Disclaimer: still not mine

A/N: Here's PRIDE! Hope you like it! And thanks to everybody who reviewed, you guys make my life!

Chapter 2: It's Such a Long Fall (Pride)

…

Jayne, Ariel

Now, I ain't never been called the brains of the operation. I'm the muscle. And I'm damn content bein' the muscle. The brains of the outfit is the one who gets caught.

I should've remembered that.

I shouldn't've called the damn Feds. How in the tyen shiao duh did I ever think I'd get away with this?

Sometimes I got my head so far up my pi gu that I do stupid things like this, and I'm always surprised when it bites me on the ass.

Sweet Buddha, but sometimes I hate myself. Should've used my damn head for somethin' other than a place to put my hat.

Never trust a Fed. They'll turn on you, and you end up fallin' down, and nobody'll help you up, cuz you sold 'em out.

It's such a long fall.

...

Simon, Movie

This is my fault. Everything that's happened to River, to the crew… it's my fault.

I should never have let her go to the Academy. I should've gotten her out faster; I should've… done something.

And then, when I did get her out, what did I do to help her? Nothing. I sat around, mooning after Kaylee, and wasting time breaking into hospitals. I should've been trying to save her. Trying to fix her. But no, I just failed as a brother, and as a protector, and at life.

And now we're here, in this stupid hallway… thing. I think I'm dying. Kaylee's paralyzed, Wash is dead, and we're all going to die in a few minutes. And River is being torn apart by the Reavers right now.

I'm bleeding kind of a lot. Blood loss is starting to affect my brain. I don't think this is good. But I deserve it. My stupid pride put me here. I thought I could help, I thought I could save her.

Clearly I can't. Clearly I'm just a big failure, and now I'm falling into a big black sucking pit. Is this dying? It doesn't hurt. I thought it would.

It's such a long fall.

...

Zoë, The Message

All those years ago, when Tracey was just the dumb kid who didn't know how to protect himself from the Alliance soldiers, I was… disdainful, I guess? I thought he was an idiot, and that he'd likely get himself killed.

Never thought I'd be one of the ones to shoot him. Now, I may not have actually killed him (that was Mal), but I helped. I shot him first. Granted, he shot Wash, so I don't really feel too bad about shootin' him, but….

I'm supposed to be the one with the eyes. I've got to spot the potential trouble, before everybody else. I never pegged Tracey as trouble. Not once.

And he almost got everybody killed. He shot Wash, he threatened Kaylee.

I got cocky. I thought I'd be able to take on anyone, anytime. And I wasn't watching Tracey.

I kept thinking of him as that stupid kid at the Battle of Du-Khang, when he couldn't even eat without almost gettin' killed. But he's not that kid anymore.

I mean, he was still stupid, but he wasn't incompetent anymore. He… he could've pulled it off.

And I almost didn't stop it, because I was so proud of my brains and my eyes and my ability to catch trouble before it starts. My stupid pride.

It's such a long fall.

…

Book, pilot

My arrogance nearly got that poor girl killed. My God-cursed pride, thinking that I knew best. That I knew how to function out here, that I knew who to trust.

I know that Pride is one of the seven deadly sins, and believe me, I know Pride. Pride and Wrath are my deepest failings. I try not to think too hard about that anymore, though.

I have become a man of God, now. I should be beyond these sins. But Pride continually trips me up, even more than Wrath.

Give me time, though. I'll likely succumb to Wrath just as quickly as I did Pride.

I must discard sin. I am a man of God, I am a good person, and I should be able to live a godly, sin-free life. Even out here, in the Black, where I used to….

No. No, I have grown and changed. I am not that man any longer. I am a stronger man than I was.

I have to try to beat this. I have to atone for everything that I've done, and to do that, I cannot give in to sin.

Especially not Pride.

It's such a long fall.

...

Wash, War Stories

Gorram it. This is all my fault. I thought I could handle it. I thought I could be the tough guy, go with Mal on a job and be the hero.

And now I'm getting tortured.

Tortured!

I would like to officially go on record as saying I don't like torture. It's not fun. Makes me say crazy things I don't mean.

No way I'd ever let Zoë and Mal… I mean, not that I let Zoë… I mean… ah, hell.

Anyway, my point is, this is my fault. I put myself in this stupid mess. If Zoë had been here with Mal, she wouldn't have let them get caught. She's smart like that.

I'm not saying I'm stupid. Quite the opposite. It takes skill to fly a big ole boat like Serenity. Not just anybody can do that.

But I'm not smart like Zoë and the Captain. And I thought I was. And now we're falling off a cliff towards some spiky rocks that'll splatter our brains everywhere.

Metaphorically speaking, I mean.

It's such a long fall.

…

Inara, Movie

I'm an idiot. I am such an idiot. I should never have left Serenity. I shouldn't have left him. Them. The crew. That's what I meant.

And now there's some psychotic bastard with swords here, and he's forcing me to get Mal here so that he can kill my – I mean, the Captain.

If I had just… talked to him. Not the crazy-man. Mal. If I had just talked to Mal before, back on the ship, or at the Heart of Gold… maybe we wouldn't be in this stupid mess.

He can't come. He can't. If he does he'll get killed. I lo– care about him too much to watch that happen. Care. Care is what I meant to say all along.

No, really. I mean it.

No I didn't. Oh, I don't know. I can't even form a coherent thought lately. My stomach is all twisted up with anxiety and… other emotions that I don't want to name right now.

But now my arrogance, my gorram pride, is going to get him killed. And if he dies… if he dies I'll lose myself.

It's such a long fall.

...

Mal, Shindig

Oh, wo de ma. This is not a good thing. This is, by definition, a bad thing. Look up 'a bad thing' in the dictionary, there's a picture of this situation. And the Alliance. But, anyway.

I've got myself trapped in this stupid, stupid, stupid duel, and it'll probably kill me.

And why? Because I was an idiot, and I thought I could handle myself in a situation that was clearly too deep for me.

At least, that's what she'd say.

I say it's because I was an idiot and he's a sneaky evil hun dan and he's gonna get what's coming to him tomorrow!

It's probably a combination of the two. With Inara's interpretation being more right than mine.

Either way, I was an idiot and it's my own damn fault, and if I die tomorrow then… well, I kind of had it comin'.

My own damn pride is gonna bite me on the ass, and then kick me off the cliff.

It's such a long fall.

...

River, Movie

Her pride and arrogance brought her here. She thought she was gifted, talented, brilliant. Turns out she was just a tool for the Blue Hands, just a doll for them to dress up and dance around and turn into a killer. They don't want her to be a girl; they want her to be a weapon. They don't care that she just wanted to be a girl, to meet a boy and fall into a chemically-induced state of imbalance that doesn't end with bloody hands and lights going dark.

She's a killer now. She can't be herself. Herself is gone. Herself is dead. All that's left is the weapon, with only a few traces of the girl left.

It's a fitting punishment, she supposes. For her arrogance and pride. It's her own fault. No matter how far she falls, she deserves it. But….

It's such a long fall.

...

A/N: Yay! That's another chapter! Next sin up is WRATH! And I swiped the Chinese-swears from the series. Hun dan is 'bastard', and tyen shiao duh is 'name of all that's sacred'. And I tried and tried, for like ten minutes, to think of a PRIDE-moment for Kaylee, and I couldn't think of a damn thing. So, just like there ain't a power in the 'verse can stop Kaylee from bein' cheerful, there ain't one that can make her proud. Or I'm just stupid and I missed one.