Wow, threaten to kill a kitten, get reviews. Don't worry, the cat survived.
I don't like writing fight scenes, well, I write them, I just never really take the time to stop and analyse the actions, I let them roll, so, whatever was written was made to be breezed over, don't look too far into it.
Jack stared at her reflection, fighting with herself, on the sink beside her a blade glinted dangerously. Her face in the mirror was mocking her, everything about her reflection made her itch to smash the glass into a thousand pieces. Frustrated, she paced across the small space the bathroom afforded her. From the sink, to the shower, to the toilet, to the sink and so on until she was almost sick with dizziness. Her hair hung around her like a curtain and like a nervous habit, she ran her fingers through it constantly, feeling the silk like texture she was so used to, so unlike her earlier years when a shaved head was both practical and necessary, no lice, no fleas, no males.
Her shoulder itched from when the tattoo healed quickly, a shot to encourage rapid healing had been given to all the fighters when they entered the camp, encouraging much body art among the rapidly swelling numbers of Ground Zero and the other training camps filling up around Helion Prime.
Finally, she sighed, wrapping her fingers around the carved handle of the shiv she had carried since she was twelve years old, fashioned by Riddick and sharpened by her hands, her fingers fit perfectly almost unchanged in the last six years. Like an extension of her arm, it felt so natural to swing the blade up and around in a clean slice, her eyes closing at the last second so she couldn't see the results of her initial cut. Eventually, she opened her eyes and looked at the long fistful of hair she still held, letting it drop to the floor, cleanly severed, what remained brushed her shoulders, almost instantly springing up into spiral curls liberated from the weight of the length. Exchanging her shiv for a more practical pair of scissors, she tided the ends and then pulled her much shorter hair up into a stubby ponytail.
Jack swept up her dark hair from the bathroom floor, mourning it as one would mourn a lost companion before she carried it to a bonfire and threw the whole lot in the flame, watching bitterly as it burned.
"Is it what you want?" A Priestess, Hana, who was older than the others, emerged from the shadows to stand beside Jack, wrinkling her nose delicately at the smell of burning hair.
"I haven't wanted to cut my hair since I was a child." Jack muttered.
"Not the hair, the circumstances that bought you to this." Hana asked. "You could be Priestess, if that is the direction your heart takes you, or you could be his wife."
Jack laughed cynically. "You mean Riddick? Riddick isn't the marrying kind."
"Maybe he would marry you, if that is what you're heart desires, he's saving a universe for you." Hana pointed out.
"Maybe he's just sick of having mercs on his neck?" Jack suggested. "Leader of the Helios army seems a little better than wanted convict."
"I have been told you are closing in on the end of your year as an acolyte, war or no, you must either take your vows, or leave our order." Hana left Jack with that ultimatum.
The next time she met with Riddick, he ruffled her shorter hair like a child's, but made no other move toward her or comment.
"Fight me?" In his large hand was a knife, her knife, and looking down, Jack realised that he'd managed to lift it from her person without her noticing. She snatched it up with a scowl and followed him into a training ring out in the hot sun, all around them thousands of fighters trained in neatly organised divisions, a far cry from the choppy disorder of their first days.
He came at her with no warning, leaving Jack scrambling to dodge his fluid attack, ducking from the sharp blade that came swinging before her, her slight form allowing her to slip away from his and come at his back, getting thrown back as he turned swiftly. She rolled into the throw, landing on her toes and fingertips and twisting to try sweep his legs out from under him, a move he anticipated and responded to by jumping away and allowing Jack time to jump to her feet and come back at him.
Riddick met her attack, turning as she thrust forward, sliding her along and helping with a knee to the back that set her stumbling before she captured his arm and flung herself around to use the knife to slice at the bicep of his weapon arm. His arm curved up with a knife to brush a collarbone before Jack danced away and came back quickly in a flurry of kicks and punches, Riddick parrying each blow before taking the offence, making Jack duck away, putting some distance between them.
Riddick watched as she swapped her knife into her other hand, feet carefully stepping around the ring, circling him as he did the same, the slide of blood down her shirt from the base of her throat was ignored. The both of them were sweaty and hot, blood pumping as fighters stopped to watch them, Jack feinting a lunge to the left before coming in from the right, Riddick meeting her attack and flinging her away like there was nothing to her, Jack hit the barrier of the ring, landing on her feet and swooping in again, her left hand with the knife lashing out and catching the underside of his arm. Taking the hit the arm delivered, Jack stumbled away momentarily, ducking as Riddick's knife whistled through the space her head had been only moments earlier, sweeping out her legs again, she managed to get him to the ground, but losing the upper ground as he threw his knife around and pinned her thighs, dodging her knife as it darted towards him, a hand snaking out to catch the blade. Ignoring the slide of sharp metal on skin, he threw it to the side also and focused on pinning her. Jack lifted her hips to try throw him off, but was caught in the roll of his body, slammed against the hard packed dirt, breath escaping from her lungs, knowing defeat was inescapable, Jack managed to throw a few last, desperate hits, before her shoulders and legs were pinned to the ground. She looked up into Riddick's goggles, letting her body go limp, letting him know he had her down.
"Okay." She panted.
"You got faster." He noted.
"Thought about body building, but didn't want to turn the guys off." She deadpanned, squirming now to try shift the weight of him off her.
"You don't watch your back." Riddick criticized, putting more pressure before easing off and offering her a hand.
"Thought you always had my back." Jack pointed out, letting him haul her to her feet, before she stood steadily, he let go, dumping her back down on her ass. "What the hell?"
"Thought you were a big girl?" Riddick said, anger laced his voice. "You just stay down now?"
"You know I can't throw you once you've pinned me." Jack bitched, rolling away to grab her knife from the dirt and stashing it away at the small of her back. "What is this, a pissing contest? 'Cause I don't have a dick to whip out and measure."
With Jack on her feet now, the two of them faced off, aware of the fighters having crowded around the ring to witness their match, blood and sweat sliding down skin tanned from the sun.
"Work on the hits from your left." Riddick ordered, striding away and leaving Jack alone and confused.
"What are you looking at?" She snapped at the audience, who hurried to disperse. swearing Jack stalked after Riddick, finding him in the designated command centre, which for once, was empty and dark. "You don't get to just walk away from me!"
"Get out Jack." Riddick was braced against a table, a table that held maps and schematics, the very information that would stop the spread of the Necromongers, all open and bare.
"I don't get you." Jack ranted despite his forceful requests. "You've called me everything from a child to a whore, you can't look at me now but you were more than willing to attack me, I don't get you."
Riddick remained silent, goggles clenched in his fist, silver eyes looking through the darkness at the world on the table.
"Six years ago, I took two people off that planet." His voice was quiet, but easy to hear in the silence. "Only planned on taking one, and only because she was there."
"Well I'm sorry your intended fuck-buddy got ripped to pieces." Jack bit out. "Doesn't excuse you for acting like an asshole."
"You were supposed to stay in New Mecca." This wasn't the first time those words had come for him. "I was going to come back for you."
"When, Riddick?" Jack asked, crossing the room to stand beside him. "It's one thing to have intentions, it's another to carry them out, I spent three years in New Mecca, I was not going to spend my life waiting on a ghost."
Leaving him in his brooding silence, Jack found the blacksmiths, who were working continuously to improve upon the weaponry and armour supplied by the different planets of the Helion System, no amount of technology could substitute the physical work undertaken by the men who had erected a makeshift forge in the middle of the supply area of the camp.
"Need a new blade Miss?" A teenage boy with kind eyes addressed her from where he turned a red hot blade while another man hammered away at the steel.
"I Make my own, just need a sharpening stone." Jack explained, looking at the polished steel of the newly forged blade, the kind of weapon that would become paramount in a battle of useless guns.
The apprentice, with urging from the blacksmith, scurried away and returned with a sharpening stone, which he handed to Jack nervously.
"Are you a Priestess?" He asked, flinching slightly.
Jack smiled softly. "I'm an acolyte, not a Priestess yet."
"Will you take the veil, before the war?" He asked curiously.
"We don't take the veil." Jack explained with a small shake of her head. "We take vows, get tattooed, get presented with new weapons and offer every aspect of our lives to the service of the Goddess."
The boy bit his lip before hesitatingly speaking. "Is it true you're in the service of the Warlord Riddick?"
This made Jack laugh out loud. "You saw us fighting, didn't you?" The boy nodded eagerly. "I'm a envoy of the Priestesses of Siniah, I was acquainted with Riddick many years ago."
As if the name summoned him, Riddick was at her side, grasping her elbow and pulling her away from the forge, Jack let him lead her to the command centre where the heads of several factions were assembled, along with the Helion Council and the Elementals.
"The Necromongers have reached the moons of Helion Five, evacuations were only half complete before Lykurgos was destroyed, and the Wanderers of Selene disregarded our warnings and have perished." Aereon addressed the group.
"Two moons of five, they move quickly." Jack noted, several heads turned her way.
"No doubt that when they destroy Helion 5, they will be thorough." One of the Helion Council members spat.
"It has been recommended that full scale evacuation of all civilians on Helion Prime commence." A council leader announced.
"What system has agreed to take them?"
"Various planets of the Terraulis System." The politicians continued to bicker back and forth, meaning that when Jack slipped away from the meeting, she was almost entirely unnoticed.
"Jack?" Riddick had followed her, watched her as she leant against the wall of the building and let her check rest upon the warm wood, already the sun was setting and night was washing over the camp.
"I think it's time my family left now." She told him.
"Thought the Holy Man had to stay." Riddick said.
"Lajjun and Ziza need to go, find somewhere safe." Her hands dragged through her short hair in frustration.
Even though her back was to him, she felt him approach, a warm hand dropping onto her shoulder and steadying her for a moment before he moved away and left her in the descending shadow.
"Get up." Jack stubbornly clenched her eyes shut tighter and buried herself deeper in her bedding, not registering the hands on her before they rolled her from her bed and only the ground with a heavy thud.
"It's still dark." She protested as Riddick pulled her to her feet, not letting go this time, and handed her a handful of clothes.
"Five minutes." He ordered. Through sleep clouded eyes, Jack took in the still sleeping forms of the other acolytes around her before she disappeared into the small bathroom, dressing quickly, brushing her teeth and running her fingers through her hair.
Outside men were already awake and moving, running practise drills with determination etched on every face and only the dying light of the few fires to see by. Riddick greeted her by throwing a piece of fruit in her direction and leading her away to where someone waited to transport them in a shuttle. Confused, cold and not quite awake, Jack huddled on her seat, her back pressed against the warmth of Riddick's side, her knife tracing a path through the soft flesh of the fruit which she chewed slowly. when they finally left the shuttle, her meal was eaten and pink had started to touch the horizon, the stars blinking away. The spaceport she had been bought to was bustling with civilians clutching at their most precious belongings, waiting to be herded onto off-planet transports.
"Jack!" A little voice broke Jack from her musings, and she opened her arms in time for Ziza to fling her little body against Jack's. "Are you coming with us?" Her eyes looked up eagerly at her sister.
"Where is Papa and Mama?" Jack asked, brushing away the question. Ziza pointed through the crowd, allowing Jack to carry her as Riddick led them through the crowd.
"My daughters." Imam embraced the both of them, drawing Lajjun into one last embrace before they broke apart, eyes damp, hearts breaking.
"Must we leave Father?" Ziza asked, holding onto Imam's hand with all the grip she could muster.
"You need not worry, my daughter." Imam assured her. "We will be together very soon."
"But, what about Jack?" Ziza cast a desperate glance at her sister.
"We will all be together soon." Imam attempted to placate his pouting daughter, who reached out to wrap herself around Jack.
"Come with us Jack, don't stay here. You could get hurt." Ziza pleaded, and as gently as she could, Jack untangled herself from her sister.
"You and Mother must go and be safe, we're going to stop the monsters." She promised.
"I thought Riddick stopped the monsters." Her lower lip wobbled and her eyes filled with tears.
"Riddick needs help, and we can't worry about you." Jack said, smoothing her hair down. "Come one, we'll see each other soon, think of it like an adventure."
"Like when you were little?"
"Yeah, like when I was little." Jack smiled sadly and let Lajjun pick up Ziza, Imam grabbing their bags.
"Father." Jack's voice drew him away from Lajjun and Ziza. "Go with them, please, get off Helion Prime, you don't need to be here."
"I must stay here, my daughter." Imam told her softly. "I am responsible for bringing Riddick here, I will not abandon this fight. I am needed her."
"They need you too." Jack insisted.
"I have faith in Riddick child." Imam said, as if Riddick himself wasn't standing three feet away. "I know we will all be together, but for now, I must trust that the members of my family who cannot defend themselves as you can, are safe, so I may help where I am needed."
With last tearful goodbyes, Lajjun and Ziza disappeared onto a ship and Imam, Jack and Riddick were left standing there.
"I must get back to the Council." Imam muttered, removing his glasses and wiping at his eyes tiredly. "Keep in contact my child."
Without waiting for a response, he moved away through the crowd and left Riddick and Jack standing there.
"If I'd had asked." Riddick started to say as he steered her through the crowd. "Would you have gone with them?"
"And miss out on this?" Jack asked. She laughed brokenly and wiped away the tears streaming down her face. "Either way, my family is being torn apart. Let's just end this already."
We're all angsty teenagers. Make me a little less angsty and review, or I kill a teddy bear.