"Ah, Miss Tam, you're awake."
The voice instantly brought on an already building headache as the words echoed around the room. River pulled at the cold metal chains that kept her arms strapped to the chair and started to laugh
"These chains... You can't keep me here. When I get out, I'll kill you fir..."
"I know about your... talents, but you're not a prisoner here River," the man started to say, sitting back down in the seat opposite.
"In fact, we're here to help you. What do you remember?"
River tried to think back to before she woke but there was nothing, except for flashes of faces she couldn't name.
"I don't..." she started, as the man laid out pictures in front of her.
"When we found you, you were on a ship, do you remember that?"
"...Serenity..." she whispered
"So you do remember?" He said, half asking and half telling.
"You do," she replied with a smirk "Why am I here?"
He pushed the pictures towards her, each had a name written underneath the face
"You're here because these people left you for dead, River. We know that before we found you on board, these people left you to bleed out, locked you in a room, while they got in the shuttles and left. And that they could have saved you. One of them is a doctor."
The man points to one of the pictures
"Do you recognise him?" he asks, and River shakes her head. "He's the doctor, he's the one that could have saved you."
"Why are you telling me this?" River asked, becoming increasingly impatient, and pulling again at the chains.
"Let me get those." the man said, unlocking the chain. River thought about trying to escape but wanted to hear more. She scratched at her arm as he continued. "We've been tracking these people for a long time. Specifically, this man," he said as he pushed another picture over to her "We're not sure of his actual name, and until a few months ago we'd never even seen his face, but this man is the leader of a ring, a collection of rings, that primarily buy, and sell, people. They wipe the person's memories, and use various influences to make them more... complient. We think that's what happened to you, but something went wrong so they left you to die."
"So, you want to do what, exactly? Help me remember them?"
"We think any attempts to recover memories of your captivity could have severe effects on your mental state. No, for now it's better if we don't dig into your experiences on that ship. We just want to offer you the chance for us, and you, to help each other. You remember everything else, don't you? Who you were before?"
River nods. "I do. You're lucky to still be here."
The man pushes one final picture towards River
"Good. because that's who we need. take this picture and you can leave. We want you to track him down and kill him."
"And the rest of them?" she replies, almost hopeful
"They aren't our concern. But that might not be the case for you."
River smiled, picking up the pictures of the others and pocketing them, before walking out the door to the busy city