The way it could have gonebut didn't Chapter 1: The way it could have gonebut didn't, a pitch black / riddick fanfic

The way it could have gone…but didn't

AN – Woops, I just realized I posted this minus the Summery etc first time around! (Smacks hands). Oh well, let's try again!

Summery – AU. What could have happened. Jack sets off to find Riddick…will she?

Disclaimer – I own nothing you recognize. In fact, I don't even own the stuff you don't recognize, cause loads of the 'unrecognized' stuff is actually from the DVD bonus footage. In short, I own Shit. That's about all.

The skiff crash landed in the suburbs of New Mecca five days gone. The Holy man and the kid jumped ship to start their new lives while I left to continue mine.

I'll not lie, even just to myself. I didn't wanna leave the kid alone. We've barely met two months passed, but that good-bye way harder on her than anything I think she's been through in a long time.

Sad fact is, it was hard on me, too.

But there ain't no fuckin' way I'll admit that.

Not even to myself.

Five days.

Five days' he's been gone. Five days, we've been here, on this planet. The place where I had always intended to be. Five days, I've had a home again.

Five day, young Jack has not eaten nor slept. She barely speaks to me, or to anyone else. I hardly see her. When she is not in her room, she's out. Where she goes and what she does, I haven't a clue. I should worry, and I do. This place is not safe. Riddick seemed to think that if he left, it would ensure her safety. The opposite in fact. Without him her to keep her out of trouble, who knows what she might do to herself.

Allah have mercy on that poor child.

She is twelve years old; she should not have to carry the burden of her first kill alone, as she seems to insist on doing. The lack of support Riddick showed her on the trip from the Mercenary ship that picked us up to here disgusted me, yet, sadly, it was not unexpected.

Young Jack has left again now. She never stays in this home for more than a few hours at a time. It's almost as if the walls have become her cage, and she thinks that Riddick will always be just on the other side of those bars.

Does she dream of looking for him? Is that why she leaves?

She will never find him.

And she knows it.

I've been running in circles for hours now. The alleys all look the same, and I know I should be lost. I probably am, but I'll find my way back. I always find my way back. It's just not to what I wish it could be to.

I always make my way back to Imam's home. Why can I not find my way in all my hours out here to wherever Riddick is? I know he didn't leave straight away. Why can I not find him?

Doesn't he know I'm looking for him?

Or does he know, just not care? No, that can't be it. He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't leave if he knew I wanted to go with him. He's probably still here, somewhere. Making sure we're okay, waiting for me to find him.

He wouldn't leave.

Where are you Riddick?

Where are you?

I'm here.

Another God forsaken hell-planet. Almost makes me wish I were back in the brightness of New Mecca. One thing I never liked was the cold.

But then, this is the last place they'd think to look for me. Any of them. Mercs…enemies…alleys…none of them will find me here.

Yet.

So I set and I wait. And my mind drifts rebelliously to her.

I never said good-bye to her. It wasn't what we wanted, either of us. I stayed a few hours, and then just left. I never un-loaded the skiff, so she knew that I would leave again. I never said the words to her. But when I told her and Imam that I was gonna go get a lay of the land, she knew. I could see it in her face when she told me to be careful, that the Mercs might have followed us.

I never said good-bye, and I don't regret it.

And I don't regret leaving.

I don't regret leaving her there. It was for her own safety, she's safer with Imam, away from me.

I don't regret keeping her safe.

I did the right thing. For once in my fuckin' life, I did what was right. I saved her. Again.

So why did she look at me like that?

Why did her face tell me when I left the home they'd found for themselves that she was more afraid than she had been even on T2.

Was she afraid of me? That I'd get hurt? That I wouldn't be there if they were attacked.

Yeah.

That must've been it.

I don't regret it.

I do not regret it.

Yesterday, Jack spoke to me for the first time since we have arrived here. She asked me if I knew where Riddick had gone to, said she'd searched the entire city and hadn't found him.

I knew she wouldn't.

She still won't.

I told her that I did not know where he was.

She accused me of lying to her; in some rather vehement terms I would rather Riddick had not taught a child her age. I told her again that I didn't know where he was or what he planned to do.

"Then help me to find out," she had pleaded. "Help me, Imam."

I told her that I could not. That we should both forget about him and move on with our lives. She reminded me, however, that without him, we would not have lives to move on with.

"That is true," I told her, "But Jack, if you leave now, you will not have a life to move on with even so. You will spend it searching for a dream you will not find."

She did not adhere to that comment as well as I hoped.

"Riddick is not coming back," I tried to tell her. "He would not want you to waste away on this planet."

Still, she did not listen. In fact, quite the opposite.

She left again.

And in over twenty hours, she has not returned.

I hope she knows what she's doing.

I have no idea what I'm doing.

Well, I know what I'm doing. I'm hailing down a Merc ship. Probably following Riddick through. Or they could be making a routine check, or recruiting, or recuperating. But they're probably here for him.

Only he's not here, you bastards. Did you not notice?

Either way, when they leave this planet, I'll be going with them.

I know Riddick will probably come back when he finds out, even if just to kill me, but I don't care, so long as he comes back.

I killed for him.

What is it to die for him?

End Notes – All those who read my fic before I re-posted will notice that this chapter has grown…I actually, cheated, chapter two just got stuck on the end as my way of saying sorry.

New Chapter two comin soon (WITH Summery and authors notes, etc.)