Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING THAT PRECEDED THIS STORY! Enjoy.

About every hundred yards Riddick would slow to a walk to make sure Tori was keeping up the pace he was setting. After living a cushy life with Draco for so long, Tori began to have problems breathing while she was running after about the first hundred yards, causing her to be moving slower than Riddick wanted.

"Apparently we should have been working on your stamina and jogging rather than just on your fighting skills," stated Riddick after the fifth time he had to stop so Tori could breathe again.

"Maybe, but I hadn't realized that I'd have to haul ass to your ship. I thought I'd win my freedom and than just head over to it at a normal pace."

"Would you like me to carry you the rest of the way or do you think you'll survive the rest of the jog," he asked in a sarcastic tone?

"How much further?"

"We're about halfway."

"Let's get going then. I'll survive the trip out of sheer stubbornness. I want to taste freedom again before I die."

"Remind me to reward you when we get out of this mess."

Tori gave him a quick smile and they were off again.

Draco and his guard dogs were barreling towards them in his car. While it would seem like the logical choice to any one to head for the shipyards automatically, to his dumbass "dogs" it was a better plan to head to the house to attempt to cut them off. They were great to have around when they only had to perform the most basic of functions, guarding and fighting, tonight not withstanding, and no other thinking was involved. But make them think on their own, and the less than half a brain between them was seriously put to the test.

He would have caught them before they got too far off his course if he hadn't been so deep in thoughts of torture and betrayal. Ideas of how he would torture Riddick for tricking him into allowing him near Tori and then taking her from him and the kinds of punishments he would do to Tori trying to leave him. He knew it was Riddick who attacked him in his private rooms at the ring, he just hadn't expected Richard to also be Riddick, and that meant that Tori had known from the very beginning who he was and was just bidding her time until she was ready to leave with him.

'I can't wait till I get my hands on them. First, I'll string him up by his dick with a bungee cord, that way all I'll have to do is pull him down some and he'll bounce at least a dozen times.

'Then, I'm going to tie her to the bed and after I've had my fill of her, I'll give her to the men. They could always use some recreation.'

"Where the hell are you morons going," Draco was pulled out of his musings, rather abruptly, with the realization that they had been heading to the house.

"We were heading for the house so we could catch them. There's no way she'll be ready by now and he wouldn't leave without her."

"She's had plenty of time to make sure she was ready to leave with him at a moments notice you dumbasses! And even though they are on foot, they're most likely halfway to the shipyards by now, where we should have been heading in the first place!"

"I thought you said we were halfway?" Tori was tired, thirsty, and slowly losing her resolve to go all the way to Riddick's ship. She had to stop so often to catch her breathe that her entire body felt like one giant boulder that she was being forced to lug around.

"I was guessing."

"I'd hit you, if I could move my arms. How far would you guess we have left now?"

"About halfway."

She would have hit him, really would have come right up to him and socked the shit right out of him; however, as she began making her way over to where he was waiting for her to catch her breath, the squeal of tires were heard as headlights peered around the corner.

Had they not had to stop all of those times for Tori, Riddick and Tori could have been on the ship with plenty of cover and more than enough firepower to put up a fight. As it was, our heroes were tired from the journey, out in the open street with minimal cover at best, and the only weapons they possessed were Riddick's shivs.

But there was a glimmer of hope for them yet. They were currently on a very good position to make a run for the ship. Riddick had really only been joking with Tori about how far they were from the ship as a way to try and make her run further between breaks, so they were actually only about a quarter mile from his ship's location while Draco and his boys were about two miles down the road at a dead stop.

"Run," Riddick said it as a calm command as he took off towards the ship hoping Tori had heard him and was following close behind; Tori had screamed it at him as she took off in the same direction at the same time.

As if that word had been a signal for them as well, as his men set off after them again Draco mounted the firing platform. Once Draco had Riddick in his crosshairs, everyone heard the shot.

His men knew there was a gun fired, but beyond that they were oblivious.

Draco knew he had a clean shot and that he'd not only "bag the beast", he'd also very soon have that bitch back.

Riddick was sure that Tori would be the target since she was the one farther back. He knew Draco wanted her back, so he figured he would just wing her to slow her down enough to catch her.

Because Tori was farther back she saw the laser scope dot on Riddick's back. She could plainly see that it was going to be a kill shot and she wasn't going to let that asshole kill him.

After Riddick registered the shot he turned to make sure Tori hadn't been hit. All he caught was a glimpse of her clutching her side and panting to keep up, as she had been doing all night.

So, naturally, when she told him to keep going and not worry about her, he thought nothing more of it then that he had missed them both.

A mere hop over the fence and another eighth of a mile jog and our dynamic duo reached their destination. Here Riddick had the bigger guns and haul plating to keep them safe from their pursuers.

Now, I could tell you all that all Riddick had to do was pick up the right gun and it was all over with. That he took down each one with a single shot and now they would be safe to live their lives, but then I'd be lying. However, an epic battle didn't occur either.

Both sides fought for a time, but only our heroes actually killed anyone. Tori did her best with the gun and managed to kill one of the guards, but not before she got nicked a few times with bullets whizzing by her. Riddick killed the other two; the guard first and Draco after a fair amount of time. Then, to make sure they couldn't come after her again, Riddick went to each corpse and shot them point blank in the head.

But alas, our heroine's battle was far from over.

By the time Riddick returned to the ship where he had left Tori in safe keeping, she was laying unconscious on the ramp to the rear storage hanger in an ever growing pool of blood.

Suddenly, Riddick wasn't looking at the woman he had grown to love dieing on his ship's ramp, he was eighteen again, scrawny, helpless, and afraid as he watched the only other person in the Universe who had ever cared about him dieing in a pool of her own blood after having been stabbed by her partner.

He was eight when she found him all alone on some shit hole of a planet living on the streets doing anything to survive.

She was the one good merc in the entire Universe. Short, messy, blonde hair; tall, lithe, athletic build; and the most piercing blue eyes Riddick had ever seen. She exuded the confidence of a warrior and the solidity of a mother. She could pick out your moves before you made them and she always seemed to know when you were trying to feed her bullshit for breakfast. But somehow, she never saw it coming.

Riddick rushed Tori to his med bay and began scans to check for internal damage and blood lose. When the computer found no internal injuries, which was a miracle to begin with considering that she was hit in the midsection, just not in her gut, Riddick placed her on his newly acquired surgical table and allowed its computer to patch her up.

All he could do now was wait for it to finish with Tori so the computer could analyze for blood type and begin production on synthesized blood to speed up her recovery time.

Time to wait meant time to think.

She and her partner, Johns, had received a special bounty for a young boy. He had done just about everything to survive on his own except rape people, and the officials of Zela Prime wanted him off of the planet immediately. They didn't care where they took him, just so long as he was off of their planet and away from their people. Once he was removed they would get their money, which was all any merc truly cared about.

Johns was the one who found him, hidden between two dumpsters, deep in the shadows of an alleyway. He took no chances taking the kid in, stunning and sedating him, as well as shoving a bit in his mouth and wrapping chains heavier then him around his wrists and ankles so he had to carry the kid in over his shoulders as he hauled him to the ship and off the planet. Even as a kid Riddick hated Johns.

When Riddick woke up, he was chained to a hospital type bed on a ship and a youngish woman was hovering over him in a mother hen sort of way.

It never occurred to him to shy away for her attentions or for him to flinch when she touched an area that was bruised. He merely looked up at her in a calm relaxed state with his deep chocolate, brown eyes, suggesting that he had planned out everything so he could end up here.

When she noticed he had woken up, she neither flinched nor showed any signs of surprise. She looked him dead in the eye and stated,"My name is Arabella, but you can call me Bell for short. You're on my ship, the Necromancer, and I expect you to treat my partner and myself with respect, or I'll blast your ass into space. Is that clear?"

"Crystal. But if he lays another hand on me, I'll blast his ass into space."

"That seems like a fair trade. Got a name?"

"Riddick."

Riddick could hear the computer as it continued to analyze the girl on the bed, the beeps of the heart monitor as it signaled that she was still alive, and the whoosh of air from the oxygen tank as it kept her lungs working.

He truly fucked up. He was careless and now he was going to lose her.

From then on Bell became Riddick's adopted mother. She taught him everything she knew about her trade and kept him safe from Johns and his need to sell Riddick to the highest paying slam. And he was reasonably safe so long as there were other more prominent bounties to keep him occupied and "rolling in creds".

Riddick's bounty remained nonexistent so long as he was with them, but after he turned fifteen and decided that he wanted to rejoin the human race and make a difference, his bounty grew. Once people found out about his past and the kinds of things he had done, no one wanted him around except the bad people, which only served to cause his bounty to grow with the rise in the body toll from the work they gave him, which caused Johns to look in his direction more and more.

After three years of his bounty growing and it finally reaching the point where it was no longer passable Johns finally decided to go after Riddick with or without Bell's help.

Once the computer was done analyzing Tori's blood a sub-system alert went off in the med bay. A single word repeatedly flashed itself on the screen:

Bell

It was the alert Riddick had specially programmed in the computer of every ship he acquired. It meant that he'd found her, Bell's daughter.

Riddick had managed to keep in contact with Bell over the years, always on secure channels, never the same frequency, just in case, and always using their own special encryption that only they could decipher.

After the latest bounty spike and Johns suddenly disappearing, Bell contacted Riddick and told him it was urgent that they meet in person.

The standard precautions were observed; securing the area, stowing away the weapons, and making sure that while they were completely surrounded by people, they couldn't be heard, and they could get to an exit quickly should anything happen. Once taken care of, they began their long talk as if nothing had ever changed between them, and he'd never left the ship.

They spent most of the time avoiding the subject they both knew was hanging over them, and just caught up on everything that wasn't said in transmissions, or in the letters.

Bell told him of the different bounties she'd gone after in his absence, and Riddick, discretely, told her of his travels and the different jobs he'd had.

At some point the conversation turned to Bell's life before she became a merc. She told him of her family and how she became partners with Johns. This seemed odd to Riddick since she never opened up to him while he remained on the ship, until…

"Then, shortly after my daughter turned two…"

"You have a kid, and you work as a merc? When do you see her," Riddick interrupted?

"I don't. Shortly after her second birthday a murderer I was chasing got the better of me and nearly killed me.

"I found out later that he wasn't even a real bounty. His boss sent out a fake bounty for me to find so I'd go after him so he'd be able to kill me as revenge for my throwing his brother in some nowhere slam with high security.

"He'd left me for dead in some back alley on the planet I'd chased him to. I wouldn't even have chased him down that alley if he hadn't been spouting how he would go after my daughter and kill her if I didn't get him first. I knew it was a trap, yet I couldn't let him go after her if there was anything I could do to stop him.

"It was pure luck that Johns found me when he did. If he hadn't, you'd be in some slam…"

"And you'd be dead. At least he's not a total scumbag," Riddick slipped in at her pause.

"And I never came back from the grave."

"Why? Why not come back and let everyone you care about know that you aren't dead?"

"Because, so long as everyone in the Underworld believes me to be dead, no one will go after my daughter as a way to get to me."

But alas, when the subject they both knew they were here to discuss could no longer be avoided, Bell stated that she didn't blame him for what he did. She knew, or knew of, the men he had killed to survive after he left. They had all been evil to the core and Bell had known that someday they would get what they had coming to them.

"But, Kiddo, you have got to run, and never contact me again. Johns' disappeared now that your bounty is so high and you know how much he always wanted to sell you to a slam."

"I remember. And you know damn well I hate that name, even though you are the only person who can get away with calling me Kiddo."

A blush crept over her cheeks. "Do you think you could do me a favor during your travels?"

"Bell, you know I'd do anything for you. Just name it."

"Find my daughter. I don't know where she'll be, but I do know you'll know her when you find her."

"And just how would you know that? I don't know anything about her."

An alert went off that broke Riddick out of his trance that signaled time to change the bandaging on Tori's side as well as one that told him that a pint of blood was finally finished and ready for her to use. He went through the monotonous tasks barely even noticing that he was moving. He was numb all over his entire body, and his mind continued to flit back to the last time he'd seen Bell.

She handed him a tiny med com and said, "Because she has the same rare DNA as me. She is almost an exact copy of myself, except she had her father's hair and eye color. As well, she'll have a few anomalies in her blood as I do.

"I've always called it my survival genes, but after getting to know you, I'm beginning to think it's Furian DNA. It's really the only reason I've managed to cheat death so many times and continue to do a job no one else really believes in."

"But why haven't you tried to find her yet?"

"Because I'm sure there is still a danger after her. I can't risk anyone going after her so they can get to me."

Before Riddick could form the question, a pistol blast was heard and the screams of hundreds filled the air. However, the bullet had missed it's target.

Bell realized just in time where the bullet was heading, the back of Riddick's skull, and managed to pull him out of the way. Riddick didn't even have time to register what had happened before a fight broke out. She lunged at Johns as he in turn lunged at Riddick, both holding shivs at the ready.

A rather short, violent battle ensued only to end with Johns standing behind Bell, one arm locked around her neck, cutting off air supply, while the other held firmly in place his shiv. Blood seeped from her mouth as Riddick realized where Johns had struck her; the fourth lumbar down, the abdominal aorta, the sweet spot.

Riddick snapped at the sight of her blood and her body going limp. He retrieved her discarded shiv as he bounded for Johns. Caught in the same chokehold he'd had Bell in just moments before, he could feel Riddick going for the same spot.

"She had it coming Riddick. She's been keeping me from taking your killing ass into the proper authorities for far too long. I wouldn't even have gone after like I did if she had just stayed out of the way and allowed me to come after you as I'd always planned. She got herself killed."

Riddick's grip on the blade faltered for a mere moment, but it was enough for it to slip down an eighth of an inch; just enough to save his life, but painful none the less. He threw Johns' limp body to the ground and crawled over to where Bell lay in a pool of her own blood.

As he held a dying Bell in his arms, he cried the only tears he had ever shed for anyone. Then he swore that those would be the only ones he ever shed again.

Now, he had finally found her, Bell's daughter. Of course it had taken him nine years to do it, even though he'd been through a few slams between then and now. And for some reason he hadn't figured it out until after a couple of years after he had found her the first time.

But, nevertheless, he had found her, had kept his word to his somewhat adopted mother, and found her just in time for her to die for him just as her mother had all of those years ago.

A/N: I'm sorry for yet another delay in updating, but things have just continued to come between me and my computer. Been working on plot twists and things of that nature, that I hope comes out better than I'm thinking they will. I do hope to be able to keep up with the updating better than I have, but as of now, I'm not making any promises.