11.

Be Not Afraid

"Vaako, where are we going?" Jack asked as she was being carried princess-style out of the room she had been sharing with Kyra. "Is Kyra gonna be ok?"

He was silent as he waited for the door to the med bay to open, revealing a confused Nawkon, who raised an eyebrow at his Lord. Both of them ignored Jack's incessant questions, speaking in quiet tones over her head.

"Jack, Nawkon here is going to take you to Dame Nawkon, you remember her, don't you?" He asked slowly, as if speaking to a younger child.

"Yep, she was pretty. Like my mom." She said, not seeing the pained expression that crossed both Nawkon's and Vaako's face as she slid from Vaako's arms to the floor. It had seemed that once word got out that this human's, non-converted child, parents were dead because of them, something had sparked.

An unknown sympathy was felt towards the child and many Necromongers, man and female, Purifier and Commander alike, were struggling with emotions they had believed to be dead.

"Vaako?" She asked, tugging on his hand. As he looked down at it, he was thrown back to his life before conversion. A smaller hand in his – a hand that depended on him completely. He shook the thoughts from his head and pushed her slightly towards Nawkon. "Is Kyra gonna be ok?"

"We can only wait, Jack. Go with Nawkon," he nodded towards the other man. After a motionless moment he sighed. "And yes, you can hold his hand."

He ignored the look of shock Nawkon had, amused by the view of a small child, eyes and face alive with complete life, holding onto the iron-clad hand of a Necromonger commander, whose cool demeanor was shattered by her small actions. They walked down the hall together and Vaako was thankful that for a moment someone else could deal with the child's endless questions.

Vaako slowly turned back into the med bay, wishing he still had a faith, a god, to send a prayer to. After the sound of Kyra's call, he knew that both she and Riddick would need it.

They could not have stared at each other long enough and even then all the words that they wanted to share with the other could not be said.

"I'm with you," she said finally, her voice still hoarse from disuse. She growled quietly as she tested her arms, hands, legs and feet, making sure they still worked. "Being dead is not something I want to experience again." She mumbled, pushing her head back against Riddick's chest.

She closed her eyes momentarily and snapped them open when she felt a panic tenfold come from her human pillow. Kyra looked up to see Riddick watching her intensely, with a fear that she was familiar with. It wasn't a fear of the unknown, but the same kind that a child looks at a parent who seems to be leaving them. The fear of loneliness.

"Hey," she said, interlocking her fingers with his. "I'm not going to leave, I'm here. And I know you don't do promises, so I swear to you that I will not ever leave you alone." Kyra finished by raising her other hand and resting it on the left side of his face. In a moment of rarity, he leaned against her hand, making her smile.

He could have never been more grateful when she didn't recoil when he faced her hand and kissed it. Nor could he have been more surprised when she broke free of his grip, dragged her body into a sitting position and kissed him fully on the mouth. Before a second had passed they were wrapped around each other and both knew that they truly would never be alone again.

Five years later…

Riddick had never truly slept.

But as time passed, the reasons changed. In the beginning, it was survival – if he slept, he could be killed. As got older, went through various slams and grew into a hardened killer, the reason stayed the same, but it was to stay on top of the game. If he slept, he could miss out. Of course, fate tossed him a throw he could have never predicted and before he realized what had happened, he stayed awake to protect a small cross-dressing kid who shadowed him.

And if that wasn't strange enough, he was now awake for a different reason.

"Kyra, Kyra," he quietly said, but the tone was not without urgency. He shook her again, only to receive a groan of displeasure and a string of muffled curses.

She looked up at him through bleary eyes, her hand still resting on his stomach. He had to take a second to appreciate her look of messy uncaring, but it quickly turned back into his original intent.

"Think they're ok?" He asked, not a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Riddick," she closed her eyes for a second and sighed. "They are just fine. But if you want to be anal about it, go and check." She added, annoyance evident.

"K, be right back," he said, up and out of bed in record timing. He was out the door before Kyra had dropped her head back onto the pillows.

Now she couldn't sleep.

She had always been a bad sleeper. From the beginning, even as a baby, she was told she had never slept long. When she was a girl, she had been afraid of what would happen if she slept, especially what would happen to her. After her experience with cyro-sleep and T-2, sleeping became less of an option for her. But Riddick had been there and with him, she could sleep. When he wasn't in one of his moods as he was now.

Kyra sat up and tossed her legs over the side of their bed, taking a moment to find some rationality before getting up. It was a quick walk down the hallway and the scene that was before her made her forget any annoyance.

Riddick stood in the room, his eyes sweeping over two sleeping forms without stop. He would glance towards the windows every few seconds, glaring at them. But the two asleep had no idea that they were being watched and peacefully slept on.

Kyra walked into the room, laying a hand on his bare arm. He glanced down at her as she slipped into his embrace, breathing deeply.

"See? They are fine, just like I said." Kyra looked up at Riddick, who still seemed suspicious.

"The windows, perfect entrance for a-"

"Riddick, they are sleeping with their backs to the wall, just as you taught them. It isn't as if they don't know who are you and the danger they could be in." She replied, a tight tone making him uncomfortable.

"I'm just worried." He admitted, swallowing deeply.

"Also, anyone who does try to come in here, it isn't you they need to worry about," she remarked as she stepped away from his embrace and to one of the beds.

There was a young boy sleeping in it, his sheets and blankets tangled about his form. She reorganized him and his sheets in a way only a mother could, without waking him up. Kyra bent down and kissed his forehead and standing, looked to the other bed. A younger girl slept there, her one arm holding a stuffed cat. Kyra brushed her hair back with her hands, keeping it off her delicate neck.

"Definitely not you they have to worry about," she said again, looking up at Riddick and smiling at him. "No father is better at protecting then a mother, animals and humans alike." Kyra added, walking back to Riddick, who still stood looking at the windows.

"Don't know about that, Kyr," he replied, using her shortened name. "We could both be pretty nasty when it comes to protecting our kids."

"Either way, it's time to get back to sleep, we've got quite the day ahead of us." She remarked, tugging on his arm. He gave in and followed her back to their room.

Kyra awoke to the sounds of a natural disaster in the kitchen. Grinning, she quickly got up, making sure to look not too hassled. Last night Riddick truly wasn't able to sleep, even after checking on the kids, so an exhaustive distraction had been needed. And if anyone could tire him out in bed, it was Kyra.

She followed the sounds down the stairs and into the kitchen, laughing at the sight she saw there. Kyra had to lean against the wall so she wouldn't fall down from laughing so hard.

Riddick was trying to make breakfast as well as control two kids whose mission was to annoy and distract their dad as much as possible without getting in trouble. At the moment he had his daughter, Shazza, wrapped around one of his legs and she was sitting on his foot and gripping on like a koala. His son, Eric, was stealing ingredients for the food when Riddick wasn't looking, although Kyra knew full well that Riddick knew exactly what he was up to.

The trio had all looked at her when she laughed and kneeling down, she stopped laughing and just grinned.

"Shazza, leave daddy alone! You too, Eric." She called and Shazza quickly untangled herself and ran to her mother's open arms, holding on tight as she stood. Kyra easily held her daughter and then held out her free hand to Eric. He came to her too but Kyra gave him a calculating look.

"Give it back to your father, Eric." She told him, but he shook his head.

"I don't have anything, mom!" He insisted and glared at his sister when she told Kyra that he had an egg in his pocket.

"C'mon Eric, you want to have breakfast don't you?" She asked and he relented, walking back to Riddick and giving him the egg that was miraculously unharmed.

"Suppose so," he mumbled, going back to Kyra.

"See, not that hard. So," she said, leading him over the table. She sat Shazza down in one of the seats and helped Eric into another, kissing the tops of their heads as she did so. "You know who is visiting today?"

"Jackie!" They both shouted together.

"Yep, but you know who else is coming?" She asked, setting out dishes and silverware.

"Well, usually General and Lady come with Jackie…" Eric said.

"How many times have I told you that their names aren't actually General and Lady?" Kyra asked, rolling her eyes. Children would be children and she was sure that Jack was behind this.

"Anyone else?" Shazza asked, glancing back at her dad who had gone back to making breakfast.

"One more." Her mother replied, placing the glasses on the table.

"Uncle Vaako!" Eric shouted, grinning madly. "Remember what we did last time, Shaz?" He asked his sister, who nodded. "Yes! He hasn't visited in forever!"

"Wonder why." Riddick quietly growled, but only Kyra caught it.

"You have to be nice to him this time. Please, you know it wasn't very nice of you to move his shade. Not to mention he looks ridiculous with a sunburn," she added, making Eric and Shazza laugh.

"K, won't do that, but doesn't mean-" Eric was cut off by a plate of malformed pancakes being placed in front of him. He glared and watched as dad put a plate of perfectly round pancakes in front of Shazza. "Why does she get the good ones? Daaaaad!"

"Don't complain, it's still food," Riddick replied, taking the moment to give a good morning kiss to Kyra, who returned it eagerly.

"Ew, lost my appetite," Eric mumbled, only to be swatted on the back of his head by Riddick.

"Then," Kyra pulled away from Riddick, "If you're not hungry, I'll gladly eat your food," she pretended to move in to take his plate and alarmed, he guarded it.

"Just kidding, mom!" He nearly squeaked and quickly got to eating.

Kyra left him and his sister at the table, returning to Riddick who was back at the stove. She rested her head on his shoulder and he kissed the crown of her head, slipping a free arm around her waist.

"Who know you could be so talented? Dad, cook, last Lord Marshall, it really is quite impressive." She joked quietly and he sent her a gentle glare.

"Chocolate chips?" He asked and felt her nod against his shoulder. "Course you want chocolate chips, why did I even ask?" He shook his head, glancing back at the table to see that both Shazza and Eric were still eating. "Today's the anniversary you know. Fourth year."

"I know, I got at least twenty messages this morning from various converts. Think we did the right thing, Riddick," she used his old name, one that she used only in private. It was safer if she just referred to him as Richard outside. That and if it slipped to Eric and Shazza, they could tell their friends, who would tell their parents and then there would be a mess.

After Kyra had woken up, she had worked with the Purifiers to find a way to turn every Necromonger back. They had finally accomplished it and were surprised to see that nearly every Necromonger wanted to convert back. It had been four years ago that it was successfully completed and Necromongers became humans again. Many of them went to the conquered planets and helped rebuild them, which had been very good following Riddick's order to disband all Necromonger military force. He and Vaako had stepped down from power as well and the Necromonger Empire was no more.

"Probably. Though Vaako isn't too pleased. Thinks he misses the ships the most." He joked and Kyra laughed quietly.

"That was probably some of the ugliest architecture I've seen." She was about to say something when she caught Eric out of the corner of her eye. "ERIC! You put that syrup-covered fork on our your plate and AWAY from your sister's hair!" She called sharply. "Now, Eric!" She glared at him and he quickly put down his fork, glowering at his sister who stuck her tongue out at him.

"Keep that tongue in your mouth, Shazza." Riddick called and both of them got wide-eyed. He hadn't even been facing them and he knew!

"Show-off," Kyra muttered under her breath.

"Only for you," he replied, taking her entirely in his arms and kissing her. They both ignored the kids' exclamations, just content to finally have a life they could call their own.

Finis.

Hope you all enjoyed the story! There will be another one in the works soon, so I won't be gone too long.

Apologies for the latest of the late updates!