Jack Chapter 3, a pitch black / riddick fanfic

Reviews on feedback and thank you's for chapter 2 are at the bottom of this chapter!

Jack 3

The horsemen broke off to the left, riding hard for the line of trees. The wind howled as the glider whipped over the grass and it took an act of will for her not to pull the nose of the lightweight airship in their direction.

As the riders reached the forest wall, she watched as three of them broke off, pulling their mounts up sharply and circling. Shazza, Theo and Duncan. Jack couldn't make them out clearly given the distance but she knew that's who they were. There was no stopping, no circling back; she was in the wind and there was no way to get the fully assembled glider through the forest now in any case. Resting a hip heavily into the strut between the wings, she raised her arm in a salute, continuing to watch as the horses turned quickly, flicked their tails, and disappeared into the dark.

Facing forward once more, she inhaled and for a single all too brief moment she was alone with the wind screaming in her ears as the glider ate up the distance. A light tap on her hip. Riddick pointing over her shoulder to a spot farther up ahead where the grassland sea was broken by the worn path that ran alongside the river. He didn't waste his time in words that would be lost and so they fell back on gestures, something that had grown familiar over the years.

The river was just ahead and she was running out of room if she was going to change her mind. If she was going to change her mind. Even as the thought entered, she knew that she wasn't going to pull up the nose of the glider, turning her off across the grass. Though she had taken the same route countless times now with the Moorglade, there was still that frisson of fear as the forgiving grass made way for icy water and smooth river stones.

Another first in a day of firsts.

They soared over the embankment. Once over the open water, Jack pulled on the mechanism that turned the wings, trying for a hard sharp left over the water. The glider slowed, dipped, and she swore under her breath as she willed the bird higher, demanding that it rise. Riddick said nothing; he could control the altitude and to a degree their speed, but there was little else he could do but wait for a cue from Jack. The bird was at the whim of the wind. Taking an elbow in the ribs from Jack, he added his strength to hers and helped pull the strap that had the glider complete her turn just before they overshot the opposite bank.

"Bloody hell!" she shouted as they finally straightened out over the middle of the stream. It wasn't the deafening speed they had achieved over the open grassland but they still moved fast enough to kill them both if the glider decided to take a nosedive into the stones below. Behind her, Riddick chuckled and she kicked him in the shin rather than turn to shoot him a glare.

"You sound like Shazza when you're pissed!" he shouted back at her choice of curses.

The glider shimmied slightly as she shot the barest of glances over her shoulder at him. Of course he was smirking at her. Facing forward once more, she centered the bird over the middle of the channel. Riddick's manner of speaking had sunk deep over the past seven years until she rarely thought about her colourful language; it was as much a part of her as Riddick himself. And yet when she was truly surprised by something, it was Shazza that she took after. She would have grinned in other circumstances.

"Can't take a turn that fast again," she shouted, thinking about the turn into the river's path.

"Why not."

It wasn't about him wanting to know. It was about her knowing. Training had been as much about sharpening her mind as it was about honing her body.

"Not enough space to turn."

"Seen you take a sharper turn over grass before. She handled it fine," he shot back.

That was true; she could turn the glider on a dime but that was over grass and not running full out. Even still, the glider had handled it fine, pulling sharply into the riverway just before they ran up on the opposite bank. Jack would still have liked more room to turn but a small reduction in speed could do the trick. Pull on the wing a fraction sooner, lean back a little harder. Enter the turn right over the embankment instead of halfway over the river. Having someone to help. The gliders had been built for one but recent events proved out that they worked just fine with two.

'Probably better. I could've done that shit myself but it wouldn't have been that fast,' she thought, already adding the experience to everything she had gained so far. The Moorglade didn't look like it could do half the stuff it could but it too was deceptively well built, its green wood supple, strong and hard as steel. Indeed she had handled it just fine.

"Think she'd open up over the water the same way she did over grass?" she dared, not looking back.

"Do it."

Casual and cool, Riddick let nothing in his tone betray any uneasiness he might have felt. Taking from another of Riddick's oft repeated teachings, Jack chose to look deeper. Breath was cool and even, his chest rising evenly, but he had tensed slightly, making the leather strap he held creak, just enough to give him away.

Up ahead, the river widened as it flowed toward the sea. It moved faster, whiter in the shallower water. Dotted with small islands, some so small that autumn floods completely covered them, the way wasn't clear, wasn't easy. If anything, in the smaller, less familiar craft, it was likely to be even more dangerous. All of this Jack processed as she had Riddick ease up on the small amount of restraint they held over the glider's speed.

The wings snapped on either side as the wind caught them and with Riddick she worked to keep the glider from rising too much. Or falling toward the water. They held true, picking up speed in the wider channel. Closer to the water, even the smallest of the islands loomed large, seeming to rush up to greet them. A wide graceful swoop along the right hand side. Familiar with the river, she guided them easily around a cluster of three small islands and then pulled them back into the middle of the stream once they were clear.

"Took that wide, didn't you?"

It was true; she had taken a wider turn around the moss-ridden humps of stone than she would have taken. In the Moorglade, she would have gotten close enough to touch a wing, if she willed it. She was being careful after the initial turn into the riverway and it pissed her off.

'Fine.'

Even though she knew that he was pushing her, she elbowed Riddick and had him adjust the flaps on the wings, dropping the glider closer to the churning white water. Close enough that the spray off the rocks spit across her shins and made her gut knot tightly. Fear clashed with excitement and excitement won out.

The forest towered on one side and the grassland rose up on the other. Straight down the middle, the roar of the river took up everything else. Bracing her foot, Jack pulled and felt her stomach lurch as the glider screamed in a hard right turn. 'Close enough to touch,' she thought. If she had a free hand she could reach out and yank up a mossy clod from the stone they swept past. She would have to settle for thinking it.

Larger and larger, the islands blotted out the sky and darkened the water in their shade as the glider swung around them, seeming to dance over the water like a dragonfly. The grace was hard-earned and she and Riddick communicated in a series of guttural shouts, slaps and kicks. After a fashion, they fell into a rhythm: slow slightly before the turn, raise the flaps, driving the nose downward and pulling the wing in the direction they wanted to go. The force would raise the nose again, even as they swung around the stone outcroppings. Then they would have to straighten out again once free. Ten islands, twelve, fifteen. They got better, faster. Closer.

Being able to turn on a dime didn't mean anything as the wall of mist swallowed them. The air itself felt wet and cold and colour drained from everything but the very tops of the trees as the shroud closed up around them. The roar of the river increased tenfold, seeming to come from everywhere at once, and she had to make a conscious effort not to hold her breath, knowing what was coming. Even Riddick wasn't immune; the falls were something he hated. Not enough to tell her to pull off the water and onto the opposite bank, but enough.

Scary in the Moorglade, the leap into nothingness was terrifying in the fragile structure of the glider as the ground dropped away suddenly beneath them. Rocks below and swirling torrents of water, enough to rip them to pieces if they should fall. Coasting in the white nothingness, the glider drifted downward. Not in a broken jumble of green wood and sailcloth but in a slow gentle arc toward the water. Water that was hard to see, given the screen of mist that obscured almost everything. Operating on instinct, she elbowed Riddick and had him bring up the nose. A few feet or mere inches, there was no way to know. 'Anything you can walk away from.'

She wanted to whoop but wasn't sure what her voice would do. Riddick said nothing either and she wondered if it was the same for him. If it was ever the same for him. As she had gotten older, hero worship had transformed into deep respect, into friendship. It made her easier to look at him and see that he could fear, that he could worry, that he could fail. Then again, fearing the falls was a good fear.

As quickly as it had come upon them, the mist was torn away in tatters like a living thing and the river opened up in front of them. Wider, calmer, the water was a deep serene blue, so still that it cast reflections of islands back down onto the surface. The forest and grassland fell farther back on either side as they stayed true, right down the middle of an ever expanding delta on its way to the sea. Below her feet, a darker shape moved languorously back and forth across the glider's shadow. She didn't want to think too hard on what it could be but first instinct told her it was a predator. It excited her but not enough to linger and she pulled the wing gently towards the left and the disappearing forest wall. Gently. In case the glider hit the water and they discovered just what sort of beast made its home at the mouth of the river.

Horses dotted the end of the causeway that led up to the broken ruins of Sunhillow, the ancestral keep of the long-dead ruler of Trieste 9, Olias. They wandered amidst the broken stones, pulling up tufts of hardy sea grass. A few had nosed out onto the causeway itself and Jack kept an eye on them as they startled at the sight of the closing glider, relieved that they were smart enough to get out of the way. A slight correction and they flew a straight path over the stones, keeping well clear of the crenellated defensive walls on either side.

Slower, slower. Lower. A hard line appeared between her eyes and her mouth pulled into a thin white line as the ground came up to meet them. The stones were smoother but less forgiving than grass and she sucked in a breath as the landing gear touched down. An arm went around her waist and Riddick was pulling her back against his chest. She felt his heart pound and stayed completely still, feeling his breath against the side of her face. She wouldn't close her eyes but watched the line of the horizon shake as the dying wind pulled the wings this way and that before it let them go. She wondered for the second time if he had been afraid.

Just as suddenly, the arm around her waist eased slightly as the glider settled, slowing as it neared the last set of notched stones that defended the causeway. As they rolled to a near-stop and the Moorglade came into sight, anchored alongside the keep, he relaxed even more, pulled back and patting her hard on the arm. And just like that they were on the ground once more. She missed it already.

The wings fluttered gently in the dying breeze as she jumped down, keeping a tight hold on the wing. On the other side, Riddick's boots hit the ground with barely a sound and they maneuvered the glider closer to the edge before they tied her to one of the rings that dotted the seaward length of the defensive wall.

"Prefer that to the horses?" In front of the glider, they fell in beside each other, Jack's mannish stride easily keeping pace with him.

At first he just nodded and Jack didn't think that he would answer. And then he did. "It felt good to be back in the air again."

That the Moorglade flew and that they had both regularly flown in her didn't bear mentioning as Jack knew it wasn't the same thing. As powerful, as exhilarating, as the Moorglade was, it was like a freighter, while the gliders were more like agile fighters and couldn't possibly compare.

"Hmm." It had been a long time but she remembered how it had felt to take Theo's ship, the Odyssey, through the stellar clouds once they had come out of the wormhole. Twelve had been forever ago but she remembered, and it had felt good. "You could always take one," she offered.

A quick grin pulled the corner of his mouth into wrinkles as he looked over at her and then they were at the doors of the keep, both pushing on the hammered iron disc in its centre and stepping into the large open hall. From bright sunshine they stepped into a dim green room shot with shafts of dappled light from the few windows they had left open to the elements. The keep was as familiar to her as the Moorglade or the cabin she shared with Jacob and she stepped forward, even though she could barely see with the change of light. Beside her, Riddick pushed his goggles up onto his forehead and, keeping pace alongside her, moved into the middle of the room.

In the centre was a large, round wooden table around which stood her friends, Shazza, Theo, Duncan and Johns, as well as those of the villagers that had not ridden out into the stones to seek out the Company men. From her spot on the far end of the table, Shazza looked up at them both as they came in, the smile sudden. Without a word, those at the table shifted a step to one side or the other, making a space for the newcomers.

Standing between Riddick and Shazza, Jack pressed closer to the table to make room as the air itself seemed to thicken, charged with electricity at the subtle display of affection the two shared, just a quick touch upon meeting and that was enough. Theo thumbed through the topmost of the charts on the table, taking the weights off the corners, setting them aside and rearranging until the map that he wanted, an old chart created long ago by Old Thomas, was on the top of the pile. With the corners weighted down once more, Jack got a good look at what they had been discussing before she and Riddick had arrived.

"The mountainous areas aren't well mapped out, even in the older texts," Theo stated as he pointed along a barren section of the map. "These maps were made to plot out the paths of the ley lines for the Moorglade and she'd never be able to fly within those canyons so they're not mapped."

"Which is probably why they're in there," Duncan added as he limped alongside the table, moving around Johns and another villager in order to get a better view.

Jack looked up from the map as Riddick touched her shoulder, seeming to slide past her as he moved around the table to stand beside Duncan. Rather than follow him, she filled the place where he had stood and rested heavily against the table, her knuckles making dents in the stacks of paper.

No matter how many people were in the room, if Riddick was there, if Duncan was there, they seemed to take up all the space. She liked to watch them. Villagers shifted aside without so much as a sound and, not for the first time, Jack took in the subtle display of power across from her. Training with Riddick had seemed as natural as breathing. Training with Duncan and Riddick together had been something else altogether. Not only for what she had learned from them both but from what the two men together had taught her about others. Other men especially. Nobody had ever stated in so many words that her two mentors were in charge but it was clear, each and every time.

As she glanced around the table, she realized that it didn't stop at the reaction to Riddick and Duncan. The remaining villagers clustered together on one end of the table, watching. Theo had a clear spot around him as he moved the maps around. Captain of the Moorglade, he had his own gravity. Beside her, Shazza nudged her with a hip and, casting a look to the side, Jack wasn't terribly surprised to find Shazza eyeing the dynamics around the table in much the same way. 'No wonder Riddick says I'm just like her,' she thought.

Back to the map, she watched as markers, in the form of smooth stones, appeared on the map as men pointed out the villages that were close to the mountainous area. "We could start out into the villages after we're done here; see if we can start rounding up the militia," one of the men said, earning nods and murmurs of agreement from those on either side.

Leaning further into the table, Riddick made a low hum-growl in his chest as he took in the scattering of stones. "Might be good not to make a show of going in, at least not there." A calloused fingertip whispered against the parchment as Riddick swept a line alongside the mountainous region, cutting a line between where the Company hid out and the villages the men had pointed out. "Not everybody that's gonna help out the Company is going to live in there," he tapped the stony region. "A lot of them will live nearby in these villages. People are going to know them there."

"So we go in to spy on them," one of the men said almost indignantly, drawing a cold look from both Riddick and Duncan.

"Yes," Duncan said coldly. "If you go in, you're going in to find out who we have to watch out for. Anything we learn about the people helping the Company will help Jacob and the others."

"Anything you give away about what we're looking for could get Jacob and the others killed," Riddick finished.

Quickly, Jack sucked in a breath but didn't dwell on it. While Jacob hadn't the benefit of training under Riddick and Duncan, he had been a member of the militia since the age of 13 and she knew he was far from weak.

"So we go in to spy on them," another of the men said. He was a large, quiet man, his face scarred from the battle with the Company seven years before. "We can spy. We say we're going in for supplies." The same men that had nodded before, nodded again.

"Good." Duncan stood a little straighter, pleased that having the villagers go along wouldn't be a fight. Taking in the map in its entirety, he continued. "We're still going to need to raise the alarm closer in, however."

"Smaller groups can," Jack said as she pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to think of the right word, "ride dispatch. Take horses through the forest to the militia encampments there. For the further outposts, you'll have to take the Moorglade," she looked across the table at Riddick, catching Theo as well.

At the order, some of the other men shot her a hard look but said nothing. Most of the women they knew wouldn't have had an interest in warfare, or what was done in its preparation. Even after all this time, it was easy to sometimes forget that Jack was different. The men looked over to Riddick, to Duncan, but neither answered or spoke against her. Riddick glanced up quickly from the table surface and Jack felt the weight in that look.

Facing the two men to the left of her, Jack tapped the map before tracing a path between what passed for checkpoints in the forest. "You will take small teams of horsemen through here, passing on the information only to people that you trust," she said forcefully. "We have to control the number of people that know what we're doing. Don't draw attention."

"We can do that well enough," the quiet man said before any of his men could answer.

The silence felt longer than it was and Jack tapped the map again. "It's a hell of a lot of ground to cover," she stated as she measured out the expanse of grassland that ran along the rocky terrain where the Company men had gone to ground. "It's all open here. Any horsemen in the area are going to be seen a long way off." That they would be watched went without saying.

"With just a couple of gliders," she continued, "we could cover this whole area and it wouldn't look any different than any of the other trial runs we've been doing up until now."

"That's good," Shazza turned to her and agreed as she traced out the triangle of land between the forest, the sea and the rocky expanse. "If you and I go, it has the added benefit that the raiders that are helping the Company men are likely to overlook us." Shazza didn't look at the village men but Jack caught the sparkle in her eye as she said it.

"Last fucking thing they'd expect," Jack said with a grin. "Two gliders then." Jack straightened and looked across the table. "You can take the second one but I want someone else with us. Duncan, I want you with us on this. You know the Company, so you'll know what to look for."

On matters of the Company, Duncan was one of the best assets they had; he had been Company for years, but it wasn't the sole reason for the choice. With Duncan, she wouldn't have to deal with the villager's chauvinism, wasting time they didn't have. From the penetrating look that Duncan gave her, it was clear that he knew exactly why she had chosen him. "Agreed," Duncan said, giving her a shrewd look as he tapped the table. "If we're going to head out, I've got some things I'd like to wrap up first before we do."

"We'll need supplies, in case we're out for more than a few days, so," Jack looked up at the shafts of light coming through the broken windows, gauging how much daylight they had left. "An hour?"

Mutters in agreement went around the table and then the villagers faded back from the table, disappearing through the door and out onto the causeway. On horseback, they would cut through the forest to their homes and say their own goodbyes.

It left her, Shazza, Duncan, Riddick and Theo standing around the table.

"You handled that well," Shazza said after the villagers were gone, closing the heavy wooden door behind them.

Looking across at Riddick and Duncan, Jack's lips thinned as she thought over what had just happened. "Let's not get too excited just yet. It's one thing for them to listen right here," she said as she thumped on the table for emphasis. "But will it count when it matters."

"It'll count," Riddick said simply, his voice dropping to a deep growl as he held her gaze across the stack of charts. "You'll make it count."

The ever-present threat, just below the surface. It made her think of the predator out in the mouth of the river that had followed their glider for a short while. If it came to force, Jack knew all about force. If it came to killing, Jack could do that too. The man across from her had trained her well, but like the silent, unseen predator, it was there in her. If she had to make it count, she'd make it count.

But that wasn't the same as leading. By force of will, Riddick could lead. By force of charisma, he could make you follow him anywhere and Jack knew that from personal experience. Even now, she would follow him into hell itself without a second thought. But it wasn't the same as leading, and for that, she glanced at Duncan. Riddick had taught her to fight, to kill, to survive, but it would be Duncan that would teach her to lead.

"I can do that," she whispered, her voice a quieter echo of Riddick's dangerous growl. She felt the sharp knife beneath and grew cold. 'I can do that,' her thoughts echoed. Of all of them around the table, perhaps only Riddick knew what she was truly capable of.

Feet shuffled in the silence and Jack turned to take in Shazza, grinning quickly at the hard expression on the other woman's face. If anyone gave her any grief, Jack knew that she could rely on Shazza to be there to back her up.

"I have to prepare," Theo said as he thumbed through the charts and deftly rolled up a couple, tucking them under his arm. "Riddick?"

"I'll catch up with you," Riddick said, eyeing Shazza across the table.

It left her alone in the room with Duncan. "Probably just as well we only said an hour," he deadpanned.

Laughter bubbled up from her and she came around to his side of the table. Keeping her pace slow and measured, she walked beside him as they left the main hall and went back out into the bright light on the causeway. "It's probably just as well she'll be on a glider and not on horseback out there."

Duncan clapped her on the back, his laugh dying out as he grew serious. "About that. We might want to take horses anyway."

Not bothering to waste time in asking Duncan why, she waited, knowing that he would explain fully in his own time. Even then, her mind had already switched gears; thinking about how many horses they would need and what kind of supplies they should bring.

"We don't know how long we might be out there, or what we might be facing in terms of numbers. The horses can pack in whatever supplies we might need."

"Tea's nice," she added. During her hunting trips with Riddick, they would range widely, carrying only what they wore on the night the hunt began. They lived rough. Slept outside and taking from the land what they needed to survive. They could do it but that didn't mean that they didn't miss the small comforts and she knew that after they returned from each trip, that Riddick made tea and sat out on the flat roof of Sunhillow's ruins, eyes closed, the warm earthenware cup between his hands. Before bathing, before eating or sleeping, before anything else. She could live without comfort of she had to, but it was good to have it. Tea was nice.

"There's that," he agreed, "also, the gliders are great for open ground, but if we have to change plans and go back into the forest for some reason -"

"-Or the rocks," she continued for him, instantly seeing where he was going with his argument. "We're covered no matter where those fuckers show up."

Another shrewd look from Duncan as he hummed in agreement with her. "The gliders can be disassembled and we can take them through the forest that way?" he questioned, getting a nod in return.

Up ahead at the end of the causeway, they looked at the villager's horses, still pulling up tufts of grass. The men were standing in a loose knot, talking amongst themselves; they would leave soon. "We should start out with the other villagers."

The import of what he offered dropped like a bomb and Jack knew that he had done it on purpose. 'Sneaky fucker's determined to put me in charge,' she thought, not without a glimmer of pride that he had that kind of faith in her. "Yeah, we could."

"If you run into any problems, Hammersmith will stand with you."

"Hammersmith. Mark, right?" she asked. He was the quiet man that had come forward during the briefing; she didn't know him that well.

"His family was cut down when Bishop went through his village."

Jack noticed that Duncan separated himself from that action but didn't say anything about it. Nothing was ever as simple, as black and white, as it sounded and she knew better than to judge so quickly. If Hammersmith could see past Duncan's involvement with the Company, with the very raid that killed his family, it only raised the militiaman in her eyes.

"He's got no love for the Company," he continued.

At that, she snorted. "No shit. It's good; we'll need that if we're to get the rest to work with us."

"With you."

Opening her mouth and closing it as quickly when she had nothing to say to that. "We're set then." Watching the shadows lengthen along the ground, she took a guess at how much time had passed. "Your hour's almost up. You better go 'get ready' while you've still got time."

Duncan snorted at her and then she was off, vaulting over the side of the causeway to the grass a short distance below, making for the small cabin that she shared with Jacob, to prepare for their journey.

Bliss: Riddick is like the ultimate mom! He knows EVERYTHING that you're doing! Jack is cocky, but there are limits, even for her :D

Saismaat: I love getting your reviews; you always see stuff in there that I love, or that I've missed - which I also love :)

I tinkered with that first sentence a bit. For me it was more about unsettled, spooked horses, and the wrongness of the situation.

"Very nice! This thing as an intrusion."

--Thanks, I wanted a definite feel for what belonged and what didn't, and wanted the drop ship to be as unnatural and foreign as possible

"Nice. Back to him hovering over Fry in the skiff, not quite touching . . ."

--it's interesting, I see him doing that a lot. In TCoR, I found he was much more action oriented, all heroey and charging in, but in Pitch Black, there's a certain cautious slyness. There's only a few points where he actually fights in PB but mostly, he's there, watching and testing. I just watched "the Escapist" last night and there's a character that does this to frightening effect. You never see him actually touch, but there's whole air of threat and...intimacy? It's wrong and confusing and terribly human.

"snerk. Four plus 19 is 23 – 22 plus one, starting over. Emperor and The
Sun. Power and rebirth. It can mean a whole lot."

--I swear I channel this stuff :) Power and rebirth would be a huge character in this story...but rebirth into what?

"Jack's moving to being in charge? Hm."

--between you and I, yes, definitely. Jack developed some leadership qualities in Rider, where she took control of the Moorglade, and she's been groomed for it by Theo, Riddick, Duncan and Shazza. The notion of Riddick as a female character in PB has stuck with me ever since I found he was supposed to be a she. It filled in so many blanks for me. I always 'got' Riddick, but that was a defining moment for me.

"Heh. Serenity moment. "You mean to say . . . sex?""

--exactly :) I was writing and it didn't want to come out any other way, so I left it. There isn't any Firefly in here but I almost think that any 'frontier/space/fantasy/sci-fi" story that doesn't have Firefly in the back of their head somewhere? Strange. So, while there's not enough to disclaimer it, there's always something, isn't there?

"Nice back and forth there!"

--Jack and Riddick here are my two favorite characters to write

thanks for reading and enjoying, it's so much fun going back to this story, and thank you to those that have favorited and are following!