(All Firefly characters are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy and all original characters are mine.)

All feedback is very welcome, good or bad please tell me what you think.

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Part 1

The job had gone from bad to worse. It had started off like any other and Mal had been hopeful that everything would, for once, go smoothly. No chance of that!

They had found a contact, money changed hands and the cargo was loaded on to Serenity.

They would all be getting a very large payout on this job once the cargo was delivered to the small and uninhabited moon of Daion and picked up safely. Mal desperately needed the money to keep his ship afloat and fueled and the crew paid.

The two week run to Daion was pretty uneventful and it was with a light heart that Serenity landed and Mal, Zoe, Jayne and Book set off toward the meeting site. Unfortunately they ran into an ambush on the way.

Someone had tipped off a band of known pirates that Serenity was carrying a very valuable cargo, but luckily for Mal and the others, this rag tag team of ruffians weren't patient enough for a successful ambush.

Their activities were limited to boarding ships in midair and raping or killing those they found rather than hiding in bushes and waiting around.

Even so, the situation turned into a gun fight very quickly with bullets flying every which way.

'Get back to the ship!' Mal ordered and started to shuffle forward.

The others stayed low and moved fast but the pirates must have had some training with firearms as they rained fire balls and bullets upon them.

A cry behind Mal signalled that Book was hit. He hoped it wasn't too bad.

Going for the small bag of coins that had been dropped by one of the pirates, Mal felt a sharp burning sensation that told him he had been hit.

Mal gasped. “Could this day get any better?” he thought. He coughed, trying to draw his breath in. “Book would never have been in this situation if not for me. It would have been better if I'd never existed”.

Then his thoughts disappeared, along with everything around him, into the growing darkness that swallowed him whole.

A flash of blinding white light enveloped Mal. When it had died down he opened his eyes and found himself in the middle of a very large and well-furnished room. To one side was an ornamental fire place with a gold edged mirror hanging above it, to another was a large heavy looking wood cabinet with a glass front. All around him pictures were hung on the walls and it reminded him of his uncle’s house back on Shadow before the war.

“What the hell?” Mal muttered, then a little louder said, “Is there anyone here?”

It was then that he noticed an open door to the left of the fireplace.

“That’s strange,” thought Mal. “That wasn’t there a second ago!”

As he pondered, a young girl floated through the said door, her feet not touching the ground. Mall was stunned. She was a very beautiful girl, with long dark hair and blue eyes very like his own and surrounded by a gentle, warm, pulsing light. She could easily have been an angel if Mal still believed in those things.

“Wuh de tien! Ni hao gu nian zhong de gu nian. Am I dead?” Mal said to her.

“Welcome Mal, you traveller weary, a journey begins, you may find eerie”. Her voice was gentle and sweet yet ethereal and unreal, and filled Mal’s heart with light and hope.

“Where am I? What’s going on? Am I dead?” Mal was persistent.

“You’re welcomed here, I’ll be your guide, so never fear I’m by your side, you wished a thought and made it true, which bought me here so I’d show you, that life without you’s not a blast, you’re one that life should not have passed” she said in a melodious sing-songy tone.

“Fay fay d’pien! I never…. Gos se tamade! I did, didn’t I?” Mal hung his head. “Wo bu dong? Who are you and what’s going to happen now?”

“I’ve come to take you so you will see, that this life is not pretty. So grab my hand and off we go, to visit a friend, someone you will know”.

Mal had absolutely no intention of going anywhere until he got a straight answer. However, his body was drawn towards the girl and his hand reached out and took hold of hers before he could do anything about it.

In the blink of an eye Mal found himself (albeit still holding the girls hand, which he dropped quickly) standing on a lush green hill looking down into a valley at a big house surrounded by flowers.

“I don’t know anyone here” stated Mal with confidence.

“The one you seek in this wonderous place, strong of spirit and fair of face, changed your life as you changed hers, with love and lust your body stirs. Inara Serra once as known, with her fate changed her life has grown, did not know then, cannot love now, so cries as she takes her final bow” she told him.

They were now stood in a small room, which contained a desk, two chairs and various other items of furniture. Inara was sat on one side of the desk and a tall, blond and well built man was sat on the other. A nameplate on the desk identified him as Alexander J. Paighton. The two of them were arguing.

“They can’t see us, can they?” Mal asked in a hushed tone.

“We do not exist, so they cannot see, nor hear and feel either you or me” was the answer he received.

“Alex, we've been through this. You knew perfectly well what I did for a living, I've never tried to hide it from you but I gave it up for you because I love you. Why is this such a problem?” Inara was asking.

“You promised me you'd given up all the other men and would be mine only. But now I find these…” he waved a handful of letter at her “addressed to ‘My Darling Inara’ and signed ‘S’. Who is he?” Alex sounded really angry, pissed off even and Mal winced.

“I am faithful to you” Inara tried to convince him. “I swear! I don’t know who this person is or why I keep getting these letters”.

“DON’T LIE TO ME, WHORE!” Alex bellowed, reaching out and slapping her across the face.

“Why that….that gos se wangba dan! I oughta punch him for that. Why does she stay with that ni ta ma de?” Mal said, outraged.

The girl just looked at him for a moment then turned her eyes back to Inara. Mal took the hint and also looked back.

Inara was now stood with her arms around Alex as he sobbed and wailed “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean…. It’s just I love you so much. I couldn’t live without you. I’d kill myself if you left!”

“The companion is sad, the woman is lonely, often thinks to herself that if she could only, save him from himself and her from his rage, they could start anew on a clean page” the girl sighed.

“She's staying because she thinks she can save him? That man'll go crazy, tear her apart and there won't be a one who can save her!” Mal muttered. They watched Inara and Alex for a few more seconds then the girl turned but as she did her appearance changed and when she faced him she was in her late teens, her long hair cut short and her body fuller.

'Come we must go, we have to move on, our time here is limited so we must be gone' she said, a small smile on her face.

“We can't leave, I need to be sure that Inara is okay” Mal reached out his hand to Inara as she stood with Alex in her arms. “Inara!” he said trying to touch her shoulder but try as he might he just couldn't. There seemed to be some kind of barrier preventing him from touching her.

The girl reached out her hand again and Mal tried harder to resist this time. He didn't want to leave Inara like this, in pain, and he was also a little wary of what he might find next.

But once again he found fighting just made it come quicker and just like the last time he was powerless to stop what he knew would happen.

And sure enough, in the blink of an eye, they had moved once more. The sight in this place, however, was very different from the natural beauty of the last.

They stood in a graveyard, which seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see in every direction. It was a bleak and dismal place, everything grey as if all of the colour had been sucked out.

'What are we doing here? Don't tell me Jayne's become a security guard!' Mal joked.

The girl silently pointed to a spot just slightly to the left of him.

With a growing sense of horror and tension aplenty in the air, Mal slowly looked down to the place at which the woman was pointing knowing full well what he would find but not whose fate it was.

To be cont………