I don't own anything. Takes place after Objects in Space but before Serenity.
Prologue
Opus 1- Capo
Vici
Three years before the Battle of Serenity
"Jonah, you remember your Uncle Mal, don't you?"
The small boy with pale grey eyes looked up at the unfamiliar man. "Mmm…nope."
Mal's brother-in-law Aaron glared down at his son. "Of course you remember him. Where's your sister?"
As if in answer to his question, a girl came out from inside the house. "Da, I'm hungry an' Jonah is mean an' won't let me eat his cookies."
"Breezy, come out here. I don't suppose you remember your uncle?"
"I don't have an uncle." The girl, who couldn't have been any older than five, grinned hugely, obviously knowing that what she was saying would annoy her father. "I have a brother. A mean, mean, mean brother."
Mal looked intently at the girl. Even at her young age, he could tell she would grow up to look like her mother, his sister Gracie. "Aaron, let them go. We need to talk."
Aaron looked down at his son and daughter. "Jonah, Breezy, get out of here. I need to talk with your uncle alone."
Jonah, who had just passed his seventh birthday, smiled. "This is my uncle. I remember."
"I know you do, now go inside the house, mashong." He turned back to Mal. "Well. How much leave do you have? How long until you go back to your suicide mission?"
"Look, I'm only here to check on the kids. I promised Gracie-"
Aaron took a threatening step towards his former brother-in-law. "I don't give a good gorram what you promised Gracie," he snarled. "These are my kids, and I'll raise them however the hell I see fit. You're not a part of our family, Reynolds."
The words were barley out of Aaron's mouth when Mal shoved him into the side of his house and held him there. "Listen," Mal hissed. "Maybe I'm not a part of your ruttin' family, but we both know Gracie didn't want you with those kids. Now, if you wanna try an' tell me otherwise, go ahead. But I know the truth, and you know the truth. So never say that you know what Gracie woulda wanted better'n I do. Dong ma?"
Aaron sneered, his lip curling in disgust. "Why? What are you gonna do about it? Take 'em with you? Off to some godforsaken rock that no one cares about 'cept your army? Off to fight in a war with you?" His expression changed from contempt to snide pleasure. "There's nothing you can do, Mal. So why don't you go fight your little war, and I'll stay here with all you got left from your precious little sister," he mocked. He knew there was nothing Mal could do to him. If he was dead, who would look after the kids?
"Ben tian sheng de yi dui rou," Mal spat out, releasing the other man. "Don't think I'll forget about this, Aaron."
"Oh, I don't think you will. But why should I worry? Way the war's goin', you'll be dead before the month's out."
Mal didn't look back as he walked away from Aaron, who stood with a triumphant grin on his face. He did stop for a minute, though, when his deceased sister's husband yelled out one final comment. "You seen Breezy, though, right?" Aaron paused with perverse satisfaction. There was nothing Mal could do.
"Sweet little thing looks just like her mother."
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Prologue of what will be a story with about 10 chapters. R&R, please.