Hello one and all! As always, thank yous to ALL my reviewers. You guys are great. SMOOCHES! This chapter is short, but I wanted to get another one in before I leave for spring break. So here it is! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Everything you don't recognize from the movies (which is a lot at this point) is mine, the rest is someone else's.


Jonas was near hysterics by the time he got out of the ballroom. He'd tried to find a door leading outside, but his mind was so frenzied he didn't much care where the door he went out led to as long as it was away from Sariah and Tobias and the guests and their applause and laughter and merriment. He was propelled by sheer panic. His thoughts were erratic, so much so he'd wandered down two hallways and through a door before he even realized that he was still walking. He entered a random darkened room and closed the door behind him, sliding slowly down to the floor with his face in his hands.

"What am I thinking? Why? Why did I come back?" he knew it sounded crazy but he berated himself out loud, "I knew this was going to happen. I should have listened to myself when I had so many doubts about coming back here. She told me to never come back! You never listen! STUPID FUCKING MORON!" He punctuated each insult with a good hard thump to the door behind him with the back of his head, finally resting it on the door and taking a deep breath.

Even with his eyes closed he could still see Sariah as she walked out to stand next to Tobias, like her reflection was burned into the back of his retinas. Frame by frame he ran through each motion as she walked out on the stage. The simple ease of her movements was mind-boggling. Preternatural. Like she moved through space itself, instead of within it like the rest of us. It was hard to wrap his mind around it. When he'd spoken with Tobias earlier that day he'd noticed the same sort of motion. Only Tobias' movement was more controlled, more tense and uncomfortable. He was holding back. It hit Jonas then. Tobias wasn't trying to move more gracefully than normal, that was natural. He was trying to move more inelegantly, more clumsily. More… human.

Jonas' eyes shot open as he caught the natural conclusion his mind had wandered to. Tobias isn't human.

"Tobias isn't human," he whispered the words as though his mind could have malformed the point inside his head. "Oh sweet stars, Tobias isn't human… neither is Sariah. What the fuck?"


He'd seen her run this way. Through the doors to the right and down the hall, but now she'd disappeared. Riddick had chased Kyra's doppelganger as far as he could before he lost her, and now he too was lost. The corridors seemed endless and though he'd paid careful attention to which directions he'd taken he still got turned around going back to the ballroom. No, it wasn't him. It was like the house was changing around him. He could feel splinters of panic churning in his gut. It was a feeling he did NOT like and wasn't at all used to. Suddenly he stopped and closed his eyes. Taking in deep breaths he focused, attuning all of his senses to the building and space around him. He could hear nothing, no voices, no music. His right side was a third of a degree cooler than his left, which told him there was air movement coming from that direction. Suddenly, the scent he'd caught in the ballroom before wafted beneath his nose, however it came from the left. From the interior of the house, not the way out. Every single one of his instincts told him to go right, every cell in his being chanted 'turn right, turn right, turn right'.

'If only it weren't her,' he thought solemnly for the umpteenth time within the last week. This moment was the culmination of all his weaknesses for her. All the fiber fine cracks in his desperado facade had led to this one moment, this one choice.

He turned left.


Voices. Before anything else was clear Kyra could hear voices. Whispering, murmuring, words undecipherable. Then the cold clamminess of the ground that she was laying on came to her attention. She opened her eyes carefully but it was too dark to see much of anything, but her eyes burned. Then came the overwhelming stink of rotted flesh and feces.

"Oh good GOD!" Kyra yelled as the smell burned her olfactory nerves to ruin. Her hands came up to cover her nose and mouth, and that's when she remembered what happened. The ball, Sariah had come out on stage, then Jonas was running away and she was chasing after him. She'd lost him, she said something to Riddick then turned to find him not there. Then a poke. Jora. Then black. But if she was a prisoner, why wasn't she tied? She picked her head up off the ground. It was wobbly, but she could move. She tried to stand. Her muscles wouldn't cooperate, a side effect from what ever they'd used to knock her out, and she ended up only sitting up and leaning on the wall behind her. She was so dizzy she was nauseous.

"We can make it back to Helion Prime, I said," she muttered as she tried to make her eyes focus on something through the god-awful smell and the grogginess from the tranq but all she could see was black, "nooo, no one ever listens to me. GODDAMMIT!" She yelled out from sheer frustration. She almost felt as though she could cry, but she knew damn well if she started then she'd really be in trouble. She couldn't let the fear take hold, but the last time she'd been in absolute darkness… She shivered and shoved the thoughts down as far as she could.

"Okay, Kyra, let's look at this logically," she spoke out loud, knowing she sounded crazy but not caring much at this point, "you're in a dungeon or something in this creepy guy's house. This creepy guy is the ruler of this little hole in the wall town your friend grew up in and his future wife was once your friend's best friend… WHAT THE FUCK DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ME!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, not expecting an answer. She got one anyway.

"It has nothing to do with you, my dear. You just happen to be in the wrong place with the wrong person at the wrong time, that's all." A silvery female voice came out of the darkness from no particular direction. Kyra squinted, trying so hard to make her eyes focus and adjust. It was no use. The darkness was just too thick. 'What I wouldn't give for his eyes right now,' she thought bitterly.

"What the fuck do you want with me!" Kyra was getting frustrated now. Suddenly she felt a hand on her face and it didn't move no matter how she shook her head.

"You're so pretty, so young. Strong, too. Why would you be out in the middle of space with a convict and a coward?" The hand on her face moved down to her chin and held it tight, holding her head still. Kyra felt like something unseen was boring into her eyes. There was enormous pressure inside her skull then, like something was inside her head along with her brain. She tried to close her eyes but they stayed open no matter how hard she strained to shut them. She began to see memories playing in her mind against her will. Someone else was inside her head; someone else was searching her memories. 'No, no! Those are mine!' she yelled inside her mind. Suddenly a great roar came from the woman and the pressure inside Kyra's head was gone. Exhausted suddenly, she slumped against the wall and blacked out. Before she went totally out she heard the woman's voice again.

"That's right, my dear, rest. You'll need it."


Yeah, I know. I'm such a tease. Review please!