A/N: ... all right, Chronicles of Riddick totally blasted my plans for the sequel all to hell. Am reconfiguring. Still planning on a sequel to be set post CoR, just... need to work on it a little more. Anyway, I give you more Jezebel.

She told Riddick before Doc could, with Joey and Lawson standing guard in the background, closest to the door. Fantine had followed him into his pod and then stood there with the other two in front of the door. When she'd started to describe what had happened she had watched his face. A number of expressions flickered through before he finally settled on impassive blankness. If it was uncomfortable and painful for her to tell it, it was at least bothering him to listen. She wasn't sure why, possibly something to do with coming at it from the point of view of someone who, as Joey said, had never been a victim. Not here, at least.

His fists clenched throughout the story. If she thought of it as a story, a piece of fiction that wasn't really happening, it was easier to tell it. These horrible things hadn't happened to her, they had happened to a character in a story. It made it a little more bearable. When she started putting names into the story, though, it took her two or three times to say it. Riddick knew who they were, at least; she didn't have to tell him.

"Yuri." It grated out in a voice so deep it could have swum through the core. "All right. What now?"

"I don't know." Fantine shook her head; behind her, the other two men relaxed. "I just don't know. Rumor has it that they both lost a lot of money in the first few fights, when no one knew the odds against me. And they're definitely pissed that ..." She didn't say it, but everyone knew what she was talking about.

"Big Rob..." Lawson spoke up, and jumped a little as everyone turned sharply to look at him. "He probably doesn't want to kill you, just collect you. He likes exotic things, and ... well, you're about as exotic as he's going to get down here. Just..." Riddick was staring at him as though he wanted to snap his neck. "Just saying. Makes it a little less ... a little easier than if they just wanted to kill you. Doesn't it?"

"Not for her," Joey muttered.

That silenced both the other men for a short while. Finally Lawson sighed. "So what do we do now?"

"Stay low." Riddick was the first one to answer. "Keep a low profile, stay where we are till we can figure out how to send our own message. I'm not going to let this go unanswered."

Fantine glanced over at him, sharp and afraid. She didn't like the sound of those words, and she liked the thought of sending her own message back to the prison warlords even less. "Riddick..." The one word was a warning.

"Wait, what message?" Lawson frowned. "Riddick, no offense, but where do you figure into all this? This was her lesson..." He winced the second the words were out of his mouth. It didn't even need the other three glaring at him. "This was aimed at her, not you."

"It was a message to me, too, Lawson," Riddick told him. "'Control your woman, or we'll control her for you.' "

"What?"

"My first day here..." she muttered, and raised her voice as everyone turned their heads in her direction. "Second day, actually. The day after that fight. Nicole came onto me in the women's block, the free woman's block. Took me to the women's canteen, sat me down, gave me a little bit of the rundown on how this place works. Not too much that I didn't already know, but it was still pretty interesting. Then she offered to be my protector, by which she meant of course my sugar momma, and started to get ugly. Riddick came up and said something nasty, and she left. Since then I've pretty much been Riddick's girl."

The two men looked from her to Riddick and back, eyebrows up. Neither of them evidently thought of Fantine as anyone's girl, and she couldn't really blame them. She was always, or at least until the attack, one of the guys. Just another convict in the Slam, no one's meat and not a rat-shit inmate, the kind who was really just a pet to serve the guards. She was just another convict, and their friend. Or as close to friendship as anyone like them got, since no one really was comfortable with such messy things as emotions. They didn't go around hugging or talking about their feelings. There was as much bravado between them as everyone else, the only difference was that they trusted each other.

But that didn't mean they had positions in the ranks. Keyes was the weakest among them, that didn't mean they owned him. Fantine was a woman, and women were usually whores or pets in the prison, but not with them she wasn't. They'd been so locked into their own insular pattern of thinking that on the surface they'd mostly forgotten how the rest of the prison saw them. At least until the incident, and then she and Riddick had been forced to think about it. Now Lawson was finally seeing how it looked from an outsider's point of view. Joey, although none of them had thought about it, already knew.

"What are they going to do?" It came out hushed and more respectful than Lawson had been of anyone else in a long time.

"I don't know." Fantine sighed. "I don't know how ..."

"We don't know how they operate," Riddick took over, watching her struggle with the names of the leaders, the alpha wolves in the packs that had attacked her. "Some things we can take as given, but the specifics... we'll have to find those out."

"Big Rob's a lush," Joey spoke up, but he looked as though he was fighting not to wrap his arms around himself. Fantine moved forward and was halted in mid-stride by his glare. "He likes his girls, his food... he likes anything that makes his life easier. He doesn't think he's meant to be in a Slam, not in a Triple-Max facility. In his mind, he should be in some resort prison, not rotting down here under the ground."

"He might get his chance," Lawson commented, "I hear they're converting more and more prisons to daylight facilities these days."

Fantine laughed, a hollow sound. "You're going to be a dying breed, Riddick, if that happens."

"What do you mean, breed?"

Joey rolled his eyes. "Anyway. Big Rob won't do anything until she starts messing with his business again. Unless it looks like he can get you, too, Riddick. Word is he thinks you two make a cute couple."

"A what?" Riddick stared.

"Cute couple. Although in his mind that means a nice set of bookends for his cellblock doors. If he can get you two into his organization to stand around and look nice, it'll be a good chunk of change in his pocket..."

"And a nice jump up the pecking order..." Fantine muttered, watching Riddick nod. "The Fury and the Silver-Eyed... whatever they call him."

"The Riddick," he said, low-voiced and grinning.

"Whatever. So what does that mean?"

"It means..." Joey thought for a second. "It means don't make a deal with him, ever. Not for anything less than material commodities, anyway. You don't want to be owing him favors. On the other hand, it means he's probably less pissed at you and less likely to put a hit out on you, as long as you stay out of the fighting rings. Even if you go back into the rings, he might have a better idea, now, of what you can do. He'll make his bets accordingly."

"What about Yuri?"

Fantine closed her eyes as Riddick said his name. "Yeah. What about him?"

"He's... probably more dangerous."

Silence. They all looked at each other except for Fantine, who looked at the floor. Paper-thin, wrinkled skin. Jagged fingernails. Whispering. Voices came and went around her, the conversation went on and left her behind. Joey touched her arm, and she jumped a little.

"Hey..." Above them, Lawson and Riddick were still discussing tactics, the Russian Mafioso who supposedly still ran his operation from prison. "You're okay. You're safe here, you're with friends."

"I know..." But she hadn't; for a second she'd thought she was back under Yuri's hands and she'd frozen up stiff. "I know. Thanks."

Riddick and Lawson had stopped speaking and were looking at her; Riddick's expression was unreadable behind the shine. She moved uncomfortably from foot to foot, feeling the scrutiny like a weight on her shoulders. She didn't want to make any of the decisions. She didn't want to think about what Yuri's organization would do to her, what they should have already done to her. She didn't want to wonder what they were waiting for. She just wanted it all to go away.

"Fantine..." She closed her eyes against Lawson's voice, Riddick's shine.

"What?"

"What do you want to do?"

"I don't know." She was furious with them for even asking, and guilty because she was so angry. Joey had said that the conflicted feelings went away with time, but when? Was she ever going to get used to being fragmented, out of control one minute and fine the next? She forced her hands to unclench and took several deep breaths. "I want..." Swallowing, she started to think about what she wanted. "I want to start fighting again. I need to get back into the ring."

Now all three of them were staring at her; Joey had a look of horror and dismay. "That's not a good idea..." he started to say, but she shook her head.

"It's a better idea... no, just listen. It's a better idea than going insane and shivving someone in the hall because I can't get myself under control. I need something, I need to hit something. And ... all the friends in the world aren't going to help that, and I'm sorry, you guys, but it's true."

"You know that won't make it better with Rob and Yuri," Riddick said in a quiet rumble. She didn't look at him, only nodded. "It'll just make things worse for you."

"I know." She took a deep breath. "Frankly, if I manage it, I don't expect to be alive this time next year. Assuming anyone knows when that will be. But I don't want to keep living like this. I feel weak, I feel like a fucking coward... Joey, I know what you're going to say, and it helps but it doesn't change anything. I need to get back to the rest of my life. My normal life. Or what was normal, before..."

None of them liked it. Lawson and Joey immediately tried to talk her out of it, their voices rising above each other in competition until Riddick finally shouted at them both to shut up. Fantine remained stock still.

"This isn't a good idea," he told her. The expression of gratitude died before it was uttered.

"Oh, Riddick..." she sighed. "Not you too."

"What?"

"Nothing is going to make this better, all right? Nothing. There is nothing I can do or say that will assuage the blow to their fucking egos that I dealt, by getting involved in the fights and doing it on my own terms, even if they didn't know it at the time. The best thing I can do right now is to help myself, to get my ass back in that ring and put myself back in the place I was before, on top." She didn't realize she was shouting until she'd stopped and the room seemed very quiet.

"And how are you going to do that?"

Did nothing faze this man? Lawson and Joey were staring at her like they didn't even know her. Fantine felt a smile that was unpleasant and stiff push at the corners of her mouth. "How do you think, Richard?"

More stares, more glances from side to side. It had been a slip but not a fatal one, not here. Riddick, as he always did, twitched slightly when she used his first name. "Are you sure?" For the first time since the argument had started she heard the tension in his voice. "Think about what you're..."

"I've thought about it long enough," she snapped back, and felt everything start to unravel inside her. "God... Goddammit, you guys, can't you just back me just this once?"

Strangled noises, hurt looks. She sat down on the bunk and dropped her head into her hands, wanting to cry but for the love of all that was still holy, not in front of them. It felt as though it was all as bad as it was the first day, as though she was falling apart with no hope of recovery. And she'd just said something unforgivable to her friends, and she wanted to ... to do something. Some sort of penance was required, but just what kind, that she was unsure on. She was beginning to shake, her mouth went slack, her eyes burned. She gulped down air and tried to force back the tears.

"Sorry..." she gasped, swallowed. Calm, she had to be calm. Pull it together. "Sorry. I just..." Just what? Just was going crazy? It was the truth at least. "I don't know." That, too, was true.

"Feels like everything's going nuts, doesn't it?" Joey asked, not without considerable sympathy. She'd forgotten that he knew what it was like, too. "Like everything's going to pieces?"

"Yeah." She bobbed her head in a grotesque parody of the affirmative. "Yeah. Exactly."

"Still?" Riddick asked, and Joey must have glared at him because he didn't say anything more and closed his eyes, the silver shine disappearing into the darkness. She could see it even looking through her fingers.

"You guys didn't deserve that," she said, and looked up. Whether or not she could keep from crying she could at least keep all but the smallest of tears from falling, and Riddick was the only one who could have seen. But not with his eyes closed. "I'm just ... really twitchy these days. Like I said, feels like I want to ..."

"Hit something." Lawson sighed. "I know. But why there? And you're going to go for the big venues, I know you are." She didn't bother to deny it. "And that's just going to piss them off even more. If it pissed them off before, and then... what are they going to do to you now?"

"I don't know. But it doesn't matter anymore, not really." They all looked at her at that. "Stop it, okay? It doesn't. I've been brought to their attention and whether or not I fight they're going to make me a target whatever I do. I might as well try and get my life back to some kind of normal while I can. And who knows? Maybe they won't mind so much if I'm not hiding behind hoods and things."

"Big Rob certainly won't," Joey said, but it didn't sound as though he thought that was a good thing. "But he'll try and get you for other things."

"Yeah, showpieces. I remember."

"Be a big feather in his cap if he can 'tame' you..."

"We remember," Riddick snapped, finally starting to audibly fray at the edges. Joey muttered something before lapsing into silence. "You sure you want to do this, Fantine?"

"Ask me that one more time," she muttered, but it was more tired than anything. "Go on. I dare you."

No one did. No one, it seemed, had any more objections. She'd won that argument, but she didn't want to think about what she'd done to their friendship in order to do so. Just the thought of what she'd snapped out in anger made her sick to her stomach. It also made her want to do incredibly girly things such as hug or weep, and that just made her angrier at herself. She didn't want to talk to Joey about it anymore. She didn't want to hear him say that it was 'okay', as though she needed permission to hug, or to weep. She wanted to be what she had been before, and hated the fact that it was impossible.

Thankfully, no one moved towards or away from her. Lawson shrugged a little but that was it. "I guess... I don't know. Do you really think they'll let you back in? Now that they know who you are..."

"No more disguises," Riddick broke in, firm, as though he expected her to obey what he said. "It wouldn't work anyway."

"Probably not, but I wasn't intending to disguise myself. I just figured I'd go up and say hi and ask when the next fight I could be scheduled in for would be. And no, I don't know if they'll let me back in, but..." she shrugged. "I'll think about that when I get there."

Joey shuddered. She could hear it in every shaky breath, but he didn't say anything to stop her or even to encourage her. Lawson and Riddick glanced at him, Riddick for slightly longer and she wondered what he saw, but didn't ask.

"They might let you in just for the fun of it," Riddick said, and she thought he was actually chuckling now. "I'm sure they expect you to get your ass kicked."

"Well, thanks for that vote of enthusiasm." She smiled back. "I'm sure they are. I'll just have to do something about that."

Lawson sighed. "I'll go warn Doc that you're about to become a semi- permanent resident again." She couldn't tell whether he was kidding or not.

"Not yet..." Riddick said. "Aren't you all forgetting something?"

They all stared at him. "Um. No. I don't think so." Lawson frowned. "What?"

He smiled. She was sure it wasn't supposed to be a nice smile. "We made a deal. First fight after the unmasking, remember?"

Fantine blinked. She had forgotten about that deal entirely. Not surprising, given the events of the last few months, but she didn't think he'd remembered either. "Riddick... you pick the strangest times to remember shit like that. Are you sure you want to?"

He shrugged. "I'm still curious. Why not?"

"Why not, indeed," Lawson muttered. Joey just threw his fist at the wall and walked out. All three of them stared after him, wondering what the hell had just happened. Lawson shook his head and went off to catch him and ask. "I guess we'll give you two some alone time to figure that part of it out, then."

Three months ago there would have been innuendo in that simple statement. Now it meant exactly what it said. Fantine leaned back on the bunk and closed her eyes, feeling the aching gap in her heart and not knowing what had gone missing there. Riddick sat by her on the bunk but waited for her to speak, patient, watching.