KrossoverXKing presents
Protecting River
a Naruto and Serenity/Firefly crossover
BTW: I don't own either
Chapter 1: The tag-along
-X-
He couldn't remember much.
Not from before.
Not from before he was in here.
In this room.
In this building.
On this planet.
Trapped.
Imprisoned...
He used to be great. He used to be someone. Mean something to some people. But that was before. And he couldn't remember much from before.
He remembered "9". Why? He did not know. It was simply a number that held some importance to his fragile and fractured mind before it was such.
Now?
Now...
Now he protects river. But why would they do...this to someone who used to be great. Take away his abilities. Sent to protect a meandering body of water. But wait...
No...the 'r' is capitalized. He protects River. A proper noun. A name. A human. A girl...
He had seen her before. All lanky hair and pale skin and needle marks.
And she had seen inside of him. Death followed him everywhere. He was drowning in seas of blood.
And he had felt her pain. Her powers growing faster than her body could cope. Faster than they could control. Memories and secrets not her own shoved inside her mind.
And she had experienced his pain. The worst of humanity performed on and by him in equal measure.
He felt pity for her. But there was nothing that he could do to help her with his energy being kept in flux by the liquid in the needles. They tell him to protect River, but force him to cause her pain?
How...paradoxical of them.
He wanted to help her but he could barely move. When he got out of here, this...Alliance would pay. He would get River far away from this. From them. From everything.
If they wished for him to protect her, then he would do so. If they didn't like the consequences, then that was their problem, really.
The door to his jail cell/hospital room slid open after the many thunks of heavy steel bars subsided with nothing but a hiss of pneumatic air that lasted less than a second.
"Naruto..."
That was River's voice. How he knew, he did not know. He had only ever heard her scream when they were in close proximity to each other. But what was Na-
Wait... That was his name from before. But how did River come across such information? And how did he hear her voice when her mouth did not move?
She was speaking to him in his mind, she told him. But right now that was unimportant. Her brother had come to rescue her but she had made him take a detour.
To save him...
She wouldn't leave the facility without him. She had told her brother as much. So her brother, Simon, however reluctantly, had followed her to his room.
Simon was closer now, as was River, though she wasn't screaming. He tried to yank away, but the binds the young man was loosening were still tight enough to hold him in place. He had to get further away from River or risk causing her pain. He was supposed to protect her! How could he do that if them being in close proximity caused her pain. As much as it pained him to do so, he had to stay away from River.
When finally he was free, Simon was flung across the room as Naruto back-flipped, his foot catching Simon below the chin. And just like that, he was across from them.
From River.
His cerulean eyes locked with her hazel ones.
"Simon is safe," she implored. "He's here to free us... Come with me, Naruto."
Naruto shook his head, allowed her access to his thoughts, but trying as hard as possible to keep his memories away from her mental probe lest he cause her more pain. And, as gently as a feather, she was discerning his motives, reading why he had done what he did.
Once she had done so, River smiled, a Cheshire grin flitting across her face. With the grace and silence of a feline, she crossed the room and grabbed his forearm, easily lifting him to his feet. She then did something completely unexpected.
She hugged him.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her head into his chest, threading her fingers through his spiky blonde hair. Then, she looked up at him, their eyes staring into each other once more. This time, when she spoke, her mouth did move.
"Come with me, Naruto... Do not leave me. You do not cause me pain anymore."
Naruto could only nod.
-X-
"It is you..." The Operative whispered, though any emotional inflection that would have accompanied those words was long gone due to his training by the Alliance after his mentor, the just-found Operative 9, left to parts previously unknown. He had been sent here to investigate River Tam's disappearance, but had found something much, much more interesting.
When he had been but 16, 9 had been, well, nine. The young Operative was considered a prodigy, and his superiors said it should be considered an honor for the blonde to have handpicked him two years before he had even finished formal training.
But he had felt insulted. To him, it seemed like some little Officer's Brat had become obsessed with the prodigy. He had in his mind that when he saw this kid, he was going to punch him. One good time. Right in the face. Just to show everybody that he was the best, and no little kid could teach him anything.
When he had entered the training room, the blonde had been sitting in the lotus position with his eyes closed. The older boy had no tell, no wasted movements, no sound except that of his fist sailing through the air drowned out by the commotion of the other sparring teams around them.
But next thing he knew was pain. After a blinding light made him incapable of sight, he hurt all over, then lay on his back, gasping for air while the blonde seemed to not have even moved. Even after viewing the video archives through every known spectrum, he wasn't entirely positive on what really happened.
"Just because you are older, does not mean you are wiser. It is defeat, not victory, which holds this lesson."
And that was the first of many lessons needed to be taught by defeat, most caused by his own pride. Operative 9 was patient, attentive, powerful beyond words, yet the most humble person he had ever met. 9 was the only person he respected. The Alliance simply held his loyalty, but the archives on the experiments performed on 9 were straining even that.
He did not know River Tam. He did however know 9, or Naruto as River called him. He would be making a formal inquiry as to why Operative 9 was strapped to a table and experimented on, though he doubted they would tell him.
"Excuse me!" Came the pompous voice of the head of the Alliance Experimental Research Division. "No one is allowed in the records room without my express permission!"
"Forgive me," the Operative said, sounding anything but contrite,"but I prefer to see the event alone, without..." He spared a glance at the chubby man before allowing a slight bit of disdain to drip into his voice. "Bias."
"I need to see your clearance," he said incredulously, probably surprised the Operative had made it this far, especially with the heightened security.
"As is your right to insist. Given the situation, it is a good thing you did." He turned, placing his fingertips on the same panel he used to allow him access to the video feeds in the first place.
As was the norm, a woman's voice gave his credentials. "Operative 66. Parliamentary Override. Full Access."
"Apologies,"said the man, though it visibly pained him to do so. He stared two inches over 66's left shoulder as he spoke, too embarrassed to look his subordinates in the eye as well. "An Operative of Parliament will, of course, have our full cooperation." He walked over to double-check, just in case, before he fully committed to this. "I don't... I see no listing of rank or name."
"Then maybe we should hire another Head for this facility since you obviously cannot read English. Operative is my rank. 66 is the name the Alliance had given me once I became an Operative. I have come here to this facility to investigate the Tams and how they escaped. However, you failed to mention Operative 9 was here, and that he had also escaped."
The man paled, obviously surprised 66 had recognized him. "W-Who?"
"Do not be coy," 66 said, a hint of impatience leaking into his voice. "I was his apprentice for four years, and he taught me everything I know. Do not for one minute believe seven years and resolution that isn't high definition would make me fail to recognize him."
He had gotten in the man's face as he spoke, nearly a head taller than him. He did not raise his voice, but rather he talked down to him. As perspiration dotted his forehead, 66 walked away. He took three steps, turned, and continued pinning the Doctor with his unwavering gaze.
"River was your greatest success. A prodigy. A phenomenon... But she was only one girl. She did not have eyes in the back of her head, and she could only react as fast as her body allowed... So you took 9. You conditioned him as well, did you not? To protect River from the shadows, even if it cost him his life?"
Now sweating profusely, the man opened his mouth to protest, but 66 cut him off smoothly. "Do not lie to me, Doctor. I have read the reports. But tell me this: How did Simon Tam walk in here, take both of them, and then walk out with both of your...star pupils?"
"I-It's not that simple," the man stuttered.
"I am...well aware of that."
"There was no way that I could-"
"No," he said, trying to placate the flustered man. "No, how could you have. Simon Tam spent his entire fortune developing the contacts to infiltrate a place that is far enough above the law to kidnap someone as decorated as Operative 9 without repercussion."
"Why does it come back to 9?" the man nearly yelled. "We need to focus on Mr. Tam, who gave up a brilliant future in medicine for her. It's madness, I tell you!"
66 blinked. "Madness?" He waved a hand at the feed showing River and Naruto hugging. "Have you looked at these scans carefully, Doctor? At their eyes?"
He spared a glance at the man, who was staring dumbfounded at the image.
"You, sir, have brought these two together. They are in love, in point of fact." He fast-forwarded to where they escaped from Shaft 7, just as Simon looks down at River. "That is also love, albeit one between siblings. The emotion of love is something a good deal more dangerous than simple madness. Love cannot be cured. It cannot be reasoned with. It defies all logic, and those in love will do whatever it takes."
"Why are you here?" the Doctor asked curiously after a tense moment of silence.
66 began pacing. "Because, like you said, the situation is even less simple than you think." He turned to the scared man. "Do you know what your sin is, Doctor?"
The Doctor seemed incredulous once again, and decided to revert back to being pompous. "I wonder how Par-"
"It is pride, much like myself oh so long ago." He reversed almost back to the beginning, back to when the Doctor had been talking to Simon in River's room, and played.
"Key members of Parliament have personally observed this subject. I was told the Alliance's support-"
66 went back to 9 and River hugging, simply because his mentor was happy, no matter how fractured his mind was after what they did to him.
He turned to the Doctor. "'Key members of Parliament'... Key..." The Doctor still seemed lost, so 66 elaborated. "The minds behind every military, diplomatic, and covert operation in the galaxy... And you, sir, put them... In a room. With a psychic..."
Finally the Doctor realized the gravity of the situation, and tried to save face. "I-I-If there was some...classified information that she... Sh-She never spoke of it. She never told me them. I have no idea what they could be."
"Nor do I," 66 dead-panned. "And judging by her deteriorating mental state, I would say it is probably for the best." He shook his head ruefully. "Secrets are not my concern, Doctor. Keeping them, however...is… And you have failed to do so."
Still, the Doctor tried to stall, or perhaps even stop the inevitable. 66 allowed him his futile efforts.
"You should not toy with or pity the weak, Darius, nor should you taunt or torture them. They are human beings just like you and I. Treat them like you would treat any other. Even better, treat them like a superior Officer."
Yet another lesson from 9. One of those he had immediately disregarded as asinine. Why would he remember it now?
"What-Whatever secrets she might have accidentally gleaned... It's probable she doesn't even know she knows them. They're more than likely buried beneath layers of psychosis."
'And you, 9? Are your lessons buried so far that you do not remember them? Do you also not remember our bond? Father and son, despite you being older than I?'
66 realized he hated this man. For what he did to 9, he would pay. He had had misgivings about killing Alliance members when coming here, but this man, and all those who chose this as 9's lot in life, would die by his sword.
"You know," 66 began, "in certain older civilized cultures, when men failed as entirely as you have, they would throw themselves on their swords, such was their shame."
"Well, unfortunately, I forgot to bring a sword," the Doctor said sarcastically. 66, however, had been prepared for this comeback, and unsheathed his own sword with a shing of metal on metal.
Raikiri, like the rest of the few weapons he had, was gifted to him by 9. The carbon-steel bladed katana with diamond-edge finish was his most prized possession, and the man who had so irrevocably damaged his mentor was now going to die by it.
"Lucky for you, I never do."
It was...poetic.
"I would put that down right now, if I were you," the Doctor warned, his government-issued grunts surrounding 66 threateningly.
66 held out his katana hilt-first, the blade resting along his forearm. "Would you rather be killed in your sleep, like an ailing pet?"
The first grunt charged, and 66 simply reacted. He grabbed the handle with his other hand, arcing it wide to cut the man's neck, severing both arteries with a single swing. Then he changed tactics, stabbing the second bodyguard in the heart, where he had tried to fire. But the man had already grabbed the gun, and the plasma discharge caught him in the arm.
66 removed his sword, and the man slumped to the floor, dead.
The Doctor had tried to run but tripped on the blood sprayed by the first guard, allowing 66 to catch up with him much sooner than he normally would have. He jabbed into a nerve cluster under the man's ribs, paralyzing him. He calmly walked past the frozen-in-place man and politely called out to the secretary, who had been trying to sneak away.
"Young miss," he said, bending to one knee so he could angle his blade upwards towards the teetering Doctor. "I will need all the logs on behavioral modification triggers, especially those used on River Tam and the one you call Naruto Uzumaki. We will have to reach out to them and help them come back to us. No matter how far Simon Tam has-"
Shink!
Finally the Doctor fell, his heart pierced through by his own momentum. He gasped for air, but it was of no use. 66 turned to him.
"I would say this is not personal, that it is only business. I would say it is a good death." The Doctor's eyes widened. "But you made this personal, so I murdered you in cold blood."As the Doctor sunk lower on the sword, his secretary began hyperventilating. "I am properly contrite, but you should be ashamed of what you have done... He was a good man. He did great things for these worlds... But you turned him into a puppet." Anger caused that word to drip venom in every letter. Finally, the Doctor rested on the hand guard, but still he stared at 66. "No matter what you did, for whatever reason, he will always be better than you. You are a traitor to humanity for doing this to him.
"He wanted to make a better world. All of them... better worlds..."
He pushed the Doctor's body on its back, yanking Raikiri out in the process. Wiping his sword free of any contaminants, 66 spoke to the secretary without once looking at her. "Young miss, I need you to make haste now. I have a feeling this will be a very long journey."
He walked back to the Records Room, careful not to step in the blood, and stood behind 9, staring into River's eyes.
"If I find you, little girl, I will find him... Of that I am sure."
-X-
Things were not looking good aboard the Firefly-class cargo ship Serenity. Once again, the gorramn ship was falling apart around the former Browncoat and current Captain, Malcolm Reynolds.
His pilot Wash was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. His weapons expert Jayne wanted to wear ten guns and a baker's dozen of grenades to bed. His XO Zoe was nagging on him about everything from Wash's plans for their anniversary to the amount of food in the galley. His engineer Kaylee was holding most things together with industrial strength duct-tape and sheer force of will. His doctor Simon was as easy to read as Earth-That-Was Latin and kept trying to give him orders. Him! The gorramn Captain!
And he wouldn't shut up!
"I have earned my passage-" they paused as a tremor rocked the ship, grabbing what they could to not fall, "treating bullet holes, knife wounds, laser burns..."
"Some of our jobs are more interesting than others," Mal acquiesced.
But Simon wasn't done. He was never done. "And you want to put my sister in the middle of that?"
"Didn't say 'want'. Said 'will'," Mal corrected. "And it's only one job, Doc. What's the worst that could happen?"
"She's a 17-year-old girl," Simon tried. "A mentally traumatized 17-"
"She's a reader," Mal finally said, cutting Simon off as he rolled his sleeve up. "She sees trouble before it happens, which is of use to me. Besides, she's got that... protector... Nathan, or whatever his name is."
"It's Naruto," Simon corrected, "and I don't trust him."
An ominous rending of metal on metal grated on their ears. Mal hissed as Simon plunged the needle in harder than necessary. "Doesn't matter, Doc. We may really crash this time, and Nicole will be out of your hair for good."
Simon sighed. "It's Naruto... and he used to be an Operative, from what little River's told me. Him being here... Do you know what I've been through to keep River away from the Alliance?"
Mal pushed down his sleeve, walking over to the lockers and making a show of putting on his brown coat, something Simon absently took notice of. "I do, actually, and we here have been courteous enough to keep that fact to us and ours. Yeah, he used to be Alliance, but guess where I was born?" He didn't give Simon a chance to guess. "River trusts him, and she can read his mind. What's your excuse? Is it his face? His home-world? Or is it River's faith in him?"
Simon gaped. "A-Are you insinuating-"
"I look out for me and mine," Mal said, feeling like they were finally making progress. He turned to Simon. "But I can't do their jobs for them all the time or watch them do it every time they do it. Wash flies the ship. Kaylee fixes the ship. I have to trust they can do their job without me hoarding over them every five gorramn seconds. River trusts Nolan. You have to trust her enough to do what she does best."
"It's-"
"Now you stuck a thorn in the Alliance's paw. That tickles me a bit. But it also means I gotta step twice as fast to avoid them, and that means turning down plenty of jobs. Even honest ones." They began walking again, into the cargo hold. "I put this crew together with the promise of work, which the Alliance makes harder every year. Come a day there won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all."He stopped in his tracks, and stared Simon right in the eyes. "If this job goes south, there very well may not be another... So here's to us, on the raggedy edge. Don't push me, and I won't push you."
-X-
Mal walked away speaking Mandarin, which Simon could barely understand, to the crew. It was a requirement on Serenity, since the Alliance spoke English. And the further you went from the Core Worlds, the more Mandarin was the official language. Eventually, Mandarin would be all they spoke, and Simon would either have to have learned it by then, or be hopelessly lost in translation.
He made his way to the overhead catwalk where Naruto sat in the lotus position, stroking River's hair as she lay her head in his lap, the blonde with his eyes closed but River staring off into the ether.
"River," Simon whispered, to no avail. Naruto opened one eye, and stared at Simon with an icy glare. However, the glare soon subsided, and he removed his hand from River's hair. The brunette slowly regained focus, and a smile spread across her face.
"I know," she said just as softly, happiness in her tone. "We're going for a ride..."
-X-
He watched the intricacies of final preparation as he whittled throwing knives with a bowie knife Weapons allowed him to borrow. Most interesting was River, who flitted between cargo crates with nary a sound unless responding to other crew-members, simply to increase her stealth to a level near his.
He knew not why she tried to emulate him, when she was already perfect. But as the Mule was loaded, Captain seemed to remember something.
"Gorramnit!" He cursed, startling Engineer who was making last-minute adjustments. "This piece of go-se can't hold five people, even if you got Skin 'n Bones," he hissed, waving at River and Naruto. Her hand slid into his, and a thought was passed between them.
"Show them... I trust them." The blonde nodded, holding out his right hand palm up, where there seemed to be an intricate tattoo of a sun. River smiled.
"We have an idea," she told the crew. They all turned to himself and River, just as the blonde burst into light.
When the light subsided, he was covered in golden flames, a black sun on his palm while a jagged black line went up his arm, black tribal markings covering his torso and down to his knees.
"Naruto can carry me, and we will get on close to town to avoid detection." She got on him piggy-back style, the flames caressing her, reaching over into the Mule to grab a pair of goggles and sliding them on. "We are ready."
Everyone gaped at the two, but it was Doctor who spoke first.
"No. Absolutely not. River, get down before he burns you. And you," he hissed, pointing at Naruto, "don't hold my sister like that. And stop acting like you can keep up with the Mule, even if it is weighed down."
He growled. If it weren't for River, Doctor would be dead. He readjusted River so he was grabbing the tops of her thighs, then took a step forward.
Then two things happened at once that startled the crew. The River on his back faded away, while the real one stood on the other side of the cargo bay. And Doctor crumpled to the deck, holding his bloody nose. Connecting them was a trail of golden light, which soon faded away.
"Naruto," River scolded, though there was a faint smile on her face. "No."
The blonde nodded, though he didn't seem chastised. Weapons was the first to catch his bearings, surprisingly.
"He had it comin', iff'n you ask me..."
-X-
Woop! Chapter 1 is done. Obviously, this is a retelling of the movie Serenity, though there may be the occasional Firefly episode thrown in. The plot will be mostly the same, and will focus on Naruto/9 and River's relationship, as well as Darius/66/the Operative searching for him. And since I have Netflix and own the movie, I can get my references straight from the source.
Ja Ne!