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Titel: To reign among the pale
Chapter 3 - In the nightmares of the dark
Chapter 4 - the Tunnel at the end of the light
Fandom: Chronicles of Riddick
Pairing: Riddick/ Vaako
Rating: NC-17
Type: Slash
Warnings: Angst, violence
Status: WIP
Beta: Many, many thanks to Lady Vaako, for taking this much work all on herself.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Riddick and Vaako, nor do I make profit with this story.
Summary: As Riddick starts his rule of the Necromonger army, he also deals out revenge to Vaako, intending to crush him. Or does he?
When the Necormonger army approaches the distant Minerva system, things start to get complicated.
Chapter 3 - In the nightmares of the dark
Vaako found himself in complete darkness. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious; not too long, he mused. The paralysing poison on the tip of these darts was no stranger to him, you got used to its effects with time. Slowly, he rose from the stony ground he had been lying on and tried to gaze into the darkness. He could see absolutely nothing.
A faint whisper breezed through the room, stirring the air. It was nothing but a faint sound, a whispering just below hearing range. Vaako froze where he was standing, listening. The whisper became stronger, drawing nearer, searing all around him, whispering of things past, horrible things…
“No, please no…”, whispered Vaako realising where he was. They had brought him to the dark chambers.
“Yesss… the dark chambers… to seek your darkness… feed on it… revel in it…. Darkness”, the whisper rose, swirled around, seemed to touch inside Vaako’s head. His sight blurred, as the whisper stirred up memories, memories and pictures which were usually scrupulously suppressed.
He was running across the plains, trying to keep up the pace with the others. Jem, his mother, was there, running ahead and carrying little Caithlin just behind him while Liam was right by his side. The ground was shaking, Vaako nearly fell. A rough hand gripped him by the scuff of his neck. It was Rick, who scowled at him. “Run, there’s no time.”
A bright light burned through the eternal darkness high up in the sky. The fiery ball descending down at rapid speed, making the night as bright as day was supposed to be on other planets. Like a shattered orb, the ball broke apart, raining down in pieces. Vaako saw the fire fall, dodged sideways, let himself roll downhill. His family never heard his desperate call. The fire stuck ground, smashing everything around; Vaako heard Liam scream as the fire consumed his body. His mother stumbled downhill attempting to escape the fiery inferno. Vaako ran towards her, to help, but the flames were faster, reaching her. Her final scream still rang in his ears, like the silent whispers…
You failed, failed, failed….
Shaking, Vaako nearly fell to his knees again. No, he would not fall. A Necromonger was to be above pain. For a short moment he managed to shut down the whispers. He had to get out of here. The dark chambers had an opposite, the white chamber, where the exit was located. He had to work his way there. Cautiously taking some steps forward, he found himself facing a solid wall of rock. Using his hands instead of his eyes to see in the darkness, he started fumbling his way onward and slipped through the first opening in the wall, following wherever this might lead. But the whisper was everywhere, returning ten times stronger than before.
“And so where is your family, little rat?”, asked a harsh voice.
Vaako bit his lip, eyeing the stern faces of Hopes End’s leading council. The underground fortress had become a shelter for thousands of survivors of the last catastrophe. “They were killed when the comet struck.” Vaako replied. “I was the only one to escape.”
One of the women snorted icily. “He most likely made it out by leaving his family. We see these rotten eggs all the time. How did you escape when all your family died, on that day the sky rained fire?”
Vaako looked down on his small, dirty hands. His father had said it was a comet that would strike. But most people spoke of the sky raining fire as a punishment from the gods. “I fell down a ledge, shortly before the comet… the fire smashed everything up there.”
“A likely tale.” the woman replied. “Nothing new from some of you unbelieving scum.”
The leader of the council raised his hand. “You made your point, Eldriche. The council sees it fit to present the boy to the heads of the clans.” He rose, addressing the ragged people sitting in a wide berth around the council members, they all rose as the council leader addressed them. “You all heard the boy’s tale. It might be true, it might not. He was raised among non-believers, that much is sure. Is there anyone among you, who would speak for him? Accept him?”
Dark eyes stared down at the ragged boy in the middle of the circle. And slowly, one after another, sat down again, shaking their head. Many families had already taken in orphaned children and were continuing to do so, but those were children who would fit in.
A chill ran down Vaako’s spine as the last of them sat down. The council leader shrugged. “There you have it. No one will have you. So off you go. A failure like you, has no place among us.”
Two men came to drag Vaako back, back to the devastated surface, that was falling rapidly into a nuclear winter.
“Failure, that’s what you are, failure…” whispered the voices.
“Shut up.”, Shaking like crazy, Vaako leaned against the cold wall. “No… I survived, I did it all alone…”, he whispered. “I did, I did.”
The only mantra he had, against the nightmares replayed relentlessly inside his head. He collapsed to his knees. Clenching his fists, he managed to open his eyes again. The court would be right to ridicule him right now, noted a small voice at the back of his head. The Lord Marshal would… Vaako nearly jumped to his feet and the thought left his mind for a moment. The Lord Marshal, Riddick, was somewhere trapped in here. And when this damned place could drain Vaako like this… how many dark things would be in the mind of a man who had lived half his life in the worst prisons of the known world? What were Vaako’s pathetic childhood troubles against this? Nothing. Taking a deep breath, he found the wall again. He was determined this time.
“I can’t stop you from rummaging through my mind, but I will find Riddick.”, he whispered as he again began to make his way through the darkness.
The whispers kept coming and coming. Drawing out memories again and again. Vaako was again running over the frozen landscape that had once been home, alone, hungry, frightened. Again he saw Irian stabbed by a raider, found himself imprisoned, abused and escaped again towards the relentless surface, where the nuclear winter eventually ended, leaving the land barren and devastated. Again he went alone in the Grazo’Rahns den to save Coliane’s son, without so much a as thank you afterwards, going on, alone, always alone.
“Failure”, whispered the voice. “Weak, bad blood, failure, scum.”
Vaako broke to his knees every now and then, always getting up again to go on. Tears were streaming down his face but he couldn’t care less. He just kept walking. Always walking, always going on, always looking for Riddick. Eventually, he reached a bright door at the end of a long hallway that had been filled with memories of the last six month’s, the growing desperation, the feeling of having failed so completely. He was nearly relieved when he saw the bright door. Behind it would be no voices, no failure, no shame, no whispers…
He held his steps. No, he would not leave this place. Not without finding Riddick. Even if he had to face all his nightmares again, even if it took the rest of his natural life. Vaako’s stomach coiled in fear as he bravely turned away from the door.
A pained scream made him stop. It had come from behind that door. It sounded like Riddick. Vaako slowly turned around. Could this be real? Or was it an, illusion? If only he could think straight. Then a new thought crept into his mind. What if… if these bastards had figured out Riddick’s greatest strength - which was to be his greatest weakness - and put him into the white chambers, the chambers filled with light?
***
The light was burning bright, burning Riddick’s eyes. Even when he tried to shield them with his hands, the light seemed to burn right through the flesh. Fuck it, he had to get out of here. He’d run from worse places. He just had to find a way of those blasted light. And there was pain, every step in here was full of pain, physical pain. Every move was paid with pain, bloody pain and yet even more pain. “Fuck pain.” Riddick growled as he worked his way along the wall, that he could not see.
There had to be a blasted door in here. Somewhere. Anywhere. Finally he found a small opening in the wall and hurried through it. Bumping into something that was rather someone, knocking him over. They both crashed down on the floor and suddenly the light was gone. It just vanished. Soothing darkness surrounded Riddick as the gateway behind them closed again. Slowly blinking into the welcome darkness, he looked down on what he was actually sitting. He recognised Vaako, a ragged, torn Vaako, who seemed to have succumbed to crying.
Riddick jumped to his feet again. “What kind of a fucking place is this?”, he demanded. If he was in some mad triple-max-prison again, he wanted to know who was running it so he could kick his ass royally.
Vaako rose slower. “The chambers of Dark and light Light.” he replied hoarsely. “A place where prisoners are tested.”
“Tested? For what? The doctor in Butcher’s Bay was more lucid, than this!”, Riddick felt quite comfortable here, but knew that something had happened to Vaako in here. And the man could take something, this Riddick knew.
“Tested whether we are worthy.”, Vaako whispered. “Oh no… not again.” Gripping his head with his hands, he bent down.
“What the hell is happening?” Riddick felt nothing at all. He roughly gripped Vaako’s shoulders to shake him. A jolt ran through his arms, as he suddenly saw what was happening in Vaako’s head.
Vaako was again standing on Crematoria. Down below him the fight was fully raging. Riddick was messing up Vaako’s troop. The Purifier had vanished. Good riddance as far as Vaako was concerned. He admired how Riddick effortlessly threw off two other Necromongers. The man was a wild animal, a graceful lion casually slaying his prey.
Vaako knew he could not delay the inevitable. Jumping down, he confronted the warrior. He had never expected this to be an easy fight, but Riddick was just a damn good fight. Exhausted from running across this hell hole of a planet, from escaping a prison and fighting a Necromonger scout troop, he was still a fair match for Vaako. There was only one trick Vaako could pull, using his light up pistols.
Vaako saw Riddick fall and for one painful moment he feared he had fatally hit the man . But as he ran towards him, he realised that Riddick was alive. Still breathing. For one tiny moment Vaako allowed himself to kneel down beside the man. Suppressing the wish to cradle him in his arms, protect him, now that he was vulnerable. But he could not, his troops were waiting and…. He could not let Riddick die. A scream made him turn around. Another man attacked him, only to get casually slain by Vaako. Stupid Prisoner. His gaze fell towards the girl… another escaped prisoner.
A plan quickly came to Vaako’s mind. The girl would be the perfect witness to the Furyan’s death. Perfect. Just perfect. She did not belong to the Furyan, she was just another escapee. And who in the world would seriously wish to belong to a woman? No one who did not have a death-wish, at least if Dame Vaako was an average example of her kind. As if to check, Vaako again knelt beside the Furyan, quickly checking his pulse. Yes, he would be awake any moment, and be well able to make it to the ship. Vaako ordered his troop to board their ship again. He’d leave the merc’s vessel here. Riddick could make his run and would even be safe, as the converted girl believed him dead.
“You failed”, whispered the voices. “The girl was his lover. You failed. You failed your duty, failed him, failed everyone, failure, failure….”
Vaako’s eyes snapped open, and Riddick found himself a little disorientated back in that dark hallway. Vaako was shaking, visibly trying to drive off, whatever was attacking his mind. Riddick never released his firm grip around Vaako’s shoulders. “It’s ok, Vaako. You’re right here, here, only here, got that?”
Suddenly Vaako’s eyes widened into a gaze filled with hurt and fear, that stung Riddick’s soul. “Please tell me, you did not see that.” he whispered.
Riddick swallowed hard. Everything in his mind felt turned upside down. His hate for Vaako, the feelings Vaako stirred in him, Kyra, everything turned upside down. He could not talk, could not feel right now, would not think, not yet. Slowly he drew Vaako into his arms, resting his head against his shoulder. “Shh, don’t speak. We’ll get out of this hellhole, somehow.” He did not know what all this meant, what all this was to become, but at this tiny moment, as Vaako relaxed against him, giving in to the embrace felt so fucking damn right.
The tunnel at the end of the light
“Any idea where the exit is?”, Riddick kept his voice down. He was fairly sure, that some creatures were lurking in the shadows of the dark chambers. Perhaps they were kin of the Quasi-dead aboard Necropolis, no cause to wake them, anyway.
He saw Vaako swallowing hard, fighting another attack on his mind. For the moment he managed to stay here. “The way out is beyond the chambers of light,” he replied.
It was not that he had searched all this place, blind as he was in the dark, and it wasn’t an educated guess either, this much Riddick could tell. “Fuck it. You sure?” He saw Vaako’s short nod, for the moment Vaako reserved all his strength to fighting off the voices. “It’s filled with pain and light,” Riddick explained. “But then, light is always pain.” He hesitated to speak on. There was a way out of here. He saw it clearly, as he had seen the weaknesses of half a dozen prisons. But this way out meant for him to trust someone else, meant to trust Vaako, meant giving himself into the hands of someone else. “We either go, or we’ll rot in here,” Riddick growled. “I’d prefer the black Planet anytime.”
Vaako’s eyes became a little clearer, having escaped another nightmare. “My Lord?” obviously he wasn’t sure what Riddick had spoken of.
“Listen, Vaako,” Riddick began, he spoke fast, before he could change his mind or regret it, if he was not to regret it anyway. “I can’t see on the other side, in the light. But you can. You won’t feel the pain either, being a Necromonger. You can get us to this damn door.”
“I will, my Lord,” Vaako’s voice seemed a little steadier. Perhaps the task at hand helped him to fend the voices of. To Riddick’s astonishment, Vaako slid off the shirt he had worn underneath his armour and started to rip it into stripes. For a moment the Furyan considered Vaako to have gone mad. “What are you doing?”
“They took your goggles when they threw you down here, this will help to protect your eyes from the light,” Vaako replied, tying some of the stripes together, creating a layer thick enough to blindfold anyone with normal eyes rather thoroughly, and handing it to Riddick.
Slowly Riddick tied the blindfold to his eyes. He hated the feeling of giving himself completely into the hands of someone else. Grudgingly, he admitted to himself, it was more the fact that it felt right. His intuition told him, that he could trust Vaako and Riddick had learned long ago that this feeling was crap most of the time. A small voice at the back of his head, reminded him that Vaako had had better opportunities than this, and right it was. Nevertheless, Riddick felt vulnerable with the feeling of trusting someone. He had to trust Vaako even more than he had ever trusted Fry or Imam, because there he had somehow been in control of his own situation; here he would not be, as soon as they passed this door. An image of the day they’d first met flashed through his mind. He had burst right into the purification ceremony to find the murderer of Imam. Why, why the hell had Vaako taken off that blasted helmet back then? Why had he not stayed among the anonymous crowd of Necromongers? He well remembered how they first looked at each other, those damned beautiful green eyes right seeing through him. He had read understanding there, Vaako had been infuriated by Irgun’s death, yet he had understood why Riddick had done it, and more so that Riddick had dared to march in here. It had been a grudging respect, measured by a commander who had seen many fighters, but it had been there.
Riddick shook his head. This darned chamber must have started having effects on him. “Let’s go,” he growled.
***
Vaako felt Riddick’s hand clench around his shoulder as they entered the chamber of light. To him this was nothing but a maze of brightly lit hallways, stretching in all directions. But for Riddick it was a place of pain, intense physical pain.
Hastily Vaako studied the hallways left and right from them. This was a maze big enough to take days of exploring, if one did not know who they worked. The mazes of the ancient cavern cities were not like any other maze in the world, they did not work by the principle how many times to turn to which direction. There was another guide to find your way out, I guide you had to know.
Vaako had slowly led Riddick to the middle of the bright hall. He could tell that the pain increased with every step, Riddick took. “What’s the problem?” Riddick groaned as they stopped at the center of the hall.
“The key.” whispered Vaako. “It needs to be done from here, or we’ll never know where to go. Just be silent for a moment.” To outsiders, it would always remain a riddle how Minerva’s labyrinths were constructed. None of them came ever by the idea, that a song was the key. The echoes it cast were the key to get out, if you knew the right song. Vaako did not need to reach too deep into his own mind. The nightmare on the other side, had conjured up enough memories to make him remember.
“He who never wandered through a long dark night
With feet so tired and with blindfolded eyes
Never knows his way towards the light.”
The echo carried the words of, the tune along the hallways, before it returned. “To the light, to the light…”
“Left,” Vaako led Riddick to the left Hallway, from where he had heard it. He needed to concentrate, he had to go on, he did not dare to break off the song, or they might be forced to start anew.
“So many wander through this world so bright
With hearts of light and sparkling eyes
Who never wandered through a long dark night.”
The echo fell and rose, mingled with the first echoes and returned louder than before. To his right, Vaako heard the word ‘Night’ return three times. He turned, leading Riddick that way, three turns right, through hallways that looked all exactly the same.
“The ignorant lonely wanderer who might
Feel fear and run when darkness rises,
He who never knows his way towards the light.”
White pillars and white walls, shining light above, everything looked exactly the same. Vaako shuddered. They were already lost. If this did not work, if he had chosen the wrong song, or not listened to the echoes correctly, they’d never get out of here. He directed all his concentration towards the song and the echoes ringing down every hall by now.
“Some see the world and give a hopeless sight
They have grown old but not grown wise,
They who never wandered through a long dark night.”
Three marble staircases rose from a circular hall, the first hall that was different from the others down here. Vaako felt Riddick nearly stumble in pain. He slid his arm below Riddick’s shoulders to support him. He could say nothing to reassure him, to tell them that they were nearly out here, but he hoped that Riddick somehow would feel it.
“Open your eyes you’ll see your way alright
Which clear ahead of you within the darkness lies.
He who never wandered through a long dark night
Never knows his way towards the light.”
Vaako hear the echo rise and fall, like a thousand voices singing now, filling the maze with their songs. And then he heard it:
“He who never wandered through a long dark night
Never knows his way towards the light.”
“He who never wandered through a long dark night
Never knows his way towards the light.”
When the tune fell from the middle of the stairs right before them, they had found the way out.
***
Riddick removed the blindfold as the door of the cursed white halls closed behind them. They stood on a staircase, in soothing, friendly darkness. Not the complete darkness of the dark chambers but the comfortable semi-darkness of the ruined cavern city. Part of him was astounded that he was actually here, not left behind while he was weak.
“So you escaped the Halls of Light and Darkness,” a female voice greeted them from the end of the stairwell. “You truly proved yourself worthy.”
Riddick scowled and began to ascend the stairs. He could see the woman standing up there quite clearly. And even if hunting through the fallen cavern city was fun, the chambers had been one distraction too many. It was his acute sense of smell that warned him that the woman was hardly alone. The smell of metal, sweat and leather betrayed the soldiers backing her up. “Why the fucking hell, don’t you get down there, and prove it yourself?”
“Who’s telling you I wasn’t?” the woman replied. “But you, you proved yourself to be a most worthy sacrifice. Congratulations. The ancient ones will be glad to have you.”
“Yeah, I am so fucking honoured,” Riddick growled. “Why don’t you go and stuff yourself down a Grazo’Rahn’s throat?”
He felt Vaako who slipped beside him, eyes directed towards the woman. “High Priestess of Morningdale,” he began speaking nearly respectfully. “As we two came out of the chambers, I ask to be the one who will be given to the ancient ones.”
The woman’s eyes remained cold. “I’d consider your offer, perhaps even honour it, were you not such a dirty piece of garbage,” she replied coldly. Her gaze shifted back to Riddick. “From the day the dark raiders first came here, I believed that their leader would make a worthy offering, but even I never thought you’d be that perfect.”
“I’ve seen inmates on drugs who spoke clearer,” Riddick grinned. The lady talked too much, leaving him to study his surroundings.
“The late Lord Marshall has come by here, on his journey to the Underverse,” Vaako said in low tones. “He left some men here to wait for him.”
“That’s were you come in, don’t you?”
The woman approached, followed by her guards. The slap across Vaako’s face came fast enough. “I thought we had left you to die, there in the outer desert, to get rid of filth like you. Back then, when you lay there, in the ashes, I saw the pain it gave Kjar to watch it. I considered your punishment too hard, had I only killed you then.”
“Now you sound like a whore complaining about her clients,” Riddick hoped the woman would get angry and turn to him. He could see what this conversation did to Vaako. The Necromonger could take nearly any level of physical pain, had walked the chamber of light, without even reacting to it, but these words were the spear that struck right through the armour and drove home.
Again, some old, divided feelings welled up inside Riddick. Vaako had fascinated him from the very moment they had first laid eyes on each other. Fascination all too soon replaced by hate when Kyra died in Riddick’s arms. He had hoped to burn out this fascination by making Vaako suffer, by putting him on a really long road to hell, by making him see and feel what he had lost. And Vaako had taken it; without a word or complaint, he had accepted his punishment. In the course of a few months, Riddick had come to see the loyalty, strength and silent courage of the former first among commanders. And he had hated himself for every time he had seen it, or allowed himself to wish things were different. Always he had invented some new hardship for Vaako, to make up for it. Somehow he had hoped Vaako would start to hate him back; seeing hate in Vaako’s eyes would have allowed Riddick to live on and hate Vaako for the rest of his natural life. But right here and now, during these last few hours, everything had been shaken, shaken too much and too far. Riddick could no longer deny that he had begun again to care for someone else in this universe.
The Priestess stepped back, like she had read his mind. “Bring them into Cell of the Lambs, and keep them there. When the sun rises again, they are to die.”
The guards gripped Riddick and Vaako, others standing ready with their stun darts, to take them down if need be. Just before they were led away, the High Priestess turned to Vaako. “Kjar was among those you killed making your way down here. You were his downfall, in any capacity.”
***
The door of the cell fell closed behind them and Riddick struggled to his feet. It was not the first cell he was thrown into, and it would not be the last, of this he was sure. “Home, sweet home,” he said ironically, studying the rock walls around him. His gaze fell back to Vaako, who was leaning against the wall, beside the door. There was a small window in the door, just enough to peer through.
“They are gone,” Vaako reported, trying to sound calm, but his voice was all hoarse.
Riddick realised that his little joke about home, might be bitter on Vaako.
“That’s your homeworld, isn’t it?” he asked in low tones. He could guess as much. The fighters that moved so exactly like Vaako, with the same agile catlike moves, the fact that Vaako knew this lousy place and was well hated here, spoke for itself. But he had also seen the pain in Vaako’s dark eyes.
Searching for these very eyes again, he saw Vaako nod curtly as an answer. He looked down. “It is… I should say it was, long ago…,” his voice came close to breaking. He hastily turned, to hide his face.
Not nearly fast enough for Riddick’s keen senses. The Furyan had seen it all, in the split of a second Vaako had needed to turn around. Had seen Vaako swallowing hard, fighting to keep a composure that was gone long before, closing his eyes. Slowly, Riddick circled Vaako, again standing face to face with him. He could see that Vaako was trying to squeeze tears back where they came from. In his long years in the Slam, Riddick had never seen men showing their pain, other than in violence. In fact, he had believed male’s who succumbed to tears to be weak, useless fools. Right here and now, he understood that it wasn’t necessarily so. Vaako wasn’t weak, or a coward, this Riddick knew. He was strong, could take a lot, but he had never allowed strength, toughness and endurance to strip away his feelings. He had never succumbed to strength and cunning as solitary virtues, he had kept his humanity. And all the more Riddick loved him for it. Slowly, his hand slid along Vaako’s cheek, getting buried in that soft, strong hair, as Riddick made Vaako look at him. The dark eyes shone from a mix of feelings hardly in check, but the Necromonger had managed to fight back the tears. Only one trace of it shone in his eyes. Softly, he wiped it away, the cold skin tickling under his fingers. “Never let THEM get to you,” he whispered before he drew Vaako closer to him, brushing his lips against his.
The kiss set him on fire. Those soft lips, that met his as his tongue hungrily wandered that wet cave. Vaako’s arms firmly slung around him, his tongue teasingly exploring Riddick’s lips. As they broke off the kiss, Riddick’s lips started wandering along Vaako’s jaw, nibbling at his ear, while he felt the cool fingers of Vaako slowly sliding up his back. All of sudden Vaako pulled back, slipping out of the embrace. “No,” he said. “We mustn’t do this.”
Riddick frowned at him, not really willing to let got. “Why? Because this ugly fucking witch might find out? Everyone can know about it, for all I care.” He slowly drew Vaako back to him, feeling no real resistance. “You want it too,” he whispered, planting another kiss on Vaako’s throat.
Vaako’s hand softly slid along Riddick’s jaw, made him look up. “More than you’ll ever know.” Vaako replied, his voice warmer than Riddick ever had heard it. “But will you be able to kill me, tomorrow?”
Riddick nearly jumped at those words. “Kill you? Hell no! Why do you…,” his anger vanished when he saw this pained expression in Vaako’s eyes. “You know this rite.” he observed. “This is why you asked them to feed you to these ancient ones.” He slid down to the hard ground of the cell, drawing Vaako with him. He’d not intent to let go no matter what.
Vaako did not resist, but leaned against him, as they sat down on the cold stone floor.
“It’s the law of the rite, if two emerge from the chambers and one goes to the ancient ones willingly, the other’s free. Had I proven worthy in there…”
“Don’t you care what this bitch said!” Riddick growled. “She’s more nut’s than this male whore I knew in Butcher’s Bay, and that’s saying something. She was looking for a reason to keep us both anyway.” He tried to read the expression in Vaako’s eyes. “So, tell me, what’s this rite gonna be tomorrow?”
Vaako suppressed a sigh. Right now he felt like having left the ship in high orbit and having left his vac’suit behind. It seemed moments ago, that he’d feared Riddick might despise him for his lack of strength. Sitting right here now, feeling the Furyan’s strong arm around his shoulder, feeling the smoldering desire, was like part of a dream. Had he been asked how he’d wished to spend his last hours in this ‘verse, he’d have nothing else. “Tomorrow they bring us up to the high hall, the bridge of judgement. Everyone of us gets to choose a weapon…”
“Good,” the deep rumble emerging from Riddick’s chest, betrayed appreciation.
“…and then we are led onto that bridge, to fight each other.”
“Ok, let’s skip this part. I won’t kill you. Full stop. Which way leads out of this hall?” Riddick’s growl even deepened. “There has to be some exits.”
“All heavily guarded,” Vaako replied. “An event of this magnitude will attract a lot of attention, the whole city will be there plus all warriors who are off duty. It’s something rare, a sacrifice to the ancient ones.”
It seemed to him, that Riddick’s body, his skin, radiated an enormous heat. Perhaps it was just his Necromonger physiology with its colder temperature, but it still felt intoxicating. He felt Riddick shifting his position, leaning back more against the wall, allowing them both to sit almost comfortably.
“Describe the hall to me,” he whispered, barely audible to Vaako.
Chapter 3 - In the nightmares of the dark
Chapter 4 - the Tunnel at the end of the light
Fandom: Chronicles of Riddick
Pairing: Riddick/ Vaako
Rating: NC-17
Type: Slash
Warnings: Angst, violence
Status: WIP
Beta: Many, many thanks to Lady Vaako, for taking this much work all on herself.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Riddick and Vaako, nor do I make profit with this story.
Summary: As Riddick starts his rule of the Necromonger army, he also deals out revenge to Vaako, intending to crush him. Or does he?
When the Necormonger army approaches the distant Minerva system, things start to get complicated.
Chapter 3 - In the nightmares of the dark
Vaako found himself in complete darkness. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious; not too long, he mused. The paralysing poison on the tip of these darts was no stranger to him, you got used to its effects with time. Slowly, he rose from the stony ground he had been lying on and tried to gaze into the darkness. He could see absolutely nothing.
A faint whisper breezed through the room, stirring the air. It was nothing but a faint sound, a whispering just below hearing range. Vaako froze where he was standing, listening. The whisper became stronger, drawing nearer, searing all around him, whispering of things past, horrible things…
“No, please no…”, whispered Vaako realising where he was. They had brought him to the dark chambers.
“Yesss… the dark chambers… to seek your darkness… feed on it… revel in it…. Darkness”, the whisper rose, swirled around, seemed to touch inside Vaako’s head. His sight blurred, as the whisper stirred up memories, memories and pictures which were usually scrupulously suppressed.
He was running across the plains, trying to keep up the pace with the others. Jem, his mother, was there, running ahead and carrying little Caithlin just behind him while Liam was right by his side. The ground was shaking, Vaako nearly fell. A rough hand gripped him by the scuff of his neck. It was Rick, who scowled at him. “Run, there’s no time.”
A bright light burned through the eternal darkness high up in the sky. The fiery ball descending down at rapid speed, making the night as bright as day was supposed to be on other planets. Like a shattered orb, the ball broke apart, raining down in pieces. Vaako saw the fire fall, dodged sideways, let himself roll downhill. His family never heard his desperate call. The fire stuck ground, smashing everything around; Vaako heard Liam scream as the fire consumed his body. His mother stumbled downhill attempting to escape the fiery inferno. Vaako ran towards her, to help, but the flames were faster, reaching her. Her final scream still rang in his ears, like the silent whispers…
You failed, failed, failed….
Shaking, Vaako nearly fell to his knees again. No, he would not fall. A Necromonger was to be above pain. For a short moment he managed to shut down the whispers. He had to get out of here. The dark chambers had an opposite, the white chamber, where the exit was located. He had to work his way there. Cautiously taking some steps forward, he found himself facing a solid wall of rock. Using his hands instead of his eyes to see in the darkness, he started fumbling his way onward and slipped through the first opening in the wall, following wherever this might lead. But the whisper was everywhere, returning ten times stronger than before.
“And so where is your family, little rat?”, asked a harsh voice.
Vaako bit his lip, eyeing the stern faces of Hopes End’s leading council. The underground fortress had become a shelter for thousands of survivors of the last catastrophe. “They were killed when the comet struck.” Vaako replied. “I was the only one to escape.”
One of the women snorted icily. “He most likely made it out by leaving his family. We see these rotten eggs all the time. How did you escape when all your family died, on that day the sky rained fire?”
Vaako looked down on his small, dirty hands. His father had said it was a comet that would strike. But most people spoke of the sky raining fire as a punishment from the gods. “I fell down a ledge, shortly before the comet… the fire smashed everything up there.”
“A likely tale.” the woman replied. “Nothing new from some of you unbelieving scum.”
The leader of the council raised his hand. “You made your point, Eldriche. The council sees it fit to present the boy to the heads of the clans.” He rose, addressing the ragged people sitting in a wide berth around the council members, they all rose as the council leader addressed them. “You all heard the boy’s tale. It might be true, it might not. He was raised among non-believers, that much is sure. Is there anyone among you, who would speak for him? Accept him?”
Dark eyes stared down at the ragged boy in the middle of the circle. And slowly, one after another, sat down again, shaking their head. Many families had already taken in orphaned children and were continuing to do so, but those were children who would fit in.
A chill ran down Vaako’s spine as the last of them sat down. The council leader shrugged. “There you have it. No one will have you. So off you go. A failure like you, has no place among us.”
Two men came to drag Vaako back, back to the devastated surface, that was falling rapidly into a nuclear winter.
“Failure, that’s what you are, failure…” whispered the voices.
“Shut up.”, Shaking like crazy, Vaako leaned against the cold wall. “No… I survived, I did it all alone…”, he whispered. “I did, I did.”
The only mantra he had, against the nightmares replayed relentlessly inside his head. He collapsed to his knees. Clenching his fists, he managed to open his eyes again. The court would be right to ridicule him right now, noted a small voice at the back of his head. The Lord Marshal would… Vaako nearly jumped to his feet and the thought left his mind for a moment. The Lord Marshal, Riddick, was somewhere trapped in here. And when this damned place could drain Vaako like this… how many dark things would be in the mind of a man who had lived half his life in the worst prisons of the known world? What were Vaako’s pathetic childhood troubles against this? Nothing. Taking a deep breath, he found the wall again. He was determined this time.
“I can’t stop you from rummaging through my mind, but I will find Riddick.”, he whispered as he again began to make his way through the darkness.
The whispers kept coming and coming. Drawing out memories again and again. Vaako was again running over the frozen landscape that had once been home, alone, hungry, frightened. Again he saw Irian stabbed by a raider, found himself imprisoned, abused and escaped again towards the relentless surface, where the nuclear winter eventually ended, leaving the land barren and devastated. Again he went alone in the Grazo’Rahns den to save Coliane’s son, without so much a as thank you afterwards, going on, alone, always alone.
“Failure”, whispered the voice. “Weak, bad blood, failure, scum.”
Vaako broke to his knees every now and then, always getting up again to go on. Tears were streaming down his face but he couldn’t care less. He just kept walking. Always walking, always going on, always looking for Riddick. Eventually, he reached a bright door at the end of a long hallway that had been filled with memories of the last six month’s, the growing desperation, the feeling of having failed so completely. He was nearly relieved when he saw the bright door. Behind it would be no voices, no failure, no shame, no whispers…
He held his steps. No, he would not leave this place. Not without finding Riddick. Even if he had to face all his nightmares again, even if it took the rest of his natural life. Vaako’s stomach coiled in fear as he bravely turned away from the door.
A pained scream made him stop. It had come from behind that door. It sounded like Riddick. Vaako slowly turned around. Could this be real? Or was it an, illusion? If only he could think straight. Then a new thought crept into his mind. What if… if these bastards had figured out Riddick’s greatest strength - which was to be his greatest weakness - and put him into the white chambers, the chambers filled with light?
***
The light was burning bright, burning Riddick’s eyes. Even when he tried to shield them with his hands, the light seemed to burn right through the flesh. Fuck it, he had to get out of here. He’d run from worse places. He just had to find a way of those blasted light. And there was pain, every step in here was full of pain, physical pain. Every move was paid with pain, bloody pain and yet even more pain. “Fuck pain.” Riddick growled as he worked his way along the wall, that he could not see.
There had to be a blasted door in here. Somewhere. Anywhere. Finally he found a small opening in the wall and hurried through it. Bumping into something that was rather someone, knocking him over. They both crashed down on the floor and suddenly the light was gone. It just vanished. Soothing darkness surrounded Riddick as the gateway behind them closed again. Slowly blinking into the welcome darkness, he looked down on what he was actually sitting. He recognised Vaako, a ragged, torn Vaako, who seemed to have succumbed to crying.
Riddick jumped to his feet again. “What kind of a fucking place is this?”, he demanded. If he was in some mad triple-max-prison again, he wanted to know who was running it so he could kick his ass royally.
Vaako rose slower. “The chambers of Dark and light Light.” he replied hoarsely. “A place where prisoners are tested.”
“Tested? For what? The doctor in Butcher’s Bay was more lucid, than this!”, Riddick felt quite comfortable here, but knew that something had happened to Vaako in here. And the man could take something, this Riddick knew.
“Tested whether we are worthy.”, Vaako whispered. “Oh no… not again.” Gripping his head with his hands, he bent down.
“What the hell is happening?” Riddick felt nothing at all. He roughly gripped Vaako’s shoulders to shake him. A jolt ran through his arms, as he suddenly saw what was happening in Vaako’s head.
Vaako was again standing on Crematoria. Down below him the fight was fully raging. Riddick was messing up Vaako’s troop. The Purifier had vanished. Good riddance as far as Vaako was concerned. He admired how Riddick effortlessly threw off two other Necromongers. The man was a wild animal, a graceful lion casually slaying his prey.
Vaako knew he could not delay the inevitable. Jumping down, he confronted the warrior. He had never expected this to be an easy fight, but Riddick was just a damn good fight. Exhausted from running across this hell hole of a planet, from escaping a prison and fighting a Necromonger scout troop, he was still a fair match for Vaako. There was only one trick Vaako could pull, using his light up pistols.
Vaako saw Riddick fall and for one painful moment he feared he had fatally hit the man . But as he ran towards him, he realised that Riddick was alive. Still breathing. For one tiny moment Vaako allowed himself to kneel down beside the man. Suppressing the wish to cradle him in his arms, protect him, now that he was vulnerable. But he could not, his troops were waiting and…. He could not let Riddick die. A scream made him turn around. Another man attacked him, only to get casually slain by Vaako. Stupid Prisoner. His gaze fell towards the girl… another escaped prisoner.
A plan quickly came to Vaako’s mind. The girl would be the perfect witness to the Furyan’s death. Perfect. Just perfect. She did not belong to the Furyan, she was just another escapee. And who in the world would seriously wish to belong to a woman? No one who did not have a death-wish, at least if Dame Vaako was an average example of her kind. As if to check, Vaako again knelt beside the Furyan, quickly checking his pulse. Yes, he would be awake any moment, and be well able to make it to the ship. Vaako ordered his troop to board their ship again. He’d leave the merc’s vessel here. Riddick could make his run and would even be safe, as the converted girl believed him dead.
“You failed”, whispered the voices. “The girl was his lover. You failed. You failed your duty, failed him, failed everyone, failure, failure….”
Vaako’s eyes snapped open, and Riddick found himself a little disorientated back in that dark hallway. Vaako was shaking, visibly trying to drive off, whatever was attacking his mind. Riddick never released his firm grip around Vaako’s shoulders. “It’s ok, Vaako. You’re right here, here, only here, got that?”
Suddenly Vaako’s eyes widened into a gaze filled with hurt and fear, that stung Riddick’s soul. “Please tell me, you did not see that.” he whispered.
Riddick swallowed hard. Everything in his mind felt turned upside down. His hate for Vaako, the feelings Vaako stirred in him, Kyra, everything turned upside down. He could not talk, could not feel right now, would not think, not yet. Slowly he drew Vaako into his arms, resting his head against his shoulder. “Shh, don’t speak. We’ll get out of this hellhole, somehow.” He did not know what all this meant, what all this was to become, but at this tiny moment, as Vaako relaxed against him, giving in to the embrace felt so fucking damn right.
The tunnel at the end of the light
“Any idea where the exit is?”, Riddick kept his voice down. He was fairly sure, that some creatures were lurking in the shadows of the dark chambers. Perhaps they were kin of the Quasi-dead aboard Necropolis, no cause to wake them, anyway.
He saw Vaako swallowing hard, fighting another attack on his mind. For the moment he managed to stay here. “The way out is beyond the chambers of light,” he replied.
It was not that he had searched all this place, blind as he was in the dark, and it wasn’t an educated guess either, this much Riddick could tell. “Fuck it. You sure?” He saw Vaako’s short nod, for the moment Vaako reserved all his strength to fighting off the voices. “It’s filled with pain and light,” Riddick explained. “But then, light is always pain.” He hesitated to speak on. There was a way out of here. He saw it clearly, as he had seen the weaknesses of half a dozen prisons. But this way out meant for him to trust someone else, meant to trust Vaako, meant giving himself into the hands of someone else. “We either go, or we’ll rot in here,” Riddick growled. “I’d prefer the black Planet anytime.”
Vaako’s eyes became a little clearer, having escaped another nightmare. “My Lord?” obviously he wasn’t sure what Riddick had spoken of.
“Listen, Vaako,” Riddick began, he spoke fast, before he could change his mind or regret it, if he was not to regret it anyway. “I can’t see on the other side, in the light. But you can. You won’t feel the pain either, being a Necromonger. You can get us to this damn door.”
“I will, my Lord,” Vaako’s voice seemed a little steadier. Perhaps the task at hand helped him to fend the voices of. To Riddick’s astonishment, Vaako slid off the shirt he had worn underneath his armour and started to rip it into stripes. For a moment the Furyan considered Vaako to have gone mad. “What are you doing?”
“They took your goggles when they threw you down here, this will help to protect your eyes from the light,” Vaako replied, tying some of the stripes together, creating a layer thick enough to blindfold anyone with normal eyes rather thoroughly, and handing it to Riddick.
Slowly Riddick tied the blindfold to his eyes. He hated the feeling of giving himself completely into the hands of someone else. Grudgingly, he admitted to himself, it was more the fact that it felt right. His intuition told him, that he could trust Vaako and Riddick had learned long ago that this feeling was crap most of the time. A small voice at the back of his head, reminded him that Vaako had had better opportunities than this, and right it was. Nevertheless, Riddick felt vulnerable with the feeling of trusting someone. He had to trust Vaako even more than he had ever trusted Fry or Imam, because there he had somehow been in control of his own situation; here he would not be, as soon as they passed this door. An image of the day they’d first met flashed through his mind. He had burst right into the purification ceremony to find the murderer of Imam. Why, why the hell had Vaako taken off that blasted helmet back then? Why had he not stayed among the anonymous crowd of Necromongers? He well remembered how they first looked at each other, those damned beautiful green eyes right seeing through him. He had read understanding there, Vaako had been infuriated by Irgun’s death, yet he had understood why Riddick had done it, and more so that Riddick had dared to march in here. It had been a grudging respect, measured by a commander who had seen many fighters, but it had been there.
Riddick shook his head. This darned chamber must have started having effects on him. “Let’s go,” he growled.
***
Vaako felt Riddick’s hand clench around his shoulder as they entered the chamber of light. To him this was nothing but a maze of brightly lit hallways, stretching in all directions. But for Riddick it was a place of pain, intense physical pain.
Hastily Vaako studied the hallways left and right from them. This was a maze big enough to take days of exploring, if one did not know who they worked. The mazes of the ancient cavern cities were not like any other maze in the world, they did not work by the principle how many times to turn to which direction. There was another guide to find your way out, I guide you had to know.
Vaako had slowly led Riddick to the middle of the bright hall. He could tell that the pain increased with every step, Riddick took. “What’s the problem?” Riddick groaned as they stopped at the center of the hall.
“The key.” whispered Vaako. “It needs to be done from here, or we’ll never know where to go. Just be silent for a moment.” To outsiders, it would always remain a riddle how Minerva’s labyrinths were constructed. None of them came ever by the idea, that a song was the key. The echoes it cast were the key to get out, if you knew the right song. Vaako did not need to reach too deep into his own mind. The nightmare on the other side, had conjured up enough memories to make him remember.
“He who never wandered through a long dark night
With feet so tired and with blindfolded eyes
Never knows his way towards the light.”
The echo carried the words of, the tune along the hallways, before it returned. “To the light, to the light…”
“Left,” Vaako led Riddick to the left Hallway, from where he had heard it. He needed to concentrate, he had to go on, he did not dare to break off the song, or they might be forced to start anew.
“So many wander through this world so bright
With hearts of light and sparkling eyes
Who never wandered through a long dark night.”
The echo fell and rose, mingled with the first echoes and returned louder than before. To his right, Vaako heard the word ‘Night’ return three times. He turned, leading Riddick that way, three turns right, through hallways that looked all exactly the same.
“The ignorant lonely wanderer who might
Feel fear and run when darkness rises,
He who never knows his way towards the light.”
White pillars and white walls, shining light above, everything looked exactly the same. Vaako shuddered. They were already lost. If this did not work, if he had chosen the wrong song, or not listened to the echoes correctly, they’d never get out of here. He directed all his concentration towards the song and the echoes ringing down every hall by now.
“Some see the world and give a hopeless sight
They have grown old but not grown wise,
They who never wandered through a long dark night.”
Three marble staircases rose from a circular hall, the first hall that was different from the others down here. Vaako felt Riddick nearly stumble in pain. He slid his arm below Riddick’s shoulders to support him. He could say nothing to reassure him, to tell them that they were nearly out here, but he hoped that Riddick somehow would feel it.
“Open your eyes you’ll see your way alright
Which clear ahead of you within the darkness lies.
He who never wandered through a long dark night
Never knows his way towards the light.”
Vaako hear the echo rise and fall, like a thousand voices singing now, filling the maze with their songs. And then he heard it:
“He who never wandered through a long dark night
Never knows his way towards the light.”
“He who never wandered through a long dark night
Never knows his way towards the light.”
When the tune fell from the middle of the stairs right before them, they had found the way out.
***
Riddick removed the blindfold as the door of the cursed white halls closed behind them. They stood on a staircase, in soothing, friendly darkness. Not the complete darkness of the dark chambers but the comfortable semi-darkness of the ruined cavern city. Part of him was astounded that he was actually here, not left behind while he was weak.
“So you escaped the Halls of Light and Darkness,” a female voice greeted them from the end of the stairwell. “You truly proved yourself worthy.”
Riddick scowled and began to ascend the stairs. He could see the woman standing up there quite clearly. And even if hunting through the fallen cavern city was fun, the chambers had been one distraction too many. It was his acute sense of smell that warned him that the woman was hardly alone. The smell of metal, sweat and leather betrayed the soldiers backing her up. “Why the fucking hell, don’t you get down there, and prove it yourself?”
“Who’s telling you I wasn’t?” the woman replied. “But you, you proved yourself to be a most worthy sacrifice. Congratulations. The ancient ones will be glad to have you.”
“Yeah, I am so fucking honoured,” Riddick growled. “Why don’t you go and stuff yourself down a Grazo’Rahn’s throat?”
He felt Vaako who slipped beside him, eyes directed towards the woman. “High Priestess of Morningdale,” he began speaking nearly respectfully. “As we two came out of the chambers, I ask to be the one who will be given to the ancient ones.”
The woman’s eyes remained cold. “I’d consider your offer, perhaps even honour it, were you not such a dirty piece of garbage,” she replied coldly. Her gaze shifted back to Riddick. “From the day the dark raiders first came here, I believed that their leader would make a worthy offering, but even I never thought you’d be that perfect.”
“I’ve seen inmates on drugs who spoke clearer,” Riddick grinned. The lady talked too much, leaving him to study his surroundings.
“The late Lord Marshall has come by here, on his journey to the Underverse,” Vaako said in low tones. “He left some men here to wait for him.”
“That’s were you come in, don’t you?”
The woman approached, followed by her guards. The slap across Vaako’s face came fast enough. “I thought we had left you to die, there in the outer desert, to get rid of filth like you. Back then, when you lay there, in the ashes, I saw the pain it gave Kjar to watch it. I considered your punishment too hard, had I only killed you then.”
“Now you sound like a whore complaining about her clients,” Riddick hoped the woman would get angry and turn to him. He could see what this conversation did to Vaako. The Necromonger could take nearly any level of physical pain, had walked the chamber of light, without even reacting to it, but these words were the spear that struck right through the armour and drove home.
Again, some old, divided feelings welled up inside Riddick. Vaako had fascinated him from the very moment they had first laid eyes on each other. Fascination all too soon replaced by hate when Kyra died in Riddick’s arms. He had hoped to burn out this fascination by making Vaako suffer, by putting him on a really long road to hell, by making him see and feel what he had lost. And Vaako had taken it; without a word or complaint, he had accepted his punishment. In the course of a few months, Riddick had come to see the loyalty, strength and silent courage of the former first among commanders. And he had hated himself for every time he had seen it, or allowed himself to wish things were different. Always he had invented some new hardship for Vaako, to make up for it. Somehow he had hoped Vaako would start to hate him back; seeing hate in Vaako’s eyes would have allowed Riddick to live on and hate Vaako for the rest of his natural life. But right here and now, during these last few hours, everything had been shaken, shaken too much and too far. Riddick could no longer deny that he had begun again to care for someone else in this universe.
The Priestess stepped back, like she had read his mind. “Bring them into Cell of the Lambs, and keep them there. When the sun rises again, they are to die.”
The guards gripped Riddick and Vaako, others standing ready with their stun darts, to take them down if need be. Just before they were led away, the High Priestess turned to Vaako. “Kjar was among those you killed making your way down here. You were his downfall, in any capacity.”
***
The door of the cell fell closed behind them and Riddick struggled to his feet. It was not the first cell he was thrown into, and it would not be the last, of this he was sure. “Home, sweet home,” he said ironically, studying the rock walls around him. His gaze fell back to Vaako, who was leaning against the wall, beside the door. There was a small window in the door, just enough to peer through.
“They are gone,” Vaako reported, trying to sound calm, but his voice was all hoarse.
Riddick realised that his little joke about home, might be bitter on Vaako.
“That’s your homeworld, isn’t it?” he asked in low tones. He could guess as much. The fighters that moved so exactly like Vaako, with the same agile catlike moves, the fact that Vaako knew this lousy place and was well hated here, spoke for itself. But he had also seen the pain in Vaako’s dark eyes.
Searching for these very eyes again, he saw Vaako nod curtly as an answer. He looked down. “It is… I should say it was, long ago…,” his voice came close to breaking. He hastily turned, to hide his face.
Not nearly fast enough for Riddick’s keen senses. The Furyan had seen it all, in the split of a second Vaako had needed to turn around. Had seen Vaako swallowing hard, fighting to keep a composure that was gone long before, closing his eyes. Slowly, Riddick circled Vaako, again standing face to face with him. He could see that Vaako was trying to squeeze tears back where they came from. In his long years in the Slam, Riddick had never seen men showing their pain, other than in violence. In fact, he had believed male’s who succumbed to tears to be weak, useless fools. Right here and now, he understood that it wasn’t necessarily so. Vaako wasn’t weak, or a coward, this Riddick knew. He was strong, could take a lot, but he had never allowed strength, toughness and endurance to strip away his feelings. He had never succumbed to strength and cunning as solitary virtues, he had kept his humanity. And all the more Riddick loved him for it. Slowly, his hand slid along Vaako’s cheek, getting buried in that soft, strong hair, as Riddick made Vaako look at him. The dark eyes shone from a mix of feelings hardly in check, but the Necromonger had managed to fight back the tears. Only one trace of it shone in his eyes. Softly, he wiped it away, the cold skin tickling under his fingers. “Never let THEM get to you,” he whispered before he drew Vaako closer to him, brushing his lips against his.
The kiss set him on fire. Those soft lips, that met his as his tongue hungrily wandered that wet cave. Vaako’s arms firmly slung around him, his tongue teasingly exploring Riddick’s lips. As they broke off the kiss, Riddick’s lips started wandering along Vaako’s jaw, nibbling at his ear, while he felt the cool fingers of Vaako slowly sliding up his back. All of sudden Vaako pulled back, slipping out of the embrace. “No,” he said. “We mustn’t do this.”
Riddick frowned at him, not really willing to let got. “Why? Because this ugly fucking witch might find out? Everyone can know about it, for all I care.” He slowly drew Vaako back to him, feeling no real resistance. “You want it too,” he whispered, planting another kiss on Vaako’s throat.
Vaako’s hand softly slid along Riddick’s jaw, made him look up. “More than you’ll ever know.” Vaako replied, his voice warmer than Riddick ever had heard it. “But will you be able to kill me, tomorrow?”
Riddick nearly jumped at those words. “Kill you? Hell no! Why do you…,” his anger vanished when he saw this pained expression in Vaako’s eyes. “You know this rite.” he observed. “This is why you asked them to feed you to these ancient ones.” He slid down to the hard ground of the cell, drawing Vaako with him. He’d not intent to let go no matter what.
Vaako did not resist, but leaned against him, as they sat down on the cold stone floor.
“It’s the law of the rite, if two emerge from the chambers and one goes to the ancient ones willingly, the other’s free. Had I proven worthy in there…”
“Don’t you care what this bitch said!” Riddick growled. “She’s more nut’s than this male whore I knew in Butcher’s Bay, and that’s saying something. She was looking for a reason to keep us both anyway.” He tried to read the expression in Vaako’s eyes. “So, tell me, what’s this rite gonna be tomorrow?”
Vaako suppressed a sigh. Right now he felt like having left the ship in high orbit and having left his vac’suit behind. It seemed moments ago, that he’d feared Riddick might despise him for his lack of strength. Sitting right here now, feeling the Furyan’s strong arm around his shoulder, feeling the smoldering desire, was like part of a dream. Had he been asked how he’d wished to spend his last hours in this ‘verse, he’d have nothing else. “Tomorrow they bring us up to the high hall, the bridge of judgement. Everyone of us gets to choose a weapon…”
“Good,” the deep rumble emerging from Riddick’s chest, betrayed appreciation.
“…and then we are led onto that bridge, to fight each other.”
“Ok, let’s skip this part. I won’t kill you. Full stop. Which way leads out of this hall?” Riddick’s growl even deepened. “There has to be some exits.”
“All heavily guarded,” Vaako replied. “An event of this magnitude will attract a lot of attention, the whole city will be there plus all warriors who are off duty. It’s something rare, a sacrifice to the ancient ones.”
It seemed to him, that Riddick’s body, his skin, radiated an enormous heat. Perhaps it was just his Necromonger physiology with its colder temperature, but it still felt intoxicating. He felt Riddick shifting his position, leaning back more against the wall, allowing them both to sit almost comfortably.
“Describe the hall to me,” he whispered, barely audible to Vaako.
