To reign among the pale

Title: To Reign Among the Pale
Author: Flaim
Pairing: Riddick/ Vaako (well in chapters to come, this is just the beginning)
Rating: NC 17
Slash
Warnings: Angst, violence
Status: unfinished
Beta: Many, many thanks to Lady Vaako, for taking this much work all on herself.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Riddick and Vaako, nor do I make profit with this story.

A/R: the title of this chapter is out of a poem on the death of W.B. Yeats.


Chapter 3 - In the nightmares of the dark


Vaako found himself in complete darkness. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious; not too long, he mused. The paralysing poison on the tip of these darts was no stranger to him, you got used to its effects with time. Slowly, he rose from the stony ground he had been lying on and tried to gaze into the darkness. He could see absolutely nothing.

A faint whisper breezed through the room, stirring the air. It was nothing but a faint sound, a whispering just below hearing range. Vaako froze where he was standing, listening. The whisper became stronger, drawing nearer, searing all around him, whispering of things past, horrible things…

“No, please no…”, whispered Vaako realising where he was. They had brought him to the dark chambers.

“Yesss… the dark chambers… to seek your darkness… feed on it… revel in it…. Darkness”, the whisper rose, swirled around, seemed to touch inside Vaako’s head. His sight blurred, as the whisper stirred up memories, memories and pictures which were usually scrupulously suppressed.

He was running across the plains, trying to keep up the pace with the others. Jem, his mother, was there, running ahead and carrying little Caithlin just behind him while Liam was right by his side. The ground was shaking, Vaako nearly fell. A rough hand gripped him by the scuff of his neck. It was Rick, who scowled at him. “Run, there’s no time.”

A bright light burned through the eternal darkness high up in the sky. The fiery ball descending down at rapid speed, making the night as bright as day was supposed to be on other planets. Like a shattered orb, the ball broke apart, raining down in pieces. Vaako saw the fire fall, dodged sideways, let himself roll downhill. His family never heard his desperate call. The fire stuck ground, smashing everything around; Vaako heard Liam scream as the fire consumed his body. His mother stumbled downhill attempting to escape the fiery inferno. Vaako ran towards her, to help, but the flames were faster, reaching her. Her final scream still rang in his ears, like the silent whispers…

You failed, failed, failed….

Shaking, Vaako nearly fell to his knees again. No, he would not fall. A Necromonger was to be above pain. For a short moment he managed to shut down the whispers. He had to get out of here. The dark chambers had an opposite, the white chamber, where the exit was located. He had to work his way there. Cautiously taking some steps forward, he found himself facing a solid wall of rock. Using his hands instead of his eyes to see in the darkness, he started fumbling his way onward and slipped through the first opening in the wall, following wherever this might lead. But the whisper was everywhere, returning ten times stronger than before.

“And so where is your family, little rat?”, asked a harsh voice.

Vaako bit his lip, eyeing the stern faces of Hopes End’s leading council. The underground fortress had become a shelter for thousands of survivors of the last catastrophe. “They were killed when the comet struck.” Vaako replied. “I was the only one to escape.”

One of the women snorted icily. “He most likely made it out by leaving his family. We see these rotten eggs all the time. How did you escape when all your family died, on that day the sky rained fire?”

Vaako looked down on his small, dirty hands. His father had said it was a comet that would strike. But most people spoke of the sky raining fire as a punishment from the gods. “I fell down a ledge, shortly before the comet… the fire smashed everything up there.”

“A likely tale.” the woman replied. “Nothing new from some of you unbelieving scum.”

The leader of the council raised his hand. “You made your point, Eldriche. The council sees it fit to present the boy to the heads of the clans.” He rose, addressing the ragged people sitting in a wide berth around the council members, they all rose as the council leader addressed them. “You all heard the boy’s tale. It might be true, it might not. He was raised among non-believers, that much is sure. Is there anyone among you, who would speak for him? Accept him?”
Dark eyes stared down at the ragged boy in the middle of the circle. And slowly, one after another, sat down again, shaking their head. Many families had already taken in orphaned children and were continuing to do so, but those were children who would fit in.

A chill ran down Vaako’s spine as the last of them sat down. The council leader shrugged. “There you have it. No one will have you. So off you go. A failure like you, has no place among us.”

Two men came to drag Vaako back, back to the devastated surface, that was falling rapidly into a nuclear winter.

“Failure, that’s what you are, failure…” whispered the voices.

“Shut up.”, Shaking like crazy, Vaako leaned against the cold wall. “No… I survived, I did it all alone…”, he whispered. “I did, I did.”

The only mantra he had, against the nightmares replayed relentlessly inside his head. He collapsed to his knees. Clenching his fists, he managed to open his eyes again. The court would be right to ridicule him right now, noted a small voice at the back of his head. The Lord Marshal would… Vaako nearly jumped to his feet and the thought left his mind for a moment. The Lord Marshal, Riddick, was somewhere trapped in here. And when this damned place could drain Vaako like this… how many dark things would be in the mind of a man who had lived half his life in the worst prisons of the known world? What were Vaako’s pathetic childhood troubles against this? Nothing. Taking a deep breath, he found the wall again. He was determined this time.

“I can’t stop you from rummaging through my mind, but I will find Riddick.”, he whispered as he again began to make his way through the darkness.

The whispers kept coming and coming. Drawing out memories again and again. Vaako was again running over the frozen landscape that had once been home, alone, hungry, frightened. Again he saw Irian stabbed by a raider, found himself imprisoned, abused and escaped again towards the relentless surface, where the nuclear winter eventually ended, leaving the land barren and devastated. Again he went alone in the Grazo’Rahns den to save Coliane’s son, without so much a as thank you afterwards, going on, alone, always alone.

“Failure”, whispered the voice. “Weak, bad blood, failure, scum.”

Vaako broke to his knees every now and then, always getting up again to go on. Tears were streaming down his face but he couldn’t care less. He just kept walking. Always walking, always going on, always looking for Riddick. Eventually, he reached a bright door at the end of a long hallway that had been filled with memories of the last six month’s, the growing desperation, the feeling of having failed so completely. He was nearly relieved when he saw the bright door. Behind it would be no voices, no failure, no shame, no whispers…

He held his steps. No, he would not leave this place. Not without finding Riddick. Even if he had to face all his nightmares again, even if it took the rest of his natural life. Vaako’s stomach coiled in fear as he bravely turned away from the door.

A pained scream made him stop. It had come from behind that door. It sounded like Riddick. Vaako slowly turned around. Could this be real? Or was it an, illusion? If only he could think straight. Then a new thought crept into his mind. What if… if these bastards had figured out Riddick’s greatest strength - which was to be his greatest weakness - and put him into the white chambers, the chambers filled with light?

***

The light was burning bright, burning Riddick’s eyes. Even when he tried to shield them with his hands, the light seemed to burn right through the flesh. Fuck it, he had to get out of here. He’d run from worse places. He just had to find a way of those blasted light. And there was pain, every step in here was full of pain, physical pain. Every move was paid with pain, bloody pain and yet even more pain. “Fuck pain.” Riddick growled as he worked his way along the wall, that he could not see.

There had to be a blasted door in here. Somewhere. Anywhere. Finally he found a small opening in the wall and hurried through it. Bumping into something that was rather someone, knocking him over. They both crashed down on the floor and suddenly the light was gone. It just vanished. Soothing darkness surrounded Riddick as the gateway behind them closed again. Slowly blinking into the welcome darkness, he looked down on what he was actually sitting. He recognised Vaako, a ragged, torn Vaako, who seemed to have succumbed to crying.

Riddick jumped to his feet again. “What kind of a fucking place is this?”, he demanded. If he was in some mad triple-max-prison again, he wanted to know who was running it so he could kick his ass royally.

Vaako rose slower. “The chambers of Dark and light Light.” he replied hoarsely. “A place where prisoners are tested.”

“Tested? For what? The doctor in Butcher’s Bay was more lucid, than this!”, Riddick felt quite comfortable here, but knew that something had happened to Vaako in here. And the man could take something, this Riddick knew.

“Tested whether we are worthy.”, Vaako whispered. “Oh no… not again.” Gripping his head with his hands, he bent down.

“What the hell is happening?” Riddick felt nothing at all. He roughly gripped Vaako’s shoulders to shake him. A jolt ran through his arms, as he suddenly saw what was happening in Vaako’s head.

Vaako was again standing on Crematoria. Down below him the fight was fully raging. Riddick was messing up Vaako’s troop. The Purifier had vanished. Good riddance as far as Vaako was concerned. He admired how Riddick effortlessly threw off two other Necromongers. The man was a wild animal, a graceful lion casually slaying his prey.

Vaako knew he could not delay the inevitable. Jumping down, he confronted the warrior. He had never expected this to be an easy fight, but Riddick was just a damn good fight. Exhausted from running across this hell hole of a planet, from escaping a prison and fighting a Necromonger scout troop, he was still a fair match for Vaako. There was only one trick Vaako could pull, using his light up pistols.

Vaako saw Riddick fall and for one painful moment he feared he had fatally hit the man . But as he ran towards him, he realised that Riddick was alive. Still breathing. For one tiny moment Vaako allowed himself to kneel down beside the man. Suppressing the wish to cradle him in his arms, protect him, now that he was vulnerable. But he could not, his troops were waiting and…. He could not let Riddick die. A scream made him turn around. Another man attacked him, only to get casually slain by Vaako. Stupid Prisoner. His gaze fell towards the girl… another escaped prisoner.

A plan quickly came to Vaako’s mind. The girl would be the perfect witness to the Furyan’s death. Perfect. Just perfect. She did not belong to the Furyan, she was just another escapee. And who in the world would seriously wish to belong to a woman? No one who did not have a death-wish, at least if Dame Vaako was an average example of her kind. As if to check, Vaako again knelt beside the Furyan, quickly checking his pulse. Yes, he would be awake any moment, and be well able to make it to the ship. Vaako ordered his troop to board their ship again. He’d leave the merc’s vessel here. Riddick could make his run and would even be safe, as the converted girl believed him dead.

“You failed”, whispered the voices. “The girl was his lover. You failed. You failed your duty, failed him, failed everyone, failure, failure….”

Vaako’s eyes snapped open, and Riddick found himself a little disorientated back in that dark hallway. Vaako was shaking, visibly trying to drive off, whatever was attacking his mind. Riddick never released his firm grip around Vaako’s shoulders. “It’s ok, Vaako. You’re right here, here, only here, got that?”

Suddenly Vaako’s eyes widened into a gaze filled with hurt and fear, that stung Riddick’s soul. “Please tell me, you did not see that.” he whispered.

Riddick swallowed hard. Everything in his mind felt turned upside down. His hate for Vaako, the feelings Vaako stirred in him, Kyra, everything turned upside down. He could not talk, could not feel right now, would not think, not yet. Slowly he drew Vaako into his arms, resting his head against his shoulder. “Shh, don’t speak. We’ll get out of this hellhole, somehow.” He did not know what all this meant, what all this was to become, but at this tiny moment, as Vaako relaxed against him, giving in to the embrace felt so fucking damn right.