Disclaimer: Still don't own anything… Blah blah, woof woof…

A/N: Sorry, sorry, sorry for the long wait. Thanks as always to my wonderful readers, who continue to be so supportive of my little fantasy (and haven't given up and walked away in total disgust over my inability to post more quickly). Warning; this chapter contains swearing (in English) and semi-graphic violence. If that offends, you may not want to read. You have been warned.

FYI: I have caved and gotten a LiveJournal account. Those of you who also have one, feel free to add me as a friend (username: Druidlass). I'm going to try and post progress reports (and rants) about my stories, and (once I figure out how) possibly post some new stories there. Anyone who's interested, drop by to witness my insanity!!

I really have nothing else to say, so I'll shut up and let you read!

What the gorram hell?

"Oh, for Buddha's sake," came a new voice from the ramp, exasperated and more than a little irritated. "Nicos, we talked about this! I distinctly recall it." There was a small silence, during which the stranger, Nicos, continued kissing River, apparently missing the fact that she wasn't responding or reciprocating in any way.

"NICOS!" A new voice, more annoyed than the first, was loud enough to make everyone in the bay, including the man in question, jump.

The crew turned to look briefly at the three people standing on the ramp; two women, both with their arms crossed, wearing identical expressions of displeasure and a large man standing just behind them, an amused half-grin on his face, before turning back to the scene being played out on the bay floor.

Startled by Kaen's loud voice, Nicos pulled back from River's mouth and finally noticed how cold her eyes were as she stared back at him. He winced.

"Hello Nicos." He winced again, visibly; her voice was even colder than her eyes.

"H- hello River," he stuttered. "I uh, I'm sorry, I just…" He trailed off, unsure what to say to escape her wrath. He attempted a warm smile, hoping that would help.

"You just what?" Damn, he thought, that didn't work. "You just became so overwhelmed at seeing me again, that you completely forgot that we are no longer together and haven't been for years?" River swore she heard a low growl coming from where Jayne was, but she didn't take the time to exam that. Her entire focus was on the tall, black haired man standing uncomfortably in front of her. Seeing the way Nicos was starting to shift nervously from foot to foot, a habit his parents had tried to have broken in childhood, she finally relented and looked away.

The crew watched as a large smile covered River's face as she finally spotted the three people standing on the ramp. Dismissing Nicos from her mind, she ran over to greet her fellow readers.

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What the gorram hell?

Only the fact that she weren't responding kept Jayne from running over and beating the little shit pawing River to a bloody pulp. And that fact held him back by a thread. Fists clenched at his side, Jayne breathed as slowly as he could and tried not to growl. He hadn't realized he was capable of this type of jealousy; he wasn't much happy with the discovery.

He jumped like everyone else when the blonde woman yelled. He recognized her as Kaen from the descriptions River had once given him of her four reader friends. The woman with the red hair was Sia, the one who had spoken first, and the blonde man behind them must have been Yuri. Which just left the other one. Barely suppressing another growl, Jayne swung his head back towards River and the little shit; Nicos. From where he stood, Jayne couldn't see River's face, but what he could see of Nicos' expression made him smirk.

"You just what?" The smirk widened as River verbally beat the younger man down. The smirk vanished when she mentioned their past history. She sure as ruttin' hell hadn't mentioned that part when they'd been talkin'. The growl escaped before he could stop it. He was back to wanting to pummel the smaller man. Though truth be told, he'd never moved all that far away from that impulse.

Much to his extreme dissatisfaction, she laid off the little hundan when he started shiftin around all nervous and guilty-like. Ruttin bugger should look guilty, touchin what weren't his to be touchin. When she turned and ran to the other three readers, Jayne smirked and took a few steps closer to Nicos, drawing himself up to his full height and flexing the large muscles in his arms (a/n: mmmm, Jayne arms)

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River threw her arms around Sia, Kaen and Yuri in turn, absolutely thrilled to see her old friends. This was the welcome she'd been looking forward to, rather than the one that Nicos had given her.

"Umm, Riv?" Yuri murmured in her ear as he hugged her tightly. "Ya might want to do something, 'cause it looks like yer new lover is about to kill yer old one. And by the look of him, he might even stand a chance."

River whirled out of Yuri's arms in time to see Jayne take another deliberately menacing step closer to Nicos, the smirk planted firmly on his face one that she was willing to bet he had also been wearing when the captain had sent him to interrogate Dobson after the fed had shot Kaylee. It was a look that promised worlds of pain awaiting the person being held by that stare.

Mal, perhaps sensing Jayne's murderous intentions, or maybe simply wanting to reaffirm his position as captain, stepped forward and drew all attention to himself by requesting introductions. River went through them quickly, torn between her desire to spend time with the new arrivals and pulling Jayne aside to explain a few things. As it happened, neither of those wishes came true.

Kaylee had just stepped forward to greet Kaen, her usual bright smile welcoming the other woman aboard her best girl, when Sia gasped. Yuri, River, Kaen and Nicos all spun to where she was sinking to the ground, a hand pressed to her temple, pulled by the sudden distress in her mind. They were all at her side in an instant, Serenity's crew forgotten.

"What did you see, bao bei?" River asked as she knelt at Sia's side. She gently stroked the silky red hair, knowing from past experience that 'seeing' always gave Sia a headache.

"Death," she whispered. "They come… Now!" The four kneeling beside her exchanged grim, determined glances. They knew what Sia had meant and they were ready. Yuri stared at River, and then flicked a glance at the crew behind her. River nodded in understanding. Rising to her feet, she turned to deal with the crew, even as she felt the others stand up behind her. Kaen ran past her, up the stairs to the catwalks, and unerringly found River's shuttle. Barely pausing, the reader punched in the code only River knew and disappeared inside. She was back a moment later, one of River's black bags in her hand. She dashed back down the stairs, across the bay and dropped it with the other bags lying there, before moving over to sit with Sia. She closed her eyes, a look of intense concentration coming over her face.

Mal frowned at the girl and her odd actions. Funny that she knew his ship so well, what with her never having been on it before. He looked to River for an explanation as to what was going on, the rest of the crew following his example.

"Captain, I need you to take the crew and go to the bridge. Be ready to take off immediately." She paused. "Sia, how long do we have?"

"Five minutes, six at the most." She said.

"I'm trying to stall the pilot, but he's resisting me. And his mind is so bloody feng kuang that it's hard to control him." Kaen's voice echoed the strain she was under and her faced was pinched with the effort.

Wash glanced over at the two women who were both now sitting on the ground, intense concentration and pain on their faces. He moved his gaze to their male companions. Nicos and Yuri were crouched among the pile of bags River's duffel had been added to and were rapidly digging through them. Wash saw of flash of something metallic that, after years married to Zoe and living on Serenity, he was very sure was gun metal. He frowned; he had a very bad feeling about all this.

"Now just a ruttin' minute. Who's coming? What do you mean you're 'stalling the pilot'? 'N why in the gorram hell are ya giving orders on my ship, little witch?"

"Captain Reynolds," came Nicos' firm voice. Faced with a crisis, he had fallen back on years of training and pushed aside the embarrassing incident that had just occurred. "We don't have the time to explain things to you. Do as she says and get your rutting bloody crew up on the bridge and prepared to leave!"

"Now you listen here, you little-"

"Mal!" Everyone looked Jayne. "Jus' shut up, would ya? What's comin', River?"

She shot Jayne a look of gratitude at his calm acceptance of the situation. She knew that that calm was about to disappear as sure as she knew the name of every weapon he owned. "Reavers. A reaver ship just entered atmo a minute ago and they know we are here." She held up a hand to still the frightened noises being made by the crew. "Bi zui. Kaen is inside the mind of their pilot, attempting to slow their approach. Sia is monitoring their progress and trying to shield the presence of the crew, so that you will be able to get away."

"Why just us?" Unsurprisingly, it was Simon who latched onto that pertinent little bit of information.

"Because we aren't going with you," River said, her head high, showing her confidence in her, their, decision and also her stubborn resolve.

Both Simon and Mal shrieked at that statement, while Jayne growled low in his throat and took a step towards River. Before he could take a second one, something came whirling through the air, over River's shoulder and struck him hard in the temple. The mercenary dropped like a felled tree. River turned and glared behind her.

"What the ruttin' hell?" Mal rounded on the man who'd just dropped his mercenary. He didn't think Jayne was dead, there was no blood, but that didn't make the attack any more tolerable. Something he intended to make mighty clear. He might need the gorram mercenary, if there were reavers comin'. River beat him to the punch, however.

"Yuri!"

"What? He was gonna to waste time arguing and our window of opportunity is closing very rapidly." The blonde man almost growled in frustration before returning to his task of sorting through the weapons they were going to need. River muttered a Chinese curse under her breath and twisted her mouth in annoyance at all men before she nodded and let it go.

"Captain, please don't argue. Just go." Mal opened his mouth to protest, but again she beat him to it. "If you don't, I'll have either Yuri knock you out as well or Kaen mentally force you to obey." The look on the faces of the five young assassins told the crew that they were deadly serious about all of this.

"Sir?" Zoe looked at Mal, awaiting an order. She had no desire to face reavers, but even less to let these children do it in her stead. Until she actually looked at them. Aside from the pain on Sia and Kaen's faces and the impatience on Yuri's, none of the five Academy students looked terribly anxious about what was coming. They were all calm and collected, while the crew of Serenity were nearly shaking in fear of the bogeymen bearing down on their ship. Zoe turned back to her captain; she would follow his lead either way.

With a sigh, knowing when he was outnumbered and needing to look to his crew, Mal conceded the fight.

"Alright River, we'll do it your way."

"Xie xie, Cap'n."

Kaen raised her head from where she sat and looked directly at Wash. "Get her up off the ground about 20 feet, then hover there and wait for my signal. When I tell you, take off and go for hard burn as soon as you can. Got it?" Wash nodded, his face intent and still uncharacteristically serious. Just looking at that expression put Mal on edge; Wash only ever looked like that when they were neck-deep in trouble more serious than their usual kind.

Simon was already kneeling beside him when River walked over to Jayne and, with a sigh, bent and picked up the knife Yuri had thrown at him. She winced at the goose egg already appearing on the big man's head. Yuri had thrown so that the butt of the knife had struck Jayne, rather than the blade. Skill and aim like that was why he was their weapon's expert, just as he had been the Academy's weapons darling. Simon looked up at her with dark, serious eyes.

"Not that it will make any difference, I imagine, but I don't agree with any of this. I'm only going along with it because I don't think unconscious is a look that really suits me." River stared at her brother. Simon just grinned crookedly and tugged at his right ear. She couldn't believe it; Simon had just made a very Wash-esque offbeat joke. She really had been gone a long time!

She felt Mal and Zoe come up behind her and turned, pulling her mind away from her brother's new-found strangeness. She gestured at Jayne.

"Take him with you to the bridge. He'll wake up soon and you'll probably need to stop him trying to do something man gan." Zoe raised an eyebrow at that; it was a well-known fact that Jayne was terrified of Reavers. She couldn't picture him trying to go out and fight them if he didn't have to. Especially if he didn't have to. It seemed too out of character for him.

Mal, Zoe and Simon, who shot one last look at his sister, picked up Jayne and carried him through the ship towards the bridge, Wash and Kaylee already ahead of them. Since the ship was already primed to fly, Kaylee wasn't needed in the engine room and Mal didn't want her in there by herself if there were reavers about.

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Standing outside, River watched Serenity lift to hover above the ground, Wash keeping her low as Kaen had directed. Dismissing Serenity and her crew from her mind, River turned to her brothers and sisters in arms. They weaponed up quickly and silently, each grimly prepared for what was coming. Straightening almost in unison, the five looked silently at each other and smiled. Hearing the reaver vehicle come to rest behind them and open its doors, they turned as one to meet the oncoming flow of Alliance-made monsters. Kaen and Nicos had forsaken their long-range bows in favour of the close-up fighting the other three were using. Screaming and howling, the reavers raced towards them. The warriors drew their weapons and formed a semi-circle that closed as they allowed the reavers to surround them, each facing out away from the centre of the circle.

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The five fighters looked so small from the bridge of the Firefly-class transport hovering above them. The crew watched fearfully as the readers armed themselves, all seemingly calm and unconcerned with what was coming. Within a matter of seconds, each was fairly bristling with weaponry. Mal, casting a professional eye over their weapons, thought it was strange that none of them carried more than one gun. And River, not even one! That was just kuang-zhe de, not to mention suicidal. Course, Mal reflected, weren't a whole lot 'bout this plan of theirs that weren't at least a bit suicidal.

Zoe, standing behind Wash's chair, mentally catalogued each weapon the five were carrying with the unconscious mind of a born soldier. River carried two swords strapped to her back, a long knife fastened to her right thigh, and an assortment of smaller throwing knives clipped to her belt. Yuri, standing to River's left, carried a large double-edged axe in one hand while the other rested on the butt of the large gun strapped to his left thigh. More throwing knives rested at his belt. Zoe found it odd that both Kaen and Nicos, whom she'd seen fingering longbows, carried only swords and guns. Sia, like River, carried two swords; one in her hand, one on her hip, while she carried a rifle strapped to her back. Seeing the five young people stand and prepare to face the reavers, Zoe put a hand on her husband's shoulder, giving strength to both of them. She wasn't entirely sure she could watch what was to come, a weakness that would have surprised some of those who knew her.

Glancing over a Simon, Kaylee saw that he was reflexively clenching his hands into fists, his face white and set as he stared down at his little sister. The mechanic quickly moved over to her lover's side and gripped both of his hands in hers as she followed his gaze out the window and down. He squeezed her hands tightly, but never looked away from River. Oh god, oh god, oh god, was all that was going through Simon's head. He couldn't believe he was up here in the dubious safety of Serenity's bridge, while his mei mei was down there preparing to fight off a ship full of reavers, with only four people at her back. Logically, he knew he wouldn't have been much use to her, even though Jayne had been teaching him how to shoot and throw a few punches, but rational thought was hardly comforting as he saw the reaver ship coming soaring in and hit the ground with a shudder. He hoped for a brief moment that the hard landing might had damaged the ship or killed a few of the monsters, but then the doors opened and they came swarming out, screaming like the banshees from Earth-that-was folk tales.

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'Go NOW!' Wash jumped a mile and slammed forward on the controls as Kaen yelled, loud and unexpected, inside his mind.

"Aiya tian a, Wash! What are you doin', gorramit? A little warning would be good!" Mal yelled from his new seat on the floor.

"She yelled in my head, Mal! In my head! I'm sorry if it made me a might jumpy!" Wash continued to steer up and away from the Reaver ship as he tried to calm his wildly-beating heart. "Remind me to never again agree to a conversation with a psychic, without specifying the type of conversation first!" Wash remarked randomly to Zoe, who had picked herself up off the floor and placed herself back in her customary position behind her man.

"Will do, husband," was Zoe's dry, unflappable response.

Everyone climbed back to their feet from their impromptu dumping on the floor, Jayne included. Wash's wild take off had woken him from his unwanted sleep and he was sore, groggy and highly pissed off.

"Mind tellin me what in the da-xiang ba-zha shi de la du-ziis going on?" Everyone jumped at the unexpected sound of his loud, angry roar in very close proximity. Jayne looked round the bridge, seeing who was there and who weren't and caught onto the situation very quickly. Mal opened his mouth to answer, when he saw his mercenaries eyes get dark and narrow in anger, and if Mal didn't know better, a hint of worry.

"Stop! Gorramit Wash, stop the damn ship!" They all stared at him, even Wash, who risked turning his head away from the window for a second. Though he was as curious as the rest as to why Jayne suddenly seemed so eager to go face reavers, Mal agreed with his demand. Indeed, he'd been just about to say the same thing. Though possibly more quietly.

"Wash, slow us down and turn around."

"Cap'n –"

"Mal…"

"Sir?"

The browncoat raised his hand to silence them. "Runnin' away and leavin 'em there to fight by themselves don't sit right with me. I ain't ever left a man behind and I don't plan to start now." He looked at each member of his crew and was relieved and proud to see agreement, albeit mixed with fear, on most every face. "Wash; head on back down to where we started and circle round."

"What do you plan to do sir?" Zoe took a step towards her captain, dark eyes intent on his face as she tried to ascertain whether he was going to come up with a good plan or one that could get them all killed.

"Not too sure how much use we'll be on the ground, but what say Wash tilts the engines and singes those hundans a bit while we provide a little cover-fire from the ground?"

Zoe nodded. The crew were a little shocked by Jayne's lack of argument and the fact that he headed for his bunk and weapons immediately. Pleased with the plan, Jayne stalked off the bridge and dropped into his bunk to weapon up, all the while trying not to think of deep brown eyes and long brown hair belonging to the small woman facing down reavers on the ground below him. Jayne straightened up, then growled and pressed a hand to his head as it throbbed with the sudden motion. Whoever had knocked him out had some ruttin' explainin' to do. Later though, after he got River back safe and whole. The mercenary tried not to think about how protective and worried he was about the young woman, as he climbed back out of his bunk and stalked down to the bay to wait for Mal and Zoe.

Gorram reavers better not have hurt her.

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River forgot all else as she sunk into her training, her swords flashing and whistling as she cut down reaver after reaver. There was a comforting hum in her mind that belonged to the four people at her back. Years ago, when they were preparing to destroy the Academy, they had learned something their trainers and doctors would have killed to obtain. They learned how to link their minds and fight as a single, cohesive unit. It didn't seem to matter how many of them were fighting; they were able to read each other's minds and know how, when and where they were going to move. That discovery had made their success against the Academy possible.

Dimly, River heard Serenity take off, just as she heard Sia send the mental command, but kept her mind focused on the fight. Back to back, they continued to fend the reavers off, keeping them distracted until Serenity was safely away and then, by an unspoken agreement, the five readers broke formation and moved away from each other, allowing the reavers to separate and encircle each of them. Now able to move freely, they became even more dangerous to their enemies. Still linked mentally, but now able to widen their movements and lengthen their swings, they were truly formidable. River kicked a reaver across the face, then planting both swords in the ground, reached behind her and flipped another over her shoulder. Grabbing her swords again, she dropped to the ground underneath the swing of a reaver axe, straddling the reaver's head and snapping its neck with a twist of her thighs, even as she continued to kill the ones attacking her from above. Using the dead reaver beneath her a springboard, River launched herself upwards into a backflip, landing behind a reaver that had been intending to take her head off, and removing his instead.

With one stroke, Kaen bisected two of the reavers screaming in her face, then keeping her momentum going, swung around and dropped to the ground just as one of River's throwing knives went flying over her head to embedded itself in the forehead of another reaver that had been about to grab her. Thanks little sister, Kaen sent along the link as she rose and resumed the fight.

Sia's body jerked as one reaver managed to grab hold of the holstered rifle on her back. With a growl that would have impressed Jayne, she pressed the toe of her left boot into the ground in a certain way, then brought her left leg swinging upwards and kicked the reaver over her shoulder. The ravaged one-time man dropped, dead from the blade that had gone through his eye. Sia retracted the blade in the toe of her boot as she brought her leg back down and continued to fight.

Yuri was in his element, swinging his huge axe with both hands; reavers dropping like flies all around him. He felt one come up behind him and bent over, sending the reaver flipping over his back. Drawing one of his throwing knives he stabbed the downed reaver in the throat and then sent the same blade flying into the heart of another, even as he was straightening back up and picking another target.

Nicos was a sight to behold as he took the reavers on, his short sword and his gun both tucked safely away. The best of the five readers at hand to hand combat, he had decided to forego weapons for the time being and was instead taking down reavers with well-placed kicks and punches; he'd long ago learned how to kill someone with a single kick or well-aimed punch. As much as he loathed the Academy that had trained him, Nicos had learned to embrace and assimilate everything they had taught him about fighting; it had save his life on more than one occasion.

All five readers jerked and growled nearly in unison as they heard the telltale roar of Serenity's engines as she came circling back around them. A moment later, the shrieking of the reavers reached a new pitch as Mal, Zoe and Jayne joined the fray. Staying to the edges of the conflict, they methodically began picking off reavers, while trying to make sure they didn't hit one of the five they were trying to help. They were also still trying to not gape at the sight that had met them since Wash had brought them back down. None of them, soldiers or mercenary, had ever seen anyone fight the way River and her friends did. The captain and his crewmates had been so shocked they'd almost forgotten what they were down there to do.

Between the two groups of fighters, they made short work of the reaver party, and it wasn't long until the last one fell and the screaming finally stopped. Wash, seeing that the fighting was over, brought the ship in to land just behind his captain. A few minutes later, he, Kaylee and Simon joined the three on the ground, who were simply standing and watching the five readers as they picked their way among the bodies, gathering up their dropped or used weapons. Occasionally, one of them would lift a reaver weapon and examine it carefully before either putting it back down or setting it aside with their own weapons. Once all their weapons had been piled to the side, they began to gather the bodies together.

"What are they doing? Cap'n, what's going on?" Kaylee asked from behind Mal, still clutching Simon's hand.

"Not too sure, little Kaylee." Mal's frown deepened when Yuri retrieved one of the bags they had left on the ground before the fight and pulled a small container out of one it. He placed it on top of the pile of dead reavers, and then the five of them grabbed their bags and weapons and moved closer to Serenity's crew. Stopping close to the ship, Sia drew her gun and with a nod from Yuri, fired at the cylinder atop the grisly pile. The crew jumped as the container exploded and drenched the entire pile in flames. The five readers stood and watched the fire for a minute before turning and walking the rest of the way back to Serenity.

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Jayne clenched and unclenched his hands as he sat and watched River and her four friends sit on the bay floor and tend each other's wounds. They had all gone back onboard when the smell of burning reaver had started to get real bad and then the five of 'em had sat down all nonchalant and begun cleaning themselves up. They had refused Simon's offers of doctorin'; 'pparently the big one Simon had told him was the one that had knocked him unconscious was the healer of their group. Jayne glared, his temper just barely reigned in, as River sat calmly cleaning the bite wound on Sia's shoulder, while that hundan Nicos cleaned and bandaged the long cut on her side. He'd damn near seen red when the little shit had lifted River's shirt to expose the wound and she hadn't done nothing 'bout it. Jayne had decided he really didn't like this gorram jealousy thing that seemed to be plaguing him where River was concerned.

Simon glanced over when he heard another low growl, and taking one look at Jayne's face, left Kaylee's side to stand by his friend. Reaching down tentatively, it wasn't smart to touch Jayne in a way that would startle him; he squeezed the older man's shoulder, hoping to help relieve some of the tension radiating from the merc. Noticing the way Jayne tensed every time Nicos, or even Yuri, touched River, Simon acknowledged that the possibility that he and Kaylee had discussed several nights earlier was likely about to become reality. He was slightly surprised at how at ease he was with the idea that Jayne was attracted to his little sister, and that she appeared to return the feeling. Four years ago, Simon would have been appalled and furious by the thought of the "ape-man gone wrong" lusting after his little mei mei, but now it didn't seem like such a bad idea. Provided Jayne could manage to not kill one of her friends first.

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Bao bei – sweetheart
Feng kuang – messed up, insane, crazy
Bi zui – shut up
Man gan – foolhardy, reckless
Xie xie – thank you
Kuang-zhe de - nuts
Aiya tian a – merciless hell
Da-xiang ba-zha shi de la du-zi – "The explosive diarrhea of an elephant"

A/N: whoo, that's the longest chapter I've written yet! Sorry it took so ruttin' long. We're almost done and it's about to get pretty Rayne-y!!! There should only be about one or 2 more chapters left. Please review and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading. – Druid