In the graveyard, Riddick had finished fashioning a shiv from one of the countless bones of the gigantic creatures that’d died there when he heard voices. He should have heard them before, but it was as if the bones were moaning in pain all around him, trying to say something, and they’d drowned out the other sounds.

That could have cost a lesser being on the run his life.

“Is this whole planet dead?” The captain asked, close by.

Riddick tilted his head towards her voice; they were close to him now.

One of the kids said something in rapid Arabic.

“He asks,” the Holy Man explained. “What could have killed so many great things?”

Riddick could have added ‘in such a violent way’ to that sentence. He’d surveyed the titanic skeletons tinted by green lichen the moment he’d come across the graveyard, also trying to discover why gigantic creatures like these would fall in such great numbers and with such ease.

He’d discovered razor-like teeth marks slicing into the bones.

Carnivores.

So something had felled these giant beasts by the thousands, and due to the discoloration of the bones---they’d all been killed around the same time.

That, coupled with the fact that the whole planet in itself seemed dead, didn’t sit well with the murderer.

“Some…communal graveyard, perhaps.” The Holy Man announced, yet there were many questions in his voice. “Like the Elephants of Earth-That-Was.”

“Graveyards?” The captain was closer. “Or killing fields?”

Riddick smirked. She’d noticed the cut-marks, almost as if the bones had been hacked. She was beginning to redeem herself in his eyes.

“Long time ago.” The voice of the Blue-Eyed Devil, Johns, was next to the captain and the Holy Man, causing Riddick to move back into the shadows by instinct. “Whatever happened.”

Sensing movement coming towards him, Riddick pocketed the shiv he’d finished carving out of the bone and with a swift movement climbed up the skull of the creature he was in, hiding within the sinus cavity.

In seconds it would seem, one of the Chrislams appeared where he’d been only moments ago. The young boy looked around, obviously at ease and unaware that right above him lay certain death.

Riddick shook his head in disgust.

“Hey! What are you doing there?” Johns’ annoyed voice heralded his coming, and the tall, blonde man glared at the young Chrislam. “I said no one goes on his own! Now git!”

The young boy hurried out.

Johns went as if to follow him before he noticed the bone-chippings piled on the ground from where Riddick had been fashioning his shiv. The blonde pulled out his weapon in the blink of an eye and double-checked the shadows, probing with the muzzle of his gun.

Riddick couldn’t help but feel slightly insulted that Johns could think him capable of hiding in the most obvious of places.

Really.

After all this time chasing after Riddick, Johns should know him better by now.

Satisfied that his query wasn’t there (Riddick kept back a snort), Johns left to join the others.

Waiting until he couldn’t hear Johns anymore, Riddick dropped to the ground, his arms and hands now pierced with shards of boneyard ivory.

He wondered who else was with this little search party, and wondered if ‘Lil’ Crazy’ (as he’d come to think of her in his mind) was amongst them. If so, he wondered what the chances were of his capturing her and having a nice little chat before someone noticed.

Spotting a shadow on the combing, he drew near, wondering who would have separated from the group knowing that he was alone. As he drew nearer he recognized Carolyn Fry, the pilot.

Mild disappointment filled him as he stalked her silently from behind.

Another figure joined the blonde, and it proved to be Johns. He took a hit of scotch and offered her some.

Riddick smirked, wondering how far he could go and not have Johns realize that he was there.

“Probably makes it worse.” Fry announced, speaking about the bottle of scotch Johns offered her. “Dehydrates you even more.” Yet she took it from him.

“Probably right.” Johns announced in that laidback drawl of his.

They were silent, drinking away, never realizing he was right behind them, hidden in the skeleton. Fry, trying to escape the glare of the sun, leaned back against the combing bringing her within arms length of the predator behind.

Smirk growing dark, Riddick pulled out his freshly chiseled bone-shiv.

“You know, I woulda played road dog for these guys.” Johns said in a measured tone. “You could’ve stayed back. Pro’bly should’ve---because, you know, if we don’t find water…”

We may not make it back, hung between them.

“No, no, I wanted to get away.” Fry said a little too quickly for it not to sound suspicious.

“So I noticed.” Johns snorted, taking the bottle from her and having another hit of the throat burning liquid. “Never seen a ‘captain’ quite so ready to leave her ship.”

Riddick, bored with the conversation, eased his blade towards her neck.

As if sensing the danger behind her, Fry stepped away. “Better keep moving.”

“What did Owens mean? ‘Bout not touching the switch?”

Fry’s body froze, like a rabbit cornered by a hungered fox. She turned and looked at Johns as if wondering if she could trust him, before leaning back against the combing once again.

Riddick couldn’t help but find this all amusing. He was so close to the combing that they would be able to see him if they stopped their yapping and just turned the fuck around.

Johns, ever able to sense secrets, turned his ‘charming’ smile on the woman who obviously needed to talk. “Hey. You can tell me, Carolyn.”

Riddick held back a snort. We’ve crashed on this planet and he’s trying to secure a fuck.

“Promise me.” Her voice was soft, choking with emotion. “Swear to me you won’t---.”

“You see anybody else here?” Johns threw his hands up to emphasis how alone they were. “Just between you and me.”

And me…Riddick smirked.

“During the landing…when things were at their worst…” It was obviously hard for her to get it out. “Owens was at his best. He’s the one who wouldn’t let the captain dump the passenger cabin.”

Johns blinked, stunned. “Are you shittin’ me!”

Trying again, Riddick reached out with his shiv and deftly sliced off some of Fry’s hair. He smirked and put it in his pocket to save for another time in which he could taunt Johns on how close he’d been and he hadn’t known.

“So, now you know.” Fry said in a soft voice, filled with self-recrimination, obviously waiting for Johns to scold her for what she’d have done if this Owens person hadn’t stopped her.

“Fuck.” Johns ran a hand through his hair in silence before finally turning to her. “Guess I’m more glad to be here than I thought.” He bent and placed the scotch bottle on the ground.

“I—the younger Frye girl, I—she—I think she knows.” Fry said in a soft, surprisingly frightened, voice.

Hearing the name that Johns had called Lil’ Crazy, Riddick sunk back into the shadows, too interested in learning more he didn’t dare get caught.

“River?” Johns asked, unknowingly giving Riddick the name of the female who’d stayed in his mind despite his attempts to throw her presence out.

Fry nodded. “I don’t think Kaylee knows, she thanked me like the others for ‘saving’ them.” She hugged her arms as if she were cold, which they knew she could never be in this heat. “But River, when the others had dispersed, came up to me and said—said.”

“What—what did she say?”

Riddick frowned. Why did Johns seem so interested in what the fragile little female had said to the pilot?

“She, it was so confusing but I know she knows.”

“What did she say?” Johns repeated, sounding a little impatient.

“She said something like…” Fry looked up, meeting his gaze. “…‘The prized canary sits in its golden cage, receiving praise for its enchanting song, famous and loved by all, yet the tiny bird looks away, a shadows in its eyes, for it knows of the record-player hidden beneath the table upon which its cage is placed’.”

Riddick blinked. What was crazier---the sentence in itself or the fact that he understood what Lil’ Crazy had meant with it?

“I---I also wanted to get away from her, so when they decided to stay at the crash site--.” Fry left her sentence to die.

Johns was silent for a long time, his eyes darkened before he looked up at he was the smiling blue-eyed devil that Riddick knew. “We should be going.”

The murderer watched them as they walked away and then looked down at the bottle of scotch they’d left behind. It had one good swallow to it.

Good one, Johns.

Realizing a trap when he saw one, Riddick shook his head. Why did Johns keep underestimating him?

Waiting until he couldn’t hear them, Riddick reached forwards and picked up the bottle, calculating how much scotch was in the bottle before throwing his head back and enjoying the first intake of liquid he’d had since the crash.

Quickly refilling the bottle with sand up to the point where it’d been filled with scotch moments before, he put it back and smirked.

In the distance, when Johns used his scope to check up on the bottle, the sand would make it look as if it hadn’t been touched.

Shaking his head at the blonde, Riddick began his journey back towards the wreckage. He had one extremely pretty crazy girl he wanted to keep his eye on. There was something about that girl that was familiar, and she seemed to have just as many secrets as he. And although Riddick never cared about anyone other than himself, this girl intrigued him.

River Frye…

Wondering why that name sounded off, he left the boneyard.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Tell me that was you,” Paris glared at Jack as he hurried into the cargo-hold, gripping the war-pick in his hand so hard his knuckles were transparent.

From where he sat next to Kaylee, talking about what they would do once the others returned with water, Jack frowned. “Okay, it was me.” He then made face. “What exactly am I confessing to?”

Apparently more than glad to put all the blame on the young boy’s shoulders, Paris leaned against the wall. “Assailing my fragile sense of security, that’s what.”

Shazza stood from where she’d been going over the items they’d been able to salvage from the wreck. “What’re you goin’ on about?” She frowned. “He’s been right here for the last---.”

Then they all saw it: sunblades were momentarily blocked by something. Someone.

“Zeke?” Shazza called out in a soft probe, voice trembling slightly.

There was no answer.

River stood, frowning. She could hear the thoughts of their intruder, and they were jumbled into such incoherency it didn’t sound like a known dialect. The words entered one into the other, and all she could make was pain.

Jack sprung up and hurried to the other side of the hold, placing an eye to the crack there. He’d been going there throughout their wait to check up on Zeke’s progress because he could see where Shazza’s husband had gone to bury the dead crew members and give her updates on his security---since none of them quite trusted Paris as a watch out.

Kaylee gulped from where she’d stood up slightly behind River. “Is---is he still out there burying the others?” She asked Jack in a soft whisper.

Jack turned, face pale as he nodded.

Kaylee gave a little jump when they noticed more sunblades being disturbed. “It has to be Riddick.”

Paris went bloodless.

“The night wolf hasn’t the scent of burnt flesh and death surrounding him.” River turned to Kaylee, trying to comfort her with the realization that the person outside wasn’t Riddick.

She failed to notice Shazza grab the war-prick out of Paris’ frozen hands, moving cat-like towards the door and waiting there, ready to strike.

Jack gave River a confused look before valiantly going behind Shazza with the hunting boomerang in his hands.

River’s worry was directed to Kaylee, whose round eyes were following the sunblades that winked on and off, charting the newcomer’s approach. Hadn’t the mechanic of Serenity understood her when she’d said that the night wolf wasn’t the one outside?

Suddenly he appeared…

…And Shazza swung hard.

“NO!” Jack and Kaylee screamed at the same time.

Before them stood a total stranger, who was burnt, half naked, and one hand still clutching the emergency release lever of his cryo-locker.

Shazza had stopped one inch short of killing him.

River sensed Jack watching her silently.

“I thought…” The stranger’s voice was harsh from lack of water. “My God, I thought I was the only one who---.”

Pure joy at having found others filled his aura and he lurched towards Shazza, trying to embrace her. Suddenly there was a bang, and blood spurted over Shazza as the stranger fell bonelessly to the ground to reveal Zeke in the background, pistol leveled.

The other man looked up from the dead stranger on the ground to his wife’s blood-spattered face, and reading the horror there he suddenly realized his mistake.

“Oh Lord…” Paris whispered, sounding like he was going to faint any minute now.

“It was just somebody else…” Jack whispered, eyes wide in shock. “From the crash. He was just…”

Kaylee turned to River and shocked her stiff by throwing herself into her arms, crying desperately, body shaking so violently she seemed to be about o fall apart.

River once more awkwardly placed her arms around the other girl, wishing that Simon was here to do this. Simon always hugged Kaylee and held her close, kissing the top of her hair and whispering words that always seemed to calm the sensitive other girl.

River wished she knew what Simon—or any other normal person—would say to Kaylee to try and calm her down.

“Cripes galore,” Zeke’s voice was closer to them than it had been moments ago. “I thought it was him. The murderin’ ratbag. I thought it was…” He rushed towards the dead stranger.

I see I’ve made them jumpy.

That wasn’t her thought.

Looking up, River’s gaze connected with dark goggles in the background. Despite the fact that his eyes were hidden by the goggles she knew he was watching her, she felt the electric jolt that raced through her body and his.

Riddick picked up the breather unit Zeke had dropped when he’d hurried back to the hold, and before anyone else could realize he was there, disappeared.

River felt Kaylee’s sobs lessened and decided that her first priority for Simon’s Bao-Bei, so she pushed thoughts of Riddick, and the questions as to why she’d felt a jolt of electricity when there clearly wasn’t any around to the back of her mind, and concentrated on trying to make enough sense to help her friend.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They’d come upon an abandoned city, but while the others were busy looking around, and happy that they’d found water, Johns couldn’t get River Frye out of his mind.

A mercenary, and not a law enforcer as he’d led everyone to believe, Johns was good at remembering faces, and he was sure he’d seen River Frye’s face before.

But where?

He stayed next to the skiff Carolyn Fry had found, and kept an eye open for Riddick. The murderer was going to be his biggest paycheck yet---if he could stay alive and take the bastard to the prison waiting for him.

Fry exited the skiff. “No juice,” she announced, coming towards him. “Looks like it’s been laid up for years.” She paused. “But we might be able to adapt---.”

“Shut up.” Hearing something, Johns cocked his air to the wind, waiting, before finally shrugging it off. “Sorry. Thought I heard something.”

“Like what?” She obviously saw him as some ally and he would let her believe that for as long as he needed her around.

“Like my pistola.” Johns announced before turning to her. “The elder Frye girl, Kaylee? I heard her telling the kid Jack that she was a mechanic on board some ship.” He motioned with his chin towards the skiff. “If you need to ‘adapt’ anything, she’s probably the one you want doing it.”

Fry blinked. “That’s good to know. The moment we get back to camp I’ll take her aside and talk to her myself.”

“You do that.” Johns kept back a sly smile. And while you’re keeping her entertained I’ll have a little chat with pretty lil’ River and figure out where I know her from.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We are visiting Miranda’s sister,” River announced in her soft, whimsical voice. “She doesn’t like visitors and will soon set her dogs upon us.”

Kaylee, the only one to hear her, looked up with wide eyes. She’d stopped crying some moments ago yet was still shaking. “M-M-Miranda’s sister?” She hissed in a soft voice, once more blanching as she took an involuntary step towards her. “The Alliance has a hand in this too?”

River nodded. “The dogs were tame. Tiny Chihuahuas that were brought here and made into raging Great Danes which thirst for blood and wait in the belly of the sister.”

Kaylee didn’t know much about dogs, after Earth-That-Was was destroyed much of the animals had gone extinct. But she did remember from some books that Chihuahuas were supposed to be small and Great Danes were—well—great.

But she couldn’t bet her life on her interpretation of River’s words.

She hardly ever understood what River said---Mal and Simon always used to, and she hated not having tried better before. River was obviously trying to tell her something important and she knew she was missing much of the graveness and importance.

She obviously got that the Alliance had come and experimented on this planet like they had with Miranda. But what had they made? Had they created the Cannibalistic Reavers from the unknowing citizens like on the planet that still gave Kaylee nightmares---or had they created something else?

How had River put it?

‘Dogs that wait in the belly of the Sister’?

What did that mean?

Simon!

Kaylee sat back down and didn’t notice River getting up and following Zeke out of the cargo hold as he left to bury the newest body.

The mechanic closed her eyes and tried to keep from shaking and crying. She was afraid and she missed everyone so badly. She missed Serenity, the ship was like her home, and she felt connected to it, felt as if it were truly alive and she knew it needed her just as much as she needed it.

Captain Malcolm Reynolds had become like an older brother to her. He took care of her, was protective when it came to Simon, making sure the Doctor treated her well and never looked down on her despite the fact that Simon and River came from up-to-do parents and Kaylee was just a lowly Mechanic—not that Simon would ever treat Kaylee badly. Mal was just protective that way.

Zoe and Jayne were also like family. They’d gotten together after Zoe’s husband Wash had been killed on Miranda, but both were keeping their relationship secret and only Kaylee and River knew of the fact that they shared rooms at night---Kaylee because she’d caught them in the act and River, well, because River seemed to know everything that happened on Serenity.

Inara was living off of the ship and on yet another planet. While Kaylee had always wished deep within her heart for her best friend and the man she loved as a brother to finally get together, the Companion wouldn’t give up her job for Mal, and the Captain wouldn’t give up Serenity for Inara…

And Simon.

Kaylee closed her eyes tighter as she thought of Simon, her Bao-Bei---her sweetheart---the love of her life, the man who’d taught her more about love and passion than she could have ever guessed. He refined her and she helped roughen him up a bit so he wouldn’t stand out so much in the crew. He wasn’t the spoiled rich kid anymore with fancy clothes and a snotty attitude; he’d garnered respect from everyone in the crew and had become one of them.

As had River.

Kaylee sighed, thinking about the girl she considered her Mei-Mei. The child had had a horrible childhood, being experimented on and tortured by the Academy, and while she was still somewhat lunatic, she’d endeared herself to the crew of Serenity, and everyone knew that she would die to save them---she’d proven that when she’d locked them in safety on Miranda and went out to fight the crowd of Reavers by herself, unarmed…and somehow managed to survive the fight without a scratch.

While Kaylee worried about the others and if the Alliance had caught them, she also worried about herself, but not by much. River was the greatest secret of the Alliance, she was the deadliest weapon ever created…and Kaylee knew River would never let anything hurt her.

Chihuahua nor Great Dane.

Suddenly remembering something, Kaylee’s eyes fly open and she looked around, praying to Buddha that it hadn’t been damaged. Shazza, Paris and Jack were busy elsewhere, and so she took off her boot and undid the heel, pulling out a little chip-like device embedded within.

Please—O—please—O—please work!

Pressing the end of it and flipping a little switch, Kaylee nearly squealed when a light appeared at the base, flickering.

It was working!

Hurriedly putting the tracking device into the faux heel, screwing it back on, Kaylee grinned broadly, thanking Simon silently for having thought of having them all imbedded with tracking devices so that if they were lost or taken, the others could find their location.

We’re going to be found, and everything’s going to be alright.

The sounds of shots and screams jarred her from her optimistic thought.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There’d been silence when River and Zeke went to bury the other body. While she knew that he didn’t need her help, the thoughts of those in the hold were loud and hurt her, so she’d decided to come out here and get away from them before she had a ‘crazy attack’ as Jayne oh-so delicately liked to put it.

The sun-tarp had fallen on one side since Zeke had erected it earlier, and now blocked the sight-line between the ship and the grave sight.

For some reason that made River a little uncomfortable.

Zeke lifted the tarp only to find that the bodies were gone and there was some sort of opening in the back of the grave. River knew this was odd, but the only thoughts she picked up were Zeke’s guilt-filled ones, so even though the hairs of her arms stood on end she didn’t say anything as Zeke hopped down into the grave.

“What the bloody hell…?” He asked, dropping to all fours and looking into the tunnel. “It’s like some kind of burrow.” Taking the hand-light off of his belt, he shone it into the tunnel.

River, sensing a presence, looked up and turned towards the spires, immediately finding the muscular figure hiding there.

Riddick.

His goggled gaze was once more upon her, and River tilted her head to the side as she realized that the heat she felt raking her body was the intensity of his stare.

She didn’t understand why her heart beat faster, and why her breaths were coming unevenly. This had never happened to her before at the Academy, was something wrong with her? Was she coming apart?

What was this sensation in the pit of her stomach?

It was as if a coil was tightening in her stomach, and it became agonizingly pleasurable when the man smirked at her.

Suddenly voices screamed in her mind painfully and she bent. Holding her head between her hands she screamed out right before Zeke’s scream joined hers and shots were heard being fired.

Forcing herself to take her hands from her head, River turned to see Zeke half within the tunnel, fighting for his life, blood spurting everywhere.

Jumping into the grave River grabbed hold of his leg and tried pulling him out, yet something within the tunnel was pulling him as well, and was stronger than her, pulling her in as well.

The moment half of her body was within the darkness, she screamed a teeth cut into her flesh and creatures jumped on her, cutting her. She fought, grabbing one that jumped at her with its fanged mouth wide open.

Her hands had the creature by the open jaws, teeth digging painfully into her fingers. Ignoring the pain, she forced all her strength into her hold and tore the jaws apart, killing the creature instantly. The other creatures screeched and backed away slightly, obviously confused.

She couldn’t hear Zeke anymore.

Right as the creatures were about to attack once more she screamed when something grabbed a hold of her ankle and with a strong, swift movement had pulled her out of the tunnel and back into the sunlit grave.

River was shivering, shaking, and barely noticed when Riddick picked her up and pulled them out of the grave up to the land in time for Shazza to see them and scream.

“Stop the voices, stop them from screaming, stop them from hungering.” She begged Riddick, who looked like he wanted to run but stayed there with her as she had a death grip on his arm. “They have death on their breath and the night in their eyes as they prey in the black. They are vicious lions in their den waiting for Daniel to be thrown down to them.”

“Girl,” it was the first time she’d heard his voice, and it sent unexpected shivers down her body. “You’re all sorts of crazy, aren’t you?”

“WHERE’S ZEKE?” Shazza screamed, backed by Jack, Paris and Kaylee, who’d just arrived. She looked at River’s scratched, bloody body. “What have you done with ‘em? You bloody sick animal you, what’dja do with me Zeke?” She raised the war-pick menacingly.

Riddick rose and since River was still in his arms bridal style, he lifted her as well.

“No, no, the wolf didn’t redden the moon, it was the dogs.” River trembled as she spoke. “The wolf sunk his jaws into the girl and pulled her from the clutches of Grim before she reddened the moon further!”

“What the bloody hell is she rambling on about?” Paris asked no one in particular. “There’s no bloody moon!”

Shazza took a step towards them.

“No!” Kaylee hurried forwards, eyeing Riddick fearfully yet trusting River. “She—she’s saying that Riddick didn’t do it, that something down in the grave killed Zeke and would have killed her too if Riddick hadn’t pulled her out.”

Jack blinked.

Shazza stalked to the tarp and pulled it apart, looking down at the bloody tunnel and collapsed on the sand. “Zeke…” All fierceness left her as she burst into heart-broken tears.

There was the sound of a pistol being cocked. “Same crap, different planet, huh?” Johns asked, apparently appearing out of nowhere, pistol pointed on Riddick. “Put her down, Riddick. You’ve done enough.”

“It wasn’t the wolf!” River tried once more, blood pouring from her shredded hands.

Johns looked at her as if trying to get what she was talking about.

River turned her gaze to Kaylee in frustration, pleading with her to intervene.

Kaylee nodded and gave Johns a shaky version of her ‘Kaylee Smile’, the smile that made men go brainless and do whatever it was she asked them. “J-Johns, Riddick saved her. There’s something else down there.”

“The only monster I see is holding that little girl.” Johns declared, yet he shot an anxious look at the grave and the blood there. “Now Riddick, I want you to lower that girl and come nice and easy with us to the ship so we can question you.”

Riddick snorted at him before beginning a leisurely pace back towards the shuttle, still holding a shaking River, obviously defying Johns as much as he could.

River closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of the night wolf, wondering about her body’s chemical reaction to him and if it were normal.

Deciding to ask Kaylee if she knew what this might mean, she spent the rest of the walk to the ship in silence, looking up at her rescuer and imprinting his scent into her mind.