A/N: And so it begins folks, a lot of different stuff is happening here, there's a broken sequence where Riddick walks into River's mind to help her "see" her vision better, with River things sometimes get lost in translation, so Riddick being able to enter this dream state with her helps him to understand her, generally as seen in the Firefly tv show and the movie Serenity, River gains clarity and focus once she is understood and that's what Riddick is trying to do rather than just drug her like Simon would.
The phrase in the movie that puts River to sleep- Eta Kooram Nah Smech = That's Laughing for Chickens.
In my story the phrase that wakes her up- eto sdeiaio by koska krik = This would make a cat cry
The phrase Riddick uses to enter a dream state with River - kot budet proglotit' sobaku = The cat swallows the dog.
Sabrina1204- once again much love for the kind reviews, hope you like this one.
Celticice goddess- HAPPY BELATED BDAY!! Thanks for reviewing, glad you're diggin on it :)
As always just babysitting the imaginary friends of others and ain't makin a dime.
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The sky was a mixture of rich reds and intense violets in the early dawn hours as Serenity touched down in a cloud of golden dust, Mal having decided given their highly illegal cargo it was better to set down well outside the city rather than at the docks where inspections were most likely. River could feel something boiling at the back of her mind, but it took the form of unheard whispers and vague ghosting shapes, every time she reached for it, it swirled away as sand in the wind running through her fingers useless and ill defined.
"What's coming bao bei?" Riddick asked, coming up from behind and spinning her chair to face him, he had felt her uneasy edged with fear from across the ship were he'd been helping Jayne load the cargo into one of the shuttles.
River looked up at him, her eyes were brimming with unshed tears, her head roaring in agony, "The serpent shall eat its own tail, shedding its skin it reincarnates again, old men and blood, dead sons and daughters screaming for vengeance, remember, remember the fifth of September!" the dam burst and River began to sob uncontrollably. "I see it all and nothing, nothing!" She sobbed as Riddick reached down and pulled her into his arms wrapping her legs around his waist. "The girl is a reader she is supposed to see and she does but she is blind to interrupt the signs, the darkness comes to poison the light and nothing makes sense, nothing makes sense!"
Riddick was carrying her through the ship back to their bunk. Mal raised an eyebrow as they passed him and Zoe in the mess, "Not now Mal, you'll have to go on without us." Riddick said but did not stop walking.
"Ain't nothing good comes when she gets like that sir," Zoe said warily after they'd left the room. "Best be lettin' Jayne bring the grenades this time."
"We'll be kickin' on soon as the job's done Zoe, make sure Kaylee's got the ole girl purring." Mal said his eyes following the pair out the door and down the hall, made him tetchy as hell, lil 'Tross losin' it only meant trouble, he just hoped he wouldn't get shot at, though the way she was going on it was a real possibility.
Riddick passed Simon and Kaylee, "Mei-mei?" Simon asked instantly falling into step behind them but she did not so much as register his presence.
"Leave it Doc, I got this." Riddick rumbled not pausing in step.
"I should get something to help her calm down." He protested.
"Ain't what she needs Doc, got my ways of handling this."
Simon was about to start yelling again but Kaylee silenced him with a hand on his shoulder, "Simon, this is what he's supposed to be doin' right? That's why the Alliance made him the way he is, mayhap he's right and the meds are no good for her, 'iffin she's that worked up means somethin' bad is goin' happen, don't want her sleepin' through it all and defenseless do ya?"
He let out a frustrated breath and watched helpless as Riddick walked off with his sister, Kaylee was right, this was supposed to be Riddick's job now and what if he could do something he couldn't? What if the meds had been hurting her more than helping? He resolved to trust the beast man as much of a bad taste as it left in his throat, but he would prep a sedative just in case.
In the pitch darkness of their bunk Riddick removed his goggles and sat them both on the bed, his back resting against the wall and her on his lap. "Bao bei," he said pushing back her hair from her tear stained face, "gonna make it go away, promise girl, but you gotta look at me, you know what we gotta do, you ready for this?"
River had not stopped sobbing, the screaming in her head was drowning out all other sensation as if the whole of the 'verse was dying and calling out for her at once, but she nodded, seeing a pair of silver blue eyes through the haze of everything. She pulled herself up and straddled his lap, and resting her forehead against his she waited for him to speak the words.
Riddick took several deep breaths preparing himself for what they were about to do. "Kot budet proglotit' sobaku." The world when dark.
Riddick found himself in an abandoned city, the whole of it was as silent and still as death, he could smell it though, death was everywhere here it hung in the air pungent and moldy. "River?" He asked quietly waiting for her to appear and when she did not he tilted his head back and cupping his hands he roared, "RIVER!" There was no answer, save the echo of his own voice. Behind him he heard the snort of an animal; he spoke without looking because he knew what he would see. "She's not here, she was always here."
"I can smell her, somewhere in this city of the damned and decaying she's here, they both are." The giant dragon which had approached from behind spoke, his claws were twelve inches and dug into the sidewalk where he stepped, his scales were crimson red and his eyes a mercurial silver blue.
"She did change you." Riddick remarked when he finally turned to look.
"We are whatever she needs us to be, a wolf, a dragon, for her I would become a toothless kitten which lives off of table scraps."
Riddick snorted at that.
"You know we would."
"Yeah, let's find our girl, this place is making me itch."
The beast snorted, this time in agreement.
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Mal, Zoe, and Jayne rode in silence toward the warehouse where they we supposed to meet their contact, River's latest episode weighing heavily over them all. "Don't like this Mal," Jayne said warily, "Little crazy ain't ever been wrong, shoulda waited for her to snap outta it 'fore we left."
"If all goes well we'll be off this rock 'fore she does and back safely into the black." Mal answered gripping the controls so hard his knuckles were white; he didn't want to admit he'd been thinking the same thing.
"And 'iffin it's the job she went all feng le (insane) over?" Jayne pushed.
"Well you brought the grenades right?"
Jayne tugged on the strap which crossed his body, "Think nine will be 'nough?"
"'Iffin it ain't we're in for a world o'hurt."
They rode the rest of the way in silence, each one in turn unconsciously checking their side arms and adjusting their black market chest plates.
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Simon paced outside of his sister's bunk, each time passing the door and almost knocking, stopping himself in the last moment and continuing his vigil.
"Simon." Kaylee called him, "You're wearing a rut into the floor."
"What if she needs me? They've been in there for over an hour."
"Do you hear any cryin' or screamin'?"
"No." Simon admitted almost reluctantly.
"They mayhap whatever he's doin' is workin', best let them be." She took his hand, "Come on Bao bei, Cap' wants the ship ready to fly could use 'nother set of hands in the engine room, ain't doin' no good here, mayhap makin' it worse, 'cause she can feel ya outside the door."
Simon ran a hand through his hair staring at the ground, he was going to have to get used to not being needed. "You're probably right." He admitted letting Kaylee lead him away from the door and his sister and down into the engine room.
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Riddick and the dragon walked through the deserted streets, finding out they weren't really deserted. Everywhere bodies lay in various states of decay, there were no signs of war, no one was crumpled over in pain, it was as if they had all just simply laid down and died.
"I think we're on Miranda." Riddick remarked absently as he rolled the body of a security officer over with the toe of his boot crouching low to inspect it.
"They have not been dead long enough." The beast pointed out bending its neck to take a whiff of the body.
Riddick grunted in agreement, most of the bodies they'd come across had still been juicy. "Where the hell is she?" He lifted his head and scanned their surroundings, despite the bright light of the noon time sun, his goggles were up, inside River's mind the normal rules did not apply.
The dragon raised his head and sniffed the air, after a few moments he raised a claw and pointed west, "That way."
Riddick grunted again and they started walking. He was edgy, never before had River hidden from him inside her mind, usually she would have been right beside him the moment he entered, sometimes it was the ballerina which greeted him and sometimes the girl, but mainly they would both be here just as he and his beast were separate entities in her mind so was she and the ballerina. Not being able to see her or even feel her presence anywhere was disturbing to say the least, if whatever River was seeing was bad enough to keep her hidden from them, they were all in for a world of gou shi (shit).
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Mal landed the shuttle inside of a warehouse on the eastern side of the docks, two armed guards had waved them in and he was beginning to get that itchy feeling down the back of his neck. "Alright people," He said shutting down the shuttle and standing, "let's get paid and get out."
As if to answer him Jayne slammed a clip into Vera and Zoe pumped the shot gun River had given her. The door to the shuttle hissed open and Mal stepped out first. "Looking for Garrett," he said using his best captainy voice.
"You've found him." A rather mousy looking man stepped forward surprising Mal, he didn't look like one to running booze on a dry planet and it made him all the more tetchy.
"Got your crates 'iffin you got our coin." Mal nodded back at Jayne who had been looming in the door way of the shuttle glaring and he turned to get the first crate.
"Five thousand creds, all here." A big hun dan (bastard) looking fella dropped a small duffel at Mal's feet.
"There's a problem lao ban (boss), we was promised seven and a half, way I see it five buys you two crates not the three."
"'Iffin' you're taking issue with payment best head back to Antheia and talk to Bradshaw, I'm only shelling out what he authorized and that was five and not a gorram cred more." The mousy fella was turnin' red.
Jayne dumped the first crate out of the shuttle and sensing the immediate change of temper in the room he did not go back in, instead he stepped up to Mal's left side, Zoe moving to his right, both were counting hands and guns, choosing their targets before a shot was fired.
"Ain't lookin' for trouble, just want what's ours." Mal was startled momentarily by how much he had inadvertently sounded like Riddick, but he stored it away for later contemplation and focused instead on the situation at hand.
"'Iffin you ain't lookin' for it then deliver what you've been paid to deliver take you're five and get the ruttin hell off my rock."
Mal's eye twitched, "Looks like we'll be havin' trouble than 'cause I ain't leavin' 'til I get my full seven and a half." At the same instant every single man (including Zoe) who was armed drew, each waitin' for the first itchy finger to signal the start.
"Don't want to kill you, but I will and drop you in the desert to rot." The mousy man sneered, not having pulled a gun himself he was standing behind the hun dan that had dropped the bag.
"Seein' as I don't kill so easy, you willing to bet you're men can shot me and mine down 'fore I plant a bullet 'tween those beady little eyes of yours."
Garrett opened his mouth to speak but the sound was cut off but the warehouse door being blown open. "Maxwell Garrett!" A voice shouted out, a voice which was back but twenty or so New Meccan security officers, "You are bound by law for the distribution and production of alcohol, a controlled substance according to Religious Mandate 0073, drop your weapons and stand down!"
"Ruttin hell," Mal, Jayne, and Zoe swore in unison.
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Together Kaylee and Simon had prepped the ship in no time flat and were now engaged in more pleasurable activities, completely oblivious to the turmoil outside the engine room. Simon found himself realizing that with Riddick around to take care of River all of his attention and energy could be focused on his own personal ray of sunshine and perhaps now there really was a chance for him to make a life for himself and Kaylee. He resolved to go easier on the psychotic assassin, but as he and Kaylee tumbled laughing onto the metal grating, Kaylee being saved from impalement by pipe by a mere few inches, he turned his attention away from his sister and once more focused it wholly and completely on the person it belonged.
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"They are not far now." The dragon said after they had walked pretty much the entire length of the city and were reaching the outskirts.
"Still don't see why she had to drop us off so gorram far from where they were." Riddick grumbled, the city of the dead was beginning to get to him. He didn't like the thought of their girls being stuck in this place, no wonder she'd be going feng le, can't be easy having a million dead bodies lying around inside your head.
"She wanted us to see." The dragon answered, his giant head cocking to one side listening.
Riddick followed his example, and after a moment he caught the sound as well, crying, and it was drifting on the wind from the utility yard. He turned his head to the left where a girl was standing right next to him, appearing from seemingly thin air. She was nearly identical to River in every way, the differences being so slight, it was perhaps only the dragon and Riddick who would be able to tell them apart. This girl was two and three quarters of an inches taller than River, her eyes a shade deeper, her skin a shade paler, River was graceful, but this girl could move like no other, this was the ballerina, the reluctant dancer, the weapon created when the Academy severed River's mind. She was silent, her eyes slightly glazed over and empty, and she stared in the direction the cries had come from.
"River-girl in there?" Riddick asked.
The ballerina nodded, "The serpent has eaten its tail, the last layer of skin has already been shed, London Bridge is falling down, remember, remember the fifth of September." She giggled and twirled past Riddick to the giant dragon who gently nuzzled his head against her, nearly knocking her down, the ballerina laughed harder.
Riddick watched them, two beings who shouldn't exist but did, four consciousnesses which should have been only two but form one when in harmony, except right now there was only three, and three was not in balance, without River everything would fall to chaos.
"Your girl has learned the secret because the dead are dead but they are not silent, she does not see because there is nothing left to see, but she feels, she felt them call for vengeance and now she has felt it be obtained, vengeance is hardly ever as it is expect to be. They have forgotten that he who seeks revenge, should first dig two graves."
"They will burn in the ashes they have left behind," the dragon added.
"Whole 'verse is circling down the drain isn't it?" Riddick asked already knowing the answer.
"Remember, remember the fifth of September." The ballerina chanted.
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Mal, Jayne, and Zoe dove for the shuttle as the itchy finger they had all been waitin' on finally twitched. Jayne fired a round from the shuttle door as Zoe dove for the controls powering up.
"Grenade?"
"Not yet Jayne!" Mal and Zoe snapped together as Zoe got the shuttle in the air and Mal emptied a round from his six shooter, no one was quite sure who was firing at who, but point of fact his were all accounted for so he didn't really give a gorram who he hit so's long as they made it out alive.
The shuttle rotated and Zoe aimed straight for the warehouse door, paying no mind to the several bodies which dove for cover. "Now Jayne!" Zoe yelled.
"Finally." Jayne popped a grenade from his holster and tossed it, slamming his hand on the door control.
Zoe shoved down hard on the throttle and the shuttle lurched forward, Jayne and Mal swearing as they collided into each other. "Xi niu ai chr jze se duh fohn diang gou (cow sucking crazy dog in love with its own shit)!" Zoe swore banking hard left to avoid a line of security vehicles as they cleared the door, the bank cause the shuttle to spin out at it took a moment for Zoe to straighten her, when she did she swore again as she watched an officer raise an EMP cannon and fire. The shuttle died coasting on its own momentum until it collided with an adobe wall breaking through it.
"Out!" Mal barked, picking Zoe up of the floor as Jayne hit the door panel.
Crashing through the wall had a bit of luck to it as they were on one side and the security officers on the other. Mal lead the way through the back gardens of someone's house and out into the open street. He took a running leap at the wall across the lane and hefted himself over, both Jayne and Zoe landing with much more grace and dignity then he had.
"Hey!" Three heads jerked up at the whispered yell. A small framed girl with short curly hair was waving them into the house next door, for lack of a better option they followed. "Brown coats?" She asked looking them over.
"Once upon a time little girl," Mal answered.
"Name's Jack, get your asses in here unless you wanna get pinched."
"How's we know you ain't gonna rat on us?" Jayne asked looking around nervously at the sound of running footsteps and shouts.
"Dad served in the Battle of Serenity, never made it home, said I could always trust a brown coat."
Mal and Zoe froze, but Jayne shoved then both in the doorway.
"Follow me," The girl said leading them up the stairs and into her bedroom. There was a pounding at the door. "Don't worry I'll get rid of 'em just stay here."
Mal, Zoe and Jayne stared at each other in disbelief, Mal and Zoe for happening upon the orphaned kid of someone they probably knew from the war, and if the curly hair and the green eyes were any indicator they both knew who, the kid and Captain Griggs even had the same freckle on their nose, while Jayne stared because he could not believe he'd been reduced to hiding in a teenage girl's bedroom from gorram second rate security offers on a Crislam world, it was insulting.
A few minutes later the girl reappeared, "Their gone, but you might wanna wait around a bit," she said plopping on the bed, "bound to be searchin' the streets."
"How'd you know we needed help?" Mal asked.
"Saw the whole thing from the roof, fucking EMP guns." The girl snorted and pulled a shiv from her boot and ran it across her fingers.
The three crew members of Serenity shifted uncomfortably, that shiv had a suspiciously familiar look to it, not to mention the way the girl rolled it.
"You're daddy teach ya that?" Zoe asked.
"Nah, he was long gone 'fore I even thought 'bout touching shivs, friend taught me, made the blade himself." Jack tossed the shiv up with a flick of her wrist catching the blade and handing over to Zoe for inspection.
Holding the blade there was no longer a doubt who Jack was in her mind, "Honey your friend's name wouldn't happen to appear on the 'verse's most wanted list?"
Jack paled, "You ain't mercs are you?"
"We ain't lookin' for Riddick, but he came here looking for you, he's crew on my ship."
Jack's face instantly brightened, "Riddick came back for me?"
"Ah, well somebody wanted to meet you." Mal shifted, "Listen girl I, well Zoe and me served in the Battle of Serenity, what was your daddy's name?
"I'm named for him, well he was Jacob, and I'm Jacqueline. Did you really serve with him, Jack Griggs?"
"Yeah honey, we did, your daddy, he was a good man, saved my life once, guess that means I owe you now." Zoe said sitting down on the bed next to us, "and seein' how I knew your daddy and all, and I feel a mite curious, and we got some time to kill, suppose you told me how you came to know Riddick, haven't got that one outta him yet, man don't talk much at all."
Jack giggled, "Yeah he's all grunts and growls, but get stuck on a one room skiff, drifting in the black for six months and you learn to interpret them."
Jayne glanced out the window, and settled himself against the wall, where one eye could peep past the curtain and the other could watch the door, he wasn't much in the mood for story telling time but it wasn't like there was much else to do.
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Riddick, the ballerina, and the dragon made their way through the utility yard, whatever happened on whatever world it was they were on must have happened recently, most of the machines and generators were still running, there were no weeds or overgrown grass poking through cement cracks, it all looked as though it had only been left moments before.
The ballerina paused, "There." She pointed to a grouping of ten large air purifiers. "The girl is hiding in the grove of poison."
Riddick nodded and walked on alone, leaving the ballerina to dance circles around the beast. She wasn't hard to spot once he'd walked close enough, dressed in a flowing pink sun dress glowing against the cold grey steel of the machines. "Been looking for you girl." He growled.
River turned her head to look at him but did not remove her hand from the smooth pipe, "Do you know where we are?"
"Was hoping you could tell me," He shrugged.
"Londinium."
"Ain't no way this would happen on a Core World."
"It has, the serpent has eaten its own tail and devoured itself, remember, remember the fifth of September. We all began as something else, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, those that Miranda lost, began as these things, those whose seek vengeance should first dig two graves. Gave the Alliance a taste of their own medicine, it was bitter, it made people sicker, it all falls down, the madness will spread in a greater number than before, this medicine was stronger, give them what then gave and more, pay them double. Traitors, traitors in high places that mourn the dead, and the dream of what was supposed to be, the guilt from the reality they manifested from that dream. Build a better world, but it's a dead world." She dropped her hand from the pipe, "Everything is going to change." A silent moment passed between them, shattered by the sudden onslaught of a million screaming voices.
Their eyes opened at the same moment, one word passing from both their lips in unison, "Reavers."
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"Gorram it," Jayne swore, "can't sit here any longer, gotten be clear to go by now."
"Ain't worth the risk Jayne, we wait 'til dark." Mal said from the floor propped up against the wall. Jack had just finished her story and was studying the shiv in her hand, Zoe studied the girl, study her shiv. Mal was gonna have to make it right clear they weren't taking on any more gorram teenage girls tw'eren't worth half the trouble they caused.
All four heads jerked up at the sounds of screaming and ship engines, Jayne swore, "Tian sha de e mo (God damn monsters)."
Mal jumped up and ran to the window, icy fear tearing through his veins at what he saw, the New Meccan skyline before him was littered with Reaver ships, "Ta de ma (fuck!)! Move your gorram asses!"
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A/N: 'til after now.