How to Break a Girl Rumble Chapter six, a pitch black / riddick fanfic

How to Break a Girl

Disclaimers: I don't claim to own Pitch Black – though I would like to own Vin Diesel

Rumble - Riddick

If never I met you
I'd never had seen you cry
If not for the first "hello"
We'd never had to say good-bye
If never I held you
My feelings would never show
(Kiss –"Hard Luck Woman")

They walked right in here in the dark. Didn't even care that the lights couldn't be turned on. Suppose the darkness wasn't that alarming, they'd seen the ship go dark and knew the power cells were empty. The darkness was natural to them. But not as natural as it was to me. Guess they didn't know who they chose to mess with.

I felt the kid tense. She was having difficulties staying conscious, but still I had no doubt she was aware of every little sound around her.

I could smell the mercs, eight of them had ventured on to my ship. None of them would be leaving.

I looked at the kid. She was resting against the wall, looking into the darkness, waiting. She was just as blind as the mercs in this dark, but as I watched her she raised her head and looked strait at me. "You go." She whispered. "I'll stay here."

I raised an eyebrow. "Giving orders?"

"It's only ever an order, if you do it without thinking. Besides, you can kill those mercs faster than you can say Shinejob."

"And with more pain than you feel from getting one." I said and smiled at the thought. I stepped over to the door and listened. There was a merc standing right outside. I bust-opened the door and knocked him out with it. He was carrying a small handgun and a stun-gun. I kicked the handgun away and threw the stun-gun to the kid. Less noise when used, less risk of her being found.

She was getting to her feet. All things right, she shouldn't even be awake by now, it was a pretty strong doze put straight in her chest.

"You come back, Riddick." She said, and I just nodded and closed the door, left her in the darkness. I heard her fall back on the floor, and she whispered: "You come back for me this time."

I heard her, felt a little guilty, went to kick some ass.

I decided to clear the main cabin first, but took no risk that they might be wearing night-goggles. I pressed against the wall, listening. I could hear footsteps of two, heart beats of three. One was standing guard by the airtight doors, one was to my left, about six meters plus and one was scouting by the entrance to the control room. I went for the guy to my left.

He was short, but strong-looking. He had a good grip at the modified gun, and both feet solidly planted on the Russian-made carpet. No doubt these guys were decent at what they did. Shit, I bet they were even good. But no night vision. I put a hand over his mouth and nose, forced him frontal against the wall and pushed a knee against his back. A quick snap back on his head and I was down to seven. I lay him down slowly and calculated my next move. If I took out the one scouting by the control-room, the other one by the exit would notice that the pacing had stopped, so I went for the guy by the doors.

He was a challenge; unfocused and scared, which made him jumpy and unpredictable. But no night vision here either. Funny, 'cause they weren't amateurs. Not even the jumpy one. He had his back against the wall and every sense was working overtime. There would be no sneaking up on this guy. So I took aim and started running towards him. Never saw me coming before I knocked his head against the hard ion. When the smell of fear was gone I put him down, slowly and soundlessly. I looked up, quickly, scanned the room. The third guy was gone, left his post. I stopped, knew something was wrong.

They knew I was here. If I went for the control-room all five of them would be waiting for me. Unless…

I turned a corner, and broke into a run. When I got to the back-room the door was still closed, but I could smell she was gone. I opened the door. There was nothing there but a dead merc. Not one I'd killed. The smell of blood was tense, and I knew some of it was hers. I turned. Too late.

They were wearing night-goggles, and even though I heard them, I still had no chance. They had me down in less than seconds. Stunned me 'till I couldn't stand.

Shit, they had a good tactic. Sacrifice play included. Being taken in by five? Nothing I would brag about. But still, it would be a lot easier getting their ship once I was on it. I weren't too worried about me. More about the kid. I knew there wasn't a bounty on her head, so what could make ten mercs go after one little worthless girl? Revenge. She had been messing with some mercs without telling me. Made me kinda proud. Still I knew what these people did as revenge, had been on the receiving end a few times… That made me kinda worried. Kinda…

I woke up, but couldn't see worth a shit. No blindfold, they knew my other senses were so sharp that blindfolding me would mean nothing. Just brightness - painful, confusing brightness. I swore loudly.

"Manners haven't improved much." a voice said. I almost smiled. Well maybe not exactly smiled. Frowned's more like it. And only almost.

"Been a while." He continued. Freddy Pierce. One of the old pals I hadn't done in yet. "You know, we thought you to be dead." That was the plan fuckhead. "You could have checked in and called for a round two." I could imagine his smug smile. "Catching you like this… well, Riddick, it's almost no fun."

"Take off the chains and I'll make it fun, motherfucker." The fucker actually laughed. Hunting bounties must've been really boring with out me around. I just growled and he sorta got serious again.

"So about the girl. Not your own, I take it. You were never one to let women live after you'd done them." I tilted my head. Digging up ugly facts now? I could play that game. "How are your kids? Missing their mom?"

It cost me a kick in the ribs. More than I deserved. After all, I wasn't the one who killed her. I raped her, but I let her live. The motherfucker Pierce couldn't live with a tainted woman and shot her brains out. Not my fault.

At least he left the room. Gave me time to think. The ship was big, more than one floor, and a merc-ship this size tended to have more than one cellblock. No way of knowing where they'd put the kid. Most likely far from my cell, close to the control bridge.

I could have spared my thoughts, though. Not ten seconds later three mercs came bursting in, dragging what was a very wake and kicking Jack. She had been gagged, but that didn't stop her from buzzing like a devil-beetle, though. They chained her to the wall opposite me and removed the gag.

"You motherfucking sonuvabitch, I'll rip your fucking dicks off, you shithole of a shitbrain." Guess she was a little pissed.

"Guess you taught her something, Riddick." Pierce said amused.

"Didn't need to. She had a very good roommate." I said to drag the time. What the fuck was she even doing in my cell? I tried to force the chains off. Might be able to pull it of if I broke my left wrist.

"Well, I bet you're wondering what she's doing in your cell." He continued.

How sharp. Like he read my mind. What the fuck else would I be thinking?

"Call it a fun experiment." He said, when I didn't answer. "We were just discussing the lack of fun, weren't we?"

My chains were removed, but the handcuffs stayed on, and Pierce tossed my googles in my face. "Put them on." He ordered. It's only ever an order, if you do it without thinking. Thanks Jack. I'll use that. I put on my goggles and scanned the cell. They had found back-up and was back to being a ten man crew, all carrying those modified guns. I sighed. There was just too many mercs in the world who wanted to die painfully.

Jack was tied up, bleeding and bruised. Guess they wanted to die really painfully.

Five mercs were pointing their guns at me and three were aiming at Jack. Pierce was pacing the cell, just out of my reach.

"As I told you before, Riddick, we're going to have a little fun." He smiled. I notified myself to remember to break every tooth in his mouth before I would kill him painfully. He kept on talking. And I would break his jaw, and maybe even his fingers – one by one. "It would have been fun if she'd been your kid, Riddick. But this will be even more fun." I couldn't imagine. "I'll give you a choice, Riddick. Either we kill you, or rape the girl." He stopped pacing.

I wanted to hurt him. I mean really hurt him. Not just the breaking his jaw and fingers-hurt. Something more inventive. "How about I scull-fuck you and then kill you?"

He laughed. The sonuvabitch laughed. "Feelings sucks, don't they? Caring really hurts, hu?" He was serious now. "Make a choice, Riddick. Can't be that hard. You're a selfish guy. Sacrifice the girl." I looked at Jack. Only her arms were chained, guess they underestimated her. I clenched my jaw; had to play this. "You know, you do what ever you want with her." I said. He lifted his eyebrows. "No fun, Riddick. No fun as always." Then he smiled and nodded. Four of the mercs walked over to me and gagged me. I kicked one in the crotch and was hit by a stun-gun as payment. I looked around me, dazed. The three guys who had been aiming at Jack put down their guns at a safe distance and walked over to her. She looked at me, a little scared, mostly pissed. She kicked the first in the balls, wrapped her legs around the ankles of the second and threw him to the floor. The third one got as far as putting a hand between her legs, before she managed to kick him in the face. He fell to the floor and she caught his head between her legs and broke his neck.

"Guess she can hold her own." Pierce said impressed. He looked at her and I knew what he saw. He saw the tiger, the wild cat. And unlike me, he wanted to tame her. Jack would fight him, but she wouldn't have a chance. Pierce knew all about animals. He had been one of the mercs, who had sent me to the slam, where I got the shine job. Guess I still owed him for that.

He walked right up to Jack. She kicked out, but he dodged her foot, grabbed her hair and forced her head back against the wall. "You will learn to obey." He hissed.

"Obey this." She said, and sent a knee to his crotch. She just missed, and he slapped her across the face. She started bleeding from the nose. I stepped forward, but one of the mercs fired a warning-shot that just missed my head, and burned the ion-wall behind me. Pierce looked at me and smiled.

"You just stay there Riddick. This is your choice, remember?"

Of course I couldn't answer, the dirty rag in my mouth made sure of that. And what could I have said? "Your right, it was. Go right ahead!"?

And I couldn't watch either.

She didn't scream, she didn't even swear. She just let him. I'd never thought Jack would take anything without a fight, but she did this time. And what was even worse: she did it to protect me, and I did nothing to stop it. She lay huddled together on the floor, her hands still in chains. Her eyes were wet, but shining with hate, and I weren't sure if she hated him or me most.

Pierce kneeled next to her and whispered in her ear. "Look what he's done to you." He whispered. "Look what he's made you into. A pet. A doll." Jack sobbed. Just once, but I knew he had won. I looked away. Yes, Pierce knew all about animals. Because he was one.

"You're gonna be his pet forever?" Pierce continued. He wasn't done. "Or are you gonna fight back?"

Jack took a deep breath, tried to keep the tears away. "Fuck you!" she hissed. Not really all that convincing.

Pierce smiled. "What if I gave you a choice as well? What if you could decide whether you should die, or if Riddick should die?"

He wouldn't. The sonuvabitch wouldn't. Of course he would. And Jack wasn't stupid. She'd choose to snuff off me. And who'd blame her?

Jack looked at me. The wound in her head from the night before was bleeding again, so was the cut in her chest and thigh. And new cuts allover were bleeding as well, including a cut in her lip. Her eyes were begging me, asking for another option. But there weren't one and we both knew it.

She took a deep breath. "Just kill me and get it over with." She whispered. I sighed and bowed my head. No. Not after what I let them do to you, Jack. Don't you dare!

Pierce smiled. "Cute. But wrong answer." He lifted his gun and shot me once, hit my shoulder, but the blast was enough to knock me out.

I guess they dumped me off with out caring to check if I was alive or dead. Didn't have to. I almost froze to death on that goddamned ice-planet. Would have, if I hadn't found that settlement. They didn't have a ship, but they had clothes. And as a thanks I didn't kill them.

I would have to find Jack again some day, but for now I've learned my lesson.

It can only end badly if you let someone come too close. Or if you didn't let them close enough.

Eamon: Uuh. Poor Jack. I so hated doing this chap, but it turned out very well, I think. Just one chappy left, a Jack-chapter. Tell me what you thought. In details. I love that. I don't have a beta, and I only ever get your opinion on my work.