Authors Note: Chapters 4 and 5 will be up very soon. Please R & R as it's always good to have feedback from readers, even if it says my story is crap :)

Disclaimer: Don't own Riddick or anything else from Chronicles of Riddick, if I did i'd be sitting very comfortable in some office in Hollywood right now.

Chapter 3

There are some places and positions no person ever wants to find themselves in. Chained up and riding a cart into the worst prison in the universe is one of those situations. But there I was, complete with grinning merc waiting for the bounty he was about to collect. Even I didn't know how high it was, last time I checked it was eight hundred thousand. But I'd killed a lot of people since then.

The cart shuddered to a halt and I was pushed and shoved into the control room. There were five guards in there and they all looked lazy and way too comfortable. I'd have to fix that.

"So this is Flame the assassin. She's smaller than I expected, still, easier job for all involved." The guard who'd spoken was obviously the warden; he looked complacent and arrogant. I suppressed a sarcastic comment. I wanted to figure out a bit more about this guy's temperament before I started baiting him. Toombs, as always, took care of the as yet unfilled roll of complete idiot.

"I wouldn't believe that if I were you, she's a right handful, she took out three of my crew when we caught her." I loved the way mercs always dug their own graves. He'd done exactly what I expected and now he was gonna lose a chunk of his bounty.

"Is that so?" the warden stepped forward, close enough for me to strangle him before anyone noticed, "Are you a handful?" there was a glean to his eyes that belonged down in the pit, not with the guys in charge. I fluttered my eyelids and broke eye contact, making sure I looked as delicate as possible. One of the guards laughed.

"She don't look like much of a challenge Toombs. Maybe your guys are just weak." Toombs gave the guy a venomous look, which isn't much coming from him.

"I think that you are just trying to get more cash Toombs. I think you are lying to us." Excellent. Now I could relax for a bit while they argued. And by relax I mean look around for future escape routes, figure out the controls for opening the air hatches etc. A name brought my attention back to the conversation.

"…Riddick finally got caught. He's on his way in. He's worth more than her, so you'll take what you're offered!" I covered up my surprise. Riddick was on his way to Crematoria? He'd already escaped Butcher's Bay, Hubble Bay, Ribald S and god knew where else, did that mean he was gonna be the first to escape Crematoria? If he was, I'd be with him.

I considered it. Was it possible to get out alive? You'd have to get out while they were airing the place, once you knew the timing it shouldn't be hard. The guards wouldn't be too difficult to overcome, presuming they were at the usual level of incompetence. We could do it.

Then I stopped myself. We? Since when did Riddick do anything with anyone else? There was no way he'd work with me. The only card I had to play was the Furian connection. I'd had a few more breakthroughs since we'd met, I understood a lot more. Riddick and I had been part of a final group of resistors. We had been the last of our race. Then we had died. Or so we and everyone else thought. It turns out that for some reason, maybe to torture us even more, the necromongers had done something to our memories. It took keywords from our past to unlock our lives.

My ultimate goal was to become Furian again, completely. Furians were a special race; apart from being ultimate fighters, they possessed an ability to be completely aware of their bodies. They could feel illness, watch a baby growing inside them without a computer, they were a super race. I would become one of them again no matter what it took.

I was startled out of my thoughts by the silence in the room. Then I realised the reason for the quiet; they'd stopped arguing over what I was worth. I sighed and flexed my wrists beneath the handcuffs. I was about to start fighting for my life and most likely, various body parts.

I was tied up to a long chain and lowered down into the prison. Toombs was scowling at me, obviously pissed that I'd cheated him out of some cash. Served him right really. I looked down at my new 'home'.

It was a giant pit, with tunnels running through every side on every level. There were plenty of ridges and hand holds along the walls and it looked like they were used frequently. Various sets of eyes watched me as I was lowered down. The chain stopped halfway. I wondered why they couldn't ever make things easy. Then I started to swing myself backwards and forwards. When I had enough momentum, I swung myself all the way up, so I was upside down and the chain was between my legs. Then I grabbed the chain with my hands and let my body fall back down. I slowly pulled myself up hand over hand until there was about three metres worth of chain hanging slack. Then I let go. The sudden drop broke the chain, which I grabbed again as I fell. I had quick reflexes from years of turning to catch people as they attacked me from behind, one of the downsides to my job. Then I did a flip and landed on one of the ridges on the nearest wall. I crouched there for a moment, looking at the nearest convict. He'd been watching me the whole time. Then to my surprise, he started a rehearsed speech.

"Welcome to Crematoria. We have certain rules here. There are inmates and there are convicts. A convict has a certain code. And he knows to show a certain respect. An inmate, on the other hand, pulls the pin on his fellow man. Does the guards' work for them. Brings shame to the game. So, which are you gonna be?"

I smirked.

"Well, I'm not really in the habit of showing people respect…but then again, I'm not exactly best friends with the guards. So I guess you'll have to wait and see, won't you?" The whole time since my capture I'd kept my eyes locked at hazel, now I let them revert to their colour change mode. And they flashed scarlet. Then I jumped off the ridge and went to explore.