He pulled away from her, regretfully. The temptation to finish what they'd started last night was strong. But the young doctor had been quite clear, even as she was trying to avoid words like "don't," and "no." Jack needed to avoid excitement and exertion for a while. She had lost a great deal of blood, and Tier had pumped her full of a drug cocktail that should have left her paralyzed and sedated for hours. A miracle her body had been able to resist it. A miracle the doctor was clearly interested in; their initial examination had not revealed she was anything but Terran standard.

Still, she seemed open to him in a way she hadn't since she'd come to the Necropolis. Since their confrontation in the gymnasium, something had been bothering him. He took her hand, started to stroke it. "Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Kyra. Did something happen between you two?" This was incredibly awkward. "Did she . . . hurt you?"

She made a funny laugh. "Well, that was inevitable. She was trying to teach me to protect myself."

"Not what I meant."

She sighed, looked down, but she didn't pull away. "We had . . . problems. I didn't make a good impression. She wasn't ready to deal with a freaked out pregnant sixteen year old. I was . . . ricocheting between pathetically grateful, numb and hysterical. She tried . . . but she was just overwhelmed by it."

He was trying very hard. But his brain had shut down at 'pregnant.'

"You were pregnant?"

"I thought you knew that." Now she was pulling away.

He wouldn't let her. "No, I didn't know that. Why would I know that?"

"Because your doctors asked me a lot of questions about it, Riddick. I figured it was in the medical report."

He stared at her. He'd only read the first page; the thing that said she was a healthy woman approximately 21 years old. Something twisted inside. "Who got you pregnant?" I'm going to kill the mother fucker. Kill him slowly.

"How the fuck would I know? One of those guys. The ones that Kyra killed."

One of what guys – oh shit. "From rape." His voice was flat.

She gave him one, strangled look, then her face shut down, and she looked away. "Yeah. Riddick, I've never – I've never willingly -- "

All sorts of things were slotting into place. I never should have left you, he thought, distantly. "Jack. I'm . . . sorry."

There was a very long pause. Then, finally, "not your fault. You didn't do it. I'm over it."

But it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for me. There was a long silence. Finally, he broke it. "Did you . . . have it?"

She didn't answer for a long time. "No. I didn't have her. She took her."

The statement made no sense. "Kyra aborted it?"

"No . . . I mean she took it. Her. Out of me. Had her incubated."

Incubated? That's illegal in most places; costs shitloads of cash everywhere. How does a girl with access to that kinda money end up in Cremetoria? "Where is she?"

"Guess she's been adopted. I don't know where. I never met her."

"Was that what you wanted?"

She made a strange noise in her throat. "Riddick, Kyra's kinda like you. She made all the big decisions. It was probably the right thing to do. I wasn't thinking clearly at the time."

He stroked her hair, gently. "Do you . . . want us to try to find her? She is your family . . . " Which makes her my family . . . Fuck, where's this coming from? I want to adopt the daughter of the man who raped Jack?

She made a slightly exasperated sound. "Riddick, Necromongers kill children. If your people found her, they killed her already. It's . . . not okay, but it's not like we attached or anything. I don't even know her birthday."

My men might have killed your daughter.

She was right, of course. Necromongers killed children. He'd moderated the policy somewhat; allowing younger and younger people to convert, but he hadn't stopped it. Seemed merciful not to leave orphans.

But now, the revelation that her child – her daughter -- might have been one of those children killed so mercifully hurt in a completely new way.

A part of him wanted to fix this.

He needed to know if there were any more of these revelations coming. "Jack," he said, softly. "Is there anything else? Got any more family out there? Did Kyra do anything else to you?"

She looked shifty. "Kyra said she'd kick my ass if I told anyone."

"I'm not anyone."

"And promise you won't tell anyone?"

"Yes, kid," he whispered. Who does she think I talk to, anyway?

Finally, without looking at him, "she took one of my ovaries. When I confronted her about it, she said I was going to be the mother of a mighty race. Guess ours . . . was mighty, once. And then was wiped out, before I was born. Only a few people didn't die."

"What people?" But he was fairly sure he already knew.

"Kyra wouldn't tell me. Said knowing would put me at 'greater risk.' Said that the people who did it are still looking for survivors. There's some prophecy they are trying to defeat or something. She wouldn't say much."

Furyan. Both of you. Like me. Kyra was trying to resurrect our dead people.

Was that why she was looking for me?

Or was it just about vengeance? I haven't dreamed of Shirah once since I killed Zhylaw.

Fuck. I killed Zhylaw to save Jack. Which was stupid. I should have just grabbed her and left. Did Kyra set that whole fuckin' thing up so she could get vengeance?

Did she set me up?

Did she set Jack up?

The implications were dizzying.

Jack did come with him that day. But they didn't talk.

Things were low key and quiet between them the next few days. Finally, on the third night, after dinner, Riddick made a decision.

"Come on. Something I wanna do."

Jack shrugged and followed him. He took her to a part of his chambers she had barely explored, because all the doors were always locked. He opened one of those locked doors, and gestured her towards a black maw. She held back, uncertain.

"What's down there?"

"I'll show you. Come on." He took her reluctant hand and led her down and down a spiral staircase. The light faded fast.

After an eternity, they reached the last step, entered a long curved tunnel. It sloped downwards. Jack, for whatever reason didn't complain about the near total lack of light. But she did walk slowly, one hand in his, the other trailing the wall. "It feels like rock."

"Yeah."

"Why is there rock on a space ship?"

"They scooped the city down to the bedrock."

Jack didn't say anything for a long time. Just seemed to be concentrating on her descent in what was, now, pitch darkness.

"We have to crawl through this next part. You first. Go slow." He took her hand, ran it over the low mouth of a tunnel.

She made a face, but did not complain. Just felt again for the ceiling and walls before gingerly lowering herself to the tunnel's sandy floor. Then she looked back, trying to sense where he was. "Can you see me?"

Can I see you? You blaze like a sun in the darkness. I am drunk off of the smell of the blood in your veins. You are the only thing in the universe I would mourn if it all spiraled into the abyss.

The strength of his response shocked him. Holy shit, I'm completely falling for her.

You fell for her a long time ago, asshole.

"I can see everything."

She started moving forward, slowly, on all fours. "You're Gilgamesh."

"What?"

"Gilgamesh. He Who Saw Everything. An old book, maybe the first book, about an ancient king. That was the subtitle in Sumerian. He who Saw Everything. I took a class once. Kyra thought it was important."

What the fuck was Kyra doing to this kid? I've heard of grooming before, but this is getting weird.

Kyra. There was a part of him that wished, really wished, Kyra had been Jack all grown up, and was still alive. Or at least was still alive . . . that he was falling in love with her instead of this girl he'd known as a child . . .

Then something else hit him. Huh. Shirah told me I can see everything. Like Gilgamesh. Did she mean I was supposed to be a king? That she thought this was supposed to happen? Was she . . . setting me up? Just like her?

Jack kept talking, slowly, as if to distract herself from the darkness. "Gilgamesh was part god. And a bad king, because he didn't care about his people. He used to rape — he used to do bad things. The people prayed, and the gods sent him a companion, Enkidu, who was part animal. They became best friends. Some say lovers. They became human together."

Her voice trailed off. He was curious, if only because she was actually talking without seeming to agonize over every word. "What happened?"

"Lots of things. They fought each other; they fought together against others, they fought the wind. Finally, they pissed off the Queen of Heaven, Ishtar. She sent a monster to kill Enkidu. When he died, it broke Gilgamesh's heart. He went on a quest to defeat death."

Riddick snorted. Weird. Never thought about other people going into the underworld to retrieve the people they . . . He couldn't finish the thought."Did he win?"

"No. He almost did."

She seemed to be concentrating on the journey. After a long time, she offered, quietly, "but he came back to be a good king."

The tunnel curved gently downwards in a widening spiral. After a very long time, it opened into mammoth cavern. There was a considerable distance from the mouth of the tunnel to the floor.

"Wait. There's a drop. Don't want you to fall. Lemme past." Riddick squeezed past her in the tunnel, enjoyed it more than he probably should have, dropped down into the open space far below. Turned to watch her.

Blinking blindly she found the edge with her hands. "What do I do?"

"Just fall. I'll catch you." After only the briefest of hesitations, she dropped into the darkness. He caught her easily.

He set her down slower than he had to, grasped her hand again and led her through the maze of columns that seemed to reach up into infinity. Tiny bits of light began to weakly illuminate the empty spaces.

"How did you find this place?"

"Aereon told me about it. Said it was at the bottom of it all. Under the Necropolis. What ties this place to the Underverse, or some fuck. Took me a while to find. It's a labyrinth down here. Don't come down here without me."

"Was this really a city once? On a planet?"

"That's what they tell me."

It was echoingly silent except for the crunch of their feet on sand and the sluggish sound of slowly moving water. Absurdly, it was a stream, undulating its way through the columns that now looked like ancient dead trees. Maybe they were ancient dead trees. There were things like rocks scattered, some of them as large as tables. Up close, the water was dark and smelled dead.

He brought her close to one of the table shaped rocks, still not letting go of her hand.

The stone was stained red. There were wrought iron manacles mounted on the stone. Her breath caught. "They used to sacrifice people here?"

"Yeah."

She fingered the manacles with her free hand. He let her go so she could examine them better. They were small, though he was dead certain they would fit over her wrists. "Children?"

He shrugged. Didn't feel inclined to tell her about the first time he'd come here. About the nearly skeletalized remains of a child chained to this rock. He'd spent a long time examining her, wondering whether it had been fast and merciful or whether she'd died slowly, alone in the dark, dying of thirst feet from a river.

The manacles around her bones had sprung open when he touched them. She could have been freed so easily, had anyone cared to do so.

He'd sat down beside her, heart oddly heavy, and even he had almost jumped out of his skin when the computer started talking to him. Called itself it the conduit. Knew who he was. Answered his questions. Pledged obedience without question. But would only talk to him when he sat on this rock.

She'd died fast, it said. An opened jugular. He was glad.

While her flesh had mostly rotted away, the simple white dress was made of some synthetic fabric, untouched by time. He'd rolled her bones in the dress, tied the bundle together with the sleeves and the belt.

Learned this girl, and thousands before her, had died on this rock, all to tie this place to the Underverse. He'd almost ordered the computer to destroy the whole fuckin' city at that. He couldn't stop thinking of Jack, chained to this rock, dying fast, dying slow, dying alone, dying circled by screeching monsters. Only the hope she might be alive had kept him from doing something apocalyptic that night. Only the fact the bones were too small to be hers. Only the fact the computer said this girl had died more than two decades ago. He wished it had known her name.

He carried her bones back into his chambers and incinerated them quietly. Hung the necklace on a doorknob. Touched it every day.

Somewhere, lost in thought, he'd sat down on the stained rock. Jack hadn't. She'd even put down the manacles, moved a little away from him. "You love me," she said. There was a flatness in her voice he didn't understand.

"Yeah," he said, noncommittally.

She eased away. "I've read stories of the gods ordering kings to take someone they love to some sacred space, chain her to a rock and sacrifice her. Or leave her for the monsters to rip apart . . ."

He stared at her, not understanding what she was saying. Understanding only that she was moving away. Not good. He didn't trust this place. He was oppressed by things swirling, just out of reach, among the pillars; hungry ghosts who longed for him to join them. They were afraid of him, he thought, but as she eased away, they were settling around her.

Not acceptable. He moved fast, closed a hand around her upper arm, harder than he meant too. They fled. He could almost hear them screaming.

The sharp smell of her fear surprised him. "Why did you bring me here, Riddick?"

Oh, fuck. She was getting entirely the wrong idea.

He kept his grip on her, but tried to be gentle. "I didn't bring you here to die." He sat back down on the rock, pulled her down next to him, softly. "It's just a place. A place I don't want you to tell anyone about. Listen. Conduit?"

"Yes, Lord Marshal?" a mechanical male voice slithered out of the dark.

"This is Jack."

"Hello, Jack."

"Remember her."

"Yes, Lord Marshal."

"She can go anywhere, unless I specifically forbid it."

"Yes, Lord Marshal."

"Open every door. Fly every ship." Heard Jack gasp, her fear replaced by something meltingly sweet.

"Yes, Lord Marshal."

"Make it irrevocable. Tell no one."

"Yes, Lord Marshal."

"That's all."

"Yes, Lord Marshal." There was a click, and it seemed the mechanical voice was not listening any more.

"Every ship?" Her voice was wondering.

"Yeah. If something happens to me, take Ziza and get out. You know how to pilot, right?"

Damn it, she was tearing up again. Her eyes were shining with something like adoration. That irritated him.

She said, almost teasingly, "Kyra made sure I did. But aren't you afraid I'll run away?"

He took her face in his hands. Her fear gone, she raised her face to make eye contact, a dreamy look on her face like she expected him to kiss her, wanted him to kiss her. Had a sudden image of taking her, roughly, on this rock where so many children had died. It was far more appealing than it should be.

His pitched his voice low, his cadence slow. "You run, I chase. You hide, I hunt. And I will kill anyone who gets between us."

She swallowed, the look of adoration fading fast. That also irritated him. She broke eye contact.

"Jackie. I'm not a good man. Don't think you are going to redeem me."

He actually felt slightly guilty. He let go of her face, kept talking as if he had not said anything to feel guilty about. "Thing about this place, no one but me has been here for decades. I think they've forgotten how to get down here. But for some reason there's a direct computer interface no one seems to be listening to." He grinned. "Maybe it's a Lord Marshal thing."

She nodded, without looking at him. Her eyes were hooded, distant, now. He went on. "Your access only works on voice and biometrics. If there's a mechanical back up, it won't help you. If you're inside a cell, you'll be staying there.

"Don't let anyone know. Only you and I know it. Let's keep it that way. You might need every second."

She had turned away from him, picked up the manacles again. Ancient cast iron, roughly made, with the two loops fixed close together into a figure eight. She started fingering them, turning them over and over in her hands. The silence stretched. Finally, she broke it. "Lemniscate. Ouroboros."

"What?"

"Infinity signs. See how each loop is a snake eating its own tail? That's the Ouroboros. Then they are set so close to each other they make an infinity sign. A Lemniscate. That class where we read Gilgamesh, the one Kyra had me take, we studied this. In some cultures, they are goddess symbols." She started tracing her finger around the twin loops.

What the fuck is she talking about now?

He didn't really care what she meant. But he couldn't bear what she was doing any more. "Put those down," he growled. She froze. Laid the manacles down carefully.

"Okay. Why?"

He actually felt torn. Finally, with a voice so low it was almost lost in the murmur of the waters, "I found someone here. A girl. Chained to this rock. Your size, when we met. Back on that planet."

"Alive?"

"No."

She shuddered, made eye contact for an instant. She looked raw. "You thought it was me?"

"No. But . . . she made me of think you. All the ways you could die in the dark, without me . . ." His voice trailed away.

He hadn't meant to tell her that.

"That's why you sent your men after me. You couldn't stop thinking of me dying."

"I told you I wanted you safe. Did you doubt me?"

"I'm not naïve, Riddick. I know you left me to die."

He chewed on that for a long time. Finally, admitted it. "Yeah. I did. Once. Never again."

Her voice was soft. "And sometimes, when you look at me, it's not exactly with the eyes of a loving older brother."

Is that what you want? "No."

She gave him a sad smile, ran her hand over the rock, over the grit of dried blood. "You're getting predictable, you know."

"Huh?"

"You treat me well, you do something incredibly kind and thoughtful, and when I start to relax, remember I love you, you go all psycho-predator on me."

He couldn't help smiling. "Never said I had social skills. This human thing is completely new to me. Or whatever we are. I'm much better at playing the monster in the dark."

She actually laughed. "It really burns you up that you care about me, doesn't it?"

To his surprise, he gave her an honest answer. "Sometimes. Fuckin' Catch 22. If I didn't, you'd be safer."

"I'd be safer than I am with the god-king of killers, in the belly of a war machine, sitting on a rock they used to kill children on? How did we get mixed up in this?"

Now, he laughed. "Don't ask me. I was just lookin' for you."

She rested her head on his shoulder. His arm went around her, automatically. "Would you do something for me?"

Find your daughter? Give you your own planet? Give you the still beating heart of the Chief Justice of the Galactic Supreme Court? I'd give you almost anything but your own room. Just ask. Just ask.

"Listening."

She didn't continue right away. "You're so good at keeping people just at the edge of terror, so they don't dare cross you."

He shrugged.

"You want me with you. I want to be with you. All I've wanted for years and years. But I don't think our, um, relationship is long for the universe if we keep replaying this pattern. We start to get close, you go psycho-predator on me, and I pull away. You give me some space, I start to relax, and it all starts over."

He said nothing.

"I can get past the kidnapping. You thought you were doing the right thing; you probably were. But every time you threaten me, it twists me up inside. Just – just be nice."

"Interesting." There was a long silence as he chewed over what she said. "I'll try."

"Thank you." Her voice was soft. "Do we have to walk up all those stairs again?"

"Dunno. Conduit?"

"Yes, Lord Marshal?"

"Is there another way out of here?"

"There is an airlock approximately fifty yards, 30 degrees from the altar, facing celestial north. It requires a space ship. Shall I summon one?"

There's a way into the city here? That's not on any of the city's specs. "No. Any other way?"

"No, Lord Marshal."