Nearly four solar years, chasing leads, running down rumors. But according to Kij's Aguaran system operatives, most likely where he'd turned up. Or more precisely, Aguaran Minor - the space station - abandoned by the Company twenty years ago - orbiting the planet. Once a thriving mining operation, but when the thermite ran dry, so did the financial backing. Ghost planet, along with most of the business in this arm. Just gone. No idea how he'd ended up here, didn't care. Just enough of an opportunity that she couldn't risk missing it. Last known access for the bids they'd placed on him. Entries keyed to ping back when they were accessed, and then actively back-hacked by the military intelligence officer assigned to keep watch.

"Mr. Kertan, we've been cleared for landing?"

"Yes Lady Cantaglia."

"And signatures on the ship?"

"Confirmed. Nomad Hunter. Matches Helion registration."

"As I figured." Lazy bastard boosts the ship, but doesn't even bother to change the plates. " As you were Mr. Kertan." Nicola left the bridge. This was not exactly a legal search and seizure. But no one on the ship would contradict her. They knew what was at stake. Kij & Kertan had handpicked them for this mission. It didn't matter beyond that.

Docking went quickly. Not quickly enough for Nicola, but nothing these days did. It was enough that they had registered Toomb's ship. That alone was nearly enough to indicate victory. It was just a matter of when now.

She found him in the cantina. Such as it was. Not much more than a quardened off store room, a vid screen on one wall, a bar set up opposite. Ashwan and Kertan had verified Toomb's refueling orders, and delayed them by a half hour. Amazing what hard UD currency could do in this part of the galaxy. After Ashwan verified the ship was registering only one life form, she'd called in escort and descended on the bar.

"Mr. Toombs, I can't imagine that you remember me."

"Broad like you? Think I would remember."His look was apprizingly, and not in a way she liked.

"Former client. Here about your... ship." He snorted.

"Finders keepers. Possession is nine tenths of the law, specially in this neck of the woods."

"Indeed." she signaled the bartender. He poured whatever Toombs was having, and doubled it. Something dark, nasty. Nicola didn't care, she raised the shot and drank it. Made a face.

"Don't know many political types can drink She-ran whiskey straight."

"I'm not most politicians, Mr. Toombs."

"Whatever you want will have to wait. I have a Thelriss system drop off before I'm free."

"Butcher Bay?"

"Classy lady like you heard of such a place?"Nicola laughed.

"You'd be surprised what I know."

"Like what?"

"Like how that ship you're hauling, technically, is still registered as Helion Prime government property for one." Toombs looked at her again, hand suddenly on his hip, fingering the piece he had there. He kicked back the bar stool and stood. Kertan and Ashwan tensed by the door, but didn't move.
"This conversation is over."

"No, I don't' think it is." Nicola fingered her empty shot glass." I also know your cargo. And I'd like to negotiate a better price."

"I don't deal with Helion system anymore. Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me."

"Oh come on now Mr. Toombs. I hear you're transporting a prime piece of meat. "

"Could be. What's it to you?"

"Five minutes, Mr. Toombs. I want to see. Worth your time in cash." She nodded at Kertan. A stack of bills, 20,000 universal currency, hit the bar. Toombs didn't hesitate, palming the money immediately.

"Sister, you know what I'm carrying, you know it's your funeral."

"Five minutes, Mr. Toombs, that's all I ask." He shook his head.

"Like I said," he picked up the shot glass and saluted her, knocking it back and letting it hit the bar. "Your funeral."


Nicola almost laughed. She'd seen reports, even knew that with him, it was probably prudent. But to see Riddick trussed up, tied back like a dangerous animal, it broke her heart. Blindfolded, arms locked by iro-steel restraints. She wanted to hug him, or smack the shit out him, probably both. But she held her ground, held her place.

"Leave us," she muttered. Toombs snorted.

"Not likely. You know who this is we're dealing with. Fucking halved my crew just to take down the mutherfucker, and that was after busting him out of the Colsack pen." Nicola looked at him a minute, and motioned to Kertan again. Another 50,000 in bills hit the deck. Riddick didn't move, hadn't moved since they'd arrived.

"Two minutes. No funny business. I got a schedule to keep." He turned with Kertan, moving back up the gangway, footsteps echoing. "Goddamn slow-ass refueling..."

"'Bout time you showed up." Riddick's voice was even.

"No hello, I missed you? No explanation, nothing?" She moved closer, quietly, on his right side. He tracked her though, it was unnerving. Worn boots, no discernible footfalls. But he raised his face, following where she moved. She studied him a minute, mildly irritated. He hadn't changed at all, unless you counted the negligible superficial damage Toombs had inflicted - bruises on his face, the gash across his right forearm. He was somewhat thinner than she remembered, but that could be expected if he'd been in Colsack mining camps. She pulled the knife from her belt and cut the blindfold.

His eyes hadn't changed. Not that they could. She lost herself in their silver, fingers still on his face, holding the blindfold by his cheek

"You cut your hair." Her fingers went to the short cropping above her ears. Self-conscious. She laughed.

"Four fucking years, and that's what you say?" He shrugged, as much as he could.

"You make a deal, or what?"

"'Or what,' at this point. Already spent my cash to get this far. Don't think Toombs is up for a deal. Kertan is talking to him, and I have some people keeping his crew back, but probably gonna have to hit him with plan 'b.'" She looked at the knife in her hand. "You're not going to like it." She touched his shirt at the belt line, gathering fabric, pulling up.

"Uh... not sure how that's gonna impress them if you're thinkin' what I'm thinkin', hon."

"Hardly." She met his eyes again, serious. "Can you trust me?" Her hand was running over skin. feeling along his rib cage to the right, pressing along the ab muscles, calculating.

"Hmmm" he eyed her a second. "Do I have a choice?"

"No" she brought the knife up, willing her hand not to shake. She didn't want to do this. Kij said it was nothing. Nothing the doctor on the Valkyrie couldn't fix. Stay away from the liver on the left, try to avoid intestine, lung is better, but hard to be sure you won't hit appendix. But it was one thing to say she'd do it, another to actually be looking in those reflective eyes, knowing what she would do. This wasn't war, and he wasn't the enemy.

"I don't fucking care what state secrets he's carrying, or who he fuckin' killed! He's my fucking cargo, I got jurisdiction, and it's my fucking choice. No fucking dice! The Merc Core will have my back on this, I don't care what shiny-ass planet you're with!"

"Mr. Toombs, the offer is more than fair. We could impound your ship right now, bog you down in arbitration, in the long run..."

"Fuck that! I'm cutting rope right now. Get your solar princess off my deck, give her back her purse or shove it up your pencil-fucking ass, I don't care! Darcel! Wittman!Grieegs! Get your panties back here now!"

The voices were too close. Nicola ducked her head to his chest, wrapping one arm around Riddick's neck. Three inches to the right, Kij said, enough to cause a gaping wound, more than the backwater station could fix... she pressed the serrated tip to his skin. But she couldn't, she just couldn't...

Riddick solved it for her, straining forward before she could speak. Nicola shrieked as blood blossomed over her fingers. Nasty thing, gut wounds, Kij had said, takes a day or two to bleed out. But if you don't treat'em right... messy way to die.

And not something putting him in cryo would buy time for.

"Fucking bitch! What did you do to my prisoner!?" Toombs backhanded her, shoving her sideways, snatching the knife free.

"He, he threatened me..."

"Bullshit! You don't come on my ship, fucking threaten to impound, fucking make a lowball bid on my cargo, and then expect me to believe he somehow fucking gutted himself..." Nicola got up. Facing him. He held the blade out, a visceral accusation.

"Fine. Don't believe it. " She rubbed her cheek, eying him banefully. "Believe this. He's dying, Mr. Toombs. And he's worth a lot less dead to any slam you bring him into. In fact, last I checked, the "dead" part of "dead or alive" was high-balled at around half a million credits."

"Fuck you sister."

"Think about it. You got 3 days minimum jump to any planet that can treat him... and he won't last the night, bleeding like that. Didn't anyone ever tell you not to pull a knife out of a stab wound?" She shook her head. "I'll give you 600,000 UDC - right now - minus what I just paid you - take him off your hands."
"Fuck you, dirty cunt. That's some nasty pool you're setting up."

"Take him in dead. I don't care. Do the universe a favor."She shrugged."Or give him to me. I patch him up, take him home, make him pay what he owes me." Toombs eyed her.

"Got my balls to the wall, don't you sister?"

"I'm very good at getting what I want."
"Fine. Drop the claim on my ship, drop the money in my account, I walk away."

"And you stay out of Helion airspace."

"Don't get greedy toots."

"Greedy? You seen your crew in the past hour, Toombs?"

"Fine. Take the bastard. Nothing but goddamn trouble anyway." He threw the keys to the restraints on the deck at her feet. "Just get the fuck off my ship."

"Pleasure doing business" Nicola smiled tightly, kicking the keys to Kertan.

And just like that, it was over.


The door opened and Nicola looked up from the banking readout on the com. She smiled, relieved to see him standing there. She clicked shut the windows and logged off as he approached.

"Wanna tell me why I'm standing here instead of out cold in cryo? Not that I mind, but kinda itchy to be out of this neck of the woods." Nicola stood, letting him come to her.

"The Valkyrie takes a little longer to calibrate for sub-light, especially since we're staying out of main space lanes. " Riddick cocked his head at her, appraising.

"This wasn't official business." Nicola didn't meet his eyes.

"No, I borrowed it. " she shrugged. "Favors. It's still officially docked on Helion IV."

"Hmm. So all that impounding shit you were spewing at Toombs? Threatening his crew?" Nicola pressed her lips together, trying not to smile. "He was right, you're a dirty bitch." He caught her chin, forcing her face up. "Still a politician."

"You could say 'thank you.'"

"I think I told you once, you're not likely to get that out of me. Especially if you demand it." His hand slid back to her neck, fingering her hair.

"Then what are you doing here, Mr. Riddick? You could go back to the bay and get some sleep before we jump." His hand was snaking in her hair, cheek against hers as he nosed her hairline. She shut her eyes, thrilling to the intimate touch.

"Nah. I got a bit more recon to do on this new situation. And I haven't had a good night sleep in four years, one more night doesn't matter much."

"Recon? Is that what you're calling it?" He pulled her against him, holding her there.

"Yeah. For starters, where the hell you get 600,000 UD to be waving it around like that? I know politics is a dirty game, but last I checked, they weren't payin' anything close to that, even for your kind of experience." He spun her to the bed. "Wanna know what kinda loan you took out, and who's gonna come lookin' for payback." Nicola tried to keep a straight face, look serious, but started giggling. She grabbed his shirt and shoved her face into it. "What's so damn funny?"

"You." She pressed her lips together. "It's your money Riddick... well, most of it." She had the gratification of seeing Richard B. Riddick, universal badass, look shocked. She sat down on the bed, and he stared down at her.

"Mine?"

"Mmm." she fingered the loops on his cargo pants, waiting to see if he worked it out. Nope. She cocked her head, waiting another beat.

'You know, we were paying you. For your... time," she let the words hang there, letting insinuation play out. "And they did give you that rather nice initial recruitment bounty." The big man shook his head, staring down at her.

"You're kidding. They weren't blowing smoke?"

"Nope. And when you left, it went into a trust fund. I was named executor on it, on Jacqueline's behalf, after you were gone for two years. I could only access half of it... the rest came out of your daughter's education fund." She poked him in the leg.

"No shit. I just paid my own bounty."

"More or less." He snorted.

'You know, I should lock your thieving ass up. For... what would you call that?" She grinned, laying back on the mattress.

"Embezzlement? Racketeering? Fraud? My father would be so proud."

"Yeah, and potential manslaughter."

"Oh, that was for your own good. And I could plead self defense."

"Hmm... think I still owe you for that one." He swung a knee over her, caging her against the bed, one hand on her throat. "Cuz, bitch, that's the closest anyone's been to laying me open in a very long time." His voice was low, threatening. Nicola blanched a minute, the black goggles making him impossible to read. He couldn't be mad, could he? Who knew what shit he'd been through in the last four years, but still...

The kiss was slow, tender. Surprising. Hard to believe it was really only their second kiss, after all they'd been through. Once in departure, once in reunion. He was a strange man.

"I should have started cutting you a while ago, if that's what I get." She wrapped her arms around him as he kicked his boot off and joined her on the bed.

"Wouldn't recommend it. Anyone hears I let some politician-bitch get close enough to gut me and I'd have to start killing a whole lotta people before they shut the hell up."

"Ah yes, the warlord has his image to maintain." He'd managed to yank off her pants and boots, had hoisted her left leg over his shoulder, was kissing the inside of her thigh, cheek against her femoral pulse, listening, feeling. He looked up.

"Warlord? That's a new one." Nicola grimaced.

"Sorry. Local gossip. Jacqueline picked it up on the playground," she rolled her eyes. "Certain element in the senate isn't pleased with the financial outlay for the Furyan project. The first children born, the recolonization was all made public last month, along with a bunch of archaeological findings. Text translations - apparently back in the day, lot of conquest and war, and the closest term for the alphas was 'warlord.' The anti-military contingent doesn't think it prudent to be... resurrecting a dangerous, blood-thirsty race." Riddick grabbed her other leg, yanking her onto his lap, trying to divest her of her shirt, attacking her neck again.

"And you have no idea how many men were chasing me after you left." she teased. "Apparently I'm quite the prize right now, the Warlord's Widow. They figured I must be some kind of mystic lay, get a full-blood Furyan daughter off of you."

"Hmm... How is Jack? Where is Jack?"

"Jacqueline has been staying with my mother. But she'll be back to the capitol tomorrow when we get there. What kind of a mother do you think I am? Drag her along on wild goose chases after her absent father?"

"What is she gonna think of me?"

"I don't know, she hears enough stories. She's astute, and terribly clever. Always asking inappropriate questions, and demanding everyone know her father is. She'd decided you're a warlord space hero, not a convict, and stubbornly won't listen to a word against you. She was getting in fights at school, usually with older boys, twice her size. Took on two third years at the public school. I got called in from work. Had to move her to a private program." Nicola made a face. "She is very much your daughter."

"Don't know how to take that..." She pulled back, looked him in the eyes.

"Take it on faith." She ran a hand over his skull. "You seem to have a lot in me showing up." He shrugged.

"Someone told me you were coming." Nicola tensed.

"What? How? I didn't know I was coming till two days ago." Riddick shrugged again, pushing her back on the bed, intent on the task at hand.

"Seer. Back on Furya. Elemental. Told me 'take a Helion bride, you'll have a son.' Hasn't happened yet, so I knew my ticket wasn't punched." Nicola shoved him off her.

"Told you what?... and I don't exactly remember any sort of proposal! And if that was it - forget it. Ha! My family isn't even from Helion Prime!"

"Doesn't matter. You're it for me. And I know you haven't been with anyone else, despite your offers." Nicola backed against the cold wall, shrinking from him.

"Oh there it is again, that fucking voodoo! Well, forget it. That's by choice you know, and not just some stupid torch I was carrying." Riddick shrugged, but reached for her leg to pull her back. She kicked him half-heartedly.

"I know that. Your boy Kertan was sniffin' out the competition in the medbay. Looked like a pissed off puppy." Nicola made a face.

"I never thought..." Kertan? Wanted her? He was so formal, polite... reminded her of Reza... Riddick grabbed for her leg again while she was lost in thought. He didn't pull, just massaged her foot, calf, thigh. His lips were back. "Huh..." She looked at him. "Maybe I should fuck him instead. He's been married before, already has kids. Won't be making demands for heirs, like..." She shrieked as he yanked her underneath him again in one pull.

"Mine!" More growl than word. "I don't give a shit about how that sorcerer's words work out. Nights in that pit on Colsack... and I've seen some shit, lady... all that kept me going... having you again, now, here..." Nicola was still, terrified at the burn, the rage coming off him. She'd seen this, felt this before... something in her memory... a handprint...

"Riddick?" He closed his eyes, a shudder going through him. He tensed, and then punched the wall, leaving a visible impression in the metal. Then he shook his head, breathing heavily. "What...?"

"Nothing. " He hugged her, trying to be reassuring. The mask he usually wore back in place. He sat up suddenly, grabbing his pants. He stood, retrieving his boots from the end of the bunk, picking up his goggles from the table. "Just forget what I said. We'll talk later."

Nicola grabbed her discarded clothes, confused, and now angry. Sure the mood was spoiled, but it wasn't fair to just walk out. "What the hell? You're leaving?!"

He paused in the doorway. Half turned, shook his head, put a hand on the doorframe. "Not safe. Not... I can't be here." She heard the protest of metal molding under his fingers, and something white, ghostly and electric, shot down his arm. Then he stepped into the corridor and was gone.


Nicola found out from the medic on board that Riddick had apparently returned to the surgery, and demanded he be put in cryo immediately, even though they hadn't started the journey back for nearly 2 hours. The doctor didn't argue, but had paged her after he'd put the big man out, wanting to make sure everything was fine with her. She'd responded blandly, and kept her own council.

Now, watching him from across the transport shuttle cabin, where he sat talking with Gen. Houston, she didn't know what to think. Kij had joined them on Helion IV, since her inspection of the Wallace air base there had been their cover. Nicola was checking in on her work, and letting her mother know they'd be back to the capital in a few hours. Jacqueline was about to meet her Warlord. And Nicola had no idea how that was going to turn out.

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