• Chapter 4 Part 3:

Flashback:

Day after Riddick joined the crew.

"They've got us!!! They've got us!!!" Wash was panicking, as the other Vessel snagged them with their magnetic grappler.

At first, they had thought it was an Alliance cruiser, possibly the one the Fed signaled. There was no way to know what they knew. As Riddick had killed the guy, before they could interrogate him... so they assumed the ship was Alliance... and had tried to outrun them... but it wasn't... it was a Reaver vessel... and, like a dog, Reavers had to chase whatever ran.

Reavers were the physical manifestation of evil, in human form. They took mindless pleasure in raping people to death, eating their flesh, and sowing their skins into their clothing... and rarely in that order.

While Mal was considering the best way for the crew to kill themselves, to prevent those horrors from being inflicted on them... he saw an even more fearful sight... Riddick... was smiling.

"Lock yourselves in the Companions shuttle. I'll tell you when it's over." Ordered Riddick, as he started walking out of the cockpit.

Mal scowled, "If you want to go down fighting, I'll respect that... but we got kids on this boat."

Riddick paused, looking back at him, "Trust me," he smiled, a bloodthirsty grin, worthy of any Reaver.

• End Flashback.

Unfortunately, the Reavers boarded before they could get to Inara's shuttle. One of them had slashed at Simon, giving the boy an ugly gash along his side... and River... who had been wailing about, "They're all made up of rage!!! Can't shut them out!!!" while holding her head and sobbing... suddenly snapped.

With remarkable ease, she stole the Reaver's own blade, and cut him in half. Then she ran off, slaughtering Reavers as easily as walking... Riddick had said she was a weapon... and Mal got to see just how effective she was, against a manifestation of evil.

Mal, not one to leave a little girl by herself in the middle of a battle, join her and Riddick's fight. He got the rest of the crew, into Inara's shuttle. With an order to take off. The plan was to distract the Reavers, until he could get River in the other shuttle... turns out, his plans of self sacrifice, had done nothing but get in the two's way.

Mal had known Riddick's reputation... but the man was truly a master of death. River might have better training, but Riddick had more experience. Death was his element... his life, he found purpose in the killing. Mal had seen men like this before... but they were never this good at it.

River was much the same, completely in her element. Slaughtering Reavers by the dozen... and Mal realized... following them out here had been stupid. He was in their way. The only injuries they got... were from protecting him...

This wasn't just mods. This came from skills acquired over a lifetime of bloody battle, after bloody battle... Though Mal didn't want to think what the girl had been through, to mold her into such a weapon. In that moment, Mal fully realized what it meant taking these two in... he would have wondered if it had been a good idea, to impulsively invite such bloodthirsty killers onto the ship... if it wasn't for the fact the they kept saving him, from Reaver after Reaver.

Once it was over River and Riddick actually boarded the Reaver ship, killing any stragglers they could find. Mal went with them... While Mal, realizing they didn't need him, walked around his own ship, shooting each of the dead Reavers in the head, before throwing them off his boat... he didn't want the others to see the mess.

However, When he called the crew back... he had no choice but to ordered everyone but the pilot, Wash, to help clean up the blood...

Mal was rather shocked, to see how unflinching the young Doctor had been. Blood truly didn't bother him... though he had seemed grateful, Mal had gone after River... boy seemed under the delusion, Mal had saved her, instead of the other way around.

Unfortunately (as it seemed at the time) they had ended up dragging the Reaver vessel to the ship yard. Not out of any plan, but because they couldn't get the magnet off... it had drilled a tube into their hall, of which the Reavers had been pouring out of. so the Hall was badly damaged.

That turned into a stroke of luck, as the Scrappers were willing to take the ship, in trade, as part of the bill for the modifications to Serenity. The Reaver vessel might not be worth fixing, but it was a lot of scrap they could use...

Though they requested Riddick search the ship, for any Reaver stragglers, before they agreed to the trade... "better safe then sorry"...

These guys weren't even shocked to learn Riddick killed the whole ship... as apparently he liked to hunt these guys for sport, and frequently traded the ships to this yard. Riddick was a Gorham Reaver hunter, in his spare time. Mal made it clear to the man, his crew wouldn't be going out of their way to find these things... which the murderer actually looked disappointed about.

Mal looked at his ship, at his home... it hadn't lost any of it's charm. Even with the dents and scratches being buffered out. It was a mite longer now, and shinier. With a sleek brown paint job, and deep blew trim / highlights... getting it painted was a tad excessive, ain't no use for that, but he always wanted to get it done.

Thanks to trading the Reaver Ship, to the scrappers. Along with selling the Alliance food stuffs, Mal had stolen before picking up passengers, to the Black Market merchants... while all the modifications to his ship only cost him 210,000 out of pocket. That left him with 42 thousand credits, to put in the emergency fund. So, as a treat to himself, he got his ship painted... even then, with how stocked the emergency found was, the crew wouldn't be hurting to taking jobs. They could relax, and look for work more casually.

The one issue, now that all was said and done, was the ship was a might obvious. Ain't no other ship like it, which meant it be easy to identify... That "Stealth" technology he bought, better be all it was cracked up to be.