A/N: Okay, so, it's a random one shot of the scene at the end of the movie with River kicking Reaver butt. Not really spoiler's considering this is AU to what happened at this point.
WARNING: CHARACTER DEATH
Not sure if you'll cry, whimper or pout about it. But I hope it's good. Any feedback is good so please, enjoy.
She blocked out their thoughts, kept herself going. Just her and them.
Primary goal: Kill.
Secondary goal: Survive.
A simple task that she had been trained to do. All of her time in the Academy led up to this point. She knew it wasn't specifically for this but, it was for her. For her friends. For her mother figure, her father figure, her half sisters, her half brothers and for her brother.
For her family.
She'd lost two already, the funny man and the preacher man. Both gone, taken away from her and them. The pain hadn't yet sunk in, it won't for another five hours, sixteen minutes and forty-two seconds. She's counted. She's predicted. It's what she's good at. Math. She's using it now with full knowledge, calculating every move with the angles and forces required to make adequate contact to give her some space. Counting the steps needed to close the gaps, picturing the moves before she or they have made them. Timing with synchrony and sequences, in perfect patterns.
She always liked patterns.
Her fist reaches out and makes contact. The blade in her other hand cuts like a knife to butter through his chest. He's not getting back up. Finally put to rest.
Only a few were left now, easy pickings for her as she easily dodged, slipped and side stepped each of their moves, countering with perfect precision.
It cuts into her so quickly she curses at her first miss. Her first miscalculation and its cost her dearly. The knife through her stomach doesn't stop her, only causes her to falter as she spins around, kicking her leg out high and smashing her heel into his temple. The blade in her hand cuts at his throat as he falls, ending his life.
She stops.
Primary goal: Kill......Accomplished
The pain starts.
It throbs and her hands clench to combat it.
The blades fall from her hands and clatter to the floor. Her eyes fall to her stomach as her hands assess the situation. They come back red. Not blue. She's not one of them, never has been. They couldn't control all of her. It's only now she fully understands and comprehends what happened and what is soon to happen.
They tried to change her, but failed. She was merely a tool that could be tossed away when old and no longer use able. She was their machine.
She's dying. She comprehends this as she clutches her stomach and whimpers once, her eyes are closed tightly to try to pretend it isn't happening.
But it is.
She raises her head and stares at the white wall in front of her. The blood, she's drowning in it and it never touched a single wall. One calculation that doesn't make sense to her.
A tear rolls down her cheek as she turns her head to stare at the metal reinforced door. "Simon," she barely whispers, not having the strength to move her lips any more. The names jump out in her mind though; Kaylee, Inara, Zoe, Jayne, Mal. Some of the worst people she ever knew. But the best family she ever had. The best thing she's ever truly lost.
Her body shakes in small shivers as the cold sets in. Rivers of red run through her fingers and over her hands. Warm. She notices and wishes she could feel that warm.
More tears come now as her legs wobble. They're unstable. She doesn't want them to see her like this though, so she struggles to the clean wall. The whiteness of it still scared her. Now she had a reason.
She always thought she'd die in one of their white rooms. Now she finally would. Hell wasn't over, until now.
Her hand touches white and stains it in red. A bloody hand print as a reminder. A memory jumps back to her, Mal shot, saving Serenity at the cost of his life. The air was going and there was fire. His red hand on that door. The door that led to the white room on her home.
Home, she thought feebly as she sank with her back to the wall. Tears fell in small numbers down her grey cheeks as she felt the blood drain from her body.
Not long to go now and she braces herself. Closing her eyes she pictures the scene before her; bodies and blood. Mutilations. She compares it to something else. Family. A time when they all sat and ate, everyone alive and well. Laughing and joking.
A shadow of a smile graces her lips as she holds onto this fatal memory for as long as she can.
It's the last thing she grips, the last she sees as she finally drifts off. Content and happy.
Secondary goal: Survive......Failed