Beloved Is Mine --------------------------------------------- based on the world of Firefly by Joss Whedon

The room was dark except for the solitary candle with its lit flame, causing shadows to dance like sick marionette puppets on imaginary strings. Music played, some famous composer from earth that was, the piano filling the air with its haunting melody.

He lay on the slab of metal, his eyes shut tight as the wind from a lone fan stirred his dark brown hair. Muscular chest rose and fell to the rhythm of the music, each breath brought in deeper as the music seemed to deepen in meaning.

His thoughts surrounded him as the creature he held at bay, kept quiet. They were both anticipating the return of their mate, the one removed from the training grounds several years prior. She had been a different soul then, or so his creators kept telling him. Now she was more human, a trait he could see in her before, but not enough to worry him.

With a strong push, he let his mind search the blackness of space, feeling for just the right presence. She might be human, she might be 'in love' with some ship captain, and she might be headed here to kill him, but there was one thing Falcon knew better even than she did. Cat was his and he would have her back.

Mental fingers caught hold on the essence he had been looking for and his nose filled with her exotic scent. Her beast had been sedated, probably by the serum, and she smelled strangely of contentment. With invisible hands, he felt for her mind, stroking it with a gentleness his real self could not master. She groaned in her sleep, and it brought a smile to his face. Reaching deep, he felt from the other soul, the one dark enough for him to convince he was the one for her, but a darker form stood in the way. It issued a growl, a loud and very audible warning. Falcon's nose wrinkled at the odor the creature was given off. She was being guarded by a Reaver. Dark blue eyes opened, glowing in the darkness of his room as a fanged mouth spoke.

“Beloved.”

**************************************

Cat woke from a dead sleep, her body catching her as she fell out of the small bed, Mal and she had been sharing. Her green eyes glowed, scanning the room for the source of what had woke her. Mal groaned by her ear as he opened one blue eye.

“You fell out of bed.”

“You think?” She grinned half heartedly. “We really need a bigger one.”

“I like the small bed. You can't get away without me waking up.”He leaned to kiss her lips. “What's wrong?”

“Not sure. Something woke me. It wasn't a dream, just a strange, but oddly familiar presence hovering over me. It felt as though...” She shook from the chills running down her spine.

“As though, what. Boa Bei?” Mal pushed her hair from her face.

“As though, he was in my head, willing me towards him. I think it was Falcon.”

“And who's Falcon?'

“Oh, my love, now that is a very long story.”

“Guess it's a good thing we got all night.” Mal sat up and motioned for him to sit as she smiled at him.

“It all begins with the want of a perfect race...” ***********************************************************

Two hours later, Mal had fallen to sleep after her story though she could tell what she had said disturbed him. It could have been the fact Falcon was in her mind or that River was set on meeting him. Either way, she could sense the old Mal, protective and passionate reaching out to her in ways she had forgotten. She remembered then why her heart was his and his alone. Sadly though for Cat, sleep was a fickled mistress and she wasn't enticing Cat in the least. It could have been the brush with Falcon's mind or the strange feeling that he encountered something there he wasn't too happy about. Cat just didn't feel like sleeping so instead, she wandered the ship, Serenity's engines singing to her as she walked.

The dining area seemed to call to her the most, her belly making noises to rival the beast's growls. Her fingers rolled over the strawberry accents that Kaylee had surely designed as well as some of the pictures hanging here and there from the crew's adventures. It hardly looked like a place Zoe and Mal would be caught dead in, but then times had definitely changed.

“Dry soup and tea sounds good to me.” A voice behind her brought Cat to reality fast as Zoe emerged from the shadows. “You like Earl Grey or English breakfast?”

“You have both of those?”

“Not really, but you can pretend that's what they are.” Zoe half smiled and put on some water to boil.

“Well, then, why don't you surprise me?” Cat opened a drawer beside her and grabbed two packets of dry soup. Inside wrinkled multi colored confetti waited for the reviving hot water. “Reminds me of the stuff we ate during the war.”

“When you and Bo didn't have luck hunting.” Zoe and Cat both smiled at the mention of his name.

“He was a good kid. Never asked too many questions, especially as to how I knew where the prey was. Heard from him lately?”

“While back. Bit messed up from his time at the Academy. River and he had some connection going on. Captain's the Valor now.”

“Heard about that ship. Good for him. As the Academy meddling, well, we all knew he was a reader. It was only time before they figured it out, too.” Cat reached up and grabbed two tin cups and two bowls from the cabinet. As she turned, Zoe was staring at her.

“I'm sorry.”

“What?” The assassin looked toward Zoe as she sat the dishes on the table.

“You couldn't help what you are. It was wrong of me to judge you based on that.”

“What were you suppose to base it on? Merit? You did what any brown blooded human would do with something that came from the Alliance. How many others would have felt the same way or worse had they known? Even Mal had his doubts.”

“Not after he loved you. Even when you left, he still couldn't make you go away. I thought he would lapse back after we found River, but with all the mess that brought, well, at least, I knew why he was protective of her.”

“How 'bout Inara?” It was the question Cat had wanted to ask him, but maybe she didn't truly want the answer.

“She was never you. Even when he wanted her to be.” Zoe took the whistling kettle off the stove and dumped water into each of the cups, then bowls. “I have seen a man pine over a woman, both of us have seen it time and time again during the war, but Mal never lost hope that you would one day make it back to him. Not saying he didn't have his odd fling.”

“Hey, I got married.” She laughed, almost relieved at what Zoe had told her. She almost wanted to approach the subject of the dark woman's own marriage, but for some reason, it felt good just to talk to an old friend.

*****************************************************

The hot soup and tea had filled her stomach, but the conversation she like best. Zoe and she had been close during the war, not many women were in the front lines. Instead, they were pilots, gunners on fighter ships, or even helped with the wounded. It took a really hardened warrior to play with the big boys and Zoe had it coming and going. Cat sometimes wondered if she wasn't engineered for the purpose, would she have been still as hard as Zoe.

'Beloved.' The voice called again and it sent another chill down her spine, this one even worse than before.

'Get out of my head, Falcon.'

'You forgot about me. I can tell by the way you are fighting our connection now. Let me refresh your memory.'

'I said get the bloody hell out of my head.'

'Not this time, my mate. This time you will listen to me and you will understand. No more playing with those unworthy males, who could not protect you like I could, could not fuck you like I do, and could not make you obey like I can....feel the memories come back and remember why you are here.'

Cat's mind exploded as flashed began hitting her like imaginary bullets...

...first, the place they were headed, the training grounds where she had fought many of the new recruits for Phase Two, one that even looked oddly familiar...

...the room where she had stayed, her cage of force fields and steel bars, her beast pacing and growling as they injected her with serum after serum, some working for minutes, some driving her even more psychotic.

...her naked body underneath his, the sensation of him entering her, even though she did not want it, but her body seemed to obey, submit, as he bloodied her again and again with his roughness....

'I said get out of my head!!!' She screamed this time, forcing her mind to push out the memories and the presence of that bastard. A real hand on her shoulder brought her to reality as 'Ski leaned over her, the horror of the memories dropping her to her knees.

“What the hell was that?”

“You felt him too.”

“If a planet had been near us, I would have crash Serenity.” He received a look from her. “Okay, so maybe not that extreme, but again what the hell was that? He tried to force me out of your mind. Not that I was there prying or anything.”

“Falcon. I knew him. God, I blocked those memories and I so didn't want them back.”

“I saw what he...they did to you. I would have blocked them out, too.” He pulled her toward him and wiped a stray tear from her face.

“I'm not sure how I'll be when it comes time to fight him.”

“Don't worry. Between your captain and I, I don't think you'll have much to worry about.” 'Ski reassured her including Mal in his statement, but truth be told, he wanted Falcon to himself. No one treated his Cat that way, no matter if she wasn't really his before that or not. “Strange how I never thought I wanted to be protected and now, it feels good knowing you both will be there.”

“That's what we here for.” 'Ski draped an arm over her shoulders as he finished escorting her to Mal's room. She felt safe in his presence, though in the back of her mind she could still hear a resounding...

BELOVED IS MINE.