A Thousand Shades Of Black

Chapter 16 – Running on Empty

Alia grudgingly submitted to Tara’s mothering, as the older woman bound up her arm. The red-hot pain was fading rapidly as the meds coursed through her system dulling and muting the agony of the burn. Aereon sat beside her on a fallen log, eyes scanning the glade.

“Shirah said that the nearest gate was a day’s march away,” commented the Elemental.

“I know.” Alia winced as the implication of that really sank in. There had to be more gates than even Shirah was aware of. Another thought hit her.

“All the gates on Furya, could they have a destabilizing effect on the time-space continuum?” Alia frowned and began to gnaw her lower lip as she cogitated.

“You mean creating spontaneous rips between universes?” Aereon sounded appalled by the idea, which didn’t make Alia any happier.

“Basically, yes.” She was straining to remember what little she had ever read about physics. She had hardly been a studious child; too busy surviving on the streets to pay much attention to any schooling she might have obtained. Besides, Kingdom Come hadn’t had a school system, you had to find teachers and then pay them for their lessons. Alia had needed that money for food.

“It is quite possible. The fabric of the universe is quite strong and flexible, but it has its limits and the sheer number of breaches on this world is quite staggering.” Nothing that the Elemental was saying made Alia feel good about the future of Furya.

“Fuck,” Alia sighed and Aereon raised an eyebrow at her. She was in so far over her head that it was ridiculous. “I really need to talk to Shirah.”

“Shirah is limited by her present state.” Aereon’s statement made Alia pause before she rose.

“Are we going to play twenty questions or are you going to explain that one?” Alia grumbled. Aereon gave her a small smile and continued.

“Shirah has been dead for several hundred years.” Alia’s jaw dropped open and then snapped shut just as fast. The Elemental’s words went right through her and she shivered. “She holds herself together by sheer force of will and because of the immense power she had when she lived. She was as far beyond human during her life as any Elemental. Shirah has bound herself to this plane rather than passing on, but she is severely limited in what she can do.” Aereon sounded grave as she spoke and Alia felt cold.

“If she is dead, then that explains why she can’t close the gates herself,” Alia murmured and slumped for a moment before straightening. “I still need to talk to her. She is the most knowledgeable person on the gates and I need some advice on how to proceed.”

“You know that you cannot do this task.” The ice blue eyes, sharp and penetrating speared her and Alia paused.

“I haven’t tried yet, so no, I don’t know that.” The haughty aloofness of her tone was meant to freeze the white-haired Aereon, but it only made her smile.

“Furyans,” she retorted with a fond expression. “You are all so stubborn.” Alia merely bowed and went in search of Shirah.

Kyra sat on a rock and thought of Jack. It had been a joke, calling herself Jack B. Bad, but it had been a terrible irony in the end. She had thought herself tough, a hardened criminal. What a laugh. The Mercs that had slaved her out had taught her the real meaning of bad and it wasn’t her romantic ideal of running from the law and sticking it to the Company. Jack had been weak, Kyra had come to realize and she had despised weakness. She had tried to kill the part of her that craved love and affection and so she had changed her name for a second time. Her first self, Audrey, had died to give birth to Jack who had in turn been killed by Kyra.

Audrey had been sweet, a nice kid with real dreams for the future. She wanted to be a doctor or a dancer. Kyra dredged up the memory with an effort. Audrey had been gone for so long, it was hard to remember her. Jack, well Jack had wanted to be just like Riddick. Jack had wanted to be the biggest bad ass in the galaxy, untouchable and free. Jack was the one they had raped again and again. Just like Audrey, Jack had had to die.

Kyra looked up at the sunlight filtering through the trees and wondered how many names she would have to go through before she found one that could keep her safe.

Riddick moved through the pack, checking on his people. They were shy and frightened but he kept from snarling at them with an effort. They were Furyans for shit’s sake, they should fear nothing and no one. It was like being back in Slam, he realized. These people had been terrified, hunted and broken. Furya had become a charnel house and then a prison for them.

Something had to be done.

“Listen up, people.” Riddick swept the group with a look and they all turned their eyes up at him. “I don’t care what the other Alphas may have said, the ancient rights will be respected in this pack, is that clear?” The brightening of faces, the raising of eyes, all signaled a sea change in the people around him. A murmur of assent rose around him and he was looking at a pack of Furyans again. There was a heady electricity in having so many strong and deadly people looking to him, it was like being back in the Marines again.

He wondered which one it was going to be: The Slam or the Marines?

Vaako supported Jeran as they returned to camp. The boy was shell-shocked and pale. For all that Faille had been a bastard, he had also been the kid’s father and he was mourning and hurt. The thin arm over his shoulders reminded him how young and fragile Jeran was. He looked down at the paper white face and sighed. He was just a boy and it was foolish to be jealous of him.

“Come on, kid.” Vaako hoisted him up and carried him the rest of the way, feeling a surge of protectiveness coming over him. The boy was so young and vulnerable, you couldn’t help wanting to shield him.

“Vaako, I hated him, but I loved him too.” The child’s voice that came out of Jeran made Vaako ache inside.

“I know exactly how you feel.” Watching the Lord Marshall die had been much the same for Vaako. He had loved and hated the man and felt a son’s devotion to him. He had mourned the death of a friend and father even as he had been relieved to be rid of a ruthless rival and someone who had failed the Faith. It was all tangled up together, love, loyalty, hatred, ambition, betrayal – a crow’s nest of emotion.

“What do I do now?” The question made Vaako want to laugh, but instead he just answered as gently as he could.

“You go on.” Jeran rested his head on Vaako’s shoulder as he carried him into the camp and it occurred to him, that the boy could easily transfer his father hunger to him if he weren’t careful. “Riddick is your Alpha now,” he reminded Jeran, cheerfully sacrificing his friend and leader to save himself. He couldn’t imagine having Jeran as a romantic rival if the boy was looking to him for guidance; it would be far too strange.

Jeran gave him an understanding look and nodded. Vaako was moved to ponder on how much the boy actually saw. Did he know how Vaako felt about Kyra? Well, as long as Riddick didn’t catch Vaako longing for her, he might just survive the week out.

He set the boy down on a cot and moved off to see to the rest of the pack. It was getting to be a large group and he wondered what they were going to do with all of these people. He hoped Riddick knew, because Vaako hadn’t a clue.

Kyra looked up and saw Vaako carrying Jeran into the clearing. She realized that she had forgotten about the young Furyan. He had been nearly killed coming to her rescue and she had totally blanked on him. She had fretted about Riddick and mused on Vaako, but Jeran hadn’t even popped up on her radar.

Well, that certainly told her something about the state of her feelings. She sure as hell wasn’t in love with Jeran. Was she in love with Vaako? The ambiguity of her own emotions troubled her. The fact was that she just didn’t know. She knew she liked him and found him attractive, but beyond that there was nothing. She sighed. Maybe she wasn’t capable of love. She had certainly never fallen before. Her worship of Riddick was as close as she had ever come.

“Kyra, get that ass moving.” Riddick’s low growl got her up off of her bunk and she was reacting before she quite realized it.

“Hey, I’m injured,” she shot back, angry that she had been so quick to respond. She didn’t like how easy it was to obey him.

“Yeah, well there are lots of wounded out there, pass out some water bulbs or something,” he retorted with a frown. “Don’t kill yourself, but help Tara out.” There was concern under his words and that soothed her anger. She nodded back at him and moved to help those who were tending to the injured.

“I’m going.” She kept her tone sulky, she wasn’t sure she wanted him to know how much his worry meant to her. Part of her still expected him to wander off and vanish at any minute, she realized. She gave him a little smile to apologize for her tone, knowing that she had been unfair to him and he nodded back to her. Why couldn’t everybody be as easy to deal with as Riddick was?

Alia stomped off to find the ghost of Shirah. Damn, she finally found someone to teach her this crap and she had to be dead. Head moving, she scanned as she went, watching for any more weird aliens that might jump out at her.

“Shirah?” she called.

“Here.” The answer came from so close by that Alia had drawn her blade and spun on her heel before she had quite realized what she was doing. She slowly removed the blade from pressing against Shirah’s throat with a sigh.

“Don’t do that,” she grumbled. Shirah gave her a calm smile that made Alia want to grind her teeth in frustration. How had she managed to get herself in so over her head here?

“Your reflexes are quite good.” Shirah commented and Alia sighed.

“Are more gates opening up?” Alia decided to cut through all the nonsense and get to the point.

“Yes.” Apparently Shirah was quite capable of doing the same.

“What can we do?”

“Nothing.” Shirah’s sober answer made Alia frown. “There are too many of them and only one of you. You don’t have the power or ability to accomplish this task.”

“There has to be something we can do!” Alia ground out.

There was a long silence as Shirah paced back and forth through the trees and Alia remained still, her eyes following the ghost’s movements.

“There is something, but it is not safe.” Shirah was the one frowning now, her eyes dark with concern.

“Nothing about this is ‘safe’, Shirah. Spit it out.”

“I could lend you my power for a while and we could shut all gates at once.” It wasn’t what she said as much as how she said it that made Alia shiver.

“What would that entail?”

“I would step into you and take over your body for a time. The danger is that the large amount of power I would be channeling through you would burn out your nervous system.” Alia stared at her in shocked horror. Take over her body? Burn out her nervous system? Not safe was the understatement of the millennium.

“Why does that sound like no fun to me?” Alia glared at the old woman.

“The gates are destabilizing, Furya is being ripped apart by them. Soon the gates will begin to shred the time space continuum, not just here but everywhere. They need to be closed for good.” Shirah was watching her with intent eyes and Alia crossed her arms and stared back.

“Why me?”

“Because you are the only Void walker on the planet.” Shirah’s eyes were boring into hers and Alia tried to jerk her head away, to break that gaze, but found that she couldn’t. “I am sorry, child, but there is no other option.”

“Riddick!” Alia screamed as the darkness rolled over her.

It was like his brain was on fire, Riddick thought through the pain. Alia was screaming in his mind and he was stumbling to his feet trying to get to her. He could feel her white hot agony, he could hear her cries of anguish, but he couldn’t find her, couldn’t feel a direction as he normally did.

“Riddick!” It was Jack, Kyra, whatever, calling to him and he wanted to answer but he had to hold onto the flaming wreck that was his mate. She was there in his mind clinging to him and he was fighting to hold onto to her with everything in him.

“Leave him be!” Hands released him and he heard Aereon’s voice giving orders. He ignored everything and concentrated on Alia. He couldn’t feel where she was. He could only feel the terrible pain, fear and anger that coursed through her.

“What’s happening?” Kyra’s voice, sounding so like the child Jack she had once been on that damned planet.

“I don’t know, but I have my suspicions.” The Elemental sounded grim and that voice was what followed him into darkness.

Vaako watched Riddick crumple to the ground in horror; only the lightning fast reflexes of his warrior training allowed him to catch the other man before he hit his head on a rock. Kyra’s face was more open than he had ever seen it, filled with agonized indecision.

“What do we do?” she beseeched Aereon with hands clenched at her side.

“We find Shirah. Now.” Aereon replied and turned on her heel towards the forest.

“Shirah?” Kyra frowned and followed after Aereon. “What does she have to do with this?” Something that Vaako wanted to know the answer to as well.

Vaako gestured Tara over to Riddick’s side and left him in her care as he followed the Elemental into the woods.

It was white noise everywhere and a weird feeling of disconnecting from everything. She was floating somewhere far away from where she had been and there was a curious peace to it. She vaguely remembered pain and anger but it was as if that memory belonged to someone else, someone long gone.

“Li?” She turned to follow the voice and could find nothing in the vast whiteness that surrounded her. There was light coming from what seemed to be every direction but there was nothing in this place but the whiteness and the light. “Li?” She heard it again and there was a feeling of impatience in her now. She could feel that she was on the brink of something wondrous, but the voice was holding her back somehow.

“What?” she rasped out, feeling as though her throat was raw. Why did it hurt so much, she wondered.

“Don’t leave me alone.” It was nearly a whisper now. There was something in that voice, in that plea that pinned her in place. It was a voice that never asked for anything, but it was asking her for this. She looked out at the pure radiant light with a moments regret and then she turned back.

He needed her and that was all that mattered.

Kyra followed Aereon and Vaako through the woods, watching as the Elemental drifted across the landscape like a wisp of smoke, nearly transparent in her agitation. Bright sunlight sent shafts of gold and silver across the forest floor and the trees arched and stretched towards heaven reaching for something only they understood.

Kyra was scared.

In all her life she had never imagined that Riddick could be vulnerable to anything. Watching him collapse had broken the last illusion of her childhood. Riddick could be hurt. The world was over.

Vaako watched the trail, scanning for hidden dangers but the forest was strangely silent. Ahead of him Aereon fluttered and flickered. Behind him, Kyra, her lips pressed together so hard they looked bloodless, her fingers white-knuckled around her gun, followed him, only partly aware of where she was going.

He knew how she felt.

He had placed his faith in Riddick as he had once placed it in the Lord Marshall. He had allowed one religion to replace another and he was paying for his blind faith. While he did his penance for his years as a Necromonger Commander, he had expected Riddick to do all the heavy lifting. He had expected him to save everyone’s life and be the anchor on which they all hung their souls.

It wasn’t fair.

More than that, it wasn’t smart. Riddick was only a man, Alpha or no Alpha, and dumping all his burdens on the Furyan was more than a little unkind.

It was time to rescue Riddick for a change.

They all owed it to him, Vaako more than most.

Riddick felt the moment when Alia turned back from the brink and he pulled her into his mind and heart with all his strength. She fell into him with a soft sound and he blinked, two people now looking out of his eyes.

“Riddick?” Tara was looking at him/them with concerned eyes and he nodded, not sure he could figure out how to talk with both of them in there.

“Shirah is in the woods, near the stream, we should go there.” It was Alia’s voice in his head, but his own mouth was moving, speaking the words. It was weird.

“All of us?” Tara asked, confused and Riddick shook his head with a slightly spastic motion, his control over his muscles incomplete.

“Where is Vaako?” he managed to ask.

“Looking for Shirah.” Tara was watching him with growing alarm.

“Then that’s where we’re going.” Tara opened her mouth but Riddick waved her away. “Just me,” he clarified. In his mind he could feel Alia pulling inward, ceding control of the body to him, letting him flex muscles and stand. It was hard for her, he could sense the effort she was making.

Like himself she was used to being a fighter, sitting back and letting someone else drive was alien to her.

This could be interesting, he thought with a wry grimace. Somewhere in his mind, Alia began suggesting anatomically impossible acts between him and a cephalopod.

No one knew why he was grinning as he headed out into the woods.