The movie version of a grown up Jack seemed not very smart. For a girl presumably used being delt a bad hand, she did some stupid shit. (Signing with mercs, getting slaved out, leaving Riddick on the runway, getting on the Necro ship.....) So I went all AU with my Jack, gave her a desperation for understanding for why her life happened to her. Hopefully throughout this fic we can all watch her grow a brain, cause thinking about her being approx. 17-19 means she's still young and immature. Oh and she's angry at Riddick, that's kind of unescapable. We'd be pissed off too.
The stillness disturbed Jack. The stars were hiding and from the balcony the trees stood still, no animals called out, nothing, like there was bigger things in the wildness.
She shivered, wrapping her shawl around herself tighter, turning around to kneel once more at the small alter just inside her room. The red and white candles burnt brightly, twice as fast with the lack of wind, and the scent of melting wax permeated the room.
Jack pursed her lips and gently blew the candles out for the night, fingers unwrapping the shimmery material from around her body; knives were revealed and reverently laid out on a chest where they glinted softly. Grabbing a soft, short robe, Jack wrapped it around herself and set to removing the pins that held her coiled hair up, letting it fall down her back in a river of curls.
Between her eyebrows, a faint crease formed, and before she could think twice, her hand shot out to grab a blade, her body turning fluidly as she threw it into the dark corner of the room. Riddick deftly sidestepped away from the projectile, striking quickly to pin Jack against a wall before she could grasp any more weapons.
"Still mad Jack?" He asked quietly, aware that commotion would attract attention.
"What are you doing here?" She spat at him angrily, struggling against his hold.
"Funny thing, someone sent mercs my way." Riddick informed her darkly, one hands holding her hands together over her head, the other sneaking up to grasp her throat in a chokehold.
"And you think I ratted you out?" She asked, trying to get loose. "I'm an acolyte on a religious planet, I don't exactly have a wish to go planet hopping with a murderer."
Riddick let her go, only for Jack to swiftly turn sweep his legs out from under him, his hands grabbing her to pull her down as well, rolling her underneath him and pinning him to the ground.
"Enough!" He snapped, legs holding hers down to prevent her from kneeing him.
"What the hell are you doing here Riddick?" Jack asked, her voice quiet, but furious.
"Could ask you the same thing." He told her, loosening his grip so she could crawl out from underneath him, her legs scrabbling for purchase on the soft plush carpet.
"Taking my holy orders." Jack snapped. "And given that you're you, I don't think you've come here to pray to the Goddess."
"You really want to devote yourself to someone who let you suffer?" Riddick questioned. "The God who let you get slaved out, abused, raped?" He began to crowd her into a corner.
"Shut up, you know nothing of my past." Jack told him, trying to push him away.
"I know you were the product of a crack whore, I know you killed the man who brought you, raped you."
Jack covered her ears defiantly. "Shut up!"
"What? Truth too much?" He had her backed in a corner, facing her memories, her small hands trying to slap him away, all her fighting prowess gone. "Who sent the mercs after me Jack?"
"I don't know!" She insisted.
"Oh come on, what did they do, try to torture you?" He asked. "You were tortured before, as a child, you could have taken it."
"I didn't know where you were!" Jack exploded, her fist flying into his face, a knife from the small of her back slashed across his ribs. An accompanying kick to the solar plexus drove him back, followed by another blow that skimmed across his cheekbone, and through it all, he allowed her to attack him, not retaliating until she stopped. Shaking her curls from her face, she regarded him through angry eyes.
"Done yet?" He asked cockily, and she threw the blade at him.
"Leave here. Leave this planet." She demanded. "Now."
The sounds of screams reached Riddick's ears, and Jack's a moment later when they grew louder. She was by the door in a second, using the glint of a blade to peer into the corridor, she snapped back in the room, shutting the door quietly and staring at Riddick with an enraged expression.
"You led the mercs here?" She asked angrily, striding to the bed to pull from underneath it, a black duffle bag, opening it to reveal assorted weapons. "Sounds like the whole fuckin' compound is crawling with them!"
"You don't seem all that worried." Riddick observed, looking over the weapons she had.
"These girls can take care of themselves, it's what they do." She told him roughly, pulling off her robe to reveal a short shift dress. She set to work strapping knives to herself and holstering several guns before she hurried to the balcony.
"You got a way off this rock?" Riddick questioned, examining the drop to the ground.
"Skiff on a bluff, not too far from here, ship anchored in orbit." Jack explained, her expression became weary when he turned his back to her to lift his goggles and peer into the darkness. "I know that look, I don't even have to see your face and I know that look."
"It'll be fast." He told her.
"You do know what they do to people who abandon this faith don't you?" Jack asked.
"People have done worse to you." Riddick mused.
"Nobody's tried to sacrifice me on an alter before." Jack told him, quickly becoming further pissed off. "We go now or you see what these girls are trained to do."
"Not worried about the mercs?"
"Fuck 'em, they'll be dead by dawn." Jack said, glancing at his silver eyes briefly before climbing onto the rail and preparing to jump. Riddick beat her to the chase, throwing himself over and landing with a thud, Jack shook her head and followed, rolling into the drop like she'd been taught before springing to her feet and examining the darkness. What could be mistaken as the twin moons of Siniah glinted in the darkness, and Jack followed quickly, stumbling through the darkness before a large hand wrapped around her bicep and guided her over scattered jagged rocks.
"Got any flares?" his voice asked from the darkness and Jack unstrapped one of a pair bound to her thigh. Cracking it resulted in an almost blinding red light that slashed through the darkness and allowed her to follow him quickly, mindful of those who could see the light at a distance.
"There should be a path ahead." Jack called to Riddick, directing him through the forest until he reached the path leading to the bluff.
"How much further?" Riddick called behind him as they began to ascend a rocky trail winding around a mountain, from up a little higher they could see the fire that had broken out in the compound.
"About a half-mile." Jack told him, still holding the flare. "Move quickly, the trail winds around, hiding us from being seen."
They moved quickly, and as stealthily as the terrain would allow, eventually the trail broadened out into an open area overlooking a view that would have been more unforgettable in the sunshine.
Jack paid no heed to the edge, using the dying light of the flare to remove foliage to reveal the small skiff lying dormant.
"This thing prepped?" Riddick asked as Jack keyed in an entry code.
"As of last month, powered up and good to go."
"Not quite." The new voice that joined them was accompanied by the unmistakable sound of the gun cocking, making Riddick and Jack stiffen, turning slowly to face the half a dozen mercs standing behind them.
Floodlights were lit up, making Jack squint and Riddick pull his goggles over his eyes as the pair of them calmly observed the man who stood before them.
"Toombs." Jack said by way if greeting. "Come for a matching scar?" She gestured to the side of his face.
"Oh you little bitch." He chuckled. "Right after our boy there is in chains, I am going to fuck you up!"
Jack scoffed. "Toombs, you wouldn't know what to do with it if you had one." She told him condescendingly. Her hand slowly drew its way up her thigh towards a knife, but the barrel lying close to her temple stopped her efforts. The merc who held it had a steady hand, but his eyes were not the stone cold killer eyes sported by most men who dealt with killers on a day-to-day basis.
"New team looks a little shaky." Riddick observed, walking down the ramp of the skiff to stand close to Jack, giving a dark look towards the merc with the gun near her head.
"Six man team." Jack counted. "Big mistake."
"Fucking insulting." Riddick spat. Jack eyed the floodlights they had erected around the bluff, meaning the ship had already been marked before they had arrived, her eyes narrowed.
"Just how long have you been watching me Toombs?" Jack asked. "Before Riddick here made his reappearance."
"Well darlin'." Toombs told her. "I remembered what a nice piece of ass you were, heard from a few friends too, thought it'd be good to keep my eye of you, just in case."
Jack's eyes narrowed and before anyone could fire, grabbed a knife and jammed it into the eye of the merc holding the gun to her head. Snatching his gun as he fell, she turned it on the nearest merc, sending several rounds into his torso. Riddick moved in a flurry of deadly speed and weaponry, shivs flashing as he made short work of three of the them, before he disarmed Toombs, leaving the merc defenceless as Jack cut the power source to the lights.
"You're not afraid of the dark are you?" Riddick's voice rumbled, followed by a snicker from Jack.
"We should jump already." Jack told him. "Leave him for the girls, they'll kill him slowly."
Riddick left him something to remember them by, by the way of a knife through his hand, pinning him to the ground before he slipped onto the skiff and into the pilot's seat.
"So." Jack asked as she prepped the ship quickly. "Where the fuck are we going?"
Before he could answer, the smell of blood reached his nose, sharp, coppery and familiar. His head snapped to where Jack sat flipping switches and powering up the tiny skiff.
"You bleeding?" He asked as he took primary control and began to lift off.
"Oh fuck." Jack eyed the gash in her thigh. "Where the fuck did that come from?"
"You got anything to bind it?" Riddick asked as they began to break from the atmosphere, artificial gravity kicking in.
"This bitch is gonna need stiches." Jack winced, probing the edges of the wound with her fingers, causing warm blood to drip down her leg, poling on the floor beneath her chair. Jack ripped a strip off her already short shift and knotted the material around her leg, gritting her teeth as she tied it tightly. When it was done, she leant back and closed her eyes, breathing out a sigh of relief.
"You with me Jack?" Riddick asked, removing his goggles so he could see her in the dim light.
"Hit the rotation pre-set." Jack instructed, eyes still closed, voice quiet. "Auto should take us to the ship complete with docking. After that you can drop me off nearest station."
"You givin' me a ship Jackie?" His deep voice rumbled,
"Oh, please. I jacked it off some traders before I settled on Siniah." She explained. "Figured I'd need a way out, one way or another." Settling back on the seat, she let her breathing even out.
"Don't go to sleep." Riddick warned.
"Piss off." Her words were met with a rumbling laugh.
This chapter was a little shorter, quick and nasty. Review if you like, be a bitch if you didn't. Review cause it makes me want to write me. Don't point out punctuation and spelling mistakes, I'm Austalian, I use word spellcheck, take it up with windows.
