A/N: This is the beginning of a saga. It is, in my mind, not going to be a simple story with one plot, a climax, and then an ending with an oppurtunity for a sequel. Its going to be the ever growing story of the crew of the Serenity with endless numbers of stories and tales and exciting plot twists. It is not a single genre, but a multitude of them. Romance will play a part as it does in life but the only pairings at the beginning are Mal/Inara and Simon/Kaylee.

I'm a pretty busy person. School, etc. etc. but I also am working on two novels that I've been procrastinating far too much and those take precedence over fanfiction, as much as I love it, so chapters might be far in between. It might 3 in a week or it might be one a month, depending on what's going on in life, but I do not leave stories hanging, or at least I try my best not to. I hope you guys stick with me and enjoy.

Comments are appreciated if you like it. :•)

~LittleDamnHero

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“There's nothing you can do about it, Dr. Tam,” he said with a smile cold enough to chill a sociopath. The figure of the man leaned against the dark stone wall, all but his one gloved hand hidden in the shadows. Two by two, hands of blue, Simon thought, a memory coming to his mind—a memory of the fear written across River's face as she said that. Hands of blue. He shuddered and prayed he would survive and if not that, then die quickly and let his sister escape and live some semblance of a happy life.

“Dr. Tam, I think you understand your predicament very clearly and I think you also understand what kind of trouble you and your sister are in.” His grin didn't fade as he spoke but he did step out of the shadow enough that his cold eyes shone. Simon wouldn't fear, refused to. He was stretched naked in the cell and his spirit was wavering enough without granting the man a hint of success in his tactics. Simon would be strong. He had to be strong. For River. The man went on, beginning to pace back and forth in front of Simon, waving his hand a bit as if he were talking to a friend or relative. “Your sister is valuable property, more valuable than you can imagine-”

“I doubt she means as much to you-” He yelped as the blue-gloved hand was struck across his face.

“Do not interrupt me, Dr. Tam,” the man demanded fiercely. “As I was saying, River is very valuable to us and we want her back. This, Doctor, puts you in a rather uncomfortable situation as she seems to be very good at not cooperating and you alone can tell us where she is. Is that fear in your eyes, Dr. Tam?”

Simon shuddered. “I will never tell you where she is. I'll never betray my sister.”

A laugh erupted from behind the man as a second, shorter man stepped forward, snapping on his own pair of light blue gloves. “Dr. Tam, I think you are ill informed as to how much we want your sister back and the means we are willing to go to get her. You see, you are not the first individual who has grace this pleasant chamber nor will you be the last. Look around Doctor, their legacy stands before you.”

Simon did look around and as soon as he took the time to get a good look about him, he felt the bile rising in his throat. The stone walls around him were not shaded red, as he had thought, they were covered in splatters of blood. At the edge of the shadows on the floor, the vague outline of human bones were visible, rotting and crying wittness to what had been done to them. They were crying out of the ground like Cain's blood. No! They're just trying to scare me... It wasn't failing, either. Oh, he had seen as much while working as a surgeon but the carnage around him was so much more personal now and a memory he had forgotten popped into his head. “You oughta be shot,” Juble Early, the bounty hunter seeking his sister aboard Serenity, had told him, “or stabbed. Lose a leg. To be a surgeon, ya' know? Know what kinda pain you're dealin' with.”

A sickening feeling arose in him as he realized that before too long he would know intimately what kind of pain he had dealt with.

“Mr. Smiley, would you fetch the case?”

“Certainly, Mr. Mellow,” the shorter agent conceded with a grin as he stepped through a large vault door for a moment before returning, dragging a rolling tray along with him. It was rolled directly in front of Simon and he instantly recognized them.

“Dr. Tam, I will not waste my time nor your own telling you about these items,” the agent who was not Mr. Smiley said with a look of adoration for the blades in front of him. “These are not just an assortment of dangerous-looking tools to you, are they, Dr. Tam?”

They weren't even close to nameless and he had never looked on them as dangerous until this moment. In fact, from the scalpel to the bone saw to the arterial scissors, he knew every one by name. They were extensions of his hands while in surgery and he knew them as well as such. Their weight, their uses, their intent were all known to him. Simon could list them off in order from sharpest to dullest or most painful to least. He knew them one by one and the knowledge seemed ever more frightening.

He couldn't hold back a shiver that shook the chains which bound his wrists and ankles. He knew how much pressure it took to open an incision on the chest with a scalpel and he knew that he could amputate a man's leg in seven minutes with a properly sharpened bone saw (though he was partial to the laser cutters back on Osiris). He knew each one far more than he would have liked to at the moment.

“Mr. Tam, you will tell me where your sister is. There is no possibility of otherwise—it is a fact. Man's will is not nearly as strong as you are telling yourself it is right now and when the moment comes when your fingers are no longer attached to your hand and perhaps your tongue is no longer in your mouth, you will break. You may have to blink to communicate with us but you will, in the end.” He raised the scalpel—it was a smaller one, Simon noted, designed to cut out infected tissue without damaging any flesh around it. It was precise and it was perfect for opening skin. The knife's razor edge glistened dangerously. “However, this can go one of two ways, Dr. Tam. You can tell me what I want to know, right now, and we will fetch your sister whereupon you will be executed and she will be returned and treated well. In fact, I swear to you I won't even lay a finger on her. On the other hand, Dr. Tam, you can try to hold out and keep silent and then when you break we will make sure your death is slow and painful beyond your wildest dreams.” He wrapped one hand around Simon's throat, their noses only an inch apart. The scalpel was pressed against Simon's shoulder, cutting open only the tiniest bit of flesh. “And then, Doctor, when I find your sister—and do not doubt that I will—I will beat her and I will take her and I will rape her over and over and-”

Simon didn't even think about it, he barred his teeth and lunged out at the man, biting down on the soft flesh of the man's face ruthlessly. The man screamed, swinging the scalpel madly across Simon's chest as he leaped back, the flesh on his face ripping off in Simon's teeth. Simon's chest was on fire and he could feel the warm blood running down his body from the gash. The second man rushed forward with a baton, smashing it into Simon's jaw with a bone-breaking crunch. It was Simon's turn to scream but only for an instant until the pain became to much for his shattered jaw. He didn't even think to be ashamed of the tears on his face but only focused on anything but the pain in his chest and face.

The first man was clutching his own face where his disfigured cheek was bleeding profusely. “Tho be it,” the man muttered with a slur, raising the scalpel that already was glistening with Simon's blood.

“I-” Simon began, pain from his broken jaw lighting his arteries on fire. “...I will neber betway my thister.” Blue gloves were soon soaked in red.

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A/N: Oh, yeah, and none of this belongs to me, its all...Mutant Enemy, Inc; and 20'th Century Fox.

Enjoy!