Author's Notes: Specifically, to Grimlock: Adam is full of surprises. I still don't know all about him myself. It'll come out eventually--it was supposed to come out in this chapter, but it just didn't.

This started out as part of the "Your Song" series which I haven't updated in seventy billion years, and evolved into this on it's own. I felt kind of weird making up my own characters, but they're not Mary Sues (Marty Stus?) or anything like that, just necessary evils. Title is loosely derived from Ender's Game, because that's what inspired me.

Italics denote the alliance guys talking. (or, later, flashbacks)

'...' denotes thought, which is only necessary for our psychics.

Feed me! kaylee@kikiroxxorz.com

Pairings are: (Simon/Kaylee, Mal/Inara, Jayne/OC and River/OC) but they're not truly important to the plot.

~*~

“The subjects have been surprisingly cooperative.” “We upped the sedative combo. They are surprisingly difficult to convince of things, which means that the inauguration must take place quickly. 31657798--” “The boy.” “The boy has been taken to the Memory room, and the girl…her eval results are still pending. Evelyn will have them in two hours’ time.” “The Memory room, sir? You’re not--” “I am.” “But sir, the room’s test subject--” The agent smiled and took a folder from the young woman. “Evelyn is early,” he remarked, scanning the document. “Evelyn, take 89775316 to Memory room 2-A, please.” “Sir, the last person from the Memory room…she…she died, sir.” The agent stared. “What did you just say?” “I said that the last person in the Memory room died of complications relating to the procedure.” The agent glared. “We do not have people here,” he said coldly. “We have weapons.”

~*~

“89775316?” Ainslee looked up. She was too weary to fight back. “I’m going to take you to Memory room 2-A now,” said the lady, who was smiling. “No-o,” Ainslee said slowly. The sound of her own voice scared her. She curled into a ball, hands clamped over her ears. The smiling lady, still smiling, knelt down and stood her back up. “316… your brother,” she corrected herself. “Your brother is there.” She reached down and took Ainslee’s hand. “Three-sixteen,” said Ainslee softly. “That’s right.” “March 16th,” she whispered reverently, collapsing to the ground.

~*~

“This is crazy,” Mal said, shaking his head. “But it just might work.” “Kaylee will go, because even if their memories have been erased, it’s likely they’ll remember their mother over anyone else,” Adam said reasonably. Simon stood up. “I want to go,” he said. “They’re my children too.” “You’re already a wanted fugitive,” Adam reminded him. “I don’t think it would go over well.” “At this point, I don’t care what will ‘go over well’, Adam. I just care about having my children back as soon as possible.” “You go in there, you’ll just be arrested,” River said wisely. “So Kaylee’ll just, what, walk in there and say ‘you have my kids, I want ‘em back’?” Mal asked, which started Kaylee crying again. “No.” Adam rolled his eyes. “But the details are still sketchy. It’ll take awhile--” Kaylee sobbed. C-ca-an’t—take—aw…wh…while!” “I know. Kaylee, I want you to consider something. Would you rather have your children back, even…” he hesitated “…broken, or would you rather just not have them back at all.” “Just want ‘em back,” Kaylee sniffled. “Okay. It’ll take awhile. It could take a few months or a few weeks. We need contacts that can provide the names of who to talk to. We need to keep tabs on what’s happening at the Academy, which River and I can do. And we need a plan, a backup plan, and another backup plan. We need to decide where we’re going to go after the fact. Simon, I need to you to do all the research you can for treatment of dementia, particularly in paediatric patients. There isn’t much, but there’s got to be something.” Adam looked around. “Kaylee, the one thing I need you to do now is get some rest. I know it’s hard, but you need to protect yourself and your baby so that you’ll have the strength to do this, dong ma?” he smiled at her. “Everything will be just shiny,” he promised her.

~*~

“Liar,” River said, tracing patterns on the floor of the bunk she shared with Adam. “I know.” He sighed, wrapping his arms around her. “I just couldn’t bring myself to tell her.” “She’ll find out eventually,” River sing-songed, pulling away. “It’s not going to be happy. For anyone.”