Pitch Black Fan Fiction

Epilogue: Promises To Keep

They say your brain shuts down in cryosleep.

All but the primitive side….the animal side.

The violet liquid coursed into Riddick's veins, sending him, drowsily, into dreamless sleep. He secured the cuff over his arm and leaned back to wait out the long journey to Helion Prime. The holy man set me up. Shoulda never made that com call or told him where I might go. I wrestled for a long time but he had to know about Cade, had to tell Jack….tell her how I failed. Cade, I'm so sorry. Riddick's mind wandered, trapped in the restless repose of cryosleep. His eyes moved rapidly behind his lids as if he dreamed, but nothing came bidden to his mind. The world stilled, locked in darkness. This he was familiar with, this he knew. Light pierced the darkness, drawing him toward it. He knew he saw it with his eyes, unhindered by goggles, but they did not hurt. The world seemed hazy at first, but cleared as the light encompassed him. What the hell was going on?! There was a thrumming in his ears, distant at first but it grew louder as the moments passed, reaching an almost deafening crescendo. Somewhere, distantly, a voice called his name. "Riddick." A soft, familiar sound that brought with it a feeling of great pain. Riddick glanced around, but saw nothing except the all encompassing whiteness. "Riddick." The voice called again, seeming somewhat closer. Riddick clutched his chest, a deep abiding pain resided there. The voice, serenely calling him from somewhere in this realm, it touched on a part of him he had thought dead since….Cadence. Riddick felt a hand touch his neck and he turned slowly, meeting a pair of deep brown eyes that held him in their depths. Riddick breathed out a ragged sigh, wanting desperately to pull the woman toward him and hold her forever. "Cadence." He breathed at last as she beamed a smile at him. "There you are. I've missed you." She said with a sense of solemnity although her eyes maintained a look of utter joy. Riddick reached out tentatively, his hands trembling as he brushed a finger down the soft flesh of her arm. It felt real, she was real; but no, it was another illusion. "Cade….I'm sorry, I failed you. I couldn't save you and they made you into this, thing." Riddick choked out the words beyond the lump in his throat.

Cadence let her hand travel to the back of his stubbly head, her memory of him bore no resemblance to the long haired, bearded man who had just left UV-6. Cadence gazed into his eyes with the same trust and adoration she had always bore him. "You didn't fail me, you didn't know. Hodges made fools of us both." Riddick could feel the fury burning within him at the mention of the man he had imagined dying in some horrible fashion for the past five years. "It wasn't real, any of it. It was all some fucked up mind game those people created to fool us. Nothing that happened was real." Riddick suppressed the growl that threatened to work it's way from his throat. Cadence's smile only broadened, nothing could make her unhappy in this moment, she was with the man she loved even if it was only in her mind. "No, not entirely. What we felt was real, what we still feel is real. So long as we have that it wasn't completely a fallacy. I love you, Richard B. Riddick, always have, always will. Our bond is real and it will stand the test of time. Hodges can't take that from us, we've won that battle." Riddick gave into temptation and leaned down placing his lips over hers. She felt so real, tasted so real, just as he remembered. Riddick pulled away, breathlessly from the impact the kiss had left.

Cadence wanted desperately to grab a hold of him, wrapping her arms around his waist and letting herself be absorbed into the strength of him, the all encompassing power of him. She had little time, and much to say. "Riddick, I'm sorry it took me so long to reach you. I had to hone my power and channel it to find you. It's taken all the strength I have left, this is the last time I will see you. The link was still there, tiny and weak, but he had not severed it. Our bond is too strong." Riddick listened to her sorrowful words, feeling the pain that ebbed from her as she confessed that they would never see each other again. Riddick fought the desire to scream out his anguish and rage at the universe in general. The knowledge that this was only a mirage of the woman he loved only made the pain that much harder to bear. "How long do we have?" Riddick asked, his voice cracking. Cadence gave him her "don't be sad for me" smile. "Not long. There is much I need to tell you." Riddick pulled her close for a moment, the warmth and soft feel of her body against his filled, if only for a moment, the void that had opened up in him. He would live in this fantasy for awhile, allow it to fill his mind and sense with her. Riddick would enjoy her closeness one last time. Cadence broke the embrace, although unwillingly. She wanted to loose herself in his arms, but there was no time and she was growing weaker by the moment. "I have come with a warning, Riddick. A warning for you. Something I have seen, a bleak future." Cadence began, her eyes dark and serious. Riddick waited patiently to hear what she had to say, anything to hear her voice. "I have seen great monoliths that leave devastation in their wake, a dark army, it's leader immortal, they are the world enders and their reach shall encompass the universe. I have seen this in visions although dark and fragmented. I believe there is a key to their undoing but I have not seen it yet." Riddick narrowed his eyes, confused by her words of prophesy. "Why are you telling me this?" He asked, idly stroking her arms. She felt so real.

Cadence truly did not know the answer to that question, only a strange pull that had brought her to him through the tendrils of thought. "You must go to Imam, seek out the woman of air, they will have the answers you seek." Cadence offered him all the information she had and it struck Riddick as ironic that he was already on his way to Helion Prime. Riddick smiled a pained smile, stroking her cheek as she closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. "I'm fading Riddick, I can feel my energy draining, the link getting weaker." Cadence sighed seeming tired all of a sudden. Riddick fought the desire to grab a hold of her and refuse to release her, as if that would have done any good. Cadence's eyes grew sullen and Riddick could see the tears forming there. "Go to Jack, Riddick. She needs you. She has been so lost without you. I tried to speak to her but I was so weak. I think I managed once or twice. Tell her goodbye for me." Tears poured from Cadence's eyes, streaking down her perfectly soft cheeks. Riddick wiped them away with his thumb as he had done before in another dream. "I will." He said simply, his mind drifting to the little kid that worshipped him so. She knew of Cadence's fate and Riddick could only imagine how much it must have hurt her.

Riddick kissed her forehead gently, his lips lingering on the soft flesh. He inhaled her sweet scent, committing it to memory, a lingering reminder of her. "Not much time now, I'm sorry." Cadence whispered as Riddick drew her into his arms. "I don't want you to go. I don't care if this is all a dream, I want you to stay with me. This isn't fucking fair!" Riddick clung to her as if a stray breeze might pull her away. "I know." She whispered softly, pain in her voice. Riddick held her close, his breath ruffling her soft hair. He was certain she did that for him, presented herself as the woman he loved and not the thing in the chair. Cadence gripped his shirt tightly, afraid of letting go. Time was nearly up. Cadence pulled herself, reluctantly, from his grasp. She gazed into his silver eyes finding a home in them again. "Riddick, I asked you a question once, a plea. I know you said you never could but….I want to be free." Her words struck at the very heart of him, piercing him like a hot iron. She'd asked the impossible and now she asked again. This time, Riddick knew, he could not refuse her. He gave no indication of an answer, but Cadence knew his mind. The light around them began to flicker and fade, and Cadence knew there were only moments left, moments to spend with the man she loved. "I have to go, I'm so tired Riddick." Cadence whispered as she leaned against his muscular chest. Riddick grasped her shoulders tightly, pulling her away. He could feel the link growing weaker with every passing moment, tearing Cadence from him forever. Riddick leaned down and pressed his mouth over hers in a passionate, all consuming kiss. Fires kindled in both of them as their tongues danced and their hands roamed one another's bodies. Cadence pulled away and Riddick leaned his forehead on hers. "Please….stay." He whispered softly, a desperate plea. "I can't. You know that. I'll miss you so much, but you'll see me soon." Cadence pulled out of his grasp, her last moment had come. She placed a hand over his heart. "My heart and yours, my soul and yours, my mind and yours….one being, now and forever." With those final words, Cadence slowly faded out of his sight, swallowed by the shrinking light that left him alone in darkness. Riddick felt as if a part of him had been torn from his body, and the void began to open up again. The last word on his lips brought him sorrow and joy at one time. "Cade…."

Riddick drew himself out of cryosleep as Delphi Station came into view. The white, glittering monument stood out against the darkness of space around it. The sight of it made his blood boil and his throat fill with bile. He steadied the small vessel, and for a moment considered crashing it into the station. He shook the thought away, he had a promise to keep. He let the vessel coast momentarily, using the spare time to remove the shaggy hair and beard and don his goggles. He didn't want to see Cadence in his current condition and the brightness of the station made his shined eyes useless. Riddick let the ship coast closer until the proximity beacon emitted a signal that opened up communications. Riddick feigned a com error, leaving a sputtering, broken message that was designed to sound like a distress call. To his great surprise, one of the hangar doors opened slowly, allowing him entry. Still stupid, I see. He commented to himself. The ship drifted into the hangar and settled down lightly, quite surprising for such a cumbersome ship.

The ramp opened slowly as black uniformed agents began to fill the room, weapons at the ready. They stared for a moment at the apparently unoccupied vessel. Riddick remained in the darkened ship, waiting. Slowly, two of the intrepid agents made their way toward the ramp and strode onboard, disappearing into the darkness within. Muffled screams ushered from inside moments before the two men's bloody bodies were tossed from the ship by what appeared to be an unseen force. The agents gaped at one another, none of them willing to enter the "man-eating" ship. Three of them approached the ramp, hoping to lure out whoever or whatever was inside. They stared into the vessel, unused to the darkness from the bright environment they spent all their time in. With a bestial roar, Riddick leaped from the vessel slicing into the three men with razor sharp blades. They toppled over at his feet as he stood, statuesque, among the carnage. The remaining agents proceeded to open fire on Riddick, blue bolts sailed over him as he ducked and dodged out of the way. Two of the men had spent their rounds, and struggled with new energy packs as Riddick charged at them, gutting both and letting their bowels spill onto the floor. The four remaining men panicked with one of the individuals accidentally shooting the man in front of him. Riddick grinned at the incident, happy to let the remaining agents do his work for him. The agent closest to him swung his gun at Riddick who caught it in mid air with a firm grip and pulled it from the trembling man's grasp. As if it were a continuation of the action, Riddick leaned forward, bringing his blade from the man's groin to his chest and watching with pleasure as the man tumbled to the ground. The remaining men attempted to run, feeling flight was the better action against this unstoppable force. They got no further than the corridor before they were both cut down.

Riddick made his way through the station like something possessed. If it lived, he made it die. These people were going to pay for five years of torment and a lifetime of being hunted that Cadence had to endure. They were going to pay for taking from his life the one thing he loved better than himself, besides Jack. Riddick made his way to room 216 as if he had walked the route his entire life. It was a ghost of a memory he had stitched in his mind. Riddick watched through the glass window of the door, pausing before he opened it with the pass key he had liberated from Dr. Huskin. He was lucky he bumped into the man as he scurried about his work. Luckier still, the man had been carrying a tray of what looked to be autopsy equipment as he hurried into one of the labs. Riddick had followed him in, as silent as a phantom, and clasped a hand over the unlucky man's mouth. Wordlessly he removed the pass key from his pocket and thanked him with a rumbling growl. His task completed, Riddick made use of the tools he was carrying and proceeded to make several Dr. Huskins out of one, albeit much smaller pieces.

Riddick flexed his fist and steadied himself as he placed the pass key against the pad. The door opened with a hiss and Riddick stepped through moments before the door closed again. Riddick turned toward the inside panel that controlled the door's functions and tore it off of the wall, ducking the shower of sparks. Riddick wanted time, he hoped this would prevent any unwanted disturbances. Riddick paused for a moment, knowing the horror that lay behind him and not wanting to behold it himself. He turned slowly toward the woman in the chair, the mortal vessel and only remains of the woman he loved. Wires still sprung from her head, attached to monitors that displayed necessary information and beeped softly in the empty room. She was so pale now, thin and lifeless, a vague representation of the once vibrant creature. Riddick slowly made his way toward her, flexing his fist at his side and forcing back the roar of anguish that clawed at his throat. He made his way to her side, careful of the wires and tubes that sustained her life. Riddick studied her face, so like Cadence and so unlike her at the same time. Her eyes were sunken and shallow, black markings had formed around them as if she hadn't gotten enough sleep. He knew that wasn't true, for the past five years that was all she had done. Riddick scanned lower, over her bare arms that lay across the metal arms of the contraption. Sores had developed beneath them from lack of movement and it was clear to him, by her gaunt appearance, all of he muscles had atrophied as well. Riddick reached over and took one of her tiny hands in his own, her flesh was cold to the touch as if life had already left her. In a sense it had, her body's functions continued only by the will of the machines around her and the will of the men who held her captive.

Riddick gently squeezed her bony fingers, fearing they may shatter if he gripped them too hard. He felt as though she were made of glass, a tiny fragile thing on display. Riddick let her hand rest gently in his own which dwarfed it considerably. He hoped above hope that she would squeeze him back or even move just a little. It was impossible, he knew, but still he hoped. Riddick laid her hand back down, tracing his fingers over the raised veins that the I.V.'s fed into. Riddick shuttered as he glanced over her torso where the tubes that fed her and kept her alive had been inserted into the flesh that had now knitted around them effectively merging human and machine. Riddick closed his eyes briefly, unable to look at the grotesque sight any longer.

Finally Riddick returned his gaze to her face, studying all of her features as if seeing them for the first time. Her lips that Riddick so fondly remembered the taste and feel of (although only a dream) were now parched and cracked like the surface of a desert planet. Riddick traced his finger over them for the first time in reality. I shoulda kissed her on T2. I shoulda kissed her before they took her away. Riddick let the regret pass through his mind to find it's place among the others he stored there. His fingers continued their journey across her now sunken cheeks devoid of their usual rosiness. Riddick's thumb rolled over them, surprised by their softness despite the pallid conditions of her features. Riddick stilled himself for a moment letting the false memories of their time together play through his mind, relishing them for the first time. If this was all he would have left of her, he would treasure it forever despite the pain it may bring him. Riddick swallowed hard and pulled away from her to regard the machines that surrounded the metal chair. His hand trembled as he reached for the tubes where they attached to the machines that kept her in this world. He closed his eyes and tensed his hand around the collection of cylindrical lifelines and pulled them free. Riddick steadied himself, feeling almost faint as he continued the act with a second set, the one that provided nutrients. Riddick turned slowly, and regarded with agonizing pain the thick tube in her neck feeding her life giving oxygen. Riddick didn't give himself time to think as he tore that one free of it's own machine that instantly sputtered to a halt.

Riddick knew that in moments she would be gone. He reached down for her hand again, clasping it gently and hoping above hope she knew it was him. He raised her arm slowly and laid a gentle kiss on her fingers, his own hand trembling as it released her. Riddick reached up and gently stroked her face, his knuckle sliding along the gently protruding cheekbones. With all that he had in him, Riddick bent over slowly, lifted his goggles, ignoring the searing pain in his eyes, and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. As his mouth lingered over hers a single tear fell from his silvered eye onto her pallid cheek. It was as if he could feel her final breath escape her mouth to touch his own. The woman he loved was gone, body and soul, and he had taken her life.

Riddick gripped the sides of Cadence's twisted throne, his body trembling and his breathing erratic. He didn't care who heard, he didn't care if the all of the agents in this facility descended on him at once. Riddick raised his head and let out an inhuman roar of grief and pain, and agonized sound that ebbed and flowed from his throat. His knees felt weak, as if they might buckle, but he held himself aloft. Riddick turned his pained expression to all that remained of Cadence, the mortal vessel of flesh. He suddenly realized the alarm that sounded in the corridor outside, barely audible through the nearly soundproof glass. A sea of black uniforms had assembled outside the room and were desperately trying to gain access. Riddick stood at full height, drawing his curved blades and standing ready to greet whatever came through that door. Riddick no longer cared, all that was human in him had died at the same time Cadence breathed her last. Now, the beast came forth to claim it's vengeance and end the lives of every single being on this station.

The door began to budge as they worked the wires from the other side. Slowly, they managed repair the damage Riddick had done and the door opened with a hiss. Three agents stood in the doorway, halfway inside the room, with weapons aimed at him. A familiar voice echoed over the intercom. "I had hoped to never see you again, Mr. Riddick. Apparently Toombs failed to capture you after all these years. Now you have broken into my facility and destroyed my property! You will pay with your life." Riddick sneered as thoughts of Hodges inevitable demise played through his head. He planned to spend a long time making that man suffer. There was a sickening crack and hiss moments before the lights in the facility suddenly died with a pitiful hum. The only illumination that remained was a few scant emergency lights in the corridor. Riddick smirked in the newly darkened environment, he was home. He wasn't a particularly spiritual man, but something in the deepest recesses of his soul told him Cadence had something to do with it. Riddick cocked his head as he observed the agents panicking in the darkened corridor. "You're not afraid of the dark, are you?" Riddick rumbled deeply, the only sound in the muted room.

The only thing the agents knew was something unperceivable moving in the dark and dealing death to anything in it's way. Riddick tore through the uniformed men like a panther unleashed, his blades making quick work of anything that moved or breathed. Riddick left behind the gory scene and stalked the corridors, death's dealer to one and all. It mattered not who or what they were, their status with the organization or their perceived guilt. To him they were only faces, each one marked with Cadence's blood. Each one her victimizer. Riddick's blind rage carried him upward through the center cylinder, darkened like the remaining facility. Riddick finally paused before a wide, rounded door that opened of its own accord before him. Riddick stepped in, only his shined eyes visible in the dark. Blood dripped from his blades behind him, leaving a trail of gore wherever he went.

Riddick sniffed the air, he could smell fear and he practically licked his lips at the enticing aroma. He glanced around, his perfect night vision giving him a view of the darkened room. A figure strode forward, trying to appear more confident than his scent conveyed. Riddick growled deep in his chest at the sight of the bloated, cruel asshole before him. "I suppose you've come to kill me." Hodges said, trying not to reveal any fear in his voice. "I could venture a guess that all my men are dead." He continued. Riddick sneered at the man. "Everyone is dead. EV..ERY..ONE!" He growled, inching closer to Hodges. Clifton took a step backward but paused and stood his ground. Riddick silently pursued his prey, enjoying this hunt more than any of the others. Hodges considered trying to bolt toward the door but realized it would be a useless gesture. If what Riddick had said was true, he had just killed two hundred people and was unlikely to be bested with ease. Riddick stood close enough to hear the man's staggered breathing. He reached out and grabbed the man's collar roughly, tossing him into the chair behind his desk. Hodges let out a small shriek and gripped the arms of the chair tightly. Riddick spun around and descended on him like a rabid animal, salivating his delight at the intended kill. Hodges' head leaned back as far away from the grief crazed murderer as he could. "N…now listen to me! Hear me out! Had she come to us in the first place we wouldn't have had to put her in that state! I never wanted that for her! She…didn't have to suffer." Hodges' pitiful words fell on deaf ears. Riddick didn't care about the bloated sack of piss that he hovered over, he didn't care about his lame excuses, all he knew was pain; the pain of loosing the one thing that kept him sane and centered. The beautiful woman who had given her heart to him despite her knowledge of his nature. His woman, his Cade. The beast snarled in the fat man's face, the beast who intended to take from him what he'd taken from Riddick.

Riddick was in no great hurry. He spent hours slowly peeling away the skin from Hodges body in thick layers that he used to decorate the man's desk. Every one of Hodges agonized screams was music to Riddick's ears. Riddick ensured the man stayed alive until the bitter end when he made good on his promise and ripped out his heart with his bare hands. As Riddick's fist entered the man's chest cavity with such force it broke right through his ribs as if they were made of rotten wood, he savored in the feel of the soft beats of his heart. Pulling out the organ, he watched with glee as it slowly stopped entirely. Despite his maddened state, Riddick carefully set the organ on his desk along with the gruesome remnants of Hodges' skin. He stepped back, covered passed the elbows in gore, and surveyed his work. Hodges' flayed body, displaying his muscles and veins to the world, lay hunched over in the chair glistening in the soft glow of the emergency lights. His entrails Riddick had draped around his neck moments before removing the softly beating heart. It amazed him what the man had endured before his demise. Riddick sheathed his bloody weapons, turned abruptly and left the room.

Riddick left Delphi station devoid of life. He wasn't sure if O.R.A.C.L.E. had other similar stations or a central body they reported to. It didn't matter, his work was done. Everyone was made to suffer the same fate as Cadence. Riddick had stoically carried Cadence's body from the room, not willing to leave her in that place. He had nearly roared again as he cut the tubes and wires free from her body. Riddick set in a course for Helion Prime and New Mecca, to the holy man, to Jack and to lay Cadence to rest in the place she had come to life. Riddick watched the stars as they flashed before the vessel, light years away yet passing as if they had a will of their own. The darkness of space lay before him along with an uncertain future of loneliness and despair. A future without Cade. One being…now and forever.

Atlantis Station, Sector 12, Menari System

Dr. Alana Grace walked slowly between the three tubes that sat in a precise row within the glass lined room. Word had recently reached Atlantis Station of the massacre at their sister station, Delphi. Heavily armed guards stood outside the door should the madman repeat the same thing here. The only information they gathered, after weeks of lost contact, had come from the cameras within the facility that had caught a few brief glances of the shaven headed man with goggles. Facial recognition software had positively identified the assailant as wanted criminal Richard B. Riddick. With this most recent abomination now on record, his bounty had nearly tripled.

Dr. Grace carefully surveyed the chart of the first entombed individual before checking monitors and computer screens. She replaced the chart at the end of the tube and stood aside it, looking at the sleeping face of the man within. She remembered when he had been brought in, nearly twelve years ago. He had been a boy of thirteen and she fondly remembered the trusting looks he'd given her with his soft, green eyes. Dr. Grace let her fingers linger over the nameplate stamped on the middle, metallic portion of his life sustaining tube. Duncan Monroe. She sighed sadly as fond memories of the boy to whom she had become so attached flutter through her mind. He had been a promising young telepath with a power few could fathom to imagine. Dr. Grace had always told him he had nothing to fear from her, she cared deeply for him, as if he had been her own child. Her heart broke when they had placed him in this tube that would serve to be his home for the remainder of his life. Clifton Hodges had decided to use the boy's talents and connections with the famous Cadence Raines to lure her in and bring her into the fold. Clearly Mr. Hodges had underestimated not only her power, but her resilience. He had used his program to lure the boy into Cadence's induced dream state and bring her to her knees. Cadence had resisted, even if only in her mind, and a new being emerged. A darker form of the brown haired woman that was terrifying to say the least. It was only a taste of how powerful she could be, the perfect mergence of touch-see, telepath, clairvoyant and telekinetic. Cadence was the psychic other psychics dreamed of being and feared.

Dr. Grace pulled herself away from the tube, glancing briefly at the empty one beside it. She fondly remembered the blind clairvoyant that had been encompassed within it. A kindly old man with a grandfatherly face that spoke in riddles as the visions of the future came to him. His weathered hands would skim the surfaces of the sketchpad on which he drew what his mind's eye had seen. Aidyn Grifton had come as a willing subject and was later betrayed as elderly, frail body was placed in the slender tube and rendered unconscious to assist Duncan in his attempts to reach Cadence. Dr. Grace remembered responding to the code blue early in the morning three weeks after his entombment. Aidyn's heart had given out and, try as they might, it never beat again. Mr. Hodges had coldly dismissed the incident as a trivial loss and Aidyn's body was dissected and the unnecessary remains were unceremoniously jettisoned into space. Dr. Grace remembered crying as she watched the small pod float away, but had hid her tears from all around her.

The final tube contained the unwilling body of a young boy. He was fifteen when brought to the facility after being turned in by his own parents. He was a powerful telekinetic and his own family feared him. The boy didn't understand his powers and frequently moved things without realizing it. Dr. Grace and her compatriots had assured them they would help him understand his ability and learn to control it and even use it to do good. In reality, the doctor knew, they were fitting him for the psy-weapons division. He would have been used, for lack of a better word, to fight and hopefully win other people's wars. Samuel J. Redding was betrayed as well, stuffed in a tube, to add to the firepower against the wayward touch-see. Hodges hoped, with their combined efforts, they would sever the psychic link the girl had formed with her companion, the now famous Richard Riddick. It had worked, of course, just as Hodges had believed. Now, with Hodges dead and Project Apex destroyed, O.R.A.C.L.E. hoped their plan B would have the same effect. The combined power of Duncan and Samuel would be used in much the same manner. Only the third component was missing. A powerful clairvoyant.

Dr. Grace watched with disdain as two agents dragged the hapless, blonde haired girl into the room. Her steel gray eyes looked about with absolute terror. She could not have been any older than fourteen. The lid of the center tube opened slowly and the agents wrestled the girl inside, forcing her down with strength that was unnecessary. Dr. Grace said nothing as she inserted the needle into the girl's arm and slowly pressed down until the red liquid filled her veins. Within moments the girl fell into unconsciousness allowing Dr. Grace to continue her work. She glanced at the chart momentarily, she would at least like to know the girl's name: Sierra Starling. Dr. Grace studied the child for a moment, closing her eyes before beginning the procedure that would render the girl comatose for the remainder of her life. Project Apex would not die so easily.

Crematoria

Riddick had been watching her closely since his arrival at Crematoria. Her animalistic movements, the swaying of her limbs, the cold gaze of her eyes. Her long red hair, so unlike the bald head he had become accustomed to, fell in a mass of curls over the top of her back. She had called her self Kyra, a new animal, and confessed to signing up with mercs in a desperate ploy to find him. They had slaved her out where she felt a whole new set of abuses until she killed the last man who bought her after he had spent the night raping her. Kyra sat on the metal walkway, watching the man she had dreamed of for five years as he stood beneath a steady stream of water. He reached for his goggles and set them over his eyes before turning to her. Kyra's shimmering gaze never left him, piercing into the deepest recesses of his soul, much like the deep brown eyes of his lost Cadence. Riddick had to tell her, tell her what he'd done.

His eyes left her for only a moment, when Riddick glanced back she had disappeared. No matter, he would find her with little effort, or she would find him. Riddick stepped out of the stream of water and toward the rocky outcroppings that surrounded the slam. He ducked through an overhang and settled down within a small alcove. Riddick would have peace for a while to sort through his agonizing thoughts. Movement in the shadows caught his attention, his silvered eyes glanced toward it as his mouth curled into a slight smile. Should know you can't sneak up on me. He considered to himself. Kyra stepped out of the shadows and slid down the wall to sit beside him. There was a long, uncomfortable silence as they stared off into the reddened abyss of the slam. "So, you gonna give me the "I told you so" speech? Or just yell at me for trying to find you?" Kyra asked, her eyes cast downward. Her slender fingers dangled, moving only slightly in a motion as fluid as the rest of her body. "No." Riddick said curtly. He knew he should be mad at her, signing up with mercs, but this was Jack. Somewhere within this strange creature was the little thirteen year old girl he knew five years ago. "I have a right to my anger. You left me behind. You said you'd come back….both of you. Then you disappear and only send a secretive com call to Imam to tell him what happened to Cadence." Kyra finally gathered the courage to glance at Riddick, who now turned a pained and slightly angry gaze at her. Riddick bit his tongue for a moment, forcing back the anger that suffused his veins. Cadence's death was still foremost on his mind. How was he gonna tell the only other person as close to her that she was dead….and he had taken her life.

Riddick turned away from her, unable to bear her accusatory gaze any longer. "You knew I couldn't come back. It was too dangerous with Toombs right on my tail. I spent five years on an ice covered rock to keep him away from you." Riddick explained, his voice soft and frail; a stark difference from it's usual baritone sound. Kyra let out a small sound that was something between disgust and laughter. "You sure you weren't runnin' from somethin' else?" She inquired. Riddick flexed his fists, fighting the urge to strike something. An angry growl escaped his throat. "Yeah. My failure." He answered, unable to believe the truth that had just spun from his mouth. Kyra could hear the hurt in his voice, the deep pain he tried so hard to hide in front of her. "Did you know Imam cried? He cried all night, we both did. He cried for her, I cried for both of you." The memory of the night they learned the sad news about Cadence's condition played through her mind. Kyra forced it away along with the tears that formed on her lashes. She turned toward Riddick whom she was surprised was looking at her, as if searching her for a lie. He found none, only a deep abiding sadness that they now could both share. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry." Riddick said softly, resisting the urge to place a hand on her cheek. In all likelihood, he'd probably loose a finger if he tried. "What happened to her? You never did tell Imam, unless he was trying to hide the truth from me." Kyra pressed, hoping for answers, for closure. Riddick hung his head, replaying the memories of five years ago when he first saw Cadence attached to a mass of wires and tubes. "They….put us both in a dream state or something. We believed we had gotten free, gotten out. We were in New Mecca, Cadence was driven crazy by a chip in her head, I made the doctor take it out. Cadence began to change, into something else, something dark. We fought our way off world, we shared….intimate moments. We end up on this frost planet to get new power cores. This telepath followed us there, he knew Cade. She went berserk and tried to kill him and a bunch of agents. I tried to save her, from herself. Something exploded and I woke up on that damn station again. When I found her they had rendered her brain dead, kept alive by these machines. None of it ever happened, it was all a dream to sever our link. They wanted to separate us, and they did. They lied to us Kyra, and destroyed her in the process." Riddick nearly choked several times as he recalled what had occurred during the dream. A single tear trickled down his tan cheek. Kyra would have believed it to be a bead of sweat if she hadn't seen the anguish in his eyes.

Kyra gently laid her head against his shoulder, a gesture Riddick couldn't have predicted if he, himself, had been psychic. "I didn't know. I'm sorry." She said with true tenderness. Kyra gazed off into the distance, listening to the distant voices of the convicts and the steam of mist that rose in the air from the heated core of the planet. "A couple times I thought I heard her. In my head, ya know. It was kinda muffled but I know it was her. For a brief moment I felt close to her again." Kyra paused momentarily, trying desperately to push back the lump in her throat. "The first time was after I was slaved out, I was scared and alone and I heard her; willing me to be brave like she did on the planet. I heard her again, here, she called my name and said she missed me. At first I thought I was hearing things, but I felt in my heart it was Cadence. I'd know her voice anywhere." Riddick forced himself to swallow passed his constricted throat as he slowly lifted Kyra away from his shoulder. He turned to face her, crooking one leg next to his body and letting the other dangle over the edge. Riddick placed both hands on her arms and kept his metallic gaze on her. "She came to me too. I saw her, in a dream, while I was on my way to Helion. She asked me something…." Riddick paused, gathering strength he didn't know he would ever need. He forced himself to keep looking at Kyra and prepared him to utter the most painful words of his entire life. "Kyra….Cade is dead. I took her life." Riddick paused, fearing his agony would control him again as Kyra only gazed at him with a blank expression. Slowly, Kyra turned away from him, suddenly unable to look at his face any longer. Riddick had to explain and hope she understood. "When we were locked in the dream state, when they made her into…that thing, she asked me to take her life. I think she was begging me even then. She came to me again and asked me the same thing. I'd left her in suffering for five years, I couldn't deny her again. She asked to be free. You have no idea how hard it was for me to remove her from those machines and watch her slip away." Riddick was trembling with rage and grief as he recalled how he ended the life of the woman he loved. If Kyra hated him for it, too, it would destroy him.

Kyra let what he told her slowly seep in, still treating it like some horrible nightmare she might wake up from at any moment. Slowly she returned her gaze to him. Riddick was in pain, he needed her now, he needed her support not her rage. "I'm so sorry, Riddick. You did the impossible, I know I could never have done that. She didn't deserve to live the rest of her life like that. I don't hate you and I won't look at you any different. I just hope you made them pay for what they did to her." Kyra's eyes narrowed, fires of rage burning within them as she considered the O.R.A.C.L.E. agents and the bloated buffoon known as Clifton Hodges. Riddick nodded, an almost unperceivable motion. "Every last one. I killed them all, Kyra. Two hundred people, for her. I didn't care who they were, they all just died. Mr. Hodges, you don't wanna know what I did to him. I don't even remember most of it, just the rage and pain." Riddick told her, his voice soft. Kyra didn't want to venture into what Clifton Hodges' fate had been. God knows she had thought up enough horrible tortures for him over the years. Maybe Riddick killed him with a teacup. Kyra mused. "I miss her." Kyra said softly, almost as if she were talking to herself. Riddick gently placed an arm around her, knowing they both needed something for their grief. "I buried her on Helion, before the Necromongers came. When we get outta here, I'll take you back and show you where. Hopefully those bastards didn't destroy her grave." Riddick explained as he leaned his head against Kyra's. She needed his closeness now, more than ever. "I'd like that." She said wistfully. "Did you love her, Riddick? I always thought you did, even if YOU didn't know it." Kyra wanted to turn her thoughts to happier times. Riddick sighed, visions of Cadence's smiling face drifting through his mind. Her long hair, her soft lips, her deep brown eyes. "Yeah, Kid, I did. With everything I had in me." Riddick glanced down as Kyra's hand reached toward him, her palm facing him. Riddick understood the gesture and mimicked it, eventually bringing his palm to hers and lacing their fingers together. "We're her legacy now." Kyra said softly as she glanced up into his mercury eyes. Riddick managed a weak smile and laid his head back down on hers, holding her closer and keeping their hands laced together. Riddick considered the words that he and Cade had shared through their trials. My heart and yours, my soul and yours, my mind and yours…one being, now and forever.