I'm hopeless when it comes to line-breaks. :/ haha hope it doesn't distract too much. Still not beta'd. Still don't own characters. :D Love the reviews and follows I receive. Seriously. Makes. My. Day :) So gratzi!
"Simon," River stated matter-of-factly, "you and Jayne will have to work together. When I see our father I'm … well you know how that goes, and he'll do the same. We're going to be chained tightly, but don't underestimate our abilities to escape. You need to work fast. I need you to use words like 'break the code' and keep saying your names over and over. Pull memories from the past and recount those. I would hesitate to get too close. Again, chains and rope would stop normal people, but when we're in that state, everything is an equation that we compute faster than most computers and… I don't want to hurt anyone again."
Again. She fidgeted and rubbed a thumb over Jayne's hand who rubbed hers back and pulled her a little closer to him.
"We have to blindfold you once you're in there," Simon frowned.
"I know. Don't feel bad about it. I have to learn this. I have to control their triggers. It will be the most important thing I ever learn," she smiled up at Jayne and he wondered exactly what she meant. He didn't have time to ask, Mal motioned for them to move and they all migrated to the hangar and out to Serenity, River in the middle of everyone and she could feel they were remorseful about what they had to do. "Don't be sad, guys. I'm excited about learning how to control this. I'll be less of a danger and our lives will very soon be normal."
"How you reckon?" Mal finally asked.
"Pity and awe will come from the masses," was all she offered and then pressed herself up against the stairwell on the right side of the cargo bay. She'd be tied up here, Lance would be straight across from her.
"I don't like this," Jayne said, firmly securing a rope around her waist and attaching it to the metal framework.
"Oh I do," River purred. "Keep this rope when we're done." She smirked at the bewildered Jayne. Dread of this event had played in his mind all day and here she was crackin' jokes – of the dirty kind! "Think the crew would mind if we told them it was going to be an extra hour?" She winked this time. Jayne, in frustrated concentration focused extra hard on a knot he was bounding on her wrist. "C'mon," River finally talked plainly, "I'm trying to get a rise out of you. I'm a little nervous. Will you at least kiss me?"
Jayne looked up and smiled in his way that bent friendly lines around his eyes and lifted just a corner of his mouth which started a fire in her belly. "Hell, Riv, if you want a kiss, all you hafta do is say so. You don't hafta say all those… things. Almost in earshot of…"
"Well, I wasn't lying," she let a quick smirk, "I really did think about making love right now. I think the closer bond I have with you, the better this will work. So you kiss me good, Jayne Cobb."
"Like this?" he smirked back and ran a hand behind her neck under her hair. His face bent to hers and the crew tried to ignore as the little assassin and the big mercenary made out like they were still in middle school. It was only when a quiet moan escaped River and Mal hoped like hades Simon hadn't heard, that he finally forced the two apart.
"That's about enough of that for a lifetime. Riv, you ready?" Mal held up the blindfold.
River nodded gleefully. Mal decided to ignore her swollen lips and already moony stare and just handed the blindfold to Jayne.
"I'm so sorry, bao bei," Jayne put it over her head.
"Don't be," she whispered for him only, "we're keeping the blindfold too." She bit her bottom lip. It wasn't going to be a gun or a knife that took him out someday, it was going to be that exact look on her face that was his complete undoing.
"Lance is coming," Simon finally walked over. "Blindfold down."
River waited what had to be an eternity for Lance to be restrained as well as she was. Arms bound, upper and lower. Hands bandages to mitts and bound as well. Legs restrained, torso also. All that was free was her head.
"Lance are you ready?" Mal asked.
"Yes sir."
"Riv?"
"More than ready, Cap."
"Blindfolds off."
It was a different kind of code. It locked in on her knowledge that he was her father. It was written into memories and the part of her brain that acknowledges new information. This was going to be the hardest code she would ever have to break. Zeroes. Ones. Memories.
The trigger took her over completely.
She could see her target. He was chained and he was vulnerable. Why can't I get to him? She felt her own bonds. She looked down. Some people called what she had now 'tunnel vision.' It was more like looking through the scope of a rifle. Targets were all that existed, and right now she had to break bonds to get to her target.
"River," she looked up for the source of the distraction, "River, mei mei. You're activated try to fight it."
She'd fight it alright. She'd fight these bindings. Her full target was 4.2 meters away from her – she had to get to him.
"Riv, bao bei," a low rumble fought for her attention as well, "you've broke the code before. Do it again."
All she wanted was these chains off and then she wanted to spill the blood her father. Her thumb, if she dislocated her thumb she could maybe slide it out of… nope. Wait, try again.
"River, you have to fight this. You said yourself it's your only hope."
'I said it was 'our' only hope'. She corrected in her mind. 'WAIT! I just had my own thought. Keep talking, guys!' Zeroes. Ones. Lines and lines of zeroes and ones. The break came in the numbers at a place where they needed to program updated pictures of Lance into her mind, but they didn't have any updated ones to put – so they put a programming into her…. Damn. She lost the break. The sea was turbulent. When she tried to get a sense of direction to get back to the code, she was swallowed by another crash of numbers and the waves kept singing 'kill' 'kill' 'kill.' Ha! She got her thumb out.
"River," the low rumble was back. A little more wiggling and ha! Her whole hand was free. "Listen to me, gorram it."
A few more twists and she might even get her whole wrist free. Lance was still across the room, chained as well. A perfect sitting duck. If she could get free before he did her victory would be swift. She heaved her whole body in an attempt to free herself from her bondage. No luck. Somebody very brilliant had restrained her. There was no memory of the before. No plans for the after. There was an equation to solve. The solution was Lance's death, the variables and integers were the angles and probabilities of her escape from these chains. It may take time, but she would free herself, and she would kill Lance.
"Mei mei," the softer voice came again, "You have to fight the code. There's a break that you can exploit."
A break. Oh yeah. The break. How did she find it the first time? Oh yeah, in the photo file. Build the equation to get into the photos. From there we'll break it. Zeroes. Ones. Spinning. Too much. This code was the hardest thing she'd ever – there it is! She latched on to that code and slipped into break where the code didn't rule her. Oh god! It wasn't bearable. The code was too strong it was taking her back into the abyss of bloodlust and targets and equations and death. It was too much. It was, it was… killing her.
Jayne watched the straining and the furrow in her brows relax as she slumped and was supported only by the chains he'd bound her with. No! This cannot be happening. No. It looked like it had been too much of a stress. He didn't know how long someone could endure that and he didn't know what all was going on in her head either. It killed him to watch her so powerful and so helpless at the same time.
She wasn't recovering from her slump. He reached out, like they had all promised not to and felt her neck. There was a pulse. It was rapid and unsteady, but it was a pulse.
"River, River, gorramit, listen to me," he patted her face. There was no response. "River you have to wake up." She didn't react to more shaking, patting, yelling and he even tugged on her hair. Simon tried talking to her, stimulating pressure points – still nothing brought her to.
Jayne betrayed ALL the rules they set when he bent his face close to hers and brushed his lips over the corner of her mouth. With a loud gasp her eyes flew open and she struggled against the chains again.
"Bao bei," he said softly in her ear, not fearing that 100 pounds of death were held back by mere chains. "You have to listen to me," he growled in her ear, holding her jaw with his hand so she couldn't turn and bite him, "you have to overcome this. You've told me it's the only way we get to be together and gorramit, moony, I want that forever." Her body slightly relaxed telling him that he was getting through to some coherent part of her. "Find the code, relax, you're smart enough to do this. Riv, you have to do this. Just relax," she fought the chains again and he knew she'd slipped from being in control. He tried his tactic to bring her back again and, still holding her jaw, kissed the hollow where her jaw met her neck. She never could resist that. Her body relaxed against the chains. "Go," Jayne turned to Simon, "help your father. I got River." He needed Simon to go away. He had a plan. He knew exactly what to say to bring her back. Jayne turned back to her and in this reprieve where she was not trying to kill something he smoothed back her hair. "Don't I, Beautiful? I got you and you got me. Wrapped around your pinky, ya know?" He leaned forward again so his words were in her ear and hers only. "River, you're the smartest brat I know. C'mon now. Fight this."
She tensed as the trigger took her again. How long could this take? How long had she battled it when she'd taken the shuttle without anyone there to help her or be a comforting voice? He would never leave her side again. Not ever.
"C'mon. You gotta come back to me, moony," he growled again in her ear. "I love you."