Ghost

Tomoe - thank you!!

5. Link.

I’d been inside for two years when Jack arrived with Kain. Right from the get-go, you could see the level of love and trust between them. You could see the lengths Kain would go to, to protect her - the lengths he had gone too, in the last day alone. His kill count before Crematoria had been nine - a year later? It was up around eighty. It was quite simple really - fuck with Jack, and he'd sever your spinal cord.

They were so silent - so deathly pale in the dim light that we had. Jack laid on her stomach, with a threadbare blanket draped low on her hips. Green blood had dried in streaks on her back; the air was tinged with the tangy scent of it as she took shallow breaths. If it wasn't for those shallow breaths, you'd think she was dead - that's how still she was.

Kain laid beside her facing the wall. His body was wracked with chills and shudders as he healed himself from being bled for so long. His hands were fisted and his face almost looked gray, and I could only hope that Jack wouldn’t see him like this - she’d seriously freak if she did. His pain was as violent as Jack's was silent, and all I could do was watch over them.

I leaned back against the wall next to the bed I shared with him and Jack, and watched over them with Maniac and Dog. Maniac and I had been working on different plans to get off this shithole for the last year and a half; they kicked into overdrive the day Jack was lowered into the pit. Kain had been lowered first, and he delt with the welcome wagon by breaking the biggest inmate's neck. And then the machinery had started up again, and as one, we all looked upwards.

Jack was utterly terrified, and desperately trying to hide it as the pit fell into silence. With her hands cuffed and stretched above her head, her top had ridden up to just under her breasts. Her pants sat low on slim hips - so low, that her hip bones were exposed, and that was a hell of a lot of flesh to expose. Bear had been watching silently, and when he saw her face, he had stared at her for a moment in confusion, before he swore angrily.

Jack's feet hadn't even touched the ground when Bear stepped out of the shadows. When Bear released her and took her into his arms, Jack had stared up at him for the longest while. She had finally shaken her head and asked him how he planned on teaching her to pilot from in here. It was then that Kain had stepped up to her; he had taken her into his arms, and the rest of us closed in around them.

Kain… god, the kid would die for her. I know Dog would too. Problem is though, that if I can’t figure a way off this rock and soon, we won’t have to worry about that. Jack could have died on us, no fucking doubt there. And she ain't out of the woods yet. The last couple of days have been the worst in this slam’s history.

Even with a bit jammed in her mouth, her muffled screams had echoed for the first six hours. Then there was silence. Dog had to put Kain down and out, when the kid went mental - fuck, I don’t blame him. Dog got him in a headlock, and slowly but surely forced him to his knees. Kain had fought him every inch of the way, but to his knees he went, and it was then that Dog knocked him out.

Kain went into himself for a while there, when he came to again. He sat there with his arms locked around his knees and just rocked. Blind to everything but his fear for Jack. I know their history together - the deaths that had landed them in here, and the reasons behind them. And right then, Kain's fear was choking him. Not even the hounds got a reaction out of him.

Things got interesting after that - we got ourselves a bona fied celebrity. Richard B. Riddick was lowered into the pit the day after Jack had been taken. And out of the shadows, slinked a leech of wicked proportions. Kyra. That slag landed herself in here just after Bear was transferred out, and Jack went out of her way to make her feel safe with us.

The two girls struck up as much of a friendship as they could, what with them being the only two females in here. But that had changed when Kyra tried to be cozy with Kain, and he told her to fuck off - he wasn’t interested. She didn’t like that - not one little bit. She assumed she was top shit as it was. Kain’s blatant dismissal didn’t please her at all.

Kyra was one hell of a head case, and I mean that in more ways than one. She was fucking crazy. But, on top of that, she could suck your thoughts and memories straight out of you. Suck them out and taint them. Taint them - and then use them against you. I know she head-fucked Jack on more than one occasion; it's what ended their tentative friendship for good.

Then Sir. Shiv-a-Lot himself was lowered in, and Kyra latched onto him like the leech she was. She knew something about him, because he took to her like a moth to a flame. And when he broke out of here less than a day later, he took Kyra with him. Lucky he did - Maniac was ready to gut the bitch for what she'd done to Jack. He and Kain had been discussing the best way to kill her for two days by that stage.

Crematoria is a hell hole, but it’s a small one. The days last for fifty two hours; thirty two of those hours are as hot as the bowels of hell. And when night falls, it is freezing cold. But the nights are twilight lit, and you can see clearly. There are only two hundred prisoners here, give or take a few, and when sent here, you die here. I wasn't ready for Jack to become one of the statistics.

The only exceptions had been Bear, when he had been sent to a different prison for killing three guards. He was transferred out for their safety. And then Riddick and Kyra. That chick is one hell of a viral disease. But that ain’t my problem; it’s his. I hope he's ready for her mind games - and I hope she pisses him off enough for him to get creative.

No, my problem was lying on her stomach and in a hell of a lot of pain. We had bled Kain as much as we could, and although he was willing to give more, we couldn’t risk it. He was in trouble as it was, and was drifting in and out of consciousness. When Kain had hit the deck after being bled, we all freaked again. He just wasn’t there. That happened nearly eighteen hours ago.

Some of Jack’s deeper cuts had still been bleeding slowly. Maniac had searched upstairs, and had finally found a rusty old medi kit. There wasn’t much in it, but there were the materials for stitching people up. Maniac had taken them all. After he had knocked Jack out with a nerve pinch, he had settled down to work.

I knew Maniac had been a Marine, but I never knew that he had such a strong medical background. I wouldn’t have had the first clue as to how to stitch someone up so fucking neatly, let alone knock them out by pressing on something in their neck. He had straddled Jack's thighs, and had set out with a needle and thread, all the while singing a nursery rhyme under his breath.

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him to patch up my pants, but I knew better than to fuck with him when he was focused like this. I watched him as he neatly stitched those cuts together, all the while muttering that tiny stitches left smaller scars. The man has a future career as seamstress - tiny stitches indeed.

Maniac had gone deeper into the bowels of the prison after finishing with Jack. I knew he had gone looking for an inmate to take his temper out on. What had happened to Jack had really shaken him - shit, it had shaken all of us. Dog viewed Jack as his daughter - Maniac saw her as a link to what remained of his humanity. Me? I just loved the little darlin’.

Dog agreed to stay with Jack and Kain while I went back upstairs to look through the main control room again. The control room was trashed; the one computer that had been in here, had been blown apart by gun fire. I swore angrily at the mess I found. I pushed the broken computer off of the desk and ran my hands through my hair. There was nothing here. No way off the planet. The ship that had been circling earlier was now gone, taking away the option of taking it by force if it had landed. There were no two ways about it - we were screwed.

I made my way slowly back down to the main level, and told Dog what I had found upstairs. He just lowered his head and nodded. I told him where Maniac was, and he mumbled about going to join him. I agreed to stay with Jack and Kain, and Dog slipped away into the darkness.

Maniac and Dog understood one another in the way that Kain, Jack, and I did. We had decided when Jack first came here, that if we got out we’d split up - Dog and Maniac would scatter, and the three of us would stay together. I prayed that it would still happen one day as I leaned against the wall and watched over them.

Kain had explained how his blood had worked not long after he had first come here. It wouldn’t heal scars or anything like that, but if injured like Jack was, his blood acted almost like an antiseptic. In addition to that, it would heal the outer skin a lot faster than stitches would.

Knowing that Jack would soon be back up on her feet and moving around, admittedly slower than before until completely healed, was a relief. It was the physiological healing that bothered me. It bothered all of us. We could see what the Boss man had done to her on the outer. But it was whether he had ended up raping her that we didn’t know. What had he done to her behind closed doors?

I heard an almost silent sound, and looked towards the bed. Jack lifted her head slowly, but lack of strength from what she had been through, caused her head to drop back to the pillow as she muffled a soft cry of pain. I pushed away from the wall and crossed over to her on silent feet.

I saw that she was squinting, so I blew some of the candles out as I knelt at her side. I tugged the thin blanket a little further up her back,carefully avoiding the stitches. She groaned again, and I cursed the Boss man to hell and back as she started to shiver. I took her hand in mine carefully, and stroked my free hand over her head. She shivered again, and finally opened her eyes. They were clouded over in pain, but she knew who I was.

"Link?"

I inched a little closer on my knees, and lowered my head to the pillow beside hers. I kept my voice low, and my hand gentle as I toyed with her hair.

"Hey, darlin’… you want somethin’?"

She cracked her eyes open, and finally shook her head as her eyes filled with tears. They slid down over her abused jaw slowly as she stared at me. I shook my head and carefully wiped them away, while giving her a small smile. Her eyes slid shut and then opened again, sending another wave of tears down her face.

"I feel sick," she whispered, and I nodded slowly.

"Jack… you ain't had nothin' to drink in three days; that’s why you feel sick - you’re dehydrated. I can’t do nothin’ to help you, darlin', until Maniac gets back and tells me what to do. I don't want to fuck you up any further, ok? You understand?"

She nodded again, even as her teeth began to chatter.

"Cold."

"I know, darlin’. I wanna cover you up, but Maniac took a long time to stitch you up. I really want to keep my balls where they are, Jack. He’ll tear 'em off if I fuck with his needle point, darlin’… so just hold my hand. I ain’t goin' nowhere. Just sleep, little darlin’."

"Kain?"

I bit my lip but smiled all the same when her eyes opened.

"He's snorin' behind ya, darlin'. S'ok.... he ain't left ya side. You're safe now, Jack... s'ok... just close your eyes."

Jack started crying as I brushed a kiss over her forehead, and I swore as her shaking began to get worse. She closed her eyes, and eventually slipped back under to where her pain couldn’t touch her. I held her hand for a long time after that; my knees were aching, my back was aching, and Maniac could so kiss his own ass good-bye, 'cause, I was gonna kick it to hell and back, for leaving me alone with them.

I must have fallen asleep or something, but I know I woke with a fright. I was still kneeling by Jack’s side. Her hand was cradled under my own, and my body was aching in so many ways that it was just wasn’t funny no more. I wanted a drink, and I needed to take a leak, and not necessarily in that order.

My head was still resting on the pillow by hers, and I lifted it and cricked my neck as I yawned. It was then that a hand fisted in the hair on the top of my scalp. Before I knew which way my ass was pointing, my head was jerked back at a cruel angle. The sharp point of a shiv was jabbed into the top of my neck, right under my chin, and the pain was sudden and hot.

I smelled my own blood and froze. A hot trickle of it slid slowly down over my Adam's apple and down into my tee shirt. I looked upwards slowly, and felt like puking. I would have too, had I not known that in doing so, I would either cut my own god damn neck, or choke to death on the contents of my stomach.

The con from a few days ago - a man you really don’t want to fuck with. Riddick. And Jesus. H. Christ, were his eyes glowing? Yup… they were. Riddick stood behind me, with a feral look in his eyes, and utter fury darkening his face. He had escaped - come fuck me with a pogo stick, but I had no clue as too why he had come back. He lowered his face slightly to look into my eyes, and his voice drifted across my cheek.

"You’ve got one minute to convince me not gut you like a pig, as to why you have my girl Jack here, and why it looks like someone has taken to her with a shiv," he said softly.

It was then that I knew for certain that the devil was real; he had a knife at my throat, after all, and he held my life in his hands. Time to bend over, Link ol’ buddy - here comes that pogo stick. I had my answer, after all. Jack meant something to him - and now he was looking at me for answers.

The pressure of the shiv against my throat relaxed slightly. I swallowed convulsively, and it bit back in and sent a new trickle of blood down my neck. A soft chuckle brushed my face, and I saw the sardonic look on Riddick’s face as he shook his head slightly.

"Careful - no dyin' on me yet. We're gonna have a little talk, and if I don’t like your answers? I’m gonna hand feed you to the hounds, one piece at a time," he said pleasantly, and when I shuddered, I knew I’d end up cutting my own throat before he was satisfied.

"Again - why does Jack look like she's been used as a pin cushion... and why is she in here with you?"

"Jack’s family… our family… we’ve spent the last day gettin’ her back from that room… and the Boss did take a knife to her," I managed to choke out, and the shiv against my throat fell away an inch, letting me gasp out a breath.

"And you are?" he purred.

"Link…" I stuttered, and he nodded thoughtfully before hauling me to my feet by my hair.

"Up…" he murmured, and gesturing with the shiv, pointed at Kain.

"What’s wrong with him?" he snarled, and I damn near pissed my pants at the sound.

"We bled Kain to try and fix the worst of Jack’s injuries. It knocked him for a sixer, and has made him sick - but he wouldn’t listen… he never does. Not when it comes to her," I stuttered, and heard his hum slightly.

"Bled him?" he asked slowly a moment later.

"He’s Lotharian… his blood heals… when we found her, she was a mess. Maniac slit Kain’s wrists, and bled him for nearly two hours. He regenerates pretty quickly, but not this time. He‘s been out cold nearly the entire time she has."

"So that's what’s on her back… that’s dried blood?"

I nodded and Riddick turned me slowly to face him, using the grip on my head to guide my movements. Fuck me; his eyes were down right scary looking! He tilted his head slightly as he stared at me, and when he spoke, his voice broke no argument.

"Sit… and don’t fuckin' move."

I just nodded, and slid down the side of the wall. But when he let go of my head, and I shifted slightly, I yelped. There was a big guy with a mohawk pointing a blast gun straight at my head. The big guy raised his eyebrow silently, and I flinched as I turned my face towards Riddick. I watched as he sat down on the edge of the bed slowly, and licked his lower lip as he stared down at Jack. Bracing the hand that held the shiv against the bed near her head, he traced the edge of her bruised mouth with a finger.

"The Boss had a bit in her mouth the entire time she was in his room," I said softly when he looked to me for an explanation. His eyes slammed shut for a moment as he twisted his head away from my line of sight, and I heard the growl that escaped his mouth.

He opened his eyes a moment later, and shifted his fingers through her hair. Moving her hair slowly, Riddick lowered his head and breathed in deeply as he rested his head against hers. Shifting from beside her to the floor where I had knelt, we both watched as her eyes slowly opened, before drifting shut again.

"Jack…"

Riddick murmured it as a tear slid out from under her eye lashes and pooled in the corner of her eye. He reached out and traced his finger along her lashes, even as another tear appeared and joined the other. Multi murderer - sociopath - and I was stupefied into silence as I watched him with her.

"Jack… open your eyes," he said quietly.

"Kain?" she whispered, and then whimpered softly.

Riddick’s eyebrows drew together in surprise, even as Kain shifted on the other side of the bed and sat up slowly. They stared at one another over Jack's body, and I was struck by how much Kain’s eyes glowed like Riddick’s; one blue, the other silver, and I could see how Jack would think what she had thought.

They locked eyes as Jack said Kain’s name again, this time with a clear touch of panic in her voice. Kain hushed her softly as he settled his hand on her shoulder. His hand ghosted down over her side and the rise of her ass, the familiarity of the motion sending Riddick’s jaw clenching and unclenching momentarily as I looked between the two of them.

"So… you finally came back for her, huh? Took you fuckin' long enough," Kain finally hissed, as he lowered his head and pressed a soothing kiss to the back of Jack’s neck.

She calmed under his touch like she always did and Riddick rose slowly as she turned her head towards Kain. He smoothed her hair back as his gaze searched her face for a moment. When she remained calm, he slid to the end of the bed, stood up, and looked back at Riddick again.

"Do I know you?" Riddick asked coldly, and Kain laughed bitterly.

"No - but I know you. I know what you were to Jack… and how crushed she was when you deserted her."

I blinked at that, and then flinched when I saw Riddick’s face darken with anger.

"She told you about me, huh?" he said flatly, and Kain smirked and shook his head.

"No. She told me she was taken off T2 by a guy called ‘Rick’. A guy who abandoned her on a planet, where she knew no one. She got sick just after we met, and she called out for ‘Riddick.’ She begged him not to leave her in the dark. I put two and two together. You’ve been gone for five fuckin' years… why come back now?"

"I had mercs on my neck," Riddick spat. "I couldn’t risk her… she was safer on New Mecca, where I told her to stay!"

Kain laughed sardonically and rolled his eyes.

"Safer? Oh man, that’s fuckin’ rich. She was drooled over, like a choice cut of fuckin’ meat! And as for havin' mercs on your neck, so did I. But I didn’t slink away like a mangy fuckin’ dog in the middle of the night. I took her with me."

Riddick snarled at that and the edge of his shiv bit into his clenched hand. I glared at Kain, silently begging him to shut his mouth - but when it came to Jack? No way... Even rocking unsteadily on his feet, he was defending her. Provoking the devil, but defending her all the same.

"She would have been on the run, for the rest of her life!" Riddick bit out, and Kain laughed softly.

"And how is that any different from what she ended up doing? Tell me, Riddick, how was she safer on New Mecca? The only legal guardian she had, the man you left her with, was guilted into slaving her out to the highest bidder... so how was she safer? Huh?" Kain snapped, jabbing a finger in Riddick’s direction.

"How was she safer, when she had to run due to that - rather than being forced into a marriage with man twenty - five years older than her. She was seventeen when his eldest son tried to rape her, and she was forced to kill him. Seventeen and a half when she was sent here… tell me, big man, how was she safer on New Mecca, than with you? 'Cause I’m just dying to know," he snarled.

Riddick moved so quickly, that by the time I had blinked, he had Kain’s head jerked back and the point of the shiv digging into his throat. Kain just chuckled though, even as Riddick snarled.

"How long are you gonna stick 'round for this time, Riddick? A few hours? A few days?" he asked softly.

"What’s it to you?" Riddick snarled.

Kain shrugged as best as he could.

"'Cause it took me over a year to convince Jack that I was nothin’ like you; that I wouldn’t leave her behind. I’m just wonderin’ how long it will take me this time, when you take off on her again."

Riddick snarled softly and the two of them locked eyes. In that moment of staring each other down, I saw the similarities between them - the darker side they both had. I also saw the exact moment Riddick recognized it within Kain, because he snarled.

"You don’t know me… you know nothin’ about me, or why I left her with Imam. She was barely fourteen!" he hissed, and then shoved Kain’s head backwards, so that it banged against the rock wall behind him. Kain just laughed softly, and smirked.

"Yeah, she was. But she ain’t, now. And I’ve been wit' her for the past five years. I was wit' her when she was told she was nothin' but a purchase. I was wit' her when she had to run for her life, because the man who purchased her decided he didn’t want to wait; that he wanted to break her then, rather than later.

"I was wit' her for the two years she spent on the run. I was wit' her when she killed for the first time. It was me who washed the blood away, while she cried in the shower. It was me who taught her how to defend herself. Me who kept her safe. And me, who was sent to slam wit' her. Where were you?"

"I came back for her," Riddick snarled.

Kain just sighed and shook his head.

"You should never have left her," he said quietly, and those words had more impact on Riddick than anything else. The hand that had been clenching the shiv relaxed slightly, and his chin came up at an angle. He stared at Kain for a long moment, and then glanced over his shoulder at Jack.

Kain just shook his head and moved over to crouch by her. He ran his hand over her head slowly, and Jack turned her face back towards him. Kain sighed softly as he rolled her slightly onto her side. Wrapping her in the blanket that covered her hips, he lifted her into his arms. Jack remained still and silent as he turned around and headed for the door of our hole, only to be stopped by the big guy.

"Riddick?" he asked, shouldering the gun he held.

"Leave it alone, Vaako."

Vaako's jaw tightened as Kain glared at him, and Kain lifted an eyebrow.

"Get the fuck out of my way," he finally hissed, and Vaako’s eyebrows rose in surprise even as he stepped aside.

Riddick looked down at me, and I bit back laughter as I raised an eyebrow.

"Well… that was fun…" I managed, and he glared at me as he gestured with the shiv in his hand. I shut my mouth real fast at the look on his face.

"Where are they goin’?" he muttered, and I sighed.

"There’s a deep basin of water further in, and it’s filled with minerals from the planet. It makes for a good soak. It’s at this time that the water's at its best, and Jack normally soaks in there if she’s had a rough one," I said softly, and rose to my feet.

I headed for the door and glanced back at Riddick slowly.

"Kain loves her… and he’s been worried sick about what happened to her. You’ll have to excuse his attitude. I don’t know you or your history with Jack… it ain’t none of my business. But if it makes you feel any better, she was only sayin’ a little while ago that she wanted to find ‘Rick’…. I’m guessin’ that she meant you."

The look on Riddick’s face had me bumping into Vaako as I took a couple of steps away from who I perceived to be the bigger danger.

"What do you care?" he spat, and I shrugged.

"I don’t… but you do."

I shrugged again when he raised an eyebrow, and I gestured around us.

"You came back here. I’m guessin’ that Kyra led you to believe she was Jack… and the way that thing works with twisting memories and all, she would have been believable. But she can’t keep up the illusion for long… hence why you came back to hell."

I stepped out of the hole, and walked on shaking feet towards the pool. I heard Riddick’s almost silent footfalls behind me, and I led him through the steam and rocks to where the pool had been formed behind a large lava fall.

Kain was just sinking down into the water with Jack nestled in his arms. Her head was resting on his shoulder as he shifted her slightly in his arms. Even from here, I could see that Jack was hurting, and I looked up at the shadowy figure beside me.

"You got a plan to get us off this rock?" I asked, and silver eyes flashed as he looked down at me.

"She won’t leave with out us," I said quietly when he remained silent.

He just shrugged, and when he did speak, it was as he melted into the shadows.

"I figured we’d just walk out."

It was only when he was gone that I made my way to the pool and stripped my shirt off. Sinking into the water with Kain and Jack, I looked at them through the steam. Kain had his eyes closed, and I shut my own as I leant my head back and tried to relax. Nothing like almost having your throat cut to make you revaluate things, huh?

"We’re goin' with him?" Kain’s voice came softly, and I managed to open one eye.

Blue flames glowed at me through the dim light, and I saw that he had calmed down and returned to the Kain that I knew. I just grinned, and his laughter sent ripples of water towards me as he shook his head and closed his eyes again. I guess we were.