Sorry if this one is kinda short, i'm writing two at once.
Disclaimer: you know the drill.
Jack awoke from a nightmare, sitting up and crying out, she was used to these nightmares, they occurred every now and then, they were the memories of T-2, not exactly easy to forget.
She slid out of bed and walked outside, wincing as her feet made contact with the cold metal floor. She found Riddick in the cockpit, he must have known she was coming because he held up a cup of coffee for her.
"Can't sleep?" he asked.
"I could ask the same thing." She said, slumping in the co pilot's seat. "I can sleep, it's the nightmares."
"Do they happen often?" he asked.
"Not really, just when I'm worked up." She muttered, more to her coffee than him.
"Maybe you should go make more use of the punching bag?" he suggested.
"There is only so much anger I can direct at that thing." Jack said to him, a hidden meaning behind her words. "Besides, it can't fight back."
"Don't even try it princess, you'll get hurt." Riddick said.
"Whatever." Said Jack, climbing out of her seat and back to her room. She changed into a pair of pants and a tight fitting shirt before walking up to the gym. This gym was larger than the one on their previous ship, it was also set a little higher in the structure to prevent instability while the ship was moving. Jack unwrapped the bandages on her right hand and inspected the deep cuts that ran through her fingers and down her palm. On more than one occasion she had ripped them open again, but now they were healing nicely. Jack rewrapped her hand tightly, flexing her fingers to prevent lack of circulation, then she attacked the punching bag. She was at it for over an hour when she heard the door open, turning around, she watched Riddick enter the room.
"Need something?" she asked, pulling her hair off her face.
"Just watching." He said.
"Not a lot to see." Jack said, resting back against a wall.
"Remember your previous offer?" asked Riddick.
"The one where I kick your ass?" she asked.
"The one where you try." He said, they were now circling each other, Jack watched, alert.
'Well, come on then?" she invited, dodging his fist, she circled around and attacked him from the back, trying to sweep his legs out from underneath him, his jumped and grabbed her, twisting her am behind her back as he pulled her up, he other arm swung around and caught him in the abdomen, released from his grip, she kicked towards the back of his knees, only to have him catch her leg and throw her to the ground. Wincing she sprung to her feet and managed to land a punch to his face.
"Lights off." He called, plunging the room into darkness, giving him one hell of an advantage. Jack stopped moving and closed her eyes, listening in the darkness. Suddenly, she ducked as a hand came flying towards her face, grabbing it she twisted it down and threw Riddick to the ground, pinning him there.
Suddenly he lifted her up and over before pinning her shoulders to the ground. Holding her arms with his knees, he called the lights up.
"Get off me." Grunted Jack.
"Mercy Jack." Said Riddick.
"What?" she asked, stopping her struggles.
"Say mercy." He said.
"Go to hell." She said, still trying to escape.
"Been there, you ain't getting up till I hear you say it." He said.
"Fuck! Mercy." She said, Riddick released her and she sat up, forcing air into her bruised lungs. suddenly she sprung to her feet, behind Riddick she pulled out one of her knives and put it at his throat.
"Say Mercy Riddick." She said, smirking.
"That's fighting dirty." He pointed out.
"No, that's improvising." She said. He laughed.
"Fair enough." She let him go then stood up, the cuts on her hands had started bleeding again and she looked down at the blood that was seeping through the bandages. She put her hand behind her back but Riddick had already caught the scent of her blood.
"Go bandage them." He said.
"You don't miss a thing, do you?" she asked as she walked from the room and into a shower.
Riddick leaned against the wall and inhaled deeply, the smell of Jack still lingered in the air, her sweat, her blood and her own unique smell that wreaked havoc with his senses. He was distracted by the alarms on the ship, ones that alerted him to an approaching ship, an unfriendly approaching ship.
He flew down the stairs and into the cockpit, Jack was already there, opening a transmission on the screen. Riddick was distracted momentarily when he saw that Jack was dressed in jeans and a towel, not having been properly dressed when the alarms went off.
All these thought flew from his head when the screen jumped to life and Toombs' face filled the screen.
"You can run Riddick but you cant hide." He taunted.
"Let the hunt begin then." Said Riddick, pressing the button to end the transmission.
"Go put clothes on." He said to Jack, not looking at her. She flew up the stairs and returned moments later with a shirt on and her hair pulled back from her face.
"What's going on?" she asked as she studied the diagnostics of the ship.
"New ship, faster and there closing in on us." Riddick informed her.
"That looks like more than one ship." Said Jack, looking at the screen, frowning.
"There are three of them." Riddick said.
"You got guns on this ship?" she asked.
"Not ones that would have an effect against these guys." He said. Strap yourself in." he ordered. she obliged.
"What are we going to do?" she asked.
"We can't outrun them, so we're going to out manoeuvre them.' He said. Overriding the autopilot and taking the controls.
"Riddick, we got an asteroid field not that far ahead." Jack warned.
"Good, a playing field." He said.
"I fear you at times like these." Said Jack as she adjusted the straps that crossed over her shoulders.
Riddick waited until the three ships had gained on him, before he stopped speed altogether and he and Jack were thrown forward. He came up under the first merc ship and lifted their ship, smashing into the mercs and throwing them off, he watched as that ship lost control.
"One approaching on the right." Jack cautioned.
Riddick veered sharply to the right, colliding with this ship and it too lost control.
"They're dropping too easily." Jack observed.
"Cheap ships, the main one's the most stable" Riddick said.
"What's the bet Toombs is on that ship?" asked Jack.
"Good thing the payday on our heads is cut in half if we die" Riddick said.
"Great," muttered Jack. "But they no longer have to split with as many people." She said, motioning to the two destroyed ships.
"Hold on." Said Riddick. Jack gripped the seat. Suddenly they were knocked by Toombs' ship, and it wasn't a friendly push.
"Should have ghosted him when we had the chance." Muttered Jack.
"I think his employer would have sent another person." Riddick said, taking the ship round to hit Toombs from behind.
"He said nothing about an employer." Jack pointed out as they came up under the merc ship, the next collision must have cause damage because Toombs eased off and disappeared.
Jack slumped in the seat and pulled off her seatbelt.
"I wouldn't so that if I was you." Said Riddick.
"Why not?" she asked. Riddick didn't answer, just pointed ahead to the asteroid field. Jack instantly strapped back up.
For the next ten minutes Riddick manoeuvred the ship through the asteroid field and following several near misses, they finally cleared the rocks and were able to relax.
"How long till we reach Morse Prime?" asked Jack.
"Six weeks." Said Riddick.
"Please tell me this thing has cryo chambers." Jack said.
"Sorry Jackie girl, your stuck with me for six weeks." He said with a smirk.
"I'm going to kill myself." Said Jack as she climbed from her seat.
"Not so fast." Riddick said, his hand shooting out to grab her arm.
"What?" she asked. He turned her hand over to see the cuts freely bleeding. Riddick grabbed the first aid kit and bandaged her hand for her.
"Take it easy, stop splitting them, they'll never heal." He said. Putting the box back, Jack walked out of the cockpit and walked to the kitchen.
As a result of Riddick's piloting, everything had been upended, Jack picked up the chairs and tried to return the food in the fridge back to the normal way round. Switching on the kettle, she set to making coffee.
"Going to pour me some of that?" asked Riddick.
Jack slid a mug across the bench to him.
"Nice flying." She commented. "Pity everything was on the floor."
"Maybe it would have been better getting caught by mercs, or being hit by an asteroid." He pointed out. Jack raised her hands in surrender.
"Whatever, I'm going to try get some sleep." She said, walking to her room.
"Jack." He called. She stopped.
"What?"
"Anyone would think that you're still mad at me." Riddick pointed out.
"No, they wouldn't think, they would just realise." Jack said stubbornly.
"I did what I had to do to get the mercs away from you." Riddick said.
"Some might call it abandonment." Jack said. Riddick walked over to her and slammed her against a wall.
"I did what I had to, to keep you alive, I left you in Imam's care, he gave you a home, food and clothes, I didn't abandon you on that planet to die somewhere." He yelled at her. They both knew that the planet he was talking about wasn't New Mecca.
"Why didn't you then, you obviously didn't care what happened to us." Jack yelled back at him.
he forced her back against the wall.
"I didn't spend five years on a frozen heap to show I didn't care, I didn't try to lead the mercs away because I didn't care." He called the lights low and pulled off his goggles to look her in the eye. "If you have a problem with that I will happily drop you on the nearest planet, I don't need a kid to tie me down, I don't need another ass to save." He yelled.
"Then why come back for me?" she asked.
"I care about only one other person in this world. That was a kid who was willing to shave her head to be like me, someone who wasn't afraid of me when everyone else was." Riddick let her go and walked out of the room. Jack slumped to the ground and out her head on her knees.
When Toombs landed back on Lupos 5, he had sustained damage to his ship, the other two ships were still missing, no doubt destroyed, if not by Riddick, then by the asteroid field.
"Once again, you have failed me." he stood before the cloaked figure, as she surveyed the damage.
"He's tricky, he's fast, and there was nothing I could do." Said Toombs.
"Yet it took you the loss of two ships, the irreparable damage of one and the loss of many lives for you to realise this."
"What was I supposed to do?" he asked, instantly regretting his words.
"You should have asked yourself, am I the hunter, or the hunted?" Asked the figure.
"You have one last chance, they told me you were the best, prove it."
Hm, insert evil laugh here, I'm going to have to think about this. and please, take pity on me and review, it'll break my heart if you don't.