Lord Vaako, a General of the Necromonger Horde, was not always as ruthless as his title and lifestyle implied. He, too, had once been a simple member of a poor planet beset by the Lord Marshal's forces. He'd been a man named Leonard McCoy, a healer. He'd also been an avid hunter, but for most of his Life he'd been a healer first and foremost, fixing broken bones and soothing hurts and staving off death. And then the Necros came. Initially, he'd resisted, but his wife Sadie's quick capitulation after the death of their child in the initial raids had blindsided him, forcing him to consider whether he loved her enough to follow her into this new existence.
In the end, he had, becoming Vaako and stripping himself of everything that had made him human. He rose quickly through the ranks, Sade at his side, neither of them acknowledging the chasm that had grown between them from the unstrippable pain of losing Suzanna. Sade grew cold and viscous, a viper that Vaako was more wary of than of a summons from the Lord Marshal himself. He knew that losing their daughter had destroyed her mind, making her a shell of her former self, stripping her to her base emotions and reactions even before the Curse had taken effect, making her the most dangerous associate that Vaako could ever have.
And he began to hide things from her, learned how to use her ambition to suit his own needs. And slowly, the last traces of Leonard faded into distant past, blunted memories that could cause no pain. Suzanna's death, too, took on the pall of a story he'd heard, rather than something he'd lived. And yet he loved Sade still, burned for her touch when without it for too long, let her think she was controlling his actions in order to keep her close, continue to make her his.
And the years passed not in hours and minutes, but in conquered planets and new Breeders. And Vaako grew nearly as cold as Sade, the only heat between them being that of their coupling, rising higher and higher with each successful campaign. Sade thought that she was making plans, subjugating and undermining the Lord Marshal. But Vaako knew his Lord better than even she, with her wiles and selective cheating could glean. The man – if indeed he could be called such – had fear of nothing, and could put down any challenge made to him with a lift of his pinkie finger.
Until the Breeder called Riddick arrived. For the first time, Vaako saw real fear in the Lord Marshal's eyes when the Regressors screamed in terror and defiance that the man was Furyan, a race that Vaako had never heard of. That made this man interesting, especially when he escaped without a scratch from the heart of Necropolis. Vaako was dispatched with finding and killing him, and off he went, chasing a veritable ghost to a dead, boiling world that housed Crematoria, the largest no-daylight slam in any system, and the worst.
He was certain that he had killed Riddick, and the two Breeders who joined them in their madcap escape from the harsh burning sun of Crematoria seemed to cement that, leaving Riddick, their obvious leader, to bake in the unbearable heat. He didn't notice the absence of the High Priest for three days, occupied instead with healing from his inexplicable injury and coaxing the Breeders to join with the Necros, take the Curse and become one of the Faithful.
When they returned to Necropolis, and the Breeders submitted themselves, he was given the man as a token of the Lord Marshal's esteem, something that Sade likely found unbearable, but that he was hard-pressed to give a damn about. The boy, Jim, was beautiful, all golden hair and electric eyes, neither of which could be dulled by the near-death that had been inflicted upon him. And Vaako noticed that the more time he spent in Jim's company, the more he remembered things from his Life, of being Leonard, husband and father, healer and hunter. And it unnerved him.
And when he finally gave in to his awakened desires, desires that had been buried under layers of conditioning and guilt and Treatments, Riddick returned to Necropolis. Sade immediately sought him out, whispering her poisonous words about ruling the Necros by using the distraction caused by the Furyan to kill the current Lord Marshal, installing himself, of course, as the new one. Vaako had no love for her words, and indeed, felt almost apathetic about the same plans he'd been making for nearly twenty years. The decision was taken from him in an instant when the Furyan's knife sunk into the Lord Marshal's skull, felling him instantly.
And everything changed. Under Riddick's rule, he could be Vaako-and-Leonard, reassimilating personality traits that he had long left behind in the interest of survival. And Sade could be safely discarded, since he knew that Riddick would not tolerate her whispering in his ear, and would be more likely to cut out her tongue than let her manipulate him. The only problem he had left was Jim, who was waiting, patient and silent, for his decision. He already knew exactly what he would do, and when he told the boy his plans, he received the first genuine smile he'd seen since he'd last looked upon Suzanna's laughing face. It felt like the sun.