Rating: R for Rape (not described) Word Count: 598 Spoilers: None Author’s Note: This is probably the darkest fiction I have written to date. It is not happy. A rape occurs. It is not described, but I’m warning you now, if you don’t want to read anything about that, you may not want to read this. I honestly don’t know where this came from, except that a book I was converting at work yesterday had a rape in it, which probably put the topic on my mind.

Betrayal by 2x2

She invites him into her shuttle like she has dozens of times before.

They exchange pleasantries, but as they continue to talk and he still hasn’t revealed his reason for coming, a surprising uneasiness begins to creep into her thoughts. She dismisses them at first - she knows him too well, he’s above suspicion - but the feeling persists. Though it hasn’t been a concern before, she is acutely aware that they are the only two on the ship right now. Then she notices something in his eyes she’s never seen before and suddenly he’s standing far too close.

“I have a message for you,” he says, and she can feel his breath as the expression on his face changes - hardens - and the implications of his words sink in.

She realizes too late that she really doesn’t know him at all.

She runs then, desperately, for the hidden, cold secret she’s never had to use before, but he’s faster. She strikes out, her training instinctively directing her limbs to act while her brain is still too numb with shock to think, but she is outmatched by his skill. Without effort he repels her attack; the force of his blow knocks the breath from her lungs and she crumples, clutching her stomach, fighting to draw air into her frozen lungs.

He picks up the box that holds the secret and opens it, a smile that isn’t his twisting his face as he looks at her. He closes it again and sets it on the floor, then brings his foot down on it with a violent crash of his heel, wood splintering and glass shattering as the box and syringe it contains are destroyed. All the while his eyes hold that ‘something’ she can’t name and can’t believe she hasn’t seen before now.

He crosses the shuttle and closes both hatches, securing and locking them firmly. Then he turns back and unbuttons his shirt methodically, folding it carefully and setting it on her tea table before coming for her.

He grasps her arm tightly as she continues to gasp for breath; yanks her up and shoves her to the bed. Fear and despair engulf her with the realization that she can’t escape them, that there is no escape, even out here. Oh, Mal, she cries out in her mind, but pushes that thought away. She doesn’t want him connected with this, what’s about to happen, in any way.

Then he’s pushing her on her stomach, a hand in the middle of her back as he rucks up her skirts and steps between her legs.

After, she curls into herself, her eyes staring at nothing, numb and unseeing.

“Remember who your masters are, and whom you answer to,” he says then, standing naked in the middle of her shuttle. She keeps her eyes averted - she doesn’t want to offer any challenge by making eye contact; more important, she doesn’t want to see him.

“You’ve forgotten you’re not free.” There’s no menace in his voice, but she hears it clearly just the same. He pulls up his pants, fastening the front and reaches for his shirt, does up each button carefully, calmly, tucks it into his pants. He walks to the hatch and pauses, turns to look back at her, the smile of Book the Shepherd on his face again.

“If you tell him, I’ll have to kill him,” he says, the tone of his voice an incongruous match with the threat of his words. Then, he opens the doors and exits, and she is left, shivering and alone.