The Note --------------

based on the world of Firefly by Joss Whedon

Mal,

Date the day the War ended and the real battle begins As much as this pains me to say goodbye, I must. You and I are nothing alike. You fight for a cause you believe in, I fight to keep from completing my mission. I fight so as not to kill you. It was my mission, to strike you down and others like you and end the war that cost too many lives to begin with. You had a good reason to fight, but the Alliance only wanted power over you, a power I could not give them.

I don't quite know what love is. After a test tube and an academy drilling death into your head, it leaves little room for the real emotions like happiness or sorrow, but in the few months, we were together I felt both. I felt happiness as we laid together under the stars, watching rockets destroying ships in the atmo and as we made love in the dirt. I felt sorrow as we buried so many and even more so when we found only pieces. Today, I feel something worse than sorrow and pain, i feel empty.

You were something of a mystery to me, a man who would give up his life for a cause you could not possibly win and then continue believing long after the war has finished. I hope you always cling to those beliefs and wear that coat with pride because I know i still believe. Maybe not in the cause, but I believe in you.

My name is Cat 1313. never quite got around to telling you and I thought you deserved to know. I was made to be a weapon, a killer who took orders no matter what the cost. A perfect fighting machine and as you could tell, they did not fail. The one thing they did wrong was send me after you.

You were my life for those few months and now i must try to live my life separate from yours to protect that which matters most. They will come after me and they will kill me. I betrayed them for you and I refuse to let them take it away. Please watch your back always because they will not stop hunting you, if you give them a reason.

I have one, no, two requests for you....please make a life for yourself and Zoe. Don't try to find me, please. I know this is a shitty way to do this, but I know you would convince me to stay and I can't let you do that. The other is odd, but you will understand one day if it should ever happen.

The people who made me are evil and they prey upon innocent children as well as make their own. If one should show up in your life or on the ship you keep saying you are getting once the war is over. Please don't turn your back. They will need guidance and you, my love are the best at that.

I must go, but know this. If love is feeling like I'm dying as I seal this letter and walk away from the only thing I have ever wanted to die for, then I must love you. Yours forever in Brown, Cat