7.

From the Dead

"Kyra," Riddick breathed, his beast awakening and snarling in a way it hadn't since Imam had informed him that Jack was in Crematoria. She was dead to him, long gone and his beast had changed. It wasn't an animal anymore, but a demon. A strong and ruthless one that ruled his mind and sadly, he let it. He had little left to fight for when she passed on, so he took the challenge of being a Necromonger lord and slowly, through the logic of the Necromongers, his beast was corrupted into a demon. Part of it changed, part of it died. Now, the dead part was slowly awakening.

"Riddick," she stood, crossing the room to him. "It truly has been a while, hasn't it Lord Marshall?" Her cold voice seemed very out of place from the young body it came from.

"You would do well not to insult him," Vaako hissed.

"Ah, and you, the lapdog, the pup. Does being Lord Marshall's bitch serve you well, Vaako?" She turned and questioned him.

"Kyra." Riddick ground out, his voice tense. "That is enough. Your problem is not with Vaako."

"And he defends him lovingly as well." She said, her cruel mocking tone agitating both the demon and beast. "But you are right, my problem is with you and always has been. So," she walked back to the couch and lay across it in a sensual pose that looked more than inappropriate for the young girl. "Tell me, how long did your personal restraint last before you decided that it wasn't a bad idea to wipe out the universe?"

"You are dead, Kyra, you haunt a different man." Vaako noted quietly.

"Physically I am reincarnated, spiritually I am here. As soon as Jack grows old enough I will do the same as I did in the past life and body." She explained, tracing an invisible design on the black wood of the couch.

"You speak as if you possessed the first Jack." Vaako pressed, curious.

"I did not possess her, no. But she created me as an identity for herself. The original Jack, she is the original owner of this body. It seems that Jack cannot be reincarnated without Kyra." Kyra continued, sighing deeply. This was far more complicated then she had planned it to be.

"What happens to Jack when you take over?" He asked, trying to figure out why Riddick was staying silent.

"She will be there, just dormant, as your beast is, Riddick." She turned to him and Vaako swore he saw a flash of shame and sorrow in her eyes. When he looked at Riddick, he swallowed his surprise to see the same.

Riddick could not express what he was thinking, it was hard enough sorting out his feelings and thoughts, much less voicing them. He wanted Kyra to be older, her body was too young for him to say something serious and believe that she would fully understand it. All he could see was her clearing eyes as she lay dying on the step beneath the throne, the blood and saliva dripping from her smooth lips, her auburn hair messed slightly with the violent treatment.

Vaako breathed deeply, this situation was going from bad to worse fast and it had to be changed.

"Riddick, there are matters that need your attention immediately and I believe Kyra and Jack would like to rest. Both have had a trying day." Vaako put a slight tone of urgency in his voice and Riddick heard it. He made a note to thank Vaako later for preventing a dangerous situation. Turning to Kyra, he expected a slighting insult, but he just saw a sleepy Jack, rubbing her eyes.

"Hi, Riddick. Can I sleep here?" She asked, pulling her bag over to her and opening it. Riddick raised an eyebrow when he saw Jack pull out a stuffed animal, hugging it to her chest.

"You'll need a better place to rest then that, if you'd be so kind to accompany me, Jack, I can lead you to a bed." Vaako said politely and Jack nodded sleepily, holding her stuffed animal.

Riddick followed Vaako and Jack to his rooms that had been cleaned of any trace of Dame Vaako. Yet their large bed remained in the heavily decorated alcove and that is where Riddick watched Jack pull the strange blankets over her. They left her but Riddick stopped right at the door, clenching his jaw when he heard sniffling from the bed. He motioned for Vaako to keep walking and when he was out of sight, he went back to the bed and found Jack curled up, crying quietly into her stuffed animal.

"Jack?" He asked, his beast mourning when he saw her eyes red with tears, her face torn with sadness.

"Hi," her voice cracked. Riddick sat down on the bed, all previous hints of his ruthlessness gone. Jack had softened him that quickly. "I shouldn't," she hiccupped, "cry, I know. But…mommy and daddy…are gone…and they aren't sleeping like they said Uncle Rob was in that box." She hiccupped again and Riddick bowed his head slightly. It had never mattered who had died in the conquering before this, never. "And Kyra says I'm not alone and I'm not," her voice raised in pitch then quieted again. "I've got her…but only," she sniffed again, "when I'm asleep. I'm lonely…and I can't sleep forever."

Riddick reached out and gathered Jack in his arms, not surprised when she reacted immediately and climbed directly into his lap. She cried against him and when she looked up, he knew he saw Kyra there and it were her eyes that were in pain. But when she had stopped crying, she looked up again and it was Jack.

"Riddick?"

"Hm?" He growled gently in response.

"Can you make me sleep forever?" The innocence he heard made something in him stop working, it made the demon pause and have its thoughts clouded. It was a question that had a clear subtlety to it that only she would not understand.

"You don't want to sleep forever. And you're not alone, I'm here and Vaako is, too." Riddick said softly and Jack nodded. "Go to sleep, Kyra is waiting, I bet."

"G'night, Riddick," she yawned and soon fell asleep. He tucked her in the same way he had done to Jack on the skiff. Only when she was completely asleep did he leave.

"Hi Kyra," Jack said, opening up her eyes in her dream landscape. Kyra smiled at her but didn't say anything, looking preoccupied and in thought. "You ok?"

"Yeah, fine." She replied softly, looking at the sky.

"I didn't mean to cry in front of him, really, I didn't-" She was cut off by Kyra shushing her and smoothing her hair down. Jack wrapped her arms around Kyra's waist, sniffling softly as the elder rubbed her back gently, looking down at her younger self.

"What happened to your parents wasn't your fault, but don't be so ready to blame Riddick or Vaako. While they are the figureheads of the army that did the deed, they didn't do it themselves. Do you understand?" She spoke in low tones, soothing ones that reduced Jack's crying and sniffling to occasional hiccups.

"Yeah, he isn't evil. Vaako isn't either…just…bad." Jack said and Kyra snorted.

"True, finding evil isn't easy and it is a much deeper concept then most of humanity is willing to accept," Kyra said, stopping when Jack looked up at her, definitely confused. "Sorry about that."

"It's ok. Can we go up in the tree?" She asked and Kyra nodded, waiting for Jack to move her hand into hers. They walked to one of the trees and Kyra swung up onto a branch, wrapping her legs around it and swinging down, holding her arms out for Jack. Her small hands grabbed Kyra's calloused ones and trusted her to pull her up and onto a branch. They relaxed, looking like sunning cats getting some shut eye.

"Kyra?" Jack's quiet voice made Kyra's eyelids flutter open.

"Hmm?" She asked, content to be relaxed.

"Tell me a good memory you have of Riddick." She requested, making Kyra wake up slightly. She tried to think of a good memory she had of him as Kyra, but realized that the only good ones she had were really when she was Jack. Her last memory was bittersweet, watching his eyes tear as hers darkened. The way he had shied away when he had asked her if she was still with him, as if he feared the imminent.

"I don't know, Jack, can't think of one right now. There are just a lot of memories stored together, I never really separated the good and the bad, it was just time we spent together. That in itself was good." She explained, sighing when she saw confusion cloud Jack's face.

"Ok…do you miss him?" She asked and Kyra sharply glanced at her, leaning up on one elbow.

"What do you mean?" She returned.

"Like, being around him. When dad went away on work trips, mom would say she missed him being there. Do you? Miss being there?" She elaborated in her innocent manner.

Kyra lay back on the branch and stretched again, looking at the sky through the branches and leaves. She had missed him terribly, but could only find insults and words of anger when she spoke to him. In truth she wanted to be in her own body, to be able to have him be with all of her, not just a reincarnated smaller half-version of her. She remembered how foggy her memory was after being converted to the Necromonger way, but she had felt a large consuming emptiness inside her and knew it was because he was not there. It matched the feeling that had quickly infected and spread in her when she saw him nearly dead on the runway in Crematoria.

"Kyra? Kyra, I think Vaako's trying to wake me up." Jack's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Alright, see you later." She waved and watched Jack fade away. Sighing, she flipped onto her back and touched a branch with her hand, reveling in the roughness of the bark. She wanted to be in reality, not stuck here.