All were gathered in the cargobay. Well, except for River, but she was too busy playing her little go-se game of 'I-hide-and-you-don't-find-me-cuz-I'm-the-gorram-crazy-psychic-moonbrain-assasian-and-you-ain't-so-HAH!!! Sir. Mal looked at each and everyone of them in turn before he spoke, his quasi hero speech all planned out. Hell, nothin' EVER goes acordin' ta plan! "Right, heres how it is: Me, Jayne, and Cassandra will be the ones to actually go in. The rest of ya'll will stay here and find that gorram walkin' mood swing. Now-" "Just wait one gorram minute!!!" Zoe was on her feet, gun already strapped to her side and ready to go. "Why've I gotta stay and play nursemaid to some crazy waith!?!?" "Cuz, Zoe, for one, this is a rescue op, not a search-and-destroy. I need you to stay and guard ship, as your the best fighter here." "All the more reason for me to go!" "No, all the more reason not to go. I need you to keep the rest safe. We all know that they can't shot a barn at ten paces, so I need you to defend 'em." His tone brooked no argument from the dapper Amazon. "Yes, sir," she mumbled glumly. "Now, this shouldn't take but-" "Wait, Mal." EVERYBODY gotta interupt his gorram speech! "What, doc? I ain't got time for your middlin', so make it quick." This aughta be interestin'... "I'm coming with you." Well...it was quick AND interesting. Problem was, it was a bit more interesting than Mal genarally liked. "No. I ain't got no time for this, doc. Stay and help find your sis." "But I can't help! You saw what she did, she was afraid of me. I can only hurt the effort, and you said yourself that we needed all speed in this." "Don't you city-folk understand 'no'?" Mal looked at Simon, and saw his eyes. The eyes are the window to the soul. Mal saw what he had only seen in Jayne in that moment: Battle-lust. This boy was ready to do battle with the darkness outside. So be it. "Jayne, get the boy a gun." "But you said-" "Forget what I said. Just do it." Moodily, Jayne went to his bunk, grumbling, "condescending hundan..." *** A few short minutes later, Simon stood with a rifle, looking less uncomfortable with it than when he had first held a weapon like this. Jayne was bedecked in his usual three guns, Vera, Phoebe, and Sarah. And, yes, he had the gernades this time. Mal had his trusty pistol and his rifle, while Cassandra held a pistol that made her look like a Valley Girl. Shepard Book and Wash watched Simon from the shadows. Book called out to him, "Once you leave this ship, we cannot guarentee your safety." "When have you ever given me any 'safety'?" whispered Simon. "We cannot guarentee that you will live," repeated Book. Wash continued to stare longingly at Zoe from the crate on which he sat. God, how he missed her... Slowly, reverently, and without looking back, the four fools set out into the unforgiving desert of harsh sunlight. Silently, the two wraiths followed them. *** Kaylee had put on a brave face for Simon, but the facade cracked once he had left. No matter how much she told herself otherwise, she couldn't shake the feeling that Simon was going to get himself killed. It was the eyes. Those same blue eyes that had enraptured her from the moment that she saw that. Those same eyes that she had stared into through the countless hours of lovemaking. Now, those eyes were pale blue pits of ice, colder than any emptyness. She hung her head. Inara came over to her. "What is it, Mei-mei?" She already knew the answer, but the girl needed to get this out on her own. "Oh, 'Nara, its Simon! Hes...changed, and for the worst. Hes gonna get himself killed!" "Honey, hes with Mal," she reminded her. "But, 'Nara...his eyes! They were..." Just then, a cry rent the silence asunder, a cry of pain. A cry of hurt, loss, life, love, lust, rage, hate, and a cry of a mourning sister. River. *** Bodies. Simon had never seen so many bodies. Some were identical to the ones he'd sen on Ariel, but fresher. Some were still breathing. Others were the victims of Reavers. Each type lined the street that they walked upon. Cassandra led the way, retracing the way to her fathers house by scant memory. From the few times they'd gotten a wave of the man, Cassandra had gathered that he hadn't moved since the day their mother had left him amidst his scandal. Simons scar began to throb. Blood flowed in little rivulets down the street. Ah! How glorious a sight! And the bodies...never had Simon noticed the art of dying. The bodies fell in just the right posistion, to make a perfet tapestry of gore. But Simon was not repulsed by it. It was glorious! Perfection lay at his feet, and he could be a part of it. Sweet release. But he could add to it...add to the perfection. Yes...he gazed hungerly at the three people before him. Yes, just a single burst, and he could add to the perfection arrayed gloriously around him... The radio that Mal carryed on him crackled into life, and Zoes harryed voice came over the ringing of metal. "SIR!!!REAVERS!!!THEY'RE...SHIP...ON THE SHIP...ELP...MAYDAY...REQUIRE ASSISTANCE...HELP!!!" Mal turned to his three compatriots. "You heard her. Gather at the hill we left from, we'll get a plan from there!" *** Book looked at Simon, then at Wash. "I fear that hes slipping." "Best wait 'till he does. He needs to be shocked out of this." "Hmmm...what do you have in mind?" *** Zoe held her gun at the ready, ready to shoot any ugly son of a whore that stuck his head in. It had taken almost ten minutes to find River, and another time for her to take pity on their eardrums. She had been in the storage locker that Mal had locked he up in, once upon a time. Now, a dozen Reavers awaited to come in, to tear, to rip, to kill. River whimpered. Zoe payed it no neveermind as Inara shushed her up. But then, River said, "And now comes the trial of Tam." *** Mal had had a swell plan in mind for this. He would have taken it slow, had Jayne throw his gernades in, then lay down cover fire and advance slowly, taking out the Reavers one at a time if he had to. But then, Simon goes and messes it all up to hell, charging down the hill, yelling bedlam and bedfellows, and shooting his rifle at the mass of not-men. A couple went down by his shots, but a whole lot more just went by harmlessly. Then, Simon goes INTO the mass of not quite Reavers, still yelling blue diggory. Shit. Kaylee was gonna have his hide for this. *** Simon laughed manicly as he wove in and out of the tangled mass of men. It really was a dance, and had an icy beauty all its own. Now he knew why River loved to dance. He used his rifle to block the blows that rained in upon him. He bashed the weapon in on the head of one of his adversarys. Blood and brains spattered onto his face, into his open mouth, clouding his vision in a blood red haze. The ecstacy of battle was written on his face. He laughs, for this is as much fun as hes ever had. He throws away the useless weapon, now dented and nicked, and takes up the knife of his fallen foe. With that, the soul of Simon Tam passed into the shadow. His new blade flashed in the air of the sun at its zenith. Blood spattered on him, on the floor. Despite the lust that came with battle, he felt the slash of the blades. They struck him on his back, leg, chest, arms. They gave him pleasure of the type only killers know. He held the knife in his left hand, and killed these imposters until he could kill them no more. When the last had fallen, he threw his head back and howled his victory to the night sky. The doors to the cargo bay opened. He held his hands up in triumph. He was ready to tear and kill whatever was inside this strange vessel. And there, standing in the half light, was Kaylee. He looked at his hands, both were bathed in blood. Droplets of blood fell of his hands, stained with te blood of innocents. Blood fell off the knife. Kaylees flesh, rent open by his knife... Lying there, sweet and innocent, blood pouring onto the floor... His scar, a scarlet ribbon in a red sea... Dead, blood drained from her body... Dance of death... BLOOD... The knife fell out of his nerveless hands. He knew what he must do. He turned away from her, this women whom he loved so dearly. He ran away from her, away from his life. Simon ran far away from them, into the wilderness that was Ariel.