"Just dandy." Shaen repeated softly before sitting down in the captain's chair and resting her head against the smooth metal of the control deck. Her mind was swimming with everything that had happened in the short amount of time that she'd known Jack and Riddick. It made her feel sick to her stomach and she suppressed the urge to break down again. Shaen felt her barriers rising back up and getting dusted off.
Shaen had gotten so lost in trying to sort things out that she jumped at the light touch on her shoulder and her head flew up. She looked to her left to see Jack's hand resting on her shoulder. Shaen moved her shoulder roughly, shaking Jack's hand away.
"Are you okay?" Jack asked. She'd seen the way that Shaen had been when they'd killed Mercuri.
"I'm fine." Shane said. Although she was lying through her teeth, it didn't really show. She stood up and left into a different part of the ship.
Jack sighed and walked over to Riddick, who'd been standing in the doorway. She gently rested her head on his chest and sighed. "She's so…stubborn."
"Remind you of someone?" Riddick asked, wrapping one arm around her waist and using his free hand to stroke her hair.
"Yeah. She's almost as stubborn as you." Jack said with a smirk. She lifted her head up and looked at Riddick with mischief in her eyes.
"I was actually speaking about you." Riddick joked. He poked Jack's forehead lightly and smirked. His face suddenly turned serious when a little red light went off in the hallway behind them.
"Ooh. Red flashing lights. Shall we?" Jack asked and gestured down the hallway.
Riddick rolled his eyes at her lack of concern but then noted that he didn't feel very concerned either. "If I have to…I guess." He said playfully before following Jack down the hall.
The flashing red light came from a small panel to the left of the doors to the Gym. It signaled that a highly dangerous training process was underway and that under no circumstances should you enter the room. Jack looked at the display panel before clicking the 'view' button. It brought up the information on the training course and the current status of the individual undergoing the process. Jack's and Riddick's eyes scanned the information and they roughly concluded that Shaen was doing something to hone her fighting abilities.
"I can't see anything." Jack complained, looking through the big window that allowed others to watch the training. It was pitch black in the gym but yet there were sounds of fighting. Suddenly a dark liquid splattered against the window, causing Jack to jump. She was always tense in situations that involved complete darkness and dark fluids. It reminded her of the first time she'd seen Riddick on that dreaded planet, T2. Jack was about to ask Riddick what he could see when something flew into the glass and slid to the ground. Seconds later the computerized voice announced that the training had been failed. The lights came back on in the Gym and there lay Shaen, in the middle of a massive pool of blood. Bodies of things that couldn't be described in words littered the floor and one of them stood immobilized over Shaen. Before either the stunned Jack or the amused Riddick could move, Shaen's foot came up and kicked the…thing…into the wall.
"Training complete." She muttered before pulling herself up and heading for the door. Once outside, the gym locked itself down and tiny robots came out to clean and repair the Gym as well as dispose of the bodies of the things. Shaen on the other hand walked right past Jack and Riddick, as if she hadn't seen them, and into the bathroom. Before she could get the medical kit back out, her companions were standing in the doorway.
"Are you okay?" Jack asked, looking at the much smaller and younger girl for an explanation.
"Just Dandy." Shaen responded almost mechanically. She grabbed a needle and the stitching thread out of the kit and turned the shower on, letting the water turn frigidly cold before running her arms underneath it. This action exposed many deep wounds littered about her forearms.
"Let me help you with that." Jack offered. She went to take the needle from Shaen, who had already threaded it and was starting to try and stitch herself up. Shaen jerked the needle, and her arm, away from Jack.
"I'm fine. I can do it by myself." She said through gritted teeth.
"No you can't. You'll just damage your arm more if you try." Riddick finally spoke. He moved over to the small girl and grabbed her wrist. With his other hand, he took the needle from her and handed it to Jack before holding Shaen's arms in place.
"I…can…do…it…my…SELF." Shaen said, struggling against Riddick. She finally wrenched one of her wet wrists out of his grip and snatched the needle from Jack, who'd been half way through sticking it into her arm. The sudden jerk caused Shaen to rip her own skin and drop the needle, which hung about a foot below her arm on the thread. Riddick grabbed her other hand while Jack continued sewing her up. After a few more flesh rippings, Shaen finally peacefully allowed them to sew her up.
"See? It works so much better and goes so much faster when you're not intent on ripping your flesh off." Riddick said sarcastically. He got a glare that would strike your mother dead from Shaen who violently tried once again to tear her arms away from him. Jack tied the thread and cut the needle off before Riddick finally let go.
Shaen said nothing but proceeded to the gym once again. She was about to open the door and start the course again when Riddick stepped in front of her. He put an arm on the doorway, blocking her entry.
"Get out of my way." Shaen said coldly. She had started to develop Riddick's original attitude. Cold, complacent, seemingly uncaring, and stubborn as hell.
"No. You're not going back in there." Riddick said, backing the girl away from the door way.
"Try and stop me." Shaen growled. She quickly skittered under Riddick's arm and into the gym where she ordered the computer to initiate course #4571. Riddick stepped into the Gym just as the door sealed itself and the computer released the…things… that Shaen had been fighting earlier. "Damn it Riddick! You're not supposed to be here!" She screamed just before the lights went out.
One of Riddick's hands quickly pulled down his goggles, allowing his shined vision to activate. (For lack of a better word). The room radiated the same color purple and Shane's small frame radiated with blues and red handprints from where he'd been holding her arms down only ten minutes earlier. He watched as the…things…came towards her, a few of them started to attack her but then he realized what they resembled. The entire sequence that Shaen had been throwing herself into was an almost exact replica of what must've happened in the room shortly before Mercuri died. At first, Riddick contemplated fighting the replica guards but he soon realized two things. One being that the bots weren't interested in him, only in Shaen and the wounded figure she was fighting so hard to protect. And the second being that if he interfered, Shaen would never realize that she couldn't have saved Mercuri, no matter how hard she'd tried.
Her way of coping.
She's so stupid.
Shut up.
Make me. You know I'm right.
Look, first off shut up and second off, let her deal with it her own way.
Why?
She'll realize that it's not her fault. One less thing to worry about later on.
True…but she's still stupid.
Shut up.
I'm just voicing what you refuse to acknowledge that you think.
That doesn't even make sense.
Riddick's argument with himself was cut short by the scream of death coming from the Mercuri bot and the shriek of rage from Shaen. He watched in amusement as the smaller girl started recklessly tearing the bots limb from limb. The computer shut down the system and the lights returned to their normal dimness. Riddick left his goggles around his neck and walked over to Shaen. He bent down to inspect the slashes that Shaen had put into the bots and then asked,
"What kind of shiv are you using?" He asked. The rips in the bodies didn't look like they'd been made by any kind of Shiv that Riddick had seen…or made.
"I don't use shivs." Shaen said, pushing the button the made the cleaning bots come out.
"Don't lie." Riddick said, half amused but kind of pissed that this teenager had the audacity to lie to him. He noted in his mind that she reminded him of a younger female version of himself.
"I'm not. I use these." She said and held up her blood covered hands. All round her the cleaning bots were hard at work. Two of them came over and pulled the body away from Riddick, who had just stood up, perplexed.
"You mean to tell me that you ripped these things open with your hands?" He asked, clearly disbelieving.
"No. I mean to tell you that I ripped those things apart with these." She said and flicked the blood off of her hands. She cracked the top knuckle on each finger and claws replaced her nails. "Quite sharp. Quite painful." She said, looking at them before cracking her bottom knuckle and popping them back in. "Not quite sure if they're a side effect of one of my experiments or just a side effect of being born a hybrid. Unlike my vision, which is the natural equivalent of your shined eyes."
Riddick watched in slight disgust as Shaen popped her 'claws' out and back in. "That's what you fight with?" He asked, making a mental note to teach her to fight with a shiv.
"Yeah."
Just then the computer unlocked the Gym and Jack entered. She had a small smile on her face.
"That's crazy." She said and motioned to Shaen's hands. "I saw and heard it all out there. Can you really see like Big Bad over here?" She asked and gestured to Riddick.
"Yeah. Only I was born able to do it." Shaen said.
"How many days until we get to Khrebet?" Riddick asked, suddenly changing the topic. He'd gotten tired of the topic and was rather looking forward to either teaching Shaen to fight with a shiv or throwing her into a cryo locker for awhile and THEN teaching her to fight with a shiv.
"About two months. Why? Bored of the ship already? I've got cryo lockers." Shaen said, shuddering as she said cryo lockers. Jack's eyes lit up a bit dismally, for she was addicted to cryo-sleep. For her, it was a momentary escape from the harsh world of reality.
"Where?" Riddick asked, starting towards the door for the gym. He left and started towards the control room.
"Wrong way." Shane's voice said from the opposite end of the hallway. She walked into a small room whose furnishings were two cryo lockers and a chair that was capable of cryo-sleep, but hadn't been used ever. Jack's slender pale hands ran over the chair and her eyes darted from Riddick to the cryo lockers.
"Riddick…I think it's a good idea for us to go into cryo…after all it's going to be about two moths before we reach the planet." Jack said.
Riddick nodded and said, "Alright, you and the kid go into cryo, I'll keep the ship running."
"I think not. You and Jack can go into cryo. I'm not a big fan of it." Shaen interjected. She opened the two lockers and ushered Jack into one.
"Absolutly not. You and Jack are going into cryo." Riddick stated
"No. I won't" Shaen told him pointedly, she rigged up Jack's cryo tubes and set the timer for her tube before closing it. all she had to do was push the 'initate' button.
"Stop being so stubborn."Riddick said.
"You first." Shaen tossed back. "I refuse to go into cryo."
Riddick finally had enough and was about to toss the annoyingly stubborn child into the cryo locker when she said something that made sense to him and was shockingly a valid point.
"I can't go into cryo. What if something happened to the ship? You don't know how to fix it…or run it. Besides, I've had bad experiences with cryo sleep." She pushed the blinking button on Jack's tube and the cryo fluid started pumping into her. Jack was asleep within moments with a small smile upon her face.
"Fine." Riddick finally gave in. He never actually slept while under cryo so it didn't really affect him much. But Shaen did have a valid point, which made him be the one to take the tube. Without another word, he stepped into the tube, hooked up his riggings and waited for her to close the door and start it. Shaen smiled a little bit but it was soon replaced by Riddick going half conscious as the fluid pumped into him.
"Nighty night." Shaen said shortly before leaving the room. Red lights bounced off of the walls in the hallway not five minutes later, a sure sign that Shaen was yet gain, back in the gym.