Author's Note: This is going to be the part of the story where you dislike Ophelia and the others quite a bit. Sorry it's taking so long to update.

Chapter 11

Jeremiah stood in the infirmary of the Chronos and stared down at the girl lying on the med table. She was still unconscious, her breathing shallow but even. A lock of her deep brown hair had fallen across her cheek. He reached down and swept it away from her face with his finger. She looked so fragile like this. He felt anger rise in his chest and felt his fists tighten.

The girl moved, a low moan escaping from her mouth, but she did not open her eyes. He pressed the com button on the wall, "Mattais, get in here. She's starting to come around."

A few minutes later, Mattais entered the infirmary and moved to stand next to the med table. He placed one hand on the girls forehead and closed his eyes. Jeremiah waited in silence until he was done.

When Mattais stepped away from the table again, he motioned for Jeremiah to join him outside of the room.

"She's healing, but she's still got a long way to go. The damage done to her brain was extensive."

"Can you tell what was done to her?"

"I've picked up on some of it. I don't want to go to deep right now, mind shock is still a possibility."

Jeremiah could tell his friend still had something on his mind, "Spit it out," he said.

"You do know how annoying it is that you can do that, right? Okay, here's the thing. Even damaged this girl is strong. She's strong like you're strong, maybe even more. I think the only reason we got her out of there without a fight was the fact that she'd drugged herself and that the Flux had no idea how to bolster her."

"He was running on pure instinct, trying to protect her. Although, for someone untrained, he exhibited a remarkable strength." Jeremiah looked through the window of the infirmary, "Will she regain consciousness before we reach Morpheus?"

"She's been through a hell of an ordeal. I put her under pretty far, she needs time to heal," Mattais said.

"Keep an eye on her, let me know if anything changes."

Jeremiah turned to leave, but Mattais stopped him, "Whatever they did to her, it caused major psychic bleed Jeremiah. I can't be sure we got to her in time, not until Ophelia has had a chance to examine her mind."

"I know," Jeremiah responded, "I have to allow myself to believe we reached her before she was to far gone," he said, "I've watched to many of them slip into madness over the last two years. After what that last girl did to herself," he closed his eyes as the memory assailed him, "I can't watch that happen again."

When he turned to leave this time, Mattais didn't stop him. After Jeremiah had disappeared around the corner, he walked to the window of the infirmary and watched the girl sleep. They didn't even know her name yet.

"Her name is River," Tara said, walking up to stand beside him, "I picked it up while Jeremiah was connected to the Flux. Her name kept repeating in his mind." She looked through the window, silent for a moment, "If she wakes up to damaged to be saved," she paused and looked at Mattais, "I don't know if I'll be able to help him this time."

Mattais wrapped one arm around her shoulder and pulled close, "We'll just have to make sure nothing happens to either of them."

Tara rested her head on his shoulder, still watching the sleeping girl, "I hope it's that easy."

oOo

"What the gorram hell are you talkin' about Jayne?" Mal said, "Who took River?"

Jayne pushed himself up into a sitting position and then laid back down when the room began to spin, "I heard her screamin' from my bunk, Mal," Jayne said. He looked at Simon, "I got to her as fast as I could Doc, but weren't nothin' I could do to stop them."

Simon looked away, turning his back on the man lying on his med table, "I'm sure you did," he said.

Jayne closed his eyes. He could hear the accusation in the other man's voice. He knew what they were all thinking. They thought he'd sold her out to the bounty hunters and got himself bashed in the head for his trouble.

"Look, I know what you think of me. I know you think I'd sell you and your sister out as soon as look at ya', and I'm not going to waste my breath tryin' to convince you otherwise," he said, pushing himself up again. This time he sat until the dizziness passed and tried to stand up.

Mal put his hands on Jayne's shoulders and pushed gently, "Just tell us what happened, because right now I'm powerful confused. Far as I can recall, my boat was just on fire. Trapped us in the galley. Now I'm lookin' around and seeing no evidence of that. You got something you can say to explain that?"

"No Mal. I can't explain anything right now. I don't understand it any mor'n you do," Jayne said, looking Mal directly in the eyes, "But I know we need to find out who they were and where the hell they took her."

"There's no doubt you're right, but we can't do anything right now. We need to get to Morpheus and drop this payment, then we'll figure out how to go about findin' our little lost albatross. I've lost enough good folk, ain't about to lose another."

oOo

"She's awake Jeremiah."

Jeremiah looked up from the book he was reading. Tara stood in the doorway, a look of concern on her face. "Is Mattais with her?"

"He is, but he needs you down there. She's agitated and he had to restrain her. He thinks you might be able to calm her."

Jeremiah set his book on the small table next to his chair and followed Tara down to the infirmary. The girl, River, was still on the med table and he could tell from the look on her face she was terrified. Mattais was standing next to her, one hand on her chest. He could see that his friend was concentrating on trying to calm her, but that is was having very little effect.

"Mattias, let her go."

Mattais immediately relaxed his control on the girls mind and as soon as she was free she pushed herself off the table, sliding to the floor and backing herself into the corner of the room. Her eyes were wild as she scanned the room. He could feel the energy surging out of her and opened his own senses, trying to dampen hers.

Jeremiah, she's getting ready to...

Tara never got to finish her thought as River erupted from the corner of the room. She jumped over the med table with remarkable speed, bolted past Tara and out into the hallway.

"Jesus," Mattais said, admiration in his voice, "she's almost as fast as you are Jeremiah."

Jeremiah didn't comment, he simply left the infirmary and walked into the hall, "Tara, which way?"

Tara scanned the hallway, "She's heading to the cargo bay."

"You know, I'm thinking that this little girl isn't to happy about finding herself here," Mattais said as he followed Jeremiah and Tara toward the cargo bay, "How do you want to handle this?"

"Don't hurt her," Jeremiah said, "If you have to, put her out, just don't hurt her."

They moved along through the twisting hallways in silence. Tara would occasionally point and they would change directions. As they neared the stairs that led to the cargo bay, Tara stopped moving.

She's just up ahead.

oOo

River waited. She could hear the group approaching. They moved silently, no alarms had been sounded and she didn't see any additional guards. She looked around the area where she stood and tried to find a place to hide.

The beams that ran the length of the ceiling and connected with the truss system holding up the catwalk slender, but they looked solid. She grabbed one of the beams running the length of the wall and climbed until she reached the top. She slid her slender frame over the first set of beams and waited, her back pressed against the ceiling, until she saw the group emerge from the hallway and head for the stairs.

oOo

I told you we should have kept her out until we got back to Phelia's place.

Not now Mattais.

She's confused Jeremiah. Mattais is right, we should have waited to bring her around until Ophelia was there to help calm her so we could explain things.

Jeremiah was about to say something when he was knocked off balance by River's body colliding with his. He fell to his knees and instinctively opened his senses. He could feel the anger and fear pouring out of the girl, her own senses were running hot. He rolled to one side, taking the girl with him, and tried to pin her to the floor.

River brought up one hand and caught the man on top of her just under the chin, causing his head to snap back. It wasn't enough to knock him out, but it did make him temporarily loosen his grip. It was enough to allow her to push herself out from under him and regain her feet.

Jeremiah pushed himself up and wiped the blood away from his lips with the back of his hand.

She's got a hell of a stance, I'll give her that.

Jeremiah narrowed his eyes and looked at Mattais. The big man held up his hands in a gesture of surrender and even managed to keep the slight grin on his face from becoming a full blown smile.

Jeremiah redirected his attention to where River was standing. The glint of metal made him groan inwardly as his hand dropped to his thigh.

She has my blade.

You think she knows how to use it?

River dashed forward, slashing out with the dagger she held in one hand. She caught the woman along the left forearm and managed to dance away before she could recover. A hand gripped her wrist and spun her and she found herself facing the large black man that had been looking down at her when she woke up. She twisted her body out and away from him, breaking his hold easily, but she had to sacrifice her hold on her purloined weapon in order to do it.

I'll be damned, look at the girl go. Someone taught her how to fight.

You can admire her skill set later Mattais. Right now we need to get her under control before she hurts herself.

She's terrified, Jeremiah. She's trying to connect with someone called Jayne and not being able to find him is sending her into a blind panic.

Do it Mattais, put her under.

River started to move forward for another attack when suddenly her limbs refused to cooperate. She felt herself sinking to the floor, felt the room begin to go black. She fought against it, pushed at the darkness as hard as she could. She needed to get away from these people and find out what happened to the others. She needed to apologize. She needed to make it right.

I'm going to have to push harder. She's not drugged like she was the last time and she's fighting me.

Do it. We can help her rebuild the memories later, but right now we need to stop her from fighting us.

Mattais gave a silent jerk of his head to indicate he understood before opening his talent wide and blasting the girl's mind with an energy wave. She dropped to the floor like a stone sinking in a pond and lay in an inglorious heap until Jeremiah picked her up.

Tara walked beside him as he carried her back to the infirmary, placing her gently on the med table. He accepted the blanket Tara handed him and placed it over her sleeping figure before heading back to his room.

Tara followed Jeremiah back to his room. She could tell by the way he held himself that he was battling his own inner demons. Having to give the order for Mattais to send her into a comatose would have been hard on him and she knew he was dealing with the backlash now.

Once they entered his room she shut the door and simply waited. She knew he would need her, but she also knew him well enough to know that if she spoke first, he would just tell her to leave.

Jeremiah sat down on the edge of the bed and dropped his head into his hands. She could feel the anger radiating from him in waves. When he still didn't speak, she walked across the room and sat down next to him, placing one graceful hand on his leg, "You didn't have a choice. She would have undone all of the healing Mattais had accomplished."

Jeremiah tilted his head so he could see Tara, "There are always choices," he said, "We didn't have to take her like we did. If we had gone in while they were still on Morpheus..."

"If we had gone in while they were still on Morpheus, they would have known where to begin looking. There would be a greater risk that they would find her before we could heal her. This was never going to be easy, it never is Jeremiah. They're so broken when we get to them," Tara moved her hand to cover his own and squeezed gently, "at least we know that she's not beyond saving."

"I could feel the fear and the pain Tara. It was rushing off of her like water running down hill," he closed his eyes, "And now, when she wakes up..."

Tara leaned forward and kissed his forehead lightly, "When she wakes up, she won't be scared anymore."

Jeremiah leaned his forehead against hers, "But what happens when the memories come back? Do you remember what happened to me when I finally regained my mind? How full of hate I was?"

"I remember," she said, "But I also remember that you came back to us, to me. Ophelia will be there for her just as she was for you. It will be fine."

oOo

Jayne slammed on hand into the wall. Mal was done talking, Zoe always sided with the captain, the Doc wouldn't even look at him and Nara and Kaylee just gave him those looks women give you when they don't know what to say.

He threw himself down on his bunk, shaking his hand as it throbbed. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep. Every time his closed his eyes all he saw was River's face. All he could hear were her screams.

He'd give Mal the time he asked for, he owed the captain that much, but he wouldn't wait forever. He was going to find River, find the people that took her. And when he did, he was going to kill every last one of them with his bare hands.