Treacherous

Into the building, past more Mongers at a door. Then down steps. Bell jumped whole flights of stairs, bouncing off the wall to continue on. She would slide the rail only to grab it at the last second to fling herself around the corner.

How far down? She didn’t know and being this close it was difficult to tell. He was somewhere nearby.

She chose a door, feeling like it was at random. No guards since the upper level, and none here. The hall before her was empty. Now her pace slowed. She didn’t want to miss him. And obviously something was wrong. Rushing in might put him in more danger.

The idea of Riddick in danger was foreign, nearly absurd, and really scary. What could bring that man down? Hellish slams, innumerable mercs, killer planets, a humanity-exterminating army. None of those things had managed to take him down, yet something here had?

Sounds from somewhere drew her closer to an unknown circumstance. Light everywhere, but no one and nothing moved. A hall, typical and infinitely creepy. Anything could be down there.

Riddick was nearby. A floor above or below or just behind one of these wall, it was impossible to say for sure. She searched for him, her apparition feeling for his, but either he was blocking her or was unable to respond. The ‘why’ of such a thing had her wanting to run, get to him that much faster.

She moved quickly, gun leading the way, checking, always checking, and then moving. He was close, and those sounds were closer.

A grunt. A hoarse curse. Something heavy falling. A longer grunt of effort. More cursing.

Finally Bell reached the source of the sounds. She checked the doorway, feeling Riddick very close now. A glimpse into the lighted room. Recognizable legs and feet, in a prone position.

She stepped toward him unthinkingly. It took only a second to realize how stupid she’d been, and that he hadn’t been alone.

Riddick was in a sitting position, head slumped, blood running down his head in several streams. The most prominent ran between his eyes, then to the left across his cheek to drip from his jaw. Dried tracks showed he’d been moved since the injury had been sustained.

Bell took in his condition in a second before turning her attention to the room’s other occupant.

Short dark hair. Wild eyes. A scarred face that might have once been pretty. Fatigue type clothes, not a whole unlike Bell’s own. Where hers were all black this woman wore the faded green of Militia, though there was no visible insignia marking her.

“And the bitch comes running,” came the low hoarse voice. It didn’t seem to come from her. She was a small woman and the voice was too deep, too angry.

Bell had a second to be surprised that she was being insulted even before a proper introduction.

The wild woman didn’t wait for any witty banter.

“Don’t recognize me? That’s kinda sad, Jezebella.”

Bell did a double take. The eyes. Nothing else matched, but the eyes spoke the truth. “Jack?”

A wide grin split the face. Flesh scarred so badly it was misshapen, distorting the outline of her lips. “Ding! Ding! Ding!” she sang in a too loud voice.

“What are you doing here, Jack?” Bell kept her tone soft, caring. She had to take a second to re-evaluate.

Riddick was down, injured, possibly badly, or even fatally. They were in a remote location compared to the troops. She had no idea how far away Riddick’s guard was, or how soon any of them would venture this far to look for him. They had better be looking for him! Jack was obviously three-quarters insane. How a young girl went from stupidly innocent to cackling loony in five years was unknown. But she was going to have to stall somehow, or just raise the gun quickly and shoot, which she wasn’t quite ready to do. Riddick was so close the blast could hurt him and would more than kill Jack. While Bell was willing to kill the girl to save him, she didn’t know how he’d feel about her death.

The strange laughter had stopped, and now she said nothing, just staring. Bell watched, not having a whole lot else to do. She had to find a way to distract her and move her away from him. A step to the left, away from the doorway felt like closing the trap on herself, especially when Jack didn’t move.

“What am I doing here?” The slow growl of a question was a mocking version of what she’d just asked. “You brought me here.” She grinned at saying this.

Bell just waited.

Suddenly Jack lunged forward, just one step, but it was enough for Bell to nearly lift the gun and shoot by instinct alone.

“I FUCKING WANTED HIM!!” she screamed, veins bulging and spit flying. Her face stayed in that sneering mask. “I was helping him. I was taking him water. I wanted to set him free!” She was still yelling, but nothing like the banshee cry of that first outburst. Bell let her. The sound would travel further and draw anyone nearby to them. Hopefully the Necromongers had a stealth mode.

Oh, God, this was about Riddick. “I didn’t know.” And she hadn’t. On Tangier, she’d suspected someone besides her was taking him something, but couldn’t’ve been sure. And afterward Jack never said anything, and neither had Riddick. How was she supposed to have known Jack had designs on a man twice her age? Had the girl been disturbed even way back then?

“Fuck you!” Jack yelled at her, her face turning a shade darker. “You’re so fucking perfect. Everything just comes so easy to you,” she sneered. “I was there that day. I saw you two running off in the desert. Thought about letting you go. Figured, at least Riddick was free.” She smiled, a truly evil expression. “But that wasn’t the plan, now was it?”

“You told Johns,” Bell guessed.

“Ding! Ding! Ding!” she sing-songed again, though now with a little less emphasis. “Had to yank that stupid junkie off that bitch. Thought he’d drag you back, maybe gone an hour.” She shook her head, smiling, her eyes never leaving Bell. “But Jezebella had some tricks up her sleeve. You were a fuck lot smarter than I gave you credit for.” She grinned at this. “Fucked with the sandkat. Ol’ Merc boy wasn’t about to go trotting into the desert. By the time he got it runnin’ I knew there was no way he was going to catch up with superboy here.”

Bell tried to communicate with Riddick, tried to wake him, determine his injury, anything, while keeping her expression passive, but wasn’t getting any sort of response. Not heartening.

“Then your dumbass comes and tries to rescue us. Good timing for me, not so good for ol’ Johns.”

“That wasn’t about me. That was Riddick’s dealing.”

Jack rolled her eyes, “Oh, yeah, you were just innocent in all of it, weren’tcha? Jezebelly don’t do nothing wrong, but everything just goes her way all of the time.”

Bell couldn’t connect that this ranting woman was the same one that had lived with her just a few years ago. But the eyes didn’t lie. It was her, it just didn’t seem right.

“Thought the fucker was lying to me on Helion Prime. I offered to do him. Slammer gets urges, ya know? But he said he already had a woman. Thought he was lying, figured he was being noble or some shit. Can’t fuck the teenager and all. Then you started getting fat.” She jerked her head, “Shoulda known you were a whore. Fucking gotta have everything your way!” She yelled this last part.

Bell couldn’t let that go. “What the fuck are you talking about? My way? Crash landing at the ass-end of space. Barely surviving hungry night-creatures and him.” She pointed at the still-fallen Riddick. “Deserted for five years. Abducted and beaten by Militia. How do you figure these are good things?”

But Jack wasn’t listening or just didn’t care. “Oh, yeah.” She grinned, truly looking pleased, if spitefully so. “Militia had at ya. Heard that and ran back to offer my services, but you was already gone. I woulda liked knockin’ your ass around.”

“What about Kyra, Jack? I thought you two were friends.”

Bell almost gasped at feeling the sudden touch of Riddick. He hadn’t moved, but she could feel he was awake, and listening now.

“That piece of shit we stole from you went dead in the water. Thought we were popsicles for sure. But we got picked up by some dead-beat mercs. I got in good with the lead guy. Mean bastard.” Her hand rose to trace one of the plentiful scars on her face, the one starting in her lip. Bell could see her arms were equally damaged. Jack continued, “Made a deal. Sold Kyra off.” She grinned, not at all remorseful. “Made her think they were forcing it. When I finally offed the bastard I showed up and saved her. Let her kill off a few of her little captors,” she grinned, her look distant as if she were remembering. “Cops showed up, just out of the blue,” she said too sweetly to be innocent. “Arrested her for murder. Stupid ass thought I was innocent the whole time. I convinced her to say she was me wherever she went. Figured noble-ass here,” she kicked at the still prone Riddick, “would come around eventually.”

“So you know she’s dead,” Bell said, hoping to catch the girl off guard with something.

“Dead at his hands,” she pointed at Riddick, not bothering to look at him. Good thing too, Riddick had just opened his eyes to look up at her. “She was an okay kid, but kinda gullible.”

Bell shook her head. How sad. Kyra had been innocent, forced or incited to do the things that had lead to her death. And Jack made it seem like a triumph, a deception accomplished perfectly.

Riddick’s apparition brushed over her, just curious for the now, determining what she felt. She refused to look at him.

“So now what, Jack? Riddick didn’t want you then. What makes you think he’d want you now?”

A touch of warning from Riddick. ‘Take it easy. Can’t see straight,’ he told her.

Jack went silent, staring at her intently. “Want me? Fuck that. He lost the chance for this to go well. The bounty on his dumbass is alive or dead.” She shrugged, “Might keep him alive for a while to play with. Like to hear him scream just once. But then he’ll make a nice popsicle.”

“So what about me?” Bell asked. “I’m a witness now.”

“Won’t be for long.” Where had the gun come from? She hadn’t seen it, but within the blink of an eye it was pointed at her. “No bounty on you. Alive or dead.” The girl took a step forward and Bell watched her finger squeeze on the trigger.

“JACK!”

Riddick had sat up to yell, but wasn’t able to move further.

In her head Bell heard him yell again. Just a simple ‘NO’, but it was enough to bring tears to her eyes. She’d thought she was gone for a second there.

Jack reacted in a second. Her other hand rose with a matching gun pointed at Riddick. She stood exactly between them now, but unfortunately was off to the side enough that she could watch both of them. Even with her looking at Riddick there was no way for Bell to get behind her.

“This won’t work. This place is surrounded. There’s no way out.” Bell tried to argue, tried to convince her to not pull those triggers.

“I’m not part of this fight,” she sneered. “Ship’s waiting. I’ll be out of here before any of those zealots can find your corpse.”

Riddick’s apparition seemed to shudder at the girl’s words. Bell chanced a glance at him. He was glowing.