"Now remember," Riddick said warningly, "I don't want you showing off to Jack until I say you can." They were standing in front of Imam's large two-story house on the wealthy side of New Mecca. The temperature was around 90 degrees- in the shade. Adasta was not accustomed to this much heat and was sweating horribly.

"Okay, okay, I know," She grumbled. Riddick must have told her that almost a hundred times not to 'show off to anyone'. His words of warning were starting to get annoying. "Why don't you tell me again to refresh my memory?" She was on thin ice and she knew it.

What did she just say! His beast roared. Show that bitch who's boss! Before he knew it, he had her pressed up against the door, shiv under her chin. "Hold your tongue or I'll cut it out for you!" He hissed under his breath, centimeters away from her face.

One of the acidic plants emerged from her forehead, opening its petals, ready to shoot out the deadly dart to defend it's mistress. "Let me down or you'll get a dose of hydrochloric acid in your skull," Adasta said calmly. But under her voice, Riddick could detect fear.

"You wouldn't," He growled, pressing the shiv deeper. Even though he had gotten brown contacts, she could still see the danger lurking beneath his eyes, in his subconscious.

"I will if I have too," Adasta said, exposing the desire to not harm him. Riddick knew that she could maim or even kill him if she wanted to, but she wouldn't because she considered him a friend.

He paused for a second, and then let her down. "Behave," He said, and then was quiet. He raised his fist and knocked softly on the door a few times. After a few seconds, they heard faint footsteps running down a hallway upstairs, then down a staircase, stopping in front of the door. She heard a girl screech with excitement, then the door flew open. A skinny twelve year old came barreling out, jumping on Riddick and wrapping arms and legs around him. The girl, who Adasta supposed was Jack, planted a kiss on Riddick's cheek.

"Hi to you too, Jack," Riddick grumbled happily. He peeled the smiling girl off of him and plopped her down on the ground. "How've ya been?"

"Spiffy," Jack grinned, looking over at Adasta. "Who's…?" She asked under her breath, tilting her head in Adasta's direction.

"I'll tell you when we get inside," He said, dropping a hint.

"Ooh!" Jack exclaimed, pulling Riddick inside. Adasta trailed along behind them.

Jack led them to the big living room, and took Riddick's duffle bag from him, taking it up to the guest room upstairs. When she came back down, Riddick was sprawled on one end of the poofy sofa, and Adasta was sitting on the other end, looking like she was sitting on a cloud and didn't want to fall off. Riddick looked like he was in sofa-heaven. His eyes were even closed.

"So are you two together?" Jack asked quickly, looking at the both of them. Adasta looked up, surprised, and Riddick jerked awake and put his elbows on his knees.

"No," Adasta replied, "We're just friends," Riddick leaned back again, seeing the situation taken care of.

"So where are you going?" Jack asked. She seemed full of questions.

"I'm going to, ummm, Haravium," Adasta said quickly, then followed up with: "And then to Fuliton." Riddick frowned. She had never said anything about Haravium. He'd have to talk to her about it.

"Ahh." Jack murmured. "So how did you two meet up?"

Riddick spoke first. "A party on her planet. There was trouble, and she saved me, then got stabbed in the gut and knocked out, so I saved her."

"Neat!" Jack exclaimed. "How did you save him?" She asked Adasta, who looked over at Riddick. He nodded.

"I have special abilities, and I used them to save him."

"What kind of abilities?" Jack asked, full of anticipation. Maybe the chick knew some fancy kind of karate or kung fu.

"I'm an earth nymph," Adasta said brightly.

Jack looked at the auburn-haired woman curiously. "What's an earth nymph?" She asked.

"Here we go again," Riddick muttered quietly, remembering his first encounter with Adasta's 'special abilities'.

"I can control any and all plant life, rocks, dirt, lava, and some acidic bases." Adasta explained. To add emphasis to her statement, she brought up her left hand, palm facing Jack. She put her fingers together, and then pulled them apart slowly. An eerie greenish glow came from them, and then a slender tendril of a clematis vine appeared. It shot up, sending out smaller vines, along with leaves and flower buds. The buds bloomed, giving way to five-petal purple beauties. The vines formed the words 'Hello Jack', before going back into Adasta's hand. Jack squealed in delight.

"What else can you do?" She asked happily.

"I can make poisonous plants that shoot out acid darts---" Adasta began quickly, but Riddick butted in.

"No!" He almost yelled. "Not after what happened on the ship!"

"One almost hit him," Adasta said, grinning. She giggled.

"Naughty, mischievous little bitch," Riddick grumbled, looking at her. He winked at Adasta, making her blush and turn away. "Where's Imam?" He asked Jack, looking at her.

"Out and about," She replied. "He's getting married so he's probably out doing…" She thought for a second. "I don't know."

"I was thinking that you and Addie," He looked at Adasta. "Could go out shopping for some clothes. She's wearing mine and I hardly have any left that don't smell like fuckin' roses." He grumbled.

Jack's face lit up. "Cool!" She yelled. Riddick tossed Adasta a cred chip.

"There's 1.5 million creds on that, so have fun." He said. "I'm going to take a shower."

Jack and Adasta stood up. "We'll be back in a few hours," Adasta said.

"As long as it's before dark," Riddick said to their retreating backs.

"So where do you want to go first?" Jack asked Adasta, who was looking at all the stores.

"I don't know," She replied slowly. "Where ever you wanna go,"

"To the thrift store!" Jack declared happily, marching through the crowds. They got to the thrift store fairly quickly, and the bell dingled quietly as they went in.

The store smelled of dust and old clothing, Adasta looked around happily. This was her kind of store. They had huge bolts of cloth on one wall, and shoes on the other, with racks and racks of funky clothes in the middle. Adasta made a beeline for the clothes while Jack went for the shoes.

"Hey, look at this one!" Adasta called out, holding a flimsy tube top up to her chest, twirling around in it. Jack looked at her and laughed, holding up some huge clodhoppers.

"Have fun!" The manager called out to them.

About an hour later, they left carrying four huge bags, leaving the manager looking very happy.

"Yay! That was so fun!" Jack said happily. "Imam hardly ever lets me go shopping,"

"It's been awhile for me too," Adasta smiled. When Jack didn't respond, Adasta looked over at her. She wasn't moving, she was frozen in mid-step. Adasta dropped her bags when she looked around at everyone else. They were frozen in the same fashion. On the edge of the street, a child was throwing water at another, but the droplets were suspended in mid-air. Adasta looked around again. To her left, about fifteen feet away, two dust devils were dancing in the middle of the street. They stopped, and out of them stepped a man and a woman. Adasta froze in shock.

They began walking towards her. The man was wearing a toga-like thing, and the woman wore a halter-top made of a white gauzy-like cloth and a long, sweeping skirt. Adasta squinted and focused on their faces. They looked like… they looked like…

"Adasta," The man said, his gravelly purr of a voice sending shivers down her spine. He bowed a little to her, his huge muscles flexing. If he would have not had his tattoos, he could have been Riddick's twin. Wait. Tattoos? A line of symbols stretched across his pectoral muscles, and a vertical line of them went down his abdomen, ending just above his belly button. The woman had a tattoo as well, but it was around her arm in a long spiral. She also wore a golden circlet, with a ruby in the center, accented by delicate golden chains.

"I believe you know who we are," The woman spoke, her voice sounding like water in a stream.

"Yes," Adasta murmured quietly.

"Then you know why we are here," The man grumbled gently. Then it clicked in Adasta's head. She was the Guardian.

"You must take the task upon you and Riddick," The woman said, looking at Adasta sadly.

"Why us?" She asked.

"Because you both have…" The man began.

"The strength to survive." The woman finished for him.

"Riddick will not believe me," Adasta said sadly. "He thinks your legend is farce," She looked at the ground, while the man and woman looked at each other, asking questions of each other and answering with their eyes.

"Give him this," The man said, sticking out his hand, a necklace materializing in it. A silver pendant hung on a silver chain, two symbols on each side. On the front, Riddick's full name, and on the back the sacred symbol for Furia.

"You will bear this," The woman said, taking off her circlet and giving it to Adasta. "It can transform into any piece of jewelry, and, if you die, your soul will go into the ruby so you can be brought back to life."

Adasta took it gratefully, and it turned into a ring, and she slipped it on her finger.

"Thank you," She said to her.

"You know your task," They both said, and they materialized into the sand again.

"Wait!" Adasta cried. It was well known that… "Which one of us dies?" That one of them would die. She looked at the ring and the necklace, and put the necklace on. She put all of her stuff back into the bags, and then time turned back to normal again. She was quiet for the rest of the way back to Imam's house, but Jack was talkative.

When they got to Imam's, Jack showed her to the guest room, and they saw Riddick sleeping soundly on the large bed. Adasta put all of her stuff she had bought on the floor and sat on the bed. The movement woke Riddick up.

"Just get back?" he asked, stretching and yawning.

"Yeah," She said. "I need to talk to you."

"'Bout what?" He asked, sitting up.

"They came to me. They came to me and told me to give you this," She blurted out, tossing the necklace to him. His eyes showed no emotion as he studied the necklace.

"Where the fuck did you get this?" He whispered. "How did you get this?"

"They gave it to me to give to you to prove that we have to do this!" Adasta exclaimed softly, trying not to yell. Riddick looked at her.

"The Slam took this from me and melted it into bullets. I saw them." He murmured, rubbing his hand across his head, looking at the necklace. "My foster sister gave it to me."

"Oh," Adasta said sadly. "Do you not believe me?" She asked slowly.

"Sister, I know there's someone out there that's always fuckin' my life up. And," He said angrily, "I am NOT about to help them."

Adasta stared at him in disbelief. How could he say that? He was just going to sit there and let everything around him go to hell- literally? "Really?" Adasta asked him slowly. "So you are willing to sacrifice the entire universe just because you have your head up your ass?"

His eyes shot daggers at her. Riddick felt like killing her, but he wanted to hear what she was going to say.

"She," Adasta said angrily, pointing out at the door, indicating Jack, "Loves you and idolizes you. Do you want her to be tortured to death? Or raped, beaten or whipped?" She paused. "Do you want to lose your last chance at finding yourself?"

He never expected her to say that. His insides were churning with argument.

"Whether you like it or not, the fate of three universes depends on US now. WE have to go and save all of them. In a few days, we will go to Haravium, and we will start out from there." She looked at him pointedly. He had to agree, he just had too.

"If I'm so goddamned special," he began, "Then why did they let me sit in those hellholes for so long?"

Adasta pondered his question for a moment. "Then you would have not have met me." She replied curtly. "And then we would not be able to save everything."

Riddick rolled his eyes. "Stupid religion shit," He swore quietly.

Adasta stared at him, her blood boiling. She had given him proof, and he was just dismissing it as a lie! Anger swelled in her heart. Quick as lightning, she threw out her palm, shooting out a vine and cocooning Riddick in it. He almost got away, but she tightened her grip, almost cutting of his air.

"You will listen to me," She demanded. "I have a family out there, and I have to save them. I will NOT sit back because you," She tightened the vines, and his face turned a shade of purple, "Are a pussy," She said the last word slowly, letting it sink in.

He had a shiv in his hand. Ever so slowly, he positioned it just right, then jerked his hand up and sliced through the vines. He fell to the floor, then launched himself at Adasta. He was furious. Before he knew it, he had her up against the wall, shiv at her throat.

"Don't EVER, ever, do that again," He growled angrily at her. "I'll go to Haravium with you, and play along with your little game," He let her down.

"Good," Adasta said, rubbing her throat, feeling a small cut where the blade had nicked her, and she healed it. "Time for bed, though."