Chapter 36: Grand Central Station in the Spring

Riddick grinned. One move and he was on that desk, twisting the gun out of Nin's hand. Held it to the man's grey head. "Not very hospitable, are you?"

"Not to monsters."

Jack pleaded in his head, suddenly sounding very young. "Don't kill him, please, please, please."

Riddick looked down on the old man's bowed head, thoughtfully. "Hm."

"Please," her voice cracked.

Nin shifted, stared up unafraid. "Eris brought me Kyra's dead body. Mutilated. How could you do that to her? How could-" his voice choked. "She loved you."

"You mutilated my body?"

Riddick sighed, feeling slightly deflated. "I didn't kill her. She killed herself. But yeah. I . . . went a little nuts. Nice gun, by the way."

"Why would she kill herself?"

"You, partially."

"What?"

"I told her you were dead. I thought you were. It broke her heart."

Jack sobbed in his head. Nin closed his eyes. "I was captured by the Taurians. Kyra had arranged for amnesty for us. And for you." He spat the last two words out like weapons.

Sweet you still cared, kid. Suddenly he was very suspicious. "Eris brought you her body? Why?"

Nin blinked back tears. "Genetic material."

"Why'd he want her genes?"

"He didn't want hers." The man's old eyes were savage with accusation. "I did. He wanted what you left behind. "

"Oh god. You raped my corpse, didn't you?"

You weren't using it, he shot back petulantly.

"Children, Riddick. Vaako was right. Kore was right. We have children. We have children because you -" She stopped abruptly. "Oh merciful goddess."

"Oh," Riddick said. "Huh."

Ninshubar's face twisted. He was going to start to cry.

"I'll stay with you. As long as you're a good guy, I'll stay with you. Just don't – don't kill him. And don't make him hurt like this. Tell him it's okay."

Done, he shot back. Smiled at Nin, slipped the gun into a pocket. Got off the desk. "Jack's here," Riddick tapped his head. "In here. Begging for your life. She says it's not your fault she died. She killed herself to stop Zhylaw. Died a hero and all that shit. I can bring her back. I just need something."

Ninshubar's eyes widened, all anger and accusation drained away. "Anything," he whispered.

Riddick smiled. "I need a body. Something to build with."

"She can have mine."

Tempting. Jack made a strangled noise. He sighed. "Old man, she'd like to see you. You're gonna be her hero. The body doesn't have to be alive. It doesn't even have to be human. Just about the right size."

"There's deer in the woods. I'll send someone."

"No. I can handle it. Plus," and he eyed the other man shrewdly, "I'm a little worried you're gonna try and off me as soon as I get her out of my head."

Nin nodded. "I might." He smiled. "But I'll talk to her about it first."

"Fair enough."

"Watch out for wolves. We brought them back too."

Riddick snorted. "Good for you. And not a problem."

oOo

It had been a long time since he'd hunted. The gun in his pocket was terribly tempting. But something about that felt wrong. And if there really were kids in the woods, he didn't want to start out by accidentally nicking one. Weird they'd let kids out where there were wolves.

Jack had gone quiet in his head. He probed her occasionally to short answers. They were being tracked. He wasn't sure what to do about that. They weren't getting too close.

He found a deer about the right size. He followed it for a long time. Jack was restless.

You don't like this, he thought at her.

"No," she answered, grudgingly. "I'm tired of things dying for me. I think I'm gonna become a vegetarian."

He leapt. Snapped her neck so fast he didn't think she had a chance to fear. Jack sobbed once.

He buried his hands in its short fur, thinking hard about her. Thinking hard about what she looked like, on Crematoria, in the Basilica, in the orchard. Thinking about her hair flowing down her back. Thinking about the muscles on her arms in Crematoria, the feel of her under him in the Basilica; her strange calm in the Underverse. Thinking of her reborn, naked and bloody at his feet. Thinking of her clean. Thinking about the old lady in his dream . . .

Something happened. Jack was laying under his hands, smooth and soft and muscled and naked. She blinked up at him. "It didn't hurt," she said wonderingly.

"I'm gettin' better at this." Hesitantly, he rubbed her cheek with the back of his hand, not sure how she was going to respond. To his delight, she relaxed into it. "Hold on. Got something for you." He knew he was grinning foolishly. Grabbed the pack, pulled out the rope Selena hung herself with.

Her eyes widened and her skin prickled into goosebumps. A smell of fear he tried to shove aside. "That for me?"

He snorted. "If you want it." Finally found a dress and those ridiculous slippers. "Here."

She laughed, stood unsteadily. "Wow. Things I never thought I'd see again." She dropped it over her head, arranged it. She turned the shoes over in her hands, eyes moist. Is she gonna cry? She slipped them on almost defiantly.

"Been meanin' to give you this for a long time." Almost shyly he handed over the sheathed shiv.

Her eyes widened, this time without fear. She pulled the blade out. "Wow. Thank you." She slipped it into a pocket. "Thank you." Their eyes met. She swallowed, stood. "Wow. I feel . . . strong."

"Good." She took a step away from him. Then another. Then she spun back and hugged him impulsively. He dropped the pack and wrapped her in his arms.

"I think this might work," she whispered. "Brand new day."

"Brand new day," he whispered. Then all the hair on the back of his head stood up. Damn. Let myself get distracted. Stupid, Riddick.

They were surrounded by men and women with guns, materializing out of the trees. Nin was there, in a float chair. Of course he's here, Riddick thought. He wants to save the girl at last.

Nin's grandma floated through his head. "You were supposed to save the girl, she scolded. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a gun barrel rise, a finger twitch -

Without thinking, Riddick grabbed Jack, pulling her against him hard and twisting so that he took most of the shock blast. He fell to his knees, still clutching her. The pain made him grunt. She made a strangled sound, went limp in his arms. New nerves, he realized, dazed. Hit her hard. Poor kid. He pulled them both to their feet. The guns tracked them. I have a gun too. He pulled it from his pocket, pointed it straight at Ninshubar.

"NO," Jack yelled, still gasping in pain. He gripped her tighter, pulling her feet from the ground. She took a deep breath, seemed to make a decision. "Ninshubar Osiris Arkhipov," her voice rang out "Goddamn it, Nin, coming back didn't hurt this time and then you have someone come and shoot me?"

Nin looked stricken, his lined face looking even older. "Jack. That wasn't supposed to happen. No one was supposed to fire without a clear shot." He tried to glare around, but he couldn't keep his eyes off of her. Riddick took a quick survey. Seven people, six of them visibly armed and stifling fear. Not good.

Nin's face hardened. "Let her go, Riddick."

Jack took a deep shuddering breath, but her voice was clear and commanding. Not the little girl any more. She grew up, he thought, suddenly, feeling strange. "Nin, please. Riddick. Everyone. Lower your weapons. Please."

There was a pause. Several people around the circle's eyes went wide when they got a good look at her and went wider at his name. They've never pointed a gun at anyone, Riddick realized. Not for real. No wonder someone's finger slipped. And they know who we are. Huh. Jack took a deep shuddering breath. "If you kill him, I will not be happy."

Ninshubar shook his head. "This is my world. He doesn't belong here." Riddick blinked, and his green was so dark it was almost brown.

The air itself seemed to change. "Your world, Little Beans?" Jack whispered. Her voice was warm and rich and weirdly calm. Like that old lady. Uh oh.

"Alright," Nin said at last. The soldiers – or what every they were - complied. Jack's heart was beating hard against him. It felt good. He shifted his grip slightly, let her feet reach the ground. She relaxed slightly. He let the gun lower a few degrees.

It was almost her voice again. "Thank you. Nin, Riddick and I have a deal. Don't make a liar of me."

Nin shook his head. "I promised him nothing. He killed billions of people." More eyes widened. They didn't know that. They know who I am but not what I did. What are they teaching these kids?

It hit him suddenly. That I'm a hero. That I took down the Necromongers.

Jack took another deep shuddering breath, all herself again. "It's not that simple. You know that. And we killed millions when we set off the sunseeder. We turned something meant to give life into weapon. If you condemn him, you condemn us."

"I'm not going to chop logic with you, Kyra." Nin hesitated. "I still have nightmares about those things he did to you." His voice quivered slightly, making him sound even older. "The things he made me watch. The greatest shame of my life is that I didn't stop him."

Jack swallowed. "If he thinks you're going to pull those triggers, he'll take us both back to the Underverse." That's a really good idea, Sunshine. "Time travels differently there. It's been a day for him, it's been years for me. Sixty here?"

Nin nodded grudgingly. "Almost."

"When we come back," her voice cracked "all these children you made from us – from me - might be dead and gone. I want to see them."

If possible, the men and women around them went even more alert. How many of them are hers? Are mine? That girl in the woods – oh god, Nin and I could be her grandfathers. He looked at the faces around them, seeing shadows of himself, of her. Some looked back with the same recognition. He grinned. Several responded. He shifted his grip on Jack again, not letting her go, but giving her a little more play.

Nin sighed. "Kyra - Jack . . . He's a monster."

"I know. Sometimes." She pressed back into him. "But he's my monster. And he promises to be good if I gave him a chance. I want to give him the chance. And who ever kills him becomes him. Let him carry this. Let him die in bed. Let it die with him."

"With you?"

"And with me," Riddick could feel her shiver. "If he's good."

Nin closed his eyes. Into the silence a bird sang. Another answered.

"I'll make you a deal," Riddick said, surprising himself. Nin looked at him without speaking. "I'll be a good guy. You can watch. I step out of line after today, you get to do to me whatever you'd do to anyone else. I'll even take it. You try to separate us for any other reason, you'll regret it. Past stays past." Jack relaxed back into him even more.

Nin looked stricken. Finally he nodded. "I've got a big house. You come home with me."

"For now," Riddick rumbled softly.

Jack nodded. "I'd like that."

Riddick's head snapped up. There was a smell that made some long forgotten place in him go on high alert. He tightened his grip on Jack just as about twenty men and women who clearly had used their weapons before materialized through the trees.

Good grief, did I resurrect her at Grand Central Station?