Chapter 2
The next couple of years were very hectic for me. I'd started researching Furia almost straightaway. It was hard to find info on them; it seemed a lot of it had been concealed either by themselves or the race that destroyed them: the necromongers. That was the one supposedly concrete fact I had, the necromongers had destroyed the Furian race, all of it. So I started travelling more than I was used to, to different systems, killing people and looking for Furians. With no luck. I knew Riddick and I hadn't been alone in that crowd, but it seemed all the others had died. But if that was true, why weren't we dead? For more than a year I searched for the answers. I found some of them in the form of an underground leader by the name of Gradden. He was the typical sort for his position, ugly, fat and very difficult to get information out of. It took three very difficult kills before he told me what I wanted to know.
He'd heard a rumour that the last survivors of the Furian race, a group of kids, apparently, had been captured by the necromongers at the end of the war. But they hadn't been killed. They'd been subjected to some sort of medical program that locked their memories unless they were released by certain keywords from their pasts. This information was very helpful to me, in my gratitude, I only beat him up when I had originally intended to kill him.
During the course of my travels I found a very interesting doctor. He turned out to be the same guy who had glazed Riddick's eyes, and with some encouragement, he did mine. They were much more up to date, they changed colour with my moods as well as allowing me to see in the dark. I loved them, sadly, the doctor wasn't alive to admire his work for long. He was found dead in his workshop with a list of names. They were later found to be a list of women he'd raped or beaten. I kept searching.
I let my search for Furians come top priority over my work, I guess I got a little sloppy. Either way, eventually one of the groups of idiot bounty hunters that was out to get me managed to do their jobs. It was one of Riddick's personally favourite mercs, Toombs. I hadn't been in contact with Riddick of course, but I'd kept an eye on his career. I'd lost track of the number of crews Toombs had taken after Riddick. It was quite embarrassing really, I'd been walking back to my hotel after hanging out in a club trying to get some news when five mercs had appeared out of the shadows. I took out three but they were all fast and one of them managed to get a tranquiliser in me. I woke up on their ship.
I went through the necessary, checked the chains on my arms, took in my surroundings, tried to kick Toombs in the balls when he got too close. No good signs. The chains were tight and Toombs jumped away fast enough. As for my surroundings, it was a standard issue merc vessel. Fairly up to date, very clean.
"You hired a cleaner Toombs? This ship's cleaner than your usual, bet she couldn't get the dirt off of your face though, been there too long." That got me a slap in the face. Oh, the horror.
"You won't be so cocky when we drop you off at your new home." Toombs smirked. I wondered why I was headed. Butcher Bay was one option, but it was a long way away, I couldn't think what the nearest prison planet was. Until…Crematoria. Shit. I ran through my mind all the facts I knew about the burning prison. It was on a planet with atmosphere but it was so close to a star that life was impossible. The prison was underground, and they offered huge bounties. There weren't any psych wards or low security units, it was all out five star criminals. I was gonna get my ass kicked. And somewhat more than that. Crematoria was all murderers and rapists. I was really really screwed. I'd gone pale without realising it, and Toombs knew exactly what was running through my mind. But he was also an idiot, and he had stepped too close. I landed my kick from earlier and he backed off swearing.
Eight hours of swearing an insults later, we were at Crematoria. The beginning of the end.