-Within The Absence Of Light- ::Part Three::

A thoughtful growl reverberated from Riddick’s chest as she led him through a broken barricade and into the long hallways of the compound. Being just dim enough, he lifted his goggles and let them rest above his brow so he could survey his new surroundings. The echoes of a horrific battle were all around them as they walked, damage from a few explosives and small arms fire littered the steel piping along the walls and metal grating beneath their feet when they started to pass what looked like an acid burn that started from above them in the ceiling, and continued several levels down, as if something very large, had melted its way through the steel.

There was an air to this place that set him on edge, reminding him of the last two unknown planets he’d come across. Death whispered from the stillness, a silent warning that no one was safe and it’d be smart to leave before he’d even landed. But he had a feeling he wouldn’t be jumping orbit anytime soon, seeing as his Wildcat gave off the impression that she felt right at home. If she could hack it, than so could he. Besides, they had some catching up to do.

He continued to follow in silence, taking in every detail and filing it away in his memory. Noting every possible exit, any weakness in the structure that needed tending. At first he noted the makeshift barricade that was placed half-assed at the entry doors. It didn’t seem like they had a helluva’lot of time so they threw whatever they could find together and welded it in place. Apparently it had been pointless considering the walls and ceiling had been torn through as though the steel had been peeled away like it had been nothing more then paper. Whatever they were trying to keep out had no problem getting in and getting past their defenses. When it happened, it was fast, loud and violent. The thing that made him ever the more uneasy, was there were no bodies… Not a god damned thing. 

“This is probably the last place you want to be if you’re afraid of monsters.” Wildcat mused darkly as she led him through a med lab and started to glide at a leisurely pace as they began passing what looked like giant test tubes with strange spider-like creatures floating lifelessly inside. “Don’t worry, they’re all dead.”

Riddick didn’t say anything. He continued observing in silence as the wheels in his mind turned at a breakneck speed. Something was definitely off as she strolled down another corridor that opened up into a larger area, with several control panels and giant windows that peered out into the twisted landscape. He paused for a moment as she approached another smaller panel to the side and hit a series of buttons. A deep mechanical groan poured into the stale air as large steel shutters began to close over the bulletproof glass, shutting out the storm.

She turned, leaning back against the wall and crossed her arms beneath her bust, her head tilted just slightly as a strange kind of smile pulled at her lips. There was something new he now noticed, a deep scar that ended at the corner of her upper lip and continued just underneath the frame of her goggles leading up into her left eye. Made him wonder what was hiding behind those black lenses…

Just as though he’d asked, she let out a soft sigh, lowered her chin and brought her gloved hands to her face. Slowly, she lifted the goggles and placed them at the beginning of her hair line. “Don’t worry, I can still see.” Wildcat began as she raised her head, revealing two orbs of shimmering gold encased in glowing crimson, “if anything, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the upgrade.”

Riddick was suddenly there, his blue/fire gaze peering into her like terrible starlight. The color difference was muted due to the electric violet of his nocturnal vision, but he could still make it out. He wanted a close up, to see where that scar truly ended and where the work began. What threw him was the scar stopped just before there could have been any real damage done to her eyes… Which made him wonder how she acquired the new irises in the first place. No one can do a shine job like that…

“Bet you’re wondering how many packs of Menthol Kools I had to bag to get these babies.” She purred with a sarcastic tone held by invisible knives of resentment and pain that he felt with each word that danced through his ears.

“Eyes like yours aren’t made in a lab.” Riddick finally spoke in a devastating thunder he knew would curl along her nerve endings and send a shiver down her spine. “They’re hereditary.”

A pulse of light echoed in her eerie gaze as if he triggered an emotion she hadn’t felt before. Wildcat managed to play it off with an unpleasant smile. “Funny how DNA works… If you have the genes and the right environment, they get triggered and you find yourself waking up to one helluva surprise.” She paused long enough to slowly, wet her lips, “like I said, I’ve enjoyed the upgrade.”

Riddick searched her shimmering depths, reading the lines of her soul no one else could see. There was a deeper part of him that hoped she hadn’t lost that spark he’d fought to protect. The innocence that he himself lost so very long ago. For a moment he felt his stomach begin to drop, unable to feel that familiar warmth just inside her eyes…when something flickered. It was faint, like an ember buried beneath the ashes of an abandoned campfire. It was just enough to tell him there was still hope…she was still in there, hidden somewhere within that internal darkness.

That infamous grin began to form across the valley of his full lips as he inched forward, backing her up against the cold wall as he pressed his firm body flush against her. Feeling her heat, the gentle thunder of her heart beat echoing into his chest as he bent down to her left, only to brush his lips against the thin material of her shirt at the nape of her neck. Riddick breathed in that familiar scent, refreshing his memory of that unique aroma and fought himself from sinking his teeth into the big pulse just beneath the flesh. 

The scent of a very specific kind of metal made him pause as the tips of twin blades were suddenly pressed into two very delicate areas of his body. One pressed ever so lightly just below his heart, right along the edge of a fresh wound, its scorched edges still pulsing angrily while the other blade was tapping just along the thin material over his manhood. “You have my attention.” He announced and felt more then heard the dark chuckle roll through her chest before she spoke.

“Should’ve warned you that I’m not too keen on physical contact.” She growled softly and as he backed up slowly and received the full force of venom that rippled through the gold of her shined eyes. “So please, be a gentlemen and refrain from invading my personal space if you want to keep your personal bits attached.”

He brought his hands up in defeat and didn’t fight the amusement from his gravely voice, “No need for violence, kitten.” He mused in a husky tone, dropped his hands and took a step back, “all you had to do was ask.”

Her head fell back as a sharp, unimpressed laugh poured from her lips and echoed off the walls. “You and I both know that’s a load of horseshit.” She shot at him with an unpleasant grin, making no attempt to hide the boiling hostility that raged inside her. “You’d have kept pushing until I just gave in. Thinkin’ you could use your old tricks on me.” Wildcat added and slipped the blades back into their appropriate hiding places, “which would’ve worked if I were still the same person. Too bad for you I’m not. That ain’t my idea of foreplay.”

A single brow quirked at her statement. “Should I be afraid to ask what is?” Riddick shot back with a curious lilt to his growling octave and got a scoff in response. He smirked, “I’ll take that as a yes.”

She just looked at him with a deadpan expression. No roll of the eyes, no hint of a blush to warm those pale cheeks…not even a sigh. Wildcat was a mirror image of something he never wanted to see… It was like looking at himself just before the Hunter-Gratzner crashed on T2. That part of him that died on that planet…was now looking back at him through the eyes of the women he loved.

-End Part Three-