Seasons

K'tch lay there useless and weak and more than just a little angry. He was well aware of the fact that if he didn't get the opportunity to report to his party, they would assume his demise and take the hunting ship back to the mother. Not that he couldn't fend for himself out here, but why go through the trouble of making contact after they had already gone. Why not just give them a signal so they didn't decide to leave him.

He lifted a mandible and tsked.

Well, figuring out a way to give a signal while strapped to a table was definitely proving to be a challenge. His eyes narrowed as he squinted, trying to get a general visual of the milieu.

There were things hanging over his eagle-spread form, but he couldn't tell what they were if his life depended on it. He sighed, the woman taking precious measurements, pausing to look up at him.

"I already informed them that you wanted Sharon... Did you want something else?" she raised a nervous brow.

He refused to answer the creature, knowing full well that she would not grant him his freedom. Instead he closed his eyes. What felt like minutes later and he was startled by the sound of a familiar voice.

"Kuh-cha?" she questioned. His eyes snapped open and he turned toward the voice, acknowledging her with his gaze.

It was about time.

She watched him cautiously. "You actually asked for me, specifically?" she raised a brow. "Y'mean you remembered my name?"

His eyes narrowed.

Did she think he was stupid or somethin? Who the hell could forget a name as strange as Sharon... He began to sit up and immediately realized his restraints, collapsing back down and growling.

The young woman immediately began looking for a way to unbind the creature, fiddling with the buttons on the side of the restraints, the staff backed into the corners of the room, ready to bolt at a moments notice as the guards surrounded the room, guns ready.

"Are you sure you want to do that?"

Sharon spun around quickly at the sound of Jone's smooth voice. She felt herself slowly untense as she turned to the decidedly handsome but annoying face.

"But you guys have this under control, right?" She leaned closer to the man, lowering her voice. "I thought the place was surrounded..."

"It is...Just talk to him..." Jones advised as he backed up a foot, hand resting over the small gun on his hip. "We dont want him running loose."

The young woman swallowed as she leaned over the table.

Fair enough.

"Kuh-cha?" she said softly. "Why did you ask for me?"

He sighed heavily, unwilling to speak with the others in the room. "All out..Sharon... stay..," the obviously not human vocals sounded.

Jones eyes widened for a moment as he processed the request before backing away slowly and signalling for the staff to fall back. He was not leaving the room. "You can say what you need to say with us here..." he declared.

K'tch's expression darkened. So here was the problem...

It was already decided.

Oh yes... this asshole would be the first to go once he escaped. He clicked to himself for a moment before looking back up at the woman. A series of clicks and unintelligible noises followed whereupon she raised a brow.

"...What?"

"He glanced down at his restraints before focussing back on her. His eyes narrowed. He knew he had a chance of removing the restraints by force if he extended his wrist blades, but why waste energy he probably needed. He might as well see if she could accomplish something before he started running off reserves. The tranquilizers were finally starting to wear a little more.

"I can't..." she declared. "Besides... how do I know what you'll do..." she lowered her voice.

He made a noise that could only be interpreted as a chuckle.
She pressed her lips together in anger.

"If I don't know what you're trying to do, then I'll not help you...You don't own me..."

He shook his head and she frowned.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He motioned for her to come closer and she leaned in cautiously, curious as to what he needed to say. "You... are mine... and you will help me..."

With that, he turned away from her as he began plotting his escape, leaving her dumbfounded.
He didn't say a word to anyone else for the rest of the week as he merely observed, watching and waiting. The taller male creature by the name of Jones had come by twice only to rub it in his face that he was in charge. He had brought the female along with him the second night.

K'tch sneered. He wasn't fooling anyone.

He knew that this Jones was hoping that Sharon could get some information out of him.

Like that would happen... His gaze focussed in on the hand that the male had carefully placed upon Sharon's shoulder and his eyes narrowed.

Since when had Jones earned Sharon's trust to the point that he was allowed to touch her.

His right mandible lifted and he emitted a clicking noise followed by a predatory growl, Jone's hand refusing to budge from her shoulder. He would have warned him verbally had he not been too furious to form words.

She belonged to him. She was his at the moment and he didn't want anyone trying to court her without his knowledge.

If he so much as nuzzled her, he'd be out of his restraints in an instant.

He needed to start planning in order to calm himself. Judging from his character, this man was bound to do something stupid any day; something that would convince his female to help him.

He needed only wait. He would strike as soon as he memorized the last pattern.

Everything had been going according to plan, that is until the sixth night.

Jones had entered the room with one other male, both unattended and the guards were nowhere in sight. The rest of the room was dark save for the one lone light that was beaming down over his face.

What was this all about, he wondered.

Why was there no one else around? He could still make out their forms standing before him.

The other man was holding something, something attached to a large box in the corner. Wires he assumed as he approached. He was almost curious as to what they were planning.

He growled softly, Jones smiling his dark smile.

"Y'know there's a bit of a problem here, you realize."

K'tch watched him silently. What would that be...

"The devices we've been able to take from you seem to be run by a password. Especially the mask. Its something we can't crack. So tell me..." he cocked his head as Garber leaned forward, sticking a few strange moist oval-shaped contraptions to him.

Something was very wrong here.

Jones suddenly pulled a small device from his pocket and put it up to his face. It was displaying numbers... The predator's eyes widened. They were numbers in his native language.

What the hell? They had deciphered something?

"... Tell me," Jones persisted. "Which one of these symbols... in what order is the password?"

An angry click was his answer as the creature turned away from him.

Jones was not one to be ignored and his prisoner was about to find out why.

"Y'know..." he turned away, signalling to the other man who began walking toward the box in the corner. "You've killed two innocents and two of my best agents. That's cause enough for me to want to cut you open myself.. But I've... got something more interesting in mind. Much more interesting," his expression darkened.

K'tch's eyes narrowed. Did he really?

It was only natural to conclude that he would make it out of here, get to the ship, and finish polishing a newly acquired Jone's skull. His would more than make-up for the one that had been taken.
"I'm going to ask you one more time what the password is. You can either tell me, or suffer. It's your choice," Jones declared.
K'tch grunted, refusing to speak to him. He wouldn't even honor this man by speaking his language to him.

"Fine. We'll play it your way. You'll start seeing things my way soon enough. You're not in charge down here. Garber?" he smiled. The man standing off to the side pressed a button.

K'tch's eyes widened, the first shock nearly blinded him and he let loose a terrible roar of protest as pain coursed through his entire body. It stopped abruptly, leaving him confused.

That wasnt supposed to happen...

"Tell me what this means..." the man in the suit held the device up before him, flashing the numbers at him.

Once more K'tch refused. He'd rather die than offer help to this moron. Did he really think that he could force his tongue? Confident bastard.

He was terribly wrong.

The blinding pain interrupted his thoughts. All four mandibles spread as he bit back a cry.

His breathing was quick and his body trembled in the restraints. Garber suddenly walked up to him and then peered down into the gold eyes.

"We're not kidding. Tell us the god-damn password, or I raise the voltage, fucker..."

K'tch coughed in the process of catching his breath. He swallowed. So poor Garber was getting pissed now. Well that made two of them.

Jones shook his head.

"Do you want to go back home?" he asked circling the table. "Want all of this to just be a nightmare? Then tell us the damn password."

There was a long moment of silence before Garber silently walked back over to the controls, moving a lever before pushing the button again.

This time the predator screamed long and loud, body jerking in his restraints before the current was once again interrupted.

Garber walked back over to him, smiling darkly.

K'tch realized that the man wasn't afraid of him. Knowing himself that one of his kind had butchered his boss, he realized that the man wasn't the least bit frightened of him. He really needed to be at this point.

Garber cocked his head as he peered down at him.

It was time for plan B.

He pulled a small walkie-talkie off of the clip on his right hip, pressing a small button and speaking into the receiver.

"We're ready for her... "

K'tch was still catching his breath, breathing finally beginning to calm when the door opened once again and Sharon was pushed inside, the door slamming behind her. He didn't have to see the look of fear on her face, he could already sense it.

Clearly she had not seen her part in any of this.

"Hey, just what the hell are you trying to do to me!" she demanded, turning to them. Jones walked over to her calmly, right hand coming up to caress one soft cheek.

"Relax..." he whispered. "We're on stage now..."

She shook her head, raising a brow in confusion before the man leaned closer, mouth a hair's breadth from her ear.

"Do a little acting for me," he whispered.

"Why? What are we doing!" she whispered back harshly, unsure of why they were even whispering.

"I have a hunch..." he stated. "Just work with me, and then you'll be free to leave."

"A hunch?"

"Yes... Just work with me..." Jones then turned to the other man. "Garber, I need you to guard the first entrance."

The man nodded, swiftly heading for the exit, refusing to look back as the door locked.

Jones walked them over to stand beside the creature, holding Sharon gently by the chin and turning her gaze back towards him when her eyes strayed over to K'tch.

He leaned forward slowly before closing his lips gently over hers, hands coming up to hold her by the shoulders.

The air was thick with tension, K'tch twitching in his binds.

He was touching her. This man was touching his female without his permission.

Disrespectful...

He let loose a warning growl.

Jones pulled away from the kiss, wrapping his arms around the young woman and embracing her, hand sifting through her dark hair slowly. All the while he kept his eyes on the creature bound to the table, searching him for a reaction. He briefly glanced down at the woman in his arms.
She cleared her throat, mind spinning from the comfortable contact.

"What was that for?" she barely whispered, brows drawn down half-offended.

"Shhh..." he hushed her as he rubbed her back. She rolled her eyes. They could've found another way to look for a weakness in K'tch without using her.

Men...

There was something distinctly primal in the way they interacted. K'tch and Jones were locked in a gaze, tension smothering as they simply watched eachother.

K'tch's eyes slowly narrowed and for the first time during his interrogation, he spoke.

"She's mine..."

Jones smiled, shaking his head as Sharon's eyes widened.

"No, she isn't yours. You have nothing. You are nothing but a decidedly hideous and very violent freak of nature... And she'll never willingly help you...Not after seeing the people you've murdered"
Was that the best he could do?

To his surprise, K'tch laughed a very dark menacing laugh, mandibles twitching.

___________


The dark-haired woman was furious after they'd exited the room. Where did they get off thinking they could just use her.

"You've gone too far... You're trying to torture him? Tempt him? What the hell is wrong with you!"

"Tactics...It's something we can use to our advantage, Sharon. Think about it..."

Her brows drew down suddenly.

They had promised to destroy their data once it was understood, not duplicate it. That was the deal they'd made.

"Just what the hell are you trying to say?"

He would be tactful as he adjusted his tie, polished shoes gleaming under the stark white light.

"We need your help, Sharon. To find out about his devices."

She shook her head. "That wasn't part of the deal... Oh no... No one said anything about using me."

"But you have no idea of the power he's capable of..."

Her eyes darkened as he continued. "If we could just figure out the password..."

"So you just want to use me to make him talk?"

"Sharon..." Jones shook his head. "You don't seem to realize just what's at stake here."

She raised a brow, making a small noise of indignation. "You don't seem to realize the risk in trying to keep him in a tank and then pissing him off by torturing him and trying to figure out how to use people against him..."

"Sharon, you know this creature's not innocent. I know you've seen the blood and the bodies. None of that is even an inkling of his true power. That's something you haven't seen, the power to wipe out an entire city."

She sighed.

"But would he? That's not what he's here for. He's here for those strange aliens that those fools down in the lab created."

He frowned. Had he told her this?

"So would you rather we wait until he IS here to wipe us out before we try to do something about it?"

"Just what the hell are you doing about it? All I see is tests and no results. You don't know what this is...or that is... what that's for... Just what progress have you guys made in the last week to convince me or anyone that you know what you're doing! God..." she spun quickly, leaving the man more dumbfounded than angry.

Assholes..

All of them...

She stormed down the hall, remembering her pass card, taking a chance and raking it through the censor sharply. She was cleared as it unlocked and she silently praised her good 'ol Uncle Weyland for the master pass card, torn between joy and animosity toward his secrets.

She tried again with the next barrier, passing through door after door before finding herself before the creature who had been unstrapped and was now hunched in the corner, every inch of his body aching for probably the first time in his life.

His gaze shot up to her, a bitter snarl his greeting.

"Oh, just shut-up..." she glared. "They want to dissect your ass and I'd damn well agree if I didn't like what they were trying to do. I never wanted anything to do with your little problem. Just look at you..."

He lay his head back down on the floor wordlessly. Tiredly, but wordlessly.

"Are you just going to sit there and not say anything to me? Or do you only talk to me when you want somethin?"

He grunted, or replied. She couldn't really tell.

"Y'know.. You wouldn't be in this mess if you hunted for survival and not sport... Just what the hell did you think you were doing here? Making game out of anyone you felt like killing? It doesn't work that way, Kuh-cha...Down here, you kill someone for sport, you go to jail. You were in NO way defending yourself."

After a moment he looked up, eyes narrowed and dark before slowly standing. Her gaze rose with him till she had to tilt her head back. "Your... deer and bears... is it defense? No..." he surprisingly countered.

She raised a brow, crossing her arms as she wondered just what he knew about humans. "You hunt people, people whose pain you can know. Bears don't talk. Neither do deer."

He grunted.

"Hunt..." he thought for a minute, searching for the words, "...who can't speak.."

"What?" she shook her head, frowning and unsure of what to say. Was he trying to school her on her own sense of morality?

"No!" she shouted angrily. "You don't hunt people period. Animals are different because they can't talk! What's your excuse? You understand me... why hunt my kind? You can tell we want NOTHING to do with your trophies. Why can't you reason with my kind? You're capable of doing it, just like you're capable of speaking to me. You're not some stupid, mindless creature..."

"You reason with deer..."

"Are you asking me?" she inquired, unsure of how to interpret his flat deep monotone.

She sighed. "We don't because you can't reason with them..."

He nodded, slowly crouching back into his corner. "..You can't reason with me," a mandible twitched.." woman..."

She stood stunned, eyes wide.

"Oh hell no... EXCUSE you... I can't reason with you because I'm a woman! Wait just a damn minute! You're not even from this god-damn planet so don't you dare question my intelligence, Mr. Pond-scum..."

He shook his head, refusing to answer her.

She sighed, a sneer clear across her features. "Y'know what, you need a good sense of loss Kuh-cha. Someone needs to take somethin' important from you like whatever family you've got or whatever the hell means anything to you so you'll know what it feels like. You've killed people who have families... Families that are now devastated with their loss. I hope you really get to know what that feels like. Maybe you wouldn't be so gung-ho about murdering once you knew how it felt to have that life stolen from you." she shook her head in frustration, voice laced with emotion. "God,why do you have to be like that. You're so, stupid! You let them catch you... and all they want to do is cut you up, steal your technology and God knows what they'll do to me when I'm no longer useful..."

K'tch sighed as he watched the woman kneel before him.
Why was she so upset? They were her idiot species holding him. What did she have to worry about?

Tears were rolling down her cheeks and he scoffed at the display of weakness.

Before he could draw his own conclusions, the woman sniffed, frustration from the ordeal finally breaking her.

He shook his head, longing for his medi-kit to ease the pain of being tortured nearly half to death.

Foolish humans...

She sat beside him in the corner and he made no protest as she pulled her knees up to her chest, sobbing uncontrollably.

He turned his head to watch her.

God, what was he going to do with this female... She was the one who had gotten him into this mess. It was her dumb longing to go back to her home had been the reason for his unbelievable capture. He'd be well on his way back home if it hadn't been for her. What was she doing and would it ever stop? He needed to think, to go over the patterns he had already memorized in order to plan his escape. He glanced at the woman sitting beside him, wondering why no one had burst in to point a gun at him.

Perhaps they didn't care what he did to her.

At any rate, she finally seemed to be calming as she sniffled again, swallowing and wiping her eyes. He almost had his silence as she stared pensively at the floor. Something she was thinking triggered another tragic thought and she glanced over at him, K'tch returning the gaze.

To his disappointment, her face slowly caved in on itself, eyes clouding with water. Before he could protest, she burst into a sob once again. He refrained from frightening her with an angry voice, instead speaking slowly but calmly. He twitched, wishing there was a button to press to stop that awful sobbing noise that she was making.

He sighed deeply before turning to her.

"Shut.. Up..."

Her eyes widened as she turned to him looking rather taken aback. He reluctantly softened his gaze before adding, "Please..."