The Journey

Most of the following day was rather busy, getting the ship ready, gathering what they could to barter with if the money wasn’t enough for what they needed, so Kylie had little time for herself, barely having time to even eat.

Scales watched from where he waited by the ship. He might not like the new Lord Marshall much, and he liked even less that neither he nor his pilot were purified, but he did respect the man. He knew that the man was strong, and that he had fought and won the title he now held fairly. He also held a small respect for the woman he was now watching. She was no weakling herself, and she had shown her cunning and fighting strength more then once in his presence. He had seen how admirably she had fought against the slavers. More importantly then all that, he was one who took his orders seriously, and since he had been ordered to guard this woman with his life, he had every intention of doing so, no matter his own feelings in the matter. He had hand picked a small group of three men he trusted implicitly to accompany them.

Finally the ship was ready, and just before the sun set for the night, they launched. The trip itself was peaceful, and they landed at the station without any trouble. Kylie had an established relationship with a lot of the vendors there, since she was the one who would go to get the supplies for the settlement before. It didn’t take her very long to get what they needed, but it was going to take some time for the ship to be loaded with the supplies. The men loaded the few things that they hadn’t gotten the vendors to load, and decided to go hunting for food.

Kylie led them to a small restaurant in an area off the beaten path that had a wide variety of food to choose from. The place was not very busy, it was between meals, so they were seated and ate pretty quickly. As they left though, the men grew tense, and Kylie easily picked up on it.

Her eyes shifted around the buildings, and she saw a few people, but her untrained eyes didn’t pick up anything out of place. She knew that they knew what they were doing, and didn’t hesitate when they told her to find the fastest way back to the ship.

Down a few alleys, and then onto a main road, that was the way she remembered, but she was rudely brought back to the reality of how much things change when one of her shortcut alleys turned out to be dead ended by a brand new building.

“Shit!” She cursed, and started to walk back the way they came, when the shadow of men fell over the entrance of the alley.

She was gently, and firmly pushed back behind the men who protected her. Scales growled out at the men. “Remove yourselves from our path, or we will remove you.”

The men facing them laughed, a group of about six well armed men stood facing them. “Give us the girl and we will.” The man in the center, who appeared to be the one in charge, retorted, then laughed again.

With a growl the men launched at each other, the Mercs pulling guns and clubs while the soldiers pulled out whatever weapon they had remembered to bring with them.

“Run!” Scales yelled at Kylie as he started for the leader, knocking two men out of his way to get at him.

She clung to the wall as she tried to pass them, darting out of the alley and down the road, she headed in the direction she knew the port was in. She had gotten only a couple blocks when she heard the pound of footsteps behind her, matching her step for step and catching up.

She fought off her rising fear, and took turn after turn, trying to lose the person chasing her, but was unsuccessful. She discovered that the person after her knew the area much better then her when she ran into him, his arms wrapping around her neck, a knife pressing into her chest as she was dragged away.


Darkness, then the faint sound of voices. Kylie didn’t open her eyes, but listened, keeping her breathing slow and even.

“We killed all of them but one, as you said. He’ll take the message back, and then when he comes for the girl, we’ll have him. That woman said that he would want her back, so it’ll work.”

”Perfect.” The chuckle of the men drew closer, and she heard a door slide open. She left her eyes closed as they entered the room.

”Time to wake up.” One of the men said as he slapped her hard, bringing tears to her eyes and turning her cheek red.

She opened her eyes and looked over the two men in front of her. She didn’t say anything as they asked her where Riddick was, who was with him, how many people, and other questions over and over. She didn’t say a word as they started to hit, her, trying to beat her into compliance, bloodying her lip and blackening her eye.

They kept at it until they knocked her unconscious with a vicious blow to the side of her head.

In a familiar room, not really there, but still there. A man walks in, bloodied and battered, barely standing. Burn marks on his face and chest show where he was hit by a gun, another by an electric probe of some sort. Blood dripped from his ears and nose. He was barely standing, but held himself on his feet.

“My Lord…I am sorry, we were outnumbered, I am the only one alive. They only spared me to make me give you this.”

He handed the man in the shadows a small machine and left.

A voice filled the room. “We have the woman. If you want her, come get her.” A small holo-projector showed an image of her bound and gagged, unconscious.

The man in the shadows growled in anger, then paused. He finally sensed her there.

His eyes traveled the room, then closed. And there he could see her, and she could see him.

”Took you long enough.” She spoke with a half smile. “Don’t do it. They’ll kill you. I’ll be fine..”

He just shook his head and stood, eyes opening. She watched him as he gathered his knives.

”Riddick, please..I don’t want anything to happen to you because of me.”

He stopped, closing his eyes. As he did, her control slipped for a mere second, long enough for him to see how she truly looked physically at that moment. His eyes narrowed in even more anger, she could feel it rolling off him in waves. Then he smiled. It was a smile that promised blood.

“Rid..”

She was yanked back to awareness by a hose spraying her with icy water. She merely looked at the men and smiled, a cold, angry smile, and braced herself for more of their “questions”.