My internet hasn't been working, so that's why the updates have become less. I'm still working on it, it's just taking me a while to get them all put up on the site. Sorry for the inconvenience, I'm still badgering my dad about fixing it.

Hey, sorry if I don't get this one finished for a while. I don't know exactly where I'm going with this right now, and I'm having a bit of writer's block (grr…) but I'll try to keep posting stuff so I won't leave all ya'll hangin'. Thanks for my reviewers, and please keep up the good work. Let me know of any mistakes and I'll try to fix them. You guys just make my day! Thanks a lot!

Oh and I just remembered I forgot to have Riddick ask for Meeka's name in the 2nd chapter, so if there are any mix-ups, I'm gonna go back and change it so that he did, and then from now on—unless you wanna go back and reread it—he asked for her name. Okay? Okay. Now, on with the good part. :)

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Riddick heard the shower start up as he flipped on a computer screen. Typing in Meeka's name, a photo of her popped up onto the screen. Bronze skin, chocolate brown eyes, dark brown hair. Height: 5' 5". Weight: 124. Age: 27. She was a gorgeous girl. Hmm, he thought as he scanned the article beside the picture.

Meeka Noches, convicted of the murder of two scientists and three mercenaries. She was sent to Ursa Loona, where she was to serve out a life sentence for her crimes. On March 22nd 5615, Noches escaped by unknown ways from the prison and has been on the loose since then. Bounty: 100,000 C. Last seen: May 30th 5615.

Riddick sighed. His bounty was 350,000 credits. He had also escaped from Ursa Loona, but not when this girl had. And, today was August the 31st, 5616. So, Meeka had been on the run for little more than a year. "How interesting," he muttered under his breath.

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Meeka yawned broadly as she padded down the hallway. She heard Riddick mutter something, but she decided not to ask. She just hoped he wasn't a psychotic killer the way everyone else thought he was, the kind that spoke to themselves when no one was around.

The control room was so dark she almost couldn't see anything at all except for the glowing computer screen and the red and green buttons here and there on the panel. Riddick was sitting at the computer screen, but whatever he was looking at he clicked out of when he heard her enter the room.

"Wow, it's really dark in here." She mumbled and looked around, trying to decipher where it was safe to walk.

"Lights twenty percent." She heard Riddick growl, and when the lights turned on to a dim glow, she saw him settling his goggles back into place over his eyes.

On impulse, she blurted out, "Why do you wear those?" just as he asked, "Who are you?"

They both paused, sizing each other up. "Answer for an answer?" She finally asked.

"Only if you go first." He countered.

She ground her teeth together silently and nodded shortly. "Fine." She paused and took up light pacing to gather her thoughts. How to tell him something without actually telling him something? She was sure he'd do the same thing. "I'm running."

"From what, exactly, or do I already know?" He absently followed her footsteps, getting purposefully in her pacing area. When she would stop pacing on one side to turn around and start in the other direction, he would be right behind her, making her move around to him to keep moving.

"I'm running…from mercs." She continued slowly and carefully, choosing her words precisely. "I killed some people, and now there's a bounty on my head. So maybe I did good in choosing what ship to stow away on. Because you're running too, right?" She turned again to keep walking, but he was behind her again. He caught her shoulders when she tried to get around him, and had she taken one more step she would've been inside him; that was how close he was standing to her.

"What was your purpose in killing the scientists?" His voice was intense and low, almost a whisper, but not. A hiss.

Her face flooded with emotion. Remembrance, sadness, anger. Unfortunately, she chose to express it with the latter of the three. "What, you did a background check on me, Riddick?" She demanded.

"I've got to know who I'm traveling with. You could've been a merc for all I know." Part of her still-rational mind wondered: why is he bothering to explain himself to me?

"Yeah? Well, maybe I've got to know who I'm traveling with too, Riddick." She replied softly and jerked out of his grasp. She strode around him and stopped about a foot from the wall, her back to his.

Her feet barely stopped moving when suddenly she felt him collide with her, ramming her face-first into the metal wall. She yelped, but it did nothing to help her get out of the situation she was in. She could feel cool metal on her front, and a hot, hard chest on her back. She turned her head to one side, and out of her peripheral vision she could see him. He'd taken the goggles off, but she couldn't see his eyes. She couldn't move her head that far.

"Don't push it, Meeka." He growled, his lips grazing her ear.

"Don't push what, Riddick?" She asked. "Do you not trust me?" She managed to get turned around when he loosened up a little, but then she regretted it. With his body that close to hers, it was making her mind wander to places it shouldn't wander. Shouldn't ever wander with this man.

"I don't trust anyone. I thought that was a little obvious."

She forced her gaze up to his eyes, almost losing her cool when she saw two orbs of glimmering silver staring back at her. What the hell…? "Well, neither do I."

They stared at each other for a moment before she started to turn and leave. At the last second, he slammed his hand against the wall, his arm in front of her and preventing her from leaving. She managed not to flinch, but only barely.

"You never answered my question." He said blandly.

"What question?"

"Why did you kill the scientists?"

She turned her body to face him completely, her mind traveling again. She pushed the fantasies out of her mind and stared up at him, feeling extremely intimidated at the fact that she felt like a mouse staring into the eyes of a cobra that was just waiting for her to slip up so it could strike. "You really want to know Riddick? Hm?" She asked, all but spitting the words in his face. Some little part of her mind warned her that he probably killed most people for less than how she was acting right now, venting her anger on him. He didn't say anything—though she knew he was waiting for her to continue. "They were experimenting on me. That's fucking why. Now get out of my way." She pushed on his forearm hard enough that he moved, apparently not counting on her strength. She could've used her secret to get through him, but she didn't want to do that. She wanted to keep that hidden unless absolutely necessary. The element of surprise was all she had.