The Resistance
Firefly Crossover
Summary: Follows my other fic, Spinning In The Dark. Posits a large conspiracy against mankind, the lampshading of demons and other monsters into the series, and ignores shared actors between the shows (as that would just be squicky). Spinning In The Dark gives away the twist.
Chapter 6
1.
Most of the ship was blissfully unaware when River snuck back out of Blood's room to her own in the hours before everybody woke up.
Jayne wished he was just as blind as them.
He knew it was more than natural. A person River's age was growing—learning. And she was a little behind her actual age.
But he'd be damned if he didn't feel more than a little freaked out about it. And that just made him feel even more uncomfortable. He was not some soft little girl who worried about her friends' feelings and worried about what kind of romantical connections might be formed under his nose. He was not going to indulge in girl talk or protect the girl's damn honor.
But he had a nagging voice in his ear reminding him that even if he didn't like the crazy girl, she'd saved his life. Reminding him that he'd given her a knife—a better present than he'd ever given any woman in this `Verse.
Reminding him that even if she wasn't no sister of his by blood, he was already treating her just as good as he ever treated them.
He wasn't sure why. Maybe because she acted like an equal. Maybe because after Miranda his fear of her had turned to—maybe, just maybe!—any itty-bitty smidge of respect. Or maybe it was just because she never did kill him.
Whatever the reason, and despite their surreal conversation the night before, he still started making plans to find a way to space Blood. Because when it came to dangerous killer men, he liked to think he was the very baddest of them all.
2.
Liam found Mal on the bridge and sat down in the co-pilot's seat, smiling pleasantly at the captain. "Can you feel that miasma in the air?" he asked, keeping his tone conversational.
"Beg pardon?" said Mal, confused. He squinted at the big man.
"I think you know just what kind of obsessions I carry. Things that get in the way of those obsessions are dangerous. Obstacles to be taken down. Normally, William's in my back pocket. The little tool that always comes through. Today? Today there's a problem with that. Today I have a problem. I think you do too. I think we may need to team up one last time before we part ways and hope to God never to see each other again."
Mal sighed. "And why's that?"
"Because your little psychic slept with my deranged killer last night," he replied, matter of fact.
Mal nearly choked in that second. "She what?" he snarled, already reaching for his gun out of instinct.
He knew she was growing up, gorramit. He'd tried to prepare himself for this day, tried to consider how she would feel about it. He even had a niggling suspicion in the back of his head that the growing respect and near-friendship between her and his surly mercenary might lead to a worst-case scenario that would be something out of his nightmares, and he was trying to prepare himself for that possibility!
But not this. Not with a stone-cold killer with a bloodlust that made Jayne look like a cool, calculating, considering person.
Liam grinned. "Nasty little surprise, eh? He's always had a weakness for girls with a lot of power and a lot of problems. And I imagine she has all sorts of her own reasons that I just don't care about. Now, before you go all reactionary on me, let me assure you, I've seen her, and I would describe her current mood as 'a-glow,' rather than, say, whatever you were thinking. That in mind, it's going to be even harder to bust up this terribly complicated little mess."
Mal groaned, putting his hands over his eyes. "All that, and I think we're being followed," he muttered.
Liam leaned over the controls. "That little ghost of a speck following us? Huh. That's not so good. I guess we ought to do something a bit fishy about that. Anyway, here's my plan."
3.
Blood began setting up his equipment in the cargo bay, taking precious bits and pieces from his various luggage containers. When he'd boarded, weeks ago, River remembered thinking he had a lot of luggage for a man who looked like he wanted to travel light.
She hadn't thought of the possible uses he had for all that luggage.
"We can mine our tracks," he said to Liam, who was similarly occupied. "Nasty surprises all over."
"No; they're far enough back they must have an advanced scanning array. We won't be tricking one of those," said Liam. "Just put together the cannon, so we can at least get some cover if they get in too close."
Blood smiled wistfully. "Nicer words I've never heard from you."
Liam sighed. "Anything you want to talk about?"
Blood glared at him. "I been feelin` all sorts of nasty psychic vibrations from you all morning," he declared. "If you don't already know for certain, you guessed. You know what kind of man I am; never quite fully in control of myself, no matter what I say to other folks. What is it she used to say? Want, take, have? Practically an animal, right? So don't act surprised!"
Liam glanced over to River. "I tried to warn her before, you know," he muttered. "Get her away from you. God, Willy! Do you have any idea what a mess this is?"
"Got a fair idea," muttered Blood. "I remember. What happened." He was having trouble forming complete sentences, and kept glancing at River from under his eyelashes, quick, furtive glances. "Anyway, last time has nothing to do with this. This is… you get in the middle of this, Liam, and I swear I'll hurt you!"
Liam laughed. "You mean you'll try," he said dangerously. "Have you forgotten the stakes, Willy? We don't have time for a little schoolyard romance for you! Not hanging on the edge of the Universe trying to find me!"
Blood scowled, kicking over the half-assembled cannon in front of him. "That's your mission, anyway. I'm here for, for puppies, and Christmas, and all that's good in this world. But especially for lost little girls who need a little help! Do you know how lost I've been, walking on your mission? How long it's been since I really remembered why I do this? I've been wandering blind through your world, just taking it all on faith and remembrances of old, just trying to find that old familiar rhythm; but here's a girl who's all that I've lost, and all I ever wanted. You would try to talk me out of that! You would try to make me something I'm not! Ever wonder just what is wrong with this world, Liam? It's you!"
Liam's face was stony. "That's it, is it? All this time together, lost to us?"
"It's gone, prat!" screamed Blood.
Liam grabbed Blood by the collar, punching him in the face with such force that it drove him down to his knees. "You do not talk like that to me!" he seethed, keeping his hand on Blood's shoulder, holding him down. "I haven't forgotten how stupid you can be—have you?"
Blood laughed gleefully.
River could have already taken Liam's head off with a single swing of the knife she had clutched in her hand, behind her back. She was frozen, afraid of the terrible truths contained in their words. The only wounds these two could inflict on each other now were words, words that carried such old hurts that it tore and cut at their insides.
Liam leaned down. "Are you going soft on me, old man?" he asked, his voice pitched low. "After all this time, and all these battles? Don't do this to me, Willy. I can't go on alone. Not after all this!"
Blood grabbed hold of Liam's wrists, standing back up and tossing him back easily. "You great big ponce! You think this universe revolves around you?"
River had decided on a course of action. She spoke quickly, before she could change her mind. "You both can't have what you want; you're a snake, eating its own tail. And because you're family you've chewed away for so many years… but there is an end in sight, and it's not a good one."
They both gave her puzzled looks, then continued their argument as if she hadn't spoken. Liam stuck his finger in Blood's face. "You know this fight is bigger than both of us!"
Blood shook his head. "And smaller, so much smaller. It's a futile battle, and we both know it. Just… just let me alone! You know I've been your strong right arm as long as we both can remember. You know I've never let you down the way you let me down."
Liam grabbed his arm. "The time machine doesn't exist! If we fix this, it'll never happen again. If we fix this…"
"It can't be fixed, Liam! It can't!" yelled Blood. His shouts brought Zoe into the cargo area, hand on her gun. She still wasn't far from wherever they were, at any given second. She was too aware of the threat they posed.
Liam ignored her. "I can fix it; you know I can fix it."
Zoe was confused, but as long as they were hitting each other and not any of her crew, it was an amused confusion. As opposed to one full of shooting and violence.
River watched them argue a little while longer, then wandered off, wondering why Mal thought it was necessary to kill Blood and Liam.
When the answer came, it amused and angered her.
4.
Ian was better than anybody else in the `Verse at finding things. He'd once tracked the Other across four galaxies just by walking through the planets listening for somebody who had once seen the Other. It was hard, since the Other saw so few people face to face.
But not impossible.
Ian's mind was wide open now as he walked around the dusty streets of a distant planet. Nobody was alive in town for his mind to Read; after all, he'd already killed everybody here.
Still, there was a faint taste of the Other's presence, still lingering.
He bit down on his lower lip, trying to pinpoint it. He couldn't keep any of the pain and suffering out of his head, but these days he was coming to enjoy that. To enjoy wallowing in the suffering of others.
Ian wasn't entirely sure, these days, just how much of what was in his head was his own, and how much was a mish-mash of the Other. Even being this close to him brought out so much of the Wolf that it was hard to think.
He found a direction. He found a glimpse of another strong psychic presence.
And William, dear sweet William. Ian smiled fondly. William was his favorite person in the whole wide world.
5.
Simon found the captain on the bridge and sat down beside him gingerly. "I need to talk to you," he said.
"Been meaning to have a conversation myself," replied the captain. His voice was taut.
Simon winced. "Are you aware of what's happening with River…?"
"More'n aware, thanks."
Simon sighed. "What a disaster."
"I could just kill him," said the captain. It was a hopeful suggestion, hoping for support from the doctor.
Simon nodded. "I thought about it. I thought about it long and hard. I mean, I wanted to. But, then again… she's an adult now, even if a bit … disadvantaged. And while she's a little bit behind in social skills, she can read minds. And we know what the Alliance put in her for fighting abilities. She's better than anybody else… and if that's what she wants, and we try to stop her, and she can see us coming…?"
Mal sighed. "You talk a lick of sense, doc."
"I don't like it, but that's how it is," said Simon, fatalistically. He leaned back in the seat. "I don't want to seem like I approve, but I guess I can't kill him. Anyway, I thought you and I ought to be on the same wavelength on this."
"We surely ought to," replied Mal. He was more than a little relieved that Simon knew, and intensely grateful he hadn't needed to explain it all to him. That would have been a terrible conversation.
Simon, for his part, was glad that the captain was going to see sense about this. He had been worried.
Simon left the bridge. Neither of them had any inkling that he was terribly misconstruing the situation.
6.
Simon went straight to the cargo bay, where Jayne was working out. He was determined to have a straight, man-to-man conversation with… with that savage, brutal animal that he hated so badly and who was sleeping with his sister.
Simon was suddenly glad that he didn't have a gun, and that if he did, he probably would have missed anyway. Because it would have been terribly hard to explain to River exactly why he had shot Jayne in the back of the head.
He approached Jayne, clearing his throat. Jayne was picking heavy things up and putting them back down, and he scowled at Simon. "What do you want?" he asked.
Simon took a deep breath. "I want you to know that I know what's going on with River."
Jayne blinked a few times. "Uh…"
"Don't try to… I heard you speaking to her. Last night. And I… I want you to know that I'm not… I'm not angry with you, exactly. Just concerned for her."
Jayne was pretty sure the doc was right to be concerned—but just why would he have had any right to be angry? "Hey, doc, it's not exactly my fault… I did my best to stop her!"
Simon's face turned red. "What are you saying? Are you saying my sister … my sister set out to seduce… are you…"
"Whoa, whoa, I'm not calling your sister any kind of loose," said Jayne quickly. Normally he'd have been happy to wind the doc up, but the crazy girl knew if you insulted her inside the safety of your own head. There was no way he was going to call her loose to her brother's face. She could still be pretty scary. "I'm just saying that I don't think there's any way I could have stopped this."
Simon gritted his teeth. "All right. Fair enough. I don't want to hear the details. What I'm saying is that I think you and I ought to be civil about this."
Jayne thought about that for a minute. "I don't follow."
"I mean… I mean I want what's best for my sister."
Jayne perked up immediately. He assumed that Simon meant he wanted to kill Blood. "You're talking about, like, protecting her. I respect that, doc, I surely do."
Simon wilted a little bit. Jayne's appreciate for that concern for his sister made him consider the mercenary in a new light, and he wasn't sure he liked it. "Yes. I'm glad we're… just try to make sure she doesn't get hurt, yes?"
Jayne nodded vigorously, wondering if Simon had any idea how mad River was going to get when she found out he wanted to kill Blood. "I'll do my level best," he said seriously.
He was glad when Simon went away. He hadn't realized Simon understood that he thought of River as, well, a crewmate, at the least. Or that Simon was canny enough to recognize that the two of them could ally against Blood and kill him.
Yes, his estimation of Simon had just gone way up.
7.
River didn't exactly want to have this conversation with Simon; but the way she saw it, if he kept running around making terribly icky presumptions about her and Jayne, he was going to get the entire ship confused.
That wouldn't do.
So she approached him in his room, carefully flexing her fingers. This was going to be a messy time, she could tell. Shouldn't a psychic know the exact right things to say? Shouldn't a psychic see what path would get her through this without hurting him?
But all she could see was images of Jayne in his head, Jayne holding her, sexing her up in that crude, ruffian way—actually, the mental images were more than a little distracting. And at least one of them was a little hot, which disturbed her on more than one level.
So she jumped right in. "I'm not sleeping with Jayne."
Relief flooded him. "Oh, mei mei! I mean, not that it wouldn't be okay if you wanted…"
"I'm sleeping with Blood."
Simon's face flushed red, and he sat down very quickly and hard. She hoped tearing the bandaid off very fast was the best way, here. Wacky fun was all well and good, but she knew he wasn't anywhere near ready for this.
She knelt beside him. "You know, ever since you rescued me, you've been there for me and protected me. But eventually little girls grow up, Simon, and you can't protect them from themselves."
"I know," he groaned miserably.
"You know up here," she said, tapping her temple. "Take it right to the aorta, right to the marrow. Don't just know it; feel it. Can you do that for me, Simon?"
He smiled wanly. "Of course."
But his brain said no.
She sighed and slapped the back of his head gently. "Such a liar."
8.
Liam and Blood were finally alone in the cargo bay, assembling weapons. Liam glanced back the way Eva had wandered off. "Anybody close by?"
"You tell me, wanker," muttered Blood.
"Your senses have been a little sharper than mine for a while," said Liam. "Ever since I got infected with that virus. Look, can I speak freely, or not?"
"Go ahead."
"It's not fair to her. She has no idea what world you're from—the reason she can't read our minds. You're a monster. A demon. Do you think she has any clue about that? Do you think maybe she deserves something a little better than that?"
Blood sighed. "Sanctimonious prat. I have dropped hints, tried to let her know I'm not some lily-white hero like she thinks."
"You're a vampire, Willy. A beast who preys on humans and feeds from their flesh. A blood-sucking monster. Don't sugar-coat."
"And you thought the time machine story didn't go down very well? Monsters don't exist any more, Liam. You and me, we saw to that. Took a whole planet down, but we saw to that. Destroyed any vestiges of them. Folks don't believe anymore. How do you break through that?"
Liam touched his face. "It's been a long time, but I think if you show her what you are, she'll believe you. As simple as that. She's faced Reavers, after all. How much worse could you be?"
"I don't want to scare her."
"That's precisely the problem, Willy! You don't want to show her the truth because you know it'll crash down this little fantasy you have. This white picket fence world you always long for."
Blood looked around the cargo bay, sneering. "Doesn't look like any kind of Paradise to me."
"It's a family, Willy! The very thing you've always longed for. Don't look at me and deny it. That's why you stayed in Sunnydale for so long, kept going back. You lost the family we had, the four of us, and you went back there, to that bright and shining family. Even when you hated them, you hated them from jealousy more than anything else. When you were pushed out of there, you came back to me. Now you see this family, all together, one united front, and you want it. It's not yours! It never was! The sooner you get it together and see that, the better!"
Blood sighed. "I know. I mean, not that you're right or anything. But I know. I know that you're worse than me when it comes to family, and you're worse than me when it comes to obsessions. But the worst part… you're worse than me when it comes to wanting a family. You gather them to you. Think I haven't noticed the dry spell you've been having in that department since we found out the truth about the time machine and Wolfram and Hart?"
Liam grunted. "I thought you understood…"
"That you keep me around because I'm the only one who has a chance of stopping you if you really are going to turn into a bad guy? Or already are the bad guy?"
Liam sighed. "I trust myself. I do! I don't trust whatever part of myself is out there. I don't trust the duality of my nature."
"That's the nature of man, twit. Good and evil, conveniently wrapped. Forget that, and you forget what makes us all the same—even murderous monsters like us."
Liam's smile was strained. "Aside from the nature of man and my own dual nature… I thought you understood that this mission is more important than either of us. We have to finish it! If we leave this one alone… then all the false prophecy, all the real prophecy, all of it leads to one place. To me. In the End of Days."
"Didn't we already reach that when we destroyed the planet Earth?"
"Probably not. End of Days is the big one, William. We aren't there yet. But if it comes around and the Other is there, how do you think it'll go down? It'll all end in blood and ashes. We have to finish him before you can retire in any way."
Blood snarled wordlessly, turning and striding to the airlock, looking out into the Black. For a long minute he just stared, communing with nothingness. When he did speak, his voice carried the full weight of all his centuries, a weariness that chilled Liam. "You know, I still remember my mother," he said, his voice just a whisper. "After all these years, I wonder; did she make it to heaven? Does she look down? Is she proud of me? All the ones that've died… do they watch me? And have I failed them all? I out-lasted them, only to discover that I'm the cause of my own problems…. Me and you."
Liam nodded. "We're nearing the end. A Blade, William! We took down a Blade! A blow of that size, plus a blow against a Core planet… we can win this war yet!"
Blood sighed. "And lose out on all the most important things. You know I'm a fatalist, most days."
"That little girl is being hunted by the damn Alliance!" snarled Liam. "You know it, and I know it! Can she ever get free of those demons unless you kill them? Unless you once and for all destroy every single one of them?"
"Careful," said Blood. "A bit more ranting and I'll forget you're just saying that to wind me up. Anyway, if whoever's following us has a jack into the Alliance HiveMind database, I'll see if I can't jack in using your plugs." He tapped a finger thoughtfully against his chin. "Or my own, for that matter. If there's another you, there's another me. Right?"
"I don't know."
"Anyway, if I can jack in, we can find out what they know. And where we can strike. And possibly how."
Liam smiled grimly. "That's more like you, Willy. Go for the jugular; revel in your strength. Destroy."
Blood grinned, a wild, feral grin. "I am all about the destruction, aren't I?"