Elia got out of the car carefully, gun pointed at Riddick the entire time, the only thing was she knew who he really was now.  She looked at his wound and saw how much more blood he had lost, gauging how weak he might be.  After brief thought on the situation, she doubted him to be weak at all.

 

“Houston!” Elia shouted over the wind.

 

“Coming,” replied a deep voice in the brick house.

 

“Are you a cop or a merc?” asked Jack as she pulled her coat closer to her.

 

“No,” Elia replied sharply shocking people with her distaste of cops and mercs alike.

 

“Excuse me, Elia, but what have I told you about pointing guns at guests,” Houston replied emerging from the house.

 

Houston, an android that was created twenty years before Elia was born to watch over the creations that Elia’s father made, a tall man that looked to be in his twenties.  With jet-black hair and yellow eyes, Houston looked rather fetchingly human.  He dismissed the threat, knowing that Elia tended to be the bigger adversary when it came down to it and that she could handle herself quite well.

 

“Aaah, Mr. Riddick, I haven’t seen you since you were on the telly and the newspapers,” Houston replied with a polite smile.

 

Without warning Riddick went for the attack at the exact same instance Elia went for it.  They got in a few good rounds of hitting, punching, clawing in Elia’s case, slicing in Riddick’s, and somewhere in the middle they were about to bite each other.  That was when a shot rang out in the cold air.

 

“Excuse, Elia, but if you don’t stand down I will punish you later and neither of you will be happy once your wounds get infected,” Houston replied resting his gun casually on his shoulder as he leaned against the vehicle.

 

“I’ll just lock you in the bathroom, Houston, I know you hate it very much…all that water and no place to go,” Elia replied as she gracefully stood up.  She looked at the vehicle and noted that Imam and Jack were now looking at them from the window inside of the house and asked Houston, “When did you finish unpacking?”

 

“While you two were mucking about like pigs in the mud, now inside the both of you,” Houston replied and went inside before Riddick and Elia moved, they looked at each other and shrugged and each proudly walked inside not giving in to the pain they felt.

 

“Took you both long enough, you are not to eat until you go clean your wounds.  You both look bloody horrible,” Houston replied as he set the food on the table.

 

“But…” Elia started to say but Houston raised a hand in the air to silence.  Instead Elia muttered as she led the way to the bathroom, “I cannot stand him sometimes, he’s worse than having a psycho father.”

 

Riddick smirked at the comment, not knowing why he ever fought the woman in the first place, but he did know that he had to get rid of Houston in order to establish dominance.

 

“I can fix my own wounds thanks,” Riddick replied stubbornly a few minutes later as he sat on the toilet and Elia sat on the tub. 

 

“Listen here, Mister, I don’t care if you can do it or not.  You need to take precautions or else you will succumb to a horrible fever and infection because of my nails…trust me it is not pretty.  Ask Houston about it, he’ll tell you all of the gruesome details possible,” Elia huffed as she took a cotton ball and put antiseptic on it, “either you give me your arm or I’ll take it.”

 

“I’d like to see you try,” Riddick replied in a challenging way.

 

“You’d like to see me try, huh, mate?” Elia replied her accent deepening in her anger and turned around and smiled broadly, “Well, good luck with that.”

 

Riddick stared at her in complete surprise, not expecting her to react like that but to fight with him again, as she took his arm and began to disinfect it with the antiseptic she had.  He felt like he needed air, something to clean his mind out and help him control himself.  Something was driving him crazy and he wasn’t sure what it was at all.

 

“Sorry, I didn’t trust you right off, I mean I could have reacted better than that,” Elia replied as she gently cleaned up the marks she gave Riddick, “It’s been a while since I’ve had someone stick their shiv in my direction…I sort of react before I think about it…easily provoked, I guess.”

 

Riddick just listened as she cleaned his wounds, and once she was done, his only response was to begin to clean hers.  He admired the fact that she did not whimper in pain, and he knew for a fact that the antiseptic was incredibly strong.  The antiseptic was strong enough to make a grown man cry like a baby and blow on it…except for Riddick and Elia it seemed to have no effect on them.

 

“What are you?” he asked suddenly.

 

“What in the bloody hell are you two doing?!  I just told you to disinfect not bathe in the stuff!  Next time I’ll do it…I swear you both are going to break me, now go in there and eat your dinner!” Houston replied as he entered the bathroom.  Taking the antiseptic away from Riddick, Houston corked it while Elia and the murderer looked at each other and shrugged, “shoo!”

 

“You two eat and then we’ll have with the explaining afterwards!” Houston called out after them; Elia sighed and shook her head.

 

“Why does he have you on a ball and chain?” Riddick asked casually as he took a bite of some meat that he wasn’t going to identify.

 

Elia laughed at the question and took a bite of her steak, which as bloody as Riddick’s was, and looked at him again and laughed.

 

Riddick sat there patiently as he could, not liking the fact that someone was laughing at him…no one ever laughs at him and lives!  But that was when he noticed that Elia had fangs.  What the hell, he thought surprised.

 

“Sorry, it’s just that I wouldn’t dream of dating Houston,” Elia said as she dabbed at her eyes which also took to a feline manner, “he’s almost like my father!  That would be like incest…anyhow I don’t know if he’s anatomically correct…if he is I never caught him.”

 

“What?” Riddick replied completely lost as to what she had just said because his mind was working out what the woman before him was, albeit an attractive one, strange nevertheless.

 

“All right, let’s go have our chat, shall we?  Then after words you all can fight amongst yourselves with the bath,” Houston replied and took the empty plates to the sink.

 

“I’ll wash those, Houston,” Elia replied as she stood up.

 

“Damn right you will, doll face,” He replied with a grin only for her, which caused her to chuckle.

 

 

                          ******************

 

“So what’s going around in this weird snow globe?” Riddick asked as he leaned back against the chair.

 

“Nothing interesting, I can assure, sir,” Houston replied with a smile.

 

“He’s an android,” Elia replied simply, as if it would explain everything.

 

“That’s right, I was created to watch over Dr. Watson or in some cases, Dr. Moreau’s creations during their younger stages,” the dark hair droid replied with a shrug.

 

“Excuse me, but did you say creations?” Imam asked, almost as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

 

“Yes, I’m one of the creations,” Elia said and flicked her dark blue hair over her shoulder.

 

“What are you?” Jack asked curiously.

 

“I’m a human with feline characteristics fused to my DNA. Most of the characteristics come out when I am experiencing strong emotions, other than that the only thing you’ll notice about me is the eyes—my pupils are that of a cat’s,” she replied and angered flickered across her pale face, “My “father”, and I do use the term loosely…would rape women or hire men to rape women…”

 

“Then he would make sure they get impregnated and begin to submit the fetus and the mother to the experiments in order to get the outcome he wanted. I,” Houston paused after he took over for Elia when she couldn’t go on, “would care for the children and mother until they died or are expelled from the lab.”

 

“Allah,” Imam muttered and prayed silently.

 

“Why were you created, Houston?” Jack asked intrigued by the topic and appalled.

 

“I was created after one of the pregnant mothers escaped with the help of a janitor.  The mother gave birth to a boy and she lived long enough to hide the baby near some sort of store,” Houston replied and saw that Riddick seemed to freeze.

 

“Did that baby survive?” Jack asked not realizing what was really going on at the moment.

 

“One could say that he surpassed all odds,” the android replied cryptically.

 

“What did the doctor do to the babies and why did he do it?” Imam asked as he leaned closer.

 

“Like I said earlier, Dr. Watson, would pick women in fields that they normally would not be in—such as a merc or military personnel of the highest degree, then he would get a serial killer to kidnap and rape the women until they got pregnant. 

 

Once that was achieved, my father would subtly begin to shoot up the particular animal or the family’s DNA and then a compound that would start to fuse the DNA together.  The mother would be in great pain and eventually go insane from it, while their bodies break down.  Towards the end, the women were put into a type of coma so they would not harm the children they were carrying. 

 

Once the children are born, the doctor would begin to feed the children the injections and hormone pills to help regulate all of the genetic fusing he had done in order to give the child a chance to survive.  When they hit puberty he would treat all of the female creations are “saddled” to put it politely, after that we are put to our first mission.”

 

“What do you mean by “saddled”, Elia?” Jack asked confused.

 

“Raped,” Elia replied simply, “the funny thing is I am my father’s true daughter.  I am his creation using his own DNA and the woman he loved.  Of course he killed the woman but really “it’s a small price for science” he would say.”

 

“Allah,” Imam replied completely horrified.

 

“We are created to kill, the instincts from the animals, the prisoner, and even the women give us a type of super human senses.  The creations before me look more human however and don’t seem to have changed, but those like me can kill our target with just a scratch of our nails when they turn into claws.  Dr. Moreau created a type of toxin individual to each person and that toxin can kill anybody within a few hours,” Elia replied, “which is another reason why Houston was created.  He is the only one who could create the antidote with each creation.  That’s why, Riddick, I was so adamant about disinfecting your wounds I inflicted on you…the antiseptic is strong enough to combat the toxin, especially since it wasn’t that long that you got cut.”

 

“So basically he created you guys to kill people?” Riddick replied after a long silence.

 

“Yes, but when I refused he tried to hurt me,” Elia replied, “I can’t stand to have a weapon pointed at me.”

 

Elia stood up and looked outside, where the snow covered half of the windows up, she ignored the others as she reveled in her pain.  Then she relived as the past slowly came alive in her mind’s eye.

 

“We lived on Earth prime, out in the desert in America. My father found me in the middle of one far away from the compound.  I was about 13, on the run.  I lived in the wild with the coyotes, for some reason they allowed me to be near them and eat the scraps along side of them.

 

I only had a zeppo lighter with me and the clothes on my back.  He shoved against a cactus and that was when I broke.  My instincts kicked in and so did my anger.  I lifted him by his neck, shoved him against the cactus, and ripped his pants off to tie him against it.

 

It is rather a sad thing when you think about it.  He was so driven to create a super human that his own creation killed him.  I burned his penis with the lighter.  He screamed in pain for a long time before he passed out, just like I…we…all screamed during all of his experiments and his “saddling”.  The bastard deserved what he got and the coyotes finished him off while he was still alive.  I should feel bad about it really…especially since we were all programmed to be loyal to the Doctor…but that never fully worked on me.”

 

The silence in the room was palpable, and everyone shifted uncomfortably.  Houston cleared his throat and replied, “Jack, perhaps it is time for you to have a bath.”

 

“Please tell me about you, Houston,” Jack pleaded and he nodded, leaving the room for a bit and returned after the tub was filled.

 

“I was once a man, living and breathing,” Houston replied, “I worked on the project along side of Dr. Watson. I wasn’t so heartless, I actually showed the children as much of humanity as I could.  I tried to make their whole stay as painless as possible.  Dr. Watson felt that he needed me to be a protector.  So the man took it upon himself to create an indestructible body that was anatomically correct and then harvested my brain and planted it into the body.  I can perform all of the basic human functions and tasks if I needed to so that I would appear a man, but I have no desires to.”

 

“That’s horrible!” Imam replied.

 

“Yes, well, Jack, why don’t you go take a bath,” the dark hair man replied, “I will get you in twenty minutes and there are some clothes and fresh towels in there now.”

 

“Fine, I’ll go take a bath,” Jack muttered and went to the bathroom and shut the door.

 

“What happened to the baby?”  Imam asked.

 

“He’s right there,” Houston replied while pointing at Riddick.

 

“How come I’m not like Elia?” Riddick asked the android.

 

“You did not receive the full treatment…actually you would have been the first one to be more like Elia but you never made it that far,” he replied.

 

Riddick sighed and rubbed his baldhead before he replied, “So then I’m pretty human then?”

 

“No, you have the heighten senses, which is why your shine job worked so well for you.  The kind that you had done did not work on many.  You also have a genius IQ…maybe even past that, not really sure,” Houston replied, “Also, you have rapid healing and have abnormal strength.”

 

“Will you see that they have a place to sleep, Houston?  I’m going out,” Elia said speaking for the first time in a while.

 

Before the android could respond, Elia left heading towards the kitchen.  Riddick looked at Houston and went his own way.  Imam and Houston looked at each other and then Houston left to let Jack know that it was her time to leave the tub. Imam sat there and prayed to Allah for protection and guidance.

 

 

                     ***********************

 

 

Elia was under her space craft, fixing the integrity of the hull, when Riddick entered the underground hanger.  As she was fixing the only real means of leaving the planet, she was working her emotions out and categorizing them into tiny slots in her mind.  It was something she did to keep her sanity.  That was what worried her, she knew from her own account that many of the creations went insane.  Not many survived past their teens because they got themselves killed the first chance they could.  She didn’t want to be like that….and so far she hasn’t done anything stupid or strange.

 

Elia even went so far as to get Houston to document her.  He checked her blood, her temperature, and even her sanity.  He would give her pills that she agreed upon to make sure she stayed in tiptop shape.  She had him teach her everything that he knew so that she could apply it in case something ever happened to him.

 

God, if anything happened to him… she thought as she entered the ship.  She knew that she would be lost without Houston, he was her primary reason that she hadn’t snapped like all of the others had.  He lay next to her so that she could sleep at night.  One time he sputtered indignantly, but jokingly, that he was her “body pillow”. 

 

“What’s wrong with her?” a deep voice spoke from behind her.

 

“She suffered damages when we landed here,” she replied as she entered the interior of the ship.

 

Riddick followed her, looking at her figure as well and was rather pleased with what he saw.  Her dark blue hair was pulled up in a knot and the end of it stuck up in the air like a tail almost.  She was perfect, even better looking than Frye or Shazza was.  He grimaced inwardly when he thought about the “was” and what it led to in his mind.  He shook his head and took the time to admire the interior of the ship.

 

“Your ship is beautiful, I’ve never seen it before,” Riddick replied as he looked at the dark blue interior. 

 

“Nor will you ever see one like this,” Elia muttered as she turned on the engines and began to work on the computer, “It’s all custom made by me.”

 

“You designed it and everything?” he asked with surprise looking at her through his goggles.

 

“Lights to 20,” was her response and the lights dimmed to a more bearable setting for Riddick, “yes, I designed it and I helped make the ship.  Surprised that a woman would take interest, Riddick?”

 

She turned to look at him and he leaned closer to her and replied, “No, can’t say that I am considering what you are.”

 

The remark was quite biting but Elia responded coolly, “What we are, pet, and don’t you forget it.”

 

Riddick growled loudly and said, “I don’t look like you so I can say that I’m not like you.”

 

“Then why did you get a shine job, Riddick?  You could have easily sustained on your own instincts in the dark with out them…hell you should have been able to see in the dark in the first place,” she said as she slowly stood up from her chair.

 

“Fuck you, bitch,” he replied and Elia’s pupil’s narrowed to tiny slits even in the dark, she growled at him and left the room.

 

But before she stepped out of the room she said, “Don’t try to hot wire my ship, Riddick, it only responds to me.”

 

Riddick sat in the chair and sighed in irritation.  He didn’t mean to piss her off but just to see if she was bluffing he started to hack his way into the computer system.

 

“Warning, you are not authorized to touch this panel,” a male computerized voice replied.

 

Riddick ignored the warning and continued to hack his way into the system.  He made it through a few of the matrixes and started to find files.

 

“I warned you, you sick bastard,” the computer replied and the next thing Riddick remembered was being blinded by something.

             

 

                     *************