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.

The tunnel at the end of the light


“Any idea where the exit is?”, Riddick kept his voice down. He was fairly sure, that some creatures were lurking in the shadows of the dark chambers. Perhaps they were kin of the Quasi-dead aboard Necropolis, no cause to wake them, anyway.

He saw Vaako swallowing hard, fighting another attack on his mind. For the moment he managed to stay here. “The way out is beyond the chambers of light,” he replied.

It was not that he had searched all this place, blind as he was in the dark, and it wasn’t an educated guess either, this much Riddick could tell. “Fuck it. You sure?” He saw Vaako’s short nod, for the moment Vaako reserved all his strength to fighting off the voices. “It’s filled with pain and light,” Riddick explained. “But then, light is always pain.” He hesitated to speak on. There was a way out of here. He saw it clearly, as he had seen the weaknesses of half a dozen prisons. But this way out meant for him to trust someone else, meant to trust Vaako, meant giving himself into the hands of someone else. “We either go, or we’ll rot in here,” Riddick growled. “I’d prefer the black Planet anytime.”

Vaako’s eyes became a little clearer, having escaped another nightmare. “My Lord?” obviously he wasn’t sure what Riddick had spoken of.

“Listen, Vaako,” Riddick began, he spoke fast, before he could change his mind or regret it, if he was not to regret it anyway. “I can’t see on the other side, in the light. But you can. You won’t feel the pain either, being a Necromonger. You can get us to this damn door.”

“I will, my Lord,” Vaako’s voice seemed a little steadier. Perhaps the task at hand helped him to fend the voices of. To Riddick’s astonishment, Vaako slid off the shirt he had worn underneath his armour and started to rip it into stripes. For a moment the Furyan considered Vaako to have gone mad. “What are you doing?”

“They took your goggles when they threw you down here, this will help to protect your eyes from the light,” Vaako replied, tying some of the stripes together, creating a layer thick enough to blindfold anyone with normal eyes rather thoroughly, and handing it to Riddick.

Slowly Riddick tied the blindfold to his eyes. He hated the feeling of giving himself completely into the hands of someone else. Grudgingly, he admitted to himself, it was more the fact that it felt right. His intuition told him, that he could trust Vaako and Riddick had learned long ago that this feeling was crap most of the time. A small voice at the back of his head, reminded him that Vaako had had better opportunities than this, and right it was. Nevertheless, Riddick felt vulnerable with the feeling of trusting someone. He had to trust Vaako even more than he had ever trusted Fry or Imam, because there he had somehow been in control of his own situation; here he would not be, as soon as they passed this door. An image of the day they’d first met flashed through his mind. He had burst right into the purification ceremony to find the murderer of Imam. Why, why the hell had Vaako taken off that blasted helmet back then? Why had he not stayed among the anonymous crowd of Necromongers? He well remembered how they first looked at each other, those damned beautiful green eyes right seeing through him. He had read understanding there, Vaako had been infuriated by Irgun’s death, yet he had understood why Riddick had done it, and more so that Riddick had dared to march in here. It had been a grudging respect, measured by a commander who had seen many fighters, but it had been there.

Riddick shook his head. This darned chamber must have started having effects on him. “Let’s go,” he growled.

***

Vaako felt Riddick’s hand clench around his shoulder as they entered the chamber of light. To him this was nothing but a maze of brightly lit hallways, stretching in all directions. But for Riddick it was a place of pain, intense physical pain.

Hastily Vaako studied the hallways left and right from them. This was a maze big enough to take days of exploring, if one did not know who they worked. The mazes of the ancient cavern cities were not like any other maze in the world, they did not work by the principle how many times to turn to which direction. There was another guide to find your way out, I guide you had to know.

Vaako had slowly led Riddick to the middle of the bright hall. He could tell that the pain increased with every step, Riddick took. “What’s the problem?” Riddick groaned as they stopped at the center of the hall.

“The key.” whispered Vaako. “It needs to be done from here, or we’ll never know where to go. Just be silent for a moment.” To outsiders, it would always remain a riddle how Minerva’s labyrinths were constructed. None of them came ever by the idea, that a song was the key. The echoes it cast were the key to get out, if you knew the right song. Vaako did not need to reach too deep into his own mind. The nightmare on the other side, had conjured up enough memories to make him remember.

“He who never wandered through a long dark night
With feet so tired and with blindfolded eyes
Never knows his way towards the light.”

The echo carried the words of, the tune along the hallways, before it returned. “To the light, to the light…”

“Left,” Vaako led Riddick to the left Hallway, from where he had heard it. He needed to concentrate, he had to go on, he did not dare to break off the song, or they might be forced to start anew.

“So many wander through this world so bright
With hearts of light and sparkling eyes
Who never wandered through a long dark night.”

The echo fell and rose, mingled with the first echoes and returned louder than before. To his right, Vaako heard the word ‘Night’ return three times. He turned, leading Riddick that way, three turns right, through hallways that looked all exactly the same.

“The ignorant lonely wanderer who might
Feel fear and run when darkness rises,
He who never knows his way towards the light.”

White pillars and white walls, shining light above, everything looked exactly the same. Vaako shuddered. They were already lost. If this did not work, if he had chosen the wrong song, or not listened to the echoes correctly, they’d never get out of here. He directed all his concentration towards the song and the echoes ringing down every hall by now.

“Some see the world and give a hopeless sight
They have grown old but not grown wise,
They who never wandered through a long dark night.”

Three marble staircases rose from a circular hall, the first hall that was different from the others down here. Vaako felt Riddick nearly stumble in pain. He slid his arm below Riddick’s shoulders to support him. He could say nothing to reassure him, to tell them that they were nearly out here, but he hoped that Riddick somehow would feel it.

“Open your eyes you’ll see your way alright
Which clear ahead of you within the darkness lies.
He who never wandered through a long dark night
Never knows his way towards the light.”

Vaako hear the echo rise and fall, like a thousand voices singing now, filling the maze with their songs. And then he heard it:

“He who never wandered through a long dark night
Never knows his way towards the light.”

“He who never wandered through a long dark night
Never knows his way towards the light.”

When the tune fell from the middle of the stairs right before them, they had found the way out.

***

Riddick removed the blindfold as the door of the cursed white halls closed behind them. They stood on a staircase, in soothing, friendly darkness. Not the complete darkness of the dark chambers but the comfortable semi-darkness of the ruined cavern city. Part of him was astounded that he was actually here, not left behind while he was weak.

“So you escaped the Halls of Light and Darkness,” a female voice greeted them from the end of the stairwell. “You truly proved yourself worthy.”

Riddick scowled and began to ascend the stairs. He could see the woman standing up there quite clearly. And even if hunting through the fallen cavern city was fun, the chambers had been one distraction too many. It was his acute sense of smell that warned him that the woman was hardly alone. The smell of metal, sweat and leather betrayed the soldiers backing her up. “Why the fucking hell, don’t you get down there, and prove it yourself?”

“Who’s telling you I wasn’t?” the woman replied. “But you, you proved yourself to be a most worthy sacrifice. Congratulations. The ancient ones will be glad to have you.”

“Yeah, I am so fucking honoured,” Riddick growled. “Why don’t you go and stuff yourself down a Grazo’Rahn’s throat?”

He felt Vaako who slipped beside him, eyes directed towards the woman. “High Priestess of Morningdale,” he began speaking nearly respectfully. “As we two came out of the chambers, I ask to be the one who will be given to the ancient ones.”

The woman’s eyes remained cold. “I’d consider your offer, perhaps even honour it, were you not such a dirty piece of garbage,” she replied coldly. Her gaze shifted back to Riddick. “From the day the dark raiders first came here, I believed that their leader would make a worthy offering, but even I never thought you’d be that perfect.”

“I’ve seen inmates on drugs who spoke clearer,” Riddick grinned. The lady talked too much, leaving him to study his surroundings.

“The late Lord Marshall has come by here, on his journey to the Underverse,” Vaako said in low tones. “He left some men here to wait for him.”

“That’s were you come in, don’t you?”

The woman approached, followed by her guards. The slap across Vaako’s face came fast enough. “I thought we had left you to die, there in the outer desert, to get rid of filth like you. Back then, when you lay there, in the ashes, I saw the pain it gave Kjar to watch it. I considered your punishment too hard, had I only killed you then.”

“Now you sound like a whore complaining about her clients,” Riddick hoped the woman would get angry and turn to him. He could see what this conversation did to Vaako. The Necromonger could take nearly any level of physical pain, had walked the chamber of light, without even reacting to it, but these words were the spear that struck right through the armour and drove home.

Again, some old, divided feelings welled up inside Riddick. Vaako had fascinated him from the very moment they had first laid eyes on each other. Fascination all too soon replaced by hate when Kyra died in Riddick’s arms. He had hoped to burn out this fascination by making Vaako suffer, by putting him on a really long road to hell, by making him see and feel what he had lost. And Vaako had taken it; without a word or complaint, he had accepted his punishment. In the course of a few months, Riddick had come to see the loyalty, strength and silent courage of the former first among commanders. And he had hated himself for every time he had seen it, or allowed himself to wish things were different. Always he had invented some new hardship for Vaako, to make up for it. Somehow he had hoped Vaako would start to hate him back; seeing hate in Vaako’s eyes would have allowed Riddick to live on and hate Vaako for the rest of his natural life. But right here and now, during these last few hours, everything had been shaken, shaken too much and too far. Riddick could no longer deny that he had begun again to care for someone else in this universe.

The Priestess stepped back, like she had read his mind. “Bring them into Cell of the Lambs, and keep them there. When the sun rises again, they are to die.”

The guards gripped Riddick and Vaako, others standing ready with their stun darts, to take them down if need be. Just before they were led away, the High Priestess turned to Vaako. “Kjar was among those you killed making your way down here. You were his downfall, in any capacity.”

***

The door of the cell fell closed behind them and Riddick struggled to his feet. It was not the first cell he was thrown into, and it would not be the last, of this he was sure. “Home, sweet home,” he said ironically, studying the rock walls around him. His gaze fell back to Vaako, who was leaning against the wall, beside the door. There was a small window in the door, just enough to peer through.

“They are gone,” Vaako reported, trying to sound calm, but his voice was all hoarse.

Riddick realised that his little joke about home, might be bitter on Vaako.

“That’s your homeworld, isn’t it?” he asked in low tones. He could guess as much. The fighters that moved so exactly like Vaako, with the same agile catlike moves, the fact that Vaako knew this lousy place and was well hated here, spoke for itself. But he had also seen the pain in Vaako’s dark eyes.

Searching for these very eyes again, he saw Vaako nod curtly as an answer. He looked down. “It is… I should say it was, long ago…,” his voice came close to breaking. He hastily turned, to hide his face.

Not nearly fast enough for Riddick’s keen senses. The Furyan had seen it all, in the split of a second Vaako had needed to turn around. Had seen Vaako swallowing hard, fighting to keep a composure that was gone long before, closing his eyes. Slowly, Riddick circled Vaako, again standing face to face with him. He could see that Vaako was trying to squeeze tears back where they came from. In his long years in the Slam, Riddick had never seen men showing their pain, other than in violence. In fact, he had believed male’s who succumbed to tears to be weak, useless fools. Right here and now, he understood that it wasn’t necessarily so. Vaako wasn’t weak, or a coward, this Riddick knew. He was strong, could take a lot, but he had never allowed strength, toughness and endurance to strip away his feelings. He had never succumbed to strength and cunning as solitary virtues, he had kept his humanity. And all the more Riddick loved him for it. Slowly, his hand slid along Vaako’s cheek, getting buried in that soft, strong hair, as Riddick made Vaako look at him. The dark eyes shone from a mix of feelings hardly in check, but the Necromonger had managed to fight back the tears. Only one trace of it shone in his eyes. Softly, he wiped it away, the cold skin tickling under his fingers. “Never let THEM get to you,” he whispered before he drew Vaako closer to him, brushing his lips against his.

The kiss set him on fire. Those soft lips, that met his as his tongue hungrily wandered that wet cave. Vaako’s arms firmly slung around him, his tongue teasingly exploring Riddick’s lips. As they broke off the kiss, Riddick’s lips started wandering along Vaako’s jaw, nibbling at his ear, while he felt the cool fingers of Vaako slowly sliding up his back. All of sudden Vaako pulled back, slipping out of the embrace. “No,” he said. “We mustn’t do this.”

Riddick frowned at him, not really willing to let got. “Why? Because this ugly fucking witch might find out? Everyone can know about it, for all I care.” He slowly drew Vaako back to him, feeling no real resistance. “You want it too,” he whispered, planting another kiss on Vaako’s throat.

Vaako’s hand softly slid along Riddick’s jaw, made him look up. “More than you’ll ever know.” Vaako replied, his voice warmer than Riddick ever had heard it. “But will you be able to kill me, tomorrow?”

Riddick nearly jumped at those words. “Kill you? Hell no! Why do you…,” his anger vanished when he saw this pained expression in Vaako’s eyes. “You know this rite.” he observed. “This is why you asked them to feed you to these ancient ones.” He slid down to the hard ground of the cell, drawing Vaako with him. He’d not intent to let go no matter what.

Vaako did not resist, but leaned against him, as they sat down on the cold stone floor.

“It’s the law of the rite, if two emerge from the chambers and one goes to the ancient ones willingly, the other’s free. Had I proven worthy in there…”

“Don’t you care what this bitch said!” Riddick growled. “She’s more nut’s than this male whore I knew in Butcher’s Bay, and that’s saying something. She was looking for a reason to keep us both anyway.” He tried to read the expression in Vaako’s eyes. “So, tell me, what’s this rite gonna be tomorrow?”

Vaako suppressed a sigh. Right now he felt like having left the ship in high orbit and having left his vac’suit behind. It seemed moments ago, that he’d feared Riddick might despise him for his lack of strength. Sitting right here now, feeling the Furyan’s strong arm around his shoulder, feeling the smoldering desire, was like part of a dream. Had he been asked how he’d wished to spend his last hours in this ‘verse, he’d have nothing else. “Tomorrow they bring us up to the high hall, the bridge of judgement. Everyone of us gets to choose a weapon…”

“Good,” the deep rumble emerging from Riddick’s chest, betrayed appreciation.

“…and then we are led onto that bridge, to fight each other.”

“Ok, let’s skip this part. I won’t kill you. Full stop. Which way leads out of this hall?” Riddick’s growl even deepened. “There has to be some exits.”

“All heavily guarded,” Vaako replied. “An event of this magnitude will attract a lot of attention, the whole city will be there plus all warriors who are off duty. It’s something rare, a sacrifice to the ancient ones.”

It seemed to him, that Riddick’s body, his skin, radiated an enormous heat. Perhaps it was just his Necromonger physiology with its colder temperature, but it still felt intoxicating. He felt Riddick shifting his position, leaning back more against the wall, allowing them both to sit almost comfortably.

“Describe the hall to me,” he whispered, barely audible to Vaako.