A Thousand Shades Of Black

Chapter 17 – Fireworks

Riddick could feel Alia trying to peer out through his eyes and sent some rather irritated thoughts towards her. Every time she did that, his vision blurred a little and he found it highly disconcerting.

“Sorry,” she mumbled in his mind and he could feel his lips moving to the words though no sound came out.

“Let me run the body, trust me, Li,” he soothed her and could feel a wave of love and reassurance coming off of her.

“I do trust you.” There was peace in her tone and her heart was calm, despite the strangeness of the situation. He could feel her ease and he wondered at it. Were their positions reversed he would be freaking out.

“What happened, Li?” he finally asked, pushing through the forest at top speed.

“Shirah, took over my body to try to shut all the gates at once.” There was a subdued quality to her voice and he could feel her holding something back.

“Li?”

“She had no choice, Riddick. The gates are failing faster and they are tearing Furya apart. Soon it will be too late and the cascade effect will rip the multiverse open.” She had a thoughtful tone now and he could almost see her in his mind’s eye, head tilted to one side considering the situation.

“You’re awfully calm about this,” he quipped and her throaty chuckle answered him.

“No nervous system, no heart, no blood pressure, no chemical soup to cloud the mind. It’s easy to be calm if you don’t have a body, Riddick.” There was a strange distance in that statement, as if she had already died and he was talking to her ghost. It sent a cold shiver down his spine.

“I will get you your body back.” He could hear his own low growl and feel the hard anger in him growing. She was wrapped around his heart, but it wasn’t enough for him and he was getting really angry with Shirah. She kept putting everyone else’s life on the line, but she herself stayed safe and snug.

“She’s dead, Riddick. Nothing left to risk.” Alia’s wry statement made his eyebrow shoot up in surprise.

“Dead?” Well, that made a certain degree of sense. It certainly explained a few things that had confused him. Like how she kept popping up in his head all the time.

“Yeah, without a body she is reduced to cryptic conversation and mentoring us living folk.” The last was bitten out with irritation and it was a bit of a relief to him that she was capable of feeling annoyed. Her preternatural calm was strange to him after all the time he had spent bonded to her feeling the passionate tides of her emotions.

He stumbled out of the woods to find Aereon, Kyra and Vaako faced off against Alia. Well, her body anyway. The sharp-eyed gaze had all of Alia’s intensity but it was layered with Shirah’s age and wisdom.

“You are delaying me dangerously, Elemental,” Shirah was saying, with Alia’s voice. “The longer I stay in this body the more damage I do to it.”

“Aereon, let her get on with it.” Alia spoke through Riddick and all eyes turned to stare at the incongruous tones coming from his mouth.

“Can I please fucking drive, Li,” Riddick complained and Alia withdrew, chagrined.

“Riddick?” Kyra and Vaako were staring at him in shock.

“Step back please.” Shirah commanded and Riddick glared at Aereon until she reluctantly complied.

Shirah stretched out Alia’s arms and energy crackled along them, light flashed and a heavy pressure seemed to settle on all of them, as though the very air was growing dense with the amount of power being unleashed.

Riddick watched as the body he knew so well, moved in unfamiliar patterns and felt a strange disorientation.

“Yeah, well, think about how I feel,” Alia bitched from the back of his brain and he almost laughed at her comment. It must be even stranger to see your own body from the outside. “I look reversed,” she added and it took him a moment to realize what she meant. Used to looking at herself in a mirror, she was finally seeing her face and body as he saw her.

“You’re beautiful.” The thought had popped into his head spontaneously and they were bonded too closely in that moment for him to hide it. Something opened between them and he felt the bond click deeper as his admission pushed barriers aside between them.

There in the center of the storm, they got lost in each other’s regard, becoming oblivious to the fury around them. When at last the pain began to trickle into their awareness his only thought was to protect her, but there was no part of them that could escape it.

Kyra huddled against Vaako and covered her ears with her hands. He wrapped arms around her and protected her from the energy that crackled and popped through the glade. Winds whipped past them and power thrummed through every leaf and branch. Whatever Shirah was doing it was mightily impressive.

In fact, it was terrifying. Shirah’s power crawled along her spine and she burrowed closer in.

She clung to Vaako and a slow realization came over her. She loved him, but not like a lover. He was like an elder brother or a father figure. He was tribe, pack, friend, protector, whatever you wanted to call it, but it wasn’t romantic at all.

She also realized that it was going to break his heart.

The sudden silence was deafening and Vaako unfolded from around Kyra slowly. The glade looked like a tornado had hit it and Alia was lying curled in a ball on a bed of leaves and branches. Riddick was lying next to her, looking strangely peaceful, they both appeared to be unconscious.

Aereon had vanished completely.

Vaako shook his head trying to clear his mind from the aftereffects of the energy storm or whatever it had been. Something was different and he couldn’t place it. There was something some feeling of pressure or irritation that had vanished and the whole world seemed to have stilled in response.

Soft chirping started up from somewhere and rustling began in the shrubs nearby him. Slowly the forest began to yawn and stretch, as if waking from a long dream. Animals began to move and birds took to the air. Vaako and Kyra looked around in wonderment as the world of Furya came alive once more.

Alia felt as though she had been beaten half to death, but the pain was strangely welcome after the surreal time she had spent suspended in Riddick’s mind. She tried to move and waves of agony rolled over her. She clamped her jaw on the rising whimper she could feel and breathed slowly in and out, riding the pain.

“Li?” Riddick groaned beside her and she peeled her eyes open with sheer stubborn willpower. He was bruised and cut and looked like hell, but he was moving which was more than she could say for herself right then.

“Hey,” she hissed through her teeth, trying to move as little as possible. The world seemed to be shaking and it took her a while to realize that her body was twitching spasmodically with the aftermath of all the energy that Shirah had channeled through her.

“You need a hand up?” His voice was gentle, it always a surprise to hear those soft tones from such a sharply chiseled face.

“I need a full body cast and a bottle of scotch,” she retorted, rather dismayed by the slurring of her speech. His face had gone still and mask-like, he was obviously trying to hide his concern from her. It was a useless effort she could feel the spike of worry too clearly for any concealment to be successful.

“Let me,” Vaako muttered, suddenly appearing beside them. She could feel herself being lifted by him, but couldn’t feel the touch of his hands, nor could she move in the slightest. Panic bloomed in her as she struggled to even lift a finger. The incredible feeling of helplessness was nearly overwhelming.

“Li!” Riddick’s voice was sharp and demanding. His face moved into her field of vision and the strength of his will, the comfort of his presence drove down her panic. As she had soothed him with a thought, now he calmed her in the same way.

“What’s wrong with her?” Kyra’s voice sounded very young and uncertain and Alia wished she had some strength to spare for the younger woman.

“Can’t move,” Alia forced the words out. “Shirah warned me…” she began and could feel the fury rising in Riddick.

“I will find a way to kill that bitch,” Riddick promised in a quiet voice that was nonetheless rather frightening.

“No other way,” Alia reminded him and could feel the fires of his rage being banked, though the anger didn’t go away completely.

“Now what?” Kyra asked still in that child’s voice. To Alia’s surprise it was Vaako who answered.

“Now we head back to camp, get medical help for Sturm and figure out our next step.” The world shifted as Vaako started walking and she could feel the bubble of surprise in Riddick’s mind.

“Sounds like a plan,” Riddick agreed and the relief of not having to be the Alpha for a moment was great in him.

Alia could hear their footsteps crunching through leaves and underbrush and the fluttering of wings as birds flew by, the forest was alive again, and she could feel it.

In a weird way being unable to feel her own body was making her more aware of Furya. The pulse and breath of the world was part of her, the trees grew from her flesh the birds were nesting in her body, the world and the woman she had been were fused together and inseparable.

As she reached out with her new senses thoughts intruded into her mind, memories rose into her consciousness but neither thought nor memory were her own. It was like remembering a holoplay or a text she had read long ago. It took her long moments of turning the new memories over in her mind to figure out what she was seeing.

Riddick’s indrawn breath told her when he realized the truth of it as well. He knew as she did that Shirah was gone. That everything that had been Shirah was now there, asleep in Alia’s mind and body.

She was Shirah now, but she had no idea how long that would last. Would Shirah come back and rise out of Alia’s mind like a phoenix, or was she stuck with the ancient Avatar of the Furyan race in the back of her head forever.

Why did this shit keep happening to her?

Riddick was stunned as he grasped what had happened to Alia. Somehow by possessing her body Shirah had bonded with Alia, transferring her personality and memories to his mate. What exactly did that mean anyway? Was she still Alia? She still felt like Alia, but there was something else there as well. What about her paralysis? Was that temporary or had the Furyan Avatar permanently damaged Alia?

His mind ran in circles for a moment until he got it under control. He shrugged his shoulders to ease his tension and took a deep breath. Panicking was stupid and it always got you killed. It was a rule of his that he had to keep his head no matter what happened. He could panic later, when it was all over and it was safe to feel the fear.

Calm again he appraised the situation with a greater degree of calm. Break it down, Riddick, he chided himself. What do we do first?
Get Alia somewhere safe and find a doctor. After that, he would see about killing him an Avatar. Assuming she was coming back…

Kyra watched Vaako carrying the frighteningly limp Sturm with wide eyes. He lifted her as though she weighed nothing and yet still moved with an economical grace that Kyra envied. She was still reeling from the huge energy discharge followed by the weird transformation of the forest around them.

A low growling started up nearby and Riddick whipped around with the incredible speed that still startled Kyra even after all the time she had spent with him. A large cat came bounding out of the trees and Riddick had a blade out and flashing in an arc before Kyra had even begun to draw her weapon. The cat’s roar aborted and became a howl of pain as Riddick’s blade drew blood.

The cat leapt back and crouched studying prey that was far more dangerous than it had realized.

“Vaako, get Alia back to camp,” Riddick growled and Vaako headed off at a run. “Kyra, flank it to the right.” Kyra jumped to obey, partly from the natural tendency she had to follow him and partly from the sheer surprise of the order. When had he decided that she could be trusted in combat, when had he stopped trying to protect her? Gratified by his trust she stepped to the right, her eyes never leaving the cat.
It was huge she realized, as big as a grizzly bear back home and it had a mouthful of razor sharp teeth that could chomp her in half. The strangely joyful killing lust was rising in her again and a savage grin twisted her lips up.

The stood there long moments, the cat, the man and the girl, a triumvirate of hunger rage and leashed violence. Riddick still as a stone, eyes hidden by his goggles, Kyra weaving slightly as her heart cried out for blood and the cat, which watched them both from behind lidded eyes.
It happened in an instant, the cat lunged for what it perceived to be the weaker prey, and Kyra was treated to the sight of that mouth opened wide to show her fangs as long as her forearm. She threw herself to the ground and rolled to her feet. As she pivoted to face her attacker she was stilled by the spectacle of Riddick, arms around the cat’s throat, choking it into unconsciousness. His body was pressed against the cat’s spine, the feline’s limbs clawing futilely at the air, the head locked against Riddick’s chest. One leg was twined around the bottom torso keeping the cat from escaping.

Kyra tried not to gape openly. It wasn’t dignified. Even so, she shivered a little as the great beast went still and slumped in Riddick’s arms. Watching him lower the cat to the ground and pat it gently before rising again made her want to protest, but she kept her mouth shut. She forgot sometimes how damned impressive her big brother could be.

It was a sobering realization.

Riddick checked the cat’s pulse and was reassured by the steady beat. He probably ought to kill it but the dappled pattern of the coat was lovely, the strength and grace of the creature was impressive and he felt a wave of compassion for it. It was hungry and confused, he could see the thinness of the flanks and the protruding ribs. Whatever had happened to this forest had affected all the animals as well. Now that the gates were closed the poor half-starved creatures were coming out of the trees to eat.

Who was he to deny life to someone who just wanted lunch, as long as lunch wasn’t himself or his pack, of course? He spared a last glance at the magnificent creature and then moved off to deal with all his other problems.

If only all of them were as easily solved.