You know all the usual disclaimers. Consider them said. This one is kind of intense. Don't read it if you are in the mood for a light, humorous story. Also this takes place after Heart of Gold and there are spoilers for that episode in it.

Now on to the story

Niska's Revenge

"Mal, I know I don’t have the right to ask anything of you, but I’m in bad trouble. I need your help. Please come quickly."

The wave from Inara cut off. Malcolm Reynolds sat staring at the black screen for a long time. In a lifetime full of hurt, nothing had hurt him as much as when Inara left Serenity last year. He loved her and she loved him, he knew that, but still somehow they hadn’t been able to make it work out. When she left, it tore a whole in his heart so big, he was pretty gorram sure that he’d never risk loving someone again. And now, a year later, he was just starting to be able to cope with her absence. He even smiled occasionally and once last week, he’d cracked a joke. But the wave had brought all those feelings right back, strong as ever. There was no way he wanted to open that particular can of worms again. He probably should pretend the wave never came in. "Oh who are you kidding anyway, Mal, you know damn well you’re gonna help her. Doesn’t matter how much it hurts you, she‘s in trouble." Now that Mal had talked himself into it, he guessed he’d better tell the crew that they were headed for Shinon.

*******

Mal stood outside House Madrassa steeling himself to knock on the door. Seemed terribly elaborate for a whorehouse to him and he doubted he’d feel comfortable there even if he wasn’t going to meet with Inara. As it was, the thought of entering that place made him kind of sick to his stomach. But Mal was used to doing hard things, so after a minute he knocked. The door opened slowly and a girl about 12 years old stood there. She was exquisitely beautiful and graceful. He thought she must be a Companion trainee and imagined Inara at that age answering this very door.

"May I help you?’

"I’d like to talk to Inara Serra."

"She’s not available right now."

"When will she be free? I’ve come a long distance at her request. Would you let her know that Malcolm Reynolds is here to see her?"

The girl looked uncomfortable that he hadn’t just left like a polite customer would have. She turned and spoke into a communication device, quietly so he wouldn’t hear. After a few seconds a low response came back. She looked shocked as if the answer wasn’t what she expected. "I’m sorry sir. Inara left on an assignment several days ago and the schedule doesn’t indicate when she is returning."

Mal didn’t much care for the sound of that. It seemed she’d left soon after contacting him and hadn’t returned and hadn’t left word as to when she would return either. She was missing; Mal would bet Serenity on that. "I need to talk to the House Priestess then. It’s very urgent." Mal was glad Nandi had told him some of how the Houses were structured or he wouldn’t have known who to ask for.

"I’m sorry sir. That won’t be possible. She isn’t seeing visitors right now."

The girl looked as if she’d sized him up, decided he couldn’t afford the rates and wanted to just send him away. Well, Mal wasn’t about to let that happen.

In a voice that was deadly quiet, Mal said, "I suggest you make it possible."

The girl read his tone and her eyes widened in fear. She had had enough training to read his determination and implacability, but not enough yet to do anything about it. Again she spoke quietly into the communication device. Mal suspected that if she called for reinforcements he’d never get inside to talk to the woman who ran this place. Scaring little girls by making them hostages wasn’t really his style, but, gorram it, Inara was in trouble. He pushed into the house, grabbed the girl and pointed his gun at her head. "Let’s try this again." He picked up the communication device and told them who he wanted to see and that the doorkeeper was his hostage. A minute later, a truly spectacular blonde woman walked calmly down the hall.

"I’m Tiannon, the House Priestess here. The authorities have been called. You cannot get away with holding a hostage here."

"Ma’am, I don’t have any desire to hurt this little girl. But she wouldn’t call you to talk to me and I urgently need to talk to you about Inara Serra. I have reason to believe that she’s in trouble. She’s missing, isn’t she?" With those words he let go of the girl and put up his gun.

There was just the barest flicker of concern on Tiannon’s face. The little girl was shocked, Tiannon never lost control. "Please come to my office. Rhyan, call the the police station and tell them it won’t be necessary for them to come."

Mal followed her into an ornate office filled with what were obviously priceless antiques. He told her about the message he’d received. Tiannon paled when he told her the date on it. "That was after she disappeared," she whispered. "She couldn’t have sent it from here. The message was a lure to bring you in, I fear."

There was only one person who would use Inara to lure him in. It had to be Niska. Mal had been worried before, but now he was downright terrified. The thought of what Niska would do to Inara made him physically ill. "Well, if someone means to lure me in, at least the trail will be easy to follow. Let’s start with her last client."

******

They had made an effort to hide the trail, so it took two more days to find where Niska was holding her. Two long days of fear for everyone on the crew. They all knew what Niska was capable of and, in their own individual ways, all of them cared for Inara. Even, oddly enough, Jayne. He’d missed Inara as much as the rest of them and never could quite figure out why. Wasn’t like they’d ever done anything, but trade insults. And truth to tell, he was more than little upset that it was his information that had probably gotten her into this mess. When Niska’s agents had contacted him for information about the Captain, he never thought twice about telling them that Mal cared for Inara. After all she had left already, so it wasn’t like she was really a hook on the Captain’s emotions. Turned out that he was wrong about that, although he still couldn’t understand why. Jayne would never have given one second’s notice to the fate of some woman who had thrown him over, except maybe to be glad of any problems he heard she had. But ome to the rescue? No ruttin’ way.

And now they were headed into a firefight, with Mal thinking Jayne was on his side and Niska thinking Jayne would betray the Captain as he had been very well paid to do. Jayne just hoped the right one prevailed as there was no way he’d be alive for long if the one he betrayed survived. Stuck between Mal and Niska was definitely not too comfortable a place to be. He’d better cover his bets by making both of them think he was on their side, if only he could think of a way to do that.

*******

When they reached the old warehouse on Persephone where Niska had set up shop, the others gathered around Mal for their final orders. He sent Jayne around to the back entrance, Book and Zoe were to come in on their side through the windows and he, River, and Simon would make the frontal assault. Wash and Kaylee had wanted to come too, But he’d convinced them that it was more important to have Serenity ready to take off instantly.

Once everyone was in place, Mal gave the signal to move. They were expected, of course. But the shooting skills of everyone were up to the task and, truth to tell, Niska wanted them to get past the initial guards because he wanted Mal to see what he had done to Inara before he died. So soon everyone but Jayne was in the room where Niska was happily watching Inara be tortured. A couple of seconds later, Jayne came running in. He looked at Mal. "Sorry, I got ruttin lost for a second there." Mal nodded, acknowledging the comment, then turned his attention to Niska who stood there, quite unafraid. His manner seemed to indicate he had an ace up his sleeve and they had gotten in too easily, so Mal suspected the real battle hadn’t even started yet.

"You came for the woman, I see. From your reputation, I thought you might. You have not disappointed me. Good. I should point out to you that if you kill me, my men will kill her."

Mal looked at Inara and cringed inside. She had multiple broken bones, massive burns and knife cuts all over her body. He beautiful face had been cut and burned to such an extent that he suspected it couldn’t ever be put to rights again. But her eyes burned with the same look she had had the day Nandi died. She was asking him to kill Niska no matter what happened to her. And he’d do that for her if it was the last thing he ever did.

Just at that moment, about 20 armed men burst into the room shooting and things got busy for awhile. When things got quiet again, Jayne was holding Niska and everyone in the room was bleeding from one or more injuries. All of Niska’s men were down, although some still looked to be alive. River had proven the most successful of them all, taking out 15 of the men all by herself. She looked like she hadn’t even noticed the way her arm was bleeding. She stood there, clearly weary, her head hanging and slightly panting. Simon looked at all in turn, judging, with his trauma surgeon skills, who would need treatment first. It killed his soul a little to not to go to River first, but Inara was clearly the worst off. She was close to death without treatment and he honestly wasn’t sure if treatment would be in time. But there was a chance, however slim, and no one else was hurt so badly that they needed immediate attention. So Simon ran to Inara’s side and opened his Med kit.

Mal walked up to Niska who still was showing the confidence of someone with a backup plan. Suddenly River’s head snapped up and she stared straight at Jayne and yelled, "He’s going to betray you."

Niska smiled at her. Then he turned to Jayne and said, "Now is the time we discussed. Time for you to prove your loyalty and kill Malcolm Reynolds for me." Jayne raised Vera pointing it at the Captain. Then turned and shot Niska. Across the room, one of Niska’s men screamed, "No!". Then he took aim at Inara and shot. Time seemed to stand still, but Jayne was the first to react throwing himself in the path of the bullet to save Inara’s life. He crumpled to the floor, a huge hole in his stomach. Book, with a look of pure feral anger on his face, killed the man who was trying to kill Inara. Simon started towards Jayne, but Jayne waved him away. "Inara’s got a chance to live, you see to her. I ain’t gonna make it no matter what," he said in a low voice filled with pain.

For just a second, Mal was too stunned to react. Then he went up to Inara and squeezed her shoulder gently to let her know how he felt. He would have taken her hand, but both of them were obviously broken and he didn’t want to cause her more pain. She gave him a weak smile in return. Mal knelt next to Jayne and held him in his arms. He could see Jayne was right, the life blood was pouring out if him and it wouldn’t be more than a couple of minutes before the big man died. "You did well Jayne, Inara’s alive and Niska’s dead because of you." Mal’s voice was hoarse, thick with unshed tears.

"I wasn’t never gonna betray you Mal. I was working undercover-like to try to get inside information. I don’t know why River yelled that. I just wanted you to know it weren’t true."

"I know."

River came up, openly crying. "Niska’s thoughts told me he had given orders for them to kill you if you took him down. I was trying to warn you." She knelt down and grabbed his hand, sobbing uncontrollably now.

As Zoe and Book came up and also kneeled on the floor near Jayne, a weak voice said, "Jayne."

He turned his head toward Inara. "Thank you," she said and passed out.

Jayne leaned back against Mal. "Send my stuff to my ma, will ya?"

"I will. And don’t you worry about your family , Jayne. I’ll continue to send them money."

"Thanks." And with that, he died.