(Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or anything else from Pitch Black/TCOR, never will and it's a shame.)

Please review and tell me how I'm doing, other then that enjoy.

ooo

Jack's new "home" was the basement of a hotel; it had generators and pipes running everywhere. The only light was supplied from a few over head lights that all looked like they were going to go out at any second, at the same time to leave them in utter darkness, and a little lamp that sat in a large open area that Riddick guessed was supposed to be a living room for the group. The room had beanbags sporting duck tape patches, a couch that looked comfortable enough (though it might have been an allusion caused by the blanket draped over it) and a few other chairs, nothing in the room seemed to match though.

Now Jack had stormed passed this area and behind a makeshift wall that was made out of what probably use to be a bed sheet that was covered in some graffiti that claimed their home was called The Den. Riddick followed after her taking in everything, and was only slightly surprised to see a rather large multi-screened com, even if it looked like it some of it was older then Riddick himself. He was even less surprised when he found that Tasha girl sitting in front of it.

"You used that voice altering device and called Imam, to ask for help for me! ...As me! Did Pip put you up to it? You do know that he just wants to get rid of me, right, Tasha?" Jack seethed as she reached around the girl, who couldn't have been older then fourteen and shut everything down. After she finished, all that sat on the screens were multiple backgrounds, and Tasha was playing with a few strands of her light blond hair as Jack turned the chair around to face her. "How did you even know you had the right guy? You could have been babbling to some loser who couldn't do anything."

"You looked him up once, I saw…" Tasha said as she let go of her hair and instead started to play with the hem of the dingy pink top she was wearing. When she saw Riddick over Jack's shoulder though she smiled lightly and waved at him. However she instantly sobered up when she saw that Jack glared even more venomously at her for the action.

"Don't go getting hero worship over him; he'll just leave you," Jack growled as she crossed her arms over her chest and shifted a bit so, she hoped, she blocked the man from view. After a second she added under her breath, "Believe me I know."

"How'd you know you had the right guy if she only looked him up once?" Riddick asked out of pure curiosity, ignoring that they were just talking about him, in front of him. He didn't move to see who he was talking to, after all there was no reason to venture any closer right now, it would only incite Jack to take longer and be even more irritable with him once he got to question her. "You could have made a mistake."

"Photographic memory," Tasha and Jack answered at the same time. Tasha sounded happy, and quite proud of herself, and Jack, well Jack probably wished the girl had the memory span of a goldfish. Tasha however tried to go on and explain by saying, "I can recall im-"

"Don't bother, he knows," Jack said, knowing that Riddick probably did actually know how photographic memory worked, and if he didn't then he could look it up himself if he really wanted to know. "I want to know when exactly you did this, and I still want to know if Pip put you up to this."

"I called it out a few months ago... six… actually," Tasha said after she counted on her fingers for a moment. "You were really hurt, you practically slept for a week and we only ate twice… if you called it eating. Also, no, Pip thought we should throw you out on your ass because you weren't bringing in cash…"

"Six months… I… oh…" Jack muttered to herself drawing conclusions as to where she was and why she had basically been unconscious for so long. Once she focused back on the little blonde though Jack said firmly, "Fine, next time throw me out on my ass. Never, and I mean never call Imam to help me ever again, because obviously the Holy Man can't keep up anyway." When Tasha nodded, her brown eyes blinking once or twice Jack turned around and told her, "And if the troll calls rewire it back to the maintenance phone near my room."

Riddick watched as Jack moved back passed him, and then caught the girl wave at him again before he walked after the wayward girl. Once he came up beside her he raised a brow asking, "You have a room in this basement?"

"It's more or less a hole in the wall, but it got tedious calling it that after the first week or so," Jack grumbled as she walked back passed the door they came in through, and down some steps. "Still it's the biggest section that we marked off for sleeping; I got it because I got us the place. Tasha lives next door because she actually has the legit job in this building. Apparently hackers with photographic memories also make amazing mechanics and maintenance people."

"Interesting," Riddick grunted as he followed Jack passed another bed sheet, this one being used as a door. Inside was just a dim little space with a mattress that looked like it was on its last leg with pillows and blankets piled on it in one corner. In another sat a big gauge gun, and a sword, while the rest of it seemed to be blank with the exception of the pipes.

"See Riddick, I'm no worse off than when you left me in New Mecca, I'm just not there anymore. You can leave; go back to whatever godforsaken planet you were on before this." Jack said as she finally turned back to look at Riddick and take him in. He was still well muscled, though she doubted that would really ever change, and he still shaved his head though it looked like he hadn't done so in a while, and most of all he still had the welding goggles over his shined eyes. "If you had to leave me behind because there were mercs on your neck, odds are there still there, and on Freemont it's not going to change. It's just going to get worse actually, maybe just maybe some rich bastard that saw you and guessed, or knew your picture, will get a gun for hire to kill you to get the half bounty because they don't need the full to live on, but their just greedy anyway."

"No, you are worse off then you were in New Mecca, I saw Imam's house," Riddick growled at her and pulled off his goggles to stare her down. "You were there for two years, I know you guys moved in there not long after I left. Why the fuck would you run from that?"

Jack turned her head from his shined eyes, the ones she wanted so badly when she first saw them, and stopped herself from looking when she heard him shed the bulky duster he had been wearing and threw it on the floor somewhere. There was no use in getting all comfortable with him, let him get easy on her eyes again, she was sure that he was just going to leave, or worse…

"Come on Jack, you have five seconds to answer my question before I just throw you over my shoulder and walk you back to my ship whether you like it or not." Riddick demanded as he stalked closer to her. He looked down to find her in some close fitted cargos, khaki, and a grey tank. She filled out a little, just right for her small frame. She definitely wasn't hiding the fact that she was a girl anymore even though she still seemed to be going by Jack…

"He was…" Jack trailed off as ringing sounded from somewhere just outside her room. "I have to get that," She insisted before she finally looked back at Riddick to make sure he wasn't going to block her path.

"Then get it," Riddick said shortly before he followed her back into the hall. She jogged a little ways over to a videophone before she hit a button and someone on the screen started yelling…

"Girl, what have I told you about running through my casino like that?! I graciously give you some time off and all you do is lead some ape through my casino! Do you know what kind of damage that man did?"

"You've said that I shouldn't, and no I don't know what damage he did Mr. Talish," Jack said in a low growl as she tried to ignore Riddick when he came to lean against the wall beside the videophone. She was at least thankful that he wasn't in the view of the camera. "Should I?" She asked as an afterthought before she ran her fingers through her hair.

"He broke two slot machines, one customer's nose, and an employee's arm!" The man yelled, before he coughed like his lung was liable to come out. Then again after years of smoking it was probably ready to get out of that deathtrap of a body.

"Jack, tell him to hurry it up," Riddick said, if only to make things difficult for the girl because of how she was acting.

The face of the squat man talking to her twisted down in to a confused frown before he asked, "Who was that?" Then after a second he took on the look of just another perverted old man as he asked, "Were you having sex, is that why you're flustered."

"No I was not having sex, I don't know why you would think that," Jack said as she conveniently "forgot" to tell him who exactly was talking. Then again she wouldn't have had the chance even if she had, because the second she paused in talking Riddick moaned rather loudly from beside her. When she looked at him all he did was smirk haughtily at her.

"Come back 'ere Jack and finish my hand job," Riddick went on to say as he started slipping back down the hall to her room. He caught the blush that flared up on her cheeks then as her eyes went wide. Surprise suited her well.

"Well, whatever you want to call what you, or someone else were doing," Mr. Talish said in an indulgent way that Jack hated, "I need you to go after that man you were running from and either take him out, or get him down to the pits so he can do a gauntlet." When Jack didn't answer him right away though he frowned saying, "Or if you don't do either then you can fight instead. You have until tomorrow night."

"Well set the gauntlet up for B5 up to A2," Jack said before she looked down the hall to see that Riddick had at some point disappeared from sight, hopefully into her room or just off the planet all together. Either way she knew that she wasn't going to be able to kill him and that getting him into the pits was going to be almost just as hard. After a second though she looked back at the screen adding, "But set it up for twelve tonight instead, either I'll get him now, or not at all."

"If you insist, but be there or I'll come after your friends," Mr. Talish said as he ran his hand over his thinning hair. "You're not the only hired gun I have on retainer. You've already cost me enough money."

And with that the screen went blank and Jack sighed before she looked back down the hall. Riddick still wasn't in sight, so she moved sluggishly back towards her room. There were only so many outcomes to tonight, and Jack wasn't sure if she'd like any of them. It was like Riddick landing on Freemont had caused an earthquake, and she was just watching, waiting, to see if her world was just going to end…

Once she made it back into her room she looked around, but she only found Riddick when she looked towards her bed. He apparently found that it was a good place to lounge, and after piling some of the pillows behind him he sat back and did just that…

"That's my bed, get off," Jack insisted as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Riddick merely cracked an eye open and looked her over with a silver eye before asking, "So, what is this pit thing? A fighting ring?"

"It's hell in a cage… wait why do you care?" Jack said, changing gears as she moved closer to him, not sure if she had the right idea running through her head. Surely… Riddick was not going to go down to the pits. It just wasn't like him, well the fighting was, but it had to be too risky after the display in the casino.

"Just wondering what you were doing tonight," Riddick said as he closed his eye again. "After all, this is your fuck up. Not mine."

"I was right," Jack thought, "it isn't like him."

"You're the one who injured two people!" Jack yelled as she jabbed a finger in his direction. "This is all your fault!"

Apparently what Jack said was just the wrong thing to say to Riddick, because before she could really react she found herself being jerked forward. Not expecting it, she fell forward with no real resistance, and she crashed against Riddick's chest before he flipped their positions. When Jack was settled, when Riddick was done jerking her around, she found that she was staring up into Riddick's eyes. She didn't struggle, it was like he was pinning her there with just his eyes, that his one hand to her shoulder, and the almost magically produced shiv that was being held to her neck, was just coincidental.

"No Jack," Riddick growled down at her, "This one isn't on my head, it's on you. These are your own monsters Jack. I'll take you off the planet but this is not my fight."

Jack swallowed lightly, as Riddick pressed the knife to her throat a little to make his point, and to warn her against disagreeing with him. She knew on some level that he wouldn't kill her, that the shiv was to make his point, and only to make his point, but it still made her nervous nonetheless. Pain was no friend of hers; even if she could tolerate it better then some, maybe even most.

After a moment he put away the knife and rolled off of her, and onto his back next to her. "I'm taking you off this planet." He said after a moment and there was no movement next to him. He still didn't care what she thought; she was still coming with him.

"I have to fight," Jack said as she threw an arm over her eyes, like it was a successful block against the world. "You can't take me."

"I am going to take you off this planet, you have no say in that, but if you want to have yourself beaten up first, then I can wait," Riddick said with a shrug before he put his arms behind his head.

"I won't go back to New Mecca," Jack said as she removed her arm from her face, and leaned up on her arms to look at him. She just wouldn't… she couldn't live there the first time he left her there, and she doubted she could now.

"That's good because I don't intend to take you to New Mecca," Riddick said, his eyes closed and not looking at her. "I tend to only make mistakes once. New Mecca didn't work the first time, I really don't think it will work the second time."

Riddick would later insist to himself that he wasn't just being a selfish fuck.