What really happened that night Rated: R Written by: WhiteKnight. These characters are not my creation, with the exception of one, and at no point did I get money for using these characters in a story. There, it’s a pretty disclaimer.

It was actually the silence that roused Roy from his sleep; over the past four months of traveling as the newest member of Serenity, he couldn’t remember the last time there wasn’t some kind of loud noise echoing through the almost vacant halls. At first he thought it was simply a lull in the festivities, after about twenty minutes of intent listening however, it became apparent that things were simply too quiet. Tossing his blanket aside and sliding on his slippers, Roy left his room in search of the rest of the crew. It wasn’t until he saw a faint flicker of light coming from the cargo hold that it dawned on him that the ship had gone into a black out. “Is it alliance,” Roy, questioned. As he entered the cargo hold, he saw the entire crew of Serenity standing over a small bag and an open wooden box. It didn’t take long before the well-trained ears of Mal and Zoe realized that somebody else was in the room with them… somebody that both, did and did not, belong. “Hey, what’s going on,” Roy asked, in almost a whisper. “Nothing you need to concern yourself with,” Mal replied, tartly. “I didn’t mean to…” “It’s ok son,” Book replied cutting him off. “It’s just that something very important happened a year ago.” “Jayne,” Roy asked. There was no answer from the crew other than a slow and almost simultaneous nod. Ever since Roy had joined the crew of Serenity he had heard of Jayne, but never knew all the details about his death, simply his exploits; even those were far and in between, Jayne was a subject that was hardly brought up around the ship. “I know that this isn’t really the time, but what happened to him,” Roy asked. With that single question, several members of the crew started to break down and cry, Kaylee falling to the floor, her legs no longer being able to support her. It was Wash who spoke up, “Your wrong about this not being the time. This is the only time that the story will be told.”

We were doing what we do best…trying to find some work. Mal had us taking another back route to keep off the Alliance’s radar. We had been out for the better part of three weeks when we picked up a distress signal from another smaller ship. As we approached, we noticed that the lights were still on, but it didn’t seem like anybody was home. A team of Jayne, Mal, my wife, and Simon boarded the ship and checked it from top to bottom. What they found was a bunch of cargo, some of which is still here, and a severed hand that was still resting on the distress signal button. Nothing else. … if I hadn’t had to go throw up from the description I might have seen the other blip on the radar, the larger ship that was coming from our right side. By the time, I saw it on the screen they were too close for me to get ready, I barely had enough time to tell everybody that they needed to get back to the ship. Seconds after everybody got back on board; the other ship collided with us, knocking out our engines. From the looks of the ship, and the scan that we ran on it, it was obvious that groups of Reavers had gotten hungry and were planning to have us as dinner. They just needed to break the other ship away from us and take its place. Thankfully, that gave us all enough time to get a plan together. We all would have much rather run, but we didn’t really have a choice. Since they would have to come through the Cargo hold Mal decided that was the best place to hit them. They were confined to a small tunnel and had to follow that into the hold. Jayne and Zoe were in charge of getting all the weapons that we had in store and bringing them to the catwalk over looking the hold. This way we would have the advantage of controlling the high ground. Mal, Simon, and Book sealed off the lower level, ensuring that the only way they could go was up. Inara and I were to block off the stairs with the exception of one, and set the bridge up as a temporary medical bay. After everything had been set up we took our positions and waited. Mal and Jayne were on opposite ends of the catwalk; Zoe and I were in the middle with a clear shot of the entrance. Kaylee was in the engine room trying to get us moving again. River was in the hall near the bridge. Inara and Simon crouched behind two boxes weapons ready, the Shepard standing above them reassuring everybody that God does not let the good die. Knowing that we were about to have a head on collision with the Reavers was bad enough, but waiting for it to happen was even worse. I remember that it seemed to last forever, watching the ship dock with us, almost in slow motion. As I took, one final look around I saw two things that I never thought I would see, Jayne scared, and Mal praying. It was short lived though; the heavy thud shocked everybody back to the task. The Reavers. What I saw was far worse than any story ever told. I don’t even want to think about them, the images still chills my blood to this day. It took them a while to break though the final door, and as soon as they did… Zoe and I started firing. The first to Reavres didn’t know what hit them, they just let out a scream and howl that can only be described as inhuman, and fell to the floor. The second and third set went down in a similar fashion. It looked like it was only a small boarding party, a small group of Reavers something that wouldn’t be very hard to fight off… then the flood came. I had heard Mal tell stories of times when the Alliance attacked his position in such force that he couldn’t see a target, it just looked like one entity. That he stopped aiming and just fired in the general direction. That’s what it was like. Except I don’t think the alliance were trampling their own people just to get a batter chance of feeding on some warm flesh. As they pushed past the doorway Mal and Jayne opened up on them from above. Book and the others following suit and unloading into the endless river of bloody and cleaved “soldiers”. It all became a blur after awhile, you stop seeing things normally. Time slows down, but not to a crawl, your hearing is amplified, but you don’t hear the shots, the orders, you just hear the screams and the clatter of empty weapons hitting the floor. You also hear the unmistakable sound of blood hitting the wall and bone splitting as a bullet slams into it. I had gone through four weapons already. Zoe and Mal were running low as well. Jayne was hitting them with the butt of Vera, causing them to spill into the group below them. I couldn’t tell what was going on, it was all happening so quickly… my breathing was erratic… my eyes were not able to focus… my hands were sweating. Then there was heat… lots of heat and a flash. Simon had taken a bottle of a liquid, lit it, and hurled it below. The Reavers that were hit with the blast died instantly, the others were merely blinded. More shots. Screams Several more flashes. Then I heard a scream, but it wasn’t coming from below it was coming from near me. It was Simon, A Reaver was reaching towards River who had somehow stumbled over the railing and was holding on now screaming. Simon couldn’t get to her in time and screamed for Jayne to help her. In a flash, Jayne rushed over, still firing what little ammo he had left into the crowd of Reavers, grabbed River by her arm and pulled her back up the catwalk. He turned to say something to Simon when a Reaver, who I guess had gotten up the stairs after Jayne left his spot, punched him causing him to fall to the floor below. Jayne was below firing his last pistol and throwing punches and kicks trying to fight his way back to the stairs and safety. Several more flashes and gunshots erupted. Everybody was screaming and throwing their empty weapons below… even going so far as to throw the boxes over the railing. The Reavers had started to retreat, but not alone, they had Jayne. They were carrying him back towards their ship. He was screaming for help and trying to struggle free. He looked up towards the catwalk, the look of calm panic in his eyes, the kind you only get when you know you’re going to die. As they carried him closer to the entrance, he screamed, “Gorramit, it wasn’t supposed to happen like this.” Then he vanished below our vision, I tossed myself to the floor to see what was happening, all I could see was his hand go up, a shot erupt down the hall, and his arm falling lifelessly to his side, the pistol clattering to the ground. With that, the doors closed and the Reavers left. It was a while before anybody moved or even said a word. It was a tomb inside that hold. Mal was the first to speak up, “Wash, I want you to go get all of Jayne’s gear from his room. Collect all of his weapons and all the shell casings from the floor. Put them in a bag and bring them below. The rest of you help me clean up.”

“That day we put all of Jayne’s clothes into a box, as well as his picture, and sent them into space. Tonight, one year later, we finally put Jayne to rest,” Wash said, trailing off. “With the exception of this,” Simon announced, holding up a single shell casing. “This stays with me… it’s the last round he fired and he had to fire it because he saved my sister.” “Wait, you told me that Jayne was killed in his bunk while he slept… you said he got drunk and didn’t wake up,” Roy mentioned. “You weren’t part of my crew,” Mal replied. “The business of the crew is for the crew… at the time you were a passenger.” With that said the crew of Serenity picked up the bag of weapon and shell casings from the year before and placed it into the wooden box. Turning on his heels and heading back down the hall Roy could hear the air lock door open and then close again. Looking out the nearby window the unmistakable shape of a wooden box floated into the darkness of space. The last thing that Roy heard as he went back to his room was the sounds of weeping and the Shepard reading a passage from his book.