Author's note: I'm finding that if you listen to the song while reading the scene it intensifies the drama or action. Lol that and they're fookin' good songs :-P
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The rumble of explosions woke Kyra from her already light sleep. Jumping out of bed she could already see that Riddick was packing their things. "Your little rebellion's started princess," he said sarcastically, "Get Ziza and Lajjun." Kyra's eyes became slits but she bit back her comment, they didn't have time for playful spats. Opening the door to the other room Kyra stopped in her tracks. Lajjun was just beginning to wake up, and while this didn't surprise her, Kyra couldn't help but feel the stirrings of emotion as she saw Ziza snuggle close to her mother. Such love… she thought.
"Is something wrong, Kyra?" asked Lajjun groggily. Kyra snapped herself back to reality and the present situation. Stalking forward she began picking the few articles of clothing that the two had left from Helion Prime.
"We have to go." Lajjun merely nodded and she gently shook Ziza to wake. The "extra" clothing that Kyra was picking up and inspecting was nothing more than a couple of torn cloaks. Blood stained Lajjun's where Kyra's hands had ripped the cloth for Riddick. She cringed at the memory but showed no outward sign of her thoughts or even of her inspection of the clothing. Don't have time for feelings, she chided herself, gotta stay focused. Finally getting Ziza out of bed, Lajjun wrapped the still sleepy child in her cloak.
"My dear you must wake, we have to go." Whispered Lajjun.
"Again?" She asked.
"Yes my love, quickly now." Lajjun's tender but strong voice hid her own fear from her daughter. However she couldn't hide it from Kyra as her eyes looked up. Kyra's face was a mask of stone, offering no comfort. She knew that a few kind words could put Lajjun at ease but she refused to sugarcoat anything. Fear would keep Lajjun on her toes, and make it easier for her body to overlook any stresses put upon it. Heading into the next room Kyra caught a glimpse of the old Riddick. His black tank top hid the bandages still wrapping his body but she could tell from the stiff movements that it still hadn't healed in full. He already had his goggles on and she could no longer see those silver eyes she had come to depend on. In the first days of caring for him, when those glowing eyes of his opened, it was like heaven itself had smiled at her. One more affirmation that he hadn't died in the night, she kicked herself for getting sad at the thought of not being able to see those eyes, now hidden behind goggles. Riddick could feel Kyra's eyes on him, the same feeling he had felt when he was sleeping at night. He knew she thought that because of his injury he was unable to keep from slipping between consciousness and unconsciousness. And maybe the first night she was right; but every night after, Riddick never slept as deeply as that first night on 58-26. He would feel those eyes, and sometimes she would caress his face whispering his name. She only did it because she thought I didn't know or wouldn't remember, thought Riddick. Riddick watched as Kyra's gaze fell to the bags at his feet once she had seen him turn his head. He knew that this was neither the place nor time for such thoughts but he couldn't help whispering at least in the confines of his own mind, your touch gave me the strength to wake up, I wanted to see you…
"We'll keep to the back streets, stay out of sight from the necros and the locals." Stated Kyra; already she was assuming command of this stalwart group of travelers. "The ship's already been moved so this should be a walk in the park." Riddick simply grunted but didn't disagree with her. Kyra strapped a duffel bag to her back, and reached for the other. Riddick swiped it before she could take it.
"What do you think you're doing?" annoyance thick in her voice.
"Carrying a bag." Riddick stated matter-of-factly. Kyra's eyes became slits at his nonchalance.
"If you tear those stitches, I'm leaving you here to bleed to death." Kyra said flatly. Riddick's eyebrow twitched. Kyra continued in the same flat tone, "I can't afford to have you slowing us down." Riddick growled at her, tightly strapping the bag to his back. Ignoring his response to what Kyra knew was a flat out lie; she walked straight to the door. Turning around she looked at the three of them.
"Ready?"
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The Lord Marshal was not pleased. Not pleased at all. It was going on three weeks that they had delayed their departure from Helion Prime. Riddick hadn't even dented the amount of soldiers he truly had at his disposal but he had managed to make the Lord Marshal look like a complete fool. Escaping from the Basilica, then from Vaako could have been overlooked, but to return to Helion Prime and escape unpunished made Lord Marshal worse the fool. At the very least he had been proud of Vaako for going out and attempting to cut Riddick down himself. Of course it ended in yet another personal defeat for Vaako. At first the Lord Marshal had thought this would be the proverbial straw that broke the camels back, instead, upon seeing Vaako drag himself, bleeding and bruised back to the Basilica all necromongers now wanted Riddick dealt with. The Lord Marshal smirked to himself, now they're united behind me, Riddick has forced them to look at the campaign through my eyes. The necromongers now knew how dangerous Riddick was to the campaign. Their holy war found a pariah worth punishing with all their might.
While the Lord Marshal was keen to make use of his people's distaste for Riddick he still had a job to do. Moving from territory A to territory B, he snickered. It was slow work but at least being stationary on a planet gave them a temporary base of operations to work out of. Over a hundred teams had been sent out to more worlds. The power of words had worked before and if the armada was to be stationary then why not make use of his priests? The Purifier himself had been a great symbol, and many had flocked to the necromongers of their free will solely based on the report of a Furyan convert. But alas, thought the Lord Marshal, that was back when Furya had existed. This simple fact made him cringe instead of smirk; at first he had thought that decimating the planet and race was in his benefit but now, all it seemed to have done is scatter Furyans to the wind. A race hunted is a race capable of two things: extinction or adaptation. And Riddick seemed to be following the latter and not the former. Huffing silently the Lord Marshal knew that they would need to tread lightly. An armada could bring down entire civilizations but looking for a single man in thousands of solar systems was next to impossible. As the Lord Marshal stared out the window he could feel someone coming behind him, out of the corner of his eye he saw Vaako approaching. Vaako waited respectfully for his Master to speak first.
"Yes, Vaako?" The Lord Marshal growled out.
"My Lord, it has been brought to my attention that Riddick may have a few enemies that could be of use to us." The Lord Marshal rolled his eyes, well aren't you captain obvious, he sighed, turning to face Vaako.
"And?"
"Well…" Vaako continued hesitantly, "Why not recruit from prison planets? He's bound to have enemies that know something, anything about him." Vaako saw the smile on the Lord Marshal's face growing, which encouraged him to continue with strength in his voice, "In fact why not return to that hellish planet to interrogate the prisoners there."
"Why not indeed…" the Lord Marshal replied, his voice trailed off as he thought more on what Vaako was saying, "Vaako I want you to return to that planet and interrogate every prisoner there, find out what they know, if they know anything at all." Vaako bowed his head and moved to leave, "And Vaako, don't fail me again." Vaako's eyes cast to the floor as he turned and left. The Lord Marshal wanted to tell Vaako how pleased he was with him and his idea, however these were dangerous times, they all had a job to do and nothing was going to stand in their way.
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Kyra moved from shadow to shadow, keeping an eye out for necros and prisoners alike. The chaos of the explosions had definitely been to their benefit. I mean seriously, who's going to notice four more people running? Thought Kyra. Riddick stayed with Ziza and Lajjun while Kyra scouted the alleys ahead. Riddick probably could have done it but for now, he was allowing Kyra to call the shots. Riddick was actually waiting for all hell to break lose and their cover to be blown, instead she was leading them with perfect stealth and perfect ease. Or at least she was, growled Riddick. He could smell something was wrong once she turned the corner, out of his sight again. This time he could hear her grunting as if she was throwing blows. Motioning for Ziza and Lajjun to hide behind some trash bins, he drew out his shivs. What he saw when he rounded the corner did not please him. Kyra was caught in the middle of a full-scale prison riot that the necros were only in part trying to control. The side road she had stepped into was littered with bodies and debris.
The necros hadn't spotted Kyra or him yet, but the prisoners had begun attacking anything and everything. This kind of chaos he could easily melt in and out of, but Kyra never really knew how to keep out of a fight. Riddick clenched his jaw as he took hold of a prisoner that was about to stab Kyra in the back. Immediately she turned to attack the would be attacker but found Riddick dropping his already dead body to the road. He could see the rage and battle lust in her eyes, the she-beast had come out to play. She furrowed her brow as if confused as to whom she was looking upon. This brief second was all the prisoner, she was previously facing, to slash at her arm, bringing her back to reality. Turning around she roared in anger that this lowly mortal would dare even get so close as to draw blood. She pounced on him plunging her knife deep into his belly. She snarled as he whimpered, but she wasn't done yet. Running the knife from left to right, and then up to down in one clean stroke she gutted the man. Rolling onto his side he tried desperately to re-stuff his intestines back into himself. Riddick had done some pretty insane and hairy things but this almost made him sick. The man's blood was all over Kyra and yet she didn't seem to notice as she got to her feet. Taking steps forward she reacted instantly, nearly slitting Riddick's throat.
"Damnit, Kyra!" He growled. Another prisoner attempted to attack Kyra on her left but a kick from her shiv-studded heel ended his futile attack before it even began. Riddick bent to slit the gutted man's throat, giving the man a mercy that Kyra didn't care to give. Baby, what's happened to you? Riddick's mind raced. He hadn't taken his eyes off her as he bent to slit the man's throat, know that she would pounce on him if he did. Standing upright, he tried calling out to her again, "Kyra?" He could see the fog fading from her eyes so he took a few steps closer to her. That was his first mistake.
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Shout outs to the reviewers:
Tinca243, Bima, & Demon-dog-emiko: as always I love yu three!
FitMama: thanx I always thought they were probably made for each other but I doubt even they would just plop into bed. That's why when ppl ask what I'm trying to get at, it's really not about getting these two ppl in bed (thought that could happen in the future) it's about approaching the dynamic that Riddick never had to truly face in the movie because she dies. I'm glad you noticed the Ziza comment, I try to put as many characters in as possible, fanfics get pretty hollow when yu shave off characters.
Tinca: I hope to put as much action as possible into the fic. Also I took your inadvertent advice and took my time with this chapter, it's only about 2,000 words but I like the flow and the fact that I could go slow on it. Updating regularly is great but I needed a few days for this one for some odd reason.
To anyone else that's reading this: don't be shy, review! I look forward to advice and critique from everybody. big hugs! also please feel free to tell me what you think about my selection of music for certain scenes :-D