Chapter X

Winners and Tricksters

Riddick stood victoriously over the man he had challenged just a week before. Now he lay on the ring, broken, bleeding and pitifully crying in the only light of the room, which was spotlight. At first the men had cheered for their leader, tossing insults at the once-winner. But then they began to realize that this was a punishment being dealt out and the room was relatively quiet, the only sounds being the grunts and sickening cracks as fists and legs flew. When he was finally down, a single hunter reached out into the ring and in a very cruel and dishonorable manner, dragged the defeated fighter off the ring by his neck. Riddick approved of this as he stepped off the ring, the crowd parting for him as he approached his 'throne'.

Laiker and Rex stood on either side of the throne, one holding a cloth and the other a small bowl of water. Riddick stood on the platform and gave the signal for the ninth trial to officially begin. Sitting heavily into the metal armchair, he gratefully accepted the bowl and cloth, washing his bloodied hands and wiping his face of sweat.

"You can go if you want," he said, placing the bowl and damp cloth at his feet. He saw Rex shoot Laiker a confused glance and he laughed.

"I think he meant it." Laiker said, still sounding confused.

"I did," Riddick replied, still chuckling. He watched the fight start as his two best hunters descended into the crowds. The ninth trial was always his favorite and even better when he could start it with a fight of his own. He suddenly thought that Jack wouldn't have stopped and would've fought him to the death, her ferocious nature released into the ring. Grinning, Riddick knew that Jack would then make his two best hunters a trio and maybe beat them as well.

The fight was going on as he thought, but to tell the truth, he was more excited for the first hunt then watching the new pups that would be serving his hunters. They had to serve before they got to hunt, but to get this far was an accomplishment, so Riddick wasn't going to be listening to any complaints. But as he sat on his steel throne, his entire being itched to have the adrenaline running again. Oh how he couldn't wait.

Jack could barely sit still. She knew it was driving Marius crazy, but she couldn't wait to start sending the hints and clues. She would let it out that there was a bounty, a high one that might be tempting to hunters. But the line that she had created to go with the bounty was somewhere along the lines of "Impossible to catch."

She knew this would get Riddick's attention and the race would be off. Jack blessed any god or fate that only one hunting group could go for a chase at a time. The way it worked was that the one hunting ring that would amass the largest amount of 'kills', not bounty, would get to choose which hunts they wanted to pursue. Riddick's group had been top dog since he was the leader, so she knew that he got the best of the best hunts. Also, the first hunt of the season went to them and Jack was sure she was that hunt.

The restless energy that was buzzing in her could've been put to better use then just sitting at the control panel, digging up information on hunting rings, but Jack couldn't care less. That is until Marius let out a pained cry and she almost broke the sliding door in an effort to get out of her chair. Marching forward with determination, she went down the hallway and into the bedroom, smelling blood. Marius stood frozen in the room, watching with a fascination as blood seeped from his wound, running in rivulets down his arm. Jack didn't need to know anymore when she saw him holding one the extra daggers she kept under the bed in case anything were to happen.

"Marius!" She barked, making him snap out of his trance.

"I…Jack, it's a mistake, I didn't think it would-" he was cut off by her shushing him, prying the bloodied weapon out of his other hand. Setting it on the floor, she gripped the back of his neck with her hand and steered him out the door and into the med bay.

"Up on the counter." She ordered and he obeyed, watching her move swiftly, picking up bandages, alcohol wipes and some needle and thread.

"I was just curious, it sounded like this dagger I was reading about and I went to look. I was holding it with the blade facing me and suddenly…" he trailed off, his eyes widening slightly.

Jack's head snapped up and she coldly stared at him and demanded to know what he was thinking. When he wouldn't reply she sighed and began to work at his arm, wiping away the extra blood. It didn't look like it needed stitches, so she put them away. Yet as she bandaged his arm, her mind was nearly spinning out of control. What had he realized?

"Marius," she started, pulling herself up to her full height, "tell me what you were going to say," she said softly, wiping her hands of his blood. The significance that Marius picked up in this gesture went unseen by Jack, who was now curiously watching him, especially the movements of his eyes. Clearly it was something that would embarrass him, so she didn't want to press him to spill out his innermost thoughts and feelings.

"Thanks, Jack." He said, pushing himself off the counter and walked straight past her and out the med bay door. Jack heard him go back into the bedroom and seeing that she had finished cleaning, followed him.

The blade hadn't been moved, but Marius sat on the bed, looking deeply engrossed in his book. She moved to pick up the blade, realizing she should clean it before the blood completely dried and caked. Holding it in her fist, she stood watching Marius, who was either pretending to read and doing a very good job of it or was actually so absorbed in his book he didn't see her standing before him. Not wanting to push him any further, she walked out the door and back up to the cockpit, where she dug around for her kit.

As she watched the blade slowly come back to shining life, Jack wondered what it was that had gotten him so stubborn and quiet. Why wouldn't he talk about it? What was it? These questions beat at her mind like the ocean during a storm against a jagged face of cliff. The problem was that Jack had time, so she could only use it to think. Setting the now-clean blade down on the control panel, she propped her feet up on the empty co-pilots seat and let herself fall into her thoughts and memories, hoping to find a solution.

Riddick was walking through the galley, responding to the joyful and drunken greetings that were shouted at him by a simple nod or grin. The ninth trial had ended and in the usual way of celebrating things, they pulled out all the booze they could find, drinking it all in a surprisingly short amount of time. Laiker was in the center of it all, standing on a table and slurring out improved comedy, much to the amusement of the new hunters and everyone else. A bottle of vodka in hand, he mumbled and shouted his humorous thoughts, always having them end with the roaring laughter of his fellow drunkards. Riddick had given his welcome to the new hunters, who had given him honest and strong hopes for the upcoming chases. Standing at the door, he mused how his older hunters had only let the new ones spend three days in recovery before they pulled out the alcohol and insisted that they become pissed drunk. He wouldn't be surprised if they told the new hunters that if they couldn't hold their alcohol that Riddick would kick them out of the ring. He was drawn from his thoughts as he heard Rex's form lumbering down the hallway with more speed then usual. Riddick turned his head over his shoulder and then turned his entire body, seeing how excited Rex looked.

"Sir, this is the best chase we've ever had for the starting hunt. The bounty is…huge!" He kept going as he led Riddick to the main room and into the cockpit, whose blood was already racing at the thought of a hunt. He only caught the last part of the sentence before he sank down into his seat to read the file. "-and on top of all that, it's a woman!"

"You're telling me that some woman has a higher bounty then me?" Riddick asked, curious but he was sure his voice had an annoyed edge.

Rex only gestured to the screen and Riddick turned his attention to the file, carefully reading through it, picking up on the subtle information that would help him find the prey. Yet it was the last sentence that almost made him put the ship into hyperspeed just to get to the last system the woman was seen in. "Impossible to catch."

"We'll start on this tomorrow morning." Riddick said, not caring that his hunters would be so deep in hang-over that they would barely be able to grip a gun.

Marius had reverted back to his old self by the next morning, appearing early and a little too bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for Jack's liking. But she didn't speak a word of what had happened the night before, ruffling his hair as she always did as she set down a plate of food in front of him. She sat across from him, watching him eat as she always did, reprimanding him when she thought he was wolfing down his food too fast. Jack wasn't much of an eater, but she knew she couldn't get a dependence on coffee so she drank water in the morning. For a moment she was dragged back into memories.

"Ew, Riddick, can't you eat?" Jack complained, watching him use his knife for everything. He stopped and slowly put down his knife, looking directly at Jack.

"Well, Jack," he slowly said, swallowing his food, "there are two people here. One of them could give a flying fuck about table manners. The other…well, how much does it really matter?" He asked, not wanting to finish his original thought.

Jack picked up her spoon and fork and flashed him a quick smile before diving in to what was going to be one of his best memories of Jack being outright hilarious.

"Then let's take it one step at a time, caveman." She said, putting down the spoon. "This," she waved the fork around, "is what we civilized humans call a fork. Can you say that?"

He growled.

"Apparently not. We can work on speaking later; right now let's learn what we should've learned a LONG time ago. So," she was all sweet again, "a fork is an eating utensil that's used for picking up food that doesn't have any liquid to it. Sure it can be used for thick sauces, but that's what we have this," she put down the fork and held up the spoon, "for. And this," she looked sternly at him and for a moment Riddick wondered how serious she was about this. "Is a spoon. I'll admit," she put it down and put her empty hands up in mock defeat, "it isn't nearly as good as knives and forks for stabbing people. Human skin isn't so soft against a spoon, but if you're into the "Hmm-mm good intestines" deal, you can use the spoon for blood."

Jack ignored the obvious look of disgust and amusement on Riddick's face. Clearing her throat, she picked up the spoon again and started talking.

"This is good for soups, cereal, mixing drinks and ice cream. Yeah, that's about all I would use it for. So," Jack put down the spoon and picked up the fork. "What's this called?"

"Jack…" he warned.

"No, it's not a 'Jack', it's a fucking fork! If you're this confused about tools and shit, we can go into that department later! It's a fork!" With fake annoyance, she slammed down the fork and picked up the spoon. Narrowing her eyes, she actually looked dangerous armed with the utensil. "Get this one wrong and I'm shoving it up. Your. Ass." She snarled and Riddick laughed aloud and soon her frown broke and she laughed too.

"Damn, Jack, if this is the shit I'm going to get from you for eating, well; you could've warned me earlier." He said, getting up to take a fork and spoon from the drawer.

"Well," she replied, propelling cereal bits in her bowl with her spoon, "if you had table manners, that wouldn't have happened."

Riddick sat down hard in the seat across from her and just sighed, shaking his head. It only took a few glances of Jack watching him attempting to use a fork and knife for her to snort out the milk from her cereal.

"Fuck Jack! That's just nasty!" He shouted, wondering how the hell she managed to be hysterically laughing. She regained composure and was slightly miffed when Riddick reached over the table and took away her still-full bowl of cereal.

"Riddick! I was eating that!" She insisted, threatening him with her spoon.

"Maybe if you could chew your food then I wouldn't have to take it away from you. I really don't think you need a lesson in how to chew food, but-" he was cut off by a spoon skidding onto his dish and making his food splatter onto him off his dish. Before he could even comprehend what had happened, he saw Jack running straight towards their room. With a roar he leapt up and followed.

"Jack? Jack?" Marius was almost an inch from her face as she shook herself from the amusing memory. He saw the cloudiness clear from her eyes and he backed up, onto the table that he had been crouching on. "You ok?"

"Fine," she replied with a smirk, "just fine."

Thanks to these reviewers:

TotallyRiddickObsessed – How long? I don't know, seeing how terrible I am at updating now that I have actual work to do…could be a while. Chapter-wise? Hmm, depends on how long I drag out the chase. You want it soon, don't you?

SueBe- Jack/Riddick is the outcome, don't worry. I mean, it would be weird to have a Marius/Jack outcome, although the age difference probably wouldn't be much different between him and Jack and Jack and Riddick. But no, I'm a diehard Jack/Riddick fan. No worries there.

IT - sigh . Do I even NEED to write anything here?