"Two by two … hands of blue … two by two … hands of blue …"

As River continues to repeat it, she struggles to break free of Kaylee and Inara, but does not. As Early repeats it, Mal gets confused and knocks him out with a right jab to the temple. Mal picks Early up and carries him out of the holding room, heading for the cargo bay. As he approaches, he hears River repeating the cryptic phrase between frantic breaths - "Two by two … hands of blue …" Mal is a bit taken aback by River uttering the same phrase he'd just heard from Early, but he says nothing. Kaylee and Inara are trying to soothe River, but she continues. Mal drops Early, steps in front of River, places his hands on her shoulders and looks deep into her eyes. River tries to look away, but Mal follows her movements and does his best to maintain eye contact. Eventually, River is grounded - her breathing slows to almost normal, and she stops speaking.

Mal: "You OK?" River: "No more waiting." Mal: "No more waitin'." Beat. "Inara, I picked up Early's ship comin' in behind us. Oughta be settin' down in about five minutes." Inara: "I'll be ready." Mal: "You sure you're up to …" Inara (quick, but not curt): "*Fang xin.* I'm fine." Mal nods and kneels to pick Early back up, throwing him face first over his shoulder. Kaylee: "Got him?" Mal (nodding toward River): "You got her?" Kaylee: "I do." Mal: "Let's go." Kaylee gently takes River's hand and guides her off the ship. Mal lingers, waiting to find something else to say to Inara. He turns to her but hasn't found any words yet. Inara: "There's work to be done, Mal. We work before we play. I seem to remember you saying that before." Mal: "There's to be playin'?" Inara (smiling): "Go get our doctor." Mal returns her smile, turns and leaves the ship. He stops and faces Serenity. Mal (to Serenity): "Don't you go nowhere." Inara is standing at the edge of the cargo bay looking out at the whiteness surrounding all she can see. Her eyes turn to Mal, and she watches him until the blackness of the cave swallows him.

***

As they walk through the cave entrance, the light inside increases from almost pitch black when they first entered to about halfway illuminated when … Mal (panting a bit): "This boy's heavy. You two stop. I need a break." River: "No more waiting." She continues to walk. Kaylee goes to follow, but Mal stops her. Mal: "We'll catch up." Kaylee: "Cap'n, she's actin' a little odd." (Mal shoots her a "well, duh" look.) "Well, a little more odd than usual. You heard what she was sayin'." Mal: "I did." Kaylee: "Whadya suppose it meant?" Mal: "Couldn't say. Must mean somethin', though. She wasn't the only one sayin' it." Kaylee's eyes widen as she takes this in and looks at Early. Kaylee: "You mean he …" Mal stands and draws his gun, pointing it about a foot from Early's face as he nudges him with his foot to wake him. It takes a moment, but Early slowly comes to. He sees the gun, but does not appear especially intimidated. Mal: "You done actin' crazy?" Early: "What kinda question is that?" Mal: "I'm through carryin' you. Get up." Early gets up and begins walking. "Kaylee, go on ahead and catch River, see if you can slow her down a bit." Kaylee runs off - she can't get away from Early fast enough, now that he's no longer unconscious and harmless. Early: "You brought the sister?" Mal: "More like the sister brought me." Early: "A good captain instills loyalty in his crew. You ask her to lead this campaign?" Mal: "How's about you stop jabberin' before I drop you again?" Early looks at Mal and smiles a little devilishly.

***

Wash: "OK, you're smart. You know more than I could ever dream to about war, violence, search, rescue … tell me what's gonna go wrong with this mission." Zoe: "What do you mean?" Wash: "It's a solid plan, to be sure. Any time Mal comes up with a solid plan, the solid ends up turning into … not-so solid." Zoe: "No chance of everything going right one time, huh?" Wash: "Not around us, there isn't." Zoe: "Well, we found our entrance easy enough, just like Jayne and Shepherd Book. We're getting' pretty close to the main chamber of this cave, and all we've seen is … well, nothing. Maybe you're on to something."

*

As Wash and Zoe continue to discuss sneak attack scenarios while walking through their corridor, Jayne and Book are doing a bit of the same. Book: "I don't see anyone sneaking up on us. Your reflexes are plenty sharp enough to get yourself out of a jam, and I … well …" Jayne: "Don't be modest, preacher. You're not the dullest knife in the drawer." Book (a bit sarcastic): "Well, Mr. Cobb, I’m terribly flattered." Jayne: "Of course, it's still a bit of a mystery how a preacher got so ruttin' good at takin' the bad guys outta the game without killin' 'em. How's about you tell me what that's all about?" Book: "Jayne, I'd love nothing more than to …" Suddenly, a rope whips out of the right wall and pins Book by the neck against the wall. Another rope wraps around his chest, immobilizing his arms. Simultaneously, as Jayne turns to see what the commotion is, a pair of arrows - one from in front and one from behind - rapidly approach Jayne at an angle from the ceiling. Jayne straightens up and throws his hands in the air in an attempt to let each whiz in front and behind of him. The one from the front misses, but the other penetrates his right hand. He lets out a solid scream as he reaches to pull the arrow out.

*

Wash and Zoe are lost in conversation and have failed to hear a growing rumbling in front of them. They begin to feel it from their feet, and they stop in their tracks and fall silent. Quickly, Zoe pushes Wash to the right wall, pulls out her shotgun and fires two shots about a foot off the ground and four feet apart into the left wall, and another four feet above in between the other two. She kicks right in between the gunshots and reveals an opening just big enough to shove Wash into. She tries to cram in with him, but cannot.

*

Jayne grits his teeth as he quickly breaks the smooth, wooden arrow in two and pulls each shank out of his hand. With his left hand, he whips out a large switchblade and severs the rope around Book's throat. Book (in between gasps): "It's tightening! …" Jayne cannot sever the other rope with one swipe. It takes several more before it snaps and Book falls fast to the ground. Jayne kneels in front. Jayne: "Shepherd, you OK?" Book looks at Jayne, but before he can say anything, he sees a small trapdoor behind Jayne's head opening. He grabs Jayne by the front of his shirt and slings him to the ground as another arrow flies by and impacts into the wall where Book was pinned. Book: "Must be getting close." Jayne: "We better keep movin'."

*

Zoe steps back into the middle of the corridor and can see a boulder just smaller than the width and height of the corridor barreling toward her. Quickly, she turns to the right wall and does what she did for Wash, crashing into the opening just in time to see the boulder roll by. Wash: "Something tells me …" Zoe: "… we need to hurry." Both were thinking the same thing - the boulder is too big to just roll out of the entrance they used. As they run, they hear and feel the boulder crash into the opening. The rumbling continues, and they know their entrance is caving in. The dust is approaching them from behind as they notice an opening ahead of them. They see two figures - they can only assume it's Neriah and Simon - and a machine of some sort. As they get closer, one figure turns around and starts walking toward them. They see it is Neriah as she stops at the normal door-sized opening. Suddenly, the opening closes from above with a solid sheet of rock. Wash: "*Zao gao!*" Zoe: "Don't stop running!" They reach the closed door and see no way of opening it. They flatten themselves against it and watch as the rocks and dust approach. Wash (frightened): "Zoe?" Zoe (harsh): "*Bi zui!* We ain't dyin'!" The cave-in begins to slow, and the mountain of rubble coming their way stops, leaving them just enough room. Wash: "Didn't have to yell at me." Zoe grabs her husband in a hug - an embrace that remains for several moments.

*

Book and Jayne are hustling down the middle of their corridor, dodging arrows and ropes whipping out from the walls. Jayne, in front, sees an opening and pretty much what Zoe and Wash saw, but not for long. He sees Simon running toward the opening, but another figure he hasn't seen yet comes across from the side and tackles him to the ground. The woman rises and runs to the opening, closing it with Jayne just a few feet away. Jayne pounds on the sheet of rock for a few moments as Book stops and catches his breath beside him.

Book: "Jayne!" Jayne: "What?" Book: "The booby-traps have stopped." Jayne stops pounding and turns around, seeing loose rope against the walls and arrows littering the ground. He takes a few steps away from the door and another arrow comes at him from above, burying itself in the ground between Jayne's feet. He quickly jumps back to the door. Jayne: 'Guess we ain't goin' nowhere."

***

Neriah (approaching Simon, eventually kneeling down with one knee holding him to the ground): "All this waitin' and you go and try to ruin it? What were you gonna do, run up and hug him? There's nowhere for you to go." Neriah reaches a clenched fist back … River: "There is." Neriah stops, rises and spots River and Kaylee. River approaches her. Neriah: "You're her." River: "You don't know me." Neriah: "I know enough." Silence as Neriah stops a foot in front of River. River (without looking away from Neriah): "Simon?" Simon (beginning to rise and walk toward them): "*Mei mei,* I'm fine." Neriah: "Stay where you are, doctor. This doesn’t need to get violent." Mal: "Really?" Mal is walking toward Kaylee at the middle of the room with his gun at Early's head. "'Cause I ain't shot nobody in quite a while. Startin' to get the itch a bit."

***

As Early's ship is auto-landing next to Serenity, Inara walks down the ramp and closes Serenity's doors with a remote. The hatch to Early's ship opens, and Inara pilots the ship into the main opening to the cave.

A more sleek, Alliance-looking ship floating high above begins to set down as Inara goes out of sight.

Pilot: "They're all inside. The two back entrances are unusable." Passenger: "One way in, one way out." Pilot: "Let's suit up."

The passenger reaches into a black bag between he and the pilot and pulls out two pair of skin-tight blue gloves.

XXX