-1Finally, a new fic in the 'Broken' verse! This is a kind of stepping stone between the longer several chapter fic I am still working on.
Disclaimer: You know the drill, if you recognise it I don't own it.
The Reavers attacks were getting worse, almost as if they knew they were no longer just a deep dark secret buried by the Alliance, but a verse wide fear. They were coming out of the shadows, attacking more and more, closer to the core even.
That was how Mal and the others ended up going to drop of their cargo and finding nothing but a mutilated graveyard. One look at the bodies or what was left of then would tell you that these people went out anything but peacefully. That should have been it, over and done with, leave the planet, return cargo to sender. There was nobody left alive here.
But Mal didn't. Something drew him out of the ship as his crew watched in horror. "Sir lets just go" said Zoë, hoping as much as the rest of them to get as much distance between themselves and that planet as possible. But Mal kept walking, not sure what was drawing him there.
"Just a minute" he said distractedly as he continued to walk away from his ship and crew. Then he heard it, a slight cough, tiny, so quiet he almost missed it, followed by the barest moan of pain. He took off in a run to the nearest house. The entire room had been torn apart, a wardrobe had been thrown over, but when he listened again he heard more clearly, there was somebody under there. He tried to lift it up and probably wouldn't have managed if he hadn't been so damn determined. But he was, so he found the tiny blonde lying underneath, covered head to foot in blood. A knife lay to one side of her, a wicked looking scythe to the other, he pushed the wardrobe all the way up so the at it fell to the other side. The crash made her eyes flutter open for a second.
She saw the man above her. "come to finish me off Caleb?" she said with half a smile, as though she had been lying there waiting for death, her eyes fell shut again. He threw both her weapons in the black duffel he saw by the door, hers, he knew then scooped up the tiny woman with no effort. He kicked the door open from where it had fallen closed and headed back to his ship.
"Doc, infirmary now."
"My God" said Simon, "She's alive?" he looked at all the blood on her.
"Do you think anybody else could be alive?" asked Kaylee looking to all the other bodies, hating the idea that they could leave and let some poor person die.
"Nobody else is alive Kaylee" Mal assured her as he carried the girl in his arms towards the infirmary.
"How can you be sure, look at how much blood that girl has lost, she survived."
"It's not all her blood" said River airily staring in fascination at the girl Simon was now treating.
"She's right" said Mal quietly. The rest of the crew turned to him.
"How exactly do you know that Sir?"
He smiled grimly. "Because I know her" He stepped closer, being sure to stay out of the docs way as he gave her some kind of pain injection, he stroked her hair softly.
Once again her eyes fluttered open but this time when she saw the man above her smiled. "Mal" she said softly. "Thought you were Caleb coming to kill me" she muttered. She giggled slightly, "Silly Buffy, sliced preacher man straight through the middle" Whatever the doc had given her kicked in a little more and unconsciousness started to drug her under once more. "They never let me die" she muttered sadly as she went back under.
Mal just continued stroking her hair. "Not today" He said softly staring down at her, even covered in blood, framed by that blonde hair she looked like an Angel. His broken Angel.
Please review, and watch out for more from the Broken verse, might bang out a couple more prequels before I get the one you're waiting for out. It's still the beginning of that that's giving me trouble.