Blood left a crymson trail down the side of his face and Riddick punched him across the jaw with a solid right hook, Bucha's head rocked to the side and blood flew out of his mouth in a red arc.
Riddick was moving faster than a normal man should be able to, Furyan or not. Bucha managed to block some blows but most landed, he got in his own but not many based on the fact that only the corner of Riddick's mouth was bleeding and there was a bruise developing on his jaw, while Bucha's face was a mask of blood.
Sharah wanted to stop the fight but knew she couldn't. Once a fight is started it can only stop until one of them yields or dies, and Bucha will never yield, his honor and dignity is at stake.
Riddick suddenly had a knife in his hand and while Bucha blocked one blow Riddick slid the knife through his armor and into his chest. Bucha's own body weight pulled the knife out of his chest as he fell back onto the floor.
Riddick approached Toals who lay bleeding and dying on the Necropolis floor, ready to give the killing blow when a very pale Necro woman suddenly flung herself forward and onto Toals' body, tears streaming down her face. Toals looked up at her and touched her cheek gently.
"Sharah." He rasped and she looked at him.
"Bucha, why?" she asked.
"You deserve power and respect. And I gave it to you."
"To hell with power and respect!" she exclaimed. "I don't want them, I want you. Please don't leave me Bucha." She sobbed.
"Death is nothing but another phase of life."
"But you won't be with me in this life, and that is one thing that I couldn't bare to think of." She said and he wiped the tears from her snow-white cheeks. His brow furrowed for a second as he touched her tightly bound hair.
"Let down your hair, just one last time." He requested and she did, removing the fastening from it and letting it fall to her elbows in a bright orange wave. Bucha buried his hands in it and ran his fingers through it, getting blood on the strands. "So smooth, so soft."
"Bucha." She sobbed and put her hand on one of his, pressing it into her cheek. "Please don't leave me."
"You belong to Riddick now."
"He shall never own me!" Sharah proclaimed. "Only you, forever you." She said and they kissed gently, she nearly gagged at the taste of his blood on his lips. He exhaled shakily into her mouth and went slack. She looked at him as a fresh wave of tears ran down her face. "Bucha?" she asked but there was no answer, his eyes were closed and he was unmoving. "No! Please come back! Please! Please! Don't leave me Bucha! Don't leave me." She said sobbing loudly and laying her head on his chest, getting his blood on her skin and hair. "Please don't leave me. Come back."
Riddick watched as the woman cried on the body of Lord Toals. Several ladies emerged from the crowd and tried to drag her but she fought them off and flung herself back onto the body, pleading for him to come back, to not leave her.
"Dame Toals, come." One of the women said and guilt speared through his body. The Dame suddenly grabbed a knife from Toals' belt and turned, throwing it at Riddick. He caught it in mid air, catching the blade between his hands in front of his face and the crowd froze, holding its breath.
"I will not fight her, she's grieving, she's angry, and she's not thinking." Riddick said, holding the blade by his side. One of the stronger women managed to get an arm around her waist and haul her away.
"You will never own me! Never!" Dame Toals yelled as she was dragged away, kicking to get free. She kept yelling the word 'never' until only her sobs were heard and then even those faded.
Sharah sat in what used to be hers and Bucha's room, tuning an ancient acoustic guitar that had been on a now conquered world. She struck a cord, her trained ear picking it and soon she was playing a tune, an old Avril Lavigne song, Slipped Away, one of the first that she learned to play those many years ago. The beginning tune was originally played by a piano, but a guitar was all she had.
In the middle of the song her voice cracked and she stopped to compose herself. She finished without having to stop again; she put the old instrument back into the case and latched it, putting it back in the corner of the room. She crawled onto her bed and put her face into Bucha's pillow, inhaling his scent and starting to cry again.
Riddick had stopped outside the open door, hearing the guitar music and the singing. It had been so full of emotion, sadness and sorrow, grief. His throat had tightened hearing this much sadness in one song and it had made him think of when he had lost Kyra.
Days passed and her grief really started to show. Black circles had formed under her gray eyes from lack of sleep. She didn't leave the rooms anymore, not even to eat, and thus she lost a disturbing amount of weight. Riddick was in the Lord Marshal's quarters, pacing back and forth in his room, feeling personally responsible for her condition. Why does he let her affect him so much?
His door chimed and he looked at it.
"Enter." He said and the door slid back, revealing a young woman in servant's dress. "Who are you?"
"Erin, My Lord. A lady-in-waiting to Dame Toals."
"What do you want?"
"I'm afraid of her condition My Lord. She won't eat she won't sleep. All she does is cry."
"My problem how?"
"You killed her husband My Lord, and that is the cause of her ailment. I've been trying to get her to eat, to sleep, but she won't listen to me. I just thought…"
"You just thought that if the Lord Marshal ordered her to, she would. I have a news flash for you Erin…she hates me. She won't do a thing I say, Lord Marshal or not." Riddick said and she nodded.
"Yes My Lord."
"Dismissed." He said she bowed her head at him, leaving quickly and shutting the door behind her.
Sharah lay curled up in her bed, hugging her knees to her chest. She was fighting her exhausted body and mind, it wanted to sleep but every time she tried she would see Bucha's body, his handsome face covered in blood. She suddenly got up and went into the bathroom, turning on the shower and getting in. She adjusted it so it was almost scalding and shuddered, feeling it course down her body. She washed her hair and body, washing away the grime, the sweat and the tears. After rinsing she got out and got dressed into fresher sleep clothes, going back into her bedroom, finding the blankets and sheets changed and neatly made.
She lay down on the bed and could feel sleep start to suck her under.
"Erin?" she managed to call out. Erin stuck her head in the room.
"Yes My Lady?"
"I want no interruptions, I think I'm gonna get some sleep." She said and thought she saw Erin smile.
"Yes My Lady." She said and left, closing the door silently behind her. Sleep pulled her under and she let it.
Riddick stopped outside Dame Toals' door and knocked. It was opened a short time later by the servant Erin.
"Yes Lord Marshal?" she asked.
"I've come to see Dame Toals."
"It's not the best of time Lord Marshal."
"Excuse me?"
"I only meant that she's sleeping Lord Marshal. For the first time in days she's sleeping. I was just about to go get some food for her for when she wakes up."
"I will watch over her."
"Thank you Lord Marshal."
"No problem, go get some food for your Lady." He said and she walked past him with a bow of her head. Riddick walked into the rooms, closing the door behind him and followed the quiet sounds of breathing to the bedroom, seeing Dame Toals asleep on the bed, her unnaturally bright orange hair splayed out on the pillow behind her. He sat in a chair facing the bed in the shadows and removed his goggles, seeing her more clearly.