Inara was worried.

She hadn’t been able to wave Serenity since Wash had contacted her a second time to say there was danger afoot. As her shuttle flew towards the Ming Yu docks though, something became very apparent.

Serenity was no longer docked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zoe finally woke up with a groan.

“Baby?” Wash called out hopefully as he was handcuffed to the outside of her locker as well as visibly worried.

“Zo?” Ru asked as well as she crouched in her makeshift cage while Gambit was lying on the floor chained to the space between her and a tearful Kaylee’s lockers.

The first mate groaned once more and slowly opened her eyes. Feeling her wrists still confined she swore in Mandarin and sat up to find herself imprisoned. “What happened?” staring at her husband, then scanning the area to find the others. “How’d they get you?” She addressed her husband, reaching up and carefully touching the welt on her jaw where her face had slammed into the floor. Wincing, watching Wash in his grey coveralls and Hawaiian shirt.

“I ain’t so tough apparently.” He divulged sadly as all they had to do was march in, grab him, cuff him and drag him out to the cargo bay. “I got Marv’ though.” He motioned to the stegosaurus next to him on the ground.

Zoe furrowed her brows. “You couldn’t fight, but you brought your favorite toy? Wash…”

“He was in my pocket.” He pressed his face against the chain link to get closer to her as his voice grew soft. “I always put him in my inside pocket of my coveralls when danger’s about on the ship… he’s my good luck charm.”

Letting out a sigh directed at Wash, she scooted closer to him, reached out and touched his face through the slots with her fingers, turning to Ru and Jayne who was on the far end. “What happened after I got knocked out?”

“Mal got shot.” Jayne announced gruffly, he was too tall to stand in his locker, so he was hunched uncomfortably. “We were fighten’ em off ‘n that yao yi bu-zai yi ling-hun capped ‘im clean through the chest….”

“Ai-ya na xie-e biao-ze." She uttered, her eyes widening as her hands dropped from the links. “Is he alive?!”

“Simon got ta take ‘im to the infirmary.” Kaylee whimpered as she was sitting in her locker, the usual burst of happiness that consumed her features gone and replaced with utter sorrow as she was already mourning. Mourning the loss of Simon, River, Gambit, Serenity, and possibly even her captain as tears trickled down her cheeks and her voice grew hushed. “We don’t know if he made it.”

“Simon’s a good doctor though,” Ru told them with as much positive as she could muster, eyeing the guard that was watching from the catwalk above. “brilliant, doctor, actually. He’ll save Mal.”

“That’s alotta faith there, mei-mei.” Zoe commented skeptically, resting the back of her head on the chain link while her eyes looked for anything to get them out.

“Been talkin’ to the man upstairs.” She replied with a heavy sigh. “Told him he needs ta save us and Mal, so I can break free ‘n kill that jian-huo runnin’ all of this.”

“I don’t think that’s what God likes to hear in a prayer.” Wash added with some thoughtful sarcasm, trying to lighten up the moment. “It may be just me… but I thought it said killing was kind of a no-no… Even written down somewhere…”

“I loosely follow the commandments.” She deadpanned, tugging on the handcuffs. The chain though was too strong, her metal wrist couldn’t even pull it apart. “Very loosely.”

“Not loose enough ta where ya allow non-marriage sexin’.” Jayne grumbled sourly.

“Ok, let’s FOCUS here.” Zoe caught everyone’s attention, taking the lead as the first in command since Mal wasn't with them. “Is there anything we can do?”

“You guys are so cute, still spirited.” Saffron exclaimed as she walked into the cargo bay, getting five sets of eyes throwing dirty looks in her direction. Revenge, was oh so sweet as she sidled up Ru’s cage. “’Fraid we haven’t met…”

“Well I’ve been told the entire story regarding you and I know you’re Saffron.” Ru said calmly yet with scathing eyes. “My name’s ‘Woman-Who’s-Gonna-Drop-You-With-One-Shot.’”

“Actually I’d like the honor of that, Ru.” Zoe butted in with a smirk. “I’ll rock-paper-scissors you for it.”

“Gotta better idea.” The gunhand declared like they were having a conversation in a bar. Knowing that they were annoying the hell out of their captor “First one who offs her, wins, loser has ta buy the winner a bottle of saki and a steak dinner.”

“Shiny. Hope you got enough coin cause I want the most expensive steak in the ‘verse.” The first mate declared with a competitive streak.

“Anyway a feller can git ‘n on this?” Jayne piped hopefully. “’Cept I want whiskey ‘stead uv that Lan-dan jiang."

“Jayne, it ain’t kosher for a man to off a lady.” Zoe explained calmly. “Womenfolk kill other womenfolk ‘n menfolk, but men can only kill men. You gettin’ in on the bet just ain’t right.”

Saffron shifted her weight from one foot to the next as the talk of her demise becoming a game was becoming unnerving.

“Yup.” Ru nodded her head. “In the unwritten rules of scoundrels ‘n thieves, men offin’ women is very taboo. Means only Zo and me are in it, I doubt Kaylee wants in…” She looked to the mechanic in question.

“I dunno Ru, she so much as takes a bolt from Serenity I might be singin’ a different tune.” Kaylee let the words out in an uncharacteristic growl to show how territorial she was about her baby. “Same thing goes fer Stang. Wei ni ting na ni zhu?” her normally sparkling eyes glared meanly at Saffron.

“Does the woman’s husband get a steak too?” Wash picked up on what they were doing and jumped right in, as uneasy as killing folk was to him, Saffron was becoming the exception.

“You’re all hilarious.” Saffron finally spoke with a smirk, turning and leaving them.

“Nice diversion.” Wash told the girls.

“Who said it was a diversion?” Kaylee asked seriously. “She hurts my…” to angry to ven finish the sentance, she scrunched her face up to think and come up with a decent threat “Well I’ll clobber ‘er with my heaviest wrench. That’s what I’ll do.”

“Lil’ one, you sound like a puppy tryin’ to snarl.” Ru chuckled, her face sobering up quickly. “In all seriousness though, this bet is so on.”

“Yeah, and after bein’ humped like this, I’m gonna need a ruttin’ bottle’a saki and a steak.” Zoe exhaled, pausing and sucking in a deep breath to calm herself. “We need a plan though.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

River sat hollow eyed in the infirmary.

They had set her on a stool, then found chain and used it to confine her to the stool along with the handcuffs while Simon preformed a lengthy surgery on Mal who had a gunshot wound that went through and through his chest cavity and punctured a lung. Her mind knew what was happening, what was going to happen. What they were going to do to their ship family, what they were going to do with her, Simon and Gambit. She saw the beginning and the middle, but the ending, the outcome was blurry. It was black, unknown, and it frightened her as she let out a whimper. “Simon…”

“I’m almost done.” He told her soothingly as he carefully stitched the hole in Mal’s chest as the lung and exit wound were finished. Unaware of the time as the hours had flown by, just knowing they were in the air, captured, he had a bruise the size of a fist on his chest from being shot along with a knot on the back of his head and a scrape on his jaw, and while the captain was seriously injured, he was going to pull through as he already had a bag of synthetic blood being IVed into his veins. The surgery would have been faster if someone had helped him, however Simon had to do it all by himself and had found it difficult to flip over a man without having him fall to the floor.

Gambit let out an inhuman war cry from the cargo bay to announce he was lucid and wanting someone to feel his wrath.

River drew her knees up to her chin and didn’t blink as his mind screamed and visualized gore to her. She couldn’t react, she was trying hard to withdraw into her mind to keep herself safe. Yet withdrawing wasn’t working as her mind discovered something else. “Make us sleep….” River whispered to herself as the sounds of a berserk Gambit rang throughout Serenity as he roared and thrashed about “Then wake up…Tall and clean… Enohpesrep… Tall and clean, standing proudly in Enohpesrep… all three inside of it and waiting for them…. Take them away… To by two… hands of blue.. Two by two, hands of blue.. Two… by… two… by two… No…. two minus three equals one… little one… big two… Little one does not fit into the equation, must be subtracted… taken… and bended…” Her voice squeaked as she began to shake a little. “Bended… and tested… maneuvered…” Her eyes fixated on her handcuffs and she pulled at them as her mind focused on the wild one’s mind. “He needs them to be off… needs to be free… so much hate… pull… strain… eyes see blood… craves it… craves to protect… protect the pack… instinct… Prey’s blood running down the drains, her blood warming his hands… veins throbbing in his palm… Up. Down. Relax. Push blood.” She looked directly at her brother. As if she was reporting it to him. “He wants to feel it… feel it slow… feel it stop. Grow cold. End.”

Simon taped the gauze over the wound and finished completely, walking over to River, taking off his gloves and blood stained apron before bending down to hug her. Kissing her hair he let out a sad breath. For the entire length of the surgery he had been trying to come up with a plan to overthrow their captors. The only person that could pull it off would be Gambit, yet he saw no way of being able to escape the infirmary, get the key and free the person who would rip their captors to shreds.

“No.” She read his mind. “Not a person… not that blood. Was, but no longer is.” River huddled close as there were no tears left to be cried and her mind accepted the horror Gambit’s was showing her. No matter how spontaneous and wild he seemed, everything was planned and calculated, in violent detail. It wasn’t just him she felt, she felt everyone as she tucked herself into Simon as if he could shelter her from it all. “She cries… she loves but he’s taken away… he and her Serenity…” She told her big brother softly, gripping his sweater, pressing her nose against the fabric and inhaling through it deeply. “Smells of Simon.” Gazing up at him she gave a sorrowful smile.

Simon smiled back sadly.

“He’s going to survive?”

The doctor pulled his face up and saw Saffron there, looking slightly annoyed to the affection as she stood by the doors with a small box in her hands. “Um…” the glossy blue eyes roamed to Malcolm. “Yes, he’ll be fine, awake in an hour or so. Would be doing a lot better if you hadn’t shot him.” He added dryly.

“Sorry, couldn’t help myself. But I’m glad he’s on the mend. However,” She walked over to him, eyeing his hands for a moment to make sure he didn’t have a scalpel as she thrust the box in his hands abruptly. “you get to do one more thing.”

Puzzled, he hesitantly opened the box to find vials of a clear substance as River leaned against him.

“Sleep tight.” His less than sane sister murmured. “I don’t want to… no sleep…”

He cradled the box in one hand and pulled a vial out, carefully reading the label. “Byphodine?” he muttered in confusion.

“Everyone in the crew except for the courageous captain gets a dose that lasts three days…”

“But this…” Simon furrowed his brows. “This slows vitals…”

“I know, they medically register dead and all of that.” Saffron filled in, shrugging her shoulders. “But it also keeps them from forming plans and breaking out. Which is why the crew gets a dose for three days and the animal on the chain and your sister get a dose for seven.” She peeled River off of him and pressed a gun to his back, her voice calm, in control of the entire situation. “Get whatever you need and you and I are going to take a little trip into the cargo bay.”

Simon swallowed hard, feeling miserable as well as disgusted towards what he was about to do. Walking over to his equipment he gathered up his injection gun, a latex tourniquet, some spare needles along with some alcohol pads. Saffron met him at the door, and he glimpsed over his shoulder to see River.

“I don’t want to sleep.”

Her voice, her tiny, frightened voice as she pleaded for him not to put her asleep, made him hate himself more as Saffron walked him to the cargo bay and directed him to the first makeshift cage.

Zoe.

*****

*****

***** TRANSLATIONS *yao yi bu-zai yi ling-hun: Witch without a soul

*Ai-ya na xie-e biao-ze: Damn that vicious whore

*Mei-mei: Sister

*jian-huo: Cheap floozy

*Lan-dan jiang: Weak-ass sauce

*Wei ni ting na ni zhu?: Do you hear that pig?