Wuddup wuddup! I've been on a small hiatus, but I'm back! I added a new character, and brought back an old one on kind of an AU basis. It's all explained in the chapter! Bless all my reviewers! And (as always) PLEASE LEMME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!

Disclaimer: The usual, don't own, not for profit. Just a little amusement is all!


Chapter 5: New Friends, Old Enemies

Riddick stood with one foot planted on the bed, one on the floor, lightly slapping the poor merc to get him conscious. Kyra had dozed off and she looked so peaceful, so calm and content slumped in the corner, shiv out and in hand ready to go if needed. But Riddick was impatient, and though he hated to disturb her calm slumber, they had work to do. Besides, the whole room was starting to stink of death, even to the inexperienced nose.

"Hey! Wake up sleeping beauty!" Kyra started awake as Riddick yelled at the merc. She shook off the grogginess, alert almost instantly. That had been another part of her training. The merc stirred and his eyes snapped open with the next slap to the face.

"Wha- what the fuck!" The merc's eyes went wide with realization of whose presence he was in, "Oh my God, you're him aren't you? You're Riddick! Holy shit!" Kyra chimed in ominously.

"That's right ass-hole, so you better cooperate, or you run the risk of becoming another notch in a considerably long belt! Got it!" Riddick turned and looked at her, shaking his head. She was trying too hard. This guy was a rookie, which is why he was left outside the cabin to keep watch while his two buddies came after Kyra. He had no experience, or at least what he did have was negligible. It wouldn't take much to get him to talk.

"Let me make the threats, huh?" Kyra opened her mouth to retort, but thought better of it and shot him a snubbed look instead. Riddick turned his attention back to the merc on the bed.

"With that said, I only want to know one thing: Who hired you and your buddies?"

"Hell yeah! I'm being interrogated by Richard Riddick! Wait 'till the others hear about this shit!" Kyra chuckled to herself, despite her best efforts to keep a straight face. The man was… giddy? 'Definitly a rookie,' Riddick thought, 'He can't be more than twenty-two, doesn't even know when to piss his pants. We'll have to fix that.' Riddick reached his arm back to Kyra who was standing directly behind him (absently admiring the view) and motioned with his fingers.

"Your shiv," Kyra handed it over with a smirk, "I need to put some fear into this one." The man's eyes grew wide again, this time with terror as he felt cold steel pressed to his neck right above his carotid.

"No no no no! I'll talk! I'll tell you who put out the contract, don't kill me please!" He squirmed and wiggled away from the press of the shiv.

"One chance, better make it worth my while," Riddick backed the shiv off a little from the merc's throat, still not breaking contact just in case.

"It came from someone on Tetreon Alpha, some rich fucker that's obsessed with you. Told us to bring you back alive for sure, he wanted watch you get ghosted himself."

"I want a name!" Riddick pressed the shiv back into the man's throat and grinned as he squirmed some more.

"Ah ah…wait! His last name was Thomas… or Talbot? Something like that…I know it started with a 'T'. I can't remember… they did all the negotiations; I was just along for the experience." He carefully nodded to the two corpses on the floor. Riddick looked uneasy for a moment.

"Toombs?"

"Yeah! Yeah, that was it. Toombs. Anyway, this guy is nuts about you. He sent out an A.P.B. to every merc in the galaxy; five-hundred-K to anyone who brings you back alive. Said you two had a history,"

"And you're sure he's on Tetreon Alpha?"

"That's where the orders came from. C'mon, let me go now, " Riddick thought for a moment.

"Nope, change of plans," both Kyra's and the mercs eyes shifted at that, "You're gunna take us back to Toombs, and you're not going to bitch about it at all, got it?" The mercs mouth opened a little.

"Hell no, he'll kill me if I show up with your shiv at my back. He'll have me blacklisted; I'll never get work again. I-" Riddick cut the man off.

"Well, how 'bout if you show up with my shiv in your back? Because I'll kill you if you tell me 'no' one more time." The merc swallowed hard. It wasn't a thought he particularly enjoyed.

"Fine, okay. Can't you give her the shiv back now?" 'Much better, maybe this one's smarter than I thought.' He wasn't in the killing mood at the moment, but he would have had the situation required it.

"Good, now go get us a ship," the merc went to jump up and follow orders, but Riddick held him back for a moment, squeezing his shoulder hard and making him wince, "One more thing. I swear if you don't come back, or if guards show up at my door, I'll hunt down everyone…you… love." Once again the merc's eyes went wide and he nodded his head in agreement. He had a mother, after all, and he did care a great deal about her and he had no doubts but what Riddick said was true. Now he knew when to piss his pants.


They let the merc go and cleaned up the cabin a little, putting the two corpses into the bathroom where it was cooler and the smell wouldn't spread as fast.

"So who is this Toombs guy?" Kyra asked, dragging the smaller of the two dead men across the floor. She was quietly thanking Riddick for teaching her non-messy killing techniques.

"Just a merc, he used to be a big pain in my ass. Then he just disappeared." That seemed to be all he wanted to disclose on the matter, so, not exactly happily, she let it be. They got the room cleaned up. A while later the merc, Jonas was his name, returned with news that he'd procured a small skiff that was being fuelled as they spoke. There were also questions floating around the crew as to what happened to three of the maintenance workers.

It turned out that what Jonas lacked as a cold-blooded merc, he made up for in interpersonal relations. Particularly scheming, scamming and sweet-talking. He'd managed to get a small skiff, passage codes, and enough rations and fuel to get them to Tetreon Alpha even if they took their sweet time getting there. He'd also deferred rumors about the two maintenance workers; starting rumors of his own that in a drunken stupor they had accidentally jettisoned themselves into space. 'This kid might be more useful than I thought,' Riddick thought to himself. They boarded the skiff and took off without so much as a sniff in their direction from the transport ship and set a course for Tetreon Alpha.

Unlike its Beta counterpart, Tetreon Alpha was sparsely populated and held strict residential standards. Those who did live there were mostly rich retirees, politicians and others of the privileged sort. It was a sharp contrast to the smaller planet next door, which was a refuge for the lowest of the low in the universe. 'How in the hell had Toombs ended up there?' was a thought that nagged at Riddick the entire trip. He and Toombs did have history, and it wasn't pleasant. Toombs was the only merc to ever come close to killing him, and Riddick had never gotten to repay the favor. They had played the cat and mouse game for as long as Riddick had been on the run, but he hadn't heard anything from him since… well since just after he'd left Jack with Imam in New Mecca, actually. Toombs had just up and quit the game. He'd wondered a little what would cause such a rabid and relentless merc to give up on this ultimate contract. Now he got to find out.

Also nagging at him were the revelations he'd had in the ships lounge, but now was certainly not the time to go to Kyra about them. Now, as it always seemed to be, they had more important things to worry about. She was dreaming again now, he noticed little whimpers coming from her and the beginnings of sweat filled his nostrils. He pushed distracting thoughts of her out of his mind and tried to get some sleep himself.


A cramped and tense day later, they entered Tetreon Alpha's atmosphere. Jonas punched in the coordinates for Toombs' private land. 'Quite the acreage,' Riddick thought, 'for a merc.' They were discussing strategies on how to get to Toombs without drawing suspicion. Suddenly, Jonas got up and dug through a bag he'd brought.

"Put these on," Jonas handed the two of them wrist shackles. Riddick quirked an eyebrow at the man, and Kyra began to protest but Jonas quickly explained, "If the guards think for one second that you're not in my complete control they'll shoot us on sight, Toombs' orders." Neither of them liked it but the shackles were flimsy enough that they could be broken easily if needed. They landed, and there was a short-lived anticipation as Kyra and Riddick slipped on the shackles before private guards came to investigate the unidentified craft.

"Showtime," Jonas muttered as the guards surrounded them.

"Drop your weapon! State your name and purpose!" the first guard shouted at Jonas. Jonas put the gun down on the ground and spoke.

"I'll drop the gun, but the shock stick stays," Jonas zinged Riddick lightly on the back of the thigh, eliciting a 'you're gunna die for that' look from the man. Jonas shrugged and went back to addressing the guard.

"I'm Jonas Salazar, I have Riddick, and his little girlfriend/accomplice to boot. Take me to Toombs!"

The guards mumbled and tittered amongst themselves, they all knew that name. The head guard seemed to think for a moment.

"Fine, this way. Men, keep you guns trained on the big one! He's not to get loose on my watch!" 'Smart man,' Riddick thought with a smirk. If this had been a real drop there was no way they would be able to take him in without at least that many guns aimed at him. But they really had no worries, he didn't have any intentions of getting away, he wanted to see the son of a bitch that ruined his short but perfect new life in New Mecca.

They were taken into a huge, elaborate house. It had an old, classic feel to it, like an antique, but it had been upgraded with all the latest technology. 'How in the hell did that fucker manage all this?'

Finally they were led to a large darkened room. It too had all the latest technology, including a holo-screen that flashed with news from around the galaxy. The room smelled sterile, like a hospital smells, but Riddick picked up sickness and decay underneath the sterility. There was a bed in the middle with people all about it, checking monitors and writing down numbers. The head guard announced their presence.

"Pardon me sir. I've brought one of the mercenaries you hired, he's fulfilled his contract, sir."

"Ahh, leave us! Everyone out!" The voice was weak and raspy, but Riddick would know it anywhere. As the room cleared out he saw the man lying in the bed, hooked up to all sorts of machines and monitors. He was pallid and clammy looking, but his eyes burned with the same loathing they always had.

"Long time no see Toombs," Riddick smirked, "Glad to see you're not well."


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