A/N: Here is the next installment. What happened to Simon and Kaylee on the ship? What hapenned to Mal and River in town? I hope you like it.

Zoe and Jayne cautiously entered the cargo bay. Nothing was out of place. There was no sign of a struggle. Zoe motioned for Jayne to go down one side of the bay while she went down the other. When they got near the middle, they caught sight of Kaylee and Simon sitting on the bay floor. They were back-to-back, bound, gagged and tied to the grating on the cargo bay floor. Kaylee caught sight of them and let out a muffled scream. Zoe cautiously made her way over to them as Jayne kept a watchful eye. Zoe removed Kaylee’s gag.

“Zoe! Jayne! Thank God,” Kaylee exclaimed.

Zoe put her fingers over her lips signaling that they should keep quiet. She removed Simon’s gag and then proceeded to use her knife to free them of their bindings. Kaylee and Simon scurried across the floor and each grabbed one of the many guns hidden around the ship.

“What in the rutting Hell happened here?” growled Jayne in a hushed voice.

“They set on us about a minute after you all left,” Kaylee whispered to them.

“Are they still here?” Zoe asked.

“No. The last of them left about two minutes ago. Right after the shuttle docked,” Simon replied.

“They were after Inara,” Kaylee added. “They took her.”

“Alliance?” Jayne asked, eyes continuing to scan the area around them.

“No,” Simon continued. “I don’t think we’d still be here if they were.”

“Why’d they returned the shuttle? They could have abandoned it anywhere,” Jayne remarked. “It’s kuang zhe de (crazy).”

“Everyone stay close,” Zoe ordered. “Let’s head up to the shuttle.”

When they got there, the door had been left open. When they entered, they were astonished at what they saw. The shuttle was bare. It was like all traces of Inara had been erased.

“Only professionals could strip down something this fast,” Jayne observed. “She had a lot of stuff in here.”

Simon walked to the middle of the shuttle. Inara’s beacon lay on the floor.

“Why’d they leave this?” he asked, picking it up.

That’s when they heard the alarm sound. It had been triggered by Mal’s comm.

River felt the presence of the Academy agents too late. The volume of people moving up and down the street had made it impossible to feel their calculated movement towards them. Once she did, she was overwhelmed by fear. She could feel their glee in finding her and the things they wanted to do once they had her back. She couldn’t do anything but stand there, shaking in panic.

Their initial attack came quickly and quietly. No one on the street was even aware of what had happened. River was shot with a tranquilizer gun. She felt the dart connect and the paralytic drug spread quickly through her body. No matter how hard she struggled, her body refused to function as she wanted it to. She felt a surreal sense of detachment as she fell to the ground.

Mal had quickly grabbed her by the collar and drug her into the alley. He drew his gun and activated his alarm. He hoped that by taking refuge there, he could stave off any further attack long enough for someone to respond to the call for help, but in the back of his mind he knew that it probably wouldn’t happen. He had not received any response from the crew left on the ship and Jayne and Zoe were there now, trying to suss out what was happening. For all he knew, they were all dead.

“You OK, Albatross?” He asked as he crouched beside her and removed the dart from her neck. Staying low, he moved toward the entrance of the alley and carefully looked into the crowd. He hoped he could see where their attackers were, but he couldn’t see anything but people milling around. He looked back to River. His heart lurched at what he saw. She wasn’t moving, her head had lolled to one side and her eyes were wide open but unblinking. He was horrified. He scrambled back to her side. “Please don’t be dead.”

He felt for her pulse and it was still there. It was weak, but it was still there. He breathed a short sign of relief. He figured she had been drugged because if they wanted to kill her, they would have used bullets instead of a dart. It was also entirely possible that she was still conscious. Gently, he turned her head until his eyes met hers. The expression on her face was so blank, but as he looked into her eyes, he felt something different. He knew that she was still there.

“I hit the alarm. They’re coming. Zoe and Jayne are coming,” he said firmly. River could tell that he wasn’t so sure. By saying it aloud, he was trying to assure her and quell his own fear as well. His heart was pumping hard and he looked out into the street again. He hated not knowing where their attackers were. They obviously had a plan and he didn’t like not knowing what it was. He would feel better if he could see them enough that he could think of a plan on how to get he and River clear of this. He wanted something to fight against. He needed to do something. He wanted to shoot someone. He wanted to keep River safe.

He stood up, trying to get a better view of what may be going on and that’s when it happened. Three shots. They all connected. Mal slammed up against the wall. He knew right away that the armor had not stopped them, but oddly enough, he didn’t feel much pain. He grunted as his body fell to the ground next to River’s. He landed face to face with her.

“They’re coming,” he croaked, trying to reassure her. “They’ll be here soon.”

With great effort, he pushed himself to a sitting position, leaning back against the wall. She could feel him weakening and she wished she could tell him to save his strength because he would need it. He pulled his gun up into his lap. He was praying for Zoe and Jayne to come.

That’s when he saw them. They glided up as easy as could be and picked River up from the ground. Mal tried to raise his gun, but couldn’t. His heart broke because he knew they were going to take her and there was nothing he could do about it. That’s when he saw their hands. They wore blue gloves.

Two by two. Hands of blue. He thought. He now understood what she babbled about for so long.

“Thank you for keeping our property safe, Captain Reynolds,” the one man icily said. They looked down to see her beacon lying on the ground. With one smooth action, the man used his heel to unceremoniously smash it into bits.

“S-She’s no one’s p-property,” Mal growled as loud as he could. It was getting hard to breathe.

“It’s a shame we didn’t get to know one another better,” the other said as he raised a gun towards Mal. “But you won’t be with us much longer.”

Mal closed his eyes and swallowed thickly. That’s when he heard the mule approaching. His heart lightened knowing that at least some of his crew was still alive.

“His crew approaches, leave him be,” the first one said. “He won’t live long anyway.”

Like ghosts, they disappeared into the crowd. They were just gone. River was gone. He had failed.

So much for my brilliant plan. Still didn’t keep us safe. He thought.

Thanks for reading, please comment.