Chapter Four, The Failing Light

"ES?"

"Yeah."

"Never heard of them."

Jack advanced a few steps, using my voice to guide her, and stopped a couple feet away from where I stood. Her lips pursed for a moment and I looked over her. Really looked, for probably the first time. It was hard to imagine the girl I had known what seemed like yesterday to be this woman before me. Three more years and she would have been older than me. Pretty damn frightening.

"I can't see in the failing light or in the dark. The ES filtered the light back on New Mecca, dimming what I saw. If I want to go out at night, I have to wear my specs."

Can't see in the failing light or the dark…What the hell was she thinking? I thought about how completely harmless she'd be if she was ever caught in the dark. How easy it would be for someone to hurt her…kill her.

"Not very smart, Jack."

She crossed her arms, attempting to look defiant despite the fact that her gaze went too far from my face and past my left shoulder. It didn't work.

"Look, I wasn't planning on leaving New Mecca. I had a good life there, but…I had hoped that maybe…" She closed her eyes momentarily, shaking her head. "Never mind…Once I found out about the plans of the Newtonian Institute, I had to leave. I can't allow them to do what they are going to do. Don't you understand that?"

I stared at her for a moment, then said, "No. I don't understand that." I wondered if she had gone crazy…or maybe that everyone was still sane and it was I who had gone crazy. "What does it matter to you what happens on a planet almost half the galaxy away? You even think that a handful of the people there would lift a finger to help you if you needed it?"

A scowl crossed her face. "That's not the point."

So much like Caroline…uncanny. "Then what is your point?"

"Because…because what they're doing is wrong."

I stepped closer until I could feel the heat radiated from her body. "Wrong…" I rumbled and then laughed lowly.

"Bad. They have to be stopped and I'm going to do it…" She closed her mouth and then opened it as if to speak again, then stopped for a moment. She finally said, "I'm going no matter what happens here. Things would be a lot easier if you were with me, but you not coming is not going to stop me. Understand that."

My lips twitched and I leaned down towards her face. "Impressive, Jack." I watched her swallow momentarily and slightly tilt her head back, putting more space between my own and hers. "I can see you're quite determined. But-"  But, the fact was, I knew if she went alone she wouldn't be stopping them. She'd be getting herself killed.

I could…smell…it on her, a weakness of strength she had had all those years ago when she was a girl. She may have been willful, stubborn, and too damn smart for her own good, but she wasn't strong. In the physical sense, of course. And why should she be? It's not like she had spent the past years learning to fight for her life…

Like you?, a small voice whispered in my mind.

I told it to shut the fuck up.

"But," I continued, "I don't think intimidation and determination is goin' to get you very far. The minute darkness falls you're gonna be any of those things' meat. You'll have maybe a few moments to figure out what went wrong and that you never should have gone." Okay, so truthfully, I had a little more faith in the Jack than I was preaching, but she most definitely didn't need the encouragement right now. I mean, there had been some pretty damn intelligent and determined women in the surviving group on T2 and look where they all were now…

"So go with me then! I don't want to die, Riddick. The chances are going to be higher if you're not there with me."

"Yeah. They'll also be higher for me too. No way."

She tried again. "Please…" She paused and I could immediately see her switching gears and then, trying a different tactic, she said, "I'll give you anything you want. Money. A ship. You name it!"

This could be interesting…

"Really?" I sneered, half-mocking but definitely paying more attention now. "And just when do I get my…payments?"

"When we're planet side." She said, eyes almost seeming to focus on me for a minute.

I laughed, really laughed. "I don't think so. The world doesn't spin like that, Jack."

"Look, I realize how phony that sounds, but it's true. It's on a TD in with my equipment. I can't get to it right now."

I didn't reply, looking over her face, seeing it looked genuinely sincere. I shifted onto my other leg, watching her for any sign that she was lying. After a few minutes where I could see she was growing impatient, I decided that she was in fact, telling the truth…and also that there was still something she wasn't telling me.

So, before I could even say the words, I was giving my self a nice mental ass-kicking for giving in, telling myself I really needed to get my priorities straightened.

"Fine, Jack. I'll go with you. The minute we're planet side, I want the creds. Understand?"

"YES!"

"I'll be really unhappy if I don't get them…got it?"

"Got it!" Jack was beaming up at me and I tried to resist the urge to grow nauseous.

What the hell was I thinking letting someone so…naïve…take me back onto that planet? It was going to be hard enough just trying to watch out for her…

"Come on." I grabbed her arm and led her back to the room, pulling her up the steps while she stumbled. I pushed to the door open and went in.

"So where are we going now?" she asked.

"You," I replied, "are staying here and not getting into any trouble." I let her go into the room, letting her fall to sit on the bed. "I am going out."

"What?! But our ship leaves tomorrow!"

Well, thanks for telling me that, Jack, I thought. Now I'm on deadline.

And I hate deadlines.

"I'll be back in time. Just make sure you're ready."

She scowled, a tiny line creasing upon her forehead and anger laced her voice. "I'm already ready. Everything's been taken care of. I've paid for passage and baggage. All I needed was your worthless hide."

I arched a brow at her, though knew she couldn't see it. "Not so worthless if you begged me to go…" I murmured, turning to the still open door.

I heard an indignant noise behind me and then, "I did not beg you-" as I closed the door behind me.

I strode off the steps with half a smirk on my face, finally being able to determine what I really thought about the woman who had just entered into my life. She was so much like the little Jack I remembered and so much like a stranger…

I ran a callused hand down my face and rubbed my jaw. I needed a shave.

When I first arrived here, I had been planning on dealing some business then heading off to Mixyn Laen, a planet you could easily disappear on.

Oh well. Fuck that idea. For the moment, I suppose I could try and find a clean whore; I heard T5 has a nice assortment down in Red District 9…

Get rid of a little tension, morning comes, it'll all just be back.

But at least for now I can fix things, although I wasn't really sure if a good fuck would cure my ails, so to speak.

All I was really sure of was something that I was not really too comfortable with. And that was the fact that maybe Jack had claws in me that I hadn't known were there in the first place.

And I didn't like that. Oh, no.

Not at all.