Riddick had just reached the pilot's chair when he heard her. Turning just enough, he saw her put her arm over her face, sobbing into its fleshy comfort. He clenched his jaw and sat down. If she were coddled, she would get nowhere. He knew that. Of course, if he said just the right thing there was also the possibility of pushing her over the edge, too. He himself knew how fragile the human mind was. How easy it was to push someone just a little too far...

Forcing that thought out of his head, he sat down next to Imam and began punching buttons. New Mecca was definitely within range of the power cells, but Riddick tested them once again. Just to be sure.

He was about to check on his leg when he felt eyes on him. It was Imam, he knew. Slowly and deliberately, Riddick turned to look Imam in the eye. For once, Imam's face seemed sad, even angry. But his eyes told a different story.

'I pity you,' Imam's eyes said. At once a wave of rage rushed over Riddick. He didn't need pity right now. A nice hot shower, a good meal, and some medical attention maybe, but not pity. Then, as suddenly as it had come, the wave was crushed by something else. Defeat?

Riddick abruptly scared himself by thinking of Fry. The face she had made before being ripped from his grasp. What she had said. What he had said. The rain, the blood, the wounds, the light, the dark, the monsters. The truth.

He directed his eyes toward the console, realizing that he had come dangerously close to feeling something. Something besides anger and rage, which he had come to know so well. But now wasn't the time to be thinking of such things. He would have time to do that later. Right now, he had two people who were depending on him. It was an unusual feeling, one that he had never experienced before. The responsibility didn't scare him, but he was unsettled by it nonetheless.

Switching to manual controls, he took a wide turn around a star. From the back of the cabin, he heard Jack's breathing deepen and knew that she had fallen asleep again. Secretly, he didn't blame her. If the opportunity had shown itself, he would have slept too. The three of them had been to hell and back, all expenses paid by that planet and the monsters that inhabited it.

Riddick also understood that she was suffering severe emotional pain. Though he didn't want to get too deep into his own emotions, he knew how she felt. Lost, confused, and helpless.