A Thousand Shades Of Black

Chapter 14 – Battling Eternity

Kyra shifted restlessly on the stool and watched some children wrestling on the ground. They were more like wolf cubs than human kids, she thought idly. Would Sturm and Riddick’s offspring be like that? It was weird to think of them having kids at all, really. Riddick was hardly the paternal type. Of course, he’d put up with Kyra herself and he’d been pretty good with Ziza. Maybe it wasn’t so far-fetched after all.

Another group of stragglers entered the glade – women and children mostly, with a couple of young men. Looking around the campsite, Kyra was struck again by the lack of males of a certain age. There were old men and really young ones, but very few of Riddick’s generation. The Lord Marshall had been very thorough indeed, she thought bitterly. He had cleaned the race almost entirely from the face of the Universe and the remaining survivors were a group of hardy survivalists, but who all seemed traumatized and half-crazy.

“Beta?” Jeran hunkered down beside her, his dark eyes intent on her face. Years of dealing with Riddick had inured her to the laser sharpness of his regard, but she still felt uncomfortable around so much sheer beauty.

“Jeran?” She mimicked his tone and he ducked his head, apparently as uneasy around her as she was around him.

“You have been in the pack a long time?” His question made her think. She had figured for a while that Riddick’s attachment to her dated from the planet; he had admitted to being reluctant to leave her behind, even as he’d been prepping the ship to do so. It had been a hard thing to own up to for him, that he might care about someone’s ass more than his own, but she’d dated her ‘admittance’ to his ‘pack’ from that time.

“About five years,” she told the very pretty young man who watched her with such hungry eyes.

“Has he ever hit you?” Kyra was appalled at the query.

“Of course not!” She glared at him. “What kind of question is that?” He ducked his head at her anger and she suddenly understood.

“Faille hit you?” She knew Jeran’s last name, knew he was some relation to the other Alpha and had wondered why he’d chosen to go lone over the strength and love of a pack. Now she knew.

“He is very strong.” A soft sound, almost a whimper underlay his words and she was angry then.

“He’s a bully,” she hissed.

“He’s my father,” Jeran admitted sadly.

Vaako watched the Furyans watching him and felt a little exposed. He stayed next to Freet and Joisa, wary and concerned. Riddick and Sturm had taken off with Shirah into the woods to do some mystic training thing and the remaining members of the group were left in the middle of a campsite full of hostile eyes.

“Riddick Pack.” A middle-aged woman, with the dark eyes and golden skin that seemed to typify Furyans, came up to him. This one had red hair, but it was an odd shade of dark red, like blood. She had a tight-fitting green top with a short split skirt over leather pants. The omnipresent blades, which seemed to be a racial necessity, were strapped to her calves where she could reach them through the slits in the skirt.

“Yes?” He enquired politely, knowing that she meant him. He didn’t remember joining a pack, but Sturm assured him that he had and he found he didn’t really mind.

“I am Tara Sera Hurlint, a lone with two young,” she introduced herself.

“Um, Vaako Danil Riddick.” He gave his name as Sturm had coached him, his name, his father’s name and his pack identifier and the woman nodded.

“I see that you have no one to cook for you, may I do this?” she asked with a hopeful look. Vaako was baffled by the question but didn’t wish to be rude.

“If you would like to. Sure.” She seemed very happy with his answer and soon she had deposited a pair of children at his feet and gone to set up a cook pot and fire. The twin children, a boy and a girl, were about four or five he guessed and they sat at his feet silently and stared up at him. Two sets of huge dark eyes topped by the same blood-red hair as their mother, a pair of snub noses and sharp pointed chins, they looked like the mythical elves of his childhood stories, fey and a little wild. They wore cargo pants in camouflage green with black tops and green vests. Each had their own little blade, carefully sharpened and sheathed.

“I’m Vaako, what are your names?” he asked and they looked at each other in surprise and then at him.

“I’m Sera and this is Maik,” The little girl answered him with trepidation and the boy ducked his head shyly as though expecting her temerity to be rewarded with a blow.

“Very pleased to meet you,” he responded and two smiles bloomed up at him.

Several hours later found him playing on the ground with the two children who were capable of asking an amazing amount of questions. He had fetched a pile of twigs and they were busy erecting a spaceport, chattering away at light speed.

“Vaako?” The deep gravelly voice had a note of confusion in it. He looked up and found that Riddick and Sturm were standing beside him gazing down in bemusement at the children.

“Riddick.” He was feeling a trifle embarrassed to be caught in the dirt with two children crawling on him playing with twigs.

“Who are your friends?” Riddick asked. The children were looking at him fearfully, but he merely dropped to a squat and studied them.

“Well, they’re Tara’s children.” He gestured back at the woman who was busily preparing dinner and Sturm’s eyes went wide.

“Vaako, what is she doing?”

“Well, she asked if she could cook, since we don’t have anyone who can, and I said sure.” Sturm was staring at him and her mouth was working silently. Riddick peered up at her in curiosity.

“What’s wrong?” he asked her.

“Vaako has admitted another pack member,” she breathed out.

“I what?”

“He what?” Riddick looked stunned, but no more than Vaako was.

“Vaako, she was asking if she could become part of the pack. Each person in the pack has a job, or duty.”

“You didn’t warn me about that! I didn’t know!” he protested in a panic, searching his recollections for any hint of forewarning.

“I didn’t think it would come up. I never imagined that anyone would be desperate enough to join a pack made up of ex-Necromongers, a Void Walker and Riddick.” She sounded her usual cool self, but he could detect a glitter in her eyes that Vaako realized with relief was amusement.

“What do we do about this?” Riddick was watching the two children who were looking back and forth between the adults in mingled worry and curiosity.

“Nothing. She has been accepted. It’s too late now,” Sturm shrugged. Vaako waited for Riddick to blow up, to at least be disgusted or angry. Instead he shrugged and reaching out tousled the little girl’s hair.

“Okay.” He got up and the children let out their breaths in relief. Vaako looked down at them and realized that because of him, Riddick had been forced to accept responsibility for three more lives. “They’re your job though Vaako,” he muttered as he stalked away and Vaako was left with two pairs of huge dark eyes looking up at him expectantly.

“In that case, maybe we should get you cleaned up,” Vaako sighed looking down at the dirt-encrusted pair.

“Need help?” Freet asked as he stood up and he nodded gratefully. Joisa bounced up alongside them and they took the children and headed for the bathing pool. This would teach him to open his big mouth again.

Riddick had soon realized that Alia had no memory of what he had seen in her mind. There was a part of him that wanted to question her further, to find out more of the secret hurts she carried. There was another part of him that wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Had she not already killed her childhood molester, he’s be on his way to Kingdom Come right now to make the bastard pay. As it was, there was a group of Mercs he wanted dead.

There was also the feeling that she might not want him to know. She still had never told him about the scars on her back and he had been reluctant to pry. After all, if he demanded answers from her, he would be in no position to refuse to answer her questions. There were plenty of things in his past that he’d rather not talk about. He wasn’t ashamed of anything he’d done, nor did he think that she might turn away from him if she knew. He just didn’t want to talk about it. Carolyn, for instance, wasn’t a subject that he wanted to explore with her.

A movement from the corner of his eye drew Riddick’s attention back to the redheaded cook bustling about the campsite and he tried again to get upset. He wasn’t quite sure why he gave into the assimilation of a new member so easily, unless it was the children. They had looked up at him with such fear and uncertainty. They had looked like himself at that age, staring out of the orphanage windows, watching as yet another couple drove away with a child and he remained behind.

He compared himself as a child to the memory of Alia – the half starved, feral creature that she’d been and knew he would have liked her then. She would have been the kind of kid he would have gotten along with, unlike those children who got picked at the orphanage.
They were always the cute ones, big eyes and round cheeks, all sweet and outgoing. He had been a shy kid, angry and hurt all the time. When he did get sent to foster homes, it always went badly and he’d end up back in the institutional gray rooms once more. By the time he had ended up in a juvenile detention facility, he’d long ago given up on the idea that anyone would want him.

He had continued in that belief until the Hunter-Gratzner – until Carolyn, Jack and Imam became the first people to think he was worth something. Until Alia had walked into his arms and let him inside. He had spent all of his life on the outside pressed against the window staring in at other people’s families. Now tht he was inside, curled up beside his own fire with people who welcomed him, he was finding it very hard to lock the door on the hungry faces of Tara and her children.

Damn it, he was going soft. Still, they did need a cook and whatever she was making, it smelled really good. Besides, he already had this large group; what were a few more mouths, more or less?

Dinner!” Tara called and Riddick picked himself up and went to eat. The woman flinched a bit as he approached but did her best to stand still.

“Smells good,” he murmured and peered into the pot. Delicious odors drifted up and his stomach growled in response. Tara was obviously older than he was but she smiled shyly at him, as though she were afraid of being rebuffed. She handed him a bowl and he took it gratefully and then retreated to settle down to eat. His sense that all was not right with the Furyan refugees was growing stronger. He was used to people being afraid of Riddick, the escaped felon, but she seemed to fear him because he was an Alpha, not because he was Riddick. There was something really wrong about that.

The Purifier had shown no fear of him, only a kind of wonderment and hope. Alia had been afraid of the bonding, but not of him. What was different here?

Alia got her bowl and dropped down beside him. Riddick watched as the others came drifting in, Vaako soaking wet and irritated with a child under either arm, each also wet, but far cleaner than they had been. Freet followed him, dripping and wringing out the hem of her shirt as she approached. Joisa resembled a drowned rat more than a girl, but was giggling as she came. Auret and Daikken came in as well, each accepting a bowl from Tara with a smile and word of thanks. Tara looked surprised by their courtesy, but gratified.

His pack – his family – they all settled down to eat and he was surprised at how natural it seemed for them to all be there. It was as though he’d always needed them there around him and never realized it until they appeared.

Riddick became aware of the little boy creeping up behind him, trying to get near to him when he was still five feet away. He turned when the child had almost reached him and looked down at the kid just as Tara realized what was going on. She looked as terrified as Lajjun had used to and lightning fast he snatched the boy off of the ground and held him by the back of his shirt, dangling in front of him.

“Vaako!” he called out in an even tone. “I think you lost something.” He gave the kid an amused look and received a huge grin in reply. Tara relaxed and returned to eating as it became evident that he wouldn’t be killing her wayward offspring.

“Sorry.” Vaako came over and picked up the boy around the waist with a rueful expression. “These are faster than Ziza and the babies,” he admitted.

“There are others in the pack?” Tara asked, her head coming up from her plate in interest.

“Yes, we were not sure what the conditions here would be, so we left a female and three young behind us with a guardian,” Alia explained and Riddick raised an eyebrow. He wondered how Lajjun would take being referred to as a ‘female’ like that.

“Very prudent,” Tara approved and Riddick was finding himself laughing inside. She really was such a maternal figure, so much the ‘mom’ stereotype. It was amusing that she was already starting to mother the pack.

“What happened to your mate?” Alia asked her from out of the blue and the look of grief and rage that passed over Tara’s face reminded him that she was after all, a Furyan.

“He was killed by Necromongers three years ago.” To her immense credit Tara never once looked at any of the ex-Necros as she spoke, nor did she show any hostility towards them.

“I am sorry.” Vaako appeared uncomfortable and unhappy as he spoke.

“It isn’t your fault. Few were left with any choice about converting. Even some Furyans became Necros.” She shrugged at him and he nodded slowly, still looking ill at ease.

“What of the rest of your old pack?” Riddick was now curious about her.

“It fell apart; they are all dead or gone to other packs. The Alpha was killed at the same time, you see.” A long silence greeted her answer and then Alia tilted her head.

“How many Alphas are left now?” Her smoke and whisky voice had a bite to it and Riddick could feel the intensity of her interest.

“No more than a handful now. Besides Faille, there are only Cody, Trevor, Dane, Ventras and Riddick.” She replied. Alia’s shock was palpable to him, even though her expression did not change in the slightest.

“So few?” Riddick’s mate sounded politely interested, but he could sense the way her mind was racing.

“Yes, The Lord Marshall was very thorough.” The bitterness was there now, in Tara’s voice and face. “I am uncertain how we shall survive as a race.” It was a flat statement with an undertone of despair in it.

“It is likely you will have to either breed with other races or re-create Project Atlantis.” Aereon materialized beside Vaako and then drifted into a seated position.

“Where have you been?” Riddick asked, genuinely curious. The Elemental had been uncharacteristically quiet on both the journey to Furya and now that they were here.

“I have been exploring the currents of this world,” She told him with her eyes focused on the fingers of her hand. Wind passed through and blew her fingers to streamers of light and he was fascinated by the phenomena. “Sturm is correct about the gates; they are most definitely beginning to fail.” Her tone was grave and her eyes solemn.

“How are your lessons going?” Vaako asked Alia with a worried frown.

“Better now that Shirah can use our bond to train me faster,” she replied with her usual calm tones, but he could feel how disturbed she was by Aereon’s news.

“Recreate Project Atlantis? Is that possible?” Tara’s enquiry cut across their conversation and Riddick turned to look at her in surprise.

“Of course it is possible. The genetic material is all around you.” Aereon gave Tara that bird-like look of enquiry that Riddick had become familiar with. Her fluttering golden robes and the startling blue of her eyes accentuated the effect and she looked barely human.

“You mean cloning?” Tara persisted.

“No, I mean mixing genetic material from several sources. I have seen at least three or four thousand Furyans wandering the planet. That is more than enough for a good sized gene pool,” Aereon corrected and Tara nodded slowly.

“We would need the hospitals up and running again for that,” the redhead mused, deep in thought.

“We would also need trained geneticists,” Freet added and Riddick suppressed a smile at her automatic use of the word ‘we’. His Necros were starting to think of themselves as Furyans and for some reason that pleased him.

“We need to deal with the gates first,” Alia pointed out with a touch of impatience in her voice.

“Yes, of course, Void Walker, I’m sorry.” Tara reddened and Alia raised an eyebrow at her.

“Since when do pack mates use titles with each other?” Those silver-speckled ebony eyes were fixed on Tara with all the precision of a gun sight. Tara squirmed at Alia’s questions and Riddick watched in interest. Perhaps they would get some answers now.

“Since the destruction of our world, our kind have been lost and frightened. We are a race unused to fear,” Tara offered hesitantly. Riddick frowned, unsure of where she was going with this. “The remaining Alphas have the responsibility for all of our people, not just their own packs.” Now it was Alia’s turn to frown and he could feel her disapproval in his own mind. “The ancient rights and privileges have been… suspended,” Tara finished and the flash of red rage from his mate mirrored his own.

The only thing that had separated the Furyans from the animals whose genes they shared had been the laws and civilization they had built. Those laws and that civilization had been forged from the understanding that while Alphas were leaders of their pack, they were not absolute rulers. There were strict limits to their power and all pack members had the right to depart a pack they didn’t want to stay in. Riddick was all done with being only an animal and he certainly wasn’t going to take all human rights from Kyra, Vaako and the others.

“Not in this pack,” Riddick growled, and the beast in him rose up, wanting nothing more than a few throats to rip out. Alia’s mind brushed his and the anger receded; she soothed him with a thought. He was startled by that, but judging from her reaction, not as startled as she was. They would deal with it later, he decided. They had too much else on their plate. Her agreement washed through his mind.

“So we have all observed, Riddick.” Tara’s voice was gentle again, maternal and he wondered if his mother would have been like her had she lived. “Which is one of the reasons you have earned Faille’s enmity.”

“I am all broken up over that too,” Riddick sneered, picking up the agreement from Alia, whose own desire to shiv Faille in the night was in perfect alignment with his own.

“There are few who would mourn his passing,” Tara agreed with a throw away gesture. “However, he has a rather large pack.”

“What has that to do with anything? If there is a conflict then an Alpha fights an Alpha, the pack isn’t involved,” Alia pointed out, but Tara was shaking her head.

“We have too few Alphas now, they must be protected. It has been decided to name a champion from the pack to fight now, rather than risk the death of more Alphas.” Tara sounded as disgusted as Riddick felt and Alia snorted.

“That keeps a cowardly shit like Faille safe, doesn’t it?” There was fury in her mind, but her external self was perfectly contained. Riddick had begun to see what it had const her to learn such incredible self-control. It was as strong as his own and for many of the same reasons.

“Um, who is our champion?” Freet asked tentatively and Alia shrugged.

“Me, of course.” Riddick wanted to deny that immediately. He hated the idea of her fighting his battles, but at the same time there was no other choice. Tara was the only other Furyan and she was obviously far too meek to choose and none of the ex-Necros were up to the job either.

Vaako frowned and opened his mouth but Riddick cut him off.

“You are the only choice, but I don’t like it,” he informed her and she shrugged.

“Honestly, I’d rather just kill Faille and be done with it,” she replied and he nodded in agreement. It would be the most practical solution.

“Wait a few weeks,” Tara advised. “He has sired a child on Ramona. If it is born male and an Alpha, there will be a replacement for him.” Riddick couldn’t care less about replacing Faille; the man was a danger to all that Riddick held dear and he wanted that threat eliminated. There had to be a reason though why Tara was so concerned.

Alia cocked her head in thought and studied the cook for a moment before speaking.

“This is important why?” His mate was always thinking ahead, Riddick thought with a grin, just like he was.

“Because the other Alphas will accept such a thing easily. Faille is not liked by them either, but they are concerned that they not lose any of the already few Alphas.” Tara replied.

“But Sturm is a Void Walker, the only one on the planet. Will they let her be our champion and risk her death?” Kyra’s clear tones reminded them of their other obligations.

“Well, it’s a moot point right now, anyway,” Aereon reminded them “Repairing the gates has to be our top priority. When that’s done, you can worry about starting a revolution.” The amused quirk of her lips made Riddick frown. She was right; there was too much to be done before he could worry about all that.