A/N: Last free-style chapter before Chronicles of Riddick begins...

I do not own Pitch Black, Dark Fury, Chronicles of Riddick, or Riddick, nor do I own their characters or the story lines. I own only Rehtaeh and any new characters that I may add, and any plot changes that may happen within.

I really hope you enjoy the story! :D

Chapter 38

*Rehtaeh*

Two months later they reached Quintessa, she sent a communication to Aereon about Heath's ever worsening condition. The Emissary, along with her entourage, met her at the dock and made sure that Heath was taken directly to the best possible hospital. She also made sure that Carolyn and the kids had accommodations close by. The air elemental was intrigued when told that Heath was Furyan, but was later disappointed when told that he was only second generation, before the adaptations she called Alpha traits were inherited. Rehtaeh wondered briefly what that was about but pushed it out of her mind. Heath's well being was more important that the Elementals calculations.

Test after test was run, and Heath's condition was getting worse and worse. Heath was certain that it was some dormant virus that he caught while on Furya, but the boys were not affected in any way. The Doctors were not so certain. Rehtaeh pulled out her old pad computer and up loaded the list of vaccines and antidotes that had been made during her time in cryo, she gave the list to the Doctors on Quintessa and they contacted the Alliance headquarters there. Heath was Furyan, he would need Furyan medication. The panels were immediately transferred to the hospital and Heath started undergoing treatment. After three weeks of intense treatment Heath was in stable condition and there was nothing more the doctors could do for him on Quintessa. If he wanted further care he would need to return to New Mecca.

Rehtaeh took the triplets with her on outings into the city as often as she could in order to keep them out from under the Doctors and Nurses feet. During these outings Rehtaeh learned a great deal about Quintessa and the beautiful people who lived there, but she still had not learned anything about what was happening to her or what she was. Once Heath was out of the hospital they toured the planet for three months as Rehtaeh contacted the elders that Aereon suggested she see. They came to the end of the list of elders and the end of the attractions that could be toured by the average human. As beautiful as Quintessa was there was nothing more there for them to do or see. By then Heath and Carolyn were missing their home in New Mecca, having been gone for so long, and raising the boys on the road was wearing on all of them. Rehtaeh needed to stay, she was on a quest to find information and the couple was getting bored waiting around for her, so she sent them home.

Left without transportation Rehtaeh went to the ship yards and consulted a master builder together they designed a stealth cruiser for when she was ready to go home. She gave them her specifications about what it needed to contain, the range of weapons that would need to be outfitted onto it, and the luxuries that she expected it to have on board, and the capabilities she wanted it to have. It was a top of the line ship, and much of the technology that was going into it was being developed by companies that she was heavily invested in. Once she was done with the ship builders she returned to the high temples of the Elementals to find out if there was anything more that she could glean off them.

Now that she was alone she was finding that the Elder Elementals were much more open to questions about their race, and her history, she found that some of the more scholarly knew of her and her sacrifice. They were the ones who would help her find the answers she sought. Her exploration of Quintessa truly began and she finally started to produce results. It was an entire civilization built on her contribution to five infertile mothers, if it was not for her 'donation' the people who settled here would never have been able to adapt since their natural children could not survive the strange birth defects that were created in the strange chemical structure of the environment. Her sacrifice created a beautiful and serene world, where balance was the key to life. From her five eggs eleven children were born, four sets of twins and one set of triplets. From them the traits of the Elementals was born.

Rehtaeh was not an Elemental, though some of her traits were passed down to her offspring, allowing them to float, or glide or dissipate into the air, or to ground themselves in the earth or immerse themselves within flame or water. Her natural ability was much different than that of her children on the planet of Quintessa. She was also not a Furyan, either. She was told that she had all of the traits of an Alpha Furyan, but since she never set foot on that planet until recently she was not truly a Furyan. Daily she went to the temples to talk to the elders trying to find out what they knew about her and her history and anything that might help her. Still she learned nothing about Shadow Mages or what they were and she was beginning to become impatient.

Finally she turned to her teacher and straight up asked him. "I need to find Zephora. Do you know who she is and where I can find her?"

"To find Zephora, you must descend into the darkness." The elder said as he escorted her to a set of stairs that spiraled down into a pit of darkness. There was no hesitation in her heart or soul as she descended into the blackness. Her glasses cleared as she went down the stairs, self-adjusting to the change in light. If she had been expecting a dank cavern, or eeriness and evil, she was in the wrong place. She was in a massive hall with magnificent archways and columns. To the north of the spiral staircase there was what looked like a cozy nook where a person could go to study and learn. It was like a really old library but warmer, with thick comfortable chairs and thick soft throw blankets. There were tables and book cases and along the farthest wall, a small fire that warmed the entire room.

To the south was a massive training facility. There were large tumbling mats covering the floor. Punching bags lined a wall. There were weight machines and exercise equipment. There were massive weights, from fifty kilo blocks to over a ton. Who in the hell could pack around a ton?

She looked around in wonder at the beautiful space that she entered. She followed her instincts and went neither north nor south to find the person she was seeking. She went west. There was a cozy little kitchen with a small table big enough for four people. On the table was a pot of tea with two cups in saucers, it was just waiting to be served. "Please sit, Rehtaeh. I have been expecting you."

She recognized Zephora's voice as it swirled around her. She recognized it immediately from the message she received on Furya, the voice that mixed with the warrior woman's. It was hoarse and harsh and yet it just felt right, it felt comforting. Rehtaeh's instincts said she could trust this person with the odd disembodied voice so she sat at the table and waited in still silence as the being moved around her. It was an odd feeling. She knew someone was there, and yet she was intangible. Like a warm brush of air against her flesh. She swirled around Rehtaeh quickly, making her dizzy with her quick movements. "Please stop. You are moving too fast."

"You can feel me child?" Zephora's voice asks somewhat startled.

"Yes, of course, but you move too quickly, it is making me dizzy trying to keep up."Rehtaeh replied softly. "Tell me, Zephora. What am I?"

"You are a Shadow Kin of some sort. Your ability to see in pitch black darkness, your trigger reflexes, your strength and agility. The super heightened senses. The Amplified Dermal Sensory. All of these are the natural traits of a Shadow Kin. Even your animal instinct is a preternatural element to our breed." Zephora told her, as she materialized out of the darkness. She was a tall woman with dark skin and even darker hair. It was cropped close to her head, which showed off the proud angles of her face. She was statuesque. Long, lithe and lean. She wore a long dress in the palest shade of green offsetting the red undertones of her dark skin. Rehtaeh was in awe of her beauty. "You are different though. You have not finished your first cycle, and yet you have the abilities of a novice."

"What are you talking about, my first cycle? What abilities?" Rehtaeh asked in complete confusion.

"A Shadow Kin does not usually come into their powers until after their first death. Until their first life cycle is ended. I have lived ten cycles." The older shadow mage told her.

"I have come close to death three times, perhaps that is why?" Rehtaeh told the other woman.

Zephora laughed it was a harsh, hoarse sounding laugh and yet it was entirely appealing. "Near death is not enough to give a Shadow Kin their powers. If it happened like that, I know a couple of young ones that would have been full power before their first cycle was over, troublesome duo that they were."

Rehtaeh stayed silent. She had no answers; she had come here to hear what this woman had to teach her. The woman continued her thoughts, "No you are something more powerful. You do not have the empathy of a reaper. Nor do you have the judgment of a claimer, close but there is a vindictiveness about you that would taint the role. You are definitely not a guide, like I am. No you are not any of the usual Shadow dwellers."

"I am a Shadow Mage." Rehtaeh whispered the words. Terrified of what they would mean for her.

"The Shadow Mage!" Zephora laughed again. Like it was some private joke, "Where did you ever hear such a thing? There hasn't been one of those in millennia."

"My dreams. A dark man in a dark crown asks me who I am, the first few times I would tell him, 'I am the sister time forgot, the heart of seven. I am red on black.' The last few times I have added "I am the Shadow Mage, I am the Source." Rehtaeh confided in the woman. Zephora was suddenly right in front of her. She put both of her strong dark hands on Rehtaeh's cheeks studying her face, and looking deep into her eyes. Her face was deeply troubled and Rehtaeh's anxiety grew.

"Your soul is balanced as is your shadow. This is good. The Shadow Mage is balanced light and dark." She disappeared and swirled around her again, brushing against Rehtaeh in swift turns and sweeps. When she materialized again she seemed a little less distressed. "Your essence is too light. You have not yet experienced the depths of your darkness. When you do, you will find formidable power. Embrace the power, but resist the pull to dwell in it."

"What does this mean Zephora? I need someone to teach me. Tell me what I am, what I must do." Rehtaeh whispered softly in the darkness. "I feel lost."

"I can teach you what I know, Shadow Mage, but you will not learn your true powers until after your first cycle ends, until that time you will only be able to work in the fringe of darkness. In darkness that already is. You will not be able to create your own." Zephora told her, her voice was suddenly both hard and commanding and yet soft and joyful. How that could be possible, Rehtaeh had no idea.

Over the next weeks and months Zephora told Rehtaeh of her destined role in the future and what she would need to learn in order to help the warrior return life to the lost realms. Only a Shadow Mage could accompany a warrior breeder into the Underverse. Being made of shadow and death, gave her the ability to keep a full mortal safe within the realm of the half dead.

"This is just great, Aunt Reh. The last thing you need is more power." Heath rolled his eyes when she informed him of her news over a com unit. "You are already chaotic enough, the last thing you need is a realm to wreak havoc in."

"Hey!" Rehtaeh looked at him with a shocked face. "I don't always cause chaos."

"If you say so, Aunt Reh." Heath laughed at her. "My bet is that you give this Zephora lady a run for her money and break a few rules before the week is out."

He wasn't wrong. Every time the Zephora told her something was impossible, she would find a way around it. She would prove the Shadow Guide wrong, making herself stronger in the process, and nearly giving the woman a few heart attacks along the way. She was never one to follow orders, and she no different in this. She tried and tested every rule that was created for her, ultimately Zephora used her tempestuous nature to her benefit and instead of trying to keep her in line she helped her to break the rules.

Slipping into the darkness was easy for Rehtaeh since she had been partially doing it for years, since the night of the bio-raptors. It was an entirely different thing to control the ability. The shadows were colder than any person she had ever met, including Junner, at first she had only been able to go into the shadows for a short time. Zephora assured her that this would change after her first cycle ended. She trained both physically and mentally with Zephora to get past this barrier of pain, and by doing so she was no longer incapacitated by the touch of others. People still felt cold and she still didn't abide the touch of others, but it was no longer painful.

Within weeks she could make herself completely undetectable as long as there was a shadow or darkness of some sort, it didn't even have to be a dark shadow. If there was shade in any degree, she could use it and move her body into it. She could hide in any shadow except for her own, it was not only unnatural to do so, but also impossible. She had tried, and again and again she had failed. It was the only Rule she could not break.

After completing a training regimen set forth for her by Zephora, to teach her control over her abilities she was finally able to use some of her power. She surprised Zephora by moving through the shadows piece by piece. She was able to disembody herself in the fringe of the shadow, her legs staying in one place and her torso and head on the far side of the shadow. She was able to see into the fringes of the shadows to see what was happening around her. Jumping between disconnected shadows was one of the skills she should not have been able to do, and yet after months of practice she was able to move from one shadow to another. Since Rehtaeh insisted on pushing her boundaries Zephora had her working on pulling the weights with her into the shadows; she was just not quite strong enough. She could pull eighty kilos for about sixty feet in connected shadow. She knew she just needed to practice and push herself every day.

A year passed and Zephora was more than pleased by her progress, but Rehtaeh was homesick. She needed her family around her and there was a nagging thought in her mind that if Riddick came back she would not be there to see him. He would not know to look for her on Quintessa. She shared these thoughts with Heath one night during a long conversation.

"There is no rush to come back here, if your training is going so well, you should stay there to complete it." Heath admonished her.

"There is nothing more I can learn here, it is all about practice now, and I can do that at home. No, I need to come home. There is something pulling me in that direction and I need to listen," Rehtaeh argued gently. "My instincts are never wrong, and I just know that I need to go back. It is time. Besides if Riddick comes back I want to be where I promised him I would be. Not a galaxy away."

"You can't come back just for Riddick." Heath growled as he shot her a quick glare. "If he wants you that badly he will go to Quintessa for you, besides he wanted you to live your life. Not pine for him. You are surrounded by compatible people, is there no one that has caught your eye?"

"No, Heath, there is no one here. I miss Riddick, but it's more than that. There is something about him that sets me on fire. He is completely different than any other person I have ever known." Rehtaeh told him, "Even with all the people here who feel like family, not one of them is compatible in anything more than a family sense. The longer I stay the more I feel that there is something missing, and I know I need to find that connection again."

He sighed in defeat and looked at her for a long moment over the com unit before saying, "Well I can't say I am surprised, Rehtaeh. You have joined with him. It only makes sense as a Shadow Mage that your inner beast has found the shadow in which it belongs."

"Heath, do you think it's possible that Riddick is the warrior that I am supposed to help through the Underverse?" Rehtaeh looked at her nephew sharply.

"It would make sense as to why you are both so drawn to each other." Heath told her softly, with a smile. It was a knowing smile, the one that he reserved for the telling of dirty jokes and relentless needling about her now nonexistent sex life. But it wavered, and fell a little too quickly. The picture wavered briefly and Rehtaeh looked at her nephews face. It was thinner, his hair was graying, and his entire demeanor seemed off somehow.

"How are you doing Heath?" Rehtaeh asked as she noticed his hand shaking heavily as he adjusted something on the com device. "Don't sugar coat it."

"I am dying, Reh. They say that it is some Cryogenic disease. The version of Cryo-chemicals they used on me is eating away at my insides. It is like the old fashioned cancers. Luckily they have your blood on hand at the hospital. They give me transfusions to slow the progress. They say I have six months to a year left." Heath said his face was stoic, he showed little to no emotion. "Carrie and I are working out details and getting things in order."

"What's with the nicknames all of a sudden Heath?" Rehtaeh asked him, not willing to continue the other conversation.

"Life's too short to spend it talking. Maybe you're right Rehtaeh. Maybe it is about time for you to come home." He lifted his lips in his version of a sardonic smile.

She smiled back for a moment, before her heart squeezed tightly in her chest. It was moments like this one when she missed Riddick the most. Heath reminded her of him, they both spoke in short truthful sentences. They both seemed to share that knowing look that could spear into her soul and make her think about the impossible, and now she was on the verge of losing her nephew too.

Weeks later her ship was ready, it was a beautiful beast of a machine. Christened 'The Shadow Hunter' by her makers, she was an elegant prowler of the darkest reaches of space. Sleek smooth lines identified it as a stealth model. It was narrow and aerodynamic at the front and there were two levels at the back, massive rocket like structures on the sides housed swiveling thrusters that could move the ship in every possible direction. The black matte coating was a high temperature sealed shielding that could deflect hits without taking damage to the hull. It was long and streamlined. It had a large suite style bedroom in the upper level and a kitchen and living area on the main floor of the ship between the cockpit and the airlock. Rehtaeh's model was a test model for a cloaking technology that would hopefully be able to be used for the Alliance military in the near future. It also came with a prototype remote controller with a fully responsive operating system capable of taking off and landing on its own. It was a beauty, and as she said farewell to the planet of Quintessa she put the beast through its paces. She made a small list of the ship's faults and reveled in the growing list of positive attributes. It was faster by far than any other ship she had piloted, and made quick work of the flight path to Helion Prime and her family in New Mecca.

When she touched down in New Mecca her first stop was her ship mechanic, he needed to fix the issues she found during the flight, she also wanted him to make some tweaks to the remote controller. It needed fine tuning and flight path maneuvering protocols in it were faulty and needed to be perfected. Finally she returned to New Mecca, to Heath and Carolyn. Their babies were now toddlers of the age of three. They were constantly on the go. There was absolutely no way that only one person could keep up with all three, though Rehtaeh almost could by using her Shadow Mage skills. They all looked exactly like their father, and Rehtaeh was please to hear that there was another one on the way. This time the Doctors had assured Carolyn that it was only one. Not multiples. It was amazing to be around family again. The noise and the laughter were uplifting.

She spent as much time with her nephew as possible, finally convincing him to allow her to pull him through the shadows. Heath was always on her to continue her training, and when she wasn't training she filled her days with as much activity as possible to keep from thinking about Riddick. She produced paintings, portraits, posters and anything else art related for her business along with keeping up with her investments and within the following months her bank account grew immensely. The only set back she had was the bloody Mercs. The moment she arrived in New Mecca they were at her doorstep, demanding Riddick's location. Following her around. Heath refused to let her deal with the ass holes on her own so he picked up where he left off as her body guard, fighting off Mercs. Arguing with him didn't help at all, and when Carolyn took his side, Rehtaeh threw up her hands in defeat.

Heath kept her up to date on the whereabouts of Jack. The girl was still alive, and when the bodies started piling up they knew it was her. He looked deep into the files of the men and women who were dying. They were all slavers; Jack had been slaved out and had turned on her masters, killing them, but she hadn't stopped there, she had gone on a full out killing spree. The next thing they knew Jack was in a slam. Not just any slam, Crematoria. Heath was trying to figure out a plan to get Jack the hell out of there, and Rehtaeh was trying not to think of the girl at all, trying her damnedest not to care.