Freedom’s cry

Spoilers- up to Objects in Space, no movie spoilers. Disclaimer- these characters don’t belong to me and I’m pretty sure they don’t belong to Lucas Harper. Note- this is a collaboration between myself and Lucas Harper. We was talking one day and turned out we had a pretty similar idea for a Firefly fic and hey presto. xxx

Freedom’s Cry (aka Liberatin' Them What Never Knew Me)

Prologue

Mal let the screen door slam behind him as he bolted down the steps and strode purposely towards his horse. The old men in town had been talking. Whisperin' to each other when they thought no one could hear.

There was gonna be trouble they said. Alliance was comin'. Alliance didn't treat ya like common folk. They treated ya like cattle to be bought and bartered. They took over a planet and made it all civilized, or they made it work.

Work to feed the troops that was killin' and plunderin' and rapin' women. Women on their own, like his ma, they weren't important to Alliance. They was pawns. Something to move around a board to make life easier for them.

Ain't no man can stand by and let that happen

Malcolm Reynolds would be damned to hell before he just let someone waltz in and take over all his mother worked so hard for.

“Malcolm Reynolds, so help me god, you get back here!” His mother stood on the porch, her loose shirt flapping in the breeze.

Mal didn’t stop. “I won't let 'em do it, Ma! Not to this world!”

Rae Reynolds was a powerful woman, a strong one. But no woman is strong that watches her son go off to fight an unwinable war. “No, Mal. Don't!”

Mal threw the saddle over his horse. “I hafta, Ma. I can't sit here and let those hwoon dahn take over everything we've worked so hard for.”

“Mal! Don't do this, Mal!” Tears fell as she watched her only child walk away. “Mal! Don't leave me. Mal!”

Mal turned, looking back at his mother, knowing it could be the last time they’d see each other. “I gotta, Ma. I gotta.”

Mal secured the saddle and swung himself up onto it. He looked at his mother, framed by the homestead he loved so dearly, and for a second he felt hope. “I'll be back, Ma. I promise.”

xxx

Next is Lucas Harper’s turn…