Chapter 13: Though One May Be Overpowered, Two Can Defend Themselves. A Cord Of Three Strands Is Not Quickly Broken

They were in the Black again, the silence of space and stars all around them. River sighed in relief. The only minds were Riddick's, the dog's and her own. Cautiously she took a seat near Riddick, studying the console and mentally nodded as his movements confirmed her own theories on how to pilot the ship.

She looked at the big man out of the corner of her eye and studied him with as much care as she had the console. He'd taken off his shirt aboard Johns' ship and hadn't bothered to put another on afterwards. She doubted he had another shirt. River turned her eyes back to the Black out the window and recreated Riddick in her mind. Broad shouldered and impeccably muscled without an ounce of fat on him. A handprint was clearly defined on his chest, the hand of a woman from the shape of it. Other marks marred his flesh, old wounds long since healed. He was a beautiful man despite the scars. And to her, he was beautiful because of them. He'd known suffering and pain, just as she had. Maybe that was part of why she felt safe with him.

His voice almost startled her. "So what's your name? Can't keep calling you girl. An' Kitten ain't really an actual name." She looked at him and met silver eyes as they studied her curiously. The mercs hadn't thought him intelligent. They'd thought he had an animal cunning and a penchant for survival but no real intellect. But those eyes... they told her much more than the mercs had seen. From the first she'd been able to Read and See just how brilliant Riddick was. She had to give him an answer. And nothing but the truth would serve. He deserved nothing less. And she was so tired of lies.

River nodded and drew her feet up, her knees under her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs to regard him. How to explain her difficulties to him? How to give him the truth without giving her name? "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet. She has been so many different things. Her name isn't safe to use. She was mèi mei, daughter, and Loony. Crazy girl. Dancer. Genius. Subject. Little one. Moonbrain. And then she wasn't. She became…something else. A protector. Killer. Reader. The captain's Lil Albatross. When she was taken, she became the bounty, and then the girl. She doesn't know what she should be called anymore. Is her past gone? Or does she carry it with her?"

"So pick a name and make it yours." Riddick's expression wasn't unsympathetic but he made it seem like a matter of practicality.

River frowned slightly, "She saw and heard everything. Too much. And then she could narrow the ocean to a river. Then a stream. And then a brook. Down to the merest trickle. Or open it up and let everything flood through her again. Sweep her mind away." She looked at him and one of his memories caught her. She voiced it before she caught herself. The echo of his pain seemed to fill her and her voice ached over the words, "Killed everything I know."

His snarl of anger was pure animal, the reminder that old wounds might be scarred over but she had no right to poke at them. Words were unneeded, given that vocalization, and River bowed her head in apology.

"His mind is very strong. She will endeavor to not…speak what she hears," River offered in conciliation. His bare nod was acceptance enough and she sighed in relief. "She could be Lily. Or Al. Or Tross."

"Lily Albatross?" Riddick smirked as he pronounced the name. "Could make it Lillian, call you Lil for short. Then you really could be Lil Albatross."

River smiled slightly in return. "Is it a good name," She wondered hopefully. "Or too memorable? No experience in choosing an alias."

"Long as it ain't like your old one, don't see that it matters. I'll probably still call you Kitten, if that's all right." Riddick shrugged at her. "Ain't ever got to choose my name. Richard B. Riddick just seems to stick to me."

"Does he prefer another," River wondered curiously, not taking her eyes off his face.

"Nah," He shrugged again, a wealth of expression in the one gesture. "What's that you said back on the rock? 'I cannot hide what I am'?"

She nodded and a little smirk curved her own lips, "It must not be denied that I am a plain dealing villain." His expression was pleased and she almost laughed, "Prince Jon, of Much Ado About Nothing. Lives to cause trouble. Loves to make mischief."

"Dì yù, maybe I could be Jon Richards then," He chuckled evilly. "Still be a sorta warning wouldn't it."

The grin that spread her lips was wicked, just as mischievous as his, "Does that make the dog Riddick?"

The bark of laughter that burst from his lips was pleasurably loud in her ears and he grinned, "It just might." He turned to look at the sleeping animal, before he glanced back at her. "Reminds me though. Better get you into cryo before we get much further."

River shook her head, "Can't."

"Can't," He repeated. "I'm not going to sell you while you're asleep." His handsome face hardened in fury at the thought.

River searched her mind for a way to explain, a way to tell him that cryo was the worst thing he could do to her. Finally, she found it, a memory, tangled with others and stared at him, "They say the brain shuts down in cryo sleep. All but the primitive side, the animal side. No wonder I'm still awake."

He stared at her for a long minute and she could hear his brain formulating and discarding theories and ignoring the fact that she'd pulled his own memory and words out to make her own point. Finally, he just asked, "You're awake in cyro?"

"Holds the body, but even that is not…complete," River said slowly. "But the mind is awake, active, trapped with drugs, can't move, can't scream, barely feel the heartbeat. Maddening. Able to feel, unable to move. My mind knows that I should be breathing but I don't. Paralyzed, eyes closed, kept in the dark with no way out. All the screams kept in my head. Hearing all the dreams, all their minds," She shuddered and bit back the moan of pain at the memory. "I See and Hear everything. Can't do anything to control what I hear. The ocean floods through me. I can't. I can't. All I can do is scream for no one to hear."

He was more than somewhat taken aback by her words but she could Read his certainty that she was telling the truth. She had her ability to Read people and Riddick had scents and body language. Those things gave him a very similar ability to tell the truth from lies. The big convict frowned and one hand rubbed at his bare shoulder absently. "Guess that shoots down that idea," He looked back at the relatively small ship, and then at her. "Need to do an inventory of supplies then. And figure out a destination. And how long we want to be stuck with each other."

River nodded slowly. She didn't quite trust him to not leave her on her own. It wouldn't be a totally bad thing but at the same time she had invested a lot of energy in making sure they both got off that rock. She could have simply abandoned him; left with Johns and taken off with Santana's ship.

"Riddick is unwilling to take on a partner," She looked at him thoughtfully. "If he will let her use the cortex she will lay the foundations of the new identity and leave when a suitable planet is found."

"Never said you had to leave," He objected in a mild tone. "Just can't think a woman who's been at the mercy of scum like those mercs would want to live in close quarters with an animal like me."

She studied him thoughtfully. He was speaking the truth, as far as it went. His reluctance to trust or to be responsible for anyone besides himself was deep rooted. And it had been reinforced by the death of a girl. The pain of that loss still echoed through him when he thought of her. He'd cared for her but she'd mistaken his protection for indifference and had died at the Necromonger's hands as a result. His mind had touched on the girl, Kyra, whenever he'd seen River beaten or in chains back on the planet.

River bit back a half smile. It was funny; Riddick had helped her in part because he despised mercs and bullies. But he'd also happily killed the men who'd raped her because of the girl he'd lost. And he'd taken a certain pleasure in partnering with her against the mercs. But he had no intention of traveling with her long term. That set off alarms in his head, made the big man uneasy and worried. He didn't want to like her, the woman he'd named Kitten, and then lose her. He didn't want to open himself to that pain again.

She bit back the words she'd used earlier, very conscious of how his pain had flared into anger. "She does not believe he is interested in rape. Animals usually aren't," River said finally. "She chose to fly with him, rather than the mercs. Chose him for the potential partnership. She knows his mind. Knows what he finds anathema. He might lust for her but he will not take what she is unwilling to give." She shrugged, "Cannot force his choice. But she could have gone back with the mercs or taken Santana's ship. Left Riddick to be taken with Johns or to die. Didn't. Chose him."

She rose from the chair and began to walk back towards the dog who lifted his head and made an annoyed sound in his throat as she passed him. Apparently, Dog was still cranky from the tranq and didn't want to wake up just yet. It was a typical merc ship, a hold with nets and cuffs for storing bodies in cryo. Rows of seats on each side of the aisle for crew cryo and two bunks for the ship's pilot set in the wall across from a tiny galley. The bedding on the bunks reeked and she shook her head. They'd have to somehow launder the bedding before she'd lie on it. For all she knew it had fleas.

She began to dig through the galley and poked into all the storage containers there were, finding the prize of clean bedding still in its plastic.

He watched the girl, woman, he corrected himself, just as much as the instruments. It hadn't escaped his notice that she'd as much as told him she could pilot. Kitten had actually chosen to partner up with a wanted murderer rather than the upstanding merc crew Johns ran. He wondered what that said about her. Was she wanted too? Or was she the type to distrust all mercs because of what Santana's scum had done to her? If she'd asked he could have told her that Johns would most likely have let her leave if she wanted. He hadn't seemed the type to keep anyone but bounties against their will.

Riddick frowned to himself. He was still trying to figure out why he'd taken her part when Luna had objected to Kitten's plan to fly with him, a convict. Sure, it had rubbed him the wrong way that the bible thumping merc hadn't done anything to stop the abuse little woman had endured. And yeah he liked that she was a damn good fighter. It'd be interesting to see her in action when she was up to full strength. But he didn't usually take up for anyone without a better reason than that.

He ran a hand over his scalp and absently noted that he'd need to shave in the next day. Any longer and the scruff would make him crazy. When they'd gotten onto Johns' ship he'd still been half surprised Kitten had sent him up first. In his experience it was every man for himself regardless of who was wounded, weaker or smaller. She'd chosen to stay with him, to throw in her lot with him. It could have gotten her killed. She'd proven herself capable, fought at his side. Hell, she'd tried to cover his face when Johns had bombarded the mountain with the white phosphorous rounds.

Maybe it had been the contrast between that strong capable woman and the terrified girl scrambling away from Dahl that had done it. She'd woken his slumbering sense of decency or fair play or something. He'd hate to think it was a conscience. But she'd gone from joking to being scared out of her mind, eying the trapdoor like it was her only way out of hell. It was wrong. It made him feel...Riddick nearly cursed aloud as he thought about it. It pissed him off is what it did.

Nobody deserved to feel like that. Hell, until he'd been set loose no one even bothered to talk about setting Kitten free. None of the mercs had even considered her as a potential ally from what he'd seen. They'd been happy to question her but none of them treated her like a person. They'd treated her like they treated him. A thing. That didn't set right with him. He didn't like it when they did it to him and he'd actually done a few things to deserve the title of Murderer or Animal. Far as he could see, Kitten hadn't done a damn thing.

So he'd backed her play. He'd said all along she was gonna go where she wanted. Far as he knew that was something women and cats had in common anyway. Speaking up to support her decision wasn't much in the way of thanks for her help. But she was...well Kitten was different. Couldn't be sure how yet but she was.

There was something about her; the animal side was interested, almost chuffing its curiosity, wondering about her. She had a scent to her, wonderful, but unique; he was certain it was nothing his nose had come across before. She smelled like woman, beautiful, a little sweet and some spicy. And damn could she move. When she'd gotten those blades in her hand and held the sword between Johns' legs he'd felt pure physical awareness prickle through his body. She walked like a dancer once her muscles loosened up, every movement graceful. And she fought like some sort of manic ballerina assassin. No wasted motion, and grace in every step; death in her hands. Gorram beautiful to watch even as he'd been fighting for his own life.

What had been strangely sweet was her insistence that Dog stay in the ship, in Santana's ship. She'd known if he'd come with them, he would die which meant she'd flat out lied to the mercs about why she wanted to save him. And she'd crooned sweet little nonsense words to Dog even as she'd shut him into the ship. Funny stuff that sounded like nursery rhymes, bits of Chinese and humming, but it had soothed Dog.

What had been really amusing at that point was the reaction of the various mercs. Peach Fuzz's eyes had nearly bugged out. And the Jamoke had looked really pissed off when she'd come out of their ship all armored up and looking better than sin. It had really gotten him wondering about how much the big merc knew regarding the little woman. Of course Johns had the best reaction. Riddick couldn't help grinning as he recalled how that conversation had gone. The woman had a set all right.

"She does not have a 'set' Riddick," That elegant voice corrected him from the depths of the ship behind him. "You have a set. I have a spine. Unless you refer to my ovaries."

"Yeah speakin' of ovaries," Riddick set the autopilot for the next hour and turned to look at her. "How long before you're going to need girl...stuff?" He looked at some of the storage lockers, "Or were they human enough to make sure you had them?"

She was tearing something open, plastic stretching and ripping and then he caught the scent of fresh fabric. Finally, she looked at him with a dark gaze almost unreadable, "She will not need 'girl stuff' for another three years. Approximately."

He frowned. That took some serious medical pull, and the only things that worked on a woman for longer than six months at a time were implants that produced hormones but prevented ovulation. It took a surgeon to insert the device. "How'd you get hold of one of those implants," Riddick finally asked the question he couldn't get out of his head, "You couldn't have stuck it in yourself."

Her face went still and quiet and she shook her head, "A gift. Along with inoculations against disease. Because she was a woman finally. So if she wished to..." She shook her head again and turned away and Riddick looked at her thoughtfully. She smelled of love and grief, and the worst kind of pain. So they both had sore spots. He wondered who'd given her the implant, who'd provided her with the very expensive shots, and how she'd gone from that to the life he'd found her in.

He had his back turned and was mentally speculating as to her origins. Her voice and looks made it easy to see she'd been high society once. He was considering where she might have been raised when she came storming up behind him. "She will tell him if it will stop Riddick from questioning and wondering and driving her mad!" Her voice was a near manic growling shriek and he spun in his chair.

"Hey don't get pissy with me because I wonder about you and your history. You've been pickin' my brain and pokin' at me since you got on the planet," He reminded her. "Pulling my own words out to make your point. Proddin' at memories you got no business seein'." Riddick scowled slightly as he remembered everything he'd heard her say on Not Furya. At least she'd had the sense or sensitivity or whatever to not mention Kyra to the mercs. Mercs didn't have any right to Kyra.

"She cannot help what she Hears, or Reads or Sees," River growled back at him. "He was born the way he is. She was...born different and then changed, forcibly." She sat and drew her legs up again, shielding her body, almost hiding from him. Riddick scowled, he was really starting to hate it when she sat like that, like she was making herself a smaller target. Her eyebrow went up and she lifted on shoulder at him, an indifferent acknowledgment, before she continued. "Antecedents have been lost...parents deliberately obscured ancestry. Wealth and power buys as much mystery as one desires."

"Thought core folk were real big on lineage," Riddick murmured the question and the dog tilted its head, made an inquiring whine in its throat. It was still lying down, tired from the tranq, but following their movements with its eyes.

She nodded and her lips quirked wryly, "Descendents from the Founders, on the wrong side of the blanket. Much is forgiven for such...impressive ancestors, but they are not to be displayed." She rolled her eyes at such stupidity and Riddick couldn't help chuckling slightly. "But she was born...different. More attuned to what was unsaid, things that could not be known by normal means...she knew. Heard. Powerful instincts combined with genius level intelligence quotient."

"Guess that could rub some folks the wrong way," Riddick commented and she nodded slowly.

"Older brother was...loving. Kind. Indulged her need for play, to imagine. Didn't mind her correcting his spelling and grammar though she was much younger," She smiled fondly and then sighed. "To the parents she was too...everything. She wasn't what they wanted. There was talk of arranging a marriage for her eighteen birthday."

"How old were you when that crap started," Riddick asked with a sneer at her absent parents.

"She was fourteen," Kitten shrugged off that issue. "Found a school though, government sponsored, very advanced, most interesting programs... She wanted to learn." She took a deep breath and looked straight at him, "Stayed until she was past seventeen, until her brother could break her out. Stayed. No choice. Endured. Conditioning, behavioral modification, triggers, and surgeries. Stripped her amygdale, but she wasn't crazy until she Heard the secrets of the Parliament. Went mad when she Saw Miranda in their minds. Read what they'd done. Saw they'd Made the Reavers. Instincts always ruled her, always knew things. Never understood why, or cared. It just was."

"That where you learned to fight like that?" Riddick asked quietly. Inside he was seething, wishing he had her parents or the bastards who'd tortured her within arms reach. She'd been Jack's age when her hell had begun. Jack had been running from hers when he'd met the kid. This girl wasn't Jack, but she had a core of steel so strong he was surprised he couldn't smell it on her.

"All our subjects are conditioned for combat, but... she's a creature of extraordinary grace," The slender woman said softly. Her voice had a different inflection, cold and clinical, as if she wasn't using her own words. "Brother broke her out, 'She always did love to dance'." Went in and fetched her out, took care of her. Gave up everything to save her."

Riddick smiled grimly. The change in her voice when she talked about dancing, he'd bet good money that had been something her brother had said. At least one member of her family was worth a damn, "How long did it take you to recover?" He asked the question mostly because, from what he'd seen, breaking any sort of conditioning wasn't easy.

"Eight months and the Miranda Wave," She was still looking at him, her expression thoughtful. "Broke the will of an Operative, showed him there is no such thing as a better world. Lost our pilot, lost many friends. Gained her sanity again as the wound was lanced of poison. Found ways to break the triggers, to destroy the conditioning. Took six months before she was cleansed of all their poison. Her mind was her own again. It was mine for more than two years before the Corporation decided they wanted me back. Put a price on my head. Knew I'd bring death to my ship if I stayed."

"So you left? And they caught you but not your crew," Riddick was guessing now, hoping. Because if the mercs had caught up to her when she'd still been aboard her ship, when she'd been trying to keep the people she'd been protecting safe...he really didn't like where that line of thought was headed. Woman had started to reek of sorrow and pain, of tears held back by sheer will.

"Left. Took the gifts she was given, weapons, contraception, inoculations. Knew they were coming. Tried to tell her crew, her Captain that she had to leave," River shook her head. "Snuck out. But my brother...he...followed me."

Riddick listened with a growing sense of dread as tears began to stream down her face. He couldn't wish his words or thoughts back; he needed to know how bad it was so he could guard against it. She had to sleep sometime and if he was going to take this partnership idea seriously then they couldn't have these types of secrets. Her name...yeah he understood if she didn't use it with him. She couldn't know for sure how well he could keep a secret. The details of her history...yeah, same goes. He was still sorry to bring up the memories. He knew first hand how painful that could be.

"They caught her in the marketplace, dragged her into an alley. Her brother followed," Her voice had been steady before, affectionate as she spoke of her brother and her crew; bewildered when she talked about her parents. Now her expressive voice had gone wooden, stiff with pain and determination to not feel it. "She felt the needles slam into her neck. Last thing she saw...was Diaz. His knife, cutting my brother deep, near the femoral. If he didn't get help, he would bleed out in the alley. No one would ever know how or where she had gone."

"Your old crew likely to look for you," Riddick asked quietly. He didn't insult her with the false hope that perhaps her brother was alive. There weren't many ways a body could survive a cut to the femoral artery. He doubted any of them would have been open to a man dying in an alley.

"Yes. They are stubborn like that. Don't want her, but compelled to find her," The woman nodded. "Does he need to know what happened when Santana and his crew took her back to their ship? Or can he infer it from her injuries and the behavior that he witnessed?" Irritation was rising in her scent and she muttered in Chinese again, "Tā mā de sāo lǘ. Nǐ dào dǐ dǒng bù dǒng?"

"I'm not a moron," Riddick growled at her, taking the jab and accepting it as the price for information. He understood being called a jackass out of all the Chinese she'd spouted. "Know damn well they raped you. Made one of 'em tell me exactly who; every one of 'em but Vargas and Luna. Could smell it on you, what they did." He looked at her thoughtfully. In his experience, and in his time he'd seen a lot of traumatized women, a bath usually seemed to help. Getting clean, getting the stink of the men who'd hurt off her skin, might make her feel more comfortable. "We got plenty of water. I'll stay up here, keep my back turned; you want to have a real wash be my guest."

She nodded slowly, "Will finish making up the bunks first." He watched as she slowly uncurled her body from the chair and moved to the back of the ship. Riddick shook his head as he turned his attention back to the console and the instruments. This was going to be an interesting trip.

"Lil," He called back making the conscious choice to use the name she'd picked out. When she stopped moving he didn't turn around, just continued speaking as he flew the ship. "You wanna try this out, let's give it a coupla months, see how being partners works. We're ready to kill each other after the first quarter though...we find a planet and part ways, all bets are off. Deal?"

"We have a deal Mr. Riddick," Her voice sounded pleased and he allowed himself a smile. Yeah, this was going to be an interesting trip.

Author's Note: So a few little snags but not so bad right? They might have a chance at actually making a go of this partnership thing. I figured River might be sure of him, his morals and capabilities but he'd be less certain of her. He's not a Reader after all even if he has damn fine instincts.

So they're going to have to work together for a bit before they really get to trusting each other. That's for the sequel though. Which is being worked on in unison with Animals and Tangled in bits and pieces. I'm hoping to have a lot more written before I really start to work on the sequel because Animals is going slower than I really like. So keep an eye out for it but don't expect it soon. There's another story I wrote that's fairly different and its entirely from Riddick's POV that I want to post. But Animals is taking priority on the main writing side.

So like I said, bits and pieces of the sequel to this...it doesn't even have a title yet. But it will have more than friendship between River and Riddick.

For this story we have a little epilogue and then we're all wrapped up.

Chinese Translations:

mèi mei - little sister

Dì yù - hell

Tā mā de - fucking

sāo lǘ - jackass

Nǐ dào dǐ dǒng bù dǒng - Do you get it or not? Can you get it through your skull?

Quote Sources:

What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet. - Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare

I cannot hide what I am - Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare

It must not be denied that I am a plain dealing villain. - Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare