Juno POV

After sleeping for an unknown amount of time and experiencing a vague yet vivid dream, I began showing signs of waking up.

The muscles in my limbs twitched until I slowly sat myself up, shaking my head groggily.

『What happened?』 a soft-pitched growl grumbled from my throat.

『Was that me? And Jun... our past lives? Is that who we were? Just lab rats...』

I sulked for a moment until realization struck me.

Right now, I should be dead, caught in the center of the blast from the Yautja scout ship's explosion. It was at that moment after hurriedly checking my surroundings that I witnessed the aftermath of the explosion.

A large crater about 50 meters in radius destroyed the terrain. Inside this crater was a smaller one, 2 meters in radius with me at the center. However, despite being near the I was left unscathed thanks to a familiar semi-translucent barrier covering my entire body.

『This was the barrier I saw in my dream.』

Curious, I reached outward to the barrier and felt an elastic texture, soft yet firm and malleable, pushing against my hand. The more force I tried to use, the stronger the reactive force pushed back until my hand bounced off.

Satisfied, I tried to 'turn off' the barrier and focused my mind, following the familiar path in my dream when activating and deactivating the barrier. After half a minute passed, I found the right way to trigger the barrier and deactivated it. The barrier then turned even more illusory as it returned to my body, specifically my mind.

At the same time I deactivated the barrier, I felt a distant and thin mental probe looking for me. When I focused on it, a link was established, and immediately after a worried voice spoke rapidly.

Narrators POV

Back inside the Hive Jun who was guarding the main entrance to the Hive had long since fallen asleep. His body stood upright, towering over the tunnel entrance and intimidating some of the xenomorph drones. But they were all on the same team, so they carefully maneuvered around his pale giant body to continue construction on the hive, unaware that Jun fell asleep standing on the spot.

All of a sudden, his body spasmed and his head twitched in Juno's direction as he began panicking.

What was that strange dream?

Why did he feel a sensation of impending doom?

Why did he feel like he was about to lose a piece of him?

He wanted to rush out of the Hive to check on Juno and make sure she was okay, but a mental command from the Queen caused his body to stiffen in place, unable to leave the chamber.

Without a choice, Jun had to reach deep into his mind and search for his sisters' familiar scent, the connection they shared as twins, and locked onto it as he began shouting in his mind.

『JUNO!? What happened? Are you okay? Where are you? Why did we fall asleep all of a sudden? Did you see that dream as well?』 (Jun)

『Jun! Calm down, okay? I'm okay, just really tired right now.』 (Juno)

Hearing her calm response, Jun sighed in relief and returned to patrolling the chambers, observing the drones at work and the Queen shedding and creating a new egg sac.

『You scared me! I thought I had lost you again...』 (Jun)

Juno flinched at his words and recalled the final moments of her dream where Juno was being taken away, and she herself was on the verge of death.

She didn't want to feel that hopeless again, that weak and fragile with no freedom at all.

『Nevermind that. But did you also experience that dream?』 (Juno)

『Dream? Oh, yes, it was terrible...』 (Jun)

『Do you remember your fight with the other kid? How to use your ability?』 (Juno)

Jun stopped in his tracks and recalled that dream and his fleshly human body's ability to create a layer of bone armor. Juno also felt his contemplation and decided to leave the crater she was in and hurriedly returned to the hive whilst waiting for Jun to respond.

All of a sudden, Jun shouted in her mind, which startled her, 『Ah, it worked!』

『What worked?』 (Juno)

『Well, I tried to cover my arms in that bone-like armor like in my dream, and it worked!』

Jun, who was inside the Queen's chamber, glanced at his arms which were noticeably thicker than before; sturdier, stronger, and more resilient. He clenched his claws into fists and felt the muscles in his arms tense like steel wires pulled tautly. Blood pumped from his heart into his arms and fist, filling him with the illusion of unmatched power.

However, the moment he actively used his ability, Jun felt the urge to shed and followed his instincts as he began molting his mesoskeleton.

The Queen also noticed his movements and paid some attention to them, a little excited and expectant of this subordinate of hers.

At the same time, Jun was maturing into a Praetorian, his ability synchronized with his body as they worked together.

His wounds were recovering at a rapid speed visible to the eye. The chip edges of his crown regrew stronger and sharper. His crown extended a few inches with an intricate design lined with deep ridges. The dorsal fins on his back straightened out and extended diagonally and ended in a sharp point, much like the Queen's own dorsal fins.

When he had fully molted away his warrior mesoskeleton, his new body was covered in a layer of thick, pristine bone armor that glistened in the darkness, much to the Queen's displeasure.

Xenomorphs were after all designed to hunt in the shadows, so having such a striking appearance would defeat that purpose.

No matter, this pale subordinate of hers was incredibly strong and was her Royal Guard, so it didn't matter too much.

Back to Jun, his height remained the same but his tail extended, stopping at 5 meters to help balance his body due to the increased mass from his massive crown and bone armor. It was also lined with serrated ridges ending in a 45 cm long curved blade on the end of his tail.

[A/N: Imagine a pale/white version of Alpha from the Alien: Bloodlines comic. Here's a link to the specific image; https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Alpha?file=Alien_issue_6.jpg]

『Jun?』 (Juno)

Pulling Jun out of his own reverie was the inquisitive voice of his sister, who had at some point time returned to the Hive and rested before him. Like an obedient puppy waiting for a treat from its master, Juno sat on her hind legs with her remaining arm in front and her tail wagging from side to side.

Jun, who was before her, felt his heart flutter as he muttered the word ‘cute’ in his mind. Unable to contain himself, he squatted to Juno’s level and started petting her scarred head gently with a mix of pain and care.

Juno was initially startled by his actions but calmed down and accepted his hand by nudging her head into his palm.

Thus, the two shared their first moment of affection surrounded by a Hive of cold-blooded, ruthless, killing machines called Xenomorphs, and in front of the Queen no less.

…

Time passed and in the blink of an eye, it had been a month. During this month, the drones obeyed the Queen’s command as they worked tirelessly to complete the construction of the Hive. When their task was finally done, a majority of them chose to enter hibernation while the remainder of them, some few dozen, began shedding their drone mesoskeleton to advance to the next rank as a warrior than either began patrolling the Hive or entered the forest to hunt prey and survey the area, making sure no threat approached their Hive.

Jun was ‘forced’ to guard the Queen’s chamber as the newly promoted Praetorian and acted as the Queen’s guardian while she began laying eggs.

With nothing to do, the twins slept or meditated to try and regain some memories but little progress was made.

Every other day, Juno would go out to explore the forest and hunt prey, undergoing a few minor mutations and without much suspense, advancing from the warrior stage to a Praetorian. However, her appearance was a little different from the normal Praetorians, as she maintained her slim appearance of a drone.

She stood 10 feet tall with a tail length of 4.5 meters, which was 1.5 times longer than her own height. So, it acted as a kind of whip and spear and was extremely swift, agile, and deadly. Moreover, in the process of her advancement, she molted her warrior mesoskeleton and recovered from her injuries, including the loss of her limb; its regeneration mostly thanks to her mutation from the Yautja’s DNA.

Now, she was stronger and sturdier than before and her new arm helped with her ability to maneuver better, making it even more difficult to find or follow her tracks.

Additionally, some progress was made regarding the twins’ abilities.

As they had found out earlier, the twins were rather special in that they had abilities that could perform miraculous deeds. Jun’s ability allowed him to adapt to survive in dangerous situations, which was how he and Juno were able to grow stronger in that training ground at the facility.

Although it was a passive ability, he could still forcefully activate it like in his dreams or when he wanted to try it out after waking up, but doing so consumed a large amount of his energy. The reason it required less energy to adapt and evolve earlier was that they used external energy, either from the one generated by the natural disasters he and his sister faced or from the flesh they consumed from their prey.

Additionally, Jun’s unique ability enhanced the Xenomorph's racial trait called DNA Reflex, which allowed them to inherit certain characteristics of other species. So, just by consuming the flesh of other species, they could inherit their unique racial traits and characteristics themselves, which explained the horns they grew from eating the dinosaur and the strengthening of their bones and flesh from eating the Yautja.

As for Juno, hers was the reason they were able to share this trait of passive evolution. First of all, her main ability was to create a sort of tangible electromagnetic field, a barrier, using a force from inside her mind. This same force allowed her to establish a mental link with her brother telepathically; her being a Xenomorph only seemed to enhance their already weak telepathic racial trait.

After training for a little bit, Jun discovered he could also create a mental barrier, but it was significantly weakened and could only cover a small part of his body like Juno in their dream.

Jun speculated that when they reincarnated, their souls must have intertwined together, becoming inextricably linked to one another. It would explain why they could feel each other's emotions, their surface thoughts, and why they could feel when the other was in danger.

Apart from these discoveries, the most notable event in the past month was the birth of a new caste, of a new species of Xenomorph the two vaguely remembered was called the Predamorph, or more commonly, Predalien!

This particular caste of Xenomorphs is significantly stronger, faster, and more resilient than the average Xenomorph. When it was just a drone, it was stronger than the warrior castes, and when it advanced to the warrior stage, it was about half as strong as Jun, which meant a lot as Jun was significantly stronger than the average Praetorian. This meant the Predalien itself at the warrior stage was as strong as a normal Praetorian.

Perhaps, when it advanced to the Praetorian stage, it would be as strong if not stronger than the anomaly called Jun.

This fact made the Queen shriek in glee as it was incredibly satisfied with its underlings’ strength. Having an additional force to be reckoned with would ensure its safety and the Hive’s advancement.

After all, one of the Predaliens' noteworthy abilities was that it was capable of implanting embryos into hosts similar to a face hugger.

So, the Predaliens’ importance was placed above Jun’s as it was capable of being a warrior, an infestation agent, and a potential pathway to a Queen in case she were to perish somehow, ensuring the survival of their Hive and race.

While the Queen was giving her new orders to the Hive, a meeting was being held by the United States Colonial Marine Corps on the USS Verruckt.

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The next chapter will be a battle between the Marines and the Xenomorphs and the last chapter for this arc. In Chapter 10, the twins will travel to a new world: Resident Evil.