Title: Guard Me?
Author: Flowerslilac.
Summary: Ordered to study a human, Tau'ok picks Jess, the loveable sixteen year old, whose world is then turned upside down. Rewritten and Revamped.
Rating: M
Pairing(s): N/A (As yet)
Feedback: desired.
Characters: Jessica, Emily, Dad, Mum, Jarrod/Jazz, Tau'ok, Kresh'na, The Yutani Corporation.
Beta: N/A
Author's notes: Written as a bit of a joke, the surprise dark horse that took the cake. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: Well, everything is either hijacked off Sierra, Fox or someone else. Any one you don't recognise is mine. Namely Jess and Tau.
Guard Me?
Chapter 1: An Early Walk
My life was really supposed to be ordinary. Weirdness, anything un-ordinary just wasn't a factor in my life. I had a nice family, two parents together, and a younger brother. I had pets, and friends, and we lived in a house near the beach. Nothing weird had ever happened to me, it wasn't supposed to. I was going to grow up, finish school, marry someone, and have kids. That's all… no weirdness. Was that too much to ask for? Really?
The clock radio was glowing red in the dawn light of my room. I glanced out the window, slowly sitting up, as I pulled my doona closer to me. What had woken me? I wondered. I looked to the radio again, it was only five thirty in the morning, and my alarm wasn't going off until seven. I took a deep breath, and closed my eyes, listening for sounds. Disturbed was playing softly in my brothers room, and I could hear the faint sound of waves.
"Weird." I said. I got out of bed, heading toward the bathroom to get a drink. I turned the light on, and caught sight of my reflection. I was pale, my freckles standing out stark against the skin. My eyes were half shut, trying to block out the light, but after a moment, I opened them, and reached for a cup, and turned the tap on. I sipped the water for a moment, continuing to regard myself. I was getting a pimple, right there on the tip of my nose. And my hair needed a wash. I angled my chin up, my chin wasn't refined. I had an ugly chin. Maybe when I'm thirty something, I could get some doctor to chisel my chin away. No, I grimaced, that'd hurt. I absently itched my arm as I put the cup back beside the sink. I crept back to my room, careful not to wake my brother, being the nice big sister that I was. I eased myself back into bed, glancing briefly at the posters on my wall. I rolled over, pulling the doona up near my head. If I listened hard, I could hear the waves off the beach, and that strange roar.
"What?" I asked myself, sitting up again, I stopped breathing for a second, to listen harder. Yes, there it was again… it did sound like some kind of roar, maybe some animal had gotten trapped down on the beach? But what kind of animals roared? I was quiet, listening intently to any sounds from upstairs. I couldn't hear my dad upstairs. Get a grip girl, I thought, as I grabbed my boots and my hoodie. I threw the hoodie on, and stepped into the boots as I headed down the stairs and out through the garage. I listened again, but I couldn't hear anything. Maybe it was just a dream? Man, why'd the dream- nope, there it was again. I stepped outside and glanced upward towards my parent's balcony, but the door was shut. They wouldn't have heard it. Thank God! We don't need two adults panicking over some poor creature trapped down the beach. I reached inside and blindly grabbed the beach key, shutting the door quietly I quickly jogged the distance from my house to the beach gate.
"Holy shit!" I'd unlocked the gate, and stepped past onto the beach. I stared down, wide eyed at this small crater in the sand. That so had not been there yesterday! What the hell was going on? "And here I was always complaining that nothing ever happened to me!" God, that was such a stupid thing to do, hey, let's investigate the strange ROAR you heard coming from down the beach, won't that be fun? Tell you what brain, shut up. I glanced down the beach for a second, as the sky started to turn pink with the sunrise. I stopped still for a moment, my neck prickling as I realised that I was being watched. I frowned, shutting my eyes for a second, as panic flooded me. I turned, to go back home, and almost planted my nose into this guys chest. I stared, un-comprehending what was in front of me, until it moved.
Stepping back, it watched me. Through it's masked eyes. I watched it, breathing rapidly, trying not to faint. This… this crazy motherfucker was standing there, and five thirty in the effing morning wearing a full predator getup. How crazy could you get? Well, I suppose if he was holding hot dogs and corn, and speaking gibberish then that'd be closer to it. I gulped, as he turned his head, thick dreadlocks brushed over his shoulder. I watched him again; there were many little bones in his hair, silver clasps also. And his armour was… well, armour-ish. But it was his mask that intrigued my gaze, I could see myself refected wide-eyed in his eyepieces.
"Age." It must have been his voice that shocked me out of inactivity. It had a weird, throaty sound to it, as if it was produced without even meeting the lips. Damn, I thought well for it being five thirty in the mor- "Age." It repeated. My eyebrow quirked, I couldn't help it force of habit really. What the hell? He wanted to know my age, next thing he'd or she'd be telling me that he came in peace... or wanted to eat my brains… I hope he didn't want to eat my brains. I'm sure my brain didn't taste that nice really.
"Uh…if you don't mind, I think I-I'll be going now." I stammered briefly, as I backed up.
"AGE." It repeated, louder this time. I stared at it, was it some kind of paedophile or something?
"Are you some kind of twisted paedophile or something? Because I'm telling you now, that get-up, is so… not really going to lure in the little kiddies."
"AGE!" What was that all it could say? Age?
"I'm..." quick, think of a good lie. "...sixteen" That's a good one you utter wanker. I continued to stare up at the guy. I'd just decided that he was a guy then, being all huge-and muscle covered helped me come to that conclusion.
I couldn't believe the detail that he'd put into the predator getup. He'd gone and put on some rubbery, orange and darker orange speckled peachy skin thing, and a wire mesh, these huge wrist gauntlets, shoulder cannon, I could see that he was also grabbing his spear. Wait! I backed up again. "Don't hurt me!" I said quickly, as he advanced with the spear. Great, I'm about to die, on a beach, with a mad man.
"You'll do." That was all he said, as he brought the spear in front of him. The spear was a massive thing, come to think of it, so was he, he'd been towering over me this while time, at least two heads taller than me. He continued to hold the spear in front of him, it appeared to be retracted, like in the end of Alien Versus Predator, when Lex is handed the spear by that big old dude/predator thing. I touched it for a second, before my better judgement grabbed the reins of my brain, and I took off running down the beach.
"Oof! Fuck." I swore quietly. You know, during the movie, I'd made a joke that during the scene where Lex and Scar go up the massive ice thingy, that it'd be a funny outtake for Scar to land on Lex. Let me tell you, the guy on me might not have been a predator, but he weighed a fucking tonne! I felt myself bruising as he continued to lie there, half onto of me, crushing my legs. It was damn creepy, and as I started to scream he covered my mouth. I considered biting him, but then grimaced as I thought better of it he could have rabies or something.
"I here for two year time. I learn human from humans. I pick first female." Female? What the hell for? Breeding projects? Deep space probing? What the fuck kind of drugs was this guy on? He made a chirpy noise for the first time as if he could read my thoughts and then continued. "Females docile." He let go of my mouth at that point.
"Docile? Who told you we're docile? What are you anyway? Alright, I get that you're just dressed up for some costume party, and someone gave you bad drugs or something, but please," I let out a dry sob. "Please don't hurt me." The guy seemed pretty shocked for a moment, as he stood, and lifted me to my feet like I weighed nothing.
"I am being not hurt you." He said simply. I'd realised something then, staring at this crazy man. That the skin he wore was absolutely seamless, and it sweated, his hand was damp when he'd lifted me up. And he was warm, really warm… almost… alien. In books, they don't talk about when ice goes through you veins, how you hit the dirt, and see stars. They make it all beautiful and romantic. But right now, my butt had just made friends with Mr. Sand, and I was staring open mouthed up at this, this creature. In psych, the teacher had called it general adaptation syndrome. When you get a shock, your body looses control, and your muscles can go, but then, adrenaline hits, and you feel stronger. I felt almost able to take on a bus as I stared at him. "You accept?" He asked.
"Uh, no fucking way." I said, staring up at him. He lowered himself down to my level, sitting on the sand in front of me.
"Your choice; accept and live, or die."
"I thought you were not allowed to kill… un-armed people?" I stared down at the sand, it was cold, not yet warmed by the sun, and little bits of shell poked out.
"I not, get something that would." Oh, like a lion or a fish or something, I thought, staring again.
"And if I agree, you won't harm any of my friends or family, or cat?" Gotta save the cat. I swallowed, watching him. "Show me your face?"
"Yes." He said, as he reached up, his massive clawed hands deftly pressing into the sides of the mask. There was a small hiss; it might have come from him as he pulled the mask away. I gulped, staring danger in the face, literally. As Mr. Ugly pit-bull-man waved a mandible slowly at me. It was a face I was very familiar with, from games, movies and props. It was a face that was living, breathing, and his green eyes blinked once, revealing that he did have eye lashes. But his eyes, they weren't really focusing on me, as he looked past me for a second. "Do you see?" He said, eyes meeting mine. I saw they were slightly un-focused; the mask he wore must also work like glasses or something. Two years of playing alien versus predator and I have to be the one that meets one. I put my hand to my hip for a moment, thinking.
"Alright, let's say I do this, two years, no catches, and then you just leave again?" Zip, nada, zilch? Outta there like stink on a warthog?
"Yes." He said, replacing the mask carefully onto his face.
"Well… do you have a name?" I asked, thinking it'd be something like, Rip Torn, or Bowie I bet.
"Tau'ok." The name was muffled suddenly, like he'd gone to pronounce it one way, and then changed his mind. So, his name was Talc? I was very worried then, what had I gotten myself into? Why couldn't I have just stayed in bed like any other normal girl would have? I could have hidden under my covers, and then by sunrise the monster would have run hiding. Tau'ok continued to watch me, as he stretched out his arm in a gesture.
"Oh," Light bulb moment, "My name's Jess."
"Chess." Shaking my head I repeated my name again.
"Jeece." Rolling my eyes I laughed.
"Forget it."
"Forget it." He agreed, and for about five seconds, my biggest fear was that I would be called "forget it" for the rest of my life or, for the next two years. "Jeesh." He added.
"Uh, may I put down some rules before I agree?" He nodded. "Okay: Number one rule – do not kill. Number one and a half – do not kill people. Number two - please do not kill my cat. Number three – never uncloak near my parents. Number four – um... you can uncloak after my mum has gone to bed. Number five – don't scare me, please, not ever, I won't appreciate it and I may die of a heart attack because you're one hell of a looker." I risked a small smile.
"Agreed."
"Agreed." He reached out to grab my hand, but I hesitated, watching his mask for a second. Well, why not let a little weird into my life… it could be fun. If he doesn't skin me and eat me, murder my whole family, murder my friends, and murder my prime minister. Oh God. I grabbed his hand, shaking it. What have I done? "Okay, well, my house is that way." I pointed to the gate. "You can follow me to my house of you want, unless you would rather… uh… sit on the beach." He didn't say anything, just stood and watched me. I frowned, walking ahead of him, I was sure that he was going to spear me in the back, or randomly snap my neck or something. Actually, I decided that I liked my pale, freckled skin, so he'd better not want to take mine.
"Your room?" He asked, as soon as we'd entered it. Creeping up the stairs was a bit hard, he sounded like a sack of potatoes with legs.
"Yes, yes!" I hissed quietly. "Shh, my brother could be waking up any moment." Good thing it's a Sunday.
"Sleep Jeesh, I guard." He said. Yeah, right, I rolled my eyes, how the fuck was I supposed to sleep with him in my room? My computer chair creaked as he settled onto it. I gazed out the window, ignoring my problem for a moment. The sun was rising, a beautiful pink had filled the sky, and I hadn't even noticed it before.
When I woke up, it was to the sound of my Perfect Circle CD blaring. I knew I hadn't left that on. I rolled myself over onto my side. My pink frilly bra was floating in mid air beside my head.
"What is this?" The creature asked. I scoffed.
"It's a hat, duh. Give it back." Oh man, I'm gonna have to disinfect that like hell, and maybe even burn it. The bra was dropped, thank god. And I frowned. Next he'd be wearing my nail polish as lipstick and trying to eat my goldfish. Man, this was worse than that movie, jungle to jungle or something. There was a strange noise, which I recognised from the game as the predator uncloaked. The light bending technology was switched off as he stood there, all giganticness of him.
"Uh, yes, well, what was your name again?" I stared at him. He was wearing most of his weapons. I could see the shoulder cannon, mental note. Watch out for three red spots.
"Tau'ok." Okay, weird name. "You are Forget It." Damn him, my eye twitched. "Forget it Jeice." He corrected himself. Flipping him the birdie I slowly slouched out of bed and stared at the clock.
"Jesus!" I flew out of my bedroom and ran into the bathroom. Shoving the door shut I clicked the lock, and peeling off my boxer shorts and tee. And then jumped face first into the shower. Five minutes later I was sitting in my bedroom, fully dressed for school. Man, I never wake up on time. Stupid alarm clock that doesn't work… wait a second, my eye twitched again, as I looked from the clock to the computer screen, which read plain as day, Sunday. "WHAT?" I exploded, turning to the predator. "It's SUNDAY!"
"Yes, it is the seventh day of your week."
"Oh and now you speak English? Is that it?" I laughed for a second. I was a year ten French student, and believe me, if you can't speak English, it's impossible to learn. "So…" que mood change. "What do I have to do today?" He'd better not want to eat any of my food. Maybe this was just some crazy hallucination, and if I followed along with it, everything would work out fine.
"Let me learn. Take me around." Tau'ok said. His voice still had the guttural sound to it. But, seeing as I'm a trusting person, I had decided that he wouldn't hurt me. Seeing as all of my skin was intact too, that helped. "We need inside information that cannot be gathered by simple observance. The Elders are on the verge-" He paused and stared at me. Apparently that's all I was gonna find out. Great, don't I feel loved? Well, if that's how he was gonna play it I was going to take a leaf out of Dr. Hannibal Lector's books.
"Quid pro quo." He continued to stare. "You tell me things, I'll tell you things." I smiled. "And I've got school tomorrow, so no kidnapping me."
"That is where you learn from your books." His tone sounded scornful. And I have to agree, we spend the best parts of our lives shoved in books. Ha, the mental image of being shoved into a book was making me giggle. "I have also been ordered to protect you from possible harm." Okay, he was so hiding something - why the hell would anyone want to harm an innocent girl? Well, I wasn't that innocent and I did have a very dirty mind. But that didn't affect them what-so-ever; at least I didn't think so. Well, he wasn't going to kill my cat - thank goodness. Hey, where is that evil little thing? I wasn't worried so much about the cat more about Tau'ok. My cat was evil I'm telling you now and I've got scars that make me look suicidal because I patted her on the wrong day.
"Okay, I've got school tomorrow, and today is Sunday my most beloved of days." Quick shut up or you'll confuse him. "So, when I'm at school you could probably observe from a corner or window as long as you don't make any sounds." I probably sounded a bit harsh, but hey, I was the only one that had a predator at school, and it sure as hell isn't bring a pet day, and he was an ugly pet. I stared at him for a few minutes. I liked his mask; it had small groves on the side, and was still had flatness of the original ones. It would scare the pants of any teacher. Pity really. I gave a huge yawn then, and walked out of the room. I heard the cloaking noise as I headed upstairs.
"What do you eat?" He asked. I'm so glad it was early morning, my family out at some swimming excursion for my brother. I grabbed two bowls out of the drawer and two spoons. I shoved a handful of fruit loops into each bowl and then poured in some delicious soy milk – it was strawberry this week.
"This, do you need to eat or can I have both?" It was a weird, really obsessive thing I did, every morning, I mean getting the two bowls out. Not asking if… um… what was his name again? Towel something... Well, anyway's it didn't bug my brother, and it meant I got double the sugar hit, so yeah.
"I have food elsewhere." He'd better not have put it anywhere near my bed. Or my room full stop. I didn't really like having a predator around. I'd organised to meet my friend at about nine thirty. We always meet in the end carriage. What on earth would catching the train with a predator be like? Images of Tau'ok train surfing came to mind. I stifled a giggle and choked on my fruit loops. And five minutes later, I was out of the house and bolting towards the station.
It took me a whole five minutes to get to the station. Damn. I'm not a fast runner, I hardly ever run anywhere, as was proved last night. The predator, Tau'ok kept perfect pace beside me. I hoped he didn't sweat. He already had a kind of strange smell about him; he didn't need to stink or anything. Once at the station I waved frantically at Emily, whose train had just pulled up. She was one of my best friends, kinda quiet when she wasn't on the subject of- oh my god! Suddenly there was a huge dint in the roof of the train. Oh no, no, no, no! I started yelling for him to get off the train, and immediately there was a hand on my shoulder.
"Yes?" He inquired. I opened my mouth, and my eye twitched again. I was way too tired to be dealing with certain people trying to kill the public transport system.
"Nothing, just get into the carriage." I noticed some Mordialloc High girls staring at me. "You see that invisible man there?" I asked. Some of them nodded and then I realised with a brief 'oh crap' that you could. Some part of the light refraction thingy wasn't working. I could see his perfect outline. I had to get him inside. Shoving him straight onto the train as it began to move I grinned at Emily.
"Remember the little joke we had after seeing the Alien Versus Predator movie?" I asked, my voice shaking for the first time. I was really scared, for no apparent reason other than the fact that I had a gigantic predator standing next to me. Oh, I think I'm about to faint. Deep breathes girl, keep breathing… don't look, don't look… oh shit! My thoughts and speech are usually really hard to understand, but today, it was crystal clear. I was having a fucking breakdown on the way to the movies!
"Jess?" Emily stared at me. Her hair was done up in its usual twin plaits and she ogled at the outline next to me. "No fucking way." She said her voice quiet. "When did you find him?" I sat down heavily on the chair next to her.
"It was at the beach this morning." Yeah, that's believable, 'hi; I'm just going for a walk to find a PREDATOR.'
"Do I get one?" What the hell? She wanted one of these insane smelly weird, ugly… creatures?
"You want one?" What kind of a psychopath was she? I stared at her for a moment. For all I knew she'd get one and then make it kill people. And as fun as killing people would be that would be unleashing a really baaaad thing on the world.
"Forget it." Tau'ok said. Okay, this was getting so old. I slapped my hand against my head. What the hell was I going to do with a predator for… how long do the movie go for? Two and a half hours? In a crowded shopping centre? Maybe the movie wasn't the best idea.
"Jess, look, I'm sure we can shove him into some storage cupboard… can he climb the roof?" From what I remembered of the game they could. The beginning scene always had a big impact; you could hear the chilling call of the predator, and then the sound of its weapons being fired.
"I think so." What if he tried to kill someone? I stared at him for a moment. He could sit on the roof, or in the corner of the cinema. Besides, how many moviegoers pay attention to anything but the movie? And their possible boyfriends?
"So he can stay on the roof for the whole day can't he? Does he need to eat or something?"
"Yeah, do you need to eat or something?" What did a predator eat anyway? Human skin or something?
"I am here to watch." Tau'ok pointed out.
"Yes, yes we know that." I waved my hand dismissively. Anxiously tugging on my hair for a moment I pondered two choices. Have him in the cinema, or have him on the cinema. Emily's gaze met mine for a moment, her eyes sparkled with delight. And I sighed. In it is.
"He'd be a bit obvious don't you think?" I bent me head towards hers and grinned devilishly.
"This is gonna be squishy." I told him. And then the flood came, about twenty five girls, and boys crammed their way onto the train. We were like sardines in a can. As the train pulled away I was almost hit to the ground by a huge hand as it thumped onto my shoulder. "Watch it!" I hissed, and jabbing my finger at what I thought was his side. I continued to frown, I needed to figure out where his head was so I didn't accidentally jab him in the balls or something…eww! Gross – gross thoughts!
"We'll have to get him into the cinema quickly." Emily said. I leant to where I thought Tau'ok was standing.
"Give me your hand." A very warm finger touched my own. Jeez, did he have a fever or something? I roughly grabbed at his hand, rather like a mother does to a child and tugged him into the shopping centre.
The end of the movie came quickly. And I'd almost completely forgotten about my little problem. And I was not feeling even vaguely very guilty about ignoring him all day.
I looked around all of the corners of the cinema, but I couldn't see his shimmery form anywhere. I left the cinema and headed out to the train-station by myself. I got there in record time, looking everywhere as I walked.
"Now, if I were a predator where would I go?" Glancing at my watch, I frowned. It was already three o'clock. Stepping forward a strange sound seemed to come from where my head had been. I turned, and a wicked looking metal spear head was embedded in the wall. I tugged at it helplessly for a few moments, and then decided, like most sane people, to run away. There was absolutely no fucking reason for him to be shooting at me! At least, I half hoped it was him shooting at me, and not some nut job psychopath. I ducked behind a wall and then crouched, looking around. "Okay, be the game, you are a marine." I turned to stare upwards. There were just four shops near me, the boutique, subway, the station and Woolworths. My bet was he was on top of the station roof. I stared around in panic. I don't wanna die! Aha! I spotted a small glisten on the roof of Subway. Turning, I ran towards it. A second shot fired, a second miss and Tau'ok was visible briefly for a moment before re-cloaking.
"Mum, look up!" A little girl pointed upwards, at the roof, but the girl's mother had already pulled the child away. I stood shaking under the subway bull nose for a moment. Okay, if I survive this, I'm never leaving him alone again. Boy, he has separation issues. There was a huge roar from above me, it echoed down through the roof, and being me I ducked down and curled into a ball. This was not happening. Regardless of the fact that heaps of people were now being attracted to this small strip of shops I was heaved up and slammed against the wall by the invisible predator.
"You are without honour." He stated. Okay, okay, okay, so if I ignore him all day I'm a bad person? His shimmering form shifted, so that it was solely his arm that pinned me to the wall.
"Let go of me now." I hissed from between my teeth. He stepped back, and I slid down the wall. Breathe, okay. I took a deep breath, turning I started to walk away. I'm sixteen; I can't deal with monsters trying to kill me. One a day is plenty fine thank you. Ignoring the stares I was getting I quickly made my way into the station. "Would you kill an unarmed person?" I asked. We walked towards the front end of the station, where it was deserted. Me and Tau'ok were going to have a little chat.
"If you have no honour, you should not live." He answered. I drew a shaky breath. Turning, I faced where I thought he would be, in the light of the station he was almost invisible.
"But I am not armed." I was almost sure he wouldn't hurt me. What's to stop him killing my parents or my brother? I heard a clicking sound, maybe laughter, or his curiosity being voiced aloud.
"And I did not hurt you." Yeah, well, buddy you sure could whack me into a wall. The train pulled up, and I boarded it.
"I'm sorry." I said, my hands folded in my lap. I didn't look up and meet his gaze. His hand once more was at my shoulder, and he clasped it for a moment, almost breaking the bone. Was this some kind of an acceptance thing? I blew a strand of hair out of my face and tilted my head to the side. "So I'm stuck with you for two years."
"Yes." A thought stuck my mind, as my mouth dropped open.
"Hang on, how the hell did you learn English so quickly?"
TBC
Reviews and constructive criticism are loved.