A/N: ok, this is the third time i've done this, so i'm just gonna say welcome to the first of many Riddick fanfics. i don't own the Riddick movies or video games, nor have i played the video games. enjoy!
Chapter 1: You Keep What You Kill
"Well, now," she murmured in Dame Vaako's ear as the other woman stared in disbelief at the kneeling Necromongers. "Isn't this a lovely little turn of events?"
"This can't be," Dame Vaako breathed, her eyes shifting from her husband and the man sitting on the throne. "It was…flawless."
"Apparently not, Dame Vaako," she murmured. "And now, a Furyan, the very race the Lord Marshal massacred, is sitting on the throne, Lord of the Necromongers. Ironic, isn't it?"
"Impossible," Dame Vaako still breathed. "This is impossible."
"And yet, it stands."
She strode away from the other woman, the fishnet train of her dress flowing behind her, her chocolate brown eyes stayed fixed on the bald and bloody man sitting in the throne, staring his shined eyes at the crowd in front of him. She moved some of her strawberry red hair that contrasted greatly with her surroundings from her face. She made her way to the throne room and stood behind the Necromongers in front of him, still kneeling.
"You keep what you kill," she called, causing everyone's attention to turn to her. The army in front of her stood and parted as she began walking toward the throne, but the man in it stayed still, staring at her. "That is the Necromonger way."
"But I'm not a Necromonger," the man replied, finally standing.
"No," she smirked, and stopped to gaze down at the dead girl in black on the step of the throne. She knelt down and stroked her hair slightly and the man stepped closer. "She was beautiful."
"Mind telling me who you are?" the man asked, irritably and she stood to gaze into his shined eyes.
"Deirdra Radcliff," she replied. She was fearless against his intense and strange stare, something he found a tad unsettling. Everyone feared Richard B. Riddick. "Aereon, the Air Elemental asked me to look after you."
"I don't need looking after," Riddick replied, and knelt down to pick the woman up off the floor. "Good bye."
He walked toward the direction Deirdra had entered, the woman in his arms. Deirdra smirked after him, setting a hand on her hip then turning her gaze to the man ahead of the others. He was staring at Riddick as well, but his stare was seething at his back. Deirdra sensed this wasn't over yet, and from what Aereon had told her of Riddick, he wouldn't stay Lord Marshal for long. He'll leave it to someone else and get gone.
Deirdra strutted down the isle still formed like a model down the runway and stopped when she reached Aereon.
"Vaako is not pleased," she pointed out, whirling to face the room filled with confused men, trying to figure out what to do.
"Of course he's not," Aereon replied smoothly. "He's probably plotting to kill Riddick as well, now."
"But how do you kill a man without fear?" Deirdra smirked. "Not to mention, a man that cannot be beaten?"
"Let Vaako find out the hard way," Aereon smiled. "In the meantime, you stay close to Riddick."
"You heard him, Aereon," Deirdra assumed. "He doesn't need looking after."
"Everyone needs looking after," Aereon replied. "Even those with too much pride to see it."
The Air Elemental glided away and Deirdra scoffed. Even if Riddick let her stick around, there was nothing for her to do except follow him. She supposed she would start now. She turned and walked toward the place Riddick had disappeared, glancing at Vaako long enough to see him look up at his still distraught wife.
Lord and Dame Vaako aren't done with this yet, she thought. But the ever present question is still this: How do you kill a man without fear?
Deirdra walked out of the room and down the hall, looking for Riddick. The halls were empty because everyone was in the throne room, not knowing what to do. Their Lord Marshal was now carrying a dead woman away and had left them to fend for themselves at the moment. She turned a corner and noticed a figure standing in a dark room and stopped at the door way, knowing it must be Riddick. She stepped closer into the room but he didn't move.
"I thought I told you to leave," he said, emotionlessly, not turning to her as she still stepped toward her.
"Well, there's really nowhere to go, is there?" she retorted. "Considering that this ship is off the ground of Helion."
"Then we'll have to land again, won't we?" Riddick replied. As Deirdra neared, she noticed he was standing over the dead woman lying on a long table. She came up next to him and looked at him staring down at her.
"You cared a lot for her, didn't you?" she murmured. His hand came up in a blur and wrapped around her neck tightly. She gave a little choked cry but didn't try to scream or struggle as he brought her face close to his, staring into her eyes.
"Don't even try to get on my good side," he warned in a low voice. "I don't have a good side."
"I was just trying to figure out," she choked back, her hands reflexively coming to his around her neck. "How a stone cold killer like you…can have such affection."
Riddick stared her down, his eyes searching hers for something in them. What it was, Deirdra didn't know, but obviously he found it because a moment later he let her neck go and turned back to the lifeless body in front of him. Deirdra breathed heavily, trying to catch her breath, and placing a hand on her neck.
"I can't," he muttered then turned swiftly and walked out of the room, placing his goggles on his head but not over his eyes. Deirdra followed him as he went back into the throne room where everyone still was. He stood and looked around as if trying to decide what to do.
"Who's the second in command?" he asked and Vaako stepped from the crowd, catching his attention. The man kneeled and lowered his head in respect. "Stand up. You're makin' a fool outta yourself."
Vaako hesitantly stood and looked at Riddick, his seething gaze reined in then said, "I am the First Commander, Lord Marshal."
"Good," Riddick nodded. "Tell whoever pilots this thing to land for a few hours. I gotta have some time to think."
"But, Lord Marshal---"
"Call me Riddick, for God's sake," he cut Vaako off.
"Riddick, we must have your coronation ceremony to make you our Lord Marshal officially."
"I wouldn't start that plan just yet," Riddick advised. "It may be somebody else leading this band of nuts around the universe."
Vaako stiffened in surprise but Riddick said nothing more as he turned to go back down the hall, Deirdra standing at the end of it, waiting for him.
"Happy now?" he wondered, walking past her and she followed. "We're landing so you can get off and leave me the hell alone."
"Not exactly what I had planned, Riddick," she retorted. "And I don't plan to leave you alone. Aereon gave me a duty and I plan to follow it until I'm told to leave it."
"What is she, your mother?" Riddick sassed, wandering aimlessly around the halls of the ship.
"Just a trusted friend," Deirdra replied, seriously. "I was her body guard for a few years."
"A girl like you, a body guard?" Riddick chuckled, stopping but not turning to look at her. "That's a joke. Especially in that dress."
"What I wear doesn't hinder me from doing what I have to," Deirdra shot back, glaring at the back of his head. Riddick gave a slight and slow shrug then turned quickly, bringing his arm up to hit her but she stopped the attack with her forearm. She twisted her arm around his and pulled him into an arm lock, gripping his arm with her free hand to keep him still.
"Testing the waters?" she strained, holding tightly to him, feeling his strength as he struggled to pull his arm free. He said nothing but instead pushed his arm out and brought it in front of him, twirling her around to face him as her hands still held onto his arm. She slammed into his chest as she gasped in surprise, their eyes locked again.
"Just wanted to see how good you were," he replied, coolly. He shoved her away with his arm and she let go of it as he did. "Take this advice that no one I knew ever listened to: Stay away from me. I'm not good for anything or anyone."
"I can't," Deirdra insisted. "I was told to stick with you."
"Do you have a brain in your head?" Riddick wondered, irritably. "Stay the hell away from me."
He started to walk past her and got a good distance away before she said, "You don't have to be alone, Riddick."
He kept walking, but her words lingered in his head as he turned down a corner and into the room he had left the dead body of Kyra. He had to be alone. That was the whole problem. Anyone who ever came into contact with him ended up dead. Even Kyra, whom he had tried so hard to protect. Even that Holy man, who had a beautiful wife and daughter, started out fresh for himself. It didn't matter who you were or what you knew or how much skill you had. As soon as you met up with him, you were dead.
He had tried so many times to tell himself it wasn't his fault. That they made their choices on their own. But he couldn't help but feel responsible for the choices they made, because if it hadn't been for him being their, they wouldn't have been spurred into a fighting spirit. He felt especially responsible for Kyra, formerly known as Jack.
If they hadn't met, she wouldn't have wanted to be like him in almost every way. She wouldn't have gone looking for him after he left her on New Mecca. She wouldn't have joined up with mercs, been sold for a slave and ended up in a slam. She wouldn't have escaped with him, been taken by the Necros then killed on this God forsaken ship for helping him. If they hadn't met at all, she'd be safe…or dead on that dark planet. But at least she wouldn't have had to gone through what she did, her life wouldn't have been over quickly on that planet.
He had admitted it to himself the minute he met up with her on Crematoria that he was in love with her. It was the scratch she'd left with the blade hidden in her mouth and when she just sat there twirling a knife and staring at him when he had cleaned up in the built-in waterfall of the slam they found themselves in.
He knew the whole time that this obsession she had developed for him was actually love, and when Imam had told him that she looked up to him like an older brother, he knew it was total bullshit. Imam didn't know anything about how Jack/Kyra really felt. Riddick knew. He always knew. When Imam said she'd felt betrayed when he left, he believed it. Anyone would feel betrayed if the person they loved left them, even he knew that. But he had done it for her own good, even if she couldn't see that.
Now, she was gone, and he had this army of Necromongers to deal with. Riddick was seriously thinking of handing this whole operation over to that First Commander, Vaako, or whatever his name was. But thinking again, he didn't see the hurt in having a whole army at your disposal whenever you needed them, and if he did give the army to Vaako, no doubt he would just continue the cycle that the other Lord Marshal had been keeping up. Convert or die.
But it wasn't his fight. The only reason he had come here was to get Kyra back, and that worked out like shit. And besides that, he had this new chick following him around saying she was there to watch over him. She was more irritating than any of this other shit. He could take care of himself, didn't she see that?! Maybe she had come in after all that and just saw him on the throne and all those people kneeling?
"You keep what you kill," she had said. She had said it, so she must have been there to know that he had killed that jackass and not someone else.
What is she brain dead or just plain stupid? he wondered to himself. She knows who I am, what I've done, yet she still insists on following me around.
He sighed and leaned his hands on the table Kyra was laying on as he stared at her.
"Guess I'd better go give that guy, Vaako 'my' throne," he said aloud. "At least then I can be done with this shit."
"That's not a good idea, Riddick," an all too familiar voice came from the doorway to the room. He sighed and turned to see Deirdra leaning back on the door frame examining her nails. "Vaako is a bad idea. Any one of those is a bad idea, actually. They'll just follow what they've been taught. Those they can't convert will be killed."
"What do I care?" Riddick asked, a bite to his voice. "I avenged my Furyan race for what that bastard did thirty years ago and I avenged Imam and Kyra. What else is there?"
"Everyone else," Deirdra said sharply, pushing off the doorframe and turning to face him. "You want worlds to die just to have your freedom?"
"It's not my fight anymore," he replied and glanced at Kyra then back at Deirdra. "Why do you care, anyway? You trying to get me to stay so that you don't have to keep up with me after I'm out of here, or is it a power thing?"
"It's not about power," she insisted, walking toward him, her hips moving sharply as her stilettos clicked on the hard floor and echoed through the room. "It's about saving millions of lives that will make up for all those already lost. The future is in your hands, Riddick. Can't you see that?"
"I don't want the future in my hands," he replied, coming close to her face to be threatening, but she didn't flinch. "I just wanna lead a quiet life. Wanna be left alone. No mercs after me. No cops chasing me. Just peace and quiet."
Deirdra burst into laughter that threw her head back and its melodic sound filled the room. It stopped abruptly as she looked at him again, his eyes fixed on her in slight surprise.
"Peace and quiet?" she echoed. "You're Riddick. You don't get peace and quiet. How can you have it when you're a hunted man? You give Vaako the rank Lord Marshal, and he'll turn on you quicker than you can pilot a ship out of here. He'll let you run a bit then send mercs after you, or worse…his own men."
Riddick still stared his fixed and shining gaze at her. She had a point. Vaako hadn't hesitated to try to kill the Lord Marshal when Kyra had stabbed him in the back and wounded him, and though the man tried to hide it, Riddick had seen his anger and rage after he'd killed him instead of Vaako. Not to mention, with that woman at his side, helping him, Riddick would end up looking for another planet to take refuge on as soon as he left. Even being Lord Marshal wouldn't satisfy this guy, he could tell he'd want revenge for taking what he thought was his the first time.
He sighed as he felt the ship rumble from the landing and looked back at Kyra lying on the table.
Let me get her buried, he told himself. Then I'll think about this.
"Do you need help?" Deirdra asked as Riddick pulled Kyra back into his arms.
"Just keep the ship here till I get back," he replied walking out of the room. "I'm not saying I'll stay with this. Just keep it here."
Deirdra nodded, even though his back was facing her but he knew she had nodded. For some reason, he knew he could trust her, though he wouldn't. Not yet. Not until she proved herself somehow. She may have been irritating, but something in her eyes was telling him to keep her around. It frustrated him that he couldn't figure it out, and as he walked down the hall and toward the exit of the ship, he knew it would bug him until he figured out what that something was.
A/N: reviews?
