It wasn’t until Persephone that I knew.

I knew breaking River out of that…that place…that it would certainly have an effect on things. Clandestine meetings in blackout zones, thousands of credit transfers, blueprints of what essentially is a government-sponsored fortress, even the sight of my beloved mei-mei being tortured in that horrific chair…I guess I never realized much worse it really could become.

The boarding house near the docks. That was where I found out. Somehow I managed to keep a low profile—I was certain that the landlady recognized me—but still, the whispers floated like vids over the Cortex.

“Did you hear? A brother and sister!”

“Wonder what they did, fetch a price like that…”

“The warrant doesn’t specify…?”

“Treason, I suppose, or something of the sort. What else could fetch such a price?”

It was all I could do to make a quick, unmemorable exit. I’m still surprised I managed to pull the calm act off. As I left, I saw a Cortex banner overhead flashing, and there we were. God, the pictures are horrible. At that point it wouldn’t have surprised me if Father sent the most hideous ones of us that he possessed, but then I realized that they pulled the shots on my ident card for the hospital and the one River had on her card some three years back, before she left for that dungeon.

“Half a million square…for both of ‘em?”

“God, what I could do with that kind of money…”

“What we all couldn’t do with that kind of money…”

Somehow I managed to make it to the docks. I remember thinking that the blackout zones had been bad, but those docks put me in mind of what hell probably looked like, or at least the antechamber. Of course, that was before I got on board the ship.

Serenity. Small, dingy, dirty, and I can remember that at the time it looked like there were pieces falling off the top. In my old life, it would have been the last ship I would have sought passage on. There really were only three things that convinced me to get on board—it was cheap, it was headed in my direction and it was the last place the Alliance would think to look for us. At least, I thought so at the time.

Then that fed showed up. In space. I remember myself thinking that I had just spent two years and every credit and sliver of platinum I had to free my little sister only to get us killed by a crazed fed on a death trap ship. Or killed by a psychotic ship’s captain. It really was a toss-up by that point.

The only good thing I remember—other than the thought that I had finally gotten River out of that go-se hellhole—were the bright eyes and brilliant smile of the ship’s barker/mechanic. I think now, looking back, that she was the real reason I booked passage on Serenity, and why later I accepted the job the surprisingly only slightly psychotic captain offered me on his ship.

And now, as I sit here, tending the injured and contemplating death by suffocation, I wonder if it was all worth it.

Then I remember that smile.

And my birthday cake.

And the knowledge that there were these people around me that were willing to travel in the middle of nowhere for a week just to help keep me and my sister safe—or it could have just been the Independent in the captain, I’m not sure which.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. But if I were to do it again, I would definitely spring for plastic surgery first—to help with the disguise, of course…