Realign

In the end, I at least managed to coerce Wolf into agreeing not to kill Devon. It was a pretty big step in my opinion, though I wasn't so sure why he was irritated at him in the first place.

"Good news," I said as we rejoined Devon, "he's not going to kill you."

"Oh, great, I was really worried," Devon responded sarcastically.

Despite that, his shoulders lost a lot of their tension. He really had been worried. I tried to reassure him with a smile, but he was watching Wolf.

"The bad news is that he doesn't want to be your friend," I said.

"That's perfectly fine," Devon retorted.

Wolf growled and nudged me, and I realized he probably wanted to know what the hell was going on. He would think I'd called him for pick up.

"Right . . . I have to explain. I know I called you and I didn't really think you'd show up this soon, if I'm being honest," I said, babbling somewhat. I wasn't sure why I was so nervous.

He prompted me to get on with it while Devon just looked bewildered.

"So, we need your help. Since you're here and all," I sighed, motioning toward where Jailbreak's corpse still lay.

By now, he was probably the same temperature as everything else. Without knowing what to look for, Wolf likely would have missed him completely with his infrared vision.

Indeed, after a moment of staring, he seemed a bit taken aback and harrumphed.

Then, he rounded on Devon and I.

I put my hands up immediately and made sure I was between him and Devon at all times. "It's okay, we didn't do this! He was dead when we found him and if you look closely, you'll see he died to those bugs."

Wolf chittered away and kneeled by the body, examining it closely. I let my arms drop and tried to explain a little more.

"He was here on a hunt, I think. He was captured by our people. They were keeping those bugs, too, from when we first met," I began.

Standing, Wolf listened to the rest of the story, rattling idly in displeasure.

"Our government was experimenting on them, learning more. They intended to do the same with him, but both were being transported elsewhere," I said, my conscience heavy. "The bugs got loose, the plane crashed, and now we're here."

I glanced at Devon to see if he had anything to add, but he was being uncharacteristically quiet.

Wolf grumbled deep in his chest and motioned toward his mask, then to the predator's face. He did the same thing for the rest of his armor and his weapons.

"His stuff? Probably back on the plane. It crashed not far away. I'll show you. What should we do with him, though?" I asked.

His answer was another dismissive snort and he pantomimed for me to lead him into the woods. To the crash, no doubt. He would want to get back all of the predator's gear.

Technology we'd stolen.

I rubbed my arm and gave Jailbreak a sidelong look. "So, we're just going to leave him here?" I pressed.

His response was a decisive click.

Devon chose then to speak up and I kind of wish he hadn't, though I was thinking the same thing he was saying.

"That's one of your guys, right? Shouldn't you be more upset about this?" he demanded.

Wolf growled in warning and I put hands up in a placating gesture before saying, "Please, help us understand."

After giving me a long look, Wolf played back audio from a few seconds ago. {He was captured,} came my voice.

My heart sank; I'd been right along.

To Devon, I said, "He lost all his honor when he was captured."

Wolf nodded and insisted we start moving.

"That's wrong," Devon huffed. "He was a victim. It wasn't his fault. Don't you care even a little bit?"

There was silence, filled only by an irritated grumble, and then Wolf indicated in the negative. Of course, Devin didn't know what the sound meant so I had to explain.

Wolf didn't care at all.

Devon made an exasperated motion at him as if to say "your alien friend doesn't give a shit". Like it was evidence against his character.

"That's the way things are with them, I guess." I tried to sound nonchalant. Like it didn't bother me at all.

But it did bother me . . . just a little bit.

With a sharp gesture and growl, Wolf once again tried to prompt us into showing him where to go. Where to get his goods.

"Okay, sorry, this way . . . ," I muttered, picking up my flashlight off the ground.

Though Devon hesitated somewhat, he did come along with me, sticking close.

"It's possible there are two other vics out here—victims. They could be infected. Can you help us find them?" I asked Wolf, who was on the opposite side of me to Devon.

He turned to the dark trees and scanned it real quick. After a moment, he nodded, but indicated for us to keep going.

"Right," I sighed. "Tech first."

"Why didn't you warn me that your ex was coming?" Devon berated me in a whisper. At least he was back to cracking terrible jokes.

I elected not to dignify his jibe with a response and just answered his question. "I didn't know for sure if he'd come, and I definitely didn't think it would only take him a few hours."

"A few hours?" Devon repeated, flabbergasted. "When exactly did you call him?"

I winced. "As soon as I got home after I left work."

"What in the ever-living fuck for?" He cut me off before I even opened my mouth. "And don't you dare tell me 'it's complicated' again."

At first, I didn't know what to say. Nothing I told him would make him feel better. I wasn't sure I really wanted to admit to how I'd been feeling at the time, defeated and victimized.

"I don't want to talk about it," I murmured at last.

He grabbed my shoulder and started to say something, but Wolf growled sharply and shoved Devon away.

"Hey, hey!" Devon protested. "Keep your hands off me!"

I turned to Wolf and put a hand against his chest. "Now, stop it. Be gentle. He's upset, confused, and probably a little scared, and you're not helping."

Wolf scoffed and Devon pouted.

"You two need to start getting along or else I'm gonna . . . I don't know! Put you both in timeout or something!" I said, more than just miffed by now.

The two of them shared an incredulous look and I threw my hands up in defeat.

"Fine! Whatever. Crash is this way," I muttered, storming off in the direction of the plane, navigating with my flashlight.

I didn't look back to make sure they were following me because what else were they going to do?

The crash site loomed up ahead and I marched up to the cargo door, still open from before. I motioned inside once the boys had caught up and said, "If his stuff is here, it's in one of those crates."

Snorting, Wolf swaggered up the ramp and into the darkness, making me roll my eyes.

Devon gave me a good-natured scowl and said, "We gonna talk about this later."

"Yeah, yeah . . ."

Before we could go up together, Wolf popped back up and stopped Devon from entering. He still pushed him, but it wasn't with as much force as before.

"What?" Devon demanded.

Wolf growled and started rattling nonsense in his language. He pointed at Devon, then at the bottom of the ramp and stood in front of the cargo door like some kind of security guard.

"I guess you gotta stay out here," I said with a shrug.

Eyes narrowed, Devon asked, "Why though?"

I gave it a moment's thought before responding. "Probably because he doesn't want you to see the stuff?"

Wolf hissed out the word for "yes".

"Yeah, that's it."

"I've already seen most of it," Devon argued.

"It's true, he has," I said, looking back at Wolf.

Growling, Wolf once again gesticulated that Devon had to stay put. I would have argued on Devon's behalf, but the way Wolf was growling made it pretty clear there was no room for negotiation.

Thankfully, Devon relented anyway.

"Fine, fine. I'll stand watch. Make sure no xenomorphs catch us off-guard" he muttered, walking back down the ramp to stand at the bottom.

"Thanks, Devon. I'm sorry," I said with a grimace.

He just waved over his shoulder.

I followed Wolf inside, a bit worried that Devon would be ambushed if we left.

"Let's be quick," I said. "I don't want to leave him alone for too long."

Wolf was silent, and he began rooting around the plane. After a moment, I joined him in his search to make it go quicker.

"The xenos were kept here," I explained, my footsteps echoing in the steel fuselage as I pointed out the containers I was talking about.

Then, of course, I realized he might not know what I meant. "The bugs. That's our name for them."

Wolf followed me to the clear glass tubes and the half-melted crates, crackling and grumbling to himself.

"The face-hugging ones were held there," I said.

He gathered samples of some liquids pooled by the facehugger canisters and then lifted the heavy crate off the crushed xenomorph with little effort. It crashed to the side and I winced at the noise.

"God you're such a show-off," I muttered under my breath, exhaling sharply.

If he heard me, he ignored the taunt and kneeled by the crushed corpse, which was sunk part way through the hull; its blood had corroded the floor almost all the way through.

He pulled out his medical box and an empty vial, filling it with acidic blood. With time, the acid lost its efficacy. He set the vial down, then pulled out the samples of canister liquid.

There were better things for me to do than watch him work, even though it was easy to be mesmerized by his process. I left him to his task and tried to find the missing technology we were after.

There were many other crates to sift through, most of which had piles of papers or hard drives: copies of all the information the labs had on the xenos and the predators.

Or maybe they were the originals and not copies. I couldn't tell.

Still, I doubted they left the tech at the Bureau, not when Weyland was all about that nerd kind of shit. They would have wanted it, to study it and replicate it. Reverse engineer it and make our weapons better.

Jailbreak's gear had to be around somewhere.

Eventually, Wolf rejoined me in the quest, prying bolted lids from crates I couldn't touch and dumping the contents in a clatter of noise.

I shot him a glare each time but had to remind myself that he had no reason to keep quiet.

There was no around but Devon.

"Here, this one," I called, standing near the cockpit by a big metal crate locked down tight.

I stepped aside when he approached and went straight to work, ripping the lid off with his bare hands. Stray bolts rattled to the ground.

Shaking my head, I marveled, "How do you even do shit like that?"

His shoulders shook in amusement and he kicked the crate over, spilling the packing peanuts in a cascade of foam. Something heavy and shiny clunked out, covered in the stuff.

After sharing a look, both of us crouched and sifted through the peanuts. Wolf picked up the fallen item, and I pulled out a small disk the size of my palm, embossed with deep, intricate seams.

"Bingo. We hit the mother lode," I said with a smile.

He took the disk from me and examined it, holding a thing I didn't recognize in his other hand.

"What is it?" I indicated to the disk.

Blades the length of my forearm extended from it with a vicious sound, starling me and eliciting an undignified squeal.

"A little warning next time, maybe?" I scoffed.

Still, I was amazed that such a small thing held such large, wicked blades. They fanned from the center of the disk, curved and serrated like some sort of bladed Frisbee.

Again, he did his version of a chuckle and retracted the blades, tucking the weapons away before digging through the rest of the gear.

I eyed each piece curiously—one more disk, a computer, what I thought looked like armor, and some other things I couldn't even begin to describe.

"Am I going to have to beg and plead for a weapon this time around?" I asked, feeling unusually cheeky.

It felt—right—being by his side again.

To my surprise, he stood and handed over a bladed weapon without a fuss. I blinked at him and reached out to take it, easily compensating for the minimal weight.

It looked familiar.

The blade was curved just so, balanced to perfection and sharp enough to split a hair. My fingers tightened around the like-leather hilt, nostalgia tightening my throat.

"Is it the same one?" I whispered.

Wolf nodded, the movement caught from the corner of my eyes. I ran my hand along the flat of the sharp edge and a tremor chased down my spine. It was so familiar, so comforting, and it eased some of my uncertainty about the situation.

I knew now where I stood with him, even more so than him showing up had done.

I'd been most afraid that he wouldn't want me anymore. That I'd waited too long and he'd forgotten or stopped caring.

After all this time, though, he had kept it. Waiting to give it to me again.

The sword from the ship. The first weapon he'd given me.

The scar on my back throbbed as I remembered the first time I'd driven the blade into a xenomorph, opening up a wound that spilled acid all over me.

Using it to fight for my very survival.

Swallowing hard, I pushed back latent fear and suppressed the bile threatening to bubble to the surface.

I'd done it, I'd killed it and survived. I'd made my first kill and Wolf had spent all that time teaching me how to use it the right way, accepting me as one of him.

Now it was time to prove I was worth the wait.

The corner of my lips twitched into a morose smile. It had served me well back then, traumatizing situation or not.

When I was done reminiscing, Wolf handed me the strap that belonged to it and showed me how to put it on. My backpack had to come off, first, then go on over it. Then, he taught me how to draw the weapon and put it away.

Its function was pleasantly simple: the thickest part of the strap was magnetized enough to hold the sword in place, forcing me to use a good portion of my strength to pull it free.

/I'll get used to it,/ I thought, making a few final adjustments to my backpack straps before heading out. It needed to be tighter so it wouldn't move so much when I tried to draw the sword.

Otherwise I'd probably cut it up.

Wolf decked himself out with the rest of the tech, including the predator's shoulder-mounted cannon, giving himself one for each shoulder. He offered me a spear, but I hadn't the slightest idea how to use it so he left it behind.

When I realized he was making a pile of discarded gear, I did a double take and then asked, "Wait, you're not taking them with us? What are you going to do with it all?"

He said something incomprehensible and showed me the predator's confiscated wrist computer.

"Okay . . ."

Wolf popped it open and punched in an intricate command. Some hash-mark-shaped runes appeared, flashed a couple times, then the machine started to beep.

The marks changed rapidly as the hoarse countdown droned on in an alarming rhythm.

"Is that . . . ?"

Before I could finish the question, he was urging me toward the cargo door with a firmness that stopped me from arguing and we fucked right off.

Devon heard us coming and faced us. "Jesus, I was starting to fall asleep there . . . yo where's the fire?"

Wolf bull-rushed right past him and I grabbed Devon's arm on my way to follow after the big alien.

"We have to go," I said. "Run now."

Without arguing, Devon hoofed it alongside us. Wolf seemed perfectly at home sprinting through the woods, but Devon and I struggled a bit.

But we managed to keep up.

Every time I thought Wolf would stop, he just kept going and I had to force myself to move after him. I always made sure Devon was there, and he always was.

We made it a little more than two football fields' length away when I heard the first concussion. I stopped, surprised, and turned around in time to see the forest sink inward toward the crash.

"What the fuck?" I muttered, eyes wide with morbid curiosity.

Devon had kept going, not noticing I'd stopped, but Wolf had doubled back for me. He growled and swept me up, carrying me the remaining few yards.

I was awestruck, unable to look away.

In seconds it was over. There was a gap in the trees and the crash was gone, swallowed by an electrical light and punctuated by a sizzle and a pop.

There was little sound beside the settle of the trees just outside the radius. A raucous call of angry birds disturbed by the noise rose up before dying down.

Behind us, Devon was aghast, his hands on his head. His jaw bobbed as if he had something to say, but the were no words coming out of it.

My heart thudded against my ribcage and I freed myself from Wolf's grip, staggering toward the site.

Stomach twisting, I stood at the edge of the disaster.

Everything was gone. The new clearing in the woods was almost a perfect circle, its diameter an Olympic swimming pool and deeper than a lake. There was no charring of wood, no sign of what might have happened.

The tree I stood next to was missing its front-facing half. Leaves fluttered before my face—some halves, and some wholes. Feet away from me, a rock tumbled through the dirt and stopped at the bottom.

Finally, Devon spoke.

"How the fuck am I going to explain this to the boss!"

I didn't know how to answer him, but the question was rhetorical anyway.

Wolf wrapped his fingers around my upper arm and growled, a non-threatening sound. I glanced up at him and let go of the breath I'd been holding.

"Why did you do that?" I asked, not unkindly.

"Hide," he hissed, his voice deep and guttural.

He seemed to understand English pretty well, but I inky ever noticed him say one or two words at a time. Maybe it was hard for him to speak it.

I tried to decipher what he meant by that. It wasn't hard to figure out the implication, though—he didn't want humans to have any sort of knowledge about his kind or the xenomorphs.

Above all, I couldn't imagine he wanted to carry all of Jailbreak's gear with us and had opted to just destroy it so it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands.

Devon echoed my thoughts. "He was destroying the evidence, obviously."

"Yes, thank you, I get it," I sighed, rubbing my forehead. I was getting tired and cranky, and all this mental exhaustion wasn't helping.

After taking a breath, I found that both of the boys were looking to me for guidance. Wolf because he wouldn't want to acknowledge any agency in Devon, and Devon because this was my alien friend.

Somehow, they wanted me to be in charge.

"Let's go see if we can't find those two missing people," I said.