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Butterflies	By : Esequell Category: 1 through F > Alien (All Movies) > Alien (All Movies) Views: 9166 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Prometheus and I'm not making any money from this (though I'm enjoying myself IMMENSELY!)

Chapter List
- 1-Butterflies
- 2-Unfoldment
- 3-Emergence
- 4-Wings
- 5-Waves
- 6-Caged
- 7-Unbalanced
- 8-Air
- 9-Flight
- 10-Dust
- 11-Grounded
- 12-Aliens
- 4
- 5
- 6
5. Waves
Shaw settled into a routine. Time passed. David took to running. He did three circuits of the fields by the river every morning. When Atri realised this, they began to run together. They often raced. David usually won. Shaw wasn't sure how. Atri tried for weeks to beat him. The result was simply a fitter, slimmer Atri. David never changed.
One morning Shaw found three Igogi men in the garden. Each held a long, white stick. David joined them and they bowed to each other. Then they spent the morning beating the crap out of each other. David was fast. His hands blurred. He seemed to know exactly where to put his weight. The largest Igogi swiped for his belly, David bent over backwards like a double-jointed limbo champion. Shaw began to see the length and breadth of Weyland's vision. Supermen who could be better, stronger, fitter, faster. Men who would take orders without question and love their masters enough to be loyal. Men who could suspend their moral, ethical or legal obligations on command. She felt cold thinking about it.
The Igogi left and she didn't see them again for a while, but every week David went out to practise with them and came back bruised. Could these be the friends she'd heard speaking on the tablet all those months ago?
One afternoon, while Sinashi sat on Atri's lap, playing with a toddler-proof holo, Shaw picked up David's stick. David caught her, a tray of drinks in his hands.
'Curious, Doctor?' Shaw could tell it was good natured.
'Show me,' she said.
David nodded.
'Of course. There is a spare in the shed.'
When she returned;
'I hope you don't mind a few bruises.'
Shaw just smirked.
'I can handle myself.'
David smiled.
'I've noticed, Doctor.'
David did show her, from the first of thirty-three possible moves to the last. Then he showed her the sequences that were most often taught to beginners and therefore used first in offence, and how to counter them. One lesson turned into ten, then the lessons became a daily occurrence that Shaw began to anticipate eagerlty. It was a welcome distraction and a chance to try and smack David.
She came away from half her practises with bruises. When she wasn't bruised she was sore from running away from him, or fighting his controlled, synthetic strength. When he'd whacked her soundly on the back of the leg one afternoon, he grinned;
'You'll have to do better than that, Dr Shaw.'
She complained that sitting down hurt. David looked smug. She began to think that David had a dark sense of humour, for a robot. Shaw doubled her efforts. Every morning after his run, David would catch the end of her stick with his, hook it down to point at his chest. When his eyebrow went up she knew he was going to tease her. When his face was straight she knew he meant business.
Slowly she gained ground on him – and skill. And then without any warning, he knocked her clean into the pond.
'You're becoming overconfident, Doctor.'
'Did Weyland design you to be a smug git?' she snarked.
'No. I learned that all by myself. Are you proud of me? I've exceeded your human expectations.'
Shaw wiped pond water out of her eyes. David grinned and offered her his stick. Atri got there first.
With a disapproving click he pulled her out and set her on her feet. She fished her stick out.
'Payback. Give me another shot, David. I'll give you a welt to match my bruise.'
David just raised his hand and gestured. Come.
Shaw traced the symbols he'd drawn with his body on their first day, her form improving. The sun went down behind the river and she drove him towards the trees, her body obeying a routine that was second nature now. David countered, his face blank, and she got him, square in the belly. It was too soon to call it victory, because in the next second his hand shot out. His fingertips touched her throat. He could feel the blood coursing through her veins. So close to death.
'Get too close, I'll kill you with my bare hands.'
He bowed to her.
'Sinashi will be wanting his dinner,' he said.
Shaw stabbed the end of her stick into the ground and glared after him. Self satisfied git, she thought.
'Tomorrow. I'll get you tomorrow,' she promised him.
'One day you will,' he conceded. Then he smirked at her over his shoulder. 'But it probably won't be tomorrow.'
000
The summer sun blazed on the fresh foliage. The garden had transformed into a cacophony of smells and colours under Atri's care. Sinashi ran across the red lawn, his feet bare, wearing nothing but the loincloth common to all Igogi boys. He found his mentor in the bushes and jumped on him. Atri gave a playful squeak, rolled over and let the boy beat him up.
Shaw watched from a distance. Sinashi loved Atri, he was like a limpet stuck to the big mans side. Shaw laughed when Atri emerged from the bushes with the lad in his bulging arms, turned him upside down and polished the grass with his head. Sinashi snarled at the indignity, fuelled by Atri's amusement. He squirmed and kicked but Atri held him tight, then he spoke;
'Put your hands down, lad.'
Sinashi did as he said.
'What you gonna say, boy?'
'No,' Sinashi refused to beg.
Atri grinned.
'I'll throw you in the river.'
'Mummy would kill you.'
'Would she now. Whose bigger, me or your Mum?'
Sinashi relented.
'Please.'
'Good lad. Brave boys know when to admit defeat,' Atri let his legs go, but steadied him into a handstand and Sinashi held it with remarkable ease, then put his legs down and stood up.
Atri put his hand on the top of Sinashi's head and caressed his soft skin warmly.
'Did your Father teach you that?' Sinashi asked.
'Yes,' Atri nodded.
'I haven't got a real Father.'
'No? Whose the funny little white stick man who pays all the bills then? The one who gives you pocket money?'
'Father is...synthetic.'
'I don't think it matters. You're still his son.'
'Why can't you be my Father?'
Atri softened.
'We can be friends, if you want. But I can't be your Father. Don't you think David would be hurt? After all he's done for you.'
Sinashi thought about it. Then he nodded.
'OK,' he said.
000
David had given Sinashi a bow and arrow. Shaw was waiting for the inevitable accident. A hand, an eye. Something was guaranteed to bleed. Certainly he'd dulled the arrowhead but she still worried. Sinashi was stalking the Igogi man. He fired. Atri turned on his heel and snatched his arrow clean out of the air. He smirked and sent it sailing back to land at the lad's feet.
'How did you do that?' Sinashi stared at him.
'Magic,' Atri teased.
'There's no such thing a magic!'
'How the hell do you know?' Atri knelt. 'You ever seen magic?'
'No,' Sinashi said. 'That's how I know it don't exist!'
'Are you dim?' Atri said, not unkindly. 'Just because you don't see something, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Do you see the wind, boy?'
'No-'
'Stop trying to be clever then. It doesn't suit you.'
Sinashi leapt at him, intent to punch him for his insolence and Atri laughed, dodged him and ran. Shaw watched Sinashi chase him. He ran like a much older boy, agile and already beginning to show developing musculature. Atri dodged, fell back, and his foot landed in the pond. Sinashi pushed him. There was a great splash and Shaw clapped her hand over her mouth.
Atri sat up scowling. Sinashi was bent over with laughter, pointing at Atri. He picked himself up, and while the boy was incapacitated, dragged him into the water. Sinashi howled, sitting on Atri's chest, he slapped him playfully across the face. Atri gave the boy a threatening squeeze.
'Don't finish what you can't start, lad.'
'I can take you!' Sinashi promised.
Atri smacked him across the jaw lightly, two fingers, nothing. Sinashi's head whipped back around and he bared his teeth at the older man, who did it right back, and just as Sinashi was about to try and pound him a second time, Shaw interrupted casually.
'So this is why you asked me for swimming pool the other day?'
Sinashi didn't miss a beat. He nodded eagerly. Atri sat up and smiled a bit sheepishly. He brushed the remains of a pond plant off his lap.
'Mummy is going to smack me first, and you after, lad.'
'That's right,' Shaw nodded, as Atri stood up and deposited Sinashi back on the side.
'Could you bend down, please?' she asked him.
Atri laughed.
'I'm safe,' he concluded. 'She can't reach. She might still spank me though.'
Shaw couldn't resist a smile. There was something, an ardent sparkle in Atri's eyes that just made her comfortable. Atri grabbed her. Shaw yelled in shock.
'No! No-no, Atri! Don't you dare!'
He dragged her into the water. A splash and a scream later, she was sitting on his lap, panting, soaked to the skin. Her hair clung to her face.
'Bastard!' she yelled.
Atri twitched a smile.
'I slipped,' he said evenly.
'I can't believe you just did that to me!'
Atri's long, strong fingers curled around her hip bones gently. He leaned in and without a hint of shame, breathed in the smell of her hair. Shaw shuddered, suddenly aroused. Her eyes flicked to the house, wondering if David was watching. Atri's face was close to hers.
'Lad, go and get your Mum a towel. And me too.'
As soon as he was gone, Atri caught Shaw's eyes. He leaned in. His lips barely brushed hers when a little, all-too-familiar voice giggled.
'Atri and Mummy, sittin' in a tree-'
'Shut up, boy,' Atri splashed him idly, then he stood up, Shaw in his arms and put her back on the side.
'Aren't you going to kiss her?' Sinashi asked, as Atri went by dripping.
The Igogi shook his head, visibly uncomfortable with the boys line of questioning.
'Not with you looking. Go on, you little bugger.'
Shaw watched Sinashi run off. Atri turned to give her a decidedly contrite little smirk.
'Forgive me for getting you all wet.'
Shaw closed her eyes, laughing silently. He followed the boy into the house to get dry.
000
Down on the riverbank, some way from the house, Atri wrung out his wet clothes and hung them on a branch to dry. It was warm enough that he didn't really need them. He sat naked on a little outcropping, his feet in the sparkling river water while Sinashi stood waist deep in the river, trying to catch a fish. He missed, came up soaking wet, gasping.
Atri laughed. 'Idiot,' he said fondly.
Sinashi glared at him.
'Shut up.'
'You want a fish, you'll need to work for it. Want to take one home for your Mother?'
'You're in love with her,' Sinashi said simply.
Atri rolled his eyes.
'So what?'
'Does that mean you're going to be my Father after all?'
Sinashi looked at him. Atri rubbed his scalp idly.
'Lad, you've got a way to go before you can say you're tactful. Come on.'
Atri pulled a knife from his discarded clothes and put it between his teeth. He swam out into the rushing water and found a rock, some seven or eight feet down, to stand on.
'Quiet,' he whispered to Sinashi, who trod water beside him. 'And not a word to your Mum, you hear?'
Shaw ambled down the long path into the woods, wearing only a thin summer dress.
Atri took a deep breath and ducked under the water. Sinashi followed, albeit nervously.
Shaw settled on the riverbank, relaxed, content. The sun was hot but not blinding. The leaves rustled peacefully behind her. Small birds flocked on the river. She put her head down on her knees. At peace. Then something burst out of the water. Atri landed a huge silvery fish and with a quick stab, it stopped flapping.
Shaw couldn't breathe. The water ran off his naked back, down to his hips, his waist. Shaw stared. Atri followed her line of sight and smiled. Shaw gasped when the fish landed at her feet.
'A present from your boy,' said Atri. 'Brain food.'
Shaw fish-mouthed. The size of him. The way he was looking right back, so obviously aware of her interest. Then suddenly she was back in the little room, her head against the wall, the Engineer grunting and sighing, his hands bruising. Something was wrong. She was breathing too fast, gasping, clawing at her throat.
'Mummy?' Sinashi climbed out of the river, 'What's wrong!'
Shaw shook her head.
'Mummy!' Sinashi grabbed her by her shoulders.
'Fetch your Father, boy. Now.'
Sinashi ran.
Shaw collapsed. The riverbank was damp. Her lungs were empty. Her dress rode up over her thighs. Atri caught her in his huge, white hands, trying to help, unaware. Then the ground rushed away. Atri picked her up. She trembled, squeezing her eyes shut, desperate. Half way up the bank David came running. He fished a paper bag out of his pocket and sealed it over her face. Her eyes streamed tears, her body quaked.
'What's wrong with her?' Atri stroked her hair back gently, his hand far too big against her skull. The intimacy of the gesture wasn't lost on David.
'It's a panic attack,' David said. 'Nothing more. It may have...something...to do with your nudity.'
Atri turned away and headed back for his clothes. He scooped up Sinashi as he went.
Her breathing slowed. She collapsed against David, her body twitching. She buried her face in the softness of his shirt.
'It's over,' David murmured to her. 'It's over now, Elizabeth. Try to breathe. Try to breathe.'
Shaw began to cry, great heaving sobs. David pulled her in closer and rub her back.
'It's OK,' he murmured, close to hear ear. 'I've got you, Elizabeth.'
'I can't do this, David! There's something wrong with me.'
'You're afraid of him. I don't blame you, but he's not like the Engineer, Doctor. Can you walk?'
She nodded. Half way up the bank, his arm around her waist, he spoke softly;
'Elizabeth...I appreciate that you may not want to discuss this, but...I can't help but notice a growing intimacy. Between you and Atri. Did he...harm you? You were alone with him for some time. I just want to be sure-'
'No,' she shook her head quickly.
'But you like him.'
'God, David,' she clung to him more tightly as he led her into the house.
'You kissed him.'
Shaw stared up, long and hard into his eyes, searching for truth.
'I saw you. In the pond,' David said mildly. 'A gesture like that practically invites intimacy, Doctor.'
She didn't answer.
'He likes you,' David said, as he helped her onto her bed. 'You should know that the Igogi have quite a different view of intimacy...than what you may be used to. We are considered culturally repressed. They are not insular in their affections. Women share their husbands, men their wives. Homosexuality is considered normal. In fact the aberration here...is the absence of a desire to greet your friends with intimate acts.'
'How do you know all this?'
'I have watched them for many years,' David said mildly.
She stared at him.
'Would you like something to drink?'
She shook her head mutely. He left her.
000
'May I offer you a drink?' David asked.
At Atri's nod, David poured him a glass of vegetable juice; his favourite. Atri took it with the eye of a man who knew he was here to get bollocked.
'How is the Doctor?'
'Recovered, thankfully,' said David. He sat down on the other side of the counter. 'Her panic attacks are becoming more frequent, I'm afraid.'
'Am I getting fired?' Atri asked steadily.
'No. Nothing like that. I was wondering. Have you read my book?'
Atri waited a moment before he answered.
'Yes. Why?'
'There are parts of the story of our escape that were never told. It seems apparent that you are...interested...in Dr Shaw. Sexually.'
Atri's eyes lit up. He breathed out through his nose.
'Yes,' he said softly.
'Mmm,' David hummed. 'Elizabeth has not had the best of luck in love. I'm afraid that I'm partly to blame for that. It must be obvious to you that she...copulated...with an Igogi man.'
David's expression morphed into deep concern; 'I can only imagine how that perception must worry her.'
'I dont see any shame in it,' Atri said. 'Was he her husband?'
'No,' David said softly. 'When we escaped the moon LV-223, it was on a decommissioned military craft. Dr Shaw was very ill. An Igogi pirate found a backdoor in the ships programming. A little known fault used by military personell to regain control of hijacked vessels. He took control of our ship. He took interest in her. She was taken from me, stripped and raped. She became pregnant.'
Atri's mask fell.
'I managed to escape my containment. We killed him,' David said calmly. 'Then I put twelve stitches inside her body. This was just a month after an emergency caesarian section to remove a parasitic, alien lifeform from her womb. Somehow..she survived it all. Though I have to say...for a long time, too long, as she sweated, dreaming dreams no woman should have to endure...I thought I would have to bury her alone.'
Atri nodded.
'And then I pulled you from that cell and gave you to my kids, to teach you what it means to be here. To be Igogi.'
'Yes,' David nodded. 'I have never had any friends. Before.'
'Well now you do.'
'Friends are supposed to help each other,' David mused. he came to decision. 'If you want Dr Shaw, you will need to be more subtle in your approach.'
Atri hung on that for a moment. Then he said;
'You love her,' sharp blue eyes pinned him where he stood. David was always ready with a reply. This time, he had nothing. His voice was gone, his mind empty. His heart burned.
'Elizabeth has never looked at me the way she looks at you,' David said. He turned his face away. 'I wish...she would.'
Atri stood up quietly. He patted David on the back.
'Listen. You know how it works for us. One mate, many lovers. It should be the same for her as it is for any Igogi woman. Same for you, too.'
David met his eyes.
'Fuck, David. I hate it when you cry. You look like a little kid.'
Atri pulled him into a hug.
'If you want her I'm not going to stand in your way. You're more human than I am. She knows that. She's more likely to welcome you...than me.'
David wiped the tears away.
'What if she needed both of us?' David asked then. 'Elizabeth has always been complex...perhaps the solution is complex too.'
The Igogi man stared at him.
'We should find out what she wants,' Atri said then. 'It's no good hypothesising...when the answer is accessible. Is it?'
'How?' David asked.
'I think I have a couple of ideas.'
000
Shaw stood on the riverbank, watching the water. Footsteps at her back made her turn, but it was Atri, his pleated garment shifting around his legs. He joined her.
'Am I disturbing you?'
'No. I thought I'd come back for another look. When there aren't any...naked men, in the water,' she smiled.
Atri chuckled.
'Well,' he said. 'It's a little cold today. I'm sorry if I frightened you, Doctor.'
'Eli,' Shaw said. 'I'm not really a Doctor anymore.'
'But David calls you-'
'David is a robot,' Shaw smiled. 'He likes his routine. Perhaps it's his way of coping. With being so far from Earth. From humans. Sometimes I wonder what it might have been like for him if we'd never come here.'
'He told me once that his human family disliked him. His sister, especially.'
'She did,' Shaw nodded. 'She disliked everyone. And everyone disliked her.'
Atri glanced up at the rustling red leaves.
'From what I've seen, you and David seem to be very close. Whether he's a robot or not.'
Shaw shrugged.
'I suppose we had no choice. After Sinashi was born...it was just the three of us. We had to look out for each other.'
'I didn't really mean close in that sense.'
Shaw shook her head.
'I've never though of David that way. He's...not really human. I suppose it would be like making love to a machine.'
'But he feels affection,' Atri frowned.
'Yes, so he says, but how much of it is real? It could just be his programming. We'll never know.'
'How much of yours is real?'
Shaw stared at him.
'All of it.'
'And how do I know you feel at all?'
Atri pointed to her face.
'It shows on your face. That's how I know. David shows his too, in his own way. You obviously don't see him like I do. I've known him a very long time. He laughs and cries just like you.'
Shaw chewed her lip.
'You don't want to see it,' Atri said insightfully. 'You want to be the one that God made, whole and pure, in his own image. That's a foolish system of belief! One alien contact and the whole charade comes crashing down. You aren't the only sentient species in the galaxy, and you aren't the most advanced. You need to get used to seeing similarities, girl.'
Shaw folded her arms. Before she could speak he said;
'David loves you. I can see it plainly. He wants to be what you need. You won't let him. You won't let me either. You're afraid.'
Shaw turned to leave. Her chest had gone tighty. She wanted to get away. Atri watched her with his unique, alien eyes. His awareness shone out of them, disturbing, peaceful. Deep as a sky full of stars. He caught her and turned her round. He sank to his knees in front of her, evening out their height difference and embraced her gently.
'You insult me then you want to cuddle?' she said, coolly.
'It wasn't an insult,' Atri said simply. 'It was the truth. He loves you. And so do I.'
Shaw was rooted to the spot, her hands damp, chest tight. His hand was warm on the base of her back. He put his head against her chest and closed his eyes. She wrapped her arms tentatively around his neck. He was soft, warm, firm. And he smelled like ancient books. Delicious.
He tugged her down, arranged her gently in his lap and buried his nose in her hair. Her hands became automatic, her body, despite her feelings of underlying panic, completely betrayed her. He nuzzled her cheek softly, then kissed her. Heat bloomed between her legs, her hands tightened suddenly on his shoulders. His gentle kiss morphed into soft, passionate heat. Deeper and deeper, flowering in her belly. Shaw made a soft little noise, pressed closer.
'Don't be frightened,' he broke away to whisper. 'He knows. I told him-'
'You mean David?' she stalled.
Atri nodded. He found her lips again, his breath unsteady.
'I told him I want you as much as he does.'
Shaw pulled away, gasping, as the panic attack kicked in.
'Oh my God-' she whispered. 'David!' she tried to yell but it was more of a whisper.
Atri carried her home. He'd expected this. It still hurt.
David brought the bag as soon as he saw Atri coming. While Atri stroked the back of Sinashi's skull gently, comfortingly, David helped her upstairs and into bed. She grabbed his wrist.
'There's something wrong with me, David!'
'There's nothing wrong with you,' he said calmly. He embraced her softly and laid his blonde head on top of hers. 'You're perfect.'
'Compliments?' she smiled. 'From you?'
David drew back.
'Yes,' he said.
Shaw hugged him back.
'David. I know how much you've done for us. I don't hate you. Not anymore.'
David smiled warmly.
'I'm glad to hear that.'
David's eyelids fluttered closed briefly, like butterflies against her hair. She warmed him. Made him content. Make him feel wanted.
'Cup of tea?' he murmured softly, stroking her hair once.
Shaw laughed, tearfully. Then she nodded.
'OK, David. Sure.'
TBC...more soon!
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Butterflies