Sorry for the delay with this installment. I have been swamped with coursework. Hopefully the next one won't take quite as long to write. Anyway here it is. Enjoy! Same deal as before all comments welcome, even criticsm so long as its constructive. Obviously I don’t own Firefly or Serenity…blah blah blah… Joss Whedon rules the world…blah blah blah… Hope that you like it. Yay fanfic!

Chapter Two. The Hunter slunk silently over the rocky desert soil, making no more sound than a shadow as he approached the dark and slumbering firefly vessel, which stood before him silhouetted against the new moons. As he stood before its patched and welded hull a peculiar feeling came upon him, an epiphany of sorts. This ship, this pile of rust and bolts and tears, was more that just all that. What this ship was, was freedom. The freedom to go anywhere and be anything. The Hunter leant forwards and pressed his ashen cheek against the cold metal skin of the ship and felt the vibrations of machinery deep within. He strained his senses further and felt as if he could pick out, amid all the background humming, the sound of seven hearts beating, of six sets of lungs breathing the deep breathes of sleep, of sorrow and of love. It was in short a perfect dream… such a shame he would have to turn it into a nightmare. The Hunter slipped a pair of leather gauntlets over his cruel hands, the palm side of which were covered with hundreds of tiny metal filaments, each one barely thicker than a pencil lead yet still capable of supporting three times the Hunter’s body weight. Humming disjointedly to himself the Hunter began to climb up the side of Serenity’s hull, using the gloves and weld lines to help the process along. He paused for a moment to slip a small bundle inside the port engine nacelle before continuing silently on to the top of the ship. The Hunter pulled himself gracefully onto Serenity’s top and knelt in front of entry hatch which resided there. He shed the gauntlets and delicately laid both his right cheek and both palms against its cool surface. Then he began to count. One…two…three…four…five…there! Every six seconds a faint vibration spread through the metal hatch and up into the Hunter’s cheek. Additional security. They were expecting him. The Hunter smiled languorously to himself. Oh this was going to be fun. Reaching deep into one of his innumerable pockets the Hunter withdrew a pair of identical metal rods, each one insulated at one end with a rubber coating. Holding one in each hand he pressed a miniscule switch on each probe with his thumb, and arcs of electricity began to lance between the two rods. Still smiling, the Hunter touched the probes onto of the source of the vibrations and they suddenly stopped dead. Humming quietly to himself the Hunter opened up the hatch and dropped silently into Serenity’s interior. Once inside the Hunter closed the hatch and took a long deep breath and inhaled the essence of Serenity. All the emotions of those who inhabited her, who called her home. All of their hopes, all of their fears excited his senses like a fine wine. In one of bunks off to his right someone was weeping gently and further away there was a feeling of longing coming from two places at the same time, but surrounding all of that was a cold perfect sanity. The sanity of someone who has passed through the turbulent rapids of madness and passed into the still pools of true sanity which lie beyond. It filled this place, permeating every atom of its being. Such a small body for such a big mind. The Hunter pulled a pair of daggers from out from the recesses of his coat and moved silently down one of the halls. Any one would do.

* * * * * Jayne was sitting silently in the kitchen nursing a cup of very suspicious alcohol when he heard it. A soft insistent tapping coming from the hallway that lead up to the bunks. Jayne glowered. That damn moon brained girl! They were stuck on this barren rock on account of her, where it was miles to the nearest tavern and even further to the nearest whore house (Jayne had checked). And as if that wasn’t bad enough now she had to start bothering him when he was tryin’ to have a quiet drink, how was that fair? “Get to bed you darn loony, before I come down there an’ haul you of myself”, Jayne snarled. The tapping stopped for a moment, but then it started up again twice as loud and insistent. Jayne slammed his cup down and stood up to confront the source of his irritation. “Gorramit River! Get to bed ya hear me?”, Jayne growled. But the only answer Jayne received was a faint whistling as two daggers came spinning straight out the darkened hallway and hit him in each of his shoulders. The force of impact caused him to take a step backward and before Jayne could draw breath to cry out a third dagger punched itself deep into his chest forcing him to the floor, causing him to hit his head and knocking him out cold. The Hunter stepped lightly out of the darkness and regarded the fallen giant with cold, dispassionate eyes and withdrew his daggers, slowly and giving each one a little twist to keep the wounds open. “Silly little caveman”, muttered the Hunter, but then a waft of scent from the hallway leading to the engine room caused him to draw back into the shadows from whence he came. The Hunter breathed deep and the scent identified itself. Soap and engine grease and soft, soft flesh. Deep down in the dark of his soul the beast stirred and the Hunter, smiling slightly to himself, headed towards the engine room and the source of that alluring scent.

* * * * * River was sleeping fitfully in her bunk. Dreams and nightmares waltzed their way through her sleeping mind and strange images intruded on her fantasies. Knives spinning, a woman screaming and a man weeping, pain and fire and a very special hell. Suddenly River awoke, her eyes snapping open and a voice inside her head whispered, “I have danced with angels and dined with the devil himself. Do you really think that you can best me little girl?” River calmly clambered out of bed and went to warn the captain before thing got too out of hand.

* * * * * The Hunter gazed down at the slumbering form of Serenity’s resident mechanic as she dreamt of ships and Simon (not in that order) in her hammock. He watched without moving, his knives held forgotten in his hands. Down in the dark in the beast was puzzled. He felt pity for her, pity that someone so pure should end up among such a den of thieves, and pity that she would slip from a living dream to a dying one without ever knowing the difference. But then the beast clawed back control and the thought was gone, but something else had changed as well. The little bundle of thoughts and memories that were not his had stirred in the back of the Hunter’s mind. Time to go. The Hunter reached for the comm-link sewn into the cuff of his coat and tapped in the code that would bring his ship right up to Serenity’s cargo bay doors. Frowning the Hunter prepared to leave with of his objectives incomplete, but then his eyes alighted once more upon the slumbering form of the mechanic. Still no-one said that this was the end, and there was nothing to prevent him collecting a consolation prize. Pulled a knife coated with a very strong sedative from out his coat and made a small cut on Kaylee’s cheek. Her eyes fluttered open for the briefest of seconds before the drug went to work. Then the Hunter leant forward a lifted her gently up into his arms and carried her away to the cargo bay and his waiting ship.

* * * * * The Hunter turned away from the opening cargo bay doors as he heard the quiet click of three guns being cocked behind him, Turning slowly, and with Kaylee still held delicately in his arms, his faced Mal, Zoë and River each of whom had a large and dangerous looking gun pointing at his head. The Hunter grinned an icy, deadly smile. “Ahh”, he said addressing Mal, “Captain Reynolds, I presume? I‘d offer to shake your hand but as you can tell, mine are rather full ”. “Put the girl down real slowly and I won’t shoot you where you stand”, ordered Mal through gritted teeth, his stomach knotting with worry for Kaylee. “Before you start making threats Captain Reynolds you might want to consider the fact that I am rather sharp and efficient dagger against the girl’s throat. So if you shoot me, or attempt to prevent me from leaving in any way, I will kill her. And I doubt even doctor Tam can cure a slit throat, although he’d probably give it a go. But have no fear I intend to keep this particular delicacy alive for as long as possible” “Do you really think that I’m afraid of you”, Mal snarled. “Of course you’re afraid!”, bellowed the Hunter, “You reek of fear. Fear for this dear little damsel. And it is because of that fear that you will allow me to leave unharmed. Because that fear tells you that you can do nothing to stop me now, but you know that if you let me go you can track me down and have your justice then.” Mal slowly and reluctantly lowered his gun, River and Zoë followed suit a moment later. The Hunter stepped backwards out of Serenity’s cargo bay and into the cargo bay of his own smaller, but much more advanced, ship. As the doors closed in front of him he looked Mal straight in the eye and both of them knew in that single instant that the next time they met one of them would die. But then the doors of the cargo bay closed between them and the Hunter carried Kaylee to his bed as the auto pilot took them out into the blackness of the stars.

* * * * * Mal stood staring at the sleek form of the Hunter’s ship as sped away, tearing Kaylee away from him as it did. Forcing himself out of his reverie he turned to Zoë and River and began to make ready for pursuit. He sent Zoë to the infirmary to help Simon with tending to Jaynes wounds and barked at River to get the ship into the air and after that son of a bitch inside of five minutes. The bastard wanted to taunt him, to get him mad, to try an catch his attention? Well he’d sure as hell got it! And now Mal ready to send him straight to hell if he so much as touched Kaylee. Mal strode purposefully after River, all the while gazing around the cargo bay like a general inspecting his troops. It was that at that moment that the package filled with c4 explosive, which the Hunter had slipped so casually into Serenity’s port thruster nacelle denoted, destroying the thruster and taking a sizeable chunk out of Serenity’s hullin the process.