A/N Okay so I'm sorry for the delay in updates… I've had a lot happening lately, unfortuantly this isn't as long of an update as I'd like to be, but I'm leaving for a few days so this will have to tide everyone over till I get back! Thank you all for the comments, I love the feedback I've been getting and always appreciate more!

Present-

There was a sudden beeping that brought Jack back into the reality of the here and now. She looked up at the control panel letting the daze of her story wear off and began to get worried when Riddick turned his chair around so fast it nearly broke the hinges.

"Shit…" she heard him mutter in a manner that did not warrant staying calm.

"What is it?" The beeping began to get more rapid and seemed to match the pace of her heartbeat as she climbed her way back up to her seat.

"Riddick what the hell is it!"

"Perimeter scanners picked up a ship… looks like…a merc" he seemed to growl out that last part as he turned his head and glared at her with a look that could murder anyone, especially coming from a man with silver eyes.

"They fucking found me… unbelievable… how the hell did they…" she let the sentence hang in the air as the answer suddenly came to her… and Riddick too.

"Imam" they said in unison before Riddick's brow furrowed and he turned to look at the woman sitting next to him.

"See if I ever save another soul again" his low baritone voice echoed in the sudden silence of the ship.

"What happened…" Jack questioned as her eyes scanned the control board and noticed that all warnings had gone off. "Did they turn away?"

"Must not have been the ship they were looking for" Riddick said with a smile in his voice.

"But why would they just turn away, why wouldn't they attack?"

"Dangerous territory… even mercs don't venture into this part of the Universe."

"Riddick we gotta get the hell outta here!" Jack screamed as she took notice of where they were. There are only three people who left the planet alive…

The panicked look on Jack's face was unbelievable as they slowly glided along their course in circling the yellow planet.

"Riddick please, we have to get out of here now." Her voice was thin and dripping with fear as her grip on the seat grew tighter.

"Not a chance" was his simple reply.

"Holy fucking shit" Jack's voice could barely be heard as her focus suddenly changed. "Jesus, did… did we slide that far… look at it all." She seemed mesmerized with the trail that had been left in the planet's surface from the crash of 'the beast'. It was hard to see clearly from their distance, but the trail was still massive even at a small level. "And there's the valley where… where we…" her voice was suddenly choked off as she undid the seatbelt quicker than ever before and ran to the back of the ship and puked. Fortunately though she hadn't eaten anything in about a day so there wasn't much to throw up. Riddick's slight chuckle brought her out of her sudden illness and back into the here-and-now.

"What the fuck are you laughing at asshole? I told you we need to get out of here, but you never listen to me… neither did Shazza… all she had to do was to fucking stay down... Paris wouldn't let me help her, bastard wouldn't let go… Oh God Riddick why the hell can't we leave?! I don't want to remember these things! The nightmares are bad enough…" By this time Jack was in a corner of the ship her knees hugged tight to her chest like a child. It was only about a minute before the ship started to get dark and fuzzy and her panic caused her to black out.

Three Years Ago-

The room slowly began to come into focus as Jack looked around. All of her muscles screamed with pain and when she went to stretch them out, she found that she couldn't. Her hands were bound behind her in a vice-like hold and a rope that ran up to her knees bound her feet. She could hear distant voice but couldn't place any of them.

"Don't you think this is a little extreme? I mean she's just a child for chrisake."

"Rayne said she's extremely dangerous and not to take any chances, child or not."

"This just don't feel right man…"

Jack began to squirm on the ground like a worm on a hook and the grunts she produced drew attention from the guards. The first one to notice that she had woken up was the concerned one. She looked at him with a look of pure hatred in her eyes and the plan for his death began to form in her head.

"Jesus, she's awake" the man seemed to almost whisper

"Don't worry, I searched her personally, she has no weapons on her now."

If they only knew of the blade that she kept hidden in the pocket of her boot, that's why she'd chosen that particular style… hidden compartments. Unfortunately with her hands bound, she couldn't reach it so she'd have to rely on her skills to get herself out of bindings. Within a few moments her right hand slipped free but she made no move to attract the attention she didn't want. The rope slowly slipped off her other appendages and as she reached for the blade in her boot she noticed that there was another person bound and gagged and still unconscious. She took only a moment to study the man before she put her escape plan into action. In a whirlwind of movements she attacked the two men pouncing on the bigger of the two men and slit his throat without a second thought. As the man lay on the floor gasping for his last breath the blood seeping from the gash in his throat the smaller man looked at Jack. His face was white as a ghost as he brought his hand up to look at it to see it covered in his own blood. The pale blue of his shirt started to turn a deep purple color as the blood flowed from the large slice in his stomach. The man fell to his knees and looked up at Jack one last time.

"I would have let you go…" was the last few words to pass his lips.

"No you wouldn't. I would have killed you anyway." She stated as she placed the blade back into the hidden compartment in her boot. She stood up and looked around and caught the eyes of the bound man. He had seen the whole thing take place, in the first few moments of waking up. The look of fear that had been in his eyes for a moment suddenly turned into a plead to let him go and joined with the mumble of words that came from behind the gag. When Jack removed the duct tape from his mouth she could tell he was stifling a scream from the pull of the tape from his flesh.

"That was one hell of an impressive sight"

"Thank you, now you have two minutes to give me a reason not to kill you"

"I can get you out of here"

"How?"

"My name's Luc, I can fly this thing to where ever you want"

"How can I be sure you're not lying to me?" Jack said as her eyes narrowed and the shiv was placed at his neck threatening to pierce the skin.

"I guess the only way you'll know is to let me out of these fucking ropes." His eyes never wavered from their stare, the fear now gone. His heart did skip a beat as a low growl began to flow from her as the blade pushed harder against his throat but then in a swift movement had cut through the ropes that bound his arms and legs. Jack had given in to the animal side of her, all rational thought had left her with the injection the men had given her. She now had a vague understanding of Riddick. She had to admit though, she liked this feeling, the feeling that the world was at her mercy… fully understanding the meaning of kill or be killed. Riddick had once told her that to truly be able to defend yourself, there could be no hesitation. She now understood why he'd said that… she hadn't hesitated, and now she truly felt free.

Luc stared at her a moment longer not moving for fear of startling her. He felt like a rabbit staring into the face of a lioness. When she stood up slowly he realized that he'd been holding his breath the whole time and pulled in some much needed oxygen. As Jack turned and sat in one of the few seats the craft had, Luc finally brought his arms around front feeling the dull ache in his shoulders turn to a massive throb. Jack smirked as he winced with pain.

"How long they been holding you captive?"

"I've been sitting like that for three days"

"What did they want with you?"

"A bounty"

"Excuse me?" Jack spat it out as if she were insulted by the term bounty. The pause that lingered after was not a comfort to her.

"I'm waiting…"

"Well…" the kid took another moment to ponder whether or not he really wanted to tell her. "I'm worth a hell of a lot of money"

"And just why is that" Jack's tone let him know that she was not pleased with his answer and was rapidly growing bored with him.

"Because I'm the only witness to…" he cut off his own words then and sat stone-faced for a moment as he let the idea of some girl who'd just killed two men twice her size knowing his secret sink in.

"What did you witness a murder or something?" Her sarcastic tone told him that she was just playing with him now.

The boy scoffed as he stood up and let his sore muscles slowly regain feeling. "No… I'm the only witness to Richard B. Riddick's great escape… at least the only one still alive, or so they-"

His words were cut off then as Jack bounded at him and had him pinned against the wall her shiv at his throat. Her white-knuckled grip on the shiv was not a sight he had expected. When he swallowed he could feel the small trickle of blood as the result of the blade pushing against his skin

"You lie" Jack spat at him through clenched teeth. "There were no witnesses, he killed them all"

"How would you know?" He knew he shouldn't have asked but he just had to try it.

"Riddick never leaves anyone alive, only behind."

Jack's eyes flashed danger as her arm began to twitch with the tension of holding so still. She was a half-second away from killing him for insulting her intelligence when a loud beep drew her attention away for just a moment. That one moment seemed to be her downfall. When she turned her head towards the beep, she suddenly felt the floor fall away from beneath her and then the room slowly faded away into blackness