The lights were dim, the air cramped. Her once pleasant fragrance had long ago been replaced by a sickly stench of filth. Her decks were dirty and her hull was rusted. Once she felt like home, but long ago were those days. She had been reduced to an echo, cold and empty. Slowly she was rotting away. Even the vague reminders of the life that once filled her decks were slowly fading away. The tiny little colored lights which had adorned the walls of certain sections of the ship had long ago burnt out, and the flowers lovingly painted upon the galley wall had almost completely chipped away. But to Mal, they were windows to a life he longed return to. Some days, if the lights were dark enough,and he was drunk enough, just for a moment he would be back. The sounds of the engines would fill his ears. Laughter and love could be felt all around. Sometimes he’d swear that the lights would brighten and they all would be back, at the table, bickering and laughing, toghter, as a family. All of his troubles would be gone and for a breif moment he would just almost be happy again. But the illusion would never last long. Soon enough, Mal would be dragged back to reality either by the sight of his unkempt gray hair falling into his eyes, or a sharp pain shooting through his joints. The lights would darken and Mal would return to his state of depression. He was old, he was bitter. Everyone and everything that he had ever cared about was gone, lost in the cruelties of fate. There were times when Mal though of ending it all, putting himself out of his misery. But no matter how many times he would level the gun to his head, she would stop him. He knew that no matter how bad it got, he would always have her, his love, his girl, Serenity. After all these years, he still lived on her. He lived for her. But the tides of time had not been kind to her either. She had been dry docked on Shadow, permanently, no matter how much Mal was willing to deny it, he knew it was true. There would be no more adventure, or excitement, or life on her ever again, only echoes. To Mal she was as good as dead, but then again, wasn’t everything else? With that thought, he filled his glass to the top, smiled, and drank to it. Somehow, he never pictured it ending like this.