I'm not a fan of badly thrown around flashbacks, so I might not even have one. But this begins to explore Jack, her relationship with people other than Imam and Riddick, and what happened in her past. More to come on that subject.


The beeping of their communicator woke her from a troubled sleep. Jack rolled over in the empty bed, hand waving through the air until she realised she was reaching for a light that was not there.

"Lights." Her voice was croaking and confusing clouded her mind as the room stayed dark, bar the rhythmic flashing of the communicator screen. Helion Prime had begun its slow descent into a primitive culture, batteries powered torches, communicators and instruments, a glimpse of things to come. No lights.

Jack finally sat up enough to open the screen and peer bleary eyed at the face in front of her, recognition making her sit up in shock to stare at the person who met her gaze with their own thinly veiled curiosity.

"Lynx?" She furiously raked her hands through her hair, pulling it away from her face, rubbing at her eyes to clear away the last vestiges of sleep.

The man on the screen gave a low chuckle. "I heard you where lookin' for me."

Jack shook her head. "I thought you got fried with the rest of Atlantis."

"Nah, got a ship over to the Hallows." His own eyes carried dark circles, dark hair was lank and unkempt, a scar zigzagging down from his left temple to his upper lip, making it appear as though he were snarling.

"Why did you think I was looking for you?" Jack asked, moving in closer, as though she could touch him. "Where are you, where are the others?"

"Woo, slow down." He laughed and Jack smiled sheepishly. "I'm in a Transporter, on a shipping lane, military. We're headed to the Helios system, hear something's going down. They're saying it's begun, planning or something. They keep talkin' about the Warlord."

"I'm on Helion Prime." Jack admitted. "In the heart of it, preparing. Guess you can say I'm on the Warlord's council."

"So the religious thing didn't work out?" He pried. "Shame, you are the person most deserving of peace and serenity."

"Who told you I was looking for you?" Jack asked again

"Flag was raised, my name was highlighted by a sophisticated search program, sorting through things even the best can't read. Had you written all over it." He explained, on the screen, Jack could see the slight shuffled of movement over his shoulder. "I've gotta keep this quick, I got the missive about an hour ago, had to jump off several planets before I found a patch to get through to you."

"The Warlord is Riddick. The asked him to stop the approaching army." Jack admitted.

"Riddick?" Lynx let out a low whistle. "They were buzzing at headquarters, that makes sense of the commotion."

"You know what's coming?" Jack asked.

"Yeah." He nodded. "I'm in a rotating company, shipping out all over the 'verse. I've been trying to find them. Found a lot of dead planets."

Jack touched a scar on her collarbone, neat and flat, the best kind of scar one could hope for, on the screen, Lynx ran a hand down the scarred side of his face, the lumpy scar tissue didn't stop him from being a handsome man, rather giving him a menacing edge, one that most men worked hard to earn.

"Amatis?"

He shook his head and Jack dropped hers down sadly.

"Look. We're ahead of this comet. We'll be planet side in hours, hyper-speed, most of the men are sick." Lynx explained.

"New Mecca?" Jack asked hopefully.

"Shama Ra, South Sun Side." He corrected. "I'll try jump to the capital. I gotta go, be seeing you."

"Good Luck." Jack bid him, switching off the monitor and slumping back on her cold pillows, the bed feeling too large and overwhelmingly soft, almost as if the pillows and blankets were smothering her, the residual green glow of the screen casting a ghostly gleam over the room.

Throwing back the covers, Jack padded across the floor towards the open balcony, staring out at the dark city stretching out into the distance.

"Can't sleep?" Jack jumped, heart stuttering as she turned to where Riddick lounged on the railing of their balcony, holding something in his hands that Jack presumed to be a knife.

Leaving the dim glow of the communicator, she walked over him, letting him draw her against his side, frowning when she realised that Riddick was holding a red rose in his hands, which he handed to her.

Mindful of the thorns, Jack idly twirled the rose around, smelling the sweet scent.

"My mother smelled like roses." Jack confessed. "Sickly sweet, all the time."

"She was a whore." Riddick remembered snatches of her childhood from the conversations they'd had a long time ago.

"A drug addict as well." Jack added. "I was born hooked on drugs, apparently all I did was scream. It was why she sold me."

They sat there quietly for a moment, Riddick dragging his hand up and down her arm.

"Who was that?" He jerked his head towards the communicator, Jack didn't see the motion, but still understood what he meant.

"One of the men I cut Crematoria with. He's in the military." She scowled, like there was a bad taste in her mouth.

"That a problem?" Riddick asked, letting his large hand cradle the delicate arch of her throat, smelling the skin along her jaw line.

"It wouldn't be, if not for the fact that his unwillingness to kill children for the military landed him in Crematoria in the first place." Jack explained, letting her head fall back as Riddick began to taste the skin of her neck, nipping sharply and soothing it with his tongue, her hand snaked back so she could run her fingers over his scalp.

Riddick's empty hand reached forward to pluck the rose from her hand, crushing the delicate petals in his fist and letting the ruin fall to the floor as he turned Jack around to face him, crushing his lips to hers.

They were frantic in their affection, hands clutching desperately as he dragged her to their bed, until it became a struggle between them, a vie for dominance, as Jack flipped him over, straddling him to lower her mouth to his neck, letting her teeth sink in as he growled in satisfaction, hips thrusting as he out her on her back again, stripping her of her nightshirt, letting the heat of his stare rake down her body.

As he surged over her, Jack sunk her fingers into his back, letting her nails rake down his back as he teased her, encouraging her to peak but withdrawing at the last moment, until she was frantically writhing beneath him.

A twist of her hips and she was clutching onto him, blinded by pleasure as he filled her heart, her mind, her body, and then he was roaring, hands on her hips, lips at her throat, then they lay still, sweaty and entwined.

Outside, it started to rain.


Afterward, they lay there, hands never straying far from each other, or the knives they had under the pillows, until morning came and a summons roused them. Showering quickly, they were ushered by the Free People guard into a hall, where all five elements were present, four of them bearing grim expressions, the last one hiding her face behind dark veils.

"There is a man here." Aereon announced. "He claims to know you." Her expression was that of guided fury, confusing Jack for a moment until she caught sight of the man who was surrounded by armed troops.

"Lynx!" Like a little girl again, she shrieked in delight and threw herself into his arms, the man laughing and embracing her. "What are you doing here, I thought you were headed to Shama Ra?"

"Drop ship dumping supplies, I went AWOL." He explained, ruffling her hair. "I have a surprise for you." From his uniform, he pulled out a plain folder, carefully handing it to her. Jack opened it, her face splitting into a wide grin.

"No. Fucking. Way." She exclaimed, reading through the papers. Remembering Riddick's presence, she dragged Lynx over to the bigger man, formally introducing them and leaving them to size each other up, while she ducked into an empty conference room to spread out the information she'd been handed.

"Took me two years to assemble that file." Lynx and Riddick joined her in the conference room, none of them sporting fatal wounds, but both watching the other from the corner of their eyes. "Still no sign of Amatis."

"She's either dead, or hidden." Jack mused, sitting on the table as her hands passed over the picture of a young, gangly teen boy. Lynx noticed her fixation on the picture and picked it up.

"He's safe, in Trumaris." He assured her.

"Wouldn't call that safe." Jack said, concern written across her face.

"Someone goin' to tell me what's goin' on?" Riddick finally asked.

"His name is David." Lynx handed Riddick the picture, something akin to respect for the other man in his eyes. "Thrown in Crematoria, just a kid, not much younger than Jackie here."

"Amatis is gone." Jack interjected. "And the final members of our group were a couple of prospectors, caught the wrong bus on a back road, and were put in Crematoria for it."

"Ash and Kore." Jack named them, activating a holographic to show an attractive, dirt covered young couple, in the short loop, the smiled and waved at the projector, laughing silently before Jack shut down the holo.

"You formed some little gang?" Riddick asked sceptically, setting down the papers he held and staring down Jack.

"We were experiments." Lynx announced. "Three years ago we were all part of an experimental procedure when we were roped into the same slave trading ring."

"We were on a ship, in the Tangiers system." Jack explained. "It was a stupid move, but I was there looking for someone."

"You were easy pickings." Riddick deduced.

"Already had the indenture marks." Jack flashed the brand on her forearm. "Not very bright slaves though."

"They kept the fighters drugged, anyone who weighed over a hundred pounds with muscle." Lynx said. "She doesn't look it, but Jackie's pretty spry, they didn't think she'd be threat."

Riddick chuckled darkly and rubbed a scar from Jack on his arm.

"Given at that point, the only training I had was from you." Jack told Riddick. "So it took me a while to slip my restraints. Had to dislocate both shoulders and thumbs. Turned out to be for nothing, shitty mechanic, we blew a fuse while in deep space, far away from any shipping or transport lane."

"They fly blind, and so did the scavengers." Lynx added. "We were starving, the traders were about to resort to cannibalism when they picked us up."

"We thought they were helping us." Jack muttered, her expression dark.

"We were kept in white rooms, drugged, manipulated, tested." Lynx said.

"And tortured." Jack had her knife in her hand as she recollected. "But whatever they were doing, it didn't work, so whoever was in control, shut them down."

"They started killing the weak ones." Lynx explained. "But when they got to Jack, they stopped."

"I didn't know it then." Jack explained. "But Imam had started looking for me, my records were throughout the system. My movements could have been traced."

"So, they blamed the murders of the other slaves on the six of us and threw us in Crematoria." Lynx ended, slapping his leg for emphasis.

"Which we quickly escaped from." Jack added. "Travelled for a bit, scattered on Thesus 5, Amatis in one direction, Ash and Kore in another."

"Me, David and Jackie got off that rock." Lynx jerked his head in her direction. "Were caught and put in Butcher Bay not long after, didn't take us long to get out of there though, longer though, we had David to worry about."

Jack looked deep in thought, and when prompted by Riddick, her head snapped up.

"Trumaris is eleven hours in hyperspeed." She mentioned too casually.

"Jack!" Lynx snapped at her.

"We're about to go to war, Necromongers are out there." Riddick told her.

"You want to bring the kid back here?" Lynx scoffed. "Why, so he can get killed."

"Trumaris is just out of the Helion System, you can get there through a wormhole." Jack protested. "If we fail, he's a sitting duck, they don't evacuate prison planets."

"They did evacuate the prison planets." Riddick announced, making Lynx and Jack stare at him. "They bought them here to be part of the fighting."

"What are the odds?" Jack asked, standing up gathering her pack, checking to make sure the contents remained as normal, stuffing the file and its contents in there.

"Odds of what?" Lynx asked, wincing as she shoved the papers in the bag.

"You, me, David." Jack said. "I'll bet that somewhere, Ash and Kore are on this planet."

"Where are you going?" Riddick asked as she began to leave the room, both men following.

"I'm going to launch a system search, we catalogued everyone who is on Helion Prime." Jack explained, ending up in their room, not even blushing as Lynx eyed their rumpled bed. She activated the communicator, scrolling through the mainframe information.

"You have elementals here, yes?" Lynx asked, trying to read over Jack's shoulder.

"Five." Jack answered, eyes narrowing as she began to sift through names.

"Don't tell me Aereon's here, now." Lynx shook his head. When Jack nodded in confirmation, he swore in frustration. "Weren't you the who told me not to trust her?"

"We need to find David." Jack insisted. "He's just a kid."

"He's not your kid Jack." Lynx told her. "You're getting too personal."

"Tell me it wasn't personal with Amatis." She said quietly, getting in his face.

"That isn't the point." Lynx shook his head in frustration.

"He was ten years old!" Jack whirled around, knife in her hand, anger written across her face. "He was a slave his whole life and then they threw him in Crematoria when he was ten years old!"

"We'd only be leading the danger to him again." Lynx told her. Jack put her back to him, eyes meeting Riddick's, who observed the two of them with a cool, calm appearance, but Jack could see the rage of aggression and ager that was collecting under the surface.

She tapped the screen of the communicator. "He's in Pretty Valley. He's here in New Mecca. Don't tell me that's a coincidence."

"What will reuniting all of us achieve?" Lynx asked, looking tired as he ran a hand over the scar on his face. "It's pointless without Amatis."

"She may be dead, but David isn't, and he's a child, surrounded by men who expect him to fight."

Riddick interrupted before she could begin another tirade.

"I'll send a transport to Pretty Valley, get the kid." He crossed the room and spoke quietly to the Free People guards, when he turned back, Jack and Lynx were in a standoff in similar positions, arms crossed, feet shoulder width apart, glaring at each other.

When Riddick stepped between them, stared back and forth at them, eyes hidden behind his goggles, and when he spoke, it was deadly quiet.

"What, did they do to you?" He asked, both Lynx and Jack went on the defensive, avoiding eye contact, bristling.

"They called it the Collective." Jack finally admitted. "They were attempting to create links between people. Cutting into our brains and the like. They did it in pairs to begin with."

"You two?" Riddick asked.

"No." Lynx shook his head. "Me and Amatis, we grew up together."

"Ash and Kore, husband and wife." Jack added.

"And you and David." Lynx said to her.

"David?" Riddick asked.

"It didn't work." Jack said.

Lynx looked up. "There were other things as well."

"We were practice. They wanted to create super soldiers."

"We were pitted against each other." Lynx touched the scar on his face. "Notice Jackie had a fondness for scarring the face?"

"Toombs?" Riddick made it a question.

"Our ticket in and out of Butcher Bay." Jack nodded. "He used David against us."

The communicator chirruped, and Jack danced her fingers over the keypad.

"What's going on?" Lynx asked, looking concerned.

"The Elementals want to talk to us." Jack gauged Lynx's reaction. After a moment, he threw his hands in the air.

"Hey, if she's calling the shots." He conceded. "But make sure she isn't pulling the strings."

"It'd make for a violent puppet show." Jack commented as the three of them found the Elemental's meeting room, a circular space designed for peaceful thoughts.

"Hello Jack." Thera greeted the girl with a bow, hands clasped in front of her, the fires on her skin and gown danced merrily as Aereon appeared beside her, gliding above the floor.

"You wanted to talk?" Riddick growled at them, his patience having been extensively tested already.

"It concerns the child, David." Ptheria told them, looking cheerful as the rain drizzled through a small opening in the ceiling, a small puddle forming at the water Elemental's feet. Vulentia stepped forward, vines curling around her arms like snakes, her red hair contrasting with the green of her skin, like her fellow Elementals, she looked much better from the rain that had begun to hydrate Helion Prime once more.

"Do not worry, no harm will come to him." She placated, standing beside Ptheria.

"You said there was five of them." Lynx hissed at Jack, who shook her head slightly before confronting Aereon.

"You know what happened to us, is it just a coincidence we're all here, now?" She asked the air Elemental, who cocked her head and gave a sly smile.

"You and I both know the odds of that. You will always be drawn together." She told them cryptically. Riddick put a hand on Jack's arm, as if to calm her, or prepare to restrain her as she gritted her teeth in annoyance.

"What is the point?" Jack asked. "We're going to battle, David is just a child."

"You and I both know his importance." Aereon began to circle the three of them, the odd tendril of her robes brushing them.

"When this is over, I am going to make sure you never leave that planet you call home." Jack threatened. "And you will stay away from David. If that's all." She led Lynx and Riddick from the room.

"Are you okay?" Lynx put a hand on her arm, but she shook it off.

"I'm going to wait out front for David." She left them standing in the hallway.


In my universe, Jack would be the kind to reflect the maternal nature of Riddick in her protection of a child, even is she is still one herself. Review beloved readers, we have more to come.