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A Union of Convenience (Formerly ‘Alone’)	By : Keen Category: M through R > Predator Views: 13009 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Predator movie series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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            Completely revised and reedited as of 16/01/2008,
voice your opinions and criticisms at will.
                        -Cam

            The stranger’s broad shoulders
brushed the doorway as the guards led him inside. They brought him to the end
of the incredibly long Council table and he watched as his childhood friend
entered.
            Del’uan
had grown considerably since he last saw him, but not mentally. Wildly
thrashing his heavy red cloak, Del’uan seated himself
at the head of the Council table settling his arms almost reverently on the
armrests. He was gloating. Flagrantly flaunting his position
and the power that came with it.
            Once upon a time, Del’uan wouldn’t dare meet him with such disrespect or speak
down to him as he did in the Council hall. Once upon a time Del’uan,
like everyone else, was terrified of the older warrior and with reason. Plainly put, Ali’shir was crazy. The male was
the classic definition of unstable and liable to kill them all with very little
provocation. The Elders would have dispatched with him long ago had he not been
such an excellent student, out performing his classmates and at times, his
instructors. He was poised to be where Del’uan stood
when he found himself outcast and disgraced.
            No one, including Del’uan knew exactly how far he had fallen until he appeared
in the Council hall. He looked like an asegian. Aside
from an antiquated combistick and wristbands, he was
bare. No trophies, no cloaks, no marks of distinguishing merit. Del’uan was almost tempted to feel sorry for him…almost. There was nothing more pathetic
than a male who was so broken by a female.

            Del’uan
barely glanced in his direction as he signed and corrected the work spread out
in front of him. The long obsidian table where he sat was covered in tablets of
maps, figures and statistics. A long moment of useless silence filled the
cavernous hall before it irritated Ali’shir enough to speak.
                        “How long will you make
me wait?” he growled.
                        “As
long as necessary.” Del’uan said not looking
up. “You too would know the responsibilities of running a ship take time if you
had not been so careless with your life.”
            There was another long moment of
silence before the Lead Elder looked up from his work again to glare at the
male, “What is it you want?”
            Ali’shir breathed to calm himself
knowing Del’uan would test his patience. “Her remains.”
            The Elder turned in his seat, crossing
his hands over his chest. Amusement coloured his tone, “After all this time,
you choose now to come back and care for her? She is dead Ali’shir,
there is nothing you can do for her now.”
                        “If it pleases you, I’d
like to have her all the same.”
                        “No,” He shook his head
and returned to his work. “She is undeserving of an honourable burial and will
be burned with the rest of the waste.”
                        “Do… not… talk about her like that!” Ali’shir
took a mere step forward and the guards around Del’uan
snapped to life, moving to circle and protect their leader. From the thick of
bodies, he could see the Elder stand with a trill. Ali’shir clenched his teeth
to keep from roaring at him,
                        “A’rah is not waste,” Ali’shir
managed to say calmly.
                        “She could have been so
much more if you had not meddled,” Del’uan grit, “She
could have been with me, alive and safe. My first mate.
Her crimes, her blood is on your
hands.”
                        “She made the decision
to leave you all on her own,”
                        “After
a ‘heart-to-heart’ no doubt. You half-breed lot are always so
emotional,” he snorted. “Her death is proof there is something to being
practical and rational.”
                        “Then a trade?” Ali’shir
suggested, still feigning calm. “A trade for her would be practical.”
                        “What could you possibly
give?”
            The only thing he had left, “My
services.”
            Del’uan
laughed. “The assist of a washed up has been would not be a fair trade, but…”
he paused thoughtfully. “There is something you have I’d be willing to trade
her for.”
            Ali’shir took a guess and he was
right. The Elder wanted the human and oddly, Ali’shir felt a pang of guilt as
he considered it. She had already suffered so much but he was at the end of his
rope.
“It’s rather quite simple,” Del’uan
continued. “One fine body for another fine body.”
                        “I said do not talk about
her like that,”
                        “Or what?” he snapped,
stepping to the forefront, leaving his guards at his back. “What will you do half-breed?”
            Ali’shir suddenly exploded into a
sprint, hopping atop the table and cutting guards away from him left and right.
Del’uan backed away behind them, moving quickly for
his own weapon but Ali’shir was on top of him. His hand shackled his wrist,
crushing it, forcing him down to kneel before him.
                        “Despite what you think,
I am still no one to fuck with.” He
hissed. “Give me her body and I will not burn yours in her place.”
                        “She is in the
compactor,” Del’uan said quickly, “Well on her way to
be destroyed. I could not find her now without shutting down everything.”
            Ali’shir forced his hand back,
pinching it painfully. He didn’t believe him in the slightest but Delu’an swore it was the truth. “I gave the order just
after the meeting,” he professed.
            Ali’shir released him and suddenly
became aware the guards were attached to his shoulders, pulling him backward.
They had been straining so hard when he stepped in the direction they moved
towards they all fell back. He stepped over them heading for the door when Del’uan called to him.
                        “I am still willing to
trade for the girl, Ali’shir. A new ship, rare supplies, a
replacement for that combistick.”
            Ali’shir paused, “I don’t need any
of it.”
                        “Then I will shut down
the waste incinerators and grind this ship to a halt if you like,”
                        “Then I will go get your
human if you like,” Ali’shir mocked.
            Del’uan
nodded, “We will meet at your ship to make the exchange,”
Ali’shir continued on then, travelling to the lower levels to fetch
the female.

                        “Annoyance,”
Ali’shir grit.
            The human wasn’t there. Scenting
around the devastated room, Ali’shir was irritated to find she had probably
gone right after he did. The ship was large, with many halls and corridors for
her to hide; finding her would take some time. But the hope of laying A’rah to
rest with honour made him press on and he was rewarded.
            He picked up her scent after
meandering aimlessly round the halls for a bit. It was so faint, he thought
fatigue and emotion was playing with his mind but then in clicked in his head.
Her scent was so weak because she was moving and in a hurry. But where? Her tracks showed no
real direction she moved from the waste and various machine rooms to the
atrium, then back.
            Around the corner, down a stairwell,
deeper into the belly of the ship he found himself heading for a set of heavy
stone doors. Ali’shir stopped at the top of the steps and looked down the
tightly shut entry. The light of orange flames could be seen from underneath
the engraved entrance. Sliding his hand over cold stone he recognized the
million year old yautja blessing and shook his head.
The concept of dishonour must have eluded her simple human mind. The female had
wandered down here no doubt, expecting a memory procession in A’rah’s honour. She
should have been right he frowned as he slowly descended.
            The doors opened silently and he
moved toward the roaring fire in its centre. The insides of this grand grey
stone hall had seen many fallen warriors and their legacy was etched in each of
the stone columns that ran in two lines aside a giant marbleized walk. He
stilled as he saw the human on her knees huddled near the room’s only source of
light, the flame. With her tattered dress spread all round her folded legs he
saw her slender fingers busily but gingerly shearing leaves from vibrant blue
flowers.
            Seeing her back go rigid Ali’shir
quickly slipped behind one of columns before she turned. His breath held, he
lay flush against the ivory fixture and stood absolutely still as she studied
the room over her shoulder. He wasn’t afraid of her in the least. He simply
wanted her to continue her bizarre behaviour and knew she would stop if she saw
him. She had gone to such efforts to find this place and keep it a secret, he
wanted to know why.
            Carrying the flowers in her apron
she gave a final cautious look around before placing a shaky hand on the
control that sat in the room’s centre. The stone groaned as the top stone table
sunk down and a bulk draped in cerulean silk was lifted up. Ali’shir felt a
lump form his throat as she gingerly peeled away the scarf from the load,
bathing A’rahs still and pallid body in the fire’s
glow.
           Brushing away wayward locks from her
face, she nestled the flowers in them, around her arms and in her hands. Her
trembling hands lingered on her ashen cheeks. Her face, so peaceful and serene,
said she was sleeping rather than dead.
                        “Who knew Hitesh actually
would be the death of you,” she smiled curling a lock in her finger.
            Isis
cursed and shook her head, softly asking for a do over. She had told her those
exact words countless times every time she watched her slink away to meet him,
but that shouldn’t have been a part of her eulogy. She desperately wanted to
say something profound but her mind was otherwise preoccupied. A prickling on
her neck made her think she wasn’t the only one in the room. Isis was both
fearful that any moment she’d be found and desperate to do this right. Checking
over her shoulder again, she tried harder but she realised tact prose wasn’t
her forte. Blunt truth was her gift and all she could manage now.
                        “I don’t know if love
can help you wherever you are but if it can, then you got it.”
            Ali’shir forgave her moment of
weakness as she started to cry. He knew the feeling and silently shared in it. Isis said her final goodbye and pressed a kiss against
the female’s brow. Standing she lay her hand on the control again. The room
filled with suffocating heat as the platform bloomed with red fire. Isis and
Ali’shir watched silently as the flames licked at A’rah’s
body. When it died to a blue rippling halo all the power, wisdom and strength
they both remembered had disintegrated into nothing but a neat pile of fine
ash. Holes in the platform opened up, sucking her remains through. Isis moved to massive glass windows as the ship spit out
her ashes, like a tendril of smoke climbing off a cigarette’s tip. She watched
until she could no longer tell her ashes apart from the dust of space and then
leapt off the platform.
            Ali’shir fell back behind the column
as Isis whipped around the hall with dizzying
speed. Putting everything back in its place she worked her way through the room
until nothing but her lingering scent was the only evidence she had been there.
She moved so quickly she didn’t even see the stray flower fall from her dress
but he did. When she ran past him and heard her bare feet slap on the outside
steps, he stepped from hiding and captured the discarded bud. He stood with the
flower held gingerly in his hand as he walked through the dimly lit hall. His
hand touched the platform and he closed his eyes.
            His stubbornness carried him too far. The last time he could say he
saw A’rah would be here, in the dark and chill of this empty hall. Looking
around the empty chamber he thought about what as waste all the human’s efforts
were. The ceremony, although executed perfectly, was beneath the female she
sought to honour. The actual ceremony did nothing to show honour to the fallen,
it was the numbers of mourners that attended it, the ones who came to
acknowledge that someone great had passed.
            There was no one to witness her
ascension, not that they would have come even if he asked. A’rah was shunned
and when they were all dead and gone, no one would remember her because her
name would not be carved into the columns at his back. Any memory of her would
carry a shameful tarnish except the ones he called his own. And
the human’s.
            Removing his mask, he bent to kiss
the stone under his palm. He would honour her the only way he could now and do
the only thing she ever asked of him, the one thing that seemed to be her
undoing. He would no longer shy from his responsibilities or let his emotions
dictate his actions.

            Ali’shir left the ceremonial room
and followed the woman’s scent again. There was direction to it this time. She
headed toward the docks, curiously enough toward his ship. He ran as he heard hear
her distressed screams from inside of it. Ali’shir entered to watch her streak around
the cockpit, darting behind the hulking machines inside, slipping out of her
pursuer’s grasp on luck alone.
            Two males tried to corral her into a
corner, holding netting in their outstretched arms. They meant to catch her and
they were destroying his ship in the process.
            “What is going on?”
he roared, ripping the net away from one.
            “They are under my
orders,” Del’uan said, strolling casually into view.
“When you did not return I wondered if you were backing out of our agreement. I
came to collect what was mine.”
            The human screamed in protest as a
guard latched onto her, dragging her to stand before the Lead Elder. She flinched
as Del’uan’s hand neared-not out of fear but disgust.
Ali’shir could see it in her face; it was like looking into a mirror. She
couldn’t stand him either and she, like him, had trouble hiding her contempt. As
Del’uan’s hand lightly caressed her face, she bit at
him, her teeth missing him just barely.
                        “Nice to see you haven’t
lost your touch with the females Del’uan,” Ali’shir snorted.
            “There is always a period of
adjustment, Ali’shir. I will teach her how to behave soon enough,” he reached
for her again and she tussled in her captor’s hand, rolling to the side to hide
her face, kicking at him as she did.
            Del’uan
gripped her arm and pulled her toward him, not knowing what she was doing with
her other hand. She ripped the knife from the guard’s belt and opened up the Lead
Elder’s knuckles with it, exposing the white bones underneath.
            Del’uan roared
and balled his hand. His fist reared back to crack her across her face and Isis
braced herself for the hit, bowing her shoulders and dropping her head with a
wince…but it never came. The stranger moved in front of her, hiding her with
his body. Her attacker swiped at her again but the male moved in front of her a
second time, making it understood it was no mistake that he separated the two.
            Ali’shir held kept the human fenced
between his out stretched arms and growled low in his throat. The male would
not take this female without going through him first and Del’uan
could understand as much in his ragged growl of warning. The Elder took a step
back and waited until the male relaxed his stance before speaking again,
                        “We had an agreement,
Ali’shir.”
                        “And you have not come
through on your end,” he replied. “So no deal.”
                        “We are still looking.
It is only a matter of time.” Del’uan maintained,
unwittingly telling a lie.
            That made Ali’shir grin, “No deal.”
            Thanks to the human, Ali’shir got
what he wanted and a little something deliciously unexpected. A proper burial for the fallen arbitrator and a wonderfully public opportunity
to break Del’uan’s face.
            The Lead Elder was practically
foaming over the slight,“When
I find A’rah,” he growled, “I will personally feed her to the creatures in my
zoo.”
                        “Get off my ship, Del’uan.”
            Ali’shir stared him down behind his
expressionless mask, his head following as he brushed past towards the exit. He
walked behind him and pressed the hatch closed, sealing his ship afterward.
            Ali’shir turned and met eyes with
the human, who hadn’t moved a centimetre. Her battered frame was still wedged
between the controls, her hand gripped on the stolen knife, poised to strike. Her
eyes black as night watched his every movement, wisely gauging him as he
neared. There was no way she could hope to stop him from doing as he wished but
he admired her for choosing to fight anyway.
            The human’s already raised arm
visibly tightened like a bow and Ali’shir stopped, understanding that where he
stood was as near as she felt comfortable with. Careful to not come across as
threatening he raised his hand, touching the translator at his neck.
                        “You may want to find a
seat, human. We will go now,” Ali’shir turned to sit at the controls at her
side.
                        “Where
?” she asked, unconsciously stepping closer.
            Ali’shir forced her back with a snarl, he was not comfortable with being close to her
either. “Does it matter?” he hissed.
                        “I suppose not,” she
nodded after a moment of silence.
            Isis
took a seat far behind him and strapped down, locking the metal harness over
her shoulders. The stranger was right, it truly did
not matter where he decided to take her. She could escape from one place just
as well as the next and the second his ship touched solid ground, she planned
to do just that.
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A Union of Convenience (Formerly ‘Alone’)