A/N: I did it! I've successfully raised this fanfiction from the grave and made it work. Hopefully it will go along a little faster now. I'm trying to get my fictions done so I can primarily work on one. Especially since that is what I usually do. I hope you can forgive me and the rudely drawn out update block.I hope you keep reviewing.
Chapter Six: Deceit
"Hassan!" Kyra yelled out as Riddick shut the trap door closed above their heads. The light from the few candles that were lit in her room was shut from view and they were both dumped into darkness. His hand instinctively to his goggle's strap and pulled them down form his eyes to he could make out the shape of the rocks without the obstruction. He quickly snapped his head to glare down at Kyra through the now encompassing black shadows.
"You gone crazy on me, kid? Shut it!" he hissed and turned his attention at the trap door above their heads. He scratched and racked his fingertips along the surface of the door and finally gripped a handle and pulled over the heavy wooden lock of the trap door. If the necros found the door, he wanted to make sure that they both had enough time to get a good amount of distance between them and that door.
"Riddick..." Kyra glanced worriedly at the man gripping the handle of the lock. He didn't respond to her as he slowly put his ear to the door and tried to hear anything entering or leaving the room.
"Riddick?"
Again he stood still and tried to ignore her voice and strained to concentrate.
"Damn it Riddick! What the Hell is going on up there? I can't hear anything," she hissed, still trying to stay as quiet as she could.
Riddick squinted against her tone of voice. He tried to focus on the door despite Kyra's numerous questions behind his back. He turned to her and grabbed her arm in a harsh, but gentle grip, "Look, I need to concentrate on this! I can't hear anything either. So please... shut it!"
She gave him a huge grimace which she was sure he saw through the dark with his shined eyes. Suddenly both of their heads turned to the ceiling as heavy footsteps walked straight toward the trap door and stopped right above it. Her breath slowly seeped from her lips and she barely saw the outline of his head turn toward her. His arm tightened around her arm only a little as he tried to tell her to head down the hidden passage way. He was telling her to lead the way. She turned her head toward the door again and shook her head.
'I'm not leaving him behind,' she mouthed to him. He tried his best to stare her down, but he knew it wouldn't work on her for two main reasons. One the only thing that she would be able to see would be two silver orbs sitting ahead on her. And two... she stood firm and stubborn. She did what she felt she needed to do.
That was until now.
Riddick quickly walked the few steps to her and leaned his lips down to where they were a whisper away from her ear and neck. He heard her take a sharp in take of air when he took his hand off of her arm and placed it on her shoulder.
"Would you rather we all die?" he whispered to her in his deep, raspy voice. One that she hadn't heard in years, and never thought she would hear again. All she could remember from the last time was the few moments after he had killed Johns on T2. The words always repeated in her head.
'Don't you cry for Johns... Don't you dare...'
She never understood until Imam had told her the truth. Riddick had told the holy man that he had killed Johns after he had 'advised' to have Riddick kill her and drag her behind the group. He had saved her. And he will again. She closed her eyes and nodded after her hesitation. She heard him take an intake of breath to talk to her again, she might as well have jumped the gun and fell in line. As far as he knew no shots were fired and Hassan was still alive. Maybe unconscious, but alive. Maybe if he just stayed down...
A memory quickly came back to her, 'If she had only stayed down... she would still be here. Why didn't she just stay down?'
She turned in the small amount of space that she had to move in between the wall and Riddick. She could feel his hand linger on her shoulder and swept down her back as she began to lead Riddick down the small tunnel. She was trying to head to the center of the building. There she could reload on ammo and give those necromongers a piece of her mind. She stopped him a couple of times when she heard hushed whispering and grunting of the necromongers above them, but quickly continued. Riddick followed, watching their back closely in case the enemy did happen to find the trap door in their quarters.
Kyra soon stopped again and turned toward the direction she heard Riddick's deep breaths coming from, "I would put your goggles on."
He paused, but slid them on right before he saw a large light radiate from the rocks. Kyra pushed the portion of the rock to the side and Riddick found a small arsenal of weapons at their disposal. It looked like she had installed a small case of weapons with a built in light in an emergency. She thought ahead, and had instinct he never really gave her credit for. There was a lot that he never gave her credit for.
She let her eyes slowly adjust to the light before she ran over her choice of weapons. A small predator like smile lit her face as she picked up a small pulse gun that packs a punch and carefully placed it in one of her empty holsters. She also took a couple of shivs and put one on each hip. She turned to Riddick and he began to look at his selection. He took a couple fo pulse guns as well, but nothing could compare to his favorite weapon. Of course he took a couple of shivs and checked their weight before putting them on his back on a holder that he had found in Kyra's room.
"I thought you might have liked them," she looked at the sharped metal of his back, "They cost a pretty penny."
"I bet," he said and watched as she closed the rock formation. As she turned around he noticed the two places on her back for more guns. He quickly put the pulse guns onto the pockets on her back. She shrugged at the extra weight and began to walk along the path in darkness once again, "You know your way in the dark."
"I've lived in it for five years now," she said harshly, "I learn to adapt."
"Imam teach you that? He was always talking about finding your light in the dark, or some shit like that."
"No," she snapped the gun's pulsing piece back into the gun and looked at him, "I had to learn that myself, Riddick. Much like everything else."
"Don't start on that guilt trip with me. You know that doesn't work on me at all," he walked toward her again and almost seemed to be pushing her back and slowly brought down his goggles to around his neck, "You got to have emotions to have guilt. You know, a conscious."
"Yeah, one of my big mistakes, huh?" she looked at the floor instead of his silver orbs that he just uncovered again, "I always though you had one."
'So did I,' he thought to himself, 'You and Carolyn found it and brought it out.'
"They're after you, you know?" he quickly changed the subject and pulled on the blade carriers on his back, "They'll kill you, they don't have a problem with it either. They want you dead, Jack."
"I'm not scared about that. About death," she turned and began to walk down the walkway again, "It's just another step in life we all must take." She stopped a little, hesitating on her next step, "Imam taught me that. I'm not scared."
"Maybe I am," he grumbled to himself and began to jogged slowly after her. It was true, he was scared. Richard B. Riddick was scared about losing the young girl that he saved on that planet five years ago. The same girl he left behind with a Holy Man to protect her from the mercs... and from himself. And now after finding her, he was afraid to loose her. She was grown up, able to take care of herself. She wasn't the same person, the same scraggly teenage girl he left behind. She was a young woman that knew what she had to do and knew what she wanted. And that wasn't for him to protect her, no matter how much he wanted it to be true. He was scared.
"Did you say something?" she asked over her shoulder.
"Nothing I'm sure you would be concerned about."
They came up to another door and Kyra peeked out, barely able to see, "It's empty, but I hear some scuffling in other rooms."
"Do you think Logan is an upstanding character?" Riddick asked as they came out from the floor. Kyra looked down at him as he pulled himself from the floor. The question seemed out of the blue.
"I don't think much of her, why?" she checked her gun once again and noticed that Riddick hadn't put on his goggles. It was dark in the room, small candles were still burning, but it wasn't the light that she was used to down here.
"She doesn't seem trustworthy is all," he nodded to the door and the two made their way out to the hall where they could see a few necromongers marching the other way.
"What?" she whispered and looked at him incredulously, "And Big Bad Richard Riddick is?"
"I am when it concerns you," he grumbled low in his chest and put his goggles on once seeing the rooms ahead of them were lighter.
"I know,"she whispered and let a small, weak smile cross her features and looked at him. She nodded at his surprised face, "You always were. That's why I hated it when you left. You were doing it for me, and I knew. And I hated it. I hated myself for it."
He began to take a breath to tell her something when an energy blast shot between them. Riddick and Kyra turned to see a half a dozen necromongers running toward them. Riddick gripped one of the pulse guns he grabbed and turned down toward her.
"We'll talk about this later," he growled.
Kyra nodded reluctantly and she pulled out her gun without warning, shooting down the first line of necromongers in sight. Riddick grabbed the guns from Kyra's back and shot a few down until they got close enough to use his skills. As soon as he could he dropped the guns and brought out the shivs from the arsenal. He slashed down the three closest necromongers and moved on to the next bunch.
From his side he heard Kyra fighting with her own shiv, a little smaller than his own. He was prepared to see her used to pulse guns and maybe artillery, but her skill in shivs were better than he would have ever expected from her. He was astounded as she kicked her leg up and found a small double blade emerge from her heel, plunging it into the necromonger's eye and cut the other one across from him down the chest. Another surprise, her pain from the beating, seemed almost gone. As if it was never there. She could hide it well. He turned back to his won group of up coming necromongers until he heard her gasp. He finished his last necro and looked toward her. He saw her with a new fire in her eyes as she killed two necros with one swift use of her shivs. As she stood up he looked at her face to find a long scratch on the left of her face. She rubbed off some of the blood with her hand and smirked at him.
He looked to his side to see a necro taking aim at her. Riddick took off running and tackled her to the ground. They both rolled to the side of the room and inside a crater. Riddick looked down at her below his body and quickly made a run for any injuries.
She began to push at him, "Comfortable Riddick?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing," he looked over the side of the crater to see a few more necros file in and take a quick scan around the room.
"Riddick?"
"Shh!" he put out his hand to cover her mouth. He watched as the baffled necros walked from the room. He took a breath and waited until their footsteps faded, 'Not very bright ones, these necromongers.'
"Riddick?" Kyra's muffled question came from under his hand. He noticed how soft they were despite the fact of where she was living at the time. He looked down and felt his lower body overlapping over hers. He smirked and noticed her uncomfortable movements under him.
"Are you in a hurry?"
"Particularly... I would like to get back to Hassan."
"Of course," he pushed off of the ground and made sure they really were alone and void of necromongers, "I think they left."
"Why? I'm not dead yet?" she brushed off some of the dust from her arms and legs.
"They had a fucking time limit? I don't know," he took off his goggles for a few seconds to check the surrounding area and put them back on, "They aren't here now."
"Let's get back to the main building then. Let's see the damage," she put her shivs back on her hips and walked out the room and toward the building.
They were the first to arrive in the building and Jack just started to pace and mumble to herself. Riddick sat on the chair closest to the table and put his feet up. He crossed his arms over his chest and watched her nervously create a new dent in the ground.
"What was the last thing I said to you before I left you and Imam?" his voice boomed and she was dragged back to reality.
"What?"
"The last thing I said to you, before I left you..."
She began to laugh a little to herself, "How could I ever forget my hero's last words before he left me? You told me never to hate myself. 'I had way too much going for me to give up now.'"
"So why did you?"
"I had no one else to hate."
"There was me."
"Where?" she raised her eyebrows and looked over his shoulders at Nick and Logan coming into the structure and toward the table.
"So, how did we fair?" Kyra asked as they approached.
"I counted at least three dead by the old merc guard," Nick said pointing to a large over hanging cave structure and hopped up on the table, "And there are ten injured in the west end."
Logan sat beside her in a chair, "And another two at the well."
"Make that an even twenty," Toombs came into the room, cleaning off his knife with a cloth, "Another four at the outer boundaries."
"Check your math, merc. That's nineteen," Riddick sat up from his slouched position.
"And... there was Hassan. He was shot in the chest. He's dead."
Riddick was surprised by the mercenary's impassiveness of the news of the death of one of his allies. He turned to the side where Kyra stood silent by the table. She began to shake her head back and forth in disbelief.
"He was alive... when we left... he told us to run..." Kyra whispered. She tried to take a step back and nearly collapsed to the floor. Riddick shot out of his chair and caught her beneath her arms and pulled her back up.
"Whoa, slow down, kid," he looked at her in the eyes and sat her down on the ground, "Kyra... look at me. Look at me."
She brought her eyes to his goggles and look at her own reflection. A large breath filled her lungs and she slowly let it out, "Hassan..."
"You need to catch up to your brain. Slow down, take a break. Stay with me here, Kyra."
She nodded and looked down at the ground, unable to face her won reflection in the goggles anymore.
Riddick stood back up, "The necromongers knew where this place was?"
"They do have some tunnels that lead down here, but they can't find their way unless someone told them," Toombs eyed him, "Or someone had the ability to lead them through the dark."
"That suppose to be a threat, Merc?"
"Yeah... Maybe you told them. You were the last one to talk to them, quicksilver."
"What did I tell you about pointing fingers Merc?"
"I'm just calling them as I see 'em."
"I think he's right," Logan nodded and looked between Riddick and Toombs, "You were the last one, Riddick. Could you have done it? Absolutely. I would have."
"Did you?" Riddick tilted his head to the side.
"I have not been out of this hell hole for a long time Riddick."
"Everyone has their secrets, Logan," he said in a deadpan.
"Including the Big Bad," she sneered.
"Let's stop this!" Kyra said from the ground, still willing herself not to cry, and no one noticed, "It happened. Let's stop pointing fingers and move on."
"And allow him to betray us again?" Toombs yelled, "I say we put him in the lock up."
"Toombs! Calm down! We don't need to go that far," Kyra willed herself to get up, "He wouldn't do it. He didn't."
"That's your opinion,"he pushed past her and walked to his room. Logan and Nick started to walk away and help others of the wounded. Kyra put her head in her hands and took a frustrated breath.
"The lock up?" Riddick asked looking at her.
"It's a prison... inside the prison," she looked at the cavern ceiling and willed the tears not to come. Begged inside her head, 'I'm strong... I can be strong. I can... not cry.'
Suddenly she felt a presence at her back and a heavy hand landed on her shoulder. She took a gulp of air and turned to see Riddick staring down at her. She turned her face away and finally swallowed the urge to cry.
"If you need to-"
"You don't need to baby me, Riddick," she got back in a chair and traced some of the cracks in the table, "I'm just so frustrated. I'm okay."
"It's just-"
"Forget it!" she turned to him and scowled, then sent her attention back to the table.
'...you look exactly like I did the day I left.'
The two figures sat in silence and contemplated their next move.