A/N: The gap between the first chapter and this will be explained as the story goes on. :)
Two years later.
"Aubrey!" A loud booming voice ripped her out of her dreamless sleep. "It's time for your injections."
"No..." Her voice trailed off. She had no choice as a man in a white jacket shoved a needle into her arm. She winced and breathed in deeply, readying herself for the convulsions. The straps that held down her arms and legs to the gray chair seemed to be fighting against her body as she writhed uncontrollably. The world was spinning and her thoughts were turned to jelly as her head shook. Her name was nothing but a symbol of what used to be. The shaking erasing what once was and what will never be.
Black.
When she awoke, she was on the floor of her quarters. Slowly lifting herself from the ground, she walked over to the wall of glass, and stared into it, knowing people were watching her from behind it. Her skin was pale from not having been in natural light for two years. Her eyes were now gray, and she tried to return them to their normal purple by smiling. It wasn't sincere, and they remained the same.
She pressed her face to the glass, and cupped her hands around her eyes. Usually she could see the apathetic faces staring blankly back at her, but the black chairs were now vacant. Aubrey's expression changed to that of a confused one when she looked to the bolt on her door. It was unlocked. She ran to it, pulling the heavy steel door back. Her eyes filled with hope as she walked slowly into the hall.
Aubrey stopped and stared down to the end. Listening carefully, she concentrated on thoughts. Only a few incoherent whispers of patients. Where were the guards? White lights were flashing on the ceiling. She started walking down the hall slowly, looking into each room as she passed.
Empty. Empty. Empty.
Her pace quickened to a jog, then to a sprint. She concentrated on the hallways, and turned down one and connected to another then went through another steel door. Inside, there was a ladder in front of her. Looking up she saw glass about 3 stories above her.
Aubrey reached for the ladder and just as she was putting her foot on the first bar, she heard voices from down the hall. Yelling. She began to pull herself up one rung after another. As fast as she could until she was at the glass. Beyond it was black. Some sort of door.
She glanced around for a keypad or anything she could use to open the barrier. Her gray eyes locked onto a tiny square with the numbers 1 through 16 on different buttons.
From beneath her, the yelling got louder until they were directly three stories below her. "I thought you said she'd be out for 2 hours!"
Concentrating on their thoughts, she caught the numbers and punched them into the square. 12, 8, 14, 3. The doors opened, and she was hit with the overwhelming warmth of the sun.
Aubrey pulled herself out of the tube just as the guards were starting to climb the ladder. She fell to the ground, but jumped up when she realized she was in a giant field of tall grass. Squinting against the sun, she saw a shining city in the distance. Her legs started running before she even had a chance to think.
Coming up to a hill, she stopped to see how steep it was. Before she could even look, a silver shuttle pulled up right in front of her. Reeling back, she stared, surprised at the small shuttle. Her hopes fell, thinking it was an Alliance shuttle coming to get her. It hovered in front of her and she stared at it with pleading eyes, hoping that whoever was in it might take mercy and let her get a thirty second head start. She stood staring at this unmoving shuttle, her skirt flapping in the wind with her hair flailing about her face.
"Hey!" A loud male voice caused Aubrey to turn quickly. Thinking quickly, she swung around to run down the hill. Unfortunately the hill turned out to be a cliff. Aubrey tried to think of something, anything she could do. She was trapped.
She looked back and forth from the shuttle to the men anxiously. She was just about to end it all by jumping the cliff when the shuttle moved towards her and she stumbled back. The men were getting closer and the silver shuttle landed and the doors opened.
From inside the shuttle a woman with dark brown, curly hair and a long dress appeared and she motioned for Aubrey to come in. This did not look like any Alliance officer. The guards were gaining and the woman started yelling for her. Just as Aubrey started running for the shuttle, the Alliance guards started shooting at her.
A bullet grazed her right arm as she jumped into the shuttle and the doors shut. The woman pulled up and directed the shuttle away from the city and the facility Aubrey had been in.
When Aubrey finally lifted her head she was surprised to see that the inside of the shuttle was draped in Sari fabric. It was beautiful. She cautiously lifted herself from the floor and cradled her wounded arm. Walking over to the cockpit area of the shuttle, she noticed a strange feeling on her bare feet.
Aubrey looked down and saw that it was carpet. Realizing she hadn't felt carpet for two years, she continued walking until she was beside the dark haired woman. She drew in her breath quickly when she noticed a graze on her temple. "Do you want me to-"
"Do you know how to fly one of these?" The woman sounded breathless.
"Yeah." Aubrey took her spot when the woman got up. "Where do you want me to go?" She glanced nervously back at her and then back in front of her.
"Somewhere we can lay low while you explain to me what just happened back there." She sounded rushed and Aubrey sped up a bit.
Readying the shuttle for landing, Aubrey flipped 3 switches above her head, and slowly pushed the wheel forward. Once they were on the ground, nestled between two mountains, she let the wheel sit back in place. Aubrey quickly stood up and had to grab onto a chair when she was struck by a sudden wave of dizziness.
Aubrey recovered quickly and walked over to kneel in front of the woman who was now sitting on the couch. "Here, let me do that." She took the cloth the woman was using from her hand. Aubrey dipped it in the small bowl of water and put it on the graze. "I'm Aubrey."
"Well Aubrey," She took in a sharp breath and winced. Aubrey gave her an apologetic look. "I'm Inara. Now tell me what happened back there." Inara reached over to get a bandage for Aubrey to put on her head.
"I uh... I'm not quite sure what happened back there." Aubrey took the bandages from Inara and ripped off a small piece. "I was being held in a facility run by the Alliance. One of many." She gently placed the small bandage onto the wound and moved to get the strips of tape. "They run tests on people, some old, most young, all said to be brilliant." Aubrey taped down the bandage then put her arms in her lap. "For me, there were the weekly injections. They wanted to know how much my brain could take. It started off with some shaking, but as the weeks went on, they turned into violent convulsions. They ended up having to strap me down to the table." Aubrey sighed. "Then they started asking me all these random questions that I didn't know the answers to. Every week they'd ask, and the answers never changed. So they started to slow down the injections, but the withdrawals had a nasty backlash." She pointed to her head. "My brain was doing some funky stuff. They went back to the questions and I got all of them right. I didn't know them before they asked. I just knew them. I heard them. As if they were being told to me by someone, but no one could see."
"So you can hear thoughts." Inara did not look skeptical, and Aubrey was taken aback. She did not say anything though, the universe had changed over the last two years and it was not worth making a fool of herself. Inara continued. "How long were you there?"
"I tried not to count, but around 2 years, I think." Aubrey turned her head to look at her injured arm and furrowed her brow. There was blood on her arm, but all dried. It had stopped bleeding. "After their tests had 'succeeded' they put me under maximum security, but as the year progressed, they lessened it. I was able to talk with other patients and it was such a relief. But when I stopped responding to their new tests, because I found out I could block the thoughts, they wouldn't let me do that anymore." Aubrey took a new cloth that Inara handed her and began to clean off the blood. "Well today had been like any other... my injections usually put me to sleep for about 3 hours, but today I woke up 2 hours early. No one was there watching me. I guess they had some emergency of a sort on one of the other levels. I found my way out and then that happened."
Inara looked contemplative and confused. "Where were you before all of this?"
Aubrey finished cleaning her arm and wrapped a bandage around it. "Well I was born and raised on Tranquility, but-"
"Tranquility?" Inara stared at her in shock. "How is that possible? You can't be from Tranquility, their entire race was wiped out two... years ago."
Aubrey lowered her head and retired her kneeling to a sitting position on the floor. "Yeah." Her now tangled brown hair fell in front of her face.
"Oh sweetie, I'm sorry." Inara reached out and touched Aubrey's arm. "I didn't mean to-"
"It's fine." Aubrey looked back up to Inara and forced a small smile. "Thank you for saving me back there. I'm sorry they shot at us. I don't know why they did that, considering they would need me alive..."
"You're welcome and it's okay. It's only a graze." She touched the bandage on her forehead and smiled. Then she glanced away for a moment and her expression changed. "That means you're the only person from Tranquility alive." She moved to stand up then helped Aubrey up after her. "I'm in the presence of universal royalty!" Her grin widened.
Aubrey shook her head, but thought about it for a moment. "How am I royalty?"
"Wait, I thought you said you can hear thoughts." Inara smirked then continued. "You're the last and only of an amazing race. How is that not considered royalty?"
"Did you know any of my race?" Aubrey sat on the couch, but Inara stayed standing.
"Of course I did. People who didn't are missing so much." She smiled and her brown eyes crinkled at the corners.
"What exactly do you do?" Aubrey watched as she went to sit back down in the control seat.
"I'm a companion." Inara is never sure what kind of reaction she'll get from different people, but she was strangely hoping that Aubrey wouldn't mind or actually approve of her profession.
"Really?" Aubrey's eyes shot up to look at Inara, who was preparing the shuttle for flight. "That's so amazing!" Inara looked back in surprise at Aubrey who actually smiled genuinely for the first time Inara had seen. The smile revealed one dimple on her left cheek. "I've always wanted to meet a real one." She sat back further in the couch when Inara turned back to the controls and directed the shuttle towards the sky. "So where are we going? This shuttle's only built for short distances."
"Back to the ship I stay on, and do you always choose not to read minds, or am I special?" Inara smiled at the thought of introducing Aubrey to the crew.
"Who's Kaylee and why do you think I'll like her?" A smile tugged at the corners of Aubrey's mouth then she frowned. "And why are you afraid Mal won't let me stay?"
"Yeah... I'm going to check in with Mal to tell him you're with me." Inara looked a bit uneasy.
"Well captains have to know who's on their ship." Aubrey shut her eyes and leaned into the couch. She couldn't believe she had gotten out of there alive. It was so surreal, yet felt just right. She knew everything was going to get better. In time. "Serenity." She exhaled audibly. "That's a pretty name."