Predator: SVU

Title: Predator: SVU

Author: Prairiefire

Chapter: Eight: The Innocence of Children

Fandom: Predator AU

Rating: M/R

Warnings: Adult Situations, Controversial Subject Material, Graphic Violence/Gore, Rape, Sexual Situations

Orientation: Het

Pairings: Human Female/Male Predator, Female Predator/Male Predator

Summary: Two hunters separated by species and lightyears are about to team up.

Disclaimer: I do not own Predator, nor do I make earn any monetary compensation for the stories I write that feature such characters. However, all my original characters are just that, original. That makes them mine, and they cannot be used without my express written permission.

Feedback: Please. I will respond to all signed reviews on ffn, aff

Word Count: 2845

Waking from a restful slumber, Vek’rin’ka stretched his massive muscles and opened his mandibles wide in a yawn. Shaking off the sleep he re-equipped his armor and weapons. In his refreshed state he would track down Al’brk’vix and finish his mission.

Securing the ship Vek’rin’ka returned to the scene of the fight from the morning. There was no sign that either yautja had been there before, which was as it should be. He followed the faint scent trail Al’brk’vix had left when he fled to the edge of the dock. Approaching where Al’brk’vix had jumped off the dock Vek’rin’ka climbed down and spotted a storm drain that emptied into the water.

Making his way from post to post Vek’rin’ka approached the entrance of the tunnel. The thin strip of sand at the base showed no sign of having been walked on and Al’brk’vix’s arm would not allow him to climb or swim for long. The tunnel was the obvious escape route. Dropping into a crouch so that the 5 foot drain would accommodate his 8’4” frame, Vek’rin’ka almost had to crawl through the space.

Advancing 10’ into the tunnel Vek’rin’ka could not pick up any of the Bad Blood’s scent. Cursing at himself for allowing Al’brk’vix to escape yet again, Vek’rin’ka backed out of the hole. The coward would be laying low for a while and with no way to track him Vek’rin’ka was at a loss. He didn’t really blame himself though. The material most of the city was made off did not hold scent very well. It was not surprising that there was little scent left to track.

Coming feet first out of the small tunnel it suddenly hit Vek’rin’ka. Al’brk’vix knew about the female. There was no telling how much, but she would have to be checked on. She did not need to be involved in this. Vek’rin’ka knew she could hold her ground against an ooman criminal, but against a yautja one, he did not know. As a mother, however, she shouldn’t do too badly, especially if Al’brk’vix did something exceedingly stupid, like mess with the child.

Making his way carefully through the city, Vek’rin’ka worked his way northwest. He reasoned that the female would have left the healers’ building by now, and if not she would soon head home. It would be best to check and make sure that Al’brk’vix had not bothered the family.

Vek’rin’ka finally reached the dwelling as the sun was setting. After scouting the area for Al’brk’vix, Vek’rin’ka staked out his previous perch in the old tree by the youngling’s window. He was pleased with the small advantage that he received when he had destroyed the Bad Blood’s wrist computer. Al’brk’vix no longer had his self-destruct device nor his enhanced cloaking device. It was an amazing piece of technology, but its destruction would not cause any feelings of regret amongst the technicians on the home world. It wouldn’t have been touched. Not being the creation of a Bad Blood anyway.

Just minutes after settling himself, Vek’rin’ka watched as both the female and the youngling walked into the room. Both appeared to be upset, but were trying to comfort each other. Vek’rin’ka’s sensitive ears heard the conversation through the open window.

XXXXX

Cass sat by the front door for a long time sobbing into Sonya. Sonya didn’t know what had happened, but if her aunt was crying it must have been really bad. The last time her aunt had cried had been when she got to the hospital after the drunk driver had hit the car her family had been in.

Eventually Cass had stopped crying and told Sonya that she had to get ready for her day camp class. They would talk later. Right now Joann was waiting for her. Sonya scampered off to find her bag and get out to the car. She was worried about her aunt, but she was a strong person. Nothing too bad would happen to her.

After Sonya and Joann had left Cass made her way to her room. She collapsed on her bed and fell into a deep sleep. Exhaustion and suppressed grief produced a restless but dreamless sleep that lasted until Joann sent Sonya to get her up for dinner.

During dinner Cass tried to keep the conversation away from what was bothering her. Dinner was quickly eaten and dishes done before Cass led Sonya upstairs to talk to her.

XXXXX

Vek’rin’ka watched as the female sat the child down on its sleeping platform. When she knelt down in front of the youngling he leaned forward as far as the branch would allow. Their body language indicated that whatever was going to be said would be important and he didn’t want to miss any of it.

“Sonya,” the voice floated through the window. “Today, Mr. MacKenzie, Stephanie and Michelle’s dad, was hurt.”

Vek’rin’ka waited as the voice paused.

“Is he alright,” Vek’rin’ka heard the child ask.

“No sweetie,” the older female continued. “He died this morning.”

“Oh. So…he’s with mommy and daddy now in heaven?”

“Yes, Sonya. He’s with your mom and dad.”

Vek’rin’ka was stunned. The female wasn’t the pup’s mother. That could explain why she pursued such a dangerous lifestyle while she had a youngling at home. She may have been an Arbitrator for her kind before the child came into her care. The question about why she treated it like her own if it wasn’t hers puzzled him though. She even had an aseigan for it when she couldn’t be there.

Vek’rin’ka watched through the window as the two females embraced. Usually when these oomans lose someone close to them they lost water from their eyes. Neither of these two did. These appeared to be emotionally strong oomans.

Continuing the vigil, Vek’rin’ka watched the duo until they released each other. Listening to the oomans after they departed he detected a slight wavering in the older one’s voice. Her body language was tense though she was trying to hide it. Maybe it was the physical touch that provided oomans strength. It was very different from his people who deemed uninvited contact as an offense. In fact, any physical contact was generally avoided most of the time.

“I have to have Joann drive us down to work to pick up the truck,” Vek’rin’ka heard from the window.

The female was going to leave. Probably to return to the building she had gone to repeatedly with her former companion, if Vek’rin’ka’s understanding of the word “work” was correct. The “truck” must be her transport vehicle. His planted tracking device showed it still stored near the suspected building. He had considered planting one on the female, but the opportunity to get close enough to her without being discovered had not presented itself.

Wanting to follow, Vek’rin’ka looked for the vehicle that the family was likely to take. The only one present was a small, completely enclosed one. Obviously he would have to make his own way. First he placed a tracking transmitter on the small transport, and then he started making his own way to the other building in the more commercial area of the city.

XXXXX

When Cass walked into the squad room everyone stopped what they were doing. Pausing ever so briefly to glare around the room making sure that Captain Adams wasn’t around, Cass proceeded to her desk. While rummaging through the loose papers, files and memos one her desk she didn’t notice Sonya as she grew bored and wandered down the hall to look for her friend, Steve, her aunt’s boss.

Back in the main squad room Capt. Adams approached Cass at her desk.

“I thought I had made it clear to you. You are supposed to be on leave,” Adams said sternly.

“Well I can’t very well just leave my truck on the street now can I,” Cass snarled back as she slammed one of her desk drawers closed and roughly pulled open another nearly spilling the contents on the floor.

After shifting various office supplies around she triumphantly held up her keys that had been hiding in the bottom drawer. Turning to her boss, “Now I can go have my precious time off.” Turning and not finding Sonya with her she started looking for her, ignoring the trailing captain.

Meanwhile, Sonya had found an open but occupied interview room. A couple meters down the hall were a bunch of adults talking amongst themselves, but in the room a little girl sat alone. The room was not too inviting and the little girl looked scared. Taking it upon herself to introduce herself Sonya walked into the room.

“Hi,” Sonya said startling the little girl out of her trance-like stare. “I’m Sonya.”

“Hi,” came a shy reply.

“What’s your name?”

“Kristen.”

“Hi Kristen, whatcha doin’ here,” Sonya asked.

“A monster hurt me. Did he hurt you too?”

“No, but my aunt works here. She’s the best police officer ever. I bet she catches your monster. And she’ll throw him in jail, too.”

“I hope so,” Kristen said staring at the table in front of her. She seemed on the verge of tears which Sonya sensed as she rounded the table. She walked up to the girl and hugged her. Kristen wrapped her arms around the 8-year-old and buried her face in the other’s neck.

Through the two-way mirror Cass and Adams watched the two girls. The new primary detective on the case and Mr. and Mrs. Reca also stood there.

“I am going to catch this bastard,” Cass said as much to her boss as the other detective.

“I kinda figured that. But I want you to talk to one of the department counselors. Soon,” Adams said as he shrugged at the other detective. The other detective understood. They were all territorial of their cases. Add to that Cass’s legendary stubbornness and there was no real chance that he would have finished the case anyway. He was just babysitting a hot one for a while.

“I’ll talk to RunningWolf,” Cass said as she walked into the room to collect her niece.

Both children turned to Cass as she entered. Sonya smiled warmly at her aunt. She turned back to Kristen.

“This is my aunt,” she stated proudly. “And she is going to catch your monster. Aunt Cass, this is Kristen.”

“I know. We’ve met before,” Cass said as she smiled at the little girl.

“At the hostible,” Kristen said as she smiled at Cass. “I know you will get him, the invisdible man will help.”

Puzzled with the persistence of this ‘invisdible man,’ Cass chalked it up to the child’s mind trying to deal with her recent trauma. She collected Sonya and started to head out the door.

Passing the Captain on the way out Cass told him firmly once more, “I AM going to get him.”

XXXXX

Vek’rin’ka had found the building with no problem. Bypassing the heavy evening traffic, he had no trouble reaching the area before the oomans. He searched from window to window looking for a vantage point to observe the female. He wondered why she would have brought the youngling to this place. There were undoubtedly ooman Bad Bloods around here, they would be dangerous to the child. If what he had seen the previous night was any indication, they were especially dangerous towards the young. He just didn’t understand her reasoning.

He found a window that gave him a view of the female. He, however, did not see the child. Where the hell could she have gone? This was no place for a child, especially an unattended one. Wishing he could enter the building he moved around the building moving from ledge to ledge. Soon he came to a window that was covered by rigid metal mesh on both sides of the glass. With the thermal imaging setting on his mask he could see two small beings in the room on the other side. One was the female’s child, the other was smaller. Taking a more intense look at the other body he realized that it was the little girl he had pulled out of the storage building the night before.

Turning on the sound amplifier in his mask so that he could hear what the two young ones were saying, Vek adjusted his grip on the ledge. He heard part of something about a ‘monster’ hurting the smaller one. He certainly knew what the word ‘monster’ meant. The female’s said something about ‘throwing’ it in ‘jail’. Perhaps that is the place Bad Bloods went on this planet, but Vek’rin’ka could not see how this Bad Blood should be ‘thrown’ anywhere except onto the end of a ki’its-pa.

For the second time that evening Vek’rin’ka watched as two oomans embraced. The larger, presumably older, child held the smaller one protectively as the small one buried her face in the other’s neck. This physical contact must be very important to oomans or at least females since he had not yet seen any males partake in such an activity. At that moment Vek’rin’ka heard voices from outside the room. Turning his amplifier up he picked out the voice of the female he was observing. ‘I’m going to get him’ is what he heard. Assuming it was the ooman Bad Blood that she was talking about he felt an admiration for her determination. It was too bad that she was a mother. She would have made worthy prey.

At that point, the female walked into the room. The trio talked for a few moments. The two younglings seemed confident that the female would catch her prey, as did the female. She certainly possessed a fighter’s spirit. Vek’rin’ka wondered how common this was among ooman females.

XXXXX

As Cass led Sonya out of the precinct house Sonya wanted to ask her aunt a question. Trying to find a way to ask it Sonya remained quiet for some minutes as they walked down the stairs.

“Who’s the monster,” Sonya finally asked Cass.

Cass was startled out of her thoughts when Sonya suddenly spoke up. Answering the question proved to be harder than it would have seemed. Cass wanted to protect Sonya from the ugly truth that was the world. As a cop, though, she also knew that what you didn’t know could harm you, even kill you. She had seen that many times before.

Swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat Cass looked down at Sonya as she kept walking. “The monster was a man who stole her from her mom at the mall.”

Sonya didn’t immediately understand and asked another question. “Why did Kristen call him a monster then, if it was a person?”

Trying to explain the inner workings of a traumatized four year old to an eight year old proved to be even more difficult. Cass finally settled on a simple explanation.

“Well, Kristen is very young and was very scared. The man that took her probably seemed more like a monster than a person.”

“Like the boogieman,” Sonya probed.

“Yes, like her own boogieman,” Cass confirmed.

“So, who is the invisible man then,” Sonya continued.

Cass felt a small smile tug at her lips. Sonya would make a great cop. For an eight year old her interrogation skills were very good.

“The invisible man that she talks about is just something she made up in her mind. Sort of to help protect herself. When she is better able to deal with what happened the invisible man will fade away because she will not need him to protect her anymore,” Cass said sounding not completely convinced. She could not easily dismiss the handcuffs that had been cut so precisely. She doubted that Burns would have turned her loose, and if he did, why didn’t he just unlock them with the keys? The nagging feeling continued as the duo made their way to the blue Chevy parked on the street near the building’s entrance. Whoever else had been in that building certainly couldn’t have been invisible. Invisible people only existed in the movies and on TV, Cass thought thinking back to all the Star Trek episodes that she had watched.

XXXXX

Seeing the oomans leave, he decided it was time for him to go as well. He should have reported his progress already. Elder Hin’lig would want that progress report soon. That and he had a lot of information to sort through. Updating the ship’s computer and filing all the new information would take a while.

Foregoing further observation of the female, Vek’rin’ka climbed onto the roof of the building. He made his way back to the ship carefully to ensure no one followed him. He hadn’t encountered the ooman male that seemed to turn up every place he did, but there was no reason to get careless. Especially with the apparent relationship the male had with the female he was studying. He could be anywhere, or show up anytime. More importantly, Vek’rin’ka absolutely did not want Al’brk’vix finding the ship. The ship would a key piece in the final out come of this hunt.