THE PORTAL

"We are here." Kearyn said, gesturing towards a mountainous guard standing beside the enormous, heavy door at the end of a dead-end hallway. Riddick stood at the entrance, wondering why it looked unfamiliar. Large hieroglyphs covered the columns and archway above the door. They're from my dreams, he thought.

The guard's blood red cloak billowed in a ghostly breeze, chilling the icy air. The long black staff at his side bore the dented signs of many battles, as did the chipped broadsword hanging from his wide leather belt. He was no Necromonger convert; he was a three hundred fifty pound centurion breed for the art of war.

"Kearyn." the man said, acknowledging their approach. He sidestepped, allowing them to approach the door and knock. But Riddick stopped a dozen feet away.

"Boron." Kearyn said.

"Who are you?" Riddick asked, walking up to the heavily armed guard with little care. The worn, sunken marble tiles beneath his thick gladiatorial sandals gave away the millennia of time someone stood against the perils lurking inside.

"Before you go in." Kearyn said, gesturing for him to move back to a place they could speak in private. "I need you to remain on guard. You will undoubtedly hear much from the lady inside. But be aware, while I doubt she will lie to you, I do not believe she will tell you all there is to know."

"What should I know?"

"Your eyes and your overdeveloped sense of distrust should guide you to the larger picture."

"OK, she speaks in half-truths, riddles and silence." Riddick said, patting him on the shoulder. "Is she related?"

"In a way, I suppose she is." he said, gesturing him forward. "Remember, listen closely to what she tells you, and closer to what she does not." Riddick made to walk away and Kearyn called out, "And for Heaven's sake. Whatever you do, do not mention her feet."

"You look like a big jamoke I ran into a few years back. Your name isn't Diaz, is it?" Riddick asked, not liking the sudden glut of memories of his battle with Santana's man. The giant said nothing. "You don't talk much?" Riddick asked, thinking how he never knew the real name of not Furya.

The guard's scarred brow raised, lifting the corner of his mouth into a sneer. "I never talk with anyone."

"If it sucks that bad, why not leave?"

"There are two doorways leading into the room inside." The guard replied, knocking on the door behind him. "This one and its twin on the opposite side of the room. If you knew what lay in wait behind this door's twin, you'd know why I guard this one."

The giant door swung open, revealing an abnormally tall woman standing well back from the inside edge of the threshold. Her long flowing gown blew to the side as if caught in a nonexistent breeze. "Welcome," she said, gesturing politely for Riddick to enter the cavernous room inside. It looked like a cross between a. Gothic Mausoleum and an enormous cathedral.

The guard nodded at the woman and said, "Sister, Lilith." Then he turned his back on her.

"Brother, Boron." she said, casting the giant a cool look. She turned her attention to Riddick. "Long have I awaited the coming of the Riddick to my door."

"If I'd known you were waiting, I would have come sooner."

"All things in due time."

Riddick peered down at Lilith's bare feet. Her three unnaturally large toes with thick talons seemed familiar. The long silver/black braid of hair wrapping around her waist ended in a black dagger woven into an intricate knot. He pictured Eve's biomorphic skin and knew where Kearyn had found some of the inspiration for her design. To the trained eye, Lilith looked elegant, but lethal. "Let's hope the wait was worth it." Riddick replied, taking in the grand surroundings.

"Time reveals all truths. Even those long since lost."

Riddick's eyes lifted to the unearthly birdlike face. It was long and thin, with high cheekbones and oversized bright gold eyes. She looked oddly inhuman, but strangely familiar at the same time. She was both beautiful and foreboding, and he was certain they had met before.

"Ginger," he thought aloud.

"Excuse me," Lilith replied, pretending to be surprised by his sudden confusion.

"I'm sorry. I thought I knew you."

"Perhaps I have a common face." Lilith said, stepping to the side and ushering him in with the wave of her long, willowy arm.

"Hardly." Riddick replied, the vision of Shazza Montgomery circling around him as he walked by her staring up into her golden hawk eyes.

"Please, come in." she said, waiting patiently for him to decide if he would step over the threshold. "The time is growing late and we have much to discuss."

An odd tingling sensation passed through his wide, muscular chest as he stepped across the threshold. It felt like static electricity bristling over every hair on his body.

"It's a charged barrier." Lilith explained, seeing his reaction. "I have taken the utmost precautions to keep out any unwanted contaminants that may harm..." she paused momentarily and then continued, "Lady Kera's fragile state."

Riddick walked past Lilith into the center of the large hall. It, too, seemed out of place. Almost too big to fit in the ship. Even one of the size of this. In all the times he had come to the commander's quarters, he had seen nothing like this room.

He stopped, peering up at the ornately painted murals high above, and thought about his visions of faraway places. Places filled with strange, almost tribal people that lived in that desolate, arid land. The land of his forefathers. Marveling at the ceiling as if standing in the Cysteine Chapel, he slowly turned as a myriad of wall paintings came into focus. Some scenes were from his dream of the little girl's bedroom. Others depicted great battles. He gestured at the paintings and said, "Nice frescos. Do these move?"

Lilith closed the door, ignoring Boron's confrontational scowl, walked to the center of the room, gazing up as if it were the first time she'd done so in a long while. "No... not those. But, I see much from my perch."

A maze of smoking black candles dripped stalactites of sticky wax that rose from the black metal floor. Their dancing embers filled the space with a fiery glow that left the high walls cloaked in an eerie gloom.

Sister Lilith studied Riddick carefully as he walked around the perimeter of the room, stopping every so often to inspect one of the 12 floor to ceiling length tapestries. Each depicted a hand stitched scene of days long past. Some of the embroidery work depicted scenes of long staircases rising to a pyramid temple high atop a rocky shoreline. Some were of a vast city ringed with repeating statues and others depicted a host of winged creatures bursting forth from black clouds high above.

Riddick turned to Lilith with an obvious sense of curiosity and said, "I've traveled from one end of this galaxy to the other, and in all my travels there's one thing I've never encountered."

"Oh…" Lilith said, eyebrow raising, muscles drawing the corner of her mouth into a faint smile. "Do tell."

"An alien." Riddick answered, turning back to the tapestry in front of him. "Sure, I've run into many creatures, but I have never seen a sentient being." He looked Lilith up and down, and added, "That is, until now."

"You are as skilled with your eyes as you are with a blade. You will make a most worthy champion." Lilith replied, taking a bow.

"Where are you from... really?"

"Your people have always had names for my people. Even though neither have met before. We both share a common belief in an all maker figure."

"Oh God." He said to himself, thinking how she was a holy woman.

"Exactly." Lilith said, flourishing the long cloak of hand spun blue and white silk trailing behind her like a wedding train.

"How did you get here?"

"The same way you did. The only difference is, I came in through that door." she said, pointing to the opposite door. He looked at it and thought of Boron's warning. Something dark lurked out there beyond that doorway. Something that wanted to get in. "Although, I was exiled here." she added, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Onto a Necro ship?"

"Don't be foolish." She said, scoffing at him. "I have never been aboard a Necro ship."

Riddick pointed from her to the door he came in and said, "You're on one now."

"Am I." Lilith said, laughing at him like a mother laughing at a child who didn't understand. Lilith pointed to the opposite door and said, "That portal allows my kind in." She gestured at the other door and said, "And that portal allows the Riddick in."

"Only me."

"You and those like you."

"Those like me."

"Oh sister, there's only one of me."

"Arrogance is not a pretty trait." Lilith said, gesturing to the door on the other side of the room. "Besides, I know a billion tortured souls who would disagree."

Riddick's eyes took her in, suspicion contorting his features. "You don't act like any sister I've met before."

"I despise the color black." she said, holding up the beautiful jewel tone robe she wore. "Although, there was a time of mourning when I wore nothing but black." Lilith replied, walking over to the raised altar at the back of the cathedral. "But that was long ago. Before I came here." She turned and looked at him and added, "That was before there was a here to come to."

Riddick noted an underlying tone of superiority that made her appear nastier than he'd first imagined. He studied Lilith's symmetrical face and thought it seemed too perfect for his taste. Her skin was a blemish free alabaster with larger than normal pupils set in large, bird-like eyes.

"Something wrong?" she asked, noticing his interest in her face.

"Why are you here? You said exile."

Riddick followed Lilith around the room as she perused the tapestries to delay telling her story. She stopped at the tapestry with a long staircase leading to the top of a pyramid and said, "My sister and l were born in a universe where our father arranged our marriages. As a result, we wed men we didn't know."

"How'd that work out?"

"After many years we came to care for our husbands." Lilith turned to Riddick with a scornful expression and added, "At least, in our own ways."

Riddick scrutinized her with great interest. "Did they share the feeling?" he asked, watching her reaction.

"Who can say," Lilith mused, walking off. "Love is such a fickle emotion. And we were all so very new."

"It is."

"At the time, I told myself Demetri had some small measure of affection for me. Although, I now realize that was not the case." She gestured at the closed door with a fiery scowl and added, "However, Serafina's husband undoubtedly cared far more for her than mine did for me."

The pyramid on the tapestry Lilith gazed at reminded Riddick of a recent vision. He smiled at her and said, "And therein lays the root of your misfortune; jealousy. You coveted her good fortune."

Lilith stood upon the altar caressing the pulpit. She hung her head and said, "Not at first. In the beginning, our lives seemed idyllic. But Demetri secretly resented our father's power and sought to usurp his throne."

Riddick walked over to the altar, spotted the quasi-chamber and stasis pod behind her, and looked away. "Bad luck for you." He said, stepping away.

Lilith nodded in agreement and replied, "Undoubtedly, but such was the nature of my husband." She now followed Riddick around the room, as he stopped every so often to inspect another tapestry. "Demetri was a powerful speaker." she explained. "His gilded tongue allowed him to gather many followers to his cause. In fact, he even tried to sway Boron to his will."

Riddick looked at the door and thought, what an amazing force of will someone would need to sway him. He skirted the altar trying to prolong the inevitable and replied, "Let me guess, the big jamoke is your sister's husband and he wouldn't join the cause."

Lilith averted her eyes. She nodded and answered, "Indeed not.. Boron went to my father, told him of Demetri's deceit and unwittingly kicked off a war that raged for millennia."

"And your hubby was pissed."

"The rest was inevitable." Lilith said with a nod. "Demetri lost his bid for power and he, and his disciples, ended up in a realm from which there was no escape." Lilith's eyes filled with anger as she gestured to the door. "I begged my father on his behalf. Even after my father condemned me to a life with a man who cared little for me. I still begged him to spare Demetri." She stood up straight, wiped her eyes, and said, "In the end, he cast Demetri into the pit as if he were worth nothing and he sentenced me to be alone… forever."

Riddick shook his head at her and said, "So, poor downtrodden Lilith wanted a little payback, is that it?" Riddick flashed a malevolent smirk, sending an icy chill racing up her spine. He paced around her like a lion sizing up its prey. "I could see it when I first laid eyes on you. You're a twisted ball of vengeance wrapped in a beautiful bouquet. You may smell of all things beautiful, but when the thrones come out, you're a real bitch." Riddick stepped close to her and whispered, "I can smell my kind from a mile away."

"That's nice." Lilith said, turning to him with an elitist sneer. She patted him on the head and mused, "I remind you of flowers?"

His head cocked to the side as he regarded her expression. "You remind me that even the most beautiful rose can draw blood if you're careless."

"You're nothing like I'd expected." Lilith replied, her tone giving no sense of whether she was being facetious.

"I get that a lot," he said, inspecting the ornate stonework around the altar. He stopped at a tapestry depicting a scene of battle. "So, I suppose you took your vengeance out on everyone who wronged you." He waved airily at the bloody bodies in front of him. "You know, a woman scorned and all that nonsense."

An expression of fire spread across her long thin face and she replied, "What I did was far more diabolical than just mere...." she paused just long enough to ensure he was giving her his full attention and then added, "payback."

"I'm sure."

Lilith passed at the quasi-chamber, stepped up to the pulpit in the middle of the altar. Riddick studied it intently, suddenly realizing it was a smaller version of the obelisk that had changed him. Lilith saw his expression, rapped on the stone pulpit to get his "After the war had subsided, my father decided to create a new family; a family he deemed far more worthy than his first children."

"You didn't score a few over, you fucked everyone."

"I did. And the outcome was too much to bear." Lilith replied, looking at Riddick as if wanting him to understand. "I was a vengeful widow racing down a path towards her own inevitable doom."

"Plans didn't work out."

"You could say that," she admitted. "I dragged the rest of my siblings straight down with me." She paused just long enough to caress Kera's cheek and added, "All his children; both old and new will pay for my stupidity."

"Explain."

Lilith walked over next to the tapestry depicting rows of golden statues, turned back to Riddick and said, "My father planned to send two of his most loyal and faithful children to start a new family in a new garden; my obedient little sister and her holier-than-thou husband."

Riddick laughed and said, "Boron and Serafina."

"l was jealous of my sister's perfect life and came to hate her almost as much as I came to hate my father. So, before my father could send them to their new lives, I learned of a way to switch her husband with mine."

Riddick walked over to Lilith and asked, "You went after him?"

Lilith turned to Riddick without expression and answered, "He spent a few centuries languishing in the custody of those he condemned to a life in purgatory." She teetered her head side to side and added, "They were not kind."

"That was a real bitch move."

She shrugged her shoulders and said, "I wouldn't have wanted to be in his shoes. As he tells it, his suffering was that of legend. I believe him." Her expression became malevolent, and she gloated, "When my father imprisoned Demetri, he told me he had made sure there was no way Demetri could ever escape imprisonment. Unfortunately, for my father, Demetri was somewhat of an escape artist." She smiled down at him and added, "A trait l have recently come to learn he may have passed on. Just before my father enacted his master plan to exalt a new tribe, Demetri sent me word of how I could release him from his imprisonment while getting rid of Boron once and for all."

"Clever man," Riddick replied with an expression of sudden understanding, "One man in, one man out. "

Lilith nodded and replied, "Exactly. Demetri found a loophole and I helped him exploit it. I did so without even thinking it through."

Riddick thought for a moment, his eyebrows furrowed deeply and said, "Didn't either of you think someone would notice Boron had vanished and Demetri had suddenly reappeared?" Lilith smiled and replied, "Not for a single moment. One of Demetri's greatest gifts was his ability to impersonate anyone. In fact, he planned to impersonate Boron in order to escape to the new world with Serafina."

Riddick shook his head and said, "Sister, you have a mean streak a hundred light years long. This was never just about getting even with your father or sister, was it?"

Lilith gestured to the tapestries on the wall with a triumphant expression and explained, "I knew it wouldn't take long before Demetri slipped back to his old habits and my Father's grand scheme, and my little sister's perfect life would go up in smoke. I figured if all went as predicted, I could settle the score with three enemies at once."

"Lilith," Riddick said, staring at her in disbelief. "You have a bit of the devil in you."

She laughed maniacally, leaned towards him and whispered, "As I hear it, so do you."

"How did it work out?" Riddick asked, walking off to inspect more of the tapestries.

Lilith watched him walk away as she gestured to the tapestries that held a record of the outcome of her plans. "Unfortunately, I failed to expect whether my father already knew our plans or that his intention was to use that ill-fated deception to achieve his own goals." she replied.

"What goals?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Lilith replied, "My father wanted to instill a balance in his new children; a balance his first born lacked."

"Balance," Riddick said, holding up his palms as if his hands were on a scale.

"Yes," Lilith said, walking over to the quasi chamber to check on Kyra. She leaned down and continued, "The truth became clear after the fact. My father needed opposites to achieve balance in his new children. My people are born either good or evil. No in between with us; no freedom of choice. No gray area. Just one or the other."

"Bullshit." Riddick said, scowling at Lilith in disbelief. "No one goes to those lengths for balance."

Lilith gestured for him to approach the altar and said, "Balance was never the end goal. No matter how powerful we are, an inability to choose forever stunts us."

"We have freedom of choice."

"And we do not," Lilith replied. "My father decides our paths from the moment of our births."

Riddick stepped up onto the altar, walked to the quasi-chamber and saw a leathery body laying inside. He felt a single tear trail down his cheek as a sense of guilt coursed through his heavy heart, making his chest tighten. "Makes life predictable."

"Agreed." Lilith replied. "However, it makes course corrections impossible. What is the point of immortality, if you always end up right back where you started."

"I see you point."

"But there is one trait our people do share." Lilith said, stepping to the head of the quasi-chamber. "We all begin our journeys in the world of the living and end them in the world of the dead. But only the Riddick can walk in both realms at the same time."

Riddick knew there was a great power within him, but he had never felt the ability to control it. Even after recent events, he shook his head in self-doubt and balked, "Sister. You have the wrong guy."

"For her sake," Lilith replied, gesturing from the Quasi-chamber to the stasis-pod. "You had better hope you're wrong."

"I'm no savior!"

"Self-doubt feeds failure." She snapped unexpectedly. "So, I suggest you remember you have already used your new gifts to save a number of people this day."

He turned to her, wearing a foreboding look that stretched outward. "How could you know that?"

"I see a great deal from my little room with a view."

"Then you saw a great deal of fumbling and worse."

"I saw you try." she replied, gesturing at Kera. "Will you not try for her? The one who means so much to you. The one who sacrificed all for you."

"By helping them, I risked nothing!" Riddick shouted.

"By not helping her." Lilith countered. "You risk destroying everything."

"Risk destroying everything for who?"

"Everyone."

"And if she dies?"

"She's dead already."

"I don't want these gifts! I never asked for these gifts!"

"You have no hope of success without them." Lilith said, placing one hand on the stasis-pod and the other in the quasi-chamber. "You must reach into this body, draw its tattered spirit into you and then place it into this vessel." Lilith took Riddick's hands and placed them in the same positions her hands were in earlier.

A dire expression spread across his face. He did not know how to do what she wanted. "And If I lose the connection?"

"Lose control for a split second and her spirit will be lost to you forever." Lilith replied with an equally grave expression.

"Thanks?"

"The power of resurrection is but one of a myriad of hidden talents you possess."

"You know what happened to me, don't you?,"

"Of course." Lilith admitted, turning away from the altar, heading towards the tapestry depicting a black cloud with a burned hand reaching out. "True Champions are not born, we created them."

"Wait," he called out behind her, "Where are you going? What if I have questions? What if I need help?"

"I've completed the task assigned to me and now, I leave the Riddick to complete his task. May the all father guide your hands." She gestured over her shoulder to a nearby tapestry and added, "I will be over here waiting in Hana." She took a moment to regard his sobering face before disappearing behind a tapestry, leaving him to face his own desperation.