"Book? Yes, Book! It is you!" Niska said.
"Adelai." Book said as he entered Niska's interrogation room.
"It's been a long time my friend. Who are you trying to fool dressed as a Shepard?"
"I suppose you could say myself. I've changed."
"Sit down. I have to say I'm surprised to see you again. So you say you are a different man then the one I knew."
"Yes and I have prayed dearly for your soul each night." Book said as he stared at Niska.
"Funny I did not ask for it." Niska said with a chuckle.
"God loves all."
"You wear your faith like a mask. It hides the real you underneath. You haven't changed you only think you have." Niska said as he stood and began to walk around the desk in front of him.
"Now what business do you want from me?"
"I have come to bargain for these peoples lives." Shepard said.
"You have nothing of value."
"I will exchange my life for theirs."
"You know there was a time that lives weren't that important to you, remember?"
"I do. That was a time when I thought I knew my place in the world, I was wrong."
"I give you a choice." Niska said handing Book a gun.
"You kill Nosk here, I let your friends go."
Book stared down at the gun in his hands contemplating his decision. He looked in Nosk's eyes and saw the fear in them. He raised the gun, cocked it and aimed for the man's head. He could not kill a man in cold blood though. He lowered the gun feeling like he had failed his friends.
"Perhaps you have changed, my friend."
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Mal and Lo were walking through a dense part of the forest hoping it would guise themselves from Niska's patrols. They both remained silent as they proceeded across the terrain. As the reached what appeared to be the end of the forest Mal stopped.
"Do you smell that?"
"Smells like something burnt."
"The trees were burnt." Mal said pointing up to them.
"We haven't had any forest fires here of late."
"This was no fire, a ship crashed." Mal said as they reached a small opened area where an abandoned ship sat.
Malcolm knew exactly what was in front of him; it was a downed Reaver ship. Around the ship lied numerous corpses. Mal surveyed the scene and pick up a steel bar from the debris. He then continued towards the ship's hatch.
"Reavers." Mal whispered.
"What are you doing we can't go in there?"
"Most of these bodies are in pretty good shape, if there were any survivors they wouldn't be." Mal said journeying into the ship.
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Jayne sat across from Niska trying to stare him down. It wasn't working and Jayne was growing increasingly anxious. He then darted his eyes down to a knife embedded into the table. It reminded him of his own weapon Vera and how much he missed her.
"That's quite a shiny knife you've got there. You know I once skinned a man alive with a knife similar to that one. Took me two hours, luckily he died halfway through." Jayne said trying to intimidate Niska.
"And why did you do this?"
"He called me pretty; I don't like being called pretty."
"Pretty you are not but you are indeed a liar." Niska said laughing.
"Skinning a man takes at least four hours; I killed my father this way. Very sad……I move on. My guess would be you skinned a small animal, such as a dog."
"It was a big dog." Jayne said trying to make up for the lie.
"You think you can intimidate me? You have a reputation as such. If you do not tell me what I want to know I will show you what this knife can do and I assure you I can make it last more than four hours." Niska yelled as Jayne held a hand on his stomach and grimaced in pain.
Niska escorted Jayne back to the cell and again noticed the man holding his stomach and wrenching in pain. Nosk was about to unlock the cell.
"Wait, cut open his stomach, he swallowed them, doesn't matter if he lives." Niska said.
"You swallowed them?" Inara couldn't believe his stupidity.
"Seemed like a good idea at the time." Jayne said as they took him away.
Menske came running up to Niska holding a small device.
"Sir we may have found them. I'm detecting two life signs around what looks like a crashed Reaver ship. Shall I send out our teams?"
"No I will go alone. I want to deal with Captain Reynolds myself."
"Wait sir, I'm detecting a third life sign now. It might be one of ours that survived the crash."
"Yes, Perhaps."
"What should we do with the rest of the prisoners?"
"Kill them they no longer serve any purpose." Niska said as he walked away prepared for his final confrontation with Malcolm Reynolds.
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Mal and his mother were now scavenging the Reaver ship for any weapons. Mal luckily found a small saw which he was able to cut the handcuff chain in two. He and his mother were now separated. Mal walked up to the cockpit and poked two reavers at the wheel with the steel bar he had found. They were both dead.
"We shouldn't be here Mal, it's dangerous with Reavers about." Lo approached and noticed a small red glowing light coming from one console.
"Mal what's that?"
"It's a distress call. More reavers are coming."
"We need to find some weapons if you're not going to help then shutup." Mal yelled.
"Ever since you got here you've been keeping me at a distance. Is this about your father?"
"We are not going to start about him."
"Your father loved you and this family."
"Did he tell you that after the first or hundredth beating?"
"Mal it wasn't like that."
"Don't defend him! Every gorram day he laid his hands on you and you did nothing. Not once did you fight back."
"I was trying to protect you the best way I knew how. I wasn't strong enough then Mal."
"Do you have any idea how it felt watching him beat you every day. You didn't deserve that!" Mal yelled at the top of his lungs.
"I know you may not understand this but every bruise, every wound I got made me stronger."
"Strong enough for him to die of a heart attack?" Mal shot back.
"On the night your father died he beat me so bad and left me bleeding on the floor. Afterwards I grabbed his gun, I was just going to scare him but he came at me. After the first shot everything he had done to me came to the surface. I don't remember how many more times I shot him but I knew that he would never touch me again." Lo said tearing up.
"You killed him." Mal was shocked.
"Mal, I?" Lo tried to say something but tripped over a dead body that she recognized.
"That's Mr. Benke, he's been missing for days!" Lo yelled in horror.
Mal looked down at the corpse, obviously something had been feeding off of him, all of the flesh on his legs at been ripped off.
"He's been rationing the bodies. Run!" Mal said as he exited the ship coming face to face with a Reaver.