"Sot this is goodbye?" Mal solembly asked himself as he watched his crew say their goodbyes to Inara. He knows that Serenity will never be the same after today. Kaylee will lose an older sister type rolemodel. Jayne will still have his daydreams of Inara and the female Diplomat. Book, even though being a Shepherd holds Compainions in low regard, he knows he will be missing her friendship and understanding. Inara, in an oriental red dress, with her hair tied up into a bun eith a black stick holding it in place. Inara walks over to Mal. "Well, this is goodbye." she quietly states. "I'm guessin' so." Mal said with his arms folded. "Hmm." Inara smiled. "What?!" "It's nothing. I thoght this is how'd you react." "So your not sad by this?" Mal asks looking straight into her eyes. "No, Mal." she says staring back into his eyes. "You're forgettin' I can read bodies, Mal." Inara leans close to Mal and kisses him on his cheek. "Goodbye." she whispers into his ear, just before she turns her back on him. "Wash! Prep for takeoff.!" Mal orders. "Sure thing." Said Wash. "Bye, Inara." "Sadness." River said, getting Simon's attention. With the engines reving up, the crew of Serenity gets ack on board the ship. Zoe makes her way up to the bridge, to her husband. While everyone else gathers in the Cargo hold. With Serentiy slowly rising up into the sky, Mal stands on the loading deck, bidding his goodbye to Inara, by watching heras the ship leaves. With the door closing Mal walks in, not taking his eyes off of Inara. "Where to Cap'n?" Kaylee asks wile whipping tears off of her face. Mal just passes them, and walks through the sitting room, up the stairs, through the kitchen, then into the corridor with the crew quarters. He pushes the door to his room in, and climbs down the ladder. "When you can't run, you crawl. When you can't crawl; when you can't do that, you find someone to carry you." A man cowers on Mal's bed. "Who the ([Chinese] Son of a space cow) are you?" Mal asks loudly, getting the naked man's attention. "I've found Serenity." ... Embers of signal fires fly though the air like fireflies in the night. The toppled stone, glass, and metal buildings makes the Traveler feel small and insignificant. The air is staind with the stench of burning debry, burning flesh, fresh dropped blood, and bile. Shards of glass, pebbles and pieces of scap metal crunch under his feet. Among the clouded gray sky, he sees the black pillats of smoke rise up and add to the thunderous dark clouds. The Traveler is reminded of stories from his childhood. Stories of Hell. He walks down the alleys of Hell in his old gray suit with his brown coat bellowing behind him. The Taveler doesn't want to be here. As he's stepping over and around the fallen angels of mercy and death, he can't help but wonder where the action is. The echoing blasts of gun fire and explosions can be heard but not seen. He doesn't want to be here, he doesn't want to be in the middle of nowhere. So he sticks to the shadows and presses on to find where the battle has moved to. The Traveler stops at the sight of another lost soldier, a few intersections ahead coming his way. So the Traveler hides behind a standing stone pillar. The soldier isn't in full armor. A pair of night vision goggles and a gas mask cover the soldier's face. With a steel helmet protection the side and back of his head. But no protective body armor. Just a soldier wrapped in an Arabic robe. Long brown robes wrapped many times, making a decent protective layer. Once the soldier has his back to the Traveler, the Traveler makes his move. He pulls out a combat knife and stabs the soldier in the back. The muffled scream under the mask, doesn't affect the Traveler. The Traveler, tears out the knife then trips the soldier, the soldier lands on his back. The Traveler hops onto the soldier, then jams the knife into a crack in the protective head wear, stabbing the soldiers jugular vein. The Traveler cuts along the line of the mask. WIth blood staind hands, he removes the mask with a smile on his face, only to turn the smile. ... And now a commercial.