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BADKARMA00

Archangel – Chapter Ten
Sunday, January 20, 2008

Reavers


CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 2208    RATING: 10    SERIES: FIREFLY

Archangel – Chapter Ten Author owns no rights to Firefly, and no copyright infringement is intended --------------------------- Jayne followed River to the cargo bay door, taking hold of her arm as the girl looked skyward. “Have you called the Captain?” he asked, pulling her back from the door. “Yes, but they are far away. He ordered me to lift off, but I refused. I told him to get back here and we’d wait.” “Good girl,” he nodded. “Get to the bridge, and be ready to lift as soon as they get here, dong ma? Kaylee get the engines ready to go, and tell Simon to get up here, there’ll probably be folks runnin’ from the attack comin’ on board. Go on now!” he added when the two hesitated. “I should help you!” River demanded. “Ain’t no one on board right now who knows how to fly except you, River,” he reminded her gently. “You gotta be ready to lift as soon as the Captain and the others are aboard. Not for that, ain’t nobody I’d rather have with me, in this.” River nodded, accepting both his reasons, and the compliment without argument. “What’re you gonna do, Jayne?” Kaylee asked, fear in her voice. “What I can,” he shrugged. “Go on. I want you safe. Lock yourselves in, both of you.” River ran off to return to the bridge. Kaylee waited long enough to grab Jayne and pull him to her, kissing him with near desperation. “Jayne, I. . .” “Me too,” he whispered. “Me too. Now go.” As she departed, Jayne took a deep breath and walked to his bags. Book had trained him for something just like this. He’d sworn he’d never do it. Never give in. But now, he didn’t have much choice. “You win, Preacher,” he sighed, opening up a case he’d never thought to open again. “You win.” ------------------- Simon ran into the cargo bay and froze. Jayne stood before him, dressed in some kind of armor, a very large sword in each hand. The armor looked like some kind of composite, and on the front there was a cross, adorned with angel wings, and two crossed swords. His head was draped in what could only be chain mail. Jayne looked at him, calm and confident. “Doctor, I expect we’ll be getting refugees, some of whom are likely to be injured. Arm yourself,” he pointed to his weapons, “and make sure that any reavers who get past me can’t gain control of the ship. Try not to shoot me, Simon. I really am the good guy, this time.” Simon didn’t know what startled him the most. That Jayne was speaking in near perfect grammar, or. . . . He nodded, too awestruck by the sight before him to say anything. “Now, Simon,” Jayne insisted gently. “There’s little time, and none for questions.” With that, Jayne turned and walked down the ramp. The spell broken, Simon hurried to do as he was bid. Jayne looked around him calmly, noting the grounding lines starting to rain down from above. He counted three ships so far. 'Be a fair passel of them, I reckon', he thought. He was surprised at how calm he was. Book’s lessons seemed to be paying off. As the first reavers came into view, Jayne almost faltered for a moment. Book’s words rang in his ears. 'Knowing your fear is the first step in conquering it. You know what it is you fear, Michael. And you know why'. Jayne nodded at that, as if hearing Book’s voice. He’d been terrified of reavers since he could remember anything. They haunted his dreams, they walked in his mind. 'Facing your fear is the next step. You must confront the fear that dwells within you, and master it. Overcome it. It cannot be allowed to rule you. You must rule it'. He had managed to do that for Miranda. Come face to face with the thing he feared most in life, and overcame it. Following Mal through the reaver’s own territory to see the horrors worked on Miranda. Then he’d fought them, face to face, on Universe’s Moon, still afraid, but back to the wall. No where to run. No where to hide. He had managed to master his fear, and fight them. 'The final step is destroying that fear, my son. Until you can do these things, you will never be free of it. You must face that fear, and destroy it'. He felt his fear drain away. Now he’d kill them. He’d destroy his fear, once and for all. With a determination he’d never realized he had, Jayne Cobb walked away from the ramp, out into the open, and waited on his meeting with Fear. 'There is a time to surrender your control, my son', Book’s voice floated in his memory. 'A time to let go, and allow your instincts to take over. The key is knowing when to allow that to happen. You must remain in control until you decide. Not it. You remain in control, not your fear, and certainly not the rage that courses through you'. As the first reavers began to approach him, Jayne knew that time was upon him, like it or not. 'Time to fight fire, with fire'. With that one last thought, Jayne slipped the reins on the demon that dwelled within him, and walked into the oncoming horde of reavers, screaming a challenge to them as he went. That challenge was answered, and reavers began to converge on him. As they came, Jayne smiled. His swords rose of their own volition, and he began to destroy his fear. --------------------------- “Zoe, talk to me!” Mal said, shooting another Reaver who was trying to board the mule. “Almost there, sir!” the first mate replied, dodging a Reaver skiff and cursing in Chinese. Inara had Zoe’s carbine, and was trying to help keep reavers off the mule. “Almost?” Mal asked, gun firing again. “Couple’a minutes, sir, I think,” Zoe grunted out, working the controls of the mule to weave through reaver grounding lines. “I told her to take off!” “But you know she won’t, sir,” Zoe replied. “No, she won’t,” he sighed. “Have to go over that whole Captainy thing again, soon as we’re safe.” “Right, sir,” Zoe almost smiled. Then she returned her attention to driving. So far they’d been lucky. If they could manage to reach the ship before River had no choice but to leave, they might make it. “We’re almost there!” Inara shouted, shooting a Reaver who had managed to jump onto the front of the ground vehicle. “I can see the. . .oh Merciful Bhuda!” Her anguished cry drew Mal and Zoe’s attention. Serenity was almost surrounded, with desperate refugees trying to get aboard. Reavers thronged near the ship, what looked like hundreds of them. “We’re humped,” Mal said forlornly. “Maybe we can run through them with the mule, sir!” Zoe objected, giving the vehicle full throttle. Mal knew it was hopeless, but anything was worth a try. “Look!” Inara cried suddenly, pointing. Mal and Zoe both followed her gesture, not sure what they were looking for. Then, they could see. In the middle of the reaver mass stood a solitary figure. A very tall figure, sweeping reavers away as if they were so many paper dolls. Two bloody swords flashed in the sunlight as the armored figure fought to keep the bay doors clear. There was a pile of dead and dismembered reavers around him, and other, similar mounds nearby. The fight was attracting reavers from other areas, as well. Reavers loved violence, lived for it, if you could call such an existence living. They flocked to the lone figure, leaving other, easier victims untouched. With a start, Inara realized the figure looked familiar. When she realized why, she was in shock. “Archangel,” she breathed, stunned by what she was seeing. “What?” Zoe and Mal yelled at the same time. “Great Bhuda, Jayne Cobb is an Archangel!” -------------------------- Jayne was absorbed in what he was doing. The pile of reavers was growing at his feet, and twice he’d been forced to fall back in order to have room to move. For once, he had released the rage he fought so hard to control at other times. He could feel it coursing through him, giving him strength, making his blows all the more powerful. He spun within the throng of reavers, blades never stopping, feet never still. With a grace no one would have expected, he literally danced among them, killing them as he went. Had it been on a stage, those looking on would likely have been awed by his ability. Even in the horrifying setting of a reaver attack, there was a macabre beauty to his movements. A deadly dance. A dance of death and destruction that would have rivaled even Shiva. 'With great ability, comes great responsibility', he heard Book’s voice in the back of his mind. 'Those who can, must protect those who cannot'. 'Use the curse that haunts you, hounds you, for that purpose son. Craft it into a mighty gift that you can give to others'. He smiled at the memory as he took the head from one reaver with his right hand blade, and split another in half with his left. Behind him he could hear gunfire and nodded grimly. Good. The Doctor had armed some of the refugees, and they were defending the ship. Any who managed to slip past him wouldn’t be able to gain the ship. He caught a glimpse, just a flash, really, of the mule, and knew that the others were almost home. With that knowledge, Jayne released the last tendril of sanity he had clung too. The fury always present within him was completely unleashed, and he slowly began to advance into the reaver horde, clearing a path for Mal and the others. Reavers fell in heaps as he worked his way into them, forcing an opening around the cargo door. They clamored against him, howling in fury as they tried to bring him down. But his great strength was bolstered by fury of his own, and they could not match it. Could not stop him. Their resistance never wavered, but it would not be enough against this enemy. Not against the fury of an Archangel named Michael. ------------------------ Mal was transfixed by the sight before him. As long as he had known Jayne, the man had been terrified of Reavers. Yet there he stood, inside a thronging mass of them, swords swinging left and right. Smiling! A feral, almost blood thirsty smile. Mal couldn’t help but remember the times that he had threatened to shoot or space the big man, realizing what a joke that must have been to the mercenary. A shriek drew his attention back to the threat, and Mal shot a reaver trying to get on the back of the mule. Zoe changed course slightly, running down two reavers, headed directly for Jayne. “Jayne!” she screamed. “Get on!” Jayne bunched his legs together and jumped, leaping so high in the air that he cleared the reavers around him, and landed on the rear of the Mule. His swords were flashing again as soon as his feet touched the vehicle. Inara’s eye’s were riveted to the sight of him. Drenched in blood, armor dripping with gore, and a terrible, terrible light flashing in the big man’s eyes. He seemed to be everywhere, and nowhere, all at the same time. As the mule skidded up onto the ramp, Jayne somersaulted off, and killed two reavers who tried to follow the vehicle up the ramp. At the same time he kicked a third in the stomach. His right hand sword took that one’s head, and his left speared a fourth through the heart. Simon hit the door release, and the ramp started to close. He immediately hit the comm. “Mei mei, take us out of here, now!” The ship shuddered and began to rise immediately. Jayne rode the door up partway, his swords a blur as he killed or maimed reavers trying to hold the door, or board the ship. When the door finally shut, he was kneeling on the deck before it. His breathing was coming in raw gasps, and he was trembling. Anyone else might have been trembling in fear, but Jayne was trembling in fury, trying to control himself once again. Simon started toward him, but Inara stopped him with a hand upon his arm. “Not now, Simon,” she whispered. “He needs time to regain control of himself. We need to see if any of these people are injured.” Simon almost objected, but then nodded turned to check on the wounded. Mal stepped softly up to Inara’s side, and placed an arm about her waist. She leaned into him, her eyes never leaving the gore-covered figure before them. “What did you call him?” Mal asked quietly, transfixed by the blood-soaked apparition on his cargo bay floor. “He’s an Archangel,” Inara whispered reverently. “I. . .I never really believed they existed, until now. There are so few of them. . .the legends surrounding them are. . .” her voice trailed off as she realized why Jayne and Book had been so close. Of course. Book’s coming hadn’t been an accident. He had sought out Jayne, and trained him. Or finished his training. But why? Why was it even necessary? Why is he even here? And does that mean Book was an Archangel? “What does that mean?” Mal asked in confusion, breaking her train of thought. “It’s. . .it’s a legend, Mal,” Inara replied haltingly. “I don’t even. . .I don’t know where to begin,” she admitted honestly. “They’re part of an ancient religious order, or so the legends say. The arm of justice, some call them. Others. . .” “Others?” Mal prompted. “Others would say the arm of vengeance,” she almost whispered. “But the arguments all agree on one thing,” she told him. “They are the purest form of warrior,” she breathed, her eyes never straying from Jayne’s kneeling form. “They live, they exist, for battle.” ----------------------- Jayne remained kneeling for some time. His breathing calmed, gradually, and his trembling lessened, though it did not cease. He was too far gone for that. 'I can’t go back', he realized in desperation. 'You lied to me, Book! You told me I could go back, and I can’t!' The realization of that hit him harder than any of the blows landed by the reavers. He almost sobbed, frustration filling him, as he felt everything slipping away. 'I’ve got to try', he told himself. 'I can’t just give up, I’ve got to try. For Kaylee, and for me'. He rose unsteadily to his feet, forcing himself to breathe deeply. He felt a sting in his side when he did, but ignored it. He turned to face the bay, and saw Mal and Inara watching him intently. 'Wonder what I must look like', he mused idly. 'What they’re seeing'. He took a hesitant step forward, then another, before sinking to one knee again, his face a mask of puzzlement. He rested his weight on his blades, and tried to get to his feet, but couldn’t seem to muster the strength. He fought to take a breath, breathing deeply once more. Blood suddenly bubbled from his mouth, and he was wracked with pain. He again tried to regain his feet, but couldn’t. His vision began to cloud, and he felt light headed. What the hell is wrong with me? He shook his head, trying to clear his vision, and found that was a mistake. As the bay began to spin, he smiled, a great weight lifting from his shoulders with the realization that he might have fought his final battle. That his troubles now lay behind him. Forever. He felt strangely at peace, a feeling foreign to him. Then he pitched forward, face first onto the floor, having never spoken a word.

COMMENTS

Sunday, January 20, 2008 12:54 PM

MEGG


WOW!! That was awesome, you're imagination continues to astound and amaze. Please keep it up.

Sunday, January 20, 2008 1:13 PM

BROWNCOAT135


Holy shit...

That was incredible!!!!!
Can't wait for the next part! :)


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