A/N: Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year, Sanctuary style! Well, aren't you all surprised! But, I warned you I might revisit this! Truth be told, I've been working on this piece for a long time and today finally Marcus decided to cooperate and let me write it out. The dialogue still feels a little choppy and the extra bit at the end is a tad pointless, but, what the heck, it felt wrong without it:)

DISCLAIMER: not mine! and there are a lot of references in this chapter that came from brighter minds than mine.

THANKS: hayj, your fat Riddick babies are giving me hell! but I'm loving every single second of it!

REMINDER: the Riddick kids: Jack, Marcus, Zoey and Richie B. / Royce & Isabelle's kids: Carrie (sporting a brand new full name in this one), Mace and Arianna (sporting a brand new nickname)

Enjoy

They were saying bad things about the Riddick children.

"I mean Richie B is coming into his own quite nicely I might add'' - and, sure enough, one of the more non-descript girls just had to giggle at Big Ramona's less than innocent comment - ''and Jack's real sweet on the eyes'' - Big Ramona winked at Carrie's promptly flushing face - ''but the others..."

For all her nerve, Big Ramona - who was irregularly big and in the right places too - didn't have the guts to finish that line of thought, even in the safety of an all girls night out.

But Carrie, who had no clue herself as to why she had dumped Jack more than four months before and who, for all intents and purposes, had grown up with all four of the Riddick siblings, couldn't find her words either. Agreement stifled the air and, hidden in the shadows outside the ring of fire, Ari had had quite enough. She immediately pegged the pretty girl looking all confused a traitor and swore to cut off the blood ties that had made her Carrie's younger sister. Out loud she said nothing though - Arianna was small and mousy and had wiggled her way in the sisters club thanks to Carrie and a bit of divine Mom intervention and the other girls didn't pay much attention to her anyway - but in her heart of hearts, Royce and Isabelle's youngest daughter was pleading her biggest case yet. Arianna tended to scowl when she'd hit a particularly juicy argument, which only served to graft a perpetual frown on her tiny, childish face.

"Zoey's always been nice enough to us" Carrie finally chirped in. She had such a bird like voice, both melodic and intensely annoying at times. And Ari was annoyed: not at the lie, but at the way everyone knew it was a lie. Their parents were great friends, but the truth was Zoey had been mostly unconcerned with Aunt Izzie's eldest kids and had made a pet out of Ari virtually since the moment the small, sickly child had been able to walk and talk properly only because, people thought, Zoey was strange like that and she was denied a dog after the last strays she picked up expired within a radically short period of time. But actually, Ari hadn't and still didn't mind at all. She got more attention from Zoey than she did from her own siblings.

Now, Carrie wasn't truly heartless, Ari knew, and she was a decent enough sister, but because Arianna had been that much younger and so much more burdensome than her brother Mace, what with her smallness and sickliness and constant need for care and attention - of the medical type - Carrie had not much bothered with her. Ari suspected Carrie hadn't actually expected her to live as long as she had. Not on this planet, where everybody was a predator on standby. And then when Ari did live past the initial gloomy expectations, she'd been only another helping hand around the house that freed Carrie to do the things she hadn't had the time to do before. A tag along at the local gossip mill was, after all, a small price to pay and Ari was sure her chores for the foreseeable future were growing exponentially in Carolyn Two's – and wouldn't the girls be dying to know what Carrie's middle name actually was – budding adult mind.

"Zoey isn't nice to anybody!" Big Ramona spit out hatefully.

The girls around her shivered and fiddled embarrassingly in their seats. Sure, Zoey walked her own brand of swag among the people of Sanctuary, but she'd never been purposefully mean to any of them like Big Ramona sometimes was. If anything, Zoey simply didn't care one way or the other and singled no one out, choosing to diss it out equally among the people that pissed her off. Which weren't that many, given the sharp survival instincts honed into the residents of Sanctuary by the years they had spent on the hostile planet. And yeah, sure, everybody blew off some steam and talked at corners about Zoey Riddick hardballing left and right, but nobody said anything out right and mean it. Not like Big Ramona was doing right now. Big Ramona said it like she meant it. And she wasn't finished.

"And that brother of hers!", now Big Ramona was really getting wound up, "Marcus ain't nothing but a creep and everybody knows it."

"He's just...you know...the quiet type…" Carrie quickly found herself saying while somewhere in the back of her mind her life was flashing before her eyes at the thought of this conversation drifting off to Marcus's ears.

"Yeah right, the quiet creep type!"

There was silence, ominous and deep. Ari burst out laughing.

For a moment even Carrie was a bit baffled, before big sister mode kicked in.

"Arianna!"

Ari reigned her humour in and stood up, facing a startled Big Ramona full on, even though she fell a handful of centimeters short of the girl's dark rimmed eyes.
"You're only saying this cause Marcus wouldn't creep out on you at last week's yard party."

A collective ohhhhh whooshed out of the girls around. They'd been there, they'd seen Big Ramona casting her curvy shadow on to Marcus. And they'd all seen him walk away in the general direction his sister might be in. Back then they'd cracked perv jokes and moved on. Now, things made another type of sense.

But Big Ramona wasn't having any of it.
Her face went all blotchy and red, the humiliation burning from deep inside onto her rather tender complexion. Her bosom heaved also.

"And you'd know, wouldn't you? Always tailing his trail. And he never cares for little mousy Ari! " Big Ramona finished with a pointed look at Ari's flat chest.

"Look, Ramona, Ari and I, we grew up with these kids and..."

"It's okay, Carrie! She's right. About everything. Including my flat chest," Ari smiled. She'd heard those jokes before.

"I actually agree with you, Ramona. Zoey is mean. Marcus is strange and all that. He could bend and break you with his thumb. Zoey'd rip your spine out for fun. So, if you want to play hardball with the pros, you'd better be prepared. And you're nowhere near prepared. You're just bitter and sore. My advice to you: find somebody else to rub your pussy right and clam the fuck up, because you're spitting in kinda hard and nobody here's gonna step in to unjinx your janx when shit heats the metaphorical fan. And by that, I mean when I let it slip just how good of an opinion you have about my childhood friends."

Carrie chocked on air, but Big Ramona was speechless, with a look in her eyes that reminded Arianna of the dears Mom shot just before the bullet hit the target. It was a haunted look and Ari's fingers twitched around the imaginary trigger of the shotgun she'd left at home, neatly hung on a peg by the door, next to Mace's overcoat. To her left, Ari could feel Carrie straining to say something, anything, but a lean, mean and hungry animal was beginning to stir in the depths of Arianna's soul, so she simply turned her back to the girls huddled around the campfire and walked away, out of the light and into the darkened path that led to her house. Anger, deep and raw, was setting her blood on fire.

Not that it hurt, but Big Ramona's words had hit a sore spot and Ari's temper was threatening to spill over. People were quick to judge when someone was as tiny and skinny and deceptively frail as Arianna was. She'd been sick for so long, not many noticed when she started to actually feel better or how she was the sharpest shooter in Sanctuary – slow, smooth and fast. Only Marcus had always been kind to Ari, but then again, he was generally nice to kids and local pet like animals. His own mother often called him on his soft spot for all types of defenseless things, saying it was an odd thing to take after his father. But whereas Riddick goofed around with the kids in his sector, Marcus was gentler, as if they might break if he touched them. Marcus was trying to shelter them from the growing darkness within him. And Arianna wanted to punch him in the face every time he did it to her. She had turned 15 a couple of months ago and still for Marcus she was Zoey's cute little pet friend.

"Well, fuck it!"

Arianna stomped her feet and felt the absurd urge to plop down and sulk in the middle of the dirt road connecting the Vargas Compound to the First Settlers Avenue. The Latinos of Sanctuary had built themselves a small citadel, thriving on moonshine, arms dealership and whoring. Kids knew that and still it was the best hang-out spot in town. Mostly because their parents avoided it, unless they were going there to pick a fight. And after Royce and Riddick picked a few fights when the girls turned a dangerous age, people left the kids – all kids – alone.

"Ari! Ari, you stop right there!"

Carolyn Two was running after her – damn, she was a good sprinter - but Arianna knew there'd be hell to face if her sister turned up home without little Ari in tow.

"You go back! I'll just tell mom I got bored and came back early."

"Are you effin' crazy?! What was that all about? You got a death wish or something? Christ, I had to apologize to all my friends just cause my little sister has a potty mouth, and I'm still gonna be the one getting heat from mom? You look at me when I'm talking to you, Arianna!"

Carolyn Two reached to grab Ari's arm, but she spun so fast, Carrie didn't even register the sting when Ari slapped her hand away. Her baby sister, a mess of dirty brown locks and frayed white cotton, was an angry little animal ready to pounce and claw at her face.

"Just…go back! Go back and play nice with your girl friends and I'll tell mom you brought me home. But. Just. Go. Deal with your shit, Carrie, and I'll deal with mine and tomorrow we'll be right back at doing the whole happy family gig."

"But you won't…I mean you wouldn't…"

"Fuck you over to Marcus?"

Carolyn Two winced at Arianna's crude choice of words but swallowed and nodded nonetheless.

"No." Ari took a deep breath, closed her eyes and plunged. "He likes you, you know."

"I know."

It was still dark on the dirt road when Ari opened her eyes to her sister's honest face, despite the flood lights casting a neon yellow glow over the Sanctuary night.

"Then why…"

"Fear", Carolyn Two shrugged. "I'm not gonna make no excuses for that. I can't control it."

Ari was stunned.

"Look, I'm going back. You sure you okay on your own?"

"Yeah." A breath. "Yeah, I'll be fine."

"'Kay" and Carolyn Two sprinted back towards the Compound where probably Big Ramona was shooting shit sky high.

Ari snorted.

"Fear…yeah, right! And I fell off a fucking dinosaur!"

Behind Ari, the dirt road sloped towards the First Settlers Avenue, past the cattle enclosure and the wired fence at the edge of the force field marking the boundaries of Sanctuary, on to the two ranch like settlements that belonged to her father and Riddick and stopping right past Aunt Carolyn's neat yard, where the jungle sprawled for miles and miles, round the whole planet. That was where the game preserve started. That was where the Hunt happened. The place Arianna was never meant to go.

Bob usually prowled those parts. And sometimes, more of Bob's kind. Though, as far as the Agreement went, Preds weren't allowed to hunt Sanctuary, but that didn't mean they didn't dangle the bait and on nights when the moons were plump and heavy and the air thick with heat, dwellers went missing, her mom got pissy, her dad was AWOL for weeks on end, her uncle Riddick went out to try out his toys, Marcus sported some fresh new scars and she was stuck shooting empty cans of soup from a distance while Zoey was providing distractions.

But even though she hit her marks from close to a mile away, she was never allowed into the jungle, unless her mother, her father or her uncles were with her. She sneaked out with Zoey a couple of times, shooting wild life close to the river, in the middle of the night, but Marcus had been so upset he'd literally lifted her up on his shoulders and hauled her ass back home, all the while barking at his sister to shut the fuck up and follow. She'd had a bruise for weeks from where he'd dumped her on her bedroom floor. Marcus had been quiet tip-toeing her into her own house, but the next day her mom had baked Marcus's favorite cranberry pie and sent her off with a big chunk of it to share with the Riddick's. Her uncle Riddick had smirked a wolfish sort of grin, but Aunt Carrie, bless her, had poured her a glass of milk and had seemed oblivious to her predicament. In the end, Marcus had taken pity on her, and between two bites of cranberry pie, he'd patted her head and had gone off to do his chores.

And that was the irrevocable end to her nightly escapades. Actually, Ari realized with a start, this was the first time she was alone after sun down on the dirt road in months. She wasn't afraid of the dark. But sometimes, the force field would stutter and sparks would shoot off like fireflies in the night. It was the younger ones, Ari thought as she made her way back home. Slimmer, leaner than Bob, with fewer crests on their helmets. Unblooded youth, looking for an easy mark. They crouched on the fence's beam polls, and taunted, playing back bits of recorded conversations, screams and shrills, throwing skinned carcasses of some of their fresher kills.

One of the more daring ones had preyed on their live stock for months before her dad had had enough. The young Pred's corps had hung from the polls for a week straight before it vanished out of sight, leaving only the visor, a small plasma cannon and a pair of wrist blades behind. Spoils of war, her uncle Riddick had laughed at her father, Royce. She remembered her dad casually throwing the visor over to her uncle with a half assed "You can keep it" and Riddick laughing in his wake, waving the visor around – "What? It's broken or something?" Her mother had always said that her dad and Riddick were such friends.

Tonight, however, the fence stalkers weren't after the live stock. Ari felt the infrared gaze tracking down her movements. Her guess was it was the same one. Light grey armour and a symbol etched into his helmet. She could see the three dotted triangle dancing on her white cotton dress, settling over her heart, then jumping to her forehead, before a pop and a screech put an end to Varro's house cat's brief existence.

"I could do that with a fifty year's old sniper rifle, ass hole." Arianna called back.

"Do what?"

Ari jumped with a muffled oath when, instead of the Pred's choppy prerecorded voice, Marcus answered back. She hadn't seen, nor heard him coming, although there was nothing to block her view ahead. He strolled over to her, his mercurial eyes trained on the rippling shadow on the fence. He had his hands tucked into his pockets and he seemed so relaxed, so at ease, that finally Ari realized that the Pred had knocked a few flood lights down the road, which made everything that much easier on Marcus's light sensitive eyes. She'd noticed that whereas before Marcus had no problems during the day, his eyes a luminous dark brown, lately he'd started squinting, an iridescent sheen permanently etched into his irises. He'd been a whole lot grumpier of late, so Ari figured he'd hurt.

But now, his eyes shone with no twinge of pain, which meant he could see her stalker better than she could. And she had perfect 20-20 vision.

"Your uncle Riddick, he isn't exactly like us", her mom had told her when Ari had seen what hid behind his unnerving goggles for the first time. "He's more like a distant cousin" her father had added from across the kitchen table. "A very, very distant cousin."

Just like Marcus, who was very, very different from the other kids his age. Right now, though, he was pretty close to her.

"Watcha doing all alone out here?"

He dropped an arm across her shoulders, pulling her into his body warmth, until she was sure they were just a giant splurge of red in the Pred's vision as opposed to two different people. His voice had an edge, a bonafide Marcus-will-lecture-you-about-this-later tone in it, but his touch was soothing, even tough he was still watching the fence intently.

"Going home. Was tired of waiting for Carrie to break her curfew."

"Hm." This close, Marcus smelled like the mint her Aunt Carrie grew in the back yard. Mint and smoke from the countless fires Marcus stocked with every round he made in the jungle.

"Well, come on then, let's go home."

He ushered her down the road, his arm still carelessly looped around her neck and shoulder, and started to walk towards their houses with only a passing glance to the dead cat in the grass by the side of the dirt road. Arianna strained a little, her strides so much shorter than his, but fell into synch after Marcus unconsciously matched her pace.

Ari was amazed at how calm he was, what with a Pred sporting a live gun not ten feet away. Sure, he was in the line of fire, his much larger body sheltering hers from the blasted kill mark, but she was starting to get a bit edgy.

"Marcus…" she tried, but he just looked down at her and smiled.

"I think you've got a stalker," he drawled in his best Marcus Riddick voice.

Arianna turned red and started squirming out of his hold, but Marcus just flexed a muscle and she stilled.

"You want him?"

Clearly, Marcus was having a field day with this. She could sense amusement dripping from every word he said.

"I want him dead!" Ari managed to squeeze behind clenched teeth. Her anger was getting the better of her and the better of the situation, considering Marcus had not lessened his hold on her, his body warmth was seeping into her – cause, yeah, he was still holding her that close – and they had already passed her house and were steadily moving towards his.

"Good, you're on a roll today."

"What's that supposed to mean?" and just like that Ari planted her two feet firmly on the ground and refused to move. Marcus stopped and his arm slid from across her shoulder right through her hair. Ari let out a breath she wasn't even aware that she was holding, but despite the fact that the flood lights near his house were mildly annoying, Marcus still looked a whole lot entertained.

"Just sayin' soon we're gonna be comparing body counts if you keep up shooting bullets left and right like that."

"I didn't shoot the bloody cat!"

"Not this one you didn't."

"That was an accident! I even apologized!"

"Good girl. But I didn't mean the cat."

"What?!"

Ari's fingers twitched again, the imaginary slide and pull of a smooth trigger cramping up her hands, and Marcus noticed, almost as if he'd been waiting for it. A smirk curled up his lips and he pointed it out.

"There you go again. You don't talk the talk as good as you think you do and really I should wash your mouth off with some of Zoey's special brand of soap, but you do walk the walk and don't you think Big Ramona noticed how you were eyeing the piece right next to her box of tortillas? These Vargas girls, they speak 9 millimeters too."

"You were there."

"Just passing through."

Ari was mortified. Her eyes went wide and the redness that had steadily crept up her cheeks was now painting her eyeballs in a nice pink colour. She had seen the piece, just like Marcus said, but it didn't nearly have enough fire power to match the anger she had felt towards Big Ramona. The sheer…jealousy she had harboured inside her heart ever since she'd seen the other girl harassing Marcus at the yard party. Because although Ari had been right about Marcus not wanting to creep out on Big Ramona, that didn't mean that he'd been sullen about it.

They'd flirted. They'd touched. Marcus had smiled. His eyes had had a predatory glint in them she'd seen in other boys his age when they looked at a girl they…wanted. To do stuff with. Stuff Marcus would never want to do with her, with little mousy Ari.

Arianna thought she might start crying. She balled her fists and willed her tears to crawl back up her tear ducts. If she started crying in front of Marcus now, she might as well stamp "Forever a kid" onto her forehead. Her jaws locked and she even stopped breathing for a while.

But Marcus seemed only to be further incensed by her antics. He was trying really hard to suppress a bout of laughter and Ari could tell by the way his shoulders were shaking with barely concealed mirth.

"I hate you!" she exploded.

"I know. But you really don't."

"If I could, if I had this power, this…this power to grow bigger and stronger, I'd strangle you! With my bare hands, just choke the…gall…out of you and hang you out dry for all the world to see!"

At this, Marcus did chuckle. His laugh, however, was infuriating and defeating all at the same time.

"But I don't. Even if I do grow taller, I'll never grow tall, like Zoey, or pretty, like Carrie. I'll always be scrawny. I won't ever be enough. I won't ever go hunting. I'll live my whole life here, I'll bed and breed and watch you leave. And then I'll die. Sooner than everybody else, cause of my sickliness, but I will have died long before that. I may just as well die tonight."

And Ari closed her eyes. Surely no one had ever died of mortification, but Marcus might get bored and leave and then she'd take that Pred on. Give him a nice good mark to hit. Of course, she'd take a shot at him too, but she wouldn't struggle too much. It would be a whole lot like triage, make the choice her mother couldn't make when she'd been but a speck of cells floating in her mom's womb.

Marcus poked her hard on the forehead.

"Aww!"

"Thought you might've fallen asleep on me."

"I wasn't!"

"Great, then stop thinking deep thoughts cause you're only sprouting nonsense."

"I was going through an existential crisis, you asshole!"

Marcus snorted and pulled her under his arm again. This time it felt real heavy on her shoulders.

"I don't care, your opinions are rejected. Richie B. had an existential crisis once. Zoey threatened to drown him in the milk bucket. Do you want to drown in the milk bucket?"

"You're fucking with me, I know you are."

"You know I am?"

Ari eyed him dubiously, her stare unflinching, but still somewhat cute.

Marcus smiled and hugged her tighter as he steered them towards his house.

"Yeah, okay, I am. But I wasn't kidding about the soap. You've got the naughtiest mouth I've ever heard."

And damn, didn't that sound like a compliment when he said it just right! Ari wobbled a little, due to a metaphorical arrow of weakness to the knees.

"I thought we were going home…" Ari finally croaked out, as Marcus opened the gate to his yard.

"We are. Mom's making spiced noodles. You like spiced noodles."

When Marcus turned to close the gate behind them, his eyes scanned the darkness ahead and he must have been satisfied about something, because the hand still hooked around her gently brushed the nape of her neck. Tenderly, reassuringly. Invitingly.

"Now, listen up, you scrawny hooligan, about this stalker of yours…"

Arianna beamed. Maybe for Marcus, she'd be enough.

Meanwhile, the parents

"You're seeing this, right?"

Isabelle's hushed Yes echoed next to Royce's determined No!

"I sure as hell am." Riddick piped in. "He's got his hand right…"

"Where it shouldn't fucking be!"

"You slept half naked with my wife and I let it slide. My boy is feeling up your daughter so learn to suck it like a man!"

"Boys, please, no bringing prison issues into this."

"That's the second time one of your boys is going first base on one of my girls, asshole, and Carolyn wasn't even your fucking wife at that time!"

"First, second, third, I got plenty of boys left, and your girls don't seem to mind all that much!"

"Motherfu…"

"Mooooommmmm! The noodles are on fire!"

"Oh, fffffffffffff….."

The (rather pointless) End

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