There's gonna be a lot happening in this story since I want to get it done and focus on other projects more. Enjoy!

I wake up later to find that I've been moved to mine and Dauntless' bed and find that she isn't here. Feeling hungry, I head to the outside the hive, taking the knife that snugly fits into the wall with 's Sarah' for when she travels between here and the colony. We did try to send someone with her but that didn't end well. Something about the guy being a pervert and staring at her butt the whole time. Long story short, he came home with more than a few cuts and bruises. So, we settled with a knife, since she wouldn't let anyone go with her after that. She told me that she didn't mind me using it for skinning as long as I told her first. And cleaning it afterwards.

"Would you mind telling Sarah that I'm taking this?" I ask one of the guards.

'Why not do it yourself?' He replies gruffly. It seems that he's not a fan of me, not that I blame him.

"I'm kinda afraid to be near her right now."

'Oh right, you fucked Dauntless so hard that you broke her bed.' He laughs at this, and so does his buddy.

"How do you know about that?"

'Well, Shaun here was walking past when Sarah went in her room. He heard her yell at you two and decided to have a peek. It was pretty clear what you two did, considering the mess you two made. It looked like a Jackson Pollock painting,' He replies, pointing to the person across from him

"Oh."

'Did you not notice the mess?' Thinking back, it was quite messy.

"Before I came here, I was a weird, disorganised, lazy teenager. There was shit everywhere in my room."

'Hmm. Yeah, I'll tell her. Be careful out there.'

"I didn't think you cared." I cross my arms and lean against the wall, interested in his answer.

'I don't. Just trying to keep Dauntless off my back. A human woman can be bad enough, I don't want to be on the receiving end of her grief.' can tell he isn't joking but I can't help but laugh a bit at this.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." With that, I leave, making my way deep into the surrounding forest. I don't know exactly what's in the forest, but from the scents in the air, I can tell that there are some delicious things in here. It takes me a long while to find something, and even then, it's just a small rabbit.

"The joys of hunting," I mumble to myself, not impressed with the amount of meat on my catch, or the length of time it took to actually catch it.

b'Better than nothing,'/b Comments my split.

"I guess, but why is there fuck all around here?" I mumble everything I say so that if someone was to actually walk past, they wouldn't hear me talking to myself, literally a madman.

b' Maybe you didn't go out far enough. I mean, it's a big forest. And maybe the animals know to stay away from the hive.'/b

"Maybe. I'll ask Dauntless when I get back." I then get up and wander until I find a stream. One of the best advantages of being part Xenomorph is that I always know my way home and so, don't have to keep track of where I'm going. It doesn't take me long to find a small stream where I clean the knife, as well as my hands and face, before heading back. I get back fairly quickly, seeing Dauntless at the entrance.

"Hey you," I call to her as I near.

'Hey,' She replies, pulling me close and playing with my hair.

"You on watch?"

'Yeah.' At that, she lets out a big huff. It's the one job she hates doing, sitting there and staring at the same chunk of forest for an hour. It was only an hour each shift, but a long, boring one. Something I shared her outlook on.

"Ya want me to stay here with you? Keep you company."

'You don't have to, I'll be fine. It's only an hour. Catch anything.'

"Not really. A small rabbit with not much meat on it." At this, I cough a little, it hurts my chest a little, which also feels a bit tight now...

'You didn't stay out?'

"It'll do for now. How about we go out later?"

'That sounds nice. Maybe we'll catch an Elk.'

"Maybe," I say with a small chuckle. I look over to see a not too pleased Sarah storming over. "Uh Oh."

'What?' Dauntless looks back. 'Oh.'

"Hey Sarah, how've you been?" I ask, slinking behind Dauntless slightly.

"'HEY SARAH' THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT DESTROYING MY ROOM?!" She shouts, turning quite a few passing heads

"Sorry."

"YOU BROKE THE BED! SNAPPED IT IN HALF!"

"We did?" Thinking back, I do have the faintest recollection of the sound of wood snapping, me suggesting to stop, and then passing out from exhaustion half an hour later.

"HOW DO YOU NOT REMEMBER?!"

"To be honest, I don't remember much about that night." I look over at Dauntless, who is trying to stifle a laugh, making me smile.

"THIS ISN'T FUNNY!"

"I'm sorry!" I can't stop smiling.

"UGH!" At this, she starts hitting me. With a yelp, I throw my arm up to block her attacks. Afterwards, she storms off and after a few moments of silence, I can hear the faint sound of crying. I look over to Dauntless, who shares my look of worry and guilt.

"I should probably go check on her," I say, heading off after her. After a few turns, I find her with her back against the wall, head in her hands, crying. I walk over to her, sliding down the wall beside her.

"You okay?" I have no idea what to do.

"Do I look like I'm okay?"

"No." There's a long silence. "I don't understand."

"Understand what?"

"Did Dauntless and I break something else too? Something important."

"N-No. It's just. That bed was an exact replica of my fathers'."

"Okay. I'm guessing you two were close." She nods, her head now out of her hands.

"My mum wasn't a very good one. She was a druggie and, whenever she wasn't high, not much, she'd hit me. She passed away when I was young and left my dad to take care of me on his own. He was amazing, he managed to balance an extremely stressful and tiring job with taking care of me. He was my idol." A sad smile creeps onto her lips when she says this. "You probably think that I'm weird or something after hearing that my idol was my dad."

"No." She looks at me, curiosity in her eyes. "I've learnt not to judge people in their decisions. No matter how strange they are." She smiles, happily this time, which I return.

"Anyways, He was always there for me. If for example, I got home one day, a bit down, he'd notice like that," She says, with a snap of her fingers. "And he always knew how to cheer me up. I was always incredibly close to him, more than anyone else."

"And, when Dauntless came into your life, you couldn't see him anymore?"

"Wouldn't have been able to see him anyways." I'm confused for a moment but it quickly dawns on me. Her breath is shaky now, no doubt she is thinking of old memories.

"You don't have to continue if you don't want to. I know how hard this is, to speak about people who are gone." I wrap my arm around her, pulling her close. Right now, I don't care what Dauntless will say, this is what I feel is best.

"No. I've been bottling this up for too long." I nod. "One night, twenty-seven years ago, I was in bed and my father had gone out with his friends. I had to convince him to go, even at the age I was then, he didn't like to leave me on my own. 'Someday, I'll be gone and I can relax then.' He'd say.." At that point, I didn't need to know the rest. She blames herself for whatever happened, even more than what would be normal. She's the one who convinced him to go. Still, I let her continue. I know firsthand how good it is to talk to someone. "I was about to go to sleep when I heard some noise downstairs, a lot of it. So, I went down and saw a trail of blood. I follow it to see my dad fumbling with bandages as if that'd stop three four inch deep stab wounds, one cutting through the pulmonary artery. I called the ambulance and held him as they got here. They got him to the hospital and got him mostly stable and I was allowed to see him. He needed a surgery to close up some internal wounds. He wasn't in any condition to go into surgery and, during the surgery, he flatlined. Two days later, he was buried and I was left to pay off everything. So, I had to get a job and I didn't even get a chance to properly mourn.

"Oh." I am dumbstruck. I have no idea what to say. I look to see tears gathering in her eyes and hug her close, making her release her twenty-seven-year-old tears. I shush her while gently rubbing her back. After a long while, she finally calms down.

"You better now?" She nods.

"Thanks. I'm sorry for freaking out about a bed."

"No, I'm sorry for breaking it. If I knew how much it meant to you I wouldn't have… uhh…"

"Done what you did?"

"Yeah," I say, my cheeks going a little red. "I'll help you fix it. As payment." At this, I cough again, harder and longer. It hurts more and feels tighter too, so much that I rub my chest in discomfort.

"You okay?" I nod.

"Yeah. Don't know what brought it on though. Or why so hard."

"Do you want me to have a look you over?"

"No, I'm okay for now. If it gets any worse then you can." Then, with a nod, she leaves and I turn around and notice Dauntless glaring at me. With a sigh, I go to her, anticipating what is to come. "Hey, you." For a moment she doesn't say anything, just glares.

'I saw you with Sarah.' At this, I let out a long, annoyed sigh.

"So?"

'You know how I feel about that.'

"And you know how I feel about the past. Specifically past people."

'I know, but did you have to hold her for as long?'

"Yes!" Dauntless sighs at this.

'It's just, you're mine. And I don't want anyone taking you from me.' At this, I feel a bit bad.

"And they won't." She keeps the same unhappy look. "Look at it this way; You're different from the rest of us, not in a bad way, but your thought process is different than ours. We rely more on each other."

'You really think I'm that different?' She's a little hurt by my comment.

"Yes. But it's such a small thing," I say reassuringly, pulling Dauntless' hands into mine. "You're beautiful, smart, funny, strong. And I love you. Nothing will ever change that. I'm as attached to you as you to me. It's just, There's a part of me that needs to help people when they're the way Sarah was. I'm sorry that I upset you, but I can't help the way I am." There's a silence.

'I'm sorry. It was rude of me to complain about that.'

"It's okay. Wanna go catch that Elk now?" At this, I cough even more. Again, it's harder, tighter and more painful. Naturally, I put my hand in front of my mouth, and when I pull it away, there are a few droplets of blood on it.

'Are you okay?'

""Yeah. Looks like the huntin's gonna have to wait, I promised Sarah that I'd have her look over me if it got any worse."

'Okay. Just try not to be too long.'

"No dilly-dallying, I promise." With that, I head off to find Sarah. After looking around for a bit, I find her with Ares.

b' Who could've guessed she'd be here?'/b Says my split, making me smile.

'Me,' I think to him. A feeling of amusement pangs in the back of my mind.

"Hey," Sarah says, after seeing me approach.

"Hey. Remember how I said that I'd come see you if it got worse?"

"your cough, yeah. It did, did it?" I nod.

"I coughed up blood not too long ago." She grimaces at this. I look over at Ares, who's just staring at me with a mixture of shock, horror and confusion.

"You alright?" He doesn't answer. "Shocked at my beauty, no doubt."

'This can't be right. Come here.' He takes one step towards me when I set off into another coughing fit. And, same as the others, it's harder, tighter and more painful. This time, so painful that I have to put my hands on my knees. After, I look to see a tiny pool of blood on the ground. I stand up straight and, just like that, something stops. Something you'd never notice until it does. I shoot a hand to my chest and feel… nothing.

"Come on, you need to sit down," Sarah says, who I didn't even notice had her hands around me, trying to guide me to the wall. I look at her.

"What does it feel like when your heart stops?" In that moment, I feel a thump in my chest and I feel relieved for a moment before I feel a steady Da-Dump, Da-Dump. The first thump wasn't my heart. The next moment, it dawns on me: there's a Xenomorph inside me. There's another thump, one so painful That I'm forced onto my hands and knees. Another and I scream out in agony, now on my back. Another and I black out.

How's that for an ending? Would you look at that? Nearly fifty chapters. And to think that I used to think that It wouldn't even be twenty! And that this is my longest chapter yet! So. What did you think? Was it good, bad or somewhere in between? After all, how can an author get better without feedback? And thank you, for reading, commenting and for everyone for being sound! I was going to go back and rewrite this but I've decided not to. A little way to show myself what not to do, in terms of writing. And so, For the last time, I hope you enjoyed! Bye.