Uninvited Ch. 04: The Way Home

"What's my prognosis now?"

"You'll be fine. Cutting up all those trooper corpses seems to have given Doctor Tygan a flair for surgery. Stay in bed for another week, then you should be able to leave the med bay. You won't be returning to active duty any time soon though." She checked the monitoring equipment, taking some notes on her tablet, watching curiously as Vi lowered her head so that I could scratch under her fleshy hood. "Your damned Viper wouldn't leave your side, kept getting in the way of the doctors, is she like your pet or something?"

"Something like that," I chuckled, then winced as it stung my bruised ribs. "We've been through a lot together."

"Well she's certainly loyal, she brought you to the sick bay directly from the hangar and she's been here since. Hasn't even eaten to my knowledge."

Vi reached across to my bedside table, and I noticed she had brought the tablet computer she used to communicate, as her alien vocal cords couldn't replicate human speech. She seemed to understand English well enough, but it was sometimes hard to tell what she was thinking. She tapped at its touch screen with her long finger, then her synthesized speech echoed from the device's speaker.

[YOU SAVE ME, I SAVE YOU]

"Yeah, I guess we're even," I replied. "You should go get some food though, I'm fine now, you can see that." She huffed at me.

[IN TIME MAYBE]

She set the tablet down and curled up beside the bed with her head resting beside me on the mattress.

"You may have just woken up from a coma, but try to sleep as much as you can," the nurse said, then she turned to leave. She stopped as she pushed past the curtain, and called back over her shoulder. "Oh, and you've been promoted to Sergeant."

The time passed quickly, Vi did eventually take a break from watching over me to go to the mess hall and gorge herself on her backed up supply of meat. Her metabolism must work like large reptiles on Earth, perhaps she could go for a long time between meals but simply chose not to when there was food readily available. News of our heroics had traveled quickly, and my hospital bed became a sort of shrine to passing soldiers who would drop in to express their gratitude to both me and Vi, our actions having apparently saved the Avenger and its crew. We had destroyed the alien electromagnetic pulse generator in the nick of time, and the fact that it had been a squad of rookies who had saved the most decorated XCOM team was not lost on them. I had apparently earned my own nickname, they had started to call me 'Last Chance'.

Garcia stopped by to check on me, he was friendly towards Vi now and obviously enjoying his new status as savior of the ship.

Vi was ever present, she never seemed to get bored and simply wanted to be near me, resting her coils on me for warmth when I had healed enough to sit upright in my bed. Those who had been wary around her before the mission had warmed up to her now, after hearing about the part she had played in our daring escape, and the way she had taken down a Berserker in hand to hand combat.

We were gaining ground in the war against ADVENT, at least that's what the reports I read told me as I lay in my bed. I felt a little guilty that I couldn't participate, though being injured after saving the Avenger and her crew was about as good of an excuse as anyone had ever had for taking time off. Nobody seemed to bother Vi either, I had expected the Commander or one of the higher ups to come down to the med bay and chew her out for dereliction of duty, but they seemed to have a pretty clear understanding of where her allegiance lay. Not so much in XCOM, or even in ADVENT, but in me.

A couple of weeks passed, and I was able to get out of bed and roam the ship now, finally able to take my meals in the mess hall rather than eating the carefully regulated hospital food that the nurses brought me. I was a little unsteady on my feet, and Vi hovered around me like I was some kind of baby bird that could fall from the nest at any moment. My prolonged recovery seemed to have rattled her, and she was being hyper-protective whereas before she had been happy to depart on missions and leave me unattended. I wonder if she thought I was weak, she was so much larger and stronger than a human, but surely my heroics had dispelled any such impressions she might have of me.

It occurred to me that we had never really talked much, we had never had any significant length of free time in which we might have gotten to know more about eachother. When we had first met she had been redeployed in a matter of days, when I had been living in the city she had only been able to visit me occasionally, and our flight from ADVENT and subsequent enrollment in XCOM had left us scant few moments of privacy. The odd connection we shared would not be enough to sustain us, as passionate as our relationship was, we'd need to get to know eachother better when this was all over.

I chewed on a spoonful of unidentifiable minced meat as I sat at one of the tables, Vi coiled up behind me in a heap as she wolfed down her rations. I still had a wicked purple bruise that ran up one side of my body, the bandages had been removed but it was still very tender and I generally treated it as if it was made of glass. My brush with death really hadn't effected me much, perhaps it was because I had been put under during my surgeries and the majority of my recovery, but I hadn't developed any crippling fear of mortality and it hadn't brought out any buried religious tendencies as I had seen it do to some of the other soldiers who had been gravely injured. Things just...were the way they were, thinking about it too hard was a waste of time.

I heard footsteps outside the mess hall, and the small handful of people eating around us turned their heads to the door to see a crowd of soldiers run past. One of them ducked into the room for a moment, his eyes wide and his expression wild.

"Something's going down, there's going to be a big announcement! We're all going to the hangar!"

He left as abruptly as he had arrived, and the soldiers in the mess exchanged glances before rising to their feet and discarding their half eaten meals. I tried to follow, wincing as I stood up too fast and a bolt of pain shot through my side. I felt Vi's hands steadying me, she helped me off the bench and slithered beside me as I hobbled along.

When we arrived in the hangar it was packed with personnel, there were engineers and scientists here too, everyone was standing around as if they were waiting for something to happen. There was a low murmur passing through the crowd as people chatted and speculated. There had been no announcement over the intercom so far, why were we all here?

As if to answer my question an automatic door slid open on the second level of the hangar, and the Commander stepped out to lean on the railing, surveying us from atop the walkway. I had rarely seen him in person, he was the leader of the resistance and all of its military assets, clad in his grey dress uniform emblazoned with the organization's logo. The room went quiet as the military personnel stood to attention and the technical staff stopped to look up at him.

"At ease," he said, waving his gloved hand. "As many of you know, we have made significant inroads recently in our resistance against ADVENT. The path each of you made the choice to take has been long and difficult, and I commend you all for your valiant efforts up to this point. We believe that we have discovered a way to strike back at ADVENT in a way that could potentially ruin them, hitting the Elders where they live and ending their occupation of Earth in the process."

A chorus of cheers and gasps of disbelief rose from the crowd, and the Commander gestured for us to be silent.

"We're only going to have one shot at this, and we need our most accomplished operatives to carry out a series of precision strikes on enemy infrastructure, notably their communications. We must seize control of their network tower and substitute their planned broadcasts with our own, sowing chaos in the ADVENT-controlled population centers and allowing our resistance contacts to fan the flames. This will serve as a distraction to tie up the majority of their forces. Once that is done, we must send a crack team of soldiers directly into the Elder's fortress, the location of which we have recently discovered. We don't know exactly what we will find there, but if we can destroy their physical bodies, we will disrupt their control over their troops and cripple the ADVENT war machine. I'm not going to lie to you, this mission will be dangerous, the risk of the team not returning is high. I won't order any of you to do this, it has to be your own decision, and as such I will be accepting volunteers. Sleep on it, then make your decision known in the morning, we leave this time tomorrow. I understand that I've not given you much time to think about it, but we're pressed for time as you well know, and this window will only be open for a short while."

This was it then, the final push. If we succeeded then we would be free of ADVENT rule and things could go back to the way they used to be before the invasion. A chorus of mumbling and speculation filled the hangar as the Commander left the way he had come, the automatic door sliding closed behind him. I saw equal amounts of apprehension and excitement as I turned my head to look around me, watching the crowd of people as they started to file out. I turned to Vi, recognizing the look on her face.

Of course she would go, they needed her, and I wouldn't be able to talk her out of it.

I sat on the edge of the bed, Vi coiled around me, her massive body practically filling our small quarters. We had never argued before, and this was a strange way to have an argument. Vi tapped furiously at her tablet computer in order to convey her feelings, the synthesized voice oddly robotic and emotionless as she flared her hood in frustration.

[OTHERS NEED ME, EARTH ONLY FREE IF LEADERS DEAD]

"I need you!" I snapped, "what am I going to do if you don't come back? All of this will have been for nothing!"

[NOT FOR NOTHING, HUMANS FREE, OTHER SPECIES FREE]

I understood what she was trying to say, if XCOM failed to free Earth then we couldn't be together regardless, and with Vi on the team the chances of them succeeding in their mission were increased. But I had heard what the Commander had said, this could very well be a one-way trip, maybe it was selfish but I didn't want to live in a world without Vi.

[UNDERSTAND, MY PEOPLE SLAVES TO LEADERS, LOSE WAR ON HOME PLANET, HUMANS CANNOT LOSE TOO]

I knew I couldn't talk her out of it, and there was nothing I could do to protect her, my injuries would take months to heal. I was benched, and Vi would be going into battle without me to pull her out of the fire if things went south.

[DO NOT BE ANGRY, IF WORST HAPPENS, YOU UNDERSTAND MY FEELINGS]

She leaned over me and pushed her large head against my chest, careful to avoid touching my bruised ribs, and waited for me to scratch her hood. After a moment of hesitation I caved, running my fingers under the spongy flesh and scratching the delicate scales on her neck, feeling the vibration of her purring vocalizations.

"I know how you feel about me, about us, I just don't want that to end here."

[MAKE MOST OF TIME]

I didn't really understand what she meant by that, but before I could ask her to elaborate she placed the tablet on the bedside table and rested a hand on my chest, pushing me down onto the bed. Oh, of course, this might be our last night together if the unthinkable happened. She wanted to make the most of the time we had left before she departed on the mission tomorrow.

"Is this a good idea? I'm not really...in the best shape right now." I was a little scared, our sex was often rough and acrobatic, the difference in size and physiology between us meant that it couldn't be any other way. Was she capable of being gentle enough to make this work? If she applied too much pressure or weight she could break my healing ribs again.

She nodded her head, crooning softly, as if to soothe me. I felt her tapered tail prop me up from behind, its chubby fat layer as soft as a pillow against my back.

"Guess we're doing this," I muttered under my breath. It was pointless to argue with her when she got in the mood. She gently unfastened my belt, pulling off my trousers and underwear, then I raised my arms and allowed her to peel off my shirt. Even the act of moving my left arm made my injury ache, and as she pulled the garment over my head she revealed a deep purple bruise dotted with patches of red and yellow, extending from my armpit to my hip and spreading across my chest. She examined it as I lowered my arm gingerly, cocking her head, perhaps trying to figure out how best to go about this.

She used the coils of her tail to lift me a little further, angling me so that I was almost sitting upright, bringing up another one of her rolls to support my head, as if I was lying in some kind of recliner. My stomach lurched as she raised me off the mattress entirely, suspending me in the air, perhaps so that she could better handle me? I felt even more vulnerable than I usually did when I went to bed with her, as large and as powerful as she was.

She brought her face down close to me, locking her oversized lips to mine and slipping her long, serpentine tongue into my mouth. I was prepared for one of her ravenous kisses, but this one was slower and more measured, almost calming. Her embrace was soft and mellow, and she cradled my warming face in her cool hands as her tongue wound around my own, slippery and hot. She lingered for a moment, her winding organ filling my cheeks, then pulled away and sucked her tongue back into her mouth like a fat strand of spaghetti.

She glanced down with a smirk, and I realized I was hard, my exposed erection bobbing in the air. She traced one of the pulsing veins with the clawed tip of her finger, making me jerk as it tickled my skin. She positioned herself over me, shifting her weight and keeping me aloft in the coils of her long tail, the care she was taking reminded me of two spaceships preparing to dock in zero gravity.

Her genital slit was open, her pink labia peeking between the scales, glistening in the fluorescent lighting of our quarters. She wrapped her fingers around my member and pulled back the foreskin, rubbing my tender glans against her warm vulva and glazing it in her leaking juices. I dug my fingers into the smooth scales on her pudgy tail as the stimulation arced through my body. I rolled my hips reflexively, and winced as pain shot through my side. She steadied me with her hand, her grip firm but gentle, adjusting me as she rubbed my member against her opening. She purred sympathetically, and I felt the tip of my penis pushing into her tunnel, her smooth, slippery walls enclosing it in a prison of hot silk. Her muscles rippled and undulated around me, as if trying to pull me deeper with their powerful contractions.

I felt her hand on the back of my head, her long fingers nestling in my hair as she pulled me closer, pressing my flushed face between her breasts. Her scales were imperceptibly small and soft, their surface like polished skin, and I breathed in her familiar scent as I relaxed into her bosom. The yielding globes enveloped my head, as large as basketballs due her exaggerated stature, and she used her upper arms to press them together as they molded around me.

I had to admit it was kind of a nice change of pace, our lovemaking was usually so aggressive. Not that I didn't find our habitual activities intoxicating, but this new tenderness was pleasant, maybe I should smash my ribcage into splinters more often.

She eased me a little deeper, using the coil of her tail that supported my butt to push me closer, bringing me to her rather than risking putting too much weight on top of me. It was an odd sensation to be so completely under her control, even moreso than usual, but she seemed to be taking extreme care so I wasn't too worried about her hurting me. I looked up at her face between her boobs, seeing her eyelids flutter and feeling the sensation of her walls sliding against my shaft as she urged me further inside her. I loosed a short, sharp gasp, followed by an amused huff from Vi as the wicked barbs that lined her depths gnawed at the tip of my member. Her vagina was smooth like that of a human for most of its length, lined with soft, delicate flesh akin to the lining of your cheeks that closed around any foreign visitor with a welcoming pressure. Beyond a few inches the smoothness gave way to innumerable papillae, barbs of flexible tissue like supple teeth that were just rigid enough to scour the surface of her lover's cock and drive harsh bolts of pleasure through it, but would yield so as not to hurt if enough pressure was applied. Now I felt the bristles rake my exposed glans, scouring its sensitive surface raw, and I jerked as a wave of almost unbearably intense ecstasy washed over me, leaving me dazed and panting. She pushed me all the way inside her, watching my pained expression with her yellow eyes, my member pushing the barbs aside and nestling in the forest of fleshy thorns. She let me recover for a fleeting moment, but I knew what was coming next, and my racing heart pounded in my chest as I felt her shift her weight. She dragged me back out again, the inverted papillae grazing the head of my penis and teasing my shaft like cruel fingers.

As she pulled me back the smooth, muscular lining of her tunnel squeezed around me with a soothing strength, its satin-like texture contrasting with the harshness of her papillae. She was so hot, almost feverish as her rosy flesh encompassed my member, her copious excitement oozing from her twitching tunnel in heavy globs that matted my pubic hair. She was so wet that our coupling was almost frictionless, her viscous emission coating my shaft like a lubricant. She waited for me to catch my breath, almost driven to the brink of climax by that one thrust, but she was used to how her organ drove me crazy. She peered at me, wetting her puffy lips with her pink tongue, drunk on the excruciating pleasure she was forcing upon me.

She used her tail to push me back into her reaches, my moan muffled by the doughy fat of her cleavage, the forest of spines grating against me. She shivered happily, the tremor rippling down her long body and ending in her tail, then she began to thrust me in and out of her with a slow rhythm. I closed my eyes, trying to hang on, gritting my teeth against the raw sensation as her muscles gripped me and sent electricity coursing through my nerves.

She handled me delicately, a far cry from her usual ferocity, and she kept her eyes on me even as they lost focus as she began to succumb to the pleasure of our coupling. Her breathing grew heavier, her weighty breasts rubbing against my face as her chest rose and fell. I raised my good arm, tracing the curve of her wide hip with my hand, feeling the satin texture of her delicate scales under my fingers as they sunk into her soft fat. We groaned in unison as she took me all the way inside her, the slow, gentle pace of our lovemaking somehow just as maddening as our most violent romps.

I shivered as she pulled me back out, her spines raking the length of my cock, her thick fluids spilling around it as it popped out of her body. It pulsed in the air, linked to her swollen lips by a strand of her excitement which broke and fell onto my thigh. She held me, giving us both some time to recover, then lifted me in her tail and pushed me back inside her again. She increased her speed a little, and I got the impression that she wanted to finish quickly. It made sense, we didn't have a lot of time, and she would need to be well rested tomorrow. Still, I wished it didn't have to be over so soon.