A/N: This is the first year after Pitch Black. Each chapter will deal with a quarter of a year between Dark Fury and Chronicles of Riddick. Allusions will be made to the PB paperback and to Dark Fury.
Disclaimer: Riddick and all related characters belong to Universal. No intentional copyright infringement is intended through their use.
Dedication: To Jen, a dear friend I got to know through the blogging world, who had provided constant encouragement, and gotten interested in Riddick because of me. winks
No One Else: Year One
First Quarter
Riddick:
He had to drop her off with Imam, cut off all association with them. Helion Prime was the place Imam had chosen, damn the holy man. Even after the stuff with the raptors and with the damned merc. ship, holy men remained holy men.
He didn't want Jack becoming some religious fuck who couldn't do anything to save her own ass.
But New Mecca was better than anywhere else, especially after all that shit with that merc. ship and that damned merc. trying to cryo him for some fucking museum.
New Mecca was good. Or, as good as one could find these days.
And Jack needed good.
He grunted as he brought the skiff down. Security was lax. Helion Prime was a holy place. They didn't have to guard themselves against much.
Safe.
Gettin' soft in the ass, he thought, but did nothing to stop it. "Get off," he said.
Imam got off as soon as the hatch opened and the ramp was lowered.
"Riddick—"
"Get off!" He didn't want any kid to tag along. He didn't want her along. She'd just mess things up for him. He'd have mercs. on his tail.
He didn't want mercs. on hers.
"But I want to go with you!"
"Shut up and get off, Jack!"
She lowered her face and turned away, her thin frame hunched. She looked broken. But she didn't say anything as she joined Imam outside, her face still avoiding his.
Fucking kid. He was doing this for her.
"Stay away from mercs.," he growled out before closing the hatch. He could still feel both of them standing there—a holy man and a kid, survivors of a hostile planet of consuming darkness.
He started the thrusters. Won't need to get new cells for another few days, but maybe he'd head to the other Helion planets to stock up first.
Shit. He had to get out of here.
He didn't spare a second glance.
He left.
#####
Jack:
She hated New Mecca, hated everything about it—the people, the culture, the life…the only remotely good thing about it was the tall buildings, built closely together, providing high rooftops and narrow alleys filled with shadows and darkness.
Those places gave her the solitude she needed. Imam had quickly found a small place for them to stay, and had enrolled her into a school.
Fuck! She hated it—had wound up on the Hunter-Gratzner to escape all those shit.
And Riddick had left and dumped her right back into it. She wanted to scream at him, scream at Imam, but they had saved her, made sure she was okay.
But she wasn't okay. She didn't need all those shit—what was Riddick thinking of?—and she was pretty sure he never went to school either.
"Jack! Come down for dinner!" Imam called.
She decided she liked him better when he didn't treat her as his kid.
"Jack?"
His voice was directly behind her now: he had come up to the roof.
"Yeah." She tried to lower her voice to make it sound more like Riddick's, failed miserably, and went down for dinner.
Shit. Barely a week into this hell-hole and she missed the raptors already.
#####
Riddick:
He'd stayed on Helion Four far too long. Ass's becomin' waay too soft, he decided, running the skiff through another complete sys- and hull-check. Damned kid's still keepin' me here.
He had overstayed his safety—remain in one place for too long, and one left traces of himself that others could pick up on. He'd made damned sure he left no traces, and if those mercs. rumors spoke of decided to stop here, he'd kick himself in the ass.
Damned the kid. And Imam.
He must be growing soft in other areas too. Fuck. He didn't want those mercs. stopping on Helion Prime to even hear that Jack had been associated with him.
The controls beeped its confirmation that the skiff was ready for flight—it'd better be: he'd sent it for patch-ups in an area where cash was exchanged with no questions asked; if he had to question the quality of repair, he'd be very annoyed—and he double-checked his supplies.
Seemed that the problem with any pure, religious planet was that they were never really clean. It worked for him.
He'd wait for a few days, leave more traces of himself, let rumors spread a little more that Riddick wasn't dead, and draw the mercs. away from the Helion System.
Fuck. He was doing so much for her she'd better damned well be grateful.
#####
Jack:
She didn't think that Imam had seen her, even though she had had to pass so close to the window that he would've seen her if he had paid more attention.
But he didn't, and she quickly left the house.
She had written a short note. He'd know why she had left. With the note, and the rumors that Riddick was still alive, and rumors that many of the mercs. which had landed on Helion Prime had left to go after him, Imam would know, even if he couldn't understand.
Some noises just around the right bend made her slow down. She finally stopped, and peeked warily around.
There was a group of four men sitting at a table, drinking. Three of them talked and laughed really loudly, but the last was alert, wary.
She quickly pulled her head back, leaning against the wall. Mercs. She had sneaked out to go searching for at least one party of them, but now that she had found them, fear took her. Riddick had made it clear that he hated mercs. He would not tolerate mercs. for anyone.
And now she was going to join them.
Riddick would never forgive her. But fuck. He had gone and left her all alone with no one else but Imam, and he was driving her crazy.
She swore she was going to dump Riddick with Imam one day; let the big guy know how it felt to be stuck with a holy man.
"Hey, you up for another crew?" She stepped around the corner and stood there in full sight of the men.
They all turned to stare at her.
#####
Imam:
He was worried that she would get into trouble. But then, she had always did.
And now that he had found her note to him, she was bound to get into more trouble.
It was already morning, yes. But he had to try searching for her. If there was even a chance she was still in New Mecca, he would find her and make sure she did not leave his sight again.
It was already around two in the afternoon. He had searched and asked about since seven.
No one had seen or heard of her.
--Finish Year One, First Quarter--