THE OUTER RIM, 2519 AD

Zoë was unsettled. They had just finished a job a couple days ago that had brought in a good bit of coin, true. They'd gotten away clean, they'd gotten paid without a hitch, and they'd even gotten a tip on another job they could take on Boros. They were headed that way now, and so far, it was smooth sailing. But still, she felt uneasy. She wasn't sure what it even was. There was just a feeling in the air that something was going to go wrong, and soon.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Zoë looked up to see Mal standing by her chair, grinning down at her. "C'mon, Zoë, now's a time for celebratin'. Ain't no need for sittin' about looking mopesome." He was definitely tipsy. Zoë noted his flushed cheeks and too-cheery expression. The rest of the crew was seated around the dining table, laughing and joking over what remained of dinner. Even Jayne and Simon seemed to be getting along, scarily enough. They'd decided to splurge on wine with some of their earnings from the last job, so most everyone was at least a little buzzed. The only one other than Zoë who hadn't touched her glass was River, but she seemed lively and excitable enough without it. She was chattering about something to Kaylee, who was listening with a grin.

"I can't drink right now, sir," Zoë reminded the captain coolly. Her belly was just starting to get round enough for people to notice.

"You can celebrate without getting' tipsy," he reminded her.

She shrugged. "Not really in a celebrating mood."

His expression grew more serious. "You alright?"

"Fine, sir. Just uneasy."

He gave her a measuring glance. "Not sure I see anything worth getting twitchy over. We managed to get through a job without any surprises, and we got better pay than we've had in weeks. Seems to me we're in the clear for once."

Zoë gave him an even glance. "I know. And that's usually exactly when things take a turn for the worst."

No sooner had she spoken then an alarm started blaring. Everyone froze, turning to stare up towards the bridge. Mal let out a sigh, glancing back at Zoë. "You know, I hate it when you're right." She said nothing, simply got to her feet and started off towards the bridge.

THE OUTER RIM, 59,300 AD

"Did you see the look on his face?"

The Doctor's sides hurt from how much he'd been laughing. "Yes! Oh man, I didn't think humans could turn that shade of purple."

She shook her head, barely able to get the words out between laughter. "He was just standing there, with that sock in his hand, with the little penguins on it." They both dissolved into giggles again, too caught in their laughter to go on.

Rose and the Doctor were relaxing in the console room, sitting back in a couple of the chairs set up there. They were leaning back side by side, their feet propped up on the console in front of them.

The blonde human let out a contented sigh. She reclined back in her chair, eyes closed and expression soft and relaxed. "Much as I love running around the universe, it is nice to just sit around for a day."

The Doctor hummed in agreement. "We haven't had a lot of days like it lately," he added. "Lots of running about."

"Oh yeah, and who's fault is that?" He glanced at her in surprise. She was giving him that tounge-between-her-teeth grin that had him thinking more about her lips than he was generally comfortable with.

He tried and failed to look insulted. "Oi, what's that supposed to mean?"

Rose pretended to look thoughtful. "Let's see. Of the two of us, which one's more likely to get us into trouble?" The Doctor just gave her a pointed look until she grinned and admitted, "Yeah, alright, it's a pretty even race. But you're the one who keeps driving us places where we end up getting chased or captured or whatever."

"My driving's spot on, thank you very much," the Doctor protested, lightly nudging Rose's foot with his own. She giggled, her dark eyes lit up with amusement. "We just have rotten luck."

She rolled her eyes, but conceded, "Alright, if that's how you want it. Luck it is then." The blond woman leaned back against her chair as she added, "Let's hope our luck doesn't coming poking it's nose around today then."

Just as she finished speaking, the TARDIS jolted around briefly, causing Rose and the Doctor to lurch forward in their seats. After the ship settled again, red lights began flashing from the console, which was letting out a blaring alarm.

The Doctor groaned, he and Rose grudgingly rising from their seats to approach the console. "Just our luck," he grumbled.

THE OUTER RIM, 2159 AD

Everyone had piled into the bridge. River was seated in front of the controls, trying to get a fix on what the problem was, while Kaylee was under the control panel, checking the machinery itself. "Nothin' wrong down here," she reported, coming back up and looking at all of them. "She's running smooth from what I can see."

Mal let out a slow breath. "Good. Least the ship ain't broke." Now that he knew his ship wasn't in any imminent danger of falling apart in the middle of nowhere, he felt a mite calmer. He then turned his attention to River, coming to stand behind her seat and look at the controls from over her shoulder. "What about you, little Albatross? Any reasons why that alarm's going?"

River's brow was furrowed. She wasn't looking at the controls, but out into space, her expression unreadable. Seemed like she was in one of her less lucid states. "Something out there," she murmured.

The captain stiffened. "Something. Like danger something?" The last thing they needed was to run into trouble this far out from any planet.

She shook her head. "Not in itself. It's a nothing. Nothing torn apart, the very fabric cut in two, a mouth gaping, spewing nothing."

Mal glanced back at his crew, looking for an explanation, and found none. "So, you're saying there's nothing out there?" he repeated with confusion.

River glared back at him, her instantly recognizable Captain-you're-a-gorram-idiot expression. "No," she said very clearly. "Something in the nothing."

THE OUTER RIM, 59,300 AD

"See, there." The Doctor pointed out a signal they were picking up on the monitor. "It's a rift."

Rose looked at him in surprise. "What, like the rift in Cardiff, the one Blon tried to use to destroy the city?"

"Exactly like it. A rift in Time and Space." He rubbed the back of his neck, his brain going over this new information. "And, unfortunately, we're flying right towards it."

THE OUTER RIM, 2519 AD

"A tear," River tried again to explain. The words didn't always come easily. There were so many thoughts, strands of a web floating here and there in her mind, so hard to connect. She knew what she meant, but finding the words, stranding them together, that was the challenge. Some days were easier than others.

As usual, Mal looked at her like he was trying to solve a particularly complex puzzle. "A tear... in the nothing?" he tried again weakly.

"A tear in space?" That one had come from Zoë. River gave her as grateful a look as she could, then nodded to Mal.

He still looked very confused, which wasn't an unusual expression for him. Their dear captain could be drearily slow sometimes. "A tear in space. Right."

From further back in the bridge, Jayne spoke up. "How the hell d'you tear space?" There was a definite slur to his words, River noted with distaste. Of the crew, he'd probably drunk the most that night.

To his credit, Mal glared back at Jayne until he took the hint and shut up. After a moment, he turned back to River. "Alright, tear in space, whatever - what does this mean for us?"

River sighed, looking back out into space. She could feel it out there, Time and Space and Nothing pulling at them with dark tendrils. "We're heading right for it."

THE OUTER RIM, 59,300 AD

His companion looked at him in alarm. "I thought we were just floating in space for the day." Normally, he'd have sent them into the Time Vortex on a day like this, but they'd been planning some star-watching later. "Why are we moving?"

The Doctor was staring at the monitor with a furrowed brow. "We're not. We're being pulled in." He looked back at Rose. "That rift, it's almost like a black hole. It's sucking in and spewing out massive amounts of energy and matter all the time, a back-and-forth flow." The Time Lord was very animated as he tried to explain himself. "Looks like right now, the Rift is trying to pull us in."

He whirled away without warning, heading to the other side of the console. As Rose watched, he started turning dials and throwing levels. She recognized it as the start of the TARDIS flight sequence. But it didn't seem to have any effect. The Time Lord grabbed one of the mallets he kept on standby and gave the console an irritated whack, with no results.

The Time Lord turned to look at her with a vaugely panicked expression. "I can't stop it," he breathed. "I can't control the TARIDS right now. We can't turn around, I can't stop it."

THE OUTER RIM, 2519 AD

Mal wasn't the strongest fighter on board Serenity. Zoë and probably Jayne could hand him his ass in a straight fight. But there was a reason he was the captain instead of them. Instead of panicking, he cooly filed away what River was telling him and tried to focus on the most important issues at hand. What this tear in space actually was didn't matter right now. The only immediate concern was the safety of his ship and his crew.

He leaned over River's chair, asking his pilot in a low, serious tone, "Can we turn ourselves around?"

She shook her head, looking back at him with that creepy stare of hers that managed to be vauge and piercing at the same time. "Being pulled," she explained.

That didn't sound good. "Alright. We get pulled in there, what's gonna happen to us?"

River just gave a small shrug. That didn't bode especially well; if the resident psychic didn't know what the weird space-tear was going to do, he didn't want to take his chances with it. "Well, see what you can do about steering. Don't wanna have to fly at this thing if we don't have to. Kaylee, you help her out."

As his pilot and mechanic got to work, he turned to the rest of his crew. "Everyone else, go strap yourselves down. We don't know what kind of ride we're in for, and we don't need anyone gettin' hurt."

The rest of the crew hurried off to do as Mal had ordered. Only Inara lingered. "Mal, what do you think is out there?" she asked in a low voice. There was fear in her dark eyes, but she was incredibly composed. Mal knew she had no more desire to panic the rest of the crew than he did.

"Not much in the way of a clue," he admitted. "If our geniuses over there can't turn us around, guess we're like to find out." He resisted the urge to reach out and sweep some of the dark hair out of her face. "Go on and help the others. I want everyone strapped in by the time we hit this thing."

Inara gave him a hard look. "That means you too," she told him firmly. "You won't be much help to anyone if you're a smear on the wall."

He met her glare with one of his own, their wills battling for a few moments before he look away. "Fine. Just go."

Her gaze lingered on him a few moments longer. Then, she turned and headed out of the bridge. Once she was gone, Mal made his way back over to the two girls hard at work on the controls. He had to hope they could get them out of this.

THE OUTER RIM, 59,300 AD

Over the last few minutes, the Doctor had tried everything to get the TARDIS moving. He'd tried sending it elsewhere in Time and Space, he'd tried moving it to the side, even just stopping it, but to no avail. It was like the rift had totally overriden any control he had over the ship. Given how powerful the TARDIS was, that was more than a little concering.

Rose had tried to help him, but seemed to realize before he did that it was a pointless endeavor. She'd opened the door of the TARDS, and was sitting with her legs dangling out in the nothingness of space, just staring out into the vast array of stars and galaxies. "I can't see the rift," she commented quietly.

Recognizing defeat, the Doctor came to sit beside her. They were moving forward through space, towards the invisible rift. "Neither can I," he told her. "But I can feel it out there. We're not far now."

She turned to look at him, her blond hair sweeping over her shoulder. There wasn't fear in her dark eyes, just a sort of tension. "How long?" she asked.

He let out a slow breath. "A minute, less."

"And then?"

The Doctor shrugged helplessly. "No idea. We'll probably be spit out somewhere else in space."

Rose raised an eyebrow, repeating dubiously, "Probably?"

He didn't have a good answer for her.

THE OUTER RIM, 2519 AD

The rest of the crew had managed to strap themselves down securely. Jayne had helped them all strap in before securing himself, a rare act of gentlemanship from him. They were as safe as they could be now.

Simon didn't entirely understand what was going on. River had said something about a tear in space, but he wasn't sure whether that meant a black hole, or something else. Either way, he knew he was afraid. It sounded like they were headed towards this tear, whatever it was, and there was no way to stop the ship.

The tense silence from the rest of the crew was starting to get to him, so he forced himself to voice his fears. "What do you think it is? This tear?"

Jayne snorted. "Prob'ly just your sister being all poetical again. Has to be. No offense, doc, but she still ain't exactly all there." He was trying to act like he wasn't bothered, but he'd spoken too quickly, too defensively. Simon could tell he was scared, just like the rest of them. He graciously let the insult to his sister slide; his other concerns were more pressing at the moment.

Zoë looked over at him. "No way to tell yet," she said evenly. "But whatever's out there, we'll face it together."

"Right. Together." Simon forced himself to take a deep breath. As usual, Zoë was right. Whatever danger this tear posed, they would face it together, the crew united to beat the danger, as always.

THE OUTER RIM, 59,300 AD

Rose could tell the Doctor was afraid. He didn't show it openly, but there were little signs, the tense set to his jaw, the way he kept sneaking glances at her. Not being able to control the TARDIS had to terrify him, plus the threat of the unknown that the rift posed.

She was afraid too, but oddly, she wasn't as terrified as she could tell the Doctor was. Whatever new danger this rift posed, they would face it side by side, like they always did.

Her hand reached out, closing around his. The Doctor looked up at her in surprise. "We'll be okay, Doctor," she told him as soothingly as she could. His hand tigthened around hers, a palpable show of fear. "We're together, right? Can't be anything too scary that rift can do to us."

His expression softened, and his grip on her hand loosened. He gave her a grateful smile, the soft, warm kind of smile that always made her head feel sort of light. "You're right," he said, giving her hand a squeeze. "'Course you are."

THE OUTER RIM, 2519 AD

Kaylee tried not to feel terrified as she stared out into the black. She and River had tried everything they could think of to get Serenity pointed away from the tear, but nothing had worked. And now, according to River's vague ramblings, they only had seconds left.

Once he'd realized there was nothing they could do to stop Serenity moving forward, Mal had strapped them both into the pilots' seats. He was currently holding onto one of the pull-down straps from the ceiling. All of them waited in silence for the tear to pull them in.

She couldn't see the tear, but she could feel a sort of tingly energy in the air, some sort of pressure on her skin. As she tried to keep from whimpering in fear, she heard River call out, "Kaylee?"

Kaylee looked over at her friend, trying to fight back the fearful tears. "Yeah?"

River somehow looked entirely calm. She gave Kaylee a soft, reassuring smile. "You'll be fine," she girl told her in a calm tone.

Kaylee laughed, trying to ignore the terror in her chest. "You're lying," she accused lightly. "You don't know what's gonna happen to us."

Her friend's smile faded. "Yes," she admitted.

THE OUTER RIM, 59,300 AD

The Doctor could feel it the instant they hit the rift. Light flooded everything around him, drowning out the stars, the TARDIS, Rose. He could feel her hand slipping from his.

"Rose!" The Doctor reached out desperately, clawing at the air to try and find her again. But there was nothing there. He felt everything around him melt away, felt himself falling.

Then he felt nothing.

THE OUTER RIM, 2519 AD

Mal heard River whisper, "It's time."

There was a bright, blinding light everywhere. He couldn't see River or Kaylee, or Serenity. The strap he was holding onto seemed to fade to nothing, then there was no floor under his feet. He was falling into nothing, with that light still blinding him.

There was a sort of jolting feeling, then nothing at all.


I tried uploading this yesterday, but as you probably all noticed, the site's been down all day. But it appears to be back up and fully functioning now, so here's hoping this works. This fic has been on Tumblr and Ao3, though.

So yeah, here's that new crossover I was talking about in my other stories. I'm sorry that it's not my Moffat rewrite yet, but I'm still trying to plan that one out. I have this in the meantime. I dunno how long it'll be or how often it'll be updated, but we'll see.

I wanted to do a Firefly and Doctor Who crossover, but I wanted it to be a little different from the other ones I'd seen out there. I hope I changed things up enough to keep it interesting. Funny thing that I'm once again writing a crossover between Doctor Who and a show with Nathan Fillion. ^^

Also, I'm glad I forced myself to write so much Hoopstrade in my last story. It helped prepare me for Rose and the Doctor. Seriously, it should be illegal for two people to be so cute.

Well, I hope you all like this, and continue to read. I'll also be updating my Warriors fanfic Echoes of the War: Faded Boundaries. And, eventually, I'll get my Moffat rewrite up and running. I'll probably be working a lot of my original project though, as I've said, so expect updates to be a little slow. I'll try to keep them as frequent as possible.