Not For Me

By Indygodusk


Chapter 5


Carolyn and Riddick managed to make her way back to the others without dying horribly. Feeling their emotions soar at her return, she imprinted on each of them as they stepped out of the cave, cementing their status in her mind as Tribe and bringing herself a measure of peace. If she lost someone on the way back to the shuttle it would hurt, but considering that she'd told Riddick she was willing to die for them, it seemed stupid to hold back on formalizing that connection in her mind.

Once they started running through the dark canyon holding onto each other single file, her hand secured in Riddick's, she had to fight the instincts clamoring that he should be hers too. No matter how infuriating he could be, she still wanted a tie to him. She wanted to understand him and know what he was feeling. However, when she tried reaching out for his mind she ran into a silver shield. She might've been able to get around it, but only if she used force. Carolyn backed down.

Through rain and darkness they fought their way back to settlement. With monsters circling above and on every side it became a mad dash of terror and exertion. At last they made it to the blazing shuttle. "On board now! C'mon! Up the ramp!" Carolyn counted heads as they scrambled into the light and collapsed in exhaustion. Shazza, Jack, Imam, Suleiman, and Hassan had all made it. Against impossible odds she'd protected her new tribe and led them to safety. She'd done it.

Except someone was still missing. A very important someone.

Riddick.

Watching with mounting dread, she searched the pitch black night from the safety of the shuttle ramp. No footsteps splashed in the distance. No silver gleamed in the dark. Last she'd seen of Riddick, he'd turned to distract the monster on their tail while everyone else ran. For countless minutes she stared out at the rain and mud, straining her eyes, ears, and empathy for signs of the Sentinel. Nothing reached her but the creatures' ravenous and all-consuming HUNGER.

"He's not coming," Shazza said curtly from the shuttle ramp. "We need to lift off and save those who are left." She stood with her arm around Jack's shoulders. Dropping her head to Shazza's chest, Jack started to cry.

Riddick wasn't part of their tribe. He didn't want to be her or any other Guide's Sentinel. He didn't want or need Carolyn's protection. And yet….

If there was even a chance he still lived out in that hellish night, she couldn't leave him. Would not leave him. They hadn't bonded, but their souls had kissed just as surely as their lips. Her universe would be a much darker place without him alive and thriving in it. She couldn't believe he was dead. Wouldn't she know if he was? Wouldn't she sense his spiritual sheen on the astral plane go dull and grey?

Her fingers started to cramp around the glowing blue bottle of bugs still clutched in one hand. The rear shuttle light strobed, reflecting off the rain and carving paths of light in the darkness that failed to reveal the man she was looking for. She was the one who'd promised to risk her life for everyone, not Riddick. It wasn't fair.

"Come," Imam said softly. She could feel his regret over Riddick's loss, the painful ache of Ali dying too soon, and his urgency to leave this cursed place and find a way to release his pain to his God.

"I can't. Not yet. I'm a Guide and Riddick… he was a Sentinel," Carolyn confessed, blinking back tears in the rain. "I think he was my—my compatible Sentinel."

"Bloody hell," Shazza breathed, shaking her head slowly. "What a thing."

Imam stepped to the edge of the ramp and met her eyes solemnly. "Then we shall honor both his sacrifice as our Protector and your loss once we are safely gone. Come, Carolyn. We must leave."

Breathing ragged, heart hurting, she felt the pull of Tribe. They needed her. She started to turn her back on the cold dark night when something on the astral plane clawed for her attention. Carolyn jerked back around and took two halting steps away from the shuttle, straining her senses. From the settlement echoed a faint cry of anger and pain, one she would've missed if she'd gone inside.

Not thinking, Carolyn bolted back out into the wet night. Holding the glowing blue bottle aloft, she frantically searched the shadows. "Riddick? Riddick?!" Skidding around a corner, she searched the stacked boxes for signs of her Sentinel. "Riddick!"

Something fell out of the darkness, knocking over boxes with a clatter. She swung her shining bottle around, fearing teeth and claws. Instead, she found Riddick.

He grimly hung onto the side of a crate and looked at her blankly. She could tell that his Sentinel senses were giving him trouble, overwhelmed at last with sensory dials on the wrong settings. Bloody slices covered him, including a deep slice across his thigh that kept him from standing upright. The cut on his scalp painted his ear red while creature blood covered his knife arm in pale blue.

Despite all that he was one of the most beautiful sights she'd ever seen. Carolyn reached out for him both physically and mentally, pulling him close. After only a token resistance he collapsed against her body, though his mind stayed stubbornly shielded.

"Okay, you're okay," she told him, trying to lift his dead weight up off the ground. "We're gonna get out of here. Hold onto me." Riddick tried to push up with his leg and slipped, knocking them both down into the cold, slippery mud. A strangled groan escaped his clenched teeth. She could feel his agony and utter exhaustion, but she couldn't indulge it. They had to get out of here. "Okay, I've got you. Get up. Up!"

When he didn't respond, she reached out for him with her empathy. "Let me in." His silver shields tried to keep her out. She shook him and growled in his ear, "Richard!" Blinking, feeling startled by the use of his first name, his shields parted just enough to let her slip inside.

Not letting herself think of consequences or the scintillating beauty and danger of his mind, she scooped up half of his pain like she'd done for a dying Owens and swallowed it down. It was amazing that he was still conscious with that much pain radiating through him, though she got the strangest sense that it had been even worse and he'd healed some of it just a few minutes before she'd arrived, which seemed impossible, though Riddick had been kicked in the face by Shazza, gone unconscious, and barely had a bruise to show for it on hour later. Mentally slapping herself for getting distracted, she focused on settling his pain inside her mind without letting it overwhelm her.

Their mental connection shook under the strain. It helped that he was a Sentinel with a native connection to the astral plane, but without even a tribal bond between them the strain proved to be too much for her to stay with him without help from his side of the link. As she fell out of his mind clutching half his pain to herself stubbornly, her last thought was to snap a mental kick upside his spirit, aligning his Sentinel senses back into place.

"Now get up!" Carolyn wheezed, fighting to keep her feet beneath the pain now shooting through her nerves and the large man hanging off her shoulder. Her gifts felt strained, but not burned out. Not like when she'd had to witness Owens' death. She hurt, but pain was nothing new. It settled inside her easier than she expected. Maybe because Owens wasn't a Sentinel or maybe because Riddick's soul was compatible enough to bond with hers. She yanked on Riddick's body and found the strength to yell. "If I can carry half, so can you. Focus and get up! Up!"

Abruptly surging to his feet, Riddick gasped painfully and swayed, clutching at her body and fighting to stay upright and not pass out. He buried his face in her shoulder and breathed hard, the scalding breaths puffing down her chest. His skin radiated heat like a furnace in the dark chill of the rain. He lifted his head from her neck, blinked, and focused on her face, as if finally realizing that she was really here and not a hallucination. She felt a tingle as all of his enhanced senses catalogued her body.

"Let's move. Come on." She strained to keep his slippery body upright as she pulled him towards the shuttle, frustrated at their lack of progress. "I said I'd die for them, not you."

Lips parting, Riddick stared at her as if having a revelation.

Carolyn didn't have time for revelations as she doggedly dragged him another step. She could feel the handle of his shiv pressing uncomfortably against her spine where he clutched at her waist. Maybe she should be worried about how close that knife was to her sweet spot, but she just… wasn't.

"That's..." Riddick stumbled and swallowed hard, "a lie."

When she tried to glare at him to keep moving he caught her gaze, not letting her look away as he searched her face and inadvertently revealed his heart. Empathic shields still thin and control wobbly, Carolyn found herself pulled deep into the core of his soul. Beyond the scars and pain she found brutal strength mixed with honor. She found a yearning for something more, for purpose and connection.

Carolyn couldn't help the compulsion that made her drop her mental shields and reach for him anymore than she could resist the compulsion to risk her life coming back to save him. She wasn't sure who was more shocked when her mind sank deep into his mental embrace like a ship coming into dock. Before she could react, his Sentinel gifts snapped up and curved around her mind in a silver dome. It started out aggressive but it didn't stay that way. The panes of the silver dome shivered and flipped so they faced out instead of in, protecting her mind from external threats in an impressive display of mental strength. Carolyn gasped as the background empathic noise she always had to work to filter out dropped away.

Riddick pulled her indecently close on the astral plane. She could see his soul so clearly. She saw him in ways she'd never seen another person before, all his shades of black, white, and gray. She wasn't sure he even realized that he was initiating a soul bond. It left some wiggle room. In that moment she knew she could resist. That everyone would expect her to resist and break free.

Caroly didn't want to.

Because at that moment, she was amazed to realize that she loved Richard B. Riddick. She'd seen his soul and found it mesmerizing. There were still many things she didn't know about him, but she wanted to learn. There were things she didn't like, but she knew she could accept. Just like he'd have to accept her flaws and imperfections. Everything she'd seen of him when push came to shove and everything she'd glimpsed when their minds and spirits had woven together had made her want more. At some point when she wasn't looking she'd fallen and fallen hard. She loved him completely, flaws and all. She loved him enough to die for him, loved him enough to live with him and fight to stay together. With Riddick, she wanted to do more than to just try. She wanted to bond with him soul to soul and spend the rest of her life exploring their connection. She loved him.

With their eyes locked, she didn't try to hide her feelings from him. She let them fill her face and wash through their mental connection.

Riddick seemed stunned. Overcome. The slight widening of his eyes comes a second before the silver embrace of his mental presence freezes and starts to pull back. He'd seized control of his instincts and realized what he'd done in pulling her so intimately close on the astral plane. He didn't trust it, maybe still didn't want it.

That didn't change how she felt. He didn't have to bond with her or love her back, but she'd shove her feelings down his throat before letting him pretend that she's lying or think he didn't deserve to be loved. She needed him to know that at least one person in the universe saw the truth of him and still loved him, loved him not despite but because of it.

She felt Riddick struggling, scared and trying to reject her caring as a lie but failing with the proof staring him in the face. Eyes narrowing as rain splattered their faces, he pressed roughly against her mind and scanned her with his senses, searching for deception. She didn't let herself hide anything from him, not her pain, not her flaws, and not the truth of her love. Riddick's chest heaved, struggling for air as he started to believe.

It's such a profound moment of connection that she barely notices the talons clenching down on her arms until she's ripped sharply from his arms and dragged up into the sky.

The physical pain slicing through her body felt almost secondary to the emotional pain as her mental tie to Riddick tore free, leaving her reeling as the unfinished bond withered away. She caught a glimpse of Riddick splashing forward onto the ground, his face illuminated in pale blue, before she lost sight of him in the dark rain. She's mentally scrambling. Everything hurts.

Terrified and blind, Carolyn dangled from the creature's talons high in the sky. She's about to be killed by a creature of nightmare and her empathy has blown wide open. Rubbing against the creature's emotions felt like reaching into a vat of rotting flesh. Doing so while being eaten would be even worse.

Cutting off the whimpers she hadn't realized she was making, Carolyn forced herself to purposely probe the creature's mind and try to forge a mental link. Her first two attempts failed but she forced herself to keep trying. Sobbing, desperate, she finally connected enough to read specific feelings.

HUNGER. EXCITEMENT. EAT. NOW. The creature's mouth dipped to take a bite of her leg. Carolyn tucked her head tight against the leathery limb clenched around her shoulder and upper arm and swung her legs back so it couldn't reach. Frustrated, the creature shook her, dislocating at least one shoulder and digging its claws in even deeper.

Carolyn screamed and fought to stay conscious. She had to focus or she was dead. Sobbing and desperate, she blasted feelings of FRIEND and PROTECT at the animal holding her captive.

Body stuttering, the creature swooped lower, putting agonizing strain on her shoulders and pierced flesh. FOOD it decided after a few moments of incomprehension. Carolyn despairingly remembered that these things were cannibals and unlikely to form personal bonds.

NOT SAFE she pushed next, barely hanging on to consciousness. If she passed out, she'd never wake up again.

DOWN. ALONE. SAFE. EAT. She could see the lights of the shuttle in the distance, a cruel tease. The monster angled down to a dark space between two buildings. HUNGRY. No other creatures seemed to be around.

Seemed.

Just before they landed, she felt HUNGER rapidly approaching from above. Crying out, fighting to survive, she tucked up her arms and legs. Claws scraped across her calf. The creature holding her screamed and jolted as PAIN filled its thoughts, followed by feelings of MINE and FIGHT. Both creatures made high-pitched shrieks and hoots. They crashed together, spattering her with hot blood and VIOLENCE.

The claws holding her abruptly pulled out of her flesh. Screaming, Carolyn dropped through the air. Her scream abruptly cut off as she landed on a rooftop, rolling and sliding. The roof panel snapped beneath the weight of her body and dumped her inside the building. The beams of the ceiling collapsed together to form a precarious new roof while bits of debris pelted her body.

Unable to breathe after landing so hard and in excruciating pain, she lay paralyzed for several moments. Finally she found enough energy to suck in a breath of air. Eyes blind with tears, she forced herself to roll over... or at least she tried. Her arms wouldn't work and rolling onto her open wounds caused her body to seize with pain. She convulsed. Fighting to stay conscious, she flopped onto her back and focused on breathing and not throwing up. If she threw up and passed out she'd asphyxiate on her own vomit.

Expecting teeth to tear her apart at any moment, Carolyn looked around and realized that she could see. The room was illuminated enough to make out a bed shoved against the wall and a small dresser strewn with deteriorating personal effects. Light strobed in from a high window in the opposite wall so the shuttle lights must be in line with that side of the building.

If she could just get to the shuttle she'd be safe, but the light was dim enough that this must be one of the far buildings. Her excitement extinguished as quickly as a torch in the rain. Carolyn couldn't even use her arms, much less find the strength to stand up. She was bleeding and had no source of light. The shuttle could be just outside the door and it would still be an impossible distance.

Unable to just give up when she'd fought so hard for so long to live, Carolyn took a hitching breath and feebly pushed against the dirty floor with her feet, slowly pushing her body backwards until her head hit the wall. Somehow she pushed herself up onto her knees. Spots danced in front of her eyes but she ignored them, forcing her body to shuffle along the gritty wall until she could wedge herself into the corner with the most light.

Panting through clenched teeth, she wondered if the faint light was bright enough to protect her from being eaten. Carolyn's mind drifted. Warm blood trickled down her icy-cold skin and slowly pooled in the crooks of her elbows. The scent would soon draw something hungry enough to risk a little burn. Of course, Riddick would be reaching the shuttle any second now and taking the lights away with him. Death at that point was guaranteed.

With surprise, she realized that she didn't regret giving her life to save the passengers. They were her Tribe to protect. And she didn't regret going back a second time to save Riddick. She didn't want to die but she couldn't regret saving the man who might've been her Sentinel.

No, what she regretted was not taking him up on that offer in the shuttle to let him glut his senses on her body until they both passed out from pleasure.

She also regretted giving these creatures the satisfaction of eating her. Maybe she'd get lucky and the backwash from the shuttle engines would set the settlement on fire and immolate her body, depriving them of the pleasure. One could only hope. At the very least she hoped she bled to death before they got to her with teeth and claws.

Something outside the building scraped softly.

Carolyn's stomach dropped. Of course she wasn't that lucky. Her time was up. She didn't bother trying to project to the mind of the creature outside, didn't have the energy to even try. She was spent. Unfortunately she was also too drained to erect mental shields to protect her from feeling the creature's emotions.

As the door slammed open she was hit with a wash of feral RAGE. Knocked mentally sideways, she blacked out.

When Carolyn forced her heavy eyelids to open again, she saw a blurry blue monster crouching in front of her. She tried to raise her arms defensively, but before she could do more than tense and twitch, the sharp pain made her whimper and abort the motion. Dark spots swam in front of her eyes, threatening to drop her back into the abyss of unconsciousness.

The monster gave a bass growl. Glass clattered onto the floor. Calloused hands reached out and pressed her wrists to her thighs, keeping her wounded arms still. The press of skin on skin brought a feeling like an electrical jolt, bringing her clarity and clearing her eyes.

It wasn't a blue monster, at least not an animal one. "Richard?" It was a human monster with a glowing blue bottle of bugs. It was her monster. Carolyn relaxed. The bottle of bugs dimmed as it rolled into the yellow light of the shuttle through the window.

Blinking, she realized that Riddick being here meant he had come after her instead of getting himself safe to the shuttle. "Why?" Her throat felt raw and swollen from screaming. She swallowed and frowned at him.

Instead of answering, Riddick lowered his head and breathed hotly against the delicate tracery of veins in her wrist, running his nose up her forearm and leaving warmth behind on her icy skin. A strange energy flowed from him and soaked into her body. She'd never felt anything like it before. The Sentinel seemed to be running on primitive instincts more than logic right now. He must've gone feral at seeing her taken. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. If he'd died while tracking her down, her sacrifice would've been for nothing.

Pausing at the crook of her elbow, he lapped at the blood that had pooled there, dragging his tongue up the red lines on her arms until only clean skin remained. It felt strangely nice. Caring. Arousing almost if she hadn't been on the verge of death.

But then his tongue moved up to lick the wounds on her upper arms and shoulders clean.

"Stop!" she choked out, trying and failing to get away from him. The licking made her wounds burn, like his mouth was filled with something more than just normal saliva.

Riddick growled and pulled her closer.

Her breath sobbed in and out of her chest as he licked at her torn flesh until he was satisfied that it had been cleaned enough. She could feel that he wasn't doing it to be cruel, he was trying to take care of her. It still hurt. She only had a moment of relief before he moved to her other arm and began licking blood off with the same thoroughness.

Just when she thought he might finally be done, he grabbed her arm, lifted, rotated, and yanked. Her shoulder snapped back into place with a sick crunch. She gasped wetly and passed out.

When she woke, Riddick was licking the fresh blood seeping down her arm. Carolyn wept and endured. Crooning softly, he licked a shallow scrape on her chin and finally sat back on his heels.

Grabbing the hem of his shirt, Riddick lifted it off over his head and ripped it into two pieces. If she wasn't in so much pain she'd take more pleasure in the sight of his bare torso rippling beneath miles of deliciously unblemished dark skin. As it was she took a mental snapshot and promised to revisit it at a later date if she survived all of this. Maybe during a long, hot shower she thought with a weak spurt of amusement. Riddick looked at her through his eyelashes and gave her a faint smirk before he began to use his shirt to bind the wounds on her arms. She hissed through her teeth in pain. The discomfort made the sight of his bare torso fade in importance, though she vaguely thought that it odd that the cuts on his back and arms seemed to have disappeared and the gouge above his ear had already become a small scab.

Once done binding her arms, Riddick cocked his head and licked blood from the corner of his mouth as he looked her over for more wounds. It gave her a chance to catch her breath. Completing his survey, he moved down to her legs. The slice on her calf and a gouge on her thigh received the same treatment, but thankfully the wounds weren't as bad so it went more quickly.

Blinking tears out of her eyes, she took a shuddering breath and realized that she could move her arms now, though it still hurt. Not as much as it should have, though. He'd also somehow stolen back the pain she'd drained from him earlier and made it disappear from the back of her mind. She felt strangely light without it. The people he came from must have insanely advanced healing and spiritual gifts.

Riddick sat back and ran a hand over his shaved head, ripping open the scab above his ear. She winced when it started bleeding anew, though he seemed unfazed. Swiping two fingers across the open wound, he coated them in blood.

Then he reached for her mouth.

Instantly Carolyn clamped her mouth shut and turned her head to the side.

Grabbing her chin, he forced her head back and rested his wet fingertips on her bottom lip. He didn't shove them in but he clearly expected obedience as he caught her eyes in a steely and intelligent gaze, obviously no longer feral. "Open, Caro."

She felt the press of his mind as he opened his silver shields and swept them around her like wings. What was he doing?

Realizing he had more patience than she did and fearing what he'd do next to get his way, not to mention her own exhaustion, she sighed through her nose, giving in as she grudgingly opened her lips. The taste of copper burst across her tongue as he slid his fingers in and out of her mouth. She swallowed involuntarily and wondered what he'd do if she asked for some peppermint schnapps to cut the taste. The thought made her lips twitch.

Lips curving in satisfaction, Riddick dropped a searing kiss on her mouth and leaned back just enough to whisper against her mouth, "Blood shared, spirits bound, fates fused. My body stands Sentinel, your empathy Guides." Leaning back, he looked at her steadily, expectantly.

Swallowing hard, mouth still flooded with copper, she fought not to faint again. "What?"

Eyes going hard, he gruffly ordered, "Say it. Bond with me, Carolyn Fry. Say the ritual words and make the link."

"You don't owe me this. You don't owe me anything." She searched his face but didn't know what his expression meant. A laugh tried to escape her lips but turned into a cough. It hurt. Everything hurt. When she caught her breath again, she gave him a humorless smile. "Besides, I could die at any moment and bonding would drag your spirit down with me."

"You're not allowed to die," he snapped, a muscle jumping in his cheek.

Ignoring her incredulous look, he cupped her face and smoothed along her jaw with his thumbs. "Look," lips firming, eyes shining silver, he glared at her. "We're in this together now. I want a bond. I want a bond with you. Say the words, Caro." Behind the bossy tone she could feel his emotions, a swirling mass of desperate hope, desire, and need all focused on her, powerful and protective. When she didn't answer right away, overcome at the quiet and shy feeling of love hiding behind his louder emotions, his voice and confidence wavered, "Please."

Nodding slowly, she breathed in and took him into her soul. "Blood shared, spirits bound, fates fused. My empathy Guides, your body stands Sentinel. Bonded as one from this moment on." Leaning forward, she pressed her mouth to his in a soft kiss that echoed the easy merging of their spirits. His silver shields embraced her mind fully, locking out any unwanted mental contact and granting her peace and safety. Her mind had just enough strength to sweep through and complete the bonding, making herself the touchstone to his senses for the rest of their days. They soared together on the astral plane.

Overworked, her gifts dropped her back into her aching body. "Ow," she groaned even as she met his eyes and smiled. Her eyes welled with good tears at the relief and joy of being bonded to her Sentinel. It felt amazing and his wonder and exultation at the bonding made her want to preen. "I know we could still die at any moment, but wow."

Carefully hugging her close, he pressed a kiss to her temple and breathed in the scent of her hair. "Definitely wow and you're still not allowed to die. Come on, up. Back to the shuttle." Keeping an arm around her waist, he pulled her to her feet.

"This feels familiar," she said wryly, leaning heavily against him. She was surprised to find her legs actually bearing her weight. "Except notice how quickly I got up when you asked."

"Carolyn."

"Richard." She smirked at him, unable to help herself.

Riddick rolled his eyes. "Let's go. Anything tries to take a bite of us, I'll kill it." Reaching down, he picked up the bottle of bugs and tucked it into her hand, making sure she had a firm grip before letting go.

Her body still felt painful and distressingly weak, even with whatever Riddick had done to jumpstart her healing, but at least she no longer felt on the verge of death. She wrapped her arm around his trim waist and tucked her fingers into his waistband to keep her balance. "Try to keep us in the light of the shuttle on the way."

He grunted. "As long as it doesn't fly off without us." Riddick moved them to the door and opened it a crack, scanning for creatures with all his senses. She could distantly feel him using her as an anchor to cast his senses out farther than he usually allowed himself to go.

"They can't. No one else knows how to fly."

Pausing, Riddick pulled his senses back in and looked down at her incredulously.

"There's just you and me." She shrugged.

Riddick threw back his head with a loud bark of laughter. Lips still twitching, he raised his shiv in his free hand and used it to lead the way out the door and around the dark front of the building until they were illuminated by the lights of the distant shuttle.

Carolyn didn't have the strength to hold the bottle up but she kept it at their backs where their bodies would naturally cast shadows that the creatures might use to sneak up in. She could hear them slithering and rustling in the shadows, but as each step bathed them in more light the sounds diminished.

They'd made it almost all the way to the shuttle when someone shouted. The stranded passengers poured out onto the ramp and started cheering. "They're alive!" Jack shouted.

"There's my God!" Imam fell to his knees in the mud, raising his hands to the heavens.

She probably shouldn't have left the five of them behind to go after just one man when none of them knew how to fly, but she had no regrets, not when the man she'd saved was Richard B. Riddick, her now bonded Sentinel. Even if she had died, he still would've lived and could've flown them to safety. It had been worth the risk. He'd been worth it.

She felt a throb of embarrassment and pleasure as Riddick caught the edge of what she was feeling through their mental link.

As the two of them reached the shuttle, they were mobbed by the ecstatic passengers, who must've been on the cusp of giving them both up for dead (and consequently themselves).

"Fry, you're the luckiest woman I've ever met to cheat death this many times!" Shazza laughed and squeezed her forearm, grinning.

Imam grabbed Riddick's wrist and shook it enthusiastically, not bothered by the bloodstained knife still held in his hand. "Praise be to Allah for your survival!"

"Captain! Captain!" Suleiman and Hassan jumped up and down on the ramp and waved their arms.

Carolyn sketched them a shaky salute and handed the bottle to a beaming Jack. "Break that for me and set the bugs free, will ya? They deserve it." Jack nodded eagerly and threw the bottle at the side of a nearby crate, shattering it and freeing the bugs a bit more violently than Carolyn had intended. Hopefully some of them survived.

Carolyn stepped away from Riddick and put a foot up onto the ramp, more than ready to fire up the engines and kiss this planet goodbye. However, the second her fingers slipped free of her Sentinel's skin she abruptly became dizzy and found her strength disappearing. Her knees buckled.

Before she could hit the ramp, Riddick swept her up into his arms. "Sorry, I'm fine," she told him groggily, patting his chest as he carried her up into the ship. A muscle in his jaw was jumping and his eyes were flint, trying to hide his worry behind anger.

Sitting down in the pilot seat, Riddick arranged her body so she was sideways in his lap with her cheek pressed against his bare shoulder. She thought about protesting but he was just so comfortable and she was so tired. Her body had given everything it had to give. She turned her nose into his neck and sighed. His hand rubbed down her thigh.

The sound of the conversation in the back turned awkward as everyone settled into their seats and stared at the two of them basically snuggling.

"Fry can have my seat," Jack offered, sounding both jealous and confused. "I can sit on the floor."

"She's fine where she is." The sound of Riddick's voice rumbled from his chest directly into her ears. She liked the sensation.

"Jack," Shazza whispered loudly, "they bonded."

"Oh! Wow, really? Does that mean he knew she was a Guide this whole time even though none of us did?"

Mouth curving, Carolyn opened heavy eyelids to see Riddick flipping switches to close the ramp and prep for takeoff. "Don't forget to—" she pointed weakly.

"I got it."

"Ships this old are finicky. You need to—"

"I got it. Relax." He pushed her head firmly back down on his shoulder before reaching out to flip the switch she'd been about to mention.

Huffing, she let him take charge. For now. She nipped him with her teeth to show that he couldn't just boss her around all of the time, Sentinel or no.

His head dipped next to her ear and breathed, "Don't start. Not unless you're willing to finish in front of this crowd."

Before she could decide what to do about the tingles now running up and down her spine, he reached out and shut off the lights, plunging the outside of the ship into darkness.

"Riddick? What are you doing?" Jack asked with a quaver as creatures landed on the windshield of the craft and started banging their heads against it, trying to get inside.

"We can't leave…" he told her, "...without saying goodnight." Giving a cruel smirk, he fired up the engines and took off, releasing an explosion of propellant that lit the settlement on fire and incinerated thousands of swarming creatures. Satisfaction oozed from him. Carolyn felt pretty great about it herself.

As they rose above the cloud layer and the windshield filled with the familiar glory of the stars, everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Imam and his two remaining boys broke into prayers of praise, though everyone had to be feeling the ghosts of those they'd left behind. It was a miracle that they'd survived. A miracle and a man named Riddick. As the prayers trailed off, Carolyn drifted into a light doze.

She woke up to Jack's voice speaking to Riddick. "A lot of questions, whoever we run into. Could even be a merc ship. So, what do we tell them about you?"

The question made her fingers tighten around the arm Riddick had wrapped around her waist. A soothing feeling flowed from his mind into hers, a balm that coated her rising anxiety. He pulled her closer against his chest and ran a hand over her hair and down her back, carefully avoiding her wounds as he pet her. She found that she liked being petted.

She felt him turn to look at Jack, the stubble of his chin catching on her hair. After a moment of thought he finally answered. "Tell them Riddick's dead. He died somewhere on that planet."

As they flew back towards the shipping lane, Carolyn's mind churned over thoughts and plans. She felt the passengers succumb to sleep one by one until only she and her Sentinel were awake. "Are you happy?" she asked softly.

"Me?" She felt his incredulity and scorn. "We could've escaped earlier with half the trouble. I almost died and you almost got eaten."

"But we did survive. And we bonded. Are you happy?" she repeated stubbornly.

Adjusting a lever, he stopped and really thought about her question. "I guess I did get to kill Johns…" he mused, "and I ended up with you in my lap and bound to me, so sure."

Deciding that that was probably the best she was going to get, she wiggled to get more comfortable on his lap. "Okay, nevermind, next question. How do you feel about ditching the alliteration and becoming Richard Fry to help hide you from those who'll come looking?"

He gave her a sideways glance. "I don't know if I want to be a kept man."

Beneath her glare his lips twitched and widened into a full-fledged grin. She tried to pull away and stand. Riddick chuckled, pulling her firmly back down against his shaking body and trapping her in his arms. "I'll think about it." He rubbed his nose down hers teasingly and dropped a kiss on her lips, leaning back with his lips still curved in amusement.

After so long as a loner, she couldn't help but like all the touching, though he was still being rather irritating. Was this going to be the rest of her life? Him provoking her?

Riddick's hand cupped her throat, tracing up and down her tendons. "As long as you're the one who's keeping me, I suppose I can get used to it." Pressing his face against the top of her head, he breathed in deep and hummed, a faint rumble that made her skin tingle.

"Me too." Relaxing back against his body, she petted her fingers up and down his arm. "We just need to get rescued and back to civilization. I can quit The Company and collect my back pay. After that, we'll have the money to go find somewhere on the frontier to make our new home where they don't care about you or your bounty. There's always work for pilots." She yawned and closed her eyes.

"I like that plan," he said softly, brushing hair off her face. He slid a lock through his fingers over and over, indulging himself in the texture, lifting it to brush across his jaw and lips. "We just have to escort Imam to New Mecca and get Shazza and Jack settled somewhere safe. Maybe Shazza will have some ideas for a good place for the four of us to put down roots."

"Tribe first," she agreed, circling her finger slowly around the hollow of his arm as she slid back towards sleep.

"Guide and Tribe." He pressed a hand over her heart, indulging his senses in the strong thump of her heartbeat.

"Sentinel and Guide," she murmured, already half asleep. "Protect each other. Me 'n you. Together."

"Yeah," he breathed, looking out at the stars with a faint smile she felt more than saw. "Together."


THE END


AN: Thank you so much for reading my strange take on this. I love Pitch Black a lot and hope you enjoyed this happy fix-it twist on the story and universe. Each and every comment you sent me is treasured. You're wonderful!