My sister told me this chapter was disturbing. So be forewarned. this is supposed to be dark, so don't get pissy if it depresses you. in the other hand, some of it made her laugh- so i guess its all your own point of view. have fun!

"I can't sleep." Jack muttered when Riddick stepped onto the bridge. The girl was curled in the pilots seat, hugging her knees to her chest.

"Me either." Riddick admitted.

"Is this sad or pathetic?"

"Both." Riddick sighed, picked the girl up and sat down in the seat himself. His huge arms enveloped her curled frame like prison bars.

"Riddick."

"What?" he asked when Jack hesitated.

"Why did you start?"

"Start what?" he knew what she was asking. He didn't know where to start. Hoping she'd drop it he laid his bald head against her shoulder, but tensed when she jerked it away.

"I need to know."

"You don't need to know anything about me but what I choose to share." he snapped.

A silence filled the control room as they both held their breath at his tone.

"Of course not." Jack whispered and went limp. "Let me go." her voice wavered.

"Jack-"

"No. If you don't want to share, you're right, you don't have to." she tried to push out of his arms but he held her in tight.

"I was eight when I killed my first man. At least, I think I was eight." Jack didn't move, didn't breath, afraid that if she interrupted in any way… "He was trying to molest me, so I took a shard of glass and shoved it into his eye. He died much later, after I found more glass and other various painful things to cut from his body."

"Riddick-"

"You wanted to know." he spat out, his muscles quivered from the strain of holding back his rage. "After that I was picked up by some street scum who thought that a young boy could kill people with impunity and never be caught. Well, they were right. And they didn't have any idea how skilled they made me until I killed them too. I picked up various techniques as I hiked across the galaxy. By the time I was fifteen I had killed more than a hundred and forty people. Most of them the rest of the galaxy doesn't know about, and couldn't care less about them being dead and gone. Trash. The others I was hired to kill when I needed funds. I met a lot of people on different planets who tried to "save" me, and more often than not it got them killed. Some of them were truly genuine people, others thought to trap me with kindness and turn me in for bounty. I always got away and I always left a river of blood in my wake. Do you want to hear more? Details? I remember every single throat I've ever slit. I know who I killed because they haunt my every sleeping moment. Do you want to know how I've killed? Techniques are simple to pick up. Skill is nothing more than practice Jack."

She shivered violently in his arms, but didn't resist or spring away as he hugged her tightly then let his arms fall to the rests on the chair.

"Go to bed Jack." he growled.

"Riddick-"

"Go to bed."

He wished he could slam the door, but it slid closed with a quiet woosh. She was sitting against a corner, her eyes closed in the darkness of the room.

"What did you tell her?" his voice was rough against the smooth walls.

"How you left us. How you looked when I thought you cared." she was more tired than she'd ever been in her life. Even after chasing him around the universe she wasn't as tired as she was whenever he came close to her.

"It was none of her business."

"Why did you save her Richard? Why if not to redeem yourself in some small insignificant way?" she was tired of asking herself the same question about why he saved her.

"It needed to be done. Everything I've ever done needed to be done."

"So your just a reaction then?" Rieder got to her feet and felt her way along the wall until she reached the door. If she held out her hand, she could touch him, but she still couldn't see him.

"Why don't you turn on the light?" he could see her perfectly, but she was grasping at thin air.

"Because I don't want to look at you. I'm afraid to see the monster you think you are." It was a solid hit. He could almost feel it bleed. But her hand touched his stomach, curled in his shirt and pulled. His body pressed up against hers as her hands trailed up his chest and onto his chin. She traced his lips with her fingers and bumped her forehead against his sternum.

"What are you doing?" he stood shock still as her hands fell to run down his arms.

"You don't feel like a monster."

"You know better than that."

"You feel like a man who has done too much to survive."

"I'm alive."

"And it pisses me off."

"I know." Riddick pulled her hands off his arms and clamped his own over hers. He yanked her firmly against him and swooped down to capture her lips with his own. "I did care." he muttered against her lips.

"I know." she felt her fingers curl around the tee shirt at his stomach and pulled it from the waist of his pants to feel the warm skin underneath. Warm skin and dozens of raised scars greeted her seeking fingers. Muscles were hard from strain, his fingers dug into her arms and his leg pushed between hers as he shoved her against the wall. His mouth still working against hers he suddenly gentled his fingers and traveled down to the bottom of her shirt. He pulled it off her and traced his fingers down her body until he reached her bra clasp.Flicking it open he pressed his palms against her breasts, filling his hands with the soft mounds.Breathing hard she arched against the cold metal of the wall and pulled his shirt off, flinging it against the opposite wall. It hit with a dull slap and slid down to the hard floor as Riddick shoved her down until he knelt above her.

"Patty…" he placed his forearms on either side of her head and kissed her gently, his body a scant inch from resting on hers, her knees pressed on both sides of his hips, "what do you want from me?"

"Proof." she licked his upper lip, he groaned.

"Of what?"

"I need to know Richard." he heard the tears in her voice. "Why did you stick around? Why did you save us only to leave us again?"

"If I had stayed, you would have died." Riddick gathered himself back behind the wall he'd erected as a child. He sat back on his heels and ran his right hand up her thigh. He pushed away from her and stood. "And if you stay with me you will."

"Richard-"

"No." Riddick walked to the door and slid it open. "Your not a prisoner anymore, but you're not staying with us either. I'll drop you off with the Holy man. Don't follow me anymore."

"What about that girl? Richard!" she protested as he slid the door closed again. Debating testing his word and stepping out after him she screamed in frustration.