Simon rent a line of blood across the Beasts arm, drawing the fluid that had gotten him into this whole mess. The Lord roared in rage, not realizing that pain was a two way street. Simon danced back from its lumbering counterstrike. He rolled to dodge a swing of the Beasts massive tail, careful to keep it away from the caged Kaylee. Lord knows, she was the only thing of import on this whole rock. "YOU CAN'T WIN, BOY," said the Lord of Blood. Simon dodged another strike of its tail before answering. "Oh, yeah? How so?" The Lord started laughing at him. "BECAUSE, I HAVE NO FEAR. AND YOU DO." Simon danced forward, always careful to keep away from those rending claws. He slashed again, drawing another line of blood, this time on the Beasts chest. "I don't see how that will stop me." The Beast continued to laugh, even though it was bleeding from half a dozen wounds all over its massive body. "BECAUSE, I CANNOT BE BOWED BY ANYTHING YOU CAN DO TO OTHERS. BUT YOU CAN BE." Simon realized too late what this monster intended to do. It swung a giant fist at him, and knocked him to the side. There was a flash, that blinded Simon momentairly. When he looked up, he looked at the scariest site he had ever seen. He fell to his bloodied knees, and the knife he held fell out of his grasp. He saw himself. And he held a knife to Kaylees throat.[i/] *** River led them through the dusky halls of the Hospital. It was the one that they had gone through when Simon had scanned her brain...or close enough as to make no nevermind. Alliance stuff was uniform in use and function, so it was all basically the same. Kaylee and Zoe half carried, half dragged Simon between them, him muttering incoherent battlecrys. Finally, River stopped before a rather large set of double doors, which usually required a code to get into. Fortunately, since the power was off, the door wasn't locked. Unfortuneately, this meant that Zoe and River had to pry about a ton of metal and plastic out from a wall to get into the chamber, which they set about with a will, and a crowbar. Kaylee sat in the corner, Simons head in her lap, stroking his mussed hair. A single tear rolled down her chin, falling off, casting itself into an unknown oblivion, a pale orb of tinged fire and gold. *** It was like Simon, but as a Reaver. His clothes were ragged, his face was scared, and his left eye rolled blindly around in his pocket. Whatever this thing was, it could never be Simon. The mirror of himself chuckled at his opponets defeat. "You see? This is your weakness, your fear of what I can do to her. And, as long as there are people you love and care for in this world, I can use them to defeat you. You can never win against me, because I have no fear at all." The Beast in Simons clothing grinned, and drew a line of blood on Kaylees neck. She looked like some doll, no expression on her face at all. "But I can help you. Make you strong, like me. Just let me help you, and you will never be afraid again. Just believe me. You can trust me. You are weak and I am strong. I can make you as strong as I. Don't you want that?" There was another flash, and Kaylee was back in her cage, still playing the doll. The image of his fear held out a hand to Simon.[i/] *** They laid Simon down on the nearest table. Luckily for him, the equipment required for a transfusion didn't need any power, only pressure. This could be supplied by man-power, which they had in abundance. Zoe moved her hand toward her comm unit, thinking of calling the Captain, as she had forgotten earlier to do. The thing jumped about on her waistband, and Jaynes voice rang out, sounding rather tinny. "Zoe, gorramit, where is ya? ANSWER!!! We gotta problem here!!!" Zoe released a long suffering sigh. She took the comm and said into it, "Yes, Jayne, I'm here. What is going on?" "Zoe, we...uh...we found Cassandras Pa...he was one of 'em, a Reaver...and...he just...we couldn't..." "I know, Jayne. I know." She took a deep breath. "Listen carefully: Get the Captain, then tell him to come to our posistion. We have Simon, and River has a plan to save him." "Roger," said Jayne. Zoe turned, and found Simon already hooked up to the machine. River and Kaylee were both Simons blood type, which meant that they could give him the transfusion without bleeding one of them dry. But, then, either would have done it in a second to save him. River had hooked herself up. She ignored the pain as she pushed the needle into an artery. Simons breathing was eratic, and he needed oxygen more than anything. Zoe pumped the lever, and Simons blood flowed out into a vial on the floor. When it was near full, River turned the clamp, and her blood started to flow into Simons veins. *** "You're wrong," said Simon as he looked at the ground." "Whats that, boy?" said his Inner Demon. "You're wrong," repeated Simon. "Its not my fear that hinders me." He got up from his posistion among the bloody stones. "Its my love. My love for her that keeps me back." He took a step closer to his antithises. "But, know, you've made your biggest mistake." He started to run at his shadow soul. "Its by this love that I will defeat you!" With a leap, Simon took his false self into his arms, and they went tumbling over the edge, locked in a duel to the death. The knife found its way into Simons side.[i/] *** They all sat about the table where Simon fought for body and soul, each equally loitering around and looking worried. Except for River, who sat cross legged on the floor. Except for Jayne, who was taking his turn at the pump. Except for Kaylee, who was donating her blood to Simon. Vials and vials of his tainted blood lay around, looking muddy. Suddenly, River got up. She went over to Simon, stepping over the wires arrayed on the floor. With her finger, she traced each and everyone of Simons nine scars. While doing this, she sang, "I know one day, all our scars will disappear, Like the stars at dawn, And all of our pain will fade away when morning comes. And on that day, when we look backwards, we will see, That everything has changed, And all of our trials, will be as milestones on the way. And as long as we live, every scar is a bridge to someones broken heart, And theres no greater love, than that one shed his blood for his friends. And on that day, all of the scales will swing to set all the wrongs to right, and all of our tears, all of our fears will take to flight. But until then, all the scars will still remain, We learned that if we'll open the wounds, and share them then soon they start to heal..." She stopped, finger touching where he had the scar on his right hand. She moved her hand, and grasped Kaylees hand. The mechanic looked at her, surprised. "We gotta show him our love. Only then can he make the bad things go away." Kaylee nodded. "We all must do it." River looked into the eyes of each and every one in that room. And, slowly, one by one, they grasped hands, ending with Jayne, who grasped Simons left hand. "We got to show him hes not alone." *** They tumbled, locked in this embrace of death and life and love and hate. Neither could gain an upper hand, but Simon, the real Simon, felt himself tireing against his attacker. The knife, still stuck in the flesh of his ribs, bled him of his strength. They could have fallen for an eternity or a moment. It was timeless, marked only by the strikes they threw at eachother as they tumbled around, each trying to get on top of the other. Suddenly, Simon felt strength course through his tired viens. In a surge of power, he pulled the knife from his wound. His assailaints eyes widened, and then the Red sea parted, and they crashed into the sea bed, and when the dust of Nations settled, Simons mirror lay dead, the knife stuck through his black heart. Simon rolled off the corpse, and closed his eyes. Never more he just wanted to sleep forever... The red tide came over him, and the red sky was rent asunder.[i/] *** Simons wrist fell out of Inaras nerveless hand. "His pulse is gone. Hes lost." Stunned silence...except for a single, solitary sob from Kaylee. A single tear rent itself from her eye, and it spiraled and fell, and it broke into nine little droplets. One for each of the nine broken hearts from a broken ship. Eight landed around his eye, but one...one, Kaylees broken heart, landed on his eyelid, slipping through the slit that was all that was left of Simon... TBC *** Thanks to Thrice for making such shiny songs. The one River sung was "For Miles," off their album, Vheissu. Oh, and sorry for the mishap earlier.