Treacherous

“What did you do?”

Riddick stood at the center of his chamber, their chamber, facing the door with his hands held behind his back. He looked almost regal. And he looked like he’d expected her.

“What did you do?” Bell asked again as she moved closer, almost warily.

“When?”

She scoffed, “Don’t play dumb, Riddick. On Crematoria. Vaako says you took down more than a dozen men unarmed. How?”

His eyes dropped for a second before slowly rising to meet hers again. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know, or you just won’t tell me?” she accused. Obviously he’d done something, playing stupid now wasn’t very fucking helpful.

“I don’t know. Thought I was done. Vaako had his guns on me. I saw him pull the triggers. But Shirah showed up, babbling her shit. I felt an explosion, thought it was me dying. But I came to in the hangar with the Purifier.”

Bell shook her head, “None of that makes sense, Riddick.”

“I fucking know that!” he roared and she took an involuntary step back.

“You’re playing Queen like this is some kind of game, Bell. People are going to die. And those people could have made your sons into killers.”

Bell was shaking her head before he was finished, “No. No. I won’t believe that.”

“Believe it or not. They weren’t teaching them their fuckin’ alphabet.”

Tears stung her eyes, but she fought them. “You don’t know shit!” she yelled at him.

“Then what do they want them for, Bell? Why are they willing to fight to get them back?”

She had no answer and he knew it. Why else would Militia want the kids, and be willing to end a hundred-year-old pact with the strongest force in the universe to get them?

“They could be capable of what you did,” she said quickly, grasping at straws. “If you could do something like that, then maybe they could. They might not even know.”

He just stared at her, “Then they’re even more dangerous.”

Her eyes were getting teary, the worry for her children a physical hurt. “Then let’s ask them.”

Bell nearly ran out of the room. Next door she shoved in to find the kids peacefully playing. They knew in an instant that something was wrong. Both the boys stood up and Thea started to cry. Weis looked worried, Colin looked down.

“Come with me.” She took one of each of the boys’ arms and pulled them along. Thea continued to cry behind her.

Back in their chamber Riddick still stood where she’d left him. She stopped several yards from him, not wanting to intimidate the boys too much. Sinking onto her knees before them, she couldn’t stop the tears now. “Colin, Weis, we need to know what the men at UDMC were doing while you were there.”

Weis stepped closer to Colin, and finally Colin glanced up. But not at her, at Riddick.

“Were they making you do things? Were they teaching you things?” she asked them, hoping to get close enough to the truth for them to just agree.

“They said we were different. Told us we were—“

“Shut up, Weis.”

Bell gasped at Colin’s snapped words.

“Colin,” she whispered, “What did they do? What did they tell you?”

“Why didn’t you use yours before?” he asked, staring right at her. “We hid it. Thought we were weird or somethin’. And that’s what they told us. That you wouldn’t like it.”

Bell was shaking her head in refusal, but it was Riddick who spoke, “She didn’t have it.”

His controlled voice was like an anchor to her, and she looked up at him over her shoulder.

“Your mother was raised away from others like her. She didn’t have a brother to practice with. And hers is different. Not so much for strength, but for will.”

Bell didn’t know what he was talking about. She’d thought their apparitions were similar. Both of the boys were staring up at Riddick now.

“She could feel it though,” Wies argued now.

Hello! She was right here! But they spoke over her like they didn’t notice her. Bell stood, removing herself from between them, and took the minute to compose herself.

“She didn’t know what it was though. You two have shared this from the womb. You knew how to use it before you could talk, before you even had a name for it.”

They stood silent before him now. Chastised?

Riddick stepped toward them and squatted down. Bell watched in fascination, afraid to make a sound.

“We’re all the same here, boys. Furyans. Whatever Militia told you, you’re not freaks. You just have a gift. And now your mother and I need your help. We didn’t know about ours before this, and we have to learn what we can do with it.”

He waited a second until both boys slowly nodded. “Now what were you shown by Militia?”

Colin was shaking his head. “They didn’t show us anything. Stuck wires to our heads or put us in special rooms. Together or away from each other.”

“Did they say why?” Bell asked. She squatted beside Riddick, her hand on his leg for balance. Weis moved into the circle of her arms and she held him tight to her.

“They wanted us to pass notes,” Weis told them.

“Messages,” Colin corrected. “Just stupid tests.”

Riddick had that little smile as he spoke, “You didn’t show them crap, did you?”

Weis smiled, but Colin just stared deadpan at Riddick, barely a foot separating their faces. “They’re stupid.”

Bell smiled. Yeah, that sounded like her boys. Playing tricks while the big bad men thought they were the ones holding the reins.

Riddick reached out and gripped Colin, his hands huge on the boy’s sides. “You did good. I heard you more than once. I didn’t understand it then. But you’re here now and we need to know how strong your powers are.”

Colin seemed to consider it. Bell felt his apparition feeling her, and saw Weis’s head come up at the same moment.

“Weis.”

The boys stepped back from them. Connected just by one hand, they stood facing her and Riddick.

Bell could feel them, the power emanating from them as they concentrated felt like a crackling heat to her own apparition. But it was still a complete shock when she saw them slowly rise!

Smiling now, they rose shakily at first, then steadied. Just an inch, then a few, then a foot, until they held it, suspended a good foot off the floor.

“Can you move?” Riddick asked.

Colin’s lips thinned, his eyes glancing upward as if he were thinking. “When we’re angry.”

“And alone?”

It was Weis who answered now, “Can’t go as high then.”

Bell heard Riddick whisper to himself. It sounded like he’d said, “Silent footsteps.”

“Can you use it as a shield or hurt people with it?”

A long minute of silence. The boys sank back to the floor until their feet touched. “We couldn’t hurt you.”

That startled Bell. “Why?”

The boy shrugged, as if she should have seen the answer, “Cuz his wouldn’t let us.”

Riddick was nodding, “Communication with other Furyans, defense and weapon to humans.”

Colin just chewed his lip.

“We’re not human?” Weis asked. He looked rather upset at the idea.

Bell shook her head, stepping closer to him to put her hand on his shoulder. “Not all the way, sweetie. We’re humans plus.”

“What else?” Riddick asked. Bell couldn’t get over how strange the situation was. Riddick squatting in front Colin, and they were actually talking to each other.

“Nothing big and cool,” Colin told him with a shrug. “We can push and pull things, see through walls, hear whispers, and sometimes know when stuff is gonna happen.” He smiled here and smiled at Weis. “Weis can make a bubble around him. I throw stuff at him till it hits him.”

Weis looked embarrassed by Colin’s admission, but Riddick’s obvious approval had him standing a little straighter.

They talked a bit more, but the boys didn’t really have anything else to tell them, or wouldn’t tell them. It was getting late. Bell took them back to their room and tucked them in. The girls already had Thea in bed, so she only got to kiss her goodnight.


“What did you mean, mine is for will?”

Riddick had rolled away from her after they’d fucked. Bell had lain with her hand against his back for long minutes, thoughts circling, before she spoke.

She knew he wasn’t asleep even though it took him a long time to answer. “Just feel it. Yours is different than the boys’.”

Bell turned her face into the pillow. That made her sad somehow. She didn’t understand it, didn’t even understand their powers, but that she was different than both her boys and Riddick made her feel wrong.

“You’re stronger.”

Her eyes opened against the material of her pillow. Head raised, she pulled at his shoulder, “What?”

Their apparitions were mingled, nearly conjoined, one indistinguishable from the other. She could feel his fatigue, his resilience, his reluctance to speak, and his worry.

“Bell you killed a Quasi Dead. I couldn’t have done that.”

Bell frowned, remembering his look that day in the Quasi grotto. She’d told him to take the credit for himself and then promptly forgotten the entire incident. “So?”

He turned onto his back, catching her hand and arm beneath him. Eyes flashed up at her in the darkness. “The boys and I can do things, move things, physical things. You’re different. I can feel you pressing your want on me, making me want it. You could control things.”

“I do that?” She was appalled that she might actually be doing something like that. Imposing her will on another, especially him. “I didn’t know.”

He shook his head, visible only to her by his eyes moving. “You’re different, Bell. I don’t know shit about this. The Quasis called you a Guardian.” He smiled, “And they liked it less than they liked the Riddick.”

Strange hearing him say his own name.

“There’s more to this than locating each other and making me cum that fuckin’ hard.”

Bell grinned. Now that she knew she was doing.

She dropped her head onto his shoulder, completely losing feeling in her hand now, but not really giving a shit. That he allowed her to stay that close was as much as an endearment as she could ask for. She felt his alertness continue for several minutes before he relaxed against her.

Saying the three words had unsettled him, so she didn’t repeat that atrocity. Instead she sent it to him to where he couldn’t dodge it or argue it. She loved him with her whole being.


**A few readers have asked that I send out a notice when I update. If you would like me to add you email to the list, please include your email and the request in a review and I'd be happy to do so.

Thanks so much for reading. And thank you to those that have left reviews. I know ofc's can be risky to read. I've read my share of pathetic ones too. It flatters me to know that I still have readers this far in. Bell has been fun to write, but I ask you, the readers, that if you ever see an error or don't agree with how something sounds, or is worded, etc, to just let me know. This is a WORK-IN-PROGRESS and any help would be greatly valuable. It's a story and if there is anything you can do to make it better I would adore you forever. Never think that I don't have time to listen or wouldn't appreciate it.

Thank you again for reading.

~Chris