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It isn’t often Scar is able to visit Earth for a pleasure trip, but Lex thinks it’s adorable that he remembers - despite the billions of lightyears between them and different ways of measuring time - and always makes sure to show up in time for Halloween.
Her life is fairly stable. The crew left on Weyland’s ship were more loyal to her father and his reputation than they were afraid of some men in black suits, so her story about getting the team to the site only to black out and wake up back on the ship stuck. Hours of interrogation later, and the Feds - or whoever those agents belonged to - begrudgingly gave in to the lie that she only knew of the strange tunnel leading down to an even stranger pyramid, nothing more. That scar on her cheek? Oh, that was there when she came to. No clue what that’s about.
They ran tests for days, forced her to sign NDAs, gave her suspicious looks, and finally released her from custody. She’s fairly certain they monitored her for a few years, but eventually conceded that Alexa Woods was not a person of interest.
It was a few months later when she woke up in the middle of the night, the hairs on her body standing on end, a primal, instinctive feeling in her gut alerting her that something was off. Someone else was inside her house. She’d grabbed the hidden souvenir she kept under her bed and crept silently downstairs, her feet knowing where to plant so as not to cause the wood to creak under her weight.
The lights were off, the doors were closed, the windows shut. No sign of anyone or anything having broken in - but Lex had known she wasn’t alone. When her eyes shifted from the living room towards her kitchen, even in the dim lighting she realized a space was off. There was a shape - a silhouette - that was slightly distorted, as though she was looking in a warped mirror.
A familiar click-purr broke the silence, and by the time Lex flicked on the light, Scar’s cloaking was gone. That had been the first visit, with her almost tossing the spear his own clan had gifted her at his head because he’d scared the shit out of her.
That was the first and last time he crept into her house while she was sleeping. Now he had the decency to knock at the back door if she was home, or wait - visible - in the kitchen if she wasn’t. Somehow Lex always knew the moment she entered the house that he was waiting for her on those visits.
She’s never asked, but Lex assumes Scar and his species are aware of the surveillance she was under and waited until it was safe for him to start his visits. She’s honestly surprised these little trips of his are allowed at all. Or maybe they’re the alien equivalent of sneaking out. She doesn’t pry.
The second time he visited was the first Halloween. He’d protested when she had led him towards the door - momentarily forgetting his confusion over her pirate outfit - but she had promised it would be safe. Trust her.
And he did. That might have been the most surprising thing. Realizing that even with all this distance from the pyramid and the serpents and the hunt, their lives no longer depending on each other for survival, Scar trusts her. Implicitly. When she told him that nobody around them, no matter what they were holding or what they looked like, was a threat, he believed her. When she told him that if anyone said something like ‘nice costume’ just nod and go with it, he obeyed.
That was how Scar realized Halloween was the one night he could visit and they could exist outside of the confines of her house.
Lex hadn’t expected him to be so fond of the experience. She hadn’t expected that she would enjoy it so much either. But they did, and so it became their tradition. Scar would come to Earth on Halloween, and for one night, they pretended they were a human couple. Lex could hold his hand, Scar could walk out in the open, and everyone thought he had the best costume they’d ever seen.
She knows he wants her to leave with him every time he comes. She’s never asked, and he’s never said these visits are attempts to collect her, but her gut tells her that’s what they are. After everything that’s happened, Lex has learned to trust her gut more than ever. At first that thought seemed terrifying - would he ever force her, or did the others want him to? Was she considered a risk, being left behind? What would happen to her if he took her back? Was the scar on her cheek enough to protect her?
Each year, her fears are slowly replaced, one by one, with curiosity. Lex can’t help it. She’s a naturally curious person. She’s always thought her inquisitive streak was a healthy distance from getting into trouble nosiness, but now? Not so sure of that anymore.
So this year, when Scar shows up at four o’clock, October 31st, Lex is waiting. Ready. This year she thought it fitting to be an alien herself, a makeshift costume she’s cobbled together from spare parts and a few random purchases over the years. A gifted spear completing the look. When he knocks at the door and she lets him in, smiling as he clicks approval over her choice of “disguise” as he calls it, her stomach is full of butterflies. Her mind is made up.
“This is the last year,” she says. She laughs when he tilts his head, the growls and tsks sounding worried. “I want to go back with you tonight.”
He goes silent. The mask is blank and unreadable, but his body language says he is studying her, sizing her up, letting her words and her choice sink in. Then he purrs and moves a finger to stroke the mark he left on her all those years ago, and she knows. This is what he’s wanted, what he keeps coming back for.
“Shall we enjoy one last Halloween on Earth?” she asks, the finality of this decision not quite sunken in yet. She’s sure she’ll have doubts, second guess herself for quite a while - but her mind is made up.
Scar nods, a trilling growl his response. One last night pretending to be a human couple. And then it’s off to the stars to be an alien one.