WOW 100+ reviews for my story thus far! A big thank you for all of you who take the time to review and tell me what you think. It really means a lot. As promised this next chapter was posted a lot soon than the last, (I bet you didn't expect two in one week huh?) and I hope to keep up this positive trend of posting more often. The story is un-betaed so you will have to forgive my spelling/grammar mistakes. I own none of these characters or these worlds, I'm just borrowing them for my own amusement, so please no lawyers.
AN: The full chapter title will be listed in here instead of the title bar because I am trying to use the song names for the title to let you all know which songs I am using the lyrics from.
Chapter 17 Spies, Bad Things, and Somewhere a Clock is Ticking
XXX
…Reality shifts…
Something is not right. She is a disembodied figment, floating along cool grey metal. She can feel the grating under her bare feet, the hum of electrical brainwave currents pull her along.
…I awake to find no peace of mind
I said how do you live…as a fugitive
down here, where I cannot see so clear
I said what do I know
show me the right way to go…
She can see every one of them like a brightly colored string, each leading to their respective core. But only one holds her interest...
…and the spies came out of the water
and you're feeling so bad 'cos you know
that the spies hide out in every corner
but you can't touch them no
'cos they're all spies…
…He has tried to paint the roses red, tried to hide his true color, but she sees, sees the paint that drips off that string, sees the purple underneath…
…they're all spies…
And she screams, because it's all she can do.
…Meanwhile…
Riddick's POV
I sit up from the bed with a jolt and listen. Something isn't right; it's as if her fingertips are trying to shake my mind awake. This cannot be good. I don't even bother with the robes as I rush towards the cargo bay.
The closer I get the more I can feel her, and the panic that radiates from her. I look over the railing of the upper walkway and that's when I see him. See the gorram hundan playing with the cryo crate.
"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THAT" I bellow out as I rush down the stairs while Dobson turns away from the cryo crate towards me and immediately his eyes widen.
But that's when I feel someone tap my shoulder and as I turn I am greeted with a punch to my face.
"Forget your toothpaste?"
I shake my head a little and turn to face him. "Last person that did that to me ended up with a knife in the gut."
"What'd you tell them?"
"Tell who?"
And that's when the Mal draws his gun, puts it in my face. "Ti wo de pi gu. You must have a goddam death wish."
"And you're a gorram fed!" He practically screams in my face. That's when I hear the laughing and the cocking of a gun behind me and notice the Captain's eyes go a little bit wider.
"Sorry Captain, you guessed the wrong passenger."
"Son of a bitch." I swear under my breath.
"Drop that firearm, Captain Reynolds." Dobson says.
A beat goes by and then the hundan does and I turn and face Dobson.
"This is not my best day ever." Mal says as he holds his hands up.
"Really? Couldn't have guessed." I say through gritted teeth.
"Richard or… whatever your name is… you are bound by law to stand down."
"Wait, come again?" Mal says with some shock evident as he moves away from me.
Instead of the bumbling businessman façade earlier, Dobson is now a very tightly wound fed, and becoming twitchier by the second. "Get on the ground. Get on the ground!"
"Lawman, you are making a very big mistake." I say and remain standing.
"Is here a reward?" Mal says hopefully from beside me. I just turn and glare at him. Man must have gotten one too many bottles broken over his head to say shit like that.
"I got a cruiser en route for intercept, so talk all you want. You got about twenty minutes." And with that little remark I turn my attention back to Dobson.
"Might have less than that." I say with a feral grin.
"Yeah, threaten me…"
"What's going on? We…" A female voice says. And that's when he fucks up. Dobson spins toward the voice and I throw him into the nearest crate, causing his aim to miss its mark by a good ten feet. I hear the ricochet of a bullet on metal and the scurry of feet towards me, but all I can see is the look on Dobson's face as I begin to choke the air from his lungs.
"RICHARD STOP!" I hear Book say as hands grab at my arms and try to pull me off the little man, and again I hear a gun cocking behind me.
"Might be a good idea to let him go now." A female voice says and I relent. He coughs and sputters as he falls on the floor. The big ape man runs forward and immediately knocks him a good one to the head.
"Just tie him up Jayne." Zoe says as she keeps her gun leveled at me.
"Aww but where's the fun in that?" He says and he pulls out a large gun.
"Jayne, I said tie him up!" She repeats with irritation. The ape man then proceeds to duct tape Dobson's now unconscious form while muttering in mandarin.
Book moves to stand next to me as the commotion dies down. The Companion and the mechanic move toward the center of the cargo bay and Mal moves to the com and radios up to the pilot. "Wash, we are going to have some unwelcome guests soon unless you can do some of that fancy flying you always bragging about."
A static voice sounds over the com. "On it Captain." And he breathes a sigh of relief as he moves back towards us.
"I think you two have some explaining to do." The Companion says as Zoe keeps her gun leveled at us and the crew of Serenity stares.
"Well then why don't we find out what's in that gorram box, huh?" Mal says as he moves toward our cryo crate that Dobson had been fiddling with. And I cannot help but laugh at how royally fucked up this day has been.
As I begin to laugh Mal turns away from the cryo crate momentarily to stare at me and looks at me with more than a hint of disbelief. "Something funny?"
"Riddick are you sure you should…" Book begins to grow uneasy at what he assumes is going to happen.
"Ah hell preacher, the jig is up, seems a shame the little hellion should miss the fun at this point." I say through chuckles.
He just stares at me and then throws up his hands in defeat and walks to sit on a nearby crate. "Fine, whatever, I take no responsibility for whatever happens."
"Go ahead, wake sleeping beauty." I say as I lean up against another crate and wait for the show to begin.
XXX
"Excuse me what?" Mal says utterly confused.
"Sleeping beauty?" Zoe asks.
"Open the damn box and find out for yourself, but I warn you… she bites" Riddick says as the chuckles die down.
After the warning he got from Richard, Mal nervously turns some dials on the cryo box and pulls a release lever. There are some flashing lights and then the four latches twist automatically at the corners. Then the top comes slightly up with a hydraulic whoosh, dry ice pouring out the sides.
Everyone is peering in for a better look but still glued to their respective spots as Mal kicks the lid back and the fog of dry ice begins to clear. Mal steps forward, looks, but is not prepared for the sight that he sees.
Curled inside is a naked, unconscious teenage girl. Mal looks at the girl, then back at the two mysterious passengers, and then back to the girl.
"Huh."
XXX
Riddick's POV
"You may want to move back now." I say with a laugh.
"Oh and why is that?"
"I don't think she's expecting to wake up right now so she may be a little…"
"Waking up?" Mal asks with disgust. "Finding out she's been sold to some borderworld baron? Or, I'm sorry - was this one for you? Is it true love? Because you do seem …"
But Mal can't finish his statement, as quick hands come out and proceed to grab his neck and hold a sharpened blade to his jugular. Once again there is the sound of guns being cocked as River holds a blade to the Captain's neck.
"Most of your assumptions have outlived their usefulness." She calmly purrs says into his ear, like a jungle cat warning another predator.
"Niao shi de du-gui." Mal says as he feels the blade against his skin.
I can't hold it in any longer, the look on that man's face as he stands there with a knife to his throat is priceless and I am laughing hysterically. "I told… you she…bites."
XXX
River's POV
Malcolm directs his next question to Hermes and Orpheus. "Would one of you mind telling the wei xian to remove the knife from my throat?"
"I told you I take no responsibility for anything."
"Talk to the girl with the blade to your throat not me." Riddick says.
She rolls her eyes at this. "She will remove her claws and promises to behave when the others lower their weapons."
With that Mal frantically waves for Zoe and Jayne to holster their guns, and the girl does as she promised and releases him. He steps away from where the girl is standing in the cryo crate and moves toward where the others are standing.
She looks around the cargo bay, taking everything in. "Mid-bulk Transport. Standard Radion Accelerator core. Class code 03-K64—Firefly. In need of a new catalyzer, but… a good ship."
"That's what I keep tellin' the Cap' but…"
"Kaylee, not now."
That's when her senses clear from the cryo and she is bombarded with their thoughts.
"…It's not my fault people don't listen…"
"…What in Buddha's name?..."
"…Girl had a knife to my throat! The mo ming qi miao had a knife to my…"
"…Hey isn't that the same girl from…
"…What's kind of person would smuggle a person in cryo?..."
"…I take no responsibility for anyone she kills…
"…She looks a lot better without those clothes on…."
She shivers at the onslaught of voices and watches as the companion, Inara, makes a move to give the girl her robe but is held back by Mal. As Riddick makes a move to help her out of the cryo box, Mal stops him.
"No one moves tell I get some answers." He says slipping back into the role of Captain. She cannot help but roll her eyes at his wariness. She promised to behave.
"Fuck that, I ain't your crew." Riddick says as he takes a step towards her again, only to have another gun pointed at his back. The girl quirks an eyebrow at the rag tag crew in front of her; these people were very trigger happy.
"It's fine. Captain Tight-pants needs to exert control over the situation in order to maintain his calm." She says with a huff and folds her hand over her chest. The action leads to her hearing a new wave of thoughts about her breasts from the man they call Jayne and she rolls her eyes again.
Riddick does not advance again but oozes irritation at her state of undress. She finds this amusing.
"Now who exactly are you, why are you in that cryo box?" Mal asks.
"She is River Marie Tam, pleased to make your acquaintance Malcolm Renyolds."
"Okay…I'm confused, how do you know my name? Cause I don't seem to remember any jack in the box knife wielding girl. Did someone send you?"
She smiles a genuine smile at him. "Negative, no one sent the girl to cause you any harm and the girl does not plan to."
"So what are you doing in a cryo crate on my gorram ship?"
She struggles to find words to adequately answer the query she has been asked and after a minute turns to Hermes for help. "How would you describe our trio in words they would understand?" She asks.
"Let's just call us a merry band of criminals, like you Captain. Although," he says with a chuckle, "it is a little more complicated than that."
"That doesn't explain how you ended up in a box." Zoe states flatly.
"This is half correct Zoe Washburn. We..." she points to herself, Riddick, and Book, "ran into…trouble? Yes that's an appropriate way to describe it, and needed transportation of Persephone."
"How come she knows the cap' and Zoe's names? I thought she said she never met 'em?" The woman who is like a bright ray of sunshine asks.
"Yeah, you might wanna clear that one up for us." Mal says as he crosses his arms.
She huffs at his defensiveness, and after a minute of calculations decides that the simplest and most useful answer is the one that will piss Riddick off the most…unfortunately.
"She is many things, dancer, valkyrie, an Iron Queen, but above all she is a reader." She says in a sing song voice. This earns her a barrage of disbelieving remarks and thoughts, which the exception of Jayne, whose eyes bug out slightly due to his earlier thoughts.
"A reader? Really? That's the best you can come up with? Don't you think that's a'lil farfetched?" Mal says with a chuckle.
Now she is just irritated. He asks for an answer yet rejects what she puts forth. She will just have to show him the error of his ways. With a sly smirk she gives him his proof. "What was it you told Bendis in Serenity Valley? 'We can't die..You know why?...Because we are so very pretty.' Was that it Sergeant Renyolds?"
Mal has ceased chuckling and just stands slack jawed and at a loss for words. Zoe retains her stoic shield but it falters ever so slightly.
She smiles wider as she watched the man floundering to find his voice. He finally manages to get out a few words. "But..uhh…hmm….uhh…how?"
"Genetic anomaly exaggerated by the interference of an outside source."
"Come again?"
"All will be explained Captain Reynolds. But now the girl requires her clothing, it's getting to be a bit chilly in here. It would also be a good idea for you to question that purple belly before he frees himself from the duct tape. Shall we reconvene in an half an hour to discuss further particulars?" She says as she hops out of the cryo box and moves towards the lower doorway.
"Umm… sure?" Mal says in disbelief as he watches the girl walks out of the cargo bay.
As she moves out of the doorway and down the hall she gets several very strong mental images of her rear end in very different situations, and rolls her eyes. Men are so predictable…
especially the cacophonous music following her out the door.
XXX
Riddick follows a few meters behind River as she exits the cargo bay, and Mal thinks better of questioning it or stopping him.
"Did anyone just understand what happened?" Mal asks tentatively.
"Son, I found with those two… it's better not to ask." Book answers.
Zoe turns towards the preacher now. "Is she really a reader?" She asks.
"Undoubtedly...But, if you have questions you will want to save them for her, I'm a little hazy on some of the details myself." He says as he gets up and moves towards the stairs leading to the dining hall.
The rest of the crew stands there for a moment trying to process what they have just been told, but failing to fully digest it.
Mal finally breaks the silence. "Alright people, thirty minutes then we get to hear a bed time story. Zoe go fill your husband in on some of this niu shi, Sunshine you go give are girl a checkup from that last burn, and Jayne you come with me. We got a fed to question."
"Can I bring Vera?" Jayne asks hopefully.
"NO." Mal says as he storms off towards the passenger dorms.
XXX
River's POV
She is shuffling through her duffle bag when she hears him approaching. "Don't start." She says as she hears the door open.
"Wasn't smart girly. What did we say about…"
She sighs. "Irrelevant."
"Like hell it is." He says as he comes up and spins her to face him and his projections of anger and frustration begins to overwhelm her.
She takes a deep breath and then begins. "There is an opportunity here, one that has just presented itself, and needs further observations before calculations can be complete. Said observations cannot be completed without full disclosure. So allow the girl to collect her data and then you can vent your… frustrations."
He studies her for a minute, processing what she has said, not liking what he has heard but she can see his mind processing it none the less.
And then his face relaxes the tinniest amount. "You better be right about said opportunity."
"Or what?" She says with a smile. "Will you bend me over and spank me like you thought about doing so earlier?"
And instead of anger overwhelming her now it's lust. And the dissonance transitions into something more identifiable.
…When you came in the air went out
And every shadow filled up with doubt…
"You really have a smart mouth don't you?" He says as he backs her up towards the wall. Her back hits it and she feels his hands skim across her bare arms and pulls them above her head.
…I don't know who you think you are
But before the night is through….
"Subjective." She says as closes her eyes and his free hand begins to dip down to her hip bone. While mentally cursing her lack of speed at finding clothes before he got to the passenger dorm. She was also relishing the retribution he was currently delivering.
…I wanna do bad things with you…
And that's when she feels him dip into her and arcs into his touch. A few moments later and he releases her hands and she's clawing to get his shirt off. Once that's been ripped in half and disposed of she turns her attention to his pants.
...I'm the kind to sit up in his room
Heart sick an' eyes filled up with blue…
"Maybe you need to be reminded who you are fucking with girly." He says as he continues to finger her and enveloping her senses in his lust. She isn't sure which sensation is his or hers. He hoists her legs up around his waist and slams into her as she leaves bloody welts up and down his back.
…I don't know what you've done to me…
It's manic, needy, and fast. A release of tension they both needed; each of them getting more and more erratic as they climb and approach their climax.
…But I know this much is true…
And as he slams into her once more, enough to pull them both over the edge she bites his lip hard enough to draw blood.
…I wanna do real bad things with you…
XXX
…Meanwhile…
Jayne and Mal are in the room with the Dobson, who is now fully awake.
"See I'm in a tricky position, I guess you know. Got me a boatload of terribly strange folk making my life a little more interesting than I generally like, chief among them an Alliance mole." Mal says as he pulls the duct tape off him and he grunts in pain.
"Now I got to know how close the Alliance is, exactly how much you told them before Wash scrambled your call. So...I've given Jayne here the job of finding out."
Dobson looks over to Jayne at this point who then proceeds to pull out his big-ass knife that he loving refers to as Binky.
"He was non-specific as to how."
Mal shakes his head a little then pulls Jayne aside. "Now you only gotta scare him…"
"Pain is scary." Grinning from ear to ear he answers Mal.
Mal just shakes his head again and turns to leave. "Just do it right." And he closes the door.
"Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in?" Dobson says as Jayne sits down on a chair across from him.
"Gee, I never been in trouble with the law before..."Jayne says as he plays with Binky.
"Not like this you haven't. You think this is just a smuggling rap? The package those men are carrying…"
"It's a girl. She's cute, too, but I don't think she's all there, y'know?" He grins at the thought of her entrance onto the ship. "'Course, not all of her has to be..."
"That girl is a precious commodity. They'll come after her. Long after you dispose of me they'll be coming."
"Oh, I'm not gonna kill you, Dobson - what's your first name?"
Reluctantly he answers the scary man with the big knife. "Laurence."
"Laurence. No, I'm just gonna cut on ya' 'til you tell me how much they know." That's when Jayne begins to drag the blade across Dobson's face and he can feel his skin slicing open just a hair.
"They know everything!" He practically screams. "They know every name, every record - they know how many nose hairs you've got."
Jayne is genuinely disappointed at how this 'interrogation' is going. "Ah, see - they don't know a damn thing. It's all over your face, I ain't even... Was gonna get me an ear, too. Aren't you an officer of the law? Well, don't they teach you how to withstand interrogation? Can't even tell a damn lie." He says as he gets up from the chair he was sitting in and walks towards the door.
"Okay. I can see you're not an idiot." Dobson says trying to change tactics.
"Wish I could say the same, Laurence, but... this is disappointing as hell."
"The let me speak the language you will understand. Money. This girl is worth a lot of money. I mean a lot. You kill me, there's nothing. But if you help me out, you'll have enough to buy your own ship. A better one than this piece of crap."
Jayne's hand rests on the door. As much as he knows he should just walk out the door, a part of him can't.
"Does helpin' you mean turin' on the Captain?" He asks over his shoulder.
"Yes it does."
XXX
Just before Mal goes to meet everyone in the dining hall he stops by the bridge to check in with Wash. Just as he steps onto the bridge the proximity alarm goes off.
"How the Hell did they find us? I thought you said we could get around 'em?" Mal says as he walks forward.
"It's not Alliance." Wash says with a shaky voice.
"Wash?"
"It's a smaller vessel. I'm picking up a lot of radiation... they're operating without core containment. Well, that's fang zong feng kuang de jie!"
He looks at Mal, whose eyes grow wider as he gets the visual on the screen.
"Reavers." Mal says as he looks out toward a tiny speck that approaches them.
"Oh god….Oh god, oh god, oh god..."
XXX
River's POV
After venting their frustration, she quickly grabs a pair of cargo pants, a tank top, and her combat boots. She doesn't bother to weapon up and specifically tells Riddick to leave his knives in the room, much to his annoyance.
"You know you really are a pain in my ass." He says as he goes to leave the room.
"But one you enjoy oh so much." She calls to him as he leaves.
After he slams the door closed she grabs her stiletto and conceals it in the rim of her pants. She never said she couldn't have a weapon. She takes a deep breath and exits the dorm after Riddick.
She's standing in the middle of the hallway walking behind Riddick when it hits her like a ton of bricks. She's thrown backwards into the wall from the force of it. She can feel…hear...taste… everything. The blood, the raw flesh, the charred hair, all of it invades her mouth and she feels like she wants to throw up.
"River?" Riddick says as he turns around when he hears her connect with the wall.
She's shaking, squeezing her eyes shut and tears are beginning to trickle down her face.
"Reavers." She mutters.
Mal's voice can be heard over the loud speaker, "This is your captain speaking. We're passing another ship. Looks to be Reavers…"
XXX
There is a collective hush around Serenity. No one dares to breathe for the next five minutes, as if one exhale may make all the difference in the world. All they can do is to wait, hope, pray, and weather the silent storm.
XXX
Riddick's POV
There is no girl, no River, in the body I hold against me right now. There is just as mass of tears, sweat, and shaking from the form in front of me.
"Come on girly talk to me." I say as I hold her close. "Not once on the goddam rock did you lose your shit. You're stronger than this. You don't need to listen to the voices." But nothing seems to bring her back from what she is seeing.
XXX
…Reality Shifts…
…I've got this feeling that there's something that I missed
(I could do most anything to you...)
Don't you breathe, don't you breathe…
She's running. She's bruised, bloodied, and her body wants nothing more than to give up, but she's running.
…Something happened, that I never understood
(I could do most anything to you...)
You can't leave, you can't leave…
She can hear them behind her. Calling to her, but she can't stop and listen. She knows what has to be done.
…Every second, dripping off my fingertips
Wage your war …
She dives through the opening, and rolls. She quickly rights herself and pulls at the wires in the control box. There is a hiss of smoke and sparks, but the doors begin to come to life and close.
…Another soldier, says he's not afraid to die
Well I am scared…
She looks around the floor of the anti-chamber, searching desperately as the seconds tick by.
…In slow motion, the blast is beautiful
Doors slam shut…
She finds the small bag and hurls it through the closing doors towards them. She meets his eyes and locks onto him. Everything in once moment, all the unspoken words in that one look.
…A clock is ticking, but it's hidden far away
Safe and sound…
His face is the last thing she sees as the doors slam shut and she's ripped backwards.
…Reality Shifts Again…
XXX
They wait. Everybody waits. And after a few long seconds...
"They're holding course." Wash says.
Mal lets out a long breath and looks at Wash.
"I guess they weren't hungry. Didn't expect to see them here...
Mal just turns and walks towards the dining hall. "Gettin' awful crowded in my sky."
XXX
Riddick's POV
After a minute or two she stops shaking and her entire body seems to relax into my arms. I look down at her face and see her staring up into my goggled face. I take off the goggles and look down at her face, wishing I could see the color of her eyes.
"She thinks they look prettier through your eyes." She says.
"Where did you just go River?" I ask as she begins to stand up.
"Irrelevant." She says as she looks toward the dining hall.
"No." I say as I stand and grab her face forcing her to look me in the eye. "No it is not irrelevant. What the fuck just happened?"
She takes a deep breath in steading herself before she replies. "She saw what needs to be done."
XXX
He might not have been the best or brightest in his department, but Dobson knew a thing or two. And right now he was pissed, pissed at being choked, knocked out, tied up, and threatened. And he knew that when he got this duct tape off that the crew of Serenity is going to pay, along with that hundan who threw him into that crate.
XXX
AN: Oh exciting! I have been dying to use that last song for some time now and I think it fit in there quite well. I know some of you might think it was out of character to not have Dobson realize who Riddick is, but he isn't a bounty hunter, and while I'm sure some Feds know who he is, not all of them would. Same goes for the crew not knowing Riddick is…well, Riddick. They aren't bounty hunters, so they aren't going to know what a badass he is unless he or River tells them. Anyways, feedback, the good, the bad, and the ugly, is always appreciated. ;) Till next time.