13. The Compromise Towards Jopah

She watched him as he struggled in his stolen skin. She could see right through his façade now. Utze's spirit was thrashing around inside Riddick and was failing horribly at attempting to escape. While the frantic spirit fought, Kimera was trying to reach what little was left off Riddick's soul. He was afraid of her or to be more specific, she disgusted him. He was distancing himself from her because he had seen the entire thing. She felt a little part of her heart break. He thought she was a monster.

Utze had tears running down his face. He could hear and see the women's screams pulsing like an arriving headache in his mind. What the little girl had done to them in the woods, he never thought that a child could do something so… ghastly and horrific. That was nothing compared to what the young Kimera had done to the village known as Bromax. She had set blaze to the entire forest that surrounded the perimeter, boxing the people in. Kimera wasn't the one driving her body. It was Kazira. Her hollow eyes, void of all emotion except the instinct to kill. He tried to pull himself form he vision but he didn't have enough control over Riddick's body to even lift an arm.

A man like him finding something to be more repulsive than himself was a hard thing to do in Riddick's mind. He saw through Utze's mind to view the same horror that he did. He could feel Kimera trying to reach him while Utze was distracted but, he couldn't go to her. She wasn't the same dirty and torn girl he hard jumped ship with less than a week ago. She was something completely different and he wasn't sure that he wanted to align himself with that. With her black emotionless eyes, the huge mouth of razor teeth and the macabre voice that spoke things that turned his stomach. He tried to avert his gaze but Utze still had more control than he did. She must have felt him pulling away from her because he saw a change in her demeanor. The grin fell from her face and the voices lowered to small whispers in the room. She stood there in silence as the terror carried on, and the words she wouldn't speak, streamed down her face. Tears of blood slid down her chin to make puddles on the floor as she stared back at Riddick on the floor.

"There is a devil inside of me tearing me apart, its taken what it wanted; it stole my broken heart." She croaked out weakly in her regular voice. She fell to her knees at his feet, the sword slipping from her finger to make a loud clang on the floor. Head bowed down in defeat, Kimera looked at her hands and Riddick saw the moment when she went into shock. Her body shook with sobs that filled the room. Utze turned and stared at her, the visions from the past no longer plaguing him. A look of disgust then regret passed over his face.

She was suffering for her past transgressions.

"Fucking hell, I can't do this." Lifting up his head he addressed Kimera in his voice as it left Riddick's lips. "Girl, girl, look at me! I had no choice in the matter of harming you. I am bound to my master by in all meanings of the word. I… I am sorry."

She was hiccupping in small hitched breaths as she looked up at him from behind her curtain of hair. It may have been Riddick's body but the eyes were normal and un-shined. "What do you mean by 'sorry'?" She was staring at him with a stone face. Getting a hold of herself, she crawled towards the beaten man and looked down at him. "Answer me assassin, or I'll kill him to kill you." Her left hand snapped out and she applied pressure to his neck. The eyes flickered back to sliver and she could see the anger and hurt of a possible betrayal in Riddick's eyes. It did not matter to her though, she would kill him to prevent the possibility that any word would get back to the shadowed figure from the mirror. He growled at her and a vein began to pulse in his throat from the strain he was putting on himself to get out of her grasp.

She pushed his head back hard onto the floor and received a loud grunt of pain after the impact. "Go away Riddick, It isn't you that I want to talk with." She spoke as calmly as if nothing had happened. That made him even angrier.

"When I get off this floor bitch I'm gonna gut you like a fish!" He snarled at her in hatred. She sighed and looked at him as if he were a stubborn child.

"I am sure you will try that and many other things, but for now would you shut the fuck up? I'm trying to save your life and you're being a prick!" She raised her right hand and placed her palm on his forehead as he thrashed away from her touch. His body arched slightly, then he went limp and Utze was back.

"He's royally pissed off at you, ya know?" He was trying to lighten the mood but failed when he saw the hurt in her eyes.

"Damn mortal! He better get over himself and start seeing what's right in front of him. Clearly his guard down because of the effects from the anti-toxin, which would explain you being able to get into his body, am I correct?" Kimera still had a firm grip on him as her eyes glowed a pale blue. He fidgeted in his spot slightly.

"You are correct Priestess. We were aware of your meeting with the mortal through your now, deceased friend, Kazira. She had a telepathic link with my master. Even with the distance over several different systems, she had enough power to tell him all he needed to set his plan in motion. So I was sent here to get you out of the way until everything fell into play." Utze continued on with all the plans. It was becoming clear to her that things were not all they seemed. She was being led along like a dog on a very short leash. Utze was coming to the end of his explanation when he mentioned the name of his master, Mitigar. Her eyes snapped up from the floor to stare daggers at him. He stopped speaking immediately.

"What, what did I say wrong? My king, Lord Mitigar, is the one who has been threatening your throne. Not only that but it seems he has some power over the queen and high priestess of Helzard, your mother. Most of us are mere exiles that he rounded up for revenge against the throne."

Staring at him in a skeptical manner she spoke, "what did you do that warranted exile? Hellcastians are very flexible when it comes to punish of their own. You must have done something very, very bad to get booted out."

Utze's eyes glittered over with the show of tears. He placed his head back down on the ground and stared up at the ceiling. "I killed my family."

Kimera had her knees pulled up to her chest while she listened to his story. Repositioning herself so that her head was resting sideways on her knees, she started rocking slowly. "Why'd you kill them?"

"Simple really … I was forced to against my will."

"Ha oh yeah, I just go and off my loved ones whenever I'm told to. Chop, Chop man." She made a slicing movement through the air with her hands and gave a tight laugh.

"I HAD NO CHOICE!" he yelled out. She could hear the sadness behind his voice, and regretted her mocking joke.

"My bad, I was just being an ass. Who made you do it? I never knew of any person who had enough power to do that besides a person of royalty." She hoped against hope that it wasn't her mother who had ordered it.

"Your mother wasn't the one who ordered it, Lord Mitigar did. It was during the time when Demura and Helzard were joint nations. There was little to no talk of revolt among the Demonicos until you were born. The king at the time, Lord Mizer, had just lost his wife during child birth and blamed it on the Queen of Helzard, saying that she had cursed both nations with the birth of her 'strange' child. His son was pre-born, like your self and had all knowledge of things before his time. For some reason, the young prince became very bitter towards his father and rumor has it that he killed him in his sleep with his own sword. A child, mind you, no older than 7, killed his father with that enormous sword of his."

"You're talking about the Time of Dark Conversion aren't you? It was when many innocent people were forced to either convert or die. Mother told me about it when I was little. But didn't a lot of Demonicos flee the planet to come to Helzard instead?"

"Yes, and that is the reason why I was forced to kill my family. I was a rising officer in the ranks, and each of us was given a list of non-believers that were to be disposed of. I was naïve, and chased my family to Helzard and killed them when they arrived. That is why I was exiled from ever having sanctuary on Helzard and my continued slavery to Lord Mitigar."

"Wow that sucks. Sounds like you were an ok guy until that little shit cam into power." Kimera let all of the information sink in. a few moments later she jumped up from her spot and started laughing.

"What happened, are you ok?" Utze was worried that she was switching between emotions so quickly.

"I have got an excellent idea rolling around in my head. How about… you work for me?" She had a large grin on her face and looked genuinely happy.

"Say what? Have you gone mental on me? I just snapped your neck and took over the body of your friend, and now you want me to work for you?" He had managed to right himself and was resting his weight on his hands.

"Hmm yup I think that's about it, yeah. Well I mean it's either you work for me, or I take you out of Riddick's body, and trap you in the mirror so that your real body will die which will leave you a wondering soul for all eternity. It's your pick." She was tapping her bare foot on the floor waiting for an answer.

He thought it over for a bit. Either way he was screwed. If he went back to Demura without her dead, Mitigar would kill him for sure. There was no way in hell he was going to be able to take her down; she was too strong in both body and mind. He was weighting his odds when she sat on him, straddling his waist and pushing him back to the floor again. After catching his bearing he looked up at her and noticed her eyes were red, but weren't glowing yet.

"I don't have all day Utze. We aren't far from Jopah and I can't have an enemy on my ass when I reach that place, they'll be enough of them there as is. So I'm only going to ask you once, are you with me or not?"

Letting out an exhausted breath he replied. "I'm with you."

"Oh goodie." She was bouncing around on him and he could sense Riddick trying to push through again.

"I think you should let me out so that your friend here can have his body back. He's thoroughly pissed off at you and I would hate to be in the way when you two duke it out."

"Oh shit almost forgot about him. Well can you let your self out or has it been too long?" She felt a shifting of energy beneath her. It was obvious that he was struggling with the task. He had been in Riddick's body for over 4 days. That was defiantly too long.

He let out an exasperated sigh and rested his head back on the floor. Sweat had beaded up on hi forehead. "No, I can't do it. He beat the shit outta me and beside that I've been in here for a long ass time. I don't have anything left. Sorry."

"S'okay, I can do it. Just close your eyes, open your mouth and visualize your body. I'll do the rest." He nodded his response to her and did as he was told.

Kimera started chanting over his body and placed her hands on either side of his head. "This might sting a little." As soon as she had said it, the body started to thrash about violently. Two separate voices could be heard echoing in the room.

She was having a hard time finding Utze's body. It couldn't have been far, so it must be somewhere on the ship. Her mid was spilt between searching for the body and keeping Utze from slipping into oblivion. 'The Cargo Hold' his mind was pulling her in that direction. Her mind's eyes searched through all the crates until she came upon a crate that had the seal of Demura on it. "There you are."

Making contact with Utze's body, Kimera tried to separate the two men. Chanting out the spell and putting a good amount of power behind it, Utze's spirit began to rise out of Riddick's body. His eyes glazed over and a strange gurgling noise was coming from Riddick's throat. His body was resisting the separation. Why the hell wasn't it working? She knew what she was doing. She had witnessed her mother perform it many times. What was she missing? Contact. She need more contact with one of the bodies and since she was literally sitting on one, he would have to do.

Opening her eyes she could see a faint shine behind the glazed over eyes. Moving her hands from the side of his head to rest on his cheeks, she lowered her forehead to his and spoke to him. "Riddick, be a dear for me and stop being such a hard ass. I need you to relax. You keep fighting this and you'll be merged with Utze forever. Would you another man in your body Hun? Cuz if you do I can arrange that." The thrashing lessened slightly. Pressing her body into his more, she brought her lips a breath away from his. She whispered upon his lips a promise. "I'll owe you big time for this and for knocking you out earlier." And then she kissed him.