Seeking Salvation

From Freshly Spilled Ink

She sat there. Quiet and reserved, as the fresh-snow colored hands of the thin women behind her, ran through her pure white hair and an old pair of scissors cut away at it. "I think you'd look great with a V-fridge; Vinny, whatcha think?" The woman asked as she smiled, showing off the natural dimples she had decided to immortalize with matching dimple-piercings. Vinny just watched as the White Woman sat there-

The creature from the Police Station curled around her with its head in her lap.

Vinny shrugged and the female went on with what she was doing as Vinny looked at the White Woman, "So... now that you're out... what are you going to do?" He asked cautiously as the White Woman stroked the head of the Xenomorph.

"I must collect all of this one's kin." The White Woman said, "And then find my Hunters, and lead them to their Rite of Passage and their honorable prey." The White Woman finished as the creature in her lap chittered and growled softly at her, "And what of your sister?" The creature lifted its head from her lap and turned it towards another direction, careful not to hit her with its elongated skull, "I see."

"So... did you know where this uh- forlorn child - was? At the Police station?" Vinny asked and she nodded as she pets the creature.

"Yes. I can feel them." The White Woman voiced, "And they can help...but not this one." The xenomorph tried to get up and hissed before laying back down. Vinny looked at it and tried to decipher it'd body language when the strange female looked at him. Deciding he might be having a hard time, she voiced, "When I fell, this one protected me from the worst of the fall." Vinny nodded and the creature took a few long, slow, laborious breaths before it's breathing evened out. "There's another one... close. But we will wait until tomorrow." She said and continued to pet the creature.

"But won't the other- 'children'- attack?" Vinny asked and the White Woman closed her eyes, "Lady?"

"No...not tonight." She said slowly, "Tired. Wounded." After another long few moments that the female took advantage of to trim her bangs into the style she wanted, the White Woman opened her eyes. "They will hide during the day." Vinny nodded,

"Ok, so- the Hunters are coming for this guy?" Vinny asked and gestured to the xenomorph in her lap and the White Woman nodded her head slightly, "-but this guy, specifically, is not 'honorable prey'?"

"Correct." The White Woman confirmed as the other female pulled away from doing her hair, "It will bring dishonor if they are killed." "Why?" "Because these saved their lives."

"Yeah, that would be a problem." Vinny murmured and looked up, "Does that mean... we humans are honorable prey?" The White Woman chuckled and brushed hair clippings off the xenomorph's head as it hissed a bit. "What?"

"Not my Hunters." She smiled warmly and patted the xenomorph's head, making it raise it's head so she could stand up and inspect her new hair cut in the mirror this other woman held up to her, "I like it." The White Woman smiled and the other female chirped happily and the xenomorph hissed a bit at her cheerfulness. Something that the White Woman quickly curbed by gently shushing the creature. "May I sleep here tonight?" She asked and Vinny got up, smirking,

"Yeah, uh, this way." He said and led her down the dilapidated hallway of the old church and into a room of bare walls and a boarded-up window with a single, dusty mattress on the floor and some pillows. "Not much but-" He started but she turned to him and put her hand on his arm, giving him an appreciative smile as the xenomorph pushed past the boy to inspect the room.

"I am deeply grateful to you for your hospitality. Thank you." The White Woman told him as the xenomorph pulled the mattress to the middle of the room and laid down around the mattress, tail lethargically flicking about. She walked forward and knelt on the mattress as the xenomorph dragged over pillows to her, and she replaced them so that the pillows were propped up against the xenomorph's side. Vinny left quickly but returned with a tattered and worn sleeping bag, unzipping it and handing it to her to use as a blanket. The White Woman took it and looked at it a long moment before realizing it's intended purpose and pulled it to cover herself, Vinny standing there a long moment, before shutting the door to the room behind him as he left. The White Woman laid against the xenomorph, petting it to soothe both the creature and herself.

* * * * *

In a lab elsewhere in the state, farther north, a scientist paused his horrendous experiments to walk into the control room of his laboratory that contained all the equipment that secured his longevity and his "partner's". Across the room, a large, inhuman bioped sat in a chair, leaning back against a wall with its huge bare and sharp-clawed feet, crossed on the top of a metal table; watching television as it cut up an apple with a sharp hunting knife. The doctor looked over as the news report came on with a pretty blonde reporter and a middle-aged male anchor-

"Tonight we're bringing a report from the big city! Earlier this evening, we collected footage of what seemed to be a stunt gone wrong; however, that was not the case, as it seemed people and strange creatures were falling from the sky."

The doctor and the husky bioped watched as a clip was shown on the television, of three black blurs falling from an indigo skyline and into some trees. The bioped growled in agitation as it sat up, while they both watched a black, sleek, skeleton-like creature unwrap from what seemed to be a white-haired human woman. "Authorities could not identify any of the creatures, however, this woman who seemed to be with them was affected by the fall and taken into police custody-" The creature shrieked and ran off as uniformed officers opened fire on it mercilessly, the creature running on top of dozens of police cars effortlessly to get away and into the night before the camera panned onto the woman, who stood there crouched and ready to fight.

And the doctor whispered as the bioped stood up abruptly and shoved the chair out of its path, "Oh my god it's EVE-01!" The man looked at the creature next to it, huffing and growling unhappily as the television depicted the uniformed officers swarming the female and pinning her down- the creature roaring angrily as if insulted that they had gotten to her first. The man moved in front of the bioped and it glared down at him as he grabbed the remote for the television and paused it, only to point at a clearer picture of the white-haired woman, "THAT'S HER! That is the one I need to get!" The doctor said, pointing to the screen several times to emphasize she was the target, "You." He pointed to the giant creature, "Get her." He pointed to the girl, "And bring her here." He concluded as he gestured to the building and pointed to the floor, "I need her back here to finish my work-" The giant bioped before him gurgled in broken English,

"No. I... need her."

The Doctor glared at the bioped and hissed, "Just go take the truck and get her you dumb mongrel. Take what you need and take that truck I showed you how to drive." The Bioped growled and snatched a helmet from the tablet, before walking out of the room as the Doctor followed giddily, "She'll be back soon with all these other wretched abominations." The doctor said as the bioped stopped at a door and the Doctor opened it electronically for the hulking figure, following him into a long hallway.

One lined with metal cages- rooms of 3 metal walls and glass doors that only lead to the hallway. Full of human-like experiments; some deformed, some not, all with their cells. All staring at the doctor with horror and fear as he sneered, "She'll finally be home again...and I will take extra precautions to ensure she doesn't escape this time."

* * * * *

"Do you see her?" Slash asked as Dagger looked around, even with both of their biomasks and tracking on, they couldn't find her as they stood atop the rooftop of a tall building they had scaled to get a better vantage point. Dagger looked at him and shook his head in a 'no', "We're fucked."

"The White Woman can take care of herself." Dagger grumbled and looked down at the humans, "But these Humans... I hear they're meddlesome and troublesome... and their heat signatures are throwing off my tracking." Dagger grumbled and Slash looked at them,

"What if she's hurt? What if she didn't survive the fall?" Slash asked and Dagger looked at him again, "Should we wait until tomorrow to start looking for her? It would give us a chance to hunker down tonight and make a base." Slash offered as he turned off his infrared-vision and switched over to night vision. The two looked over all of the city, sharing a moment in indecisive silence as they tried to plan on what to do before Dagger broke the silence.

"Tomorrow night, we will look again. We will find her, humans or not, and start the Rites as a pack. Or we will die trying."