10.

Of Touch

Kyra knew she didn't know how this was going to work, but it had to be from this point. When Jack was asleep, Kyra was awake but neither was in contact with the other. It was that same feeling she got before she first stepped into that field. What was this place, anyway? It was completely black, but then it was also completely white, it was an entire nebulous of colours but it was also just a clear mass of liquid that she could breathe in. Kyra realized that there really was no one way to describe this place. Was it that concept of purgatory? Was she on some level of that getting to her body?

That's when it hit her.

How was she going to find her body?

"Riddick, I believe it will work, so if you would be so kind as to stop looking at me like your next kill, I would be very pleased." Vaako said quietly, not even glancing at the other man. He was very volatile right now and the Necromonger lord was sure that the last thing Riddick would do would be to leave this area and work off some of his energy. It would mean being farther away then he already was from Kyra.

Which, he knew perfectly well by now, was completely unacceptable.

"If you're so fucking confident then why can I smell doubt on you like greed on a merc?" Riddick snarled, his muscles tensing.

"I realize that Kyra requested that there be no doubt on this end, but I do not know what exactly she is doing nor do I think she knows. So there will be doubt regardless." Vaako breathed deeply, risking a look at Riddick.

He stayed quiet and just stood, beginning to pace the length of the room. Vaako wasn't going to ask him to stop, because that would mean it would be his problem to deal with the Furyan's excess energy. But perhaps he could calm the convict otherwise.

"What will you do after this, Riddick?" He questioned softly, his strong voice stopping Riddick in his tracks.

"I don't know yet. Probably wherever Kyra would like to go." He replied finally, settling back into his pacing, but it wasn't as restless as before.

"Where would that be?" He knew he had to keep asking questions as if Kyra was definitely going to pull through. It would keep Riddick occupied and positive. Vaako didn't want to imagine his mood if Kyra got lost in the process.

"Well, no where dark with long nights, that's for sure," Riddick started, a small smirk changing the normally stoic expression. "She isn't much of a girl who likes extreme condition planets, like Crematoria, so maybe a tropical or temperate climate."

He had sat down across from Vaako now.

"Do you think she'll want to return to Helion Prime?" Vaako asked.

"Yes, to see Imam's wife and daughter, she'd like that. Although she won't stay." His silver gaze had turned darker, almost tarnished.

"Why?"

"She may be fucked up, hell, she might be on the same level as me, but we're similar in the way that we don't like being caged. She will want to get out, to keep moving. If she finds a place she likes and feels safe in, there's a chance she'll want to stay." Riddick smirked, Kyra, now the woman who had changed from Jack and ended up being part of her reincarnated self. Yep, she was on her way to being one very screwed up individual.

"Are you sure it is she who wants to feel safe?" Vaako had to push, he was starting to get his fellow lord to open up.

"What do you mean?" There it was again, the unsure spark of feeling that Vaako had never had with his Dame. Spark of undeniable hatred, yes, but not was Riddick was feeling.

"I believe it would be she who wants to keep you safe. Do you realize all the trouble she has gone through to get to you? In this life and the previous?" He reasoned with himself, inwardly smirking at his sudden thought that he may have a death wish.

Jack groaned and opened her eyes. She had a pounding headache, as if something had been ripped out of her skull and that empty space was stuffed with something numbing and unpleasant. She didn't feel like getting up, so she flopped her head to the side, letting her deep breathes relax her body. She frowned when she saw a body lying not too far from her.

She recognized it.

Kyra? Was that Kyra?

For someone who was dead, her body was in excellent condition. The toning on her muscles was still evident, her muscular form still present and the only thing missing was the flow of life.

"Kyra?" She feebly called, her throat dry.

She wasn't surprised that she didn't get a response. But she kept talking anyway.

"I don't know where you are, but I'd bet you'd like company. When dad went away on trips and stuff mom liked it if I just talked. I guess it made her miss him less." She didn't feel awkward at all, just laying there, talking to a corpse.

"Riddick's okay, Kyra. I mean, he's got to stop what he's doing, but he is ok. Vaako is weird, just…weird. I wish I knew more about Riddick."

Kyra started when she heard a voice and she went for her shivs.

That weren't there.

But when she listened closer, she recognized the voice. It was Jack's. Talking? To her corpse? Kyra smiled gently, if anyone would talk to a corpse, it would be her. As the voice continued, a pulsing wave of something licked out at her through the unidentifiable mass she was in.

Kyra watched it and realized it was like a pitch wave of a sound. The sound was Jack's voice and the arcs in the wave were the intonations in her voice. That thing was Jack's voice. It was leading somewhere.

She followed it. Kyra couldn't follow what Jack was saying, though. Something about Riddick, though. Just his name made Kyra want to go faster, but she couldn't. She didn't know how to, either.

"Hold it." Riddick stood and Vaako tensed, looking up at the other man. "You hear that?"

The Necromonger strained his hearing until he heard a faint voice carrying on a conversation in the next room. It was Jack's. He stood as well, walking to the door and putting his ear on the door, listening.

"It seems that Jack is awake. Kyra's state seems stable, I believe Jack would've somehow let us know otherwise." Vaako diagnosed, turning back to face Riddick.

The man in question replied with a deep growl.

Kyra was breathing heavily, if she was breathing at all. She felt exhausted, but she knew that she had to stay awake here. Every part of her was either burning, icy numb or as heavy as titanium. The pain was terrible, but she wasn't sure if she was even feeling it at the same time.

Her feet dragged and the pulse wave was constant, but her fluttering eyelids blurred it and her head kept dipping. The voice, whose was it again? She couldn't remember it, but there was a sense of familiarity.

Had she been here too long?

Where was she?

Kyra could barely lift her head and when she did, her look was one of complete confusion. She looked at her hands, not realizing that she had sank to her knees. Her hands seemed foreign to her, what did they do? They dropped to her sides and all feeling was quickly disappearing. Images flashed before her and she wasn't aware of anything being attached to anything.

A coffin? No, it was a plastic and steel shell. There was a needle in her arm? Other people around her seemed to be asleep.

What was this place?

A man, dressed in robes.

Who was he?

Screeches, all inhuman. Swooping of wings. It was fear with wings, but none of that registered.

When was this?

A scream followed by a roar, the smell of sulfur.

Where was that?

Silver eyes.

Kyra slumped completely, her body thudding, the pulse wave still going steady. Her hands twitched, but she was relaxing, welcoming that oblivion.

But no, she couldn't, not yet. She had to do something, she had to. What was it?

She opened her mouth and from nowhere came a yell that she poured everything into. Chaos, confusion, fear and pain.

"Riddick!"

"Riddick!" The word came from Kyra's mouth and Jack screamed. Before she could call for anyone, the ex-convict burst through the door, ignoring her and going straight to Kyra.

"Kyra!" He yelled, grabbing hold of her cold corpse. His stomach turned and he could feel his beast panic, he was panicking.

He smelled death.

"No! Kyra!" His voice was unsteady, panicked and scared.

He never noticed Vaako sweep into the room and take Jack away, leaving the two alone.

Riddick maneuvered himself beneath her body, holding it against himself. He buried his face in her hair, her name a mantra on his tongue. He was completely overwhelmed by her smell, her body and the momentary sound of her voice.

Her already dead body seemed to grow colder as he held it. Swallowing, he wrapped his arms tighter around her, holding her as tightly as he could without hurting her.

He had to feel her warm breath on his skin again.

He had to hear her voice again. He needed to hear her heart beat.

She coughed.

Kyra doubled over suddenly, the muscle movement and sudden life making her hack up whatever she had in her. It was dry, there was nothing.

But she wasn't gone.

She couldn't get up, but she looked around. The pulse-wave was gone and she was still in the mass that was everything and nothing. Kyra knew she needed strength and she needed it soon. What she had now was a second chance and she wasn't going to waste it.

Her body convulsed with a spasm, but she gritted her teeth and pulled herself up into a sitting position. She had legs, she should use them. But try as she might, they wouldn't respond to her demands. First it was her feet, then her ankles and she felt her legs completely going unresponsive.

She didn't want to think what would happen if this reached her lungs.

Kyra began to drag herself with her arms, wriggling on her stomach, moving towards something she felt was right. Something that was safe.

The feeling was slowly making its way up and Kyra couldn't destroy the fear that was eating at her now. Not only that, but she had reached an end. A wall. She had to go through it, or around it, but she was just a wall away.

That's when she felt something brush across the inside of her wrist. A waft of scent came after it and a calculating set of silver eyes blazed in her mind.

She felt her breathing stop. No, no, not yet! She had come so far, what was happening?

With shaking hands he lifted one of her arms, his powerful hand cradling her smaller one. Riddick bent his head and kissed the inside of her wrist. There was no denying it now. He copied his action with the other wrist, but he carefully folded her arm over her stomach.

He held her hand in both of his, memorizing every detail that he was sure had never left his mind. The times he had watched her nimble hands at work, repairing a ship he had stolen. She had known that he was leaving her, leaving her with the holy man, but she had helped anyway.

Riddick lifted her right hand in his and intently observed the creases of the inside of her hands. His thumb rubbed over her palm, in slow motions that he had used to keep his hands from freezing when he was hightailing it from mercs on the ice planets.

He wrapped his left arm around her stomach and as he did, he looked down at her face and he realized that even asleep Kyra looked dangerous.

Suddenly he glanced up and watched with evanescent hope as her cold fingers slowly closed around his thumb, tightening with the smallest of strengths. She shifted in his grip, her head pushing against his chest. Her eyes were still closed as she took her first few harsh breathes, each sounding less painful then the last.

He reached over to a table next to them and grabbed a bag of water that was supposed to be hooked up to a tube that would regulate the amount she took in. Holding it in one hand, he tore off the cap with his teeth, spitting it out to the side. Carefully he held it to her mouth and couldn't be more relieved when her left hand, although severely trembling, came up to hold the bag. She eagerly latched onto it with her mouth, quickly emptying the contents. He tossed it to the floor when she was done and then just watched her for a moment.

She had readjusted herself, but still held onto his right hand, not letting it be pulled out of hers.

"Kyra? You with me?" He asked, his voice quiet as he felt her blood begin to pulse constantly in the hand he still held.

He was rewarded with two eyes of the most vivid green opening and watching him watching her.

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed this story:

XXXevilgrinXXX – "cry-in-my-beer thoughtful"…I like that.

TRO – I was going to stop this chapter at: "He smelled death." But I can't be that cruel.

bima – body switch now!

lamyka – about the architecture, I meant for it to be that those particular crypts were in gothic, contrasting with the baroque. But glad to know I have an architect on hand.

Brimseye – No, I can't make it a regular habit. He's not that kind of guy.

InanasChild – But but! Read my response to TRO.

MissBe – Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

BatPhace – Glad you liked the thoughtful Riddick. I had fun with that.

Jen – Of course it had to, I can't be mean like that. Well…I could've been…

riddickluver9876 – Hope you liked the way I had her come back.

NOTE: I am considering finishing the story here, but if there a mass movement for another chapter, do say it in the review. I already have another story in the works, but I will write ONE more chapter. Let's focus on that word ONE, not two, and certainly not a sequel.

-shamrock920