By: MataruDoukotsu

Taming the Beast

Chapter Eight

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Riddick universe, no matter how sad it is. One thing is for sure, Riddick is hot. The one man who can pull off buff and bald is Vin Diesel and the character he plays in this series.

Now on to the story.

She was out of breath, but she kept it under control and ran anyway. Jack knew she was testing her limits, but when you have Mercs chasing you, you tend to push yourself over and beyond the limits. Jack knew, because she had done it many times.

One, two. One, two. One, two. She thought to keep her running steady. C'mon, Jack! Just four more miles and the Killer Eclipse and Riddick will be right there

Yeah but anything could happen in those four miles, Jack's mind fabricated what Riddick would say. Keep yer shiv ready, Kid.

"C'mon Fox! We got you, so stop runnin'!" She heard the Merc's taunts, and pushed herself farther. Jack was no fool, she knew that the only reason they were pursuing her since the other side of town, was because she had already killed three of their crew. It was just her luck that they were an eight man party.

"Alright, Jack, two more miles, just two more!" She whispered fiercely under her breath. Taking a deep breath so her sides wouldn't cramp, she leveled her breathing back out with her steps. First step, inhale. Second step, exhale; and repeat the cycle over again. Jack snickered in her mind, Yeah she once told me that keeping short breaths in short amounts of time strengthens your lungs. Yeah, of course she would know, the damn animal.

As she came to the opening, the dark docking area came into view, and yet she could still hear their comments piercing the air.

"Damn, boss! AJ sure does have a nice ass! I kind of hate to see what would happen to the boy when we send him to Slam!" the one right on her heels laughed. He was the weapons engineer on deck; a big black man, possibly bigger than Riddick.

Angrily, Jack rounded the corner. As she looked toward the Killer Eclipse she saw that the ramp was just setting down and -low and behold- none other than Riddick himself was just stuffing his goggles into one of the pockets on his cargos as he caught eye of her with her back to the corner. Don't move you idiot. She tried to project her thoughts to him as she heard the heavy steps of the black man.

Once she saw him stop at the opening of the alleyway and saw him glance around the docking area, she made her move. Snaking her flexible body around his waist then his torso and finally wrapping her long legs around his chest from behind, she wound her arms around his neck and quickly jerked her left elbow to the right; effectively snapping his neck. As his lifeless body began to wobble, she climbed quickly to his shoulders and pushed off from there with her feet, receiving a boost to spring into a dead run again. She licked her lips, a panic induced action, only to taste the blood that had splattered on her face during her kill of the two men and one woman that had once belonged to the crew. Jack watched as Riddick tensed, and she knew that they had found the fourth body of their weapons engineer.

Jack heard someone –maybe the captain- swear before her hearing zoned in on a whistling. What would She do! What would She do! What would the damn animal do!

She let her instincts take over.

Dropping into a dodge, she rolled to her left side. The sound of the harpoon-net struck the spot she had been in just an instant earlier. Thank god for second instincts. Jack thought as she rolled onto her feet and fell into the dead run once more. Ya know, I'm starting to get used to this again. The inclination of the ramp was horror on her thigh muscles as her feet made her stumble into the cargo hold. She heard the ramp close and knew that she was safe with Riddick. Following him up the ladder, and into the second level where the mess hall and the living quarters were, Jack felt the adrenaline rush escape her body leaving it weary. Vaguely she noticed that the ship was already prepped for leaving.

Were Riddick and Imam going to leave her if she hadn't come running back? Had Riddick been opening the ramp and going to go look for her? Or did he just plain know that she was on her way, running from the Mercs?

These thoughts flew through her mind as she let her body drop onto the floor, and leaning her head back on the wall. "Ello, ello, my body feels like Jell-O." She heard Riddick absently snort at her dazed murmur as he ignored command tower, cursed them out and took off. It was a good thing they always kept the ship neat and clean and always prepped for flight. She grabbed a hold of the back of the co-pilot's chair as they launched into space. Not even five seconds after being out of the planet's atmosphere, Jack felt the deep-space drive start to heat up and Riddick made a wild long star-leap.

"Alright, kid," his deep resonating voice meant no funny stuff, "Why in fuck's name was there a five man crew of Mercs chasing your skinny ass?"

"Not a five man," she corrected, panting, "Eight."

"Eight!" The surprise was evident in his voice, "What the shit did you do to get an eight man crew after you? What happened to the other three?"

Obviously he didn't look at me when I was haulin' my ass, she thought. Just as Jack was opening her mouth to tell him, Riddick turned around. She knew that he knew what was splattered on her face and shirt, and she saw his body tense yet again. "I killed them." She with drew her shiv to show him the blood stains that didn't get wiped away.

Riddick quickly assessed her appearance. Obviously she had killed before because of the lack of injuries on her part. Either that or she's a damn leprechaun with all the luck in the world. "Why were they after you?" he asked, truly calm now that he was sure that he had figured out some of the enigma.

Jack knew that if Riddick had been standing, he would have been pacing a ditch in the floor by now. "I have a bounty on my head."

"Well no shit Sherlock!" he replied sarcastically. "Anybody with Mercs on their ass ought to have bounty floatin' over their damn head. But Christ, kid? What did you do back there?"

Jack took a deep breath. Should I tell him? She thought. The mind-fabricated Riddick told her yes, as well as the real one. Oh, damn, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to tell him face to face though. Let him read my file... I just hope he doesn't go all ballistic on me. "Check out the file named 'Fox, AJ' in the Universal Wanted List."

She closed her eyes and felt his gaze on her face before the clicking of the computer station alerted her that he was indeed doing what she had suggested. Jack let her over worked muscles relax as she sat on the floor behind the co-pilot seat. She was vaguely aware of the minutes as they passed by her, the clicking of the keys lulling her into the state between alertness and sleep. Soon what she guessed as maybe forty-five minutes later, perhaps, she heard the pilot's chair turn to face her. Cracking her eyes open, she saw the slight frown that marred Riddick's brow.

"So the 'friend' that you know," he began, "just happens to be Lucia Dante Slade; the Dame of all Convicts and Kayce Mitchell Damion; the convict/computer hacker. If I woulda known that your 'friends' were the Slade and Damion sisters, I woulda thought twice about you needin' street smarts."

He smirked and got up from his chair before bending down to lift Jack up from her dazed position. "C'mon, let's get you cleaned up before Imam wakes up and sees you like this. He'll go into some kind of religious what-not to 'cleanse' you or whatever."

"'Mazing he could even sleep through yer turbulent flying skills." She murmured and walked into the bathroom and shut the door.

As Riddick stood there gazing at the spot he had seen her last through the door, he shook his head in wonder. If I woulda known that you were in the Big Leagues, kid, don't know what I woulda thought of you. But I know it probably wouldn't have been pretty.

A/N: Well, does that supply any of the first set of mysteries? What do you think is gonna happen now? I'm kinda mad that nobody has taken the time to review my story; y'know, I could probably just stop writing it, see what would happen then? Oh, whatever, I'll most likely write, but just not update in a while. Let's see, yeah, I want at least four reviews until I update again. I mean, I've given you people eight friggin chapters today. But most likely I'll just post anyway...whatever.

WTF Mates?

Anyway, tell me what you think, I'm interested to see if what I'm thinking is what you people are thinks…though, it probably ain't.

Nobody can steal my crackers! MU-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Flamers excepted. Please review.