Disclaimer: Nope...not mine. I'm just here to muck about in their universe and generally complicate the character's lives. As an author, i consider it my duty...but i don't own anything to do with Riddick. More's the pity...

Author's Note: Well, well, well! I must admit surprise, more people like this than I expected. Apparently we're not allowed to give personal thank-yous to everybody on the chapters anymore, so here's a general but genuine thanks to everyone who reviewed, and thanks to those who alerted and favorited, every bit is appreciated! I hope you enjoy this new installment and hope to hear from y'all again! Naja

She returned exactly three hours later to find Orla lying on her father's chest and the both of them splayed in the bed, sound asleep. She sighed. Orla had obviously woken early from her nap and Anatoli had neglected to try and put her back in her bed. Again. The little tyke knew quite well that her mother wouldn't let her sleep in their bed because she'd been almost impossible to break of the habit as a baby but Anatoli loved to sneak her in so they could all snuggle together—especially if Anore would let her sleep there all night. He never could say no to her. She sighed again and Anatoli started awake, looking first the slumbering cherub on his chest with a sleepy, affectionate smile that would have made butter melt from twenty feet away, then at the somber face of the woman standing over them, arms crossed. He looked chagrined to have been caught, letting his child break the rules. The sheepish smile he offered her didn't melt her temper, but it did a lot for her amusement and she gently scooped the child off his chest trying not to wake her. Instantly, the little girl was awake, blinking blearily and fussing.

"Shush…" Anore whispered, rocking the little one gently, cradling her close so she could wake more slowly but to Anore's surprise, the child subsided back into slumber almost instantly. She shot an accusatory look at Anatoli. "You didn't 'help' her sleep did you?" She said but didn't really mean it. He was always teasing Anore by saying he'd like to slip a little vodka in the girl's juice before naps, to 'help' her sleep. Anore, good thing for Anatoli, knew he was joking. He shook his head, his mood souring as he became more awake. The baby successfully planted back in the crib and the door once more closed, she turned back to him.

He sat on the edge of the bed and for a moment she forgot that he was, like her, a cold-blooded killer who enjoyed a good fight as much as herself. He looked so much like a kicked puppy. She supposed that they both had two sides and that moment she was dealing with the one who would dearly love to be her husband. She went and stood before him.

"I'm sorry." She said as gently as she could. She hated having to say it, but she knew she'd been in the wrong. "What I said was…inexcusable."

"But true." He said sadly.

"Not true. If I'd really thought you wanted to rape me, do you think I'd have let you live long enough to do it?" She asked him, grinning in rather savage way and sitting on the bed next to him. He looked away from her. "You did nothing." She said with a slightly amused smile, and nudged him in the ribs when he snorted. Did nothing was right-witnessed her kicking the asses of several of his buddies and had given it his own go. He'd failed dismally and crawled away from the scene bloodied and defeated and with love in his heart. Poor sap. "You even helped a little. The rest were pathetic fighters, you provided a few minutes amusement." He laughed softly, cheering up a bit. "Besides…you impressed me."

"What?" he asked, surprised. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and sighed.

"I can't love you Anatoli. I told you that from the beginning. But just because I can't love, doesn't mean I'm not a hot-blooded woman and your advance was—"

"Pitiful." He said, rolling his eyes.

"Well it was rather yes." She admitted, grinning savagely when he shot her a mild glare. "But I like forward men and that you weren't trying to rape me came as kind of a shock and even though you're a pathetic fighter, you gave it your best."

"I couldn't kill you… hell, I not get chance!" His voice drifted off and he sighed. "But I was not honorable."

"You always are." She chortled, genuinely laughing at his choice of words. "It's your job remember? And as for being dishonorable so's that I'd care? That first time, you remember? I jumped at you, I practically raped you…or maybe we raped each other…I'm fuzzy…" She pretended to be thinking, feeling like a hell-slug for encouraging him. For wanting him to forgive her. It wasn't fair. His fingers trailed down her spine and she let herself forget, for just a second, that the mark on her hand still existed, that the burn on her soul would never really heal. She told herself that she might as well enjoy it, despite the guilt, for Anatoli was quite a capable lover and she was never unsatisfied. And a deal was a deal after all right? She used him for safety and supplies to smuggle to the convicts and he used her as sort of pseudo-wife. A deal was a deal and as she got good sex and a good father for Orla, why not let it be. But she always felt guilty and always rather sad at the end. Always.

The act was swift, both knowing that the child might well wake at any second and while she could neither see nor hear into their bedroom, they disliked the idea anyway. In the hazy afterglow he lay next to her, stroking her hair back from her face and smiling at her. She let out a long, slow breath and closed her eyes, soaking in some of the after-sex euphoria and letting her muscles unwind. He was so very warm and she was so very comfortable, fitted snuggly against him. She loved this time, this brief few minutes after they made love, when the aftermath of intimacy drove everything else away and for those few, precious minutes, she could exist without remembering or feeling.

"Don't worry about Boss." He said suddenly and she started, eyes snapping open. "He's just…in a bad mood."

"That thing is a bad mood." She said fiercely, her warm relaxation vanishing. "And if he tries that shit again I really will kill him."

"He the only thing between you and a Hellhound, I'd not think that." Anatoli reminded her. She grinned, wondering what he'd say if she told him that threat was pretty empty. She could ask the Hellhounds to kill every single living thing in the building and both her and Orla would walk away without a scratch—with a phalanx of the beasts at their sides no less.

"What's his bad mood about this time?" she asked, smirking at the ceiling at her thoughts.

"Just got a new Inmate coming. But it's a big one." He said and rolled over onto his back, staring at the ceiling with her. "Name's Riddick."

"Riddick huh? Sounds like a bad word." She laughed, but something began to ring in the back of her mind. Riddick…Riddick? She picked at a strand of her hair, twining its length around her fingers.

"He's big money. Worth at least nine-hundred K." Her ears perked up a bit.

"That much? What's he for?" She asked turning her head to look at him and watched as he grinned.

"A four time prisoner Breaker champion and got more Mercs under his belt than teeth in his head." He laughed and she joined him, shrugging it off.

"So? Nobody cares about the Mercs do they? You'd think they'd give him a medal for a public service." She laughed again, finger-combing her hair. "Riddick huh." She said softly, trying to remember why the name sounded familiar. Maybe she'd heard a bounty mentioned for him before? Riddick. She sighed and put it from her mind. She heard Orla wake, singing to herself in her niche-crib and rose quickly, pulling on her underwear and shirt and making playful faces at Anatoli as he watched her with a smirk. Inside, she kept turning the name over and over in her mind. Riddick. It was important? She didn't know but as Orla began making demands for food, she put it from her mind entirely. She had other things to worry about.

Kyra leaned precariously out over the pit that made up the center of the prison level. A shaft that descended an easy thousand feet straight down, and another three hundred in tunnels. Her perch was dangerous, but necessary. All was relatively quiet—as quiet as it ever was in Crematoria—and only one or two other convicts were about. Kyra's band—run by the Guv and Sniper—were somewhere on the bottom level, sleeping. Most people were asleep at that hour, which was why she and Anore had their meetings then. Less witnesses to squeal about where meds and cigs came from.

She checked her route again and, seeing no one, made the leap from the ledge and snatched the rope that dangled over the chasm. Climbing quickly and with agility, she found herself two levels up and still all alone. She hoped Anore had as much luck—and that she'd managed to get their medicines and supplies. She knew Anore took a big chance sneaking about, stealing things that might be missed and Kyra felt a certain impressed awe that the woman was so good that she didn't get caught. Anore, Kyra decided, was as close to a big sister or a mother as she'd ever had.

The top level was unoccupied, the inmates preferring to be as far away from the guards control room as possible and Kyra slipped along the ledge, passed empty cells, silently, and into the narrow winding passage that led up to the guard's control room. There were two gates between them and the control room, both locked so Kyra hunkered down in a shadow beside the first gate, watching the shadows in the control room. All was silent up there, the guards all having gone to their slots long before. She listened, waiting.

And suddenly Anore was there, her frame blocking out the faint light of the control room. Kyra grinned.

"You're good." She whispered, just loud enough for Anore to hear her. "You remind me of a friend of mine." She added and meant it as a compliment. Or an insult. She wasn't sure which it was.

"You guy's holding up?" Anore whispered back, squatting down behind the second gate. Kyra nodded and then answered verbally.

"Pretty well. Reese got ate." She said with cold ferocity and could hear the hiss of anger from Anore—in fact, she thought for a second she saw the woman's gray eyes flash silver in rage. Just a trick of the light though, but it reminded her once again, of Riddick.

"Is Tolm better?"

"Getting there. You got the meds?"

"Enough for another two weeks. We won't get another shipment up here for at least that long. I'm sorry." Anore told her and Kyra sighed.

"Not your fault. How's Orla?"

"Playing that pipe like mad—I think she's actually figured out how to play 'Two Little Princesses' on it." Anore said and Kyra laughed softly. "She's got musical talent, who'd of thunk it?"

"I know right? That kid is the child of dullards, how she manages to breathe is amazing to me." Kyra teased and snatched the stone that Anore chucked at her out of the air.

"Just one dullard." Anore hissed back at her, laughing softly.

"True, too true. He and Tim got into it—Tim's not too great now."

"I heard."

"How do you do it?"Kyra asked suddenly, "Sleep with him—fuck him even—after what he's done?"

"We have a deal." Anore replied coolly. "He protects Orla and keeps me where I can help you all and I play the dutiful mistress."

"Yes but-" Kyra began, Anore made a sound very like a growl—Kyra knew that growl, it meant her mouth was running away and Anore didn't like what it said.

"Got a convict coming in tomorrow." Her voice was cool and Kyra wondered what had her so tense. "Apparently a real baddass. Warn the Guv he gets to do another introduction to Crematoria. The name is Riddick." Kyra thought, for a second, that somebody had slammed a heavy, iron fist into her stomach. Her breath left her in a tight whoosh and her head began to spin.

"Riddick…? Are you sure?"

"Yup. He's a four time Breaker champion and Merc Murderer." Anore said with a savage laugh. Kyra swallowed, trying to get her thoughts back under control.

"What's he look like?"

"Don't know. Why you look like somebody just gutted you?" Anore asked and Kyra sucked in a breath, wiping sweat from her face with the back of her hand. "Riddick…wait a second. Isn't that—"

"Yes." Kyra said tightly. "The man himself. Shining eyes and all."

"Shining eyes?" Anore snored in derision. "A real knight then huh?"

"No. Shining eyes literally. Lying bastard." She added savagely, anger and hurt turning her stomach into a fiery knot. "When I met him, he told me he'd had a shine job on his eyes. Told me to kill a few people and get sent to a slam where I'd never see daylight again. I could pay a doctor twenty Menthol Kools and have eyes like that."

"Eyes like what?" Anore's voice was suddenly sharp. Kyra looked up at her in the dark, Anore's eyes glinted suddenly bright in the outline of her face, reflecting the dim light.

"Like silver. He can see in the dark with them. He lied to me." Kyra was bitter and didn't bother to hide it from the older woman. Anore was silent for a long moment, unmoving as a statue. Frozen.

"You didn't do all this to get his eyes did you?" Anore asked then, her voice strange and distant, Kyra peered up at her through the bars, wondering at her change of mood. Anore could be like that though. She hadn't lied when she'd said Anore reminded her of Riddick somewhat. The same ever-changing personality and the same rigid 'kill or be killed' attitude. The difference however, was that Anore was willing to kill for other's sake, even at her own risk. She had her own personal code, but it was unpredictable at best and seemed as fluid as water. But, she looked after her own, and damn to hell those who got in her way. She wondered if Anore wouldn't even gut Anatoli if given the incentive. She had a feeling that she might.

"No. I didn't. Being here definitely wasn't in my plans, even to be able to see in the dark."

"Is that the one I remind you of?"

"No offense." Kyra said with a faint, mocking laugh. Mocking herself. A long time ago she'd have given anything to have someone say that about her. Hell, she'd even shaved her head for him once. So much for idol worship.

"None taken. Look. I've got to go, here." A hand appeared in the darkness, through the bars of the first gate and Kyra deftly caught the heavy package that Anore threw to her. "Take care of yourself Kyra. I'll see you soon."

"Give a kiss to Orla for me. I've got another present for her, in the works."

"She's going to be badly spoiled by Aunt Kyra." Anore joked, but she sounded distracted. "Take care." She said again and suddenly she vanished. Neatly, silently and without a trace. Kyra grinned fiercely in her wake. Yes, Anore was a lot like Riddick, only more human and she was willing to risk her neck for others. And now he was coming. Tomorrow even. She leaned against the wall, cradling the package for a long moment, her heart a steady thumping rhythm in her chest. Riddick. She closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath. She'd better think of appropriate welcome for him. Something painful, if she had her way. Something to show how much she missed him and how much she hated him. She simply couldn't wait.