Here is chapter 2. It's a bit longer then I had expected but I figure that that's alright sometimes. Tell me what you think and thanks to those who have reviewed so far.

Kayla

Chapter 2: Back

Richard B. Riddick sat in the main cargo bay of The Aurora with his back up against the wall and his shaved head resting against the cold metal hull, not that the cold mattered much. His eyes were closed beneath his dark welding goggles but that didn't mean that he wasn't alert. He knew everything that was going on around him.

Next to him on the floor was a bag. In that bag was everything that Riddick owned, a couple of changes of clothes, a few personnel affects and some rather interesting weaponry that he didn't tend to use unless he had to.

Riddick was on the hunt again.

The lights went on and Riddick's eyes opened, a kid walked in, a girl, no more then fifteen or sixteen but she didn't move past the doorway. She just peered around the shadowed room curiosity written all over her face till a woman's voice called her away and the room once more went dark.

One corner of his mouth twitched into a strange sort of smile. The kid reminded him of another kid he had known.

Jack.

Her face came unbidden into his mind for a moment. Jack was the whole reason that he was aboard The Aurora. She was his problem and he had a feeling that it wouldn't be long until she needed him again. That's why he had started his hunt.

He stretched out his shoulders, which were feeling kind of tight from sitting in one place for too long. Part of him wondered if Jack would still be the wide-eyed adolescent that he had forced off of Demedia two years ago or wither she would have hardened and changed without someone to protect her. The bullet wound in his back still gave him a little bit of trouble now and then, reminded him of what he had done. He didn't know why he kept saving that kid's life; all he knew was that he would again if he had to.

Riddick shook his head. He had always told her that he wasn't going to save her ass so that she would be motivated to keep up. So she would learn quickly and up until that day it had worked. She was only ever half a heart beat behind him and then suddenly she wasn't there. Not that it had entirely been her own fault but he hadn't been about to leave her behind.

As much as he hated to admit it, he hadn't been looking forward to the day that she decided it was time she lead her own life and she didn't need him anymore. Riddick had in some way become attached to her and she seemed to need him too. There was only once difference between the two of them, he knew that he would never leave her but she didn't and something always stopped him from telling her the truth of the matter.

He closed his eyes as he thought about that day in Demedia. He had seen the look of fear on her face and the grief also, a grief that had turned to joy and thankfulness that was written all over her face when he had appeared by her side.

Riddick shook his head. If only she hadn't tripped. He had grabbed her by the belt, barely breaking his stride and half pulled half dragged her to her feet, her long dark hair spilling out of it's ponytail and dragging slightly in the dirt and it was almost like the minutes Jack was up again he was down in the dirt with his back stringing like he'd been bit by a rather large hornet.

"Come on Riddick!" She had yelled and he had seen the look of terror cross her face again.

That was the past. This was the present. It had taken him six months after setting his mind to it to track Jack down. The kid seemed to have learned her lesions better then he had thought, she covered her tail well, under a number of different aliases and sidestepping. But she wasn't good enough to fool him for good.

He had sat there for hours, until he was sure that all the lights on the ship had been turned off and ninety percent or more of the people onboard would be in their rooms or asleep in their bunks. He had already found Jack's room, so it didn't take much for him to move off into the darkness, his hunt almost finished.

It wasn't hard to fall asleep as long as the lights were on, only the lights didn't stay on all night, there came a point where they were all automatically shut off. She could at least hope that she got to her bunk a good bit before lights off. But how well she slept always depended upon how sound asleep she was when the lights all went out, when she was left in darkness, alone.

That particular night, Jack had far too much on her mind to be sleeping soundly when the lights went out. The imagined noises were the first thing to disturb her sleeping mind, the clicking of their claws, the beat of their leathery wings, their screech. And then there were the images that flashed through her mind of the winged hammer-headed beasts. All of them searching with their night vision for her, scenting the air for her blood.

She started to toss and turn, unable to wake up but still trying desperately to escape.

Their faces flashed across her mind's all too clear eyes. The holy man's boys, the antiquities dealer, the Merc with his baby blues, Shazza and Zeke, Fry... Riddick's face was mixed in with theirs, his eyes shinning a silvery-purple in a way that used to fascinate and frighten her at the same time.

"Where can I get eyes like those?" A younger version of her voice asked.

There was the sound of scraping metal around her and footsteps. Were they getting in? Was she running? It was too dark to tell!

Panic rose up in her throat like a bile as cold, sharp metal touched her throat. That wasn't apart of her dream; she was never killed in her dream. Riddick had killed Johns before he had had a chance to seriously put his plan of killing her into action.

A hand clamped over her mouth and a weight pinned her to her bed as her eyes shot wide open. She didn't make a sound and neither did it. All she could see was two bright and shimmering orbs in the darkness around them. She held her breath.

"Don't move kid. There's a blade at your throat encase you get all excitable on me. Take a deep breath Jack and calm down." A male voice said, it was deep and slight husky. She recognised it instantly and froze. She couldn't recognise it, Riddick was dead, and she had seen him fall. It just wasn't possible.

She had to still be dreaming!

She moved her fingers ever so slowly to just below her hip where she kept a flash light encase she got a call up to the cockpit in the middle of the night or encase she just needed the light. She gripped it tightly, wondering for a moment if she was doing the right thing before turning it on and flashing it full in his eyes before he could stop her.

"Damnit!" He yelled and rolled away, cutting her jaw ever so slightly with his small curved, hand held blade. She scanned him with the torch, guilt eating at her the whole time. She had killed this man; she would wake up at any moment and find herself staring at the bottom of her shelf. But this was all too real to be one of her dreams.

"Thanks for the warm welcome back Jack, or should I call you Kit?" Richard B. Riddick said as he picked himself up and looked her up and down.

"Don't get self-righteous on me now you dead bastard and get out of my dreams! I've enough happening in my head without you in it too. You told me to leave! You made me leave! I did what I was told to do. Quit haunting me!" She was on her feet in an instant and glaring at him, her torch held like a weapon. Light was one of the only weapons that could hinder Riddick's progress but it was only ever a temporary weapon.

As much as she wanted him to be the one getting to his feet in front of her she didn't. She had left him on that cursed planet because he had told her to. Because she thought he was dead. But then she wanted him to be there, wanted to feel safe walking through a dark corridor or laying awake in a dark room just because she knew he could see, because she knew he was there.

"I don't take orders from kids." Riddick said as he grabbed her hands and pinned her to the wall, his face inches from hers. All it had taken was seconds for him to disarm her, just seconds. "You're not dreaming Jack. I'm not here to haunt you; you're doing a good enough job of that yourself. Guilt won't get you anywhere."

"I saw you take those hits!" She struggled against his hold on her wrists and only managed to hurt herself. He wasn't about to let go. "I know what I saw, I know..." Her voice trailed off but his grip on her was very real as was his warm breath on her face and neck.

"What, did you forget who it is that I am? A bullet or two might kill you..."

"Don't you start your damn, 'I'm immortal' crap. It doesn't wash with me Riddick, remember, I lived with you for five years." She cut him off.

"Why aren't you angry?" He chuckled. "You're not an easy person to catch up with Jackie, I'll give you that much."

"Only the Mercs seem to know who I am Riddick and they don't tend to come after me that often unless they are after you, you had better give me a damn sight more then that and let me go."

"Only if you're not going to try and claw my eyes out again."

"Let me GO!" She twisted herself in just the right way to force him to let go of one of her arms and send her sprawling onto her bed again. She reached under her pillow with one hand but was slid off the bed and onto the floor by a mighty tug from Riddick. She was shocked and dazed but she shouldn't have been, Riddick was still bigger, stronger and more experienced then she was.

"Looking for this?" He asked holding up a small handgun as he pinned her to the floor with his knee.

"Fuck you Riddick." She yelled at him, fear crossing her face for a moment.

"What were you going to do? Shoot me?" He said, she stopped struggling and paled before dissolving into tears.

Ten minutes later, she was laying on her bed again and Riddick was sitting in her chair on the other side of the room, tapping his blade off the table and making her want to twitch or at least yell at him to stop but she knew that that wouldn't get her anywhere. At least the tears had stopped. She cursed herself over and over again as she lay in the dark looking up at where her shelf should be and seeing only darkness. He would only have seen her tears as a sign of weakness and weak she was most defiantly not.

"Why Kit?" He asked finally.

"Dunno, it just came to me, she came to me. I'm a good play actor Riddick, you know that, all I needed was a character and Kit O'Donnell seemed to fit alright." She answered. "What happened to you after I left?"

"I got picked up by some stupid medic." He said. "He pulled those bullets out of me. The kid obviously didn't know who I was."

"You're a life worth saving too." Jack whispered.

"Only you seem to think so Kid."

"Fry did too. She wouldn't have gone back for you if she hadn't. She saw something in you." She licked her lips searching for something to say. What she wanted to say was, she saw what I saw, but it didn't seem quite right somehow.

"How did you become a pilot?"

"I just did."

"Doesn't wash. You need a licence to fly a commercial cargo ship, especially one that carries passengers."

"I met a guy called Bret Robson after I got rid of the diamonds we were hauling about and hid the cruiser. I had only been living with him for two weeks when he introduced me to Captain Manor, his pilot had gone and got himself killed in some crash and was looking for a new one. Bret thought that I should try and get the job, I got the job but didn't count on getting sent to a flight school."

"What do you mean living with him?"

"As in I lived with him. After you died I had nowhere to go, Bret's a decent guy. I was seeing him and living with him for eight months before his death stopped it all. I'm only sorry that I can't tell him who I really am; he's dead now anyway, one of the Mercs killed him." She bit her lip. "One of the Mercs that was after you."

Bret had been decent, a really nice guy who wanted nothing more for her then what she wanted for herself, that and happiness. He never pressured her into anything or told her what to do. He hadn't even said anything about the nightmares that she had started having after Riddick had died, not that he knew about Riddick, or asked why she had looked into getting a shine job done (something she never went through with) or why she got the outline of a strange hammer-headed creature tattooed on her shoulder. As long as she was happy all that didn't matter to him. He was just a decent guy; she might even have really loved him if she had been given the chance.

He had been the first to show her real love and affection. He was also one of the many people to die because of her. The damned Mercs were after Riddick and the only way they figured they could do that was to go though her and Bret had gotten in the way. They tended not to get physical with her anymore; one civilian death was enough for them it seemed.

"He showed me what it was to be loved, wanted even needed. I'm only sorry that he got in the way. Anyway, before Bret was killed Manor sent me to a flight school, it was intensive, I was one of a group of four pilots who learned in three months what everyone else learned in a year. It gave me something to do, to focus on. You were too good at controlling things Riddick, I almost didn't know what to do with myself after I was on my own." She took a deep breath before continuing. "Sure you taught me how to fight and pilot and track people and things but you didn't teach me how to deal when you decided that you'd had enough of me tagging along."

"You thought all you were doing for those five years was tagging along?"

"I didn't think Riddick. I knew, I knew that it was only a matter of time before I woke up and you were gone and there would be no note telling me where the hell you had decided to go." She admitted. "Bret saw something in me, said that I looked like a chick that was ready to take on the world, only I'd lost my opponent." She chuckled. "I dunno, it made sense."

"What happened after flight school?"

"I graduated with my commercial license and started to work for Captain Manor on this very ship. The pay is alright and most of the trips don't last longer then two weeks. The crew's nice enough though I would happily part with my co-pilot, I can't stand his attitude but that's life." She yawned. "And the food sucks."

"When did the nightmares start again?"

"A couple of days after I started living with Bret. I took to sleeping with the lights on while I was living with him and still do when I'm off this ship, he left his flat to me, knew I had nowhere else to go so it seemed. The lights go off here at certain designated times. I only sleep for a few hours, and if I think I need more I sleep up in my chair, there's always light in the cockpit."

There were two loud knocks on her door and she flipped off the bed and looked at Riddick. He had nowhere to go and she suddenly didn't know what to do. If it was the Merc again then they were screwed if it was one of her crewmates she was screwed, either way it didn't make for a pleasant situation.

She spun around in a circle looking around her, the shelf was too open and there was no way that it would hold Riddick's weight anyway. The bed again was too open and if it was the Merc or Sam at the door there was no way she could stop them from coming in. Anyway, the damned Merc still had her picture.

She made a mental note to get it back.

"Get under the bed." She hissed at Riddick. "You won't like what you see under there but times have changed. I'm not living under your rules anymore." His silvery eyes scanned her and she was sure there would be a frown on his face if she could see it but he slid under the bed as she opened the door.

Sam was standing at the door with a thermos and two mugs in her hand as well as a couple of envelopes. If Jack knew Sam half as well as she thought she did, there would be some sort of food in that thermos and as much as she hated to admit it, the chocolate bar really hadn't done much in the way of filling her up.

It wasn't that Captain Manor didn't provide food for them; he did, in the form of a brown half liquid, half solid that, while it had all the nutrition in it that they needed to survive and thrive, it just didn't taste good. Each of them dealt with it differently.

Sam wouldn't eat it and brought her own food supplies along, Jack would eat as much of the stuff as she could handle but relied on tasteless protein bars and candy bars to get her through. John put hell of a lot of ketchup in his, Danny just ate it to prove he could and the Captain never seemed to eat anything at all.

"You didn't eat tonight figured I'd bring you something." Sam walked into the room and sat down on the chair that only moments before Riddick had been sitting in.

"Please tell me its not goo."

"Heck no! I don't eat that crap. Tomato soup, it's as good as it comes and I figured that you could use some company now that the lights are out." Sam said as Jack pulled a battery-powered lamp off her shelf and put it on the table so that it illuminated them. "How's the nightmares these days?"

"They're nightmares." Jack eagerly accepted the mug that Sam offered her. "They don't get any better. Only the light keeps them away and there is never enough of that."

"You should move back into the bunk room. That way you might feel safer, anyway, there's more room in there." Sam said as she gulped down her own mug and watched Jack do the same. "And two sets of eyes."

They had shared one of the large crew quarters when Jack had started working on The Aurora. That was until the nightmares got too bad. Jack had moved out voluntarily even though Sam said she didn't have to and had been trying to get her to move back in ever since. The only thing was that it was enough that Jack didn't get restful sleep without keeping Sam up half the night too.

"We've been through this Sam. I'm not going back to the bunkroom. The only other set of eyes that had ever made me feel safe had a shine job and could see in the dark. I thought at one point that nothing could kill him."

"Who you're dad?"

"Nope."

"A boyfriend?"

"Nope."

"A teacher?"

"Something like that. It doesn't mater now anyway; I'm out in the big bad world and not doing too badly for myself." Jack smiled the last part was a tag on for Riddick's sake, not that he probably cared all that much.

"How much do you want to bet that one of these is from Adrian?" Sam held up the two envelopes.

"I take it that you knew which one. They both mine?" She frowned. She had been with Adrian for three months learning what she could from him as an engineer but making him think that she was in it for the relationship. When she started feeling uneasy, she found some guy with a skill so that she could better her knowledge, learn what Riddick hadn't been able to teach her or never got the chance to anyway.

"It's over between me and Adrian, only he doesn't know it yet." Jack took another candy bar out of her bag and sat down on the edge of the bed conscious that Riddick was under it and able to hear every word they were saying. This was not the time for girl talk.

Normally Sam wasn't the gossiping type. She was the ship's security officer and could hold her own with the men but every once and a while she would seek Jack out for a conversation of the girly type and most of the time Jack either indulged her or enjoyed the conversation. There were only three other female crewmembers on board, Sam and Jack called them the three Cs, Crystal, Caren and Carly. They dealt with any passengers that were on board The Aurora and tended to stay out of Jack and Sam's way. The three Cs were as girly as girly could be.

Jack looked at the floor before taking the envelopes out of Sam's hand and opening the first. It was from the Merc, there were three things inside, the photograph of her and Riddick that was unharmed and that she pinned back up to the bottom of the shelf, three hundred paper credits and a note.

"Who's in the picture?" Sam asked.

"Someone from my past." Jack answered unfolding the piece of paper and scanning the words. It was a basic invitation to help the Merc hunt Riddick. Something she wasn't about to agree to.

She looked at it in disgust and folded it back up again and put it up on the shelf. She hated Mercs. She wasn't about to help anyone find Riddick but she almost had to laugh at the irony of the whole situation. Riddick was hidden under her bed and the Merc was only a hallway away sleeping as if everything was alright when really his life was in danger that was, if Riddick took it into his head to go hunting.

"How many guys has there been now anyway Kit? Six or seven?"

"Not that many Sam. What do you think I am? There have only bee five if you include Bret but he was different." She opened the other envelope. Sam had been right about it's sender, inside was an extremely soppy letter from Adrian, which she scanned and then screwed up into a ball in disgust. She had always thought that women were meant to be the soppy ones.

"I'll see you in six hours eh Kit and gonna actually think for once about moving back into the bunkroom. I could use the company." Sam stood up and walked to the door. "And you might find that life will be a little easier there. At least you'd have someone to wake you up from one of those nightmares."

"It might be easier for me but it wouldn't be easier for you." Jack replied as the older women walked out the door and the door was shut behind her.

"Five?" Riddick said as he left his hiding place with a grace and agility that astounded her. A man built like he was shouldn't be able to move like he did.

"Don't say a word." She held up a hand and shook her head.

"Then do you want to explain the armoury under your bed?" He gestured to where he had been hidden only moments before.

"Nope." She said simply.

"Then tell me about the nightmares."

"They are the same as they used to be." She said laying down on the bed as he sat in the chair again. "It's dark and there are those noises and they come out. I can never escape but as of yet they haven't killed gotten the chance to kill me. Something used to always stop them but they've been getting closer and closer to getting me every night for the past two years." She yawned again. "Then there are the faces of the dead that like to come back to haunt me. Yours has been among those as of late too."

"I thought we got rid of those Jack."

"I didn't, I was too afraid of the dark remember?"

"I know but you stopped having those dreams."

"I know I did but did you ever stop to wonder why?" She twisted around so she was looking at him, feeling very much like a seventeen year old again. "Remember the night that I got bit in my dream and you tried to wake me up but in the process I bit you?"

"How could I forget?"

"You forget a lot of things Riddick. You forget people." She replied.

"I still have the teeth marks." He countered. "I was only fifteen, Imam had just left because he couldn't deal. You told me that they couldn't get us anymore. You told me that at least for that one night you weren't going anywhere. I always knew you would be there for sure in the morning when you got that look on your face, the one that you had on when you told me that."

"What does that have to do with the nightmares?"

"Those things couldn't kill you. Somehow I knew that if you were close, they couldn't kill me either and so they couldn't get near me in my dreams so I stopped being afraid of them for a while, until you weren't there again." She rubbed at her eyes, they were heavy and scratchy. She was tired but to sleep would mean revisiting the dark again.

"Go to sleep Jack. I'm not about to go anywhere." Riddick said.