Firefly - “RAINBOW TEARS”

Written by Sarahannah Hopwood

Chapter 1

The black expanse of space. Below us is a beautiful blue, green moon. A Firefly class ship is hurtling towards the moon at tremendous speed. Hot on its tail is a sleek, modern ship, armed to the teeth with weapons that could blast the Firefly out of the black. The gun turrets built up on the sides of the ship are pointing at the Firefly, threatening to do just that.

The Firefly hits atmo and kicks up a brilliant golden, red flare of flame behind it. The ship shakes as it continues to break through the atmosphere of the small moon. Seconds later the second ship hit’s the atmosphere sending another plume of golden flame flying up and out into space. The second ship has a better entry angle than the Firefly and the entry to the atmosphere is smooth, text book.

The Firefly breaks through atmo, leaving a plume of acrid black smoke behind it as it descends. Its aft section is spewing large amounts of smoke into the air right in front of the second ship. The damage to the Firefly is enormous. The nose seems more squashed and blunter, as if it had been at Full Burn when it hit something. The large painted name of the ship has all but been scraped off the side of the ship, but the writing is still legible, Serenity.

Serenity is in definite trouble as she shudders and shakes, plummeting towards the ground. She tries to lift her nose but there’s just not enough thrust. The engines are all but burn out and they’re spitting flecks of blue flame as it hurtles on towards the ground. On the bridge of the stricken ship, two men are positioned, staring out at the ground. Both have a look of grim defiance.

The man sat at the controls of the ship, obviously the pilot, is Hoban Washburne. His face is twisted in a strange mixture of terror and concentration. He is battered and bruised, his lip swollen and bleeding, a three inch gash above his left eye is slowly oozing blood down his sickly, pale cheek. His blonde hair is plastered to his face with blood and sweat. A mixture of the two is running towards his blue eyes, however he ignores this and barely blinks as the ship descends to impending doom. His loud Hawaiian shirt is soaked in blood, some of it his own, some of it from the man who is stood behind him, a hand on his shoulder.

Captain Malcolm Reynolds is leaning over Wash’s shoulder watching as the ground rushes up to meet them. His attire is in little better state than Wash’s. The left arm of his rust red shirt is ripped from the shoulder down and a large gash is pouring with blood. His military style trousers are flecked with blood and dirt. He looks woozy from the loss of blood from both his arm and the nosebleed he is unable to stop. Most of the blood he is loosing is pouring down his arm and soaking into the shoulder of Wash’s shirt. Both men have blackened, unblinking eyes.

The ship is bucking as if trying to right itself and Wash hangs onto the controls for dear life, his cracked knuckles bleeding over the controls, making them slippery. He is breathing heavily as he tries with all his might to wrestle the ship into a better position. “I’m sorry Mal, this is all my gorramn fault. I should never have gotten you the job. It was suicide.” Wash mutters still fighting. “My ship, my fault,” he looks down at Wash “You’re an amazing pilot Wash.” Mal claps him on the shoulder and his eyes return to the ground that now fills the whole of the windows scope. Wash looks like he’s about to be sick. Mal closes his eyes ready for impact.

But Wash can’t look away, a single tear rolls down his cheek and he takes a deep breath and closes his eyes tightly, his lips moving in silent prayer.

GREENLEAF – A WEEK EARLIER

Mal slowly makes his way through the crowded market place of Greenleaf. Flanking him are Zoë Washburn and Jayne Cobb. Zoë is a well poised military girl and is dressed the same as Mal. The two fought together in the war and have been partners ever since. Her dark hair is tied up out of her face and her brown eyes are scanning the market place for any signs of danger to her companions.

Jayne is the complete opposite of both Zoë and Mal. He’s a hulking mercenary with a gun visibly slung at his hip. His hand never moves more than a couple of inches away from it in the large crowd. His attire is more normal and down to earth than Mal and Zoë’s. He’s dressed in light brown combat pants and a faded Blue Sun Cola t-shirt that has seen better days judging by the many repairs to small holes, and some larger ones. His hair is cropped short and a small shaped beard adorns his face. His dark, deep set eyes are scanning the weapon stalls and the harem of young ladies who are hanging round the stalls.

Behind the three lookouts the rest of the crew of Serenity follow at a more sedate pace, stopping to look at stalls. Already the ships mechanic, Kaylee Frye, a pretty young thing wearing patched dungarees and a bright flowery t-shirt, has her hands full of engine parts. Her light hazel eyes light up as she spots a brand new damper gleaming in atop a table amidst more worn parts. She rushes forward to look at the items for sale, her hair fluttering in the breeze.

Simon Tam, the ship’s doctor watches her as she admires the items of machinery from every angle, turning it over and over in her nimble hands. Simon seems like an odd person to be travelling with such a ragtag crew. He is clean cut and everything from his neatly parted dark brown hair to the crisp white shirt and richly coloured waist coat screams wealth. He smiles at Kaylee begins to haggle with the salesman. Wash hits him in the stomach and points towards a table of jewellery, laid out on a rich cloth table cover. Wash whispers something to him and the two move towards the table, hoping to go unseen in the crowd. Between them however they stick out like two sore thumbs. Wash is wearing a violently bright Hawaiian shirt covered in dinosaurs that is earning him more than a few bemused stares from passersby.

Behind the rest of the crew, River Tam slowly follows. From her bare feet to the melon cradled in her arms you can tell that she is not entirely normal. She’s dressed in a large, ill-fitting blue knitted jumper, possibly one of Jayne’s hand-me-downs, over the top of a pale blue skirt. Her hair is straggly and lank, half of it covers her face, hiding it from the market-goers. She mutters to herself as she walks along, tenderly cradling the melon, towards Mal, Zoë and Jayne.

Jayne tentively sniffs the air like a blood hound. “What’s that smell? Smells like my Ma’s jew-allrey box.” he ponders thoughtfully. “That’d be soap. The stuff you use to wash,” Simon looks Jayne up and down “Or maybe not in your case.” Jayne ignores the doctors comment and moves off towards the soap stall, the source of the smell. He sniffs deeply and suddenly, violently sneezes, causing a loud outburst from River. “Hwun Dahn![1] Gao yang jond duh yang![2] You’ll wake the baby!” she yells. The cursing causes a group of elderly ladies at the wool stall to look up from their knitting and tut loudly, beginning to rant about young people and their manners.

River ignores the women and begins to softly sing an old Earth-That Was lullaby “When the bough brakes the cradle ill fall, down will come baby, cradle and all…” she moves off towards Mal and Zoë, leaving Jayne looking mighty creepiefied, he too catches up with Mal and Zoë. “So where are we meetin’ this guy?” Jayne asks rubbing his nose with the back of his hand. “At some upper market clothes shop. Kinda place that the doc would look right at home at.” Mal replies not taking his eyes off the crowds, still scanning for trouble. Zoë looks at Mal intently “You think this will be wise, Sir? We don’t know the guy.” she looks back up at the crowd, squinting. “Your husband knows him, take it up with him if there’s any problems.” Mal looks at Zoë for a second. “Hey Captain, you casting nasturtions on my judgment? Rem is an old friend. A friend of the family, the family being…uh, me!” Wash smiles and throws a slightly sun burnt arm around Zoë’s shoulders.

From behind his back, he produces a small parcel, a beautifully wrapped gift wrapped in blue and silver. Zoë looks surprised at the appearance of the gift. Wash smiles looking from the box up to Zoë and back to the box expectantly. Zoë peels away the wrapping paper to reveal a pale blue jewellery box. For a moment the normal bad ass Zoë look fades away and she blushes as she opens the box. Nestled within the box is a beautiful silver necklace, a pendant of opal, shaped as a teardrop, glitters in the sunlight. Zoë hugs Wash tightly.

Kaylee moves in to look at the necklace and her eyes glow like she’s just seen a new conductor coil. “Oh pretty! Wash you have wonderful taste!” she moves closer as they pull away from another. She practically snatches Zoë’s hand towards her for a better look at the necklace. Wash shares a significant look with Simon who looks down at the floor smiling. “Happy Anniversary, lambie-toes!” Wash says smiling brightly. “Thank you bao bay[3],” Zoë looks over at Simon, who doesn’t meet her eyes “And thank you Simon, for helping him pick it out.” “Wha-ha-hey! How’d you know?” Wash splutters flabbergasted. Zoë points at a mirror from a stall angle towards the couple. Wash looks forlorn. “Gos se…[4]”

River peers over Zoë’s shoulder, standing on tip toe, looking closely at the necklace. She licks her lips and look up at Zoë, who is admiring the rainbow stone in the sunlight. “Unlucky stone. Tears will fall…all will fall, broken…shattered.” she mutters loudly. Wash raises his eyebrows and looks nervously at River. “What now?” he asks looking creepified by her comment. “Opal, the death stone, unlucky death. All that wear it will certainly die.” River mutters not taking her eyes off the necklace. Mal moves forward from where he’s been watching the exchange. “Okay creepy girl, you go back to hugging your watermelon. Wash where the hell is this guy to?” he asks impatiently. “Uh,” Wash glances around a bit “Up here, wait…that shop there.” he points to a shop, just visible behind a line of stalls. Multicoloured clothes gleam in the sunlight outside the shop door. Wash smiles to himself, still looking bashful from Rivers comment. Zoë sees this and fastens the necklace around her neck in defiance. Wash perks up as the group moves towards the shop.

The crew step into the shop and stumble as their eyes adjust. They look around the room, it has a warm feeling to it. Every available surface is covered in clothes of every style and colour. River walks into the shop and the door slams behind her with a sickening finality. Mal, Zoë and Jayne twist round to face it, pulling out their guns and pointing them at the door. There’s no one there, Simon tries the door handle and shrugs. He looks back at Mal and freezes looking over his shoulder. Behind Mal there’s the low high-tech hum and click of a laser pistol, the crew turn round and stare at the counter. Mal closes his eyes and turns around, opening them to see a tall woman stood behind the counter. She’s wearing a ankle length black leather coat over the top of a pair of tight trousers and a fitted black shirt. In her hand is a silver gun similar to the one Mal is holding up at her. The woman’s startling green eyes glint from underneath the shock of short black hair across her face. She licks her deep red lips carefully and points the gun at Wash and looking at Mal, Zoë and Jayne who have their guns trained on her. “Put the guns away people, or you’ll be missing a pilot.” the woman glances at Wash and moves forward, her gun pointed at his head. Zoë puts her gun away straight away and Jayne follows suit, but Mal keeps his gun trained on the woman. Jayne looks the woman up and down. “This is the guy you know?” he asks Wash, who is stood in shock staring at the gun. “I never said it was a guy.” Wash replies bashfully. “Guns away, please.” the woman motions at Mal with her gun, he reluctantly slides his pistol into its holster. Jayne gives Wash a funny look, his eyebrows raised slightly. “I never said it was a guy…” Wash repeats looking away from Jayne and back at the woman.

The woman moves further forward, the gun is now inches from Washs’ head. He looks like he’s about to be sick. The woman studies him for a second, taking in the orange jumpsuit and the bright Hawaiian shirt for a moment and then looks up at his face properly. “You know my daddy told me if I ever did see you again I should shoot you dead after the way you left me. Leaving without even a goodbye.” she says softly, her eyebrows deeply knitted into a frown. “Rem, I…wait, what?” Wash looks even more sickly. He looks pleadingly over at Zoë who folds her arm and raises her eyebrows, the movement makes her necklace glint in the light. Rem continues. “Said I was a fool to try and stay with someone as land-crazy as you.” she holsters her gun and smiling, pulls Wash into a hug. A wave of relief hit’s the crew and Wash sighs thankfully.

Rem pulls back from the hug. “Washie, its just been too gorramn long! Lau pung you, ne can chi lai hun you jing shen![5] ” Rem smiles brightly at him, the air of menace gone. “Washie?” Kaylee smirks. The rest of the crew, except for River, hide laughs and smiles behind their hands. River just looks at Rem intently. Rem looks around smiling as the laughs die away. “Why don’t you introduce me to your crew?” Rem looks back at Wash expectantly. Mal steps forward smiling slightly, unsure of the unexpected soft side of the woman who was pointing a gun at his pilot. “Actually ma’am that’d be my crew,” he shakes hands with Rem “Captain Malcolm Reynolds.” “Pleased to meet’cha Captain Reynolds!” Rem tips her head on one side. “Now tell me missy, how’d you know our…‘Washie’?” Mal asks looking at Wash’s pained face. “Oh, Wash and I used to date back in the day when we were in flight school. Ws nice ‘til he ran off after graduation. I’d get a Wave now and then, not as often as I’d like, it was basically just to tell me he was still alive and flying. Not heard from him since before the war, thought the Alliance had gotten a hold of him…or worse.” Rem looks down at the floor, her fringe falling in her face. “So you two used to date?” Zoë asks coldly. Wash’s face is now bright red and he smiles at Zoë bashfully. “Rem, this is my wife, Zoë.“ Rem’s eyebrows shoot up and disappear under her fringe. She gives Zoë a wide smile. “So he finally found someone to put up with him huh,” Rem shakes hands with Zoë “Good job getting rid of that damn face ferret! I tried for gorramn years.” Zoë gives Rem a wider smile, to her Rem is no threat. As she relaxes so does the rest of the crew, as if she was keeping the crew tense they relax around her. Mal takes over the introductions to the other crew members. “This is Jayne, Kaylee, ships mechanic, Simon, our doctor and…” he gets to River and he surveys her for a second “And this is River our…chef.” “Sure ain’t much cheffin’ to be done on a transport ship. Mainly protein base isn’t it?” Rem says. Mal looks over at River who is still hugging the watermelon and humming lullabies quietly to herself, her eyes following the lines of clothes. “I know who you are. I have no quarrel with fugee’s.” Rem says softly not taking her eyes of River.

Simon lets out the breath he’s been holding. During the exchange, Kaylee has moved off to look at some of the clothes on display. “Now that’s everyone, lets get down to business.” Mal says clapping his hands together. “Straight to the point, I like that Captain Reynolds.” Rem leads Mal Zoë, Jayne and Wash to the back room. “Its quicker that way I figure.” Mal says following.

Rem leads the four members of the crew into the backroom of the shop which is surprisingly much larger than the shop itself. The room is decorated in bright colours and has a homey feel to it with a large comfy looking sofa against the wall and a small kitchen area along the longest wall. The windows and doors are wide open letting a lazy breeze into the stuffy room. As the four members of Serenity’s crew settle themselves on the sofa, a thunderous Taiko drum beat fills the room from the street. Rem Rushes towards the door angrily. “Enough of this luh-suh[6], every midday! Wuo de MA![7] ” she slams the door and window shutting out the sound of the drums. Rem pulls a thick velvet curtain right across the wall cutting out the sound completely. She sighs and pulls her coat off throwing it onto the makeshift bed in the corner. The crew looks at her expectantly as she sits down in a squashy high backed chair facing the sofa.

Rem surveys the crew before her, her eyes lingering on Wash. “I have quite the job for you Captain. On the other side of the planet is an Alliance store of protein and medication stored in an old hanger,” she looks at Mal, who is listening intently “I want you to steal it.” Rem leans forward in her chair, waiting to see what the captain will say. But its Wash who says something first. “Dear God, you expect us to pull this off?” Rem looks up at him, closes her eyes and nods to herself. “I can see how you think that you’re going to have trouble getting the goods,” she opens her eyes and looks at Mal “But I need that equipment.” “So’s you can sell it on for three times the price, coz that’s what it sounds like to me.” Jayne smirks. “No, so I can save peoples lives.” Rem replies quietly. She looks back at Wash who looks at her puzzled. She realizes that Mal is waiting for an explanation. “I don’t know if you heard a couple of years back, there was a massive breakout from an Alliance prison. The public only knew that they were Browncoat soldiers kept as prisoners of war. But it was more than that. It was families loyal to the Independence too. I had a hand with the breakout and the following clear up letting them escape without a trace.” Rem closes her eyes again as she finishes. Mal, Zoë and Jayne look at each other, Wash just looks stunned. Rem continues “I found them a nice little moon, already terraformed and ready to go. Well out of the way of those Alliance wahg-ba dan duh biao-tze[8]. The problem is they’ve had a harsh winter this year and food supplies are practically non-existent. Illness is ripping families apart. I need your help. If I get the goods then you’ll be very well paid. And I think that you’d want to help out old comrades Captain.” Rem looks at Mal, closely studying his reaction. Mal is looking down at the floor.

Rem reaches behind her chair and throws a huge money bag at Mal, who catches it in surprise. Mal opens it and peers inside, he looks back up at Rem “You’re showin’ this now? I could just shoot you and take it.” Wash glares at Mal in disgust as he says that and Zoë’s eyebrows fall and she looks angrily at Mal. Rem smiles and looks deep into Mals’ eyes. “That’s only half of the pay out.” she says smiling. Jayne sits up suddenly very interested. “Half, damn…” he mutters peering over Mal’s shoulder. Mal weighs the coin in his hands. “Half now, the other half when you get the job done. Maybe more if I can get it, hell this job is worth every penny.” Rem adds making the deal all the more juicy and tempting.

It’s a huge amount of money for such a task, and this puzzles Mal. “Why so much for the job? Whats the catch?” he asks suspiciously looking at Rem. She puts her head on one side and pulls a funny face as she considers the questions. “Well its under 24 hour surveillance protected by thirty highly trained Alliance soldiers at any one time. The amount you’ll be taking, well lets just say your ship will be pretty stuffed…And I want to go with you. Its time for me to leave Greenleaf I think.” Rem leans back again and the room falls into silence. From the shop Kaylee’s voice carries, she’s trying to persuade Simon to try on a new shirt.

Mal continues to weigh up the coin in his hand. There’s enough in his hand to buy a second ship, and with the second instalment there would be enough for the whole crew to settle down on an outter moon and lead proper lives. There was only one thing that Mal could really say. “Well ma’am,” he looks up at Rem “You got yourself a deal.”

_______________________________________________________________________ This is my first chapter of my Firefly Fan Fic! Theres A LOT of bad spelling mistakes and missing letter/ends of sentances so sorry!

Set after the departure of Book and Inara from the crew (See Virtual Firefly for exact Episodes).

I tend to ramble but please stay with it and give me some good feed back!

CHINESE TRANSLATION My Chinese is a bit rusty and I can't spell so I'm saying sorry now if I've miss-spelt/miss-translated any Chinese! After all its not my first language! I've decided to add this little translation for those of you that don't know their Chinese! Most of it is from the original show...so you may know some of it already...

[1] Hwun Dahn – Bastard [2] Gao yang jond duh goo yang – motherless goats of all motherless goats [3] Bao bay – Sweetheart [4] Gos se – Crap [5] Lau pung you, ne can chi lai hun you jing shen – You’re looking wonderful my old friend [6] Luh-suh – Garbage [7] Wuo de MA – Mother of God [8] Wahg-ba dan duh biao-tze - Whores of sons of bitches

NOTE: For first time readers unfamiliar with the 'Verse, "Gorramn" is not Chinese...just a general 'Verse swear!

Thanks to Virtual Firefly for inspiration!