The song is "And the Hero Will Drown" by Story of the Year.

~*~

Epilogue II 

Serenity 

~*~

The night will come

And rip away

Serenity sat on the Vengeance alone and numb to all thought and all feeling. The room that she was trapped in was empty except for a few crates and a few rats, and it was dank and dark. Everything felt wrong, as if she was trapped inside some kind of horrible nightmare.

               Well, she was trapped inside a horrible nightmare, so that could explain something.

Her wings of innocence through every word we say

               Once again she broke down into tears. Where do I go from here? She thought miserably. I've lost everything…Will's dead…Connor's dead…that bastard Daniel! I'm trapped on this ship with him and with no one at the same time! I'll have to stay here until I die, being robbed of every sense of self…being taken advantage of… She shuddered at the thought of what these pirates would do to her, to her body, to her spirit. I've lost.

               Why did Daniel take me? She wondered. What use does he have for me here? Why could he have not let me run off and continue living?

Maybe it's time
to spit out the core of our rotting union

               I'm still living, replied a strong voice in the back of her head. They haven't defeated me yet. I will build a shell around myself. I will feel nothing. No matter what they do to my body, I won't let myself feel a thing. I can't afford to let myself feel anything. I won't let them beat me.

               The sky was dark outside the single porthole that the room boasted. She watched the stars pass overhead for a long time until she got up and opened the door. They had not locked her in. She had stayed in that room out of choice.

Hopefully before it chokes
us to our senses

               The ship was not asleep, but she had the darkness to her advantage. Serenity hid in the shadows as she crept to a quiet spot next to the rail. Slowly she reached up and grasped the top rim of the rail with both of her hands, pulling herself up off of the wooden floor of the deck of the ship. She stepped up onto the bottom rail and regained her balance.

               I won't let them beat me. They can't kill me. I'm already dead.

Guess it's too bad
that everything we have
is taken away

               She stepped up to the next railing, feeling her back revealed by the light. Her shadow was cast out onto the sea as she reached the next railing and prepared to reach over to the other side.

               I'm already dead.

Swim in the smoke
the hero will drown

               "Ay! She's gonna jump!" cried one of the pirates. One of the men sprang across the deck; agile as a cat, as she felt her fingers loosen and slip off the railing. As if she was in a dream she saw the pirate leap towards her and grab her hand from where it hung in midair. She found herself out of the dream, crashing to the deck in utter defeat.

               "Ye no use to us if ye dead!" said one of the men. Serenity could make out the features of the man that had 'saved' her in the dim light. He reminded her of Will, but there was hardness in his eyes where in Will's there was a sweet vulnerability.

Intoxicating beauty tears everything down

               "I hate you," Serenity whispered to the man.

But still our hands are
bound at the wrist

               "I know," he replied. She could hear Daniel's laughter from the opposite side of the deck, she heard him say something about 'my little toy.' Serenity watched her rescuer disappear back into the shadows as the first man bound her feet and her hands together again.

               "We're a bunch a' lonely men," he said, his golden teeth gleaming in the light. "Ye wouldn't rob of us of our on'y company now would ye?" Serenity remained silent as she leaned her head against the railing and stared at the man until he went away. Someone took her back down to the compartment that they had christened as her room.

This romantic tragedy is suffocating from your fist
in a sea of fire

               I wish I could remember those old stories about the pirates, she thought as she watched the shadows shift in her room. What was that word? …

Guess it's to bad,
that everything we have
is taken away  

Hero, Hero, this word you'll never know

               "Parley," she whispered as she slumped down against the boxes in her room into a restless sleep.  

Guess it's too bad
that everything we have
is taken away.
Away, away, away. They're taking it away

~*~

Authors Note

~*~

For my final word, I would like to thank each and every one of the reviewers that ever read even one word of my story. I never dreamed that it would be this successful and I can only hope that you all like the second one as much as you liked this one. Are Will and Serenity meant to be? Only I can say…and I'm not going to, so please check out the second one. I'll post a link here on this authors note and email any of you that want me to when I post The Loved and the Lost II.

Eyana my first review on this fic! I'm glad that you liked it and returned to review later chapters.

FreakishlyDisturbed13 I'm sure you speak for all the Orlando Bloom fans with the middle name of Elizabeth! But I like that name, however bratty Miss Swann may be. :0)

Zeech thank you for offering your thoughts on the whole Mary Sue/OC issue. They were very appreciated.

LadyFae that's what sequels are for! ;)

NinaC thank you so much. I feel so flattered!

Dreamweaver gracias!

Truffles, who left their first review on chapter 5 and has still returned! I'm so happy that you liked it enough to review every single chapter that you missed while you were on vacation! It brought a smile to my face when I opened my mailbox and saw all these FanFiction.Net Review Alerts from you!

NvilleSweetY05 don't die! I can't be held responsible for something like that! :0)

JHTM-Gurl we had ourselves a deal, savvy? I did write more! LOL

Miss PunK yay!