Sophie prowled through the grassy field, surrounded by the forest. Though she knew by now that they were never alone. 'Always watching, always waiting,' Sophie remembered. 'For the moment to strike.'

The katana weighed virtually nothing in her hands, it was perfectly balanced. She had been training with it for so long that it felt like an extension of her body. 'You cannot drop a part of your body,' Guan'thwei had clicked to her in his native language, something she had been trying so desperately to learn. Sophie had retorted, 'You can if they cut it off.'. That made Guan'thwei cackle with amusement, but acknowledged that it was true.

Sophie had been told numerous times that she could not fight one-on-one with Guan'thwei's kind. He was right. They could squash her like a bug. But, it wasn't like Sophie had any choice. There was no way in hell that she wasn't going to be attacked by a Predator considering they were living on their hunting ground. Originally a young high school girl with no concept of combat made living on the Preserve even more challenging. The protectiveness that Royce and Isabelle displayed got on her nerves though. She wasn't as young as she used to be. Sophie was certain they had been on this planet for years.

That was why Sophie appreciated that they were allowing her to come to this attack. No more hunting mutts, no more learning survival skills, and no more holding back. It was seldom that they let her participate in fights against the Bad Bloods. Granted, it wasn't like Sophie could ask for permission. The Bad Bloods usually just attacked without warning. As much as she wished for a free pass from all this violence and savagery, that simply wasn't the way of the world Sophie lived in.

Sophie jolted when she heard the loud slushing noise of Jack walking lazily through the grass with his cowboy boots. He had only been on the Game Preserve for a week or so. Apparently, this redneck was good with a rifle and involved with gang violence, hence why he was chosen by the Bad Bloods. They weren't worthy of being prey in Sophie's eyes because his kind always died. She was used to seeing

"Is tha' thang here yet?" he asked aloud in his Southern drawl.

She immediately grabbed the middle-aged man and tossed him to the ground. Sophie sprung at him like a monkey, slinging out Stans' shiv and holding it to his jugular. His brown eyes were wide as he held his calloused hands up in surrender. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down, jungle girl!" Jack stammered, breaking out in a nervous sweat. "I mean no 'arm, I was jus' tryin' ta—"

"—Shut—the—fuck up!" she spat in his face, enraged by how careless he was about making noise. This Sophie may have been young, but Jack Dunbar didn't like the murderous look on her face. There was something absolutely dark about her. He thought of her as some jungle goddess by the way she dressed and acted. A huntress, in other words. Seeing her in action, Jack didn't doubt it. "You mean us harm when you don't shut your blabbering redneck mouth! You might as well wave a flag reading 'here we are, come and kill us please'!" Sophie snapped, throwing Jack hard into to the ground. "Now shut up and shoot, and we might just make it out of here alive, cowboy."

"—Hey, don't ya tell me what t' do, ya fuckin' sissy twat!" Jack snorted, brushing the dirt of his jean jacket and picking up his machine gun. He spat the last of the chewing tobacco he had left from his mouth. As much as he wanted to shoot the bitch, this Sophie Pace was fiercer than he had previously thought. Although Jack did like the way she was dressed, almost like she was a huntress. The leather dress gave him a nice view of her tits and legs. This Sophie was with the other two survivors who had been helping him. Jack nearly shit his pants when he saw the 'Predator' as Sophie called him. He tried to stay as far away from the hideous creature as he could. When Jack tried to make a friendly conversation with the Predator, the creature slung out his wrist blades and trapped his neck against a tree with them, only centimeters away from slicing his throat.

Sophie couldn't stand these people, Isabelle was really trying her patience by trying to accept every person (criminal) that was stranded on this planet for the game. Royce didn't like it, Guan'thwei didn't like it, and Sophie sure as hell didn't like it. Sophie had no qualms about the other stranded humans so long as they didn't mean any harm. But there was no way of knowing that, especially after how untrustworthy Edwin and Noland turned out to be. Who knew what kind of issues these foreigners had. Whenever they teamed up with other people, they would always die to the Bad Bloods. Royce, Isabelle and Sophie were the only three to have survived this long. Jack Dunbar was a redneck who was good with a shot, along with a bald guy nicknamed "Lucifer"; a former demolitions expert in the Navy SEAL, and Terrence; a violate drug dealer, were among the latest unfortunate souls to have wound up on the Game Preserve.

Jack was mumbling to himself while checking the amount of ammunition in his gun. "Knew ah should've been a mailman. Blame ya, mother—"

Sophie saw a purple light from the corner of her eye and immediately dropped flat onto her stomach. There was a loud blasting noise as Jack's head exploded from an energy surge. Blood and brain splattered all over the ground right in front of Sophie. Jack's decapitated body slumping over into the grass. The sight of blood and gore was an everyday thing and no longer bothered her.

Sophie heard the shushing noise of grass being walked through. Her head jerked to the direction it came from, only a few yards away from the trees. It took no effort to drown out the noisy jungle, her attention focused on the greenery around her, where her pursuers where no doubt hiding. Royce, Isabelle, and Guan'thwei had trained her for this. That was when she could smell it. The scent of blood. Her eyes dilated as she spotted the iridescent outline of a large creature. Its figure was invisible, but detectable now that it was out in the open. It took great focus to be able to spot a Predator with its cloak on. She could spot the luminescent hue around its edges. A bad move on the Bad Blood's part.

"Found it!" Sophie shouted into her radio, before ducking behind a large rock, not wanting to take any chances of it blowing her apart. There was a purple light and a small explosion from where she had once stood. Her senses were right, as usual. "Sophie, get out of there!" Royce's voice yelled into her earplug.

"We're on our way!" Isabelle added through the radio.

A barrage of purple blasts was flying all around her. Sophie had no choice but to run through the trees as she heard the Bad Blood thumping behind her. She knew she couldn't outrun this thing, certainly not fight it head on. Sophie jumped down a small grassy slope covered in leaves, swinging out Stans' shiv and slicing the vines tied around a couple of trees. But, that didn't mean that they couldn't fight back.

A massive tree trunk, suspended by more vines, swung towards the Bad Blood. It slammed into the creature, knocking it against a mossy trunk. The invisibility cloak surrounding the Bad Blood began to malfunction before promptly shutting off from the damage. Sophie was certain that she knocked the wind out of the Bad Blood. 'They can be killed,' she reminded herself. 'Only because it's not experienced like I am.'

The Bad Blood aimed its Wrist Gauntlet at Sophie, causing her to bolt for the trees for cover before it could hit her. The Bad Blood fired a single-shot and Sophie heard the slice before feeling it. Then, she saw the blood splatter to her side. Her own blood. The energy bolt had grazed through the side of her left shoulder. Sophie let out a grunt in agony, clutching her wound. It was the sting that hurt the most from these weapons. The only good thing about the energy projectile weaponry of the Predators was that it cauterized the wounds. A couple of more shots were fired at her, hitting the trunk she was hiding behind. Sophie grimaced, ignoring the searing pain in the side of her shoulder and severing another couple of traps.

"This is my jungle, bitch!" Sophie hollered, immediately fleeing the scene.

Three makeshift spears spun toward the Bad Blood from seemingly every direction, pincushioning the earth. For the most part, the Bad Blood rolled out of the way, only barely. It dodged one, only to trigger the next trap—a branch adorned with carved spikes—getting stabbed in its scaled legs.

Sophie could hear the loud animalistic scream of agony—only to be abruptly silenced. She briefly stopped running upon the quietness. 'Those traps couldn't have killed him,' Sophie thought.

None of them were really meant to kill any of the Bad Bloods. The traps could only immobilize them at best, then they would go in for the kill while they couldn't move. Guan'thwei had taught her that from what they learned from Dutch Shaeffer, one of the few humans who was strong and cunning enough to kill one of his kind. The traps as well as Guan'thwei's knowledge of his species always made it difficult for the Bad Bloods to attack. The jungle was constantly booby trapped and the Bad Bloods were outwitted.

Sophie ran like the wind, careful to avoid any traps without triggering them. Royce wanted her to go through the traps otherwise the Bad Bloods would just follow her to safety. They made a couple of spots where Sophie could run or jump to without springing them.

Sophie could hear each powerful thud of the Bad Blood behind her. Right behind her. She was knocked to the ground by a balled-up fist. Quickly, Sophie leapt to her bare feet and up at the Bad Blood with Hanzo's katana drawn.

This Bad Blood was a different one, she could tell by the different set of wrist blades that were covered in glowing green blood. Sophie realized that it wasn't the trap that killed the first Bad Blood, it was this one. He killed a member of his own pack for being outwitted and wounded by a human child-bearer.

Two more Bad Bloods emerged from the brush fully cloaked. They conversed through the clicking noises, which Sophie understood from Guan'thwei. She didn't have the mandibles necessarily to properly speak the language, but it sure as hell required a lot of phlegm.

"Tu raka!" Sophie spat at them.

There was a moment of silence from the Bad Bloods before they deactivated their cloaks. They began conversing with their leader. Sophie listened, they were amused by how the ooman basically asked for a surrender in their language.

"Guan'thwei must have taught her, how else would a human child-bearer survive this long?"

"The human child-bearer dares to use our tongue…"

While it was terrifying being surrounded by three Yautja, Sophie was intrigued by what they were saying. She understood it after all that time spent with Guan'thwei.

These four new Bad Bloods had been hunting them for months. There were other Bad Bloods that had come to the Game Preserve before, but they were nothing compared to the prowess of Guan'thwei, an experienced hunter. They would all die to them, mostly because of Guan'thwei. At times, Sophie felt that the only one getting stronger was the Predator.

The Bad Bloods weren't the only ones who got stronger on this planet.

Out of nowhere, Guan'thwei sprung from the bushes and drove his wrist blades into the throat of one of the Youngblood Bad Bloods. The young pup could only gargle on its own blood as it died. Guan'thwei then spun around and spun around with both wrist blades cutting through the other two. These Youngblood Bad Bloods were nothing compared to the might of a Blooded warrior. It happened so fast that Sophie barely had time to react. As mesmerizing as it was to watch Guan'thwei take on all three of them so effortlessly, Sophie got up and ran. 'Lord knows it would be even more difficult without Guan.'

The leader hissed at the other two surviving Youngbloods to go after the humans. They were no match for a Blooded warrior like he was, and he wanted to be the one to personally take Guan'thwei down.

The leader drew his own wrist blades, clashing against Guan'thwei's own. "I can't believe you killed Kvar'thwei," he scoffed in their language. "Your honor breathes weakness!"

Guan'thwei shoved him back. "I didn't kill him," he sneered. "The ooman lou-dte kale did, he was pathetically weak. You and your cjit brethren are no different. This planet will be your u'sl-kwe just like his is now."

The leader let out a monstrous war before the two resumed their fight by ramming into each other, trying to overwhelm the other with their body weight. Guan'thwei managed to stick his wristblades into the Bad Blood's leader's forearms, causing him to hiss with pain.

This was going to be fun.

Sophie dropped from the tall branches, sprinting past the swampy soil at her bare feet. Bolts of purple were being fired at her way, just barely missing her and drawing closer. One such bolt hit a large tree trunk, cracking it right in half and knocking it over against the steep hill.

Sophie jumped off a mossy ledge and landed in some mud. She stood still behind a tree, feeling the cool and strange sensation of mud filling in between her toes. Sophie knew that the tree provided little cover and that the Bad Bloods knew exactly where she was. She waited for more blasts from the unblooded Bad Bloods plasma cannon, but found none. Her ears were tuned in to the jungle surrounding her, making sure that Bad Bloods weren't trying to creep from behind.

There was a large thumping noise from a few yards away from her and the Bad Blood uncloaked himself. Sophie couldn't help but smirk. 'Just a little closer,' she thought.

With one more step, the Bad Blood stepped on the lever—and the last thing Sophie saw was the powerful fiery explosion engulf that Bad Blood. She covered her face as debris went flying everywhere and the ground shook beneath her. Sophie fell backwards onto the jungle ground from the blast. Her ears were suddenly ringing and throbbing painfully. 'Maybe I should've stepped back a little more.' Sophie wiped her dirtied brow, watching as the smoke began to clear. 'Clueless Bad Bloods.'

There was a loud shot that rang through the jungle and the loud squeal of a Yautja. Sophie turned around to see a cloaked Bad Blood standing behind her. She could see the blood from the gunshot wound dripping onto the ground. Sophie quickly got up and bolted through the trees, looking at each one. She was frantically wondering where the fuck Royce was.

Sophie was suddenly pinned to a tree by the powerful claws of the same Yautja. He dug his talons into the back of her neck before throwing her to the ground. "C'jit ooman!" the Bad Blood growled through his mask.

"Tarei hsan!" Sophie spat back. This enraged the Bad Blood more, having a ooman lou-de kale dare speak his tongue. He would have Guan'thwei's head for this and make sure he fucked the ooman bloody for that.

A pair of eyes opened from behind Guan'thwei, before peeling itself from the muddy tree trunk it was blended in to. A pair of wristblades pierced through the chest of the Bad Blood. It let out a pain-filled roar before attempting to turn around to kill his attacker. But, Sophie was one step ahead of him, she drew Hanzo's blade and pierced the Bad Blood through the heart. Just as quickly, Sophie withdrew it and stepped back. The Bad Blood still had enough strength in himself to kill her as it died. It let out a grunt as blood dripped from the chin of its mask. The scaled monster fell to its knees before collapsing on the ground before her with a huge thump. Sophie was breathing intensely and her heart beating a million miles a minute. She lowered the katana and felt herself calming.

"Took ya long enough." sighed Royce.

Sophie looked up to see the mud-covered Royce step forward, wiping the green blood from his machete on his tattered pants. He had disguised himself with mud against one of the trees. Sophie could spot him out easily, but that the Yautja could not, even with their masks usually on heat vision. Their eye sight was one of their greatest weaknesses.

Sophie knelt down to strip the Bad Blood of its technology. She retracted the two jagged wristblades before removing the Wrist Gauntlet. It was the most prized possession of a Yautja and its loss was often met with severe punishment. If a Yautja was ever in a situation where it knew death was inevitable, it would activate the self-destruct mode on the device, destroying the Yautja's body and technology. But they had killed the Bad Blood before it could. Sophie reckoned that Guan'thwei would want this technology back.

"Nice job on the explosion, Izzy," Sophie said into the radio.

"Thank you," her voice replied. "Where's Guan'thwei?"

There was a loud howl of pain from inside the forest, enough to make the birds fly away. The sound of a Yautja dying. Sophie was relieved as it didn't sound like Guan'thwei's voice, despite how similar the Yautja sounded. She spent enough time with the Predator to know this. Royce ran into the forest to check on Guan'thwei while Sophie gathered the equipment of the dead Bad Blood. She shoved the Wrist Gauntlet into a bad, before a loud animalistic growl came from behind her. It sounded like a lion's roar and Sophie immediately recognized it as an anju, a feline creature that had six eyes, two sets of needle-thin sharp teeth and quills covering its body. Sophie slowly reached for her katana as the anju prowled closer, crouching in preparation to launch itself at her. If that anju landed on her, Sophie knew that she was done for. The teeth, the talons, the quils….so many sharp objects on a cat creature.

Before the anju could lunge for Sophie, a pair of Wrist Gauntlets slammed itself into the spine of the cat, pinning it to the ground. The anju let out one last howl in agony before dying. Guan'thwei uncloaked himself and swiftly withdrew his wristblades. Sophie would've told the Yautja 'thank you' if such words existed in their language. Instead, they said nothing, with Sophie only handing him what she had scavenged the Bad Bloods. The Elders would be pleased with him for returning such valuable technology. "Are we going home?" Sophie spat in Yautja, her voice a hiss whenever she spoke his tongue.

Guan'thwei looked to her with his silver mask that was scarred. He held the decapitated head of the leader of the Bad Bloods in his other hand. Sophie let out a sigh of relief and collapsed to her knees.

They were going home.

Author's Note: I am super super super super super super super super super sorry for not uploading this in April like I promised. I had even made an announcement at the time. But as soon as I did...all 7 chapters that I had completed got fucked up by Microsoft Word. The text just went invisible or something. It does that shit to me sometimes. I was so FUCKING pissed and not at all in the mood to rewrite what I had written. I was also in college at the time and didn't have enough time to write it. I'm still in college so I'll try my best to update this as fast as possible. I might be able to upload the next chapter today or the next two days. Depends. I'll try not to make promises I can't keep. Anyways, hope you enjoyed. Sorry its kinda a quick chapter, the story really starts when they go home.