A/N: Yay! Reviews are great and the people who give them are better! Thanks to all of you!
Warning: For later chapters you might want to have a box of Kleenex handy.
Ticking and whirring filled the air. Enya's burgundy eyes scanned the room, making sure everything was in its place. She looked to the sleeping faces of her beloved crew, each man in his own chair and in a deep cryo-sleep.
Like any good captain, Enya checked the ship one last time. All systems were green, their course was flawlessly plotted , and the holographic UV 6 rotated slowly. Everything was as it should be.
Enya flipped a switch and felt the cryo-sleep take over. She hated this. In cryo-sleep your body was pretty much stuck in one position, even if you were fully awake. Most people didn't dream in cryo either, but Enya did. Only her dreams were real.
Her eyelids grew heavy and covered the soft burgundy irises. Blackness enveloped her, accompanied by unconsciousness. But it didn't last long, it never did.
Eithne had fallen asleep, she could sense that her sister was worried about her. It had been like that since they were children, sensing each others emotions, feeling each others pain. It seemed that no matter the distance between them, their connection remained strong.
Enya seemed close enough to reach out and touch, and without realizing it Eithne did just that. She reached out into the coldness of her cell and awoke when she realized she had touched someone.
"Pardon me." It was the Purifier, he was setting down a tray beside her flat metal cot. "I didn't mean to wake you, I brought you something to eat."
"And what does a Necromonger eat?" Eithne said as she straightened herself up.
"Well, not exactly eat per say." His gloved hand reached down for the glass of water and with his other hand he picked up what looked like medicine tablets.
"It will help you keep your strength," he said. As he handed her the tablets she noticed his fingers were covered in strange metal jewelry.
"What are those?" Her curiosity peaked. She swallowed the pills and drank the water he had given her.
"They serve many purposes...." he said looking down at them himself. "I am the Purifier. I am responsible for purifying every new necromonger convert, these help me to do just that."
"And how do you... purify them?" She asked even though she was scared of the answer.
"One pain lessens another All new converts learn this." His dark eyes ran across her hair then back to her eyes. "Your hair...why does it glow like that?" he asked referring to the shimmering reds and golds that danced between her strands in the darkness.
"I am an elemental. We all have ...qualities about us."
"Its truly fas...." he was cut off by the cell door opening.
"Purifier, we have reached the Fleet. The Lord Marshal wishes her to be brought before him at once." said the man who had entered.
The Purifier nodded and walked behind the guard, who then entered and forced Eithne to her feet.
"On your feet, breeder." he barked at Eithne.
She rose slowly and was led back down through a hallway, into a room where the floor was a transparent blue. The frigate swayed sharply as Eithne looked down and saw a sort of throne room under her, complete with many subjects standing at perfect attention as though they awaited her arrival.
The frigate halted and hovered in place as it drew in the air around it. With a swoosh The Purifier, Eithne, and the rest of her guards dropped the few feet down to the throne room floor, as she hit her knees, she looked up to see the frigate tumbling upwards, back through the gap in the archway above. Huge statues that seemed to be testaments to pain lumbered above her.
The man on the throne was immediately on his feet. "And who is this?" he asked, his voice teetering on maniacal.
"The Elemental, you sent for, Lord Marshal." Irgun answered in a low inhuman voice.
"I sent for the Air Elemental, Aereon." The Lord Marshal rounded on Irgun, his eyes ablaze with discontent. "Tell me Irgun, does she look like an Air Elemental?"
"I'm half Air, actually....." Eithne spoke up, "Half Air...Half Fire."
"She was in the location you said she would be in My Lord." Irgun answered, his eyes constantly focused forward.
The Lord Marshal had stopped listening to Irgun. His eyes were back on Eithne,
"And what is your name, girl?" Though he was yards away from her, when he finished his sentence he was standing right beside her, for a second seeming to be in two places at once.
"My name is Eithne," She answered. "I am the niece of the Elemental you were seeking. I happened to be working in her study when I was... taken."
"Aereon's niece?" The Lord Marshal smiled. "Perhaps this is not such a waste after all." He grabbed her by the lower arm and dragged her with him to a nearby side room speaking as he went. "Tell me, Eithne, do you know much about Necromongers?" he asked, although it was he didn't wait for the answer, instead he began a speech about their great army, how when they purified worlds and left no survivors, taking all the ones who would convert and leaving the rest behind to 'fall forever.'
"A true force to be reckoned with, wouldn't you say?" he stopped finally as they came to a table which seemed to hold black water. The Lord Marshal let go of Eithne's arm and raised his hand in motion, the table sprang into life, revealing planets in the Tangiers system. Eithne knew immediately because she saw Argos 5's dual moons twisting in their abnormal pattern.
"Ah, I see you recognized this system." The Lord Marshal said as he saw the sparkle of recognition in her face.
"I once lived on Argos 5, but that was a long time ago." she said, half remembering her mother and father. How they had moved there to escape the persecution on their home world...how they had been murdered there as she and her sister slept in the next room.
"I see." Lord Marshal said as he rounded the table and stared straight into her eyes. "Taking in to account that it was a long time ago. How would an elemental, such as your self, rate a planet like this one's chance for survival...against an attack?"
"What are you talking about?" Eithne asked, her eyes growing wider as the Lord Marshal's words began to sink in.
"You're an Elemental....rate our chance of success."
"You can't be serious, there're people there....families....."
"Rate our chance of success....." The Lord Marshal repeated.
"Argos 5 is a small planet..." she stammered. "It...It has no defenses."
"Rate our chance of success." This time it wasn't a request, but a demand.
"I....I...." Eithne searched to find the words in her throat.
"RATE OUR CHANCE OF SUCCESS!!!" His voice boomed throughout the hall, a silence, that would be thought impossible, followed.
"A hundred percent........." she said softly, as tears began to fall from her wide eyes.
The roar that rose from the Necromonger guards at her words was deafening.
"I like those odds, " Lord Marshal said, and grinned once more. "Take her back to her cell." he said to Irgun, then turning back to Eithne he added, "Don't worry, I will call for you when we reach Argos 5."
As Eithne was being dragged away The Lord Marshal walked over to The Purifier.
"Yes My Lord?" He asked looking up into his Lord Marshal's face.
"I want her converted." Lord Marshal said, as he watched Eithne being led back to her cell. "Purify her."
"Converts must first willingly go down on their knees and ask, you know this..." The Purifier said, shaking his head, as he followed Lord Marshals eyes to the girl.
"She'll ask alright," There was a sinister smirk in the Lord Marshal's voice. "By the time we're done with her....she'll beg."
From her twin's eyes, Enya could see everything that was happening to her. She watched like a helpless spectator, trapped in Eithne's mid, as the Lord Marshal dragged her to a table. She listened as the silver model of her old home floated out of the blackish waster.
Enya's eyes widened. She recalled the morning when she and Eithne woke up and ran into their parents' bedroom. The moment they stepped through the door, they knew something wasn't right. The air had been cold and the room had an eerie feel to it, like a graveyard at midnight. Both twins had spent the day crying over the bodies of their parents, each vowing revenge in a different way. That had been the last time Enya had cried.
Returning her attention to the scene that played before her, Enya heard the Lord Marshal demand something. He repeated it but this time it was a shout that echoed through the room and Enya caught every word of it. He wanted to know what the odds were that he would be able to conquer the defenseless Argos 5.
Enya felt her sister's pain as clearly as a knife to the heart. Eithne was reluctant to give the death sentence to the little planet. Although Enya's home was now The Lunette, she still felt a little sorrow, knowing the planet where she vowed a life of justice was ill fated.
Eithne sat crying, back home in her Aunt's house this war had seemed far away, but here in the coldness of her cell, the harsh reality of the Necromonger campaign was crashing down around her.
The Purifier entered, in full dress uniform, Eithne forcefully wiped away her tears, not wanting him to see them.
"Come to feed me again?" she said hoping her voice didn't sound too weak.
"I have come to bring you good news." he said, and once again was transfixed by the shimmering of her warm colored hair.
"Your Lord Marshal has decided not to attack Argos 5?"
"No," he answered, squatting down to look her in the eyes. His eyes were dark yet held an intensity she found she couldn't turn her gaze from. "The people of Argos 5 shall be cleansed."
"The people of Argos 5 shall be dead." she stated.
The Purifier shut his eyes briefly and looked at the table beside him, anything to keep himself from looking at her hair.
"Death is only a doorway," he continued once he had found the words..."A doorway to another verse, a glorious place, where life is eternal."
"Listen to yourself," Eithne pleaded. "You're killing people so they'll live?"
"It was hard for me to accept as well, but you must understand.." The Purifier's voice was intense, she almost found herself believing him. "We are only taking them to The Threshold.
The cleansing of this Verse assures that the Underverse will grow and prosper. That is our goal....That is why we serve Lord Marshal. He has seen the Underverse. He is the Holy Half-Dead."
"He's 'The Holy Half-Dead' you're 'The Purifier', do you even have a name...or did they take that away from you too?"
The Purifier's mouth pursed. He made to say something else, but before he could a Necromonger guard entered the room.
"We have arrived." the guard ordered. "Bring the girl, The Lord Marshal is waiting."
As Eithne and The Purifier approached Lord Marshal, his back was facing them, but before they reached his side, he was already aware of their presence.
"Come, there's something I want you to see...." He led them out onto a sort of balcony. Their ship overlooking the landscape of Argos 5, its landscape now holding large Necromonger Conquest Monuments in its crust.
Eithne could hear the screams of the scared masses below her, as Necromonger troops rallied on the ground. She looked to The Purifier and was struck by his calmness.
"Take a final look..." The Lord Marshal said to her, then rounded back into the ship. Eithne stood staring at the landscape, until The Purifier took her hand....
"Come inside, the cleansing will soon began...."
Eithne allowed herself to be led away, as the balcony folded over on top of itself as they reentered the ship.
The Lord Marshal's hand swayed heavy over a lever, which looked like a man with a steel rod through his head.
"I hope you've said your farewells." he said as he forced the lever down.
The people of Argos 5 looked up to its sky, and saw the finality of their doom.
Though the exterior of the Basillica protected them from the blast outside, nothing protected Eithne from the wave of pain and despair that washed over her as the people of Argos 5 were destroyed. The only thing that kept her on her feet was the fact that The Purifier was still holding her hand, squeezing it as if to show he felt it too.
Pain. Desperation. Despair. Fear. These were the things that took over Enya. She had watched the vague image of a planet dying and she felt their suffering, and that of her sister.
Her eyes popped open and she sat up in her chair. All around her, her crew was waking from cryo-sleep. Slightly groggy and confused. Whenever you went into cryo and then awoke it was like no time had passed, even if it had been a week, a month, or a year.
Enya looked to the controls and began to type rapidly. Her experienced fingers flew across the keys and flipped switches at an alarming rate. An image of UV 6 popped up in front of the actual planet which was just outside the window.
The pint size replica of the icy planet turned while Enya scanned the surface. There had to be a place where Riddick was hiding. She zoomed in on sections of the planet which were ideal for the escaped con. A smile played across her lips when she found it. It was a field of fissures with a large cave-like structure. It was perfect for anyone who didn't want guests.
"Murphy," Enya called from her seat as she studied the lay of the land. "Go prep a skiff." The man who was just getting out of his chair nodded before running off down a hall. "Trift, I'll need the diamonds."
"I'm on it, Cap," the man called as he headed out.
"The diamonds?" Johnson, Enya's second-in-command joined her side and looked over the icy fields. "You only use the diamonds on really bad cons."
"This is one of those really bad cons," said Enya as she continued to look at the fissures.
"I've got it," Trift called as he ran into the room. He carried what looked like a white one-piece swim suit which glittered in the light.
Enya took it from him and ran hand over the crushed diamonds. It was hard as a rock but no heavier than chain mail. She quickly put it on and pulled her red bell-sleeved shirt and black pants on over it. Anyone who looked at her wouldn't guess that she was wearing diamond undergarments.
She hit the button for the intercom. "Murph, is the skiff ready?"
"Just about," the voice crackled in response.
A red light flashed on the console and a small beep alerted Enya to an incoming call. She went over and flipped a few switches before hitting a green button. A loud raspy voice sounded from the speaker, filling the room.
"What the hell do you think you're doing," roared the angry voice.
Enya raised her eyebrows. She turned to Johnson and nodded, the young man quickly began to type. "This is the captain of The Lunette," Enya said.
"It's a woman," the raspy voice said to someone on his end of the connection.
Johnson tapped his captain and pointed to the screen. On one side was an image of a small skiff in the ice planet's orbit. Enya suppressed a laugh as she shook her head. It was a merc all right but if he thought he'd catch Richard B. Riddick with a skiff, he was an idiot.
The raspy voice filled the room again. "This is my bounty so back off!"
Enya clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter. Who was this guy who was piloting a skiff and telling her, with her armed ship, to back off.
"What's your name, Cowboy?"
"Toombs," the voice said, now full of arrogance. "And this bounty is mine!"
"Like hell it is." Enya's temper flared and her golden and red hair seemed to shine a little brighter. "You've got what, three men with you? You must be the fuckin' best merc there is if you're taking three men to catch Riddick."
There was laughing. "You bet your sweet little ass. Now, I'll talk to you again later… when I'm counting my money." The line went dead.
"That's even if you make it back," she whispered to the air.
A hour passed and Enya had been monitoring the ice planet for any signs of Toombs' skiff. So far there had been nothing but she was confident that something would happen soon. And it did.
On the screen showing images of the planet's surface, a skiff could be seen shooting out of the atmosphere. It was definitely Toombs' skiff, heading away from UV 6 and into space.
Enya jumped up and hit the button next to the door. "Johnson," she said as the metal door slid open. "Send that skiff a transmission. If anyone replies, let me know. I'll be in the docking bay."
Her brown leather work boots clunked, sending echoes down the metal halls of The Lunette. Enya was in a full out sprint, heading for the docking bay. She hit the button outside the door and waited impatiently as the door slid open.
"Murphy," she shouted as she stepped into the room. "I need that skiff."
The man's scruffy head poked out from behind one of the little ships. "Its ready for you. Purring like kitten, too."
Enya ran into the skiff and threw herself into the pilot's seat while Murphy head to the door. As he pushed the button for the door to open Johnson's voice came over the loud speaker.
"Captain," he called. "There was no response."
"Perfect," Enya purred. She was hoping there wouldn't be a response to the transmission she had sent out.
Murphy closed the docking bay door while Enya closed the ramp for her skiff. She did a quick systems check, all were go, and she watched as the outside doors opened slowly.
Anything that wasn't bolted down was sucked out into deep space. Enya lifted the skiff off the ground flew towards the opening doors. With amazing skill she had maneuvered into the void.
Here I come Toombs, she thought as turned the small craft in the direction of UV 6.
The snow swirled around as the engines of the skiff blew it off the ground. The ship was taken care of to the point where it was almost silent. Toombs barely heard it as he stood up, holding his arm.
With the flip of a switch, Enya had put the skiff into to hover mode. She got up from her seat and went to the hatch door on the side. It slid open and she leaned casually against the frame.
"So," she said drawing the word out as she looked at the back of a merc. "How goes the money counting?"
Toombs spun around and was about to glower at her but instead his jaw dropped. His eyes roamed over the girl who stood in front of him. She had a lean, athletic build and pretty face. Her eyes were the color of red wine and her close-cropped, flame colored hair seemed to glow with a faint light. She was gorgeous.
Enya gave Toombs a haughty smile as his eyes roamed over her shapely body. "You know if you make a clone it'll last longer."
He snapped back to attention and glared at her. "What are you doing down here," he asked. "Shouldn't you be chasing after the payday?"
"Isn't it obvious that I'm saving you?" Enya said looking at his curly light brown hair and scruffy sideburns which were inches away from the corners of his mouth. He also had some stubble, though no where near as long as his sideburns or the strip of hair which stretched from under his lips to under his chin. He's somewhat attractive… in a merc kind of way.
He seemed surprised with Enya's answer. "Save me," he asked with his slightly raspy voice.
Crouching down, Enya held her hand out to him, her bell sleeves billowing in the wind. Toombs looked at her hand for a moment before turning his suspicious eyes to Enya's face. She noticed he had a scar at the corner of his left eye which looked something like a deformed star.
Toombs took her hand, cautiously and Enya helped into the skiff. Once he was in she closed the hatch door and turned to face him. Toombs' eyes were wandering over her body again.
Enya put a hand on her hip and arched her eyebrows. "Like what you see," she asked.
His blue eyes met hers and he grinned. "Yeah, actually I do," he said as he quickly reached an arm out and grabbed Enya, pulling her closer with his hand on her backside.
Enya didn't struggle. She kind of liked being that close to someone, even if she didn't like being forced into things. It had been a long time since she had gotten close to any man. As captain, Enya kept a very strict, friends-only policy with her crew and as a merc she didn't meet the nicest of men. In fact she often thought she'd rather die than get close to a convict.
"What's a pretty girl like you doing in a line of work like this," he asked as he gave her backside a little squeeze. His face fell at the rock hard feeling of her derriere. "What the fuck is that, a chastity belt?"
Enya smirked and moved closer, purposely rubbing against his leg. "Wouldn't you like to know," she whispered seductively, placing one hand one his shoulder and the other on the back of his neck.
She leaned closer towards Toombs and could feel his ragged breathing. Enya pressed her body against his and moved a little closer towards his ear. "Now, would you mind taking your hands off me so I can pilot this bird," she whispered seductively alluringly.
Toombs reluctantly let her go and Enya stepped back. "Thanks," she said pinching his cheek. "You're a sweetheart." Her smile was crafty.
Enya took the pilot's seat and buckled in, Toombs took the one behind her and did the same. "So," she said as she took the skiff out of hover mode. "Where'd our little friend go?"
Toombs didn't answer. Enya turned her seat to face him. He was like a clam, not opening up to breathe a word about Riddick's whereabouts. Enya could calculate where he had gone but it would be so much more fun to do it this way.
"Look," she said angrily. "I just saved your ass so you owe me." He looked up at her but didn't say a word. "Here's the deal, pal. You and I partner up to catch Riddick or I throw you out of my skiff and let you freeze to death."
Glowering, Toombs weighed his options. "Hellion Prime," he said in a defeated tone which suggested he was child whose was being forced to share a new toy.
Enya smiled and turned back to the controls. She easily maneuvered the skiff through the maze of rocks before they burst out into the open space of UV 6. She hit the button to send a transmission back to The Lunette.
"Johnson," she said into the speaker. "I'm heading straight to Hellion Prime."
Her first-mate's voice came back to her and asked, "Do you want me to follow in The Lunette?"
"No," she almost shouted. "Johnson, you know those intuitive feelings I get?"
"Yeah," he answered warily.
"Well this is one of them. Stay far away from Hellion Prime." Enya paused. "And take care of the boys for me. There's no telling what kind of trouble they'll get into."
"Yes, Captain. Anything else," the young man asked.
"Just one. Remember that if anything happens to my baby I'll tear your fuckin' head off." Her voice was dangerously calm. "Oh, and before you ask, I don't know when I'll be coming back."
She ended the transmission and began to hit more switches. Again, Enya's finger's flew across the control panel as she plotted her course and prepped the skiff for exiting the atmosphere.
Her hands gripped the joy stick and she began to steer the skiff. "Hold onto your sideburns, it's going to be a bumpy ride," she yelled at Toombs.
The skiff shot off like a rocket and hurtled itself into the atmosphere of UV 6. Everything rumbled and the engines roared loudly. Enya laughed in delight from the thrill of it all.
"Do you always pilot like this," Toombs shouted over the.
Enya grinned at him. "Just wait until we land!"
Sorry if there are any typos but I got lazy. Bad writer! Naughty, bad, awful girl!