AN: I am so excited to be starting this sequel! I have actually been working on it for awhile but wanted to see Riddick: Rule the Dark before committing to anything (needed to make sure I could work them together). Anyways I want to give early shout outs to everyone who followed A Firefly Among Monsters, I hope I don't disappoint you. Now on with this show!
Chapter 1: Searching for the Truth
Song: Truth by Seether
XXX
...Two years later...
Riddick's POV
I jog through the hallways of Dark Athena till I come to the main room with the elevators. Just as I turn the corner a rocket comes flying at me and I quickly roll to the side. I look up and there's the bitch Revas standing in her mech suit.
"It took months to create this!" She bitches as I stand up and she flips a nearby table. "Months you asshole!"
"Then you come in here and you fucked it all up! And for what? Some crazy piece of ass? I'm used to livin' hard Riddick...but it ends right here...right now."
"Your funeral..." I say as I draw my shivs.
She fires a rocket at me again, but I dodge it as easily as the first. It hits one of the elevators behind me and I hear the metal giving way to the explosion. I circle around Revas until her back is to the elevator and then I start launching my attack.
While her mech suit may give her a long range advantage...she is shit up close and personal. It doesn't take me long to get her backup towards the empty elevator shaft. She stumbles back...but manages to grab hold of the edge.
I walk over and peer down at her. "It didn't have to be this way...you could have told me what I wanted to know..." She just glares and doesn't say anything though.
"Tell me where she is..." I say through gritted teeth.
"You know what it doesn't fucking matter anymore...I don't know where she is..." She practically hisses at me.
She doesn't say anything as she turns and looks at the shaft below her now. "See you in hell Riddick." And she lets go over the edge.
I shake my head...there goes the first good lead we had in months...I grab the comm unit out of my back pocket and dial in their frequency.
"Big Bad to Valkyrie...come in Valkyrie." I wait for a response.
"This is Valkyrie Big Bad...you get anything?" Wash responds.
"Negative...bitch didn't have any information. Ready for pick up...Be at the landing bay in 5." I say as I walk back towards the way I came.
I hear him sigh in the com. "I'm sorry...I know we all wanted this one to pan out...be there in 5 for pick up." Wash says before I turn off the com.
Another dead end. This was just another dead end over the past year. Another fucking waste.
I get to the landing bay without incident and find them waiting. The cargo bay doors are open and Mal is leaned up against the side near the controls...gun ready just in case.
"She get what she deserved?" He asks as I walk past and he hits the console to close the doors.
"Don't they always?" I say darkly.
XXX
River's POV
"Necromongers..." I whisper as I wake.
...If I gave you the truth, would it keep you alive?...
It isn't the first time this word has clouded my mind. It is a word...a name...that haunts my dreams now. Other names haunt my dreams as well...but Necromongers...Necromongers are an army unlike any other. Crusading across the stars toward a place called UnderVerse, their promised land...a constellation of dark new worlds.
...Though I'm closer to wrong
I'm no further from right...
And if they cannot convert you, they will kill you... she has seen it.
...And now I'm convinced on the inside that something's wrong with me
Convinced on the inside, you're so much more than me, yeah...
The girl sees his face in the dreams too...their Lord Marshal...their leader. He alone has made a pilgrimage to the gates of the UnderVerse...and returned a different being. Stronger. Stranger. Half alive and half...something else. But he is afraid...afraid of a prediction... He consulted a seer…of sorts...thirty years ago, before he was their Lord Marshall...and was told that he would die at the hands of a Furyan.
...No there's nothing you say that can salvage the lie
But I'm trying to keep my intentions disguised...
This prediction...something now more than 30 years old...haunts the man...this silly superstitious man... Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy...the mad daughter of a wise mother...
...And now I'm deprived of my conscience and something's got to give
Deprived of my conscience
This all belongs to me, yeah...
He waged a private war on the planet Furya, killing what he could find...close to twenty five years ago. That massacre should have ended that matter, but it didn't... The Alliance came to power not long after...finished off what the Necromongers started and forced the Necromongers back... back into the deep dark depths of unchartered space...biding their time...waiting...
...The deception you show is your own parasite
Just a word of advice you can heed if you like...
And now their time is approaching...they see the chaos...see what we...what he...has done. They know the secret...know what the Alliance did...they see the upheaval...the dissent...and they are taking up arms to make their pilgrimage again...
...And now I'm convinced on the inside that something's wrong with me
Convinced on the inside you're so much more than me, yeah...
But he hasn't changed. He knows...all the power in the universe can't change destiny. But he has heard of something...something that could tip the balance in his favor...a weapon to be used...and he is searching...endlessly...
...I'm weaker now my friend, I belong to them
Beaten down again, I've failed you...
He's searching...for me...they both are.
XXX
...A few months later...
Riddick's POV
Just a little further, all I need to do is suck them in a little further.
I've got them hot on my heels...too bad the fuckers don't realize I know this place all too well, spent weeks scouting for the perfect place...The perfect place to draw them in, play it all up close and personal.
Fuckers really never stood a chance.
XXX
Four mercs follow Riddick in a scouting type ship. Two of the mercs hang from rigging on the outside, each with a gatling gun equipped with nets.
"Linin' him up for you. Port-side shot comin' up." Toombs says into the com. "Steady. Here we go." Toombs says to the merc on the ship with him. "Steady...Take it. Take it! Take the shot!"
Toombs screams as the merc misses. "Shit!" He punches the control panel and continues to fly after Riddick.
"Toombs, we're runnin' out of road!" The other merc says through the com.
"Shut up! I got it! Again!" Toombs says back into the com. "Now!" Toombs yells.
The merc fires and narrowly misses Riddick, one of the harpoons that anchors the nets nicks Riddick's leg. Riddick growls as he pulls it from his leg. He pulls out his shivs and turns to face the ship now.
"Riddick." Toombs sneers.
Riddick turns and walks into the cave behind him now.
"I don't know, Toombs...Looks kinda tight." Says the merc behind Toombs.
"Not where I'm sittin'. This is the biggest payday ever, so throw on a fresh pair of panties. Let's get this right."
It doesn't take long after that. Riddick ghosts the two in the rigging before the last two can even see him. He jumps on top of the ship before the one sticking his head out the door can see him and he quietly enters the now open door.
XXX
Riddick's POV
He doesn't even hear me behind him...stupid fuck.
"You made three mistakes Toombs...First, you took the job...Second, you came light. A four-man crew for me? Fuckin' insulting." I can tell Toombs is thinkin' about what he wants to do next...but he's in for a nasty surprise.
"But the worst mistake you made..."
Toombs goes for the gun rack to his left now. But grimaces at what he sees.
"Empty gun rack." I say with a chuckle.
I charge him before he can make another move and quickly haul his ass into the air and then down to the floor. I pull a shiv and put it to his leg.
"So this is how it's going to go...you tell me what I want to know, and maybe I leave you with your balls?"
"Fuck you!" Toombs screams in my face, he's rewarded with my shiv being stuck into his thigh.
The merc groans and yells. "FUCK!"
"So...Where is she?" I ask as he starts to quiet down.
"Fuck you I don't know who you'r talkin' about!" He screams.
"See Toombs...I know you do...you were one of them...before it all went to shit for the Alliance...you were one of the fifteen fuckers there...you took her...so where did you fuckin' take her to?" I twist the shiv in his thigh and he screams.
"What planet?" I ask him as I twist the shiv more.
"Helion...Helion Prime!" He screams.
"But she isn't there now...we looked...what did they do with her." Again I twist the shiv.
"Transport ship...head to a triple max...don't know which one..."
I narrow my eyes at the man...he's a worthless sack of shit...but he ain't lying...I don't smell it on him. I get up and move towards the control panel now.
"Where you goin'?" He asks as looks in my direction.
"Last question...And you better get this one right, merc." I say as I turn back to him...a dark smile on my face. "Whose ship is this?" I walk up to where he is slumped on the floor...his face looking up at me confused.
"Uhh...Mine?"
"Wrong answer." I say as I bring my boot down onto his skull. There is an audible crack, and blood begins to pool around the now dead merc's head.
I roll the body over to the small door and throw it out. Then I pull out my com unit. Again, I dial in their frequency.
"Big bad to Valkyrie, do you copy?"
A minute goes by before I here them. "This is Valkyrie Big Bad, we was wondering when you would be done...you ready for pickup?" Jayne says over the com.
"Rendezvous in 2 hours."
"Roger that...Hey Wash! Get this thing in the air!" Jayne yells as he turns off the com.
XXX
...2 hours later...
Riddick walks across the snowy field towards Serenity. He's carrying a sack full of scavenged parts and supplies from the mercs ship.
"Nice to see you brought presents." Zoe says as she greets him.
"Well, they won't be needin' um anymore." He says as he hands the sack over to Zoe.
She closes up the cargo bay doors before she drags the bag to the storage lockers. "Everyone is in the common area waitin' on you." Zoe says as she stores the stuff.
"They patching him in?"
"Wash should be workin' on it."
Riddick nods at her words. "I'll wait till you get up to start."
XXX
Riddick's POV
I am standing at the head of the table with the crew gathered around. Simon and Kaylee sit together...with Kaylee holding little Allie Washburn...Zoe and Wash's daughter. Wash is next to them..fiddling with the com unit they have in the middle of the table. Mal and Jayne stand on the other side. Zoe walks in not long after and takes Allie from Kaylee, making little cooing noises at the baby.
"We almost got him patched through?" Mal asks Wash.
"Should just...got it." Wash says as the image of Shepherd Book appears before us.
"Nice to see you all alive and well." Book's hologram says.
"Likewise Shepherd. How you holdin' up? You been dirt side an awful long time now." Mal asks.
"Well I do alright, my sister says hello by the by. She was asking how your food stores are doing."
"Well the food ain't the same since you left us...Jayne's a crap cook." Wash jokes.
"Watch it little man." Jayne says as he glares.
"Give our regards to your sister." Mal says before they get down to business.
"Will do Captain...So I take it you have news." Books replies as he kinda turns towards me and I feel everyone else's eyes follow.
"They took her to Helion Prime...Alliance must have been facing blow-back sooner than the reports let on, because they didn't transport her back to them...put her on some transport ship headed to a triple max." I tell the crew.
Both Jayne and Simon curse under their breaths. Kaylee elbows Simon in the ribs for his comment.
"We get anything else out of them?" Zoe asks stoically.
"You mean other than their blood? No, that's all I got." I reply.
There is a hush around the table before Mal speaks. "Well Shepherd...seems as if we are paying you a visit."
"I'll start pulling old transport logs...see if I have something to go on when you all get here." His hologram disappears after that.
"Wash set course for Helion Prime, go for a full burn."
"Got it Captain." Wash says as he gets up from the table. Zoe follows him with Allie in her arms.
"Kaylee, see if you can get some more out of our girl for Wash. Simon give her a hand."
"On it Cap'n." Kaylee says as she and Simon leave.
XXX
...Elsewhere...
"You didn't tell them." A female voice says from behind him.
Book turns and looks at his sister, Lajjun, standing in the doorway. He sighs and his head drops. "They are coming here...I didn't want to worry them."
"They need to know...if what we hear is true..."
But Book cuts her off. "If he doesn't find her first then it won't matter." Book says as he walks past the woman and out of the room.
XXX
AN: And we are back! Are you all excited? I know I am... I was toying with the idea of including more of Assault on Dark Athena, but I think it is better if we just come in on the last part...which is really all I wanted/needed to use. But at least this way I am including more Riddick canon in this story. Anyways, reviews are always appreciated...'til next time ;)