Disclaimer: I don't own Firefly or Final fantasy. They are the property of superior beings.

Ok this is a concept that came to me a few months ago and wouldn't leave me alone so I thought I would write the first chapter and see how it went down. Please let me know what you think and whether you want anymore!

Chapter 1 now completely rewritten.

Crashed

Arguments at meal times were getting to be something of a routine on the ship. It seemed that there was no decision Mal could make anymore without someone causing a fuss. He really ought to lay down the law sometime soon, and remind them all just who was Captain on this boat. He was prepared, however, for the fall out of his latest announcement was going to cause. This time though he told himself, the plan was going to go ahead regardless. He wasn't going to be shouted down again, not this time. He looked up as Wash joined them all at the dinner table.

"Course is set, Mal. We should be touching down at Persephone docks this time tomorrow."

"Good. Jayne, Zoe, make sure you're in your best menacing mood. This time maybe Badger won't try and cheat me outta our earnings."

"Remind me again why we gotta deal with that huen dahn still? Ain't he proved he's nothing but a ruttin' crook?" Jayne grumbled.

"Work's scarce Jayne. You wanna keep eatin' don't you?" Zoe warned the mercenary.

"Besides, this time we're gonna have an Ace in our hand."

"And what would that be Mal? Your winning charm?" remarked Inara. Mal greeted her comment with a sarcastic smile then turned his gaze on the youngest diner at the table who appeared to be deeply involved in watching the bubbles rise in her glass.

"We're taking River with us."

The doctor at the other end of the table almost sprayed his drink across the table.

"What…she's not going with you!" he exclaimed in shock. The shepherd also looked concerned.

"Captain, I'm not sure I understand the benefit of taking the child along," he remarked, brows contracting.

"There is none!" Jayne added looking at Mal in outraged disbelief.

"Mal, what the hell you on?! I ain't going into badgers den with crazy. Girl'll get us all killed!"

"Way I see it; it ain't none of your concern Jayne. Jobs go down the way I say they will. You wanna get paid, the girls part of the plan to make sure it happens, Dohn ma?"

"But Cap'n, what can River do exactly?" Kaylee asked timidly.

"Heard tell last time badger took a liking to her. Figure we can get her to sweeten the deal our way."

"And if badger realises who she is?" Simon asked anger evident in his voice.

"If he was goin' to he'd have sent the Feds after us already," Zoe spoke up. Privately she had reservations herself, but orders were orders, and it was her job to back up the captain.

"Mei mei tell the Captain you won't go," Simon said coaxingly to his, so far mute, sister.

"All the worlds a stage. Parts to play. Actors in the wings have to play their roles."

"Seems to me, Doc, your sister's happy to come along. So y'all better get used to it!" Mal smiled along the table dangerously.

"Captain," Book spoke up firmly, "the girl isn't a bargaining chip."

"Go hwong tong!" Mal exclaimed.

"I'm captain, this is my gorram ship and this is the way it's gonna be! So if you don't like it you can–"

Before Mal could finish his tirade the ship gave an almighty lurch and a claxon sounded as the ship began shaking uncontrollably. Anger forgotten, Mal raced to the bridge, closely followed by Zoe, Wash and Jayne.

"Wuo duh tian ah!" exclaimed Wash at the sight that confronted them.

"What in ruttin' hell is that?" was Mal's response as he stared out of the window into a deep black vortex dead ahead of them. The abnormality appeared to distort and absorb the light from the star around them. Wash urgently flicked at the switches and controls around him.

"Oh this is not good, this is defiantly not good."

"Wash? You gonna give me some information here?"

"It's a wormhole Mal. I don't know where it came from but it's giving off a huge amount of gravity. It's pulling us in."

"Well gorram get my ship away from it then!" exclaimed Mal.

"I can't!" the blonde replied, his wife's hands on his shoulders attempting to calm him so he could think.

"Even if I had Kaylee in the engine room giving me all she's got Serenity ain't got enough pull to get us free. Hell, an Alliance cruiser couldn't get free!"

"Dark, deep rabbit hole, twisting and twining. End of worlds and start of new. Time to be Alice and face the dark."

Rivers voice sounded with an ethereal tone from the doorway.

"Gorammit girl!" Jayne exclaimed rushing towards her and trying to usher her off the bridge.

"Jayne, get her out of here, get everyone strapped in! Seems this is a storm we're just gonna have to weather."

He turned back to his pilot who seemed to almost be at war with the controls as the darkness loomed and the ship began to scream under pressure, lurching with increasing violence.

"Wash, try and keep her steady. Zoe, get strapped in. You best brace yourselves and hope we get through this!" he ordered as the maelstrom they appeared to be in continued to increase in violence as the darkness engulfed them.

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Zoë's eyes were tightly closed as she felt herself tossed from side to side. Death was imminent she knew, no one went into a wormhole and survived. So when she suddenly felt the bone shaking lurching stop she imagined that that was it. The ship had breached and they were all dead. That was until she heard her husband speak weakly in front of her.

"I don't believe it. We're through. We made it through!"

Sure enough there in front of them was normal space and they appeared to be in orbit over a large planet. Mal was already on the com.

"You all okay back there?"

It was a few seconds before Jayne's reply crackled back to them

"Everyone's shiny Mal"

"Wash, where are we?" Zoe asked her husband as she suddenly noticed him flicking urgently at the Nav Sat controls. He turned to her, a plaintive look on his face.

"I…don't know. The nav's fried. But we really shouldn't be anywhere near a planet, the nearest one to where we were was at least a days travel away."

"Is that even possible?" asked Mal in shock.

"Well no. But by rights it's not possible to survive a wormhole either."

Mal had little time to digest this information however as Kaylee's voice suddenly crackled through the com system.

"Captain we have to land. Now!"

"What's wrong?"

"More like what ain't wrong! Life supports completely knocked out, and serenity ain't so much limpin' as crawlin' - she won't hold out much longer. If we don't get to ground were gonna be dead fish up here with no air!"

"Wash you heard her!" The pilot nodded and began to change course, pointing Serenity towards the world spinning below them.

"C'mon baby, just a little bit further," he cooed to the ship as the plastic dinosaurs began to rattle as the upper atmosphere shook them.

"Captain, do we even know if we can breathe down there?" Zoe asked doubtfully.

"No. But I do know we can't up here. Best hope the shepherds praying good and hard back there." He grinned at his first mate before turning his attention to the world coming up to meet them.

XXXOOOXXX

As they punched through the planet's atmosphere Serenity strained against the burning air around her and Wash had to fight with the controls just to keep her steady. Just as the ship was settling down, however, there was a huge bang and the ship began spinning uncontrollably.

"Kaylee! What's happening down there?" mal almost screamed into the com system.

"She couldn't hold together Cap'n. The port thruster's blown."

"Honey? Earths comin' up fast!" Zoe questioned her husband, fighting to keep her voice controlled.

"I've got hardly any power. I'll get us down, but it's not gonna be gentle."

Mal took one look at the panic in his pilot's face and shouted back down the Com.

"Kaylee get out of there. Nothin' more you can do. Strap in and hold on to something!"

As they rushed down towards the ground a mass of gold rose up to meet them before Serenity ploughed into a mass of sand with a groan and crash of bent and broken metal.

For a moment the only sound in the bridge was that of deep breathing as its occupants realised they were safe. Then there was the sound of heavy boots clumping along the metal corridor at speed and Jayne entered the room.

"Y'all still breathin' in here?"

"Just about," Wash responded weakly.

"Kaylee get out of the engine room in time?" asked Zoe of the hulking merc.

"Everyone's fine back there. Well exceptin' moon brain shoutin' bout wonderland and rabbit holes. Doc and Shepherd tryin'a quiet her down some."

Mal stood and stared out of the window in front of him. All he could see was a mass expanse of golden sand, piled in dunes and punctuated with what looked like abandoned scrap metal, underneath a clear azure blue sky. An empty, lifeless wasteland.

"Huh," scoffed Mal humourlessly, "some wonderland."

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