Hola! So, another update. Posting tomorrow-not sure how many yet, undecided-and then refraining from posting during the weekend. Just giving a warning so no one thinks I've left again (I feel bad about the long absence before. Sorry.)
The Chinese phrases are back, mostly thanks to Liz for making me remember the roots of Firefly. (Thanks Liz!) I am not having a note translating anything but I try to have it in the text. If any phrase is unclear then PM me or leave a review asking for translation.
Speaking of reviews...
Annie- Next chapter, up! Bam! Thanks for reviewing and I hope you enjoy!
Hana- Ah, yes, unification-Mal would be so fond of the idea! Thanks for reviewing!
Solaira- Yes, I seem to be getting everyone for that whole vacation thing! Thank you so much, I hope those hours of reading were enjoyable! The characters are just running away on me, they have taken up residence in my room-like the space in my head wasn't good enough! (Perfectly good head space, I say!) Shazza had to live, I saw too much promise in her character. She could have gone so far if it weren't for that whole chewed in half thing. Paris...yeah, I may have to kill him soon. Annoying pest of a whelp! Interaction for River and Riddick...could be fighting, shivs, blood, sex, laughter...or all of it. I'm not sure when they'll realize the truth but until then, it'll be a fun ride! Thanks so much!
NightStar28- Whoa, that certainly sounds fantastic! I'll have to check my mirror but I think my eyes just turned a little greener! Rude? Nope. Nope. Nuh-uhn! I viewed it as very helpful and I appreciated it immensely! I think 'Letting the story tell it's self without any unnecessary limits.' is some of the best advice I've had the pleasure of receiving and I've taken it to heart. Currently trying to stop listening to those little fretting voices and instead listen to the muses' lovely voices. Odd? You? Well then, you've found the right person to talk to, about as odd as you can get on this end. I'm glad to hear your muses are speaking again and wish you luck on your story. So glad you liked the last line, River was adamant it be said. Thanks!
Stranded- Haha, I'm glad to give you something entertaining on your break. Missing reviews-yet another piece of evidence for computers eating things, making them disappear. I'm just bouncing in my seat at the prospect of writing the River Riddick fight! So good! Oooh, if you make the video please post the link or something? River/Riddick videos and stories are few and far between. Glad to inspire! I was looking for River/Riddick pairing stories and toying with the idea of just writing my own when the muses took the choice away and ran with it. Mal is coming into this in a way I'd never have imagined-and that's all I'll say on that matter. I'm playing with continuing this story to Chronicles. I want to write of the time on the skiff but I'll have to know for sure what happened in Dark Athena (I could just go with the little I know, not sure yet) and from there I do plan on continuing. Possible Chronicles but maybe not, either way more will come. I'm so flattered, thank you so much! That is actually a good chunk of my fear for involving Chronicles-could I get it right? Don't worry about the reviews, I'm just glad you're enjoying the chapters and thank you so much for your kind words!
ArtLightLove- Completely agree with you. Still, both River and Riddick still have a ways to go with the whole partnership thing. River needs to realize what Riddick is like just as much as he needs to realize what River is like. Both of them are so used to their ways and are so stubborn! Easy to think that both were pushed around for a good chunk of time by many and now, well, they can't help pushing each other for the pleasure of being pushed back or catching the other. Thanks!
Diclaimer: Been so long since I've thrown one of these in. Honestly, if I owned Pitch Black or Firefly then I'd be making a movie with River and Riddick as our badass dark duo! No way I'd be sitting here withholding the goodies! And if anyone thinks I make profit from this-you're right! Not cashy money profit but happiness and playing with the muses!
"Stay close."
The group huddles together, no caring for personal space when space means darkness and darkness means raptors and raptors mean death. Many care for little else outside of the area of surviving.
Of the few, only River's pack care for more than their own pi gus.
Riddick doesn't so much care for River as he sees her as a belonging, his getting out is relative to her fighting beside him. River doesn't count that as caring.
Shazza cares for the children getting to safety, she looks at them and sees what she should have had with Zeke-could have had if they'd settled. She could have settled and never got on the HG, instead raising a brood of kids with her husband still. She cares for Zoe and Kaylee and even feng le jen duh sh tyen tsai River.
Imam cares for them all, they are all together-sheep lost in a land of wolves. But he knows his God will guide them, indeed has sent the tools they need to survive-all wrapped in the presents of River and Riddick. Killers. Psychos. Animals. Still, he can't help but thank his lord for them.
River closes her mind from all but her pack, letting her beast stay in Riddick's head as she lets her feet attach her to the pulsing of the creatures. She knows she cares for them all. She has them grouped. Nonnegotiable expenditure-Kaylee, Zoe, Jack. Negotiable expenditure- Paris, Fry, Johns. Gray area-Suleiman, Imam, Shazza, Riddick, River. She won't let anything befall group one. Group two is a bit more tetchy, grating her nerves or making her rethink all her concerns for them. Group three is what's tripping her up. Maybe she'll save them before group two. Maybe not. She places even herself in group three-if the others are fine then she is only a tool to a means of survival.
River watches from the back as she holds a hand light and the group is protected by Johns' light and Zoe wielding the other hand light. Fry steps up to a tunnel of darkness and glances back, "Riddick!"
River smiles, she can sense the creature up ahead, concealed in the dark. 'Heard the plan. Not nice. Funny, but not nice.'
'Never said I was nice wa.'
River snarls, she is neither his baby nor his doll. Baby means she is his and doll means she is a toy. She will not concede to being either.
'Ain't seein' you as a toy baby, no call to get angry.'
Riddick steps up and lifts his goggles with a small smirk, looking through to see debris scattered about. Tubing hangs in mass array. A smirk tries to show as he sees a raptor hanging inverted from a steel pipe.
"Looks clear."
Johns, fear spiking at being still too long rushes forward. Riddick pulls his goggles down as Johns passes him. River stands still, signaling her pack to keep still and wait. As Johns makes it one-two-three steps past Riddick the raptor releases its hold on the pipe and spin dives out, screeching for direction as much as for warning.
Immediately Johns pulls back, spinning and hitting the dirt. Everyone falls into a crouch and River listens, knowing the raptor is too frightened at having been awoken so quickly with light to try to feast.
"You said clear!"
Riddick looks at Johns from his position in the dirt, "I said looks clear."
Johns heaves a breath and grits out, "Well, what's it look like now?"
Riddick lifts his head and peers up for two seconds before looking to Johns, "Looks clear."
Johns growls and River giggles, eyes flying to her, "The hellhound is not to be second guessed by any but the panther. Looks clear. Is clear. Dong ma?"
River glances at their backs and hands Kaylee her light before sprinting forward, jumping over Riddick and Johns and into the dark. She waits until the voices are worried and then jumps down from her place perched on the newly vacated steel pipe. Johns almost shoots her but she ducks under his barrel and closer to him, almost touching him chest to chest. Johns smiles apologetically at her as his eyes light up a bit in arousal.
'Men. So easy.' River smiles wider at her beast's words.
"Keep. Moving."
Riddick looms behind her with clenched fists and she turns from Johns, flitting to her position at the back with a wink to Riddick.
They move hastily, grabbing the Spirits and the lighted wiring from the crash remains. Kaylee and Shazza work with Fry to hook the lighting to a portable generator. Riddick, Johns, Suleiman and Imam haul the power cells. Zoe breaks a cryo-chamber door away for a new sled. They all work as a unit, pulling out anything that might burn and tossing it onto the sled. River looks over everything, making sure it's right and useful-there is no need for the frivolous-she slides two packs onto the sled, knowing they'll be needed in the skiff.
Work done, the group gathers around their sled, River still proportioning weight and tying the rope securely at the best areas for least resistance.
"I'll be running at about ten paces ahead. I want light on my back but not in my eyes." He pauses and glances over River's pack, over her cub with unwilling worry, "These bad boys know our blood now."
He hears Jack's heartbeat quicken and slightly nods, only seen by the kid.
River, from her place by the sled, glances up at everyone and then smiles wryly, "We suggest everyone do two things before we leave. One-check your body for wounds. Keep a mental note of it and we shall arrange the train in ordinance of most likely target. Two-see yourselves to the head because the smell of blood will get the creatures but the smell of piss will lose the help. We are not going to throw ourselves over a piss soaked body."
At the looks River bites out a laugh and stands, task finished with the sled.
"I'm risky. You should leave me, if I tell the others you will leave me. But…"
River growls, "We are not leaving you. And if they want to try and leave you we will fight for you. Wo de jiao nu. As ours, you are with us till we cease being."
Jack sniffs and nods, tossing her used sanitary pad away and examining her pants.
"Sanitary conditions of your pants are clean. Old blood, not as appetizing. Also, forgive us but-here," River reaches out and rubs a rag soaked in alcohol over Jack's pants and stomach, then up her arms and over her face, tying it to her belt loop.
"I smell like a dirty alcoholic!"
River smiles, "But not like blood so much anymore."
Jack hugs River but River pushes her away, at her wounded look River leans over and kisses her nose, "Jiao nu, we are bloody."
Jack takes in River's appearance, "Ai ya! We need to clean you up so them things don't-"
River smiles again, "We are shield. Bait. Here, untie this."
Jack gently, with shaking hands unties River's arm wrapping first, then the wrapping for her hand. River looks at her arms, "Sit and do not make a sound."
Jack nods and complies. River palms a shiv and reopens her closed wounds, adding a few on her arms. Jack's eyes bulge but she remains quiet. River motions Jack to her and the girl again complies to bind the wounds again.
"Scent of old blood and new blood will be aphrodisiac to them. Wave our arms and they get close-slick, shiv through the skin."
Jack swallows, "Dian."
River cradles Jack's cheek, "For us. Not for you. Pack will be protected. As will others. We are capable of handling ourselves. Dangerous in relative terms."
Jack nods, and bites her lip, "What about your feet?"
River glances at her feet, covered in dirt and sand and dried blood. Bruising and with a few broken toes.
"Have to feel. Come, we are awaited."
Riddick inhales deeply. The basic smell of fear permeates the air. Alcohol, gunpowder, sweat, morphine, leather.
Sweet honey, gun powder and lead, hot cinnamon, ash. It's weak. Riddick looks to his girl and immediately tenses. He smells her blood. Heavy. Fresh. Unique.
'Jen duh sh tyen tsai in the eye of many. So tell me why you just covered yourself in blood?'
River smiles, 'Proving just how genius we are. The 'absolute genius' of it is that we are meant to protect the others and so we are. Believe we warned you of this before. If you would listen we would not need to reenact.'
Riddick snarls and glares in her direction before he registers Jack's presence beside her. His face goes blank and he sighs inwardly, 'You're doing it to protect your cub.'
River's face softens as she looks down at Jack, 'Would do anything to see her safe.'
'Die?'
'Listen close, last time we say it-we would die for them. Zoe. Kaylee. Jack. Ours. We would rather die protecting them than live having failed them.'
Riddick waits until her eyes meet his and he nods, acknowledging her words and giving respect. River lets her face mimic Zoe's in mask quality and nods back, accepting and thanking.
Riddick pushes open the door and looks out, eyes roving over everything.
"Are we actually going to do this?" Paris murmurs wide eyed as screeches fill the air.
"We stay together. We keep the light burning." Fry's voice is dark and River hears the words whir in her head from her recent argument with the still missing Johns. "That's all we gotta do to live through this thing."
River catches her eye and smiles as she turns away. Fry pauses and smiles back, stepping toward her.
"Smile mean I was right?"
River purses her lips and shakes her head, "No. But you were close. We shall have to protect the others as they do as you foretold. That is all. Smile was for you-you are distraught after communing with the jester. The jester does not know how to treat a masked lady."
Fry's lips quirk a bit, "Thanks. I was gonna go get him but I don't think he'll be fond of listening to me. I'll take lookout if you go?"
River giggles, "Yes. And we will take a while, have a word with him on his treatment of masked ladies. Do not take his words to heart. Fragile heart now, too many more wounds and it will crumble. We do not wish to see that but it is also not something we can always prevent. Though we shall try."
Fry smiles and looks river directly in the eyes, "Xie xie jiu she."
River considers moving Fry from negotiable expenditure to gray area. "Salvation. We can try."