Survival Guide Chapter 2

A Jayne Kaylee Story By Belasera NC-17, kiddies

A vague disclaimer is nobody’s friend: All recognizable characters, etc. belong not to me, but to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Fox, and no money is being made here. The story, however, is mine. Archiving: Sure, just tell me where it is so I can send my baby care packages with funny hats. This is my very first attempt at fan-fiction, and will be a multi chapter story. It is already outlined, but I would appreciate any and all feedback, positive and negative, to help me flesh out the story as well as my meager capabilities allow. This is brought to you without beta, folks. Big thanks to Werzbowski, AlienZookeeper, Ciara and Squee for their shiny words.

Kaylee’s lungs were on fire, her sides were splitting open. She couldn’t get enough air to keep her legs pumping. She was going to die. Maybe she said it out loud, because over the blood pounding in her ears she heard Jayne respond. “I ain’t gonna let that happen.” His hand was a vise on her wrist as she struggled to maintain the pace his long legs were setting. Behind them, in the woods one reaver lay dead, half his head blown off in a quick shot by Jayne a moment after Kaylee had spotted them. But the gun was gone now, in the hands of a reaver who had sliced through Jayne’s forearm to get it. Now they ran, and Serenity loomed huge in front of them, close enough that they could feel her humming readiness for liftoff, and far enough that they could die before touching her hull. “Come on, bao bai, a few more steps.” Jayne pulled her arm hard and for a moment she believed him, he was going to get them out of this. Then a cold dirty hand yanked her out of Jayne’s grasp and she cried out in fear even as he bellowed in pain. A forearm across her throat and she was pulled against the reeking body of a monster, its hot fetid breath on her throat. Her fear for herself was replaced with horror as she saw Jayne’s’ face slashed viciously with his own knife. She thought he would collapse and cried out his name in a panic. “Jayne!” His head snapped up and through a curtain of red he saw Kaylee, in the arms of that…thing. He howled in rage and lunged. It was a mass of clashing muscle as Kaylee was jerked free and pushed aside. Jayne grappled with the reaver even as another joined the fray. He spared a quick moment to look into Kaylee’s startled face, and snarled at her. “Run, Kaylee.” And she did. She turned her back on him and ran for her life, into the opening cargo bay doors. The doors hissed shut behind her, and she turned, gasping, to peer through the window. “Jayne?” Kaylee’s eyes grew wider and wider as she stared in awe at the red streak in the grass, left by Jayne’s body as it was drug farther and farther away. Until it was gone. She screamed.

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Jayne is no good with names, or dates, or even places. His memory doesn’t run straight lines, its hard to remember the when and why of things, Memories come to him in bursts and flashes, hodgepodge collections of sights and sounds and smells that might be separated from each other by years and worlds, and tied together by a particular shade of brown. The shiny coat of his new foal Zeus, Kaylee’s hair running through his fingers and brown leather seeping out blood. And now his thoughts turn to blood, and blood is all around him, it covers his hands, the smell of it inside and out and the sound of it pounds in his ears. The blood on his tongue has a bitter unfamiliar tang and it burns through his veins, sending alarms of pain and warning through his body. Now the part of his mind that is words and whys is shoving down the touch of Zeus and Kaylee and whispering for him to wake up. Jayne opened his eyes and saw red. He felt like he was on fire and every nerve in his body was warning him of danger. He shook his head clear and opened his eyes. He was in a large dark room, mostly empty, but for six or seven bodies. Most were movin’ about, one was not. The smell of the place was pungent, death and deadly and Jayne inhaled deeply. He tasted his own mouth and spat. He had been drugged, or poisoned, and a thick viscous fluid now coated his forearm where a reaver’s blade had cut him deep. Jayne sniffed at it, not willing to taste the stuff. It smelled like disease. Jayne wasn’t restrained and he moved cautiously into a crouch, surveying his surroundings. The reavers weren’t paying attention to him; they were loosely huddled several feet away. They pushed and shoved at each other, their barking yells meant nothing to Jayne, but it was obvious they were fighting over something. A cold seized his belly as the thought came to Jayne. Kaylee. Where was Kaylee? He had seen her running, but he hadn’t seen her reach the ship. He had to find out if she was here. Jayne stood, and the reavers stopped their fighting to look at him. One strode forward and laughed loudly, grabbing Jayne’s’ shirt in a bunch. “He wakes.” He growled, and Jayne could smell the excitement rise in the others. Jayne shoved the reaver back, hard, but he only laughed again. “Good! Get the spare.” Jayne watched as two reavers moved to the still body on the floor and hauled it up. It was a large man, drugged or unconscious, but he began to wake at the reaver’s rough handling, struggling against his captors. The man looked around with terrified eyes, finally locking on Jayne’s. “H…help.” He pleaded, and the reavers roared with laughter. The reaver holding Jayne grinned wickedly, flashing teeth that were filed into points. “He’s for you.” He growled, and pushed Jayne’s knife into his hand. Jayne understood, immediately. He was to be their entertainment. The other man was slower to comprehend. He stood staring dumbly at the knife in his hand, and then looked up at Jayne pleadingly. “This is fong luh!” Jayne just shook his head at the man and shifted his knife to get a better grip. There was only one thing he could do for this poor hwoon dahn. Jayne made it quick, a clean slice across his neck to sever the jugular. The man fell lifeless at his feet as the reavers hissed and booed, though Jayne didn’t know if the jeering was for the dead man or for the quickness of the sport. Jayne faced them, baring his teeth. They wanted action; they were going to get it. Jayne took aim with his knife and let it fly.

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Kaylee hit the steel floor of the cargo bay with a thud, a moment before she felt Zoe’s arms around her. Dark hair filled her vision as she tried to stay conscious. She had to get to the captain, had to tell Mal. “Jayne.” Zoe’s arms held her tight. “He’s gone Kaylee.” Kaylee struggled up right. “No, Zoe, they just took him, you have to go get him. You and the cap’n, you have to go now, before it’s too late…” “It is too late.” Mal’s voice interrupted hers as he moved away from the window and squatted down in front of Kaylee. “Their ship is in the air. It’s too late, Kaylee.” Kaylee shook her head mutely and pushed Zoe off her as the captain walked away. “Mal, you have to go after him! Tell Wash, we have to go after them.” But Mal kept walking didn’t turn around as he growled. “No! We’re not losing the rest of our lives to reclaim a body, ‘cause that’s what he is now, Kaylee.”

Kaylee lay on the med bed, staring at the ceiling as Simon quietly looked her over. She felt hollowed out, she felt nothing. Surely at any moment she would wake up under that tree by the lake, Jayne would tease her about his manly self wearing her out. Surely what just happened couldn’t be real. And if it was, then the lake must be a dream, no gorram way the two things coulda happened in the same ‘verse, no gorram way. “You’re fine” Simon whispered. “Just some bruising on your wrist and your neck.” Kaylee looked down at her wrist. Large thumbprint and four finger marks wrapping round to meet it, where Jayne had pulled her through the woods. Silent tears streamed down her face, when had she started crying? “Kaylee, I…” Simon moved to touch her and she rolled away from him, facing the other bed on which River sat, staring at her. Simon pulled back and moved away from her, silently slipping out of the infirmary. Kaylee and River stared at each other, until River muttered. “They took your puppy.” Kaylee nodded and she continued. “Wanted a pet, but what they got was a wolf.” River raised her eyebrows and smiled, and Kaylee closed her eyes, drifting into blackness, with one last sweet thought flitting through her mind. ‘He’d called her bao bai.’ When Kaylee came to, Inara was beside her, softly wiping her face with a damp cloth. “Don’t!” Kaylee weakly pushed her hand away. “I’m sorry.” Inara said softly, unoffended. “It’s still there.” “What is, sweetie?” Inara questioned with gentle tones. “Scent. Underneath. There’s them, their rotten smell, but underneath its all grass and clean water.” Kaylee brought her hands to her face and inhaled deeply, her eyes closed. “And him.” Inara seemed to understand, her face was heavy with it as she stroked Kaylee’s hair. “I’m sorry.” She repeated. It was the movement of Serenity’s liftoff that stirred Kaylee. It seemed so soon to be leaving this place, with that awful knowledge of having left something behind. Kaylee left the infirmary and walked toward the bridge, with Inara and River behind her. The captain turned when she entered and moved to hug her, but she warned him off with a shake of her head. She addressed Wash instead. “Do you know where they went?” Wash glanced at the captain with a pained expression on his face, and Mal answered her. “Kaylee, I said no already. I know you’re real upset, we all are.” At that Wash nodded pleadingly at Kaylee. “But Jayne is dead.” “Captain, I’m not so sure that he is.” They all turned to look at Shepard Book, who entered the bridge with Zoe behind him.

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The crew was settled at the table, listening as Book explained himself. “That attack on Ma’Picchu, well it wasn’t one.” “Come again?” The captain asked, brows knit in consternation. “It wasn’t an attack. The reavers moved through the woods, not through town, and the number of kills was minimal. When reavers hit a town, they raze it, we’ve all seen that.” Mal and Zoe nodded in agreement. “I sent a wave to local authorities.” Book continued, “And found out that only three people were killed, and one taken captive, besides Jayne. Now that makes no reaver sense, so I took a look on the cortex for similar happenings. As it turns out, the past few months have seen a handful of situations like this. Small bands of reavers, quick attacks, and most importantly, one or two captives.” “Wuo de ma.” Mal muttered. “They’re recruiting.” Book nodded. “I think its worse. I think they are recruiting specifically. I took a look at those taken. All Strong men, mostly hired guns and criminals. And many of them are connected in some way to each other. This one,” Book placed the picture of a rough looking man on the table. “Used to run with Jayne.” Zoe stared at the picture. “You tellin’ us that they came for Jayne? Specifically, that they knew him, cause if reavers are doin’ that kind of thinkin’ then ai ya women wanle.” “I believe that they did.” Mal stood up abruptly. “Well, they don’t get to keep him. Jayne is a shiong-muh duh duang ren, but gorramit he’s our shiong muh duh duang ren!” “Wash, you been trackin ‘em?” Wash nodded and stood. “All right then. Stay on ‘em. See what you can find out. Zoe, go with Wash. Book, thank you.” ”It’s my pleasure, captain.”

“It’s a Falcon class scout ship, not very powerful, but they’re runnin’ the engines damn hot. Now, we might be able to modify Serenity’s output wave and knock out the onboard computer, force it to reboot and buy us enough time to crack her open. That is, if we can get in range of ‘em. Probably, it’s too little to have a grappler, but the way it’s burning, could probably outrun us. But that might be a good thing.” The captain listened intently to Wash’s description of the reaver ship. “She’s leavin’ a wake that’s pretty big for the ship, on account of how they’re pushin’ the engine. Might be we’ll be able to hide in it, but it’ll be tricksome.” “Ok, Wash, get on that. I’ll see what Kaylee can do to help you...” “I’m already on it, captain.” Kaylee spoke from behind Mal’s back, as she moved to confer with Wash. The captain gave her a nervous glance. “Yeah, I imagine you are. Ok, people we intercept in an hour. Let’s go be heroes.”

The cargo bay hummed with excitement as everyone felt their coupling with the now powerless reaver ship. Wash’s voice blared over the come, obviously nervous. “We’re in. Got maybe twenty minutes before its mobile again, so make it quick. And Zoe, zhu tamin ya min zhu yi.” Mal and Zoe headed toward the airlock doors as Mal barked out instruction. “Simon, I need you to make sure you have restraints enough for Jayne in the infirmary.” Simon nodded and headed that way. “Restraints, cap’n?” “Not now, Kaylee. Shepard, you and Simon are gonna be holdin’ the door for us when we return, Inara take River and Kaylee to your shuttle.” “Captain…” “No arguments, Kaylee.” “No arguments, just…just bring him back, ok?” “Ok.