Age of Nox
Chapter 14
Jack had her eyes screwed shut, unsure whether she was doing it to keep tears from coming out or to refuse to accept the cold facts. She had been kidnapped. She had let her guard down, she had been sniped.
There were other voices in muted conversation around her, but she could feel the tone of anger and frustration through the passed words. She still couldn't move. The drug had worn off slightly, she could close and open her eyes, but it would be a long time before she could move any body parts. Trying to avoid the present, she fell back into the past.
Lips moved down her bare stomach, caressing her skin in a way that made her ache for more. But hands held her down as she tried to press up into the gentle touch, wanting more, wanting something harder.
Her nails dug into the mattress as her jaw clenched tight. The trail of heat he left behind was driving her mad, it wouldn't cool no matter how she moved or rubbed. Finally the touch disappeared, but it drove her crazy to realize she was pained without it.
"Jack, relax, just unwind." His voice was above her. A thumb slid feather light across her lips. "Breathe."
In a sudden exhale, her hands relaxed and her eyes opened. The first thing she saw was his blue eyes watching her. Soon the breathing became easier and she completely relaxed against the mattress. One of his hands ran up and down her body, the heat spreading in a smooth wave over her.
"Toombs." The name passed her lips quietly, but he heard her. Her hands traveled from his waist up his chest, finally moving over his shoulders and into his hair. Jack pulled his body over hers and kissed him, doing all she could to be touching him.
She jerked when a needle was jabbed into her skin and she could manage only a dry moan when the electrifying pain washed through her. She could move, but from artificial freeze, she could barely contract a muscle. Jack tried to open and shut her mouth but as she opened it a bit was shoved in and linked tightly behind her. She was still in too much pain to resist when ankle and wrist cuffs were snapped into place. But her sight cleared and she managed to ignore the burning and cold pain, so she pulled herself into a sitting position.
"Caliber, so lovely of you to join us." A man stepped forward, he wore a suit and had 'child-molesting-millionaire' written all over him. He would be the first to go. "My name is Pellon."
She growled something into her bit. At the same moment, she felt a crack beneath her teeth. Looking helpless still, she applied more and more pressure.
"Your journey was pleasant, I'm sure. At least you enjoyed last night, yes?" His eyes held a mocking stare that she hated. The men laughed around him and she was nearly seeing red.
"Who knew Toombs was even worth living with, much less fuck." Another man stepped forward and Jack felt much more than anger to him as well. "At this rate, it wouldn't surprise me if you warmed Riddick's bed, too."
Before he could process what had happened, Jack had snapped the bit and with a sharp turn of her head, flew it through the air. It hit his face with a crack and there was blood.
"Think twice before you talk." She sounded fearsome even with a parched throat.
"Find a stronger bit!" Pellon yelled. "And lock her up!"
She locked eyes with him as she was dragged off, a bit being shoved into her mouth that was a much tougher metal. Jack grunted when they threw her into a small cell, her back hitting the wall with a resounding bang. Electronic, laser and key locks echoed behind her.
Toombs ducked a punch and bowled Riddick over to the floor. He had a few seconds to deliver a few choice jabs before he was thrown off.
Wiping blood off his mouth with the back of his hand, the merc stood, watching the silver-eyed predator fall back into a ready stance. The whole fight had started when he had assumed that it was his plan they would use to rescue Jack. He didn't want to fight, he just wanted Jack back. He needed to feel her in his arms again, safe from harm.
So far, neither of them were winning.
"Give it up, merc, I'll get her and you can be my half-assed backup, not that I'll need any." Riddick growled, wondering how Toombs had lasted so long against him. Jack had probably incorporated some of her moves into him, her moves that were originally his.
"And you think she's gonna take kindly to ya after she knocked you out?" Toombs shot back.
He had a point. Jack would even be stubborn enough to not accept help from him.
"We're using my way and you're gonna open one of those bottles," he pointed at a crate. "We're gonna plan, pull this off and then deal with this drama shit."
Riddick growled. He didn't take orders from anyone. Yet suddenly in his mind's eye he saw Jack tied and gagged, tortured and alone. This wasn't about them, it was about her and he wanted to see her safe again. Toombs watched as his once arch-nemesis went through the thought process.
He himself could barely describe how badly he wanted and needed her.
"No drink, just plan." Riddick finally said and they sat, with a lot of blank paper and writing tools. It would be a long night.
Toombs laid out his basic plan and he worked, sketching escape routes from hologram maps. Riddick just sat and thought, able to put everything through and in his head. It was safer for a convict to do that and in the beginning, that's what Jack had done, too.
"What's she like?" The convict asked suddenly, making Toombs look up.
"You sick, sick sonovabitch. You-" Toombs started, reaching for his blaster.
"As a person." Riddick corrected, his eyes focused elsewhere. "Did she change?"
"A bit here and there, still an electronic geek at heart. Settled in pretty fast, though." Toombs replied, going back to working. But memories of Jack flipped through his mind and found it impossible to put pen to paper. He sat back and looked at the man he had hunted for years. "She doesn't talk about T2, much."
This interested Riddick.
"She isn't afraid of what happened there, just angry." Toombs continued, remembering their singular conversation about the topic a while back.
"No surprise there," Riddick grumbled in reply. A few seconds passed before he said anything. "Probably felt that she was led on, deceived."
"Bull's eye, Dick, that's exactly how she feels." Toombs stood up and stretched. But he sat back down and glanced over the table. "What was it like?"
"What like?"
"T2."
"She never described it?" A shake of the head. "Dark, uncertain. A ghost town of settlers that made a bad mistake. Gained a responsibility called Jack, and another called Imam, but he took care of himself."
"You know people ain't responsibilities." Toombs crossed his arms over his chest.
"She was. Runt couldn't take care of herself."
"Did you let her try to take care of herself?"
Riddick realized the merc had a point. Damn. He'd always just been there and there had never really been an alternative to the set up. Jack was helpless, he protected her.
"Cause she can. When she isn't all busy with her thoughts, that's what got her in that slave house and probably sniped today." Toombs inwardly growled at the thought of Jack in both of those situations.
"Slave house?" Riddick remembered Jack's vagueness on the topic of what happened to her between her escaping from Imam's and pairing up with Toombs.
"Yeah, it was a mess, but I got her out of there. She just sorta grew on me in the one night. I just couldn't let her go off like that, didn't feel right. Yeah," Toombs looked out the ship window into the hangar, "bunch of bullshit."
"She did the same to me but I just got out of there. Wasn't easy." The convict wasn't surprised that the merc had gone through the same emotional tie crap that had taken him completely unawares.
The pair was silent for a few minutes.
"She had a bad childhood, no wonder she ran away and tried passing as some punk-ass boy." Blue eyes rested on the empty co-pilots seat that he wished Jack was sitting in.
"We all did, don't think we'd talk to each other if we didn't." Riddick didn't know why he was just opening up like this, but he blamed it on Jack. "How bad?"
"Mother was an alcoholic, father scrambling for money, told Jack to hightail it outta there. I don't think she's looked back since." It was a decent summary.
"But least she had parents. Not-"
"Abandoned. Don't look surprised, Dick," Toombs snorted. "You think I was some prep that decided this would be fun and got disowned or something? Dammit, they didn't know what to do with me, went through every orphanage in a system in a year. Wonder what the hell they did with you. What, like, prison for babies?" Toombs chuckled, imagining Riddick as a punk-ass little horror of a kid.
"Something like that, hated foster families. Really, just shoulda thrown me in the slam." Riddick looked back on the times spent in foster homes and knew he felt more at home in a slam then he did in any of those places. Except…except he had felt that sense of 'home' when Jack was around.
"You know anything bout your parents?"
"Bitch of a mother left me strangled with the umbilical in a dumpster behind a liquor store." He barely got it out without snarling.
"Everyone's got a way of saying they love ya," Toombs knew it didn't and wouldn't make sense to Riddick, but it was true.
Riddick raised an eyebrow at him.
"Look, you think maybe she didn't want her kid to live in this world, thought something wasn't right about it. Maybe she was hidin' you from somethin', you think about that? Don't doubt that she loved ya, all mother's love their kids, even if they are fucked up on the outside. It's instinct."
"Right. What about Jack's, then?"
"Alcoholic part was the fucked up on the outside part. She probably couldn't accept that she had a kid and that she loved her. Some parents won't."
"And when did you become a family therapist?" Riddick questioned, making Toombs snort.
"It ain't about being an expert, Dick, you've just been not part of this world for too long. You just don't know some basic shit. Like that. I've seen lotsa fucked up people, a few of them mothers, and over anythin' else if someone threatens their kid, they go murderous."
"Any of those kids yours, merc?" Riddick growled, concerned for Jack's place in Toombs' life.
"Fuck no. World can't handle one of me." He stretched again and resumed looking out the window. "Or you, or Jack. We're a different breed."
Riddick watched Toombs, watched him just go silent at the mention of Jack. He smelled the loneliness as easily as he could smell blood. He had something special with her and it obviously caught him on edge when she was taken away from him. Riddick could guess if he were in Toombs' position, he'd feel the same, probably more noticeably murderous, but roughly the same.
"Jack's strong, she's doin' just fine." Riddick looked away from the questioning stare that came from across the table.
They talked a little more, Toombs leaving to rest when he realized he would be needing more than a cup of coffee to get Jack back. Riddick refused to sleep, but stayed up in the cockpit when Toombs went back to the bedroom.
He kicked off his boots and as he went to lay down, he smelled her. All over the bed it smelled like Jack. Images moved quickly through his mind's eye and the strong scent didn't help. Every time he closed his eyes he could only see her and he knew he would not be able to sleep. Not a snowball's chance in fucking hell could he sleep.
He tugged back on his boots and went outside to the cockpit, where the cold metal, although still resonated with Jack's presence, wasn't as bad as the bed.
"Can't sleep." He replied to Riddick's stare.
Sitting heavily down in the pilot's seat, he kicked up his feet and tried to relax. Really, how could he with his most-wanted bounty in the same room and armed? But he managed to close his eyes.
"Jack!" He shouted into the ship.
"Yeah?" She yelled back, sounding busy.
"Bed's gettin' cold!"
He heard her laughter and smiled. It was around two in the afternoon and she claimed she had to stretch her legs. He was smacked for a comment about her legs and stretching, but he let her go all the same. Toombs listened to her move around the ship, but he couldn't hear her feet, so he had to listen for other sounds. She hummed, too, so it wasn't all too hard.
"You called, darlin'?" She appeared in the doorway, a smirk lighting her face.
"That I did. Bed looks small but it could use another occupant," he looked oblivious to the obvious line.
"You called and I came, Toombs, move the hell over, it's still cold as an icebox in here," he laughed at her pun as she bodily pushed him to one side and climbed back in, shivering. He wrapped his arms around her and she radiated contentedness. Toombs looked down at her and she felt the shift in position, so she looked up at him, a gentle smile still in place.
"Jack, you ain't gotta go see 'im." She sighed deeply and looked away from him, resting her head back on his chest. "While this would benefit me, that ain't what I'm gettin' at. Just seems like you always get upset 'n screwy every time you talk about 'im or see 'im."
"I know, it's just that I owe it to him. I ran off, just totally got up and disappeared. He just wants to know what the fuck I've been doing all this time." Jack snuggled into him even more. "You get it, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, babe, whatever you want." Toombs leaned down and kissed her head. "Just stay outta trouble."
Jack grunted into the bit when she was thrown to the floor, at someone's feet nonetheless. She wasn't taking well to being treated like this and the moment she was released, if she was, she would be inflicting some serious damage.
"Caliber, we aren't pleased with the state of things. Why aren't your friends here yet?" The voice sounded like Pellon's.
She remained unmoving.
"I asked you a question!" Jack didn't see it, but he gave a motion to one of the guards and she was caught by surprise when a steel-toed boot smashed into her left shoulder. She bit down hard on the bit to remain from screaming, she had felt and heard cracks and at best, her shoulder and arm were dislocated.
She mumbled "I don't know" through her bit and Pellon looked far from interested.
"Well boys, you know the drill. Rough her up a bit, let's get some photos to send to Riddick and Toombs, get 'em fired up a bit." Before Pellon left, he kicked Jack onto her back and stepped on her left shoulder and she couldn't bite down hard enough, so a moan of pain came through.
"Sounds like she's enjoying it and we only want to please the guest! Get to work!" His echoing footsteps soon died out and the chuckles of the men around her was the last thing she wanted to hear.
Riddick didn't know if he wanted Toombs to see these pictures.
He had gone outside to check for bugs on the ship and turned up empty handed except for a folder taped onto one of the landing wheels. He snorted. He thought he had heard a rat around the ship.
But when he opened the folder the beast woke up and a rippling snarl had echoed through the hangar.
There were pictures of Jack, tortured and beaten.
He knew it was to prod them, to get them emotionally unstable so they could be caught off guard when they got to Jack and whoever was holding her. Question was, how would Toombs react? Both he and Toombs had seen a lot of torture like this, on both sides of the job, but it was different when it was someone you knew and in Toombs' case, someone he loved.
"Hey, Dick, what's takin' ya?" The merc's voice yelled from the open ramp. "Whatcha got there?" Riddick knew he didn't have a choice at this point and handed the folder to Toombs, who looked mildly confused.
"Get ready." Was all Riddick said when he walked back up the ramp, leaving the merc behind him. Leaving him to his thoughts.
Toombs could just contain his anger. Photo after photo of her body mutilated and torn, he couldn't tell if she was even alive. Her pants were ripped and bloodied and they had tied strips of cloth around her chest, in a strange manner of privacy.
Her arms were pulled above her head, her wrists cuffed and a chain pulled them up and from the distortion of her left shoulder, he could tell that in itself was painful. There were bruises spreading across her ribs, as well as cuts and in one, he could see alcohol being poured over them. But he noticed in all of them, her eyes were closed, her face completely void of emotion.
"Merc, let's go." Riddick's voice rumbled from the top of the ramp.
Toombs looked at the pictures one last time before stalking up the ramp, his rage nearly creating a tangible aura as he passed by. Riddick heard the crackling of the incinerator before blasters, handguns and a few other weapons were strapped on. The angry man appeared a few seconds later, keying the lock for the ramp.
"Those motherfuckers are gonna pay," he snarled, starting off across the hangar.
Riddick's beast couldn't agree more.
Woo! End of chapter! It's sort of the first half of the last vote, but wanted to keep you guys interested. Hope everyone is liking it.
-Shamrock