Title: The Weapon and What Shoulda Been
Author: drula/karmawiccan
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Ensemble. Hints at River/Mal
Warnings: Character Death
Distribution: Want. Take. Have. Credit. Tell me where it's going.
Feedback: Please, please, please tell me what you think.
Disclaimer: Joss is my master.
Summary: What if Simon had never come for River?
Times had been real good for a while now. Alliance had been off their trail, and surprisingly Badger of all people had found them a legal job. All they had to do was transport a rich brat, an ex-doctor that got a little too into the drugs he was supposed to be prescribing, from rehab to back to his central planet. So when they were hailed by an Alliance cruiser, Mal was all kinds of surprised to say the very least.
"What's the plan, Mal?" Wash asked immediately as Mal appeared in the cockpit. His eyes wandered to the vid screen, waiting for it to come to life. It was no where near the first time they'd been hailed by the Alliance, and they all tended to follow the same protocol. Hail. Vid. Board.
Mal stared incredulously at his pilot. "Go fast. Very very fast!" He instructed, his eyes, too, roving to the vid screen waiting for the normal 'It is in your best interest to let us board' message.
"They wave in, yet?" Zoe asked conversationally as she entered the cockpit and immediately noticed that both her boys were watching the vid screen.
Before Wash or Mal could respond, the vid screen came to life revealing a beautiful girl with long brown hair and haunting brown eyes. If Mal had to guess, he'd say that she couldn't be any older than eighteen. "Captain Malcolm Reynolds, known as Mal, which means bad in the Latin, you have ignored my hail." Her voice was precise, systematic and completely devoid of emotion.
"Well, if'n I had known it was a girl as pretty as you, I conjure I wouldn't have." He said with a devilish smile, trying his hardest to charm his way out of this one.
She didn't even grace him with a roll of her eyes. "Captain Reynolds, I will request again. Permission to board." Her eyes were cold and calculating and Mal couldn't help but feel like she could read right into his mind.
Instinctively, he found himself avoiding her intense gaze. "Permission denied. Have a nice day, Miss-" He trailed off, waiting for her to insert her name so he could at least know who the hell was chasing them.
"I do not have a name, Captain Reynolds. No ties. No connections. No remorse." She stared at Mal pointedly, but Mal couldn't help but notice that her gaze had softened slightly. "The girl-man will be the first to go down. I didn't want to hurt you or your crew, Captain Reynolds. All I wanted was your passenger."
As the connection broke Mal, Wash and Zoe stared at the screen, no one knowing what to say. It wasn't until an alarm sounded that they snapped out of their daze. "What is that? Is that an alarm? Why is an alarm going off?!" Mal shouted worriedly as Wash's hands flew over the various screens and controls.
"I don't know! I don't know!" Wash snapped right back before suddenly frowning down at one of his screens. "That door was opened. That door isn't supposed to open." Wash looked up at Mal. "Either we're all having a mass hallucination or she's on board."
Mal's eyes instantly widened as something she said clicked in his head. "Girl-Man… JAYNE!" He bellowed, running out onto the bridge and then freezing at the sight in the bay below him. Jayne had Vera in his hands and was fighting with—no—dancing with the girl, and a dance it was. She moved with a fluidity that a normal human couldn't possess. She didn't even look human in that blue body suit she was wearing. She looked like a human weapon and Mal had no doubt that was exactly what she was.
Jayne awkwardly ducked as she gracefully kicked out at him. Then suddenly before Jayne or Mal could see what happened, the girl easily grabbed Vera out of Jayne's hands and knocked him over the head with it, waiting for Jayne to hit the ground before moving.
"Sir?" Zoe whispered as she approached the captain, awaiting an order.
The girl stood in the bay, watching them. Before Mal could even think, she pulled out another gun and shot Zoe in the neck before his second-in-command could even react.
"It's only a tranquilizer, Captain Reynolds. She will be fine. This isn't a war. I'm only after your passenger." She said, staring up at him, the tranquilizer gun trained on Mal. "I'm not after you. Only him. Take me to him."
But Mal didn't have to. At that moment, Kaylee, Book and the boy—Simon, walked out into the bay to see what was going on. Mal watched in horror as she systematically shot Kaylee and Book with the tranquilizer gun before he could even attempt to warn them to run away. The girl didn't react at all and merely trained Vera on Simon.
"River?" Simon breathed, slowly approaching the girl—no—the weapon. "Mei-mei, what are you doing out of school?" He looked at her and frowned in confusion. "What did they do to you at that school of yours? Is this what those damn letters were about?"
She merely blinked at him before pulling the trigger and watching her brother's body hit the floor.
This time Mal was prepared for her, and had his gun trained on her before Simon's body hit the ground. He stared down the barrels of her guns as he slowly moved down the stairs, never taking his eyes off her.
"What's going on? I heard shooting. Is everyone okay?" Wash's voice echoed through the ship.
Mal continued to stare River down. "Everything's shiny. Just keep flying and stay right where you are." He hollered at the pilot before turning his attentions back to the girl he was currently standing in front of. "Correct me if'n I'm wrong, but this was your own issue. The Alliance didn't have a thing on him other than his drug problem. You're just a spoiled little sister. What? He forget your birthday?"
River glowered and lowered her guns. "No. He forgot about me." She tilted her head to the side. "It wasn't supposed to be this way. We were supposed to be a family. You were supposed to save me, but the script was altered at the last minute, and now no power in the 'verse can stop me. Not even you, Malcolm."
He continued to stare at her, refusing to be lured into a false sense of security. "Why you telling me all this, darlin'?" He asked in confusion before noting Inara sneaking onto the bridge, one of his guns in her hands. He wanted to shout out to warn someone, but who—the girl or Inara?
"Because you need to understand." River stated as she flung her arm out behind her and shot Inara with the tranquilizer gun, not even bothering to look behind her. "Life was supposed to be different—for all of us." She said before setting Vera gently down on the ground, and started back to how she'd gotten onto the ship.
Mal watched her in surprise. "River!" He called out, surprising himself, and finding it harder to breathe as she stopped and slowly spun around to face him. "How'd you know I wouldn't shoot you?" He asked in wonder.
River merely smiled at him. "Because I was supposed to be yours. Your little albatross. You found me naked in a box. But the script was rewritten and you didn't. Still tried to protect me though. Could have killed me three different times, but you didn't." With that, she turned on her heel and just as she disappeared from Mal's view called out, "Four times."
He was still staring after her a good ten minutes later, silently musing what she had said when Jayne woke up.
Jayne's eyes wandered to Simon's corpse. "Think Badger'll still pay us?"
-Fin-