The Circular Irony part 6 by Nailani Williams

Disclaimer: No Copyright Infringement intended so Joss put down the Sword of Infinite Truths!

Summary: After the BDM. Zayne, M/I, S/K, R/OC pairing. Taking place after the events of “The Bravest Thing” and “The Welcoming Committee”. When Mal gets a job on Persephone he realizes he’s transporting a new generation of Browncoats, who have their own special person straight out of the Alliance Academy. Meanwhile Zoe and Jayne work out their working relationship and River gets a new creep-a-fying boyfriend.

Rating: PG-13

A/N:

~

River:

I helped Simon to his bunk where I laid him down. He groaned, closing his eyes, I could feel his pain. I knew the pressure of so many voices in your head could drive you mad. It drove me mad. I sat with Simon for as long as I could before I had to go back to the cockpit and monitor what was going on with Mal and Zoe. A big part of me was worried that his new found power would possibly break him. He came too close to losing it this morning. I was torn between telling our make shift family what was going on and remaining loyal to my brother.

I caressed his forehead before I left him alone, swearing to him that I’d be strong as long as he is, before I’d tell anyone. That I wouldn’t allow him to self medicate, that I’d find away to help him. My breath caught in my throat as I thought of our father. I quickly suppressed that thought before Simon could pick it up.

“I couldn’t ask father for help,” I sighed to myself, when I was back on the bridge. I went back to my task at hand, pushing all my worries and thoughts aside and turning back to the situation with Mal and Zoe. The Shuttle was a red dot on the radar. I knew they were okay. Mal ordered radio silence unless absolutely necessary, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t try to listen for them in other ways.

I closed my eyes and sifted through the noise of unfamiliar thoughts until I zeroed in on Mal and Zoe. They were nervous, but they were fine so far. They had already breached atmo and was coming up on the New Browncoats coordinates.

“Alliance is crawling around here like ants…” Zoe’s thoughts caught me.

“We need to get these soldiers on this shuttle and outta here ASAP,” I heard Mal’s thoughts. They were soldiers to him, his soldiers. Each one of them, as the shuttle landed I felt them.

The red-head, the leader, Jocelyn, they called her Jack. She was one of the oldest at twenty-two years. Her thoughts and her mind were encircled by a rage, she had lost someone…a father, to the Alliance. She wanted to bring the Alliance down, but she know felt she was over her head. She was worried that she was going to get the younger Browncoats killed.

There was a young black man they called Daemon, he was second in command, he was nearly as tall as Jayne and he was about as friendly. He was the same age as Jack. His mind was like a dark nightmare that was filled with Reavers and death and so much blood. So much blood it turned my stomach. Just as I was about to pull away from him another mind caught my attention.

Farrah, a blonde haired blue eyed girl a little younger than me. She had no memory before the age of ten. Her mind was almost like a child’s. It seemed that everything was new to her. Like she was in the process of relearning the most basic things. Next to her was a blond male, Fallon, his mind sang of humor, happiness, and love, it reminded me of Wash. They were brother and sister, twins.

I searched the immediate area for more mind and I felt two more. Two males. One, Jeremy, was dark, stoic, angry, and a little more scared than the others, but his mind wasn’t the mind that intrigued me. It was Jeremy’s comatose brother Jared’s mind really caught my attention was quiet, and familiar. Like I might have known him somewhere. I used my mind to look through mental gateways that he placed, trying to keep me out, I kept going until I found his face. A shot of agony went straight up my spine as I was cast out of his mind on to the floor with a scream. I lied there on the floor of the cockpit stunned.

“Project Ares,” I whispered before passing out.

~ Kaylee:

I went back into my bunk for a tool and found, Simon laying there sleeping fitfully. He was tossin’ and turnin’ so hard I knew whatever dream he was havin’ couldn’t good. I put down my tools wiped my oil filled hands and touched his chest. He jumped up grabbing my shoulders he picked me up and pinned me to the wall behind the bed.

“Simon!” I screamed looking into his eyes. Someone I didn’t know looked back at me like I was nothing.

“They went inside me,” he said. “They went inside and they showed me ways to kill.” He put his hands around my neck and squeezed. I screamed and cried. Pushing at his chest

“Simon, please!” I gasped, grasping at his hands around my neck. I went to kick him and he straddled my thighs pinning me to the bed. “Simon!” I gasped again the world was coming fuzzy and black. I was losing consciousness. Hot tears streamed down my face.

Please don’t let me die this way, I thought, not by his hand. He’d never forgive himself. I used my last bit of strength and kicked my tool cart… the tools loudly crashed to the floor.

Suddenly, Simon was lifted off of me and thrown into the wall on the other side of them room I coughed and gasped for air as Jayne picked me up in his arms carrying me outside the room. Simon rose and grabbed Jayne slamming him in to the wall. Jayne countered and slammed Simon into the wall punching him in the jaw.

“Jayne, don’t hurt him, something’s wrong with him,” I rasped out as loudly as I could.

“I don’t know what your deal is, Doc, don’t make me hurt you,” Jayne said punching Simon in the gut knocking the wind out of him, he fell to his knees, but then seconds later rose again. His eyes were so distant, like he was a machine…so very much like River. River! I thought as I got up stumblin’. I ran to the cockpit to get her and found her passed out on the floor.

“River,” I squeaked. River woke up her eyes went big and she stood up and ran to where Simon had thrown Jayne down the steps and in to the common area. Inara who was setting the table for an early supper suddenly stopped stunned. Jayne grabbed Simon and tossed him onto the table. He didn’t realize his mistake until Simon slashed him on the stomach with the butcher knife Inara had placed in the center of the table.

“Ta ma de!” Jayne cursed grabbing his stomach. River ran in front of Simon protecting Jayne who was bleeding.

“I hope this works…Aphrodite,” she said and Simon collapsed to the floor blinking out of his trance. Inara went quickly to Jayne with a dish towel.

“What in the name of all that’s shiny in the verse just happened to the Doc?” Jayne said, as I ran to Simon’s side.

I wrapped my arms around him, he pulled away from me and touched my neck gently, “What did I do?” he said, standing up slowly. Tears were in his eyes though he refused to let them fall. He walked towards me, when I backed up warily he stopped. When he saw that Jayne was bleeding he went towards him.

“Jayne, you’re cut, I should take a look at that,” he said and Jayne backed away with a hand up.

“That’s okay, Doc, I think you’ve done enough to me already,” he glared at Simon as Inara helped him down into the infirmary.

“I did this?” he asked and he looked at River confused. River nodded.

“Yes, and I know why,” she whispered. ~

Down on Persephone

Mal:

We didn’t introduced ourselves to the New Browncoats. There was little time for pleasantries. But the New Browncoats knew us by name and service record. The young red head female looked at us like we were her childhood heroes. I wanted to remind her that we lost the war of Independence, but I didn’t have the heart.

We loaded them on board. They didn’t have any major materials just bags of their personal things. They were not even packing weaponry. It was two girls and four young men. The fourth young man was strapped into a levitating stretcher.

“What’s his problem?” I asked.

A tall foreboding looking black man who was twice my muscle build answered me:

“He’s our cargo.”

I nodded slowly looking at Zoe.

“Sir! We have to break atmo now! The Alliance are on to us,” Zoe said and I told them all on to strap in.

“Okay, back to Serenity,” I announced as we began to fly. Once we broke atmo, The red head unbuckled herself and stood up.

“I’m sorry Mr. Reynold’s, but there’s just one more thing,” she said as she took a remote out of her coat. She pressed the red button before me and Zoe could say “No” the two Alliance Cruisers that were orbiting the planet imploded. Sending us out of control.

“Mayday, Mayday, River… Serenity, a little help would be appreciated,” I called for assistance. We spun out of control for two minutes careening towards one of the larger pieces of the Alliance Cruiser’s flaming wreckage. I knew if we crashed into it we were goners for sure.

Suddenly, my fear of becoming a father was gone and I knew, no matter what, Inara was giving me the best thing that anyone could ever give me…a legacy. And I wanted to be there to enjoy it.

“Serenity, I really would prefer not to get dead today!” And suddenly Serenity was there and I could feel the pull of it’s magnetic harpoon clamp down on our ship and pull us in.

“Took you long enough,” I grumbled over the radio.

“Sorry Captain we were having difficulties of our own,” River said and I wondered what the hell was going on at my ship while I was gone. However nothing could quite prepared me for what did go on.

Zoe:

I was angrier than I had ever been. We had managed to get safely onboard Serenity, but I knew the Alliance on the ground knew exactly where those bombs came from and who ignited them. In one stupid move we were terrorist and I knew we going to be hunted down by the Alliance until we were eradicated.

As soon as we got into Serenity’s cargo bay I grabbed the red head by the arm and slapped her. She fell to the floor holding her face.

“You feng le hwoon dan!” I said and the large young man, Daemon grabbed me.

“We’re sorry we pulled you into this, but we had to…for our loved ones!” He said and I stomped on his foot and head butted him. He staggered back dropping me.

“Don’t you think we all have loved ones we lost because of the Alliance?” I yelled. “Do you have any idea what you just did?” I asked them all.

“We showed them that we will not conform to their Machiavellian mind games!” The short young blonde kid said with a smile.

“No, you just condemned us all to death,” They each looked away not meeting my eyes. “Because of you my family’s in danger!”

“That’s enough, Zoe,” Mal said behind me and I turned around. “I want them off this ship, sir,” I looked him in the eyes and walked away.

I walked up the catwalk through the door down the corridor to the common area. I looked around at the mess. There were broken plates and cups on the table. Forks, knives, and napkins were also scattered around the floor along with a bloody butcher knife.

River came from the cockpit, she said nothing as I turned towards her.

“Did you do this?” I asked, knowing she was off her meds. I tried to fight the urge to place my hand on my gun.

“No,” she said and then looked around. “Where’s Mal? We need to all have a talk before The Alliance catches up with us and we’re distracted.”

“He’s coming, where’s Jayne?” I asked and she looked away.

“He’s in the infirmary, don’t worry… he’s fine,” she said as I walked pasted her and headed down to the infirmary.

Jayne was lying down on the table with his eyes closed and my heart was beating so fast and hard in my chest I had to sit down. I grabbed the chair and sat next to him, I took his hand. “You’re alive,” he said, his words were slurred like he must’ve gotten the good stuff from the Doc.

“I should say the same,” I said, squeezing his hand.

“Wha? This? Baby scratch,” he lifted his bandage so I could see. It was more than a baby scratch. He had a slit going down from just below his left nipple to past his belly button.

“How the Hell did this happen? Was it River?” I asked.

“Wrong Tam,” he sighed. I stood up and ran my hand over his face.

“Simon did this?” I said, shocked. “Why would he do this?”

“Went all feng le like his sister used to. Caught him choking the go se out of lil Kaylee. He didn’t like it when I tried to stop him.”

“Simon was choking Kaylee? Then he slashed you?”

“I ain’t speaking mandarin, that’s what happened!” he grumbled.

“Where’s Simon now?” I asked and he shook his head.

“Don’t know, and I don’t care!” he said that and then passed out. I could have lost you, I thought. I kissed him softly on the mouth, all my anger about our argument in the morning was gone, for now.

“Simon’s locked down in his bunk,” Inara said, from behind me. “Kaylee’s afraid of want he might do to himself alone so she’s sitting vigil. I’m more afraid of what he’ll do to her if she goes in there with him,” she sighed.

“I had to drug Jayne so I could stitch him up. He should be fine,” she touched my back.

“Do you know what the hell’s going on with Simon?” I asked and she shook her head.

“River was going to tell us, but then she went to answer Mal’s distress call.”

I sighed, we were in deep go se. We were transporting wanted terrorists and wanted fugitives. Not to mention we were wanted ourselves for exposing Miranda. And now, our only doctor was randomly choking and slashing our crew. This was becoming one big nightmare.

“Where the Hell is Mal?” I asked, pissed off.