Hello there. This is my first real Monsters vs. Aliens story, so please bear with me. This will eventually have Doc/Susan and Link/Katie (You can thank authors like Go-Go Spiders for giving me the idea, lol) but I'll only continue if I get enough positive feedback on it. Either way, I hope you'll enjoy this first chapter.

Note: The first part of this chapter will be about Link before he was frozen... I hope it doesn't confuse you, I just don't think he referred to himself as "the missing link" or by any real "name" back then, and he undoubtedly didn't speak english, either. It was a difficult thing to convey, so hopefully I did alright.

(I do not own Monsters vs. Aliens. I sure wish I did, but I don't, so this was written purely for fun.)

There was his prey, swimming just a few feet in front of him. He peeked through the seaweed he hid behind, watching as the biggest fish he'd ever seen in his life floated lazily into his view. This would be all too easy.

He crouched down in the seaweed, his green scales making perfect camouflage against the wispy plant life, tensing the muscles in his arms, legs, tail and back, ready to spring. But before he could move, a bluish-green blur zoomed past, and the fish was gone. His jaw dropped in surprise and he turned to find the fish had been snatched away by another creature. Infuriated, he bared his razor-sharp teeth and beat his chest with his fists. With a swish of his tail he swam at the other creature, but it turned just in time to swim out of the way.

He stopped and turned to face the other creature again, getting a good look at it for the first time, and knew right away it the same species as he was--in fact, he hadn't seen another of his species in years. Like him, this creature had four limbs--two arms and two legs-- and a long tail ending in a fin. But where he had green scales, fins on his head and back, long fingers on his hands and feet and a heavily built muscle structure, this creature was more bluish in color, with thin limbs and webbed feet. Its head was adorned by long, thin, blue tentacles, and a small fin on either side of its face. Its mouth was small, but as it hissed at him it revealed its sharp teeth, and in place of a nose there were two tiny slits. Its eyes were large and almond shaped, and were a dark shade of blue. As he looked at this creature, its slender build reminded him of the females of his species, and he concluded this new creature must also be female.

He grunted at her, demanding the half-eaten fish she still held in her hand. She hissed back, asking why she should give up her kill.

Her kill? He insisted with grunt that it was rightfully his kill, as he'd seen it first.

She almost laughed at that, and refused to hand over her kill to some pathetic creature that couldn't hunt for himself.

That made him very angry. But just as he was about to beat his chest and charge her again, his instincts suddenly kicked in, warning him that danger was imminent. Could it be from the female? No, whatever the danger was, he couldn't see it. And he could tell from the way she looked around she felt it as well.

Suddenly, he felt a current push against him, signaling that something big was swimming his way, and fast! He swam aside just in time to avoid an enormous pair of jaws, as a large, scaly beast swam past. The giant animal, a lizard like creature with a long tail, stubby limbs and a long snout, turned fast, trying to catch him in its jaws again, and it took all his strength to swim out of its reach. He finally managed to put distance between himself and the beast, but when he turned around he saw it going after the female. She swam incredibly fast, he noticed, but not fast enough, and he noticed a trail of blood floating behind her from a wound in her arm. The beast must have injured her with its claws when it first attacked.

At first, he saw it as a prime opportunity to escape. Let the annoying female get chomped, it served her right! But still, as he saw her struggle to run away, injured as he was, he felt a gnawing in the pit of his stomach. Finally, with an annoyed groan, he swam back towards the giant beast. Grabbing it by the tail, he had very little success slowing it down, but definitely got its attention. It turned one red eye back at him, hissing loudly as it opened its jaws to strike. With a smug grin, he leapt forward, the beast's tail still in his grasp, and jumped away just as the jaws came crashing down. The beast roared in pain, having bitten its own tail, while he swam to the female and helped her swim away.

The beast soon recovered and was right on their tails again. He knew he couldn't outrun it for long, weighed down as he was. But just ahead he noticed a grotto, just small enough for himself and the female and he swam for it. He passed through with ease, but the beast crashed right into the rocks, knocking itself out. With a laugh, he kept swimming till he was sure the reptilian nightmare wouldn't find them again, and found a nice, bare stretch of sand to rest on. He set the female down and laid back in the sand, catching his breath.

He lay there for several minutes, his eyes closed, but sat up when he heard a curious hiss. The female, to his surprise, was still there, her head tilted to the side as if to ask why he had saved her.

He grunted sharply and turned away, preferring to rest than explain himself. But he suddenly smelled the delicious scent of fish, and opened his eyes again to see the half-eaten kill held in front of his face. The female smiled at him, still holding the fish in front of him, and when he grunted she told him it was her way of repaying him.

Finally, with a smile, he took the fish. After all, half a meal was better than none, and he thanked the female.

…Though he still insisted it was his kill in the first place.

---

The moon was exceptionally bright that evening as they sat together on the beach. He thought to himself how strange it was to find another creature that could breath air like he did, but he wasn't complaining. She had been pretty good company the past few days. And he had to admit, it was quite refreshing to swim with another living creature.

As they sat on the sand, however, the female rubbed her arms and shivered. He knew it was cold--it had been cold for as long as he could remember--but she seemed more deeply affected by it than he was. He grunted, asking if she was alright, and she replied with a nod and a wave of her hand. But she couldn't contain another shiver. He felt her hand in his, surprised to find her skin so much colder than his own, and put an arm around her gently. She was surprised, of course, but his warmth seemed to comfort her and she smiled. She leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, hissing a soft "thank you."

He smiled back and continued to watch the moon overhead as it passed across the sky.

---

Colder… why was it getting so much colder?

Months passed by, and the two sea-dwelling creatures had not spent a day apart. But as the time passed, he couldn't help but feel the definite drop in temperature. As they swam together, they both began to notice large chunks of ice begin to appear, slowly growing larger and more numerous, until finally they could swim to the surface and walk on the ice as if it were an island. It definitely troubled him.

But, as bad as things seemed for him, they seemed worse for the female. He could tell by her constant shivering that she felt the cold much more than he did, and as the temperature dropped she became more and more sluggish, until finally she seemed to lack the energy to even swim. He worried for her, having come to think of her as his mate despite the fact that they were of two different species, and knew if he didn't help her… he would lose her.

He tried with all his might to warm her. He would hold her tightly in his arms, he would rub her limbs, trying to get her blood flowing, he even took her to the surface of the water hoping the sun would warm her. But nothing helped. She continued to lose her energy at an alarming rate.

He brought her to the surface, where snow and ice had covered the ground, and carried her across the frigid landscape, hoping to find something, anything to warm her. He searched for any kind of plantlife, hoping to find some covering for her, but everything by now was covered in snow. And shelter seemed out of the question, if there were any caves around they had been blocked off by now.

He searched frantically, feeling her fading in his arms, but she stopped him, telling him in a weak voice to put her down. He refused, saying he wasn't going to let her die, but she shook her head. She knew it was a futile effort. She felt so sleepy… she just wanted to close her eyes and drift away. He grunted angrily, telling her not to dare close her eyes. He didn't know what was happening, but he knew she couldn't close her eyes or she would be lost. But finally, after trudging through the snow for hours, his own energy began to fade as he began to feel weaker and weaker in his legs. Finally, he couldn't take another step and he fell to his knees. There was still nothing but white as far as he could see.

The female smiled up at him, still insisting it was alright. With the last of her strength she touched his face gently, looking into his eyes as her own began to close.

Don't close your eyes… Don't you dare close those eyes! But nothing he could do could keep her from drifting away now. She closed her eyes, falling into a deep sleep, and her breaths came slower and slower, until finally they stopped completely.

Tears ran down his face as she became limp in his arms. He gently shook her, as if hoping to wake her up, but he knew she was gone…

As the winds howled around him and the snow fell to the ground, he held her tightly in his arms, no longer trying to restore the warmth in her body… but instead lamenting the death of his only mate.

---

Beep…beep… beep…

The red light blinked on and off, accompanied by that damned beeping he had put up with every morning for almost fifty years.

Slowly opening his eyes, the Missing Link looked around, not surprised to find himself home in his own tank, underwater, with the alarm still blinking and beeping overhead. He sat up and stretched his limbs, but instead of jumping off his cot as he usually would to start his morning weight-lifting routine, he sat there staring into space. It was that dream again.

The beeping finally stopped, and Link sluggishly stood up. He decided to ignore his weights that morning and left his cell, headed to the common room for breakfast.

He found he was not the first up, as Susan, Dr. Cockroach and Bob already sat in the common room eating. Susan, as usual, ate her oatmeal at her enormous table, while Doc dined upon the morning's garbage, and Bob was in the process of dissolving a turkey.

Link heard a loud roar and turned to see his old pal Insectosaurus standing on the other side of the room, his wings folded against his back. "Mornin', Insecto!" he called up to the giant butterfly, receiving a low roar in reply.

"Morning, Link," Susan said, in her usual friendly way.

"Ah, Link," Doc said after finishing off an old egg-carton. "How did you sleep?"

Link shrugged his shoulders as he sat down at the table. The same, familiar hose came down from the ceiling, dropping a pile of fish in front of him. Normally he would dive right in, but today he just didn't have much of an appetite, and could only nibble one the tail of one fish.

"Something wrong, Link?" Doc asked, noticing Link's unusual lack of enthusiasm in his food.

"It's nothing," Link replied, not bothering to look up at the doctor. "I just didn't sleep well."

"Your sleep apnia isn't acting up again, is it?" Bob asked with genuine concern, causing Susan to giggle.

Link glared at the blob a moment. "No, that's not why I didn't sleep well. I just… had a bad dream, that's all." He took a bite out of his fish and made a point of chewing extra loud.

"Oh," said Doc, "was it that dream again…?"

Doc's voice had had only concern in it, but still Link turned to him with an angry scowl, as if he'd just said some offensive remark. "That ain't your business, Doc," he growled.

"Link, please," Doc pleaded, "I just want to be helpful…"

"You wanna be helpful?" Link asked, standing from his chair. "Then just drop it, okay?! I'm going for a walk." Before anyone could stop him, Link strode out of the common room and Doc sighed heavily.

"What's wrong with Link?" Susan asked in concern.

"Was the fish too old?" Bob took a fish in his hand and tossed it into his mouth, smacking his lips. "Hmm… nope, not the fish."

Doc shook his head. "It's that dream of his," he explained.

"What dream?" Susan knelt down in order to hear the doctor better.

"Was it about bad fish?" Bob asked.

Doc sighed again. "No, Bob, it's the dream Link sometimes has, remember?"

Finally it seemed to dawn on the brainless glob of ooze. "Oooh…"

Doc turned to look up at Susan. "You see, my dear, before Link was frozen in the ice age, he was perhaps the last of his species, and spent much of his life alone. He had met another creature, however, a humanoid, amphibious being like himself…" when both Bob stared at him a moment, confused, Doc rolled his eyes. "She was a fish person, too," he explained.

"Oh, right!" Bob smiled and nodded his head happily.

"Anyway," Doc continued, "this, er… fish person, was the closest companion Link had."

"What happened to her?" Susan asked.

Doc frowned sadly. "From what Link has told me, I can only surmise that, unlike Link, she was cold-blooded. I'm afraid while Link survived the cold, his friend wasn't as fortunate…"

Susan gasped softly. "Oh, poor Link…"

Doc nodded. "We tend to forget that, though Link has always been a 'monster,' he had a life of his own before his imprisonment… Anyway, from that day to this, Link has occasionally had dreams of his friend, and her demise. I'm afraid in all our years together I've never gotten Link to open up enough about it to help him."

Susan frowned sadly and turned to look in the direction Link had gone. "I hope he'll be okay," she said softly.

---

A walk, he said… Boy, what a stupid idea.

Link sat outside the base, thinking he was an idiot for going outside. The base was, after all, situated in the middle of a desert. A hot, dry desert. And here he was, a fish-ape hybrid, sitting in the middle of that desert. Stupid, stupid, stupid! He could have said, "I'm going to my tank to work out," or, "I'm going in the other room to do… anything but stay and talk." But noooo, he HAD to say "go for a walk." Now if he went inside again he'd look like an idiot. It was bad enough he had snapped at the others when they only wanted to help…

Damn it, why did that stupid dream still bother him so much?! He was the Missing Link! The terror of Cocoa Beach, one of the toughest monsters ever to live, and had helped stop an alien invasion from enslaving the earth. Why did a memory affect him so badly…?

Sighing, Link stood up. He was fed up with the hot desert sun and decided to go back to his tank, hoping that the memories would fade again so that he could finally get some rest.

---

Hope you liked it!

A quick side note: The part about "don't close your eyes" was indeed inspired by the part in the movie where Link said that to Insecto. My thought process is that, after his "mate's" death he would equate dying with closing your eyes and drifting away, which is why he didn't want Insecto closing his eyes. *shrug* I dunno if that makes sense or not, but oh well. Please review but be kind and mature.