“Hull integrity ain’t the greatest,” Kaylee reported, “but she should be space worthy again as soon as the windows are replaced.” “We only busted two,” Jayne reminded. “No,” Kaylee asserted. “We replace all of them. I gotta put my foot down on that one. I will not let this ship fly without.” “Okay, fine. What else?” Kaylee sighed. “No full burn, whatsoever. I imagine we got parts of the system scattered over five hundred miles. Hydraulic systems on the side pods are leakin’ like a sieve, but I think I can rig ‘em for a temp-fix. There’s no guarantee those engines won’t just fall off the ship, anyway, soon as we fire ‘em up. I don’t trust the mount bolts too much after that spin. Also, I shouldn’t hafta mention this, but... we ain’t got landing gear no more.” Jayne nodded, glancing back toward Serenity. He was still a bit numb from the shock of River actually saving the ship from a messy disintegration all across the rocky badlands. How she’d managed to manipulate the reverse thrusters in that manner to slow the descent was a mystery, as was how they hit the ground at that speed and didn’t split the ship open like an egg shell. For her part, River merely sat on the cargo ramp as the others gawked at the damage. She seemed to be in another world, zoning out for the most part. She would occasionally glance at the sky and frown. Regardless, she hadn’t said a word since the crash landing. “Are we flight-worthy enough to go look for Zoe and Gabriel?” Simon inquired, trudging up to the pair. Kaylee eyed her lover warily. “As long as we don’t fall apart tryin’ to take off... yeah.” “Sounds like a plan,” Jayne decided. “If y’all can excuse me...” He started for the ship. “Pressing business?” Simon inquired, half-sarcastically. Jayne glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah. I gotta change my shorts.” *************************************************************************

“Think they’re waiting up for us?” Zoe mentioned as she descended the ridge. The pair had waited for uncounted hours, with the hot sun finally setting and no Serenity in sight, before they finally decided to begin hoofing it. “Nah,” Gabriel replied, jokingly. “They’re smart, so they’re long gone by now.” Zoe chuckled. “Hope we don’t get grounded when they catch us.” Gabriel’s hand shot out to catch Zoe’s arm right before she stepped a foot into a pothole. Nodding thanks, she stepped around the obstacle and continued. *I consider myself a decent tracker,* she thought to herself. *The evening must’ve addled my brain a bit. Nice to have Gab around...* Zoe turned her head to glance back at Gabriel again and noticed that he was smiling. “What’re you so happy about?” she inquired. Gabriel shrugged. “Nothin’. Just thankin’ ya fer that.” Zoe figured out, subconsciously, of course, how to frown and widen her eyes at the same time. “You sure yer not psychic?” Gabriel nodded with certainty. “Positive. I felt an emotion of gratitude and mild relief and, from there, figured the rest of it out myself.” Zoe gave a small smile. “The gratitude ain’t mild, but you were close enough, anyway.” Gabriel reached out to squeeze Zoe’s dirt-smudged hand for an instant, accompanied by a tight smile, before they continued their descent. “Mal’s gonna kill us when we get back,” Zoe added. “That’s assumin’ he can get off his cot.” Gabriel scoffed. “Mal?” he inquired. “I’m worried ‘bout River. She’ll have my nethers on a barbeque fer puttin’ her in worry.” Zoe smiled sadly. “Gab, that sounds like somethin’ my husband would say about me.” Gabriel stopped in his tracks for just an instant before continuing to follow. “Zoe...” he began, “...I didn’t mean-” “Few things don’t remind me of Wash,” Zoe confided. “Don’t sweat it.” She blew a breath. “I know I worry the crew-” “The family,” Gabriel corrected. “We both know it’s a family, even though it ain’t technically labeled as such.” “-but,” Zoe continued, as if Gabriel had never spoken, “I really think, after all this time, I’ve actually started comin’ to terms with it.” “Jesus, Zoe...” Gabriel breathed, “...I wish I could’ve met him.” Zoe actually did stop this time, turning to look at Gabriel with a mixture of sadness and cheer. “So do I. You would’ve loved each other.” The blood drained from Gabriel’s face, and his jaw tightened severely. “We gotta run.” One of the Reaver ships appeared on the horizon, and the two bandits tore down the remaining distance on the slope like jackrabbits. They finally hit the base of the incline and did not slow down. “Whatever happens,” Gabriel shouted as the ship neared, “do *not* slow down. If you do, I’m gonna hafta carry ya again!” Zoe did not answer. She was too busy trying to control her breathing as she sped across the dirt. She was fully aware of the fact that Gabriel was pacing himself to keep speed with her, and regardless of his artificial physiology, she couldn’t help but feel hurt pride at the condition of her natural fitness. The Reaver ship halted in the air three hundred meters before them, and hatches opened on three sides. Ragged figures descended dropped ropes and began sprinting across the dead, sandy soil toward the pair. “Tah mah deh,”: Gabriel breathed. “Ai ya women wanle,” Zoe agreed, and, before they could sprint very far in the reverse direction, the ship moved to drop more Reavers closer to them. “Zoe!” Gabriel shouted as they ran, “listen to me! If somethin’ happens, an’ I gotta stop, you don’t stop for me!” “Gabriel!” Zoe screamed back. “Think for a minute! You can use all the help you can get!” “No,” Gabriel argued, “I can’t! Not unless it’s *River!*” He stooped as he ran to scoop up a rock, turn, and chuck it at one of the pursuing beings. “The best thing you can do is get away so ya can get to Serenity an’ bring help to me!” As if on cue, a battered and crumbling Firefly-class starship came barreling across the horizon in a headlong rush toward the scene of the cataclysm. Gabriel dug his boots into the dirt. “*Go!!!*” he shrieked. “Get in that gorram ship an’ *go!!!*” “*Nooo!!!*” Zoe screeched back as she stopped. “*No*, Gabriel, I *won’t!!!*” Gabriel was twenty meters closer to the Reavers than Zoe was, and as the wave of crazed warriors hit his personal bubble, Gabriel began to lash out with his brutal, devastating results. “You have to help me!” he begged, breaking jaws and sternums with his melee frenzy. “You have to make it to Serenity alive so you can help me!” Tears streaming down her face, Zoe could think of no argument. She was totally helpless, and that made her feel as if her insides were being shredded. Serenity, cargo bay already fully extended, hit the dirt like a rock, sending a huge cloud of dirt pluming into the air. At the top of that ramp was Jayne Cobb. “Come on!!!” he screamed, although his words were totally obliterated by the roar of both their engines and the Reavers’. Zoe turned back to Gabriel, who, although slaughtering an onslaught of Reavers, still maintained eye contact. “I...” she murmured, knowing that Gabriel could read her lips, anyway. “...I can’t...” “*Goooooo!!!*” Gabriel screamed just before an iron pipe smashed into his left shoulder blade, surely cracking it. Finally, her heart feeling shattered, Zoe turned and sprinted toward Serenity with every last granule of energy in her being. She hit the ramp face-first, the metal digging into her face painfully. Zoe was numb enough that she barely felt it. Diving for the controls, Jayne hit the button, and the ramp began to close. *************************************************************************

“*Noooo!!!*” River shrieked, abandoning her station and sprinting for the door to the cockpit. The door was half-closed, and such a brain-numbed rush was she in, she slammed her face into the edge of the door and knocked herself out cold. Immediately seizing the control stick for the ship, Inara yanked the tattered, leaking vessel from the ground and turned it away from the site. *Gabriel’s gotta be okay...* she thought. *He can take care of himself. He has to.* *************************************************************************

Reeling three Reavers from him with a single sweep of his arm, Gabriel barreled through the mass of bodies like a steam roller, heading for one of the ropes from the Reaver ship. *Only chance; gotta try it.* Hurling himself through the air, Gabriel made the rope his sole possession. Once a firm grip was established, he yanked himself twenty meters straight up, flipped through the open hatch, and sprinted through more throngs of Reavers in the direction he believed to be the engine room. *Only chance,* he repeated. Gabriel located the door to the engine room and entered horizontally and feet-first. Two Reavers sailed from his path, bouncing off walls. A bloody chain on the ground nearby was immediately snatched. Gabriel wouldn’t let himself take the time to understand how convenient that chain’s placement was, nor asking himself the question of why said chain had blood on it. He looped it over the fuel intake for the engine, took several steps back, planted both feet against the engine, and pulled. Searing heat whistled from the twisting bracket mounts, blistering Gabriel’s hands. Still, he would not let go of the chain. As soon as he had sufficiently loosened the manifold, Gabriel released the chain, sprinted back through the enraged Reavers like a bowling ball tumbling through pins, and dove out the same hatch for the dangling, swinging rope. Gabriel was halfway down the rope when the ship exploded. He let go of the rope, falling the remaining ten meters and hitting the ground. Still-healing ribs snapped in his torso as he attempted to control his fall with a curled roll. It did not work so well. In excruciating agony, head spinning, chest and back seething, and hands burning from the blistering, Gabriel somehow managed to force himself to his feet. The last thing he noticed before the darkness was the wooden club swinging toward his face. *************************************************************************

“Where is it?” Jayne insisted as Simon dabbed at River’s bleeding forehead with a rag. “Where’s the other ship?!” Slouched at the foot of the cockpit stairs, River was still bawling, far too hysterical to even muster human speech. “Calm down!” Simon urged. “She can’t help you!” “*You* calm the hell down!!” Jayne shouted. “Gab’s hell-knows-where after that explosion, dead, for all we know, an’ that second ship could be roarin’ up our asses any minute now!” “He’ll die,” Zoe murmured absently, turning heads. “He’ll die before he’ll ever give up on us.” She wiped some of the blood from her countenance where her face hit the ramp. “I’ll die before I give up on him.” Beside River’s crying, the crew was silent for a moment. Zoe continued staring at the wall as if she could burn a hole through it. Jayne wiped his mouth with the back of a hand and nodded. “I’ll agree to that,” he decided. “So will I,” Simon insisted, voice even and determined. Silence ensued again, broken by River, who was now down to sniffling. “So...” Jayne began, “...what-” “I’m in,” Inara spoke from up in the cockpit as she searched for a place to land. “You can have anything. Money, influence through past favors... My life. We’re getting Gabriel back, and we’re getting him alive.” “So, what’s next, *Captain?*” Jayne inquired, an honest-sounding emphasis on the word, ‘Captain’. He looked at Zoe, genuinely awaiting guidance. Zoe took a deep breath, still trying to get her bearings from the Reaver chase. “This planet has a lot of junkyards,” she spoke, “both in orbit and on the ground. We-” “No!” River cried, interrupting Zoe’s decision-making. “They’re taking him!” “River!” Simon exclaimed. “River, focus! Taking him *where?*” River began to cry again. “Going into darkness! They put him on their ship! Middle of the hate! Don’t poison him!!!” she screamed. “He’ll hate! Don’t make him!” Her head sagged. “Don’t... make him...” River fainted. “They’re going to try an’ convert him,” Zoe decided with finality. “That ain’t happenin’.” She turned to enter the cockpit. “Get Kaylee from the engine room, an’ we’re *all* gonna fix this ship. Then, we’re gonna get our boy back.” *************************************************************************

It had been quite a long time since Gabriel had been in this much pain. The thought crossed his mind that the last time was probably the last time he’d fought Dante, which was years ago. He could barely breathe, the pain in his lungs was so fierce. His hands burned from the severe blistering. His head reeled from the concussion that he had surely suffered, and a stabbing agony persisted from where his left shoulder blade had been cracked. On top of it all, just about every other part of his body ached and throbbed from the entering and destroying of the first Reaver ship, followed by the abrupt and forceful impact with the ground. Chained to a bare bulkhead frame, Gabriel had discovered the hard way that he wasn’t escaping his bonds. His incredible strength had worked against him, as one hard pull on his imprisoning chains had cut through skin and flesh nearly to the tendons in his wrists. Had he pulled just a bit harder, he would have permanently lost the use of his hands. The Reavers had finally left him alone to continue torturing, killing, and eating other captives, but they would soon be back, once again trying to force-feed him raw human flesh that was still maintaining body temperature. In the few short hours he had been bound, Gabriel had seen atrocities that he couldn’t even have imagined in his nightmares. He’d heard the stories about Reavers and the first-hand experiences from Mal’s crew about the abandoned ship and the sole survivor. He knew exactly what they were trying to do with him. *They ain’t dumb,* Gabriel thought through groggy, incoherent consciousness. *They saw me fight; they know what I can do. They want me *with* them...* A Reaver screamed in Gabriel’s face as it passed, but didn’t stop to harass him. Blood from at least six or seven different captives covered Gabriel’s body, running down his skin to pool under his buttocks with his own blood. Gabriel felt the tender threads that had begun to bind him to humanity and morality fraying with every passing moment. He felt the rage taking over. It was a rage born of insanity, and it was a rage born out of incredible wrong-doing committed against the subject of such emotion. *I’m losing,* Gabriel thought. *It’s done; it’s all gone. I’m losing.* Currently, two women and a man were being raped right before Gabriel’s eyes, pieces of them already missing from being chewed away. The Reavers were probably manipulating drugs to keep the victims conscious. Numerous other Reavers, not currently engaged in the torment, wandered to and fro, apparently detailing assigned tasks. *I got one chance left,* Gabriel thought and, in his mental state, it could have been hours since he’d last thought anything to himself at all. He was too far gone to judge time. *One last chance, or I lost myself...* “Miranda.” It was a long-shot, and probably wouldn’t work but, as Gabriel hoarsely rasped the name, he knew that he had to try. He attempted to cleared his sore, swollen throat. “Miranda.” Every Reaver in the room immediately stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at their captured warrior. “Miranda,” Gabriel boomed finally, putting as much feeling, hatred, and finality as he could into the word. “Miranda.” As ugly and hateful as the Reavers were, their faces actually *changed* as they heard the words. Their body language changed. The hatred, anger, and ferocity that Gabriel’s empathy could detect noticeably changed. “Miranda.” “Miranda,” a Reaver repeated. He turned to a fellow monster. “Miranda.” “MIRANDA!!!” three of the Reavers screamed. “MIRANDA!!!” The torture victims were immediately executed and forgotten and, within seconds, the whole of the ship vibrated with the sound of every Reaver chanting the name of their former world. Their destroyed world. Gabriel sank against the frame and down into the puddle of blood, sighing relief. *I think I got through to them,* he thought. *I actually think I managed to get through to* *Reavers*....* Although he barely maintained a grip on sanity, Gabriel somehow felt a sense of accomplishment. He was actually able to relax. The Reavers began to move about in their designated routines but, this time, they proceeded with what was obviously a heightened sense of purpose. One Reavers moved to Gabriel, kneeling to remove his bonds, but another, very large Reaver, who was presumably the Alpha Male of the ship, knocked the smaller man aside before moving on, screaming and roaring incoherent orders to his fellow shipmates. Amidst the blood, gore, and screaming, Gabriel found a strange sense of peace and tranquility. He felt serenity.