Thanks for another encouraging review! No matter how may times a proof read the chapters, something always slips through! :) Hope you like this one, It seems to have taken another different direction!

Chapter Nine

She didn't know how much time had passed when she finally came to. The first thing River became aware of was the numbness. It wrapped itself, like a snake coils, around her spine, immobilizing her body. She couldn't move.

She could hear the restless pace of someone as they strode back and forth near her and the even breathing of someone else even closer to her side. It was almost like they were hovering, waiting for he to wake.

Deciding it would make little difference when she choose to announce her regain to consciousness she opened her eyes, immediately resting them on the man by her bedside.

He was a tall man, lean and well built, no doubt to the endless hours he honed his muscles for. His hair was a bright blond, almost white and his complexion was pale, though not unhealthy.

"I was beginning to wonder if they used too much sedative." He smiled, his voice like silk and yet as sharp as broken glass. She could feel the ill intent seeping from him. His name was Brendan and nothing good would come from him.

"You must be frightened, I know. It cannot be easy. Being wanted by so many." He continued as he stood, circling her sterile bed like a vulture. "But you see, you are extremely valuable to me. What you are, what you have become."

River knew what he implied; this was the man who had taken her from Serenity, but by accident, a fluke. He did not seem to understand, to know, just exactly what he HAD done.

"I thought it would be difficult to find you, being protected by those wizards. But you have made it very easy for me, and for that I am grateful."

River wanted nothing more than to punch him in the face, to wipe the smirk that marred his features, but she couldn't even talk. It was not just sedatives that held her down, her muscles were unresponsive. No doubt thanks to a muscle relaxant. He wasn't taking any chances that she would get away again.

"I'm sure you're confused. I am too, if that's any conciliation." He continued. "You see, I didn't expect to find you alive, when my people reported they'd found you, I just had to see you for myself."

There was a quite knock on the door to the other side of the room. "Mr. Kroff, sir." A young man dressed in a white coat entered, a brown folder clutched in his hands to which he handed over to Brendan. He opened it, looked at it briefly before throwing it back, seemingly unimpressed.

"Dispose of them, that it all." Brendan said as the man rushed from the room keeping his head down. "Attempt number eleven." He walked his way back around to River's right, where she had first seen him when she woke, and leaned over until he was mere inches from her. "He went quicker than the last one, you see, when I infuse a non-magic person with magic from a witch or wizard, they don't stay alive for very long. Of course the witch or wizard dies instantly and the other not more than an hour before they too follow. That is, except for you. Why is that do you suppose?"

River could not answer even if she had wished to. Instead she gazed up into his eyes, her stare blank but heavy. Her eyes were becoming too weighted down to keep open as the sedative continued to work its way through her blood.

"I know, it's odd isn't it? But you will tell me why, one way or another. And when I know your secret, I will make an army. Dumbledore and his Ministry of wizards will control us no longer. I know all about him." He said, seeing the brief flicker of surprise in River's eyes. "I would be a fool not to know who my enemy was. When I know what makes the magic stay with you and not kill you, the wizard world will crumble."

River's eyelids could no longer be held open by sheer will and so she drifted into unconscious, hoping against hope that she would wake again.

She floated in a sea of abyss, deep blue water flowing like silk caressing her skin as she sunk down into the darkness of the ocean depth. She felt the gentle tug of the currents pulling her, navigating her through a passage of memories. Only the memories were not her own.

She closed her eyes, basking in the silence as the images continued in the distance. She didn't even realize she had stopped flowing until someone shook her, and not gently.

"River?" His voice was unfamiliar and yet she felt she knew him.

She opened her eyes as a short man with sandy colored hair, high cheekbones and a long flowing black robe smiled with relief at her.

"I thought I'd never be able to wake you." He continued to smile and River took notice of the room she was in. It was not the tranquil ocean she had slipped into but instead a blindly white one that would have made her eyes sore if she were actually awake. But she was not, and yet this was not a dream.

The room was small and square, with two doors at opposite ends. One door was made of metal, the other of wood. Other then themselves, the room was void of all else.

"River?" The man asked again, capturing her attention.

"I know you." Her voice was steady and sure.

He nodded. "I am Carry Dervon."

"You are the wizard that died to give me magic." River understood now why she knew him. He was a part of her now. He had made her whole.

He nodded again, but his eyes betrayed him. "This is your mind. This is where I reside. But I cannot stay here, you understand why."

River got to her feet, her eyes not leaving his. "I understand." He couldn't stay because the magic was killing her.

"You need to let me go." Carry prompted.

River scrunched her face as she took a step back. "I can't. They did this to me! I have to find the machine."

"No, you don't need it for that." Carry stepped to her right, leaving the space between them with open honest arms. "You can release me, you've always been able to."

"But I don't know how!" She threw her hands to her sides in exasperation.

"But you do. The only reason you are still alive right now, the only reason I am here, is because when you came into this world, you were broken. My magic made you whole, but it is also that which is killing you. You need to let me go, for your life, and for the lives Brendan Kroff and his people have taken. They will not stop."

Silent tears rolled from her cheeks as she felt the pointless loss of life around her. "But I will be broken again."

Carry nodded somberly. "You don't belong here and neither do I."

River clamped her eyes shut, knowing the truth of his words. "I understand now." Without question she moved to the left of the room, her arm outstretched as she took a hold of the doorknob to the metal door for metal was her domain, it was where she had come from, and where she would return to.

"When you release me, I will purge the drugs from your system. The sedatives and muscle relaxants will be nullified. You must move quickly, but I will send help." Carry moved silently to the wooden door, his hand poised and ready to twist the knob.

River turned to him for the last time. "Thank you." She whispered as their doors opened and he smiled, his face peaceful as it faded from her mind and body.

In a rapid burst of released energy he was gone and River stepped through the door and away from her now once again broken mind and slipped back into reality.