Disclaimer: The Riddick Universe does not belong to me, it belongs to who made the movies, who created the idea and produced it. Not me!
1.
Gone Missing
"Bring her back!" He roared at the Underverse attendants, who visibly winced and backed away from his wrath. "Now!" He settled back down onto his throne, giving the attendants a little breathing room.
"My lord, those fortunate souls who have already made the passage cannot be brought back." One bravely said, bowing deeply.
"Have you tried?" He asked, anger barely restrained.
"My lord?" A question.
"Have you ever tried to bring someone back from the Underverse?" He asked again, his voice quieter.
"Well, no, but you must-"
"Then try for fuck's sake." He snarled, standing. "Get out!"
They all quickly left, surprisingly graceful for being so filled with fear. When the last of their black and grey metallic robes whispered off the floor, Riddick sat back down onto the throne and bowed his head. What he would do to bring Jack back. Looking up and observing the morbid decoration, he knew that he would do anything to have her by his side again.
"He will not be pleased by this." One Underverse attendant whispered to another, looking at the results of the soul-scan.
"We must tell him, it is our duty to tell the Lord Marshall anything and everything we discover!" The other hissed back, but inside he too was disturbed. Never should they have received this result.
"But it undermines everything we know to be truth!" The other shot back, trying to keep his voice down.
"Truth or not, we must tell him!"
"Tell him what?" A smooth voice slipped from the shadows and both attendants hastily turned and saluted Vaako. He had become colder and more ruthless then he had been under the previous Lord Marshall's rule. His first request of the new Lord Marshall had been to get rid of Dame Vaako. No one had forgotten the sneer and laugh that had echoed off of the throne room's walls from their new Lord. With her gone and killed before her due time, Vaako became a greater warrior, and completely unrestrained. Not only that, but the new lord had seen this and come to bring Vaako as his personal second in command.
"The results of a soul-scan, Lord Vaako." One quickly said, bowing.
"A soul-scan? For who?" He questioned, his mind beginning to whir with answers and questions.
"The dead woman that our Lord Marshall wishes to be alive again." The other supplied, glancing back at the results.
"And? What are these undermining results?" Vaako asked, a little frustrated at their lack of helpfulness.
The door closed and Vaako let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't one to always follow the required manners of being in his high status.
"Survive another day of boredom?" Riddick asked, standing in front of a window that looked out into the black space. Vaako walked through Riddick's personal rooms, standing a few feet behind the other man. He inwardly prided himself on the fact that he was the only person allowed into Riddick's personal rooms.
"Barely. You did say we would continue conquering, didn't you?" He asked, eyeing the decanter of wine on a black marble table that remained untouched.
"Drink it. And maybe." Riddick turned around, watching Vaako gracefully pour wine from the heavy decanter into a glass. He paused over the second glass and Riddick shook his head. "You have information for me?"
Vaako sighed and sipped the rich wine, the taste not lost on him as it was on many other Nercomongers. It was not that becoming half-dead took away the ability to taste; it was the refusal of the half-dead to indulge themselves in rich food and drink that dulled their ability to taste.
"It isn't of the best kind." He started, setting down the glass. "You know what a soul-scan is, yes?"
"Vaguely."
"It is a surprisingly easy process, but it is a scan of Necromonger souls, or what is left of our souls, that have passed into the Underverse. We search for passed on souls, making sure they are securely there. You must realize that every converted soul goes to the Underverse. For ones we wish to contact, we lure them, it isn't easy, but it can be done. They were hoping to find her soul and lure it back to the Passage."
"Passage?" Riddick asked, his thoughts darkening.
"The exact point at which every Necromonger soul passes into the Underverse. It is as much a spiritual point as a physical point, very hard to track."
"It moves?"
"No, but it has the ability to disappear and remain completely under our searching radars."
Riddick nodded for Vaako to continue.
"They did a scan. More then once. Riddick,"
He sharply glanced up at his warrior companion and second in command.
"She isn't there."