Well now. The rescue actually isn't over by a long shot, but given the tragic deletion (and ensuing delay) of my first draft of this chapter I wanted to get at least a part of the re-write posted. Hope you enjoy it; there will be more to come! Comments very much appreciated/begged for.

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"Simon!" barked Zoe, completing her scan of the arena and satisfying herself that there weren't any more threats lurking in the shadows created by the dancing colored spotlights. "Get in here, ma shong. Kaylee, you up there?"

"Yes," she replied.

"Lower it, now," Zoe ordered, breaking into a jog as she covered the ground to her husband's limp form, trying to quell the dread in her heart. River followed her, scanning the chaos, trying to locate the image she had seen as she entered the stadium, longing to comfort Mal and erase the sadness from his eyes.

Simon dropped into the arena, and after taking a cautious look around for things that might consider him edible, made his way to the pile of rubble that marked the opening in the ceiling where Kaylee should be lowering his medical supplies. He stepped around the bodies of the guards who had been crushed beneath the falling debris, looking upward at the makeshift rescue platform being lowered on a cable from Serenity's belly.

It wasn't much to write home about, a large metal plate for a floor, held within a huge cargo net, but with any luck it would lift them all to safety. The plate came to rest on the ground, and Simon tugged at the release cord on the net. "That's good, Kaylee, hold steady."

"Okay," came her cheerful reply, followed by a more uncertain "They down there?"

"They are," responded Simon, thankful she hadn't asked any more specific questions. "We'll be all loaded up in a few minutes."

He grabbed his med kit and the pile of stretchers and headed into the fray, stopping short when he found Jayne hanging from his wrists against a wooden wall painted as a target, arrows imbedded in the wood all around him. It looked like only one had found a human target, piercing his upper arm and pinning him to the board. He raised his hand to inspect it more closely, stopping short at the expression of utter terror in Jayne's eyes.

Simon glared at the big mercenary reproachfully and sighed. "I thought we already had this conversation, Jayne," he said gently. "I will never take revenge on you while you are under my care, and if you're not capable of believing that I'm sorry for you."

Jayne's eyes flickered down in embarrassment, and Simon examined the wound carefully before addressing him again. "I have to cut you free, and you will be unconscious when I do it." Simon dug through his box for a syringe, marveling at the detail in which some people needed to be told things.

Giving time for the anesthetic to take effect, Simon appeared at Zoe's side. She had cut her husband free and was holding his body in her arms. Simon looked uncertainly at her, and she nodded and whispered "He's alive." Simon breathed a sigh of relief and kneeled beside her, quickly finding the gash on the side of his head where a forceful blow had knocked him unconscious. Aside for that, he looked relatively unharmed, and he and Zoe soon had him in a stretcher on their makeshift platform.

Mal struggled to comprehend, to focus. He couldn't make the least bit of sense out of the explosion, the sudden stillness of the crowd, the gunfire. But for the first time, he felt a flicker of hope that they might all actually make it out of this alive.

A blood-splattered figure appeared above him, eerily masked and bearing a gory dagger that made Mal's stomach turn. He closed his eyes and took in a deep, ragged breath. So much for hope, he thought, bracing himself. Just makes the inevitable hurt even worse than it has to.

"Don't be afraid," said a familiar, if slightly distorted voice. Mal's eyes snapped open in disbelief. River? He saw her gazing at him through the clear panel of the mask, head tilted to the side, her expression sweetly inquisitive. "Told you I'd come."

Mal tried to greet her, but his body refused to cooperate. She moved towards him with the blade that still made him feel queasy inside. "I'll be careful," she said softly, sensing his tension and vulnerability, noticing the deep gashes in Mal's wrists where someone had cut him down earlier without regard for the condition they left him in.

River used the knife, gently, precisely slicing through the cruelly tight ropes that bound him to the table, and Mal gasped in pain and relief as she eased away the cords that had become embedded in his battered wrists. Thank you, he thought, looking up at her, wishing he could somehow convey what a blessed relief that was.

She looked at him with understanding and hopped up on the table next to him, her long hair brushing lightly across his body as she carefully moved his arms to his sides. Satisfied, she took one hand in hers and held it gently. "You didn't kill us. You're safe, we're all going to be safe," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the music. He closed his eyes again, this time in deep contentment, a feeling of calm sweeping over him.

He felt someone take hold of his other hand softly and saw Zoe standing beside him. "Sorry we took so long to get here, sir," she said, squeezing his hand tightly as Simon slipped a needle painfully into his bruised arm.

"You've inhaled a paralytic just like everyone else in the stadium," Simon explained. "That's why we're all wearing masks, and why nobody's hacking us into small pieces for trying this. I gave you an antidote and pain meds, should work quickly enough, but I don't recommend you start moving about on us."

Simon and Zoe together eased him onto a stretcher and River walked beside him, still clinging to his hand as they carried him to the net. "Little crazy girl," she whispered, looking at him with a playful grin. Mal couldn't respond, but he knew his return smile was reflected in his eyes.

River sat with him on the platform until Zoe and Simon returned with the unconscious Jayne. Fastening the net, Zoe signaled Kaylee. "We're good to go, pull us up." The cable tightened, and with a sickening lurch they were lifted into the air.