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"Hell." Jayne grunted as the vehicle suddenly went a good deal faster.

"A ai-ya wo zhi zhe yao beng-kuai tong yi hua zhaun de huai yun." Mal growled.

"Relax." Virgil rolled his window down and took out his gun. "It's just the feds."

"Just the feds? You make it sound like a gorram hangnail." Mal was thrown back into his seat as Genevieve changed gears and the vehicle roared with speed. Roxy and Jayne crouched under the sun roof, readying themselves.

“It is just the feds.” Virgil extended his palm out to tell Roxy to wait. “We go fast, fire some weapons, get in your shuttle and leave. At best with little or no complications.” He tapped his ear to turn on his com link. “Jovie, get Serenity purring and meet us over Badger’s house, we’ve got a couple of Purple Badges muckin’ up our escape plan.”

Mal twisted around in his seat. “’Nara, stay low.” He pulled out his gun and rolled the window down, for the three patrol hovercrafts were closing in as another three had parked at the restaurant. Obviously they had seen the hasty departure of the craft, had scanned the license plates, and found it to be the speeding hover vehicle of the man reportedly in distress.

“Steady.” Virgil told them as Jayne racked Vera and rolled down his window as Pike made sure Inara and Simon were down, though they had their guns drawn as well.

“I know when to hold.” Mal snapped, watching the patrol crafts. He thought of Inara’s involvement in all of the newfound danger, and his stomach twisted. “Vieve, how far’s the house?”

“Five miles.”

“Yi pi-liang hui chu zai wu-fen-zhong.” Mal gritted his teeth and watched as the crafts came closer. “Alright.”

Virgil leaned out of his window. “NOW.”

The shots were fired rapidly upon the lawmen.

Jayne and Roxy shared the sunroof, spraying bullets. Mal and Virgil fired out of each side of the vehicle, and Pike watched the back, holding Simon and Inara down.

The fed crafts sped up, then whined as the front of each car broke off from the rest of the body and the rest of the crafts dropped back. The remaining pieces, smooth, round spheres rolling swiftly down the road, shot out red lights that scanned the vehicle they chased.

“What is that?!” Mal shouted in a high pitch.

“Shit, shit, shit.” Virgil ducked back into the car, shouting to Genevieve. “They deployed drones!”

“Mother F***er.” Roxy released her empty magazine and slid in a new one.

“Drones?!” The other captain gawked, turning back around as the spheres unrolled into hovering robots that had guns instead of arms.

---This is the Alliance Partol, please cease and park your vehicle immediately-- the drones buzzed. ---If you do not comply within five seconds we will proceed with deadly force.---

The bullets fired barely nicked the mechanized things as the andriods sped towards their quarry. After five seconds, they fired their weapons, and shattered the back window as well as riddled holes in the frame of the craft.

“YA XIANG-XIA HE BA!” Genevieve told them as she jerked the wheel onto the nearest overpass, regardless the holosign on the overpass read ‘Do Not Enter: Wrong Way’ in English and Mandarin.

“Ye-su!” Mal grabbed onto the door as the hovercraft swerved to miss an oncoming semi.

Virgil held onto his hat and looked back as the drones followed mercilessly. “Can’t this beast go faster?!”

“I’m workin’ on it!” Genevieve had to shift to change lanes and dodge a school buss.

Simon held onto Inara as they were thrown into the seat in front of them.

“Gorram bullets don’t do nothin'!” Jayne roared over the howling wind, bracing himself as they were jerked about weaving through traffic.

“GRENADES.” Virgil ordered.

Mal could plainly see the casualties piling up behind them on the highway if they used grenades. Badger's scurvy demise was all he could take for the day's guilt. “NO! NO GRENADES!”

“WEI-SHEN-ME DE-YU BU?” The other captain challenged.

“There’s too many people!”

“SO?!”

“You wanna blow up forty crafts?! Innocent lives?! NO! Ain’t doin it!”

“It don’t matter!”

“You got your kill, you may not have scruples but I do!” Mal shouted. “Now I’m callin’ it and I say NO GORRAM GRENADES UNTIL IT’S CLEAR.”

"I'm the captain Mal."

"So am I!"

"No, you're a sergeant." He hollered, and with that the crew froze momentarily as it was a blow to Reynolds.

Mal seethed, and wanted to strike Virgil with his gun, yet it wasn't the time nor obvious place. "This ain't the war, nor a place for you to use the tactics that got us the black mark. AND HERE I'M A CAPTAIN AND I SAY NO GRENADES."

“Ni zhi sha wo-men.” Virgil growled under his breath.

“Vieve,” Mal turned to their driver “squirrel us outta this like I know you can.”

She nodded her head. “Ba.” Spinning the wheel, she drove the hovercraft straight into the highway wall.

Cement went flying, as did the hovercraft for the drop was well over twenty feet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jovie and Kaylee had Serenity in the air and screaming towards the Upper Eavesdown.

But Jovie saw something come up on the radar.

“What the…”

Right beside Serenity came an aught two, the wave screen chimed and she hit it to see Sterling’s gap toothed grin.

“Yew like our haut ride?” He announced.

“Does it have the drugs?”

“Tha’ id does.”

“Well then I think it’s shiny. Best follow us though, seems we have some color.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mal braced himself as the hovercraft dove.

It landed onto another highway, hitting the pavement with a crunch and bounce before leveling off into a hover.

The drones followed.

“Hell.” Jayne fired a few more shots from Vera, then ducked down as there was return fire.

"I told you we shoulda brought Sterling!" Roxy snapped down at her captain.

“Whatever happened to the sonic rifles?” Simon looked up from his hiding spot.

“They don’t much care for non-violence nowadays.” Pike shoved the other doctor’s head down, aimed carefully, and fired off his shotgun.

The bullet hit the red sensor eye, and the drone fell back to hit a car.

“SENSOR!” He reported. “AIM FOR THE RED SENSOR!”

“That’s a gorram needle!” Jayne balked. “Whatever happened ta grenades?!”

“We can out run em!” Mal shouted, the entire car ducking as a spray of bullets ripped through the roof and the seats, blowing out the front windshield and shredding the roof. “Vieve?!”

“ALMOST THERE!” Her eyes were squinted as she struggled with the new wind. “I CAN’T SEE THOUGH!”

“WHAT?!” Half of the hover craft yelped.

“THE WIND! I NEED GLASSES! BO-LI!”

Mal turned and ripped open the glove compartment, digging through it, sending maps, driving gloves and everything but a pair of glasses flying through the window. The objects hit other cars, and a map hit a drone, covering up the sensor. It swerved, unable to see, and rammed into a median to erupt into a display of fiery gunpowder and fuel.

"Vieve." Virgil gawked at what was coming head on. "Vieve, Vieve, Vieve." The others joined in, panicking.

Malcolm didn’t pay attention though as he opened the middle console, found some sun glasses, and handed them to a nearly blind Genevieve.

"Bloody 'ell GENEVIEVE!" The mechanic yelled.

Putting them on, she saw what she was going to hit and veered to miss a hovervan full of children.

The last drone fired.

Before anyone could duck, Roxy was hit thrice in the chest.

“ROXY!” Jayne grabbed her as her dead weight nearly had her slam her chin into the corner of the sunroof. Feeding her down through the sunroof, he gave her to Virgil who ripped her coveralls off and inspected the body armor that clung to her form. The armor had been pierced as he lay her across the seat.

Pike rose some from his position. “How is she?!”

“Armor’s breeched, Not too much blood though.” Virgil pulled a knife out of his boot and used it to hit the concealed button in the armor. The armor laxed, separating to reveal the slight entrance of the bullets that could easily be removed. “She’s good!”

Another layer of bullets sent them ducking for cover. Jayne roared in pain as he caught a graze to the arm, and Pike clasped his hair as his scalp was grazed as well.

Mal looked back to see the relentless machine. Studying their get away vehicle, he signaled to his merc. “Jayne! Help me knock loose the roof!”

“Wha?!” Jayne watched as the captain took one of Genevieve’s more powerful guns from her side holster and fired at the remaining metal of the upper part of the doors that weren’t already swiss cheese. Getting the idea, he reloaded Vera and helped.

“Vieve!” Mal tossed her gun to the side. “Count of three, drop speed.”

She nodded her head as Jayne, Virgil, Pike, Simon and Mal put their shoulders to the barely attached roof.

“One, two, THREE!”

They heaved, and the craft jerked back to a lower speed. The drone was right behind the hovercraft as the roof flew off and crashed into it.

Mal let out a deep breath of relief as Jayne whooped and Virgil silently yet expressively approved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Serenity’s shuttle docked smoothly.

Jayne came out first with his arm bound, with Roxy limping next to him clutching her ribs. They were followed by Mal and a shaken Inara, Virgil limping, Simon applying pressure to Pike’s bleeding head, and Genevieve who seemed appear no worse for wear. Serenity rattled when she hit atmo, and Simon gazed down at the empty cargo bay. He didn't expect Kaylee to greet him as she was always in the engine roof when leaving worlds, but the cargo bay was completely empty.

Void of supplies.

“Where’s the medicine?” He asked, sobered by the emptiness, he gestured for everyone injured to head to the infirmary, but he gave his own captain a fretful look.

Mal left Inara and tromped to the helm. Only Jovie was there, which was odd as he reckoned his pilot would be flying, but then again he hadn't talked to the ship during flight. Genevive had since she had piloted, and he had been in back checking up on Inara and Simon. “Where are the others and the meds?”

“They took another ship with all of the product.” She explained whilst steadying the yolk. “They’re followin’ us up, we’ll meet once we’re out near the northern moon and out of jurisdiction.”

Keeping a steady hand on the co-pilot chair, he nodded his head in understanding. Looking down, he noticed Boston in the chair, curled up with the lucky colored cat Roxy toted around. The black one was licking the siamese’s ears, calming his sullen mind as he had been left behind.

“Good day.”

Virgil’s voice made him turn around and look at the doorway, where he leaned, favoring his leg.

“You got your meds, I got my man.”

“Yeah, well ya got stabbed and they’re sure as hell gonna find your blood on the knife you left.” Mal picked at his wrists, and slowly peeled off the thin film that gloved his hand and most importantly, his fingerprints. An invention by Pike, everyone had gloved their hands just in case the feds were to dust for fingerprints.

“I like it that way.” He smirked. “Let’s ‘em know who’s still on top. Gimpy, but on top.”

With a slight head nod he passed the other captain. “Best you go downstairs, have Simon patch that. Wouldn’t want a lame captain, hear those are as good as a three legged horse.”

"Mal," He exhaled, sobering his voice, limping to follow "about what I said back on Persephone... didn't mean it that way."

"You know, I don't need ta hear it. You got views, I got views, and when one of us ain't treatin' the other like somethin' they scrape off the underside of a boot we get along. Let's leave it at that." Without even breaking his stride, he headed into the galley, where Inara came from the engine room with Meilin. Walking over, he watched them fondly, because Inara appeared more calm as she was holding her child. “Well now, how are we doing?”

“Better, apparently she was little fussy.” Inara, glad to be back on board with her little one, peeled back the light blanket to show Mal his daughter. Tiny hands held her dress tight as the blue eyes of the captain gazed down before he bowed his head and gave the fine curls of hair a soft kiss.

“Good.” He straightened his stance and gave his beloved a caring, yet serious expression. It was clear he felt dearly for her, and wasn’t proud of making her apart of the plan, endangering something he loved. Suddenly he became commanding and rather indifferent. “But I regret to inform you that you are hereby retired from a life of crime. No more intregal plans, no more life threatening jobs for you.”

Inara frowned as she suspected the same argument between them about to rise. Granted, she didn't want to do what they had just pulled ever again, but being bossed in his thorny way wasn't something she tolerated well.

“This one we were desperate enough. Gotta whole town on our shoulders, not to mention Zoe.” He confessed. “But… I can’t lose my rudder. And she can’t lose her mother.” Malcolm's speech was an undertone when it came to what could be lost, for his voice simply could not talk about such things like they were insignificant, and the words stole the volume.

She understood.

Through his state of trying to act detached; the way his jaw was firm and his eyes were shrouded, how he sounded more frustrated than scared, she understood what he meant and how much he cared. Inara relaxed and took a step in, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. “Alright.”

Before the moment could become tender, Jayne’s yaowl of pain echoed through Serenity.

"Nothin' like the sound of mercs screamin' towards antiseptic." He quipped. "HOw are you doing by the way?"

"Since you last asked me twenty times beforehand? Not as shaky, as I'm not pinned under Simon as a hovercraft is speeding the opposite way of traffic and launching off of overpasses. I think I'm going to snuggle my daughter though, seems the best cure all."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You’re cured.”

The words out of Wash’s mouth made Zoe drop her head.

Wash approached her in the silent galley. “Baby, that’s a good thing. Simon just gave you the drug! Your gonna live!” He gestured grandly. “You don’t gotta go up to the bright light and all that.” He reached out and took her hand, his forever bluegaze sincere. “You get a second chance.”

”Wash,” She locked eyes with him, hers rimmed with tears. “I sure as hell don’t want one. My chance ended with you.”

“But that’s the thing, it didn’t. You have such a life ahead of you.” He sounded pained that she felt so strongly about her life being over. “You gotta recover and live for me. Live for the both of us.” The pilot could tell she wasn’t persuaded, but had an incentive to give. “And guess what? If you ever have kids… guess who’s in line for guardian angel?” He wagged his eyebrows and nodded his head with a smile that showed how excited he was at the prospect. “You won’t see me, but I’ll be down there all the time… I mean I take trips once in awhile already, but Guardian is a huge deal to the Big Guy. He likes around the clock watching with a few vacations here and there.”

Zoe cracked a smile, though she quickly feigned doubt. “I dunno if you’d make a good Guardian, Sweet Cakes, seems probable you’d get them into more trouble.”

“Hey.” He frowned.

“Who’s Meilin’s Guardian?”

“A tough old cattle rancher by the name of Hadley Elmarie.” He assumed she was more comfortable with his guardianship offer as he put his hands on her hips. “She’s been with that little girl since she drew her first breath, guided her all the way to Mal.” He spoke fondly of Hadley Reynolds’ plight. “She knew he and Inara needed her, wanted to help restore something he lost when she passed.”

”He loves that baby fierce.” She admitted softly.

“He loves Inara fierce too, it’s just taking him awhile to figure it out. Mal’s a little slow in that way.” He quipped, though the mood was serious. “But Meilin’s helped him see it.”

Zoe paused for thought. “Who’s Book watchin’?”

“River and a few other people. He’s spread thin, doesn’t come home much, but he can figure out River’s future better than I can and can sense what’s comin’.”

“I thought the future changed all the time.”

“River’s is different… it’s.. sorta like destiny… but it’s not. It’s just who she is and what’s inside her. She’s really definite with her mark on the future… and it’s sorta creepy.”

“And what’s comin’?”

“You wouldn’t believe it... I mean... I didn't until Book convinced me... so like me, you wouldn't believe it.”

“You got until I wake up from this to convince me.”

*** *** *** TRANSLATIONS/DEFINITIONS

A ai-ya wo zhi zhe yao beng-kuai tong yi hua zhaun de huai yun: Ah damn I knew this was going to fall apart like a magnificent turn of bad luck.

Yi pi-liang hui chu zai wu-fen-zhong: A lot can happen in five minutes.

YA XIANG-XIA HE BA!: DUCK DOWN AND HOLD ON!

Ye-su!: Jesus!

WEI-SHEN-ME DE-YU BU?!: WHY THE HELL NOT?!

Ni zhi sha wo-men: You just killed us

Ba: Hold on.

BO-LI!: GLASSES!

'Looking down, he noticed Boston in the chair, curled up with the lucky colored cat Roxy toted around...': Black cats were viewed as good luck on the high seas of Earth-that-was. Out in the black, the old belief held fast.

****As always, the writer appreciates all comments whether they be positive, negative, or suggestions.**