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All's Fair In Love And War

Summary:

The Ringmaster might be gone, but LA is still full of dangers for the refugees of an alien race. As some struggle to start new lives, others fight to forge a future for everyone. When the one person who can't fight for herself is in danger, it falls to her friends to decide: who will be a hero, and who will need saving?

And more importantly, can they be saved at all?
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You don't have to know Alien Nation at all to read, understand or enjoy this fic! You should probably read Home Is Where The Heart Is first, though.

Chapter 1: ==> Be The Worried Wife

Chapter Text

PROLOGUE ==> Be The Worried Wife

It was bright in the hospital. White strip lights wiped away the darkness with clinical efficiency and ensured that no matter what the hour, the corridors remained harshly, eternally illuminated. The sounds of the work of healing were omnipresent; the air in every room and corner and closet was filled with the insistent chime of electronic alarms, the buzz of the PA system, the rush of feet and the never-ending roar of voices. The noise spread through every corner of the building, accompanied by the frenzied rush of doctors and nurses and emotional people who had found themselves in the orbit of sickness or injury at three o'clock in the morning.

It seeped through the doors of the small lounge where exhausted medical staff slumped on cheap couches and chairs, downing vending-machine coffee as a substitute for food and rest. Some flicked through papers or charts, while others curled up in corners and snatched precious minutes of real unconsciousness during their break. Only a few had the energy or time to watch the old CRT TV that flickered in the corner, late-night reruns of shows that were schlock the first time around playing to overtired eyes. Currently it was showing a borderline hysterical “documentary” that had been popular on the rounds of late-night repeats ever since the recent Night of Blood scandal. It had been made shortly after the aliens' arrival on Earth, on a virtually nonexistent budget, and it consisted mostly of comparing the Alternians to a variety of more mythical trolls with hints of dire consequences to come.

One nurse, a young man with shadows under his eyes and dark stubble that spoke more to lack of time to shave than any kind of fashion statement, snorted derisively at the show. “Jesus Christ, who agreed to produce this shit?” He looked over at his colleague, a middle-aged woman with silver-streaked brown hair that was escaping from a tight bun after a hectic shift. “Can you believe this crap?”

After a moment's hesitation, the woman shrugged. The thin age lines on her face were deep but kindly, a lifetime of smiles etched into her skin currently belied by her clear exhaustion and the slight shaking of her hands as she twisted the wedding band on her finger. The young man noted the unusual tension in her bearing and frowned.

“Are you alright, Maria?” he asked, the TV forgotten in his concern. “You've been kind of out of it all night. Is there some sort of problem at home?”

Maria shook her head. “No, it's nothing,” she said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. Her younger workmate raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“The fuck it is,” he said calmly. “I don't think I've ever seen you this wound up before, even when we have a gangland battle or a psionic patient.” A few people nearby winced at his words. Of all the recent changes caused by the sudden presence of nonhuman sophonts on Earth, the fact that they now had a standard code for “psychic alien freaking out and causing chaos” was one of the most memorable. It wasn't even like they could ship them somewhere else- no other hospital in the world was qualified to take Alternians.

The older woman sighed and let her face fall back into concerned sadness. “Then, it's nothing you need to worry about,” she amended, rubbing one hand across her eyes tiredly. “You're right, something did come up, but it should all be sorted out by tomorrow.”

The younger nurse looked at her in assessment, but he'd only been working at the hospital for a little over a year while Maria had decades of experience to draw on. Besides, she had always been like a mother to the younger staff, treating them with the same practical affection as she used on her own four adult children. If she said she had it under control, he trusted her. It didn't mean he wasn't worried.

“You should try and get some sleep while it's still fairly quiet,” he suggested. “And if you have any problems, anything at all, you know that we'd all help you in a heartbeat.”

Maria smiled at him, a genuine expression this time. “Thank you,” she said, then her eyes flickered past him to the clock on the wall and the happiness on her face faded. “Actually, I have to go and see to a patient now. See you later?”

The male nurse nodded and waved her off with a casual gesture, attention already returning to the terrible documentary as Maria stepped out through the doors of the staff lounge into the crowded corridors of the hospital. She walked quickly and with purpose, the bustle of the hospital parting around her and not noticing her passage as she moved away from the main wards and thoroughfares, up to the quieter floors where long-term patients slept quietly.

After a few more turns she arrived at a set of double doors that demanded an ID to access. It was the work of moments to lift the card around her neck and swipe it past the electronic scanner; the small box bleeped innocuously and the red light flashed to bright green. With a quick glance over her shoulder to check that she was unobserved, Maria dropped the card and pushed the door open, stepping through into the darkened corridor beyond. Her movement activated a sensor and as one the flat lights built into the ceiling flickered into life, illuminating a narrow hallway kept empty and isolated to leave the occupants of the adjoining rooms undisturbed.

Not that any of the patients on this corridor would find disturbance in the distant bustle that washed around them like a whisper. They were all part of the same experimental treatment program, the prerequisites for their presence ensuring that if any of them could perceive their surroundings they could not communicate the fact. Isolated and enclosed by the soft hum and beep of life support, the patients slept in apparent peace, each locked in the grip of a seemingly permanent coma. Maria had heard that there had been promising results from the program already, but she tried not to think of that. Easier now to believe that these people were dead in all but the most final of definitions, that their lives would never be restored or resumed. Easier to tell herself that she was only doing what she had to do when she also convinced herself that nobody was going to be hurt through her actions.

At the far end of the hallway was a narrow metal door that led to the stairs. From the other side it was locked, impossible to open without an ID card for security reasons. From this side, a metal bar allowed for egress, and illuminated signs alerted anyone in the vicinity to the existence of a fire exit. Maria walked up to the door and for a moment hesitated, chewing nervously on her lip. Then the thumb of her left hand stroked her wedding ring, and in a sudden burst of movement she grabbed the bar and pushed the door open.

Cold air rushed in from the dimly-lit stairwell, and with it came four figures. They wore nondescript clothes, jeans and dark sweaters that would draw no comment on the street- save for the fact that the the wearers were Alternian, and their clothes lacked the usual distinctive caste symbols. Maria, used to dealing calmly with anyone who came through the doors of the hospital, nevertheless shrunk back as the leader approached her. The intruder was a young woman with dazzling teal eyes, sharp features, and a set of horns that looped in towards each other before arcing outwards. Her companions, three Alternian men barely out of their teens, had eyes that glittered green and jade and muscles tight as cords in their limbs. They spread out to watch the entrance as their leader backed the nurse into a wall and leaned in towards her. Black lips split into a fanged grin.

“You kept us waiting,” the troll said. She was lying. Maria had been careful to be on time, so very careful, because from the moment they had first contacted her these people had held all the power. For that exact same reason she stayed silent now, lowering her eyes in a sign of submission that seemed to satisfy the teal-blood.

“Show us,” the troll ordered as she backed off. The nurse stumbled away from the wall and walked hesitantly to the middle door on the left, fearfully watching the trolls as she stumbled over her own feet and narrowly caught herself with a hand slapped against the wall. She bit back a cry of surprise and pain as the teal-blood narrowed her eyes, instead fumbling for her card once again. Most of the rooms on this corridor were unlocked, but this one was a special case. Tomorrow they would look at the logs and see who had opened the doors, learn that it was Maria who had helped the intruders. Tonight, there was only the glittering stare of overlarge alien eyes, and a threat that no longer had to be spoken. Maria swiped the card across the lock, which beeped and changed to a green light as if nothing was amiss.

The trolls behind her made no move to open the door, so Maria turned the handle and stepped into the darkened room. The lights in here were not automatic, and the slight figure on the bed was lit only by the thin strip of illumination from the doorway and the faint glow of the screens of the monitoring equipment. As the four intruders filtered into the room behind her, the nurse walked over to the bedside and flicked on the warm orange lamp. The light illuminated the gray-skinned girl in her mid-teens who lay silently on the hospital bed, large horns shaped like a ram's curling out of the mass of thick black hair that framed her square face. She could have been pretty in a homey sort of way, if it hadn't been for the unhealthy pallor on her gray skin and the dark, sunken hollows around her cheeks and eyes. She looked almost dead, an impression barely dispelled by the soft rise and fall of her chest.

The teal-blood walked up behind Maria and regarded the girl impassively. “Do you have the equipment?” she asked. The nurse nodded, mouth dry.

“I... I moved it up here earlier today,” she answered. Then, her mouth driven by a lifetime working to help heal the sick and injured, she added; “but it's still dangerous. I can't teach you to use it in a few minutes and if you get it wrong you could kill her...”

The teal-blood waved a hand dismissively. “I already know how to use the equipment, and what happens to her is not your concern." She turned to look at Maria, cold irises staring through the human woman's own soft, brown, human eyes. "What happens to your matesprit, on the other hand, is entirely down to you. Personally, I'd advise not wasting any more of our precious time. My associates are waiting, and their tempers are short.”

Maria swallowed and reluctantly walked over to the broom closet in the corner, opening it to reveal a folded gurney and portable life-support equipment. The jade-blood came over to help her pull the items out, and Maria flinched back as their fingers brushed together. The troll, burly for his naturally slim species, sneered menacingly at her and slung the wheeled bed over to rest by the unconscious patient one-handed. Maria recovered in time to wheel the sensitive equipment over herself, not trusting the thuggish intruders to avoid damaging it. Not that her caution would mean anything when they left the hospital. She felt something hot and wet on her face and realized that she was crying. Her tears didn't go unnoticed; within a few seconds the teal-blood was right in front of her, noses almost touching, and a gentle finger stroked down her face.

“Shh,” the troll woman soothed, running her free hand down Maria's cheek even as she looked fascinated at the clear fluid and thoughtfully lapped the teardrops off her own claws. “It'll all be over soon, and you'll be back with your husband. That's the English word for a human male matesprit, isn't it?”

Maria nodded, although after months of experience working with the new species she was fairly sure there were subtle differences between the apparently equivalent human and troll romantic entanglements. True or not, she wasn't particularly inclined to contradict the teal-blood. “I- I'll need some help to move her across,” she whispered. The teal-blood nodded and barked some orders in guttural Alternian; again the jade-blood moved, this time to stand at the foot of the bed and watch Maria attentively. The nurse edged forward to the side of the teenage patient. Gently she smoothed the troll girl's hair out of her face, silently apologizing with a needless act of care.

“Get on with it,” the teal-blood sighed, sounding bored. Maria took a deep breath to steady her hands and reached out for the mobile equipment. Fortunately the treatment the girl had been undergoing had brought her to the point where she didn't need intensive life support; that fact alone gave her a chance of surviving as the terrified nurse swiftly and surely detached her from the monitors and drip, switching off the various alarms and alerts as she went and attaching the patient to her new support equipment as neatly as she could. When she was done, Maria nodded to the jade-blood, and he grabbed the girl's feet while the nurse took her head. Between them they moved her onto the gurney, settling her safely down. Meanwhile one of the two green-bloods had pulled a small pile of cloth out of the closet and had started to change into the hospital scrubs that Maria had hidden there earlier. There was no way to get a coma patient safely down the stairs, which was why the intruders weren't planning to attempt it. There were a few troll orderlies about the hospital; the disguise was by no means ideal, but it should give them a small extra layer of protection as they left via elevator.

As the four of them changed, Maria looked away. As she turned her eyes fell on the little table beside the hospital bed. In addition to the clock and the light and the box of tissues, there was a small sculpture made of twisted wire. Two spindly figures embraced fondly; on one it was hard to tell the species, but on the other the metal twisted out into curling horns that were clearly meant to match the ones the unconscious girl had. Underneath the sculpture- which for all its crudeness must still have taken a long time to create- a small folded card, half blue and half red, held a message written in angular Alternian runes. Maria was by no means an expert in the alphabet or the language, but there were certain phrases she had seen often enough to know the meaning.

This one said: I miss you.

Once again her thumb stroked her wedding ring, tears springing to her eyes, but this time she wasn't thinking about her own family. She was thinking about the thin troll boy with bicolored eyes and four tiny horns and a foul temper, who came and sat by this bedside and ate from the vending machines and had to be woken up and gently escorted out of the hospital every time he came to visit. Rumor had it that he was the reason this patient was so important, and the story was that he had crossed the stars themselves to save her. To Maria, he reminded her so much of some of the boys she knew- her own sons, her nephews, her neighbors' children- that however afraid she was for her husband, she suddenly knew that someone would be just as terrified for this girl.

“Come on,” the teal-blood said, and Maria turned. She would not be part of this. She should never have been part of this. Her husband was a good man, he would understand. If she stood up to these people, then she could stop them. They would be arrested, her husband rescued, the girl safe. All she had to do was be brave.

“No,” she said, defiance in her tear-stained eyes.

“Oh,” the teal-blood replied. She looked vaguely puzzled as she stepped closer. Maria stood her ground, the rapid flutter of her heart giving her nothing but strength. “Is that your final answer?” the troll asked mildly.

Silent but certain, Maria nodded. With a heavy sigh, the teal-blood reached out and placed a hand either side of the nurse's face. Then, with a single quick motion, she snapped the woman's neck and let her body drop in a limp heap to the floor, snatching the ID card from the human as she fell.

“What a mess,” she said in Alternian, sounding slightly irritated. “Is the girl secure?”

Her henchmen nodded, and the teal-blood stepped over the body of the nurse to place a neatly folded paper note on the bed. “Let's go.”

She led the way out of the room, the two green-bloods pushing the gurney in her wake. The jade-blood lingered a moment longer, looking around the room before flicking the light switch and plunging the room back into shadow. The door swung shut behind them, leaving behind the dead staring eyes of the nurse and a bed occupied only by a note, written in the regular, spiky handwriting common to Alternians using the Latin alphabet.

We have your friend.

If you want to see her alive again, bring a bag containing five hundred thousand US dollars in unmarked bills to the center of Fremont Park at 3pm on the 31st of October. Send a single representative to carry the bag. Do not contact the police. Do not attempt to double cross us. If any of our instructions are disobeyed we will kill her.

Aradia Megido's life is in your hands.

WE WILL BE WATCHING.