Chapter Ten:
Strategy
"Do you want to kill the Lord Marshall or not?" I asked him. He smiled at me, impressed. "Why are you smiling?"
"Because, you're learning." He told me. I looked at him, blankly. "I'm obviously the muscle to him. You're supposed to have the brain. We gain his trust and I kill him. Then we leave."
"Really? And how long have you known that?"
"Since we visited him the first time." He told me. I rolled my eyes. "I'm changing."
"So am I." I told him, heading for my closet. Riddick caught my arm and swung me around so that I was facing him. He looked at me up and then down and then shook his head.
"No, you're not changing."
"Why not?"
"Because you'll get more respect around here."
"No, I won't. I'll look like some sleazebag."
"With a gun and a bunch of shivs."
"It's not functional."
"It stretches doesn't it? You can run in it can't you? You can fight can't you?"
"I'm not getting out of this one am I?" I asked him. He shook his head and headed for his closet. He closed the door behind him. I threw the apple core away and got some water.
"How come you get to change?" I asked, he didn't answer.
Finally, he came out of his closet with his shivs expertly hidden and his regular clothes on. "Because I said so."
"But that's not fair."
"I look stupid wearing that shit."
"So what? I look stupid in this get up."
"No, you look sexy. And that's what we need." I was stunned that he said that.. I shook my head and went to the living room.
"Are we gonna train?" Riddick asked me about an hour later. I spent that time looking over all of their systems. Riddick made sure that everything was secure.
"Fine, we might as well." I told him. It was already almost lunch time. We spent most of the night getting in the ship, then the small fight that we had, the room and the talking. That pretty much took up the whole night. After that, we had to come back to this room and change and then go back and talk to the Lord Marshall. Then, we came back here.
Between Riddick and I, we were able to make enough space in our living quarters to make a small place for sparring.
"Let's focus on combos. The in-attack combos you've gotten really good at, but the hold-combos need a little more work.
"You need to work more on getting out of the hold and then immediately going into attack, not stalling. If you're in a choke-hold, get you're breath as you turn and hit, as you kick, as you jump, do you understand?" I nodded my head. It wouldn't be easy doing this in these heals and this dress, but I'd have to try.
We started out doing in-attack combos that led to one of us being in a hold. Most of the time, I was the one in the hold. Getting out of the hold is the hardest part of most of the hold-combos. It depends. If you have excruciating pain in your arm or hand or leg, then it's harder to hurt someone with that limb, and if you're being choked then it's hard to not stop, get a few breaths and then continue.
We practiced until two-thirty, when I decided that I needed to eat and come up with some type of strategy plan as to why I needed to stay here.
Riddick's Point
Of View
I probably shouldn't have been so surprised to find out that Jack had been thinking long term. Lord Marshall would probably try to make it come out that I was smarter and more strategy orientated than Jack.
I'm supposed to be the big stupid muscle that goes off into war and listens to what he's told, kill whoever is supposed to be killed and let live who was supposed to live. Well wrong.
I don't kill anybody unless I want to. I don't take orders from anybody; at least I try not to. Jack's a whole other story.
As we sat through breakfast with Lord Marshall, I wasn't sure how Jack would handle things. I didn't know if she would explode and tell him that he was a monster. Then, when he proposed us being turned into Necromongers shortly after breakfast, she handled it better than I thought. She doesn't stop surprising me.
We sparred a little, after checking everything there was to check in those rooms. It went well. She learned a few things, caught on to a couple of things that I hadn't even meant to do and she even caught me off guard twice.
After the spar, she ate some food and sat and thought. Her face had that expression on it, it looked blank like she wasn't thinking about anything, like she had zoned out. Her eyes became far away and distant, the light in them disappeared. And when she discovered something, those beautiful green eyes of her light up.
It was five o' clock when I saw her eyes light up. She jumped up from where she was sitting on a bar stool. I turned the com-unit off and turned to her. She smiled at me and then shook her head at me.
"Are you gonna tell me?" I asked her when she flopped down on a couch. She smiled at me. "C'mon Jack, we're a team. The warrior and the brains."
"You're better at this than me."
"I don't wanna be left in the dark."
"You're not afraid of the dark, are you?" She asked me, teasing. She reached for the remote on the table beside her and in front of me. I snatched it out of her hands.
"I am the dark, Jack," I smiled at her. "How can I be afraid of it? Are you afraid of the dark?"
"Why would I be afraid of the dark? You're there." She said. She shrugged her shoulders and then continued. "I wanna see the planet. I wanna look at Helium Prime in a transport that my trusted warrior will be driving. Stay away from our ship, though."
"How are you gonna convince the prick?" I asked her.
"Easy. It's part of my strategy. I wanna look at the destruction that they did. Assess it and convince him of some better strategy that would save more lives." She told me. She reached for the remote, but her head snapped up when she finally heard the Butler's approaching foot steps. Two steps later and he was knocking on the door. Impressive.
Jack stood up and walked to the door, I was on her right. She reached out for the door handle, but I grabbed it first. I opened it up.
"Hello." The Butler spoke to us. He was pushing along a trolley with two giant lids on it. "Dinner."
I sniffed the air. It smelled like cooked meet with potatoes and gravy. I thought I smelled some green beans in there too. It smelled like chicken… grilled.
I opened the door a little bit more. Jack grabbed the lid and took it off, she picked up her plate. I did the same and turned around, closing the door with my foot.
I was right about the food. It was baked chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy with a small portion of green beans.
"Necromongers must like their meat." Jack said as she sat down at the bar. I smiled immediately. It took her a half second before she realized what she said. "You know what I mean! Pervert."
"I didn't say anything. You were the one who realized what you had said." I told her. She smiled and then dug into her potatoes.
Jack's Point
Of View
The next morning I woke up to the smell of bacon. It smelled so delicious. I turned my head and saw that Riddick had already gotten out of bed. I pushed the covers aside, revealing my very small night gown. It went to about my mid-thigh; it had thin spaghetti straps that held the gown in place. It was lace around the edges and it was a light pink. I didn't think that the Necromongers liked pink very much. It was mostly black and brown and grey around here.
I ignored the thought of a robe and opened the door. The smell wafted in, making my mouth water and my eyes close. When I reopened my eyes I came face to face with three men.
One of the men I knew very well, he was sitting at the head of the dining table meant for six. He was bald, wore welding goggles and he had a small hint of a smile. He went back to eating his bacon and omelet.
Another man sat to his left, he had turned around in his chair to look at me. He wore the Necromonger leader armor and he smiled warmly. He dropped his scrutinizing gaze from me and turned and began to eat again.
The other man however, he looked at me longer. His eyes were warm and hungry for something other than his food. He ran his eyes up and down my body, appraising it. He smiled a little. I heard Riddick growl and Travis stopped smiling. He instantly looked down.
"My Lady, I apologize."
"I told you, please, call me Jack. And I apologize. I didn't know that we had guests. Riddick, you should have woken me. We could have saved our guests the sight of me in my gown. Excuse me while I change into something more appropriate." I told them. I smiled one last time at them, who looked up at me when I spoke. I saw the humor in Riddick's face. The shape of his cheek's and the way his mouth was set in a forced line.
"She's used to waking up and not having to dress right away without first having breakfast." Riddick lied to the Lord Marshall and Travis.
I quickly went into my closet and pulled on a dress that was, like everything else in here, form fitting. The neckline of my dress stopped between my boobs where they ended. The neckline started at my shoulders and cut halfway to my nipples. It stopped a little bit higher than my knee. From my shoulder, a very thin piece of material ran down my back and connected to the backside of my dress just above my ass. My boobs were extremely revealing and my dress was totally too small. It was a light brown. I strapped on my gun belt and my shiv belt, I secured more shivs to it and then I slid into my shoes. My feet were still sore from yesterday.
It a total of a half minute to get dressed. I stepped out of my closet, through the bedroom door and into the dining room where the three boys looked up from their food once again. Travis and Lord Marshall stood, Riddick quickly followed suit.
"Jack, it's so nice to see you again." Lord Marshall said. I walked over to him and he grabbed my hand, kissing it. I walked over to Riddick and he kissed me on my cheek while smirking. Lastly, I stepped over to Travis. He held his hand out and I put mine in it. He kissed the top of it like Lord Marshall did. His kiss was a lot more… appealing to me than Lord Marshall's had been.
I smiled at all of them and then went into the kitchen where I too got a plate of food. I joined the boys at the table, sitting directly across from Riddick, and the farthest from the others. They all sat, finally, when I did.
"You look beautiful." Travis complimented me. I heard a low growl coming from Riddick's throat, but I didn't think that Travis heard him.
"Yes she does, doesn't she?" Riddick asked.
"Thank you both." I said. I grabbed a fork and dug into my omelet. Riddick did the same, but Lord Marshall and Travis looked at me like I was forgetting something. "Yes?"
"Jack," Lord Marshall began. "It is customary that women eat only after the men have all taken at least one bite of their food."
"I'm not Necromonger nor do I wish to become Necromonger. Consider me an exception." I told them, resisting the urge to curse him out. Lord Marshall smiled at me and then began eating again. Travis was a little more hesitant in picking up his own fork and eating. Eventually, he did.
The boys seemed to be silent for some reason, none of them talking.
"Is there something wrong?" I asked them.
"No." Lord Vaako said quickly. I looked over at Riddick, he shrugged his shoulders. He was finished eating and watching them eat. I noticed that I was more than twice as done with my food than them. I raised my eye brows at Lord Marshall.
"I'm sorry, Jack. I forget that you're going to be a strategy adviser. Another custom that men don't speak about war and plans with women around." Lord Marshall once again explained.
"Well now that I'm here and everyone realizes that I can be treated just like one of the guys, then let's get to it."
"To what?" Lord Marshall asked.
I looked at Riddick and smiled. "I have a request to make. It's something that I think would be quite nice. You can see both mine and Riddick's skills at the same time."
"Go on." Lord Marshall urged after I took a bite out of a piece of bacon.
"I would like to have you, Lord Vaako, and Riddick accompany me as we fly over Christaphene Prime." I seggusted.
"That sounds like a good idea. As soon as I have an opening in my day we'll go." Lord Marshall said.
"There is much to be done, My Lord." Vaako said to him.
"That can wait. I'm sure that the time we take going around New Mecca will be greatly rewarded with the time that we will save on taking over the next planet. Am I right, Mrs. Riddick?" Lord Marshall said.
"Of course." I told him, I smiled and I finished up my food, listening to them talk about war stories and their next solar system. The way that they plan on attacking and the Necromonger conversion process.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, the two boys said that they had to go.
"Lord Marshall?" Riddick asked.
"Yes?" He turned around.
"Is there a gym and a place to spar here on Necropolis?" He asked him.
"Of course there is." Lord Marshall smiled approvingly at Riddick; I tried not to notice that Travis was staring at me. Lord Marshall explained to Riddick where it was and when the best time to spar was and the less crowded times were.
"My lady." Lord Marshall turned to me. He kissed my hand then left, hurrying off down the hall to attend to more planning, I'm sure. Vaako turned to me and kissed my hand, looking at my face through his lashes as he did so. I smiled at him.
"Thank-you, Jack for your company this morning." He told me. I nodded at him and smiled warmly. He smiled back and then left.
"You really do need stop fucking with that Necros head." Riddick said.
"What are you talking about?" I asked him.
"He likes you way too much and you're just making it worse for him. It'll be worse on you too." He told me.
"Cut the shit Riddick." I told him. I put the dishes in the dishwasher, ate the last of the bacon and then drank some water.
"Let's get going." I said. He smiled, knowing exactly what I meant.
Riddick walked into the gym wearing his usual cargo pants and tank top. I followed behind him, wearing the dress that I had put on that morning, the shivs and the gun. I stood behind Riddick, his huge muscles and tall form hid me from the rest of the guys in the room.
I could smell the sweat as I stood in the room. Men were pumping iron, doing some sparring and talking to each other.
"Who the fuck are you?" I heard one Necro say when Riddick came in the gym. I could feel the tension, the feeling of wanting a fight.
"He's Riddick." Said a male voice that I recognized. Travis….
"He isn't a Necro." The other man replied, they still had no idea that I was in the room.
"I'm a fucking exception." Riddick said. There was silence in the room as the rest of the Necros looked at Riddick and stared, not knowing what to say. I sighed and stepped from behind Riddick.
"Let's go." I said to Riddick, an evil smile spread across my face. Riddick nodded, a smile forming on his lips.
We went to the sparring area; Necromongers were standing in the center of it, starring at us. Their faces were partly hidden from their helmets, but their eyes seemed to hate us and their sweat smelled horrible.
"Are you gonna move, or do I have to move you for you?" I asked the dumb Necromongers in the ring. They quickly recovered and then they gave us a look that I wasn't quite sure, but I'm pretty sure it meant 'Fuck off'.
In a flash, Riddick was in the ring and he had the two of them out of the ring.
"She said get out of the spar ring." Riddick told them.
"You took all the fun." I accused. He smiled and shrugged.
"C'mon, hurry up and stretch." Riddick told me. He reached down and pulled me up into the ring. He set me down a little rough and I almost fell from the heels.
"I hate these mother fucking things. I'm taking them off."
"Will you take them off in a fight?"
"If I don't, then they'll be shoved in the nearest asshole's gut." I told him. He smiled.
"Leave them on; you need to learn to fight in all footwear." I nodded at his instructions and I started to stretch as best as I could, considering the dress.
"Riddick, all of these people are staring at us." I said so lowly that only Riddick could hear me.
"So?"
"I'm in a dress."
"So?" He said again. I shook my head and took a deep breath.
"What are we doing today?" I asked him, ready for anything that he could throw at me before he answered my question.
"Let's see what you got. No holding back." He said. I smiled an evil smile, in return, Riddick got serious. I saw his face morph into his gently fighting stance. He wouldn't kill me, but he'd get damn near close.
I started to move off to the side as Riddick backed away from me. I pulled my dress up a little bit, making sure that it wouldn't rip if I did anything. Riddick's lips twitched.
I did a nice cartwheel followed by a back-hand-spring and ending it with a move that spun my feet. It was meant to hit him in the head, but he saw it coming and easily side-stepped it. I knew he would. I landed on my stomach, palms down to break the fall. I stood up, prepared to defend myself. Riddick's hands were ready; I saw the muscles in his arms start to get impatient. I moved back and we started to circle each other, each of us ready for the other to attack. Riddick taught me not to attack first, I broke that rule once and I wasn't going to do it again.
Riddick came at me; he faked a punch to my right cheek and got me in my gut. I bent over a little as I heard some gasps from the crowd of Necromongers that gathered around the sparring ring. I stood up just as Riddick started to kick me. I fell to the floor, avoiding the kick. I stood up and my anger flooded through me. I kicked Riddick in the shivs, he didn't even flinch. He actually smiled a little.
"Don't let your anger take over." Riddick corrected me.
"Shut the fuck up, Riddick. I know." I snapped at him. His eye brows raised and I pursed my lips. I punched him in his jaw, he let that one hit him on purpose. "Ass hole."
He tried to punch me again but I knocked it out of the way with my forearm at the same time that he knocked the foot away that I was prepared to use to kick him in his stomach. I backed up against the ring ropes. He followed. I moved off to the side, getting away from him, but he followed me.
I reached behind me for my shiv; Riddick was only a step away. He saw me reach and he moved forward, covering the gap quickly. He grabbed a knife from behind him and in a lightning fast movement he had it pressed it against my stomach.
"Dead." Riddick whispered to me, a smile forming on his lips. I felt the tip of my skin break from his shiv. He had barely touched my skin and it had cut through the material of my dress and cut my skin.
I pressed my stomach against his shiv, the knife going deeper into my stomach and the blood running down my stomach and down my legs.
"Hey man, you're gonna hurt her." One guy said.
"So?" Riddick and I both said at the same time, breaking eye contact for just a second to look at the guy before we stared back at each other.
"You gonna treat your girl that way?" One guy asked. This time, we didn't break eye contact.
"Yeah." We said in unison, again.
"He can treat me whatever way he wants," I told the Necromonger. "He just has to be prepared to handle the shit that's thrown back into his face."
"Doesn't that hurt?" Another Necro asked.
"No." We both said again.
"I can smell you." He whispered. He pulled his knife back when I went to far forward for his liking. "C'mon."
I got out of the ring with Riddick, jumping over the ropes that went around the sides. I fell to the ground perfectly.
"Fucking asshole to his woman." I heard the mutters of one Necromonger.
"You got a fuckin' problem with the way he treats me?" I practically yelled at the Necromonger who muttered it. I saw Travis out of the corner of my eyes staring at me. He was standing back, out of the way, against the far wall. His arms were crossed over his chest.
"Jack." Riddick warned. I looked back at Riddick, pissed off. He shook his head. I turned back to the Necromonger. He looked pissed at my question and he even looked like he wanted to hit me.
"He started it." I told him.
"C'mere." He sat down on the side of the ring and motioned for me to come over to him. I sighed loudly and walked over to Riddick who looked very relaxed, but I could tell that he was pissed.
My back was facing the Necromongers when Riddick lifted my dress up. I was able to catch my dress before he got it above my breasts and off my shoulders. He shrugged and then looked at the cut on my stomach. I felt the eyes of the Necromongers on me.
Since the Necromongers weren't too civilized when it came to women's clothes, I had on a thong. I wasn't self-conscious about my ass being shown to about thirty-five Necromongers plus Lord Vaako. I was more self-conscious that Riddick was looking at me like that. It didn't hurt; I could barely tell that it was there.
"Do you have any stitches, Vaako?" Riddick asked the Necromonger. I heard a few groans from the Necros and I sensed some disappointment that Riddick singled out Vaako.
"Here." Vaako handed Riddick a small box. Riddick opened it up and started shuffling through everything in there, looking for something. "You okay?"
"I'm fine. Riddick's just over reacting as always."
"Actually, it's a pretty bad cut. Have you seen it yet?"
"No."
"You should look at it." Travis told me. I shrugged and looked down at my belly. It was a pretty bad cut, but I had worse when I got shot when I was only 12.
"It's not that bad. Not too deep. I've had worse." I informed Travis of this information and his eyes widened.
"Damn girl, where the fuck have you been?" He asked me.
"She's been to hell and back." Riddick said, breaking up our conversation. "There's no painkillers here so you'll have to deal with the needle. There's no booze either like-"
"Yes, Riddick, I remember. Thank-you. I'll be fine." I cut him off.
"Okay." Riddick shrugged and the grabbed the needle that already had the thread in it, already ready to be used to close my skin up.
I watched as he put the needle through one side of my skin and began to sew me shut. It did hurt a little bit.
Riddick didn't say anything as he tore the end of the thread with his fingers. He looked in my eyes, searching. He was looking for any pain in them, something that told him that I wasn't turning into him, a monster. The only problem was that I didn't think he was a monster. He's perfect. And I'm turning into the person that I was meant to be, the person that my animal wants to be more than anything else. He could see her, that animal. It was in my eyes. He knew that.
I watched as he shook his head a fraction of an inch. We had been looking at each other, reading each other's faces and watching as each breath went through our lungs and then out again, we watched as each muscle in our bodies tensed and then relax and then tensed again. We must have been staring at each other for five minutes before we both realized where we were.
The Necromongers were staring at us, I quickly pushed my dress down and I smiled at them.
"Shit." I said when I realized what time it was.
"We have time for a quick shower if we hurry up."
Riddick and I ran to our rooms, each of us taking a shower and then getting dressed. I grabbed an apple from the fruit basket on the table. I made sure that I had my shivs and that I had my gun.
Riddick and I both went to the door and opened it before the butler was able to knock.
"The Lord Marshall will see you in the hanger now. I will take you." The Butler looked startled that Riddick and I opened the door before he was able to knock.
I smiled and Riddick lead me into the hall. We followed the Butler down the hall, I was thinking about the ride that I was about to take, the load of bull shit that I was going to have to pull out of my ass so that I could stay on this planet.
End Chapter
I hope that you enjoyed the chapter!