Nierra watched Buffy and Riddick follow the Purifier to the conditioning chamber. She prayed that Buffy knew what she was doing. The Lord Marshall can't be allowed to find out about Riddick's origin. Nierra knew that Buffy could feel her presence; she also knew that her champion wouldn't acknowledge her.
They walked to the very center of the ship which held the Lord Marshall's most prized possession. The chambers were the first step in the conditioning process. They gave the Purifier everything he needed to break a person's resistance. It was the next part that caused a person to wish for death. The next step was to make them want to live again, live to serve the Necromonger way, a way which held no pain, no fear, and no death. The marks on the neck were a sign of honor that mere physical pain no longer held any power over a Necromonger. Even the most devout person would eventually break down if the right buttons were pushed. The chambers read everything that made a person who they were - their thoughts, their dreams, even their DNA.
Buffy looked at the Purifier's ramrod straight back as he proudly escorted them to the chambers. This was the one area of the ship that she hated going to the most. She could handle being around all the other Necromongers but the chambers were a man-made hell. The souls of the people who refused to be converted screamed at her from their prison inside the Lord Marshall. Rumors said that he only absorbed the power of the people whose soul he took. Buffy knew it was much more than that. He held their souls inside him and they would only be freed when he died. She felt Nierra floating above her head. No doubt the water Elemental wanted to be sure that Buffy saved the Powers champion so that their prophecy could come true. If she ever got the chance to meet the Powers face to face, she had a lot to say to them about all their stupid prophecies.
The Purifier stopped in front of two ornate doors. They were even more ostentatious than the grand chamber where the Lord Marshall ruled over everyone. He moved to pull the door open when Buffy stopped him.
"That will be all." The Purifier's eyebrows rose in question at her tone of voice. "I will escort him the rest of the way from here. He will go willingly if I take him."
Riddick didn't like the sound of that but trusted Lady Anne for some reason, that if he stopped to think about it would have made him run the other way. It was a feeling of like knowing like. They were the opposite sides of the same coin. He simply put his arm out to her. Buffy laid her small hand once more on his strong arm. They walked in together as if they had known each other for years rather than hours. She led him to the center of a raised circular platform. She stepped up onto the platform and Riddick followed her. He leaned forward when she motioned to him.
The Lord Marshall's scowled when he saw Lady Anne escort the newcomer herself. Thankfully, he would be out of the fair lady's reach as soon as his conditioning began. It was the only place where the Purifier ruled above the Lord Marshall himself. He watched the small, slender Lady Anne talk quietly to the much larger man. She whispered something in his ear and the Lord Marshall watched the shaved head nod in agreement. Their hands brushed each other, then she stepped off the platform and gracefully exited the chamber.
Buffy felt him watching her and Riddick. She cursed internally that they were interrupted, in what would have been the first sex she would have had in over two years. Her body was screaming for release. Buffy shook her head because she knew that her body was screaming for more than that. It wanted its freedom. Freedom to be and do what it was now, free to pull all the power it was capable of together and aim it at the enemy. Buffy mostly wanted to slay something, preferably the Lord Marshall or the Powers; right now, she didn't care which one.
The chamber activated the minute Buffy cleared the doors. They locked behind her at the same time that the platform imprisoned Riddick's feet. He struggled against it only to be pulled down to his hands and knees. Four cylinders shot from the wall, creating a circle around the raised platform. There was a 'being' called the Quasi-Dead in each cylinder; their faces were hidden behind a gauzy material. As if they were each a part of a single entity, they spoke in a cascading fashion. As if they were each a part of a single entity, they spoke in a cascading fashion. The first one spoke then the next until a each layer of the person held prisoner was peeled away.
Riddick struggled to keep them out of his mind. It felt as if someone was pushing hot pokers into his mind and burning out everything that he kept to himself buried in the pitch-black darkness of his soul. His memories of being a child, of everything he knew and loved was being ripped away from him.
Buffy stepped into the observation room then moved forward to look down on the chamber. She heard the Quasi-Dead, as they peeled away the layers of Riddick's mind. Buffy knew that she had to play her hand carefully or Riddick could die before he completed the Powers' task. The Lord Marshall stepped closer to her causing his cape to brush her bare arm. Buffy fought not to turn and rip out his cold black heart. Dame Vaako entered with her husband close on her heels. For once Buffy was happy to have the catty bitch in the same room. The Lord Marshall stepped back and focused his eyes once more on Riddick.
It would have to be now or he wouldn't have a chance. If he was truly, what they said, he was then the one to fulfill the prophecy. The one that the Lord Marshall feared above all other.
Chaos broke out when the Quasi-Dead started to scream and writhe in their cylinders. They screamed causing time to slow down. The Lord Marshall watched on in horror as one of them died before his very eyes. Then it cleared his clouded brain what they were screaming. FURYAN. It couldn't be, he had the entire race annihilated when he first came into power. How could this be? In front of him was the one thing that could end his reign, it was impossible.
He punched a button and ordered. "Attack, kill him, kill him now." The doors were released and ten Necromonger elite guards rushed into the room.
Vaako went to join them but his wife held him back. "You must not leave the Lord Marshall unguarded, my love." Her dark eyes told him the trueth. Let Riddick kill the Lord Marshall, then Vaako could kill Riddick. Her eyes went to where the Lady Anne stood watching, not a single muscle moving.
All eyes turned back to the action below them when Riddick's feet were freed. He took out four guards without any effort. Riddick pulled the staff from one guard only to use it to take another's head off. He saw the cylinders moving back into the wall and jumped on one, sliding down it to the ship's internal workings. He escaped from the rest of the guards and soon found himself outside the ship.
The Lord Marshall swung back around to see Vaako and his wife looking at each other. A power struggle was no doubt in the making when he interrupted them. "Vaako, I want him caught and killed immediately."
Vaako bowed in front of his leader and left the room. His wife watched him go then turned back to see the Lord Marshall focus once again on Lady Anne. Tersa wanted to tear the other woman's hair out but knew that she would never get a chance. As if the other woman read her mind, Lady Anne looked up and gave her a cold smile.
"Lord Marshall, if you will excuse me, I will retire to my rooms. This incident is quite disturbing and I would rather be away from this chaos." Buffy bowed her head and swept out of the room.
Riddick ran quickly through the outpost eluding the Necromongers that persued him. The voices of the Quasi-Dead screamed in his head - Furyan. He couldn't remember his childhood, in fact his first memory was of being a teenager on Garsian. Riddick learned how to move quickly and quietly there. He stole enough to survive and ran fast enough not to be sold at the market. Behind him, a ship fired down, but was unable to hit him. Instinctively, his body moved to evade the gunfire. A pressure cannon downed the ship causing it to crash directly behind him.
A voice from the past called out. "That's far enough, Riddick."
He stopped in his tracks, thinking it ironic, that Toombs was right on time. Riddick allowed one small self-satisfied smile to cross his face before it returned to the emotionless one he showed everyone the world.
"I took your advice, Riddick, and brought along more people," Toombs bragged, tickled to have actually caught the elusive felon.
"What took you so long?" The short gravelly response whispered across the distance between the two adversaries.
Toombs gestured for his new crewmembers to move forward and restrain Riddick. The bounty said dead or alive but he knew you got more room to negotiate with a live prisoner. He wasn't taking any chances this time, as soon as his men were close enough he tranq'ed Riddick with enough drugs to drop an elephant. The mercenaries caught the large man before he hit the ground. They quickly moved towards their ship that was hidden just outside of New Mecca.
While Riddick was being loaded into the ship, Buffy spoke to Nierra. She paced her room with a barely controlled rage, energy came off her in waves. She looked up at the water Elemental, who was daintily floating in the air.
"He is going to find a way to after Jack, the little girl he saved. It will be the deciding factor whether he buys into fulfilling your stupid prophecy."
"Buffy, it isn't my prophecy. This is the way things must be. I don't have anymore say in what I am supposed to do than you do." Nierra sighed; her small blue shoulders slumping with disappointment. SShe had been so proud when she was called as a Guide, but the results of her tutelage made her doubt her abilities.
"Nie, he has buried his feelings so deep, even the ones that he has for Jack. If she is alive, then he will simply take her and disappear."
Nierra's eyes told her that the Water Elemental knew something that she wasn't telling her warrior. Buffy's eyes narrowed and demanded in a hard voice. "Spit it out, Nie, or I won't lift another finger. I am never going to blindly trust anyone again." Buffy's eyes were pure molten lava - the golden outer rims shimmered while their red centers resembled hot embers.
"The girl is not alive. Her crew was captured and sentenced to Crematoria. Jack escaped when they were being transported. She remained on Sartos for only two days before the Necromongers landed. As you know, they don't prize women highly and Jack was simply not up to their standards. She along with over two thirds of the population was slaughtered. Sartos is no more; the Lord Marshall destroyed the planet when he left."
"Riddick is going to go to Crematoria and find out that the one person he allowed himself to care about is dead? How is that going to help? He will be even more withdrawn."
"If he is anything, Riddick is an angry man who the Powers believe will turn that rage on the Lord Marshall."
"The Powers are betting a lot on one man's anger. Exactly, how is he going to get back from Crematoria? The Lord Marshall is sending Lord Vaako to destroy Riddick which means planet go BOOM!"
Nierra took a deep breath, closing her eyes. She felt her power's soothing waves of water. Buffy was a trying student and Nierra was afraid that she would refuse to do what the Powers wanted. "They want you to go to Crematoria to help him escape. Buffy, you need to persuade him to come back and fight the Lord Marshall."
"Exactly what kind of persuasion are you talking about? I'm no one's whore, Nie. I still don't understand why they won't let me take care of this myself. I have all this power and they won't let me use it. The fate of your universe depends on Riddick fulfilling their prophecy. Why did they bring me here if they won't let me do anything about it?" She furiously paced her chamber not really talking to the Elemental but to the Powers themselves.
"Buffy, you know that you couldn't have stayed. I think it was your destiny to end up here, just as it is Riddick's. The two of you are like the opposite sides of the same coin. Do you really think the Powers would have let the spell succeed if it wasn't true?" Her big blue eyes pleaded with this small volatile woman to trust her and the Powers that this was the way things had to be. She wished for some of her mother's patience and insight at this moment.
Riddick held onto the chain, lowering him into the bowels of the prison where Jack was supposed to be. He flipped his legs up to hold onto the chains above his head then pushed into a type of handstand. Pushing off with his upper body, Riddick's spun in mid-air while his hands held onto the chain. It wrapped around his waist as he continued to spin until he worked himself halfway up the chain. Using his strong legs to spin him, he unraveled like a top snapping the chains and allowing him to land on a large man waiting for him below. Riddick felt the man's back snap under his booted feet with a satisfying crunch.
"That was one of my friends." A large man stepped from the dark. "Since you're new, I'll tell you the rules. First, there are two types of people here, prisoners and criminals. Second, there are no rules."
"Nice to know," Riddick's polished eyes took in the prison. It was like so many other hellholes he had found himself in over the years. The only difference was that it was on a planet that didn't house any other structures. The prison was buried deep underground to protect it from the boiling heat of the day and freezing cold at night. He walked by the man who tried to stop the newest member of their little community.
The Guv wasn't used to someone ignoring him. He was the most feared person on this rock and planned on staying that way. He didn't hear the low growl before he felt himself being propelled into the air and hitting the opposite wall. The Guv slid down the wall and fell forward onto his hands and knees.
Riddick stood beside him in mere seconds. He pulled the Guv up by his shirt until they were face to face. "I'm looking for someone that is supposed to be here. If you are a good boy, I won't kill you."
The Guv found himself afraid for the first time in a very long time. "Who, who are you looking for?" He tried to keep his voice from sounding the way that he felt, but wasn't doing a very good job of it. He knew that if he wasn't careful he wouldn't survive long enough to get back at this stranger.
"Name was Jack, hooked up with some mercs that were brought here." Imam told Riddick the last he heard that Jack was still posing as a boy. He didn't want to play his hand if this man didn't know that Jack was a girl.
The Guv looked at Riddick closely; truth was he had a soft spot in his heart for the girl who disguised herself as a boy. He knew that it wouldn't matter now but still wanted to know who this man was and what he wanted with Jack. "Why do you want to know about him? What is he to you?"
"Tell me what I want to know, now." Riddick's voice didn't change in tone or timber, but there was a threat that no sane man would ignore. He moved closer to the smaller man and simply waited.
"He was part of my crew. We got caught on Sartos when we docked for supplies. Jack escaped before we were shipped off for this hell hole."
Riddick perked up. "Then he is still there?"
"No." Guv looked away.
"Do you know where he was heading?"
"The girl is gone, not long after we were shipped here the warden told us those Devil Mongers took out Sartos. There wasn't time for any of the ones that they didn't take to escape. Truth is that I haven't ever heard of anyone escaping once those bastards land. The ones that they take become less than human until they break their spirit."
"Maybe they decided that Jack was worth keeping." Riddick's voice didn't change, but deep inside he knew that his hope for finding Jack alive was quickly dieing.
"They wouldn't have taken her; she wasn't but a little slip of a thing. She was tough enough, but they wouldn't have seen that. They don't put much store in the little ones like her. Even if they would have known that she was female, Jack wasn't their idea of beauty."
The idea of Necromonger beauty sprung clear and bright in Riddick's mind. Long blond hair, golden skin, large hazel eyes that saw everything and a confidence of her place in her world or any other. Anne was the type of woman that any man would kill to possess, but Riddick knew that she would possess any man she took into her life with as much passion and fire as he saw hidden deep in her eyes.
Buffy found her mind filled with thoughts of Riddick. She couldn't shake the feeling that the Powers weren't telling her something, something important. There had to be more to the prophecy than what Nierra told her, and she knew just the person to give her the answers that she needed. She made her way back to the holding cell of the woman who foretold the Lord Marshall's death at the hand of a Furyan.
Buffy wondered if a brash young Aereon could have foreseen the wheels her words would put in motion. She slipped inside without disturbing a single molecule. She couldn't disappear in a cloud of steam like her guide, but Buffy could blend into the walls, floors anything that had substance or shape. She only had to touch an object and she would fade out of sight. It was just one of the affects of the spell. The others were vast and varied, but the strangest of all was the entertwined voices. Their power was frightening and wonderful. Buffy was about to put them into play.
"Hello, Wind-Dancer. I hope that you are enjoying your front row seat to the world that you helped create."
Aereon jumped, fading from sight and slowly back again. "What do you want, warrior? Don't you have more to do than bother an old woman?"
"We have come from the truth, to hear it all from the one who spoke it first." The voices faded in and out, folding on top of each other like waves lapping at the shore. Buffy's eyes blazed red and gold. "We want to know what is hidden from our sight. We want to know what the future holds for this world of your making."
The voices caused something inside the Air Elemental to vibrate and grow. Her logical mind tried to fight against it, but she found herself helpless to do so. "The Powers needed another for everything to come to pass. Another from a distant world, someone powerful who would grow beyond what their world could contain. They would be there to make sure that the prophecy comes to pass as it should."
Buffy's mind whirled. The Initiative, Adam, Professor Walsh, the Powers planned it all. They created a monster that had to be stopped with more than a single Slayer's capabilities. They needed all the Slayers power from the First to the Last. The Last - Faith, Buffy wondered what happened to her sister Slayer. Did she lose her link to the Slayer line? Did the Powers even care? What about her family and friends and the Hellmouth? Was it all a lie, everything that she fought and died for since she was sixteen? What did they have planned for her and Riddick? There was more to this and she needed to figure it out before they got screwed over.
Aereon returned to herself and felt a fear greater than anything the Lord Marshall could generate. "What are you? How do you come about this power to warp my mind?"
"You should ask you bosses that one. I am their creation after all. Did you ever wonder why you were given this knowledge, Aereon? Come on now, you are a smart bag of wind, why would they let you tell the man who would become the biggest threat to the future? Why not keep the information from the Lord Marshall then use it before he got powerful? Think with that sharp little white noggin of yours. What could their reasons be? Have you ever had a vision before or after? Face it, Lady, they played you just like they have been playing with me, but I have had their sticky fingers pulling my strings long enough." Buffy moved swiftly for the door.
"Warrior, wait! What are you going to do? Your reasoning cannot be correct. I have been a faithful servant to them for hundreds of years. Why would they use me and my daughter in this manner?"
Buffy snorted, "Ask yourself why the only warriors for my world are young innocent girls. Their guides as you like to think of yourselves are old men who think nothing of their deaths. Another is chosen whenever one falls; I was the only one to make it to the ripe age of nineteen. But not before, I died at least one time and had to send my lover to hell because of the Powers rules and prophecies. Now, I have to go and make sure that Riddick doesn't lose his life for their grand game. I will do what needs to be done and the prophecy be damned."
"Buffy," Nierra appeared beside her mother and felt fear in her heart when she saw Aereon's pale shocked face. "What is going on here? We have to leave soon, Vaako's ship just left and we don't have much time." The Water Elemental grabbed Buffy's hand and they disappeared leaving behind them a gentle mist of water.
"Nierra, daughter wait. You don't know what you are doing. She can't go or I do not know what will become of our world." Aereon sat down and tried to think through all the possible paths that Buffy's interference could take. She couldn't stop the words from ringing in her ears. Young girls little more than children who were used as weapons to die at an early age only to be replaced by another. "No, she has to be wrong. The Powers know what needs to be done to stop the Necromongers."
Riddick watched the prisoners run for cover when the guards opened the gates. He stood perfectly still while some type of hell beast was let free inside. The prisoners scrambled to get to higher ground or close their cell doors. Several unlucky fools weren't fast enough and became a beast's evening meal.
He saw the cell that seemed to have a new vacancy and strolled over to have a seat. No sooner had he made himself at home, than he heard snarls at the still open door. Riddick remained perfectly still, watching the large animal put a tusked snout in the air and take a deep sniff. It stalked towards him before stopping short. Blazing red eyes looked into ones of polished silver; they connected on the most basic of animalistic levels.
The Guv expected to hear screams and growls but there was only silence. He and his men crept forward and looked on in wonder. Riddick was petting one of the beasts that had them to running like rats in order to stay alive. He actually had it purring like a kitten.
"How did you do that?"
"Like understands like." Was the cryptic response they got.
The Guv stayed while the others moved away not wanting to be close to Riddick or the hell beast. "What are you, who are you?"
"Name's Riddick and if you want to get out of here when I get ready to go, stick close."
"No one can break out of Crematoria. If the beasts don't kill you, then the planet will."
"They have to go up for air and when they do that will be the time. If you want to stay here and rot, then be my guest. If not, then stick close and be ready to move. But know now, I won't wait for you, I only have one speed - mine. Keep up or get dead, doesn't make much difference to me."
Riddick went back to petting his new friend. "You're a good boy, aren't you? You'll show your buddy Riddick the way, won't you?"
The animal butted up against Riddick's leg, stretching gracefully like a large cat. It should have looked strange on such a vicious creature. The man and the beast seemed to fit together in an odd sort of way. He lay back on the cot and closed his eyes. His new friend put its head down next to him, unwilling to leave the man's side.
Toombs wasn't happy with the amount the warden was offering for Riddick and decided to stay a little longer to try and negotiate a higher price. He looked at the temperatures drop down to 100 degrees below freezing. The cold seemed to race down his and his crew's spines.
"Take a seat, senor. It will be a while before you can leave. Your ship's engines won't work in the cold. You will have plenty of time before the sun is full in the sky. Have something to drink and we will talk about what is happening in the world out there."
The warden's brother said something in a language that Toombs and the others couldn't understand. They looked at a scanner at the Necromonger battleship that was no more than twelve hours away. "You were followed here. Who did you bring down on us?"
Gunfire sprayed the room from every corner as Toombs' crew tried to survive the barrage from the prison guards. No more than twenty minutes later, Toombs found himself being lowered into the prison he would have made Riddick's new home.
Riddick perked up at the sound and went to talk to the Guv. "It's time to blow this joint. If you're ready then let's go."
Only twenty minutes later the chain was lowered again with a struggling man clinging to the end. "RIDDICK! Let me down from here, you can't leave me like this. RIDDICK!"
In a single leap, Riddick caught hold of the chain, climbing over the man who clung to it for his life. It wasn't long before Toombs crashed to the ground and the other prisoners swarmed on him like locusts. The Guv and his team followed Riddick up to the control tower. Bullet holes riddled the place, and bodies lay about the place. Riddick strode over to the doors and saw that they had been blown. Looking at the monitors, they watched the Warden and his men racing through the tunnels.
"Damn it, they are going after my ship. Buckle up, boys, we are in for a little nature stroll. We don't have a choice but to go over while they go under. If you are going to get off this rock alive, then you are going to have to move fast and keep up. I go one speed and make no stops for anything."
"We only have a little over an hour to get to the bay. Grab anything that you can use and let's get going."
Riddick felt a rough tongue lick his hand. He looked down to see his newest friend sitting beside him. It tilted its head to the side, then moved off towards a door that no one noticed before. Riddick checked it out and found that it lead to the outside. It must be what they used to service the shutters. The animal moved out the door, stopping stopped to wait for its friend. Riddick couldn't stop the smile that crossed his lips for the briefest of moments. His trademark goggles were down over his eyes and he moved off in a fast, but steady pace away from the prison. He wasn't sure how he got so lucky. His new 'pet' was actually leading them across the terrain towards the ship.