Disclaimer: I don't own Riddick or anything related to his name, other than the other characters and places mentioned here in this story. Enjoy.

"Get him out of my sight! I'll not tolerate the presence of traitors in my kingdom!" With that Riddick was dragged like a stunned animal out of the throne room and into a dungeon cell to await his punishment for treason to the throne.

"Just tell me what I did and I promise I'll make it right!"

"Put a bit in his mouth so no one has to hear his lies."

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"Jaden, you're my brother, tell me what happened after I left. She's acting as if I've betrayed her in some way, when all I did was that stupid task her father set before me. I even made it back a couple of days early to make sure that her father couldn't back down from his end of the deal."

"Lucian told her all about the 'task' that he gave you. How she wasn't really a princess from that other world, and how she was supposed to be seducing you the entire time. When you never contacted her, she assumed that you were too busy with her father's head concubine to remember that you had a wife waiting back here for you to call her and tell her that everything would be alright.

"So, I imagine that she probably feels betrayed by you and your inability to remain faithful to her for any extended period of time.

"Now that her father has passed on from the illness that overtook his body during your 'task', Zoë has been crowned Matriarch and has been given the power to rule this system alone, with an alliance base of at least six other systems; two brothers, three sisters, and my own." Jaden straightened up to look down at his older brother with pure smugness dripping off of his aura.

"Nothing happened! There is nothing in the universe that could possibly make me so much as want to do anything to jeopardize what I have with Zoë."

"Correction… What you had with Zoë. As of now, you are a traitor to the throne, your doomed to rot down here in this luxurious dungeon cell because she knows that would be the worst possible torture for you, and I've been working my way into her heart since her father died, and am about to proposed to her so our alliance will be even stronger. You lose big brother."

Riddick tried to rip the chains from the wall, but the adrenaline that coursed through his system couldn't compare to the exhaustion draining his very essence. At most he was able to make an effort to strangle Jaden, but didn't get anywhere near his neck.

"You know she belongs with me Jaden, so why are you doing this?" Riddick had settled back down to the ground, doing his best to remain in a calm demeanor so rational thought would take back over.

"Because you don't deserve her or her love. The only thing you deserve is a dark cell and a bit in your mouth." Malice oozed from his words as he practically spit them at Riddick.

"What makes you think I don't deserve her?"

"Because, big brother, she doesn't deserve the shit you've put her through, and will inevitably cause for her. She belongs with the man who can give her every happiness in the universe and make her feel like she is the most important person in his life.

"She has been the only reason for my existence since the day of my birth. Can you say the same thing? Or were there too many others for you to remember what your destiny was supposed to be?"

"That's not fair. You got to grow up safe and protected, where I've had to take care of myself all of my life. I've done things to survive that I'm not proud of, and there have been those that have passed through my life, but that doesn't make Zoë any less important to me.

"I love her, and I know she still loves me. Nothing you do or say will change that fact. And I will get her back."

"Riddick, the only chance you have of getting her back now is if you can prove to her beyond a shadow of a doubt that you love her and will never allow anything to happen to her. And since you're locked up down here, I don't see that happening before she becomes my bride and queen."

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A week passed by with Riddick held in sensory deprivation: a bit in his mouth, a blindfold around his eyes, and plugs in his ears. He was treated like nothing more than a caged animal, even by the only person who still loved him.

Zoë came down to the dungeons everyday after the sensory deprivation had begun to make sure he hadn't begun to go insane. She would simply sit in the room and watch him and he breathed through the bit, or she would talk to him even though she knew that he would never be able to hear her let alone answer the questions she posed for him. The entire process was neurotic at best, but oddly therapeutic for the young queen. She could yell at him for everything that he had done to her or that other people had pissed her off for, and she wouldn't get any comments that would sound plagiarized and overused.

But what she didn't realize was that Riddick knew the moment that she entered the room every time. She had a truly unique scent that Riddick could still pick up, even with the horrid smells that assaulted his senses. The one thing they hadn't cut off from him was his keen sense of smell, so he knew when Zoë was angry, frustrated, sad, or even happy. So, it didn't matter that he never heard her words he knew, relatively, what she was saying or where she was while in the room. And no matter how angry or frustrated he sensed her to be, he could always feel the warmth radiating off of her; the warmth that let him know that he was still loved by the angel standing before him. And that's all he needed to get him through this ordeal.

On the final day of his deprivation, Zoë boldly approached the gorgeously chained man before her and stroked his head ever so gently as she said, "Tomorrow I will hear your side of the story, and see if what you have to say adds up with the facts that I have found to be true. I love you, and hope for your sake that you do not lie to me, for it will cost you your life."

'I swear, I'll do anything it takes to win you back.'

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"There have been new developments concerning your case, and I am now ready to hear what you have to say for yourself. After hearing your side, I will make my decision on whether or not to kill you for treason to the throne." Zoë stood before him in magnificent splendor. She looked every bit the part of a queen, and Riddick found himself at a complete lose for words.

"The Queen brings you up from the lowly dungeons to give you a chance to explain your actions, and you waste her time gawking at her. How dare you…," Jaden was doing his best to sound as if he had any standing in Zoe's court, but Riddick knew better.

"I'm not gawking at her Jaden; I'm merely gazing upon the very picture of perfection. I have been too long with only the memory of her face, and my image has begun to fuzz beyond recognition. I would not dare waste the time of so perfect a being.

"But something tells me that no matter what I tell her Majesty, she has already made a decision on what my life is to entail, so I am deciding whether I should waste the courts' time with a tale that will only fall on deaf ears." Riddick knew that no one here would listen to what he had to say, and even if Zoë where going to hold off on her decision until after he had finished, everyone else in the room would just confuse the facts when he said something against their story.

"If you don't tell me your side of the story now, than you won't get another chance, and regardless of the new facts I have found out, I will make my decision as if nothing new had been presented. Do you wish to take that chance?" 'Come on Riddick… just tell me what really happened on that ship for the trip to Mayona 6 and I can make all of this go away, and take you back without losing face.'

"I will gladly tell you anything you wish to know, but I will only talk to you, your majesty. I fear that anything I have to tell you, your advisors will poison you against and will therefore influence your decision. And I doubt my life can handle influence from them. Might I speak alone with the Queen?"

Zoë knew this couldn't be a good idea, but she had to hear what had happened between the concubine and her husband from his lips. If she had to be alone with him for him to tell her, than she was willing to put her self control to the test.

"Guards, take him to my chambers, undo the shackles, and post guards at every known exit so he can't escape. I will hear his side of everything in private, and make my decision after. No one here will argue with me on any part of my decision, or you'll spend a few nights in the deep dungeons. Am I understood?" Zoë looked about the room with a glare that promised all that she threatened and more for those that defied her orders.

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Deep blues and greens, and vibrant silver flooded Zoë's room. The walls and bed curtains were of the deepest blue; almost black, the window dressings and the floor were such a seductively dark green that they too almost appeared black; at first glance, and the actual blankets, and the majority of the furniture were such a vibrant silver that they appeared white.

Once the shock had worn off, right about the time Zoë walked into the room, and the doors were closed, Riddick rounded on Zoë, picked her up round the waist and slammed here against the wall next to the doors. Running completely off animal instincts, Riddick melded his body into Zoë's as he crushed his lips on hers in a mind-blowing, earth-shattering kiss.

Zoë could feel all of his passion pouring into her through the kiss, and his dick nearly breaking through all of their clothes trying to dive deep into her body. She lifted one of her legs to wrap around his waist to allow for better contact, but remembered all too suddenly why he was here in her chambers now, after having been gone from him for so long. So, instead of wrapping her leg around his waist, she swept her leg underneath his and landed him on the ground flat on his back. He reached out to pull her to the ground with him, but Zoë let her wings free and took flight before he had a chance, and landed clear across the room.

"You were brought in here to tell me your side of the events, not attack me! So Start Talking!"

Riddick got up from the floor and began to walk around the room, doing what he did best; stalking his prey and keeping them off balance. "You already know the task that your father placed before me: to take the young princess from here to her home world, without incident, and return here in under a year or I would have to forfeit my claim to marry you. However, before I was to depart, your father placed an additional task before me: not to have any contact with you for the entire time I was away.

"His belief was that just having to stay away for a year wasn't enough of a task, so not being able to talk to you, or look at you over to vid-com was to be more of a test for me. But he promised that he would tell you what was going on, because he was sending me off immediately."

Zoë scoffed at his explanation so far. It seemed that her father had been lying to her from the beginning; not that it surprised her much.

"While we were on the ship, I'll admit there were times that I was tempted to give in to her seductions, but the very thought of hurting you and destroying the trust you had in me kept me from doing more than thinking about it.

"It wasn't even until I had delivered her to the palace just before the six month mark that she told me that I was the first man to ever control myself around her, and that I was likely to end up ruining her reputation as a concubine.

"I swear absolutely nothing happened between me and that girl! Hell! She didn't even so much as get a scratch on her body while she was under my care. I did my task as issued by your father and a week sooner than allotted.

"If you don't believe me, you can even contact the girl. She swore that she would back me up if there were any problems."

The entire time Riddick was talking, keeping Zoë's attention on him instead of on the fact that they were walking circles around the bed, Riddick getting closer and closer to her as he maneuvered them closer to the bed. Now he had her about a foot from the edge of the bed, and he was close enough to her that he could see the tiny sparkles in her eyes as she processed what he'd just told her.

"So, does the Queen believe her lowly subject, or should I get my affairs in order?" His hands went to her hips, hoping that she would respond positively and not push him away.

Zoë looked away from him for a split second, looking down in a mock submission stance, and Riddick pushed his luck even further by throwing her fully on the bed and landing on top of her with another earth-shattering kiss.

She responded by wrapping her legs around his waist and Riddick stopped thinking.

A/N: Another chapter finally finished! Sorry it's taken me so long to get this finished, but there have been so many other things weighing on my mind and heart lately. But now that things are getting better in the real world, my little fantasy worlds are finally getting some attention.

Hope you enjoyed, even though I cliff hung the good stuff.