COR iv
Shadows of Fate
1.) Dark Shadows
"You're very restless for someone who commands so much." The soft spoken Elemental stated from the dark corners of the deserted thrown room. "UnderVerse is as ideal as they promised." The brooding convict lounging in deceptive casualness didn't respond and the white veiled spirit glided closer.
"If it exists, they will find the way to bring her back." Still, there was no answer and Aereon's normally patient voice grew sharper as she tried again. "You don't belong here, Furyan. There's somewhere else you should be." Riddick's full lips thinned into a line, granite voice cold, pointed.
"Yeah. Alone." The Envoy moved closer, coming up on what should have been his blind side and she froze as he lunged out of the chair, knife going to her throat.
"Your kind can be killed!" He growled, bright eyes flashing and the white haired woman mocked him.
"And here, I thought we'd become friends." His glowing eyes flashed again.
"Killers and Calculators don't have friends." Riddick dropped back into the hard chair of power, already losing interest.
"Take your bullshit and get out. I'm busy."
"Too busy to help your own people?" He snorted, waving a hand at the mostly empty Basilica around them where suspicious guards lurked.
"Even if I claimed these... people, what should I protect them from? Vakko's smutty little wife? The beautiful weather? This place is perfect." His granite voice lowered another notch. "Just fucking perfect."
"I mean the Furyan survivors you've had me listening for. I've found them." Riddick was back on his feet at that and the Elemental took a startled step backward as he stalked toward her.
"Where?" He demanded and she raised a brow. He hadn't show interest in anything since the girl died.
"Tell me!" He ordered and she waved a hand at the impressive Warp Hole they could see thru the side of the ceiling that he had insisted always stay open.
"A galaxy on the other side. Survivors landed there more than 30 years ago, blending in." Her bright blue eyes were foggy, distant. "Rumors say survivors of the Royal family. Except for the Queen and her unborn son, of course." She bowed low before him, something Riddick sensed she did for no one, but her eyes held little loyalty. Why did she care?
"Blood says you belong on that thrown, not this one."
"Where are they?"
"I've put it on this disk, along with the information the pervious Lord Marshal had." She slid it onto the seat he'd vacated and tilted her head, studying him. "Odds are good that you have family alive on this isloated planet. Will you search for them now that you've eliminated the threat or will you leave them to what ever fate has in store?" Riddick shrugged, turned away. He'd just wanted to know he had someone out there somewhere. He hadn't meant to go looking for them. Had he?
"A new life on a safe planet seems like a simple enough fate to be left to." He stated indifferently, mind ready to sink back down into his private hell.
"Too late for that. The mere sight of your passing armada has caused war to break out. As we speak, yet another civilization is falling due to these Necromongers you now lead and the Furyan's there are being hunted, imprisoned. They're calling for help and the energy they send out is trackable by many races." He said nothing and she pushed hard, had to. Everything depended on him going back for them.
"She died so you would not. What a waste." The blade was back against her lined skin, his granite voice a low snarl of warning as his eyes flashed dangerously.
"I haven't forgotten it was you that brought me into all of this, Aereon. Better remember who you're talkin to." She faced him without blinking.
"You'll have to tell me. Are you The Riddick or the New Lord Marshal? Both sides are waiting." She was thin as air a second later, then gone and Riddick lowered the knife, put it away. Furyan survivors. Family. Maybe. The way of life that had been stolen by the very people he was now in charge of. Why was he still here? Her dead face slammed into his mind and Riddick growled his frustration, knowing the Air Elemental was manipulating him but not why. Uneasy, Riddick turned toward his quarters, hesitated. Family. What would that be like?
"Why couldn't it just be Toombs coming for me again? Woulda been a lot easier. To ignore." He snatched up the disk and hit the button on the cold arm of the thrown. "Get me a ship ready. No crew. I'm taking a vacation from all this fucking perfection. Starting now." There was shock in the young Necro's voice as he answered.
"When will you be back, sir?" Silence.
"Lord Marshal?" Only silence and an empty thrown room.
Twenty minutes later, Riddick was alone on the ship, settling into cryo-sleep as information about Furyan races flashed on the screens. Flame throwers, Defenders, Form Shifters, the species was clearly full of hidden talents but all Riddick could see was Kyra dying, over and over in his mind.
"Kyra's death changed me, hurt me in paces I didn't know I could be hurt. All because I let someone get too close. Doesn't matter if they bring her back. She won't really be Kyra or Jack anymore and I guess I knew I wasn't stayin from the moment I saw this place. Too many people expectin too much. All the light, everything I hate. So here I am again, on my way to somewhere else. It's nothin but something else to do, somewhere else to be, and until I get there, it'll be just me in the darkness. The way I like it."