A/N: Still yet... Ha! but you must know already!
This chapter has less revision than the other two, but it still has some.
Thanks again to 24K, who keeps me on my toes and gives me ideas that go bump in the night.
I own nothing but the twisted imagination that this springs from. Heck I don't even own the ghosts.

Walk Among Ghosts

Part 3: Meet the – Ghosts?

Malcolm Reynolds was usually a patient man. Usually. He did however, on occasion, give into the impulse of hasty action that marked him as "unstable" in the eyes of the Alliance. Not that he cared as long as the purple-bellied bloat stayed far away from he and his. They normally showed up at the most inconvenient moment. Moments such as this, actually. Being that he was feeling jittery and that he'd been stood up for a drop, the cargo gained by ill-gotten means sitting in the relative open of his unlocked ship's cargo hold with him rather a distance away, he was actually expecting the sound of an Alliance ship any second now. He could already picture the floating city-like ship coming down at them through the clear blue sky. He closed his eyes and tried to turn off his overactive imagination.

Then again, it didn't help matters that his second-in-command and his gun-for-hire were off prowling around a mysterious castle-like structure right out of Sleeping Beauty leaving his as the only gun, either. He disliked being divided like this when his instincts were riled up and misfiring. Today, those instincts of his were all over the damn map. The only safe place to be would be far from here. Not that leaving this world would keep his ship safe with that cargo aboard. Alliance could just as easily mow them down in space as they could here…

He did have River Tam on his side. Alliance didn't have a chance unless there was several armies' worth in attendance. Mal looked over at the slim young woman straining at the twisted metal gate and then to the companion holding onto River's arm. He sighed. Once again, River led them into something that only she understood. "An explanation? Looking for a lonely knight in shining armor, perhaps? Unicorns and fairies?" He began to pace; "There should be nothing here. No homesteads, no outposts, not even a smuggler's catch. What is a castle doing here, River?" Might as well try to get the girl to talk, seeing as they were stuck here until whatever needed to be done was done.

River reached through the bars of the off hinged gate like she was feeling something, "Cold – so cold. Cold and alone. No purple elephants here." Coming from anyone else that would have bothered Mal, but not when River spoke so. He'd long since realized that 'purple elephants' was Alliance. Of course he'd been thrown the first time she'd told him 'purple elephants are flying' and had he understood what she was saying at the time he'd have been a lot more mindful to the danger. Since then he'd gotten to the point that he paid attention to her riddles due to the annoying fact that ignoring them usually led to a brush with death. River reading why his temper was short didn't bother him either. He'd gotten used to having her around and was more disturbed on reflection that he had learned to understand what her odd words meant. The doc was looking at his sister like she had lost progress on her recovery. Barely concealed dismay marred his features. River knew that too, even without looking, "He wanted to know if the purple-bellies were near, Simon." A roll of the head and a look that clearly conveyed 'don't be daft' accompanied her words. Mal relaxed enough to enjoy his amusement over the exchange.

"Oh! I get it," Kaylee replied with sudden understanding. "Is that was you picture when you think of the Alliance, Captain?"

Mal raised his hands and shook his head, "Nope, the elephants belong entirely to River. I do, however understand her code, perhaps more than the rest of you." He looked a the pilot, "So – castle?" He waited as his pilot closed her eyes and seemed to focus both inward and out. It was somewhat odd to feel River's mind as she reached for more understanding in an attempt to answer his question.

Finally her voice reached his ears, "The omnipotent lived here. Now gone beyond. The phantasms cry in the vapor of the marl for retribution," River struggled with the images in her head, the icy tug forward, and the difficulty of finding words that described what she knew. Speaking plainly would have helped, had she been able to do so. The impressions fled across her mind's eye so fast that she had no time to revise the words that she spoke to make them plain though. Mal studied her a moment before turning to Inara.

The companion raised an eyebrow at him. She could only guess at River's meaning, "The master of the castle has left, but those he abandoned want revenge?"

It was at that point that Zoë and Jayne reappeared in the courtyard. "All clear, Captain. There's no danger apparent -- "

"You gotta see the inside of this place!" Jayne interrupted as he bounded forward with excitement. Mal knit his brows together for a moment. "There is a fully stocked kitchen, high quality stuff too. Furniture, everything." The gun-for-hire nearly bounced in his excitement. That was odd, in a way. Except for the fact that food was involved. The captain's eyes flicked back to his pilot. She was dragging Inara forward towards the fountain and the Companion was just keeping up enough to not look clumsy even as she pleaded for the others to follow with her eyes. Mal internally clamped down on the unease growing in his chest, brushed his hand over his gun to make sure it was still there, and locked eyes with Zoë.

"Let's do this thing," he stated out loud. His feet took him across the cobblestones and past his first in command. He felt her fall into step with him. Jayne fell into place as the doc and Kaylee followed.

The glance at the fountain as he passed it was a mistake. It arrested his steps rooting him in place. The color inside the sooty stone basin was the exact same color as long dried blood. He found himself sharing a look with the dark skinned woman whom he would trust with his life. Her eyes revealed that she instinctively reacted to the stain the same way he did. Simon Tam stopped to look at what was holding Mal's attention, but it was Kaylee who voiced the question that no one else could bring themselves to ask; "Oh my -- dung ee-miao -- is that blood?"

"Likely, no." Simon reassured. Still he had to admit that it looked like bloodstains, and the volume of blood required would have been massive.

Unspotted, the pilot paused, turned, and moved back toward the others. Inara was hard pressed to keep up with her and seemed like the only one paying attention to the movements River was making. A hand settled on the mechanic's shoulder, "They didn't feel anything. Their pain had long since passed by the time they ended up here." Kaylee started and stared at River. Her mouth worked like a fish out of water.

"Stop fooling around, mei-mei." Simon scolded. He took a scraping and bent to his ever-present tiny sampler kit carried in a pant cargo pocket. The analysis was mixed, but he felt no need to say that. "It's algae," he announced. Kaylee relaxed. Mal and Zoë just looked at Simon with knowing glances. He brushed it off, stood, and guided his lover toward the door that Jayne had already reached. River let off a rather disturbing giggle.

Jayne couldn't understand why the others even stopped at the dry fountain. Then again, he hadn't bothered to look at it overly close. The courtyard gave him a case of the chills and his instinct was to move through it as quickly as possible. The outer hall didn't make him feel much better, but the long narrow room seemed to be a defensible space unlike the open one where the others stood. "Well, you just gonna stand there and gawk?" he called from the door.

Mal's eyes bounced up to Jayne's quizzical expression. The irrational desire to punch the other man welled up in the captain's soul. Ever since Jayne had attempted to turn in the Tams, Mal had found his anger with him flared at times of stress. It was something he didn't always take out on Jayne though. He'd nearly lost Simon and River because he'd lashed out at the doctor when his nerves were already at the breaking point and Jayne had tried to take enough arms to kill an army along on a heist. It hadn't helped that Simon had punched him, admittedly. Squashing the impulse, he tore himself away from the stone fixture and towards the door. River darted just in front of him, like her position could protect him from whatever phantoms lurked in this place.

River let the pull guide her. It tugged her through the door that Jayne, Simon, and Kaylee waited at. Once past the door and onto the dusty carpet, she found herself looking at a door that was barred shut. The chill on her arms lessened, swirled about her for a moment, then tugged again, pulling her away from the obvious and into the main entry hall. Only then was River aware of the sheer numbers of individual wisps of icy cold that moved through the castle. There had to be dozens of them. The tug turned into a spine tingling chill that raced up and down her body. The entire mass of them spun around her, each single one attempting to reach out for – help. "Please stop," she pleaded. "Please…" She felt her mind retreat from reality in an attempt to protect itself from the volume of thoughts flowing at her.

The other crewmembers watched River as she drifted past them into the open hall with its polished wooden floor. The sudden drop in temperature just past the door stunned each of them. They could see River's breath as it misted up in puffs as she whispered nonsense. The sight momentarily kept the six of them frozen just past the door. "Sir?" Zoë inquired.

It was Inara who moved first to River's side, "Leave her alone!" she commanded whatever it was that River was responding to. "Just back off. You are hurting her." Amazingly enough the chill obeyed. The companion wrapped her arms around River as the other woman's knees gave out. "Look at me, River." Inara took her face and turned it. The touch caused the pilot to cling to Inara's golden silk tunic. "It's okay." The pair of them begain to sway in the embrace slightly. River was so cold. The connection with what was here had lessened, but Inara could still feel them nearby. The hairs on her arms kept rising in waves.

"They are so scared. So cold. It's dark. They can't see. Footsteps overhead. Heavy boots, and the scrape of wood on stone. Things brittle lie under them. Oh, please make them stop!" River spoke with her face pressed into Inara's shoulder, her breath feverishly hot in contrast to her chilled skin.

Where everyone else was straining the hear River's whispers, Jayne was trying to figure out when the air conditioning had come on. Not only was the crazy girl acting even more odd than usual but also what ever ailed her seemed to be spreading. Now Inara was acting just as odd. "I'm going the locate the temperature controls. They seem to be mis-calibrated, or something." He walked off into the dinning room before anyone could stop him.

Mal looked at Zoë. "Is it bad that Jayne actually made some sense there?"

"It would be surprising logical that the internal sensors picked up our sweep and reacted to having people inside. Over long periods of time the controls could become uncalibrated, I suppose. But we've both known River for a while now. I'm not so sure Jayne is right," she answered while avoiding the original question. Simon went over to help Inara move his sister. "There's a study this way." Zoë stepped up and led them down the hall into the circular room with the stairs and through a doorway. Mal and Kaylee followed the others, and Mal whistled as Zoë flung a sheet off a plush suede couch so dark in color that he couldn't tell if it was black or something else.

A few minutes later Jayne walked in. "Odd. The system was still off."

"You sure?" Kaylee asked, "I could look at it and make sure it's not just the lights being burnt out or something."

"You do that, Kaylee," Mal ordered. "Jayne, stay with her."

"Right, Captain," came the ever-cheerful reply. Jayne just grumbled under his breath as he followed the mechanic back out into the hall. The air had returned to its previous comfortable temperature. Kaylee noted it with a frown. She looked at Jayne; "Something's not right here. Can't you feel it?"

Jayne looked at the mechanic with an odd expression, "Not you too, Kaylee. It's bad enough that we got two crazy women about. And I'm not including Zoë in that." He moved past her and toward the room with the controls that she needed to look at. "You coming?"

"There ain't a thing wrong with River and Inara, Jayne. They just intuit more than a thick skull like you."

Jayne listened to her feet as she walked, "Intuit? Is that even a word?"

"It means that they perceive and are sensitive to things that most of us overlook, you oaf."

"You mean they are crazy, then. Somethin' I already knew."

Kaylee growled at Jayne's back, "No. I don't mean that." She thought back to how she felt in the clearing after the mule had set out to make it's drop. "This place has given me the creeps from the moment I set foot to soil, and you know I'm not normally like that. I figure that if I could feel it, surely 'Nara and River felt it a thousand times stronger."

"Ain't nothing here, little Kaylee. Nothing at all. Absolutely no reason for you to feel anything strange, 'cuz there ain't nothing." Jayne pushed the door open and let her pass into the dining room. She looked over the long oval table and the carefully covered chairs. The room looked like it easily sat 50 plus with space to spare. She moved to the table and lifted up the sheet to look at the rare, highly polished, wood. It reflected her image like a mirror. She ran a finger over the edge admiring the craftsmanship of the piece. Jayne didn't even notice, as she became mesmerized, lightly stroking the edge of the table.

Kaylee suddenly found herself at a dinner party. Light music and the sounds of fine silver against expensive china swirled around her. She was against one wall, watching a large group of well-dressed people eat what looked like the main course. The food rivaled the dishes served at the ball Mal'd taken her to. The odors were enough to make her feel like she was there, so rich and good. Light conversation about the weather, their various flight experiences, whom had gone missing while on vacation, and general gossip mingled past her in a confused, muffled mess. She marveled at the swanky clothes.

The tune change becoming soft and soothing as it drifted over the diners. The servants, even, were dressed in the most splendid suits. As she watched the food from the main course was smartly removed from the table while another wave of servants brought in desert. At the head of the table the elderly woman who was the guest of honor was surprised as a platter was settled down in front of her. Kaylee heard her ask the meaning of the placement. Another individual, in position where Kaylee couldn't see him answered her by telling her that they as a group honored her with a special treat of her very own. But when she lifted the lid on the tray she and all those around her screamed. The 'treat' was someone's head inside a clear dessert. Rare fruits floated around it like a crown…

Jayne heard Kaylee's scream as it ripped through the castle and turned to see her crumpling to the floor. He leapt to her side, unable to reach her as she fell. He lifted her head and felt for blood. How was he going to explain this to Mal? 'Never mind Mal,' his brain answered, 'How are ya gonna reason with Simon?' He realized that the only one who could explain to either of the other two men was Kaylee herself. He patted her cheek, "Come on. Wake up." He could hear the sounds of the others heading that way. He was going to be in so much trouble, and he didn't even know what had happened. Jayne looked around and noticed the cover on the table was up, revealing the rich color of the wood. The shine on it seemed to beckon to him, calling out that he touch it. Impulse and instinct struggled for a moment before he snagged the cover and snapped it back in place. One the floor, Kaylee moaned. Jayne looked back at her as Mal and Simon flew through the door as if they had been pushing on it. They stumbled. "I suppose you wanna know what's happenin'?" Jayne asked with worry stamped on his face.