Rival reverence
Author: Lilith deBlack
Sequel to Obscure Anticipation
Notes: This shows * thoughts *. This shows *******
changes in POV
Prologue.
Green darkness smothering him. Driving him out of his mind.
They'd finally noticed that he didn't sleep after six months of pure hellish
agony.
It wasn't just the physical restriction, but the thoughts that crushed his
heart. The human heart.
It didn't get better when they started pumping him up with sedatives. The hallucinations.
Every single deed done crossing his mind.
Being trapped on T2 again. The scorching sun, yet it did not burn, probably cause it wasn't real.
Carolyn sitting opposite to him, talking humanity back into him.
Sometimes he could stand it and sometimes he'd lunge for her with his imaginary
shiv.
But Carolyn was the most tolerable of them all. She wasn't the only ghost
that visited him. Johns bugged him once in a while, with the shackles and
chains. The disgusting victory painting his face. Skylar was also a regular
visitor to his shattered mentality, smiling and sarcastic. And of course,
where Skylar was, Macy would be as well.
Worst of them all, the one who really tortured his soul was Jack. Her accusing tone, or the times he'd kill her all over again. When the sedatives lowered, regret cursed his bleeding spirit.
He didn't know whether she was alive or not. But he put up with it, every word every thought and every goddamned day, year, week that blurred together.
He was in cryo sleep, his body frozen in time and his mind trapped in futile madness. The core of him kept sane. HE was sane and that gave him regret.
Humanity hurt.
Every thought gave him something to remember. Her scent, the way she had moved, her eyes pleading for her life. The times when he'd dragged her sorry ass from that psycho club she loved so much. She rarely remembered what she had done. Never remembered that she always told him she was sorry for being such a bad person.
All of his memories of her he'd destroyed on his own, every faint recollection of a peaceful time and tide shattered by a simple fact.
He had gone loco and tried to kill her. At the last moment of her life she had seen Riddick, the monster, the psychopathic bastard.
The time away from her had had its effect. He'd never known he relied on her and needed her that much. Even if she had been drunk, high and whatever the screwed up world offered her. But she had been his sanity and humanity, mixed into her soul. Being away from her, looking for Skylar, Macy, the money and answers.... it made him think all the more about Jack. She wouldn't answer his calls with anything else than a mere "fuck you".
Then Imam had told him that she'd gone with Skylar, a woman who'd recently tried to kill him. His mind already a little delirious from the frantic and restless search, that fact didn't make it better.
No longer had he hunted for Skylar, now Jack was his prey. Not to kill, never her, killing her would bring him back to the hell he'd been born into. Just to get her, get to her, though the shell she'd put up and find out why.
Her father's murder?
Still he couldn't understand why it had upset her so fiercely. The father had molested her with his filthy hands and deserved death. Why would Jack try to protect the man as if the fucker were a saint? She'd kept saying "he's family".
Was that the reason she'd gone with Skylar? Hadn't he been her family? He sure as fuck had been pretty certain of that.
The darkness called out to him.
Once again in the scorching suns. Almost tasting the dusty air. Almost, hallucinations ain't real.
Nausea passed through Riddick's body. A feeling so familiar, a feeling he'd identified.
They were shooting him up with sedatives again; trying to keep the monster they believed him to be, under control.
Had he been awake, they would have seen. They really would have seen.
*************************
The night crawled into Jack like monster it was. Her screams stretching across eternity. His touch lurching over her, his eyes close.
She rubbed her still not dried eyes, the fresh tears killing her. Nothing could sooth the nightmares...nothing, not even the sleeping pills she'd gotten.
Jack rolled over to her side cradling herself together into the smallest ball.
*Just one of those dreams, about Riddick*
It was..What...well, a lot of years.
Twenty-five, not counting cryo sleep.
Rolling onto her back, staring at the iron ceiling, going over the years she'd been plagued by.
She'd gone straight to Zion as soon as she'd had the baby, her psyche not being solid enough to raise a child. They'd taken the girl away. The baby was gone.
A pang of the sincerest pain crossed Jack's heart and decided to stay. Perhaps her little girl was gone for good.
She'd gotten a good job at Zion. Jack already having learned a little piloting at school, and from Riddick of course. At first Jack had wondered why they'd let her in so easily. Turned out that the ship's owner owed Skylar a favour. A very peculiar kill. Skylar had had to marry the boss' brother and then kill him.
The years had passed by, most in cryo sleep. Seven years and Jack had maybe spent six months awake while the other habitants preferred no cryo.
Zion was a community all of its own. Legally it was a colony under no ones control except its own.
All of that didn't matter. Her baby was gone for good.
*******************
-WHAT!
The shivering head of Hubble bay couldn't believe his own eyes. Officials were letting a monster loose.
He knew he'd have to swallow this shit, and smile while he did it.
The message on his screen, with an official governmental seal in the background spoke words that arouse fury from the middle aged berserk.
Certain lines outraged him the most....
-MAY IT HERE BE STATED THAT THE CONVICT, RICHARD B. RIDDICK SHALL BE SET FREE AFTER FOURTEEN YEARS OF IMPRISONMENT.
THIS DECISION HAS BEEN TAKEN ON THE BASIS OF THE LACK OF EVIDENCE FOR HIS CRIMES.........
It drove him nuts that in a few days that bastard would be set free. Mr. Riddick had only been sleeping for about 14 years. Soon, sleeping beauty would be able to walk freely among normal people. The murdering rat would get a chance to hurt again.
He slammed his fist down once again
Chapter 1 Strictly visceral.
Riddick stepped out of the transporter with caution. It would be noticed on the outside but all of his senses were as sharp as ever. The hallway confronting his prison pale skin and shined eyes empty.
Under his goggles his eyes narrowed in suspicion. It might have been 14 years since he'd been put under like mother fucking dog, but he still had his head as intact as it'd been before.
And his logic told him that something was wrong. His logic had kicked him in the head when he'd decided to take this job. Not like there was anything else he could take and this one would preferably keep him out of trouble.
Though his opinion of this kind of living wasn't high, he thought of the creeps doing legal pirating as leeches, sucking the blood out of everything alive.
He just cut straight to the point of pain and then ran.
Once again his logic kicked him in the head.
*It better be fucking worth it*
Despite now being a free man he was still reasonably paranoid.
Footsteps, rather rapid, running. Most probably a kid, a damn fast one. Another pair of running shoes joined the previous ones. A little heavier, probably someone older.
A lighting of red stopped in front of him. A boy, maybe eight, looked quickly at Riddick with great distress in the young eyes.
-"Yo, dude, don't tell'im 'bout me"
Riddick didn't get a chance to respond. The kid did the oddest thing. He ripped a control panel open, throwing couple of commands around, closed the panel. A hatch opened, most probably to the AC. With a low roar the boy slammed the hatch shut.
The other boots stopped, panting. A man, probably twenty something stopped, resting his hands on his knees. The blue eyes looked up at Riddick, showing no signs of fear as he eyed the huge demon in front of him.
Odd, every single soul on the transporter had shook in his presence.
-"You seen a boy, bout eight, running around?"
Riddick's dark voice replied without much thought, but with amusement hidden beneath the tone.
-"You ainīt asking the right fellow"
The young man looked oddly at Riddick, as if he wore the lie on his shoulders. The running man stood up, gave Riddick the last look.
-"So you're him."
Then ran off, calling out.
-"I'M GONNA GET YOU BRAT!"
As soon as the footsteps were undetectable movement occurred by the hatch, it being pulled open by the hunted boy.
He was grinning.
-"Man, thanks dude."
He jumped down, landing softly, like a cat. Quickly he closed the hatch again, taking a deep breath.
-"You just saved my ass from being corporeally maltreated by the fucker."
Riddick was a little stunned at the little one's vocabulary over a spanking. The kid seemed to think for a moment, and then shoved his hand out towards Riddick.
-"Sorry I'm late, I'm Paulie."
He couldn't believe what he was hearing or seeing. They'd sent a kid for him! Odd, way to fucking odd.
-"Name's Riddick."
He waved her hand casually.
-"Yeah, I know, that's why I'm here, to get you, but not, nota bene, NOT on the present mission."
The sigh from his lips obviously fake, but with sincerity in the kid's eyes. Riddick wasn't all too sure how to act or what to say. Not awkward, but a little confused however.
-"You the local tour guide?"
He laughed and started to walk, signalling Riddick to follow.
-"Yah see, your psychological profile says that the last person you'd hurt would be a kid, or an early adolescent, so that's why they sent ME."
The boy talked about it with agility and carelessness. Made him wonder if such things were common in this fucked up family.
-"Cuz it's unlikely that you'd try to kill me and if you would go psycho on me I'd be able to take you out."
Now that made Riddick laugh out loud, and that made that talkative kid skid around with a familiar angry glow.
-"Do you realize that on a subconscious level you don't believe that I'm capable of injuring anything? However I can promise you that you wouldn't be the first monster I've killed or am responsible for killing."
The sharpness of his tone gave some astonishment to Riddick, and the shift of the boy's mood almost worried him. Especially when the kid switched to a pleasant smile.
-"Sorry ībout that, I got a temper problem. My doc has issued me some new pills but I keep forgettin'em."
So the kid had mental problems. Riddick suspected that most of the inhabitants would most probably suffer from something of that like. As much as Riddick hoped for silence it was almost obvious that the world would not oblige to his wish.
-"Yo, dude, I heard you'd been in cryo sleep for fourteen years."
Riddick only mumbled a reply, not in the mood to answer or scare the shilling away.
-"But aren't you like, supposta not be influenced by cryo?"
-"You familiar with a dead cat and too many questions?"
Paulie gave Riddick's sentence a rather peculiar look, then he smiled.
-"Dude, I think I'm gonna like you."
That smile took a rather different glare, something almost wicked.
-"But I doubt it'll be mutual."
The quickness of the kid's moves not easily calculated. All Riddick knew
was that he felt a needle prick his skin and then the surroundings decided
to return to a darkness not even he could see
******************
-"I can't believe you did this to me!"
Jack's voice roared through the office. A snow paper white woman, bald and black eyes looked calmly at her friend.
-"Jack, he's a good catch for the team."
Unable to remain still like a normal human being Jack begun to pace around.
-"He's a single person; this is my sanity you're jeopardizing. He nearly killed me."
Wolf leaned forwards, to face her emotionally upset patient. Sympathy read out of the complete blackness of the incredible darkness that the alien woman contained.
-"It wasn't my decision, but you know that ill inactivate him if I find and evidence of uncontrollable and harmful behaviour and you know that I won't hesitate to do that."
The cool calm of her friend almost made Jack's inner spirit scream. Still some part of Riddick resting within her, some memory still cherished and not destructed.
A little calm now Jack sank down into a near by chair. Disbelief had surged her system when Wolf had told her that Riddick would be working on Zion. Not only just on Zion but he was to be hired for the mission team. That's all she knew. Ops hadn't still notified anyone on Zion what Riddick's position would be.
Leaning forwards Jack gave a restless sigh.
-"Does he know?"
The white woman shook her head.
-"I don't want to take the risk. If he's a psychopath I'd rather not he'd come here for the sole purpose of completing his job."
If Jack hadn't known Wolf as intimately perhaps pain would have burst through her system ending in a pair of fractured legs.
But Wolf, as everyone knew her as, was the only person Jack had ever spoken to about Riddick, about the nightmares. Maybe that was because Wolf was also her psychiatrist.
-"Jack, you know you can defend yourself, and you know who's behind you."
At that spoken Wolf smiled one of those smiles. Smiles that sent shivers up most people's spine.
A beeper by Wolf's waist went crazy. That smile broadened.
-"We're ready to go."
Jack rose up ready to face her doom.
-"I don't have a say."
Her voice crackled and broken, a sympathetic touch from her friend gave the slightest spark of courage.
*Fuck this is it*
Jack's heart trembling from the thought.
*Funny shit, I'm the most suicidal and self destructive member of the mission team and I'm afraid to meet a single man*
-"What about the rest, does he know?"
Her voice swollen with concern.
-"No. He will not be briefed on that part of the mission."
Sombrely Jack took another route away from the office, whispering words that spoke of her anxiety and fear.
-"Fuck me."
*****************************
Riddick's head spinning like crazy.
The fucking brat had drugged him, somehow. Slowly he tried to move his limbs only to find them restricted with metal.
Her breath stretching across the room as he opened his eyes.
Black eyes staring into his eyes.
*I can't be fucking dead and in Hell, but I must be if this is Skylar*
The face gained some distance. Nope, this wasn't Skylar. Some bitch, looked like she'd never seen the light of day, and there was no white, bald too.
*Can't be a goddamn wannabe*
-"Why hello Mr Riddick..."