Usherin skyyybo va. Nope, I don't own them even then.
They were fools if they thought that a cryo-box could contain him; but ever had they been fools, ever since they first caught him. In an instant he could burst from it, like a child from a womb long cold and dead…that was what this box was. A womb of cold death and sleep; but he never slept. Not anymore.
His arms could shred it as if the walls were made of paper and not a compound of steel and plastic, of death and dreams.
But no eyes could penetrate into the box. No cameras, no captures, no one from the outside looking in. For once, he was alone with his own mind, his own eyes looking only into blackness. For him, the blackness had no secrets, and he was content to remain within.
So he hummed.
It was the only thing left to him from that place of his childhood that he could remember. The only thing that seemed to bring a respite from the cold buzzing of machines and the slicing of his captor's minds into his. For too long he had felt their nauseous desires, their insidious little thoughts like bugs crawling under his skin.
So he hummed them away and let his mind wander, free of their tethers, to River.
There was leagues between them, but his thoughts were quicker than any engine, and they found her at the helm of the ship. For an instant Serenity resisted his intrusion, but he was nothing if not persistent, and she acquiesced with a resigned sigh.
She had long ago stopped fighting him.
River felt dark eyes upon her the instant Zoe left, but this time she didn't jump, didn't scream, didn't let a tear fall. Her hands remained steady upon the controls and the ship remained steady in the black.
He sought her out too often.
Little dancer, why do you flee? His mind touched hers gently, barely brushing alongside hers and she felt her breath shuddering in her chest and her hear thudding in her ears.
Dark black eyes bored into hers and he tried to smile, but all she saw were his fangs and the battle wounds on his body. He was bleeding still, indeed he bled forever, and fear rose up again and tried to drown her.
But this was not the place where fear should dwell, and all around her she felt the ship and a presence of gold and green laughter surround her and soothe away her dread until she was as calm as an ancient lake, still and wide.
I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar.
Why that should make him laugh she didn't know, but it reverberated throughout her skull and her sense of comfort vanished again.
Jayne looked up from his breakfast and frowned. Something wasn't right.
He nonchalantly got up from the table and put his bowl in the sink, then walked out of the room with nothing more than a grunt to the others. Simon was to busy staring at Kaylee to notice, and the others were still eating.
It was a short walk to the bridge where he found River.
She looked so small, sitting in Wash's chair. Her hair had come out of the pony-tail she had taken to wearing and it fell about her face in tendrils. She looked like the little lost crazy girl before Miranda.
The sound of his boots clanking on the floor grating hadn't even caused her to look up. Her eyes were unfocused and concentrated inward, and her fingers were loosed on the controls.
That made his hear skip a beat so he went forward and hesitantly tapped her shoulder.
"Hey, moonbrain," he caught himself whispering and it annoyed him. In a louder tone he continued, "You flying this heap or what?"
River seemed to jerk awake under his hand and he backed off quickly; he want one to forget soup cans to the head, a bread-knife to the chest, or crushed….he winced to himself, no, he wasn't gonna forget anytime soon. Even if he was gonna watch her back.
She looked up at him with wide brown eyes. "Now that the red mantle covers her shoulders and keeps away laughing corpses, yes she is flying."
Then she frowned at him hard. "And she doesn't like to be called a heap. She holds you far too tightly to be a heap."
