Serenity was able to make it up in the air. Inara steeled herself for a bumpy ride. According to Princess DG there was a man in Central City that could help them get Serenity ready for the black, although; she was doubtful about how they were going the get back to their own universe.

The Companion had always considered herself to be open minded; however, recent events had her completely baffled. Inara tried to pull in all her wildly jumping thoughts. First, they were being chased by reavers; a very bad yet familiar situation. Then they were pulled into a special anomaly, only to crash on a world with two suns and where magic apparently was just another fact of life.

Wyatt Cain nodded his head to her as he sat and accepted a cup of tea from Zoë. He was a puzzle to her. At first glance the 'Tin Man' (strange descriptor that was) reminded her strongly of Mal.

Both were kind, strong, independent and inherently decent men. Only, Cain made no effort to hide it. They were similar in their loyalties. Mal to Serenity and his crew. Cain to his princess and his world; and that's the order Inara was certain those loyalties came in.

"So," Zoë contemplated her tea. "Royal bodyguard, sounds like an interesting job?" Zoë wasn't good with small talk. And the 'magic is real' thing had slowed her thoughts some.

"It's not so bad. When she doesn't wander off," Cain grumbled the last bit.

Inara looked up with a slight smile, "And where is her highness now?"

"She went off with Miss. Frye to see the engine room," Cain said with a rueful smile.

The princess was another puzzle. That she had grown up on a farm explained both her lack of polished sophistication and self-sufficient spirit. Analyzing her was like trying to pin down mist. Princess DG was a fascinating mixture of wide eyed innocence and gently ironic cynicism that you just didn't see in most people her age.

"When a man's an empty kettle he should be on his mettle. / And yet I'm torn apart. / Just because I'm presumin' that I could be kind-a-human/ If I only had heart," River sang over the intercom.

Inara blinked. She'd never done that before. She caught the expression on Cain's face; a little pale…well more pale with wide troubled eyes. Apparently, River's newly discovered aptitude for songwriting was one that touched on a nerve.

Zoë just sighed.

"I'd be tender - I'd be gentle and awful sentimental / Regarding Love and Art. / I'd be friends with the sparrows ... / and the boys who shoots the arrows / If I only had a heart," River sang on.

"You're scare'n our guests," Mal's voice touched with exaggerated patience could be heard over the intercom.

"Am not. The music's in the air. I'm just giving it voice," River returned. A pause and then voice quavering, "You don't like my singing voice?"

"No. I did not say that," Mal said in the universal placating tone men used on women they'd inadvertently offended. "It's a right pretty singing voice. I'm just suggestin that maybe our guests don't want to be serenaded."

"I knew it!"

----

"It looks like the compression coil is zao gao something bad," Kaylee scratched her forehead smearing it a bit with oil.

DG gave the engine a critical once over. While, she was far from being an expert in spaceship engines she knew when something was being held together with duct tape and good intentions.

It was clear that the engineer, like herself, was a genius when it came to mechanics, that was the only way this thing was keeping Serenity in the air. "You caught some damage lately," DG ventured.

Kaylee scowled, "That obvious? We got caught by pirates who thought to scavenge us. We got most o' it back though."

It had taken Kaylee a surprisingly short time to get over her initial nervousness of being around a bona fide princess…a magic princess at that. DG wasn't stuck-up in the least. She was down right sweet.

And she knew her engines!

"If we can't repair this I'm sure Glitch could invent something that works twice as good," DG said thoughtfully.

Kaylee's face scrunched up, "You want to let someone named 'Glitch' at my engines?"

DG laughed.

----

Dr. Simon Tam wandered into the kitchen. He nodded politely at Inara and Cain before turning a long suffering smile in Zoë's direction. "It's time for a checkup."

"No it's not," Zoë said…well not frantically. Zoë did not do frantically. It was just that the undue fuss Simon made over her these days was uncomfortable.

"It's been three weeks since your last checkup. And quite recently you were bounced around." Simon used his reasonable voice. The one that made you feel like a naughty five year old.

Zoë hated being on the receiving end of that voice. She was not a woman who liked feeling like a naughty five year old and so she gave the doctor a stare with just a hint of a scowl attached. Normally, this would frighten Simon off. But, unfortunately he was in doctor-mode and not even naked reavers would make him back down.

"Zoë, do you want me to explain to you again exactly what happens to your body during pregnancy again?" Simon raised an inquiring brow, "In detail?"

To Inara's great surprise the stoic first officer blushed bronze along her cheekbones.

Zoë stood up and glared. "Gan ao man yi," she muttered sullenly.

Simon laughed lightly, "Is that anyway for a mother to talk?" He followed her out of the kitchen.

"He's very brave," Cain said after a moments thought.

Inara nodded, "If he's lucky she'll only beat him about the head and shoulders."

Wyatt Cain sipped at his rapidly cooling coffee, "So, what do you plan on telling your captain?"

The companion frowned delicately, "I'm not sure I know what you mean?"

He snorted, "He wants to know the lay of the land. I can't say as I blame him, what with being thrown in a different dimension and all."

Inara considered, "And if that were the case?"

"We're no harm to him and his if he's no harm to us," Cain said after some deliberation.

"I'll mention it to Captain Reynolds."

Cain tipped his hat, "Much obliged ma'am."

----

"Do they always have to do that?" DG grumbled as she peered out the window. An armed liveried troop stood at attention outside of the firefly.

Cain chuckled, "They don't always do that when you come; we've got company. Besides, would you rather having to sneak in while being chased by Longcoats?"

"Maybe," DG said airily.

"Now, don't go all nostalgic on us," Cain muttered rolling his eyes.

Malcolm wandered over to the window an observed, "That does not look like a friendly welcome."

DG sighed, "Don't worry, Captain. They're not here to clap you in irons. It's just an honor guard. We don't get visitors from outer space all that often." She shot a smile at Mal that lit up the room.

Mal found himself blinking and smiling helplessly back at her.

Inara looked from the captain to the princess with an disbelieving expression. DG had to be magic if she could get an unguarded expression out of Mal like that.

Cain chuckled. "Miss. Serra, the princess has a way of thawing the most frozen of hearts."

"So I see," said the astonished companion.

Mal shook himself like a dog trying to shed himself of the euphoric feeling he'd gotten when DG had smiled at him. It had felt like his insides were being filled up with sunlight. Magic… right. That would explain it.

"Come on, I'll introduce you to my parents!" DG chirped.


Queen Lurline made them welcome with all kinds of fanfare and welcomed them warmly. Then she excused herself. Apparently, in the O.Z. the monarchy was a real job and not the mostly symbolic affair on Londoninium.

Mal Reynolds had once said something about a government being a body of people notably ungoverned. He didn't think that Queen Lurline quite fit into that category. From what he could tell she ruled herself and her kingdom (queendom?) with iron discipline.

Couple that with her soft spoken demeanor and her majesty rather reminded Mal of his mother; it was mostly this comparison that made him leery of crossing the lady with the lavender eyes.

-----

"Fei yi suo si hun luan, hun luan zhi gou ji mao! Let me see if I've got this," Simon said with a pensive expression. "Half of your brain was removed?"

Ambrose nodded absently as he looked over Kaylee's detailed engine specs. "Yeah. It was kind of a pain. They took part of my brain and I went a little insane. Hey! That rhymed!"

Simon's eyes had widened. Simon had expressive eyes. That was a good thing because a good deal of the time his face was stuck in an immobile calm. Currently, his eyes had widened past fear and were now on pure incredulity. "But that's just not physically possible! You'd die if someone removed half your brain. The logical fallacies in the statement just boggle the mind."

Glitch laughed at the doctor's expression, "Magic."

Simon blinked. That small fact about life in the O.Z. hadn't really sunk in yet. The scientist in him was hugely resentful of the very existence of such a thing. The other part of him, the part that was clearly River's brother jumped up and down in glee and thumbed his nose at the scientist. "Oh."

"And some alchemy…a lot of alchemy," Ambrose continued. "They put it in a glass case."

Simon had a sudden flash of the bipolar royal advisor taking out his brain each night and keeping in a jar on his dresser overnight.

Ambrose scratched his head, "We're going to have to just remove the engine entirely and rebuild it from the ground up.

"I don't know who's going to hate that plan more; the captain or Kaylee."

-----

"Fan shi bei! You were possessed by the spirit of an evil witch," Zoë stated flatly.

Azkadelia sipped her tea. "I'm thinking about putting together a pamphlet on the subject that explains everything and we can hand it out to all visitors to the O.Z. as they arrive."

DG laughed aloud.

Zoë shrugged, "We don't have much in the way of possession where we come from."

"'Less the shepherd didn't tell us everything 'bout being a preacher," Kaylee said thoughtfully from behind her small mountain of strawberries.

"Thank you Kaylee," Zoë said. "I haven't been this disturbed in some time."

"Yer welcome," Kaylee said dunking a strawberry into chocolate.

"I'd imagine recovering from such an ordeal would cause difficulties," spoke up Inara thoughtfully.

Az smiled sadly, "Some days are better than others. The nightmares have faded for the most part."

DG reached out wordlessly and grasped Az hand. Az squeezed back.

"You just go on," Azkadelia said softly. "It's all you can do."

Zoë nodded. It was true. After Haven, after Miranda all they could do, all she could do was to put one foot in front of the other.

"So did it hurt when the fei gan xing hous came out of your boobs?" Kaylee asked Azkadelia.

Az raised an inquisitive brow.

"Flying monkeys," elaborated the mechanic.

DG snorted softly, "I think there is a word in there that you missed."

Kaylee blushed. Inara smiled and Zoë laughed.

"Yes," Azkadelia said flatly.

-----

"So Aliens?" Ahamo asked eagerly.

Somehow Mal found himself in the company of both of DG's fathers; the royal one and the robot one who were both peppering him with questions about life as a starship captain. Apparently, both were science fiction enthusiasts. Reynolds answered their questions and drank the royal whisky that tasted like gold going down and hoped desperately that Jayne would behave himself.

Unbeknownst to Mal, Jayne was under the watchful eye of Emily Gale who was widely regarded as the best cook in the O.Z. who was plying the mercenary with all manner of baked goods.

"I've not come across any," Mal admitted and nearly laughed at their disappointed expressions.

"No alien life at all?" Hank said looking a woebegone as a kicked puppy.

Mal nodded, "'Fraid so. But, it could be that it's only my 'verse that's devoid of alien life. According to your daughter we're most likely from a parallel reality."

Ahamo looked at Henry. Hank looked at Ahamo. Both sighed.

"There is that," Ahamo said with resignation.

----

"Would you like another piece of pie?" Emily asked.

Jayne stuck out his plate, "Yes, ma'am!"

Emily smiled and placed an overlarge slice of pie onto his plate and spooned some thick fresh cream over the top. The boy was enthusiastic eater, she'd give him that.

"Mrs. Gale if I were older or if you were younger I'd fight yer man for ya," Jayne said seriously.

Emily blinked, "That's sweet of you Mr. Cobb. I think."

----

When DG had first introduced them, River had put her hand over Raw's heart and in an instant knew all about him. Her wild untrained powerful mind brushed against his and he almost fainted…only the sure and certain knowledge that Cain and Glitch would tease him about it forever kept him from crumpling down on the floor like a dropped jacket.

Raw had never met a human quite like River Tam. Not magic. A reader…the human version of a viewer only in River it was supercharged and it didn't have jesses to hold it in check. She was so…broken inside. Her heart was naked and vulnerable and the world whispered its secrets into her ears.

And at the moment she seemed intent on being incredibly annoying.

"Yeah, it's sad, believe me Missy /When you're born to be a sissy /Without the vim and verve /But I could show my prowess /Be a lion, not a mowess /If I only had the nerve," River crooned.

Raw wondered idly why she felt the need to make up a song about his former cowardice. She didn't seem to understand personal boundaries.

"I'm afraid there's no denyin' /I'm just a dandylion/A fate I don't deserve /I'd be brave as a blizzard…"

As for River the O.Z. was a story. Not a story that she was part of but one that welcomed her as a guest star; And what a story it was…miracles, magic, fighting, footwear, true love, revenge, lions and tigers and…oh my.

River shot up and stared at the sky. It came alive again with a furious rainbow maelstrom.

--

DG and Azkadelia felt an itch grow under their skin and as one they looked to the window.

"This is bad," DG said as the wind began to swish.

Az snorted indelicately, "Ya think?"

Both princesses could smell the stench of rotting corpses on the wind.

--

"What is wrong?" Raw said his gaze wavering from the sky to the girl. He cautiously opened up his heart and immediately wanted to be sick.

pain rage hunger lust pain violence fury hunger need pain…

"Reavers," River whispered.


zao gao -- messed up

gan ao man yi -- fucking arrogant doctor

Fan shi bei -- All things sorrowful

Fei yi suo si hun luan, hun luan zhi gou ji mao --Unimaginably strange confusion of dogs and cats

fei gan xing hou -- flying fucking monkey

----

When I realized that there was going to be a Reaver fight I knew that this was going to be longer than a two shot…so enjoy. Ava