. She didn't really own anything fancy to wear these days. Luckily, she had found a light gray sweater in the back of her closet and a pair of black slacks that she had worn to a cousin's funeral last month. The heels she wore weren't even open-toed. There was nothing sexy about her outfit, but it did accentuate her curves, showing off the flare of her hips and the curve of her breasts. Elaina wasn't skinny by any means. While she had grown out of her baby fat in the past four years, she had gained more curves and what weight she did have had been toned into muscle.

She spent hours at the gym and a local dojo, training her body to be stronger and better as she _never_ wanted to feel the helplessness she had felt in that pyramid ever again. She had barely survived with her mind intact. Her body, however, hadn't been so lucky and was now a road map of scars beneath her clothes. Most of her clothes now were button-up shirts and jeans; she couldn't wear low-neckline tops or anything that exposed her legs anymore.

Over the years, Elaina had changed many things about her appearance. She shortened her ridiculously long hair to end just past her shoulders and had grown a full-set of bangs. Most days, she simply tied her hair back into a ponytail while her bangs annoyed the hell out of her; they were too long and fell into her eyes constantly. Her hair was also lighter now, the auburn locks having turned more red from years of living in a state that saw more sunshine than rain and clouds. Her eyesight had gotten worse over the years, which she blamed on all the hours she spent on the computer, and now had to wear glasses. For tonight's date, she had opted to wear her contacts instead.

"Uh, yeah, about that, I think that picture was from my senior year in high school," she admitted, tugging at the neckline of her sweater. "I don't actually have any recent photos of myself."

The nachos arrived then and Todd offered her some.

"Thanks," she said, helping herself to a couple chips slathered in cheese. "So, um, how are your classes?" She asked him to start up a different conversation. "It said on your profile that you want to be a vet?"

Todd finished his beer, setting the empty glass aside as he considered her questions.

"Well, right now, I am going for my Bachelor's degree," he explained to her.

Susie stopped by their table, bringing two new beers; a Corona for Todd and a Budweiser for Elaina. As Susie left them alone, Todd added, "Then, I will transfer to WASU. They have a veterinarian hospital right there on the grounds of the college. I've already been accepted, but I'm not financially ready to move to Washington, yet."

"Oh wow, that's cool," she said lamely, not really sure what she should say. She thought about the days she had spent looking for and applying to different colleges. Back then, she had been considering fine arts or designer courses. She had been really good with fashion, the latest designs, what was cool and what was not. That all seemed like a lifetime ago now.

"I will probably major in business, as well," he continued to tell her. "I would make a lot of money running my own clinic. That way, I could travel more, too, if I have others working for me, but that's down the road. I like to take each day as they come, you know?"

Elaina nodded absentmindedly. Seeing that her attention was diverted from him, Todd asked her, "What about you, are you going to the college here? Your profile was a little vague on your school history and occupation."

_That's because I am self-employed and currently not working, _she commented to herself. _And Mom would never admit to what I do for a living to anyone else. _Her mother was that embarrassed by her daughter's choice of work. _No schooling needed either, a major bonus!_

Elaina shook her head and took a sip of her cold beer. "No, I haven't really thought much about college or anything like that," she admitted truthfully. "I spend a lot of my time researching on the internet and I never seem to find time for much of anything else." She shrugged her shoulders as if it wasn't that big of a deal and leaned back into her chair. She looked around the restaurant, noticing just how quiet it was.

The Lounge wasn't very busy tonight. Elaina liked coming here sometimes after working out, just to have a beer at the bar. One drink was usually enough to mellow her out that she could go home and just might get a good night's sleep. Thursday wasn't a busy day for the bar that acted as a restaurant before eight o'clock, which was when the kitchen closed down. There wasn't a band on the roster for the night. It seemed to just be a jukebox night,

"What kind of research do you do?" Todd asked, sounding curious.

Elaina blinked, drawing her attention back to her date. _Oh shit_, she thought, realizing her mistake. This was why she never tried to meet people or get to know them. How do you get close to someone when your whole life is consumed by a secret you can't even begin to explain to them? A secret that they would never be able to understand, even if you did try to explain it?

Elaina took a sip of her beer, her eyes staring at the young man sitting across from her. He seemed decent enough. He was definitely easy on the eyes, but he didn't exactly have the best personality and seemed kind of cheap. He wasn't even tipping the bartender for his beers or for his nachos.

Setting her beer down, Elaina looked Todd straight in the eye and answered bluntly, "Aliens."

"Excuse me?" He said, nearly choking on a chip.

"Oh, sorry, I, uh, research aliens," she repeated a little louder, thinking he hadn't been able to hear her. Todd's eyes widened before he looked around them to see if anyone else might have overheard. "I was abducted when I was younger and they did these weird experiments on me," she continued to tell him, ignoring the looks coming from the regulars that were sitting at the bar or playing pool at the tables in the back. Even Susie had paused delivering drinks at another table to stare at her.

"I'm sorry," Todd said, clearing his throat, "are you seriously trying to tell me you were abducted –_ by aliens?_"

_Didn't I just say that? _She wondered. "Yeah," she said, sounding serious. "Look, they cut me open and everything." She pulled down the left side collar of her sweater to show him the scar. It was the size of a baseball and not very pretty, resting just to the left of her collarbone and above her breast.

She hadn't _actually_ been abducted by aliens. One had just decided to use her as a pin cushion and stabbed its serrated tail through her shoulder because Elaina had tried to gut it with her spear. The doctors said that whatever had gone through her shoulder – she told them she landed on a pipe when she fell from the explosion – had missed the bone and, miraculously, gone right through her. She had been really lucky, apparently, but not lucky enough to be spared from being scarred for the rest of her life.

"Oh wow," Todd said, his eyes widening at the sight of the scar. He glanced down at his watch to check the time. "Wow, okay, um, look, I have somewhere I have to be, so why don't I call you sometime?" Todd couldn't seem to get out of his chair fast enough.

Elaina nodded her head in understanding and waved as Todd made a hasty exit through the doors. She leaned her head back with a sigh. Well, that turned out a lot easier than she expected. Susie came up to the table then and gave her a disappointed look.

"Aliens, huh," the bartender commented as she gathered up the dishes and the empty beer bottles. "Really, Elli, that's the best you could come up with?" Susie just shook her head when Elaina smiled at her sheepishly.

"Thanks, Susie," Elaina said, getting up from the table and laid out some change to cover her tab plus tip. "See you later.

"Bye, Hun," the older woman said with a wave as she made her way to the kitchen.

Elaina left the bar and hailed a taxi. She gave the driver her address before sitting back in her seat as the driver took her home. Outside her apartment building, she paid for her fare before starting up the walkway. She reached the stairs and climbed them two at a time. On the third level, she followed the walkway to her apartment that was on the end. She let herself in with her house key and kicked the door shut behind her.

After turning the lock, Elaina tossed her purse onto the table next to the front door. As she walked through her apartment, she kicked off her shoes and pulled her sweater over her head, tossing it onto the lazy boy in her living room. Elaina walked down the hallway to her bedroom before stripping out of her slacks and throwing on a pair of Scooby-Doo boxers. They went well with the tan camisole that she had worn under the sweater. She pulled off her socks and removed her bra before she tossed her dirty clothes into the hamper she kept in the corner of her room.

She had left her bedroom then and headed back to her living room. She went straight to her cherry oak corner desk she had set up in the far corner of her living room. While most of her apartment held little furnishing, she had gone all out on her office supplies. The nice smooth surface of her desk was a welcome comfort. The leather-bound office chair had an extra cushion to make spending hours on end at the computer that much easier for her. Her desktop computer had the latest software with state-of-the-art technology that only the Weyland name could buy.

Firing up her computer, Elaina reached over for her TV remote and turned the TV on to the news. She watched the reporter talk about the local news and then the weather. It appeared the weather was going to be nice this weekend.

Turning to her computer, she signed onto the internet and began researching for anything out of the norm. This was what she did for a living; instead of getting a normal job like everyone else, Elaina researched for paranormal incidences and strange happenings, like crop circles, alien sightings and abductions. She investigated anything out of the norm until it was disproved. So far, everything she had gone out to prove real had turned into either a hoax or was easily explained scientifically.

If what happened to her four years ago hadn't happened, she would have found her job a little disheartening. Instead, all it did was drive her more into her work. Her obsession not only had her mother worried, but Lex, as well. Being the other survivor of the accident on Bouvetoya Island, Lex was her only true friend. The older woman lived on the other side of the United States, but spent most of her time rock climbing in Nepal. Last week, when they had spoken last on the webcam, Lex had threatened to fly out to California and toss her computer in the trash. Or drag Elaina back to Nepal with her.

Elaina paused on a Google site that headlined with _"Comet hits Earth in Gunnison, Colorado."_

Clicking on the site, Elaina quickly read the blogs that had already been posted. Apparently, the comet hit last night and, while its exact location was unknown, it was said to have landed just outside of Gunnison County.

Yawning audibly, Elaina eyed the screen. She would have to download the file in order to see the footage. Looking at the time, she realized it was already after ten. Clicking on the link, Elaina stood as the video began downloading to her computer. Stretching her arms above her head, she arched her back as her toes curled. A muffled groan escaped her as she scratched her belly.

"Time for bed," she muttered.

Elaina left her office and headed back down the hallway to her bedroom. She stopped in her bathroom first and took her nightly pills, the ones the doctor kept telling her would help her sleep at night. She took them with a glass of water before heading to her room.

She stopped at her nightstand and checked her alarm clock. It was set for seven which would be about the time her mother would make her usual morning phone call. It was kind of a surprise that her mother hadn't called tonight to see how her date went. "Never mind," she muttered after grabbing her cellphone off the nightstand and finding it held both a missed call and a voicemail. It was too much to ask her mother to give her a break. Leaving the voicemail for tomorrow, Elaina placed the phone back on the stand after putting it on silent.

Pulling back the covers, Elaina climbed into her bed, laying her head down on her pillow. As she lay there, she thought about all the things she had splurged on to help her sleep. Down-feathered pillows and a mattress pad, 500-count Egyptian cotton sheets and even one of those sleep number beds.

Her doctor had tried her on every kind of pill to chase away the nightmares and drive away the insomnia. She was even on pills to help her with the post-traumatic stress disorder she had been diagnosed with after the accident. Nothing helped.

Elaina yawned, feeling the pills beginning to work their magic on her. She snuggled further into her blankets and closed her eyes.

* * *

**AN: This chapter was revised on 11/07/2013.**

**A huge thanks goes out to my beta reader Welcome the Rising Sun, who is helping me with my horrendous spelling/grammar errors. Thank you so much for helping me out with this :)**

**I want to thank everyone who reviewed, they were the best reviews ever. I was amazed at the response I got on the first chapter. ^^**

**I don't own AVP but Elli is mine. **

**Well I hope you liked it, I know I had a good laugh while reading this chapter, then proofreading it. ^^ I love Elli, she cracks me up :)**

**Tell me what you think, loved/liked/hated it. I want to hear it all.**

**Inky out.**


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter two:

_**Elaina's Apartment  
Eureka, California  
October 3**__**rd**__**, 2008**_

Elaina opened the door to her apartment, stepping inside with her mind on other things, such as how incorrigible her mother could be. It wasn't until she kicked the door shut behind her that she realized just how dark it was inside. She paused in the threshold, her breath catching in her throat. She struggled inwardly with herself, trying to ignore the building fear rising up inside her. Ever since the expedition out on the ice, Elaina couldn't stand being in the dark. She always made sure to keep a light on somewhere, whether it was a hallway light or the light over the kitchen stove. She had nightlights all throughout her place, plugged into every outlet in her apartment to make sure there was light somewhere at all times.

Reaching over for the light switch on the wall, Elaina flicked it up, then down, before repeating it several more times to be sure. The ceiling light refused to turn on for her. Swallowing thickly, she stepped away from the front door, her hands outstretched in front of her as she tried to feel her way through the dark. She bumped into the lazy boy, her heart leaping to her throat at the obstacle she found in her way. Gripping the leather, she held on for a moment as she tried to slow down her breathing.

"Come on Elli," she scolded herself. "Grow up. This is your apartment- get ahold of yourself."

Closing her eyes, she counted to ten like her therapist had told her to when she was scared, before opening them again slowly. She felt her way around the chair, easing her way across the living room to where her desk sat in the corner. She was relieved when she bumped into its solid surface. Feeling around, she searched for the drawers. Finding the one she wanted, she pulled it open and reached inside for her flashlight.

_It's gone._

Panic began to rise as she felt around the drawer, searching it desperately. It was empty. Slamming the drawer shut, she jerked open the other drawers searching them as well. All of them turned out to be just as empty. It made absolutely no sense.

"Fuck!" she cursed, slamming the last drawer shut. She tightened her hands into fists on the surface of her desk, dropping her head down as she struggled to breathe. "Breathe in- breathe out-" she struggled to remember the breathing exercises her therapist had taught her to do when she started to panic. Dr. Mathews had been able to help her through the roughest part of her recovery after returning back to the States. He had taught her several different coping mechanisms and they had yet to fail her so far.

A noise from across the room had Elaina lifting her head slowly in response. Elaina sucked in a sharp breath, not allowing herself to breath now. With her eyes wide and fearful, she turned to try and see out of the corner of her peripheral vision. Her living room was eerily quiet now with the darkness around her was stifling. Very slowly, she turned around, turning her back to the desk to face the living room. She searched the darkness but could barely make out any discernible shapes.

From across the living room something moved, stretching slowly to its full height. Elaina pressed her back hard against the solid wood surface behind her, wanting to climb up over it to put something between her and the thing across the room.

A familiar hiss came from the black alien back down to the floor. Its body poised before it leaped towards her, much like how a lion did to its unsuspecting prey.

Elaina jerked back, clawing her away across her desk and began to scream and scream and scream-

Elaina sat up with a scream, wrestling with her blankets as she fought off her attacker.

"No!" she cried out, throwing the blanket off of her, her eyes opening at last to see her bedroom. The soft glow of the nightlight across the room cast the room in shadows but lit the darkness up enough that nothing could hide from her terrified gaze. She searched the room, trying to find her attacker, knowing the alien was still there. It wouldn't just leave her alive.

_There's nothing there._

Rubbing at her swollen eyes, Elaina blinked and cleared her blurred vision to take in the familiar surroundings. She breathed out a long weary sigh, her body shaking as her anxiety wilted. Realization was slow to clear up her foggy mind. Dropping her head into her hands, Elaina drew in a shuddering breathe as a hysterical laugh escaped her.

"God- it was just a dream," she muttered.

It had been a while since she had one of those. While usually in them she found herself back in the pyramid only without help and trapped in the darkness with the aliens, this one was more horrifying than they ever were. She had never had a nightmare where the alien's got into her apartment. She had felt as terrified as she had four years ago. She felt just as helpless and weak as she had been when she was eighteen.

Rubbing at her eyes, she was upset to find that she was crying. Throwing the sheets off of her, Elaina got to her feet and left her bedroom. She went straight to her bathroom, stopping at the sink to splash cold water onto her face. Patting it dry with a hand towel, she lifted her head to look up at her reflection. Reaching for the light switch on the wall, she flicked the lights on.

There were dark circles under her eyes and her face was a sickly white color. Her eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep and from crying so much. Placing her hand over her reflection's face, she looked away from the person she had become. _Will this nightmare ever be over,_ she wondered. Would she ever be able to look at what happened to her four years ago and see it for what it was? Something that had happened to her years ago, that it was over and she survived.

Even Lex, who poured herself into her work, filling her schedule with expeditions and tour guides, couldn't seem to shake it from her mind, though. Even the tough no nonsense woman had a hard time forgetting what happened in that pyramid. What were the chances that Elaina ever would be able to?

Elaina looked at her reflection once more. Her eyes stared at the spot over her left eyebrow that was usually discreetly hidden under her bangs. At the moment her bangs were wet and plastered to her forehead, slightly exposing the scar she kept hidden. The mark Ci'tde had drawn there was as conspicuous as it had been the day he marked her. The acidic blood of the alien she had killed had etched the symbol into her skin, a reminder of what she had survived. Lex had one similar to it on her cheek. It was a rite of passage, Ci'tde had told her.

_A symbol of honor._

Elaina had looked it all up on the internet to help her understand it better. She had learned that in some tribes, hunters would mark themselves with the blood of their kill. It was like their transition into adulthood, like when a boy became a man. She could never picture Ci'tde as a boy though. The image of him fighting that Alien was forever etched into her mind. Fierce and predatory, she couldn't see him as anything else.

Looking away from the mirror, Elaina padded her face again with the towel and made sure to place her bangs back over the mark, before she left the bathroom. She headed down the hallway and walked over to her TV. She turned it on, keeping the volume down low, before she went to her computer. She stopped at the desk, her eyes staring at it for a moment, before she reluctantly sat down in the chair. Instinctively, she looked at the desk drawer to her right. Her dream had left her feeling vulnerable and shaky. Slowly, she pulled the drawer open and looked inside.

Elaina breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of her flashlight right where she always kept it. Shaking her head, she slid the drawer shut and turned her monitor on.

Sometime during the night the video download had finished. Clicking on the link, she expanded the image as the video started playing. It was of a bunch of kids out by a river camping, it seemed. They were in a forest, or at least a wooded area. In the background she could make out tents and a fire pit. There were a couple teens standing around the fire, while the one with the video camera was recording the group.

One of the guys at the fire said something off screen, muffled by the sound of the river, when suddenly there was a loud explosion.

"_Holy shit!" the guy holding the camera shouted. "Oh fuck look at that, oh my god!"_

"_What the hell is that!" a girl screamed. The group of teens stood at the edge of the river staring up at the sky._

Elaina watched the image, her brows drawn together. It looked like a large cloud growing in size as it drew across the sky. The camera followed the large burning object as it flew pass, disappearing over the treetops and then the video ended.

Elaina rewound the video, replaying it from when the cloud flew over the group of kids. She slowed the image down, breaking it down into parts and watching it slowly. She watched as the cloud and flames formed around a solid object. Reaching over for her glasses, Elaina slipped them on and peered closer at the screen. She started the video over, watching it in slow motion once more.

"Holy shit," she whispered, freezing the image. Within the burning flames and thick black smoke, she could see the familiar designs of an alien spaceship. Elaina leaned back from the screen, pulling her glasses off as she stared at the image. "They're back."

"Oh my god they're back!" she shouted. Scrambling across her desk, Elaina reached for the phone. She turned it on and quickly dialed Lex's number.

"Lex, Lex!" Elaina shouted into the phone when the woman finally answered.

"_Elli, what the hell- do you know what time it is?"_

Elaina glanced at the clock on her computer screen. "In Nepal or wherever the hell you are- no I don't but Lex listen to me- they're back."

"_Whose back? Elli what are you talking about?"_

"Celtic and Scar," Elaina explained further. "They're back, I have proof. Get on your laptop. I'm emailing you a video I just found-"

"_Elli calm down, just take a moment to breathe."_

Elaina paused in her tirade. She could hear Lex getting out of bed and going to where she had her laptop set up. The familiar sound of her HP turning on hummed over the phone. Elaina finished attaching the video file she cropped to the email and sent it to Lex's email.

"I'm sure you heard about the comet hitting the Earth somewhere in Colorado?" Elaina said to her friend.

"_Uh- no I haven't."_

"Oh well- that doesn't matter," she said with a wave of her hand, even though Lex couldn't see it. "Anyway I checked it out and found this video of some teens. They were camping in Gunnison County and they saw what they thought was a comet, only it's not a comet-," she paused for a moment, listening to Lex clicking away on her computer.

"Did you get my email?" she asked her, nearly bouncing with excitement in her office chair. She could barely contain herself. Finally, after all this time, she had proof. "Lex?"

"_Yes Elli, I'm watching it right now."_

Elaina could hear the video playing over the phone and she waited patiently for Lex to say something. The two minute video seemed to take forever to play, before silence fell over the phone.

"Well-?"

"_I don't know Elli it looks like smoke and maybe an asteroid or something to me."_

"Lex watch it again, I'm telling you it's their ship. It has the same metal design and structure as that ship that picked them up. This one looks smaller, but I tell you it's them," Elaina said seriously.

"_Even if by some weird chance it is them, why does it even matter?"_

Elaina closed her eyes, her hand tightening around the phone. "Matter-? Lex don't you know what this means? If they're back, then it has to be because of those things right," she demanded. "I mean they hunt those black aliens, why else would they come back to Earth unless there is more? What if there is another pyramid and it's another training ground for them. What if this time the aliens get out?"

There was a long moment of silence. _"What if you're wrong?"_

Elaina didn't even hesitate. "What if I'm right," she asked her. "Those things almost got out last time- they could get out this time."

"_Oh god."_

"Even if I'm wrong Lex, we have to check. This is why I've been doing what I've been doing these past four years. I don't want what happened to us happening to anyone else. I don't want to see everything wiped out, because I did nothing to prevent it," she said into the phone.

"_I know Elli."_

"I'm leaving for Gunnison today, if you want I can let you know if I find anything," Elaina offered reluctantly. She had to swallow around the lump that had formed in her throat as silence echoed over phone line longer than she liked.

"_No, I'll catch a flight and meet you there. I'll call you as soon as I land in the States."_

Elaina swallowed thickly. Before her friend could hang up, Elaina added quickly, "Thanks Lex." Even though she had been preparing herself for the possibility of their return, Elaina didn't think she could do it all on her own.

"_Let's just hope it turns out to be nothing Elli. I'll see you in Gunnison."_

"See you in Gunnison," Elaina echoed before the call went dead. She stared at the frozen image on her computer monitor. Deep in her gut, she knew for a fact that this wasn't going to be nothing. She just hoped she was strong enough to survive the nightmare one more time.

Getting up from her chair, Elaina headed down the hallway to her bedroom to begin packing for her trip. She grabbed a duffle bag as well as the backpack she used for hiking. She packed a week's worth of clothes, making sure she had plenty of shirts, underwear, socks and pants. She made sure to pack for both nice and bad weather just in case. She didn't know what Colorado's weather would be like in October.

She stored her hiking boots in the duffle bag as well as some basic hiking gear in case they would have to hike through the woods. She stored the book she had been trying to read for the past month in the side pocket, it wasn't even worth as a carry on for the long flight she had ahead of her. But it was a good way to put her to sleep when her insomnia kicked in.

In her backpack, she packed an extra set of clothes, gloves, a hat as well as her backup cellphone. From the bathroom, she grabbed her toothbrush, hairbrush, some extra hair ties and other feminine products she might need. She had to go back and grab her deodorant and stored all the items in a Ziploc bag in her duffle bag. Taking her bags with her to the living room, she set them down on her desk. She grabbed her laptop which was stored in its case and packed it in her duffle bag as well. Lastly, she went to the kitchen and retrieved her secret stash of candy she stored in a Ziploc bag in the kitchen cupboard. She made sure to store that in her backpack. Zipping her bags shut, she went back to her cell phone she had left on her desk and called for a driver to pick her up and take her to the airport.

Despite the fact that it was three am and she had been up for an hour already, Elaina found that she wasn't even tired. The anxiety and excitement of what was to come had her feeling wired. Leaving her bags by the door, Elaina headed for her bedroom. She rifled through the clothes she had left in her closet. She found an old yellow t-shirt and pulled it on over her tank top. She changed out of her boxers and put on clean underwear and socks before pulling on a pair of old jeans that had a hole ripped in the back pocket.

Stopping at her nightstand, she slowly pulled open the drawer to look inside. She hardly ever opened this drawer anymore. Maybe after the few times she had a rather nasty nightmare that left her needing some reassurance that she was still alive. Elaina stared at the object she kept close to her since she left Bouvetoya Island but rarely sought out after she had placed it in the nightstand. The spear in its smaller form stared back at her. Pulling it out of its resting place, she gripped the weapon in her right hand, feeling its familiar weight. Also in the drawer was a holster she had designed to hold the weapon in case she ever needed to keep it on her person. Taking the holster she slipped her arms into it and secured the front of it just beneath her breasts. The holster fit much like a gun holster only the spear would be secured on her back within grabbing distance.

Elaina retrieved her jacket from behind her bedroom door and slipped it on. With the spear still in hand, she left her room and tucked it into the side pocket of her backpack. She was just double checking her bags, when there was a knock on her door. Elaina looked through the peephole, making sure it was a guy from the service she had called before unlocking her door. Carefully she opened the door to find an older gentleman looking a little rumpled like he might have just rolled out of bed.

"Thanks for coming on such short notice," Elaina said and let the man inside. He grunted his reply and he might have said something beneath his breath but Elaina didn't hear it. The driver didn't waste any time but gathered up her bags and started for the car.

It was an old black town car, with the service's logo on the driver side door. Elaina followed the driver with her backpack slung over her shoulder. He had the trunk open, where he settled her duffle bag inside and slammed the lid shut. He then held the backseat door open for her and Elaina slid into her seat, tossing her bag into the seat before her.

The drive to the airport was uneventful. At four in the morning, there wasn't much traffic and they managed to get to the airport rather quickly. She had a plane standing by, one of the many perks she had inherited after her father passed away. It was expensive but proved to be a lot quicker to take the personal jet to cross the United States then flying commercially.

Elaina climbed out of the back of the town car, not bothering to wait for the driver to open the door for her. She slung her bag over her shoulder and started for the plane. It was prepped and ready for flight for her, with the pilot already waiting in the cockpit as he set their course. Elaina carried her backpack onto the plane with her while the driver gathered her duffle bag from the trunk.

She walked passed a couple of lounging chairs, picking one from the back and taking her seat. She pulled her bag off her shoulders and dropped it into the spot next to her. Pulling her cellphone out of her pocket she sent a text to Lex telling her that she would have a plane standing by for her at the airport once she got back to the US.

There was no response but then again it was possible Lex was already on a plane heading to the United States and wasn't able to send her a reply at the moment. Elaina settled back into her seat and turned her phone off as the plane started down the runway. She closed her eyes, letting the slight vibrations from the plane ease her into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

**AN: It is so hard to wait between updates. With all the positive feedback I have been getting on this story and with my mounting excitement with each chapter I write up I can barely keep myself from overloading on updates lol. But I have to pace myself because I've only written 8 chapters so far and I am only halfway done with the story QQ. I would hate to make you guys have to wait for updates because I hit a writers block and cant write up the next chapter or something. So I just need to take a page from Elaina and tell myself- Breathe in Breathe out. you can do this.- ^^ lol... starting after this chapter maybe hehe.**

**Thank you all for the lovely reviews. They feed my writing soul with inspiration to write some more. **

**If you haven't seen it yet, I posted an AU story to this series called _Taboo_. A little smut story for Nev'ka cause I felt so bad for killing him off in the beginning of this story. With the good feedback I have gotten so far, I may just add more to the story as inspiration hits me. But I will have to warn you, Taboo has no plot and will prolly never will. It's just pure smut to see if I can write it and post it ^^**

**Well tell me what you think, loved/liked/hated it. I accept them all.**

**Inky out**


	4. Chapter Three

Chapter three:

_**Gunnison County  
Gunnison, Colorado  
October 4**__**th**__**, 2008**_

Elaina drove into Gunnison, Colorado around three in the afternoon. It had taken better part of the day flying to Denver International Airport, then getting a rental car and driving 224 miles to Gunnison County. Thankfully she had only gotten lost twice, since the GPS system in her rental kept losing satellite connection. She had been on her last nerve when it malfunctioned the last time after she had just gotten done being lost and was hoping that she was on the right road finally. She almost ripped the unit out of the console and tossed it out her open window as the Australian man told her it was recalculating.

Gunnison Colorado looked like any small growing city she ever visited. It was largely populated with small local shops and a slightly booming retail trying to move in on the once homely community. Maneuvering through traffic, she spotted the Sheriff's truck parked near a bus stop on the curb of a local diner. Driving past him, she peered out her window to get her first impression of the local law enforcement.

It seemed like he was anxious for something as he kept drumming his fingers along the hood of his car, his head swiveling around as he searched the traffic.

Driving on, Elaina spotted the diner and pulled her car into the lot outside. Parking, she shut the engine off and climbed out of her rental car. Always one to draw attention to herself, Elaina had picked a yellow sports car as her rental of choice. She was hoping Lex wouldn't miss it when she finally got to town. They were going to meet up before finding a motel to stay at. At least that was the plan. Then they would head out to the campsite the kids had been staying at to track the whereabouts of the crash. So far it seemed like no one had been able to find it but from the looks of things, it seems like no one believed anything had crash-landed in the miles of dense forest that surrounded the city.

Grabbing her backpack, she slammed the driver side door shut, drawing a few people's attention to her. _Working just as I planned_, she mused to herself, catching people staring at her. That included the Sherriff.

Swinging her bag over her shoulder, Elaina started for the diner's entrance. She pushed the door open, holding it to allow an elderly couple to walk out. Today, despite the nice warm weather Colorado was having, Elaina had dressed in a pair of loose faded blue jeans that gave her plenty of room to breathe in and had to be held up with a belt at her narrow waist. They were the most comfortable pair of pants she owned and were well worn with the left back pocket slightly torn at the corner from over use. Her shirt was a normal green t-shirt with the number 21 printed on the back. The logo underneath was faded, since she had the shirt for so long and she really couldn't recall what it had said when she bought it. She wore hiking boots on her feet, already prepared for the hike despite the late hour. They had a lot of ground to cover and not a whole lot of time to do it in.

Elaina walked into the diner, her hand reaching up to brush back her bangs that had plastered themselves to her forehead from the heat. Her auburn red hair was pulled back into a high ponytail to keep her hair up off her neck but it didn't seem to give her much reprieve. It seemed like it was only getting warmer as the day went on.

Elaina nodded to a waitress who was pouring coffee for a guy sitting by himself. She started for a corner booth, adjusting the strap of her bag as she went. Tossing her backpack into the corner of the seat, she slid in after it. She leaned back against the cushions to get a better view out the window. People were meandering around outside, some crossing the road, as other people drove up and down the street. It seemed like a normal American city. Out in the parking lot, she noticed the Sherriff checking out her car. He walked around to the front before checking the license plate in the back, bending down to get a better look. Well at least he was suspicious enough to check out a strange new car, maybe there was hope for him yet.

Her cellphone started vibrating in her back pocket at that moment, stealing away her attention. Jumping slightly, she leaned over to retrieve her phone. She had forgotten to take it off vibrate after she got off the plane. Elaina unlocked the screen and checked her messages. Lex was just letting her know that she was on her way. She had a couple missed calls from her mother as well, which she quickly deleted. They were just the usual; where are you, why are you not answering my calls, kind of messages. She made a mental note to call her mother later so that the woman wouldn't send out a search party for her. The last thing she needed was the FBI showing up in Gunnison looking for her.

"I hope Lex has a better GPS system then I did," she commented to herself, thinking of Lex trying to find her way to Gunnison. The woman had a knack for getting herself around on the ice but when it came to cities, she could get herself turned around real quick. It was quite funny to watch sometimes.

"I'm sorry what was that hun," the waitress asked her as she strolled up to Elaina's table with a pot of coffee. She looked young, maybe in her late twenties with dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and a pale angular face.

Looking up from her cellphone, Elaina flushed a little at being caught talking to herself. "Oh sorry, I was um- uh never mind- can I get a cup of coffee," she asked with a smile, hoping she could just change the subject.

Carrie as her nametag read nodded and scrawled something in her notepad. "Oh course hun, did you want to see a menu?" she asked her.

"Yea that would be great, thanks," Elaina said as her smile widened.

"I'm pretty good with faces, are you from around here," Carrie asked giving her a friendly smile. Never fails, there was always a gossip monger around somewhere. Of course it would be the first person Elaina met in town.

"Oh no, I'm from out of State," Elaina informed her. She could tell by the way the other woman's eyes lit up that the whole town would know about the new girl in town before the waitress's shift ended.

"Where from," the waitress asked her, her hip cocking to the side. She was pouring coffee into the coffee mug that was on the table. "You know- I bet you're from California."

Elaina slowly smiled. "Wow you're good," she commented. "Is it my accent? How could you tell?"

"I can always tell by a person's car," Carrie told her. "We don't get too many of those fancy automobiles around here in Gunnison."

"Too flashy huh," Elaina asked with a grin. "Well Carrie I'm Elli, I'm planning on staying a couple of days, do you recommend any good motels around here?"

"Well," Carrie began and pointed down the road. "There's a Holiday Inn just up the road there. Then there is a pretty cozy bed and breakfast up the Old Mill Road. It's just west of here, about a quarter mile down Gunnison Avenue, take a left on 5th Street and follow it for about three miles till it curves onto Old Mill Road- about a mile up you will see it on the right."

"Thanks," Elaina said before the waitress was called away to wait on another customer. Elaina turned back to her cellphone and sent a reply to Lex to meet her at the Diner on Gunnison Avenue.

The door jingled and Elaina looked up to see the Sherriff scoping the diner out. His eyes flickered over to her briefly, before he walked over to Carrie. He pulled her aside, asking her something and pointing out to the parking lot.

Elaina watched them from the corner of her eyes, pretending to be engrossed with her menu. Carrie wasn't shy about pointing over at Elaina's table, alerting the Sheriff just who owned the bright yellow sports car outside. The Sherriff thanked her and made his way through the diner to approach her. Elaina flipped the menu over, inspecting the list of drinks.

The sound of the Sherriff clearing his throat had her lifting her head as if she hadn't known he was standing there. Elaina blinked up at him in surprise.

"Good afternoon miss," he greeted, pulling his hat off his head and revealing the short black curly hair that was underneath. At the temples it looked to be greying a little but that could have been the lighting.

The Sheriff was like any other Sheriff she had ever come across over the last four years. He wore the traditional uniform with a shiny gold badge decorating the left side of his jacket and nice shiny black shoes. There was a gun in his holster and a nightstick strapped to his hip not that either one would do him any good against an alien.

"Good Afternoon Sherriff," Elaina said straightening in her seat some. "What a pleasure, here have a seat." She waved a hand to the vacant spot across from her. "I'm just waiting for my friend, but if you would like to join me, I am sure she wouldn't mind."

The Sherriff shook his head no to her offer. "Oh no, I'm on duty but maybe another time. I'm Sherriff Eddie Morales," he introduced himself. "I heard you were new in town and I wanted to introduce myself."

_Riight_, she commented silently. _You just want to make sure I'm not going to be any trouble. _Elaina took hold of his extended hand and shook it. "I'm Elli, I'm just sort of passing through, thought I might stay a couple of days and enjoy the sites. The website I read on this place said it would be beautiful and they were not lying," she praised. "Oh Sherriff, do you know of any good campsites? My friend and I like to camp, maybe one with good hiking trails?"

"Oh," he said, pulling back as if to think on it. "Well um- just west of here, is a good spot I believe. There's an RV park up Old Mill Road, if you talk with the owners I'm sure they might know a good place. If you like I can give you directions?"

"Ah- well thank you Sherriff," Elaina said with an easy smile. "But the waitress told me about the Bed and Breakfast that's up that road, I will be sure to check it out."

The Sherriff nodded with a smile of his own. "Well alright then, you take care miss," he said before replacing his hat back onto his head. He turned away from her then and crossed the diner to the front exit. He was gentlemanly enough to hold open a door for a woman and her two kids as they came inside. He greeted them by name before heading out across the parking lot.

Elaina watched the Sherriff head back to his truck and climbed inside. He settled back into the driver seat, watching the road.

Carrie arrived with her coffee then but the waitress didn't stay to chat as she dropped it off and headed over to the table the woman and her two kids had sat down at. Elaina watched her fellow occupants of the diner. There was an elderly couple enjoying a meal together on the opposite end. A couple of truckers sat at the bar drinking coffee and enjoying artery clogging meals of their own. The woman with the two kids was chatting with Carrie in a friendly manner like they had known each other for a long time. Elaina believed that most of the patrons here were regulars, making her feel even more like an outsider, than she already was.

About an hour and several cups of coffee later, Elaina found herself enjoying the view outside her window when the song 'Second Chance' by Shinedown started blaring from her cellphone that she had left sitting on the table. Eyeing the vibrating device as it worked its way across the table while it played the chorus line of one of her favorite songs, she made a face.

"Great" she muttered, knowing full well that answering the blasted thing would be inevitable. It would only start ringing again in a manner of moments if she didn't answer the call right now. Huffing out a sigh of resignation to the matter, Elaina snatched the phone up before it could fall off the edge of the table. Heaven forbid if the thing were to hit the hardwood floors and shatter into a million pieces. Pressing the green button on the screen she brought the phone up to her ear.

"Hey mom," she greeted with a tight smile. Her mom would send out the National Guard to hunt her down if she didn't answer her phone calls soon.

"_Finally, I've been trying to reach your for two days now Elaina."_

"Sorry mom," Elaina responded as her eyes darted around the diner searching for the waitress. "I've been busy working on a job is all-"

"_A job?" _came the startled question, only to turn into realization, _"-oh a job.."_ her mother said with a bit of disdain entering her tone of voice as it seemed to occur to her what Elaina was telling her. _"Honey, why don't you try going back to school- I have a friend who works on the committee at the State University here in Florida. Shelly said she could put in a good word-"_

"Mom," Elaina said briskly to cut her mother off from going on this familiar old tangent. "We've had this conversation before. I am not going back to school."

Her mother's disappointed sigh could be heard over the line. _"I understand you're still grieving over your father's death honey and you're having a hard time coping with it, but really honey- ghost hunting?"_

Elaina closed her eyes for a brief moment, as she counted to ten in her head much like her therapist had instructed her to do when her temper got the best of her. She had spent thousands of dollars on shrinks and pills and group therapy for the past four years, only to be told she was suffering from PTSD and Acute Insomnia. Her therapist had even explained to Elaina's mother that Elaina's job of choice, which was more of a hobby since she rarely got paid for it, was her way of dealing with the tragic death of her father.

_Not hardly. _But who was she to correct an expert on behavioral science.

"Mom I am not hunting ghosts," she hissed under her breath, her eyes darting around furiously to see if anyone was trying to listen in on her conversation. "Look I really don't want to argue over this anymore, please."

Every phone call they had, always seemed to turn into the same argument and it always ended the same way. Her job of choice would come into the conversation and her mother would wheedle at her until Elaina either snapped or hung up on her. Hence the counting measures. It was just recent that her therapist had given her some coping mechanisms to deal with her own mom. The woman really knew how to push her buttons.

"_I know dear, it's just that I worry about you, you know that? I only want what's best-"_ Elaina could hear the slight hitch in her mother's voice as she said these words. She could just picture the tears in her mother's eyes as she became emotional. Elaina sighed out loud, already feeling the familiar guilt starting to ache deep inside her chest.

"I know mom and I appreciate it," Elaina said quickly to placate her mother before she started crying over the phone. Last time that happened, Elaina ended up joining a dating site and look where that had gotten her. Elaina felt guilty enough not being the daughter her mother could be proud of. Most daughters would be in college at her age or at least working a job that their mother could brag about to her friends. "So- um why were you calling me mom?" she asked in hopes of changing the subject before she started getting emotional herself.

"_Well- I was wanting to know how it went with Ethan,"_ her mother asked her, the tears in her voice miraculously gone.

Elaina would have gotten mad at her mother for attempting to manipulate her into feeling guilty, if her mother's words hadn't confused her first.

"Who," Elaina asked.

"_You're date-"_

"Oh! You mean Tom- I mean Todd," Elaina said with a shake of her head, finally understanding the question now. "Uh- yea well it didn't work out mom."

"_Oh honey I'm sorry,"_ her mother said with a sad sigh and she actually sounded genuinely upset over the matter.

"It's alright mom, I'm not that broken up about it-" Elaina began to say but her mind backtracked to something her mother had said earlier. It there was one thing her mother was good at, it was names. Names to faces. It was what made Daphne Weyland such a good hostess and people pleaser at the fundraisers and charity events she hosted all the time to keep up the Weyland reputation. "Mom- who is Ethan?" The name wasn't even close to Todd's name that it seemed ridiculous that she would get the names mixed up.

Silence greeted her over the line for a long moment.

"Mom-" she trailed off, her voice giving away to the warning in her tone.

"_Uh well honey- He's a handsome young man who answered your Ad in the paper,"_ her mother finally admitted. _"He works as a teacher assistant at the- oh what was it- hmm, a high school or something there in California where you live."_

Elaina blew out an exasperated breath of air and dropped her head into her hand that was propped up on the table in front of her. "Mom," she grounded out, finding her temper flaring up inside her. "I- wait a minute here- my Ad in the paper? What Ad?" Elaina lifted her head at this. She stared at the booth in front of her with a suspicious expression on her face. She tried to think back over the past year since her mother had made it abundantly clear that her love life was lacking and could not recall her ever mentioning an Ad in the paper.

"_Oh- that's right. I put in an Ad in the classifieds for you last week. Everyone is doing it these days dear,"_ her mother explained with a flippant tone_. "I have to say you're getting more of a response from the Ad then on that silly little dating site."_

"Oh my god," Elaina breathed out loud, her expression dropping to one of complete shock. "Who the hell are you," as she asked this question, her free hand tightened into a fist on top of the table. "Mom I am not looking for a man, why can't you understand that? I am happy being single- I am happy that I am not going to college unlike other women my age, I am happy that I don't work a nine-to-five job that is boring as hell or go to goddamn cocktail parties and act like everything is fucking perfect in my life!"

Halfway through her speech she had forgotten to keep her voice down. Flushing at the curious stares she was getting from the other customers, she ducked her head to hide her reddened cheeks. Carrie was staring at her with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open as she had been in the process of repeating someone's order back to them when Elaina had started shouting into her phone. Turning away from the patrons of the diner, Elaina looked out the window as the city bus pulled up in front of the diner.

Outside still waiting in his truck, the Sherriff hopped out without his hat on and approached the bus as it pulled to a stop.

"_Elaina Ann Weyland, you watch your tone when talking to your mother,"_ her mother chided her, sounded affronted by her daughter's attitude. Elaina had gotten pretty good over the last few months at keeping her temper reined in. She had to chalk it up to lack of sleep and frustration to explain her temper getting the best of her now. _"Now you have a date tonight with Ethan at 7 pm and don't you dare tell me you can't-"_

At that precise moment, a familiar woman stepped off the bus lugging her duffle bag over her shoulder. She was dressed in a pair of faded blue jeans and a white t-shirt with a cargo jacket over it. The older mocha skinned woman adjusted the strap of her duffle bag as it dug into her left shoulder uncomfortably. The hiking boots were a familiar sight as they were more broken in than the pair of sneakers she always kept packed away in her bag for just in case.

The Sherriff seemed to size her up, taking the smaller frame and giving her an appraising stare of approval as he checked her out. Lex had been fit back in 2004 when she had guided them out onto the icy plain of Bouvetoya Island. Today, her fit body had been toned more into finer muscles, making her round hips more pronounced and her breasts seemed even fuller with her slender waist. Lex's thick mass of tight curls were pulled back from her face into a messy bun at the back of her head.

"Sorry mom, but uh- I'm in Colorado right now- I'm not going to be able to make it for a date tonight," Elaina said absently as she stood from her table. "And I have to go- so I will talk to you later mom- love you." Elaina quickly hung up on her mother, before the other woman could get a word in edgewise. Elaina turned her phone back on silent and slipped it into her back pack. She could already hear it vibrating from inside the small pocket as her mother was speed dialing her.

Grabbing some cash out of her front pocket she dropped enough down on the table to pay for her coffee and tip. Elaina slung her bag over her shoulder and headed out of the diner.

As she stepped out into the glaring sun, Elaina spotted the Sherriff in the corner of her eye talking to a man that had gotten off the bus behind Lex. Well at least his attention was diverted for now and she wouldn't get stuck talking with him for the time being.

"Hey," Lex called as she approached with a half wave of her arm, only to start fanning at her face like she was overheated. But then, Lex had just been hiking in the snowy mountains of Nepal just the other day, so Colorado weather probably felt like the tropics for Elaina's penguin loving friend.

"I thought you were going to rent a car," Elaina said while hugging Lex as soon as she was close enough to reach. She pulled back to give her friend a critical once over. It had been way to long since she had seen her friend in person. Time had been good to Lex. Even though she had to be in her mid-thirties, she still looked young and beautiful. She could easily be mistaken to be in her twenties.

"And I assumed you were going to rent a decent vehicle," Lex responded back, eyeing the car behind Elaina. "But that only made an ass out of u and me."

Elaina smirked in response. "Hey I am young and hip. You should have expected the outrageous from an ostentatious person like me," she replied back. Elaina stepped away from her friend to head to the driver side of the car. "Let's head out now and see if we can get a room. We might have enough daylight to do a quick look before it gets too late."

"Whatever you say Elli," Lex said while climbing into the passenger seat. She groaned as she sunk back into the leather seat. "Wow, never mind- you are a genius not an ass."

Elaina laughed out loud as Lex made another pleasured sound as the seat conformed to the other woman's body. "Way better than the bus I take it?" she asked innocently.

Lex shot her a glare from the corner of her eye. "Don't even go there," she warned. She dropped her bag down between her legs and shut the door.

Elaina fought back a laugh at her friend's expense and instead focused her attention to starting the car. She backed out of the parking spot and maneuvered out into traffic with little difficulty. She drove them down the main street, following the waitress' directions and headed up Old Mill Road. Near the end of the road she spotted the Bed and Breakfast and pulled into the gravel lot. The place was surrounded by woods.

_Perfect_, Elaina mused to herself. _Lex and I can easily head out without anyone really notice what we're up to._

"So you really think they're back," Lex asked her after they had checked in at the front desk and were in their shared room. It was well decorated with the old logwood theme. Two queen size beds filled the space, a small matching table near the window and two chairs. Near the door was a bathroom with a full size shower and claw-foot tub, a basin sink and a working toilet. It was definitely one of the better rooms she had stayed in since starting her little hobby.

"Yea I do," Elaina said staring down at her bag. There wasn't much to it, but staring down at its contents made her think about the bag she had packed four years ago back on the Piper Maru. One wouldn't find a Cover Magazine in her bag this time. She was more prepared for hiking then she had been back then. Food, water, extra clothes, and a guide on Gunnison County hiking trails, filled the bag to the brim. Of course her bag of candy was stashed in a side pocket, the only thing about her past that hadn't changed. She still craved chocolates, maybe even more now than before the pyramid.

"I don't know if it's the same ones that came here last time, but-" At this her hands tightened around the handles of her duffle bag. "God- why would they even come back here?" she asked the question that had been bugging her since getting on the plane and heading here. She lifted her gaze to pin Lex with a terrified stare. "Why would they come to such a populated area this time, where those- where those things could get out and- oh god- Jesus Christ-" her breathing turned panicky, as anxiety began to set in. "Oh god- these people, all these people-" she was hyperventilating now, unable to catch her breath.

"Elli, Elli," Lex called her name as she rounded the bed to get to her. Lex grabbed Elaina's hands making her release the death grip she had on the bag and turned the smaller woman towards her.

Elaina vaguely felt the older woman's hands on her shoulders, trying to ground her. "Elli breathe," Lex instructed her. "Remember, just breathe in- breathe out- breathe in- and breathe out." Elaina followed Lex's voice, doing what the other woman told her to do, until her breathing got back under control.

"You said the ship crashed right," Lex asked her once she had calmed down some.

Elaina lifted her head, her eyes blinking up at her friend as she took in what she had just said. "Yea they- uh- they thought it was a comet or asteroid that crashed," she answered slowly before looking down at her watch that acted as a compass as well. It had been a gift from Lex two years ago for her birthday. "About uh- 2 miles North from where we are right now."

"Well if it crashed- then I doubt they were planning on hosting another trial here on Earth, what do you think," Lex asked her.

Elaina cocked her head to the side as she stared at the woman who was about two inches taller than her. "Yea I guess you're right," Elaina relented at last. "Hmm- well, do you think we might have time to scope it out tonight or should we wait till morning?"

Lex stepped back then, her eyes traveling over Elaina from the tip of her head to her toes. "You know what, let's call it a night tonight and head out after breakfast. You look like you could use a good night sleep girly," Lex replied after studying her for a good long minute.

"Okay," Elaina said without any fuss. Four years ago, Elaina would have ignored the woman's reasonable explanation and would have done it her own way, just to rebel against any sign of authority. She would have gone plowing into the woods halfcocked and unprepared and probably would have gotten herself either killed or lost. The last four years had taught her a lot. Respect for her elders had been a hard one to learn but she had a lot of respect for Lex. That came easy after the woman had saved her life on Bouvetoya Island.

"Now, let's see if they have any decent pizza in this town, I've been living off MREs for the last week and I could go for a greasy American made pizza like no one's business," Lex said as she headed for her cellphone she had left on her bed across the room.

Elaina cracked a smile at her friend's words. "That sounds good to me," she agreed. "While you order I think I am gonna hop in the shower."

"All meat and extra cheese right," Lex asked her.

"Of course."

"Good- just checking to make sure your mom hadn't turned you into a vegetarian while I was away," Lex said with a smile as she called information.

"Ha, ha," Elaina called over her shoulder as she entered the bathroom. She shut the door behind her as Lex began speaking with the operator. Leaning back against the door, Elaina closed her eyes and just took a moment to breathe. "Dammit, pull yourself together Elli."

Forcing her hands to uncurl from the fists they had made, she slowly opened her eyes, adjusting them to the brightly lit room. "This is no time or place to break down," she said to the reflection across the room from her. The mirror hung from the wall over a large sink and her own reflection seemed to mock her. Yea she needed to get some sleep alright.

"Pizza will be here in thirty-five minutes," Lex called through the closed door.

"Kay," Elaina hollered back.

Elaina took a quick shower, mainly to wash away any sweat that had collected on her skin after traveling across several states via plane and the tedious car drive from the airport. Once she was out of the shower, Elaina took the time to towel dry herself off, using a separate towel to work on her hair. As she took a blow dryer to the damp red strands, her mind shifted to a memory back when Ci'tde had tried to touch her hair. At the time she had freaked out thinking he had changed his mind on letting her live. Now thinking back on it, he might have been just as curious about her as she had been about him. Of course back then her curiosity had been severely dampened by fear but she had gotten her opportunity to sate her curiosity a little bit in the end.

"Oh Jesus Elli," she moaned to herself when she caught sight of her flushed cheeks, when her mind had drifted to the brief moment she had traced her fingers over the etched marking on Ci'tde's forehead. "Get a grip on her yourself, he's gone- and you're here." She shook her head to clear it, furious with herself for letting these little insane thoughts and memories to captivate her so.

Turning the blow-dryer off and replacing it back in the holster attached to the wall, she looked back at her reflection in the mirror. She looked a little better now after the shower but the dark circles and the red veins in her eyes told another story.

Exhausted. Plan and simple really. She was sick and tired of being afraid, of not being able to sleep at night, of the nightmares, of being weak.

It was why she had toughened herself up over the past four years. She took all those classes in survival, classes in self-defense and weapon wielding. She wasn't a pro but she could handle that spear pretty darn well, if she said so herself. Maybe not like Ci'tde could but she would like to think he would be impressed with her. Hoped he would be, was more like. "Elli," she scolded herself. There went her traitorous thoughts again. Why did she seek the approval of an alien creature she would never see again? Why did his opinion have to matter over anyone else's?

Forcing her eyes away from her own soured expression in the mirror, they shifted down her reflection to stare at her naked body. Four years ago she would have been envious of the body she had now. The baby fat had fallen off finally, turning into muscle just beneath the skin that hadn't seen any sun for some time now. She had lost all that golden glow to her skin that she had been proud of and now it was a soft peach hue instead. She would have been envious of this body, if it weren't for the scars. _All the scars. _The nasty scar on her right shoulder blade was rather hideous to stare at. Her skin had stitched back together in a paler shade than the rest of her skin and was slightly shiny making the rigid skin stand out all the more. It was the size of a baseball and what kept her from wearing anything less than short sleeved shirts out in public. The rest of her body wasn't much better. Cuts and scrapes had healed over time but her body hadn't been able to rid the scars on a few of the deeper cuts where the aliens had tried to claw at her body. Her right leg had a few finer scars from where one of the aliens had snagged her by the ankle and had tried to drag her away.

Her body was a road map of the horrors she had survived. An unfriendly reminder of what happened down in that pyramid. She would never be able to forget it, even if her nightmares suddenly stopped and if she was no longer afraid of what was lurking in the dark.

"Pizzas here," Lex called through the bathroom door, reminding Elaina that she had spent too much time in there already.

Elaina turned away from her reflection with a look of disgust on her face. She was hideous to look at. Her pajamas were where she left them on the lid of the toilet and she quickly changed into the clean t-shirt and sweats. Elaina left the bathroom and followed her nose to the table that sat on the other side of the room. There was a cardboard box the size of an extra-large pizza sitting on its surface. The smell of extra cheese and every meat possible was too much for her to pass over. Elaina helped herself to three slices right off the bat, setting them down on the paper plate left out for her.

Plopping down into the vacant chair, she avoided Lex's curious and worried gaze to focus on the food in front of her. Elaina ate with great vigor, stuffing her face with bite after bite in hopes it would deter Lex from trying to strike up a conversation.

"You feeling any better," Lex asked her, obviously not getting the memo.

Chewing and swallowing the bite she had just taken, Elaina responded with, "Much- thanks."

"That's good," Lex said and watched her for a moment longer as she ate her own slice of pizza. She ate much slower, savoring each bite before working up the nerve to speak. "So how's your mom? She still worried you're going to end up like me," she finally asked, deciding on sticking with the lighter topic for now.

Four years ago, Charles Weyland had demanded Lex to promise him that she would make sure his only daughter would make it off Bouvetoya Island alive. It had been his dying wish and Lex had done everything she could to save the girl and made sure she made it home to her mother. And though she had kept her promise, it somehow had stretched beyond its requirements over the last four years. Lex would have been smart to wash her hands of the younger woman and gone on her own way. Somehow though, her promise to Charles Weyland had turned into something more and as she watched the younger woman mold and change into the person she was today, she found herself caring for the young woman. Lex considered Elaina a friend. More often than not they butted heads on most topics that came up but Elaina was smart and witty and stubborn as hell.

The promise Lex had made to the younger woman's father had started off just that and yet now she felt a more personal reason to keep tabs on Elaina's health and wellness.

"She's fine," Elaina admitted after swallowing another bite full of her pizza. Her words drew Lex out of her darkened thoughts and had her focusing and what she was saying. "She's still trying to hook me up with a guy- you know she had me sign up for this online dating service right- well apparently she put in an Ad in the local paper as well."

Lex considered what she had just said and couldn't help but feel amused at the younger woman's plight. After Bouvetoya Island, Elaina had become a recluse, much like how Lex preferred to live her own life. It wasn't something she would wish on the younger woman but seeing her struggling through a blind date was rather amusing to think about. "Really," she said trying to keep in the snigger that was bubbling passed the thin line of her lips pressed together. At Elaina's hard look though, had her sobering up rather quickly. "Well you know- maybe it's not such a bad thing?" she offered by playing the devil's advocate.

"Are you serious," Elaina asked her nearly choking on her pizza. She gave Lex a sardonic stare. "Cause I can't tell if you are." Elaina stood up suddenly from the table and took her paper plate with her. She dropped it in the small trash can.

"I am being serious," Lex replied, watching Elaina as the woman retrieved two bottles of water from her duffle bag.

Elaina placed one in the mini fridge that sat under the counter that lined the wall facing the two queen size beds. She carried the second bottle with her to the bed nearest the door. She pulled back the covers and crawled under the clean sheets. She looked over at Lex when she broke the seal of her bottle and took a swig of the warm liquid inside.

"And so am I," Elaina said at last. "I mean look at it from my stand point alright. What right do I have to start a relationship with anyone, hmm? I mean my whole life is a lie. My childhood is a therapist's wet dream and my adult life so far is enough to have me locked up in an institution if I told anyone the truth. I am this close-" she made a motion with her thumb and index finger being less than a centimeter apart. "-of having my therapist locking me up as it is."

"Everyone is a head case, Elli," Lex said as she tossed her own used plate away. Lex used some paper plates to store the remaining pieces of pizza in the fridge and set the carton on the counter so that it was out of the way. "Look, it wouldn't hurt for you to make some friends. Go out and have fun every once and a while right? You're twenty-two for crying out loud."

Elaina sighed as she rolled over onto her side, turning her back to Lex as the other woman climbed into her own bed. "You sound like my mother," she said over her shoulder.

"Good," Lex snapped. "Someone ought to. Tell me Elli, what did you do for your twenty-first birthday?"

The room went silent after that question was asked. Lex sat half propped up on her bed staring at Elaina's back who was busy glaring at the wall in front of her. "Girls your age are out partying and drinking with friends for their twenty-first birthday- so what were you doing Elli," she asked her, despite knowing what a sore subject the matter was.

"You know what I was doing," Elaina said barely above a whisper. She didn't dare turn over and look at Lex. Not with the hot tears burning their way down her cheeks and soaking the white pillow under her head. She didn't dare make a sound as the room had grown uncomfortably silent and she squeezed her eyes shut to try and stop the tears.

"Elaina-" Lex trailed off, her voice softening at the sound of torn emotions in her friend's voice.

A moment passed before Elaina whispered, "I just want to go to sleep Lex- goodnight."

Lex wanted to argue. She wanted to argue with her so badly. She wanted to confront the younger woman and maybe shake some sense into her for a change. _What the hell are we doing out here anyway? Chasing aliens._ _How in anyway was that healthy?_ For a normal young woman, it wasn't even considered healthy and with everything Elaina had been through already, Lex feared it just might break the younger woman. Sighing, Lex slunk down in her bed, resting her head against the pillow and listened to Elaina as she struggled to keep her tears silent. Already the younger woman was showing cracks in her emotional façade. Lex feared what the next twenty-four hours might do to what was left of Elaina's state of mind.

But Elaina was stubborn. Like her father, Elaina wouldn't back down no matter how scared she might be and what the future might hold for them. And Lex was stubborn and loyal to a fault. She wouldn't let the poor girl face this alone, no matter how terrified she was or what the future might bring for them.

Closing her eyes, Lex fell asleep to the hum of the thermostat and the chirping crickets outside the window.

* * *

**AN: I want to thank all my lovely reviewers and everyone who faved and followed this story so far. I promise you things start to pick up in the next chapter. The excitement picks up with more action. ^^ Anyone dislike Elli's mom as much as I do lol? She definitely would not get mother of the year award, oh well. She's human she is allowed to be flawed. I hope this chapter was as quirky as I tried to make it out to be. some comedy and drama thrown in to mix it all up a bit so things are not always so serious :)**

**Also, I have never been too Colorado, let alone Gunnison. I have no idea what kind of shops, B&B or roads they have. I made up 90% of the information in this chapter O_O I really hope you guys don't hate me for that. But while watching the movie and looking online for some information on the Gunnison, it reminded me a lot of my home town. So I figure I couldn't go too wrong... **

**I know Lex and Elli have a strange relationship. I tried to express that in this chapter, which will hopefully help you understand the ups and downs they go through as the story goes on. They are far from perfect. ^^**

**Anyway let me know what you think, did you loved/liked/hated it, I accept it all.**

**Inky out.**


	5. Chapter Four

Chapter four:

_**Old Mill Bed and Breakfast  
Gunnison, Colorado  
October 5**__**th**__**, 2008**_

Elaina woke in a cold sweat and her body shivering beneath the blankets. Her frantic gaze jumped around the room searching the shadows for what could be lingering there. She had left the bathroom light on and it cast an eerie glow through the adjacent door. Her racing heart calmed the longer she sat in her bed, forcing herself to endure her breathing exercises.

"Jesus- another nightmare," she whispered to herself in the silence of the room. Her head turned and she looked at the two pills and bottle of water sitting on the nightstand. She had set them out earlier before taking a shower and she had forgotten to take them after her argument with Lex.

Pursing her lips together in a frown, she directed her gaze to the sleeping woman. It didn't seem like nightmares hindered the older woman's sleep at all tonight. Lex laid on her stomach with her head turned towards the window. The steady rise and fall of her back with each breath she took, indicated to Elaina that the other woman was in a deep sleep.

Elaina pulled the blankets free from her legs and climbed out of bed. She staggered her way to the bathroom, being careful to shut the door silently behind her. She stopped in front of the sink and turned the faucet on. Hot water spluttered from the faucet, steaming the chilled air around her. Elaina cupped her hands beneath the hot spray and splashed her face a few times before straightening up. Blindly she turned the water off and reached for a towel against the wall. She padded her face dry, sighing into the softness of the towel as she did so. Sleeping in her own bed could be difficult at times, but sleeping in a hotel or motel bed was even worse for her. There was nothing comparable to waking up from a nightmare with no immediate idea of where she was. It was disorienting and terrifying and it made it even harder for her to calm herself down.

Elaina didn't linger in the bathroom longer than necessary as she didn't want her thoughts dwelling on tonight's nightmare of choice. She headed back to the room and stopped in front of her duffle bag sitting on the countertop. She searched inside finding a pair of clean green cargo pants and a black camisole for her to wear. Elaina stripped out of her pajamas and changed into some clean underwear before putting on the pants and top. Taking a brush, she ran it through the rat nest her hair had turned into overnight, before tying it into a messy bun at the back of her head. As she was getting ready, Lex started to stir.

"What time is it," Lex grumbled as she peered over at Elaina from over her shoulder.

"About five am," Elaina answered, her eyes darting to the alarm clock on the nightstand. She was grateful for the contact lenses she had gotten were the extended wear kind and she could keep them in even overnight. It made things easier with her lifestyle not having to worry about taking them out each night. "You can go back to sleep, I'm just going to stretch my legs for a bit before we start the day."

"S'okay," Lex mumbled, as she was not much of a morning person. The older woman rolled out of bed, tossing the covers aside and stretching once she was standing beside her bed. "I'll start the coffee, going to need a strong batch to get going this morning- I still feel pretty jet lagged."

Elaina smirked at her friend's words as she sat down on the edge of her own bed to put on her hiking boots. "If you say so sunshine," she said getting up from the bed to go back into the bathroom.

Lex went straight for the coffee pot and started brewing a batch of strong coffee, going so far as to throw the decaf packets away. While Lex worked on their caffeine fix, Elaina brushed her teeth at the bathroom sink. Feeling refreshed, she headed back out into the room, passing Lex as the other woman headed into the bathroom carrying clean clothes with her.

"I'm going to take a shower- I'll meet you outside afterwards," Lex said in passing and shut the bathroom door behind her.

Elaina grabbed her cold bottle of water out of the fridge and took a long drink from it, nearly emptying the bottle in a few swallows. Pausing in front of her backpack, Elaina reorganized the items packed inside, going to far as to check and make sure she had enough food and water to last for a day's hike as well as fresh clothes and her bag of candy. Her harness and spear were tucked away safely in the side pocket as well. Feeling prepared for the hike ahead of her, Elaina grabbed her jackets and shrugged it on. She reached for her backpack on her way to the door and left the room to get some fresh air.

There was some kind of commotion coming from outside and Elaina followed the noise to find ten pickup trucks parked outside as well as the Sheriff's truck in the parking lot of the Bed and Breakfast. Several men, looking ready as if they were banding together for a hunt were milling about anxiously along with an older woman with long red hair arguing with the Sheriff about something.

Stopping next to the first man she came across, Elaina shrugged her backpack onto her shoulders. "What's going on," she asked casually, her eyes moving around the group suspiciously. It almost looked like a search party, only maybe less organized.

"The Sheriff is putting together a search party," the man replied. He was busy packing up his bag so he didn't look up to see who he was talking to.

"Oh- who's missing," Elaina asked, her eyes falling on the woman once more. It was apparent the woman had been crying, if the flush in her cheeks and swollen red eye were any indication. She hoped it wasn't as bad as she was starting to think it was.

"Buddy Benson and his boy Sam," the man said gruffly, finally looking up and taking in her smaller frame. His eyes narrowed a bit when he realized she wasn't from around here. "They went hunting yesterday and never came home."

Elaina watched the man join the party gathering around the Sheriff who was giving specific instructions on how the search party was going to work before they all headed out. Elaina wanted to join them, especially with the knowledge that a kid was out there lost or maybe worse. Unlike the locals here though, she didn't know these woods very well. Not enough to join them and be of any use.

"What's going on," Lex suddenly appeared behind her, startling Elaina out of her torn thoughts. Looking up at the other woman, she noticed her holding two cups of coffee. Taking the offered cup, she sipped from the hot contents, only to grimace at the strength of the taste. She was going to need a cup of sugar in order to choke this stuff down.

"Father and son are missing I guess," Elaina said quietly. They watched the search party split into groups and head out into the woods. "They went hunting yesterday and never came back."

"Damn," Lex muttered before taking a sip from her own cup of coffee. Elaina wasn't surprised to see the woman was able to down the drink with little difficulty. Even if the stuff was made of tar the other woman would be able to drink it with the iron stomach she had.

"Think we should help them," Elaina wondered aloud.

Lex thought about the question for a good long moment. The group of men had disappeared into the woods already, leaving only their vehicles behind. "I'm not sure how much help we will be to these people. They seem to have everything under control and I hate to say this- with there being a kid involved but, I think we have more important matters to worry about."

Elaina nodded, knowing the other woman was right. "Alright then, we heading out now or should we get something to eat first?"

"Well I checked on that- breakfast isn't served until seven and I don't feel like waiting around. I packed some extra provisions, I think we will be fine," Lex replied as she shrugged on her own backpack.

Lex was dressed in a pair of tan shorts and a blue tank top tucked in at the waist. She wore her cargo jacket over her top with the front left unzipped for now. Her hair had been pulled back into a ponytail at the back of her head and it was already starting to frizz in the chilled air.

Elaina nodded her head and taking her cup, dumped the contents out before throwing her cup away in a nearby trash can. Lex finished her coffee before disposing of her cup in the trash. The two women then headed out into the woods, traveling in the opposite direction as the search party.

"We can still keep an eye out though, right- just in case?" Elaina asked still feeling guilty for not helping.

"Yea," Lex said without any hesitation. "I packed a satellite phone in my bag. If we see anything we can call it in."

The hike in was uneventful.

Elaina and Lex kept an eye out for any signs of the missing father and son as they traveled but found no signs of them. In the beginning of their hike, they had been able to hear the search party calling out for Sam and Buddy, the woman's anguished voice casting a chill down their spines and twisting the guilt in their stomachs all the more tighter. But soon the voices became faint and they could no longer hear them calling for the missing father and son. About a mile and a half into the hike they took a break to eat an MRE for breakfast. Elaina made sure to down two candy bars, offering one to Lex who declined. They finished their first bottle of water before continuing on their journey. Neither of them spoke, too busy listening for things out in the woods with them and not wanting to bring any more attention to them than necessary. It took them longer then they had planned, having to be as quiet as possible as they went in.

Elaina had taken her spear out after their short break as a cold sweat began to form at the back of her neck. The woods had gone strangely quiet when they had stopped to rest. She hadn't heard from the search party for over an hour now, but that wasn't what had her spooked. It was the lack of noise from the animals that worried her. Even at this time of day there should have been sounds of deer traveling through the woods, maybe even foxes or rabbits scampering about. But more importantly what happened to the birds? She hadn't heard one chirp or sing since they had stopped for their meal.

Turning her gaze to the woman leading the way, Elaina could see the tension in Lex's body increase with each step she took. The way the woman took each step carefully, avoiding the chances of stepping on twigs or dried up leaves told her that Lex had noticed the unusual silence. Elaina couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched, but no matter how hard she searched the woods, looking up into the canopy of trees she couldn't find anything there. Not that meant anything. Elaina knew good and well how easily things could lurk undetected, either by a cloaking devise or natural predatory skills with stealth.

It had been three hours since they left the Bed and Breakfast, following the coordinates Elaina had given Lex. It lead them deep into the woods and nowhere near any camping sites or hiking trails. Three miles North from where they had entered the woods from one of the many hiking trails, they finally came across the crash site.

"Holy shit," Elaina breathed, unable to stay quiet as she came up beside Lex. The other woman had stopped abruptly near the clearing that had been created by the crashed spaceship. The broken trees and burned foliage led a clear path to the ship nestled near the river that traveled through the woods.

"Yea," Lex murmured in agreement, the shock on her face evident by the slightly slacked jaw expression. Neither one of them had really expected to find it. Or that it was even real. Even with the video, there had always been that hope that it wasn't real. That maybe the incident on Bouvetoya Island was just a figment of their imagination. Their minds way of dealing with the stress and grief of losing everyone down in the pyramid. Forget about the scars and the etched markings on their faces, or the advanced spear made of metal not found on Earth. Forget about the nightmares and pretend it was all just one big nightmare.

The sight before them dashed that hope right out the window. The reality of the situation they were in settled deep in their gut at the sight of the ship.

"What-what do we do," Lex asked, her voice sounding for the first time unsteady. She stared at the ship with great trepidation. She looked ready to bolt in the other direction at any given moment.

Elaina swallowed the lump in her throat and took a step towards the ship. It had long since cooled from the crash, no signs of smoke or fire seemed to billow out from the wreckage.

"We should- We should probably check for survivors right?" she asked, looking over at Lex for guidance. More than anything she would rather go back to their motel room and crawl into bed and never leave. Let someone else clean up this mess. But she was here now and she had been right about coming.

"Okay," Lex agreed though her body told that she was more in agreement to Elaina's inner thoughts.

Gripping her spear tightly in her hand, Elaina led the way. As she got closer she could see it wasn't the same ship that had picked Skl're and Ci'tde up four years ago. This one was much smaller in size. She couldn't see any door to use to get inside though on closer inspection. No panel or key lock of any sort as she circled the ship trying to find a way in.

"Over here Elli," Lex called down to her, nearly scaring Elaina half to death.

Lex had climbed up the side of the ship using some of her climbing gear to help her climb the smooth surface until she was able to find a foot hold. "There's a hole here big enough for us to slide through- looks like it might have peeled back the metal when it first hit the ground before rolling to a stop?"

Elaina rounded the ship stopping next to the rope Lex had laid out for her. Dropping her bag down on the ground, Elaina tore off her jacket and set it aside. Opening her bag she searched for her harness and slipped it on around her shoulders and buckled the straps under her breasts. Shrinking the spear down to its compact size she slipped it into the holster at her back. Searching in her bag again she found her black fingerless gloves that she used for climbing and slipped them onto her hands.

Taking the rope, Elaina lifted one foot and braced it against the side of the ship. She used her leg to push herself up and using the rope to hoist herself up higher.

"You okay," Lex asked, staring down over the side of the ship at her.

"Y-yea," Elaina said with some difficulty. Climbing was not her forte. Her upper body could use more strength but at least it wasn't as bad as it had been four years ago. All those rock climbing lessons were coming in handy for a change. Elaina reached the spot where her foot was able to get a foot holding instead of just bracing the flat of her boot against the smooth surface of the ship. Reaching out with one hand she grabbed a ledge that was jutting out of the side of the ship and let go of the rope.

"There you go, you've got it," Lex said encouragingly.

Elaina hoisted herself up, feeling her arms shake under the strain. She managed to swing one leg over the ledge and pushed herself up to the top where Lex stood looking down at her.

"I think I'm going to take you rock climbing with me sometime and not that man-made rock climbing crap you do," Lex said with her hands braced on her hips. Lex had barely broken out in a sweat from her free-fall climbing, while Elaina had perspiration pooling between her breasts and leaving a sweat stain on the back of her tank top.

"Yea- yea sure," Elaina said between gasps of air. She flexed her finger trying to work the circulation back into her hands. Lex held out a hand to her and Elaina took the offer to lift her up to her feet. Pausing near the ledge, Elaina peered over the edge and felt the world spin from the height. They had to be at least twenty feet off the ground.

Pulling away from the edge, Elaina followed Lex to the huge opening she had found. Elaina frowned at the hole, thinking it looked more like the damage had come from the inside then from the outside. Shaking off the thought, Elaina busied herself with helping Lex tie a second rope up to help them vault down.

"Here," Lex handed her a harness and Elaina slipped into it as Lex attached it to the line she had set up. "You first girly, I will be right down after you."

Lex then handed her a small flashlight, which Elaina turned on before sticking it into her mouth to hold as she needed both hands on the line. She gave the other woman a thumbs up before vaulting down into the hole.

The first plunge into darkness took her breath away and caused her heart to lurch inside her chest painfully. As her eyes dilated and adjusted to the darkness around her, she was able to focus on the shapes her flashlight lit up. She descended down inside the ship silently, her ears straining to hear any noise. Her feet touched down first and she released her harness from the line and removed the flashlight from her mouth. Elaina flashed her beam of light to the opening, signally to Lex that she could come down.

Sweeping her beam of light across the ship, Elaina searched the wreckage. Instinctively she removed the spear from its holster and extended the weapon to its full length as she moved forward. Behind her Lex vaulted down into the ship and slid down to the floor quicker than Elaina had gone. The other woman removed her harness from the rope and swept her flashlights beam along the walls and floors searching.

Moving further into the ship, Elaina felt her heart stutter at the first signs of dried neon green blood. It was splattered all over the walls and floor. It was apparent that someone had been killed nearby. Elaina found him about ten feet away lying in a heap with a large hole through his chest as well as smaller hole through his head. She breathed a shaky sigh of relief when she didn't recognize the mask he wore. Her flashlight traveled down his body and she could see his coloring was all wrong. This Yautja was brown with flecks of red and the underside of his arms and legs were tan not yellow.

"Is it one of them," Lex whispered, not daring to raise her voice any louder than necessary.

"No," Elaina replied back softly and the relief in her voice didn't go unnoticed by Lex.

Elaina moved her light beyond the dead Yautja and found more green blood splattered along the walls and floor. That couldn't be a good sign.

"Oh no," Lex whispered. She had shifted her light down to the Yautja's head, inspecting the wound there more closely.

"What is it," Elaina asked her. She knelt down next to the body to get a closer look. As she studied the wound, her mind flashed back to a memory of seeing a Yautja with a similar hole in his head back in the pyramid.

"I've seen a wound like this before," Lex said. "Back in the pyramid, I watched one of those black aliens kill one of these guys by using its tongue as a weapon."

Elaina looked up sharply at Lex, her expression showing one of horror. "So they did bring them here again then." It was more of a statement than a question.

Her flashlight swept the room once more, searching for what could be lurking in the darkness. As hard as she looked she could find nothing lurking among the wreckage, waiting to strike at them.

"We don't know what happened for sure- we should keep looking before coming to any conclusions," Lex said while placing a comforting hand on Elaina's shoulder. Resolutely, Elaina nodded, knowing the other woman was right but that didn't make the fear lesson any.

Standing back up, Elaina stepped around the body and continued forward. She adjusted her grip on her spear, testing the weight in her hand as she moved down the corridor. She had to duck around a piece of equipment, her foot slipping in some blood as she maneuvered her way through the wreckage. Whatever happened here seemed to not be from the crash. She could see signs of claw marks gouged into the surface of the walls and puncture holes in the grating of the floor. As well as more neon green blood. There were areas where it pooled and the green blood now coated the bottom of her boots and stained the hem of her pants as she worked her way to the back of the ship.

Elaina found herself in what she would call a medical room of sorts. Even with their advanced knowledge and hi-tech gizmos she could still recognize what would be considered surgical tools, stretchers and a hospital bed. The place had been thoroughly destroyed, all the equipment had been torn from the walls and damaged beyond repair. A cage of sorts sat in the far corner and there were what looked like claw marks marring some of the surface from the inside.

"Jesus," she whispered.

Elaina spotted three more Yautjas in this room and all three of them were dead. One had a hole in its head much like the one out in the corridor had. Another had a huge hole in its chest. The third one wasn't wearing a mask, and as she drew closer to him could see that he looked much older than the others. While the one she stared down at now looked weathered with age, he didn't seem much larger than Ci'tde had been but he was larger than the two other Yautja's in the room.

The older Yautja had been stabbed through the chest with what she would presume to be an alien tail and had bled out from the extensive wound. His face was frozen in a mask of pain, with blood and spittle coating the corners of his mouth. _Maybe the tail had pierced a lung_ she wondered. Kneeling down next to the body, Elaina didn't feel cowed by his presence. Whether it was from the knowledge that he was dead or that maybe she was more prepared for the alien being than she had been four years ago she wasn't sure. Though she believed it was more likely the former. Elaina reached out and gently closed the Yautja's eyes more out of respect than being creeped out by the dead stare that had pinned her to the spot.

"Elli," Lex called from the doorway. "You need to see this."

Elaina looked at the Yautja one last time before leaving him. She followed Lex into another room that was as much destroyed as the last. In here there had been tube like glass fixtures throughout the room. At one point they seemed to have been filled with liquid as there were still pools of the liquid on the ground. But what caught her eye the most was the dead creatures laying around the floor. There were at least four of them, all appearing to be spider-like with their long slender legs and pale peach colored skin. Each one had a long tail on them and bled a yellow acidic blood from their various wounds. The second thing she noticed was that while there four of them dead, there were at least ten tube-like containers that had been broken open from the crash. Which then brought her to the third thing she became aware of with dawning horror. There were at least six of them still out there and more than likely alive.

"Shit."

"Yea," Lex breathed. Her eyes were darting all over the room, half expecting one of them to come leaping out at them from the shadows. "Those things are running around loose out there- Jesus this is worse than any of us could ever imagine." Lex reached up with her hands gripping at the sides of her head as she tried to wrap her mind around the situation they were in.

It all made sense now, at least most of it did. The hole they had used to climb down into the ship. There was at least one full grown alien alive that had been strong enough to bust a hole out of the side of the ship. Elaina could only hope it wasn't a Queen. The very thought had her shoulder ache in remembrance of the battle that had nearly killed her.

"We need to warn the people in town," Elaina said, turning to head back for the exit. "Shit we should call the National Guard or something and get them to section this town off before those things spread beyond Gunnison."

"And tell them what Elli," Lex said sadly from where she stood among the carnage.

Elaina stopped in the corridor staring at the wall in front of her. _Yea, tell them what Elli_, her mind teased her sarcastically. Closing her eyes briefly, she tried to think of something that they could do.

"We're on our own here," Lex told her the truth. "There is no one else that can help us with this."

"There has to be something, or someone-" Elaina began to plead with the other woman when there was a thud against the side of the ship and a screech of metal. Both women looked up at the wall, listening to the scraping noise as it moved above them.

Elaina sucked in a breath as the noise stopped at the opening they had used to get inside. There was a moment of tense silence as she kept her flashlight aimed in the direction of the main room they had first been in. Then Elaina was jarred as the ship shook under the weight of the creature that had jumped through the hole and landed with a thud in the room that was at the end of the corridor.

_What is that?_

* * *

**_An: Soooooo hate me yet *wiggles eyebrows*? I like this chapter I have to say, because the action is finally here! Sorry for the delay on the good stuff, but the action/horror is just beginning for our girls Lex and Elli. And I Love a good ole cliff hanger! What is that? What is now in the spaceship with Lex and Elli, you will just have to wait until the next chapter ahaha *insert evil cackle*?_**

**_I was going to wait until Friday to post this because... Well its Friday the 13th! What a great way to start the day right? But my vacation starts on Friday and its supposed to be hot out, and I don't want to be stuck inside if I can help it. Plus I need to find my way to Crystal Lake to find Jason, I need some inspiration on my Friday the 13th story. :)_**

**_I wish you all a glorious week, and a happy Friday the 13th._**

**_Let me know if you loved/liked/hated it I accept them all. ^^_**

**_Inky Out_**

**_PS. I was struggling on working on my latest chapters and I want to share with you my inspiration for this story, it comes in a song like most tend to for me. I think it is rather fitting for this story. It is one of my favorite songs right now and I recommend listening to it if you have not heard it. Enjoy!_**

_Hot dive into frozen waves where the past comes back to life  
__If I fear for the selfish pain, it was worth it every time  
__Hold still right before we crash cause we both know how this ends  
__A clock ticks 'till it break your glass and I drown in you again_

_'Cause you are the piece of me I wish I didn't need  
Chasing relentlessly, still fight and I don't know why  
If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy?  
If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity?_

_If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy?  
If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity?_

_Walk on through a red parade and refuse to make amends  
It cuts deep through our ground and makes us forget all common sense  
Don't speak as I try to leave cause we both know what we'll choose  
If you pulled and I push too deep then I'll fall right back to you_

_'Cause you are the piece of me I wish I didn't need  
casing relentlessly, still fight and I don't know why  
If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy?  
If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity?_

_Why are you my clarity?  
__Why are you my remedy?  
__Why are you my clarity?  
__Why are you my remedy?_

_If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy?  
If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity?_

**_Clarity, Zedd_**


	6. Chapter Five

Chapter five:

_**Unknown Galaxy  
Yautja Shuttle  
October 3**__**rd**__**, 2008  
To Present time**_

He had been in the middle of a hunt, when the distress beacon had startled him from his uneasy stare at the star coordinates. Reaching across the board, he dragged the tip of his finger across the screen, pulling up the signal that echoed throughout his ship. He studied the information as it flashed across his screen.

From the information he could gather as the data flew by in a red haze before his eyes, was that a small shuttle that had been transporting goods had lost control and had been sucked into a planet's gravitational pull. The planet it had crashed on was in a galaxy not that far from where he was sitting stationary tracking his recent prey. He was in the middle of tracking a Badblood that had just been found guilty for killing several Young-Bloods that had been on their Chiva.

Before he could respond to the call with a positive or negative answer, another transmission popped up onto his screen drawing his attention. Seeing it was from the clanship, he answered the call after making sure to mute the distress beacon.

"Warkha," Elder M'dli-te greeted once he appeared on the screen. The aged Yautja appeared distressed, if the scrunch of his brow and the weariness in his eyes were any indication.

Adjusting his position in his seat, Warkha straightened in his chair, making sure to sit a little taller than he had been casually sitting before. He had not been expecting a call from the Elite Warrior. At one time, the two of them had been hunt brothers but that had many centuries ago. That had been before he had accepted the position as Arbitrator and before M'dli-te had followed his Sire's footsteps and had become an Elder.

"M'dli-te," he acknowledged. It had been at least two seasons since they had last spoken and he wondered what could have the other Yautja contacting him now.

"We just received a distress beacon from one of our ships," M'dli-te said getting straight to the point.

"Sei-i," Warkha agreed. "I am looking at the coordinate's now- the shuttle is in a galaxy not far from where I am."

"Good- we need you to locate the ship and destroy it," M'dli-te said without any hesitation. It came out more as an order than a request, which was so unlike his hunt brother.

Warkha scowled at the order, not liking being bossed around even from a Yautja he considered a comrade. "I am in the middle of a hunt, Mei'hswei- you know this. Send someone else to take care of your affair," he growled. The bristles along his face twitched as his temper spiked. He could see the Elder stiffen in response to his defiance.

"I have already sent two Blooded Warriors to assist you in the destruction of the ship as well as searching for any survivors," Elder M'dli-te growled in reply. "You may return to your hunt afterwards or if you continue to argue with me, I will send another Arbitrator to continue your hunt after the Badblood for you-"

Temper flaring at the idle threat thrown so blatantly at him, Warkha clenched his fists and slammed them down on the side of the console as he had no way of attacking the Elder directly at the moment. He growled low as he glared at the Elder and could feel defiance rearing its ugly head as he readied himself to challenge the other Yautja.

"This is a direct order from the Council, Warkha," M'dli-te said carefully, his words sounding tense.

"What is so important on this shuttle that it cannot wait until your Blooded Warriors get there," he barked out, barely restraining the growl from his words. It was taking all of his years of training to keep his temper in check.

The Elder sighed and for once concern appeared on the older Yautja's expression. The look was enough to drain the rage from Warkha as he listened to the Elder explain the circumstances to him. "The ship was carrying several Kiande Amedha eggs aboard as well as a new specimen for our new gaming planet. They must be destroyed at all costs," M'dli-te explained. "That is a direct order from the Matriarch."

There was a long pause as Warkha digested this information. Reluctantly, he agreed to the dire situation. "Understood," Warkha said carefully. "Send another Arbitrator to take over my hunt- I will take care of the Kiande Amedha."

"As you wish- good hunt Warkha," M'dli-te said before ending the transmission.

Warkha took a moment to send his coordinates to the clanship so that they could pass on the knowledge to the Arbitrator that would be taking his place. Afterwards he directed his ship in the direction the distress beacon was indicated on his coordinates.

As his ship piloted through space, he prepared himself for what was to come. Dressing in his hunting gear, he collected his weapons from his trophy room. He made sure to arm himself with a plasma-gun, several throwing discs and his combi-stick. Attaching the gauntlets to his wrists, he uploaded the coordinates to the computer on his right wrist before retrieving his mask. He paused before a wall of them, eyeing each design before selecting the one he wore only on hunts. It was not one to intimidate or scare his prey. He had other masks that even had Badbloods shaking, when he materialized before them to enact justice upon them. But hard-meats did not understand fear and he would not waste a good mask on a hunt where it more than likely would get damaged if things were to go wrong. Placing the mask on his face, he attached the hoses to the back before turning from his collection.

Warkha was alerted to his approach of the planet the shuttle had crashed on as he left his trophy room. He headed back to the pilot room, taking a seat to pull up the schematics.

"Pauk," he cursed, realizing why the Elder had been so worried. The shuttle had crashed on a populated planet, one that would have the hard-meats flourishing in no time at all if there was a Queen egg aboard.

Growling beneath his breath, he cursed the Elder for the mess he had unintentionally created. Warkha activated the ship's cloaking shield and entered the planet's atmosphere. Manipulating the controls he directed the ship to the general location of where the signal was telling him the shuttle had crashed. He flew over a heavily wooded area, finally stopping the ship over a river that ran through the forest. Leaving his ship idling there, Warkha exited the craft by opening the hatch in the back of the ship. His directed the ship to remain in stealth mode as he leaped from the opening and landing in the river. The hatch closed behind him after he left the ship and it was then no longer visible to the naked eye. Breaking the surface of the river, Warkha swam to shore.

The silence of the cool morning air was interrupted by the noise of his suit crackling and sparking as water dripped from his soaked form. As he stepped onto land, his cloaking shield failed, leaving him visible and wet standing on the shoreline of the river. He shook the excess water from himself much like a Yaut hound would. He tossed his head side to side when he was done and the long dark tresses whipped around his shoulders from the motion before settling back down to the middle of his back. Each appendage was decorated with rings and ornaments, each signifying a great feat he had achieved over the last 300 years of his life.

Warkha opened the computer on his right wrist and pulled up a holographic image of the terrain around him. He located the distress signal a good mile from where he stood. Scanning the best route to take to get to the shuttle, he located one through the trees in front of him. Turning the image off, Warkha started off at a brisk jog. He entered the tree line and kept the river within his line of sight. It took him minutes to reach the crash site.

Switching his vision to read heat signatures, he studied the wreckage. There were no signs of it in danger of blowing up or catching fire that he could see as the ship had long since cooled from when it originally crashed.

Checking the ground, he could see two sets of fresh footprints leading from the tree line on the other side of the clearing to the ship. There was no indication that they had left either. Growling beneath his breath, Warkha moved forward, checking the area for any more heat signatures. Only the footprints told him of recent activity in the area. Changing back to normal sight, Warkha noticed a bag of sorts settled near the ship with a rope leading up.

_Oomans_, he realized. _There are at least two of them close by._ Standing from where he had knelt to inspect the bag, Warkha studied the side of the ship.

_They had been here recently,_ he noted. _Inside the Ner'uda perhaps?_

Crouching, Warkha propelled himself up, latching onto the side of the ship. The talons on his feet grabbed onto a foothold while the talons on his fingers grabbed ahold of a ledge that jutted out on the side of the ship. He climbed the rest of the way with little difficulty and finding a hole exposing the inside of the ship. Changing his sight to night vision, Warkha scanned the inside of the opening and found nothing lurking in the darkness. Leaping down into the hole, Warkha landed with a soft grunt, his knees absorbing the impact. He scanned the room, quickly finding himself in what looked like the control room of the ship. The place was a mess from what he could see of it though. Changing his spectrum to infrared, he scanned for any signs of life.

More footprints and they were fresher than the ones outside. _Ooman curiosity-_ he trilled with anticipation. It had been too long since he had hunted oomans. Extending his wrist blades, Warkha was looking forward to adding two more trophies to his wall back on his ship.

Warkha searched the room laid out before him carefully. He first scanned for heat signatures before altering to night vision. It seemed he was alone in the control room. Eying the footprints leading further into the ship, he cocked his head to the side. It didn't seem like they were scavenging. Their footprints were precise, leading out of the room to the only exit that lead down a long corridor. Following their trail, he came across a fallen Yautja.

Crouching down next to the fallen Honored Warrior, Warkha retracted his blades for the time being. The oomans could wait for now as he had a mission to deal with. Opening his computer, Warkha typed a few keys into the screen before extracting a cable from the end and connected it to the other Yautja's computer. Searching the Yautja's files, he found just what he was hoping for. Data log recordings. Warkha scrolled through the several recordings the Yautja had saved over the last season before finding the last recording it had made. The data came from two cycles ago but the file indicated that it was still recording.

Turning his head away from the Yautja, Warkha narrowed his eyes as the file downloaded to his mask allowing him to see what the Yautja had seen before he died. It started off normal with the Yautja piloting the shuttle to a small planet with very little indigenous life on it. Enough to create a hard-meat colony but not enough that they would over run the planet. It appeared they had been planning to create a new training ground, which could mean they may have been carrying a Queen egg on board, much to his displeasure. Fast forwarding the recording, Warkha stopped the image when the Yautja had been alerted to engine failure. The Yautja had left his post to investigate after unable to reach any of the crew members aboard the ship.

Warkha watched silently, his anger rising little by little, as he watched the Yautja being hunted by a full grown hard-meat. The rest of the Yautjas had been picked off one by one, the creature killing everyone on board. When the hard-meat dropped the pilot, the Yautja's mask recorded the control room for a cycle before someone else appeared in the recording. The image was grainy, stuck in night vision but he could see the outline of two small oomans. They had entered the same way he had, using the rope to scale down into the ship.

Cocking his head to the side, Warkha watched as the two oomans searched the room. He adjusted the language in his mask when they started speaking their native language. The Yautja's vocabulary for Oomans was spotty and not very up to date, but he was able to interpret enough of what they were saying to understand it. The video ended with the oomans moving on down the corridor and further into the ship. Not much longer after that he arrived.

Turning the recording off, Warkha forwarded the files to the clanship for them to interpret. He contemplated over the data he had just seen, trying to gauge the implications. It seemed there was a new breed of hard-meat loose on the planet. A simple hard-meat would not have been able to take out everyone on this ship, that he was very much sure of. The image had been poor and grainy but he had seen the outline of the creature. Drawing up the clearest image he had seen in the recording, he studied the outline. It was much bigger_. Not a drone. Maybe a warrior? It is too small to be a Queen, something in between perhaps?_

If the creature was transported on this ship then they would have information collected on it stored in the ship's medical database. He needed to know just what exactly he was dealing with here. Following the corridor the two oomans had taken, Warkha entered the medical bay. The damage done to this room was extensive. All of the equipment had been destroyed either by the crash or from the hard-meat he couldn't tell. Growling beneath his breath, Warkha stalked across the room.

There were three deceased male Yautjas in this room. One he recognized as the Medic from the Clanship, Ne'jad-ke. M'dli-te would not be happy to hear about the old Yautja's death. He was one of their Medics on the clanship. The other two seemed to be newly Blooded Warriors.

Crouching next to one of the younger Yautjas, he connected the cable from his computer to the dead Yautja's. Ne'jad-ke had not been wearing his mask which meant he had not recorded the events that happened to bring down the shuttle but this younger Yautja's recording would do.

Warkha uploaded the recording from the last two cycles. A sound from outside the room had him turning his head to look back to the corridor, his eyes narrowing some as he strained to listen. Before he could go investigate, the image uploaded and he was forced to watch as Ne'jad-ke and the Yautja he was crouching next to sedated the creature. As they tried to transport the hard-meat out of its cage to the transporting tank, the hard-meat woke up and killed everyone in the room.

Warkha watched each death, the last Yautja giving up his life to try and stop the creature before it could escape the medical bay, but to no avail. Freeze framing the image of the creature, he studied the unique features it had. Seeing the mandibles protruding from its face much like a Yautja and similar tresses from the back of its oblong skull had his blood freezing within his veins.

_Not possible._ Warkha shook his head in denial as he stared at the creature M'dli-te had created. Why would the Elder allow such a creature to exist after being birthed from a Yautja? It was a disgrace to the Yautja that had been infected.

"Pauk-de M'dli-te," He growled. Now the thing was loose on a planet full of species capable of hosting more hard-meats. And if one of the eggs that hatched was a Queen- there would be nothing left. An entire planet would be overrun within a matter of cycles.

Disconnecting the link, Warkha forwarded the files to the clanship before standing. He looked over at the old Medic, thinking about the two strange oomans that had been in this room. They seemed more knowledgeable than he had expected. From what he had gotten from their conversation, they did not seem pleased with the hard-meats being free. That fact that they knew what they were, concerned him though. He wondered how they even knew of the creature's existence. Or the fact that they did not seem bothered by the dead Yautja's they had inspected so closely.

Switching to infrared, Warkha studied the ground, following the trail of footprints that led into the room then back out again. Stalking out of the room, Warkha followed them into a room further down the corridor but paused before entering it. They had gone into the room but there were fresher footprints that moved into a room across the corridor, only to head back out again and back down the corridor to the control room. When he had first arrived, he had followed the footprints to the Medical bay and there had been no sets of footprints heading back out he was sure of it.

Cocking his head in interest, he was pleasantly surprised to find they had managed to avoid his detection. They had managed to hide from him while he had been in the corridor and escaped when he went into the medical bay. The fact that they had snuck passed him without him so much as smelling or hearing them, had him purring with anticipation of the hunt to come.

Extending his blades, Warkha stalked after his cunning prey. He followed their trail back to the control room.

* * *

Elaina could barely control her hammering heart as she and Lex made their escape. The moment the predator had appeared in her line of sight, which thankfully he had been distracted by the dead Yautja to not notice her flashlight beam, she had forgotten how to breathe. He was massive. Not in bulk like Ci'tde had been but what he didn't have in solid mass, he had in height. He had to be close to 8ft tall and made up of all lean muscles. She didn't recognize the Yautja, not that she knew a lot of them but knew it was neither Ci'tde nor Skl're. When he had extended his wrist blades, she got the impression that he was not going to be a very friendly Yautja either.

While he had had been distracted by the dead Yautja, Lex had managed to get Elaina to find a hiding spot inside a room across from the room that had been carrying the creepy spider things. It wasn't much more than a closet really, with linens that look like furs and skins heaped in a pile on the floor gave them very little wiggle room to work with.

Elaina and Lex waited, knowing they had very little chance of hiding from a Yautja, but were still willing to give it a try. Somehow luck had been on their side, as the Yautja had gone into the medical room not noticing their huddled forms just a little further down from the room.

With no words, Lex indicated that they needed to leave right now. Elaina could only nod her head before she was stepping out into the corridor and easing her way around the wreckage. As she and Lex made their way down, they managed to avoid slipping in the drying blood on the ground. Each step they took had them glancing back to see if the Yautja had heard them trying to escape. Every twang of the metal floor beneath their boots, every groan of the ship, had them sucking in a sharp breath of air in fear that he had noticed the sound. But the Yautja remained clicking and growling in the medical room, completely unaware of them it seemed.

At the rope, Lex helped Elaina hook herself to the line and then proceeded to help hoist her up first. Elaina used her feet to brace herself on the wall and with Lex's help scaled the rope to the opening above. Elaina hoisted herself up out of the hole and turned to look back down into the ship. It was then they heard the Yautja moving around again. She couldn't be sure but it didn't sound like he was in the medical room anymore.

Lex looked up at her and without words indicated for her to make a run for it. Furious, Elaina shook her head venomously and indicated with her hand for the older woman to move her ass.

Lex nodded shakily and hooked herself to the rope. Planting her feet against the wall, Lex started climbing. Elaina had her flashlight trained on the opening of the corridor, her ears straining to hear any indication that the Yautja was coming for them. Then she heard it, the familiar noise of metal again metal as he extended those deadly wrist blades. The Yautja roared and Elaina gave up all pretenses of being silent.

"Move your ass Lex!"

The woman reached the opening at long last and Elaina dropped her flashlight to help the woman out. There was a sound of something whistling through the air and Lex cried out as the throwing disk the Yautja had thrown at the opening nicked her calf as she pulled her leg free of the opening.

"G-go, go" Lex shouted and they raced to the edge of the ship.

Elaina slid off the side of the ship and using the rope started her descent down. Lex ignored the rope and began climbing down without assistance. They reached the ground and Elaina snatched up her bag before they raced off into the tree line.

Lex led the way, the older woman weaving around trees and jumping old nurse logs, without so much as looking back to see if they were being chased. Elaina followed her example, only bothering to glance at her watch to make sure they were going in the right direction. They were half a mile from the crash site when Lex suddenly stumbled and fell to her knees. Elaina nearly ran her over, just barely avoiding the fallen woman as she staggered to a stop.

"Lex!" she gasped, doubling over as she gulped in air. "You okay?"

The other woman was panting as she rolled over, her hands reaching down for her leg and her expression was filled with pain. "Dammit," Lex cursed, her hands inspecting the wound on her calf. Blood oozed from a gash along the outside of her right leg.

"Oh my god what happened," Elaina asked as she knelt down next to her friend's side.

"The bastard hit me," Lex grounded out. She curled her lip in a snarl as she touched the skin around the wound. "It's not too deep, but I need to get it wrapped before we go any further."

"Shit- oh man Lex I am so sorry," Elaina apologies.

"It's alright Elli," Lex reasoned with her. "I have some gauze in my bag, can you get it?"

Elaina nodded, her hands shaking as she reached for the woman's bag. She rifled around inside, finding the med kit near the bottom. She found the gauze and handed it to Lex.

"Thanks girl- you- you don't hear him do you?" Lex asked between hisses of pain. She opened the gauze and began wrapping her leg tightly, trying to ignore the bite of pain it caused.

Elaina shook her head, "No- no I don't think he followed us." She didn't mention that if he was following them, they wouldn't know it until it was too late anyway. She wasn't sure if Lex remembered what it was like being stalked in the pyramid, but Elaina remembered just how silent a Yautja could be when they wanted to. She had been in Ci'tde company long enough to respect their ability at stealth. It was just the fact that they were still alive that had her believing he wasn't chasing them.

"Can you walk," Elaina asked when Lex had finished covering the wound.

"Only one way to find out," Lex muttered. "Help me up."

Elaina got to her feet and reached down to lend Lex a hand. Lex took the offered hand and Elaina pulled the woman up to her feet. Lex staggered forward, putting very little weight on the injured leg.

"Damn this sucks-" Lex muttered under her breath.

Elaina was going to offer her assistance, when she realized just how quiet the forest around them had gotten. Straightening, Elaina searched the surrounding woods cautiously.

"Lex," she whispered, her heart lurching in her chest.

Lex stilled against her, her hands tightening their hold on Elaina's shoulders as she too realized just how quiet the forest had gotten. The two women were afraid to move, unsure which direction to use to escape. Slowly, Lex turned, hobbling on her good leg as they both faced the way they had come from, half expecting the Yautja to materialize right in front of them.

A twig snapped behind them and it had both women jolting with surprise. With a startled scream, they whipped around facing the other direction, only to find a young man dressed in a uniform approaching them.

"Jesus," Elaina gasped, her hand going to her chest to steady her heart's staccato beat. "You scared the hell out of us."

"Sorry ma'am wasn't expecting anyone to be out this way," he said dragging his cap off his head. "What are you two doing out here anyway?"

Elaina looked to Lex, who looked at her in return.

"Just hiking, officer," Lex answered, her eyes turning back to the young deputy.

"Ray, is just fine ma'am- are you injured," he asked, his eyes sweeping down Lex's body to inspect her bandaged leg. "How did that happen?"

Again Elaina looked to Lex, who in turn looked at her as if to ask what the hell do we say now? Before Lex could come up with an excuse there was a loud explosion that shook the surrounding area. Elaina and Lex cried out, their arms going up to cover their heads as they ducked down to avoid flying debris.

The deputy stumbled on his feet, his eyes widening in alarm. "Jesus what the hell was that," he shouted. He raced forward, stopping just pass them to search the immediate area. There were some fallen trees and broken limbs nearby but not close enough to cause any real harm. It seemed the blast had come from further in the woods. "You two head back to the main road-" He instructed over his shoulder. "Report this to the Sherriff."

"What are you going to do," Elaina asked, as she straightened from where she had huddled next to Lex.

"Ma'am that is none of your concern. Get your friend back to the road, keep heading south and you will reach a Bed and Breakfast. You will be able to call for medical assistance there." The deputy started forward, shining his flashlight ahead of him as he tracked back towards the crash site.

"We need to stop him," Elaina said, her eyes trailing after the deputy as he disappeared further into the woods.

"And tell him what Elli," Lex asked. She had one arm braced around Elaina's shoulder, putting most of her weight against the smaller woman. "That there is a huge spaceship that crash landed in the woods- which from that blast we just witnessed means it was just blown up so there will be no evidence of it- and that there is an 8ft predator hunting us?"

Elaina pursed her lips. "I know but-" she tried to reason with the other woman.

"But nothing Elli, we need to get back to the road. That thing is hunting us and I've been leaving a trail of blood through the forest for him to track. We need to get the fuck out here before he finds us- I doubt he's going to waste any time on one measly human searching the woods," she argued. "I think he has bigger issues to contend with, such as the loose bugs and us."

Reluctantly Elaina nodded in agreement, somewhat placated with Lex's reasoning. Shifting her hold on her friend, they started hobbling in the direction the deputy indicated.

It was some relief to hear crickets chirping and the sound of birds nesting in the trees as they made their way through the woods. It took them longer to get back then it had to get to the crash site. With Lex's injured leg and every snapped twig had them freezing to discern how close it had been to them, hadn't helped matters. By the time they reached the Bed and Breakfast, it was nightfall and it was all they could do to get to their room and lock the door behind them without collapsing from exhaustion.

Despite the deputy's instructions, they didn't call for medical attention or look for the Sherriff. Once in the safety of their room, Lex used some alcohol swaps from her med kit to disinfect the wound. Luckily it wasn't deep enough that it required stiches and she was able to rewrap it with some fresh gauze. She was just plain lucky that the Yautja's throwing disc had only nicked her leg instead of slicing it completely off.

Afterward cleaning up, Elaina and Lex polished off the last of the pizza for dinner and passed out from the long exhausting day they had spent racing through the woods avoiding a dangerous Predator. They fell asleep huddled together in the same bed.

* * *

_**AN: And chapter five is here! So what did you think? Were any of you expecting Wolf to show up in this story at all. I just had to have him in here, I mean come on, the guy it tall dark and deadly how could I not include his hotness into the mix eh, *wiggles eyebrows suggestively* I liked Wolf, and I was never sure exactly what his title was in Yautja society... so I made him into an Arbitrator. I think it suits him cause he's sooo bad ass.**_

_**Well looks like Lex and Elli survived their run in with Wolf... barely. Let me tell you he is not a gentle Yautja, not in the slightest and all of you will see that in the coming chapters.**_

_**Let me know if you Loved/Liked/Hated this chapter. I accept it all.**_

_**Inky out.**_


	7. Chapter Six

Chapter six:

_**Local Diner  
Gunnison, Colorado  
October 6**__**th**__**, 2008**_

Elaina was sitting in a booth at the local diner, with Lex seated across from her. They had picked the closest one to the front door they could get in case they needed to make a hasty exit. After yesterday's run-in with a Yautja, one could never be too careful.

They had woken up late that morning, much to Elaina's surprise since she couldn't remember the last time she had slept in. _Guess life threatening experiences are a cure and not a curse after all, _she mused to herself as she scrambled her eggs together with the hash browns and cut up sausage-links that filled up her breakfast plate. She felt absolutely ravenous this morning and had convinced Lex that they needed a good solid meal before deciding on was going to be their next plan of action.

The diner was busy this morning with a couple of truckers lining the bar, eating their meals and drinking coffee as they flirted with the waitresses. Carrie was busy bringing a meal to a couple that was eating out with their daughter on the other side of the room.

"Molly honey- come eat," the father called and the little girl that had been talking with one of the other waitresses ran over to join her parents at the table.

Elaina smiled around her mouth full of food. It reminded her of a scene she had watched in a movie once. It was kind of nice to see that there were still people out there with families that were happy at least. That kids could get along with their parents and that there were couples that still loved each other even after years of marriage. It made what they were doing here all the more important.

Turning her attention to the woman seated in front of her, Elaina wondered what Lex thought about the city's inhabitants. Lex was more of a recluse than even Elaina was which was saying quite a lot. The only time her friend ever spent time in the company of others was when she was being a tour guide it seemed.

Just over Lex's shoulder, Elaina spied Carrie stopping at the table that was between them and the exit, where a young man was seated. He had been here before Elaina and Lex had arrived and he had yet to order anything to eat, only asking for coffee so far.

"How's the job hunt going Dallas," Carrie asked him casually as she poured him another cup of coffee.

The man looked up from the paper he had been diligently searching for the past hour to give the waitress a weak smile. "Is breaking and entering a special skill," he inquired with a scoff in his tone. "What do you think Carrie, any suggestions?"

Straightening up, Carrie tilted her head to side and answered with some sarcasm, "well I hear the bank is hiring." Then with a forced smile, she walked away to attend to another customer that was calling for her attention.

The man snorted while shaking his head at her retreating back. Reluctantly, he turned back to the paper searching the classifieds once more.

"Eat up Elli," Lex said, seeing her attention diverted from her food. "We have a lot of work ahead of us today."

Wrinkling her nose, Elaina dropped her eyes back to her plate, seeing that she had hardly touched her food, despite how hungry she had been. But her appetite had left her the moment they had walked into the diner to hear the local news talking about the still missing father and son. Stabbing a piece of sausage, she brought her fork to her mouth and forced the food down with her glass of milk.

Just then, the diner door opened and the Sherriff walked in, removing his hat as he did so. His eyes scanned the diner quickly, before spotting the man seated in front of them.

"Hey," Dallas acknowledged him, looking up from his paper at the sound of the bell.

"Morning," the Sherriff greeted in return and took a seat across from him.

Once more Elaina found her attention diverted from her food as she listened to the two men talk. Dallas inquired about the missing father and son, but the Sherriff had no news to give forth on what happened to them.

Elaina felt her stomach turn in knots with this information. Even Lex seemed to have lost her appetite as she pushed her plate away.

Despite the news, the Sherriff called Carrie over for coffee, indicating with the thermos he had brought in with him.

"You guys have been out all night huh Sherriff," she asked as she poured coffee into his mug.

"Actually we called it a night at 12 am," he said with a tired sigh, though the dark circles beneath his eyes indicated he got little sleep after he got home from a full day of searching the woods.

Carrie looked over sharply at the Sherriff, who peered up at her as her expression changed quickly from curiosity to worry.

"Ray didn't come home last night," he inquired while straightening in his chair some.

Carrie shook her head, setting the coffee pot down to cover her mouth with her hand. "No I thought he was with you- I tried his cell but-"

"Carrie, listen to me," the Sherriff said in an even tone. "He was pushing real hard yesterday, I am sure he's out there still looking."

"But he always calls," she argued.

"The reception out there is real bad you know that," The Sherriff reasoned with her. "I'll go check it out alright- Ray said something about checking the drainpipe before we called off the search."

"Drainpipe," Dallas inquired.

"Yea, Charlie's dog- he found an arm there yesterday. Ray wanted to make sure Charlie didn't go back out there again last night- a lot of homeless folk like it down there," he explained. "The sewers keep them warm this time of year."

Elaina called for another waitress and asked for their bill. After they paid and left the diner, the two of them headed for her car parked in the lot.

"Oh god-" Elaina gasped, pausing next to the driver side door as the Sherriff's meaning really hit her. "That man- the deputy- you don't think he-?" She couldn't get the words to form a proper question with her mind running a million different scenarios that could have happened to the man they had run into the wood last night.

Lex had no words to offer her as she stared at Elaina over the hood of the sports car. She shook her head, biting her bottom lip. "We- we don't know that for sure," Lex finally admitted. "Let's check this sewer thing out, okay- you know it could be a good place for those things to take refuge."

"How do you figure?" Elaina asked her. Her mind felt torn with grief over the knowledge that they had let a man wander the woods when there was a predator loose. Not that they could have been able to stop him, but it still did not make her feel any less guilty over the matter.

"Well I think they would feel right at home in a dark wet environment, don't you?" Lex said while opening the passenger side door. She climbed into her seat before Elaina could comment.

Reluctantly, Elaina opened her door and climbed into the driver seat. Already, Lex was pulling out the guide on Gunnison County. She searched the pages till she found a map on the hiking trails. "Here we go," Lex said. "We can take this road all the way to the sewer line. It looks like the drainpipe is connected to the sewers that are under the city."

When Elaina didn't say anything, Lex looked over at her. "Elli," she called her name.

Elaina blinked, her body flinching in reaction to her name. "Right- okay," she said softly. Turning the car on, she shifted into gear and drove them out of the parking lot.

It didn't take them long to leave the city limits, taking a dirt road that led deep into the woods before it dead-ended. Parking the car, Elaina stepped out and her eyes took in their wooded surroundings. She couldn't quite shake the feeling that they were being watched though as they left the car. Shivering in the cool morning air, Elaina regretted not grabbing her jacket when running from the Yautja's spaceship yesterday. Her favorite coat was probably nothing but a pile of ash now. Gritting her teeth, Elaina leaned back into the car, tossing her backpack into the back seat.

Today she was dressed in the same green cargo pants from yesterday but had decided to wear a grey camisole with a loose button up blouse that had the sleeves rolled up to the elbow in order to keep her arms free. Now standing in the wooded trees eyeing the cement drainpipe that lead back towards the city, had her changing her mind on the nice blouse. Tearing the shirt off, she tossed it into the backseat as well. She adjusted the harness she had put on that morning over the camisole, making sure the straps were tight. Taking the spear, she slid it into the holder at her back, feeling a little more secure with it so close to her.

Next to her, Lex had decided to wear black leggings, a navy blue t-shirt and her cargo jacket zipped up over it. On her head she was sporting a headlamp, as she had to loan Elaina her only other flashlight. Elaina's had been incinerated with her jacket. They both had agreed to leave the backpacks behind to stay light as possible in case they ran into any more trouble.

"So are we- doing this," Elaina asked unsure.

It looked awfully dark inside the tunnel. She had gone on ahead to inspect the opening and was starting to rethink her decision to come out here and stop a bunch of aliens from taking over the world. What the hell had she been thinking? What possibly made her think she could handle this big of a responsibility?

"It's going to be okay Elli," Lex offered as she stood back up from retying her boots. Then to Elaina's shock, she pulled out a handgun from under her jacket and held it firmly in her right hand. "We came prepared this time."

Eyes bugging open, Elaina shook her head in complete denial. "You own a gun," she screeched, her voice gaining an octave as she eyed the weapon. She didn't think it would be much use if they ran into that Yautja again. She had seen Terminator shoot one several times without it doing anything but piss him off.

"Yea I got it last year," Lex said with a grimace. "These are hard times Elli- it might not do much for the big guy but these are hollow-point bullets, they leave a nasty size hole and I think a couple hits should bring down one of those black things if we run into one."

Elaina nodded slowly, not sure what she meant by all that, but had seen enough cop shows to get the gist of what she just said. Taking her friend's lead, Elaina reached behind her taking the spear from the holster she had strapped to her back and extended it to its full size.

They sure were quite the pair, she mused. What would Ci'tde think if he saw them willingly entering a dangerous situation, armed and ready for the hunt? She didn't think he would be too proud- maybe call her stupid in his language or something. Shrugging the thought from her head, Elaina followed Lex into the tunnel.

It felt like hours before they reached the sewer line that connected to the drainpipe, only in reality it might have taken them just a mere thirty minutes. It felt longer because of all the fits Elaina threw every time she stepped in a pool of some disgusting looking puddles she couldn't identify.

"Forget this- this is just low- in all the years-" Elaina began another rant when a fat rat went scurrying passed her feet, startling her enough that she screamed like a little girl. Forget that she was armed with a spear, the very sight of the rat had her nearly climbing the moldy walls to get away from it. She visibly shuddered, even after it had disappeared into the darkness.

"Elaina," Lex chided while giving her a hard look. When they had entered the tunnels and the natural light from the sun peeking through the trees faded from sight, she had put on a headlamp. The beam of light momentarily blinded Elaina who raised a hand to cover her eyes.

"Oh come on," she hissed, when her vision became spotty. Her own flashlight was aimed down at the floor as she rubbed her eyes to help clear her sight. "That was really uncalled for Lex."

"Well quit your bitching and keep up will you," Lex shot back at her. She was peering down the tunnel in front of her, but this one sloped down to another level. "Well this is going to suck," Lex muttered to herself as she calculated the slope's angle and how they were going to get down it without a rope.

The smell of sewage had long since stopped bothering Elaina and she feared it was because the stench had seeped into her skin and was emitting out of her pores now. Eyeing another puddle of some unidentified liquid, Elaina scurried around it to avoid stepping in this particular one. Elaina mentally patted herself on the back at her success, turning to look back down the tunnel to check the route they had come from. Her light reflected off something further down as she swept across the tunnel. Hesitating, Elaina shifted the light back where the reflection had been, her eyes straining to see in the darkness. When the reflection moved, Elaina took a sudden step back in alarm.

"Oh shit," she cursed as her heart leapt into her throat to strangle her. Whirling around, Elaina tried to run forward but instead she ran into Lex who had been turning towards her to see what was the matter. The momentum of Elaina's shove had Lex losing her balance and tipping backwards.

Lex yelped, her arms wrapping around Elaina instinctively for something to hold onto and they both fell back into the tunnel that declined at a 45 degree angle. At the bottom, the two women hit the sewer water with a loud splash, their bodies so tangled together that they sunk down to the bottom. Elaina was the first to untangle herself and shot back up to the surface with a choking gasp of air. She struggled to get her footing straight with the spear gripped in her right hand. Thankfully she hadn't dropped it when she fell into the water as she doubted she would ever be able to find the weapon again in this mess.

"Oh god," Elaina said as she gagged, her whole body shuddering with the effort to keep her breakfast down. Spitting out the remnants of the sewer water that was still in her mouth, she belched and gagged a second time. "It's in my mouth-" Elaina threw up as she said this. She was really regretting eating eggs with her breakfast that morning as it came back up with the sewer water she had just accidently swallowed.

Turning from the mess she made, she found Lex standing next to her and doing a great impression of a drowned rat. Her friend's hair was plastered to her face and her jacket was clinging to her slender frame in a not so flattering manner. Elaina gathered she probably looked even worse than Lex, if the way her clothes clung to her body were any indication.

"Fuck Elli," Lex scowled as she shook her arms out at her sides. The handgun she had been carrying, hung uselessly in her hand now. "What the hell was that for?"

Suddenly remembering what she had seen in the tunnel, Elaina whirled around to face the opening they had fallen down in. She backed away from it, wading in the water so that she stood closer to Lex but keeping an eye on the tunnel. She listened to the echoes that lingered in the tunnel, trying to make out any sound that would give away the presence she was sure lurked there in the darkness.

"What is it," Lex asked her, shining the light over at Elaina's face and saw the fear there.

Slowly Elaina shook her head. She couldn't hear anything other than the water moving around them or the scamper of rats as they fled the area. She thought about the reflection she had seen. It could have been a trick of the lighting. It had to be otherwise they would be dead already, right?

"Nothing-" Elaina answered weakly. "It was nothing."

"What do you mean it was nothing," Lex asked and she shined the headlamp towards the tunnel Elaina was still staring intently at.

"I just- thought I saw something. Its- God, nevermind Lex, let's just keep going okay," Elaina said with a bravado she didn't really feel. She forced herself to turn her back on the opening to inspect the tunnel they had fallen into. The water was waist deep here and Elaina tried to ignore it when she felt something squish under her boot when she took a step forward. If she shuddered visibly, she chalked it up to how cold the water was and not how grossed out she actually was.

"I think there's a ladder up ahead, we can use it to get out of this water," Elaina said when she spotted the structure on the right side of the tunnel. She started forward only to find herself hindered by the water as it slowed her movement to a snail's pace.

"Like it matters anymore," Lex muttered beneath her breath as she struggled to wring out her thick curls. She followed Elaina down the tunnel, regardless.

Near the landing that had a small ladder leading up, Elaina came to a stop as her light lit up the railing. There was an odd sticky residue clinging to the surface that was strung up all the way to the ceiling. The slimy substance dripped from the railing, indicating to her that it was fresh, whatever the hell it was. Shrinking to spear to its smaller form, she slipped it into the holster. Reaching up for the top rung on the ladder, she hoisted herself up the first step.

"Wait."

Suddenly Lex reached out and grabbed Elaina by the strap of her holster and pulled her off the ladder. Elaina fell back into the sewer water with a splash as she struggled to keep herself upright. She did not need to get another mouthful of sewer water anytime soon.

"What the hell-" Elaina shouted her outrage, only to have Lex's hand snap over her mouth, effectively shutting her up.

Looking at Lex, Elaina could see the torn expression on her friend's face as she stared passed Elaina to what was up on the landing above them. Following her stare, Elaina could see the headlamp had lit up several bodies lying on the grating above them.

A strangled whimper escaped her as she sagged back against the older woman. _Bodies_. At least two of them were slumped up against the wall and there was one lying flat on the ground. Each one had their chest ripped open from the inside.

"These don't look fresh," Lex whispered to her, her eyes darting around the tunnel now. "We need to get out of here right now and get help."

Elaina stared at the three dead people, not able to tell if they were male or female. They all looked like adults to her, which was some relief that she hadn't found the missing boy down here with the rest of them. At least not yet. She had little hope that he would be found alive.

"Elaina listen to me," Lex continued to whisper in her ear when she hadn't acknowledged her yet. "We are going to head back the way we came and call for help- you go first alright?"

Reluctantly, Elaina nodded her head that she understood and she allowed the woman to steer her back in the direction they had come from. Lex carefully released her hold on Elaina as if afraid that she might bolt, if startled.

Elaina let out a shaky breath of air, her eyes darting around the dark tunnel. With shaky hands, she reached back and pulled her spear free of the holster and gripped it with a white knuckle grip. She hadn't even taken a full step forward however, when they heard the all too familiar sound of a continuous clicking noise followed by a low threatening growl.

Elaina blinked slowly, her head lifting to take in the dark shape of the Yautja from the spaceship just a few feet in front of her. An inaudible squeak escaped passed her parted lips, her eyes widening at the sight of him.

_Maybe it hadn't been a trick of the lighting after all_, she reasoned with herself much too late. It seemed his cloaking device didn't work in water, as he was very much visible to the naked eye despite how dark the tunnel was. Elaina swallowed thickly as she took in his tall frame a second time in two days.

Warkha had avoided the light when the ooman female had first turned around. The moment she realized he was there however, the light had flicked over to him illuminating him in an unearthly glow. He couldn't gather much information off the two oomans he had tracked down into the tunnels as his senses were dampened due to the environment around them. He was rather impressed by their hunting skills though, since they had led him straight to a hard-meat's nest.

Last cycle, he had only gotten a glimpse of the two oomans, having not been able to study them up close as they had escaped the ship before he could collect their skulls. Now standing thigh deep in water that smelled something foul, he could tell they were small ooman females. In the many times he had come to this planet to hunt its inhabitants, he had never hunted a female ooman before. They usually tended to be unworthy prey, shaking in fear and crying at the mere sight of him. These oomans showed no fear as they stared at him however and with the stench of ooman waste he could not smell if they were afraid.

Warkha purred with anticipation of adding them to his trophy collection on his ship. They would make a fine story to tell back on the clanship when he returned after this hunt. At his side, Warkha extended his wrist blades and he slipped into the familiar defensive stance. He spread his legs apart and bellowed his challenge, letting them know the hunt was on.

"Run," Lex shouted suddenly, shoving Elaina back behind her and raising her gun. She pulled the trigger without hesitation just as the Yautja charged them. Only nothing happened and when she pulled on the trigger again, nothing but a clicking sound came from the weapon.

"Fuck," she cursed, looking at the waterlogged weapon and realized it was ineffective.

"No!" Elaina shouted, but the Yautja was already in front of Lex and he smacked her on the side of the head with the back of his hand, throwing her against the wall on the other side of the tunnel. Lex grunted as she hit the concrete before she sunk into the water.

Elaina wasn't able to go to her friend's aid as the Yautja was right on top of her all of a sudden. She barely brought the spear up in front of her as he brought his wrist blades down upon her. The two metals clashed and his strength had her sagging down into the sewer water on one knee. Sputtering as water splashed against her face, she shook her head roughly to keep it from getting in her mouth again. Shifting her hold on the spear, Elaina extended it to its full length and in the process surprised the Yautja.

Warkha stepped back from the ooman female, his head cocking to the side as he studied her small frame. She could barely stand tall enough in the water next to him, which was a funny sight to behold as she struggled to keep him from slicing her in half. Pulling back his arm, he allowed the ooman to stand back up. She held the spear defensively in front of her, with her hands shaking in fear and yet she stood her ground before him.

Warkha cocked his head the other way, his vision altering from infrared to night vision. He could see her a little clearer now, even if the image was grainy. Water dripped from the soaked tresses that plastered across her face but she paid it little mind. She wouldn't take her eyes off him as she stood there defensively. Most oomans would have tried to attack him by now or at least try to make a run for it. Instead she remained defensive as if waiting for him to attack her again. Finding himself intrigued by this small creature, he did a quick scan on her. His mask brought up several three dimensional images, even capturing the parts of her that were under water. She was small even for ooman female standards. Her defensive stance was nearly flawless and he imagined if she wasn't waist deep in water she would have the stance down perfectly. Someone had taken the time to protect herself and taught her how to wield the spear. Maybe not to Yautja standards, but her form wasn't half bad. Not that he would admit that out loud.

He brought the image of her face closer for his inspection now. There was nothing remarkable about the face that he could see. It was round with fleshy cheeks and lips giving her a rather youthful look. The short strands that fell across her forehead shifted and he tracked the movement. It was there that he notice the unique scar on her forehead.

Elaina watched the Yautja but he had yet to make another move against her. She found her eyes darting over to where Lex had disappeared into sewer water. Her friend had yet to come up and Elaina felt panic swell within her chest.

Then suddenly there were a flourish of bubbles that surfaced and Lex suddenly shot up out of the water with a loud gasp of air. Lex staggered against the tunnel wall and struggled to remain on her feet in the waist deep water. Elaina could see there was a gash on her forehead from where the Yautja had hit her and it was bleeding pretty good.

Forgetting momentarily about the 8ft Yautja standing before her, Elaina turned to help her friend. He had yet to try and attack her a second time and she found it more pressing to check on her friend and make sure she was okay. In her lapse of judgment, Elaina turned her back on the Yautja and it turned out to be a very big mistake.

Elaina cried out, having only gotten two steps, before the Yautja grabbed her ponytail and yanked her back towards him. She dropped her spear when her hands flew to his grip in her hair. She was trying to relieve some of the pressure on her scalp when he lifted her up out of the water to face him.

Next to her, Lex took a step to intervene but a threatening growl from the Yautja kept her from making any further advances. She eyed the wrist blades he kept extended in his left hand, an unfriendly reminder that he could easily kill them both with just one slash of those deadly blades.

Warkha brought the smaller female closer for his inspection. Using his mandibles he fiddled with the clarity of his night vision, honing in on the grainy image to give him better sight to see her even better in the dark tunnel. His scrutiny lay with the scar on her forehead, as the rest of her meant very little to him. He retracted the blades on his right arm and lifted a talon to trace along the scar to make better sense of what he was seeing. He wasn't gentle in his study of the scar, the tip of his talon drawing blood along the curved mark that led down to her left eyebrow.

_Blooded_, he realized. That was why the combi-stick had looked so familiar. It had at one time belonged to M'dli-te he was sure of it. The familiar intricate design with the three prongs on both ends was a favorite of the Elder's. Warkha was curious to know how an ooman female had first survived a Chiva, let alone impress Elder M'dli-te enough for him to reward her with his own personal combi-stick.

_Perhaps she was a pet of his?_ Warkha shook his head at this thought. M'dli-te had very little regard when it came to Oomans and he would never keep one as a pet, let alone Blood one.

Elaina stared wide eyed at the mask in front of her face. There seemed nothing special beyond that familiar marking on its forehead that matched the one on her forehead. She wondered for one brief moment it he might know Ci'tde, but stopped herself from thinking that thought any further. Now was not the time to day dream. She needed to get out of this mess right now!

Twisting in his hold that was at the back of her head, she managed to kick out with her right foot and connected with his stomach. The blow didn't cause any damage to him but was enough to surprise him that he suddenly let go of her. Elaina dropped like a sack of potatoes to the filthy water below and sunk like a rock to the bottom.

Her hand landed on her spear and she wrapped her fingers around it instinctively. Elaina shifted her feet beneath her body and pushed herself back up to the surface, sputtering sewer water from her mouth and nose. _This has got to be the most disgusting moment of my life, _Elaina admitted to herself as she rubbed at her eyes with her free hand. She was glad to have her spear back, after losing it, even if it had only been gone from her side for just a few minutes. She felt some relief to have it back in her possession, though what little good it would do against him if he attacked her again.

"Elaina are you alright," Lex asked her through chattering teeth. She stood next to Elaina now and the both of them were soaking wet and shivering in the chilled air of the sewers.

"I'm okay," Elaina said quickly. She shifted her hold on the spear so that she held it in both hands protectively in front of her.

Next to her, Lex was eyeing the Yautja. He wasn't attacking them and she found that really strange. Back in the pyramid they had been relentless. Charging in and attacking the moment they had the chance. They never let up on their prey until it was dead. Why was this guy so different? What could he possibly want if not to kill them?

"Ooman, where did you find Ki'cti-pa," Warkha asked them now that he had both of their undivided attention.

He looked from one to the other and found another mark on the other female's cheek. He cocked his head slightly and trilled out loud at the sight of it. It was rare to find an ooman this day and age Blooded ever, but let alone two of them and at the same time no less? _Were Yautja's just giving it away to anyone they came across these days,_ he wondered with a huff. Neither one seemed very strong in his opinion. _Looks could be deceiving though,_ he reasoned. Now that he could no longer hunt them as prey because of their status, he would just have to challenge them to a fight. Later though, as now was neither the time nor the place for a proper challenge.

Lex and Elaina exchanged glances when the Yautja spoke to them. The words came out in growls and clicks with a long trill at the end making it seem as if he had asked them a question. Elaina understood the word ooman. She wasn't sure if it was their lack of lips or their mouth full of teeth, but they couldn't pronounce the word human to save their lives. Apparently, Ci'tde was not the only one. The rest of his words though made little to no sense to her.

Seeing that they did not understand his language, Warkha pointed to the comb-stick in the smaller female's grasp. "Where you find," he inquired in their native language. He hated speaking ooman, finding their language beneath him but it had been beneficial for him to learn their words while being an Arbitrator. Badbloods were notorious for hiding on the ooman planet and killing unworthy prey.

_Oh, he wants to know where we got the spear,_ Elaina realized. She looked down at the weapon in her hands, before leveling her gaze back on his mask.

"One of your kind gave it to us," she answered.

Warkha huffed beneath his breath, having a hard time believing the ooman. But with the markings on their skin, it indicated they had to be telling him the truth. They must have done something rather impressive to be gifted with the spear however. Growling beneath his breath, Warkha opened his computer. He forwarded the recording of his meeting of the two oomans to the clanship in hopes of getting to the bottom of this.

"Are you hunting the hard-meats," Elaina asked him suddenly. She had grown a little braver now that he had stopped attacking them. From her past experiences, the Yautjas never asked their prey questions, they just tended to just hunt and kill.

Warkha looked up from his computer to study the small female. "What you know of hard-meats," he asked.

Elaina looked back at Lex but the other woman had gone rather silent. She wasn't as comfortable in the Yautja's presence as Elaina was. But that might have been because Elaina hadn't watched the Yautjas wipe out her expedition team one by one.

"We've come across them before," Elaina answered. "It was- was on one of your training grounds."

Warkha closed the computer and dropped his arm back down to his side. "That how you became Blooded," he inquired and indicated with his hand to the mark on his mask.

Elaina nodded her head to the question.

Warkha huffed beneath his breath as this information sunk in. "Oomans leave," he told them and pointed back the way they had come from. "I hunt hard-meats." He turned to head down further into the tunnel, when one of the female stopped him.

"But we came to hunt them too," Elaina said while taking a step after him.

"Elaina wait-" Lex said at the same time, trying to stop her but with no luck.

Warkha growled out loud his temper spiking at the bothersome creatures. He whipped back around to face the oomans with his hands clenching at his side.

"Look I'm sorry okay," Elaina said with her hands raised in a peace offering. "But this is our planet. If those things get out, everything will be gone- everyone will die here. We came here to stop them- and yea I know we are pretty pathetic and useless- but you have to understand we need to at least try."

Warkha grunted beneath his breath, his head tilting as he mulled over the female's words. They were a rather pathetic pair, soaking wet and shivering in the darkness before him. Only one of them was even armed with a weapon and only one of them would be prove to be useful to him in battle if he came across the hard-meats. Even if it was just to pose as a distraction as he doubted she would be useful for anything more than that.

"You follow-" he pointed to the smaller female and then pointing to the other instructed her, "you return to the surface."

"No way," Lex began to argue. "I am not leaving her alone with you!"

"No argue," he growled in return. "You return to surface and wait for Blooded Warriors."

"Blooded- you mean more of you are coming?" Elaina asked him, ignoring Lex's indignant snort. The Yautja nodded yes to her question. "I sent signal to ship, close to planet."

"I don't care who you are- There is no way I am going to trust you with her life," Lex said with a lift of her chin. She was not backing down, even with the threatening growl from the Yautja in front of her.

"Lex it's alright," Elaina said, grabbing the woman by the shoulders.

"No it is not Elli," Lex responded. "You're not thinking straight. I am not leaving you behind- I- I just wont."

Elaina sighed, her expression softening. "You're not leaving me behind Lex. You're getting back-up. Plus I have this big guy here for help alright- this is why we came here Lex- this is why I came here."

Lex looked ready to argue more on her point but Elaina shook her head and let the woman go. "I'll be seeing you Lex," she said and turned to follow the Yautja.

Lex stood there alone in the dark tunnel as Elaina walked away with the tall Yautja who was leading her straight into the arms of danger. Angry tears filled Lex's eyes and she raised an arm to wipe them away angrily.

"Dammit Elli," she cursed beneath her breath. She was going to have to knock some sense into that girl if they made it out of this place alive.

It looked like she was just going to have to trust him with her friend's life. She had no other choice in the matter unless she wanted to take on an 8ft and at least 300lbs of pure muscled Yautja. _So why does this all seem like a very bad idea,_ she worried to herself. Crossing her arms over her chest, Lex shivered in the darkness. She could no longer see nor hear Elaina as the two had disappeared down a separate tunnel.

Reluctantly, Lex turned and made her way back towards the exit.

* * *

**AN: Hey, here is chapter six! So tell me what did you think of Wolf and the girls actual meeting each other . intense right! For a minute there even I thought he was gonna kill them . he almost did to. Was gonna add their pretty little skulls to his collection. What a jerk... But he kind of grows on you. Not sure what plans I have for Wolf just yet in this story.**

**So tell me what do you think, did you loved/liked/hated it? I accept them all.**

**Inky Out.**


	8. Chapter Seven

Chapter seven:

_**Underground Sewer Lines  
Gunnison, Colorado  
October 6**__**th**__**, 2008**_

"So why did you send Lex back to the surface," Elaina asked after traveling down several long tunnels that led to more tunnels that led to even more tunnels. Sometime back in the beginning of their journey through the maze of sewer lines, Elaina had lost feeling in her toes and the ability to smell. The stench of the sewage and waste must have singed the inside of her nostrils so badly, because she could no longer smell it. That worried her a little bit. What if she never got her sense of smell back and the last thing she could remember smelling was human waste?

Only the hope of a scalding hot shower once she got out of here, kept her from really panicking over the thought.

"Ooman not armed," he answered her. "Not even Blooded Yautja would begin a hard meat hunt unarmed."

"Oh." Elaina could understand his logic there. Looking down at the spear in her hands, it brought another question to mind. "So why were you wondering where I got the spear from?"

"Ki'cti-pa," he corrected her.

"See- there's that word again," Elaina said, suddenly recognizing it from before. "Celtic said the same thing and you both act as if I would be able to pronounce it."

Warkha glanced back at her from over his shoulder, not bothering to comment.

"Celtic helped me before," she explained, even though he hadn't asked her who he was. "He gave me this." She pointed to the marking on her forehead. "Scar gave one to Lex also- I think it was because we helped them during their trial or something- I donno- I never really thought I deserved mine though." She knew she was rambling but she couldn't help the words that came spilling out of her mouth as her nerves got the best of her.

Warkha huffed under his breath. "Yautja only Blood if deserved. M'dli-te gave you spear. You deserve spear," he said with finality. He turned back then to continue moving forward. Opening his computer he consulted the holographic image of the sewer line before him.

Elaina looked down at the spear in question, thinking about his words as she followed him deeper into the sewers. Biting her bottom lip, she looked back up at him. "So- there's a good chance that we- well I might not make it out of here alive- I was wondering- er well I was hoping actually- if I could know your name?" she asked him, stumbling over the question in hopes of not insulting him.

Warkha paused halfway down the tunnel. They hadn't come across any hard-meats since splitting up and going deeper into the sewer lines, but the with ooman remains and the excrements left behind from the hard meats told him they were down here somewhere. The further they traveled the thicker the slime became and they were getting closer to what the hard meats had made as their nest. There had been no signs of eggs though, which gave him some hope that a Queen hadn't been born. But if there was one thing his years of experience had taught him was not to be led by false hope. The other two Yautjas sent to help him would be here soon and if there was a Queen, the three of them should be able to bring her down. He doubted the ooman would be of much help to him down here, with her limited sight and small stature. She would be of little use to him in a fight at least nothing more than used as a distraction.

Staring down at the small female, he cocked his head to the side, curious about her need in knowing his name. He could not recall a time that an ooman had inquired about it before now. She was indeed a strange breed. He knew she would not be able to pronounce his name properly, if her naming the Yautjas she had met before gave any indication. Drawing up his knowledge in the ooman language, he searched for a term that might suit him best, as well as something that was simple for her to pronounce.

"I am Warkha," he said while pressing a hand to his chest to indicate that was his name. "But you call me Wolf."

A small smile twitched the corner of her lips. It really amazed her, his extensive knowledge in the human language known as English. After muddling through with Ci'tde for two days down in the pyramid, it was nice to be able to understand one of them, without as many hand gestures or any misinterpretations on her part.

"Alright Wolf," she said, thinking the name did suit him rather well. _Lone wolf more like it_, she mused to herself silently. He had come down here alone to take on what was looking to be a hard meat outbreak and he made it seem like it was no big deal.

"Ooman have name," he asked with a trill. He had heard the other female call her a name but he was not sure if it was a term of endearment or if it was actually her name.

"Oh-" Elaina said with a flush to her cheeks. "Geese where are my manners- right, uh my name is Elli." She pointed to herself much like he had done when introducing himself.

Warkha nodded his head. "Good hunting Elli," he said with a nod and turned back to face the tunnel they were traveling down. "Now true hunt begins."

Elaina swallowed thickly at his words. "Actually it feels like it never ended-" was her whispered response. Those were the last words she said as she understood their need to be silent from now on.

Elaina followed him around a corner, having to wade through the filthy water that was up to her waist. An echoing scream from further down had them both freezing to listen. _That was most definitely human,_ she realized and felt her stomach lurch at the thought. Elaina glanced over at Warkha and wondered what he planned to do, now that they had found what was more than likely, the nest up ahead of them.

Warkha reached down to his belt and removed a small triangular shaped device and threw it at the wall of the tunnel to their right. The device stuck and the front lit up with three bright red lines. He continued further, taking cautious steps forward with the small female trailing closely behind him.

They reached a small junction that had two tunnels in front of them. He eyed each one, studying the darkness with his night vision. He picked the tunnel on the left and continued moving. At the end, he removed a second device and threw it against the wall much like the first.

Elaina eyed the contraption, wondering what the hell it was. She watched the front light up with three red lines but couldn't figure out what it was meant to do. Hurrying to catch up, she followed him as the tunnel forked.

Warkha studied his map and ignoring the tunnel on the left and the one in front, picked the tunnel going right. Elaina was happy with his selection as the ground elevated and they were no longer wading through three feet of water but walking on dry land at long last.

_Or as dry as a sewer can get_, she mused.

Adjusting her hold on her spear, she followed silently and kept her ears trained for any noises out of the ordinary. The tunnel they traveled down now was lined with piping on both sides of them. Elaina wondered if they were directly under the main part of the city now. If so, that had her worried as the hard meats could easily get out of the sewers through one of the many manholes above them. If they got out, they could easily begin to multiply and kill everyone in Gunnison.

Wringing her hands around her spear, Elaina paused as Warkha threw a fourth device at the wall and she watched it screw itself into the cement and light up with the three red lines. She really wanted to ask him what they were for but she could hear movement echoing around them now. Only with the dripping of water and the hollowness of the sewer line made it impossible to tell which direction it was coming from. She tried not to think about the fact that it sounded like it came from all around them, surrounding them down here in the dark.

Elaina closed her eyes, trying to fight back the memory of a similar situation. She wasn't alone this time. This wasn't like the time in the pyramid. She forced her eyes to open, blinking to clear her vision and she could make out discernible shapes around her. It was terribly dark down here in the sewers. Her headlamp could only light up so much.

Looking past Warkha, Elaina could see they were back at the junction having gone around in circles it seemed. She knew it was the same small room, because she could see the blinking red lights of the first device he had attached to the wall of the tunnel directly in front of them.

Warkha consulted his map, making sure the traps were in place, before looking back at the female. "Good hunting Elli," he growled low at her. Before she could question him, Warkha leaped forward into the filthy sewer water below with a loud challenging roar.

Elaina let out a gasp of surprise, having not expected it after being trapped in silence all this time. She stared wide eyed at him as he flexed his arms at his side, bellowing another challenge. To her dismay aliens came pouring out of their hiding places and she had to wonder how they had not seen them during their travel through the sewers until now. She could see two bounding towards them on the ceiling along the length of the tunnel in front of them and another appeared out of the water, the spikes on its back raising out of the surface of the water much like the fin on a shark as it swam towards them.

Warkha wasted no time in arming the traps now that he knew they were all here. Bright red beams of lights lit up each end of the tunnels, trapping the aliens with them. He was not going to let any of them escape alive. Warming up his plasma gun, he aimed at the nearest alien and fired.

Noise from behind her had Elaina whirling around, just in time to avoid an alien lunging towards her. She managed to bring the spear up as she turned to follow the alien's movements. Her heart raced in her chest as the alien landed on the other side of the tunnel and came charging back towards her. Its tail slashed out at her and she lifted the spear, deflecting. As the alien readied to strike again, Elaina jabbed at its unprotected belly.

The alien screeched and its tail struck with deadly intent at her head. She ducked, narrowly avoiding getting stabbed in the face. She brought the other end of the spear around and swept it at the alien's feet and knocking it down. Raising the spear, she stabbed down and effectively pierced the alien's skull. Wrenching the spear free she stared at her kill with bated breath, half expecting it to come back to life. To her relief the dead alien twitched in the throes of its sudden death and she released the breath of air she had been holding in. Swallowing thickly, Elaina forced herself to look away from the alien and turned to check on Warkha only to find him wrestling with two aliens on his own.

Warkha shoved one off of him, rolling to the side and springing back up to his feet. Grabbing the alien nearest him by the tail he threw it towards the mesh of red lines down the tunnel. Upon impact the alien was sliced to pieces. Extending his wrist blades, he turned just in time to deflect the second alien's tail and slicing it off. Removing a throwing disc from his belt, he extended the blades as he twirled on his heel and severed the alien's head from its body.

Warkha stood amongst the carnage, having hardly worked up a sweat let alone finding himself out of breath. He listened, but could not hear anything other than the water rippling around him. Turning his head left then right, he could not see anything lurking in the darkness either. He scanned the tunnels carefully with his night vision, even going so far as to check with sonar.

Remembering the female, Warkha turned only to find her standing over the remains of an alien she had killed, her chest rising and falling with each breath she took. She was staring at him with an odd expression on her face. One he would relate with a young pup that had just witnessed its first sparring match.

"Elli good?" he inquired with a trill.

The small female nodded, her arm lowering her weapon out of the defensive pose she had been in. He had to amend his first opinion of the female. Maybe she wasn't as helpless as he first thought.

"Yea- yea I'm fine- how many did you kill," she asked him. She had only witness the two, but with the speed he had moved she would not be surprised if he had kill a hundred in the few minutes it had taken her to kill just the one.

Warkha mentally calculated each battle before answering. "Four."

"That means we have one left- unless you've killed some before we came down here that is," she said.

Warkha shook his head. He had tracked the aliens from the shuttle to this drainpipe and had found the two females entering it just as he had arrived. "No- how you know how many Kiande amedha?" he inquired with a trill.

"The uh, specimen jars on the ship. There were ten on board and only four dead crab thingys," she replied as she joined him back down into the sewer water. "Which means- there were six that got out. And if you just killed four and I killed this one- then there must be one left."

"H'ko," he said with a low growl. He had not seen the creature from the recordings on the ship down here. All of these hard-meats had been normal ones born from oomans. "Two more," he said.

"Two," she asked with a frown.

"Sei-I," he said and started towards the tunnel they had taken to get here. He deactivated the traps as he approached the red beams. "One kiande amedha born from your planet- one born from mine came with ship."

"Oh," Elaina suddenly recalled the extensive damage done to the interior of the ship. "Well that sucks- wait where are we going now?"

"Surface," Warkha answered her. "We come back at night, other kiande amedha not here now."

Elaina followed him down the maze of tunnels that led them back to the surface. They found Lex standing by the opening, anxiously wringing her hands nervously.

Upon seeing Elaina, Lex threw her arms around the smaller woman and hugged her fiercely. "Oh thank god you're alright," she exclaimed and her grip only seemed to tighten around her.

Sheepishly, Elaina hugged Lex back, unsure what to say in return.

Warkha paused behind them, his head tilted to one side as he studied their position. "Elli fine," he said and felt the spines around his face bristle at the other female's concern. "Good huntress- killed kiande amedha."

"What," Lex asked pulling back to stare at her then up at him. "What did he say?"

"Uh- I killed one of the aliens," Elaina explained guiltily. "I guess we found a nest of them or something. But Wolf killed four of them and I got one- which means there are only two left."

"Wolf," Lex inquired, her eyes darting between the two of them.

"Uh yea- he said I could call him Wolf," Elaina said with a shrug. She peeled herself out of Lex's hold and started for the car. "Wolf thinks we should try coming back tonight to get the last two aliens. Which might be good for us to head back to our room and get some sleep before then, what do you think?"

"Elli hold on," Lex called after her. "Are we even going to talk about this?"

"Talk about what," Elaina asked defensively. She stood at the driver side door, itching to climb inside and drive away from this place. She was soaking wet, exhausted and probably smelled worse than a dumpster. Looking over at the other woman, she pinned her with a tired stare. "I just want to get back to our room Lex, please."

Lex blew out an exasperated breath of air, her arms thrown out to her sides. "I want to talk about what went on down there-" she said a little more forcefully than she intended. "You killed an alien? Are you sure you are okay?"

"Of course I'm okay Lex," Elaina said defensively. "Other than the fact that I smell really really bad right now and I'm tired as hell- I feel pretty good."

"Elaina," Lex said, her expression softening some.

Elaina knew that look. She had seen it many times over the past four years to understand what came with that look. Closing her eyes for a moment, she counted to ten before opening them and turning to face Lex completely. "Lex I'm not going to break alright-" she explained, trying to keep her voice calm and not letting her temper get the best of her. "I know you feel like you need to protect me- but I'm not a kid anymore. Yes I know there's scary shit out there- whether it be human or aliens. You can't protect me from all of it, okay."

Lex looked ready to argue the matter but the words seemed to die in her throat when her attention caught on something just over Elaina's shoulder.

"Oh shit-" Lex whispered, her eyes widening in shock.

Startled, Elaina whirled around, her body reacting to the threat by lifting the spear defensively in front of her. She half expected to find one of the aliens poised to attack her. Instead her eyes landed on two distorted shapes standing not five feet from her and the rental car.

One stood taller than the other, with the shorter of the two standing slightly behind the taller one. Elaina paid little mind to the shorter one though, her eyes staring up at the massive humanoid shape standing right in front of her. She drew in a sharp breath, her eyes widening with recognition.

Damn if he didn't look like he had gotten bigger since she last saw him.

"Celtic," she whispered his name.

* * *

**AN: Short but sweet I know .**

**So what did you think of this latest chapter? Elaina has gotten her backbone finally I think. And just in time too. Dun tada Celtic is here! Woot woot bout time too!**

**I have gotten a couple of reviews about making this story into a Wolf/Elaina/Celtic love triangle thingy. I'm not exactly sure about this, so I would like your feedback on the matter. Tell me what you think of the idea. If needed I could always write another alternate reality like I did for Nev'ka ^_-**

**Let me know what you think of the story so far, did you loved/liked/hated it. Tell me what do you think of my portrayal of Wolf? He's kind of a badass! And what do you think of Elaina? Has she come a long way?**

**I want to thank everyone that reviewed, your feedback is truly inspiring.**

**Inky Out**


	9. Chapter Eight

Chapter eight:

_**Gunnison County, Colorado  
October 6**__**th**__**,2008**_

The tall humanoid shape crackled and sparked as it slowly revealed the Yautja behind the cloaking shield. Craning her head back, she watched as the familiar expressionless mask was revealed and her mouth dropped open in shock at the sight of him. How many times had she pictured this moment in her mind? Over and over, practicing all the words she wanted to say to him, how she would try to remain calm and not overreact at the sight of him. Now that he stood before her in all of his tall and muscular glory, in the light of day, Elaina could only feel a sense of fear spike within her heart.

_Holy hell he's big,_ she realized with some trepidation. She had forgotten that small little detail. Even with the reminder of Warkha with his rather lengthy height, did nothing to prepare her for the Yautja standing just a few feet away from her. Elaina shivered, whether it was from her wet clothes in the open air or the fear that had settled deep in her heart from the memory of just how dangerous he actually was, she couldn't tell.

The dryness in her mouth and down her throat had Elaina breaking the silence with a dry choking cough. She bent at the waist coughing into her hand as if a bug had crawled down her esophagus. It took her a moment to smother the hacking coughs, grateful that Lex didn't try to come to her rescue and make this an even more humiliating moment for her. It suddenly dawned on her though as she straightened that she had been standing there in silence with her mouth wide open, gaping like a fish out of water. Flushing from the root of her hair to her toes, Elaina forced her eyes to focus on the whole of him instead of just the slanted eyes that bore down on her.

His mask was as intimidating as she last remembered it, with the protruding mouth and the three claw marks marring the whole left side of the face. He was dressed in full armor this time, the chest plating he had discarded back in the pyramid having been replaced. It seemed more intricate and more detailed than the old plating, not that she had gotten a real good look at the other one. Being above surface instead of in a dark dank pyramid however, did wonders on her eyes allowing her to see him much better with the warm sun streaming down on them through the treetops.

The armor he wore was dark grey and the bulky metal made him appear even bigger and more menacing than he was quite capable of doing all on his own. Elaina was eye level with his chest armor and the smooth metal was decorated with tiny little skulls from creatures she'd never seen before, as a macabre center piece theme. His midsection was left exposed like she remembered and Elaina stared a little longer than necessary at the fish netting that stretched across his abs, that had been chiseled into an eight pack. The netting he wore under the armor seemed to fit him much like a wetsuit, covering his arms, stomach and thighs and leaving nothing to the imagination in her opinion. In the light of day, Elaina could see now just how pale of a yellow his skin was across his stomach and on the insides of his arms and legs.

_Had it always been that yellow,_ she wondered and had the sudden need to press her hand against the flat of his stomach. Her fingers so much as twitched at her sides but she managed to refrain from making that mistake. She couldn't remember if it had always been that pale canary yellow, but it must have been she reasoned. Again her fingers itched to curl her fingers around that netting and feel the smooth pebbled skin underneath.

The rest of his upper armor consisted of shoulder plates and wrist guards. The one on his left arm would contain the computer and the other housed those deadly wrist blades he liked to use. She remembered that weapon rather well, even without the reminder from Warkha earlier. At his waist there was a thick utility belt connected to a loincloth. She tried to not to stare too long at the notable bulge under the cloth hidden discreetly behind a cod piece of sort. The last bit of his armor was in the form of boots that covered his shins all the way to his feet and ended in a set of wickedly sharp talons that made his normal feet look dainty.

Elaina swallowed thickly and carefully brought her eyes back up to his face, staring into the eyes of his mask, wondering what he could be thinking.

_Does he remember me?_ Elaina cut that thought off before it could grow root inside her head. _Please- like he would even think about you at all after he left, _her mind scolded her. She scowled at how traitorous her thoughts had turned.

It was rather eerie with the way he just stared at her with his head cocked to the side. It was like his gaze bore right down into her soul and he could see the fleshy mess that she had become since he had left her back on that frigid Island.

"I can't believe you came back to m-" Elaina cut herself off before she could finish that last part. How humiliating that could have been. As if he would come back to Earth just for her. "I mean I just can't believe you're back."

"Elli need bathe," he finally spoke up after what seemed like forever of just staring at her. His voice was harsh and gravely, and she couldn't help but think that she had missed that voice. It was real and solid and deep and-

Elaina blinked herself out of her thoughts, her face coloring as what he said suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks. _Four years and his first words were- in English. Insulting yes- but they were in honest to god English and I could-_

"Oh my god I understood you," she gaped at him, only to blush all over again.

Ci'tde huffed out loud, shaking his head and the dark appendages at the back of his head whipped around behind him, before settling down against his back. They had grown some and were now just a little passed than his shoulders in length. They were decorated with more rings this time, some more intricate and stylish than the solid silver bands she remembered from back in the pyramid.

Elaina took a conscious step backwards, putting distance from her and Ci'tde. She had forgotten that she smelled like a dumpster or maybe even worse now after wading in sewage for hours. _Great, _she muttered to herself, her expression sheepish with a red hue to her cheeks. _ How humiliating. _This was not how she had hoped their reunion would go.

A deep rumble startled her from her horrified inner thoughts and her eyes dropped down to stare at his chest with wide eyes. The purr was coming from his barrel chest and it built in volume as her eyes dragged back up to his mask.

"Elli," he trilled to her. He moved towards her and Elaina stepped back, her eyes widening_. Why is he getting closer!_ Her mind panicked. She did not want him to getting an even bigger whiff of her stench than he already had.

Elaina backed up into the sports car, finding herself trapped between it and the approaching Yautja. She drew in a sharp breath, her hands lifting to stop him. Her hands came into contact with the wire mesh just below the chest plate and Ci'tde stopped abruptly. He looked down at her small hands and his purr only intensified in volume. Elaina could feel it vibrating into her fingertips creating little sparks that traveled from her fingers all the way to her toes. She was shocked to feel her toes curl within her boots in response, as she had lost feeling in them hours ago. His warmth spread from him into her hands heating her chilled body upon contact.

Much to her dismay, her fingers curled around the netting and she could feel the smooth pebbled skin against the backs of her fingers. It was as soft as she remembered. Not that she had gotten much of a chance to cop a feel before now, but she had been able to feel the smooth pebbled flesh of his forehead and it was very much the same, maybe even softer_. Definitely warmer,_ she agreed.

Ci'tde rumbled in response, his hand lifting from his side. Elaina tracked the moving limb, her eyes eyeing the sharp talons on each of his fingers. He reached out with his left hand as if to touch her hair much like he had tried to do back in the pyramid while sitting on a pile of bones. It was like the world melted away for a brief moment and they were back in that room alone, both curious about the other. Each one tempted to see what the other might felt like.

Behind him, Skl're let out a harsh reprimanding bark and Ci'tde's hand froze between them. The memory faded and Elaina found them standing on the side of a dirt road with two Yautja's and Lex staring at them. Ci'tde curled his fingers into a fist and his purr stuttered before ending in a growl. He turned his head to look over at the other Yautja behind him. She could feel the tension coiling in Ci'tde's body, his stomach quivering. He looked ready to duke it out with the other Yautja and Elaina found her hands able to release the netting, afraid that she would have to watch some death match between the two of them.

The sound of a vehicle coming up the road startled the group, before a fight could break out. Lex was the first one to spot it coming up the long dirt road that wound its way into the woods. "Damn I think that's the Sheriff's truck," she said while taking a cautious step towards Elaina.

She grabbed the younger woman's arm, her grip strangely tight. Before them, Ci'tde reacted to Lex's tone in a negative manner. Growling, he swung around with his wrist blades extending.

"No wait," Elaina shouted, recognizing the way his legs spread apart into a defense stance. He had already been itching for a fight and now he seemed ready to attack anything that posed as a threat, even if it was some harmless human driving up the road for a day of hiking.

Ci'tde looked back at her from over his shoulder and grunted in response to her words. "Remove threat," he said slowly and his head turning back to face the coming vehicle.

"No," Elaina argued adamantly. "It's not a threat. I swear Celtic, its okay." Shaking off Lex's hold, she stepped forward and placed a hand on his arm. Her grip was nothing like the hold Lex had done to her but more of a comforting gesture and it seemed to calm him enough to relax his defensive stance. "Please Celtic- they're not a threat, I promise- but you three do need to hide."

Behind them, Warkha growled out his two sense, "Yautja's do not hide."

"I know- I know that Wolf," Elaina said while turning to look at him.

"Elli is right," Lex finally spoke up. It was like climbing out of a thick fog, her head clearing from the spike of fear that had built inside her since Warkha had appeared. His presence alone had cowed her into some kind of submissive nature; something that pissed her off as much as it scared her. Even now, she slightly trembled in the presence of the three Yautjas, her eyes darting to each one to make sure they were all in her line of sight at all times. "You three need to cloak now so that they don't see you. Afterwards we can all meet up at the motel."

Warkha huffed, ready to argue with her further.

"Please," Elaina begged. She was staring at Warkha, her eyes pleading with him to understand their plight and not argue with them any further.

Warkha growled, his hands tightening into fists. Stopping himself, Warkha turned his head away as if the sight of her disgusted him. "Fine," he grunted. Warkha reached over to his computer and activated his cloaking shield. He vanished from sight, melting into the background behind him.

Turning her eyes to Skl're and Ci'tde who were left. She was well aware at how close the truck was getting. It was only a matter time before the occupants of the truck would see them all standing there on the side of the road.

"Will follow Warkha," Skl're spoke up at last and he activated his cloaking shield without having to be asked twice. Once he was gone, Elaina turned her eyes solely on the Yautja standing in front of her. He trilled to her when she looked back up into his mask.

"Keep eye on Elli," he said carefully and then he to vanished from sight.

Elaina blinked, her eyes searching the spot in front of her but couldn't see the distorted outline that usually appeared if you stared hard enough. Curious, she reached out with her hand to touch him but found nothing but air.

A few minutes later the truck pulled up behind them and Elaina could make out the Sherriff sitting behind the wheel. He stared at them for a good long moment through the windshield, before opening the driver side door and climbing out. From the passenger side, the door opened and one of his deputies climbed out. Both doors to the truck slammed shut at the same time and the two men approached slowly.

Elaina looked from one to the other wearily. "Oh hello Sherriff," she said with a tight smile.

Sherriff Morales eyed each of them carefully, one hand hovering over his gun that was still in its holster. "Is it just the two of you out here," he asked sounding a bit unsure. He eyed the surrounding area like he was searching for something.

_Or someone-_ her mind teased her.

"Yea," Elaina answered carefully. She tried to ignore the low sounding growl from the trees on her right. She hoped the two men didn't hear it.

"What are you-? Wait is- is that a spear?" he asked her suddenly his eyes narrowing on the weapon she was holding in front of her.

"Wha- oh no sorry Sherriff, no it's uh- my walking stick," she said lamely, with a flush staining her cheeks. She moved it quickly behind her back to keep him from getting a better look at the weapon and calling her on her lie.

"So what brings you out this way," Lex inquired with a false smile on her face. She came to stand beside Elaina, standing close enough that their arms brushed against each other. She crossed her arms over her chest, trying to appear relaxed and calm, which was exactly the opposite she actually felt. She couldn't hear the Yautja's and it made her nervous no being able to keep tabs on them.

"Hmm-" he murmured his eyes squinting at the spear, before shaking his head to clear it. "Well I could ask you the same thing, ladies. Were you not aware that this place is off limits?"

Elaina lifted her eyebrows, her eyes widening in mock surprise. "Really," she asked. "I'm sorry- I know this is no excuse Sherriff- but Lex and I are not from here, we saw on a map that there was a good hiking trail near here."

Sherriff Morales studied her closely now and his eyes darted between her and Lex for a moment. "If that's the case, then why are you wet," he inquired. He took a cautious step forward but stopped abruptly and his nose wrinkled in disgust. "Jesus what is that smell?"

Elaina stiffened slightly. "Uh-yea that would be us Sherriff," she said with a mortified flush spreading across her cheeks and a sheepish expression on her face. "Lex and I had a bit of a spill in the uh pipe over there- I have to admit our curiosity got the better of us today and thankfully it did not get us killed- but it has taught us a valuable lesson, I can tell you that."

"You went into the old drainpipe," he asked, his hand rising to cover his mouth and nose. "That is considered trespassing miss. Did you not see the yellow tape across the opening?"

Elaina pursed her lips as if thinking. They had seen the 'Do Not Cross' tape earlier but had conveniently ignored it. At the moment it was stuffed in her bag that was in the car, waiting to be disposed of later.

"There wasn't any tape when we found the pipe Sherriff," Lex spoke up. "I'm sorry we trespassed- does this mean that you're going to be arresting us?"

Sherriff looked between the two of them with a hard look, before catching another whiff of their stench and he grimaced. He took a discreet step back from them, his eyes darting over to his deputy, who was busy trying not to breathe or throw up, it was hard to tell.

"Not this time ladies," he finally relented. "Let this be a warning that you shouldn't go poking your nose where it doesn't belong."

Both Elaina and Lex nodded their heads.

Sherriff Morales headed back to his car that was parked further up the road. He leaned in through his rolled down window and pulled out a role of crime scene tape.

"Best be on your way ladies," he said with a nod of his head in the direction down the road. "I would recommend staying out of the woods for the time being."

"Why is that?" Lex asked as she headed over to the passenger side of the car to make it look like they were going to do as he said.

"We've had a sudden increase in missing cases crop up the last few days," he finally admitted. "Nothing real serious- but to be safe, I would prefer you both stayed out of the woods for the time being."

"We will Sherriff," Elaina nodded her head as he passed. "Thank you."

She watched as the two men head down to the entrance of the drainpipe, only once they were out of range did she look around at the trees furtively. There were no visible signs of the Yautjas hiding within the dark canopy of trees. She couldn't even hear if they were still lurking nearby.

Reluctantly, the two women climbed into the car and drove off.

* * *

The ride back to the motel was sure tense. Lex had offered to drive, mainly so that she could keep her hands busy and not give in to the urge of strangling her friend. She had a feeling she would regret doing so in the end, but for now her anger was really making it hard to rationalize that. Adjusted her grip on the steering wheel, she kept her eyes staring straight out the windshield. She just couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched.

Elaina sat in the passenger seat staring out her window, clueless to the upset woman sitting next to her. She was too busy trying to catch a glimpse of the Yautjas. Even though cloaked, she had hoped to see them but it seemed that if they wanted to be hidden, they could very well pull it off even if she knew what to look for.

"So what's your plan Elli," Lex asked after a long while of driving in silence. Her eyes darting off the road long enough to look over at the other woman seated next to her.

Elaina blinked, her eyes staring wide eyed out the windshield. "Plan? What are you talking," she asked. She turned to look at Lex questioningly.

"Really," Lex blew out an exasperated breath of air. "Our plan to do with the three tall scaly and very deadly predators that are stalking us back to our motel room."

Elaina pursed her lips, having not really thoughts that far ahead. She had been more worried of the Sherriff and Deputy getting killed than thinking what they were going to do with the Yautjas once they got back to their room. "Oh gosh," she said. "I- I don't know."

"Well you mentioned earlier that Wolf wanted to go back to the sewers tonight right," Lex hedged in hopes of getting her friend's brilliant mind working. Instead it seemed like it was stuck up in the clouds instead. "Well what are we going to do with them in the meantime- we have several hours to kill before nightfall."

When Elaina didn't answer her, Lex forged on. "Do you plan on having them stay in our room with us," she asked. "I don't see all three of them fitting in there with us, do you? Do we offer to share our beds or have them sleep outside or perhaps on the floor?"

Elaina snickered under breath as a dark thought came unbidden to mind. She really couldn't picture the guys sharing the floor let alone a bed with each other. "Uh- I guess not. Why- Why don't we rent them a room for them," she offered meekly, her eyes looking over at Lex to see what she thought of that idea. If the expression on the other woman's face was anything to go by, it was a terrible idea.

"And leave them unsupervised in a motel room," Lex said with a slight insane laugh. "Yea- you can put that room under your name and on your credit card, I won't even offer to help pay."

Elaina sighed a little bitterly, her head falling back against the headrest. "Well what do you propose we should do," she asked, feeling her temper flaring some as she was too exhausted to keep it at bay.

"I don't know," Lex said between clenched teeth. "I just want this all to be some twisted nightmare so that we can wake up from it."

Dropping her gaze, Elaina bit her bottom lip at the older woman's words. It hadn't even occurred to her, how much this might have been affecting Lex. The woman was always so strong, so sure, it was hard to remember that she was just as scared as she was. "I know Lex, I'm sorry," she said softly. "Look- why, why don't you go, I'll stay and that way one of us-"

"Don't," Lex snapped and effectively cutting her off. Lex pulled the car into the Bed and Breakfast parking lot. She pulled into a parking spot between a green Jeep Cherokee and a grey Ford F150. Once the engine was shut off with a turn of the key, Lex turned in her seat to face Elaina. "Don't for a second think I am just going to abandon you. Or leave you to deal with this shit all on your own. Don't lump me in with everyone else alright."

Lex sighed at the startled expression on Elaina's face. She raised her hands to rub at her temples, trying to massage the headache forming there away. "I'm scared Elli, just like you- but I'm not going to tuck my tail between my legs and run away," she said softly, the bite in her tone fading. "We are in this together- to the end."

Elaina stared at Lex for a long moment, her eyes taking in every detail of the older woman's face. No one had ever said that to her before. She hadn't realized that even after everything they had been through together, she still had expected Lex to leave her just like everyone else did one way or another. Elaina had been abandoned so many times in her short life already, she had lost count and she had expected it to happen eventually with Lex. Whether the woman would finally realize that Elaina was a lost cause, or if things got too hairy, she would want out. Blinking back that sting of tears, Elaina nodded.

"To the end," she echoed.

"Good," Lex said and she opened the driver side door. Elaina followed and the two of them exited the car. "Now what the hell are we going to about the guys?"

Elaina shrugged, her eyes searching the parking lot for any sign of them. "Well I guess we could rent a second room and we can each babysit them while they're here," she offered.

When Lex didn't make a negative comment to her idea, Elaina turned to glance at the other woman over the hood of the car. She raised her eyebrows at the horrified look on her friend's face. Silence reined between them.

"Lex," she called to get the other woman's attention, worried about the fact that it looked like she had stopped breathing.

Lex shook her head as if to clear it. "You mean share a room with one of them," was her whispered response.

Not understanding the trepidation in her friend's words, Elaina slowly nodded her head. "Yea just for a few hours at least. We can rest up and then head out once its dark," she said carefully. She studied Lex's expression carefully. "Lex are you okay with that?"

"Fine," came the quick response, much too quickly. Lex's eyes darted around the parking lot and she swallowed nervously. "Perfectly fine." Then the woman spun on her heels and started across the lot for the Bed and Breakfast.

"Okay," Elaina said slowly, her eyes tracking the other woman's movements. _Whatever_, she thought to herself with a tired sigh. If Lex didn't want to tell her what was bothering her, Elaina wasn't going to make her. She was way too tired to try and drill the woman for answers. _Maybe later,_ she reasoned with herself. Her eyes dropped down to her damp and smelly clothes. They were starting to dry now but the once cute top she had put on that morning was stained with things she didn't want to think about.

Shutting the passenger side door, Elaina had barely taken a step forward when she heard the all too familiar rumble behind her. Elaina nearly jumped out of her skin in fright at the sound. Whirling around, she faced the three distorted humanoid shapes standing there between the truck and her car.

"Dammit Celtic," she snapped and smacked the closest humanoid shape in the stomach with her hand. "You scared me nearly half to death." The familiar huffing laugh only had her scowling in response.

Ci'tde choked back his laughter and started to purr in hopes of calming the female down as she continued to glare up at him. Elaina struggled to ignore the strange calming effects he had on her, but in the end it was futile.

"Look- Lex and I need to get some rest," Elaina began to explain to the three Yautjas. "You guys are more than welcome to stay with us if you like. That way you guys can get some rest before we head out tonight for another search for the alie- err I mean hard-meats."

She looked between the three of them. "What do you think," she asked.

"I go back to ship," Warkha replied from behind Ci'tde and Skl're. "I come for you when time for hunt."

"Oh- okay," Elaina said and waved to the retreating form of the taller Yautja. "Well I guess that leaves the two of you." She looked between Ci'tde and Skl're wondering what their decision would be.

"Stay with Elli," Ci'tde finally spoke up and patted the top of her head with his large hand.

Elaina made a face at the gesture. "Alright," she said and removed his hand from her head before he could start petting her or something just as embarrassing. "Scar, you can stay with Lex then I guess."

Skl're nodded his head slowly. "Ci'tde behave," he clicked to his brother in their native language. He then moved around them, heading after Lex who was standing by the door to the Bed and Breakfast.

"Well I guess that leaves just you and me then," Elaina said, her hands clasping in front of her nervously.

"Sei-I," he agreed. He took hold of her shoulders and turned her around, giving her a slight push in the right direction. "Elli lead way."

Elaina scowled at being bossed around but she let the matter drop for now. She joined Lex and Skl're at the front doors. Lex opened the door, letting all three of them inside before entering herself. If anyone had been looking, they may have found the gesture rather strange. Once inside, Lex headed for the front desk, with Skl're following close behind her.

Ci'tde stared after his brother, hesitating briefly before turning his gaze back towards Elaina. She made a motion with her hand for him to follow and he did, despite the warning growl from his brother.

Elaina led Ci'tde to their room and used her room key to let them inside. She shut the door once he was inside but had made sure to put up the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the handle first. Last thing she needed was having a maid come in and catching sight of Ci'tde.

The motel room looked so much smaller with him standing in the middle of the room. Ci'tde raised his arm with the computer on it to deactivate the cloaking shield.

Catching her bottom lip, Elaina spotted the curtains that had been left wide open. "Oh wait," she said hastily and headed towards the window. She quickly closed the window and latched it, before pulling the curtains over the window.

When she turned around, Ci'tde had deactivated his cloaking shield and he stood in the room taking up quite a bit of the space. _There is no way he can fit on that Queen Size bed_, was her first thought. Her second thought was- _Well this is awkward_.

She shifted from one foot to the other, not sure what she should say or do. "Um-" she started with and Ci'tde turned to look at her. "Uh- I guess make yourself comfortable?"

Ci'tde trilled in response, turning this way then that way as he studied the layout of the room. Reaching up, he unhooked the hoses to his mask and pulled it free from his face.

Elaina found herself staring at him and it should have frightened her. It was as grotesque and harsh to look at as she remembered it being. A part of her was scared, deep down she recoiled at the sight of those mandibles stretching and revealing the inner mouth full of teeth. He huffed out a breath as if he could read her thoughts. He seemed to find it rather funny that his face could still frightened her, even now.

His amber eyes shone with mirth as he stared down at her. He took a step towards her then, setting his mask down on the bed Lex had slept in last night. He reached down to his utility belt as he approached her and removed a wicked looking dagger. The blade was slightly curved and about the length of her forearm and the hilt looked tiny within his larger grasp. He flipped the blade around, holding the hilt out towards her.

Elaina dropped her gaze from his face, to stare at the weapon he was offering her. _Well that's kind of random_, she had to admit. Reluctantly, she took the offered weapon. Ci'tde started to purr in response and Elaina looked up at him curiously, before looking back at the dagger.

"Uh-thanks Celtic," she said cautiously. She turned the blade over in her hands, finding it oddly comforting in a way. She studied the unique hilt. It seemed to be made of something she had never seen before, neither wood nor metal. It was black and rigid, with the part holding onto the blade reflected off the light into the room, almost like silver.

Frowning she peered closer. The hilt fit snugly in her palm, it being the perfect width for her hand. As if the weapon had been made specifically for her in mind.

"Trophy," Ci'tde continued to purr. "Elli like?"

Elaina frowned. "Trophy, what are you-," she began and then her eyes finally saw what it was she was staring at. It was the alien's inner mouth. The one Ci'tde had collected for her from the pyramid. The trophy had been cleaned and forged into a weapon that she could easily handle. The blade didn't feel the least bit heavy, which was surprising by the length of it. The weapon felt really light in her grip.

"You made this for me," she asked, looking up sharply at him.

Ci'tde cut his purr off, nodding his head with a deep rumble. "Made this," he said and removed another item from his belt. He held it out to her and Elaina reached out with her other hand and took the second item. At first she wasn't sure what she was looking at. But then as she dangled the item from her fingers and was able discern the familiar design. It was a silver chain, made with a strange metal that seemed really pliable in her fingers. Dangling from the center was a tip of an alien's finger. The design reminded her of those necklaces that held a shark's tooth; it seemed to be made into something similar to that. Only instead of a shark tooth, it was the tip of a talon that had been cleaned and mounted on a chain. Studying the fingertip, she could make out a green gem of sorts at the tip. Only it glowed in the dim lighting in the room, in a strange way. _Maybe not a gem then,_ she wondered. She couldn't tell what it was but it glowed instead of reflecting light like a gem would.

"Oh wow- thanks Celtic," she said carefully. _More reminders_, she couldn't help but think to herself. She was getting a rather unsettling collection of reminders of her time spent in the pyramid. She had hoped Ci'tde had completely forgotten about the trophies he had collected for her. It seemed he had not.

Looking up, Elaina was startled to find a pleased look on Ci'tde's face. _He looks happy._

"Elli like?" he inquired with a trill.

Elaina looked back at the gifts, thinking about all the time and effort he must have put into making them. Testing the dagger in her hand, she flexed her arm out staring down the length of her arm to the tip of the curved blade. It was pretty cool looking. Before she could respond however there was a knock on her door.

"Elli it's just me," Lex said as she unlocked the door and let herself in. She looked between one than the other with her brows furrowed. She dropped her gaze then to look at the room instead. "Just need my stuff."

Elaina and Ci'tde watched as the woman gathered up her things relatively quickly. Lex wouldn't even look at them now as she collected her clothes and other items that she had strewn about the room. "I guess, we can meet up around nine," Lex said as she headed to the door. "We can meet here then, before heading back out."

Elaina nodded. "Sounds good," she said her eyes trailing to the clock on the nightstand. It was just after three. She could get a couple hours sleep maybe, before they headed back to the sewers.

Lex stood at the door, staring between them for a moment, before nodded her head and she left the room. The door closed behind Lex, leaving Elaina and Ci'tde alone once more.

After the other woman left them alone, Elaina's attention was brought back to the gifts in her hands. He asked her if she liked them. Was it strange that in a way she did, as horrifying as they were? Elaina didn't really care anymore. Looking up at Ci'tde and the hopeful expression on his face, she nodded her head.

"I love them Celtic, thank you," she said with a genuine smile.

Ci'tde spread his mandibles wide into a macabre grin that had Elaina's stomach flipping uneasily at the sight of it. She couldn't tell if it was because the sight still scared her, or if it had to do with the butterflies that had been fluttering around in her stomach since seeing him materialize in front of her out in the woods.

Ci'tde stepped towards her, in hopes of closing the space between them, only for Elaina to quickly back up. "W-wait," she stammered out, holding her hands up to stop him.

At his confused trill, Elaina quickly explained. "I still need to shower, why- why don't you hang out here and I will be right out okay." She edged around him, making sure to keep at least an arm's length away from him.

Ci'tde cocked his head to the side then proceeded to take a deep breath before exhaling slowly. "Elli smell," he mused out loud as she made her way to the bathroom, the way he huffed told her he found it amusing that she smelled so badly. "Need bathe, I wait here."

Elaina flushed at his words, hating the reminder of how badly she smelled right now. _But at least he isn't gagging,_ her mind taunted her.

"Right," she said. "You stay out here."

Elaina nearly tripped trying to scramble into the bathroom and shut and lock the door behind her quickly enough.

* * *

**AN: Wow... that is all I can say. The amount of reviews I got for that last chapter was unreal. Thank you! You guys and gals are the best every. It just thrills me to see all the feedback and input you guys have on this story. It really makes my day to see all the reviews. Huge thank you to all the people who reviewed/favored/followed.**

**I have a beta reader now and we are working on the chapters bit by bit to get them better and mend my spelling/grammar errors. So huge thanks to Welcome The Rising Sun for helping me with this story ^^.**

**Let me know did you loved/liked/hated this chapter.**

**Also I would like to hear your input on their reunion ^^ did it make you laugh as much as I did while writing it? Poor Elli can never catch a break ^^**

**Inky Out**


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