BLUE SUN ROOM FAN FICTION - ROMANCE

SHADOWGLOVE

A Firefly in the Pitch Black: Chapter 4
Thursday, March 20, 2008

River will NEVER be able to get away from the Fruity Oatey Bar commercials...


CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 1583    RATING: 0    SERIES: FIREFLY

With the blue sun setting and the yellow and orange ones rising, the survivors set off towards the abandoned settlement. Everyone was taking something or the other, Jack being the only one who only had his breather unit to contend with.

Well, other than River, whom the others hadn’t asked to carry anything considering that she was injured.

Shazza and Kaylee lugged one power cell behind them while Fry and Iman lugged the other. His boys situated themselves around them, singing songs in Arabic and holding whatever couldn’t fit into the sled.

Paris also held onto the bottles of alcohol that hadn’t fit in the over-filled drag-sled that Riddick was pulling.

Kaylee frowned as she watched the murderer pull the undoubtedly heavy thing behind him without O2 or even a breather unit. Her frown turned into a glare as she looked at Johns, who was the reason for this inhumane treatment. Murderer or no murderer Riddick was human, and he was helping them. He should be treated better.

Paris had been arguing with Johns about Riddick’s place in the group, and Iman had stood up for the murderer, saying that they should at least give him a breather unit. Kaylee—and surprisingly enough Shazza—had echoed their agreement, yet Johns wouldn’t listen to them.

Kaylee was getting rapidly annoyed with him, which was something, because Kaylee had the patience of saints.

The young mechanic watched as one of Paris’ beloved bottles fell from his arms. Trailing, Riddick picked it up, causing the little man to stop his quick dash to grab it and straighten up, his frail little hand shooting out.

“Paris P. Ogilvie.” He introduced himself shakily. “Antiquities dealer, entrepreneur.”

Surprisingly enough, Riddick shook the much smaller man’s hand. “Richard B. Riddick. Escaped convict, murderer.”

Paris’ eyes widened.

Instead of giving the man back his precious bottle, Riddick opened it and took a long drink while Paris hurried up to the front of the line once more.

Kaylee shook her head.

At least River liked ‘em with humor.

Talking about River, the girl had been silent the whole time, looking down at her bare feet as they walked. The survivors hadn’t been able to convince her to put her boots back on, and after realizing that they weren’t going to get her to obey them, they’d left her alone. She now kept glancing at the spires around them and then at her feet, as if tracking movement.

Kaylee shivered, guessing that River probably was tracking the movements of the creatures below them.

River’s head jerked up and she turned to look at a set of spires close to them and stopped walking. Minutes afterwards a slightly crumbling sound emitted from the spires, confirming the fact that River could sense the creatures and their movements.

That’ll come in handy. Kaylee was sure of it.

She noticed Riddick, who was a little behind the others, keeping his goggled gaze on her preoccupied Mei-Mei, and that he too had realized that she could sense the ‘dogs’.

Kaylee frowned.

That wasn’t good.

That wasn’t good at all.

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River tilted her head to the side as she wandered away from the group at the skiff. Kaylee had been put to work immediately in the batter bay, adapting the power cell to the skiff’s older electrical system. Shazza and Fry were helping her with that they could, and since River knew nothing of mechanics---and they were all thinking too loudly---she’d wandered off.

The sand beneath her feet was hot and harsh, yet she felt connected with the planet on a level she’d never been before anywhere else---not even on Miranda---whose secret was one of the main reasons she’d gone insane in the first place.

Feeling a shift beneath her, River paused, hearing their scuffles, sensing their anxiety, their hunger.

It was unnerving how Reaver-like they were in behavior, yet these had never been human. The Alliance had created these things, to defend their cities yet as with Pax, everything had turned against them.

Everything the Alliance created turned against them…

…Just like River herself.

Entering one of the buildings, River ran her hands over every surface, seeing brief glimpses of the memories the building contained. She was in the communication center, but the comms had been destroyed so communication with the outside planets was impossible.

Still, she turned one of the knobs and was surprised to see the screen flicker to life, showing a prerecorded tape with songs and half-naked women dancing provocatively.

“Trying to learn other dance moves?”

River jerked her gaze from the screen and turned to see Riddick in the doorway, leaning on the doorframe, muscled arms folded over his chest, head tilted slightly, gaze fixed solely on her. She once again felt her heart rate exceed norm and her pulse skyrocket, but this time it brought her curiosity and not fear.

Now she knew this was a normal chemical reaction between a woman and male of breeding age. This was what Simon and Kaylee felt whenever they were in the same room.

No wonder Simon had been such a boob around Kaylee the first couple of months…the feeling could make anyone act like an idiot.

“Why so silent?” Riddick chuckled as he pushed away from the doorframe and slowly stalked towards her like a wolf stalked his prey. “Afraid of being away from the others and alone with a monster like me?” He was before her now, gazing down at her through his dark goggles, just daring her to make a run for it now that he was free and could give a chase.

River frowned and stood her ground, tilting her head back so she could look up into his face. “Negative.”

His smile was a purely dark thing to behold, and when his hand reached out and he threaded his fingers through her wild hair, River shivered, closing her eyes at the pleasurable sensation.

The video continued to play in the background.

“Who are you, Lil’ Crazy?” He asked, voice deepening as his other hand wrapped around her waist and pulled her flush against his larger, rock-hard body. Riddick buried his face in her hair once more, inhaling her scent and kneading her flesh with his fingers.

River whimpered, sensations attacking her with ferocity as his mouth found her neck. She gripped the front of his shirt and closed her eyes tighter as his hands traveled the length of her back, caressing her as if he had every right to, as if she was his the way Kaylee was Simon’s.

Should she fight him? Should she surrender?

River momentarily forgot how to think when he tore his mouth from her throat and claimed her lips in a scorching kiss that had that coiling sensation in her stomach become nearly painful.

What was proper in these situations?

The Academy had taught her to become the deadliest weapon in the universes but never had they considered the topic of intimacy an issue…and Simon hadn’t either…so River was confused as to if they were going too fast or if this was a normal step once mutual attraction was confirmed.

It was only when she felt him hook his thumbs into the waistband of her pants and begin to ease it down that she pushed away violently.

That, she knew, didn’t happen right away.

It’d taken months for Simon and Kaylee to see each other’s flesh and become one.

She knew because she’d been hidden and had watched the whole thing when it’d finally happened.

River glared up at Riddick, despite the fact that she was flushed with pleasure and her lips swollen from his attentions.

He gave a throaty, yet slightly pained chuckle. “Trying to torture me, Lil’ Crazy?” He took a step towards her and she took one backwards. “You’re doin’ a helluva better job than Johns.”

Suddenly a commercial began, and River paled, turning to the screen and watching the monstrous octopus as the morbid song continued to play. In her head she screamed for someone to turn it off before the subliminal message could be finished and once more trigger her as it had in the past, but it was too late.

Turning her now cold eyes on Riddick, River grabbed a chair and swung it at him.

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They’d gotten the skiff up and running with enough energy to do a system-check, but had decided that they’d need four more power cells to actually launch the skiff. While Shazza had stayed behind to work on a solar sand-cat they’d found out back so they could go back to the crash site to get the cells and come back to the skiff in the vehicle, Kaylee had become uneasy at the fact that Riddick was missing, and that so was River.

Normally she knew River could take down anything or anyone, but this was a confused River with her first crush, so Kaylee decided to go find her friend and make sure that Riddick wasn’t taking advantage of her.

He was interested in River---that much was obvious. It would have been so much easier on Kaylee if he hadn’t.

Kaylee was so lost in her thoughts she didn’t realize she’d gone a good distance from the others until she heard something crash and a curse.

Recognizing Riddick’s voice, she hurried into the building without a second thought and froze at what she saw.

River and Riddick moved with such speed and accuracy, grace and deadliness, it was like a dance. At first Kaylee was frightened of what Riddick could have done to have River attacking him with such ferocity, but then she recognized the sound in the background and her eyes widened in horror as she remembered the commercial whose subliminal message had been played some years back to trigger River and help the Alliance’s Operative discover where she was and whom she was traveling.

Kaylee looked from the screen to River and Riddick once more, trying desperately to remember the phrase Simon had used to put River to sleep when she’d attacked the patrons at the bar they’d gone to meet Fanty and Mingo in.

All the while, as she desperately searched her brain for the phrase, Kaylee’s eyes were on the battling duo.

Not even Jayne—their best fighter—had been able to hold up against the 90-pound girl, and yet Riddick dodged her movements with fluidness and managed to push her against the wall a time or two. And despite the fact that she’d landed a good amount of punches and kicks, the murderer seemed to be enjoying the fight as he ducked and kicked at her feet, narrowly sending her on her ass.

Never had anyone been able to keep up with River like this in hand-to-hand combat.

“If this is your way or telling me I shouldn’t kiss you again, you’re going about it all the wrong way.” He smirked as he raised his hand and shielded his head from the chair she smashed against him, only to land a kick on her stomach and send her across the room. Following her so quickly he was only a blur, Riddick had her pinned against the wall, burying his nose in the section of skin behind her ear, keeping her there despite her attempts to dislodge him. “You’re just making me want you more.”

Suddenly remembering the phrase, Kaylee cried it out and immediately River’s eyes rolled in the back of her head and she fell unconscious into Riddick’s surprised arms.

Ignoring the murderer, Kaylee rushed to the screen and turned it off, silencing the commercial. “Damn Alliance and their damned subliminal messages! Why can’t they just leave River alone! Who would have thought that this planet would still be able to receive this material?” She kicked at a broken chair. “How could this have reached here? According to Fry the last time anyone lived here was 60 years ago, but that message, that message is only two years old.”

She couldn’t understand it. Had someone come to this place and left it there just in case River came here?

But why?

And who?

“You might wanna be explainin’ why the Alliance would go to all the trouble for a little creature like River.” Riddick’s voice was deep darkness. “And while you’re at it, you’ll be telling me how she knows all the moves of an Alliance Operative.”

Kaylee paled, having forgotten that she wasn’t alone there. Turning to Riddick she was surprised to see that he held the unconscious River in his arms easily despite the fact that he’d been injured somewhat by the fight. “I----errr----.” She paused and frowned at him. “How do you know the moves of an Alliance Operative?”

“Let’s just say the people I murdered, the people I’m being sent to the slam for, weren’t civilians.”

Kaylee’s eyes widened. “You’re a browncoat, like us!”

He scowled at her, shifting River’s weight in his arms. “I didn’t fight in any fuckin’ war if that’s what you’re saying.” He growled. “I jus’ don’t like no one telling me what I can or can’t do or how I can or can’t live my life. I’m my own law.”

Kaylee wasn’t insulted by him or his mannerisms; she’d spent too much time with Jayne to be. And she couldn’t help but begin to see him in a totally different light. Maybe River didn’t have the worst of taste after all.

“So, if Lil’ Crazy isn’t a damned Operative, what the hell is she?”

Kaylee looked up at the one man who might just become their greatest ally on this planet. “It’s a long story.”

He snorted, going to the only chair that wasn’t broken and sitting down. “It’s not like we have anything else to do.” He arranged River on his lap with a dark frown. “Why the hell isn’t she waking up?”

“She’ll be out for a while. It happens whenever she’s un-triggered. She’ll wake up soon though, and a lot rested than if she’d gone to sleep under normal circumstances.”

“So this isn’t the first time she’s done this.” Riddick commented.

Kaylee shook her head. “No, they’ve used that same commercial to find her two years ago.” Apparently she’d decided to tell him, to trust the murderer of Alliance Operatives, and as Kaylee sat on the ground, the mechanic hoped that she’d made the right decision.

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“…And for this, our gift of drink, we give thanks in the name of our prophet Muhammad, peace be unto him, and to our Lord, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and to His father, Allah the Compassionate and the Merciful.” With that, Iman was the first to drink of the water they’d collected.

“The strangest religion…”Paris murmured to himself as he too drank of the water provided.

Shazza shook her head at the small man and gave Iman a small smile. While the death of Zeke loomed over her head, she knew that she had to be strong, she had to survive, and that life went on. For now she would be happy that they’d found life-sustaining water, a skiff to take them out of this hell hole before the solar eclipse, and that she’d gotten the sand-cat to work so they could go back and get the remaining power cells they would need to get the skiff up and running.

She looked around the room and wondered where Kaylee, little River, and Riddick were. She also noticed that one of Iman’s disciples, Ali, was missing as well. They should be here, they all needed water as much as the rest of them---although Johns would be sure to say that Riddick wasn’t human thus didn’t need water as the rest of them did.

“Perhaps we should toast to our hosts.” Paris’ voice broke into her thoughts. “What were they anyway? Miners?”

“Geologists.” Shazza answered without a second thought, refilling her glass. “Advance team, they move around from rock to rock.”

“Musta crapped out here, huh?” Johns snorted, throwing his head back and emptying the glass in one shot.

“But why did they leave their ship?” Jack asked innocently.

There was silence since it was a question that’d bothered them all since the discovery of the skiff, and they had chosen not to dwell on it to keep their peace of mind.

Yet the child had unknowingly opened the damn, and now they would have to reassure him somehow.

Surprisingly enough, it was Johns who offered an answer to the young boy. “Well, it’s only a skiff. Disposable, really.”

“Like an emergency life-raft, right?” Paris asked, sounding like he was trying to reassure himself more than Jack.

“Sure.” Shazza put in for the kid’s sake. She’d never had children with Zeke, and now more than ever she was glad she hadn’t (they’d be stuck in this horrible situation) and saddened (because she had nothing to remember her husband by). “Coulda had a real drop-ship take them off-planet. Long gone.”

Jack smiled, obviously content to believe them.

“Has anyone seen the little one?” Iman suddenly asked, looking around with a frown on his face. “Ali?”

Shazza, who’d noticed the boy’s disappearance long ago, was surprised that Iman had realized he was there.

“I haven’t seen him.” Fry spoke up, looking around the room as if the child was hiding under a table.

“They all look alike to me.” Johns shrugged, reaching for more water.

Jack cleared his throat. “When I left him he was heading towards the Coring Room.”

Iman frowned. “I told him not to stray! It is a dangerous path we lead! Eve fell into the serpent’s snare because she separated from Adam and wandered on her own!” He turned and in left the room, worry etched into his every movement.

Shazza watched as the other two disciples ran out after him. “Maybe we should all go have a look. Some of these buildings have been locked up since the last settlers, they’d be dark, perfect hiding places for those damned dogs.”

For some reason they had all gotten to calling the creatures ‘dogs’ like River despite the fact that according to Fry, they looked nothing like dogs.

The docking pilot jerked her head up at that. “You’re right. Let’s go.”

Shazza nodded and both women hurried to catch up with the Chrislams, Jack at their heels.

They exited the building in time to hear the boy’s scream.

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Riddick noticed Kaylee’s head jerk up when the scream filled the air but he honestly didn’t care what was happening to the others. He had a lot on his mind with all the information she’d told him about the deceptively innocent-looking girl sleeping in his arms.

She wasn’t normal.

She was a weapon, trained to kill accurately and emotionlessly…

…And damned if he hadn’t wanted her more after that fight.

The woman was his equal in ways no one else had ever come close to being.

“That sounded like Ali.” Kaylee’s face was distressed. A pretty face like that shouldn’t be distressed. “Maybe we should go and see if there’s trouble.”

Giving her a look that said ‘go if you want, I ain’t holding you back’, Riddick stayed put. He could see that his attitude irritated the obviously sensitive woman but he honestly didn’t care if anything happened to the others and didn’t see why he should.

“Oh!” Kaylee threw her hands up in female annoyance, amusing Riddick greatly. “If it were us in trouble you’d want the others to come and help, wouldn’t you?”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “If it was me, I wouldn’t need their help.” He informed her quite seriously.

Kaylee glared at him.

Riddick looked at her coolly, turning to look down at River when she murmured something in her sleep and curled tighter against him. Usually, he’d have been smug, yet his muscles tensed and a muscle jerked in his cheek.

“Who is Simon?” He asked, looking up at River’s cousin.

He hated this, hated the fact that he actually cared that she thought he was another man when she curled into his heat. Why should he care if the crazy bitch had someone she loved and was used to being with? Why should he give a fuck that one of the men on that ship of theirs was most probably bedding her?

Riddick’s animal snarled angrily with an emotion he didn’t know or even recognized.

“Her brother.” Kaylee’s voice was even and unafraid; obviously she hadn’t noticed the anger within him.

And all of a sudden all was well again.

Fuck.

Apparently this little woman was getting under his skin.

“The doc who saved her.” He said more than asked, remembering that part of the story.

“Yes.” Kaylee nodded, eyes out of the windows and out into the street. “Please, we should go see--.”

River jerked up from Riddick’s hold with a blood-curdling scream as she flung herself away from them and rushed towards the darkest corner of the room, huddling against the floor, shaking back and forth, murmuring incoherencies.

She was completely insane at the moment, and yet so beautiful in a way Riddick couldn’t even understand.

“River?” Kaylee cried, going towards her yet not daring to touch.

“He’s frightened, hiding and running from the flapping of wings that follow him like an un-waking nightmare.” River’s eyes were wide, as if in a trance, seeing things they couldn’t see. “Ya Allah! Ya Allah!” She wrapped her arms around herself, rocking back and forth. “They circle him like the Grim and touch his skin, making him bleed and cry. Audhu billah! He ducks for the darkness, shivering, pained, hearing them outside…hearing them above.” She tilted her head up and her eyes trailed over the ceiling as if seeing what he saw, fear darkening her eyes, yet it was a fear not her own. “They uncurl and descend like a wave of darkness upon him. Ya Allah! There is pain as the Grim takes him for his own, and then, there is…nothing.”

On her knees next to River, Kaylee cried into her hands. “Ali…”

“If Johns realizes what she is, he’ll turn her in without blinking an eye.” Riddick told Kaylee, shocking her out of her tears. “Can you keep her un-crazy and quiet until we get the hell off this rock?”

She wiped at her eyes viciously, standing on his shaky feet. “I—I don’t know---but I’ll try.”

“Do it, you don’t want that merc realizing the woman has a price over her head that’s larger than mine.”

“Merc?” Kaylee blinked in surprise. “He’s a mercenary!”

“’Course.” Riddick snorted at her reaction. “Why? Did he tell everyone he was an enforcer?” When she nodded numbly, he shook his head. “Did he show a badge or were you all just a bunch of trusting idiots?”

Kaylee winced. “Trusting idiots.” She sighed, getting control over her emotions better now that she had something to concentrate on. “And I should know better after all we’ve been through on Serenity.” She closed her eyes and breathed in before turning to River, who’d gone silent, staring off into space. “River? Mei-Mei?”

Those dark orbs rose to Kaylee immediately. “It didn’t hurt long.” She whispered, obviously trying to comfort the other girl despite the fact that she’d had to see it herself. “When subject to a certain amount of pain the body goes numb and feels nothing. I know—I felt it.”

Kaylee tried to give her a thankful smile but it was pitiful. “C’mon, you more than any of us know why we shouldn’t be away from the others.”

River looked at the hand she offered as if expecting it to bite her before timidly grasping it and allowing the other girl to pull her up.

Riddick admired River’s cool attitude, the way she pulled herself together rapidly and once again seemed the confident woman who’d caught his attention the moment he’d inhaled her heavenly scent.

“We must attend the service.” River told them before letting go of Kaylee’s hand and walking out the door with the grace of a dancer.

Riddick smirked as he watched her body from behind and soon joined her, vaguely noticing when Kaylee hurried to catch up with them.

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“Why was the door chained up?” Shazza asked as they stood in the Coring Room. “Why the bloody hell would they lock themselves in like that?”

Iman had had a prayer service in which most had attended, yet when he and the other Chrislams ventured off into a more private farewell service, only Paris and Jack remained to offer their respects.

The rest of them were in the Coring Room, where Ali’s body had been discovered.

“Not sure,” Johns looked out at those still at the farewell service. “But tell you what: those Chrislams better not be diggin’ another grave out there.”

Kaylee gave the law enforcer an ugly glare.

Shazza could understand. A child had just been killed and Johns was acting really cold about it.

“ Other buildings weren’t secure,” Riddick announced from where he stood next to a silent and unusually pale River. Everyone turned to look at him, waiting for him to continue, and surprisingly enough he did. “…So they ran here. Heaviest doors.” He motioned with his chin towards the objects mentioned. “Thought they’d be safe inside, but…” he turned to look down into the shaft. “Someone forgot to lock the back door.”

Shazza joined him at the shaft and looked down at the millions of bones that’d been picked clean and cluttered the landing. She sighed, forcing herself to look at them, forcing herself to accept reality. “So that’s what ‘came of me Zeke.” She whispered, looking up at Riddick in silence before sighing once more. “You really were telling the truth.”

He nodded.

She paused. “You wouldn’t have minded killing him tho’. You were there for a reason.”

“Not necessarily there to kill him.” The murderer’s gaze shifted slightly to the silent girl next to him before speaking. “Just wanted his O-2.” He waited a beat before scoffing. “Though I noticed he tried to ghost my ass when he shot that stranger instead.”

She couldn’t deny it. They’d all been prepared to kill him because of what Johns had told them about Riddick, yet the murderer was amongst them and Shazza couldn’t help but see him in a different light now that she was a hundred percent sure that he hadn’t killed her husband. On the contrary, instead of taking a life he’d saved one.

It was time that someone recognized that.

Taking off her breather, Shazza handed it to Riddick. “Take it.”

He looked at it suspiciously. “What, it’s broken?”

She smirked. “Startin’ to acclimatize, anyhow.” Shazza shook it a little. “Take it.”

Riddick accepted it awkwardly, sucking down his first gulp of pure O-2.

Feeling something, Shazza turned and noticed Johns glaring at her. Obviously he’d watched the exchange closely and didn’t like the idea of Riddick being promoted in their sights from a murderer who should be killed on sight---to a beast of heavy-labor---to an oxygen-breathing human.

Too bad for him.

“Today.” Fry whispered and everyone turned to look at her. “I hadn’t realize but seeing the date on that calendar on the wall…today.”

“Today what?” Johns asked, impatient.

“What’s the last day marked on that calendar?”

Kaylee turned to the faded calendar, narrowed her eyes and read the date out loud.

“ So they kept calendars,” Johns frowned. “What off it?”

“Don’t you get it?” Shazza whispered, dread filling her. “They didn’t change the calendar because the next day they were that.” She pointed towards the shaft. “It happened 60 years today.”

Kaylee’s eyes widened in horror as she finally understood. “The eclipse…it’s going to happen today…”

“For, behold, darkness will cover the earth,” River whispered in a soft, eerie voice. “And deep darkness the people…”

For some reason Riddick shot Kaylee a disproving glare and the other girl gave him a ‘what would you have me do?” look.

“Are you fuckin’ kidding me?” Johns exclaimed as he turned to River. She’d been right about so many things they were beginning to believe her without questioning how she knew those things.

Riddick’s gaze went from Kaylee, to the shaft, to River, and finally to a pale Johns. “Not afraid of the dark, are you?”

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