DISCLAIMER : All belongs to Joss the genius…….( GO SHOOT THE DAMN MOVIE ALREADY!!!! Can´t believe I´ll have to wait A YEAR!!!!!)

Notes: As always THANKS to all you lovely, wonderful, kind people who read and review and make me blush. It makes me so proud that you like reading this as much as I love writing it…even if I let you wait. I grovel at your feet!!!! THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!!

ABIDE

Later Malcolm Reynolds told himself again and again that he should have known better. The gun shots of Zoë and Jayne holding the stairway still rang in his ears as he carefully moved along the empty corridor. Before he could even stretch out his hand towards the panel next to the holding cell's access panel, the door slid back without a sound revealing Inara´s beautiful but terrified face and the slightly smaller man behind her, training his gun on him. The impact of the bullet biting into the flesh of his upper arm sent Mal stumbling backwards, against the wall. He cursed under his breath, reprimanding himself for being so stupid. Still, not even the sharp pain that began pulsing down his arm into his hand would make him drop the gun.

" Mal…" Inara gasped.

" Mr. Reynolds ….." Niska snarled, smiling angrily as he pushed the companion out the door and into the corridor, careful to keep his body behind his hostage. Mal´s eyes followed each of his moves, until they swivelled back towards the door. A tall man even bulkier than Jayne emerged to follow Niska, his face grim, gun trained on Serenity´s captain.

" I must admit, Mr. Reynolds that I am becoming very tired of you complicating my business ventures!" Niska said slowly, one hand balled to a fist in Inara´s hair.

" Might be a good time to retire then, with the stress getting to you and all…." Mal quipped, his eyebrows raised. As unobtrusive as possible he tried to move his hand to see how fast he would be able to lift it to shoot if push came to shove. He already knew that he couldn´t fire at Niska, the risk of hurting Inara was too big by far. He´d gamble his own life, but not hers.

" Something tells me that once I get rid of your people and you ….the stress will be gone too, Mr. Reynolds." Niska told him dismissively in his heavy accented, cultured voice. His eyes followed Mal´s gaze to the giant man to his left.

"May I introduce Stavros to you Mr. Reynolds…..he is …how would you say? My new …muscle? After your crew diminished the number of my men during our last encounter I had to ….find associates better capable of protecting my interests."

Mal lifted one eyebrow, his eyes never leaving Stavros heavy frame, but his words were directed at Niska.

" Seems to me you didn´t have much luck with the new thugs either. After all we caught up with you just fine. Mind you ….talent is a rare thing to find these days!"

Niska pressed his lips together.

" If I were you Mr. Reynolds I´d mind my manners……after all I still have in my possession what you came here for." He turned his hand, pulling Inara´s head back by her hair, exposing her throat. The move elicited a suppressed yelp from her and the attempt to claw at his hand as he pressed the barrel of his  gun to her temple. She could see Mal tense up and threw him a beseeching look.

" Mal …..Don´t….."

"Yes ….listen to the lady, Mr. Reynolds. After all we don´t want things to go out of hand."

" You know…." Mal returned with a lingering gaze at Inara, still trying to keep an eye on Stavros whose gun was still firmly pointed at his chest.

" Not two hours ago I watched one of my men knock out one of your ….associates. And  I´m pretty sure that once he wakes up he´ll not only sport one hell of a headache  but he´ll also be missin´ some teeth…..simply because he split a girl´s lip. Now …what do you think I´ll do to you for kidnapping one of mine with the intention to sell her off to some creep like a piece of cattle?"

Inara swallowed hard, staring at the things unfolding in front of her. She hated every second of it….but there was nothing she could do…..all she could do was try to convey to Mal to be cautious…….all she could do was look at him, willing him to understand.

" I expect you´ll do nothing Mr. Reynolds …..you might have taken my ship by some stroke of luck, you might have bested those overpaid imbeciles I was forced to hire, but I still hold all the cards it seems. Now if you will be so good as to call off your friends and tell them to leave my ship this instant ….and I will satisfy myself with killing only you!"

" Why would I wanna do that if you´re gonna shoot me anyway? You don´t think I´ll believe for a second that you´re prepared to kill her, your only bargaining chip?"

" No, I would not think for one minute to underestimate your intelligence, Mr. Reynolds. You are right …although she might be nothing to me, someone is willing to pay a great amount for her. Dead she is completely worthless to me ….."  He hesitated a moment as though he was grasping for words, before smiling broadly at Malcolm Reynolds.

"Ahhh , but she is obviously …..precious to you. Now …we both know that too much ….physical violence might spoil the merchandise. You´ve been in my tender care, Mr. Reynolds …..you know that I can be very creative. I have ways of causing pain that will leave no marks on her prefect skin……"

He trailed his fingers along Inara´s cheek which made her turn her face.

 "Get your hands of me you disgusting bastard."

Niska laughed, wiggling his finger in front of her face. " Now, now ….what filthy words from a professional companion of highest esteem." Inara rolled her eyes at him, her lips forming an angry line.

" Did you find her yet? We´d better get goin´ Mal……" Jayne´s voice could be heard echoing through Niska´s vessel as he yelled down the stairway.

" If you would be so good now …as to drop your gun, Mr. Reynolds …..I will not ask again!"

It was that instant that Malcolm Reynolds saw something moving in the darkness behind Niska. Inara´s body still obstructed a fair amount of Mal´s view, but he was quite sure that …….something……. was letting itself down from on opening in the ceiling in a fluent, flowing motion that reminded Mal of the movement of a very big snake. Neither Niska nor Stavros were in a position to see the movement and they had both obviously not heard anything, which was likely due to the shooting that still seemed to go on upstairs.

Mal blinked, looking down his arm to make sure that it wasn´t the blood loss that made him delusional, but even though the cloth of his shirt was slowly soaking with the blood pouring from his shoulder wound ……it was´t enough to make him see things.

There in the darkness ….something was crouching, moving with a  fluid, soundless motion to lift its head. The smallish figure stood, approaching very slowly in the dim lighting of the corridor……moving ever so carefully until Mal could make out her features.

 " That´s not River…." A small voice inside him whispered. And that moment, when Malcolm Reynolds met those dark eyes, a part of him hoped never to see those eyes directing their empty predator stare on him. The other thing had taken over and Mal was sure hoping that River was really holding the reigns, as she had said.

" Know what? " Mal said, eyes moving back to Niska.

" I sure have a few people on my crew who don´t always follow orders……but sometimes that´s a good thing……otherwise I wouldn´t have her standing behind you know."

Before Niska or his flunky could react, River´s eerily calm voice floated through the corridor.

" I have a knife pointed at your back. If you don´t let her go I will force it upwards between those two ribs….." Her fingers touched Niska back at the exact location as though to emphasize her statement. " At the right angle it will pierce your heart, blood  will fill it up and you will die."

" River …." Inara whispered, staring at Mal while Stavros was obviously still trying to determine who to point his gun at.

" It´s not River….." Mal said, nodding slowly to make sure Inara understood.

" You are full of surprises Mr. Reynolds……but tell your young friend that if she does not drop the knife this instant, Stavros will shoot you…….".Niska said cautiously.

" Don´t make no difference to her.  You´d know if you could see her eyes. She´s not like you and me, government creeps messed her up nice and good. See …..here´s what you don´t get….I may be here to get one of mine back, but  she´s here for the hell of it. She´s here for the kill."

" I would not jest with your life if I were you Mr. Reynolds."

" I think we both know that I´m not the jestin´ kind, Niska."

" It´s true …." Inara suddenly said. " He´s telling the truth…the government did something to that poor girl…it made her crazy."

" Your death means nothing to me…." River said in a voice so detached that it brought a chill to the companion's skin.

" It is really very simple…..you do as I instruct and I will not kill you this instant. They die …you die. I don´t even understand the concept of jesting……I comprehend the purpose, that is all."

After a moment´s consideration Niska slowly drew back his hand from Inara´s hair but  Mal saw the miniscule movement he made to signal Stavros. As Niska stepped aside the mercenary swung around to fire at River….or the thing that was currently under control. Mal was faster, in the split second it took the other man to take aim Mal fired three bullets into the man´s chest, yelling at Inara to take cover.

" You´re hurt!" The companion yelled over the sound of gunshots, covering her head with her arms.

" So glad you noticed!" Mal told her as he watched Stavros collapse backwards into Inara´s now empty cell. Another blunt sound made him turn around, despite of his injury his gun was steadily aimed at the spot where Niska had stood. Only that he wasn´t standing as much as lying on the ground with the other thing crouched above him, almost sitting on his chest like some creature from a nightmare ready to draw the life right out of him.

" River! River!" Mal yelled harshly, moving forwards, just as Inara stumbled towards him.

 He threw his good arm around her shoulders, pulling her against him without a word.

" River…." He could hear Niska´s wheezing, strained breaths.

" River ….." Inara repeated loudly. Incredibly slow the girl lifted her head, turning around to look at them.

"She promised……She promised the other girl …..She promised Kaylee that he would pay."

It said with River´s voice that sounded so hollow when it was used by it.

" Kaylee would not want that…." Inara said, still obviously shaken, still leaning against Mal.

 The thing seemed to consider the companion´s words for a moment, then it cocked its head to the side in a very inhuman movement.

" He knows……what happened. He could tell the alliance, about what happened …about me ….about little sister. He knows too much. He is a risk."

" River wouldn´t want you killing somebody in cold blood like this…with your bare hands at that. It´s not in her nature." Mal told her firmly.

" He is an evil man. His death is nothing to me …..killing him means nothing, but it will protect you and her. I´m in her mind……I need to protect her."

" It´ll still be her hands that´ll have done the killing, won't that do harm to her? We do not kill unarmed men. We are better than that….most of the time. River sure is better than that."

" The human mind is a frail thing. " It said finally and stood up in a graceful, fluent motion.

For a moment, Mal wasn´t sure if he had gotten through to her, but then he could almost see the emptiness in her eyes recede and River´s personality bleeding back into her features. She breathed deep and Mal let out a breath he hadn´t been aware of holding.

River looked at him, stepping over Niska towards Mal and Inara as though she hadn´t just been crouching over his chest. She picked up the knife that lay discarded on the floor with a look of wonderment.

" You okay?" Mal asked her with a questioning stare. River nodded, frowning.

" I would have let her do it ……She was right, I promised Kaylee. I couldn´t do it ….but the other thing could."

" I´m sure Kayle ´s gonna understand."

" Doesn´t change that she´s partly right …..we cannot just leave him here. He knows everything….."

There was an almost inaudible click to be heard, then Jayne´s booming voice coming from the stairway.

" Get down….now." All three of them hit the floor mere seconds before Vera´s firepower filled the narrow corridor with thunderous sound. River swore she could feel the heat of the bullets grazing the top of her heat as they zoomed over them before hitting their target.

" Gorrammit Mal! Thought you´d take better care of my girl!" He yelled as he descended the last steps, from where had  the perfect position to oversee the events in the corridor.

They got up, looking over to where Niska´s body lay, sporting four massive bullet holes in his chest and abdomen, a small silver gun still in his hand.

Inara stared at the mercenary moving towards them. In her wildest dreams the companion had never thought that she´d ever be this happy to see Jayne Cobb.

" Must have had that tiny thing stashed somewhere in that fancy vest….." Mal said in an almost amazed tone of voice, his good arm still clasped firmly around Inara.

" Nah……ruddin´ ankle- holster if you askin´me!"

" Well …least we don´t have to worry ´ bout him spillin´ the beans to the alliance anymore!"

" Whatcha talking ´about?" Jayne asked him with a baffled look.

" Ohhh….. nothing and it sure as hell ain´t murder since he was trying to shoot us first. Now, if you don´t mind me saying ……let´s get out of here, before I bleed out in Niska´s fancy ship."

Yeah,  I know …this is NOT the conclusion ……..there is going be fluffy stuff in the next chapter so that we can all have some closure. HAR HAR HAR! But it´s midnight and I hav e to sleep now ….