Chapter 1

The shuttle was as lavishly decorated as usual as Inara switched off the com unit. After deciding to stay on Serenity, she had returned the formerly plain shuttle to its former lavish style. She had to be careful, but she wanted to use some of her contacts to see if she could help in their search for Simon. A chirp behind her indicated that someone was at the door and she stood to go meet whoever was up so late.

"Can't sleep, 'Nara," Kaylee wrapped her arms around herself and took a deep, shaky breath.

Inara wrapped her arms around the distraught woman and led her to the bed. "Sleep here tonight then, mei-mei. Mal and the others will come back with him. You know they will."

"Its just - River said - She's been gettin' better. Simon said so. And now - now she's -"

"River is grieving herself right now. I don't think she is seeing things clearly. As the day's have passed, she can't feel him so strongly, so she thinks something bad has happened."

Kaylee crawled into the bed and wrapped Simon's shirt tighter around her body. "It smells like him."

Inara smiled gently and brushed her hand through Kaylee's hair. "Mal will bring him back to you." She knew her voice didn't sound as confident as she would like, but it was all she could offer in way of comfort.

"I took a sleeper but it didn't knock me out. I – I don't want ta think 'bout what they are doin' to him."

Inara rubbed Kaylee's shoulders as she rested her head on the Companion's lap. She was fond of Simon and River, in fact, was the first to defend them when they'd first arrived. Simon was a strong, determined young man, but she was afraid that wouldn't be enough to stand up to the torture he was most certainly going to be put through.

"Now what do you think Simon would say if he heard you were self-medicating yourself?"

"He'd yell at me." Silence fell for a moment before Kaylee continued, "And then he'd pull me into his arms and hold me all night long."

"He'll do that again, mei-mei." Inara wrapped her arms around Kaylee's shoulders and hugged her tight.

Long moments of silence followed as each woman was lost in thought. Kaylee's voice penetrated the silence, sobbing sadly. "Is the 'verse so cruel ta give us only a few months together?"

Inara closed her eyes and sighed. The Companion tempered her response. As her own faith wavered, she lied. The answer was one Kaylee would not want to hear. "Mal will find him."

"I'm so used ta sleepin' with his arms around me," Kaylee continued and Inara was grateful she had accepted the answer to her previous question. "Feels odd an all when he's not there."

Inara brushed her hand through Kaylee's hair and the distraught girl lowered her head into the Companion's lap.

"I miss him so much," Kaylee sobbed as she closed her eyes. "I'm so afraid."

"I know, mei-mei," Inara said softly.

"No. No. No. No," Simon muttered over and over. His eyes were glazed and he had little strength left with which to fight. "Not right. Must fight. Must -" His voice trailed off into incoherent mutterings brought about by a heavy dosage of experimental drugs.

After uncounted days of examinations, tests and a series of drug treatments that rivaled those given to his sister, Simon's grip on reality had become a twisted mess of logic and reverse psychology. He didn't know what was real any longer. He saw his sister and Kaylee, safe and happy. But it wasn't, couldn't be true. His eyes could see but he knew he could not trust them. His mind was playing tricks on him. He couldn't believe anything it showed him.

The memory of what they had done to his sister was still fresh, and he knew, unless he died during the process, his own mind was going to be turned into a similar playground for government experimentation.

Simon tugged at the straps holding his arms and legs into the chair but it was no use. He could not get away. He wasn't sure he even had the strength to walk on his own anymore.

"I've looked at the studies of his sister." A physician stood over the young man, glancing down at his tense body. "While he doesn't have the same - gifts, I think we may still be able to work with his mind. He is a brilliant doctor. Highly educated. We can condition him to be an effective -"

"River no!" Simon cried as a blue-gloved hand reached out to inject a milky fluid into the screaming man's arm.

"He calls out for her. Constantly." The physician noted, glancing up at screens displaying his patient's vital signs and brain activity. "Regardless of what we do, what drugs we give him, how much we strain his mind."

"You will break him."

Simon's grip on reality continued to slip and by the time they were done with their current treatment, he was incapable of coherent speech.

"He's gone," River said absently, as they sat at the table. Her eyes were bloodshot and they all well knew she had woken up screaming every night since Simon had been taken. "They made him like me. But he's not like me."

If she was dreaming about her brother, she could still feel him. It gave the others hope. Hope that Simon was still alive even though they hadn't been able to find him.

"Don' say that," Kaylee's hands began to shake and Inara reached over to squeeze them reassuringly.

"We're going out to investigate another lead." Mal told them - because he thought they should know. But when Kaylee got that excited look in her eye, Mal raised his hand. "Don't get all hopeful. It's just a lead. Like all the others we've followed over the last week."

"We need ta find work, too," Jayne muttered, annoyed that all of their free time had been used to search for the doctor he hadn't really liked in the first place. "Can't start eatin' the ship."

"Your tongue is sharp enough. No need to be filing down your teeth too." Zoe said as she stood to join the Captain.

Days turned into weeks and the few slim leads they'd had when Simon was first taken had slowly dried up. The chances of finding him had turned from slim to none - until a job they'd put on hold since Simon had been taken led them to the other side of the planet. In delivering stolen medical supplies to those in desperate need, their employer had divulged that there was an unregistered government run facilitythat kept its doors tightly closed and its employees well-hidden.

After the job was done, the crew returned to Serenity to discuss their next move.

Zoe placed a bowl in front of River and she hurled it across the room, spraying protein across the flower painted walls, muttering "two by two, hands of blue" like an ancient, nerve-wracking chant.

Jayne launched himself to his feet and clutched his sidearm. He'd taken to arming himself -even while on the ship. Since Simon had been gone, River's mental state had deteriorated steadily and he didn't want to find himself at the sharp end of a butcher knife again.

"No!" River grabbed her head and scurried away from the table, pressing herself into the first corner she could find. "Simon!" her bloodcurdling scream echoed off the walls and sent chills of cold terror down the spines of the crew.

TBC

Chinese translations for Chapter 1:

Mei-mei - little sister

Comments on reviews:

Zonya – I've been sick for the last few days but here is the next chapter. Hopefully, it wasn't too long of a wait.

Sulkyn – Well, it was just a Prologue, they aren't meant to be long. I wanted it deliberately short so as to draw in the reader. Hopefully it worked!

JC6 – Hope you like this chapter as well. It's a bit longer. The next will be even longer.

Aurelia30 – You know from my other stories that I like to hurt my favorite character so – Simon is in for some fun stuff…heh. Well, HE wouldn't think it was fun, but I've enjoyed writing it . . .:)