Chapter One

Just in case anyone is interested I will give a listing of who each character was played by in the original John Wayne movie. John T Chance was John Wayne. Feathers was Angie Dickenson. Dude was Dean Martin. Colorado was Ricky Nelson. Stumpy was Walter Brennan. This is from the movie Rio Bravo, which I grew up on. My mother is a huge John Wayne fan and wanted me to write this, to combine our generations. My apologies to all involved with either movie if this seems offensive.

Riddick continued to whirl through space. He fell onto hard dusty ground. He stood and brushed himself off as he looked around. There was nothing in sight. This didn't look like anything he'd seen before.

"What planet am I on now?" He wondered out loud.

Suddenly he heard the sounds of hooves on the hard ground. He hadn't heard a horse in a long time. He was sure they were extinct. They had only been on earth that he knew of. Earth? Could that be where he was? He supposed that was possible. But hadn't earth been destroyed. Wasn't it mostly water?

That was when he saw the horse and rider approach him. He stared. The rider wore a cowboy hat and had a gun belt strapped to his waist. No way! He couldn't be here! That was impossible! That was when he noticed that he wasn't even dressed the same as he had been when he'd been sucked into the time warp. He was dressed in a very similar fashion to the rider. Cowboy boots were on his feet, and a cowboy hat lay at his feet. The rider stopped near him. He shielded his eyes from the sun using the brim of his hat.

The rider wore a black cowboy hat with a blue shirt and black trousers. Black boots covered his feet. Unruly black hair was obvious beneath the dark hat, and he could see the rider had brown eyes.

"Where you headed, stranger?"

"I don't know," was Riddick's response.

"Rio Bravo's only a couple miles from here. Can you handle the hike?"

Riddick looked at the man. "Yeah."

The rider jumped down from his horse and stood near him. "I'll walk with ya."

It was then that Riddick saw the badge hidden behind his lapel. "You the sheriff?"

"Just a deputy. They call me Dude."

Dude, Riddick thought. That was strange.

"What do they call you?'

"Riddick."

"Riddick, welcome to Rio Bravo."

He shook the hand of the man named Dude and followed as the man headed back to town. As they neared the small town it became very clear to him that he indeed had stepped back in time. He had seen pictures while in the military of earth as it had been years before America sank into the ocean.This was just like he'd stepped into an old western movie. A time before technology had come to be, and reuined so much of the values that had made America the dream it had been based on.

There had been a time in his life when he'd wished he'd been a part of that. But the resentment of how he'd grown up and lived destroyed all of that. He had nothing to survive on but hatred.

To his surprise so many of the people he'd passed in town said hello and were very nice to him. He realized that he didn't have his goggles on and he could still see in the light. He still saw in shades of purple, but his eyes weren't sore and his head didn't ache from the intense sunlight.

"Here you go. You can book yourself a room, and get a hot meal. Carlos and Consuela will treat you good."

"Thanks."

Riddick stepped inside the hotel. It was the picture of an old western. A dark cherry bar was at one end of the room, and tables fulled otherwise empty space. To his surprise the lobby was nearly empty. Only a handful of people were in the room. Two men were standing at the bar, while a group were eating at another table. He took in the entire room, and everything in it before he moved.

He could easily see that the big burly man with the tan cowboy hat was the man in charge. He stood tall and proud with brown hair and blue eyes. The way he stood, and carried a rifle, meant that he meant business. He would be the one that Riddick would have to avoid.

Beside him stood another man who seemed to carry the same wait. With salt and pepper hair he had blue eyes as well. He was thinner, but his look was dark.

A beautiful woman with a towel laid over her shoulder stepped behind the bar with a smile. "Can I get you anything, Chance?"

"No, Feathers."

Riddick took a seat in the back of the room near the door and pulled his hat down on his face, to cover his eyes. He'd have to find something to wear to shield his eyes from the light and anyone wanting to look at him. Being a stranger in town meant he'd have to do his best not to be noticed, though he knew he would have the attention of the sheriff, when his deputy got a hold of him.

Rio Bravo? Where the hell was Rio Bravo? The only good thing, was he knew he was on earth, but he didn't know how to get home. He'd been tossed back in time, and now he had to figure out some way to get a hold of a time travel device. But could he do it? Could he find something that sophisticated in this time period.

It was then that he caught the scent of Roses. He inhaled deeply, then lifted his head to see a woman standing by the sheriff. Her RED hair hung down to her ankles. She wore a black riding shirt and a purple blouse. She was across the room from him but he could smell the roses. He couldn't quite hear what was being said, but he could hear her voice. It floated across the room to his ears like a sweet melody. The almost raspy sound of a Bonnie Tyler song from the 1980's.

The sound struck him first in the ears, then in the chest and stole his breath. He closed his eyes straining to listen. He felt blood rush through his body setting him afire. He never remembered being effected that way before. Leave it to the untainted beauty of a woman from years past to do it. An innocent woman who couldn't have seen anything like the evil he dealt with on a daily basis. And he had yet to see her face.

Chancey O'Connell turned then and spotted the stranger in the corner. Everyone was a stranger to her in this town, but there was something specific about this one. There was something very different about him. She walked toward the door to leave the two men to talk. As she walked near him, she couldn't help but chance a glance.

"Something I can do for you?"

His soft rugged voice skated across her flesh leaving goosebumps in it's wake. She felt the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand at attention. Chancey found it hard to breathe, and couldn't find her voice. It was then that he looked up meeting her gaze.

"No."