AN: I am sorry for taking so long to update, real life really should know better than to get in the way of FanFic. Anyways, hope you enjoy the latest chapter!
Chapter 11: Demons
XXX
River's POV Time… time was a tricky thing… just a vestigial mode of measurement based on solar cycles. It's not applicable... she had been in and out of so many "times" she could never remember which was which. It's the same in that moment. Because one minute she was standing just outside the war rig, and the next she was in between two heavily armed and trigger happy groups of people in the middle of a wasteland.
It's only when she hears a half dozen guns being cocked does it fall back into place.
Jayne and Zoe, the left and right hands stand at the ready. And on the other side, it's a half dozen battle hardened old women. She can hear them all… hear all of the questions and thoughts of bloodshed.
Fortunately, she finds her voice before anyone decides to do anything crazy.
"QUIET!" She yells as she keeps her hands outstretched to keep each group at bay.
And it's suddenly very still again. Their voices and minds all quiet into submission watching and waiting. Watching her like a dog that's been kicked one too many times and may strike out. It's the Captain that speaks first, or at least tries to.
"Riv-." But he is silenced as she whips her head towards him and gives him an icy glare.
"No one here is an enemy. No touching guns. Is that understood?" She says as she points amongst them all.
When no one moves to stand down she grows impatient. "Well?" She screams at them.
They have no reason to trust her. either group. They have all seen her wooly. Seen her at her worst. But slowly, she feels them all holster their weapons. Max and Mal being the last on each respective side.
"Good." She says as she feels her body relax ever so slightly. "Captain, the girl requests the presence of her brother to do a post-natal examination of Angharad." the girl says as she points to the girl clutching her baby tightly to her chest. "Please get the others and meet us by the fire. The girl has a story to tell."
"Zoe, please tell Simon to bring his bag and get the others." Mal says through a clenched jaw. Zoe merely nods and returns into Serenity to follow orders.
Mal walks up towards the girl, his jaw still clenched. Girl is getting a might more unpredictable.
"Subjective, Captain." The girl says as he draws closer from one side, and Max draws closer from the other.
"Seems you made some friends… Captain Malcolm Reynolds." Mal says when he is spitting distance away, eyeing the man that has come up beside her.
Max doesn't give his name though and merely looks at the girl, his eyes and mind asking her a single question. Can they be trusted?
"Yes, they can." She says as she steals a quick glance over to the raggedy man.
"Names are earned out here, not given freely." And with that she turns and walks towards the fire where the others retreated to earlier. The two men's twin thoughts echo in her head as she walks away though.
Who is this girl?"
She's standing by the fire as her brother all but runs with his bag up to where she is. He moves to engulf her in a hug but she puts a hand up to stop him.
"She needs a post-natal. The delivery was unusual, but there were no complications."
"River, I…" Simon tries to protest.
"No, go be Doctor. She will still be here when you get back."
He's just about to voice his opposition again, when she glares at him. He sighs and does as he is told, Kaylee right behind him.
"She's just anxious Simon, just give her time." The girl can hear the cheerful mechanic as they retreat into one of the tents to do as he was told.
XXX
Max's POV
Eight total… Five men and three women. Four with obvious combat training. The three from earlier and the older man that came out later. Although he was doing his best to hide of them fit together, they were a mismatched group, and yet they seemed to.
The old crones had relaxed some as the three women had come out of the metal…thing… and had seemed to welcome them easily enough. They were wary of the men though, and insisted on having two armed guards as the Doctor one had offered his services to the wife with the baby.
The wives and other women had started to intermingle after the Doctor and Angharad had reappeared. It seemed to take a slight edge off the older women, well, all except the dark skinned one and Furiosa. They kept their distance… subconsciously squaring off against one another. Two sides against one, with the girl still in between.
"Alright bit, your brother seems to be done, and you promised a story. Seems like we're owed one after everything it took to get here." The Captain, Mal, seems to seethe from his side of the fire. He is directly in front of me and his eyes never leave mine despite him addressing the ghost.
I glance at the ghost seemingly pulled and caught between the two of us. She looks from him to me and I give her a small nod. The click in the other man's jaw is noticeable.
She seems to steady herself and close her eyes. Her fingers tracing small patterns into the side of her dress. When her eyes open, it's different. There is a steely resolve.
XXX
River's POV
"Broken… That's how they liked to keep her. Beaten… delusional… chained… caged. Made it harder for her to fight back. It made it easier for them to get what they wanted. Till Simon got her out. But she was always special… their special project. And they would have kept coming until they took back what was stolen."
"We gettin' somewhere with this? Already knew you was crazy, so…" Jayne attempts to interrupt. However, he quickly stops what he was saying as the Captain and Max shoot him murderous looks. The girl cannot help but smile a little at how alike the two men are.
But her smile falters as the next part of the 'story' forms in her head. She turns back to the Captain to finish, "She wanted you all to be safe. To keep them away. They would have come for her, would never have stopped. She wanted to leave on her terms."
"We had a hunch that was why you came out this way." The Captain says with monotone resolve. He was hoping what they thought hadn't been true. But it was hard to keep denying when she confirmed it herself. "So what happened after you left? Thought they wanted you alive?"
"She didn't give them a choice. They could either shoot her down or she would have crashed herself. They opted for the first… they wanted confirmation. They watched her fall from the sky onto the wasteland they left behind. Too afraid of their own demons to land and see. Reported it done. A lost cause, a lost asset."
"Wait a minute, what do you mean, their own demons?" Furiosa asks as she glares at the girl.
She can hear the storm of thoughts brewing in Furiosa's mind, and she sighs. No more secrets.
A chill runs down her spine as the words from a dream long ago echo in her brain. But it was true, and they deserved to know they had been left behind… forgotten. "The world fell…Earth that was could no longer sustain our numbers. Thermonuclear skirmish…It's sour…those who could not leave became half-life."
"But those who did leave found a new solar system, dozens of planets and hundreds of moons. Each one terraformed to support human life, to be new Earths. Doomed to repeat past mistakes. Ruled by an interplanetary parliament, a false beacon of civilization. Nothing but a farce… a rube… hiding something evil just underneath the surface. A government built on lies and secrets. Built on keeping the haves and the have nots separated."
She turns to Furiosa now, and locks eyes with her. "Out there isn't so different from this world, you know? It's all filled with vicious beasts and corruption. Built on clandestine facilities where little girls are breeding stock or weapons."
She feels Furiosa's anger at the girl begin to ebb away as the weight of her words sinks in. Sees the fury in her eyes turn into sadness. Maybe hope was a mistake?
It figures that her brother would pick this moment to be a boob. "River, you aren't a weapon. You…" Simon tries to interrupt.
"NO SIMON! SHE IS!" She screams at him as she quickly moves front of him. She violently pokes at her skull as she continues. "THEY CUT INTO HER BRAIN… THEY REMOVED MY AMYGDALA! SHE HEARS AND FEELS EVERYTHING!"
She's now panting in frustration and anger at his inability to see. She doesn't care about what they think anymore. Doesn't care about sparing him, or any of them, the details.
"They wanted a weapon. That's what they got. They wanted an infiltration specialist…a psychic assassin. That's what they made her into."
Mal chuckles lightly, and she glares in his direction. "River, you really expect us to believe that…"
But Shepherd Book interrupts him. "She's telling the truth."
The girl's eyes snap to his. And when they do she sees sadness and something else. Regret? "So you did know?" She asks with her own chuckle.
Mal also turns and looks at the older man. "Shepherd, what's she talkin' about?"
"I wasn't always a Shepherd Mal, I… I was a double-agent during the war. I worked with the Browncoats. I took the place of a young Alliance officer. I managed to work myself pretty high into the ranks. We heard rumors of a facility… that they were working on weapons, human weapons." He looks at the girl. Imploring her with her gaze for forgiveness.
"The succeeded." The girl says as she holds his gaze. "And she has nothing to forgive you for, there was nothing you could have done."
No one can say anything as the absorb everything that has just been said. A mixture of sadness and anger radiated off of everyone. She can feel Mal and Furiosa's blood begin to boil at the injustice of it. Opening old wounds and fresh ones at the same time.
But the wives and everyone else just held sadness in their minds. There was no 'Green Place,' there was no escaping the past… the sky was just as much a 'wasteland' as the one they were standing in.
All but Max, his mind was quiet. And she finds solace in that.
It's still suffocating though, to feel it all. She desperately needs air, and she manages to keep all but a single tear from rolling down her cheek as she pushes past them to go and stand near the peak of the small sand hill she perched on earlier.
"Where must we go, we who wander this wasteland, in search of our better selves?" She says to no one but the dust.
XXX
River had left everyone in a rather dumbstruck state as she pushed her way past them and walked up the small sand bank. It wasn't until she was half way up the small hill that they seemed to snap out of their daze and focus on the present again.
"So what now?" Mal asks no one in particular. River seemed to be the only one with any answers around here and she clearly needed some time after that confession. Hell, they all did.
"You can camp here, with us, for the night. No sense trying to figure things out without a good night's rest." One of the Vulvalini responds as they all seem to move to relax around the fire, all a little too stunned to do much more.
"Someone should check on River." Simon says as he moves to follow the direction his sister took off in.
"No, I'll go." Max says as he places a hand on Simon's shoulder to stop him from following her.
Simone reacts poorly and yanks his shoulder away from the other man's grasp.
"Simon." Kaylee tries to coax him quietly to no avail.
"I'm her brother, who are you to her?" Kaylee tries in vain to calm Simon and pull him back from the stranger in front of them.
"A friend. And that's what she needs. Not a Doctor or a nosy brother."
Simon's nostrils flare are he opens his mouth to refute what his sister needs, but Mal beats him to it.
"Let it go Doc, your sister doesn't need you trying to poke at her right now."
And with that the stranger turns from the group and follows after River's footsteps into the night.
XXX
Max's POV
I find her sitting in the same spot she was earlier. She's hunched over, curling her legs into her chest with her arms wrapped tightly around them. With the light of the campfire behind us I can just see her shiver slightly as the temperature begins to drop.
I don't say anything as I sit down next to her. She doesn't look in my direction, but I can almost feel her probing my mind. Trying to figure out what's inside.
"It's easier if you ask." I say to her as I lean over and whisper in her ear.
She chuckles. "She was trying to figure out if you pitied her or feared her."
"Why would you think either of those things?" I ask softly as I move closer to her.
"It's what the other's felt. Sadness… pity… anger." She leans her head against my shoulder.
"No use being angry at something I cannot change. I spent enough time wishing I could change the past. It's no use. It's always going to be the same. Can only work to change the future."
She chuckles again. "When did you get to be the sane one?"
And now it's my turn to chuckle. "Well, one of us has to be."
XXX
River's POV
They sit in silence a while after. But she can feel things stirring in him. Questions about what to do tomorrow. If she's going to leave… if they all are.
"She doesn't know." She responded quietly. "She could… they all could. But she can't bring herself to leave without…." She cannot finish. It would be asking for a huge sacrifice… on all their parts.
"No one would blame you… or any of us for leaving."
"But could she live with herself? Knowing she left others to fight this battle?"
He sighs. "Not every battle is yours to fight."
"No… but this one might be."
XXX
Mal and Zoe sit around the fire silently observing everyone else. It was hard to believe that this is what was left behind of Earth-that-was. A wasteland with people barely scraping by to survive. They weren't that different though. At least they had the sky.
"Sir?" Zoe asks under her breath. "We can't leave them here."
"I know Zoe, I know." He says as looks at the old and young women.
Mal stands from his seat around the fire and moves towards Furiosa, who seems to have the most authority. She eyes him warily as he approaches.
"Captain Malcolm Reynolds. We weren't introduced earlier." He says as he extends his hand.
She looks down at his hand and begrudgingly shakes it. "Furiosa."
"I know this might seem abrupt, but we want to offer you all passage off this rock."
"To where, exactly?" Furiosa says suspiciously.
"There are a few planets out there that ain't so bad. It could be a fresh start for you all."
And despite her better judgment, Furiosa begins to have hope again.
XXX
AN: There we go. Hope you all like this update! Can't wait to hear what you all thought about it/ the direction it's setting up. Until next time, stay shiny ;)