This is a crossover between Buffy and Firefly. English is not my first language. THe chapters aren't yet beta'd.
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. It belongs to Joss. Yes, both of it. So don't sue.
Prologue
The planet lay before him, caressed by the two orbiting suns. Their beams deadly and hot, even though he wasn't on earth.
"Just my luck," the man had said, when setting foot on his first planet that wasn't the earth, many, many decades ago. "So it's not an earth phenomenon. Pity."
Carefully he landed his small transport outside the city, dust settling just slowly around the spaceship. He'd have to wait until the suns were down. But that wasn't the problem. He was used to wait. If necessary he'd wait longer. Still, this was his chance. He could feel it.
With a sigh he turned off the control lamps and went to the back of the small cabin. It wasn't much, but until he got back Buffy, he'd put everything he had in getting that River girl to the Alliance and the Watchers Council. More than 500 years ago they had taken Buffy away. Away from him and her family to let her sleep frozen in a dark, dank box. Damn them all!
Right now there was no time to decorate the ship or get a bigger one. What for? He was never one for Christmas trees or pictures on the wall. He liked it simple. Was there anything practicable in coloring the dark walls or remove the dirty stain on the counter? Surely not.
Slowly he opened the refrigerator, taking a red blood bag and started drinking.
Soon, soon there was hope. Then he would think about showing the slayer a new world with all it's wonders. And may be a clean spaceship.
"Just fetch the girl," he repeated in his thoughts, ignoring the twinging sensation in the back of his skull. "No one is innocent," he contemplated. "Especially no Alliance experiment with two feet and a pretty face."
He threw one more glance to the picture on the wall, showing the haunted face of a young girl with dark hair and waited.
Chapter 1
Hercules was a white planet. Wide oceans of milky water, filled with lime and minerals from the planets earth. The houses in the cities were made of marble, shining in the glaring suns. It was a friendly but fussy place.
In the streets people wore strange togas and their speech was spiked with funny words from the old Greek. The inhabitants obviously denied the galaxies tendencies to use the Chinese vocabulary.
Still the place was just perfect for a few days of relaxing and catching breath from the last lonely weeks in the vastness of space. And Wash had the intention of enjoying every second of it.
"Two minutes, Captain. It's a wonderful day on Hercules, the temperature says 21 cozy degrees, the sun is shining and my wonderful wife is happy to try her new bathing suit."
Wash switched off the mic and a female voice came from down the corridor. "I heard that, Wash. And I'll tell ya again. This is no holiday we're planning to. We need a new compression coil. No postcards."
"You know, we never had our honeymoon," Wash grinned and adjusted his grip to the steering wheel.
"'course we did. Don't you remember?" His lank wife entered the bridge and twined her arms around his neck, following his gaze across the big city of New Athens. Already from this distance the city was bustling, full of people from all over the galaxy, meeting on this very place to get back to civilization, buying proteins and purchase all kinds of spare parts for spaceships and exotic vehicles. "Three wonderful weeks on Maghellan?"
"If I remember?" Wash asked, his eyes bulging from his face. "Well I DO remember, actually. The best part was being chased from that horde of really unhygienic inhabitants, from whom we had stolen a pint of water. You know, the water we needed to survive 'cos we stranded on a really unfriendly planet."
"Yeah, that was fun, wasn't it?"
"Terrific," he replied, landing the Serenity soft as a feather - a really big feather - on the ground.
The two setting suns slowly vanished behind the mountains in the distance, plunging the area in purple twilight.
"I wanted to see what I put in my ship," said Malcolm Reynolds, captain of the Serenity and entered the bridge. "So, the two of you, stop smooching and get your asses outta here before it's dark."
"Smooching?"
"What?"
"You said smooching", Zoës lips were widened to a mischievous grin.
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Stop it. I most certainly didn't say a word like that. And why aren't you on the way to get the gorramn stuff from the market?"
"'Cos you said smooching," Zoe said but left the bridge with Wash.
Proudly the Serenity stood in the red gleaming evening sun and Mal took a deep breath when he left his ship. The hot, sandy ground under his feet was wonderful after four weeks of the non-stop journey through the cold darkness.
"Air is short in the water," he heard a voice beside him and turned around to his youngest and most cryptic passenger, River Tam. Her white skin was probably up to get some color within the next days on sunny New Athens. "So, how come, he can speak to me? I don't think he has breath to spare."
In her hands she held a simple bowl, filled to the rim with water and one very curious, white fish. His mouth opening and closing against the transparent barrier.
"The fish is speaking to you?", Mal asked and mumbled on. "Remind me to talk with your brother about your meds."
"His name is Spike", River announced with a smile never shifting her eyes away from her little companion.
"What a stupid name."
"He thinks so, too."
"Why did you give it to him then?"
Slowly he went on, the girl following behind him.
"It has been his name for a long time. He wanted it."
"Stupid fish."
"River, your meds!", Simon called from the cargo hold. "Take them, before we go." River took the pills from his hand and stared at them unhappy.
"Ya sure, she's takin' them?" Mal wanted to know.
"Of course she does. Her conditions has improved drastically in the last weeks. Don't you see?"
"She's calling her fish Spike and he's talking to her. If that's what you call an improvement I don't wanna know how she is when she's feeling bad again."
"It's not unusual to give a pet a name. And talking with it is a perfectly normal behavior to accommodate an animals social adaptation."
"It's a FISH!" Mal said irritated. "Yeah, fine. Whatever. Your sister's a little fong luh , but I'm okay with it." He shrugged and turned. "You have two hours to look around, dong-ma? Don't waste it. After that we gotta find a place to stay for the next days."
Simon and River started to walk into another direction when Shepard came out of the cargo entrance, winking towards them.
"Simon, River! Can I come with you? Greasy ship parts are nothing I wanted to see at this amazing place."
"Sure. We wanted to take a look at the local Pantheon," Simon agreed and gently pushed his younger sister along a bustling street. The bowl of water still balanced in the girls arms.
ooooooooooooooooo
The sun was down. Darkness crept along the horizon towards the small spaceship in the adjacent desert near the city. The last sun rays tickling the sky in west. Carefully the vampire took a step out of the cabin and studied the skyline of New Athens.
He had a job to do.
This night was the first step towards his future with the slayer that he had promised to find. Nothing would be standing in his way. His fingers gently touched the hull of his rusty-brown ship and the letters lines written on it in blood-red paint: Dawn.
"It's not long anymore, pet," he whispered hoarsely. "She will not understand. May be I don't either. But it's not like I have a choice, you see," he went on like he had to make someone understand.
Like he had to say sorry.
Like he had to assure himself.
TBCI like reviews, just that you it :-)