BLUE SUN ROOM FAN FICTION - GENERAL

TUJIAOZUO

Retribution: Chapter 4
Monday, December 29, 2008

The New Haven Series; Post BDM; M/I, S/K: Niska still works for an answer, a new day begins at the St. Alban's temple, and Mal needs some doctoring


CATEGORY: FICTION    TIMES READ: 2605    RATING: 9    SERIES: FIREFLY

Genevieve barely winced.

"She is very quiet, No?" Niska commented fondly to Virgil as his first mate hung from the chains of the rafters, being flogged with a cat-o'-nines.

Virgil couldn't help but flinch. For although he had lost his heart, he still remembered a time before when he had carried a torch for her.

Genevieve lifted her head, face caked with sweat and blood as the lashes scourged across her back, and stared at Virgil. She bared her teeth, clenching her fists. "Sir."

"Yes Vieve?"

"Permission to rip his cao gaowan out when we get outta this, Sir." Her body cringed, reflex to a particularly devastating blow.

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

He saw the scars on her back.

He was lying in his bed, half asleep, gluey eyed from the holistic medicine that had dulled his senses to take away the pain. She was finally going to sleep, and that meant disrobing. He watched through his eyelids, not with sexual curiosity, but that of a many that wanted to see the damage he had brought upon another soul. As she took off the tunic that had been given to her, he saw the bullet holes his men had put in her. There were also, however, electrical burns from a stun gun during multiple off the books interrogations, the cuts of an Academy scalpel including a pair incisions running parallel to her spine. Tasya rolled her shoulders, not self conscious yet embracing her flawed skin as she turned and shucked off her pants to stand in a pair of briefs. Along with scars, there were sparse tattoos, yet his mind was blurry as a tear of guilt rolled down his cheek and she climbed onto her own mattress to rest.

Rolling onto his back, he hoped that the crew his was searching for was still alive and well.

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

"SIMON!"

Simon gazed up from his spot amongst his lovely supplies (He was the metaphorical kid in a candy store) and to the hatch of his cellar. Setting a box aside, he straightened his spine as the captain's boots stopped above the door. "Yes?"

Inara gazed up as well, Meilin yawned on her hip.

"Do believe I'm in need of your expertise." He called down.

Simon glanced back to his help, who merely followed up up into the barn to find Malcolm Reynolds cradling his bleeding hand.

"What on earth did you do? Inara gawked, for there was a large amount of blood.

"Cut myself sawin' a rafter." He cringed as it did indeed hurt in a throbbing sort of manner.

Meilin heard the worry in her mother's voice and frowned, clutching her dress even tighter as her uncle came over and inspected the hand.

"That's pretty deep." Simon announced professionally as he took out a handkerchief from his back pocket and wrapped the wounded hand in it, pressing the bleeding injury.

"Yaow!" Mal snapped his hand back. "That hurts!"

"You need to put pressure on it." Simon chastised. "Go to the infirmary, I'll be there shortly to put a weave on it." He watched as the captain stalked off, and when the man disappeared, he turned to Inara. "Would you mind being a conspirator with me?"

Inara shifted Meilin up closer to her bosom, the baby pawing her and wanting to be held up higher. "Depending on what you wish to conspire about."

Meilin, pleased with the higher seating, reached for her mother's hair.

"Remember how I announced I wanted to give everyone their physical tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"And Mal said that he doesn't need one, refuses to get one, and will kill me with his own two hands if I attempt to given him a physical?"

Inara rolled her eyes.

"He's in my infirmary and he only has one good hand in which to inflict damage." Simon hinted. "Sort of favoring those odds."

Inara gave a coy smile, and nodded her head as she followed him out to Serenity.

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

The Children awoke early.

They had slept most of the way to St. Albans, then had been fed and bathed and allowed to sleep even more. Their small bodies had been recharged from the months of running, hiding and poor nutrition, and the set of government gown whelps stirred to life.

The girl, who had been incidentally sucking her thumb whilst sleeping, kicked her male counterpart as she stretched. He whimpered as she did it again before sitting up, With her thumb extracted from her mouth, she rubbed her eyes, face, and yawned. Blue eyes blinked slowly, focusing on the waning firelight, the silhouettes of adults asleep in their beds. Turning, she pushed the boy at her side forcefully.

He whimpered again, reaching out and pushing her away.

"Get up." She urged, ripping the quilt off of him.

"Noo." He rolled over, away from the prodding.

"GET UUUUUP."

There was a gasp, Tasya snapped up out of her bed, wild eyed in paranoia, reaching across to the nightstand to grab the gun she had brought. Thankfully though, she had removed the magazine, otherwise a loaded weapon in the hands of a freshly criminalized and past brutally scarred woman would have been a horrific turn of events. Looking about, she saw the child on the bed that was scared of her reaction, and blinked several times. The bulletless gun was dropped from the perfect firing grip she had held, and a deep exhale escaped her mouth. Setting the gun down, she ran her fingers through her hair and stared at the one child she should have felt compelled to apologize and coddle. "I'm um..." She pulled the sheets up to shield her exposed chest.

The girl sunk back, frightened at the sudden violent reaction. Tears lined her eyes and she scooted closer towards her friend.

Sighing heavily, she reached across and grabbed the tunic to slip it on. Sliding out of bed, feet touching the cool floor, she went off towards the children. "Hey." She reached out, tentatively, and touched the shoulder of the girl. "I'm sorry... it's just..." Tasya knew how horrible she was talking to children. "I was startled."

"I sorrwee." She apologized, shying away from the hand. Immediately, she retreated to the boy, and hid next to him.

"Whad doughing on?" He mumbled drowsily.

Tasya watched them for a moment, the fear and lack of trust in the girl's light eyes. Turning back, noticing the Operative in a deep medicial induced sleep, she retreated to her bed to attempt to sleep off the mountain range of guilt that had just dropped on her in that passing moment.

The child waited a few minutes, cautious, before shaking her fellow abductee awake.

They tumbled out of bed to meet the day.

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

Simon entered the infirmary and promptly shut the doors.

Mal, sitting in the chair, quirked a brow. "What took you so long Doc?"

"Just had to wrap a few things up." Simon briskly went over and opened a cupboard, taking out a paper gown and setting it on the captain's knee. "Put that on." He instructed, going back to his cupboards and setting up a tray.

Mal frowned suspiciously. "You're just patching me up."

"I figured I'd get the physical out of the way too."

His lips curled to a sardonic smile. and he scoffed. "Shen me? You wanna corner me in here and force me to get a check up? Doc, I admire your level of care, but I already stressed that I don't need a physical, I'm healthy enough as it is."

"Everyone needs a physical Mal...."

"See that's where you're wrong." His voice rose tensely. "I just want this patched."

"You only get that patched if you get a physical." Simon answered promptly.

"Deng ti huir... What about 'do no harm'? You're doin' me harm by not treating me."

"First of all, I've suspended 'do no harm' on numerous occasions. Doesn't bother me as much. Secondly not giving you a physical also violates..."

Mal jumped down off of the seat and and turned to the door. "Then I can tend to this myself." Briskly he retreated to the exit, opening the doors to charge out.

"Don't even think about it."

Stopping, he turned to suddenly see Inara standing right on front of him, Meilin in her arms and sucking on her own fingers, gazing at him with a less severe mien. "You're in league with him?" He took a step back.

"Naturally." She admitted.

Mal paused as if weighing the pros and cons. "Well I'll see you later then."

"Zhongzi." She ordered firmly. "Go let Simon give you your physical and fix your hand."

Meilin buried her face in her mother's dress.

Mal stopped and scoffed. "You know, I don't recall when you suddenly became in charge of what is done to my body, so I'm just gonna go off and take care of this my own way." He smiled tightly.

"I use that body, I want to know what's going on with it." She announced a matter-of-factly, patting Meilin's back as the child let out a garbled noise as she still had her hand in her mouth.

"Excuse me?" He pointed to his chest. "Use that body? You know I'm startin' ta feel like a piece of meat here...."

"Will you just quit being a big baby and get a check up?"

"I don't wanna be prodded and man handled by some doctor."

"Man handle?" Simon voiced from the infirmary, somewhat offended.

"Simon does not man handle, he has a very gentle touch and excellent bedside manner." Inara corrected, seeing a pleased head nod from beyond the infirmary.

"Gentle touch, when have you been gently touched?" He groused.

"Do you want to keep having sex or do you want to only remember it?" She threatened rather casually.

Mal's shoulders slouched as he stood there and contemplated her response. Begrudgingly, he moped back to the chair and snatched the gown. "You better hurry up with this." He growled sourly. "Nuzi... sixiang tamen zhili jia nanzihan..."

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

River arose.

She knew something was afoot, she was stronger since showing up, and Long Shifu Li Ten could not completely block some things anymore. Though she was still shrouded by him, manipulated, it was not as easily preformed now, and she had a consciousness that could pick up there were new souls on the grounds.

Dressing for the day, eating a hearty breakfast she told Boston goodbye and walked out to the training grounds. There was a fluctuation of neural wake that made her pause, yet there was no time to dawdle for Li Ten did not tolerate tardiness. In the training grounds, she stood ready for practice as he came out in the iced courtyard. He was stern in the face, more so than usual.

She took an at ease stance as he approached, sensing something lingering on his mind, a growing stench of fear, or anger, possibly both. It drove River Tam on edge, the the hairs on the back of her neck prickled in warning. Something bad was going to happen, but she didn't know what.

He sidled up to her, smoothly, effortlessly, like a long, snake like dragon curling about prey before it unsheathed it's claws.

She had never felt wary of him, never had she felt the need to fear him, but his eyes, and the cusp of his mind she could glean made her muscles twitch and her eyes dilate. There was something grave, but she wasn't strong enough to get what.

"You are an exceptional specimen." He told her with the thin smile of pride. "There is only one other person that has grown as fast as you have, however that is in the past, and this is the present. You are the present my pupil, and it is time we raised you to new heights." He knew she was reading his mind, full well. However he was not concerned with that, soon she would be stronger, and she would understand his cause. "Today, you will master the art of Separation."

She swallowed thickly.

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

The children played.

The girl was the high strung sort, and being in the age of innocent and imagination play came easy even to a set of government moppets. They chased, and tumbled, and stomped about even while the adults slept. However after an hour, the old ladies came in and snagged the little ones, forcing them into clothes, trousers, tunics, boots and furry hooded anoraks and setting a bowl of hot conjee in their hands.

He awoke, stiffly, to the smell of hot tea and conjee. Swinging his feet over the edge of the mattress, he stretched and took the clothes folded neatly by the bed, putting them on.

"Breakfast, Sir." One of the biddies chimed, setting his portion on his nightstand.

"Thank you, Madam." He announced with groggy appreciation. Looking over to see Taysa up as well he met her eyes.

"You feeling better?" She yawned, pulling on her pants and tying the drawstring.

"Much, thank you." He announced as she finished getting ready before going over to him and signaling the tunic to be pulled up. He obliged, and deft fingers gingerly pulled back the dressing to inspect the work.

"They do good work here, mostly holistic, but it always patches up nice." She announced in an emotionally distant way. For here she was, in an unholy alliance with the man that had killed her life. Straightening herself, she smoothly reached over and took the gun off of his nightstand, sliding it into her jacket.

He watched her, his expression asking if there was reason to be alarmed.

"Can never be to careful, right?" Her mouth formed the words yet hardly spoke them. Drawing out a deep breath before running a hand through her hair, a nervous tick, and set her palms on her hips. "I'm going to check on the ship as well as see if we can get some supplies.. just um... rest."

He merely nodded his head, for there was nothing to say.

"Breakfast Miss?" One of the women held up her bowl and cup.

"No thank you." She gave a fleeting, appreciative smile. "You wouldn't happen to have any coffee though, would you?"

"Just what's here."

With a brisk nod of her head, she turned, tied the sash to her coat, and left.

"Po shuai." the old lady mumbled snidely.

The operative said nothing, though he knew the reasons why.

*** *** *** TRANSLATIONS/DEFINITIONS cao gaowan: F***ing testicles Shen me?: I'm sorry? Deng ti huir...: Wait a second... Zhongzi: Stop nuzi... sixiang tamen zhili jia nanzihan...: Women... thinking they govern a man... Long Shifu: The dragon master; a truly exceptional reader that has the gift of both Waijia and Neijia, Internal and External energy, is considered a Long (dragon) and has the potential to grow more powerful than the average reader. The status of Shifu (Master) is the most highest and strongest rank of Long, and all readers for that matter. River was classified by the monks as a Shao Long (Young Dragon), the lowest rank of Long anoraks: A type of jacket worn by the inuit peoples, usually made of the hide of an animal with a furred hood to ward off extreme weather Po shuai: Rather brosque

**Comments, including constructive criticism, are always appreciated**

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