The Furyan's Return: Chapter Eight
NOTE: This story is based on the director's extended version of The Chronicles of Riddick, not the theatrical release. I claim no rights to characters from COR.
When Sunara awoke, she felt as if she had been in a crash landing, her body aching, chest tight making it difficult to breathe. The handprint was fainter, but it throbbed like never before. She remembered everything, his eyes burning into her, the handprint shinning in his chest, the overwhelming fear. Even now her heart began racing and a cold sick feeling filled her stomach.
A cool hand smoothed her forehead. Opening her eyes she saw the Reverend Mother's infinitely kind and patient face smiling down on her.
"My poor child…" she crooned. "It's all my fault."
"Mother Superior, please… it's not your fault," Sunara whispered. "I knew you were telling the truth. I could feel it. I just didn't want to believe it."
"I should have told you so much sooner. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I raised you like my own daughter; I didn't want to give that up." Malenka smiled down on Sunara.
Sunara found herself smiling weakly. The Mother Superior had been the only mother she had known. She had felt torn on the occasions when a ship would arrive to take one of the priestesses to her destiny. But no ship had ever come for her, until now… and she knew it was time for her to go. The completeness of it gave her a sense of calm and the glowing mark pained her less.
Sunara grunted in stiff, achy pain as she tried to seat up fighting Malenka's crooning to lie back. "No. I'm fine. Really," Sunara said weakly. "Where is he?" she inquired.
Malenka searched Sunara's face, her eyes roving. "Are you sure?" she asked, quietly.
Such a simple question, such a simple answer. Sunara had never been sure of anything else in her life it seemed. She stood on shaking legs and used all her meditation training to calm her heartbeat and breathing until a serene smile crept over her face. "Yes, Mother."
The Mother Superior led her to a broad dinning room, the room used for entertaining the highest honored guests. Sunara recognized it; she had served dignitaries there several times in her tenure as a low priestess. She steadied herself as she entered the room. Aereon stopped something she was saying in mid-sentence and smiled up at Sunara from the sumptuous cushions. Recessed in a shadowed stood a darker figure leaning against the marble wall, no longer wearing the black cloak but instead dark goggles covering his silvery eyes.
"My apologies…" Sunara started, "about… earlier. Please accept our hospitality." In those words that Sunara had recited hundred of times, she found renewed strength to glide forward. But she jumped as a side door opened and one of the other high priestesses came with a tray of tea, glasses and sweetmeats. Sunara recognized her as one who had taken vows of silence. Having had her job usurped, Sunara sat uneasily on the edge of a winged back chair.
Aereon spoke once the tea had been poured and they were left alone, taking no chances. "My dear… I am sure you are quite overwhelmed… However, time is of the essence." Her voice was gentle, coaxing.
Sunara looked to the dark figured man, but he did not move. "I will do what I can. But… I am not sure what is expected of me."
Aereon's smile grew deeper. "My dear child, as the last of the royal house of Furya, you are the rightful ruler of the planet." She stopped for several breaths, letting the words sink in. "Now that Furya is being rebuilt, your people need you."
A sound in the corner. The man had moved forward a step, looking tense, ready to spring. Sunara stilled her heart again.
Aereon's eyes had flickered to the corner and now back to Sunara, mouth opened and ready to speak, but hesitating. "And… we must secure the throne…"
"Tell her," he spoke in a gravely, impatient voice.
Aereon seemed to falter. "Yes… but first… this is Riddick, the man who is rebuilding Furya, the man who defeated the Necromongers"
Sunara now understood her visions, the Necromongers, the dark lurking shapes and the one with the silver eyes. Not the same creatures. She looked more closely at the man in the corner who now wore a wry half grin. He nodded briefly at her and she understood her destiny lay with the dark man in her nightmares.
"And I am to marry him… to secure the throne for him," Sunara said it calmly, without any inflection.
Aereon looked surprised at the statement. "Yes, child… Then the Furyans will be truly united again."
Sunara searched Aereon's face and then Malenka's; they wore the same self-satisfied smiles. Elementals and their machinations, always plotting and planning. Sunara had never really believed it of the Mother Superior until now, and suddenly she felt her chest burn, this time in anger like she had never known.
"How long?... How long have you two plotted this?" Sunara's voice was so low, her lips barely moved, but everyone in the room could not mistake the anger filled words. Her body was rigid, chin high, defiant.
Malenka looked stricken. "My child… I – we only sought to keep you safe. I spoke the truth… you are like a daughter –"
But Sunara had risen abruptly, fully facing the Mother Superior now. Anger etched in her every muscle, Sunara's voice shook with pain and fury, "More's the pity that you would have used your own daughter to your political ends." She turned to Riddick, who now stood totally at attention several paces closer to the group of women.
"Sir… I accept your proposal of marriage –" Riddick's singular eyebrow raised quizzically "– if you take me away from here… now," said Sunara, ignoring Malenka and Aereon.
Aereon and Malenka had begun to chatter and protest about preparations, protocols, but Sunara had her eyes on Riddick who peeled off his goggles and stepped within 2 feet of Sunara. It took all of her will not to pull her eyes away from the disconcerting silvery ones, but her anger fueled her courage. His eyes searched hers and reflected some of the anger she was feeling. He had gone through the same feeling of betrayal and anger not so long ago and recognized it in the set of her face.
She saw the acquiescence in his eyes and felt a bit of gratitude. "Let me get some things and then we may leave."
"Of course," he said, amusedly and nodded his head in deference as she began to stride from the room.
Malenka rushed to catch up with her. "Please, forgive me… we were never sure this would come to pass. We hoped, yes, but never were sure…"
"Save your placations. I am no longer one of your pawns," Sunara's voice shook and she marched stiffly down the hallway to the dorm room to grab a few spare items, passing through the kitchens where all the women, servants and priestesses stopped to watch their Mother Superior excitedly chase Sunara.
She had almost reached the dorms with Malenka pleading beside her when a great explosion shook them both off their feet. Dust and debris showered them.
"Mother? What is going on?" Sunara cowered against the wall, hands over her head to protect herself from falling debris.
"Find a place to hide. Do not come out for anyone." Malenka suddenly looked determined like when she was dealing with particularly difficult dignitaries. She hopped up after another blast rocked the temple and dashed back down the hall.
Sunara was frozen to the spot. Memories swam in front of her eyes, memories of another time, building shaking, the sky falling… It took all her will power to crawl back along the corridor to kitchens which were now empty as the women had escaped to safety. But there was a place, a place Sunara used to find when she had nightmares as a child, a place warm and comforting. No one ever found her there. She crawled and pulled herself along pushing the fear down long enough to make her way.
Mortar fire rocked the building while Riddick's commanders yelled into the comms about the Believers' surprise attack. They had managed to follow Riddick's frigate and hovered low in a valley to lob mortars at the temple.
Half his Necro soldiers evacuated the priestesses from the building and to waiting ships that hovered dangerously close to the exchange of gunfire outside. The other half searched the building with Riddick, who stormed from room to room. The soldiers were careful to avoid being directly in his way. After the second time searching the dorm rooms, the soldiers spread out to the grounds searching the outbuildings.
Except for Riddick, who hung close to the large entry hall. Somehow he refused to give up finding some evidence of Sunara. Something inside wouldn't let him quit despite the large chunks of marble falling all around him. Just before Riddick turned to walk back into the courtyard, his chest ached. Under his newly donned armor, the handprint throbbed gently. Riddick headed down a long corridor he had searched earlier, but the throb seemed to lessen. It resumed its ache upon returning the hall. The next corridor he walked down caused the ache to grow stronger, so he quickened his pace and took several turns before entering the empty kitchens. Methodically, he checked all the cabinets and places where he thought a person would fit. Finally, he noticed a large grate in the wall next to the ovens. The bolts seemed to be loose so that the grate could be easily pulled out. Now, Riddick's heart and handprint throbbed in unison.
He wrenched the grate free and saw long dark blond tendrils of hair, the curve of an arm, a huddled body crammed impossibly in the tight space. At first, his heart skipped a beat believing she may be dead.
"Sunara… it's ok," Riddick started.
Suddenly, the body unfurled and seemed to fly from the tight space, clawing his face, howling, arms flailing, a banshee in full force. The woman was wild and enraged, eyes glassy and red-rimmed, but the dirty face belonged to Sunara. Riddick pinned the wild arms to her slight body after his face suffered a few scratches, and then clutched her to him, pinning her body tightly to his to keep her from hurting either of them. Then suddenly, her body went limp, as if surrendering. Great sobs wreaked her body like a child, and Riddick cradled her in his arms. He crouched for several minutes like that, finding himself rocking her, a fierce sense of protection came over him like he hadn't felt in a long time. And, rage swept over him like never before for the Necromongers, for the former Lord Marshal and most especially for Vaako.
Riddick called into his comm-link urgent orders to clear the building immediately; they had taken all the evacuees and wounded they could. Aereon found Riddick and tried to check on Sunara, whose head was buried in Riddick's chest, her body obviously shaking. Riddick only clutched her closer, ducking his head from falling rubble.
As Riddick burst from the side door of the temple with the bundle in his arms, the Necro soldiers fell into flanking positions and Aereon raised her hands. A whirlwind seemed to surround them, deflecting debris and moving with the small group that huddled around Riddick.
Riddick turned briefly to check how many more soldiers were running for the hovering frigate, and stopped. On a balcony in the south-west corner of the building stood Malenka whose hands glowed red. She appeared to hurled balls of fire from her hands down into the jungled valley where Necro ships hovered. The balls of fire were like napalm, sticking to the crafts and burning blue-white, hot enough to melt the outer hulls. It was seconds before Riddick saw a mortar zip toward the balcony and shatter it. In the debris of flying marble, he saw a red clothed figure fall and instantly covered under rubble. He turned back quickly, shielding Sunara's face from the destruction.
Once inside, he took Sunara's limp body to the med-wing, but she clung to him when the medics tried to lay her out on the bed. With unusual delicacy, he peeled her fingers from their bruising grip and calmed her enough to get her to lay back.
"Take care of her," Riddick ordered Aereon.
Once on the bridge, Riddick's orders came quick and brusque. A aircraft carrier moved to intercept the frigate Riddick had flown in on. Smaller flyers detached from it, attacking the Believers and driving them further down the dark valleys. From thousands of sectors away, cruisers responded to an encoded message to fall inline with Riddick's lead ship while other faster crafts pursued Vaako's ships with orders to destroy them on sight.
For three days, Sunara faded in and out of consciousness suffering from what the medics called shock. Nothing Aereon gave her seemed to stop her spasmodic dreams. Fever wreaked her body and made her cry out, breaking Aereon's heart. All Aereon's hopes for saving Furya had gone awry since that fateful day she saw visions of the Lord Marshal's end. She wasn't even sure now if Sunara would be in her right mind, if she survived at all.
Riddick stopped by frequently, always silent, quickly scanning Sunara's face for some change in her condition. He barely acknowledged Aereon, and she was none too eager to gain his attention, so she remained out of his way. She felt the anger still burn in him.
On the fourth day only a quarter of the way to Furya, Aereon contacted Riddick on the bridge. "She is coherent now."
