Hellody! This is the beginning of the end, my friends. And what a trip it's been, huh? As always I want to thank all those who've stuck with me through all this nonsense. Bless you all for your patience. I'm getting all teary eyed, I better get on with it.

As always, REVIEW PLEASE! If you do nothing else today, review for me! Ok, maybe not, but review anyway, it's like my air. ;o)

Disclaimer:oP that's all I have to say.


"I found her!" Riddick called out so that Jonas could call off the search. It took a while but finally Riddick found Kyra among the tortured remains that had once been functioning human beings. She was pale, but she still looked strong. Her vitals were good, but her brainwaves were more erratic than they should be. Out of sheer morbid curiosity Riddick pushed the green button and then the blue one on the monitor like he'd seen Geom do so he could see what she was seeing.

"How is she?" Jonas asked as he trotted up, but he received no answer. The look on Riddick's face was staggered and Jonas followed the other man's eyes to the monitor and instantly understood why.

It was him inside her head. He was walking toward a door with Kyra in tow. No, it was Jack. She was twelve again with her head still shaved. Riddick felt something rise up in him then, something familiar. She still had that gleam of youth in her eyes, he noticed. Gumption. He missed that. When he looked there nowadays, all he saw was anger and angst. Occasionally he saw passion, but he could count those times on one hand.

On the screen she jumped in front of him suddenly, blocking the door. Imam was following her, trying to stop her and keep her out of the way. She ignored Imam (as usual) and continued pleading with Riddick. Her eyes were so young and hurt. Riddick remembered this scene now. He'd meant to be gone before she woke up but he'd lost track of time debating whether or not to actually go. He bent down to whisper something in her ear and instead of the joy and relief that should have spread across her face, it went stark and her eyes opened big as teacups. The rest of the illusion fell away and he watched himself in horror as his face twisted into something hideous. He read his own lips, missing a word here and there but getting the gist of what was said.

"You …me, I hate you. I'm leaving because of you and …never be back for you. Ever."

Riddick's jaw clenched. This isn't what happened. That's not what he'd said. The look on her face nearly tore his heart out. She was utterly crushed. On the screen he shoved her roughly to the floor, said something else that Riddick didn't catch and then spit on her before walking through the door. She slumped, broken. Like she'd been beaten into submission with his words. She was giving up.

"No. NO! Goddamnit Jack fight. Fight!" His rage took him over swiftly and nearly blinded him to everything around them, "I have to get her out of here, now!" He reached to rip out the cords attached to her monitor.

"Wait! Don't!" Jonas yelled, "You don't know what that will do! Do you want to kill her?" His words made Riddick halt reluctantly. Jonas saw the anguish in the other man's eyes, the turmoil held in the luminous mercurial pools. It was killing him that she was enduring this after everything else they'd been through, but he knew Jonas was right. Riddick lowered his hand from the wires.

"I'll go find fugly and we'll make him take her off the right way. You stay with her, okay?"

Riddick nodded slowly and Jonas left to go find Geom.


"I hate you. You're fucking pathetic. I hate you. I hope you die. I hate you…"

She was trapped in the dark with Riddick's words echoing around her like a mantra of misery. She could face the monsters from her past, and even the monsters from that fucked up planet, but not this. Not Riddick wishing her dead. Not him saying he hated her. Not over and over and over.

She had resigned herself to the fact that she was in hell. She had died and gone to hell. There was no other explanation for her being forced to endure the only man she ever loved telling her he hated her and wanted her to die. She'd cried until she couldn't cry anymore. She'd yelled until her throat was hoarse. It did no good. This was hell and Richard Riddick was the fucking devil, just like everyone had told her all along. She was broken, beaten, and defeated... for him. All because of him. An anger rose in her, an anger for him.

"Is this what you wanted! Fucking bastard! Are you happy now!" she yelled out. She heard only her own voice in response and the continuous echo of his words. She sobbed again, knowing that her anger was false. She wasn't angry with him, she as angry at herself for caring so much for him. If she didn't care, it wouldn't matter what he said. But because it was Riddick, because it was him, his words ripped through her like a hundred thousand shards of glass. She slumped back down and held her face in her hands, hoping to open her eyes next and find everything back to normal.


While he waited for Jonas, Riddick had settled himself beside Kyra's chair on the floor, positioned so that he could see both her face and the monitor at the same time. He'd tried shaking her and yelling at her, but got no response, so he settled for just sitting and watching. Her face was deceptively peaceful, the traces of makeup she'd been wearing at the party still in perfect place, as though the body had no knowledge of the suffering within the mind. He watched the screen in stone-silent agony as she sat limply like a broken doll, face in hands, tears streaming between her fingers. She'd yelled something, then gone back to crying again. He couldn't shift his eyes from her form on the screen, and for the first time in his abominable existence he felt completely, utterly helpless.

Self-loathing began to fill him. This was entirely his fault, after all. If he'd never gone back for her in New Mecca, if he'd just stayed away like he'd known he should have, they wouldn't be in this mess. She would still be safe and he would still be strong. But he was weak, and it was killing the only woman in the whole damned universe that he cared for at all. He reached up and slipped his large hand into her smaller one, almost recoiling at the coldness he found there. He suddenly felt an overwhelming exhaustion. Wearily, he rested his head against her leg and closed his eyes, noting the true softness of the silk of her dress, how suiting it was for her.

No sooner had he done so than he heard Jonas' voice booming angrily through the door that Tobias and Geom had left through. He looked over just in time to see Geom hurled through the door with Jonas storming after him.

"You sniveling little piece of shit! Fucking monster! How dare you try and fight me!" he roared at the man with more vehemence than Riddick had ever heard from him. Geom was cowering on the floor before him in terror. Jonas grabbed the man up off the floor, receiving a terrified whimper as he dragged Geom by his collar over to Kyra's chair and deposited him next to Riddick's feet. Riddick stood and glared down at the fat little man, then looked to Jonas in mild awe.

"This fucker thought he had a chance against me. Of all the shit!" Jonas said with a sneer as he nudged the man roughly with his boot. Jonas had done a number on him, that was for damn sure. Blood trickled from Geom's nose and oozed from his lip, some of which stained Jonas' gray tunic. Geom held his side like perhaps he had a broken rib or two. He looked up at Riddick pleadingly.

"P-please, please don't let him hurt me anymore. I'll do whatever you ask just don't hurt me. Have mercy on an old man."

"MERCY! HA!" Jonas howled, and Riddick let out a dark laugh.

"You're god damn right you'll do whatever I ask," Riddick lifted the man from the floor by the front of his tunic and pulled him close to his face, "I'll gut you if you don't, and if you live through the pain, I'll hang you from the ceiling by your own entrails. Mercy is one thing I don't have." Geom's eyes grew wide. He realized then that he was trapped in a room with two very scary men, and his life was truly in his own hands. Riddick put Geom down back down on the floor and looked to Jonas.

"I can take care of this, why don't you go find your woman." Riddick's tone was that of suggestion, but Jonas knew it was more of a command. He had his own revenge to dole out, and it was something he had to do himself. Jonas held out his arm, and, after a moment, Riddick clasped it. The two men locked eyes and nodded with mutual respect, knowing if they both made it out of this alive, they would truly be permanent comrades. Jonas went to walk away, but Riddick called after him.

"Jonas!" Jonas turned to look at him again.

"What?"

"Take this, you'll need it." Riddick tossed his mini-shiv to Jonas, and, surprisingly enough, Jonas caught it by the handle. He nodded to the other man and walked through the door at the other side of the room.

Riddick watched Jonas go, wondering absently if he would ever see him again, and then turned his attention back to the stubby fat man before him who was still cowering on the floor.

"Now, you get her off this fucking thing." Riddick growled.

"I-I can't. T-the p-process was never m-meant to be reversed and-" Geom stuttered, thinking that perhaps he would piss his pants for the first time since he was about seven years old. Riddick seized the man's throat, having to hold himself back from simply crushing his windpipe. 'If you do that, we'll never get her back,' he reasoned to himself.

"Wrong answer. TAKE HER OFF!" Geom began to turn purple before he choked out the right answer.

"Ach…alright." Riddick dropped him and he rubbed at his throat before speaking again, "You should know that even if I succeed at removing the connections, there's a good chance she won't ever wake up. I've never done this before, I don't know if, or how, she will come out of it."

"And you should know that if I see her vitals drop by even a point, I promise you'll beg me to kill you by the time I'm done." Geom swallowed hard then set about his task with shaking hands. Riddick watched the monitor closely as Geom pushed buttons and carefully pulled out wires until the very last one came out and the monitor went black. There were going to be little scars on her scalp where the wires and tube had been, but Riddick could live with that, as long as she was okay.

"There, now if she dies, it's not my fault," Geom disclaimed. As the man turned, the last thing he saw was Riddick's face as he grabbed the man's chin and the back of his head and jerked, relishing the snaps and cracks as his neck broke. Riddick only killed for two reasons; 1) self defense, or 2) if the fucker absolutely deserved it. Geom fit into category 2, as far as Riddick was concerned. He turned away from the corpse and sat Kyra back, supporting her diminutive weight with one arm and checked her pulse; still steady.

"Kyra?" No response. "Kyra!" Still nothing. He pulled one eyelid up to check her pupil but her eyes were rolled back into her head still. He started to wonder if what Geom had said was true. Would she ever wake? If she did, would she be the same? He had to get her somewhere safe before Jonas' shit hit the fan, that part he knew. He scooped her up and headed back out the way he'd come, hoping he could find his way back through the labyrinth of hallways he'd come from.


As Jonas wandered up the steep stairs that door number two had lead to, he wondered absently if he should bother saving these people, or if he should just leave and never look back. Should he just leave him to their fate? After all, were they really his people? Sure he'd grown up here, but they would have probably killed him if they'd ever found out what he really was. Why the hell should he risk his neck against something this evil just for them? He paused in the stairway and thought for a moment.

He knew there was really only one simple answer. Sariah. She was meant for better than this. She was meant for him, damnit. And if there was any chance that he could get her back… That's why he was going to risk his neck against evil. Saving the rest of them was a bonus. Perhaps his ends were selfish, but he didn't really care anymore. He came to a door at the end of the stairway and he took a deep breath before opening it. 'Here goes nothing,' he thought mockingly.

He opened the door to find himself in a bedroom. It was just as elaborately decorated as the rest of the house, and it shocked Jonas for a moment, as he was used to the plain, grim stone of the "dungeon". He looked around, figuring he must be in Tobias' private chambers. A door leading to such atrocities would be well hidden from the casual guest. Carefully he closed the door, noting that the seam blended almost invisibly with the rest of the wall. Though the room was spattered generously with gold, the general theme was rather macabre. Paintings of various gruesome deaths (including burning, filleting and other such mutilations) were hung all about the large room, making Jonas cringe involuntarily. Cautiously he walked through the room to the door on the other side and opened it slowly, looking to each side to ensure he was the only one there. He stepped into the sitting room and shut the door slowly behind him.

"Hello Jonas. Long time no see." He froze. Even her voice was different now. It was hollow and held an almost metallic ring that was a far cry from the voice he remembered. He turned to see the deadened violet-blue eyes of his former best friend staring at him from the settee in the center of the room. He offhandedly wondered how he'd missed her, or where she'd come from without him hearing, but that wasn't the important part right now.

"Sariah." Her name escaped his lips like his dying breath in Toombs' mansion. He stepped back a little as she rose from the settee in one fluid motion. Even the burgundy fabric of her dress moved preternaturally.

"You have no reason to fear me, Jonas. I'm not mad at you anymore." She strode easily to him, circling him slowly like a vulture. It was probably all in his head, but he could swear that he actually felt a chill emanating from her, almost like being next to dry ice.

"Why?" he asked, a little ashamed at the trace of fear his voice betrayed. He swallowed it.

"I see your vocabulary has grown in the eight years since I saw you last," she chuckled darkly, sardonically, "I have bigger things to worry about now, Jonas, why would I be mad at you still? I'm about to be the wife of the High Lord, after all. I haven't time for such… petty things now."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it." He started to feel like he was speaking to the real her again. She always did know how to push his buttons and piss him off. What else are friends for?

"Hmm. Perhaps you mean why did I choose the girl instead of you or the one called Riddick? Your mental structure is too different Jonas; the procedure wouldn't work on you, and we would have been hard pressed to subdue the other man. Besides, she's so ripe with pain, we hardly had to prompt her at all." A wide grin spread across her face, and her last comment was light, almost joyous.

"Still not what I meant," Jonas muttered through clenched teeth.

"Ahh, you mean why did I choose this path? The path of the Magess?" Jonas gasped.

'That's it,' he thought, 'she's a fucking Magess!' He remembered stories about half dead magicians and the powers they possessed, the pain they inflicted upon the innocent. They weren't real though, were they? She walked past him, a scent of lilies and death following her, and sat back on the settee, motioning for him to sit with her. He declined her offer and she only shrugged.

"When you left Jonas, a part of me died. You were the only one in this whole damned place I cared for, and you left me here to rot after the awful things that happened. I-"

"I had to try and find my mother!" Jonas interrupted, forgetting for a moment what exactly he was addressing, "I had no choice!" Sariah's eyes and tone darkened.

"Neither did I," she stood again, coming to stand closer to him than he was entirely comfortable with, but he stayed still, "For three years I tried to go on without you, but I found myself in pain no matter what I did. I tried to go to school; I couldn't focus on anything by my suffering. I thought I was dying, Jonas," she looked up at him with a piteous expression and though he knew it was false, Jonas still felt his heart being pulled to her, "Tobias saved me. He showed me the beauty that can come from the pain, even if it's the pain of others," she raised a hand and touched Jonas' cheek lightly, her eyes beseeching him, "I can show you too, if you'll let me. Let me show you the way, Jonas."