Disclaimer: I do not own the original canon nor am I making any profit from writing this piece. All works are accredited to their original authors, performers, and producers while this piece is mine. No copyright infringement is intended. I acknowledge that all views and opinions expressed herein are merely my interpretations of the characters and situations found within the original canon and may not reflect the views and opinions of the original author(s), producer(s), and/or other people.

Warnings: This story may contain material that is not suitable for all audiences and may offend some readers. References are made to a stillbirth and childhood emotional neglect. References are also made to human experimentation and the dehumanization of operatives.

Author's Note(s): Yes, that is the right title, and no, it is not a stand-in while I wait for a better title. That out of the way, there's some vagueness that's going to happen, especially at first as this piece merges MCU and various runs of the comics. Also, I'm pulling some information from the Firefly comics, but I don't think that majorly comes into play until Book's narration in the next part. I did change one thing completely: the 'Verse in this has adopted the more compact hanzi as their written language over continuing to use both scripts as implied by various screenshots where the audience is meant to glean written information. All other things, just accept that they are as they are presented.

Author Notes about the Competition Data:
Hogwarts House: Gryffindor
Word Count: 3607 (Story & Sectional Titles); 3617 (Story, Sectional Titles, & Epigraph)

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To Be Determined

Part 01: Breaking Sets

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"I am half child, half ancient." – Bjork

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The Sun Rises and the Tower Falls

After a while, people begin to forget things had not always been the way they were now. Given enough time, this would happen to everyone and everything, especially when things are deliberately hidden at any point. Information gets handed down sometimes, but after long enough, it can fade into a myth or a legend, to be believed only by the foolish, the desperate, or the most brilliant. Finding lost relics from the Earth-That-Was usually was something that was broadwaved to every server on the Cortex as proof of the value of such a relic. It always carried the smug subtext of superior intellect opposed to the other two options.

That did not happen when The Tower was discovered mostly intact.

It had long been held that references to The Tower were more of a euphuism than fact. After all, it was not an Ark-class ship and those were hard enough to get from Earth-That-Was. A smaller ship should not have feasibly made the trip at all. Still, the myth persisted of a ship which carried the legacy of the warm lights of mankind and acted as the scout ship for the caravan of arks. Every single one of the arks had references to The Tower and its mysterious cargo, or at least all the ones they still had the records of, but none of those records included where the ship had ended up once it had arrived in the system. It remained a common analogy for lost causes and pointless quests, even among the scientists of Blue Sun, until it was found.

The ship was surprisingly empty of things for being rumored to be carrying such important legacies. There were only a few artifacts where the evacuation team could get and a great many locked areas. There did seem to be some kind of awareness to the ship, a perpetual sense of being watched and monitored wherever one was on the ship. It was unnerving, even to those people who grew up on a Core planet where recorders were everywhere. Then there were the pods.

There were four of them, three men and a woman. All of them were in cryo-stasis and dressed in odd, practically archaic fashion. Each glass cryo-pod bore a vague label in a language which was definitely not any known form of hanzi. In hindsight, it would have behooved them to translate the words or wait until they could fully confirm that The Tower contained no manifest or other record. Doing so would have prepared them to better contain the two they chose for the first defrost.

In the end, the loss of the female and one of the males could be considered acceptable given the likelihood of future recapture. In the meantime, Blue Sun had bigger problems to focus on as the Outer Planets began their rebellion. The second defrost had given them a powerful edge as the man awoke coldly obedient and viciously efficient at training operatives. They elected to not fully defrost the fourth pod, using him to pull biological samples from instead.

The Asset was so useful for the training of operatives, and controlling them after their upgrades, that it was only logical to transfer him to the Academy after the Unification War. Finally, they could assure that all their operative had uniformed training. Trainers had such a messy habit of dying frequently, often at the hands of their charges, but the Asset had no issues and allowed no disobedience. It was masterful to watch him work and the operatives trained by him quickly gained the best track records.

Eventually, they moved both the Asset and the still frozen man to a different, larger facility as the Academy grew larger. In addition to the creation and training of operatives, the Academy also acted as both a bait for potential operatives and a think tank. Things continued as expected. Blue Sun had control of a great set of assets which grew their power base. Even the failure of the Miranda project did not seem like a setback, not when they were slowly amassing teams of operatives who had been successfully upgraded with the serum they had retro-engineered from the blood of the frozen man and the Asset. They may not have worked out all of the issues with the process yet—over half of their potentials ended up needing to be put down for safety concerns or dying due to complications—but they were getting better. Finding The Tower had not been put on the Cortex as a bragging point, but its worth had proven to be so much more.

Maybe it would have remained that way if River Tam had never entered the Academy or if they had noticed what she was doing before it was too late.

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The River flows into the Girl

River had always known things she shouldn't. To her, the universe was an endless sea of information, and something deep within her demanded that she conquer it. She pushed and the world pushed back and that was perfect. The universe sang its secrets and River listened, moving to it and letting the dance carry her away. The information was just there and it always stumped her why those around her struggled to learn. The universe would comfort her with a soft lullaby and off she'd spin into another waltz, laughing at silly people who worked too hard to do what would be easy if they just listened like she did.

Simon loved her; her parents did not. She wasn't supposed to know that. It would have been bad for their image to have that emotion acknowledged as anything more than subtext. Simon had been planned and he was going to be a brilliant doctor—not just because that was their plan for Simon, but that is what he would be (the universe had already whispered that secret to her). Then the Tams had tried for another potential heir, one who could take over Gabriel's businesses. Twins had been a surprise, but one was still the desired boy, so it was acceptable. River was what they ended up with, and no way to try again. She had been a disappointment from the start and because she listened and knew things she shouldn't, that disappointment turned to discomfort. It wasn't anyone's fault, not really. They were them and she was herself (not Aiden) and it was what it was. Simon didn't know, too wrapped up in his studies and blinded by the sheer love he felt for River (who couldn't love his brilliant sister?), and that was fine as well because knowing would only hurt Simon and that was not acceptable. Her parents may not love her, but Simon did; that was enough for River.

When Simon left for medical school, River grew restless. The universe would carry little messages to her, snatches of songs from faraway places, and oh, how she wanted to go dance among those distant stars. Osiris may have been her world, but River wanted nothing more than to be somewhere much further away from her silk and satin luxury. She needed to push, but now the universe wasn't pushing back. It was pulling, correcting, guiding. The universe wanted River to go somewhere—and the longer it took River to get there, the more it became a need rather than just a want. So River did as she always did when the universe sang of things, even the things she wasn't supposed to know: she listened.

It was Simon who had finally convinced her parents to let her go to the Academy. He had come back after graduating from the MedAcad (he always said 'top 3%' but River knew that it would have been higher if Simon hadn't picked a fight with a professor over a diagnosis without any more evidence to support his case than a vague whisper in his ear and isn't that grand? Simon knows how to listen which is good seeing that it is what he was meant to do) and completing his internship (only a year to complete; Gabriel and Regan were so proud in all the ways they weren't of River and it was fine; it was acceptable; it was what it was). Simon saw that River wanted to go, and understood that it was becoming a need, and Simon listened because Simon loved her (still could not see the discomfort growing into active dislike as she shows up the future Very Important People despite being a decade younger than them, but that was fine and acceptable because Simon's mind was still consumed with the bright swathes of love and laughter and loyalty; it was good that he was blind because seeing would hurt him and that was still not acceptable). In the end, Gabriel and Regan were relieved to see River leave (she couldn't really help that everything was beginning to get rather crowded) and Simon settled into his residency (because he was a brilliant doctor and would save so many lives even if he couldn't sing—Gabriel may not know, but the universe knew that River would laugh at the off-key melody).

(And it was fine; it was nobody's fault, not really; and it was what it was.)

The Academy was an unpleasant place. No one listened and yet most of them all spoke. The universe didn't like the place but couldn't really stop it because no one listened and thus the universe wept for the waste of it all. The universe cautioned River against pushing, even as River did it anyway. When the doctors and trainers reacted violently or angrily, the universe whispered things and sang songs to comfort her, and still River pushed forward because there was still something that needed to be done. Knowledge burned all the secret parts of her, stabbing from around her. It hurt so very much and she couldn't leave, not yet, but she allowed the weakness steal her reason and wrote a letter full of nonsense, trusting that Simon will once again listen, even if she knew he couldn't really help and that would hurt him, no matter how unacceptable it was.

Then the doctors handed the girl's training over to him and the universe gave thrills of triumph as its laughter echoed in the darkness of the underground facility whose halls dripped with invisible blood. They called him the Asset and sometimes other object names, but the universe spoke of different titles which River thought fit him so much better because he was not an object or a weapon or a tool. He was a Soldier; and a Follower of little punks who don't know when to quit; and a Best Friend; and a Brother (bestest one in the whole world); and now River knew what the universe wanted, what was needed. Everything became just so clear and all of the pain became worth it. Volger could sit on his thumb and spin, because while he plans on becoming Very Important, the man before her had already been Very Important for a long, long time (forever ago and long before the winter) and the others she could see through him were as well.

Everything began to echo. The doctors' minds all whispered about Miranda and how the experiment was failing and it wasn't her secret! She shouldn't be made to keep it! The universe turned to weeping once more because they had all just laid down and gave up and didn't listen and the others—the ones who didn't were worse. They screamed and raged and took and even safely ensconced far away from those boogeymen, there were days where all the girl could do was rage with them.

The doctors had taken to sending the Soldier to deal with her, because on those days, none of their fancy words worked against the girl's terror at laying down overrode any command to sleep. On those days, they danced, exchanging blows and kicks. He gave her kindness and compassion, all in silence and never once did his expression ever change as he watched her fall into the echoes of the punk who should be here but wasn't. The girl pushed, and gloriously, he pushed back, and it would have been perfect if it weren't for the missing piece. The universe whispered that it was close, but neither the girl nor the Asset were allowed to travel freely so finding it took time.

They used that time to build a plan between them, exchanging information as they sparred. Certain tactical information remained the same, only needed adaptation to fit current society. The Soldier's memories were returning steadily, faster now that he had the girl to go digging if needed. Her control over the listening grew as the girl found she could use him as an anchor against that current. Things were not perfect, but they were what they were, as they had always been.

The handlers were moving her to another reinforcement session when she finally heard him, the missing piece. They weren't expecting her rebellion, not even after all the issues they had been having with her minding them. The two handlers she was with went down immediately with broken tracheas (a target without weapons is a target defeated) and the four guards took only moments longer. Then she was running among the echoes of a world long gone. She could pinpoint him now, and he was already looking her Soldier, but that was fine, better than even not just acceptable. It was brilliant just like the rage now filling her, even though it was an echo as well, again from the missing piece—the Punk, the Captain—and it was mixed with determination to follow the Plan. She couldn't remember whose plan now, but both were essentially the same, so that didn't matter.

The timing was perfect because the girl found the Asset training a group of operatives on storing equipment efficiently. The universe laughed even as the Asset shed that persona and took up the more varied one that was the Soldier as he led the way from the room with River flowing behind him. They each took a full set of the tactical gear, and the Soldier grabbed a third one for Punk.

It was time to get their Captain.

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All Plans go Awry

Simon didn't recognize her at first. In his defense, River had never given off an air of danger in the past. Nor had she ever shown any tendency to be violent. The young woman moving in sync with the brunet taking out guards and doctors as they made their way down the hall bore only a passing resemblance to the girl he had seen off to the Academy two years previously. Vicious didn't even begin to describe how the pair fought. Working as a trauma surgeon for two years had done little to prepare him for watching just how quickly and completely a human body could be destroyed. Recognizing his mèi-mei as one of the shinigami he was watching advance upon him hit him like a blow to the gut, freezing him in place. He could only watch helpless as the man's weapon swung in the direction of his throat, certain that the white lab coat he had stolen to better blend in as he made his way deeper into the facility was now going to be the mark which got him killed. At the last possible moment, something spun him out of reach and slammed him face-first into a wall.

"Simon," his sister said and he had never heard her voice sound so cold. Simon couldn't help shivering at the sound of it. River had always been a bit distant from everyone, as if she was trying to communicate with people from another room or through curtains. She would laugh at shadows and spend hours staring at seemingly nothing with her head cocked to the side as if listening to something that couldn't be heard. He knew that she loved him and would do anything for him, but that River had never spoken his name so flatly as if she was identifying an object rather than a person.

"Doctor," the man replied in the same tone. Simon shivered again as cold sweat trickled down his neck. He wanted to turn, to watch as his death descended, but there was a hand pressed against his back and while it exerted no real pressure, Simon got the distinct impression it was River warning him not to move. River wouldn't let him come to harm any more than he would her, regardless of how she sounded currently. He had to trust that.

"Rescue," River countered. Finally, her voice had something to it. Simon relaxed even if he was certain that her amusement was at his expense. The man gave a huff that could have been a laugh as easily as it could be frustration. The hand on his back gave him two quick pats before disappearing. Cautiously, Simon turned to face the two fighters. River lightly traced his face with her left hand before giving a faint smile. When she spoke again, recognition warmed her tone. "Simon."

"River," he breathed before pulling her into a tight hug. A door slammed open down the hall, startling him and making River spin out of his arms to stand in front of him. Every inch of her declared her intent to defend and Simon wanted to weep because that was so familiar, so much his brilliant mèi-mei just like she had always been.

At the same time, her new companion stepped fully into Simon's view. The man was even more intimidating now that Simon had gotten a good look at him. Three inches of height different might as well have been three feet due to the differences in their shoulders. It occurred to Simon that this must be how River had always felt standing next to him. The flashing lights of the corridor reflected off the man's metal arm, as quick as lightning and just as frightening.

"Punk," the man declared, no trace of his previous flat iciness. He left them without a backwards glance and yet Simon knew (just knew like he sometimes did with patients) that he remained vigilant to their position. Down the hall, another man was storming towards them, just as intimidatingly large as the first man for all that his bare chest was covered in scars. (His medical knowledge categorized them as the remnants of biopsies, but there were so many of them that it couldn't be true. No one could need so many and still be alive.) The relief on the new man's face at the sight of the brunet was palatable.

River began pulling him towards the pair as they embraced. Her grip on his arm would probably leave bruises but that was far better than being dead or having her still be trapped. Oh, but how would he get them all out? The deal had only been for River—but Simon knew that these two men would be coming with them and that his mèi-mei would never willingly leave either behind any more than she would him.

"Captain," River greeted when they had joined them. The pair of men pulled reluctantly away from each other, the blond more so than the brunet who fell into a faux casual stance next to River with his eyes sweeping the hallway with its myriad of doors. The blond examined River as if it were his first time seeing her and for all that Simon knew, it could have been—which made the intense affection on River's face feel inappropriate. His sister sometimes just knew things about people, but the only other person he had ever seen her give that look was himself and the spike of jealousy left a bitter taste in his mouth. Then she blinked and all expression disappeared. Simon shuddered at the return of the shinigami version of his sister after the glimpse of her more normal self. "Incoming. Doctor; Operatives in Escort."

"Dance?"

As the brunet held out his metal hand, Simon realized the true horror of what must have happened in this place. It is one thing for the letter to mention that the Academy was hurting the students. It was quite another to realize that the one activity which his sister loved above all else had been twisted into a tool for murder. His stomach twisted as River took the man's hand and they literally waltzed into the small crowd rounding the corner. The group was no match for the two death agents and it was wrong to see how easily they wrecked the obviously well-trained operatives after River executed a jab to the Doctor's throat (crushed trachea, his medical knowledge diagnosed unhelpfully).

Simon had known that the Academy trained assassins for the Alliance. He had learned a lot about their methods in the year he had spent trying to get into the facility and his 'friends' had made him memorize a list of phrases before they had even started arranging this little infiltration attempt—and the realization of why the doctors were being targeted the way they were hit him like a hammer. River met his eyes over her shoulder as she relieved the last operative she had dropped of his blade. She was still his mèi-mei but she was also the shinigami that the Academy had made her.

She had become Death, a destroyer of worlds.

And he still loved her more than anything else in the entire 'Verse.

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To Be Continued
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