Terra Firma
folder
M through R › Pitch Black
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
8
Views:
5,466
Reviews:
22
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
2
Category:
M through R › Pitch Black
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
8
Views:
5,466
Reviews:
22
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
2
Disclaimer:
I do not own Pitch Black, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Chapter Four – With Every Prophecy, a Conspiracy
Title: Terra Firma (4/?)
Author: moirasfate/ianthe_waiting
Disclaimer: Any and all characters associated with the films Pitch Black & The Chronicles of Riddick are property of USA Films, Universal Studios, Radar, and One Race Productions. They have been used without permission and are used for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringements are intended. All other characters are the author's own creation and belong to the author.
Rating: MA/NC-17
Summary: Five years after gaining the title of Lord Marhsal, Riddick heeds the call of his blood to return to his home world where he is met with a surprise that makes him realize that much of what he believes is a lie.
Warnings: M/F, AU, Angst, H/C, Violence, Language and all around roughness.
Genre: Sci-fi, Drama, etc.
Author's Notes: This is my first try at some Chronicle of Riddick fanfiction. This is a series of films that I love just as much as HP, so give a try okay? The AU label kicks in because I am one of those fans who do not want to believe that the characters of Kyra and Jack are the same person. This sentiment will be reflected in this fic. The chapters are relatively short, compared to most of my fics, so don't hate me. Thanks for reading!
Chapter Four – With Every Prophecy, a Conspiracy
Vaako knew that this woman was not the woman Riddick had lost…she was not Kyra. Vaako had seen the woman die in the Necropolis, he had seen Riddick let her slip away…he had seen her body placed in a casket and pushed out into the vacuum of space…
“How shall I convince you the sincerity of my intentions, Lady?”
The Lady blinked, “Start by telling me how it is that your Empire is no more?”
Vaako felt his lips twitch; he was almost smiling. He did not speak for several moments and when he did, his voice was deep and strong, as if reciting lines of verse.
“Five years ago, Zhylaw the Last was killed by the current Lord Marshal, assassinated. I had a hand in this occurrence, spurred on by my own discontent with the politics of the sixth Lord Marshal and by my wife’s wicked schemes.”
“Your wife? I thought Necros could not mate.”
“This was true…once. The current Lord Marshal made it possible for Those Who Remain to undergo a process to restore the possibility of reproduction. But before this, many Necromongers took wives or husbands…we were infertile, but not completely sexually impotent.”
“Those Who Remain?”
“Those who have renounced their conversion, those who were never True Believers. With the current Lord Marshal, a schism occurred…he was never converted, and he never believed. The True Believers were allowed to leave and travel to the Underverse where they finally found their purpose. Those Who Remained saw the truth, beyond faith…the Threshold was nothing more than a spatial anomaly, a rift. The allure of the Threshold did not tempt us…Those Who Remained. As required of every Lord Marshal, a pilgrimage to the Threshold changed my current Lord, but in a manner that spurred him to facilitate the schism of the Empire.
When the True Believers had passed on, Those Who Remained began a new campaign under the guidance of the Lord Marshal and the Elemental Aereon…”
A hiss of disgust distracted Vaako. The old woman had risen to her feet, her old eyes burning angrily. The dark Furyan, Uriel, growled deep in his throat as the old woman muttered under her breath what sounded like a curse.
The Lady, noticing Vaako’s confusion, moved to settle the old crone, and looked to Vaako, anger making her tremble.
“An Elemental, you say? Curse be on those who play with fate!” the woman growled.
Once the old crone was seated again, her eyes burning darkly into Vaako’s face, Vaako dared ask another question.
“Are Elementals so hated?”
The Lady sat again, folding a leg before her and resting her left forearm upon her knee.
“As a Necro, you surely have heard of the prophecy that brought about the destruction of Furya by your Zhylaw the Last?”
Vaako nodded.
“This prophecy was given to the Lord Marshal by an Elemental seer… Furyans and Elementals are a sort of polar opposite, much like they say Elementals and Necros are on different ends of the spectrum of light and dark. Elementals are generally ruled by logic and reason…Furyans are generally ruled by instinct and emotion. For Elementals and Necros it had more to do with who controlled this supposed ‘Verse.’ Furyans don’t give a flying fuck about things like that. For centuries the Elementals have tried to impose themselves upon Furya, thinking Furyans to be brainless beasts, tools to be used by a greater wit. They underestimated Furyans. We may be warriors, but we are not dumb beasts.
What you Necros do not understand is that Furyans are the elite of the elite. We are stronger, faster, and better than you. As for smarter? Perhaps.
This planet was once a center of teaching and development of the martial arts. We had schools that taught off worlders how to fight and how to strategically win. We had schools that taught humans how to unleash the powers of their mind…use parts of their brains that had not been used before. We had temples built in dedication to our great warrior-philosophers, to our generals, and to our warrior kings.
All of that is gone now, thanks to Elementals and Necromongers,” she uttered with such a deep bitterness that Vaako could not help but feel a heavy guilt upon his shoulders.
He was a babe when Furya was destroyed, but as a former Necromonger…part of Those Who Remained, he felt guilt for simply participating in Zhylaw’s campaigns.
After a long silence, Vaako’s eyes training upon the fire, the woman continued her line of questioning.
“So, Vaako…you’ve renounced your faith and now you’re on a new campaign to undo the wrongs you inflicted on this ‘Verse?’”
“It is not as simple as that.”
“Do explain, you have our full attention,” she mocked.
Vaako paid no mind to the condescending tone, but turned to meet the woman’s green eyes. She did not flinch at his gaze, but she smirked at the sight of the deep swirling of mixed emotions in Vaako’s eyes.
“The option was presented to Those Who Remain to return to salvage their home worlds, to begin to rebuild, if necessary, and negotiate treaties with existing worlds. Those Who Remain have came up against great obstacles, some have been killed by those they set out to negotiate with…but I can say for a fact that Those Who Remain always come to negotiations without any intention to kill or convert. Those days are over.
Many of Those Who Remain have reverted to their old ways and their old faiths. Many have accepted their sins and begun the process of repenting and redeeming themselves in the paths of their respective faiths.”
The old woman seemed to relax at Vaako’s words, but the woman, the Lady Audrey, Jack, still seemed skeptical.
“And you? Have you any thoughts to redeeming yourself through your faith?” she asked quietly.
At this Vaako felt his lips begin to curl into an awkward smile. “My original faith teaches me that I must ask for forgiveness through God. My faith believes that forgiveness is simple…and given to use through the Son of God, a man who lived almost three thousand years ago on Earth. However, I feel that my forgiveness cannot be as simple as asking for it…so I do what I feel is correct in remedying the damage I have inflicted on worlds myself.”
“And your coming here is part of your process to redemption?”
“In part. I came here because my Lord commanded it.”
“And what, specifically, did he command?”
Vaako turned to look into the fire again, he was warm now…almost too warm under his heavy armor.
“To scout out any life, to scout out if this planet was livable…and ultimately prepare his path to return to this world.”
The old woman turned to the lady and smiled. “The Alpha Furyan…” she croaked.
The woman frowned, her voice almost a growl. “You said a name before…what was it?”
Vaako smiled…it was becoming easier to smile. “Riddick.”
The old crone began cackling loudly, slapping her robe clad knees. “The conspiracy comes full circle!”
The lady sighed and rubbed a hand over her face. “Riddick…Richard B. Riddick is the seventh Lord Marshal?”
The laughter died away.
“Yes.”
“So Kyra is dead…” the lady mumbled.
“Yes…killed the same time Zhylaw was assassinated.”
“Shit…”
* * *
The silence that filled the circular chamber was almost oppressive. Vaako watched the play of emotions over the Lady’s face. Grief…regret…fear…anger.
“If you have seen Kyra, I am sure you are wondering why her face is before your eyes again…I saw your confusion earlier,” the Lady said softly, moving to push back her hair and sigh.
“Yes,” Vaako said simply.
“I suppose I should tell you then…since it seems that Riddick is on his way.”
Vaako nodded slowly. Riddick would be coming within three weeks, the fleet was scheduled to enter that particular part of the galaxy.
“Do you know much about Riddick’s history, besides what was told you as part of the prophecy?”
“I know that he is a killer and that he has been in and out penal colonies for the past fifteen years. Lord Marshal does not talk about his past; nothing in connection to anything outside what concerns the prophecy and his rise to power. But I do know that the woman named Kyra had meant something to Lord Marshal.”
The woman snorted, and muttered: “It was planned that way.”
Vaako frowned.
“Plots, prophecies and conspiracies…ah, I hate this…” she sighed.
“Tell him, Jack, he should know…he should know what is coming,” the old woman crackled, her voice like the rasping of sand against glass.
“Shit…”
Vaako waited patiently for the Lady to regain a sense of composure.
“I should start from the beginning, I guess…”
The woman sighed again, rubbing her temples as she shifted where she sat. Vaako could see her discomfort and her exhaustion…emotional exhaustion…
“Richard B. Riddick and I met over ten years ago on a planet that I could only wish you Necros destroyed. Riddick had been captured by a merc by the name of Johns. Johns was taking Riddick back to gods know where for a hefty payday. But Johns picked the wrong ship to take…
Hell, so did I.
Many weeks into the journey on the literal back roads of space, the commercial freighter Hunter-Gratzner was forced out the shipping lane by a rogue comet. The ship crashed on a planet and there were only a handful of survivors, Riddick and myself included. To make a long story short, there was an eclipse and in the dark, creatures attacked. We found a settlement and a skiff…and when all was said and done only Riddick, Abu al-Walid and myself made it off the planet alive.
While floating around the shipping lanes, a ship called the Kubla Kahn picked us up, and on that ship we literally fought for our lives. I killed a person on the ship…a simple shot to the head and I was on my way closer to hell…”
The Lady stopped to chuckle. It was a sardonic chuckle, but Vaako could see that the Lady seemed proud of this killing.
“I was put in cryo sleep, dropped off on Helion Prime with Imam…Abu…and I never saw Riddick again.
Of course, that does nothing to explain my connection to Kyra…”
TBC....
Author: moirasfate/ianthe_waiting
Disclaimer: Any and all characters associated with the films Pitch Black & The Chronicles of Riddick are property of USA Films, Universal Studios, Radar, and One Race Productions. They have been used without permission and are used for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringements are intended. All other characters are the author's own creation and belong to the author.
Rating: MA/NC-17
Summary: Five years after gaining the title of Lord Marhsal, Riddick heeds the call of his blood to return to his home world where he is met with a surprise that makes him realize that much of what he believes is a lie.
Warnings: M/F, AU, Angst, H/C, Violence, Language and all around roughness.
Genre: Sci-fi, Drama, etc.
Author's Notes: This is my first try at some Chronicle of Riddick fanfiction. This is a series of films that I love just as much as HP, so give a try okay? The AU label kicks in because I am one of those fans who do not want to believe that the characters of Kyra and Jack are the same person. This sentiment will be reflected in this fic. The chapters are relatively short, compared to most of my fics, so don't hate me. Thanks for reading!
Chapter Four – With Every Prophecy, a Conspiracy
Vaako knew that this woman was not the woman Riddick had lost…she was not Kyra. Vaako had seen the woman die in the Necropolis, he had seen Riddick let her slip away…he had seen her body placed in a casket and pushed out into the vacuum of space…
“How shall I convince you the sincerity of my intentions, Lady?”
The Lady blinked, “Start by telling me how it is that your Empire is no more?”
Vaako felt his lips twitch; he was almost smiling. He did not speak for several moments and when he did, his voice was deep and strong, as if reciting lines of verse.
“Five years ago, Zhylaw the Last was killed by the current Lord Marshal, assassinated. I had a hand in this occurrence, spurred on by my own discontent with the politics of the sixth Lord Marshal and by my wife’s wicked schemes.”
“Your wife? I thought Necros could not mate.”
“This was true…once. The current Lord Marshal made it possible for Those Who Remain to undergo a process to restore the possibility of reproduction. But before this, many Necromongers took wives or husbands…we were infertile, but not completely sexually impotent.”
“Those Who Remain?”
“Those who have renounced their conversion, those who were never True Believers. With the current Lord Marshal, a schism occurred…he was never converted, and he never believed. The True Believers were allowed to leave and travel to the Underverse where they finally found their purpose. Those Who Remained saw the truth, beyond faith…the Threshold was nothing more than a spatial anomaly, a rift. The allure of the Threshold did not tempt us…Those Who Remained. As required of every Lord Marshal, a pilgrimage to the Threshold changed my current Lord, but in a manner that spurred him to facilitate the schism of the Empire.
When the True Believers had passed on, Those Who Remained began a new campaign under the guidance of the Lord Marshal and the Elemental Aereon…”
A hiss of disgust distracted Vaako. The old woman had risen to her feet, her old eyes burning angrily. The dark Furyan, Uriel, growled deep in his throat as the old woman muttered under her breath what sounded like a curse.
The Lady, noticing Vaako’s confusion, moved to settle the old crone, and looked to Vaako, anger making her tremble.
“An Elemental, you say? Curse be on those who play with fate!” the woman growled.
Once the old crone was seated again, her eyes burning darkly into Vaako’s face, Vaako dared ask another question.
“Are Elementals so hated?”
The Lady sat again, folding a leg before her and resting her left forearm upon her knee.
“As a Necro, you surely have heard of the prophecy that brought about the destruction of Furya by your Zhylaw the Last?”
Vaako nodded.
“This prophecy was given to the Lord Marshal by an Elemental seer… Furyans and Elementals are a sort of polar opposite, much like they say Elementals and Necros are on different ends of the spectrum of light and dark. Elementals are generally ruled by logic and reason…Furyans are generally ruled by instinct and emotion. For Elementals and Necros it had more to do with who controlled this supposed ‘Verse.’ Furyans don’t give a flying fuck about things like that. For centuries the Elementals have tried to impose themselves upon Furya, thinking Furyans to be brainless beasts, tools to be used by a greater wit. They underestimated Furyans. We may be warriors, but we are not dumb beasts.
What you Necros do not understand is that Furyans are the elite of the elite. We are stronger, faster, and better than you. As for smarter? Perhaps.
This planet was once a center of teaching and development of the martial arts. We had schools that taught off worlders how to fight and how to strategically win. We had schools that taught humans how to unleash the powers of their mind…use parts of their brains that had not been used before. We had temples built in dedication to our great warrior-philosophers, to our generals, and to our warrior kings.
All of that is gone now, thanks to Elementals and Necromongers,” she uttered with such a deep bitterness that Vaako could not help but feel a heavy guilt upon his shoulders.
He was a babe when Furya was destroyed, but as a former Necromonger…part of Those Who Remained, he felt guilt for simply participating in Zhylaw’s campaigns.
After a long silence, Vaako’s eyes training upon the fire, the woman continued her line of questioning.
“So, Vaako…you’ve renounced your faith and now you’re on a new campaign to undo the wrongs you inflicted on this ‘Verse?’”
“It is not as simple as that.”
“Do explain, you have our full attention,” she mocked.
Vaako paid no mind to the condescending tone, but turned to meet the woman’s green eyes. She did not flinch at his gaze, but she smirked at the sight of the deep swirling of mixed emotions in Vaako’s eyes.
“The option was presented to Those Who Remain to return to salvage their home worlds, to begin to rebuild, if necessary, and negotiate treaties with existing worlds. Those Who Remain have came up against great obstacles, some have been killed by those they set out to negotiate with…but I can say for a fact that Those Who Remain always come to negotiations without any intention to kill or convert. Those days are over.
Many of Those Who Remain have reverted to their old ways and their old faiths. Many have accepted their sins and begun the process of repenting and redeeming themselves in the paths of their respective faiths.”
The old woman seemed to relax at Vaako’s words, but the woman, the Lady Audrey, Jack, still seemed skeptical.
“And you? Have you any thoughts to redeeming yourself through your faith?” she asked quietly.
At this Vaako felt his lips begin to curl into an awkward smile. “My original faith teaches me that I must ask for forgiveness through God. My faith believes that forgiveness is simple…and given to use through the Son of God, a man who lived almost three thousand years ago on Earth. However, I feel that my forgiveness cannot be as simple as asking for it…so I do what I feel is correct in remedying the damage I have inflicted on worlds myself.”
“And your coming here is part of your process to redemption?”
“In part. I came here because my Lord commanded it.”
“And what, specifically, did he command?”
Vaako turned to look into the fire again, he was warm now…almost too warm under his heavy armor.
“To scout out any life, to scout out if this planet was livable…and ultimately prepare his path to return to this world.”
The old woman turned to the lady and smiled. “The Alpha Furyan…” she croaked.
The woman frowned, her voice almost a growl. “You said a name before…what was it?”
Vaako smiled…it was becoming easier to smile. “Riddick.”
The old crone began cackling loudly, slapping her robe clad knees. “The conspiracy comes full circle!”
The lady sighed and rubbed a hand over her face. “Riddick…Richard B. Riddick is the seventh Lord Marshal?”
The laughter died away.
“Yes.”
“So Kyra is dead…” the lady mumbled.
“Yes…killed the same time Zhylaw was assassinated.”
“Shit…”
* * *
The silence that filled the circular chamber was almost oppressive. Vaako watched the play of emotions over the Lady’s face. Grief…regret…fear…anger.
“If you have seen Kyra, I am sure you are wondering why her face is before your eyes again…I saw your confusion earlier,” the Lady said softly, moving to push back her hair and sigh.
“Yes,” Vaako said simply.
“I suppose I should tell you then…since it seems that Riddick is on his way.”
Vaako nodded slowly. Riddick would be coming within three weeks, the fleet was scheduled to enter that particular part of the galaxy.
“Do you know much about Riddick’s history, besides what was told you as part of the prophecy?”
“I know that he is a killer and that he has been in and out penal colonies for the past fifteen years. Lord Marshal does not talk about his past; nothing in connection to anything outside what concerns the prophecy and his rise to power. But I do know that the woman named Kyra had meant something to Lord Marshal.”
The woman snorted, and muttered: “It was planned that way.”
Vaako frowned.
“Plots, prophecies and conspiracies…ah, I hate this…” she sighed.
“Tell him, Jack, he should know…he should know what is coming,” the old woman crackled, her voice like the rasping of sand against glass.
“Shit…”
Vaako waited patiently for the Lady to regain a sense of composure.
“I should start from the beginning, I guess…”
The woman sighed again, rubbing her temples as she shifted where she sat. Vaako could see her discomfort and her exhaustion…emotional exhaustion…
“Richard B. Riddick and I met over ten years ago on a planet that I could only wish you Necros destroyed. Riddick had been captured by a merc by the name of Johns. Johns was taking Riddick back to gods know where for a hefty payday. But Johns picked the wrong ship to take…
Hell, so did I.
Many weeks into the journey on the literal back roads of space, the commercial freighter Hunter-Gratzner was forced out the shipping lane by a rogue comet. The ship crashed on a planet and there were only a handful of survivors, Riddick and myself included. To make a long story short, there was an eclipse and in the dark, creatures attacked. We found a settlement and a skiff…and when all was said and done only Riddick, Abu al-Walid and myself made it off the planet alive.
While floating around the shipping lanes, a ship called the Kubla Kahn picked us up, and on that ship we literally fought for our lives. I killed a person on the ship…a simple shot to the head and I was on my way closer to hell…”
The Lady stopped to chuckle. It was a sardonic chuckle, but Vaako could see that the Lady seemed proud of this killing.
“I was put in cryo sleep, dropped off on Helion Prime with Imam…Abu…and I never saw Riddick again.
Of course, that does nothing to explain my connection to Kyra…”
TBC....