Darkness. It stretches on forever, enshrouding all worlds within it. The Black, as those who sail it call it, is like a night sky for which there is no day. It's easy to get lost out here, for those who don't know their way, and despair is never far behind. But, like the night sky, even in the blackest of The Black, there are always tiny points of light, for those who know where to look.

Space. A contradiction as old as time. Conftaining nothing and everything all at once. Endless depths of darkness filled with countless orbs of light. Each one burns brightly against the oppressive void around them. Some are quiet lights, glowing subdued but steady, content to sail the darkness for eternity. But some lights are destined to burn brightly, like a radiant beacon to others.

However, as the old saying goes, "Those that burn brightest, fade fastest."

Light and Darkness dance a waltz of eons, their balance always in ebb and flow. Likewise so the lives of those who would shelter beneath them ebb between war and peace. Conflict has existed as long as Darkness itself, and may, as some believe, predate it, the first Conflict sparking the first hint of Darkness; though some would argue the other way, the point is, in the end, moot. Like lights in the darkness, people cling to peace to bring them hope, and to help them find the path.

But like the brightest stars, peace never lasts forever.

"This is not a discussion I'm interested in having right now."

"Well when would be a good time?" Tapping her heels impatiently, and folding her arms, she added with a glare, "Because it seems you've been avoiding me for the past week Captain Reynolds."

"I have not," he replied quickly, holding back a sigh; he had been, actually, but he wasn't likely to admit that. "In case you haven't noticed Inara, I have a ship to captain." He hated it when she called him 'Captain Reynolds'. It was like she donned a mask that said 'I am going to make your life more difficult'. She'd caught him when he went to check the last of the cargo they had to deliver, a mistake he'd spent the past week trying to avoid making.

Inara Serra, registered Companion, just levelled a deeper glare at him, striding purposefully after him as she muttered beneath her breath, "Bullshit."

"For such a dignified lady you sure have a smutty mouth sometimes." Trying, and failing, to put some distance between himself and the woman, as he climbed the steps past the med bay, Malcolm 'Mal' Reynolds, Captain of the Firefly-class transport 'Serenity', continued, "Look, we're a few days away from finishing the best job we've had in a while - and a legit one at that - and we've been tryin' mighty hard to fly under the radar these days, what with that gorram bounty hunter that boarded us a handful of weeks ago. Your 'schedule' will just need to wait a bit."

"My 'schedule'?" Inara replied, growing increasingly irate. "The trip to Sihnon should have taken three weeks, at worst, and here we are nearing three months since I told you I was leaving. If you're deliberately-"

"I've told you to stay out of my business," Mal cut her off, stopping halfway up the stairs. "You've made it abundantly clear that you're not a part of my crew, but if you're gonna make accusations there's a few things you aught to know. I don't got a choice but to take the jobs that come up, no matter how fast I do or do not want to go someplace. I got a crew to pay, stomachs to fill, a ship to fuel, and a deep need for parts to keep this ship running; and thanks to this job we're finishing up, I finally have enough to do all that, and keep us in the sky a while longer. You wanna pay our way to Sihnon, then we will get there as fast as the pay allows, elsewise we gotta take the roundabout way. Now, we're only a couple days out from Persephone, and we'll likely be there a way or two for fuel and repair, so all I want the rest of the way is a nice, relaxing trip."

Without warning, the ship lurched suddenly to one side, a loud, resonating clang preceding a violent impact against the base of the hull. One hand latching tightly on to the banister with the first jolt, Mal's other hand shot out to catch Inara, who was knocked off balance entirely. Unfortunately, he overcompensated, pulling her body flush against his, and an awkward silence followed, before Mal broke away, muttering an old Chinese curse to himself, "I surely annoyed someone or other in a past life, didn't I..." Raising his voice again, he added, "However, seeing as how I never get what I want, if you'll excuse me your ladyship, I need to see what my 'ace pilot' decided to crash us into this week."

Despite the obvious dismissal, Inara followed Mal as he strode towards the bridge, crying out, "Wash! What in the hell are you playing at?"

An answer came, but not from the person he was expecting, as his mechanic Kaywinnit Lee 'Kaylee' Frye called back, "Sorry cap'n, the NavSat went on the blitz." At his questioning look at seeing both her and co-pilot, and fellow war survivor, Zoe Alleyne, on the bridge, she continued, "I was up here with Zoe workin' on the co-pilot console when it just cut out for some reason. Near as I can tell, though, the hardware's fine."

Mal nodded, accepting her answer, but adding, "Be that as it may, that don't mean his eyes stopped working does it? What the hell did you hit?"

"It hit us!" Hoban 'Wash' Washburne, pilot and husband to Zoe, replied from the pilot's seat, and not taking an eye off his console for a second. "One minute the sky was clear, then next, the NavSat cut out, and bam. If I didn't get us out of the way in time it'd likely have hit the bridge and killed us all."

"What, we're bein' attacked?" A surly voice asked, preceding the hired gun Jayne Cobb onto the bridge, "Is it Reavers? It's the gorram Reavers isn't it?"

"Shut up," Mal barked, silencing Jayne's impending tirade, and noticing the remaining three members of his crew arriving: the preacher Shepherd Book, the doctor Simon Tam, and his enigmatic, and sometimes... eccentric sister River. "It ain't Reavers."

"How can you know that fer sure?" Jayne persisted.

Turning to stare the man in the eyes, Mal explained, "'Coz if it were Reavers, by now they'd have boarded us, and we'd be dead." That shut the man up, and, satisfied that he'd put Jayne in his place, Mal turned back to Wash and said, "Now, swing us around so we can see what we did hit."

"I'm telling you Mal, it's gotta be space debris, 'coz there's no way a... ship... could..." He trailed off as it became very clear what, exactly, they'd hit when they saw the red fuselage with the yellow stripe across it, and the word 'Highwind' stencilled along the side.

Mal summed up everyone's thoughts best. "Huh."

- Shades of Grey -

- Dance of Light and Shadow -

Chapter 01 - Objects in Space

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the Disney or Square Enix characters or stories featured within. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to say that I did, but that would be a blatant lie. Any song, movie, and/or book reference used throughout the course of this story is also not owned by me. In fact, the only thing that is owned by me is this story.

Additional Disclaimer: I don't own Firefly, Serenity, or any other license to do with any part of the series. If I did, I wouldn't have cancelled the series after one season, like those idiots at that 3-letter network beginning with 'F' and ending with 'X'.

There was a moment of silence on the deck of Serenity, as the assembled crew observed the strange ship they'd crashed into. The fuselage was sloped, coming to a triangular point on one end, and on the other, a large dome capped a square-ish block. behind that were a pair of small thrusters, and along the side, slightly below the midpoint of the fuselage was a yellow cylinder, with a short white wing and matching aileron.

Jayne was the first one to recover his voice, drawling, "That's a weird lookin' bird."

"It's no weirder than ours, really," Simon replied with a dazed kind of shrug.

"Hey!" Kaylee cried, smacking him on the shoulder at the insult to Serenity.

"Hold up," Mal remarked, as the strange ship continued to turn around, "Are those what I think they are?"

Leaning over the pilot's console, Wash remarked, "Are those cannons?"

"Sir, look," Zoe added, pointing to something near the yellow cylinder on the side, "That thing looks like it's got a sword rigged up to it."

Looking over to his former Corporal, Mal asked, "You think it's a danger to us?"

"I reckon not sir," Wash replied, nodding his head towards the ship as it continued spinning, revealing that other side of the ship was decidedly less undamaged: both the wing and the aileron on this side has been sheered off; the sword mounted opposite the previous one was snapped in half; a large crack ran from the top of the dome all the way down to where it met the body; and, most importantly, there was a large, gaping hole in the side of the hull.

"Wow, looks trashed," Jayne remarked, ever the master of stating the obvious. "Think the feds cracked it open?"

"I'm still not even sure how it got here," Wash remarked, tapping a few keys on his console, "I mean, I've scanned this thing nose to tip, and it's not that much larger than one of our shuttles. Given the size of the engines we saw on back, there's no way this thing's anything better than a short-range transport, but there's no planet within days of here. I mean, it could be a life raft, but no ships pass through here. I mean, that's expressly why we chose this route."

"Sir? What should we do?"

"Best we just pass it by." Mal replied to Zoe's question, folding his arms. "If it was attacked, chances are they took anything worth salvaging."

"The key to all things lies inside." River's quiet voice cut through the cockpit, silencing all conversation. "It lies helpless, unguarded, just waiting for the darkness to snatch it away."

The crew were silent for a moment, glancing between each other as they digested what the strange young girl had said, before Simon cleared his throat, asking, "Uh, what about survivors?"

"Well, scans aren't showing much," Wash supplied, "Let's face it, the odds of anything surviving that kind of damage-"

"Shh," River's voice cut him off. When the girl had moved closer to the main window, no one knew, but she had pressed her ear against it. "I hear voices in the darkness. They're asleep now, but soon to wake."

"Are pretty good according to our resident space-case." Mal was a lot less hesitant and a lot more trusting when it came to River ever since that bounty hunter incident. "Wash, you sure there's nothing on the scans?"

Shrugging slightly, Wash replied, "Well, I'm picking up traces of oxygen, but not much." Looking back at the console, he tapped a few keys before adding, "Well, there is something. I mean, it's probably nothing, but there's a slightly larger concentration of oxygen built up near that dome on the back. It's hard to get a read on where exactly though, the scanners just seem to slip across it."

Mal nodded, "Wash, I want you to bring the ship closer. Zoe, go get our suits ready. Jayne, go get Vera, dress her up." At everyone's surprised look, he added, "I don't expect trouble, but trouble does have a habit of finding us, so I want us prepared. Shepherd, I want you and the doc to get the med bay ready. Inara, if you can, could you keep River out of trouble, and make sure we have extra beds, just in case River's right, and there's more than one survivor. Now, some oxygen ain't a lot, so let's hurry.

The crew moved with a purpose, leaving the cockpit all but empty within seconds. Waiting a few seconds until they were out of earshot, he turned to the two left in the cockpit he hadn't named, adding one final order. "Kaylee, get the Nav back online, and do whatever you can to boost the signal. If something did this to their ship, it might be as hard to track as this one is, and I don't wanna get jumped by it."

o-o

Shepherd Book and Inara waited with great anticipation outside the infirmary, doing their best to appear calm and busy - Inara seated, practicing her calligraphy, the Shepherd standing nearer the wall, reading his bible - but both glanced up every now and then towards the ship's hangar doors. It had only been a few minutes since Mal, Zoe and Jayne had last radioed in, their voices playing over the ship's intercom, saying they had found survivors, and the tension was thick.

Inside the Med Bay, Simon was preparing a couple of extra beds, using the stretchers they had kept from the Ariel job, while River lay down on the bedding laid down on one of the benches, curled into a loose foetal position. Sparing a look for his sister, Simon sighed softly, washing his hands for possibly the third time in as many minutes. "Kids... They're just kids." When Mal had reported in earlier, he'd mentioned that they had found people still on the derelict, in a sealed room near the dome. Four kids, none of them looking more than a day older than seventeen-year-old River. "I hope this doesn't turn into an autopsy."

"Autopsies aren't meant for the living," River remarked absently, sitting up and sliding off the bench. "That's vivisection."

Simon paused for a moment, thinking of how to address his sister's remark. It was off the cuff, and pure fact, sounding almost lucid. Horrifying, but lucid. Before he could form a reply, the hiss of the airlock doors opening drew his attention, and he found himself heading for the hold to see how the rescue went.

o-o-o

"Your heart has always belonged to me. It's time I took it back."

"Foolish child. You've been working for me ever since you took up that blade. You just didn't know it."

"Run! Get her out of here! Find Master-!"

"The X-Blade is mine!"

"XEHANORT!"

"Kairi!" Bolting upright, Sora cast his eyes around quickly, trying to find any of his friends. Spotting Riku lying down on the bench to his left, he quickly glanced the other way, hoping to find either of his ladies, but instead finding only a strange man in a white shirt and black vest; a man who seemed equally surprised to see him. Looking around the room again quickly, and trying to ignore how it made his head spin, he called out again, "Kairi!"

As he started to climb to his feet, the strange man hurried over, grabbing the teen's shoulders and pressing down, remarking, "Hold on, you can't get up yet. You're still not completely recovered. Quite frankly, I'm surprised you're awake."

"I don't care!" Sora remarked, struggling to get up; if his body weren't too tired to respond, he'd likely have hit the older man by now. "Where's Namine? Where's Kairi?"

"I'm right here Sora," Kairi's cheerful voice remarked, sounding more tired than Sora remembered. As answer to his other question, she added, "Namine's asleep."

"They've been taking shifts to watch over the two of you," the stranger remarked, "They said you wouldn't react well if you woke up alone." Remembering himself, he added, "My name is Simon Tam. I'm the ship's doctor."

Smiling tiredly as he lay back down, Sora replied, "I guess I don't need to tell you my name's Sora. Uh, sorry about, you know, when I woke up."

Simon just shrugged. "Don't worry about it. You're hardly the first patient to attack me on waking up, and, on this ship, you're unlikely to be the last."

"Still, I'm sorry all the same," Sora commented, sighing tiredly before adding, "Ugh, did anyone get the name of that Behemoth that ran me over."

Turning back to look at the charts on the bench behind him, Simon stated, "Whatever you and your friend, Riku is it? Did to yourselves, your bodies were pushed past the point of exhaustion, and just shut down. It's a miracle you're not dead."

"Broken." Before Sora, or Kairi for that matter, could comment on Simon's remark, a new, female voice interjected. "Broken like me." Turning towards the voice, they saw a strange brunette girl, hovering over Riku, with her face inches from his. "Trapped between what he wants to be, and what he has to be. Between what he was born to be, and what he was made to be. Broken."

Riku's eyes opened slowly, the older teen groaning in pain, and he began sitting up, before noticing the nearby face, and recoiling, inadvertently slamming his head against the bench. Blinking through pain-filled eyes at the girl, the lavender-haired youth asked, "Yes?"

Tilting her head to one side, the girl just remarked, "I like your hair," and before anyone could comment, she took off out of the Med Bay and out of sight.

Exhaustion taking hold again, Sora's eyes began to slip closed, his mind conscious long enough to hear Riku ask who that was, and for Simon to reply that it was his sister River, before darkness claimed him.

o-o-o

"Captain, we're about day out from Persephone now."

Mal nodded at his pilot, remarking, "Good. Didn't lose much time, even with that little pit stop. Call Badger, let him know he'll get his coin not but a day late."

"We get any decent salvage of that derelict sir?" Zoe asked, leaning against Wash's console.

"I reckon so," Mal nodded, before adding, "Though might need Kaylee to work out what some of it actually does."

"We could always ask those kids we pulled off it," Zoe supplied.

Before Mal could comment one way or the other on that statement, there was a knock on the cockpit door, before Simon stuck his head in. "Speaking of," Mal commented, turning to give the man his full attention as he asked, "So doc, how're our latest guests?"

"They're out of observation now," Simon replied. "Both of the boys have woken up, though one did go back into a more restful sleep almost right away. As near as I can tell, they were both suffering from some sort of extreme exhaustion, that caused their bodies to just shut down, effectively like they were hibernating. In all honesty, I can't explain how they didn't pass out long before reaching that point."

Casting a quick glance at Zoe, Mal asked, "Safe to move 'em?"

Simon just nodded. "They're in no danger any more."

"Zoe, would you see to getting them settled into the spare guest rooms?" Turning back to Wash, he added, "I've got to contact Badger, make sure he knows we're not trying to cheat him out of our hard earned money." With a nod, the woman headed off to the infirmary.

o-o

When Sora awoke again, everyone was more or less in the same place they had been, except Riku was now sitting up on the bench, and Simon was absent, replaced with Namine, the blonde teasing Riku for the white bandage now adorning his forehead. Riku kept insisting that it was because he'd hit his head in the attack, but Kairi counter-insisted that it was when he was 'frightened by a girl who couldn't be more than forty kilos wringing wet'.

Riku was the first to notice Sora's return to the land of the conscious, sliding off the bench as he remarked, "Finally awake are you? Kairi always said you were lazy. You've gotta help me, the girls keep ganging up on me."

Sitting up on the infirmary chair, Sora replied with a grin, "If you weren't such an easy target, they'd leave you alone."

"Et tu?" Riku remarked, as the two girls laughed.

Before the conversation could continue, a darker skinned woman, her curly brown hair coming past her shoulders, rapped on the glass as she approached, stating, "All awake now I see? Simon said you should be. My name's Zoe. Captain asked me to get you all settled in here."

Hopping off the chair, Sora offered her a wave. "Thanks Zoe. My name's Sora. Since I'm the last one up, I assume the others have introduced themselves already, but in case they haven't, this is Kairi and Namine, and that's Riku," he indicated the people in question.

After the three had greeted her, and she had acknowledged in kind, the woman lead them the short distance to the guest quarters, explaining, "First, there's a couple rules we need you to adhere to while you're on Serenity. First, you're free to visit the galley at any time. That's just up those stairs right there. Second, we're gonna have to insist you stay away from the cargo bay, which is though that door, the cockpit, and especially the engine room without the captain or I there to look after you. It's nothing personal you understand, but-"

"But those are sensitive areas of the ship, and we could really screw something up if left to our own devices?" Sora finished, a grin on his face, "Don't worry, we understand."

Moving on, Zoe pointed out the room and continued, "Now, we've only got two guest rooms free, what with Book, Simon and River taking up the other three, so we're gonna have to double you up, two to a room. The girls will have this room, next to River, while the boys will be on the other side."

Sora glanced quickly at Kairi and Namine, who smiled back at him, while Riku just rolled his eyes. "That'll be fine."

o-o

"See you planetside," Mal stated, disconnecting the call, before asking Wash, "Did he seem unusually accommodating to you?"

"He did seem a bit more agreeable than normal," Wash agreed.

Pausing a moment, Mal asked, "You sure those kids and that derelict weren't flagged?"

"I've checked and double checked," Wash replied, "Even asked Mister Universe if he could find anything, but he came up empty handed. Either there's no flags out, or they're keeping it very hush-hush."

"Just keep an ear on it."

"Mal, why did you have Zoe do the meet-and-greet?" Wash asked, a curious lilt to his voice. "She or I could have handled the wave to Badger."

Folding his arms before his chest as he leant against the co-pilot console, Mal supplied, "Zoe's good at reading people. Plus, she's less likely to spook 'em into clamming up." At Wash's incredulous look, he explained, "People act different around the captain of a ship than they do the crew."

"Zoe's more likely to scare them IN to talking than OUT of it," Wash translated, to which Mal smirked briefly and nodded.

o-o

"So girls, where do we stand?" Sora slid the door to their room closed, after Kairi and Namine slipped in.

"I think we're safe here," Namine replied, glancing at her sister briefly before continuing, "I mean, while Zoe was definitely trying to get a read on us just before, she seemed honest in her intentions. From what I read of her, she's more concerned we're a threat to them; they're harbouring fugitives from what I assume is this world's government."

"There doesn't feel to be any particularly dark people on the ship," Kairi added. "A few of them seem to have a few skeletons in their closet, like Zoe, but they all feel like good people." Frowning, she added, "There's just two people I can't get a clear reading on. River's one of them. There's just something different about her."

Sitting down on the bed, Riku asked, "Where are we anyway? I've never seen anything like this ship on any of the worlds I've been to in the past two years."

"Good question. Let's see what Tron thinks," Sora remarked, activating the orichalcum wrist computer he'd gotten on Radiant Garden. "Huh, that's weird," Sora commented, "It can't connect to him."

"Let me have a look," Namine stated, twisting his arm to one side to get at it better as she added under her breath, "You're not really good with computers..." After fiddling with it for a few minutes, and more than a few mumbled curses, the blonde girl sighed. "I owe you an apology Sora. I thought it was a user error, but you're right, it can't connect with Tron. It should be able to, but it can't find him. It did locate another network though, something called the 'Cortex'."

"Maybe that can tell us where we are," Sora commented, yielding his arm to Namine to let her work her magic on the computer.

o-o

The two men looked up from their respective thoughts as Zoe returned to the bridge, stating, "All settled in sir. I put the boys up in the room near the Shepherd, and the girls next to River. Figure she'd like some company her own age around."

Mal nodded, signalling his acceptance of her decision, before asking, "You get anything out of them."

"Not much sir," Zoe replied, shrugging slightly, "They were all a bit closed mouth. Seemed to defer to the brunette, Sora, though, even the older boy, Riku. Seems friendly enough though."

"You think they're a danger to us?" This was, after all, the most important question, and would determine whether the kids got off at Persephone, or a might sooner.

Zoe simply shook her head. "I don't reckon so sir."

"Mal, we've got a problem here," Wash spoke up, as if directly countering Zoe's sentiment, "Someone's accessed the Cortex."

Rushing over to his console, Mal barked, "Shut 'em out, quickly."

"I... I can't!" Wash exclaimed, frantically typing in commands. "Whoever's in has managed to lock me out."

Mal and Zoe shared a look, both realising who it had to be, before Mal sighed. "Can you at least trace who they're contacting?"

"I can follow their signal easily enough, I just can't stop it," Wash supplied, keying in a few more things, before commenting, "Huh. Seems like they're not contacting anyone specific. They sent out a query for, of all things, a star map." A moment later, Wash added, "They've disconnected now. I've shut the Cortex down, just in case."

"What should we do about this sir?" Zoe asked.

Thinking for a moment, Mal replied, "Nothing yet. We're the only ones who know about this, so that's where it stays. If nothing comes of it, we wouldn't want the others worrying for nothing." Waiting for the other two to nod in acceptance, he continued, "We're a day out from Persephone, so all going well, we can unload them there, and forget this ever happened. Meantime, I may have to have a chat with 'em myself. Get some sleep; I'll watch the bridge."

Needing no further encouragement, Zoe and Wash both headed off, Mal sliding into the pilot's chair once they'd left. "Best not to think about it," he commented softly to himself, "They may be kids, but I've got to look after me and mine first."

o-o-o

"What're you doin' in here so late?"

"Gah!" With a startled cry, Sora accidentally released his hold on the drink he had, the cup hitting the table with a resounding 'thunk', though he was quick enough to grab it before it could make more noise, or spill what remained of its liquid cargo. Setting the cup carefully on the table, Sora smiled sheepishly, his eyes glancing towards the bronze-coloured gun strapped to the man's waist, before rubbing the back of his head with his free hand as he replied, "Uh, sorry about that. Um... Zoe said the we could visit the galley at any time. Was that wrong?"

"No, that's quite alright," Mal commented, seating himself opposite the young stranger, subtly unclipping the safety strap of his holster once it was out of view. "I meant more why are you here when you should be sleeping? It may get a bit hard to tell out here in the black, but it is night."

"Couldn't sleep," Sora replied simply, shrugging half-heartedly. "I mean, Simon told me I'd been out for, what, two days?" Seeing the nod of agreement, he continued, "I figure I've slept enough. Besides," he grinned slightly, "Riku snores. Like a saw."

"I know that feeling." Without moving his shoulder or upper arm more than necessary, Mal began easing his gun free of the holster. "So, Sora." The brunette teen jumped in shock. "Zoe told us your name. Anyway, we had a bit of excitement on the bridge earlier this evening." Sora winced before he could stop himself. "I take it you know what that's about then?"

"Yeah, that was me," Sora stated slowly, "Well, it was Namine, she's better with computers than I am, but it was us all the same. I'm really sorry if we messed anything up, or got you guys in trouble. We just wanted to find out where we were, see if there was any landmarks we recognized."

"And?"

Sora smiled sheepishly, "We're more lost now than before we looked." Gazing away from the man opposite him, he continued, "I just hope I can talk to the captain before we land tomorrow, see if he can help us clear up a few things." Grinning slightly, he added, "I should probably apologise anyway for what happened tonight, and thank him for rescuing us."

Nodding, Mal slipped his gun back into the holster, satisfied that these kids weren't a threat to him or his crew. "Apology accepted, and no thanks needed." At Sora's blank, albeit curious look, Mal stated, "I'm Captain Malcolm Reynolds."

Sora face-palmed, muttering to himself softly, "Of course you are, that would be my luck lately. Sometimes, I swear, if I didn't have bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all." Straightening up again, a hint of his ever-present smile returned to his face, as he extended his hand, saying "Nice to meet you Captain Reynolds."

Releasing his weapon, Mal shook the teen's hand over the table, before asking, "So where are you from anyway? And how did you end up in the middle of nowhere on that derelict?"

Sora opened his mouth to reply, before pausing, and stating, "I could lie to you. I mean, I've already seen the map of the system, so I could make it up, but I think you, at least, deserve the truth, even if you don't decide to share it with the rest of your crew." He waited for Mal to nod his acceptance, before continuing, "The truth is, we're not from anywhere in this system. That's why we didn't recognize anything on the star map."

Mal's eyes widened, the only sign of his shock, as he remarked, "Huh." Taking a few moments to compose himself, Mal added, "Well, that would account for a certain amount of oddness about you, bein' from a different part of the 'Verse an' all." He shifted a bit uncomfortably. "And I reckon you'll be wanting those parts back we salvaged from your ship."

Sora just shook his head. "No, you were right before Captain, it's a derelict now. Parts started flaking off before we got here, and we're not likely to find replacements. Anything that still works, you might as well use." Leaning back on his chair slightly, he added, "This does bring me to a something I wanted to talk to you about though Captain."

Folding his arms, Mal nodded. "Speak your piece."

"First, I need to thank you again for saving us." He held up his hands to forestall any rebuttal from Mal. "Captain Reynolds, have you ever had someone you loved strong enough that you would lay down your life if it meant that person would live but a moment longer?" Sora waited, as Mal nodded slowly. "Well, I have two people I care that strongly about, whom I have had to risk my life on more than one occasion for. And you saved their lives." He pulled a large pouch out from one of his pockets, setting it on the table as he added, "Words alone can never express my thanks enough."

"I won't accept coin for saving you," Mal remarked firmly, "If you want to thank us for that, you can help Kaylee identify the salvage."

"This wasn't for that Captain." At Mal's glare, he amended, "Okay, it wasn't just for that. As I'm sure you can see Captain, my friends and I are in a bit of a tight spot. We're in a foreign system, our ship is dead, and we have no idea where we are, let alone how to get home again. We have no destination, not even a hint of where to go."

"I get the feeling there's more you ain't tellin' me," Mal prompted, "Like how your ship got all banged up? With your story, you don't look to be the type to have trouble with the Alliance."

Sora winced again. "You're right, we do have people chasing us, but I don't think they know where we are either. I mean, we were out cold when we got here, and they were right on our tail. If they knew where we were, and could get here, it's likely they would've caught us."

"What are they after you for?" Mal asked, eyeing the bag of coin sitting on the table; some of the coin had spilled out when Sora'd dropped it on the table, revealing a good amount of gold inside. "You steal from the wrong person?"

Thinking quickly, Sora replied, "Let's just say, where we come from, there are eight key things you need to become the ruler. Now, some tyrant who's planning on destroying or subjugating everything already has four of these keys, and knows where he can find two more." Taking a deep breath, he added, "And Kairi and I have the last two."

Eyeing the bag again, Mal asked, "So, assuming I decide to help, which is what I gather you're askin' for here, what do you need, protection? We're a cargo ship; you're like to find better protection on Persephone."

"We can protect ourselves, Captain Reynolds," Sora replied, adding with a sheepish grin, "Well, usually, anyways. We were in a bad way when our ship got attacked, but we've had the time to recover now. No, all we really need is a place to lay low for a while, as we figure out our next move. All I'd ask is you make sure your ship's repaired, in case the guys chasing us do find their way here. And I don't just mean so you can help us escape. I mean so you and your crew won't be endangered by us being on your ship any more than we can help it."

Unfolding his arms, Mal stood, pacing about the room for a moment before asking, "What's to stop him from blowing you, and any vessel you happened to be on, out of the sky and taking what he needs from the wreckage?"

"He needs us alive to get them," Sora replied with a half-shrug, "I don't think I can explain it in a way you'd understand without telling you more than I think's safe, but let's just say, dead gets them nothing." Glancing at the bag on the table, Sora added quickly, "I have three more of those if need be."

Mal paused in his pacing, walking over to have a close look as to how much was inside, cursing to himself quietly in Chinese as he did so before stating, "This is more'n twice what I paid for the whole gorram ship." There were a few long minutes of tense silence, different emotions warring on the man's grizzled features, before he nodded once to himself, seemingly reaching a decision. Facing Sora again, he confirmed, "So, food, bed, place to hide; that everything?"

Sora half-shrugged again, "Everything I can think of. I don't want to disrupt your operations at all. I'll let you know if anything else comes up, or we work out a destination."

Nodding, Mal tucked the bag into one of his pockets, stating as he strode off, "Get some sleep. We'll be on Persephone this afternoon, drop off our cargo, refuel, and be on our way."

Satisfied, and accepting the Captain's dismissal, Sora finished his drink, placing the cup back in the sink before heading back to the guest quarters, yawning widely as sleep began encroaching on him again, and never noticing the figure leaning against the open galley door. If he did, he might have been surprised as the scowl on the grey-haired man's face.

Author's Notes

I can honestly say I think this is the first time the Kingdom Hearts universe has ever been crossed over with that of Firefly. That said, this isn't a complete crossover, any more than any other Kingdom Hearts story is, which is why I haven't labelled it as such; the first handful of chapters are just set here.

This is a different format for me, starting with the story straight away, and adding the title in after the first scene. I doubt I'll continue this trend with the rest of the chapters in the series (though I might, if it proves popular); I just thought I'd start the chapter this way because that's the one episodes of Firefly start - with an opening scene, then a cut to the intro sequence.

Now, something else I don't normally do, because I myself don't especially like reading it, is the inclusion of other languages mid-sentence in such a way a direct translation is either impossible, or at the very least, kludgey. I try to avoid it when I can. The problem is, however, that in the Firefly series, every character slips into Chinese every now and then.

Originally, I had planned to include some of this Chinese in the however-many chapters of this story would be set there, but when the little bit I tried to include began to annoy me. Plus, including more would mean constantly referring to the website I found that had the translations, so I just decided to cut it completely. Just thought I'd make mention of that for any fan of the Firefly series wondering why there wasn't any Chinese.

In other news, I decided to go for a New Year's release for this story, despite having only this chapter completed, simply because I've established something of a tradition with my last two stories, releasing them around this time of year. Besides, it'll give me incentive to get the lead out and write more, knowing people are waiting for it.

Fear not, any and all questions about how things got to where they are now will be answered in due time. As many of you have no doubt guessed, the collection of short phrases before Sora's awakening is to serve as something of a teaser, until such time as the full story comes out. In the mean time, I would love to hear theories on what people think is actually being said, to whom, and by whom.