Disclaimer: I own no rights to Pitch Black, the Chronicles of Riddick, or any of the characters therein. I make no profit from this work.

Warning: Strong language and heavy references to death and gore will occur throughout the story. If you are averse to this, please do not read. Thank you.

Chapter 1

Jack relaxed her muscles and let her breath out slowly, focusing on timing her breathing to the scrape of her shiv on the whetstone in her hand. The smell of blood in her nostrils was permanent, now. Even when she wasn't killing, that smell was with her. Blood, and the inevitable piss and excrement that went with the cessation of life in a human body. After two years on the Floors, two years of hard won survival, the smell was nearly an aphrodisiac, calling out to her inner beast, making it coil and purr and want more.

Seven years ago, when Riddick had left her on that shit-swirl of a planet called Helion Prime, Jack would have recoiled at even the barest thought of blood getting her hot. Now? Now, it was simply a fact of life. Now, she knew what Riddick had meant about the Sweet Spot. Hell, she even had her own: base of the skull, where the spine joins up. A hard shot to get, but with the right skill set and the right shiv? So fuckin' gratifying.

There was an hour left before the Floors officially opened up their betting for the night. Unofficially, she knew that bets had already been placed. Ezekiel, the guard for her sector of cells, had informed her that tonight's fight was going to be…interesting. Interesting was a word that people only used when someone was going to get fucked up…maybe get killed. The way Zeke had stressed it, she had a feeling that he was pretty sure it was going to be her.

Jack grinned, sheer cockiness painted plain on her face. "Oh yeah, Zeke?" she had replied in her whiskey-honey voice. "Just how interesting?" she had wrapped her lips around the word, savoring it on her tongue like a fine wine.

Zeke had shifted his weight, looking around. Didn't do to get caught talking to the Glads, after all. He leaned in close, no longer afraid that she would grab the back of his neck and ram his skull into the bars. "Like, ten guys, all armed, all on the other side…interesting," he murmured.

Jack let out a low whistle and sucked her teeth, calculating. She was good, lethal, quiet, no theatrics. She knew that, when she killed, even if it got a little drawn out, it was always clean, always befitting her title, Silence. Her beast perked up at the odds, purring in near orgasmic delight at the prospect: So much blood, so much hot, sweet life pumping out over her hands. Somewhere in the back of her mind, where human Jack still resided, still held out hope that this was not what she had become, she was screaming. She growled, irritated at the keening that somehow existed inside and outside of her mind. Shaking her head to clear it, Jack locked eyes with Zeke.

"What are the odds running at right now?" she murmured. If she could get a bet in…If she could win…This last round might be enough to finally buy her freedom. Something inside her chest, the one part not completely broken and locked down, swelled at the idea. She quelled it, not willing to take the flying leap of hope. That's what had gotten her here in the first place, anyhow.

"50 to 2, baby girl. I'm not a betting man, myself, but I'd say that the thinking is that these guys are finally gonna be the ones to ghost ya." The look on Ezekiel's face was almost sad when he said it. Looking at him, Jack suddenly released the harsh, braying noise that passed for her laugh nowadays. That laugh had set cold, tremulous fear into the hearts of many of her victims, and the people who had thought to make her one.

Calculating, Jack quickly totted up how much she had stashed away in credits from previous bets. Ten thousand, she had ten thousand credits to her name. Jack knew that other Glads just spent theirs up whenever it came their way, acquisitioning a whore for the night, or bribing the guards to get them a bottle of something strong. Jack? Jack was just saving up, biding her time until she could afford her buy-out fee of 300,000 credits. If she laid down every last credit tonight and won, she'd be in the clear with a little bit left over to get her anywhere else in the known fuckin' 'verse. And if she didn't end up coming out on top? She wouldn't exactly be in any position to care.

Simple as pie, didn't even really need to think about it. One way or another, tonight was the night that she got free from this celestial asshole that some called a planet.

Zeke was starting to slowly shift away from her cell door, and Jack held up a finger, indicating that he should wait. Zeke nodded, shifting his eyes up and down the hallway, making sure they were unseen.

Jack scrabbled with her fingernails along the base of the rocky wall of her cell. When they found the slit, she dug in, grunting with the effort. The stone slid free, revealing her stash. An old shiv, a busted pair of goggles, and the money she'd been ferreting away for two god damn years represented everything she had in the world. Balling the money up, kissing it reverently, she padded back to the door.

"Lay it down on me. Let them think it's your bet. Comes out good, I'll even give you a cut," Jack said with a smirk.

Zeke stared at her, counting up the money in his head. Ten grand was a lot to lay down. "And if it doesn't come out?" he intoned eventually. Jack's smirk widened into a feral grin.

"Well, then," she simpered, "I'm not gonna be too fucking concerned, am I?"

Zeke nodded and trotted off, meaning to get the bet in before the blood began spilling for the night.

Jack listened to him go, pink tongue darting out to moisten her lips. Now or never, sweetheart whispered the gravelly voice that had been her one companion for the last seven years. She grinned, momentarily wondering if he'd be proud of the monster she'd become, and settled back into sharpening her shivs.

A/N: For the purpose of this fiction, I'm toeing the line between cannon and AU. This is my first Pitch Black/Riddick fan fiction, so feedback is both welcomed and appreciated. If you read, please review and I'll see you next chapter.

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