Chapter 5

"The beast plots babies, the Riddle King does not." River announced at breakfast the next day. The only one who didn't sputter, coughing out their after breakfast tea or coffee was her great-grandmother who smiled with her mouth that didn't reach her eyes which was sad instead.

"Perhaps, but you're not ready for that. They stirred your blood too early and awoken something that they couldn't ever understand." Only River could hear the creak of the bone china's distress in her grandmother's hand. "You need to learn what it means first. We have a world to rebuilt. Or at least a garden to plant."

Simon inwardly groaned, he was still sore from the unloading. His grandmother refused to let any of the servants touch any of the jars of dirt or the plants that she instructed him to bring to the edge of the nearest ward before breakfast that morning. His little sister didn't lift a finger to help but danced between the potted trees and plants. At times stopping to run her hands through the dirt with a wide eyed wonder that he only saw when she looked at the night sky full of the stars or when she learned something new.

"There will be no grandchildren, unless Simon gets off his nerves and introduces us to his young lady he's been writing to non-stop since you came home. Her name is Kaylee?" Regan held her smile behind her coffee cup as everyone perked up interested. Gabriel has a way of diverting a conversation if needed.

Regan picked up the strand her husband left dangling. "We wondered who this Kaylee was since you been sending medical supplies and advanced mechanical texts to your firefly ship Serenity. In fact invite them sometime. I would like to thank the crew and meet my future daughter-in-law."

Diona left Simon awkwardly explaining his slow relationship with the firefly's engineer, and questions of why thank the crew, wandering down to the edge of the wards. "Please open the ward here River."

River followed behind. She knew all what her family was going to talk about anyway so she left with grandmother who had more interesting things to teach her.

Simon was put to work as soon as he poked his head out the door. The planting of healing herbs was soothing after his parent's interest in Kaylee. He didn't notice the newcomers step into the clearing.

*

The beast was startled from a sleep deep in the edge of the forest by a smell that caught Riddick's attention as well. For once they were in agreement in their search for this scent that settled into their bones and made their blood sing.

They found a clearing by a gap in the wards that had been redone that called to them. Riddick dimly noticed that River and the one called Diona working at the far edge of the new 'garden' he supposed.

Once he fully stepped onto the dirt, the healer, the woman and the old one seemed to fade to the back of the beast's mind as his mind made Riddick's pay attention as the beast took over and started to run. Within a second the beast ran through the whole clearing, circling all the rocks, trees, plants and people, out the gap where unknown to both of them, the beast perhaps might have known what would happen but Riddick did not.

A blue spark started on their chest, where the mark of rage sat and it slowly grew into liquid lines that snaked down to their paws as they ran and where they ran, things changed. Once was lost was found again. For it wasn't gone, but hidden away.

River's heart sang in her breast, a yearning that she couldn't contain to follow, only her great-grandmother's firm hands, and unknown to her, her brother's and mother's hands kept her steady on her feet as she watched the beast run out of her sight.

River gave a wail and knelt down, covering her face with her hair. She dimly heard her great-grandmother Diona snatch her family's hands back from her body and hustle them away.

As River started to settle into what her grandmother would call, the queen's line, Riddick woke up from where he ran or the the beast ran too, and found himself on Freya, not the one from his dreams but the one he help restore. For it takes a Alpha to rule the land, and maintain it. Instead of the glass like rock surface it was full of life, the sand and the smells he carried from the plot in the wards was transferred to where he ran and it spread from there.

Home, it was home. Riddick didn't realize until he was wiping his face that he was human again and stark naked. Not that his state of undress bothered him a bit. He did wonder where the Beast went off too, no he was there in his mind but if Riddick didn't know any better it acted like it did when they had a good lay. It was fully sated and quite sleepy.

Riddick shrugged to himself and continued to walk where he heard water. Maybe there was some animals here that he could hunt, and from there make some of his blades. Being a beast for a while did a number on his hair growth.

*

Simon was speechless, his mother and grandmother was not. He had to hide his wince at his mother's high pitched squeal of delight. River growled in agreement at the noise in her sleep.

"Quiet! River is trying to become herself and your high noises is not helpful." Diona hissed as she poked her granddaughter and Simon back to the house.

For River's very self was at war, from what the academy made of her and what she really was. A smaller version of the beast whined in her sleep.

The blade was intact but it was slowly breaking, shattering into a million pieces to become something older then new. River sat in the dark as soft growls echoed in her ears, as she held the blue white pulsing core of herself. Claws battled against shards of metal, while stars drove other shards into magma to be hardened into something else.

When the academy made River into their weapon, they took her apart but keep the smallest sliver of herself intact, because without a baseline of any sort the experiment would be lost. The core of the blade, the heart of the blade. That was their mistake. River by her own will kept herself intact as much as possible.

Grabbing onto her dancing, her science, her love of the stars, anything and everything that made River Tam, River and held it tightly together as the scientists and the directors broke her down into their blade to do what they wanted. They didn't know but in each part of the Blade pulsed a part of River and that kept her mostly sane as they hammered their will into her again and again.