She could here them coming. Reavers, everywhere she looked. They were in front of them, to the back of them, just everywhere. Zoë wasn't naïve enough to believe she was making it out alive. A suicide mission was a suicide mission and she had already survived more than her share. Who knew, maybe luck was still on her side but, she wasn't counting on it. Her only hope was that her courage held through and she went down fighting. More secretly than that was the hope that the rest of the crew especially her husband Wash survived.

Zoë Washburne never fought a battle that she didn't believe in. This was no exception. Everything in her life had been a struggle but, it only served to make her appreciate what she had that much more. It was the way she had developed her identity, given herself a name. Before the war, she had been the bastard daughter of a well known member of Alliance and the mercenary aboard a Dragonfly class ship that was well known in the 'Verse as a smuggling ship. She never had a last name, her mother; who's only identity was a first name, Alley. Zoë saw her mother gunned down when she was only 14 and stayed aboard the ship for a few more years taking over her mother's job.

When the war started Zoë thought she'd found her way of getting back at the Alliance for taking her mother from her. She volunteered using the name Zoë Alleyne. She was a Corporal before she knew what had happened. It was only Zoe and her Sergeant, Malcolm Reynolds where the only known members of the 57th Overlanders after the Battle of Serenity Valley, the namesake of the ship she now traveled with. It was that beaten up firefly class ship that got her live back together after the war was over. With her mother dead and no revenge to be had on a mystery she didn't know how she would hold her own.

The day she met her future husband, with his caterpillar mustache and loud, obnoxious Hawaiian print shirts there was something a might unnerving about him. All she knew to do was insult him but, he always managed to give her a run for her money when she engaged him in a batter of wits, while keeping the ship flying. There was something about this man; she soon discovered it was. He was unpredictable, naïve, and warm. Three things she didn't see often.

The insults kept flying but suddenly the both realized the sexual tension between them. It sounded clique but she melted when he touched her. She had known a mans touch before him but, not like this. He was the first guy she had ever met that was able to love her for everything she was. Fear was something she had learned to live with. Love was another thing entirely.

The whole romance was incredible. He just had this overwhelming desire to understand her. Even if his calculations we often completely off the mark, he was the first person to ever try. When he had given up a night of sex to persuade her into telling him her life story it was then she knew that he was 'the one.' Zoë had never seen herself the marrying type but after just over a year of listening to him nag she figured if he was going to act like one, she'd just make him her husband. The ceremony was anything but traditional and that worked just fine for the couple.

Things past meant nothing now while staring down uncertain death. It didn't mean a gorram thing what her past was; all she knew was that her future looked pretty grim. She wished now she had spent more time listening to the Shepherd's lectures when he was onboard. Maybe then she'd have a little faith but, looking at it now, it did him little good, dead is dead.

"I am a leaf on the wind-" She heard Wash say, as the ship came to a grinding halt. He was interrupted by a spear through the chest. Zoë stopped, she had to have seen wrong. "Baby, No!" She ran to him but it was too late. He was dead. If Zoë Washburne had remember how to cry, now would have been the moment. Pushing emotion away in the only way she knew possible, she thought logically. It was probably for the best, at least now he wouldn't have to watch her die. It would have been too much for him. Time was running out, she couldn't stay her all night. She picked up her gun and looked to Mal, who had already wiped the shock off his face.

"Zo? You going to be okay?" he knew was the stupidest question he could have come up with, but he couldn't think of anything else.

"Time to do the job Serg." She held her head up, her sign of strength. She still had a fight left in her, even if the only title she had left was "widow."

"I don't want you going in there for some forced sense of revenge, we haven-"
"I know Mal, lets go."

When they met in Mr. Universe's lobby it was Kaylee who was the first to notice Wash's abstinence. When she asked, Mal took it upon himself to answer.
"He won't be joining us." As innocent as she was, Kaylee knew what that meant.

To get into the details of the battle would be a nearly impossible. It wasn't until Simon Tam was nearly shot down that his sister River; the reader, killed each and every Reaver single handedly. How she did it was a mystery since the rest of the crew, minus the captain had been locked behind a security door. Zoë didn't ask questions and to be honest, didn't full well care. All she knew was that she was cheated a death she was more than ready for. The only way back to her love was a cowards and death and if nothing else Zoë Washburne was not a coward.