AN: Yo. Gotta say, I'm mucho pleased by the response this has gotten so far. I was a little worried that the notion for this fic was a little too 'done' to create much interest. It's not often I'm pleased to be wrong... I'm having a lot of fun with it so far, I hope you are too.

Disclosure: Much to my consternation, I do not own any of the rights to Pitch Black or anything in the Riddick universe. Nor do I get to make any profits from this little spinner. The only things I own are the deviations from the plot and my OC. (Though if anyone wanted to fork over Vin to me, I certainly wouldn't protest...just something to bare in mind.) And yes, there are quotes straight from the movie, PB...I figure if I mention that in here I won't have to actually mark them. They're there, you know which ones they are, deal with it.

Full Summery: We all know the story of Pitch Black and we've all wondered at the 'what ifs'. What would happen if a single variable was changed? One character didn't die, another did, things shift slightly one way or another, another person survived the crash...This is the tale of Pitch Black with the latter, an OFC by the name of Lera Chase. She's not your typical survivor. A mystery in and of herself, who is this woman? How does she know the things she does, why isn't she scared of Riddick but instead seems to understand him, and just how is it she can see in the dark without a shine? Look deeper into the story of Pitch Black through the characters' own eyes and see how this new element affects them. Just what will she mean for their survival, their destruction, and the future that awaits them all? (PB and maybe beyond...)

Pitch Black: A New Twist

The Scent of a Woman

Darkness...it always seems to come down to that, doesn't it? Riddick fought off a snort. If they thought that was going to stop him they were kidding themselves.

Slumped back against the pole Johns had strapped him to in order to ease the pressure on his arms a bit Riddick seemed like the ideal prisoner. Slumped, cowed, shackled, blind. He left his head bowed down to try to help ease and stretch the muscles in his shoulders as he focused on the world around him with the senses he had left, reviewing his options.

He'd heard the others talking as they'd come back down from the top. So, they were crashed but bad. Guess that took away the option of using one of the emergency skiffs outta here. Apparently this part of the ship and a slightly distant cargo container were all that were left. No matter, didn't mean he wouldn't get away, it just might take a little more finesse. And finesse was something he was good at.

"He just escaped from a maximum security prison."

Riddick tipped his head a little bit at the sound of Johns' voice behind him to hear a little better, fighting down the instant anger at the thought of him. Blue-eyed devil. Damn bastard. Using a freakin' kid to capture him...couldn't have got me any other way. I know he started that fire. I know he tried to toast those kids just to get to me. And they call me the cold-blooded killer...

"So do we just keep him chained up forever?"

Ah, he recognized that voice...the female pilot. He'd heard her before...when the alarms went off for the ship, in the main chamber when her crewmember was dying. That would make her the only surviving crew. Interesting.

"Well, that'd be my choice."

"Is he really that dangerous?" Her voice dropped into a whisper, like he couldn't hear her. He'd spent his life heightening his senses, it was an edge that kept him alive in a universe that kept trying to kill him.

"Only around humans." Riddick couldn't fight the snort at the hypocrisy of that, his jaw clenching as he remembered the smoke, the screams, the bright, bright light. Was he dangerous, sure. In his world you were either dangerous or dead. But there was a difference, a big fuckin' difference between his kind of dangerous and Johns' kind. Riddick was the kind of dangerous that meant continued survival. Johns, however, was righteously dangerous, a much worse kind in Riddick's opinion. He had right on his side, so basically felt free to do whatever the fuck he wanted. After all, he was the 'good guy'. Riddick flashed a mental sneer. If the universe saw guys like Johns as a good guy, Riddick would rather rule in Hell.

He heard them wander off, talking about finding supplies and contemplated his situation. Things were going to be more difficult than he'd thought. First of all, they were apparently crashed and torn to pieces on some asshole of a planet with nothing and no one nearby. That meant that even if he got away he'd have to stay close. They were rounding up whatever supplies they had right now, and he was guessing after a crash like that there wouldn't be much. He'd have to stick nearby if he wanted his share. He would have thought for a moment about not escaping yet, but passed it off. Considering everything Johns was telling them about him he'd be more likely to get a part of the leftover supplies if he raided and scavenged them than if he stayed here and relied on their 'kindness'.

The barely there sound of a footstep on metal drew him out of his thoughts of escape and human hypocrisy. He went still, instinctively both tensing and relaxing his muscles in preparation of a fight, even though he was bound, gagged, and blindfolded. He could barely hear the footsteps entering the room, moving slowly. The floor of the ship was metal and littered with debris, not to mention not all that sturdily constructed. It was really, really hard to move so quietly on a floor like this. But who...

A slight scent wafted past his nose, bringing an immediate frown. It was that same scent he'd caught when Johns had brought him back right after the crash. A woman, that much he could tell, but not much else. He had found in the past that he could usually tell a lot about a person by what scents clung to them but with her...it was light, crisp, soothing, and yet with an undertone of spice. Maybe just her natural scent, maybe some kind of soap, but there was nothing there he could recognize to tell him anything about her. That alone made him cautious, if her ability to walk without noise hadn't already done the trick. Whoever this woman was, she wasn't normal.

"Hello there," a voice called out softly from in front of him and slightly to the side.

Her voice. Hmm, he recognized that voice...from when the navigation officer was dying. From where Johns had stashed him, he'd been able to hear everything that had gone on. It had made him curious about the woman the voice belonged to. Deep for a woman, smooth, with a slight huskiness that could make the coldest man warm. Not affected, though, like so many so-called seductresses he'd met in his time. Not false like the whores that littered the back-alleys he tended to call home. No, it was natural, unconscious, confident, and edged with sophisticated intelligence like he hadn't run into much in his life. Not surprising. It was the first real clue he had about her since her scent had failed him.

The second had been how she handled herself in the face of a dying man; from what he'd picked up a pretty grizzly sight with that piece of metal sticking through him. There weren't many who could remain so calm and reassuring in the face of something like that. Fewer still that had a supply of a high grade narcotic like Cordin on them. When he'd heard the voice without anything to put it with he'd thought that perhaps she was a Doc of some kind, but now he doubted it. Medicals always had the sterile scent of disinfectant around them that never quite came off. She didn't.

"I don't mean to disturb you," her voice continued as she moved near-silently around the room, "I'm just trying to find...ah! There it is."

The exclamation was quickly followed by the sounds of shifting material as something was apparently dug out of the debris. A moment later he heard the sound of some kind of heavy-duty cloth being set down somewhere behind and slightly to the side of him, probably on the bulkhead his little beam was attached to, and a zipper being undone.

"My bag wasn't in the cargo holds," the woman said, as though explaining to him what she was doing. "I was the last aboard so the holds were all sealed up. Only had the one bag, though, so the Captain said they could simply secure it in one of the main compartments. Wasn't sure where it got shifted to in the crash, almost thought maybe it got sucked out when the back end got shredded."

He couldn't for the life of him figure out why the hell she was talking to him, probably just to ease her own nerves. He noticed that a lot of people tended to talk when nervous and he tended to make people nervous. Even bound and gagged as he was. There was just one thing that made him doubt that…she didn't sound nervous at all. In fact, as she continued she seemed completely at ease, almost like she was holding a conversation with a friend instead of a captured murder. Maybe she just didn't know who he was.

But at least now he knew why he hadn't recognized her scent before, he'd already been in his cryo-tube before she'd gotten on board.

As she'd been talking he'd heard the sound of several zippers opening and rustling as though she was going through the contents. After a moment she sighed in what sounded like relief.

"Good. It's all here." The woman snorted. "You know, it's ironic," she mused quietly to herself. "I almost missed the flight. Bought last minute fare, almost didn't make it on-board. I remember thinking that someone must have been keeping an eye on me. Though considering everything, don't think I can rightly say whether that someone was watching from above or below." She snorted lightly again. "Never have been able to tell that..."

There was silence for a moment in which Riddick figured she was contemplating the fortunes of her life. Frankly he usually didn't waist his time with shit like that. Fact of the matter was, what was...was and there wasn't a damn thing you could do about it. All you could ever do was move on from there. Though he had to admit, he had a feeling that if anyone was watching him, they most likely were looking up instead of down.

Suddenly he felt hands lightly touching near his face and jerked his head back, almost hitting it on the beam he'd been tied to. He cursed mentally as her light scent wafted over him.

"Easy..." the woman's voice came soothingly, as though trying to settle a skittish colt, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I just want to take the bit out."

Riddick's brow furrowed, half in confusion and half in agitation. He hadn't heard her move at all that time and that was something he didn't like. She'd been behind him and to the side, at least five steps from where she was now, and he hadn't heard a single one. As far as he was concerned that only meant one thing...he'd only heard her before because she'd wanted him to. And that didn't exactly sit well.

He felt her hands reach up again to the sides of the bit and trace it slowly back. He could feel her fingers glide over the metal and her body move closer as they circled around behind his neck, her scent washing over him. Mmmm, it had been a long time since he'd smelled a woman this tasty. The women in the areas he tended to travel were generally as tough and hardened as the men and smelled just about as bad. Cheep perfume mixed with sweat, dirt, and other foul things most times. Sometimes it was a curse to have a sensitive nose, but right now it was more of a blessing.

She fiddled with the mechanism at the base of his skull for a moment as he leaned his head forward to give her a little more room…towards her. He just couldn't help but take a sniff. Usually that kind of thing tended to make people nervous but she didn't respond at all, completely focused, it seemed, on her task. He wasn't sure how to take that. He liked getting reactions out of people and she wasn't exactly providing that. It was either a good thing or a bad one. Good would be that she just didn't notice because she was so focused. If she was the type that failed to be aware of the world around her in favor of a task he could certainly use that in his favor. Bad, however, would be that she noticed but it just didn't effect her. That could be more difficult.

And then, there was his ego to consider.

After a much shorter time than he thought possible there was a slight 'snicking' sound and the lock came undone. Another clue, she could pick locks. The only other way would be if she got she key from Johns, and he doubted that very much. Interesting…

She traced her hands back around the bit straps until she could take it from his mouth. Once it was out Riddick stretched his sore jaw, hearing it pop a couple times. He almost flinched again when he felt the woman's fingers press into the point of his jaw bone. If he could have blinked, he would have. She was massaging the sore muscles back to life. This was definitely strange. She had to want something, but what was the question.

"Why?" he asked in a low tone once she moved her fingers away.

There was a slight pause and he wondered at the expression that might have crossed her face. Damn, fuckin' blindfold. He knew what her voice sounded like, he knew what she smelled like, but he had no damn idea what she looked like. Hell, he didn't know what any of them looked like and it bothered him. He was used to being able to see no matter where he was. That was the whole damn point in getting the shine on his eyes.

He jerked back again as something brushed his lips, this time hitting his head lightly on the beam behind him. He growled lowly at her answering chuckle, as deep and smooth as her voice.

"Jumpy, aren't we?" she asked, her voice tinged with amusement. He scowled at her, growling again. "Sorry. The reason I took off your bit was to give you this…" she brushed whatever it was against his now tightly closed lips again. "It's a hydro pill. In case you didn't hear from the others, this appears to be some kind of desert world. Tends to happen with two suns. It really dry, and it's already sucking the moisture from your body. We don't have any water, but one of these will keep you hydrated for about twenty-four hours…maybe a little less in this heat."

She put it to his lips again but he didn't budge. Sighing slightly she raised it to his nose and after a moment he took a whiff. Huh, smelled like a hydro pill, but still…how the hell was he supposed to know it wasn't laced with something? He didn't know her and he didn't trust anyone. Even more so if they were offering to help him with no apparent reason. There was always a reason, generally it was some kind of price. That's just the way it was.

The woman sighed again, this time sounding a little exasperated. "What, do I have to lick it first to prove something?"

Riddick smirked, smelling an opportunity. "Sure, but just how will I know you actually did? I can't see shit with this blindfold." If he could just get her to take the blindfold off he'd be that much closer to getting out of here. Without being able to see anything around him he was basically stuck.

There was a slight pause as she was apparently thinking it over. Riddick kept his expression as blank as possible, save for a slight smirk designed to annoy her into acting without thinking. It didn't work exactly like he'd planned.

Without warning she placed the pill against the crease of his lips again, but he clamped shut. Instead of her pulling it away this time, though, he felt her lean in, her breath brushing his face. She paused there for a moment, her breath slightly sweet like honey-comb, ghosting over his lips and cheeks. Holy shit, she wasn't…

He felt her tongue touch his lips near one corner of his mouth and drag across them slowly, swirl over the pill, and to the other side. Shit…his mind breathed. This bitch has balls. He tried not to shift in any kind of reaction, but the woman had just licked his mouth.

"Satisfied?" she asked, once again seemingly amused. His eyes narrowed behind the blindfold. If that's how she wanted to play, then she'd picked the wrong guy to mess with. He wrote the book on this kind of game.

"Mmm," he hummed deeply, his own tongue darting out to run over his lips as though he was taking in her taste. "Not hardly. But it's a start," he purred at her.

He heard her click her tongue ever so slightly and then felt the pill again, this time he opened his mouth but before she could pop the pill in he leaned forward and caught her fingers in his teeth. Disappointingly enough, she didn't gasp. He twirled his tongue around her fingers and the pill for a moment before sucking it out of her two digits, continuing to suck them as he pulled back and let them leave his mouth, licking his lips again as he finished. He swallowed the pill easily and smirked at her.

There was silence for a moment while he tried to determine her reaction. Seduction was the oldest game in the book and he was a past master. He knew how he looked and how women tended to respond to it. If he could get her panting after him he could get her to do almost anything he wanted. And right now, chained and blind, that was an advantage he could use.

"Well," she said after a moment, her voice tinged with slightly amused sarcasm, "I hope you've had all your shots."

Riddick paused. Okay, not the response he had been expecting. There wasn't any sign whatsoever that he had had any kind of effect on her. Huh. Either she was gay, or she was better at this game than he'd thought.

"I was going to check you for injuries," she continued in a dry tone, "but now I'm slightly worried that you'll start dry-humping the air. Think you can control yourself, or is your merc not the only one into bondage?"

Riddick raised an eyebrow at that, caught between a frown of annoyance and a grin of amusement. There were so many things so wrong with what she'd just said that he settled for the only safe topic.

"Merc?"

"Yeah, you know, the guy who gave you those pretty bracelets."

"Others seem to think he's a cop."

He heard a snort. "Well, then the others failed to notice just how bad a fake that badge is."

Interesting. Apparently she knew enough to see through Johns' disguise. The only question was, from which side of the line had she seen it?

"So, you got that beast under control yet?" she asked, her tone still sarcastically amused. He just grunted at her. "As much as I'm going to hate myself for asking, is there anywhere in particular you might have gotten hurt?"

"Why do you care?"

That one actually seemed to give her pause. "My nature, I guess," she answered after a moment.

"You do realize I'm a prisoner, right?"

"So that's why you were all bound and gagged," she drawled at him. "And here I thought Johns just had a thing for tying up attractive men."

Riddick decided to ignore the implications of that. Far too disturbing even for him. "You know what I did?"

She started checking him over as she continued to talk in a casual manner, like the topic of the potential crimes of the man she had her hands on didn't bother her in the slightest. "Not the particulars. Heard a few things. Like that you just escaped from a triple-max Slam. Which one?"

"Butcher Bay."

Her hands paused as they were checking his ribs. "Damn," she breathed. "Congratulations. Word is the Devil himself wouldn't rent a room there. You must be as much of a big, badass as they've been saying to pull that off. I've only ever heard of one other person making out of there alive." She moved slightly towards his back. "Hold still, I'm going to put some ointment on the scrapes on your arms, it might sting a little."

Riddick didn't even flinch as she gently applied some kind of salve to the scrapes he'd gotten during his previous, short escape. Instead, his mind was focused on what she had just said.

"I'm the only person that's ever managed to escape from Butcher Bay," he refuted gruffly, strangely affronted that she'd claim otherwise. It was, for him, a matter of personal pride that he'd managed to escape from somewhere no one else had. And how the hell would she know that, anyway?

He felt her shrug from where she had her hands on his arms. "If you say so."

She moved back around to the front and he heard her huff. "Damn, that just can't be good for you," she muttered to herself. "He's got your joint's damn near hyper extended."

Riddick wondered again just why she would care but kept it to himself. When she stepped up next to him and started massaging the muscles in his shoulders, though, he couldn't help but feel surprised.

"What are you doing?" he asked, turning his blind face slightly towards her.

"Knitting a sweater," she drawled. "What does it look like? I'm loosening up your muscles before they seize. Fuckin' mercs," she started muttering more to herself than anything. "I swear, it's like cruelty is in their genetic code somewhere. Makes you wonder, do they become mercs because it lets them get away with being cruel or do they become cruel after being a merc? Total chicken and the egg scenario."

Riddick listened to her mutter to herself with a feeling of confused disbelief. Maybe he had been wrong, maybe she was some king of medic. Hell, dancing could give someone the grace to move silently. The only people he'd ever met before who would treat someone's wounds and discomforts without a care as to who they were or what they did were medicals. And even then it was kind of hit and miss.

Why in the world was she doing this? It made absolutely no sense. At first he had thought she was like so many women before her and drawn to the mystery, danger, and aesthetics. But she hadn't responded to any of that. And yet she was still treating him, and gently at that. And she had a supply of Cordin on hand. And didn't seem all that disturbed in the face of a gruesome fatal injury. But that didn't explain how she knew anything about Butcher Bay. Or how to pick a lock. Just who the hell was this woman?

She finished up massaging his shoulders actually much too soon for his liking. It had been a long time since he'd felt a gentle touch, and it had felt really good on his overstretched arms. But at least he had some feeling back in them again. Once she was done with that she moved up his neck slightly and examined his face, turning his head this way and that, probably looking for more things to put her ointment on.

Actually, if they had been in better surroundings all of this would probably have been a major turn on. As it was he couldn't claim to be as unaffected as he outwardly appeared.

A sharply drawn breath through her teeth caught his attention as she stilled in her examination, his head held to the side.

"Shit," she breathed out, "you are one, lucky bastard, you know that?" He raised an eyebrow at her. Besides the fact that he had a nice smelling woman's hands on him he wasn't seeing much of the luck these days.

"Look…" she said and ran her finger over a section of the blindfold. Her finger seemed to catch on a bit of the cloth and there was a sudden bit of light. He turned his eye slightly and found himself staring at a black clad chest of decent proportions. "Whatever it was that caught on and tore this came damn close to getting your eye with it. Yeah, I'm sticking with lucky."

Shit, he hadn't even noticed that. When had that happened? During the crash? When Johns had managed to pull him down from the cabling? She was right, the hole was almost directly over his eye. If it hadn't just caught the cloth, chances were he'd be one eye short.

"Well," her voice drew him out of his slightly stunned thoughts. "I guess that's it. I should really be joining the others anyway. Paris said something about having liquids in his stuff over at that cargo hold that managed to survive. Most of the others are over there, and if it's taking them this long then it must really be a mess to got through."

"You always this helpful?" he asked with a slight sneer, tipping his head slightly towards where she had moved to pack up her things.

There was a slight pause before a muffled bark of laughter. "It's all a matter of degrees, Riddick."

His brow furrowed. He waited for her to say something else, but only heard the zippers closing. He heard her pick up the bag and move to leave the room without another word.

"Wait," he called out and heard her ever-so-faint footsteps pause. "Who are you?"

"Name's Chase," she said. "Lera Chase."

"Hmm…" he growled, dipping his head down slightly, a smirk on his lips she couldn't see. "I'll remember that."

ooOoo

Lera lounged against the cargo hold, mostly obscured by some of the more twisted metal, as she watched the living shadow creep from the remains of the ship. She knew that the shade she was standing in would do no good in concealing her, not from him. She'd caught the little bit of silvery glimmer through the hole in the blindfold. He'd had his eyes surgically shined. A slightly dangerous procedure, especially since it was outlawed, meaning that no reputable doc would do it. And odds were he'd gotten them done in a Slam, which meant the possibility for the procedure going horribly wrong increased by a factor of ten. But it helped explain just how he'd managed to pull of a feat that only one other person ever had. Butcher's Bay was a dark and murky place from all account, filled with chaos, violence, and madness. You'd need to see in the dark to even have much of a chance of survival, much less escape.

Still, from the distance she was at and how she had positioned herself she would still be damn hard to see and she had little fear that he would catch her here watching him. He was good, she had to give him that. Shazza and Zeke weren't fifty feet from him working on putting together some kind of apparatus, probably those breathers they'd mentioned. Jack was with them, watching with interest and aiding where he could. And yet not one of them noticed the well muscled man slip out of the ship so near them.

She hadn't really had much in the way of doubt that he'd escape from there, it really was a poor setup. The beam Johns had tied him to was broken, but not high up enough to prevent Riddick from doing what she'd guessed he had. Granted, not a lot of people could dislocate their own shoulders like he must have done to rotate his arms right. She'd also noticed the cutter hanging within grabbing distance. But if Johns thought Riddick couldn't move his arms from behind him there wouldn't have been much worry that he could reach the cutter and effectively cut himself free.

Silly merc.

Not like you didn't help him, her mind reminded her, but she gave a mental shrug, not particularly caring. Yes, she had made it easier for him to escape. Pulling out the little piece of torn blindfold so that he could see, loosening up the muscles in his shoulders that added the maneuver to get out, leaving the cutter in reach. But the fact of the matter was that he would have gotten out on his own anyway. Johns had been stupid to chain him up where he had. And frankly, it wasn't her job to make sure he stayed put.

Lera watched as he left the ship, a pair of goggles covering his eyes, and dropped his restraints in the sand, heading towards hard ground before circling back around. Smart boy, she mused as he disappeared behind a crag. A misleading trail, then circle around where your footsteps can't be traced. If I didn't know better, I'd say he had training. Then again, he's survived all this time, probably better training than you could get anywhere.

She had to admit, he was an interesting individual. She'd heard about him before, of course. She'd had to have been living under a rock, in the back end of a dark cave, on the edge of nowhere not to have heard of Richard B. Riddick. His exploits were legendary, though the telling tended to reek of over-exaggeration. After all, he didn't look the nine feet tall that his legend proclaimed, maybe a little over six. While the shine job he'd had done on his eyes would seem to glow in the dark she doubted very much that hey shot laser beams or fire. And he certainly didn't have fangs, considering the method by which he'd chosen to take his pill she and her fingers could certainly attest to that.

She had to fight a smirk at that. She refused to take the blame for starting that little game. After all, he was the one that kept smelling her. She had been a little surprised to find out that her earlier guess was right, he could scent people. It was a rare ability, such a sensitive sense of smell, and one not many humans possessed. But it was one thing to scent someone, it was something else to keep leaning forward and taking big whiffs.

And when it came to that pill she just couldn't help herself. While she had to admit that a part of her was attracted to him, she couldn't claim that that was what it had really been about. Yes, he had one of the better bodies she'd ever seen and that deep, sinful voice. She'd been a little surprised by his looks, while she'd heard of him before she'd never actually seen him and any pictures of him were grainy, hence why she hadn't recognized him on the ship. But it wasn't about any of that...he was just so damn arrogant. Lera had been around a lot of arrogant men in her life and she had never been able to resist the urge to fuck with them. Bring them down a few pegs.

A slightly evil grin spread across her features. Not that she hadn't enjoyed it. Probably she shouldn't have egged him on. Probably it was a silly and juvenile thing to do. Probably she had just sexually frustrated a known violent killer. Her grin spread a little further.

An excited exclamation from inside the cargo hold drew her attention from thoughts of the man she'd just watched escape. Well, looks like they found something. Better put in an appearance with my two cents.

She took one last look in the direction she figured Riddick had circled around to, absently putting a drop in each eye, before turning around to join the others.

AN: And another chapter done! And what do you know, almost all of it is completely original. Of course nothing like this existed in the orginial movie, but then again, neither did Chase. I hope y'all liked her interactions with Riddick so far...it's bound to get interesting.

Reviewer Response:

Areai Moonlight: Thanks! I like Lera too, she'd lots of fun. I'm trying to stick basically to the original movie plot, but there are going to be a couple changes, I'm sure. I always looked at Pitch Black as more of a character movie, because let's face it, it's a Sci-Fi horror movie and those are always a little thin on plot. But PB is just so rich with what they do with the characters...that's where you should expect to see some interesting developments.

Mordecay: Thanks, I'm glad it's working out. Yes, Lera definately has her strangeness...she's complicated. But then, she's a woman, so that's probably a little redundant. ;) I don't want to give too much away, but no, she's not a mutant. But like my Great Aunt Ginny would say...she's definately something else!

bima: Stories with extra characters can definately be fun. Gives us authors a way to make things how we want them. Ha...take that writing gods!

FitMama: Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying it and like my OFC. Lera's definately an interesting mix, I'll tell you that. Hope you liked her introduction to our favorite heroic villain!