3) Should I Stay Or Should I Go

He could do without being right so often. Especially when his default mode was to believe in the worst of human behavior. Damn Carolyn and her challenge to rejoin the human race. Given a choice he'd have dropped the three of them on Anvil and taken off on his own.

But she'd made the argument that they would all be safer together. That no one would expect Richard B Riddick to be traveling with a Holy Man, a woman and a kid.

Carolyn looked at him when Jack and Abu left the room. Riddick paced the small room's floorspace as if he'd climb the walls and use the ceiling if he could. "Something else is wrong besides your all too likely theory that this is a pirate ship," She shook her head ruefully. "That still sounds like a story when I say it."

"Plenty of stories have truth to them," Riddick shook his head. "You already know there are real monsters. I'm only one of them."

"Yuh huh, you're side-stepping the question," She poked at him and from her expression seemed to hope he wouldn't take it the wrong way. Attraction or not, unspoken alliance or not, he was not a man to prod lightly.

"The more people we're around, the more likely someone will remember me," He reminded her. "And the more illegal the profession of those people, the higher the chances they'll recognize me." He paced another circuit of the room, "Next time we hit dirt I'm gonna have to take off."

"Jack won't like that much," Carolyn commented. "How many people know you by sight?"

"Mercs," He admitted. "More people know my name than my face."

"Right. Nobody recognized you on the Hunter Gratzner and wouldn't have if Johns hadn't told them who you were and what you'd done." She arched an eyebrow at him. "You should stay."

"I've got mercs on my neck," Riddick's low voice was a near growl. "I'm always gonna have mercs on my neck."

"All the more reason to stay," She shrugged at him. "Would anybody expect it?"

"What, me traveling with you, the kid and a holy man?" He considered the notion, "Unlikely." He made a slashing motion with his hand, "You know how Johns caught me?" Riddick's entire body had tensed as if for an attack, "I was in some slum in the Conga systems. B'tween the gangs, Feds, Cartel, Mafia, the Tongs and mercs the place was a war zone. Wasn't too different from the rest of the system I guess. But I holed up there and got to know some kids, oldest might've been twelve, the youngest was only five."

This was not going to be the sort of tale with a happy ending, Carolyn knew that if only from his posture and tone.

He shook his head, "There was an older one, maybe sixteen, he kept an eye on them, did little jobs around the area, tried to keep everyone from starving. We were taking them to a different building, on the edge of the area, out of the warzone, or as out as he could find a squat for them. Had a bad feeling the whole damn day."

"Johns," Carolyn murmured, and he snarled the confirmation.

"Johns," He stared at his hands. "The oldest, Johns shot him in the leg. Low enough that he'd have hope, high enough to nick the femoral; he went down. I got everyone else on the ground with him, got to cover, and gave up the shirt I'd been wearing to wrap it around his leg." Riddick took a deep breath, "And while I'm doing that, and keeping the kids down so they don't get shot, Johns steps out with that big gauge of his and says that if I don't want the rest of them to look worse I'll step along with him." Riddick growled. "The twelve-year-old, he got it, had to grab his arm to keep him from rushing Johns."

"What happened to them," Carolyn asked quietly. "Since we know Johns got you on that transport."

"Johns figured that me helping the kids and the boy along would keep me occupied, keep me from attacking him," Riddick's voice had gone quiet. "It worked. I got them to the squat the boy'd picked out. Got him as stable as I could. But after that I don't know."

"Well, I can see why you'd think traveling alone was safer," She could concede that point. "But you know the Conga systems were full of informants. That's how half the people in those ghettos stayed alive."

"Still ain't safe," He shook his head. "I stayed in one place too long and those kids paid the price for it."

"That doesn't mean you should leave us," Carolyn persisted. "Hear me out," She held up a hand to keep him from objecting outright. "Yeah, staying in one place is dangerous. But we're both pilots. We don't have to stay in one place."

She kept going when he didn't find any flaw in that reasoning. "Nobody will expect you to be traveling with a woman, a kid and a Holy man. It's safer for all of us if we stay together. We can say you're from Deadwood. That'll explain the goggles and the shine job. New names, clean ident cards, and we keep moving."

"Was planning to leave when we hit Anvil," He admitted.

"Don't," She shook her head. "We can look for a ship, find work. Out on the Rim, the Border, people don't look too close at papers."

He was turning the idea over in his mind and nodded slowly. "Can't have two pilots together looking for work, no ship'd ever hire us both on. But I've got experience in engineering, and I can pass as a gunhand."

"We'll all be safer if we stick together," She'd emphasized, and he'd nodded. "Besides," Carolyn added with a half smirk. "How're you going to rejoin the human race if you avoid humans?"

"Carolyn, that is not an incentive," The growl was half-hearted at best. "People are fuckin' annoying beyond belief."

"Not all of them," She reminded him. "And you know it'll take two of us to keep Jack out of trouble."

"That's the truth," He sighed. "The luck she has, it's like the devil's after her personally."

"Yeah," Carolyn considered another issue. "She doesn't have the best impulse control either. And…" She took a deep breath and voiced her theory. "The way she still practically worships you, if you left… I think she'd go after you. Nothing good would come of that."

"Even if I left you two with the Holy man?" Even as he said it, she could see him figuring the odds of that working. "Fuck. You're right. She's still way too fixated to just let me go and stick with the two of you."

"I know. Telling her flat out that you'd been ready to leave us… it made an impression, at the moment," Carolyn nodded. "Near as I can figure, the best way to…wear the shiny off you is to let her see who you are, flaws and all. Stick around. Travel with us. No one would think you'd have the patience for it," She reiterated her earlier point. "Hopefully that worshipful attitude she's got will settle into something a little more…"

"Connected to reality?" Riddick let his tone go desert dry. Appropriate considering where he'd met his ladies..

"Let's hope."

"All right," He nodded. "Let's not beat a dead horse. I'll stick with the two of you. Pretty sure the Holy Man'll head for Helion and New Mecca but I'll stay with…my ladies." He spoke the last few words quietly, as if saying them would put more of a claim on the two females than he believed he had a right to.

"Yóu zhān de tián mì mǔ qīn don't let Jack hear you say that," Carolyn advised. "But yeah. You've got it right."

His half smile, quick and bright, was a new expression and one that sent an entirely different sort of shiver down her spine than the chill of the ship's air.


So he'd given in. Talked himself into it really. Carolyn had found her spine and used it to good effect. At least having her around kept Jack from doing too much of the hero worship thing. Well, once he'd thrown out the truth like a spray of bullets, having lost all patience with the ridiculousness of Jack's behavior. Maybe he could have been kinder about it, but even now he wasn't sure she'd have heard him.

"Jack, I ain't some kinda Saint Nicholas," He'd spat the words out in irritation, responding to some statement that had been too much garbage for him to not correct.

"You ain't that bad," She'd persisted. Thank God (and fuck you very much for this situation asshole) the 'discussion' was taking place in the room they all shared. "You came back for us."

"I was set to leave," He stared at her, cold as the grave. "I broke the lights. I would have taken the skiff and. Left. All. Of. You to. Die. Without a second thought." He watched as her jaw fell open in shock and horror and reality set in. "Yeah. So, quit it with the 'he can do no wrong' bullshit." He hated to hurt her, this savvy and still somewhat innocent girl, but emulating him would lead to nothing good. 'Never had a doubt'. She'd better have had some doubts, he didn't need anyone having absolute faith in him. He wasn't God. He for sure didn't fuck with people's lives the way the Almighty did. 'Yeah, yeah, we're all fuckin' amazed. Anyone not ready for this?' Part of him had still been wondering why the hell he'd done it.

"That's not quite true," Carolyn shook her head from where she sat on her own bunk. "If you hadn't had any hesitation at all you wouldn't have even been there when I came." She half smiled, "You're not all bad. You could have just slit my throat and left me as chum for those sky sharks." Funny how they'd all adopted his name for the things. "But you let me talk you into coming back."

"Lost my gorram mind," He groused. "And pū jiē for waking up my damn conscience. Was doin' just fine without it."

"Oh yeah," Carolyn mocked gently. "You're fit as a fuckin' fiddle you are." Yeah, he'd have to keep an eye on her, something tickling the back of his mind…reminded him of something…not good.

"Fine," He pointed at her. "Yeah, you reminded me that I'm not all bad." He pointed at Jack, "You need to remember that 'not all bad' does not mean 'all good'. I am not any kind of example for you to follow unless it's learning how to fly. I have nothing else to teach you that will lead you anywhere besides a slam. And you do not want to know what happens to little girls in a slam."

She'd stopped looking at him like he was a hero after that. Somewhat. He still didn't like how she looked at him, like she was studying up. But she looked to Carolyn for guidance nearly as much as she did him these days so he'd take it.


Author's Note: So I spent a lot of time on the Riddick wikia site researching Riddick and Johns and the log that Johns kept is very enlightening.

Chinese Translations:

Yóu zhān de tián mì mǔ qīn (sweet mother of linoleum)

pū jiē (drop dead! / go to hell! / fuck you! (Cantonese))