Rivers POV

A week in solitary confinement, only blue gloved guards in and out, and me in and out of consciousness. None of them will talk to me; tell me where Nevva and the others are. I cry a lot, and I know they are doing tests while I am unconscious, my brains being scrambled, wires crossing in the street. And the dreams, they get more vivid, more strange.

The one that stands out is a black man in my room, a proper man, I've never met before, and he sits on my bed. I don't know him, he knows me, sees inside my head, understands me like they don't, even with all the fancy tests.

"A very lost little girl," he smiles, like a father. "You carry big secrets don't you?" I shake my head.

"No secrets, only whispers."

"Ah yes," he smiles. "Parliament is very proud of the work here at Pyxis you realize?"

"Yes sir."

"You are key to the work."

"Great works. We are doing great works." I nod.

"Most of you are, there is one though," he paces my room, and the dream fades in my memory.

I loose track of time, morning, nights it's no difference. It's always darkest before the dawn. Finally Dr. Mathias steps into the eight by eight cell I have spent the week in.

"Hello, River."

"No one's here," I shake my head, knocking it against the stone wall.

"Hey, none of that," his hand cups my head, and I pull away.

"No touching the animals," I scramble away from him.

"I need to take you to the interview room," Dr Mathias stands holding out a hand. Like I was really going to take it, I stare at him.

"You need to wash your hands," I glare at him. "Where are Nevva and the others?"

"Guards." Two of the new guards step into the room. I stand before they reach me, and walk past Dr. Mathias. He starts to follow me out the door, but I turn quickly so he almost runs into me.

"Shh," I tilt my head, listening, then turn back to him, grinning. "Do you hear it?"

"River, you need to go." My smile fades; I trace my fingers across his chest over his heart.

"They're coming you know. Counting down to the end of days, three, two, one, he'll know you." Dr Mathias gives me a confused look, and pushes me along, I go willingly, I've seen his future.

"River Tam. It's been a while." The interviewer, he shakes my hand, and everything is clear, everything flows through me in a way nothing ever had. They had cameras in all the rooms. We should of known, even here they were watching us, they had cameras in the boathouse. They had known our plans all along.

I could see Nevva and the others being dragged away from me, Tarrin fought, bit the guard so hard he let go, shot Tarrin in the back. The other fought then, Nevva was hurt bad, maybe would have been killed, but the interviewer, he stopped them, knocked the others out.

They dragged them into a room I had never been in, hooked Nevva to tubes, try to keep her alive. Gunner attacked the interviewer after the guards left, wrestled a gun from him. Gunner had given up; I could feel his fear, his hatred for living at the school. He shot himself.

They were alive, the whole week I was in solitude they were alive. They broke Lee first, tapped into her brain and mixed it up. Nothing but soup in there now, she sat terrified in her own head, screaming when the doctors tried to get near her. No longer of use to the project, they put a bullet in her.

Nevva was their next test, how far can you push her? The interviewer wanted to know, parliament wanted to know. Trap her in a cage? No water? How long can she last? She died after five days of reduced air, extreme temperature changes, and no food or water.

I jerk my hand back, dropping into the chair, feeling too weak to move. There is silence as my brain tries to wrap around the facts. Its hard, but I realize how out of control everything is, my life is theirs now. But I won't go down quiet, I remember who the black man wanted dead now, who was standing in the way of great works, who had killed my friends. The interviewer.

"You're very quiet today. How did your session with Dr. Mathias go?" He asks finally.

"He gave me a mission," I smile softly to myself. A mission, they'll know that a person is not a weapon; a person is too unstable to ever be a weapon.

"Really? Did he...tell you your mission out loud, or did you just hear it?" He looks interested, thinks I'm playing their game again.

"He plays hide-and-seek with me," I frown, unsure of myself for a moment, I just felt Simon, but that's impossible.

"Dr. Mathias?" Simon hasn't forgotten me, he's looking, trying to save me, doesn't know it's too late.

"My brother. Is a doctor. He thinks he can find me, but...I am deep down...and I do not make...a sound." A lost little girl.

"River, what mission did Dr. Mathias give you?" He's getting annoyed, I snap back to the present, to what needs to be done.

"I can't tell you."

"You can tell me anything, you know that."

"Can't. Tell. I'll have to write it down." It has to be done, I reach for his pen. He pauses only a moment before handing it to me. I take it slowly, then stand moving as if to take his pad of paper. I switch my movements quickly jamming the pen through his rib, puncturing a lung. He wheezes looking wide eyed at me, and everything he did to the others comes flashing back to me, filling me with a silent rage. I yank the pen back out, it makes a wet plopping kind of sound.

I slam it back in, puncturing his heart, warm blood is starting to coat my hands, and again, the other lung, he's making gurgling sorts of noises, looking at me with disbelief, I lean in close to his face, I want him to know that I did this, this was my choice, he deserved to die for what he's done, and he, the project, parliament, they gave me the power to kill him.

"Your blood is on my hands," I cup his chin in my hand, giving him a little shake and leaving a bloody hand print. I tug his shirt, pulling him off the chair. They'll be coming soon, I can hear them. I jump to the camera, face and hand pressed against it's hidden source.

"I can see you." Now they know I know, for a brief moment I wonder how much longer I'll live. Blue handed guards again, two by two, they carry me away. One stays behind calling Dr. Mathias.

"We're bringing her to you. Hen ji!"

: A music video that ties in this story, firefly, and serenity, and Rivers troubles over the deaths of her friends is on youtube: except they wont let me put in the link so email me at dontuuwish at yahoo i figure you can figure out the real email format since they wont let me have an email address in here either