Stalemate (6/?)
Title: Stalemate
Rating: R (violence, language and sexual content)
Pairing: Kyra/Riddick
Timeline: Post Pitch Black but Chronicles never happened. Kyra was never sold into slavery, she just became a merc.
Summary: What happens when Kyra the merc decides to get the biggest payday ever, who just so happens to be someone very familiar...
Stalemate
Chapter Six
Kyra reads the letter once, twice, three times. It takes a while for her mind to wrap around the meaning behind the ink and words.
It is an apology, she thinks as she folds it carefully. A rambling, curving apology that he didn’t bail her out of the slam when he could. That he didn’t ignore her wishes and used the money, the mil, to get her out.
It also means that he’s dead.
The clanging of the chains hasn’t lessened over the last couple of minutes, and Kyra storms into the improvised prison, thrusting the letter into his face.
“Did you kill him?” She can barely mask her trembling anger.
“No,” he answers calmly, stilling his arms, “someone got there first.”
Kyra struggles to breathe like she has just run marathon up hill. Her pulse beats, a rapid tattoo of confusion and fury. “Why?”
He does it again, looks up at her like he can see her with his eyes shut. “He sent out a hit on me for a mil. Guess he isn’t as holy as we thought.”
“A hit on-“ she breaks off with a soft, disbelieving chuckle. “He did that for me, you fucker. Because I asked him to.”
In a swift and jarring motion, he yanks hard on the chains so his arms are stretched to their breaking point, his face mere millimeters from hers. “Why’d you do that, kid? Wanted to see me dead? Or back behind bars where I belong? You’re right, ya know. I am an animal. I kill. I should be in a cage,” a creepy smile reveals startling white teeth, “But I’m not.”
“Look pretty caged up to me,” she tells him with confidence she doesn’t think she has. “And I asked him to so I could find you. So I could-“ She stops herself again.
The potent emotions she locked away years ago coil around her throat, squeezing tight. She’d been half-crazy in love with him, her little thirteen-year-old self admiring and loving her killer hero.
“So you could what?” He has turned his voice into something soft, yielding. Another trick, another illusion. He is the master of mind-fucking.
She doesn’t dare tell him the sad, sad truth. “So I could talk to you,” she says instead, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Why?”
“Who killed him?” Kyra asks instead of answer his loaded question.
“Don’t know,” he responds almost sullenly.
Kyra’s mouth tightens with annoyance and her underlying grief. “That hit was only for a mil. It was just to get your attention. Imam didn’t need to die for it. I don’t know when the last time you looked at your hits, but there’s a new one from an anonymous source for five mil. It’s possible they’re the ones who…” she doesn’t bother to finish her sentence.
“Probably,” he agrees, and then adds, a startling twist, “I’ll help.”
“What?” Kyra backs up a step, questioningly.
“You’re gonna track ‘em down, torture ‘em, and kill ‘em,” he recites, a perfect aim of a prediction.
“I am,” she replies resolutely, “but how the hell are you gonna help me?”
“Simple,” he tells her with another uncanny smile, “I’m all you’ve got.”
“Actually,” she nods pensively, mockingly. “You’re right. You can help me. I sell you, I get money and I get a way in. Two birds. One stone.”
He snorts loudly. “Sometimes I forget you really are just a kid. You need someone on the inside, someone who can back you up if things don’t go according to your plan. And they won’t.”
Now it’s her turn to scoff. “And you think you’re the one to be the mole. Thanks, but no thanks. I can find someone else to stab me in the back pretty easily.”
“I’m all you’ve got,” he echoes, smirking. “Think ‘bout it. We got at least a coupla weeks before we get to Solarium Three. Or you could call them now. Tell them to meet you at UV 6, my territory.”
Her mouth drops open before she can cover up her shock. “How’d you know the coordinates?”
He shrugs, not indulging in a verbal reply.
Kyra stares at him long and hard. “I need time to think about this. You haven’t even given me one single reason to trust you. But I swear, with your help or not, I’m gonna find the bastards and I’m gonna kill them all.”
He waits a beat before nonchalantly saying, “Sounds good to me.”
Rating: R (violence, language and sexual content)
Pairing: Kyra/Riddick
Timeline: Post Pitch Black but Chronicles never happened. Kyra was never sold into slavery, she just became a merc.
Summary: What happens when Kyra the merc decides to get the biggest payday ever, who just so happens to be someone very familiar...
Stalemate
Chapter Six
Kyra reads the letter once, twice, three times. It takes a while for her mind to wrap around the meaning behind the ink and words.
It is an apology, she thinks as she folds it carefully. A rambling, curving apology that he didn’t bail her out of the slam when he could. That he didn’t ignore her wishes and used the money, the mil, to get her out.
It also means that he’s dead.
The clanging of the chains hasn’t lessened over the last couple of minutes, and Kyra storms into the improvised prison, thrusting the letter into his face.
“Did you kill him?” She can barely mask her trembling anger.
“No,” he answers calmly, stilling his arms, “someone got there first.”
Kyra struggles to breathe like she has just run marathon up hill. Her pulse beats, a rapid tattoo of confusion and fury. “Why?”
He does it again, looks up at her like he can see her with his eyes shut. “He sent out a hit on me for a mil. Guess he isn’t as holy as we thought.”
“A hit on-“ she breaks off with a soft, disbelieving chuckle. “He did that for me, you fucker. Because I asked him to.”
In a swift and jarring motion, he yanks hard on the chains so his arms are stretched to their breaking point, his face mere millimeters from hers. “Why’d you do that, kid? Wanted to see me dead? Or back behind bars where I belong? You’re right, ya know. I am an animal. I kill. I should be in a cage,” a creepy smile reveals startling white teeth, “But I’m not.”
“Look pretty caged up to me,” she tells him with confidence she doesn’t think she has. “And I asked him to so I could find you. So I could-“ She stops herself again.
The potent emotions she locked away years ago coil around her throat, squeezing tight. She’d been half-crazy in love with him, her little thirteen-year-old self admiring and loving her killer hero.
“So you could what?” He has turned his voice into something soft, yielding. Another trick, another illusion. He is the master of mind-fucking.
She doesn’t dare tell him the sad, sad truth. “So I could talk to you,” she says instead, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Why?”
“Who killed him?” Kyra asks instead of answer his loaded question.
“Don’t know,” he responds almost sullenly.
Kyra’s mouth tightens with annoyance and her underlying grief. “That hit was only for a mil. It was just to get your attention. Imam didn’t need to die for it. I don’t know when the last time you looked at your hits, but there’s a new one from an anonymous source for five mil. It’s possible they’re the ones who…” she doesn’t bother to finish her sentence.
“Probably,” he agrees, and then adds, a startling twist, “I’ll help.”
“What?” Kyra backs up a step, questioningly.
“You’re gonna track ‘em down, torture ‘em, and kill ‘em,” he recites, a perfect aim of a prediction.
“I am,” she replies resolutely, “but how the hell are you gonna help me?”
“Simple,” he tells her with another uncanny smile, “I’m all you’ve got.”
“Actually,” she nods pensively, mockingly. “You’re right. You can help me. I sell you, I get money and I get a way in. Two birds. One stone.”
He snorts loudly. “Sometimes I forget you really are just a kid. You need someone on the inside, someone who can back you up if things don’t go according to your plan. And they won’t.”
Now it’s her turn to scoff. “And you think you’re the one to be the mole. Thanks, but no thanks. I can find someone else to stab me in the back pretty easily.”
“I’m all you’ve got,” he echoes, smirking. “Think ‘bout it. We got at least a coupla weeks before we get to Solarium Three. Or you could call them now. Tell them to meet you at UV 6, my territory.”
Her mouth drops open before she can cover up her shock. “How’d you know the coordinates?”
He shrugs, not indulging in a verbal reply.
Kyra stares at him long and hard. “I need time to think about this. You haven’t even given me one single reason to trust you. But I swear, with your help or not, I’m gonna find the bastards and I’m gonna kill them all.”
He waits a beat before nonchalantly saying, “Sounds good to me.”