Jayne walked briskly through the darkened hallways each chamber brought him to rows upon rows of endless doors and deserted cells. The old prison was a link to death, a connection displayed in the many abandoned nooses, bullet casings, and skeletal fragments, each afflicted with time; the affects of aging overcoming them all. Jayne observed the fragile atmosphere as he passed in and out of the continuous halls. The prison was like a time capsule, every object an ancient exhibit of what was.

Jayne continued to venture deeper into the aged penitentiary finding little evidence that there was even a way out of this ruttin’ place. Jayne could feel the odds stack against him; they weighed heavily against his chest, pinning him into one tight spot after another. Hadn’t he been through enough? What more could possibly go wrong?

And as if to answer Jayne’s sense of hopelessness, the appearance of a shuttle entrance sprang up before him as he rounded around the nearest corner. Not only was there a shuttle but there where also none of those uglies guarding it. It seems their commander had informed them of escaped prisoners and they had all been ordered to track them down. But why not leave a few men to stand guard outside of the shuttle, just in case one of those smart ruggedly good looking prisoners happen to stumble upon it? Tactically it didn’t add up to Jayne, but all he had to do was board that shuttle and freedom would be his. It was a sweet deal, maybe too sweet; it all had seemed too easy and careless.

It could be a trap? Jayne had figured as much and stayed back examining every inch of every wall, corner, nook, and crack before he approached the shuttle entrance. As Jayne neared the entrance the automatic doors coiled back, parting the way to allow Jayne to cross the threshold with ease. The metal doors retreated back to their original state, banging shut with an eerie prang that echoed from tip to tail within the tiny shuttle. Jayne wasn’t bothered by the ghostly echo of the clanging metal, nor was he bothered by the fact that the doors had closed so quickly behind him, what bothered Jayne most of all was the buttons and the other ‘whatcha ma things’ encasing the control console.

Jayne was no pilot, of course he knew the basics like the general direction in which to turn the yoke during flight, and besides from messing around with a few flights-sims when he was a youngin’ his knowledge was limited. Jayne had flown before, mostly in a fleeing manner, but on more than one occasion he had commanded a few metallic birds under his control. Those occasions always entailed short distance flying; just enough to get out of harms way. And if his memory served him right Jayne knew it had taken more then a left turn and easy landing to get them here. Serenity was probably at least one quadrant, if not more, away.

There was no other choice; it was either stay with possible death impending over his head or go with possible death impending over his head. Both choices seem to have the same outcome although the latter seem to end in a more of a ‘giant fiery explosion’. Jayne’s gut told him to take the second option, it wasn’t exactly like anyone was chasing him, so it should be smooth sailing. Alls he had to do was fly the shuttle long enough to locate Serenity and then he was home free.

Jayne plunged into the pilot’s seat adjusting the leather chair vigorously to accommodate his bulky frame. Jayne managed to get through pre-flight sequence with no disturbances or interruptions. All was well. When the time was right Jayne flicked a couple of switches overhead, he had seen Wash do this often enough, then pulled back on the yoke. The tiny shuttle disengaged with the floating penitentiary and shot with expedience out into the inviting black.

At first the shuttle jerked and rocked under Jayne’s amateur flying but when Jayne let his hesitance go the shuttle flew without out any upsetting shudders or unwanted dives. Minute after minute ticked by until they soon developed into hours and Jayne had not yet seen any sign of Serenity. Was she alright? It was unnerving but not as unnerving as how easily he had escaped the clutches of evil.

It would all be over soon Jayne thought as he realized that he was several clicks away from Serenity’s last know location. He would hopefully be coming up on her soon, the reality of home not so distant anymore, a sense that eased the tension building up in the pit of Jayne’s stomach.

Jayne was wrong in believing his escape from the prison had been easy and careless. He had underestimated the commander, maybe on account of the fact that he had never met the man. The commander lacked many valuable characteristics but precision and caution weren’t any of them. He had calculated the possibility that one of the prisoners might make it to the shuttle bay, heck, he even calculated the possibility that one of them lucky idjits just might escape on one of the shuttles.

Even with all his calculations and assessments the commander knew he couldn’t leave any of his men behind to guard the shuttle bay. He was banking of the fact that he wouldn’t need any guards for the shuttles because he and his men would catch the escapees long before they could steal a shuttle and touch sky. If fortune played on their side and they actually managed to get a shuttle airborne they would never reach their destination, in less than a days time the shuttle and anyone inside would be blown into a billion tiny pieces; bloody smears stained in the great Black.

So yes, Jayne was wrong in believing his escape was easy and careless because even as that thought crossed his mind the explosion device rigged to the bottom of the shuttle’s hull vigilantly ticked away to its final countdown.

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Kaylee let out a suppressed sigh of relief when Niska’s henchmen cut her and Wash down from their posts. Wash was hurt, hurt badly, his chest was a canvas of bloody rage. She could feel his pain as if it were her own, a pain that tattered the soul. It took all of Kaylee to allow her teary eyes to finally fall on Wash’s marred body and it took even more for her to force her tears back; a tough task as the flood gates were on the brink of bursting open.

Why were they being let go? What had Mal done? These questions played out over and over again in Kaylee’s head but she had little time to process and review them, if they were being freed then it was the perfect moment to take this offer and run with it; literally.

Wash crouched uneasily on the floor using his hand to try and stop the blood that flowed freely from his open wounds. It hurt like hell, his insides where on fire, but he had been through worse. ‘Sides if this was all Niska’s was going to dish out he would not be going back for seconds. He knew they best get going before what little leverage they had gain began to shift to the other side’s advantage.

Wash was grateful for the cool feel of Kaylee’s hands against his body as she bent down to help him to his feet. The pair struggled to gain stability and when they succeeded Wash leaned against Kaylee like a crutch for balance and they hurried past Niska’s surrounding henchmen.

Kaylee guided Wash out the door and around a corner back to where they had come from before they had been subjected to that insanity. Their pace was slow due in part to Wash’s injury but it wasn’t a fact that seemed to hinder their progress because within a few minutes they had reached a hallway Kaylee recognized. Familiarity was on their side but it would do them no good if the walked right back into enemy hands. They needed to be cautious, it was after all Niska they where dealing with, who knew what kind of dirty tricks he had up his sleeve.

Wash’s bleeding hadn’t stopped and he was well passed fatigued. The sweat poured down in sheets off of his body, the sticky substance mixed with his blood causing ruby red drops of the inky matter to plummet quickly to the floor. His aching body caused him fall down to his knees in pain.

Kaylee quickly rushed to his side to comfort him but all her consoling was drowned away by Wash’s painful screams. He hadn’t looked so bad before, now within a matter of minutes it seemed as if death itself was moments away from sucking up his last breath. Wash buried his head in Kaylee’s arm and she held him tight as his body began to convulse rapidly, fighting for some kind of stability.

For all the good in ‘verse Kaylee could no longer hold her tears back and the salty drops fought for release from her eyes as they rushed hastily down her cheeks. This was bad, this was way beyond bad. They where trapped in one of Niska’s mind games with no help and no means of escape and Wash looked like his last heartbeats would thump away any minute and claim their victim. There looked like there was no hope, this was the tip of the knife and they seemed to be swaying in the breeze…

Not if Kaylee could help it, giving up was not an option, Mal wouldn’t give up. Kaylee was good at a lot of things; her specialty was fixing injured ships. Sometimes all it took was the right set of hands, some shiny tools, and know-how then whatever was broken was crafted back to a state of normalcy and good working condition. Kaylee couldn’t fix Wash, but she knew someone who could.

“Wash, I know you’re hurt badly but if we sit here much longer we’re like to get killed by Niska’s uglies. I’m gonna help you up okay.” Wash nodded his head in acknowledgement.

Kaylee stood up then bent down to wrapped her arms around Wash to help him to his feet. The pair stumbled before gaining some solid footing at which time they turned around and began traveling in the opposite direction.

“Waare wee go’n.” Wash slurred through clinched teeth.

“We’re gonna go find you some help, you ain’t exactly fit to do…well anything.”

“Whatcha talk’n bout ‘lil Kayleeee, I’mmm a perfect pitcha o’ health.” Wash joked as he turned to grimace in pain.

“You need a doctor Wash.”

“We ain’t zactly in a hospital, we’re we gonna…” Wash trailed off his thoughts lost among his throbbing pain.

“Finding a doctor won’t be hard, I know the perfect person, it’s the locating the doctor part that is gonna be tough.”

“Simon.” Wash stated

“Simon.” Kaylee responded in agreement

“Doc’s prolly in a bit of a tight spot himself.”

“He probably is and all the more reason for us to go find him. The last thing we need is for Simon to get hurt, something tells me he is going to be greatly needed before this day is over with.”

“So we gonna go find Simon sooo he can fix me up.”

“That’s the plan.”

“Hmm, now if I where a kidnapped doc imprisoned in some nutcase’s demented idea of a very fun day, where would I be?” Wash asked

“All we can do is start looking and hope for the best.” Kaylee said hopefully

“How bout the infirmary?” Wash asked

“Okay we’ll start with the infirmary.”

Kaylee guided Wash down a dim-lit corridor in the direction she hoped was the infirmary, Simon had better be there for Wash’s sake she thought, as she turned to watch the bloody trail that followed them fading into the distance.

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The two men glaring at Simon from across the table gave him an uneasy feeling that made him fight to keep a calm expression. For twenty minutes Simon had been subjected to this silent torture, neither man had said a word or blinked. For twenty minutes Simon forced himself to gaze just as menacingly back at them. And for twenty long minutes Simon fought the urge to throw up.

Tension piled upon tension hung in the air, bouncing off the hushed atmosphere until finally the soundless curtain was pulled back and one of the men spoke.

“Are you Simon Tam?” The first man asked

“Doctor Simon Tam, yes.” Simon corrected

“What’s your current occupation?” The second man asked

“Uhmm, I’m a ship’s doctor.” Simon responded confused

“So you’re saying you’re not a thief.” The first man questioned

“What, no! What does this have to do with anything?” Simon asked

“So you’ve never stolen anything in your life.” The second man questioned

“Well, once when I was younger…” Simon trailed off. “I don’t see what the point of all this is.”

“We need to get some facts straight about you Mr. Tam.” The first man said

“We know so far that you’re a doctor who is not a thief.” The second man said

“Also that he is a liar because he is a thief.” The first man said

“I’m not a thief.” Simon protested

“Yes, you are a thief.” The second man said

“You stole from right under our noses.” The first man said

“I’m no thief.” Simon protested again

The first man tapped the second man on the shoulder who pulled down a screen that displayed some old footage.

“So this isn’t you in our facilities some years ago?” The first man asked pointing at the screen. Simon had no answer to the question; the figure displayed on the screen was definitely him.

The footage on the screen progressed further on “And this isn’t you taking River Tam out of said facilities.” The second man stated. It was all starting to make sense now. These were the hwoo dahns in charge of messing with River, they where responsible for all the surgeries and alteration done to her, they where the ones who had been trying to track her down after Simon had saved her.

The urge to throw up no longer bubbled inside of Simon’s stomach, in its place was a fiery so bold and untamed Simon had to will himself not to fly across the table and strangle those sumbitches.

“Now, now settle down Doctor Tam.” The first man said seeing his intentions

“After all we already know you’re a liar and a thief, you don’t want to add murderer to that growing list.” The second man said jokingly.

“How did you…” Simon faltered

“What find you?” The second man finished

“You are a sneaky one doctor Tam. Always slipping away right when we were so close.” The first man said

“Clever too, hiding away on that rundown firefly.” The second man stated

“Malcolm Reynolds always one step ahead of everyone else. He’s the reason you made it as far as you did, lesser men would have turned you in for a bottle of booze and a pat on the back” The first man stated

“But fate does have a funny way of playing out ‘cause if it weren’t for Malcolm Reynolds chances are we would have never found you.” The second man said

“What do you mean?” Simon asked

“Seems Malcolm Reynolds has his share of enemies, people who would like to see him meet his end.” The first man said

“One of those people being Adelei Niska.” The second man said

“We made a deal with Niska agreed to give him enough money, men, and equipment to track down Reynolds; we knew Reynolds would lead us to you. It was a win win situation Niska gets Reynolds and we get you and your sister.” The first man said

“You’re not taking my sister!” Simon yelled

“Seems we’ve already got her.” The second man said

“You’ve put her through enough! You said I was a thief for rescuing River but what about the things you’ve stolen from her! You have no right to open up somebody’s brain and move things around like it’s a child’s board game! You’ve taken away her normalcy, you’ve taken away her sanity, and you’ve taken away her sense of being. She isn’t a lab rat you can just experiment on, she’s a human being, she’s my sister and I won’t let you touch her! The past few years of my life have been about protecting River and I don’t intend on letting you have her, if that means sacrificing myself then so be it.”

“Have it your way doctor; you seem to know too much anyway.” The first man stated as he reached in his pocket pulling out a thin blue stick gripped tightly between his blued gloved fingers.

“We’ll tell River you said hi.”

The two men walked stiffly towards Simon devious grins creeping across their faces. This time Simon had no problem staring this hwoo dahns in the eyes, he would be fearless now and ever if that’s what it took to save his sister. The blue gloved hand was moments away from triggering the ‘blue wand’ that would send a massive amount of hurtin’ Simon’s way. As the first man’s hand inched to activate the ‘blue stick’ ringing alarms caused him to stop dead in his tracks. Those alarms meant only one thing, they where being breeched, someone was trying to free River Tam…