A/N: This one is a little shorter, because I like me some cliff-hangers ....

Many thanks must again go to Leiasky, as she has stuck with this story and made it better when I couldn't edit it anymore. You rock, my friend!

***

The shuttle was already in the air by the time Inara reached Mal on the comm.

“What’s going on,” he asked quickly, studying her worried gaze.

Inara didn’t spare him a glance as she eased the shuttle forward at full speed. “River’s gone. She’s already back at the Academy.”

Mal uttered a string of Chinese curse words, many Inara had never heard before. Ignoring his tirade, she said, “You need to meet us there. Simon won’t be able to get to her himself.”

Mal nodded once and bit back the urge to tell Inara to stay strong. He bit back the even greater urge to confess his love for the woman – now was not the time. “We got a lock on you now. We’ll be there.”

“And Mal.” Inara’s strained tone pulled him back. When she did finally meet his gaze, he felt his heart stop. “Hurry.”

***

By the time Gabriel Tam returned home the last two days seemed a dream. If he wasn’t painfully aware of the bruise forming on his jaw from his son’s punch, he would have been thoroughly convinced that the past forty-eight hours had been lived by someone else.

But with frightful reality, Gabriel knew he was the cause for the dread that now lived in his heart. He had allowed his daughter, his beautiful River, to walk directly into the hands of the men who had tried to destroy her before. And what was worse, he had barely even asked her any questions, barely even put up a fight. Simon was right to hate him, he had been a coward.

Sighing heavily, Gabriel slowly trudged up the ornate staircase that wound through the center of the estate and headed for his wife’s room. He had not seen her for a few days, a particularly violent round of treatment had kept her sleeping for a majority of that time, but he needed to see her now. He needed to tell her what a fool he’d been and he needed to beg her for forgiveness. She was the only person who could grant it to him now.

Pushing open the door to her room, it took his eyes a few moments to adjust to the darkened interior. Approaching her bed, Gabriel sat gingerly at her side and took her hand in his. He inhaled sharply at the touch, surprised at the coldness of her skin. With a flash of recognition, Gabriel reached to touch her wrist and felt a sob rise in his chest when there was no beat to found.

He had lost his children and his wife all in one day. With a wail that echoed off the cold walls, Gabriel threw himself down on this wife’s lifeless form and cried.

***

River could not afford to be distracted, not now. But her father’s pain rang out to her like a shot, and she staggered back slightly from the ferocity of it. The red-gloved man noticed her falter and adjusted his tactic. Having been in the middle of a round house kick that would have connected soundly with her kidney, he brought the leg up straight and whipped his foot toward her sternum, smiling tightly as his booted foot met her chest and caused a sickening snap.

River fell backward even farther having to fight to maintain her balance. After a split second of gathering herself, she snapped fire-filled eyes back up to her attacker and Jin saw the clarity with which she resumed their battle. Smiling tightly, Jin settled in for another round.

All and all, this had been fun. More intense than even Jin would have anticipated the girl had taken the Academy’s teachings and advanced tenfold. She had developed tactics and abilities they could never have dreamed of teaching her, while some of her attack stances and defensive positions were pure text book. It was sweetly satisfying to see her as such a qualified success and despite the distraction it brought, Jin’s chest swelled with just the tiniest bit of pride.

It was River’s turn to smile. She had been wondering when this hun dan would get too cocky for his own good. As she launched into another attack pattern, one she had spent hours honing with Jayne, she considered the stupidity with which very smart people underestimated her. Even Jin was not immune to the phenomenon; he and his insane band of merry men had even created her and he still thought he had the upper hand. He still thought he would win, just because she had been momentarily overcome by a strong emotion – please.

Not that she wasn’t beginning to feel the effects of their battle. She had lost all semblance of time, but they had been waging this physical war for at least an hour and her muscles were starting to protest. She already had bruises covering just about every inch of skin and with the man’s last solid kick to her mid-section, she was fairly certain he had raised the total broken bone count to five. However, nothing vital had been damaged, for either of them, and that thought sobered River. She needed to stop this monster and she knew she was running out of time.

Simon was close, too close and this needed to be finished before he arrived. If not, he would jump into the fray with little thought for his own recovery or safety and end up dead in the process. And River would not let that happen.

“What’s the matter, little one,” Jin taunted, his voice pulling River from her thoughts. “Tired?”

River grimaced at his use of the endearment, no doubt something he had plucked from her mind in the midst of one of his brain walks. “Not at all,” she said, her breath coming hard as she leveled another set of blows against him. She smiled tightly as he fell backwards having to regain his balance and in the process losing his rhythm. “I’d be more worried about your stamina. You are a little bit older than me.”

Martin couldn’t help smiling. He loved the idea of the girl trying to tease him into a mistake. It just showed that for all the physical prowess she possessed, she was still a gorram teenager and a damaged one at that.

River took a deep breath and carefully considered her next move. She could feel Jin’s contempt for her rolling off of him and it only served to fuel her fire. She knew that if she was to beat Simon to this battle, she would need to end it quickly. Deciding on her final tactics, she prepared herself. With no warning, she had completed a diving roll, landing behind Jin in a flash, her leg coming out to curl around his shins and drive him to the ground. He fell hard, his knee caps hitting the hard floor with two cracks and River again smiled. She pounced on top of him now, her hands at his throat.

His eyes were wide with shock as she proceeded to squeeze the life out of him. Smiling thinly, she muttered, “Not that damaged,” as she held her hands firm and watched him claw at her strong arms with red-gloved hands. “Just what you made me.”

***

“Cap’n.”

Kaylee’s voice was shaky as she stood in the doorway of the bridge, watching with fearful eyes as Mal and Zoe brought the ship into the air. “We’re going after ‘em, mei mei,” he told her, his voice tight as he concentrated on getting his ship where it needed to go.

“You think you can spare us some more power,” he asked, risking a glance over his shoulder.

Her eyes were wide, but she nodded automatically and sped from the room, hurtling herself into the engine room to see what extra juice she could provide.

Gazing back out the canopy, Mal muttered, “The sooner we get there, the better.” ***

Simon’s body was not well and the confrontation with his father had only proved that point. But he couldn’t sit still. He could not rest while Inara flew the shuttle toward New Sedona. He could not keep himself from tensing as more adrenaline pumped itself into his system. River needed him – his hun dan of a father had been weak until the end and now his sister was again in the hands of men who wanted to kill her … or worse.

Simon knew that as the adrenaline flowed through him, his aches and pains would become less pronounced as his fight or flight instincts took over. Pacing a short path in the small shuttle, he wished that moment would come, quickly.

“Gorramit doc, can’t you stay still?” Jayne’s annoyed grunt barely registered with Simon. His thoughts were consumed with his baby sister and the state he would find her in once they reached their destination. Jayne on the other hand seemed completely oblivious to all the tension, content to sit on Inara’s plush couch, head back and eyes closed.

“Jayne, listen to me.” Something in Simon’s voice must have gotten the mercenary’s attention because he immediately brought his eyes to rest on Simon’s face. “You have to do one thing for me.” The merc curled up his lip and Simon crossed the small distance between them, standing over the larger man.

“I know we’re not friends and I know you don’t like me or my sister all that much.” Jayne didn’t disagree on any particular point so he waited for the doc to continue. “But I want your promise that no matter what happens, you will get River out of there and back to Serenity.”

Jayne took in the doc’s intense expression for a second and for a fleeting moment, thought he felt a chill run down his spine at the fire in the other man’s gaze. Naw, must just be cold in here.

“You got my word,” he answered, reaching out a hand to Simon. Simon pumped it hard once and then dropped it to resume his nervous pacing. Moonbrain must be wearing off on her brother, Jayne thought as he again rested his eyes. Doc’s just as ruttin’ crazy as she is.

***

They were trained to be alert for the first sign of distress. And two ships, one shuttle and one transport, approaching the Academy from opposite directions at breakneck speeds, definitely constituted an emergency. With anticipation, the blue-hands activated the command sequence and sat back to study the upcoming battle on screens set high in an observation tower, far away from any of the ensuing nastiness. It was just one big experiment and there was no reason for any of them to get their hands dirty while their pupils did the work.

***

Any words Inara might have said left her the moment she crested the final hill and saw the Academy looming before her. But it wasn’t the building that made her breath catch in her throat, it was the throngs of men and women who stood outside its gate ready to defend the place to the death.

With fear gripping her heart, she called over her shoulder, “Simon! Get up here!”

The doctor was by her side in an instant and she felt him clutch the back of her chair in an effort to stay upright. Inara knew the feeling; this was too much and not at all what they had expected. “They’re just …” she started the sentence but the words died on her lips as the levity of the situation washed through her.

“Children,” Simon breathed the word, finishing her thought for her. Straightening slightly as he tried to push past his disgust and fear, he clarified, “Students.”

Inara turned big, tear-filled eyes on him and for an instant Kaylee’s face floated in front of Simon. He wished he was with her now instead of having to face this nightmare. Shaking the thought away, he said, “Where’s Serenity?”

Inara did a quick scan and told him. “About ten minutes out.”

“Get me Mal,” Simon ordered, not caring if he was being rude. Inara didn’t even seem to notice as she obeyed the request. When Mal’s face was again on the cortex screen, Simon said, “We need a new plan.”

Mal’s brow furrowed as he said, “What you talkin’ about doc? We storm the place that is the plan.”

Glancing to Inara, Simon saw that her fingers were already deftly flying over the controls in front of her. “Look at the images we’re sending.”

Mal’s eyes glanced down and Simon saw recognition light his eyes. With a loud tirade of cursing, he turned fiery eyes back to the screen, “Are they what I think they are?”

Simon nodded once and said, “Students, like River. We need a new plan.”

Mal glanced back to the image for just a moment before flipping it off in disgust. Under his breath, he muttered, “I’ll say we do.”

***

River felt them mobilize. She could feel the pull on her own brain, the knowledge that she was needed somewhere, needed to fight, kill, destroy. But her own need at the moment, her need to end Martin Jin’s life superceded all others and she continued to watch his eyes bulge as she continued to crush his windpipe.

She could feel his mind grow heavy from lack of oxygen and in hindsight she would realize she had given up too soon. He felt her relax just a bit and in that moment had the advantage he needed. Throwing all his weight into his lower half, Jin rolled to the side, succeeding in getting River off of him and in one swift motion, reversing their positions.

With wide eyes, River watched as he presumed to strangle her, realizing he felt nothing in the process. “You truly are remarkable,” he told her, his voice barely a rasp. “But I’m afraid this is just the way it has to be.”

River tried to fight again, but it was only minutes before her world went black.

***

Simon stood in Inara’s shuttle and felt a blow to his gut like he had never experienced before. Staggering backwards, the only thing that kept him upright was his hand on Inara’s chair. Mal’s eyes widened as he watched the younger man recoil as if punched, but Mal had seen the entire last few minutes and no one had touched the doc.

Inara spun in her chair as well, and reached out a hand to steady him, guiding him to the co-pilot’s seat. “Simon, what’s wrong?” “River,” he squeezed out between clenched teeth. He didn’t know how he knew, but he did. “She’s gone.”

****

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