Ghost

15. Riddick.

I’ve seen a lot in my life. I've seen a nebula right outside my ship; felt the incredible energy pulsing outwards as it glowed in the darkness of space. I’ve seen graceful creatures toy with their prey, only to deliver a swift and sudden death; their calls to each other in the dark are both haunting and chilling.

I’ve seen the lights in men’s eyes dim slowly, as their blood pumped against me in a hot fount. Felt their hands scrabble for purchase against my shoulders as their bodies died even as their minds shouted out in disbelief. Watched as awareness flooded their faces, and felt nothing as they called for a deity that didn't exist or care.

I’ve seen birth and death. Love and hate. Loyalty and treason. But I wish I’d never seen the look of revulsion that flickered across Jack’s face when she saw the floating city that was now mine. Several Commanders turned to face us at the top of the steps. Their attention was focused on the bare skin of her shoulders. She took a step backwards and the scent of her fear tinged the air. I hated that more than the look that had crossed her face.

Vaako stood to attention and we locked eyes briefly as a young Commander stepped forward slightly, his eyes riveted to Jack and to the skin that was visible to him. I heard Kain’s low snarl from behind me, and tilted my head slightly as I reached a hand out and drew Jack closer to my side. When I wrapped my arm around her waist and pushed my fingers under the material that was wrapped around her like sin, she stiffened slightly before leaning into me.

I smiled slightly as she began to play the hand that fate had dealt us, and kept my gaze on the young fool who had stepped forward. The Commander watched my hand disappear under the material, my fingers stroking Jack’s stomach lightly. It was only when I cleared my throat, that his eyes snapped back to mine. I let my jaw tighten, felt it tick in annoyance, and he lowered his eyes. But when his gaze strayed back to Jack again, I echoed the warning snarl that Kain let out. Vaako stepped forward, his own annoyance showing when he spoke.

“Lord Marshal. Allow me to lead you and your lady towards your new path.”

I nodded once, and kept my arm around Jack as we entered this floating prison. The Commanders drew apart as I approached them, and they flanked us as we walked. There were hundreds of Necros walking about, and they all paused to stare at us as we drew closer, and then sank to their knees. It made the animal purr and me smirk; a whole legion of people falling to their knees in reverence before a murderer. I found it both amusing and heady.

“Jesus, and I thought Crematoria was depressing,” I heard Link whisper to Kain, and fought back laughter when Kain snorted.

Dog and Maniac were back at Imam’s, and I knew that when we left New Mecca, they would go a different way. That left Kain and Link to watch over Jack, and for the first time since I had met them, I felt at ease with that. Especially considering the young Commander was still staring at Jack as if she was a banquet that he wanted to gorge himself on, as Vaako’s earlier warning echoed in my head.

The War Room was impressive; a large command centre dominated a quarter of the room, and in the very centre was a large crystal dome. It was mounted on the floor, with cloudy swirls of colour moving under its surface. The floor surrounding the dome was a high polished surface, and I found my attention drawn back to it several times as the Commanders who had flanked us spread out around the room.

“Lord Marshal - please, step forth to the threshold,” a voice urged, and I glanced at the man who had spoken.

He was dressed much as the man who had pulled me off the runway on Crematoria had been, in ornate robes and jewelry. I pushed my goggles up, and he blinked for a moment before he lowered his eyes again.

“Who are you?” I asked, and he bowed slightly.

“I am your guide; when the high purifier failed to return, I took his place. I am the voice of the Lord Marshal, the voice of the Underverse. A mere servant to the higher power…”

I raised an eyebrow and scowled causing him to swallow the rest of his words.

“Who are you?” I asked again, and he flushed slightly.

“My name is of no importance, Sire…”

“Your name!” I said as I took a step towards him as I lost what was left of my patience, and he gulped as he took a step backwards.

“Rahil, Sire,” he said quietly, and I nodded.

“So you’ll guide me to this Underverse. Show me paradise. Is that right?” I asked and he nodded.

“And if I don’t want to go?”

Rahil swallowed and twisted his hands.

“It is the way of the Lord Marshal. They must see the threshold, so that we can show others the way,” he said firmly, and I glanced towards Vaako who nodded slightly.

“How do I know you won’t kill me or mine while I’m on this threshold?” I muttered, and the man stiffened.

“That would be treason!” he said in a thin voice, and I heard Kain snort behind me again.

I glanced at Vaako as he stepped closer to me, and held his gaze.

“My Lord,” he murmured, and held his hand out slowly towards Jack.

Jack looked up at me, and lifted an eyebrow as if to say, “well, you got us into this, now deal with it.” I nodded slightly, and turned to face her. Grasping her chin in my hand I lifted her face slightly, and then brushed the back of my knuckles across her cheek. I glanced at Kain who stepped closer to Jack and Vaako and then released Jack‘s face. Turned back to Rahil and narrowed my eyes.

“Guide me then,” I said, and he nodded and beckoned me closer.

I stood on the floor that had drawn my attention, and closed my eyes when he told me to do so. For a moment, I thought that it was still a crock of shit. But even as I thought it, I felt the ground shift under my feet, and I was falling. I snapped my eyes open and all I could see was white. But it didn’t hurt.

I fell forever, and saw nothing. Heard nothing. Felt nothing but the free fall. My body felt as though it weighed nothing, and as I grew more and more concerned, reality suddenly snapped back into focus for me, and I found myself standing in darkness. I could taste sound and hear colour and it was the biggest trip of my life.

“This Lord Marshal is Furyan… A killer of men, but a protector of children. A non believer. It’s rather pathetic.”

A shadow separated from the rest, and Zhylaw stepped towards me. He laughed sardonically when I glared at him, and held his hands out in a gesture of peace. I snorted and pulled a shiv out of my pocket and he raised an eyebrow.

“Come now. Is that any way to treat your Father?”

“My Father?”

My sarcasm wasn’t lost on him, and he nodded seriously.

“I died to give you this life - this path. If that does not make me your father, then what does?”

He tapped his jaw as he stared at me, and a slow smile crossed his face.

“It could always make me your creator - I did set you on this path after all, when I cut you out of your mother’s belly and tossed you into the trash.”

When I reached out to grasp his throat, with the intention of killing him again, my hand passed through his body like it was made of mist. He threw his head back and laughed coldly.

“You silly little boy,” he murmured, and walked in a slow circle around me. “You can’t kill someone that is already dead. I can’t harm you in this place either. All I can do is pass on the information you‘ll need, so that you can take up the mantel of the Lord Marshal and complete this mission.”

I remained silent and seething as he turned to face me, and when he finally smiled, I felt a trickle of trepidation run down my spine as he took a step towards me.

“Let there be light,” he whispered, and stepped towards me again.

Stepped towards me. Stepped into me. And I felt as if every fibre of my body had been torn apart as his mind forced itself into mine. Showed me the past campaigns of the Lord Marshals who had come before me. Showed me this very man bathing in the blood of children. And then he showed me the Necro’s version of paradise.

A wasteland where the dead fought the dead. Of ash and smoke. Of fire and molten rock. Of screams and shouts. Like the Roman Empire of the past, the Lord Marshals sat and ate the souls of those they had massacred. They watched those who had served them fight for both peace and entertainment. A land of naked woman draped in silver and gold, hand feeding them as they watched the blood bath that was occurring below them.

And beyond the fighting and dying that would go on for an eternity, was a lush wilderness. Fields of flowers and bones. Of souls weeping, and screaming out for revenge as their children were devoured time and time again. And as I stared at the scenes before me, I could hear laughter in my head.

“They are so easy to guide,” a voice whispered. “As the Lord Marshal, you will be able to see into a person’s soul and pluck out what you need to create your army. And when they die and pass through to the Underverse, they find the paradise that we past Lord Marshal’s have created. An eternity of pain and pleasure and desires fulfilled. As the new Lord Marshal, you have an empire at your feet and the riches of a thousand worlds.”

I blinked and could see the darkness again. And standing in front of me was Carolyn, as pretty and as blonde as she had been five years ago. She smiled shyly and stepped forward, her hands rising to rest against my chest as she rose up on tiptoe and let her lips brush my jaw as she tilted her head back.

“You can control all life and death, simply because you wish it. Any life that you want shall be yours. Any death. Any soul. All the power in the ‘Verse, with no one to oppose you. You can bring back a soul if they are converted. An entire army of men willing to die for you. An entire harem of women, willing to lay in your bed and do what ever it is that you wish.”

When she pulled back, it was Kyra who was standing in front of me. She laughed slyly, and raised an eyebrow.

“Or you can bring a soul back to seek out revenge for the betrayal that you feel. Extract revenge for scars and blood and the poison you can sense but not see. Feel but not touch. You can bring them back to prove a point, to fulfil a promise. To correct a lie and make up for a mistake. For the woman you wanted but lost instead.”

She felt solid under my hands when I grasped her shoulders and shoved her away from me slightly. But the woman under my hands was no longer Kyra - it was Jack. Jack, wrapped in crimson sin, and a coy smile lifting the corner of her lips as she lifted that pointed chin and smiled slightly.

“You can look into a person and see everything, Riddick. Every wish. Every desire. Every memory. Their pain. Their love. Their soul. You can wrap it around you, just as you’d wrap a woman around you. Lose yourself within it, like you wanted to lose yourself in the snow and ice.”

I blinked as she stepped into me and tilted her head slightly. I felt my hands tighten on her shoulders, and fought to relax as a brief glimmer of pain crossed her face. Let my hands slide down her arms to her elbows, and drew her closer to me as she spoke again.

“You can look into a person and hear what they’re thinking. Learn their real thoughts, even as they think them. Look deeper, you can feel what they’re feeling. Look deeper still, and you can control them. Make an army obey you. Make a woman love you. Make someone forget past hurt and the feelings of betrayal.”

Jack tilted her head so that the long line of her throat was bared, and I felt the cool touch of her hand against my arm. I could feel the animal pacing, but it remained strangely silent as I followed her form as she slipped behind me, her hand brushing my side as she spoke quietly.

“You can have what ever you want. Memories changed. Memories experienced. Another man’s touch forgotten. Another man’s touch experienced. What feels like a lifetime, you can see within a few moments. See what you missed. Feel what you’ve denied yourself. What was denied you.”

I turned around slowly, and found that she was facing away from me. I could see colour in this place of make believe. I could see the crimson material that was wrapped around her. See the ivory of her skin. The chocolate of her hair. And when she glanced at me over her shoulder, I could see just how dark the green of her eyes was.

The smooth skin of her back. The play of muscle that moved as she shifted when I reached out to touch the spot that had almost taken her life. And when I moved my fingers down her spine to the base of her back, she didn’t flinch. I could feel the softness of her hair when I shifted it across her shoulder, and stepped closer.

Jack leaned back against me when I wrapped my arms around her. Rested her head against my shoulder and bared her throat as I leaned forward. Leaned into her. Breathed her in. Breathed in the lies and the poison, and growled softly.

“You think I’m that fuckin’ stupid, that I don’t know a lie when I hold it?” I asked against her temple, and she turned her face towards me slowly.

“Who says it has to be a lie?” she asked quietly, and looked at me from under her eyelashes.

“We have told you what you can experience as the Lord Marshal. We help you experience that. We know every secret that a soul holds. Every desire that a man hides, even a man, a Furyan, as complex as you. We have already experienced your memories, Riddick. Seen into the darkness inside you.

“Seen what the darkness inside you wants, even as the man denies it. Seen what you want, even as your darkness denies it. You can have both. You can have the child you so desperately wanted to save, while the darkness can have the woman you are blinded by. Tell us, Riddick - why does the woman in your arms mean so much to a man, who holds so little regard for life and humanity?”

I stepped away from this thing that was posing as Jack and narrowed my eyes.

“You tell me - you think you can see all, that you know all? You tell me why she means so much, when I don’t give a fuck about humanity or people or your ways,” I spat, and she laughed softly.

“Because she loves you, all of you. Because she accepted your darkness as a child - you view her as the one person who saved your life. As the beacon of light in your self created isolation. The sanity in your despair. As the one person you would kill for, destroy for… Would you let her die for you, Riddick, as two women have already done?”

“Never,” I hissed, and she smiled slightly.

“You would take her as your lover, then?”

“She’s not for me,” I snapped, and she chuckled again.

“Is she for him, then?”

I frowned as she reached up and slid the palm of her hand across my jaw. Narrowed my eyes as she licked her lips. And when she tore my mind open, I fell to my knees and closed my eyes as she forced a memory into my mind. Made me see… Made me feel… Experience…

… Wet tiles under the back of my hands… Warm, slick skin under my palms…. A rapid pulse fluttering under my mouth as I smoothed my lips down a throat that was wet with water and smelled like soap…. So close… Silky thighs tightening around my hips… A bare foot tracing up the back of my leg…. I could feel it rising in the pit of my stomach…

…A choked sob echoing in my ear… Blunt fingernails biting into my shoulders… Smooth skin against the calloused skin of my hand as I ran it down a slender thigh, urging it higher around my waist… A drawn out groan, feeling it ripped from my throat and hearing it echo around us as I lifted up onto my elbow…. Jack’s eyes darkening as she came apart under me, around me… Under Kain…

The animal roared and I wrenched away from Jack, only to see that the thing standing before me was made of rotting flesh. It was shrouded in some type of gossamer material, it‘s movements slow as it straightened up. I’d seen this thing before - used it’s abilities before. A Quasi Dead.

“You can have that, Riddick… Have her,” it murmured as it glided around me, and when it came back to my line of sight, it was Kain standing in front of me.

“Or is she for me after all, Riddick? My woman?” He laughed softly when I shook my head, and crouched down in front of me as I rocked slightly on my knees. “Do you still see her as a child, or do you now realize just how beautiful she can become when she’s arching up under you?”

“Was it real, or just another lie?” I managed, and he nodded slowly as his shape changed once more, and he became Zhylaw again.

“He took her the night she turned seventeen. Clean and smooth and virginal, and she gave herself to him on a warm night when the scent of another man’s blood was still heavy in the air. Gave the last of her innocence to him. Your darkness thinks that it should have been his gift… That she should have given herself to you.”

“What does this have to do with me leading an army to the gates of hell and shoving the lot of them through it? I‘ve had this speech from Vaako - what the hell does Jack have to do with any of it?” I spat, and he smiled slyly.

“Because this is what you will face as the Lord Marshal, Riddick. Many will try to use her to get to you. Many will try to harm her, to harm you. Some will try to gain her favour, and then use her to get close to you. By bringing her here, by taking her as yours, she will be a target long before you are.”

“So you look to use her yourself, to make me do as you bid. You tell me I can control her - make her love me. That I have the right as Lord Marshal to just take her bodily, even though she can’t fight me. None of that is gonna make me do what you want. You said it yourself - I’m complex. A Furyan. I came here because of her…”

“And you’ll die here, surrounded by the memory of her, Riddick,” Zhylaw said quietly. “Haunted by her ghost, when she is long dead. You spent five years thinking of her - do you want to spend eternity that way?”

Zhylaw frowned slightly and gestured behind him as paradise flickered back into focus around us. He gestured for me to follow him, and when I frowned, he threw his hands up in the air.

“I said I can’t bring you any harm here, Riddick. I just wish to talk.”

I followed him slowly, and watched as the dead paused their fighting to bow to him.

“There is a way around someone hurting Jack,” he said after a while, and I looked at him sharply. “You could choose a successor - pass on your Lordship to someone who already knows the troubles you‘ll face. Then you‘ll be free to go where ever you please with her.”

I snorted softly and turned to face him.

“So I have all the power in the ‘Verse, including the ability to bring back the dead, and you want me to pass that onto someone else. You, maybe?”

He nodded as he faced me, and I laughed softly.

“Why would I want to do that?”

“To save her.”

“So I save her, pass all this on to someone else, and have her die anyway when you destroy the ‘Verse - is that right?” I asked and shook my head.

“Better for her to die with you like that, than torn apart and used as a message against you, isn’t it?” he murmured.

I stared at him silently; that fear was back, and when I lifted an eyebrow at him, he smiled slightly.

“She beautiful. But fragile. Weak. We told you why we think she means every thing to you, but you never really answered us. Why do you risk it all, Riddick, to keep this mere slip of a life with you?”

I kept my gaze steady on him as he slowly melted away and became the Quasi Dead again.

“Do you really love her that much?” it asked, and I laughed softly.

“I don’t know the word love. I’ve never felt it, experienced it, none of it. It’s a chemical reaction - this love you speak of…”

“…And yet you hid away in a self made isolation, so that she would be safe. So that she could experience life as she was meant too. You crossed the ‘Verse for her, Riddick - if that isn’t love, then what is it? Ownership? Or is it obsession? An obsession with the girl who stands in the light, while you stand in the shadows that surround her - protecting her in the dark.”

I shook my head slowly, only to have it laugh. The sound rasped around me - through me - and it became Kain standing before me.

“This boy loves her. You know that. You know what he would do for her, and it is no different from what you would do. He stands beside her now, while you are here with us. Watching over her. He can not possess her, but still he stays. That is love - do you wish to feel it, Riddick? Feel all he feels? Think what he thinks? Know what he knows? Possess the knowledge of what drives him? What burns inside of him?”

I shook my head and Kain laughed softly.

“You will need that knowledge one day, Riddick. A taste then…” he whispered, and touched my chest before I could step away from him.

Lifeless blue eyes. Green blood running down the side of a slender throat. And Aereon turning to face me slowly as her body floated between transparent and solid. A scream of untold pain echoing around me, along with the roar of an ocean.

And when I blinked, I found myself standing back in the control room staring at Rahil. And beyond him, Kain and Jack stood side by side. They looked towards me as I blinked, and then at each other. And as a private look passed between them, I found that I already hated this mission. Hated the Quasi Dead and their ability to make me feel and experience private moments.

And as I stared at Jack, all I could remember was how it had looked when her eyes clouded over and she arched up under me. How it had felt to feel her thighs tighten around my hips. How it had felt to feel her pulse beating so erratically under my mouth. And knowing that this was an actual memory that Kain possessed? I hated that more than anything else.