Zoe, Jayne, Inara, and Kaylee sat around the dinner table, their plates full of a food like substance. Proteins and such, everything a body needed, just not something anyone with eyes would want to eat. Mal stepped through one of the doors, Miranda trailing behind him, looking slightly afraid.

"Who's the girl?" Jayne asked stabbing his fork into the goo on his plate as Mal sat Miranda down at the dinner table. "You didn't pick up another stray did you?"

"Her names Miranda." Mal replied. The silence was obvious and deafening.

"Captain?" Zoe whispered questioningly.

"She has a story to tell, if we don't like it, we'll toss her out on the next planet." Mal assured his second in command, and then turned to Miranda whispering to her: "Start spilling your guts, I'll let you know when we've heard enough."

"Miranda!" River cried out, upon entering the kitchen, shoving Simon against the door frame as she pushed her way in and hurried to the table. "Miranda."

Simon rubbed his arm as he ambled in behind River.

"Does anyone have any idea why River might had flipped, I was just doing some test and she started yelling 'Miranda' and came running this way." Simon said stiffly.

"That would be my fault." Miranda said quietly. River knelt beside her, staring into her hazel eyes, and cocking her head to the side. "Hello River."

"Miranda." River whispered, reaching out and gently fingering Miranda's face, from her hollow cheeks to her sharply angled chin.

"Yes River, I found you." Miranda whispered.

"Anyone care to explain?" the very confused doctor asked.

"I think I'm about as lost as you are." Mal replied, looking questioningly at Miranda. "Care to enlighten us?"

"I think it is time for a story." River whispered and Miranda nodded.

"Yes, I do believe it is, but I warn you, it's a very strange story, and you probably won't believe most of it." Miranda started.

"We'll keep an open mind." Mal promised.

"Well, I have to start at the beginning, even though you probably know this part already, I don't know any other way to explain everything in a way that any of you will understand." Miranda said.

"Fine," Mal said, "we're listening."

"Well, as you know, the government on Miranda added the chemical agent known as G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate, better known as "Pax", to the planet's air processors. The purpose of the Pax was to calm the population and weed out aggression, to make people better you might say. The problem was that the Pax worked too well: 99.9 of the population became so lethargic they lay down where they stood and allowed themselves to die, but that wasn't the worst part, about 30,000 people, had the opposite reaction to the Pax. Their response was aggression; the Pax increased their aggression, beyond madness. They became mindlessly violent, they killed all of those who remained alive on Miranda, they tortured them and they ate them. Then they left the planet, to find more victims.

"That is the part of the story that I'm sure you already knew, what you don't know was that the G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate was developed by a promising young Alliance scientist named Theodore Nellway. The Alliance was so pleased with his work that they rewarded him by giving him the "honor" of naming their newest planet, the place that he and his fiancé would call home, and the place where the Pax would first be introduced into the air processors. So, as an engagement gift, Theodore named the planet after his fiancé, Miranda."

"Oh God." Inara whispered. she had turned very white as she covered her mouth with her hand. Miranda bit her lip and took several deep breaths before continuing. River nuzzled her head into Miranda's side and squeezed her comfortingly.

"Of the entire planet, with a population of 30,000,000, only one soul survived the madness that consumed the planet. I was that soul. I was twenty five when the Pax took affect, and I could do nothing but stand by and watch as everything I had come to love destroyed itself. My friends and neighbors just let themselves die, but my fiancé, my Theodore wasn't so luck. He was one of the 0.1 percent who became a reaver."

Inara was whiter than ever, and Kaylee looked as though she was going to be sick.

"If this is too much for all of you, I can stop now. It only gets worse from here." Miranda whispered, but Mal shook his head.

"Keep going, we need to hear it all." Mal told her, she nodded and continued.

"I witnessed the full violence caused by the Pax, by the Alliance and their obsession with improving man kind. I myself was raped and tortured for days, but I wasn't killed, that would have been too merciful I guess. So I was left to live, haunted with the memories.

I found a working shuttle and I escaped from the planet before the Alliance sent anyone to find out what had happened. For the past four years I've been alone, running from the Alliance who some how discovered my existence and set about trying to capture me and control the damage I could cause if I let out the details of what happened on Miranda. They probably also want to use me as a lab rat to discover why I wasn't affected by the Pax, but I've managed to keep one step ahead of the Alliance for the four years.

"I thought running would be my life until you all broadcasted the report of what happened on Miranda. Then I set about to track you down."

"What does any of that have to do with River?" Simon asked.

"She was my saving grace, she is the only reason I survived Miranda at all, let alone with anything that remotely resembled sanity."

"I don't understand." Inara whispered.

"She called to me." River whispered, stroking Miranda's arm.

"I did, didn't I?" Miranda quietly replied, brushing a strand of Rivers hair behind her ear. "And you answered."

"They were hurting us." River whispered.

"They never stopped." Miranda replied, "And they never will."

"Can I say, huh?" Mal asked in confusion.

"River and I have a telepathic connection, but it did not reveal itself until we needed it most, as I was being raped and tortured, forced to watch the death and destruction of an entire planet. I guess my mind cried out for help because next thing I knew River was with me, her traumatized mind answering my pleas. She saved me."

"And you me." River whispered.

"That's what you meant." Simon said abruptly. "When you said 'they're hurting us,' you were talking about you and Miranda weren't you?"

"Yes." River said, gazing at Miranda's misery hardened face. "They hurt us, they hurt us both."


AN: Please Review!

Midnightfarie