UNDERVERSE COME

Riddick's eyes burst apart. Blue flame shot from his shined corneas, striking the corridor wall. Heat baked the white paint black. He covered his face, temples pounding as if a bass drum beat in his head. Pain racked his body as his bubbling skull heaved like a volcano readying to explode out of the top of a mountain. He curled on the floor covered in the shimmering gold shroud screaming in agony. Nothing had ever hurt like this before. Every cell in his body felt as if it were turning inside out. He flopped over, landing hard on his back as a spray of black vomit hit the ceiling. The ceiling tiles festered and fell. He twisted over, pushed himself up onto his trembling hands and knees as the gold shroud fell to the floor. Sagging forward, he fumbled around, seizing the loose shroud and clumsily stuffed it back into his front pocket.

Through the thick funk blanketing his distorted vision, he could barely make out the dark corridor before him. Blindness addled his senses as he crawled forward, trying to reach the C&C deck. His watering eyes widened to the point of bursting, but they could penetrate the darkness. Had Kearyn been right? Had his eye shine been temporary?Shaking his throbbing head, he massaged his temples as if the soothing motion would restore his failing sight. Riddick knelt helplessly in the middle of the black corridor, cursing whatever had stolen his vision. He needed to get to Krone before Krone's men found him. But no matter, he would fight, blind or otherwise. After what felt like hours, he heard a shrill siren ring out far off in the distance. The ship's alarms pierced the darkness. They are coming.

A distant voice called out from somewhere down the long corridor. "Control to Belmont. Check out the area near the service elevator. Computer scans show the energy drain is localized to that sector."

"Affirmative control. I'm on my way there now." Belmont answered, slowly making his way through the darkness.

"Hey," Belmont yelled over his radio. "There's someone down here." He ran down the hallway as Riddick tried to stand up, but lost his footing and fell back with a thud, sending his head rocketing at the shadowy wall behind him. A moment later, Riddick realized two things: first, was that something had happened to him while he was unconscious beneath the shroud; and the second was that while the lower half of his body was still lying in the corridor, the upper half of his body had just fallen through the wall. He was literally hanging upside down in a pitch-black void.

The guard skidded to a halt about fifteen feet from where Riddick was hanging through the wall, held up his rifle, flashlight blazing away on its barrel, and watched as a pair of legs flailed around. The guard lifted his hand to his neck, pressed a button on his collar and said, "Control, this is Belmont. I found a guy sticking through a wall."

A few seconds passed and the control operator replied, "Come again, Belmont. You found a man trapped in a hole in the wall?"

Belmont was kneeling down, feeling around the wall where Riddick's body penetrated the darkness. But try as he might, Belmont could not fit his fingertips between Riddick and the wall. He stood up, completely baffled, and said, "No, Sir. I found someone fused into the wall. Although, he appears to be very much alive; at least the bottom half of him does."

"Control to Belmont, see if you can get him out, we need answers."

Belmont scolded and shook his head. "Affirmative control," Belmont replied, placing the tip of his left boot against Riddick's right knee and giving him a forceful shove. To his dismay, the legs sticking out of the wall slid completely out of sight. The man, whoever he was, had vanished completely.

The lights came back on and control said, "Belmont, what just happened? It appears the power on your level has returned to normal."

Riddick's eyes glowed in the darkness as he fell through the murk of oblivion. Deeper and deeper, he sank into the abyss, until space and time seemed to fold in on themselves. He was aware of nothing except the bluish light that now emanated from somewhere deep within him. As he descended deeper into the nothingness, an overwhelming sense of inner peace filled him and he suddenly realized he never wanted to go back. He never wanted to feel the hurt of losing another person again.

Something flew by him in the darkness and then returned, buzzing around him like a giant bumblebee and a woman's voice called out from the darkness, "Riddick, come back." The voice was a mother's beckoning call, and he thought he recognized it. "Come back to us Richard; she will not survive without you. None of them will."

He screamed into the darkness, "I'm never going back."

"You must come back." The voice said.

He felt the thought overtake his mind before he saw it. Although he clinched his eyelids together, hoping he could stop it from forming. But in his heart, he already knew he couldn't hide from the truth. He loved her for seeing the goodness in him when everyone else saw only evil. He despised himself for realizing it was that love that had gotten her killed. And what of Dahl? Would she die as well? He told himself if he stayed away from her, she would survive. But he knew that was a lie. His chest tightened, his heart pounded and in his mind, he saw himself kneeling down, holding Kyra in his arms as her eyes closed for the last time. In the absolute darkness, an almost imperceptible word formed on his lips, "Kyra." A sick feeling overtook him. If she hadn't died at that moment, then he had failed and abandoned her yet again. Could he ever face her again, knowing his neglect and selfishness had led to all her pain and suffering?

He floated, frozen by the memory of her demise. His eyes widened when she appeared to him. Her black eyes opened. "Come back to us." she said, reaching out to touch his cheek. He jerked away. Too ashamed to let her touch him.

Floundering in darkness, as if trying to jump backwards. He suddenly stood in the Rapier's med bay staring down through a cold impersonal view port at her half frozen face. She opened her black eyes again and called out, "Come back to us."

Blinking repeatedly as if trying to force the vision away, he wiped his eyes gruffly and suddenly found himself sitting in the Lord Marshall's throne room wearing Necro battle armor; Kyra rose from the floor like a ghost rising from the grave and said in Dahl's voice, "Come back to us, Riddick. We need you."

Then, he was standing on a desolate planet, barren and bereft of life, and Shira was walking to him through a wasteland of fire and smoke. A dead planet lost to time and space. His plant. She stood on Furya. She stopped a few feet in front of him and said, "The time has come. The Riddick must choose his path." He reached out- more gently than he had ever touched anyone before- took her by the hand and placed it on his chest. She said, "This is..."

He nodded, cutting her off before she could finish. "Really going to hurt."

Back in the great void, his body went limp as if he were hanging by his chest while a massive weight pulled down on his feet. His scream was like the sound of thunder racing through the heavens and beams of dazzling blue light shot from his body like lightning through the pitch black sky. The longer he hung, the brighter the light became, until he exploded like a Supernova filling the entire darkness surrounding him with trillions of glittering lights. When the glow subsided, neon veins surged through his body as if the blood pumping from his heart had turned to an ethereal energy.

Riddick opened his eyes and saw a mass of twinkling pinpoints suspended in a sea of swirling movement, like the northern lights. He floated in a world outside, understanding as an indescribable sense of awe and reverie filled his mind and spirit. He felt connected to everything and the streams of energy connecting all the pinpoints of light carried his thoughts to the ends of all things.

Bowing his head in reverence, glowing blue tears trickled down his cheeks. A voice whispered in his ear, "Sometimes the truth cannot be derived from the telling; sometimes it has to be derived from the seeing." He opened his eyes and realized the points of light were not stars at all; they were, in fact, infinite Universes.

Toombs voice thundered around him as if his mind had finally slipped the last puzzle piece into place, revealing the bigger picture at last. "I asked him why he brought us out here. Don't you see he found the entrance to the underverse; he wants to give you Zhylaw's powers." In a flash, the truth that had been staring him in the face since his arrival came into view; Kearyn wanted him to find the underverse to unleash his true potential. Kearny had done this to him.

Riddick's body prickled and popped like a downed high-tension line skipping across wet pavement. A dark energy surged out of him like bolts of lightning arching into space. Then, when the power swelling within him ignited, his fists balled, head tilted back and body spasmed. Riddick screamed, and his voice raced away like thunder through a black sky.

"Belmont to control," a voice called out from somewhere beneath him.

Riddick suddenly realized he was standing on top of the corridor he was in minutes earlier; Only now he was on the outside, staring in. The guard who found him was squatting down, examining the spot on the wall where he had fallen through.

"He's gone, sir." The guard said, standing up and backing away, pointing his weapon at the wall.

"What are you saying, he's gone?" control asked.

Riddick wasn't listening to the man below him. He tapped his foot on the invisible surface between them, testing its strength. He squatted down, placed an unearthly hand on the edge of the surface and said to no one in particular, "While all this is really great. Do these new powers come with a handy user guide? Because, at some point, I am going to need to get back inside and help my friends." He heard himself say the word friends, but couldn't believe the word had come from his mouth.

"BELMONT!" a voice screamed, and Riddick saw the guard point his weapon up at the ceiling beneath him. Riddick stood up, stepped to the side, and floated downward until he was on the same level as the guard inside the corridor. He watched as the terrified guard focused all his attention and weapon on the ceiling above. The trembling guard was less than a foot away, and still the man could not see him standing inches away. Riddick waved his hand in the man's face, but Belmont did not react. He could not see him.

"Belmont I asked you a question, what's going on? Have the lights returned to normal on your level?" the control operator demanded. Riddick reached up, placed his unearthly black hand on the outside of the corridor, and pressed with all his might. Nothing happened. He could not break through the barrier between light and dark. He turned around and said, "I could really use a little help here. Like any time now."

Thunder sounded in the distance and Riddick watched as a tiny speck of white light seemed to grow out of the darkness. It arched up and then steadily came back down until Riddick realized the light was coming straight for him. The orb struck him in the chest. To his amazement, the orb seemed to go right through him, doing no damage at all. He made a guttural sound, one part disbelief, mixed with one part uncertain gratitude and said, "Thanks, I guess." Then, turning back to the guard, he balled up his fist preparing to throw a punch and said, "Just will it to go through." Then, with all the force he could muster, he punched the guard right between the eyes, sending him crashing into the wall on the other side of the wide corridor.

"Nice," he said to himself, pulling his hand out of the corridor and touching the backside of the wall.

The guard was lying in a rolled up heap, struggling to untangle himself from his weapon before another attack came through the wall. Rolling over, he landed on his backside, noticing a black handprint on the opposite wall. Even through the funk of a horribly busted nose, the guard was certain it had not been there a moment ago. Belmont sat on the floor, watching a black spectral vapor waft down from the handprint. It crept across the corridor floor like a snake wriggling towards its unsuspecting prey. After a few terrifying moments, the eerie mist had risen to the same height as Belmont's chin, causing him to leap to his feet and fire at the oncoming spectre.

Riddick still had his hand against the backside of the ever-darkening corridor wall. But he couldn't feel the gravity waves striking the wall. There were no signs of what was happening on the other side of the wall. He smiled at the guard as if the man's terrified attempts to protect himself were pleasing and said, "It's nothing personal. Apparently, I have this effect on everyone."

The lights in the corridor dimmed one after another as if the oncoming blackness were alive. A murky haze spread out from the handprint on the wall, descending to become an unnatural fog that spread across the floor, consuming everything in its path. Belmont saw a dark shadow appear on the wall. He looked around, his weapon pressed tight to his shoulder. But no one was there. He turned back to the shadow. It had grown bigger and darker. He reeled around, took off fleeing the dark shadow, but to his utter terror, it chased after him like a predator chasing its unlucky prey.

Riddick ran along the top of the corridor about 25' behind Belmont, matching his speed almost step for step. Belmont turned just in time to see a shadowy figure made of smoke and vapor running after him on the other side of the ceiling. He aimed up at it.

Riddick dove into the air, raising his knife, clutched firmly between two hands, broke through the barrier between light and dark with his eyes blazing like blue hellfire and fell upon Belmont driving the dagger through his right shoulder with a quick twist of the wrist. Belmont screamed in agony as his severed arm fell to the floor with a firing rifle gripped in a convulsing hand. Riddick stood above him, watching sticky torrents of blood spurting from his shoulder. Belmont's eyes rolled in their sockets. Riddick leaned down beside him, placed a hand over his face as the dieing man struggled to draw in his last rattling breath. Riddick gently closed Belmont's wide eyelids. He pulled the guard's microphone off his collar and said, "Control, this is not Belmont. This is the power outage. Please inform Commander Krone I'll be there shortly."