Chapter Text
Lex knew this wouldn’t be easy.
The whole team and the entire site were gone. All that was left was her. They seemed to be searching for something, circling back to if she had seen anything of value. The higher-ups that had worked for Weylend. At some points in the interrogation, she got the feeling they knew something about what they had found down there. But then the council would bring up the financial losses this had caused which dispelled those notions. She did her best to fit together a plausible story but no matter how good it may have been the company needed someone to blame. She was an easy target for that.
“This is getting us nowhere. The records prove that I said this mission wasn’t safe, no one had the right training. Every step I brought up to Mr Weylend was rejected. He was determined to make his mark on history but I had no way to know or prevent how he and the drill team set about cutting corners to get to the site that fast. I noted it didn’t look safe, I left because I didn’t want to be blamed for any injuries and while I was heading back… the structural integrity must have completely failed. The whole site was gone and I almost got swallowed up by the resulting sinkhole.” Her fingers dug into her thigh as she spoke, she didn’t want to blame Weyland and the other team members like this but she had to be convincing if she ever wanted to get out of this room.
“Tell us again why you thought it wasn’t safe and why you didn’t try harder to keep them from entering?” A bland face on a screen asked her. She sighed and kept talking. After everything she had done and seen here, she was fighting against corporations and their team of lawyers over money more than lost lives. It all seemed so trivial now but she had no choice but to return to her life and to do that she would need them off her back.
In the middle of her once again repeating the same points over and over she saw on one of the screens, someone in a suit came and whispered in a councilmen’s ear at the same time two others simultaneously answered a call. Her voice died down and she could just manage to hear something about a ‘satellite reading’ ‘ship crash’ and a location ‘Gunnison, Colorado.’
“Well thank you for your continued cooperation, Miss Woods, we shall resume these discussions at another time. Once you return to the country, I hope you won’t think to leave again.” One member said almost as if he was making a joke but the underlying threat was plain to see.
“Of course.” She smiled as pleasantly as she could as all the screens went dark around her.
---
She didn’t know why but that interaction stuck with her. A ship crash. It could have been anything really. She was on one of their ships currently, the ice breaker maned by what was left of their employ. But if they were looking into what happened, why else would they all have dismissed her quickly unless the crash was related. The bad feeling over this started to fester inside her.
Lex snuck down to the cargo haul of the icebreaker and found the snowcat she had driven back on, pulling back the seat cushion she had previously ripped open to stash the spear. Lex knew they would take it from her so she had hidden it from sight. It was all she had to remind her that what happened, what she had gone through, was real. That she survived. As well as to remind herself of him. Well, almost all she had left, she thought as she still felt the slight swelling in her cheek from the brand. She pulled it out now, tracing her fingers gently over one of the little alien skulls decorating it. “Okay… let's go check this out.
She knew she was being watched, the crew occasionally tried to make a show of it to her but it was even clearer that all the workers left on the ship were low on the corporate totem pole. No real muscle, those men had died on the ice. They were very laxed, thinking she was safely trapped on the boat. What they didn’t know is that she had changed after her ordeal, she was reevaluating her life. And they still had a helicopter pilot on the crew and a recently refuelled helicopter.
As soon as the sun started to go down, she cornered the pilot as he was returning to his room. Giving him a charming smile, a request and then almost every dollar she had in her savings account.
---
They landed in a small airport in Colorado and then she managed to hitchhike her way to Gunnison with some soldier coming back from her last tour. Lex was suspicious of her at first but she truly seemed to be just returning home. The woman had glanced at her cheek a few times before asking “So, this might be insensitive but. How did you get that scar? You alright?”
Lex laughed and gently touched the rough skin. “Long story, a hell of a day I can tell you that.”
“Yeah, I completely feel you there. God, I can’t wait to get home.” Lex tried to hint that maybe she should take her family away for a little trip to help reconnect but all she got in reply was a polite laugh and an “I’ll think about it.” At least she had tried. Lex was dropped off in town with only a duffle bag of supplies which included the spear. God, what was she doing here? This was an awful amount of effort based on very little evidence.
The town right now looked normal. Everyday people, just going about their day. She kept walking the crash couldn’t have happened in the town centre but there were a lot of woods around here. She could be searching for a long while and she didn’t know how much time she had until anyone from the Weyland corporation would come around. She was making her way to the edge, just seeing if anywhere held any signs of damage, tree fall or smoke when a clue was pushed in front of her face. “Miss, please-” a redheaded woman pressed a flyer into her hands, a missing persons poster. “This is my husband and my son if you could just… look out for them.” She trailed off sadly.
Lex looked closer at the poster. Gone missing the same day as the crash. That was a little much to have been a coincidence, right? But it also brought a cold feeling to her gut. When she heard the crash she thought of the hunters, maybe shot down by the military or, hell, maybe Weyland’s company had stopped them. But the sight of the little boy in that missing persons poster had changed that. The hunters had a code, Sebastian's knowledge and her time with her hunter had cemented that in her mind. They wouldn’t hurt a little unarmed boy. This could be much, much worse than what she had been prepared for.
“Um excuse me, miss!” she called back to the woman who had stepped aside to hand away a few others.
“Oh, Darcy, please.” She returned quickly and Lex felt bad she didn’t have any good news to share at the sight of her expectant look.
“Darcy, nice to meet you, I’m Alexa.” They both shared courteous smiles neither of them really felt as they quickly shook hands. “This says they went missing while hunting, whereabouts was that?”
“It was in their usual spot, nowhere too wild or far out.” They moved along the path and Darcy explained where they had gone. “The police did a full man search but they were never found in fact… well I don’t know but something seemed to have gone wrong.” Lex nodded and gave a quick thanks before heading that way herself. “Miss, I don’t want anyone else to get lost for our sake, if you go out into any of those woods, please watch yourself.”
“You don’t need to worry about me.” She called back, hiking the duffle bag she carried higher up on her shoulder, hearing the comforting clink of the spear within it. “I’m a bit of a hunter myself.”
---
Lex walked a little way into the woods before she dared pull her spear out, not extending it, but just holding it in case. She was aware that if her hunch was right, she might be walking into her death right now. She had killed some monsters but not alone and not in this kind of environment. She should turn back right now. In fact, she almost did a few times but as she lifted her free hand to the mark, she knew she had to keep going. She had earned that mark and if she could help others using what she had learned from that night, she needed to. Lex had her own code of honour to follow. Holding her spear aloft, the trek brought her deeper through the woods.
Lex was grateful to have been very used to traversing much more difficult terrain, as it was a hike through this area was easy enough that she also tried using some stealth. Not that she thought it was at all effective. Always searching her surroundings, she hoped she was at least doing her hunter proud, where ever he may be.
She found the site of the crash… well she assumed she had. She chuckled as she crouched down and took a fistful of the still warm, loose dirt which filled up a chasm, surrounded by burned and pushed out trees. She had seen the temple go under, she could take a guess the same method was being used right here. So maybe the husband and kid got caught up in the crash, if not the explosion? Accidental and very unfortunate death but, the picture here could be much smaller than she was preparing herself for.
She looked around a little more but she wasn’t an experienced tracker, maybe with looking for signs of mountain lions or bears but not aliens who don’t wish to be found. She might be able to hang around and make sure things stay quiet. If she was lucky, she had missed the whole event that happened here and so will have Weyland’s people but for now, she didn’t have any direction to go.
She used the sun and made her way back towards town, still cautious, but not as afraid. She was around halfway back when she heard a name being loudly called. She ducked down on reflex even though it sounded pretty far for now. The yelling continued and then abruptly stopped. She told herself to just keep going, it was just a third person who seemed to be lost in these woods. Someone who wasn’t with the man and child when the ship first came down. Which would mean the theory she just figured out was wrong. Damn it. She crept closer to the direction she had heard the yelling, staying low and ducking behind trees. She got close enough to see the bloody arms hanging from a tree and the horrified police officers looking up at it.
“Shit… they’re still hunters.” She murmured to herself. Most humans were still a type of prey to them. She momentarily forgot that while she was on good terms with them, anyone who seemed like a threat or got in the way would be at risk. She, herself couldn’t exactly fight a hunter to stop them but maybe if she could talk to them. This mark she carried meant something to them.
She could see the police were talking into their radio, the last thing she needed was to be caught with a spear in the middle of the woods with the missing family and skinned body. She continued heading back but veering to the left so she could exit the woods away from any gathering police.
It was starting to get late by the time she was in town again, spear resting back in her bag. She grabbed a bite to eat with her now limited funds and debated where she was going to go now. She could get a room maybe, keep an eye out in the morning for any signs of the hunters. But the best time for a hunt would be night. Once again, she wished she wasn’t doing this alone.
In the end, she had slept well on the first night back on the boat, now she was alert and stayed wandering aimlessly around town. Just listening and looking for anything odd or out of place. She managed to ears drop and heard something about some weird sightings in the sewers. That would match closer to the temple maze they had hunted in rather than in the middle of suburbia. That was a good of a place to start as any.
It was pure luck that on her way, she saw it, a flash of bright light in the powerplant on the edge of town. Near where she was trying to find an entrance to the rain water tunnels. She could just see the tail end of a shower of sparks rain down. This wouldn’t be uncommon in itself but, who would be doing construction in the middle of the night. She pulled out a pair of binoculars she had taken off the ship and got a better look. It would be hard to spot them, she had seen their cloaking mechanisms, she just needed a shimmer, some distortion to consider going up there.
She didn’t see the hunter but the blast of an orb of white light which she knew to be their weapons was just as damming. She started running towards the power plant, taking her jacket off to throw over the barbwire topped fence so she could climb over it without being cut. As she landed, pulling the jacket back down to her, the bright flood lights which had lit up the surrounding area died off simultaneously. A rain of sparks exploded out from along the whole plant, plunging it into a blackout. As the sparks faded, she was left in darkness. Not just her, she looked back towards the town as the blackout spread through it. Great.
Whatever fight was going on in the plant raged on regardless of the damage it had done already. She dropped her bag, took up the spear and readied herself to join into it.
She climbed up, stuck between getting up there fast and getting up there quietly. When she arrived to the higher levels, surrounded by the sounds of the fight ringing loud around her but then she heard that familiar high pitched cry and It froze her in her tracks. Oh God. There was sudden movement in the room in front of her, she jolted away and pressed her back to a wall. Those serpents were here, that’s why the hunters were back. She was filled with such dread that it almost caused her to panic. They had tried so hard to keep them from spreading, God how did this happen? Questions and fear flooded through her but were silenced when she could see a shadow move across the floor as one of those serpents moved around the room, she inched closer to the doorway and saw the arc of a tail dragging across the floor. It was turning away from where she was.
Lex had one of those thoughts that you get when you’re still in a state of shock, which was that ‘it would be so embarrassing if she died right here after surviving something like the pyramid.
The serpent bounded with heavy steps, giving a horrible screech as it pounced on whatever was in the room beyond. She started to follow it. The alien was on top of the hunter, stabbing it could hurt the hunter too. She looked around the room in panic but her eyes quickly landed on a sledge hammer. Blunt impact would mean no acid spray. Wedging the spear in her belt, she picked up the hammer and charged in.
“Hey, ugly bitch!” she said and the alien turned towards her just in time for her to swing across the hammer, catching it aside its head and sending it flying off. She turned to see the hunter but just saw another alien she hadn't noticed before leaping at her from where it crawled up from the side of the building. She held up the sledge hammer horizontally, the serpent’s teeth sinking in and splintering the thick wood but the hammer still held strong. The creature pushed forward, her feet sliding back on the grated floor as it forced her closer to the railing. The rail was the only thing between her and a long drop to the factory floor. She gave a loud cry and pushed back, trying the wedge the hammer deeper into that toothy maw before she dropped it. It weighted the creature's head down as it took all its weight and gave her enough time to fumble for her belt, yanking out the spear. She swung it as it extended and buried it into the skull of the alien. Its tail flung out in an uncoordinated last effort to get her but while she got hit on her shoulder a few times, the tip never met its mark. She watched as its movements slowed and its jaw clenched enough to break the handle before the hammer dropped from its mouth and it grew laxed on her spear.
She tried to shake her spear loose but it was a little stuck, so carefully, she placed her boot on its head and pushed it, only for a bolt of light to shoot past her. It had been only inches away from her but collied with its true mark, One of those spider-like things she had seen from the creature's eggs. The shock of the bolt had made her jump which actually helped her pull the spear free. She turned to face the hunter, having practised in her head all the ways she would try and communicate that she knew about them but when she properly saw the hunter she came to a dead halt.
“You.” She breathed out, eyes travelling over them in the darkroom. There was only the light from the moon and the red dots on their mask which allowed her to see them, but the armour, the mask, the small skulls aligned on his chest. They were the same as her hunter. The hunter she thought was dead. “Is that you? You need to tell me right now.” She charged up to it and it looked at the spear she was holding and rose a hand in a placating gesture. She hadn’t actually meant that to sound like a threat.
Suddenly with a small static crackle, her own voice filled the air. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
If she had thought her actions through, she probably would have realised it was a dumb thing to do but she dropped the spear in her hand and rushed the last few steps to wrap her arms around him. “I thought you were dead.” She sobbed out a laugh. It then caught up with her that she was hugging an alien she technically barely knew. “Oh, sorry.” She said and started to push herself away but thick arms wrapped around her smaller frame and squeezed her back, she didn’t think he was even using much of his strength but it still pulled a surprised moan from her as her spine popped in several places. When he let her go, her friend crouched to pick up her spear, looking it over with a proud nod before handing it back. His large hand dropped on her shoulder before the cold metal of his mask touched her heated face as he pressed his forehead to hers.
“Yeah, I’m glad to see you too.” And she and surprisingly meant it. “What are you doing here? How did this happen? Where is the rest of your kind?” She couldn’t help the flood of questions, he pulled back and wavered on his feet for a moment. Her hands went to his chest and she properly looked at him, her other hand hovering at another wound above his hip. “Jesus… you’ve just been a pin cushion the last few days haven’t you? I can’t believe you’re still out here hunting after what happened.” He seemed to ignore her, looking around before leaning out the shattered window and looking to the ground below. His arm roped her in around the waist, pulling her tightly to his side. She didn’t get why until he started to walk them to the edge.
“No… no, I said no!” She yelled as he just stepped off, dropping down to the ground with her in tow. She clung to him desperately, feeling the jolt of impact move through his body but she was held high enough on his hip to be saved from it.
“Oh you little-” She scrambled out of his hold before straightening up her jacket and making a face at him. She heard that rolling kind of chuckle noise from him and scoffed back. “Nice to see you haven’t changed.” She snarked.
“What are you doing here? What happened to you?” Her voice said from his mask.
"I heard there was a ship crash... thought it was suspicious for any of our ships to have ended up crashed in a landlocked state. So my other guess was that it might have been one of yours. Now, will you tell me what you are doing here?"
He tilted his head and she followed, there were tracks on the bare ground around the plant. It took her a moment to really see what he was looking at. There were tracks in the dirt, large, heading to the factory. She looked up at him again and nodded. “Those serpents.” He nodded and gestured with his hands about the length of the footprint. Then he moved to another set of prints and had her look at them.
“Oh.” She breathed out now seeing the size of these tracks. “It’s not big enough to be a queen though. Besides, you guys had kept that other one in a temple, and I doubt you have one of those in Colorado of all places.”
He brought his fingers together at a point on the centre of his chest before flicking them open as he pulled his hand away from it. “No.” she shook her head. He repeated the gesture. “You had one of those… things, in you?” he nodded. “And so, you are the one who needs to kill it?” He nodded again with an accompanying aggressive growl.
She looked between him and the prints, gradually putting together that the hosts must play a part in how the Aliens end up forming. “Wait so this is-”
He nodded and another recording of her voice played. “Ugly bitch.”
There was a loud thud and they both jolted up, but it wasn’t one of the serpents, it was another hunter. Her friend stood up, bodily putting himself between her and the other, almost completely standing over her.
The new hunter was big, definitely bigger than her friend. His spiked mask had many more symbols carved into them. This hunter roared looking down where she was still on the floor, taking large intimidating steps towards them. Her hunter was roaring back, they were obviously arguing. She carefully stood up, staying behind her friend and clutching her spear just in case. Her hunter turned around and took her chin none too gently in his fingers and showed the new hunter the mark on her cheek.
“Friend of yours?” she asked, rubbing her jaw when she was let go.
“Enemy of my enemy.” Was played again.
There were a few seconds when the two still stared off, some low growls sounding between them but the larger hunter turned to her with a slight nod before turning and stalking off into the night.
Now looking at her, her hunter tilted his head after the other. “Alright.” She said slapping his giant fist with the palm of her much smaller hand. “Let’s go.”