A/N: Reminder that the poll is up until Sunday, if you have a sec to log in and vote please have at 'er.
I am headed to a wedding this weekend, and depending on how much editing I can get done on the next few chapters... I may only be able to post one or two on Sunday. At the moment I am really hating them and they need some major fine tuning and perhaps a complete overhaul... so keep your fingers crossed that I get some major inspiration and some time to work on them.
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 52
Five howled and stayed by her body, protecting it, keeping the Necros away from her. It was an odd feeling to be outside of her body, her consciousness encased securely within her shadow, while her body lay at her feet and her soul was sheltered within that of her lover. Zephora assured her that she would be reborn. The only problem, she didn't say how it was supposed to happen, and from what Zephora told her it was all supposed to happen automatically, but nothing was happening! Her shadow form looked down at her remains and tried to reenter it but she couldn't penetrate the skin, she tried to reattach her shadow to her body but it just didn't work. Maybe, just maybe if she attached to her soul in Riddick's body, maybe then. She raced to him, to his side, but the moment she touched him, she was flung back beside her own body, the body that was rejecting her. The body that was starting to steam in the growing light, if she didn't act soon she would be turned to ash in the day light. What the hell was she supposed to do? As a Shadow Mage she was supposed to be able to heal herself and rise, but how?
She saw her glasses on the ground and pulled them into her shadow, she looked down at them sadly before picking them up and tucking them into the space around her. Maybe if she survived this she would be able to use them again. Rehtaeh, tried to reach Riddick again, this time to try to help him rise, to give him her strength. Again she was thrown backward to her body's side. Riddick was down all she wanted was to get to him, she tried again to join with her body, but it wouldn't take her. She could touch it, feel it, she knew that there was a spark left within it. She knew it with every fiber of each of her forms, her soul, her shadow and her body was all trying to survive, and yet each one had rejected itself. She hovered over her body and watched in horror, as Vaako and fifteen of his remaining guards surround Riddick, guns drawn.
"So you can kneel." Vaako said as he watched Riddick get to his knees. He raised both his guns and then she watched in awe as time stopped.
A portal opened up from the hangar and Rehtaeh watched in shock as the blonde woman from her visions, stepped out of the world of Furya. She recognized the distant mountains and saw the graves, the broken cities in the distance. The warrior woman glanced for one moment in her direction, taking in her body and her shadow before carrying on towards Riddick, "I think you know now, I think you know who tore Furya apart. This mark carries the anger of an entire race, but it's going to hurt."
There was a blue glow coming from her fingers as she pressed her hand to his chest, and the glow began to spread throughout Riddick's chest and shoulders. The Furyan woman pulled away and faded back to Furya as the effect of the mark began to take place. Vaako took his shot and was blown backwards. Riddick lay on the ground, not moving. He wasn't dead she could feel him here in the fringe of the shadows, his shadow and soul within his body, his soul carrying hers. She watched as his shadow and soul rose from his unconscious form, his shadow stood and looked around as though trying to decide his next move. He was looking across the runway at her body, lying on the ground with Five lying beside her nudging and licking her face, mourning her. There was a raw painful look on Riddick's face and she cried out and reached for him. Her shadow moved to stand in front of him but he seemed to look right through her, like she was not there with him.
"I am not dead Riddick. I am not dead, as long as you fight and live on, I will always find a way to be with you." She reached for his shadow and turned his face towards hers forcing him to look at her, waiting, just waiting. It took him a moment to focus on her shadow, to see her in the shadow realm.
"Your body, that is a lethal blow, you cannot survive that." He looked down at her, he looked almost lost, and his hard face was filled with pain. She couldn't stand the look of it on his face.
"I swear to you, Riddick, I will rise again. I don't know how but I will find a way. I am yours, body, shadow and soul. I swear it all to you." She touched his face, her hands on each side as she met him eye to eye. Even in shadow form his eyes had that Furyan shine and how she loved those eyes. "As long as you protect my soul, I will always return to you. I am your Shadow Mage, I am yours."
She stepped away from him and watched as his shadow and their united souls returned to his body, she could see the staunch determination in his face as he gave her one last look before he fused back into a singular entity.
She heard Kyra scramble down the hill beside them and run for her body, Five looked at her and whimpered and whined. She screamed in warning as Vaako stalked up behind the girl and hauled her away from Five and her body. Kyra screamed and struggled as she was pulled away, "No! Let me go! Rehtaeh! Riddick! No! Let go!"
Vaako shifted the struggling teen to one of his men before turning back to survey the scene and take stock of their casualties. Then the sun came up. It was that moment when the Necromonger ship came back for Vaako and his crew. They abandoned Riddick's body on the ground, assuming he was dead. Everyone scrambled for the safety of the ship as it dropped to the ground. Kyra was hauled unceremoniously onto the ship, even though she still fought tooth and nail.
It was so bright Rehtaeh could barely stand it, the heat and the brightness. She was pulled back to her body, she still could not enter it, and she knew she needed to do something but what? Vaako looked at her and walked over to her prone body. "A useless death, you would have been useful to the campaign. You could have been mine." Then Vaako and the few remaining Necromongers ran towards the safety of his ship.
"I would never join you!" She yelled in complete rage. She would not die here. "I am with Riddick until the day he carries my soul to the other side. I am his until time ends, I swear it!"
It was useless, no one could hear her, or see her or feel her. Other than Five that is, the beast was the only one that seemed to even notice that she was not fully gone. She watched as the Purifier walked to Riddick and he grabbed his wrist pulling him into the shadows. He pulled Riddick into the shade within the hangar, making sure that the sun didn't touch his body. She looked down at her own body, there was too much light, she tried everything she could think of to reattach it. Five watched the man with Riddick's body and the Purifiers action decided his own. He grabbed her boot around the ankle with his strong teeth and pulled her, using his strong haunches to drag her with him into the darkness of the hanger. Once her body was back in the darkness, she swirled around the beast and hugged him tight whispering her thanks into his ears. Then she used every particle of her shadow to curl around her lifeless carcass, pulling it within her shadow form, and picked it up. It was lighter than she expected it to be, so she pulled it into the darkness of the universe, into the darkness of the Shadow Realm.
"Rehtaeh, we have been expecting you." A voice rang out from the darkness. Finally able to see into the true Shadow Realm she was shocked by how bright it was. The stars were twinkling in the vast galaxies, the planets shining under the light of their suns, the souls of those planets echoing with life and the souls of the dead whispering in light of the shadows. There was life, bright infinite life in every direction. Rolling hills of sparkling, waving, blades of silver grass in bright never-ending moonlight, diamond bright leaves on massive ancient trees towered over the grasslands, creating small areas of shelter. The bright snow capped mountains in the distance towered over a bright twinkling city filled with light and love and laughter. She was inundated by sights and scenes she could never have imagined.
"Who are you?" Rehtaeh whispered softly, she looked into the direction where she thought the voice was coming from. There was no one there. The voice was disembodied, projected from elsewhere.
"We are like you. We are the Shadow Kin. You are of our blood." The voice called to her. She could feel the shadows whispering against hers, she felt warmth, warmth within the shadows.
"I have never been warm in the shadows before." Rehtaeh whispered in awe.
"Very few of our kind can enter the shadows before their first death. This is why the shadows have always felt cold to you. You needed to experience a human life before you could truly become one with the shadows." The voice told her gently, it was neither male nor female. It was like a chorus of voices echoing together and had a very musical quality. "You needed to experience a true death to find your way home, Rehtaeh."
"What about Riddick? What about my oath to him? I love him, I cannot leave him." Rehtaeh panicked as the thought of leaving him tore through her heart.
"Of course not, child, you have sworn an oath to him and to the universe. You are bound to that oath." The voice told her it was strong and stern. "Once we reset your form you will be able to return to him. You won't have a choice, since he is the keeper of your soul. A battle lies ahead of him that will decide your destiny, if he is victorious then prophesy will be set in motion. If you both survive this you must return to us. You need time to train with us here, in the shadow realm, so that you can realize your true potential. Do you promise to make this commitment?"
"How long will this training take?" Rehtaeh asked the voice, she didn't want to make a commitment if it meant being away from Riddick. She couldn't do that again, she could not live away from him again, it would tear her apart.
"You are a Shadow Mage, one of the strongest we have ever seen. You have so much strength and potential that it may take five full years to learn everything you need to, but depending on you it could be twice that much time or half that time. The time it takes will depend entirely on you and your commitment to us." The voice told her gently, as though it knew that she would have a hard time committing to this.
"Five years?" Rehtaeh whispered past the lump that had formed in her shadow throat. Five more years away from Riddick? Could she really survive that? It had nearly torn her sanity to shreds the last time around. She knew she needed to be strong in order to help him. She needed to be aware of her capabilities, if she didn't commit to this would she be strong enough to help him? She could not fail him. There was only one way to do that and it was to commit to their training. Even if it meant being away from him she would do anything if it meant protecting him. "I promise, I will return, I will come back to train with you here."
"I think you have misunderstood," The voice told her softly, almost with a chuckle. "Do not worry young one, you can come when you have time and return to the living realm whenever you are needed there, we would not hold you here. Think of it as your day job."
"Thank goodness!" Rehtaeh sighed in relief. She wouldn't have to live away from Riddick again. She could spend time with him, be with him. "The last five years nearly killed me. I never want to do that again."
"Give us your physical body." The voice said it was commanding and stern yet soft and soothing. All around her she saw shadows emerging and coming forward to embrace her body. Some of the shadows had physical forms and others were just the glowing entities of a soul within the shadows. One of them was the Reaper who she saw in New Mecca. He met her eyes and nodded with a slight smile. She held up her body for them, lifting it and pressing it forward into the hands of many others. They removed her clothing pulling it into the shadows like she had done before, putting it away for later. Slightly embarrassed that they were looking upon her completely naked form she blushed. Was blushing even possible in shadow form? She looked down at herself and was shocked to find that though she was made of darkness and she felt like her form was a dissipation of molecules, she still held a somewhat solid form.
There was so much she didn't know about herself that she was chagrinned to admit that she felt like a child hyped up on too much sugar. She had no attention span, her eyes were everywhere, her curiosity was in full gear. The sensations were being over loaded. The voice cleared it's throat and drew her attention back to the circle of beings. She felt another blush suffuse her face and the Reaper looked at her with a wide grin.
"Sorry, it's a lot to take in." She mumbled softly, she felt like a five year old caught in the cookie jar. Turning her attention back to her body she watched as it was levitated above the circle of beings. It turned and twisted, growing brighter and brighter until light radiated out of the form from within. She watched in horror as her body began to turn to a white sparkling stone, then it began to erode away becoming finer and finer until her entire form was nothing more than a small ball of fine glowing ash. "Young Shadow Mage, we urge you to mourn the loss of this body, it has served you well, embrace the memories that you had within it, learn from the hardships, cherish the love."
The ash gathered into a glittering sphere of light and dark, it looked like a tiny star in its essence. It grew smaller and smaller until it was nothing more than a speck. Her body became nothing more than a single bright atom in the vast openness of space. "You will carry this with you, you will place it into your soul, and you will wrap yourself, your shadow self, around both. This is the way it is for our kind, we must do this every time our body dies, until the day that your soul comes home with your body."
"Will I be the same as I was before?" Rehtaeh reached for her tiny speck and held it carefully in the shadow of her hand.
"Yes Rehtaeh, you will be the same if you wish it, though there are those who have changed their appearance for each return." The voice told her. She had so many questions to ask and things she needed to know. "It is time for you to go now, child. Your Riddick is awake, he will need to see you alive, or all will be lost. I know you have questions, many questions, and you will be given the answers when you return to us for training. Until we meet again."
The shadows began to recede and Rehtaeh swirled in the darkness carrying her essence towards her soul. She stepped back into the hangar and moved to Riddick's body. Sure enough he stood alone in the empty hanger looking around with a sad lost look in his eyes. She pulled herself into his shadow and pulled herself tight against him, embracing him. Then she reached for her soul, she found it within his, wrapped in an embrace so tender and profound. It was odd to see herself like this, in pieces like a puzzle. She reached for them and as she did Riddick's soul pulled away allowing her to place her atom into the center of her soul. Then she wrapped her shadow tight around both, holding on fiercely, and cried out in pleasure as Riddick's soul wrapped around the three disconnected parts of her. The connection was intensely intimate and she reveled in it.
She felt a spark of energy as her soul ignited a fire within her shadow, which in turn fused her body and shadow into a singular entity. Her 'body' began to grow, fast and steady it grew and grew, still holding it deep within her shadow. She used the term 'body' loosely since in reality it was the essence of the particles of her body which expanded outwardly. Her shadow did as it always had and held those particles together within the shadow realm allowing her to exist within and among the things around her. How else could she possibly reside in the same space that Riddick occupied without destroying him? She held on until she was ejected from her soul, until her body and her shadow was propelled into the light with a roaring gasp, emerging from Riddick's shadow.
Tripping over the massive body of Five, she fell hard, landing on her bare bottom as her new body took breath, and her eyes opened to the blinding light. She squeezed them shut and clutched her hands over her ears as the sounds of the world around her inundated her new ears. Five nosed her face and neck and settled himself down beside her his great head in her lap. She whimpered in pain at the newness of everything. She felt Riddick in her perimeter, his warm body went perfectly still for a half of a second. He spun and saw her in a heap on the ground, her bared eyes met his goggled eyes, she reached up for him. He hauled her to her feet and crushed her in his arms. She took a deep breath, reveling in his scent as she buried her face in his chest, so she could listen to his strong and steady heartbeat. Her arms reached around him as she clutched him to her. "Richard!"
"I thought I lost you." He whispered against her ear, as he ran his hands over her body, making sure that she was real. Fire sparked her flesh like it always did when he held her. She shivered at his touch. "You are naked, Rehtaeh, where are your clothes?"
"Oh! Yes, my birthday suit." Rehtaeh whispered back to him. "I have yet to meet a person who was born with clothing. Give me a sec."
She was gone for only a moment, a breath or two at most, and yet it seemed an eternity. When she returned she was back in her clothing, and decked out in all her gear. The clothes were dirty, shredded where she had been struck and covered in blood and gore from their battle, but at least it was clothing and it still covered what it needed to. Five was bounding around the dock roaring and howling and chirping in glee. Riddick spun towards her the moment she reappeared, as she stepped back into his arms he looked at her lustily and growled, "I preferred you without clothes."
"We will have time for that on our way back to New Mecca, Riddick." Rehtaeh giggled softly, he looked at her in surprise. She was not one to laugh a lot, much less giggle.
"One problem with that." Riddick growled at her angrily, he glared at her for a moment as though it was her fault. "No ship."
"I really don't see the problem, as long as I have my insurance policy." Rehtaeh smiled at him saucily. She pulled out her wrist computer and punched in a few keys. The Shadow Hunter would arrive within the next five minutes. Five bounded up to them nosing in between, grunting and purring and nuzzling up against her. "You did good Five, you did real good. Best hunting partner ever, not once did you give up on me."
"Him!" Riddick growled pulling her back against him, apparently not ready to let her go. "What the hell did he do?"
"Five pulling me into the darkness was what triggered me to take my body to the Shadow Realm. If it wasn't for him, I would be ashes right now." She looked up at Riddick, her emotions were building and she felt a lump in her throat. "I was dead, Richard. I felt my heart stop, my body went cold, and yet I was aware of everything. I couldn't help you. I felt helpless and useless. I tried everything to reconnect to my body and it didn't work. I have never felt so, so-, powerless."
"How did you come back?" Riddick was damn near crushing her, but there was no way in hell she was going to complain. She needed to feel him against her, smell his essence and she needed to feel his heartbeat under her hand. "When you died, the rage nearly killed me. Seeing your shadow, feeling you in the shadows was the only thing that made me want to come back. You promised me you would come back."
"I did. I had to take my body into the shadows so it could reborn from my soul. Technically our souls, yours is wrapped around mine." Her words didn't even seem to faze him. He just looked at her waiting for her to continue. "My soul reconnected the bond between the body and the shadow and I was reborn. It was the strangest thing I have ever done in my life."
There was a beeping coming from her wrist, she looked at the small computer and pulled away from Riddick. She moved to a computer panel at the far side of the dock and pulled the trigger to open the dock doors all the way. Then she worked the panel to open communications to the prison. She was intending to speak to the prisoners below, to let them know the Necro threat was taken care of, what she got was a nasty surprise.
"Furya. What the hell do you want?" Toombs voice echoed into the large flight deck.
"Toombs? How the hell did you get out?" She asked in surprise. Riddick looked up and quirked his brow he came to stand just behind her, a growl low in his throat.
"Your fucking beasts tore some holes in the kennels trying to escape. They made one just big enough for me to get through." His ugly face and gravelly voice said over the com line. There was blood in his hair and it looked like one of the beasts had clawed at one of his ears. He was in rough shape before and he looked even worse now.
"Lucky bastard. It could have been worse. Are my beasts okay?" Rehtaeh asked, if any of those fuckers laid a hand on her animals they would have her to deal with.
"Who the fuck knows, and who the fuck cares? They escaped up the tunnel before anyone could get a handle on them. Good fucking riddance too, those things are monsters." Toombs grumbled, glaring at her through the camera feed, putting a bloody rag up to his bleeding ear.
"What do you mean they escaped? How long ago? You are sure they are headed this way?" She fired the questions keeping them short and sweet. Already tired of the conversation, she just wanted to know about her animals.
"About half an hour after you booked it. What happened to the Necromongers and the guards?" Rehtaeh rolled her eyes and walked away headed to the back of the dock towards the tunnels. She whistled, long and high, chirping to her beasts in the tunnels. Responding roars echoed back from deep within the rock. They were close.
"The prison's yours." Riddick growled, sneering at the Merc in disgust. He didn't give him any details.
"You still have my ship?" Toombs asked him, his voice carried to the entrance of the tunnels. He was being suspiciously congenial.
"You had a ship?" Riddick asked feigning surprise. "I thought that we agreed it was mine."
"As soon as I hitch a ride, I am coming after your ass." Toombs turned back into his growly bastard self, giving him the usual threats.
"You stay the hell away from us and we'll stay away from you." Rehtaeh snarled at him around Riddick's arm. He looked down at her his eyebrow quirked in annoyance. "You land that piece of shit on my property again and I will kill you, Toombs."
"Enough, Rehtaeh," Riddick growled quietly. She snarled back but backed away.
"Fuck you, Furya!" Toombs yelled at her, his face was beginning to turn red. "You are mine Riddick, I will hunt you down."
"Back at 'cha Ass Jacket," Rehtaeh growled under her breath as she stalked back to the tunnel entrance. With a sweep of his hand Riddick disconnected from the Prison com unit and joined her on the far side of the dock at the entrance to the tunnels.
"Did you have to antagonize him? He's like a dog with a bone." Riddick said pinning her against the wall, he ran his thumb from her lips to her chin and up her jaw line. She couldn't stop the thrill of need that sparked through her.
"He's worse when I'm nice to him, thinks I'm getting soft." Rehtaeh looked up meeting his goggled gazed. She ducked under his arm, keeping her distance. Her action gained an angry growl and it sent shivers up and down her spine. As much as she wanted him they could not afford the distraction. If Toombs was on the loose, and the beasts were able to make it up the tunnel, it meant that the other prisoners were soon to follow. "What happened to the Purifier?"
"He pulled me out of the sun to give me a message from the Lord Marshall. Then he took a walk." He stalked to the center of the landing pad and stopped, looking out to the superheated runway. The female beasts bounded out of the tunnels jumping on Five and racing around the terminal. They both came and said their hello's to Rehtaeh and nosed Riddick as well. "Aren't you gonna ask where Kyra is?"
"Nope, Vaako took Jack. I saw him hand her off to one of his minions." Rehtaeh told him with a half-smile. He looked back at her with an odd quirk to his brow, he wasn't sure if he believed her and yet he knew she wasn't lying. "It happened while I was still trying to figure out how to get back to you. I take it Ceryll took Toombs' ship?"
"Yeah, the fucker booked it when he had a chance." Riddick told her, he seemed almost angry about that. Not that he was really showing a lot of emotion at the moment, she bet that he was more than a little pissed that his perfect little plan didn't go quite as well as he thought. "Necros will probably take him out before he gets far."
"That's unfortunate, I wonder if he took Sybar with him. Ah, he must have, the man was pretty beaten up but not dead." Riddick's face was still stoic, almost completely emotionless as he looked at her. There was a heavy roar coming from outside and Rehtaeh looked at Riddick who was standing in the center of the dock looking completely stunned. She walked over to him and tugged on his hand, forcing him to come with her, "it's a good thing I have a great insurance policy. You may want to step back, Riddick. The Shadow Hunter is coming in hot and heavy."
She waited for a few minutes as her sleek black ship landed with pristine control in the docking bay. The black ceramic nanoplating was flickering red with the heat, but she knew that it could take temperatures upwards of two thousand degrees before having to worry about hull damage. It was engineered to take on direct missile fire and emerge without a scratch, so she was certain that the extreme Crematoria heat was minor in comparison. She flicked a few more buttons on her wrist computer and the hatch opened up so that they could board.
She turned to give him a smug grin, "Who's complaining about my Insurance Policy now?"
