Treacherous

“This is the one I promoted.”

Bell stood back, refusing to step on the small dais in the center of the grotto as huge decorated sled-looking things slid out from their hidey-holes to surround it. She’d read about these beings, and understood as much as any person, Monger or human, but seeing them for the first time was still remarkable.

They reminded her of sarcophaguses, riding rails embedded in the floor. There were five of them, the number not significant, but only the number of Quasis that had been evolved enough to become ‘The Order of the Greater Quasi-Deads’. Now they were one short.

“Promoted?” she asked.

Riddick gave her a quirk of a smile, “To full dead.”

Bell nodded. That was actually quite apt and she wondered if he realized it or it was just derision. The Quasis were all volunteers, injured by something, or perfectly healthy, they chose to serve in the Order of the Quasi-Dead, most in communication means, but a few went so far as to become Greater.

Riddick was looking about the room, almost thoughtfully, that small smile gone now. Bell stared at him for a few seconds longer, noting the changes in him.

He most definitely had changed. Had it been only one thing? Or more likely was it from multiple contributing factors?

Most of Riddick’s reputation, decades worth of it, was all hype. Media and authorities made his crimes seem horrendous, when most had been acts of self-preservation. And in his defense, he’d let people know he was dangerous. They were safe as long as they weren’t near him. Riddick’s kills were brutal, yeah, but in all honesty, she wouldn’t want to ever be killed slowly.

With all that hype and associated fear, had he started to believe it himself? Capable and talented, but that didn’t make him a monster.

So he’d isolated himself on a planet that had probably tried to kill him as much as any merc. Stranded and alone even he would have had enough time and silence to contemplate his own existence. That amount of time to consider, and reconsider, would test a person’s sanity, anyone’s sanity. Even Riddick’s.

Then Shirah’s visit had made a mark on him, literally. Given visions and memories from ancestors that he’d never known he had… Well, Bell knew how it had affected her. Pride and a sense of belonging she hadn’t felt before her children were born. Now she felt a need to avenge the near-extermination of her people and a desire to rebuild a ruined world.

Whatever had happened right here in this room had had an effect as well. Riddick’s attitude now was one of wary respect. He understood how powerful and useful the Quasis were, but in that he sensed the danger. The irony that he was stronger than them was laughable. The Quasis dug into a mind that was more volatile than most weaponry. They were lucky to have survived their encounter.

Add to all that the Lord Marshal’s ghost, or whatever it was. Nothing had been recorded about it, but it had been no secret how powerful the last Lord Marshal had been. While whatever sort of power he’d had hadn’t been passed down to his successor, the ship had, and it seemed to have its own power.

The changes in him were small, probably not noticed by those around him now. But comparing him to the way he’d been five years ago it was drastic. He didn’t anger, or threaten, as easily, and he was quicker to speak. Only a few words at times, and he was still decidedly terse, but she’d heard more words out of him in the past day than she’d heard on T2 and the ship after, combined. He was also more expressive, his face showing hints of his mood. Mostly thoughtful, or amused, or aggravated, but it was there. Of course part of that could be that she could see his eyes now. Before he’d always worn his goggles, letting her see him without them only a few times. Now he rarely wore them.

“So how do we do this?” she asked.

“Just climb up there.”

“My Lord, you should not remain inside while the Quasis work.”

Bell’s heart was already beating rapidly in apprehension. She’d almost forgotten that Vaako had followed along and stood in the doorway, obviously reluctant to enter. Now, his voice startled her, and his suggestion terrified her. Riddick leave? It hadn’t occurred to her.

Riddick moved toward the Commander and Bell bit her tongue to keep from calling out to stop him. But at the door he reached out and pulled them closed. Vaako had to react quickly to keep from being shut in the middle. Then Riddick was turning to her and gave a small nod, at either the finality of shutting the Monger out, or in reassurance to her.

She turned back to the challenge at hand.

The Quasis writhed on their beds, a slow pained sort of movement. She watched them in turn, reluctant to get this started.

That Riddick had had such drastic results was probably a fluke. He was a Furyan, and a man. Maybe they were setting her up for some nice brain damage. A whisper of thought, too small to carry much weight called her doubts lies. She was Furyan too, and she’d most definitely felt something when Riddick’s apparition or whatever it was had reached out to her. She’d felt a responding sort of presence in herself.

Gritting her teeth with a determination she didn’t know if she could maintain, she stepped onto the dais and turned to face Riddick.

The moment she stopped she felt them. Like worms, they squirmed about her, seeking entrance and finding it remarkably easy. Her eyes squeezed shut as the pain started. They were not kind. Clawing and investigating, they scraped through her brain. She whimpered and tensed, hands closing in fists.

“Don’t fight them, Bell,” Riddick warned, but it was like an echo of sound to the clamor inside her head.

“Fuck that,” came a voice, not hers, but the thought was. “What the…”

They were voicing her thoughts and she instantly cut off the process.

“There are thoughts of the Lord Marshal. Of children. An android. ” Several voices spoke at once, echoing, coming from everywhere.

Bell’s fists came up to her temples, her teeth gritted at the pain wrenching inside her head.

“Regress further,” Riddick ordered, his voice commanding. “Where is she from?”

Instantly the pain intensified. It felt like they were moving deeper, literally, and Bell gasped at the shock of the pain.

“There is a vision of Furya. She is Furyan. A Guardian. She is a Guardian. ” This caused the Quasis to moan and writhe even more.

“What is a guardian?” Riddick asked. Bell could hear him as if from a distance.

Bell dropped to her knees, her hands pressing the sides of her head, to hold it together. Inside, she could feel their touch, like cold snakes, flexing and squirming, searching. Were they fumbling on purpose, or was it impossible to be kind while ripping a mind to shreds?

When it felt as if they could go no deeper, that the pain could get no worse, a sudden brightness filled her head. She would’ve sworn there had been an audible click, as if a switch had been flipped. Inside her mind, flooding her with that light came memories and a sudden loss of the pain for one second. Visions assaulted her, memories of a lush world she’d never seen. It resembled the world Shirah had shown her during her strange visit, but this was a summer to that devastated winter. A beautiful place, a living place, a powerful place.

Could a person feel omnipotence of their own mind? Bell felt different in her own head, as if she’d grown too big for her brain. The pain was back, but now it was just a nuisance rather than a catastrophic thing. Concentrating, Bell pinpointed one of the squirming intruders and focused on it fully. It felt like flexing a mental muscle.

She couldn’t see it but the body of one of the Quasis arched on its support, crying out in dry-garbled wails. Nor did she see or notice that blood ran slowly from her ears.

“Bell, stop.”

She heard Riddick. He was near, but he wasn’t part of this, and couldn’t stop her.

“Stop!” Riddick roared. “Leave her.”

They did, instantly pulling their cold clawing touch out of her mind. But one couldn’t. She held it trapped, and now certainly doomed without the support of its cohorts. Bell accepted the pain of its struggles as it lashed out at her to free itself. Picturing it as if it were a bug between her fingers that she intended to squash. She literally felt the life go out of it, extinguishing the last bit of energy and forcing it out at the same time.

It took a few seconds for her to open her eyes. The pain was gone. The world looked different.

When she was a child she’d had corrective eye surgery to fix near-sightedness. This was like that. Recognizing everything, yet seeing it anew too. Details jumped out at her, clear and seeming noticed for the first time.

“Alright?”

She blinked at Riddick. For just one second she was unable to suppress the animal desire at just laying her new eyes on him.

He smiled slowly, a smug smile. A second later she felt his apparition wrap around her, only now it wasn’t alone.

She didn’t notice hers until it encountered his. She frowned, feeling the essence pull back from the contact with his, but there was no danger here. She doubted anything could threaten the invisible strength, yet it felt nearly solid, like a thick cloud surrounding her, moving at her will.

“Can you read my thoughts?” she whispered. She stared at him from a distance, but felt much closer, like they were nearly touching.

He gave one shake of his head, “Could you read mine?”

Bell closed her eyes. It wasn’t like actually touching or seeing him. Her apparition gave her less information and more, but was a combination of those two senses, and more. With eyes closed she had an image of him, but it was felt, and whole. Every inch of him, like the surface of his skin was what she was really seeing, though unfortunately the image her mind conjured was more or less clothed. And like before, it wasn’t his thoughts she felt, but his emotions. And this was stronger than when he’d wrapped his essence around her. Just as fear is a mixture of awe and fright and arousal, each emotion was a combination of others. There were also electric impulses detected. The frequency of the timer on his heart, the minute muscles contractions through his body, they were like starbursts on the image, assuring to her on a primal level that he lived.

A realization came to her. He’d known this. He’d known what she would be capable of, and how she’d be able to see/feel him. He’d not only allowed it, but suggested and orchestrated it. He’d given his most secret self to her, exposing everything he was.

Bell was crying silently. The wonder of it was devastating. Riddick trusted her enough to give himself to her.

Her apparition surrounded him before she reached him. He let her pull his head down and she gave him a tear-slobbery kiss that he at first didn’t react to.

“Did you lose it up there?”

Bell grinned. His old self on the outside, he’d never give that up. “Oh, shut up.”

He returned her kiss this time, hands holding her to him just a little. But after only a few seconds he straightened, effectively cutting her off.

“You’re bleeding.”

“Am I?” She felt the warmth on her neck and touched a finger to it. It didn’t seem significant.

He dragged his eyes away from her. “You killed it.”

Bell knew this, but turned to see for herself. Three of the sleds had pulled back into their holes. One sat silent, the body on it now lifeless. She wasn’t accustomed to taking life, but if this was how it felt she was doomed to do it again. Seeing the ancient body lying there made her think this wouldn’t be the normal reaction. The Quasi really hadn’t even been fully alive.

“My Lord.”

They turned in unison, not surprised. Bell felt her force pull in, almost on its own. She nodded, as if to herself. It was what she wanted. This thing was a weapon, or at least a seriously useful defense, and she didn’t know what the Mongers could feel. Any unknown strength was good. The blood was good. Let them think nothing had happened, and that Riddick had killed the Quasi.

She looked at Riddick. “Now you’ve killed another one.”

Eyes narrowed for just a moment. Then he nodded.