Here's another chapter that moves pretty quickly. Toombs' motives will seem kind of stupid to begin with, but don't worry! They'll become apparent in the next chapter... as usual. :P

Disclaimer: I don't own Riddick... But I do have a maniacal plan to capture some share of the rights and then give Vin a call...


Correction. The next morning sucked. She was woken up by a sharp cuff upside her head, where the furious jailer was standing over his dead guard. "What the fuck did you do?" he shouted at her. Toombs came into the room behind him, viewing the situation and coming to the same conclusion that the jailer had. Jack had killed a guard in the dead of night.

Toombs laughed and shook his head, lighting a cigarette. "The dumbass probably tried to rape her... She's not all damsel in distress, she killed five of my crew -- three of them with her hands tied." He shrugged his shoulders. The jailer turned back to Jack again, and Toombs winked at her over his shoulder. Jack snickered. The jailer hit her across the face, harder than Toombs had ever hit her. "Don't kill her," Toombs warned him. "Riddick will tear this place apart if she's dead." He took a drag of his cigarette and looked at the viewscreens in the control room. "Where the fuck is he?" he grumbled.

Jack was wondering the same thing. The twenty-minute landing period was coming up soon, and if he didn't radio through, they wouldn't open the hangar door. A man sat at the control panel, twisting knobs and pushing buttons that meant nothing to Jack. She just stared at the viewscreen showing the time and estimated landing window. Five minutes. She became aware that she was being stared at. Slowly, she looked up at one of the guards that was staring unabashedly at her bare chest. Her lip curled at him and she twisted the chair away from him, toward Toombs. "Can I have my bra back, please?" she asked. He was most likely to give her what she wanted, out of all the men in the room.

At first, none of them responded. Toombs kept smoking and staring at the radar. He glanced at her, and then smirked. "But it's such a pretty view," he protested, but shrugged out of his jacket and covered her front with it. She thanked him. May as well act like a lady, whether or not she was being treated like one. She yawned, and looked back at the time screen. One minute. Her throat choked up as the seconds ticked by. Toombs looked more and more concerned.

Finally, the clock reached zero. "Close the hangar," the jailer instructed. Jack closed her eyes in time with the hangar's outer gate, and ducked her head. She refused to cry in front of all of these men, but damned if her eyes didn't sting. She was so sure that he would come for her. Why should he?

"Well, wanna just take her?" Toombs asked the jailer. Her tears forgotten, Jack's head shot up and she stared open-mouthed at him. He wanted to leave her here?

The jailer shook his head. "No. No girls," he said flatly. He eyed her and his nose wrinkled. "I don't want her either. No, we will not take her. You will leave tomorrow if he doesn't show."

Toombs got angry. "What the fuck do you mean no girls?" he growled. "You're a slam! What do you care what happens to her down there?" He gestured toward the winch that Jack had assumed led into the actual part of the jail.

Again, the jailer just replied, "No girls. It's inhumane."

Slack-jawed, Toombs snorted. "Inhumane? You have nearly six hundred convicts stuck in caves with no lights, no air conditioning, and very little food. You know they kill each other, and you even send dogs down there to kill a few more." He gave the jailer a deadpan look.

With a sigh, the jailer told him, "Universal law. No co-ed slams. We get caught having a woman here, we're shut down, maybe put in slam ourselves. No girls." He folded his arms with his business-like tone, and then told Toombs. "You might want to try Gato. Next galaxy over, all-female prison... Dunno if they'd take her without a bounty." He shrugged at Toombs, and informed him, "You leave tomorrow."


Toombs led an abnormally quiet Jack back onto the ship. He was angry. The remains of the crew avoided him, and Jack was chained to her wall in the closet. Toombs didn't feed her that day, and she didn't complain. The next day, one of the crewmen, Derek, heard her stomach growling as he walked by. He glanced at her before he turned around back to the kitchen. He fed her an apple, and she didn't fight him. He sat next to her on the wall, frowned as he shifted his weight, and asked her, "How do you do this all day?"

Laughing, Jack replied, "I'm used to having lots of time on my hands... I think about stuff. Try to remember things I thought I couldn't." She shrugged her shoulders, and smirked at him. "Sometimes, I annoy Toombs. That's always fun."

Quietly, Derek told her, "He's thinking about killing you." Jack raised an eyebrow at him. "I didn't sign on to kill women." He shook his head, and held out his hand for her to take another bite of the apple. She chewed thoughtfully, and they fell silent. Jack enjoyed just having someone with her. She was tired of being alone.

Toombs came down from the kitchen, stomping down the hallway. He stopped in front of the two, and put his hands on his hips. "Well ain't this sweet," he said sarcastically. "What'd you tell 'er, boy? I'm gonna kill 'er?" He laughed, and kicked Derek in the shin. "Fuck, man. I don't kill women."

"Stick 'em in slams to be raped and killed instead, eh, Toombs?" Jack replied. He scowled at her and lifted his hand in a threatening manner. She looked away, disinterested.

He sighed in irritation. "You've got two choices. We're either going to drop you on a planet of my choice, or you can sign on to help," Toombs informed her. Jack was unsure. Her first, automatic response was a Riddick-instilled anti-merc attitude. However, she was sure that the planet of Toombs' choice would not be a planet she would like to be on. She still held out hope that Riddick would be behind them, waiting to pick her up as soon as they landed, but what if he wasn't? How well could she really do on her own. "Think about it." Toombs left her alone.

Derek told her, "You could get a few credits out of him, find a job. He'd probably put you somewhere halfway decent, if you're lucky." His voice was quiet.

Jack just nodded lightly.


Jack stopped in the doorway of the ship, and looked back at Toombs. "Why are you doing all of this for me?" she asked him. It was confusing that he was even letting her go. He just gave a noncommital shrug, and walked away down the hall. Derek who had fed her the day before gave her a hug and handed her a card with a good amount of credits on it. She stared at him and thanked him, and would make a point to tell Riddick not to kill him... if she ever got the chance. The dark thoughts clouded the fact that she was now free to try and contact Riddick and get free. She walked down the ramp and into the port.

Standing in the port, Jack felt vaguely nostalgic. Toombs had decided to leave her on Mars. She knew that she could take care of herself against the usual muggers, rapists, and murderers. She could usually outsmart them when she was a kid anyways. With a deep breath, she straightened the sack over her back. Toombs had given her a bit of food, a jacket, her boots, two shivs, a blanket, and some water. The ship left the ground before she was out of the port. They didn't want to get busted by Riddick. Jack did a quick check of where her weapons were, just so she knew where to grab them from, and set off. She tried not to breathe too deeply, though the scent of sulfur, smoke, and other industrial wastes mixed with the scents of overpopulation in such a lovely way that reminded her of her childhood. It was amazing she didn't have black lung. It wasn't the city she had grown up in, but it was close. It might pay off to go back to her old neighborhood, where she at least remembered her way around and wouldn't get lost.

The first thing she did was check what ships were registered in the port. There was a board that showed all of the ships - what they were called, what they were, and who they were registered to. Apparently, the crime rate had dropped since she had last been there. To Jack, that meant nothing. She didn't see any skiffs, and didn't see any names that rang any bells. She knew if Riddick was here, he'd put something that she'd recognize. She frowned, but resolutely pulled up her chin and walked into the city. She needed to find a job if she wanted to have any kind of luck surviving here. She followed her feet and instincts to a metropolitan street. It didn't look that bad, a little run-down, neglected, but still decent.

After receiving less than hospitable reactions from the first few shops she walked into, Jack expected nothing less from the next. It was a small diner. The food smelled good. She suddenly remembered how long it had been since she had a good meal, and her stomach protested loudly when she thought about skipping the diner. She felt the credit card that Derek had given her. She gave into temptation. If she was going to spend the night on the street, she would at least need a full stomach. She ordered food that she hadn't had since before she'd been made to run away. She remembered a diner like this one in the city where she had grown up, that her father would treat her to when they could afford it. She had always loved to get white meat tenders, fried potatoes, and noodles with cheese. Add that with a sugary soda and she'd be set for the night. She might even get some fried potatoes to go, just to have something to munch on.

Tired and irritated, the waitress came to her table. She was at least five years older than Jack, and the years had not been kind to her. Jack smiled up at her, and the waitress didn't bother smiling back. Instead, she just looked pointedly at Jack with her pen on the order datapad. Admonished, Jack flatly told the waitress what she wanted. She threw in a 'please' for good measure, in hopes that her food wouldn't get spat in. The waitress came back in just a few minutes and set the soda in front of her, and then went outside for a cigarette break. Jack drank her soda slowly, not wanting to waste any, and savored every bit of it. She took in her surroundings. The diner was dingy, old, but not dirty. It had a homey, broken-in feel to it rather than just being trashy. The color scheme was loud, retro, and the linoleum patterns on the table went out of style before Jack was born. Regardless, Jack decided that she liked the place.

The waitress came back inside with a loud, tired sigh. Jack was sitting near enough to the door to venture a question at her, "I don't suppose you're hiring here?"

Surprisingly, the waitress flashed her a brilliant grin. "Actually, we are. There used to be three waitresses here, but the other two ran off last week and I've been running the place since then. Want a job?" The waitress who had been so easily rude earlier now batted her eyelashes at Jack pleadingly.

"Need a job," Jack corrected her, sipping at the soda. "And a place to stay, but they usually come one after the other." She shrugged, and blinked innocently at the waitress. Maybe she had an idea.

With a grin, the waitress sunk into the seat across from her. "You could crash on my couch awhile. My ex just moved out, I'm not too keen on living alone for awhile, if you know what I mean." Jack nodded with a small, girlish smile. She had never gotten along with Furyan girls, they were all too competitive, too jealous, too afraid of Riddick, and too off-put by the fact that she could easily take on any of the Furyan girls. Furyan girls were not known for their warrior skills -- they were known for birthing male warriors, and keeping said warriors happy for the rest of their lives. Defending yourself wasn't unheard of, but women were frowned upon when they used weapons. Jack had distanced herself from the girls on the Fury, usually. She never bothered complaining about it to Riddick, because it never really bothered her. The waitress held out a hand, telling her, "I'm Kelsey."


And just like that, Jack had a friend, a place to stay, and a job. She was proud of herself for following her instincts down that particular street. Kelsey's couch had a spring that stuck into her back, but Jack forced herself to not care. It was a place to sleep that was safe. Sure, sometimes they would hear gunshots outside at night, but if they turned up the television loud enough, they didn't notice. No one ever came up to their two-inch-thick sliding steel door. There were bars over the windows and the building had a security door downstairs. Jack knew that Riddick could break in easily enough, but she tried not to think about him. If he wasn't here by now, he didn't want her.

Kelsey persuaded the diner's owner to hire Jack. Well, really, it had involved more threats than persuasions, threatening to start trashing the place, leaving him with no waitresses at all. He decided that two was a hell of a lot better than none, and agreed to let Jack work at the diner. They lived more at the diner than at the apartment, having at least one of them there constantly. They pooled their incomes and had a larger budget for food, clothes, and entertainment. They both splurged on horrendous old movies -- the kind that knew they sucked and embraced it rather than trying to be deep. They loved action flicks and had the same sense of humor. They talked late into some nights, and Jack talked about everything but Riddick. Just that she had lived on a ship that never landed, with a man who had saved her life more than once. Kelsey asked her why she sometimes had nightmares, and Jack only told her that she'd crash-landed on a planet with monsters in the dark. Kelsey put a few things together, but never enough to figure out who Jack really was.

One night, as the girls walked home from the laundromat, small bags of clothing over either shoulder, they were followed by a few thugs. Jack had anticipated it in this city, had always carried her shivs with her, and her switchblade boots. Jack smiled at Kelsey and told her, "We're being followed." Kelsey's eyes widened worriedly, and looked ready to run. "Don't worry. There's only three of them," she said, continuing her pleasant tone of voice. She doubted that they could hear her from their distance, maybe just her lilt. She could hear their footsteps, the weight in them, and was able to estimate their size without turning around. All things that Riddick had trained her to do, to the point that she could recognize his footsteps. They were close, but not his. Besides, he'd never stalk his prey from behind -- he preferred coming in from above.

"Come on," she told Kelsey, waving her down a convenient alleyway. There was no way they wouldn't take the bait. She dropped her laundry bag and jumped on top of a dumpster just inside the alley. Kelsey backed further down the alley as she pulled out her shivs. "Don't go far," Jack warned. The three guys moved faster after they turned into the alley and Jack kicked her heels together, allowing the switchblade to pop out of her toe. The first one came out of the alley and she slashed him quickly across the chest. The second swiped for her ankles, but she jumped over the both of them, curving her body and slashing at one in mid-air. She easily took down the first two, but the third appeared to have some training. He got one shiv away from her and pinned her to the wall by her neck. She clawed at his forearm, raising the other shiv for a strike, but he grabbed her wrist in the other.

Previously frozen against a wall, Kelsey moved forward when Jack was pinned. At first she was unsure of what to do, but then she saw the shivs on the ground. She grabbed one and it didn't take much effort to thrust it into the middle of his back, just to the left of his spine. The man dropped Jack suddenly, and fell to his knees. Jack snatched up the other shiv to finish him off, slashing quickly across his throat. He fell backward into the alley, and died with a groan.

Kelsey stared at Jack as she emotionlessly wiped the blood off of her shivs and put the switchblade back into her boot. "Where did you learn to do that?" she breathed. She had always noticed that Jack seemed to have endless agility, balance, and speed at the diner. She carried two trays, full of six plates each, through a Friday-night-full diner, without spilling a thing. She effortlessly remembered everyone's orders, even without the datapad. She had sometimes made a show of vaulting herself over the diner's counter when it was empty. Sometimes, when Kelsey woke up early, she caught Jack doing drills and exercises in the living room. She looked professional.

She paused as she cleaned the blades. Riddick's voice rang in her head. When you're with people you don't know very well, your past is your greatest weapon. Give away as little as possible, and never allow them to get anything to use against you. How would Kelsey react to finding out that she had been trained by a notorious murderer? Jack just shrugged. "The guy that saved my life made a point to make sure that he wouldn't have to do it again," she said ruefully. Kelsey's eyes narrowed, and she looked down at the three bodies. Each man was easily twice their size. Jack sighed. "I'm not sorry for killing them, Kelsey. Do you have any idea what they might have done to us?" She gestured with her shiv at the man that lay at her feet, and Kelsey's eyes only bulged out. Jack frowned and put away the shivs, wondering if she would have to leave.


Riddick watched as Jack easily took down the first two men. Toombs had to be stupid if he thought Riddick would come after Jack as soon as she was alone. As if he didn't know Toombs had parked in the next city over, waiting for Riddick to come and save Jack. He was only a little angry at Jack for not realizing that, but she was still young. She still trusted people. He hadn't left her completely alone, but had kept his distance, waiting for Toombs to give up. After three months, Riddick was getting tired of waiting. He sat on the rooftop two buildings down from Jack's building, watching Toombs' man camp out on the street corner, disguised as a homeless man. It was common in this part of town, so that no one questioned it. Riddick snorted. Like he would even see Riddick coming. He looked off to his right, towards the port that Toombs' ship was parked in, and wondered about just going and killing Toombs. That would certainly get him off the trail. He shifted his jaw back and forth thoughtfully.