For possibly the first time in his life, Riddick felt something akin to nervousness. It wasn't quite nervousness, more apprehension or wariness, like a dog approaching a strange thing it doesn't recognise the smell of. He wasn't sure this was a good idea - wasn't sure she would want to see him, or, in fact, want anything to do with him at all. But he held onto a blind loyalty that most humans wouldn't understand, and instructed his various peons to land the ship in port on the nameless planet. He was impressed - if he hadn't specifically been following her movements, he would have never guessed that she would be here. It was a big universe and it was easy to hide within it - well, for some people. Riddick was a little too conspicuous to settle down in a city and pretend to be a normal man with a job and a house. The mere idea of it made him uncomfortable. He instructed the nameless necromongers to watch the ship and make themselves useful, before disappearing into the shadows and making his way to a nondescript house on a nondescript street, completely ordinary in every way except for who was inside.
He was less impressed with the lack of security that she'd put on her own home. It took him less than a minute to get inside, and he didn't even have to break anything - well, other than the lock on the back door, but that hardly counted. The door was still attached to its frame after all. He closed the back door behind him with a soft click, and looked around, at the home that she'd made for herself in their five years apart.
The kitchen was very neat. Everything was spotless, with not a single dirty dish in sight. The linens were folded very precisely on the table, which bore not a single crumb or stain to indicate that anybody had ever eaten or drunk at it. The immaculate nature of it made him nervous. He sat with his back to the wall, drinking a cup of tea as he evaluated every potential exit and entry point. He'd already taken note of the contents of the fridge – and helped himself to some roast beef and most of a carton of milk – and stalked idly through the rest of the house. There had been free weights in one of the rooms, and a man's set of shirts sitting neatly folded and ironed on a dresser, with the iron still warm to the touch. There were, in fact, very few signs of a female presence anywhere in the house – all of the drawers were full of male clothes save the very bottom one, which had very plain and dowdy blouses and a single solitary skirt that looked like it hadn't been worn in years. They didn't smell right when he put them up to his nose. Not like how he remembered her smelling. The bathroom had male shaving equipment and male hair products in the cabinet. He knew she lived here – had paid good money to make sure that he always knew where she was in the last five years. There was a single picture of her next to a man who had his arm around her waist. He had carried it with him into the kitchen. The man, he noticed with some small flash of interest, bore some very familiar traits – tall, shaved head, muscular. He allowed a ghost of a smile to pass over his face, but it passed quickly as he looked back at her face. Although she was smiling in the picture, the picture felt off to him, though he didn't know why.
Before he could dwell on it further, the front door opened and a familiar figure appeared, carrying some groceries in one arm. It had been five years since he'd last seen her, but she looked much the same – her hair was pulled back in a very severe ponytail, and her glasses were gone, but she was unmistakably Alicia. She squinted as she entered the house - he had closed all the curtains and turned off all the lights, creating an artificial night in the middle of the day. He was just more comfortable that way. It also meant that although he could see her clearly, she could not see him. He looked her over as she turned to shut the door – she was wearing a shapeless shirt that showed no hint of her curves, and sweatpants that were clearly too big for her. She looked, all in all, like she was trying very hard to pretend that she wasn't a female at all. She reached for the light switch as she walked into the kitchen.
"I'd rather you didn't" He said casually, which caused her to drop the groceries in her hand, which hit the floor with a shattering sound as something inside the bag broke. She scowled and dropped to her knees without even looking at him, gathering the groceries back towards her.
"What are you doing here?" She said heatedly. Riddick started to open his mouth to answer, but she continued before he had a chance. "You're not supposed to be home until 5. Why can't I turn the lights on? Some new rule we're enacting for my existence?" This caused a moment's pause. She thought he was her live-in lover. That could be fun. He kept his mouth shut for the moment, smirking to himself. If he kept his eyes averted, he could probably drag this on for a little while yet. She dropped the groceries on the counter, and then fumbled in the dark towards the closet, presumably to retrieve a broom to sweep up the glass. In the dark, however, she only managed to step on the glass pieces, crunching underfoot. She swore loudly as a larger piece stuck into her foot through the shoe.
He stood up from where he'd been sitting, and started moving towards her, not hindered by the dark. He was only planning to pull her away from the glass, but as he reached for her and touched her arm, she flinched and pulled away violently, crunching more glass as she stumbled away.
"Don't!" She snapped, looking blindly in his direction, and he caught a flash of fear go across her face as she held her arms up protectively around her head. "I'm sorry, I'll sweep up the glass, and I'll even play along with your new game of hiding in the dark, just don't."
He frowned. This was not the way he'd expected pretending to be her lover would go - he had expected more flirting, maybe one heated kiss, before she realised it wasn't him. Her reaction, however, was more the reactions he expected from people interacting with him. But Alicia wouldn't react that way with him - would she? She didn't look flirtatious or happy - she looked terrified of him. He looked at her more closely, then pushed her arm swiftly to one side and grabbed her chin, turning her head towards him. She cried out at the rough contact, trying to pull away, her eyes closed, muscles tensed for a blow. He spotted the telltale signs of a fading bruise colouring her lower jaw. There was a long moment as she stood stock still, his hand on her face, her eyes tightly closed and her muscles tensed, waiting for the blow to fall. It took only a moment for understanding to blossom in his mind. This was followed swiftly by a familiar cold rage. He made a low growl and gently ran his thumb over the bruise. She winced, but her eyes creased in confusion for a moment before opening slightly to peek at him. As the seconds ticked past, she seemed to realise that she wasn't about to be hit, and slowly opened her eyes fully to look at him. He was no longer interested in pretending. He looked right back at her, his eyes glowing like a pair of fireflies floating in the air. The fear on her face dropped immediately, and the tension she'd been holding in every muscle of her body fell away.
"You're finally here." She said quietly, looking him straight in the eyes. "You finally came."
He was then startled by her bursting into tears. He quickly dropped his hand and took a small step back, as if she had suddenly contracted a contagious disease. A small part of him pointed out that this would be the moment to embrace her, comfort her, but it felt wrong and it was drowned out by the animal fury that was pulsing through his every nerve. So he just stood still, staring at her in the dark, as she cried. After a few minutes the tears seemed to subside as quickly as they had come, and she sniffled, wiping her eyes with the palms of her hands.
"Sorry," She said, chuckling slightly at herself. "I just thought…thought maybe you would never come. It's been so long."
He carefully reached his hand out towards her face again, cupping her jaw and turning the bruise towards him. This time, she didn't flinch, keeping her eyes on him, wincing slightly as his fingers passed over the bruise.
"Tell me." He said, his voice a low rumbling growl.
She told him everything. She'd left Helion Prime, with no plan or resources, and moved from system to system, working in semi-legal capacities to keep herself fed, trying to keep her head down. For two years she'd continued this before she finally felt confident enough to settle on a planet as far away from her past and her former identity as possible. Once she'd stopped moving, however, the nightmares caught up with her, so she tried to sleep as little as possible, finding bars in low places that were open past the legal hours, where she could stay awake and drink until she passed out.
It was in some nameless bar like this that she'd met Daniel. She was drunk, the bar was dim, and when she saw him she thought he was somebody else (she didn't look Riddick in the eye when she said this, but he saw the faintest hint of pink flush across her cheeks). She'd thrown herself into his arms, blabbering incoherently, before realising her mistake. He seemed taken with her, however, and courted her, promised he'd keep her safe, held her at night when she cried, gained her trust so that she foolishly told him everything – the monsters, her true name, Riddick, the whole story.
That was when he'd started to impose the rules. First they seemed harmless enough. No talking to anybody else, because they might recognize her. Wear clothes that didn't make her stand out, so that nobody would notice her. Quit her job – he made enough money and she didn't need to risk herself like that. It wasn't until she tried to argue a rule that it became clear that his rules had nothing to do with her safety. He backhanded her square across the face and told her that he'd kill her or turn her in if she ever argued with him again.
"I wanted to kill him." She said, as she came near the end of the story, sitting at her kitchen table with Riddick, her hands clenched in her lap, a small bag on the table filled with what few possessions she still had. "But he wasn't stupid – he made me eat any food I made before he would eat it. He kept a hold on all the cash in the house so I couldn't go buy a weapon or a gun or anything I could use to kill him and escape. I'd already quit my job and I had nothing."
Riddick had not moved or reacted at any point during the story, other than another low growl as she described how he'd hit her. They had turned the lights on so Alicia could see and pack, so his eyes were hiding behind his unreadable goggles. Unbeknownst to Alicia, he had been watching the clock while he listened, watching as the time moved closer to 5.
"I did try. I tried to strangle him in his sleep with my bare hands. He woke up, threw me off…" Here she paused, looking down at her hands and rubbing at her arm absently. "He broke my arm and my jaw, and swore that if I ever tried it again he would kill me."
"So I did the only thing I could think of – I used the last of my cash and I told a man my name. My real name. I told him to find Riddick and tell him I needed him." She looked up at him and smiled. "And here you are. Finally. I knew you'd be hard to find, but two years…"
"I never got the message." He said darkly, the first thing he'd said in over an hour. He turned towards her as her eyes narrowed in confusion. "I always knew where you were. Probably the same man you tried to hire. He didn't want to lose his steady paycheque by having me come rescue you in person."
"Then why –" She started, but he cut her off.
"Because I'm in charge now." She blinked at him, clearly at a loss. He shifted, turning away from her to stare at the door again.
"I don't understand." She said slowly "You're in charge of…what?"
"It's a long story." He said, without turning his head. "I killed somebody and inherited his army and religion."
"Uh…okay." She didn't seem to know how to respond to that, so she stood up and grabbed the bag, hoisting it onto her shoulder. "Well we should go before he gets here."
"Not yet." He looked up at her without expression, but turned his head as a key clicked in the door. Alicia suddenly tensed, every muscle going taut. He got to his feet slowly, like a panther getting ready to pounce on its prey, and stood next to her. He put one hand on the small of her back for a moment, and felt her relax slightly. "He and I need to have a talk first."
"Riddick wait –" Whatever she was going to say was lost as the door opened and Riddick sprang forward, grabbing the figure and slamming him up against the wall, one hand around his throat. He carefully used the other hand to shut the door quietly, without a flicker of change in expression. Rather than struggling feebly, Daniel pulled backwards, trying to get a hold to enact any number of self-defense moves against a front-facing assailant. Riddick didn't even blink, letting go with one hand, but before he could pull back into a punch, Daniel had slammed forward in a low tackle, knocking Riddick off balance. Daniel than sprang up from crouching long enough to start aiming punching at his kidneys and sides, in quick succession. So he'd studied in this. Riddick grunted in irritation before slamming a hand forward flat into Daniel's face, hearing the satisfying crunch as the nose broke and began gushing blood. Before Daniel could fully recover from this, he lunged forward, grabbing him by the throat again and slamming his head against the wall. He hung limply, dazed, still pulling at the hands at his throat weakly.
"I don't think we've met." Riddick drawled, without loosening his grip, ignoring the blood seeping down his arm from Daniel's face. He held himself closer to Daniel so he could drop his voice lower. "I'm Richard B Riddick - and I'm going to kill you." With that he slammed his elbow into the side of Daniel's head, knocking him out cold and dropping him to the ground like a stone. All in all the fight had lasted maybe a minute, and Alicia was standing in the doorway with both hands over her mouth, looking like she didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or cheer.
"Is - is he…?" Alicia started, looking at Daniel's crumpled form.
"No." Riddick started wiping the blood on his arm onto Daniel's pristine shirts that had been folded nearby. As he turned around, Alicia had disappeared back into the kitchen. He heard a clatter, followed by the sound of drawers and cupboards being dumped onto the floor. He moved forward and glanced around as Alicia moved through each drawer, muttering to herself.
"Where is it where is it, where did you hide it you smug bastard - aha!" Triumphantly she yanked out a butcher knife that had been hidden underneath some towels. She turned towards the living room and stalked forward purposefully, pushing past Riddick, not taking her eyes off Daniel's crumpled body. She dropped to her knees and raised the knife, and he quickly moved forward, grabbing her wrist. "Let me go. Let me go!"
"No." His face was expressionless, and his grip was immovable.
"He deserves this! He deserves to die, over, and over, and over, and I want to kill him I want to do it, let me go, I have to I have to!" She struggled, her voice rising into hysteria as Riddick's grip didn't loosen. "I have to or he'll find me, he'll find me again, he'll, he'll find me…"
She began to trail off, her voice coming in gasps and hiccups, and he pulled her away as she started taking frantic quick breaths, as if she couldn't catch her breath. He cupped her face and looked at her directly, eye to eye, his face inches from hers.
"He won't." His voice was quiet, and she looked at him, her eyes sparking fresh tears as her body began shaking. He pulled the knife out of her hands, which had gone limp as she began to cry in earnest, and put it to one side. "He won't because I will kill him. But not like this. This? Too good for him. Too easy."
"But you will kill him?" She said, her voice a hoarse whisper, her eyes shining with unshed tears that clouded her vision. "You'll make sure?"
"By the time I'm done," He looked away for a moment, looking at the body, his eyes clouding and his face becoming somehow shadowed. "He'll be begging me to."
A/N: Heeeeey guuuuuys. I'd be truly surprised if anybody even remembers Alicia's story anymore (I was 16 when I last updated it...9 years ago.). It's...got a lot of problems, but reading it over (other than making me cringe) also made me feel that maybe I wanted to write a continuation to their story. A short one. And then ideas ideas ideas and I had to write them down and make them go away. Yes I know that I had started a sequel (for the few of you who might remember) but it...also wasn't good. And wasn't going anywhere. So that story does not exist anymore other than in your memories. This story will not be long - there may be another chapter of them figuring each other out, then making final decisions, but maybe not. Maybe I'll leave it here. I'm cruel like that. :)