Liz and Jayne sat silently in the dining hall staring at their weapons arrayed on the table. "What did Mooney want?" he finally asked as he began to polish Vera.
"Wanted to know why I hadn't fulfilled my contract. Seeing you must have been like seeing a ghost." She started fumbling through her weapons.
"He's the bastard who wanted me dead?"
"He just accepts the contracts. The Canton magistrate wanted you dead."
Jayne growled then noticed her searching her weapons. "What you lookin' for?"
"My Kirpan… must have left it in my quarters. I need to sharpen it." She walked to the exit.
"You should cut my hand this time."
"What?"
"When you draw blood when you unsheathe it, use my hand."
She smiled at his concern then walked to her quarters.
Simon paced in the hall leading to the engine room. "I need alcohol. The only way we've ever gotten close is by alcohol…"
A metallic clang stopped him. It wasn't from the engine room.
"Kaylee?" he called out. A slight pause. "River?"
No one responded.
Simon walked toward the sound. "Who's there? Why the hid…" He was stopped short as the butt of a gun came crashing down on the back of his head.
Four men in scuffed, dirty clothes carrying a variety of guns crept into the hall. "Bullocks, only a city boy. Hide the body. We'll go away from the engine room. She's not a mechanic." They dragged Simon's unconscious body into a niche and walked away.
Liz climbed up the stairs from her quarters holding her sheathed dagger. "Can't believe Jayne wants me to use his hand." She sighed, her mind consumed by the thought. "He's so sweet. I should…" Her speech stopped when the men hit her on the back of the head, grabbing her arms so she would not fall down into her quarters like the dagger did.
"That's the one chaps. Let's take her back." They dragged her down the hall.
"Wuh de ma," Jayne mumbled. "How long does it take to find a dagger?" He sat Vera down and walked toward the quarters, but the sound of unfamiliar voices in a side hallway caused him to run toward it, a pistol at ready.
"in Gaelic Get her out."
Jayne rounded the corner in time to see Book bound and gagged on the floor while scruffy men were pushing Liz's unconscious body in a spacesuit out a hatch.
"Hey! Stop!" he yelled, shooting the last guy in the leg.
But a hit to the back of the head silenced Jayne Cobb.
"Mooney, I'm flattered at your fascination with me," Liz said, turning to the man who walked down the stairs with her captors. "But I think kidnapping, having me beat up… doesn't really send the right message."
"Have you beat up? I would never…" He examined her black eye and busted lip. "Who hit her?" he asked his goons.
No one responded.
"Who hit her?" Mooney shouted.
"Well, boss… she wasn't going to be taken easily…" the man who had hit her began.
"I told you to not hurt her."
"But…"
Mooney wiped out his gun and shot the man in the head. "Get rid of him."
The captors dragged out the dead man, leaving Mooney alone with his prisoner.
"This is very romantic Mooney," she retorted sarcastically. "What inspired this? Me not killing Jayne?"
Jealousy flashed across his face.
"I see. Jayne Cobb under your skin cause I'm in his bed and not yours."
"You little twit! I looked after you, didn't I?"
"You used me for your little hired killer operation."
"You needed the job."
"I could've found work anywhere!"
"While you were grieving over the death of your brother?"
"Leave Myles out of this…"
"Or should I say, while you tortured yourself because you murdered your mentally unstable brother?"
Liz lunged forward, attempting to free herself from her bonds or at least headbutt him. She achieved neither.
"My assumption proves correct." He grinned cockily. "I think a little sedative will be needed for tonight's festivities." He walked to a table and grabbed a large needle full of pink liquid.
"What are you going to do Mooney? Rape me?"
"It's only rape if you don't consent."
"I don't consent!"
"Not after this." He shoved the needle in her arm, and a burning pain ran through her body, eventually causing her to pass out.
"I need to know who those guys were!" Mal shouted as he paced the mess hall.
Jayne remained silent and focused as he cleaned and loaded all of his guns.
"They had no identification markers on their uniform," Zoe replied. "But the uniforms were torn, dirty. Not Alliance, at least not formal Alliance troops."
"Could be mercenaries hired by the Alliance," Wash suggested.
"Or by the same guys who took River," Kaylee added.
Simon shook his head. "No. If they were here, wouldn't they take River too? They easily could have."
"Doc's got a point. So we're looking at mercenaries?" Mal asked, hoping for a confirmation from Zoe.
"Might I suggest…" Book interrupted before she could respond, "…that they worked for Lizane's friend Mooney?"
Jayne paused as he sharpened one of his throwing knives.
"Why you say that Shepherd?" asked the Captain.
"I am well versed in many languages, and those men spoke Gaelic to one another, from what I could hear. You did mention that Mooney spoke Gaelic to Lizane?"
"That stinkin' son of a bitch…" Jayne growled, sheathing his knife. "Why the hell would he take her?"
"How many people do you think actually know Gaelic, Shepherd?"
"Not many. Cultural languages were no longer formally taught since the Alliance gained control. The official languages of Sihnon and Londinium are the only languages taught. Something like Gaelic would be informally passed down through a place like Dyton Colony."
Jayne stood and headed to Liz's quarters.
"Where you going Jayne?" Mal asked.
"Gotta get a dagger that's asking for blood."
Lights flashed on and off above Liz. Either the wiring was faulty or she was blinking a lot. Or both. Her eyelids felt heavy.
She could move, slightly. Her ankles and wrists were no longer shackled. That fact that she lied naked under satin sheets on a bed that reeked of sex made her gag. "I need to find a gun and blow that fucker's head off," she thought. Dizziness, plus the flashing lights, slowed her down. She only made it a few feet when Mooney walked in with a dart gun.
"Out of bed? Tiss, tiss. Not good to do in your condition."
"What the hell drugs…"
"Oh it's a special blend. And it's quite addictive too. Soon, you'll be begging me for it."
"Like hell…"
"Oh you will. You're body will be able to function as long as you regularly inject yourself with it. You won't pass out anymore."
"And then I'll kill you."
He laughed and pointed the gun at her. "No. You will become dependent on me and the drugs that you will do whatever I say." He shot the dart into her stomach, and once again the burning pain shot through her body.
Mooney dragged her unconscious body onto the bed. "One more injection and you'll be completely addicted," he whispered as he threw the dart gun to the side.
Jayne led Zoe and Mal to Mooney's establishment in the backstreets of Beaumonde.
"Can we help you chaps?" the entrance guards asked with a smirk.
"No," Jayne growled as he threw two knives, one for each throat.
"Jesus Jayne."
"No time for talk Mal." He grabbed his knives and barged into the building.
"Who the hell let you in?" shouted a patrol in the hallway.
The two knives silenced him.
"If you kill them we can't ask where Liz is. You plan on going through the whole building killing them until you find her?"
"That was the plan." He checked a side room, shooting two sentries. "Come on Mal. There's killin' to do."
Mal could not argue with a crazed-face Jayne.
"Please don't do it Mooney," Lizane pleaded. She was halfway sitting up in his bed, her wrists and ankles once again shackled.
Mooney leaned over her with an even larger needle full of the cursed drug. "I have to Liz. It's the only thing that can make you want me."
Tears ran down her face, disgusted at how the drug made her feel and what it allowed Mooney to do to her. "You know I'd be wanting the drugs, not you."
"I have a great imagination."
"Then use it and your hand and let me go."
Mooney smiled. "Oh I'll use my hand. On you." He caressed her face and down her throat. "All that Companion stuff you use, made your skin really soft."
She gagged.
"Don't fake illness with me love. I know you. You like to be craved."
"Not by you."
"I swear… if you mention that stupid mercenary one more time…"
"Jayne Cobb!" she yelled. "Jayne Cobb, Jayne Cobb, Jayne Cobb!"
He slapped her. "That's it! After this needle, I'll fill up another one and give it to you. You'll be dazed for weeks. Then you'll be my little junkie."
As the needle barely touched her skin, someone pounded on the door. "Mr. Mooney! Sir! Someone's broke in and killing off the guards…"
"Well kill him."
"We're trying. But…"
"Shut up! Do I have to do everything myself?" He dropped the needle and grabbed two pistols from his nightstand.
Liz laughed, half delusional. "It seems that if I say his name, he comes for me."
"Shut your mouth. Soon you'll have your precious Jayne… his head will be on your dinner plate."
She narrowed her eyes. "Jayne Cobb!"
Jayne pulled his knife out of the guard he knelt on.
"The hall to the left is clear," Zoe reported.
Mal nodded down the descending hallway before them. "Think I heard someone shouting down there. Male voices."
Jayne stood up, pulling out a new set of guns from his lashed-on arsenal.
"Jayne Cobb!" a shout echoed up the hallway.
His eyes widened. "Liz!" He ran down the hall.
"Jayne! Wait!" Mal called, going after him.
Zoe shook her head and followed.
Mooney and Liz heard gunshots outside of the door. A great pound came on the door. Mooney raised his guns; one to the door, and one to Liz. Another pound on the door, and Jayne barged in.
In an instant, Mooney fired his weapon, and blood poured from Jayne's shoulder.
"Drop your weapon Cobb, or your little lover gets it."
Mal and Zoe appeared behind Jayne, guns at ready.
"All of you, drop your guns!"
Jayne glanced at Liz and felt a knot in his stomach.
"Take him out." It was Liz, but her lips did not move. She was using her power to give Jayne a surprise advantage over Mooney. Already, Mal and Zoe were lowering their weapons, "He's a bad shot. You're not. Take him out. He won't get me."
"Come on Cobb. Be like your chaps and drop the gun or the damsel gets it."
Jayne scowled as his line of fire focused on Mooney's head, but it changed to the hand pointing the gun at Liz. If he hit it, no chance of Mooney shooting at her. He fired.
"Son of a bitch!" Mooney shouted as he dropped the gun.
Mal and Zoe quickly retrieved their weapons as Jayne rushed Mooney with Liz's Kirpan dagger unsheathed.
"You fuckin' son of a bitch!" Jayne yelled as he stabbed Mooney in the shoulder where the shot had hit Jayne. "You sick bastard!" He stabbed him repeatedly, in the throat, in the stomach, in the heart. "You raped my girl!"
Zoe turned away from the scene, and Mal motioned for her to leave.
Blood flew in Jayne's crazed face as he shouted at the corpse he stabbed.
"Jayne…" Liz moaned. The use of her psychic ability while still under the influence of drugs had drained her.
Jayne stopped his tirade, remembering that still remained chained naked to the bed. He grabbed the key off the nightstand and freed her. "Are you okay?"
"He drugged me. I think, take that needle to Simon. See if he can…" she collapsed in his arms.
He wrapped her in the sheets and picked her up as well as the drug filled needle. "Let's go," Jayne said to Mal who was pocketing the large amount of platinum that sat in bags on Mooney's desk.
"Jayne Cobb… not stopping for money," Mal said to himself. "Thought I'd never see the day."
Liz opened her eyes. Good light. No faulty wiring or obsessive blinking.
"How are you feeling?"
Simon's voice. Now his face. "I'm not dizzy."
"Dizzy Miss Lizzy…" Simon mumbled as he checked her IV. "You were suffering from dehydration and were nearly overdosed on Icathium."
"Icathium?"
Simon held up a vial with the drugs. "Highly addictive. Highly lethal. One more injection of this and your body would require it to function. As you continue to supply your body with it, it would slowly cause organs to stop working. You, however, were given too much in too short a time, and without any other substance, like water or food, to digest. Some of your organs were already shutting down."
"But I'll be okay?"
"Oh yes. The IV is helping with dehydration and I've been administering medicine to clear the Icathium out of your system and to help dead cells in organs to regenerate."
Liz turned her head to see Jayne sitting on the counter nearby, his head drooped in slumber and his shirt off, revealing the bandaged shoulder. "How's his shoulder?"
"He'll be fine. His biggest problem is exhaustion from lack of sleep and a massive adrenaline rush ever since you were taken. Even when you were back, he wouldn't let me look at his gunshot till you were completely taken care of."
Liz smiled at her sleeping hero.
