Ch. 14

Maybe I'm the one

Maybe I'm the one who is the schizophrenic psycho (yeah)

Maybe I'm the one

Maybe I'm the one who is the paranoid Flake-oh

"Psycho" Puddle of Mudd

They woke to the clunk of the engine turning over. Gears moved, fans spun, and a steady hum vibrated through the deck. Riddick's mind gathered itself, cataloging the chill of the metal he lay on, the warmth of the body stretched over his, and the dull glow of the overhead lights. Barely. Seeing as they were lights of electricity and plastic instead of his blood glowing, he figured he could live with the pain they caused his eyes.

A string of numbers ran through his thoughts, calculations on time spent drifting, time to destination, and possible angles of atmospheric entry given the plane of approach. He turned them over, curious, but more interested in the small movements of the girl on top of him.

::The Riddick glows blue!:: The phrase blasted into his head, ricocheting around like a bullet.

He yelled in surprise, clutching at his head, trying to figure out where the voice came from.

::What the fuck?:: he asked himself.

River shot upright over him, hands over her ears and mouth open in a silent scream. Then she curled in on herself, ramming her head into his diaphragm. He gasped for breath, doing his best not to tip her onto the deck as stars exploded behind his eyes.

His jaguar hissed at them all.

::Oh no,:: a small voice whispered. Not in his ears, though. The words bypassed his auditory senses entirely. He turned his head to stare at the snarl of dark hair spreading up his chest, burying him in her scent. Sex. Apples. Rain. That spicy musk he couldn't name.

Her bare shoulders shook. He lost himself for a moment as he stared at the bruises and teeth marks covering her skin. Then he pulling enough scraps of his mind together to ask. "River?"

She erupted, toppling sideways before he could catch her and curling up in the fetal position as she laughed until she cried. Grumbling at the loss of her warmth on his skin, fighting the sinking feeling in his gut, he levered himself upright. Running his hands over his head, he tried to make his brain function. Was that really? Did she really? What happened?

"B-bo-bonding," River stammered out between gasps for breath as she tried to sit upright. She failed spectacularly.

He caught her before she could bounce her head off the deck, tipping her chin so she could look him in the eye. "What now?"

She sucked in a huge gulp of air, tried to hold it, and lost herself to the giggles again.

Riddick growled. ::Not funny River.::

It didn't help. If anything, it made her worse. ::Sorry! Sorry! But you wanted it! A way-:: she even stutter in her mind as her thoughts dissolved in mirth. Sighing, Riddick reached over and pulled her back into his lap. His skin burned where she touched him. The gooseflesh on his arms wasn't from the chill. He told himself to back off, not that any part of his subconscious ever listened, and tried to make the man rule the animal. He succeeded, partially. She was his now. She'd be under him again soon.

River's laughed trailed off as vanilla bloomed in the air. She turned to nuzzle him under the jaw. He growled at her, but he wasn't serious, and they both knew it.

"Now," he said, trying to ignore the ear she laid on his chest and the feel of her hair on his skin. "You laughing 'cause we can hear each other's thoughts or because I glow blue?" He tried to look deadly as he said it. He knew he didn't succeed. Although if it turned out she was laughing at the glowing, he had ideas as to how to torture her with in retaliation. Most of them involved going back to his bunk and not coming out till they were starving. Hell, why stay in the bunk? They had the whole ship to themselves, didn't they? A giggle against his chest drew his attention back to the girl. He scowled. ::What's so funny?::

Her lips twitched. She tried to cover them with her fingers. He snatched her hand and eyed them, shoving visions of his first targets of torture her way. She froze, then answered in a mock timid voice. "The speaking?"

He waited. He'd come to know this girl. When she didn't answer, he took the pad of her thumb in his teeth and worried it gently. She writhed, trying to pull her hand away. "The blue," she gasped, before curling up and laughing again.

Riddick growled and started down the side of her thumb towards the wrist. ::Don't need my mouth to speak now,:: he sent at her. ::Opens up all sorts of fun if you want to keep laughing at me.::

::No.:: Her voice was serious as she shifted so she sat between his legs, facing away from him. She ran her free hand down his thigh. He bit harder on her wrist. She gasped and twitched. He decided he loved making her move involuntarily. ::Beautiful is too tame a word for it.:: She tipped her head backwards so she could look him in the eye. He let go of her wrist long enough to meet her gaze before dipping his head to take her shoulder in his teeth. ::Glorious. Right,:: she continued. ::Alpha Furyan, last of his line.::

Her words dropped into his mind like stones in a still pond, echoing something through man and animal that made both halves of his self sit up and take notice.

And then she wiggled backwards into him, lifted her hands to trace down the sides of his neck, and neither one of them thought in words for a very long time.

HHYFN

A chiming alert brought them out of the haze that surrounded them. Riddick heard it first; as it built in volume from a quiet bell to near klaxon-like proportions. Groaning and rubbing her temples, River sat up next to him. "Apologies," she muttered. "Will never mock his hearing again if this is what everything sounds like."

He laughed and sat up next to her, running a hand up her back to the base of her neck. "Gonna have to find a way to block some of this," he murmured against her shoulder. "Not that it doesn't have its uses." he grinned at the way her eyes glazed in remembrance of knowing the sensations of both bodies; just where to put the hands or the mouth for this or that effect, of twining together as they reached the climax. It was enough to set him off again, and he could feel the heat rise under her skin as her body answered the call.

But the alarm was drilling a hole in his skull. He had half a mind to go tear the bridge to pieces so it could never interrupt them again. River shot him a look before scrambling to her feet. He followed the line of her body with his hand as she stood, clamping his fingers around her ankle once in warning before letting go and taking the outstretched hand she offered to help him up. He laughed again as she set her weight in counterpoint to his, sending her a mental image of a kitten shoving at his animal with its nose. She retaliated with the kitten biting the jaguar's tail and running. He conceded the point. He was too relaxed to be pissed, anyway.

He was not, however, so relaxed that he didn't enjoy the view as they padded down the hall towards the bridge. At least he enjoyed it until he noticed she was limping. He pushed the question at her. She groaned and clutched at her head. "Quieter please," she muttered. "Easier to hear directed thoughts now and sudden sympathy with the clapper of a bell has been found."

He laughed and picked her up, slinging her over one shoulder. She shrieked in surprise. "Now you know how I feel every time you yell in my ear like that."

She snorted explosively but didn't complain as he crossed through the hatch, ducking so as not to scrape her off on the sill, and kicked the chair around so he could drop her into it. She, however, stuck out her tongue before turning it so she could reach the console.

She clung to the edges of the desk and braced herself against the motion when he tried to turn it back. ::The feet are fine. Not the reason for limping::

Riddick tilted his head to the side in curiosity. Burnt sugar rose in the air. But he could feel her embarrassment. This new trick of theirs was turning out all kinds of interesting. So interesting, in fact, that he didn't fully process her statement for a good minute or so.

He barked out a laugh. Leaning over the back of the chair, he took a handful of her hair and tilted her face so he could meet her eyes. "Don't plan on walking straight for a while then."

River laughed and reached up to pat his hand before going back to what she'd been doing. Riddick didn't mind. He could smell apples and rain almost drowning in vanilla, all wrapped up in silk. He could feel the satisfaction and anticipation rolling off of her and through him. His animal, the jaguar, was purring. The man relaxed in a way that had never happened before. He wondered at it, how easy he was taking this new development in stride. Before the Quasi-Dead ripped through his mind and taken memories he didn't know he'd had he would have sworn that it wasn't possible. After, he would have sworn to kill anyone who made the two halves of his whole drop their defenses so entirely. But here he was, with a girl he'd known barely a month taking up residence in his head, literally, and he in hers. How long until this turned into the new normal? How deeply were they rooted in each other's brains? And how long before they risked losing their sanity if it vanished?

In the pilot's seat, River giggled. He looked at her. She didn't look back, saying only "I feel the thoughts. Like water over stones in a brook. You still think loudly." She flashed him a grin before bringing a star chart up on one of the screens. ::We will have to learn to wall off any thoughts we wish to keep private.::

Just for that he picked her up, right out of the chair, kicked it around to face him, and sat down before dropping her in his lap.::'Sat so?:: he asked as he pinned her in his arms and squeezed.

River huffed out a breath and wiggled, trying to get free. "Got work to do," she muttered halfheartedly as she tried to bring an elbow to bear on his ribs. He squeezed a little tighter and started nibbling his way up her spinal cord. She stilled, breath stopping momentarily as vanilla and spicy musk overpowered everything in the room. He felt her in his mind. Sudden excitement. Wariness. Frowning, he stopped teasing and turned her so he could see her face completely. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused. ::River?::

He almost thought she wouldn't answer. Hadn't heard him. But eventually she blinked and refocused. "Everyone deserves privacy of thought," she whispered. "They wanted to know hers. Made her know others'. Without the right to think to one's self, the whole universe would be prisoner. Even slaves may have their thoughts. Take that away and what are we left with?"

The vanilla had faded to apples and rain with just a trace of lemon. It didn't smell right on her at all, especially with the blood and evidence of sex still left on her body. Lemon had no place in her scent. He never wanted to smell it on her again. He also wanted to find whoever the fuck made her smell like that and rip them limb from limb.

"Can't," she whispered. "Can't do away with them all. Blue Sun. The power behind the Alliance. Everything we touch leads back to them." she shuddered. "Manufacturing, businessmen. Food, clothing, mines, engine parts, fuel cells. Have a hand in it all. Don't need Parliamentary oversight for research and armies because their funding doesn't come from governments. It comes from the people." She shrank in on herself, hands coming up to cling to his arms. "Two by two, hands of blue. Sonics and tranq bullets. Trigger words and behavioral coding." Lemons and charcoal filled the air around them. Riddick could see her in his mind, no longer a vague figure but the girl entire, up in the tree with the jaguar, her face buried in its fur. The sight made him want to kill something. She shook her head. "Topple them and topple the 'Verse. Run run run little rabbit, down to your hole.'"

Riddick growled and turned her so she could curl up against his chest. "Fuck them," he muttered. "You aren't a rabbit. You're a predator. A killer. Take your pick, but you aren't a fucking rabbit. We have to run then fine, been running most of my life. But they try to take us, they'll see Hell. Tween you and me, figure we can kill anyone and anything."

She stilled. He realized she'd managed to wall a bit of her mind off from him. He could feel her thoughts turning over, jagged as broken glass, but he didn't know what they were. Finally, she sighed and laid her head back so she could look at him. "And if I am triggered? The weapon is incomplete. Safety problematic. More akin a grenade than a rifle. Imminent bloody death may occur if you stay in proximity when it occurs. And it will eventually." She traced patterns into his skin, over the myriad scars that covered his arms and torso, leaving trails of fire in her wake. He growled when he realized she was trying to distract him. Carefully as he could while still making the point, he caught her hands and thought at her to stop. She rolled her eyes, but her scent and emotions didn't change. "Nearly killed Captain Daddy last time. Would have. Would have killed him and taken out as much of the city as I could reach before they put me down."

Riddick snorted and let go of her hands so he could lift her up and around to face him directly, privately reveling in the feel of her legs around his hips. Taking her face between his palms, he forced her to meet his eyes. She kept trying to look down at the fingers she twisted together in her lap.

::Look at me River,:: he said. Her eyes jerked up. "You're an idiot. Words are stone and blood is the mortar." He dropped a hand to run it alongside the cut on her arm before pressing his own wound to hers. His veins throbbed in a precursor to the light show. The pain of the cut was nothing on the fire that came from being near her. "Not going anywhere, even if you try and kill me." He grinned. "You couldn't take me, anyway."

She glared at him and sent a storm of images, all of them ways she could kill him, just with what she could find in the bridge. Then she rocked her hips against his and leaned forward to lay her mouth next to his ear. "You'd lose," she whispered.

It was both the right and the wrong thing to say in her position. He locked his arms locked around her, before she could get out of the way, crushing her close. He turned head and caught her mouth with his as he squeezed the breath from her lungs.

She replied by rocking forward again so that her damp clit found his dick and applied pressure. He groaned and dropped his hands, reaching for her hips. But she wouldn't let him move her, locking her legs around the chair to keep herself in place. And then, just when he thought he'd gotten her loosened up enough to pull her back and then impale her, she laughed against his mouth. ::No sex on the bridge. The hundan really might be a walking EMP. Do you truly wish to risk frying all the computers?::

Riddick ripped himself away from her mouth with a snarl and gave her a look that, by all rights, should have incinerated her. "Fucking tease," he growled. When he started to stand, but she wrapped her legs tighter around the chair and grabbed for the back of the seat. For a moment he considered out muscling her. He could. Easily. But it set a precedent he didn't like. So he stayed put, growling in frustration as he shoved his train of thought her way. Let her at least know what he could do and wouldn't.

She flinched slightly, but grinned. ::Need to finish setting course. Have been drifting without power for a day and a half. Need to make true headway before we are found and assumed to be available for scavenging. And then med bay after.:: She poked the bite mark she'd left behind. ::Human mouths are breeding grounds.::

He let her get up; enjoying the view of her lithe body, covered in blood and fluids as she was, and realized with a start that she wasn't the only one still wearing the reminders of the night and the morning as well. How had be missed that? The smell of blood should have been the first thing he noticed. Then River sat her bare ass on his knees and he forgot about the blood. She laughed, both out loud and in his head.

He decided it was probably the best sound in the world. Second best. His name on her lips was the best. She laughed again and got him to help turn the chair to face the console before going back to what she'd been doing. He watched her for a moment, feeling the calculations surface and fade in her head as she muttered and typed and flipped toggles. Her scent was back to apples and rain, the sex and old blood fading to the background.

There was something off in her mind though, something like a gun with its sight just a hair out of place, or a badly weighted blade. He wasn't sure how to figure it out yet, even with his jaguar standing by him and watching curiously. This was all too new for him to be able to go poking around in her thoughts as easily as she went through his. So he sat forward, set his arms around her waist and along her thighs, and peered at the screens over her shoulder. She tilted her head just enough for him to see them clearly before hitting one last button and leaning back with a sigh.

"River?" he asked, loading all his questions into the one word. She didn't answer right away. The smell of malt rose in the air. It was odd, smelling exhaustion when they'd just woken up from several hours' sleep, but he didn't want to comment on it just yet. "Where are we going?"

"Persephone," she said finally, voice resigned. "At first. Skim the White Sun, duck through Georgia." She looked at him over her shoulder. "You set a good course. Straight for Blue Sun and Haven. But Nav Sats can track and many are interested in the bodies left on the skyplex. At our front door. Will have to lose them. Hopefully have, by drifting with no power."

Riddick frowned and ran a hand up her arm. The name was familiar, but she'd never given him more than a vague idea of where it was. The easy way she spoke of it made his hackles go up. Her mind was blank to him, her scent full of something he could only label as apprehension. He listened to her heartbeat rise slightly, missing the irony of something smelling on her exactly as it smelled on others.

"Fuck," he growled. "You were leaving." Rage built, overflowed, and built again. It was all he could do to stay put. He clung to the armrests of the chair, feeling them crack in his grip. A red haze fogged his mind. He couldn't tell if he was mad at her for planning to go or himself for driving her to it. His animal was back in its tree, laughing at the man as he tried to reach it.

River was up and facing him before he knew what was happening; arms crossed over her chest and glaring bloody murder down at him. It was a measure of how far gone he was that the sight of her naked body did nothing to dull the hurt and anger coursing through his veins. The light in the cabin shifted and flickered. The handprint had lit up again. He cursed; growling unintelligible words as he anchored himself to the chair so he wouldn't stand and fucking shake this girl to pieces.

She kicked him in the shin. "Liu kuoshui de biaozi he houzi de ben erzi," she yelled. "What should I have done? Xiongmao niao!" She kicked him again. "Stayed where I wasn't truly wanted?" She trailed off into snarled words he couldn't understand even if he'd tried. He realized after a moment that while her lips were pulled back over her teeth, her mouth wasn't actually moving.

Steel cut through his rage as her swell of anger and hurt washed over him. His animal growled and dropped onto the man, pinning him. Then it set its teeth over his throat. Riddick took a deep breath, felt the pain in his leg where she'd undoubtedly left a bruise, and tried to sort out which emotion belonged to which personality. The lights died down until the handprint was just a bare ghost of a reminder of the unreasoning fury that had gripped him. He was still pissed. Incredibly so.

But he had to admit that it was mostly at himself. She was right. He'd refused her. While he'd been trying to figure out how to manage the rest of the trip stuck in the ship with her, she's been doing the same. Except she'd had an out. The rage built again, but he tamped it down. Anger wouldn't help anything. How could he blame her for deciding to leave? To get away from him and everything he'd represented?

Groaning, he pried his fingers from the armrests and dragged them over his face. Fuck it all anyway. Why was he angry in the first place? She was his now. And he was hers. "What would you've done?" he asked. It was all he could piece together as a sentence for the moment. The air was still full of freshly sharpened steel. River's heart thudded in time with his own. He could feel her in his mind, poking and prodding at the thoughts he let surface. Slowly, inch by inch, the tension drained from her body. She looked more defensive now than angry. But he could deal with that. Just so long as she wasn't kicking him anymore.

"Uncle would have work for me. I am very good at what I do. He has been offering side jobs for years." River shrugged and looked down at her feet, still bandaged. Riddick made a mental note to be sure they got re-wrapped soon. They were filthy. "Or could find another ship. Eavesdown Docks full of them, many don't check papers. I am good crew."

Riddick snorted as he put the last few pieces came together. His human side was well and truly pissed at the result. For a moment why it wasn't the jaguar, the animal instinct and driver of his more powerful emotions, wasn't ready to tear things apart while the man sat back and watched the show. Then he realized; the animal knew. Her blood and his. The mortar in a wall that surrounded them and could shut out all others. Even her crew. And she'd made her choice last night, given him words of his own to help with his half of the fortress.

The current issue still needed to be dealt with, though. Neither of them could run from it forever. "You get work there, stick around long enough, maybe you'd find your crew, your ship," he rumbled as he met her eyes. The glow of the screens around him, not so at first, was burning his eyes. But he wasn't about to shield them while he waited for her answer.

She shrugged and looked uncomfortable. It was the first time he'd ever seen her try to avoid something. He nearly laughed at her expression. The steel had faded from her scent, leaving a confused mess behind. A careful poke at her mind only earned him a flinch and a glare. He scowled and crossed his arms. Finally, shifting from foot to foot, she spoke. "Wasn't sure. Just…" She shrugged again and sighed, breathing apples and rain and wet earth in his direction. "Went to ask Kyra," she whispered when he didn't say anything, and hunched her shoulders.

There it was. Or she rather. River was still determined to find a resting place for his self-proclaimed sister. To tell the truth, he didn't want to just dump her either. The guilt wasn't quite as bad, but she'd still trusted him. Come looking for him. Landed herself in Crematoria and died because of him. Of all the people who'd ever latched onto him, she'd been the most tenacious. Worse than Caroline. Worse even than River, who'd spent so much of her time trying to get rid of him and who had very nearly fooled them both into giving up.

Riddick sighed and took River's hand, pulling her forward until she either had to sit back down or fall. She resisted for a moment, then perched on one of his knees and crossed her arms. He laughed. ::Still looking for a fight.::

River glowered at him before turning to look out the forward viewport at the stars around them. "There is an eighty-seven-point-three percent chance that Serenity will dock on Persephone in the next three days."

"How long will it take us to get there?"

She shrugged. He could feel the calculations run through her mind and back out, faster than he could catch or even identify them. Her eyes tracked back and forth as she read them, her scent settling further into the apples and rain, only a touch of wet earth left. Some mint too. In the part of his mind still his own Riddick sighed. She was looking forward to seeing her family just as much as she feared how they'd see her. Odd that she wasn't worried about what they thought of him. He let that drift to the surface, just to see if she caught it. His animal, back in its tree now that the excitement was over, laid its head on huge paws as the man leaned back to observe.

Calculations complete, River turned back to at him. "At current speeds, four days, two hours, twenty minutes. Depending on angle of reentry, traffic around the planet, and weather. At full burn, could make it in two days, four hours. However, that would cut dangerously into fuel supplies. If reason sudden departure was needed or landing could not be achieved we would be, as some say, up shit creek." She ignored Riddick's bark of laughter and continued. "Besides, it is only a chance that Captain Daddy would be there. Only a chance he'd stay long enough for them to arrive. She can feel him; he hunts. He hates being dirtside."

River's eyes glassed over as she finished speaking, charcoal and fire rising in the air. Riddick growled at the change. He couldn't feel through the mind link. It was like she wasn't even there.

"She's not," the girl murmured. Riddick jerked in place. River tipped her head to one side, but her eyes still looked somewhere else. "She flows with the river, listens. Hears. The Riddick's thoughts are loudest because he is closest. Because they are bonded now. But she hears others. Millions. She hears the man on Lilac who lost his daughter to Reavers. The elder on Harvest as he lays dying and repenting. The Alliance officer didn't believe in Reavers till he brought a fresh ghost aboard and it started tearing the faces from his people.

"And her crew. Captain Daddy hunts. He plans. He will kill to get her back if need be. Step over a hundred bodies; let his hired gun loose with the knife if that's what it takes to find the girl."

Her scent swirled. Fire building, lemons crisping around the edges; Riddick laid a hand on her leg and did his best to push as much calm at her as he could manage. She took a deep breath. "Ge ge counts vials and readies needles and prays she will not be insane when they find her, that she won't be broken again. Does not want to." Some of the lemons faded, to be replaced with cool water and steel. "Doesn't want to say the words, but will if he has to.

"Woman with a stone heart cleans her gun and checks her ammunition. Will shoot if her Captain says so. To kill the girl if she is dangerous again." River grinned suddenly. The charcoal and fire vanished as she looked down at him, meeting his eyes directly. "But if I get to her first, tell her not to shoot the xiongmeng de kuangren, she will argue the Captain down."

She leaned closer and set her forehead against his. ::They will still think she is crazy if they see her with the Riddick. Wonder if you hold me prisoner.:: She laughed. He tilted his head in unspoken question. ::She will have to convince them that she has merely found a new kind of pet.::

"Right," he grumbled. "Pet." Standing, he threw River over his shoulder and stalked out of the room, ignoring her shrieks of surprise and the knees in his ribcage as he headed down the hall. He nearly hit her head on the upper sill of the hatch, practically threw her into the shower and followed her in to show her exactly what sort of pet she'd found. The rough treatment earned him a couple of fresh bruises, but seeing as they came from her teeth, he wouldn't complain.

Author's Note: Soooo. Did it turn out like you expected? Myself, I think the first couple paragraphs were the most fun I had writing in the story so far. Don't expect the tension between the two to go away though. Now that they're not resisting each other, it's going to be more about learning how they fit together, how they will handle this new dynamic of the minds. Pay attention to the animal, the tree, all the stuff in their heads. The quasi-character status they've had up till now has just been upgraded, and I'm essentially going to be juggling seven different personalities, just with Riddick and River. Can you see why I haven't brought the crew in so far? TOO MANY VOICES!

Oh, and: NOT MINE! I don't own them. Whedon and Twohy and the Wheat brothers, and Vin Diesel the rights rights to these and this world!

Translations:

hundan: Bastard

liu kuoshui de biaozi he houzi de ben erzi: Son of a drooling whore and a monkey.

xiongmao niao: panda urine

Ge ge: Big Brother

xiongmeng de kuangren: Violent lunatic