The ship seemed colder than usual. Of course it had nothing to do with the temperature, just her perception as the remaining crew kept to themselves and tried to adjust to the sudden change to comfortable routine. In spite of the dark, hand-shaped bruise still making her shoulder ache, even though she had seen this dream Reaver herself, it seemed absurd. She had seen in the past that the absurd was often true, though.

What good would denial do when she had the closest it was possible to get to proof without dying and there had already been two deaths that could best be explained by accepting that their ex-passenger had been telling the absolute truth. However strange, however silly it sounded - there was an ugly hundan on this ship who could kill them while they slept.

Anyone she caught sight of looked haunted, terrified. Kaylee seemed to be handling it the worst and was spending most of her time around Simon. He had begun distributing stimulants to anyone who needed them while Mal paced and tried to decide what to do. Wash paced elsewhere and she had to leave before his outbursts caused her to say something she was sure she'd regret. He was talking in circles same as everyone else with the primary difference being he could turn the ship to a hospital if he chose while few others had that option.

She glanced over silently as Mal dropped onto the crate beside her and stared unseeing across the cargo bay. "He going to turn us around?"

"I don't think so, sir." She wished she could sound more certain and she was reasonably sure he would hold course to Deadwood but once in a while he surprised her. If he did this time she would have to choose between her husband and the Captain because there was no way his rebellion would be shrugged off or ignored.

"Good. Supposing this is exactly what that kid claimed, we'd be bringing death down on any planet we land on and I'd rather not be the cause of that. If he's wrong we just stayed awake a long time for no reason and I can handle that. Need to figure out how to make these nightmares stop, kill that Reaver."

"He's not a Reaver." Shepherd Book's voice startled both her and Mal - how long had he been standing there?

"Ain't a Reaver?" Mal narrowed his eyes. "What, then?"

"He calls himself a demon."

"Zaogao…" Mal snarled. "Thinkin' we need to just pray him away?"

"I don't think that would be enough in this situation." He admitted.

Zoe watched the preacher's face seeking any sign of confidence but finding none. He looked just as lost as the rest of the crew. "What do you think we should do, then?"

Slowly he shook his head. "I'm not sure there's anything that can be done. I've never heard of a demon named 'Freddy' but I am certain he is powerful enough to be confident."

"What did he say to you?" Mal demanded.

"Very little I would care to repeat verbatim. I do know he has no more fear of me or my faith than he has of anyone else on this ship. How do you destroy something that controls your perceptions on the occasions you see it? Our greatest act may, indeed, be finding an unpopulated planet where he may be trapped."

Zoe scowled at him. "So we should just lay down and let him kill us on the assumption that we'll be his last victims? There has to be a way to fight him."

"There might be."

All three looked up as Simon strode over. While he wasn't smiling he also lacked the look of hopelessness she was seeing on most others. Mal raised an eyebrow. "Shenme?"

"Well, I haven't been able to find anything about people dying like this in their dreams but I did come across a few articles about people dealing with recurring nightmares through lucid dreaming techniques. Expectation shapes perception in dreams and once they were able to realize they were asleep it was possible for them to give themselves superhuman abilities that allowed them to fight back. There was a high rate of recovery from persistent nightmares using this method." He said, almost smiling. "All we really have to do is try to-"

A roar of pain interrupted him and Simon turned on his heel to dash back to the infirmary. Zoe followed Mal to the source of the shout that had become a barrage of cursing in both English and Chinese. They left room for the doctor to get by as they looked in at Jayne.

"That xiniu son of a shanyang cut off my gorram trigger finger!" Jayne howled, holding a balled up shirt against the stump as he stared at the severed digit on the floor nearby.

Simon stopped and frowned, having heard the summary as he approached. He was clearly relieved it was a relatively small injury and let his annoyance surface. "I told you to stay awake… Bring your finger to the infirmary and I should be able to reattach it."

She sighed and left Jayne babbling about the heartless piece of go-se who attacked him as he followed Simon. He was going to be even more unpleasant to be around now - she may even be willing to throw money at him just to get him to be quiet. If they couldn't figure out a way to stop the demon that money wouldn't be worth anything, anyway.

Wash met her on the way to the cockpit, eyes wide. "Was that Jayne?"

"Yeah. He fell asleep and the dream Reaver cut off his favorite finger." She said dryly.

"The middle one?"

She rolled her eyes and almost smiled as he wrapped her in a hug. Annoyances of earlier forgotten, they retreated to the cockpit where they wouldn't have to hear the occasional whimpers and shouts echoing up as the doctor stitched his finger back on.

She blinked. It seemed only a blink… she had been watching the stars while sitting next to Wash then she blinked and found herself looking up at a dark blue evening sky.

"Go-se…" She spat and sat up - why had she been lying down? Looking at the street around her she saw that there was a white outline where she had been laying as well as hastily scrawled arrows pointing away from her and the word 'Run' written multiple times.

The revving of an engine behind her had her on her feet in a heartbeat but she froze as she looked behind her to see a monstrosity. It was an old fashioned car like those parked here and there along the streets - but the front of it had the demon man's deformed face melded to the metal. He gave her a wide smile and the engine revved again. His eyes lit up to cast bright spotlights on her.

"On your mark!" He shouted gleefully. "Get set! GO!"

Shaking off the shock, she turned and ran, quickly veering off the road to jump over a fence as she sought a building that horrible vehicle wouldn't be able to enter or a strong tree he wouldn't be able to knock over. Have to fight back, have to fight back… She thought to herself, feeling for guns on her belt but finding nothing. She wore only the simple clothing common to the era of the cars. Jeans and t-shirt, flimsy belt that served more as decoration than the functional sort she was used to.

Hadn't Simon said there was a way to fight? She struggled to pull what felt like distant memories to the front of her mind. Fighting nightmares… expectation. She had to expect things. Will them… She hopped another fence as she heard the car crash through behind her. As she ran she willed a gun to appear in her hand but she couldn't focus enough while running. She opted to buy time by turning her attention to getting to a tree and smiled as she saw a big one two yards over.

The engine revved again behind her and she heard the snapping of fence posts but she didn't push herself any harder - had to pace herself. She had jumped the last fence and was approaching the tree when silence fell. She didn't quite stop but looked over her shoulder and saw the trail of destruction that marked her pursuer but there was nothing at the end. She scanned the area around but all was still. She reached the trunk of the tree and took deep, even breaths as she listened for any movement.

A soft rustle overhead was immediately followed by a heavy thump in front of her. She looked down and forgot to breathe as Wash's vacant eyes looked back at her. Though the head was not attached to a body it smiled and spoke with the harsh voice of the dream Reaver. "Just figured I'd head you off."

Zoe gasped and sat up straighter in the chair as she jerked back to wakefulness. The movement jostled Wash as he leaned against her. She couldn't quite hold back a scream as his head fell away from her shoulder and dropped into her lap to stare at her with wide, frightened eyes. His body slumped and fell forward as she sat motionless, barely aware of the footsteps approaching fast along the walkway outside.