Hey everyone this is my first fanfic ever so please be gentle. I took some liberties with the timeline in order to mesh the Pitch Black 'verse with the Serenity 'verse, and remember this is a complete AU.

For starters River was taken to the academy at age thirteen (instead of fourteen), Simon did not rescue her until she was seventeen (instead of sixteen) and Miranda happened when she was eighteen. Riddick was 19 when he met River at the Academy (read the story for the explanation there I'm not giving anything away).

During the Prelude River is 16 Riddick is 22, Pitch Black happens four years later (Riddick age 26). Chapter 1 opens three years after Miranda, and 1 year after Pitch Black, River is 21 Riddick is 27.

Chinese is in italics and 'cause I hate had to scroll down to figure out what they mean I was nice and put the English translations in () next to them, forgive me if anything thing got lost in translation English is my only language.

Don't own anything….just like to play with other people's imaginary friends.

Prelude

"Ready to dance?" Riddick pushed his thoughts at the small framed girl crouched next to him.

"Girl is sick of this dance, wanted to dance with silk ribbons and shoes, never this way." She answered through her mind.

"Yeah well, ain't got the choice now River girl, we gotta dance, can't afford to fuck this up." He answered running his fingers through her long mass of hair, enjoying the faint trace of her scent the action had stirred up, it calmed him helping him to focus rather than distracting him.

"Girl doesn't want to dance anymore, doesn't remember any other steps besides blood and death." She lifted her head nuzzling his hand like a kitten.

"If the girl doesn't remember River will have to remind her." He told her through their mind speak, tilting her chin up with his fingers. His inner beast had been pacing behind its bars, it settled now tilting its head in concern, trying to comfort someone was still foreign and new to them, it was unsure.

"There is no longer a River, just a girl." She thought pulling her head away and hiding behind her hair.

Riddick growled low in his chest, "That's a shame 'cause I really wanted River to teach me some new steps." His big hand gently tucked a wave of hair behind her ear.

"The beast will still dance with the girl when they are free? When the steps are more than slice and shoot?" She asked hopefully.

"Riddick will dance with River." He corrected a small smirk tugging at his lips.

River thought for a moment before taking a breath and answering through her mind. "The girl is ready then." She thought confidently, the shy dancer disappearing and emerging in her place the deadly ballerina.

"Give me your arm."

River obediently produced her right arm, biting her lip against what she knew was coming but it had to be done."Sorry Bao Bei (treasured object, darling)," Riddick thought at her before taking her arm and using a handmade shiv he had pulled from his boot, he sliced a four inch cut into her arm. He brought the cut to his lips and using his tongue felt for the tiny tracking implant, he spit it out on the ground before repeating the action on himself.

"Always blood," She sighed through her mind, "the River runs with it, floods with it." She remarked absently watching the crimson trail stain her pale creamy skin.

Riddick licked the traces of blood from his lips, his beast growling with the pleasure of it and without thinking he pressed their cuts together mingling their blood. "Now my blood runs through the River, makes you mine girl, and nothing in the 'verse keeps me from what's mine."

River smiled up at him adoration in her eyes. He flashed her a smirk and stood tearing a piece of fabric from his shirt. There was no point in moving through the ship undetected if they left a trail of blood behind them. He pulled River to her feet and gingerly pressed their foreheads together. Silently they reviewed the plan, his beast pushing strength through their bond and into the tiny girl. Then, crossing the small passenger dorm and prying open the security lock with his shiv he stepped aside allowing River to reach into the panel. In a matter of seconds the door hissed open and large hands shot out grabbing the one soldier guarding the door and snapping his neck in one fluid and practiced motion. Never releasing his grip Riddick dragged the soldier's lifeless body into the dorm. River resealed the door from the inside slipping back out before it completely closed. The hallway was quiet save for the distance humming of the ship's engine.

By River's calculation there were ten soldiers, two pilots, and thirty miles between them and freedom, and River was never wrong. Nine of the soldiers were lounging and playing cards around the cargo hold, one was holed up with the pilots in the cockpit. The transport was supposed to be taking them to the Academy's new underground facility, this was their one good shot at freedom. Hun dans(Bastards) shoulda been more careful moving them with only one squad, stupid, but then again Riddick was supposed to be a company man, in it for the greater good and all that gou shi (shit), maybe once upon a time he had been a company man, but first and foremast Riddick was a man that looked after his own and right now that included him and their girl, the rest of the 'verse could go fuck themselves.

"This is it girl." Riddick thought as he knelt down and let River climb up his body and into the pipes over head. She scrambled gracefully into the mass of metal and wires disappearing completely from view.

"The girl is equal to the task." She thought back.

"River-girl never will doubt you." He smirked and silently made his way down the hallway as River continued to move up and into the ship's electrical heart. He waited patiently in the shadows outside the cargo bay for her to finish her task. Three minutes and fifty seven seconds later the ship went dark. Riddick lifted his goggles and smiled. Gleefully he released his hold on the beast's chain, it was time to play.

The Academy may have turned River from a little girl into a predator, but Riddick was a Furyan, he was born a predator, the darkness, the sound a blade makes slicing through flesh, the whispers which told him to go for the sweet spot, told him where his target was weakest these were things bred into his body, the moment the lights went out the soldiers were already dead, they just didn't know it yet. The cargo hold became a chaos of surprised shouts, a sprinkle of gun fire, the gurgle of dying men choking on their own blood and bile, and then two minutes and twelve seconds later when the pilot was able to re route the power supply to restore the lights and video surveillance the hold was void of all life, save one semi-psychotic sociopath, at the moment more animal then man. He didn't hear her footsteps, he didn't have to, he knew she was there just as he knew she would catch the two handguns he tossed behind him without warning, and she did.

"The beast is greedy." She thought but it wasn't a criticism, merely an observation as she surveyed the gory scene around her. The beast had wanted blood for the crimes committed against their River, and he was far from satisfied.

"The beast is still hungry." He growled back through his thoughts, River could tell the difference in his mind when the beast had control, Riddick was there in the background ready to reign in his pet if things got out of hand, but now Riddick the man was relaxed, the beast would no sooner hurt their River then chew off its own paw. River's survival had become essential to their own.

"Mathis?" a raspy voice crackled over a comm. unit, fear evident in the soldier's voice. Riddick crushed it beneath his boot.

"They are calling for assistance; they know the beast and the ballerina have come out to dance." River spoke aloud, stealth was no longer necessary.

"Too bad it will come too late." The beast growled smugly tossing River two extra clips for the handguns, he himself wasn't a fan of guns, not personal enough but their girl could take out a full squad from two hundred yards with her eyes closed, he knew 'cause he'd watched her do it.

"They are sealing themselves in the cockpit. They are afraid." River's eyes were slightly glazed over which was usual when she was "looking".

The beast growled in pure pleasure, "They should be."

"They have eyes and have seen us." She jerked her head up at the surveillance camera above them. She watched intently feeling the shift as the beast bowed down and the man stepped forward again.

Riddick looked up and waved, smiling he tossed his shiv directly into the lens, effectively disabling it. Then walking back toward the cargo bay doors, he slammed his fist against the controls, the doors squealed in protest but slowly inched their way open.

Wind whipped into the bay, blowing River's tangled mass of brown hair into her face she sputtered angrily giving Riddick a dirty look as he laughed.

"Girl would not have the current vision impairment if her beast had let her shave her head as well." She shouted over the sound of the incoming air.

"Aww River-girl wouldn't be a good look for you." He teased as he lifted her up and into the mule before jumping up himself. "Here." He grunted tossing her a pair of goggles as he pulled his own down across his eyes again.

Just as Riddick had begun powering up the mule River turned and yelled, "Down!" Riddick hit the floor immediately, when River said duck you got your ass to the ground. He felt the breeze from the shot gun blast as it whizzed just above his prone form and into the controls.

"Yeh lu jwo duo luh jwohn whei jian gui (Attributing an unfortunate long shot occurrence, literally "do enough nighttime travels and one will eventually see a ghost"; also a warning of future retribution.) Riddick swore, the mule wasn't going anywhere now.

River swung round and aimed eyes closed.

"Eta kuram na smekh!" The soldier yelled and River hit the ground hard again falling out the mule, her head hit the metal making a sickening crack, which echoed through Riddick's mind twisting his stomach into a pit of fear.

The scent of River's fresh blood jolted him into action and grabbing for one of the guns that had slipped from her hand he fired several times in the direction of the shot gun blasts, but Riddick was nowhere near as accurate with a gun as he was with a shiv, especially when he wasn't looking. One of his bullets managed to graze the soldier before he found cover behind a side wall.

"River!" He roared, no response, "Eto sdeiaio by koska krik!" He yelled at her.

River shot up immediately regretting the action as the blood pooled to her head, she keeled back over retching up every drop of food she'd eaten in the last twenty four hours.

"River-girl you with me?" Riddick yelled firing another round into the wall the soldier was hiding behind, his gun clipped empty, the soldier fired another round as bits of metal exploded around him as he pressed himself as tightly to the floor of the mule as he could. "Gun girl, toss me your gorram gun!" He barked.

River's head spun as she felt the warm trickle of blood behind her ear, from somewhere in the distance she heard Riddick yell for her but she could not focus on where.

A wild shot from the soldier's gun severed the mule's tether and sent it flying across the ship.

"Ta de ma! (Fuck)" Riddick swore as his shoulder connected with the busted control panel and the mule with the wall knocking him from his feet again. "River get your ass up!" He roared into her mind.

The ship jolted hard to the left and Riddick and the disabled mule went flying out the open cargo bay doors. Vaguely before River's world went dark she heard the distant cry of anguish and utter pain, the sound of an animal wounded and enraged, it tore through mind and with her last conscious breath she whispered, "Riddick." and then there was nothing.

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SO... whadda think? anybody even still interested in the River/Riddick pairing?