Okay, I was SO off. I thought this wouldn't be up for a few weeks due to finals and stuff, but nope. I got hit with a sudden attack of inspriation and had to finish it tonight. So, here it is. Kinda long, but... this is the last chapter. Yup, this part of the full story is OVER! I feel sad, yet fulfilled all at the same time. Weird, huh? Anyway, hope you guys enjoy it!
She yelped in pain, finally falling to the ground and clutching her ankle. Riddick halted and turned back, looking down on her with something resembling worry but not lowering to her side.
"Riddick, I can't." she gasped, curling her fingers into a fist and pressing it to her forehead. The man knelt down next to her at that, putting a heavy hand on her shoulder and shaking it a little. He pushed up his goggles so that when she looked up at him she was forced to meet his silver-shined eyes.
"You know better than that. Now, c'mon, get up." he said. She breathed out roughly and shook her head.
"No, I mean… I can't. My ankle is broken." At that, Riddick refocused his attention. He looked down and pulled up her pant legs, observing the ankle that was swollen purple and black. He sighed through his nose a little, knowing that she was entirely right. There was no way she could go on with that ankle.
"Yeah, it's broken alright." Raven groaned.
"What should we do? You can't leave me here but I can't keep going." Riddick looked from her to her ankle a few times before shaking his head. He muttered for her to brace herself.
"Wait, what?" Raven said, her eyes blinking wide. But she didn't even get the words out before she yelped as she suddenly found herself hanging upside down, her long, curling black hair falling off her neck and his thick shoulder pressing painfully into her abdomen.
She coughed a little at the pressure on her diaphragm, "Riddick, what are you doing?" He had her legs hooked around his arm so she wouldn't fall off. He didn't respond.
"You know, we've done this, like, five times already, and it's really starting to hurt." she said again, raising her head and looking around at the monotonous landscape behind them.
"Do you wanna walk?" he finally replied. She paused, blinked, then shut her mouth and let her head fall back down, resigned to his decision to keep her slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Over the time that passed (they had both stopped keeping track of the minutes long ago, though Raven knew Riddick was still keeping count of his steps) there were several times where Raven thought she heard someone crying in the distance. Of course, it could've just been the wind, but she thought sometimes she heard words, even names being screamed out into the void. Oh, and what a perfect description that was of this wasteland, she thought ruefully. Looking through her hair, she released a disgruntled laugh when she realized she couldn't even tell where the ground they were walking on was.
And then she heard a scream from, literally, right above her.
Riddick dropped her on the ground, stepped protectively over her, and raised his shivs in a defensive stance all within three seconds. Raven lifted her head and shook her hair out of her eyes, staring at the body lying limply in front of her. Riddick had one leg braced on either side of her, so when she tried pushing herself up on her arms he only had to shove one heavy combat boot down on her back and he got his message across: stay down, or I'll kill you.
"Jesus, Goliath, you wanna lay off for once?" she hissed up at him. He merely let loose a quiet 'shh'.
She obeyed, glaring up at him momentarily before refocusing her attention on the person who had apparently thrown themselves at them and missed by inches.
After a moment, they stirred. It was obviously a woman, her skin the same ashen color as the Lord Marshall's had been and her long dark hair just as limp and dull. Her torn and ripped clothing was black, fitting for a Necromonger bitch, Raven thought, her lips curling downwards as she watched the woman move slowly.
She was lying on her side, one thin arm splayed out above her head. That was the one to move first, her fingers twitching before it curled down at the elbow and was used to push herself up. She had her back to them, her ragged hair making her look like some wild creature. Raven watched her intently, waiting for any sudden movements or a hint that she was planning to attack. Riddick she could tell was doing the same thing, but something was different about him all of a sudden.
Realizing this, Raven blinked up at him for a split-second. She nearly let herself face-plant when she saw that he was different because his shivs were hanging limply at his sides. He found this woman to be no threat… or he had no confidence that he could beat her. Either one was like a death sentence to Raven.
"Are you out of your fucking mind?!" she gasped at him. Riddick instantly slammed his foot back down on her back, making her hiss in pain.
"Shut up!" he shot back. She turned her eyes quickly back to the woman. She was on her feet now, her back still to them. Her breathe was heavy and she had her hands clasped in front of her. She was muttering to herself as the Lord Marshall had done.
"Kill him. Kill the Riddick… Kill, kill, kill the Riddick. There is a power… a power… The power must die. Took me, wanted her, kill the Power." She stumbled backwards towards them, lowering one of her hands and revealing the shiv in her bony fingers. Blood was dripping from it and her wrist. Raven's breath stopped in her throat.
"Oh, my God." she whispered as the woman slowly turned around. She heard Riddick above her stop breathing himself for a few seconds.
She didn't even look like Kyra, like Jack, anymore. Her eyes were sunken and her cheekbones were heavily pronounced due to the extreme loss of weight she'd undergone. Her green eyes were grey underneath, her lips chapped and her bones clearly discernable underneath her skin. Raven looked her up and down, unable to believe it. Suddenly she squirmed out from underneath Riddick before he could make a move to stop her. He didn't make a sound, not even when she stepped closer to Kyra and raised a hand to her.
She paused for a second before laying it gently across her cheek, "Oh, Audrey. Jack, K- Kyra... whoever you are… It is you." She pressed her other hand over her mouth as hot tears suddenly forced their way up past her barricade and poured down her face.
"Oh, my God! How did this happen to you?" Raven grabbed her wrist and held it up, observing the many cuts going all the way up her arm to her elbow.
"What have you been doing to yourself?! Oh, God, Riddick, we have to get her out of here!" She made a move to pull Kyra towards them, but that seemed to snap the other woman out of her stupor.
She released a high-pitched, animalistic screech and flung Raven off of her, launching herself backwards and landing in a pouncing stance.
"You keep away! You cockroach, you parasite! I won't let you get me! Not this time, not ever again, and you can't have my sister either! She's with Riddick, and you'll never get her!" A crazy smile appeared on her face, turning it from a haggard sort of beauty to simply demonic-looking. Raven stared at her, her jaw hanging open.
"Kyra… I- I am your sister." The shadow of a woman in front of her released a high-pitched banshee laugh.
"My sister would never come here! You're a Necromonger whore, a mirage, a trick of my insanity!" Raven shook her head violently, the tears coming faster and her green eyes going wide in shock and horror.
"No, it really is me! Raven, Aria, your sister! Don't you remember? We ran away when we were twelve, before that we used to sing lullabies to each other at night to keep nightmares away." Riddick suddenly had his hands wrapped around her arms, and Raven realized she was straining against him towards Kyra.
"Kyra, you've just got to remember!" she was screaming over Kyra's insane laughter now, desperate to make herself heard, "We promised, Kyra, we would always protect each other! We swore on our blood. Dear God, you've just got to remember me!"
Finally Riddick intervened. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her around to face him.
"Stop it, Raven!" he shouted at her before his own voice lowered, going so quiet she could barely hear it, "She's not your sister. She's not our Kyra. Not anymore." Raven stubbornly shook her head.
"I won't believe that. Kyra's got to be in there somewhere, Riddick." The man glared at her, and she returned it.
"I'm her goddamn twin; I can feel her, Riddick, she's still alive!"
"Look at you, damn you! I mean, really look at her." he turned her back around and pointed a finger at Kyra. She was muttering to herself again, twirling her finger through one strand of her hair over and over again.
"Kyra's gone, Jack's gone, whatever you wanna call her. Either way, we're too late. She's just a shell now." Raven released a sob, burying her face in her hands as Riddick discreetly pushed his goggles back down over his eyes. He waited a minute before putting a hand on the small of her back and pushing her around a mumbling Kyra. Now she had her eyes closed and was tapping her fingertips against them.
"C'mon. Let's get out of here." he said gently. She sniffed and raised her head, giving Kyra one last long gaze before she hung her head and continued on numbly. She didn't even feel her stupid ankle anymore.
Riddick was counting again. The wind went on howling around them, and without having to look Raven knew Kyra had already disappeared behind them. She started limping after about ten or fifteen minutes, unable to go on ignoring her ankle. It seemed to take a lot shorter for Riddick to get back to zero than it did for him to count to where they… It seemed like a lot less time had passed.
"How are we supposed to get out?" she asked quietly. Her eyes were dry now, but her voice was monotonous and emotionless.
Riddick stood next to her with his muscular arms crossed over his chest, "Leave it to Aereon. She's got something planned to get us back. Just gotta wait a few minutes."
And they did. They stood in silence, Raven keeping all her weight on her good leg as she stared at the invisible ground they were standing on. She felt her stomach drop a little as she finally took in how much it looked like they were falling.
The wind kept howling. It got so loud that eventually it sounded like someone was screaming again… And like they were getting closer, and shouting out actual words.
Her head snapped up, hearing what she knew Riddick didn't yet. Was it possible? Did she even dare have a glimmer of hope that it could be? The outline of a person running appeared in the black fog around them, and Raven screamed joyfully.
She could've sworn Riddick was on the verge of fainting when Kyra, her eyes bright and her movements powerful and energetic, approached them. She had one hand clapped over the bleeding wounds on her wrist but she managed a sassy smile.
"Forgetting something, sis?"
Sorry about the length, but I had to fit all of this into one chapter; otherwise, it just didn't feel right. So, this is the end of Part I. Part II will be up at some point, maybe tomorrow, maybe next month, I've stopped trying to predict. Hope you guys enjoyed this, and keep our eyes peeled for Part II. Hope to see you all there!!