Just the Beginning

Fandom: Chronicles of Riddick
Pairing: Riddick/Vaako
Rating: Overall NC-17
Feedback: Yes please! :) I love to hear your opinions on the story.
Disclaimers: The niclnicles of Riddick is the playtoy of David Twohy and Universal Studios, not mine. :(
Summary: Planet Furya.
Notes: My imagination is running wild since I have no clue of the history of Furyan's beyond the movie, but I hope it isn't to distracting to those of you who know more than me. :D

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Riddick moved quickly through the woods, shedding his cloak as it became entangled in several knobbed branches. The vibrant gold, bronze, and blood-red tree leaves shifted in the wind, effectively camouflaging his sun-bronzed body as he slipped between the tall black, burgundy, and brown trunks.

Catching movement in his peripheral vision, Riddick stealthily changed direction, silently creeping forward through the foliage. Using the new goggles Reev gave him, to protect his eyes from the light sources, he switched to his own natural vision and easily picked up the object of his attention.

Waiting until he was passed by feet nearly as silent as his own, he shadowed the figure, quietly sliding his shiv out of the sheath. Almost on top of his prey, sensing the moment he was noticed, he leapt forward. All motion in the shorter body ceased as Riddick pressed his shiv directly against his neck before it turned more than halfway.

"Aren't you a little young to be out here alone?"

The boy in his grip straightened to his fullest height as he took a shallow breath.

"Even if you kill me, the others will find you...And avenge my death," said his quiet but firm voice.

Riddick grinned, pleased by the courage, if foolhardy, the young man displayed. "Right. Why don't you take me to these others, and I'll save them the trip?"

The boy tensed, lean muscles tightening under his grip, and remained silent, though Riddick could feel the fury setting his body trembling.

"I would never lead an enemy to my people, so kill me and be done with it," he said, voice shaking with the restraint to not strike out, not with a very sharp shiv under his chin.

Riddick smiled again and lightly hopped back, expecting the boy to lash out. And he was correct, but he easily dodged the boy's fists and kicks as he attacked. He quickly gauged the boy's strength and skills, and twisted him into a head lock shaking him hard. The boy froze, knowing his neck could be snapped in half by the muscular arm around it.

"What's your name boy?"

"...Trey."

"Well, Trey, you're not a bad fighter, but how about I teach you a little something I picked up while we walk."

Trey moved his head as far up as he was able, trying to look Riddick in the eye. "And why would you help me, your enemy?"

Riddick let him go, and smirked as he scrambled from under his arm to a defensive position in front of him. "'Cause you're not my enemy."

Trey looked him over, getting a good look now that he wasn't fighting him, something tingling in the back of his mind about the tall broad man in front of him. And Mother Soryn taught them to listen to the instinct that guided them as a people.

"You're a Furyan..." he said slowly, recognizing that same tingle from being around his people, only with a healthy dose of caution. He may be one of them, but he was dangerous.

Riddick grinned, and tilted his head. "Right. So how about we get started. First of all, you don't have a lot of power yet, so ya gotta rely on speed and the other person's own force. Let's try this again."

And for the next hour, Riddick taught Trey how to better his fighting skills. The boy picked it up quickly, and let his guard down bit by bit as he trained with the older man. And his caution ebbed as he grew used to the gruff voice and graceful movements of the other Furyan, it slowly being replaced with respect as he was patiently shown how to better his fighting skills.

So when Riddick called a halt to their little session as they drew close to the village, enough so they could here others talking and moving about, he answered Riddick's inquiries about the village.

"I know I was born while they began to finish rebuilding the inhabited village-city. Mother Soryn tells us stories, and she said that it took time for there to be enough of us to build a village-city. I'll take you to the council and they'll tell you more. They're always happy to have Furyan's come back home."

Riddick nodded, closely following the boy, alert to anything that might be a danger.

"Who's this Mother Soryn you keep talking about?"

"Mother Soryn is the oldest among us. She was here when the Necromongers attacked, and survived to pull the rest of our people together and begin rebuilding. She's the head of the council and we go to her when there's a problem."

His comm. beeped before he could reply, and he pulled it out, clicking it on as Trey stared in fascination.

"Yeah?"

"What's your status, Riddick? You were supposed to call in regularly," Vaako's slightly pissed off voice said from the small device. Riddick grinned and noted Trey listening in on the conversation.

"Let's say I met a local, and we're getting acquainted. I'm heading into the city to meet some people, so I'll call you later."

"I'll be waiting."

Riddick put the comm. away and glanced at the boy beside him, who had slowed down, eyes wearily on him. Raising his eyebrow seemed to be enough for Trey to speak up.

"Who was that?"

"Vaako. I came here on a ship and he's waiting for me."

"Is he a Furyan too?"

Riddick glanced at him and smirked. "Not that I know of."

"So where did you meet him? How did you find us? What did you do before you came here?"

Riddick sighed, realizing that Trey was going to wear on him if he didn't answer, so he settled for the short version.

"I was hunted by mercenaries, and mostly avoided them, but one captured me and we ended up on a planet where I had to save a couple of people. When we got off planet I sent them to safety and dodged the mercs for years. Then I was found by a merc who an old friend sent for me, so I checked up on him and found out about the Necromongers," he said pausing at the anger flashing across Trey's face at the word.

"I learned that through some prophecy a Furyan was supposed to kill the Lord Marshal from an Elemental. That's when I found out that I was a Furyan. Then the planet was attacked, and I was taken on the ship, though I escaped them. They came after me, but the same merc got to me again, just with another crew. I had another friend who I needed to retrieve from a prison, so I planted some suggestions and got a free ride to her. But Necros followed us, so when we broke out, they were waiting for us. I met another Furyan there, but he died," he said omitting the how, and who he was working with, from Trey's rapt attention.

"After I found out my friend had gone on the Necro ship, I went after her. I fought the Lord Marshal and it ended up that she died saving me, so I killed him. The Necro army became mine. And I found you, since the other Lord Marshal had info on the planet. Vaako is my Right-hand, and Commander."

Trey had slowed to a crawl, mouth hanging open in awe of the man beside him. "You're the one in the prophecies...We have to get to Mother Soryn. She'll be excited to meet you," Trey said as he picked up his pace, their steps taking them into the edges of the village-city. "She's been waiting for you for a long time."

~~~

Riddick immediately understood why it was called a village-city once they fully reached it. Though a small area without many people, the buildings were tall and elegant. He could almost see a glimpse of how the place looked in the past, the spirals and sloping domes mixed with strong rectangular and square shapes with winged tips spoke of a time when it was in its prime...

'And it will be again if I have anything to do with it,' Riddick thought as they moved through the structures. When they first entered, two large Furyan females stepped forward, quickly questioning Trey. Now they shadowed them, keeping a weary eye on him as they made their way to the tall domed building in the center of the village-city.

Stopping at a door, Trey went inside and closed it behind him as the warriors stood to either side of him. Riddick studied them for a minute and decided he'd have an interesting time if things went bad.

Soon the doors were back open and he was led inside, Trey leading him down a hall to large dark wood doors beautifully patterned with creatures similar in appearance to the hellhounds on Crematoria.

"I hope to train with you again soon," Trey said, in all seriousness.

"Sure, we'll get together later after things settle down," Riddick said with a clap to the thin shoulder, throwing the boy a grin.

Stepping inside as the doors were swung open, he walked into a high-ceilinged room, windows circling the top dome allowing light to shine in every corner. As he approached the circular table in the center of the room, he studied each one noticing they were all women. His eyes soon came to halt on an elegantly beautiful, distinguished silver-haired woman in the center chair, apparently this Mother Soryn. She watched him with assessing ice blue eyes, her head tilting as she studied his features.

His gaze was drawn to another woman as she stood, large, hardened green eyes seeming to pop from her deeply tanned skin, dark hair sweeping over her shoulder.

"You say you are Furyan and Trey told us your story, but we require proof. Tell us of how you came to be here."

He raised an eyebrow at her disrespectful tone, offering a bland look in return.

"It's alright Risa. It has been some time, but those features are difficult to forget. This is Richard B. Riddick, son of former Council Members Darien and Marcia Riddick, next in line for the First Seat of Council."

~~~

Though the council members murmured in disbelief, Mother Soryn easily calmed them down, and escorted Riddick out towards a downward winding staircase.

Riddick was silent as he shadowed her, taking in the structure as they moved down, walking through a hall to a large ornate door. Sweeping inside she headed to a table with scrolls on the surface, lighting several candles. He hesitated, than pulled off his goggles, the room dark enough for him to be comfortable.

"I'm sure you have questions, and I will tell you what I know," she said, pulling one of the scrolls from the pile as she looked up and smiled, her warm expression a pleasing contrast from her previous cold countenance.

"I'm glad to see you survived. Your parents were so proud, so in love with you as their first born. Your father was eager to show you the world, our ways, and to raise you in his footsteps...And then the Necromongers came. With more in numbers than we could hope to win. Your father was the council leader, and he fought with a strength and fierceness to his very last breath to save our people. Your mother fought beside him, but when he fell, her concern was to make the Necromongers believe you were dead. She took you, and when she returned she was alone, so I did not know your fate. She died with you and your father's names on her lips," she said faint lines appearing around her eyes as she remembered the past. Riddick's jaw clenched, a dull pain making him rub at his chest with his fist, angry he would never know his parents, unable to at least see them.

"All because a seer, unknown to us then, told the former Lord Marshal that a Furyan male would kill him. In his fear and cowardice he came to our planet and attacked. We were unaware and unprepared until the last minute when they suddenly appeared over our skies. We of course rallied to fight back holding our own for a time, but they overwhelmed us and began the killing of our young, our babies," she whispered, such sadness in the deep well of her eyes Riddick's breath caught.

"Than they begun on our men, the Lord Marshal ruthless in making sure there was no threat. We were almost sentenced to extinction from the onslaught, but those who could escaped, women with their sons, some unnoticeably pregnant women, very few of our men, and a large storage med ship escaped, fortunately with stored seed from several males, myself on it. Those who did not die from the attack were either killed...or assimilated into the Necromonger order," she said, as she glided to a wall holding a large painting of the village-city.

"But we survived, as several years later a few of the men came back and some of the women were impregnated."

"Where are they now?"

"The few of them left are off-world bartering for supplies, and material for our home, working to help us survive. Some women go as well, but we here stay to protect what's ours. The med ship I was on returned and we used the seed we had stored on those who would be agreeable to having a child. We began to rebuild, raising our children as a whole, making sure they were educated about our formally mighty race."

"Like Trey."

"Yes, he is a wonderful help, teaching and watching over those younger than him, and helping us. His mother passed shortly after he was born from an illness that we could not treat at the time, and he has no father. We all raised him, though he stays with me. He will be a fine man. And it seems you have gained an admirer," she said with a soft smile as he shrugged and rubbed a hand over his head.

"I just showed him a couple of things."

"Yes, well I thank you. I haven't seen him so excited about anything in some time. But, then we have a new hope, one I dared not think I'd be alive to see. The same seer who told the Lord Marshal of his fate also had another prophecy about our people..." she said as she swung around, piercing him with her gaze. She looked down at her hands and untied the scroll, opening it with a care that spoke of much handling.

"And you are the center of it. Here." He reached out and took the scroll, reading the elegantly written script.

"And he will save galaxies from a darkness,
With a companion found of his own race.
He will restore his world to its glory,
And come into his rightful place."

"What does this mean? My rightful place? A darkness?" he asked, looking up at the older woman, her face shining from the glow coming from the candles she lit.

"I took a great deal of time to think of what it meant, and didn't understand for many years. But then I saw what I will now show you, and it explained much. Come with me," she said as she moved to an almost seamless door, pressing a point in the wall. The door slid open and they walked down another set of stairs, through to a cavernous room, lit with a faint white glow.

"Here is one of our guarded secrets, one even the former Lord Marshal knew nothing of," she said as she walked to a column with controls set in a panel. Quickly touching several points on the panel, she turned and pointed to the back of the room. He looked over to see an octagonal metal frame with a milky film in the center.

"What's this?"

"This is a viewing portal, it allows us to see to another dimension."

Riddick's eyes narrowed as the portal lit up, the milky film becoming brighter. "And why is it here? Is this old Furyan technology?"

"Our planet holds the key to opening an active portal built into our moon. Our history tells of an ancient powerful feline race called Abyssinians, a race of catlike people with short brownish hair ticked with bands of darker color, befriending our fearsome ancestors. It seems they placed a portal to other dimensions here so they may come and go. They, in turn, supplied us with technology, superior strength, and tethered our souls to our physical state. Our own animalistic grace, strength, speed and instincts were all heightened, but became exceptional with the blessing the Abyssinians gave. I assume they had knowledge of those like the former Lord Marshal, ones who could take your soul from your body, and I am still grateful to them for sparing us a fate with that type of death," she said her eyes flashing in anger for a moment before continuing.

"From what I gathered from the account they placed it here and asked us to protect it while they traveled. It seems that they never returned, yet our people continued to guard the portal through the generations. My family was the last to be appointed to this duty, so I watch the gate and protect the gate from others. But it seems the former Lord Marshal somehow found a way to come through the gate from a dimension he called the Underverse. He came with a dark army and disappeared, to begin assimilation I assume. My family shut the gate down and buried the key so no more could come through, but it was too late, the damage was done. But that was just a foreshadowing of what we face now."

Riddick strolled closer as she trailed off, eyeing the blackness behind the opaque surface as the center darkened, slightly blurred from the whiteness covering it. As he moved closer, a dark shape suddenly whipped by.

"What the hell was that?"

"That was part of the darkness mentioned in the prophecy. Watch."

The surface seemed to move, until he could see what seemed to be stars. Then a large area of space became clear, the center of it pure black with blurs flitting around it. The view crystallized when Mother Soryn touched another point on the controls. A legion of ships similar in appearance to the Necromonger ships, though bigger, hovered in place. Small fighters swarmed around the biggest mother of a ship he'd ever seen in the middle of it all.

"That is the darkness we face."

He was silent for a moment than flipped his comm. out.

"Vaako."

"Vaako, I'm sending some people to come get your ass," he said as he glanced meaningfully at Soryn, and continued at her acquiescent nod. "You need to see this."