Disclaimer: I don't own Pitch Black; but, I've seen it lots of times while writing this fic! :3

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Italics = Inner most thoughts

Bold Italics =Thoughts of the 'Beast'

Chapter 11

When the group calls for a halt for the second time since their journey started, it's to confront Riddick about crossing their own tracks. They should just let us lead without question. Riddick's beast paces inside its inner cage, listening to the group babble their confusion at each other, getting more and more frustrated. I say we abandon them and make a run for it, just us and Rain. Riddick is tempted to take his beasts' advice.

"Why have we circled? Are we lost?" Imam storms toward Riddick, demanding.

Riddick avoids answering Imam, thinking over options of how best to get to the skiff. "Listen."

"Do you even know where we are?" Imam is finally showing some anger.

"Listen!" Riddick shouts, and Imam is silenced. The group takes a moment to listen to the creatures growling in the distance. "Canyon ahead. I circled once to buy some time to think."

"I think we should go now." Imam insists.

"Oh, I don't know about that. That's death row up there," Riddick replies. "Especially with the girl bleeding." Just leave them, only Rain matters.

"What?" Imam is confused.

"What the fuck you talking about, no one's cut." Johns is pissed, glaring at Carolyn and Rain.

"Not them." Riddick tilts his head at the women, before turning and nodding once at Jack. "Her."

Rain is confused. Wait, Jack's a girl? Riddick knew?

"You've gotta be kidding me." Johns is exasperated.

Jack starts mumbling out excuses. "I just thought it'd be better if people took me for a guy. I thought they might leave me alone, instead of always messing with me."

"Jesus, Jack." Carolyn feels betrayed, calling out bitterly and pacing back and forth a few times.

Rain is the first to join Jack where she's crouched down, silent tears running down her face. "It's fine Jack. It doesn't matter." How did I miss this?

Carolyn joins them after a moment. "I'm sorry. She's right, Jack. I'm sorry sweetheart." Carolyn wraps an arm around Jack from the other side.

"You could have just left me at the ship. That's why I didn't say something sooner." Jack's voice is ashamed as she buries her face in her knees.

"They've been nose-open for her ever since we left. In case you haven't noticed, they go off blood." Riddick addresses Imam again. So Riddick can smell Jack bleeding, that's how he knows.

"Look, this is not going to work. We're gonna have to go back." Carolyn sighs, standing up and raising her chin, trying to look confident as she addresses the group.

"What'd you say?" Johns is unbelieving, drawing everyone's attention. "This is your big plan, Carolyn. You and the little quiet bitch chose this for us. Turned us into sled dogs."

"So we were wrong. I admit it, okay. Can we just get back to the ship?" Carolyn is unyielding, facing off against Johns. Rain observes the two from her place beside Jack, deciding to stay out of the conflict.

"I don't know, Carolyn. Nice breeze, wide open space. I'm starting to enjoy my fuckin' self out here."

"What, are you high again? Just listen to yourself, Johns." Johns is a druggie?

"No, no, you're right, Carolyn. What's to be afraid of? My life is a steaming pile of meaningless shit anyhow, so I say mush on. The canyon's only a couple of meters and after that it's skiff city. So why don't you butch up, grab your sidekick bitch, stuff a cork in this fuckin' kid, and let's go!"

"She is the captain. We should listen to her." Imam defends Carolyn.

"Listen to her? When she was so willing to sacrifice us all?" Johns quirks his lips at Carolyn.

"What's he talking about?" Jack interjects, finally unburying her face from her knees.

"This does not help us, Johns." Carolyn pleads.

"During the crash, she tried to blow the whole passenger cabin, tried to kill us in our sleep."

"Shut your mouth!" Carolyn is abruptly furious.

Rain stands, feeling a little anger of her own. Carolyn tried to kill us all? Why?

"We are fuckin' disposable. We're just walkin' ghosts to you, aren't we?" Johns concludes.

"Shut your fuckin' blowhole!" Carolyn has had enough of Johns' taunts, she charges at him with her arms outstretched.

Johns intercepts her, already prepared, and uses her own momentum to shove her to the ground. Those things out there don't even need to do anything; we'll kill each other off just fine without them.

Imam steps forward, confronting Johns before he can decide to vent anymore of his frustrations on Carolyn's huddle form. "Fine. Fine! You've made your point. We'll all be scared."

Johns smiles down at Carolyn. "Oh Carolyn, how much do you weigh now?" He turns to Rain, lighting a new flare as he taunts her next. "The verdict's in. The light moves forward."

Riddick struggles hard for control from his beast. Johns' recent aggression, so close to Rain, has it enraged. GHOST HIM. The beast throws its weight around inside its metaphorical cage. Slamming against the bars, it snarls in frustrated fury. Riddick tries to talk some sense into it. He has that fuckin' gauge.We need distance between him and Rain first.The beast continues to vent its anger at Riddick, fighting for control. Enough, damnit! Just let me get him away from the others first. For a moment, Riddick is unsure if the beast will relent, but finally it does. Then make it happen. Before I do.

Finally in control once again, Riddick uses his reprieve to get the shaken and scattered group back together and moving again. He sets Imam and his charge to pull the sled, and organizes the girls safely around it with their torches. Satisfied that they'll be fine, Riddick leaves them to bring up the rear and joins Johns, in the lead, a few meters ahead.

"Ain't all of us gonna make it." Johns starts as Riddick joins him.

Listen to him chat like we're best buddies. Fuckin' hilarious."Just realize that?"

"Seven of us left. If we could make it through the canyon and lose just one, that'd be quite the feat, huh?"

Riddick has to stifle a growl from his beast. "Not if I'm the one."

"Well, what if you're one of six?"

"I'm listening." Now's our chance, kill him now! Patience! We wait for the perfect moment, that's always been our style.

"Battlefield doctors decide who lives and dies; it's called triage."

"You kept calling it murder when I did it." He wants to kill Rain, I won't let him touch her! He'll never get near her, relax. Let me handle this.

Rain walks on the other side of the sled from Jack, behind Imam and Carolyn as they whisper to each other. They watch Riddick and Johns doing almost the same up ahead.

"What's up with all the secrets?" Rain raises an eyebrow and mutters to Jack. First Jack's a girl, then Johns is a druggie, and finally Carolyn's a bitch. What's next? Riddick's gay? Oh god, please don't let that one be true!

"Beats me, I ain't got anymore secrets." Jack shrugs and Rain smiles at her. Such a cute kid.

They walk in companionable silence, mostly ignoring the suspicious whispers going on, until Rain begins to notice Carolyn putting more and more distance between the two men leading, and their group around the sled. What's happening now? I can't take many more surprises. Carolyn calls a sudden halt to their group; moments later, the first shot of Johns' gauge is fired into the air. Riddick and Johns are fighting for control of it.

"Leave the sled! Let's move!" Carolyn shouts and runs away from the two battling men, grabbing Jack's shoulder to drag her along quicker. Imam and his charge follow. "Let's go! Let's go!"

Rain freezes, unsure if she should stay, or run with the others. They end up leaving her behind before she can decide what she wants to do. Riddick said to stay by his side no matter what. I'm not leaving him. Rain chooses to find cover, settling into a crouch behind some large bones nearby. She puts her torch beside her, out of sight of the two men brawling, but at a distance to still protect her with its light. As Rain turns back to peek around the bones, to see how Riddick is faring, there's a sudden lull in the fighting.

From where she's stationed, Rain can see Riddick and Johns circling each other in the dim glow of a green flare. Johns must have dropped his flare from earlier; his gauge is on the ground as well. Probably empty. Good. I don't want to be hit by a stray bullet. As the two men circle, with just a couple yards between them, Riddick reaches up slowly and removes the light he'd draped around his torso. He tosses the light away, and it's only the light of the single flare left to protect them. He draws a shiv made from a piece of curved black metal. When did he make that? Johns looks panicked, drawing a small blade of his own, shuffling from side to side, and never taking his eyes off of Riddick. He doesn't stand a chance against Riddick with that thing.

"One rule." Riddick makes a quick move, throwing his shiv at Johns' hand and disarming him. He lunges forward, knocking Johns down with a solid hit to the side of his face. "Stay in the light."

Johns doesn't stay down for long, pulling out an expandable baton with a smooth motion, and using it to take Riddick's feet out from under himself. Once Riddick hits the ground, Johns raises the baton for an overhead strike from above; Riddick catches it mid-descent.

Oh man, this is tense. I can't watch. Rain clenches her eyes shut and turns away. She forces herself to look back when a loud groan grabs her attention.

She's relieved to find it's not Riddick, but Johns, with a long slash across his back via Riddick and his shiv. Johns gasps for air, writhing in pain on the ground and crawling toward his gauge. Just leave him, Riddick. Let's get outta here.

"You should've never taken the chains off, Johns." Riddick's tone is taunting as he lords above the weaker man.

Johns finally reaches the gauge and turns on his back to start loading in new rounds. The green light of the flare begins to fade out, and shadows encroach upon the two men. Get outta there, Riddick.

"You were one brave fuck before. You were really bad ass. The chains. The gauge. The badge." With each new utterance, Riddick backs away, blending more and more into the darkness around them. His final phrase to Johns is just a whisper from the dark, as the flare burns out completely. "I told you to ghost me."

A/N: Is anyone else confused as to what system of measurement they're supposed to be using in the future? In the movie, they use kilos for the weight of the cells, right? But then later Johns says "drag the body 40, 50, feet behind us"…so uh…metric is only used for weight? I am baffled by this. XD

In this fic, I went with metric for all the future folk, with Rain using the American standard; to include a little of both, like the movie does.