Chapter Sixteen.
* Riddick's POV *
OUTSIDE HANGER; SURFACE OF PLANET CREMATORIA.
It is childish and unfair to send her into hiding but watching her fight makes my stomach twist with nerves and in worry. She's good, her Furyan brain is taking over her body and she is beginning to trust her new body to do the right thing but how long until the Commander realises she is the female Furyan the Quasi-Dead foresaw on Helion Prime? Luckily she hadn't killed enough of his Necromonger soldiers for her actions and abilities to catch his eye.
Dakota, the tall girl with short hair that clings to Elisha's side like a mother to its new baby, followed Elisha and Hans up to the top of the far side of the runway which had a thick clump of rock to protect them but despite my orders to Elisha to stay low, she fishes out my throwing blades nestled in the outer pockets of my back holster and throws them cleanly and well targeted into vital, lifetaking parts of the Necromonger soldiers. Her targets are usually struck in three main places: head, top of the spine at the back of the neck or chest.
When the accented male was killed by a Necro, it was that moment I decided to send Elisha into hiding with Hans, for two reasons mainly, watching her freeze with eyes filled with sadness and anger as she witnessed the her first death of a friend, if she froze like that every time one of us died we would have a serious problem but I shouldn't lie and say that I was not impressed with her reaction, it was the first time I had seen a girl of her size more and kill so quickly.
It was more than interesting and strangely made me feel proud she was mine because of her ruthless killing ability – among other things of course.
The thousand degree light of the day was closing in on the valley in which we fought the Necromonger's. The thin air of Planet Crematoria made breathing increasingly difficult as the oxygen level was lower created the effect of being one lung short or feeling as if you have just ran a marathon. The muscles of my upper back, entire arms and chest flexed and stretched severally as the number of Necromonger's swinging battle-axes and firing anti-gravity beams, did not seem to be decreasing despite the five or six soldier's pinned down in a gun fight with the guards inside the hanger. The Commander did not seem to be interested in the guards, they would never convert to their faith plus they would be terrible Necromonger's, their passed years of dirty behaviour and acting without boundaries, they would be a waste of the Purifiers time.
The Commander circles the fight like a vulture waiting for his meal to die, the cold burn sinking into the skin of the side of my head reminds me of the first time I was reunited with Elisha, her hurt hatred towards me burned holes into my exterior. This was not sad hatred burning into my skin, it was pure raging hatred hotter than the burning sunlight closing in on us all.
"Move forward!" The Guv yells through the firing of his own gun.
I nod before jumping like a cat to land in front of a Necromonger which wasn't originally what I had planned to do. Never the less, the Necromonger soldier swings one arm over my right shoulder and wraps the other arm underneath my left to grip the back of my trouser belt to have a strong hold on my upper body, as he lifts my body mass without a grunt, I wrap my arm on top around his head and the other around his waist as he throws my body weight up with his arms still holding my, I drop my weight violently causing his upper body to hunch over, dropping me back onto the ground. With the counterweight of the Neco's body, I am able to stand pulling the man's body up level with my head before allowing my body to fall backwards smashing the Necromonger soldiers body against the jagged rocks behind me.
I retrieve the blade from my back holster and throw it into the neck of a Necromonger spiriting towards me, I move aside quick enough for the male to fall face-first into the ground at me feet. I then remove the blade with no time to wipe it clean before I drive the blade into the neck of a soldier facing the other way. As I remove the blade, and wipe it clean I catch the Commanders reflection in the steal, he raises his gun and pauses for a split second, I twist round using the Necromonger soldier for protection as the Commander fires his anti-gravity gun.
The gun projects a neat beam of purple, florescent light. It struck the Necromonger's chest sending us both backwards across the rocks. My body twirls in the air like a rag doll, my limbs useless and tired. From head to toe I am paralysed as contact with the floor knocks the air from my lungs and results in several stomach twisting cracks, I tumble up the runway before stopping with my right leg pinned underneath my body weight, wetness trickles down the back of my neck as the nearing footsteps motivate me to move, ignoring the needle-like poking pain in my waist and chest.
Buzzing sounds of grunting persuades my head to turn reluctantly to the side as a hazy body appears, as if from no where and tackles the Commander down revealing him of his anti-gravity weapon. As the attack – who turns out to be The Guv – rises to his feet to meet the Commander who is thoroughly pissed off. The two square each other for a spilt-second before rushing into a fight, but the Commander, the better trained, punches Guv in the nose sending him flying backwards to meet the ground face first a meter or so away, Commander grips Guv by the back collar and trouser belt to pick the body up at arms, elbows locked, length above his head before dropping quickly to one knee whilst releasing the body, driving it using the grips onto his right knee snapping the inmates spine in two. The Commander then throws his body to the side like a worthless piece of rubbish.
Trembling breaths of a female catch my attention from the hideout on the side of the runway to my left, against my brains commands to stay flat and still, I turn my head to watch Elisha's eyes water at the slight of another friend died but the tears don't spill from her unusual eyes until she sees me laying on the runway with two Necromonger soldiers approaching me, one with a silver axe, the other with a long bladed dagger.
"Don't you dare." I warn her quietly.
Her face stiffens in reaction to my threat but she doesn't care, no matter how much I threaten I stop her. Elisha erupts from the hide out like a tiger from a grassland, a Necromonger blade held tightly in her hand, she lands gracefully onto the stone runway between the guards; slices the Sweet Spot through the back of the guard not facing her before driving the blade through the throat of the second guard. She then descends back to the safety of the rocks above.
"Get up," she says sternly, I try but the muscle and determination fades, "For fucksake's Riddick, get up!" she screams using swearing to mask her pain.
The Commander and what he as left of his tiny army approaches, all welding weapons. Elisha's pleas catch the attention of the Necromonger on the end who alerts the Commander safety in the middle. He studies her for a little more then ten second before turning back to me and removing my goggles from my face to study my eyes.
The Commander chuckles, "With eyes like yours, she was never safe."
I growl angrily as he throws my goggles to the Purifier who was stood in the doorway hanger avoiding all the action and walks back to Elisha who was now in the dirty hands of two out of seven Necromonger soldiers that survived the fight. The Commander removes Elisha's hair from the tie allowing the tight ringlets to burst free from their previous constricted shape, he sweeps the hair away from her right ear and leans in temptingly.
"Necromonger stylists are going to have the greatest time dressing you up like a little Necromonger follower." The Commander chuckles into her ear darkly. She growls angrily and defensively making the Commander edge away quickly.
To display that – very stupidly – he has power, he clenches one of his fist tightly and punches her in the face, the Necromonger's holding her arms keep a strong hold on her as she falls to her knees, blood pores from her mouth like water from a tap but she looks up at the Commander and chuckles.
"Stop," I groan loudly, pushing all my fatigued muscles into movement, twisting onto my front freeing my trapped leg, "I'm the one you came for, not her."
The Commander's attention is instantly removed from Elisha and placed upon me. "You know that's not true Furyan. You're memories of this girl are misleading to those not familiar with either of you. She is stronger than you thought."
"Then let her go, she is of no use to you." I say.
An inward smile spread across the Commander's face as he chuckles once, "Why would I do that? I have orders to kill the Riddick, yes? But not to kill the female Furyan. The last Furyan breeder, she will be sure to fetch me a fine reward back on Helion Prime."
I bare him no answer, but instead I gather all my strength in my lower body to rise up onto my knees, having to puff out my chest to keep myself up. Five Necromonger soldier's approached me closer all standing behind their commander in a practised diamond formation like a tacky crime solving team.
"So, you can kneel." The Commander says bitterly. "Shame, it isn't before a man even willing to spare you..." he raises his weapons at my face.
My eyes dart to Elisha. How stupid I was to believe they wouldn't come for us, that she would be safe, he was right. That asshole of a Commander was actually right about one thing, with eyes like mine she isn't safe. They will question her, call her names and beat her down emotionally.
I face him strongly but then something strange slowed down the time around us. Elisha's shouting face has frozen, the Necromonger's pride filled strides along with the Commander's aimed guns and determination had also frozen. Expanding blue light grew from behind the Commander, the soldiers faded behind the scene and as the blue light grew to become the lifeless world Elisha and I have both witnessed inside her cell in Crematoria, it replaced the gruesome reality before me with a woman. Graves plastered the surroundings and dead trees under the coldness of an orange sun.
"I think you know now," she says stepping to the edge of the scenery, "I think you know who tore Furya apart." she put her hand over her heart, like I have watched her do before, "This mark carries the anger of an entire race." the edges of the hands tingle with blue light as she reaches out from her world to press her hand against my chest, "It is going to hurt." she says as the pain begins to keep in, the blue travels along the surface of where my veins would travel across my chest and up my neck.
My body rattles with pain as the mark burns deeper than before, my vision is hazy but faintly I can make out the confused face of the Commander and his soldiers as they stand not far from where I am knelt, but without any question as the light travels along my arms locking in on the flesh, the Commander pulls the trigger on his two anti-gravity handguns but when they meet my body, the blue light expands from my flesh acting as if a force-field, rejecting the enemy fire and expanding outward knocking everything in his path several meters away.
I feel my body fall backwards. And then, blackness...