AN: First I would like to thank BooklvrAnnie, Guin, syef, Irishbrneyes, and Shenandoah76209 for the recent reviews...Now on with the show!
Chapter 50: Famous Last Words To the End
XXX
River's POV
She can feel it getting nearer, as if her whole body is humming from the proximity. They follow the twisting streets for another few minutes until they come to a badly damaged Alliance Research Vessel. Jayne and Riddick pry open the door so that they can all enter with ease. No one says anything as they enter, they are all just trying to process.
It's a mess inside... doors pried open, signs of violence but no bodies. But she hears them...hears their restless whispers of nothingness...They reach the main chamber and that is when she sees it...like a lighthouse in a storm...
She approaches a console, and a small cylindrical object. She turns it slightly...A hologram squawks to life amidst them all. Everyone turns to look...and it as if someone was projecting straight from the girl's mind...Corpses, everywhere. And that is when she begins to speak.
"These are just a few of the images we've recorded, and you can see it isn't.. it isn't what we thought. There's been no war here, and no terraforming event. The environment is stable. It's the Pax, the G-32 Paxilon Hydroclorate that we added to the air processors. It's..." now the holographic woman tears up.
"Well it works... it was supposed to calm the population, weed out aggression. Make a peaceful... it worked. The people here stopped fighting. And then they stopped everything else. They stopped going to work, stopped breeding... talking... eating...There's thirty million people here and they all just let themselves die. They didn't even kill themselves. They just... most starved. When they stopped working the power grids, there were overloads, fires - people burned to death sitting in their chairs. Just sitting." She sobs and then there is a loud bang somewhere behind her...she starts, gathers herself.
"I have to be quick. There was no one working the receptors when we landed, so we hit pretty hard. We can't leave. We can't take any of the local transports because..." There is a loud bang again.
"There are people... they're not people... about a tenth of a percent of the population had the opposite reaction to the Pax. Their aggressor response increased... beyond 've become..."
"Reavers...they made them..." Riddick says. The girl can feel her eyes widen in shock. All of the puzzle pieces are starting to fall into place.
The holograph continues. "they've killed most of us... not just killed, they've done... things...I won't live to report this, and we haven't got power to... people have to know..." And now the holograph is sobbing. "We meant it for the best... to make people safer... to..." There is a loud bang and three our four Reavers come into frame behind her. She whirls, grabs a gun and fires - then aims the gun at her own head - but a Reaver is on her, knocks the gun away and bites her face... She screams continuously as the Reaver tops her, biting at her and tearing at her clothes, at her skin.
"Turn it off." Jayne says quietly.
Wash does, and nobody saying anything.
She feels dizzy...sees the flashes of her dreams again...feel nauseated at finally understanding...her entire body begins to shake...
"They made them...they made me..." She says as she falls to the floor on her knees. Her arms come up and wrap around her herself...her nails digging into the flesh of her skin.
"River?" Simon says as he slowly approaches her. He tries to reach out to her but she strikes out to keep him away.
"They injected her with the Pax...she remembers now...they knew...they wanted to see if they could control her...could use her...as a weapon...she wasn't supposed to know what they did here...was never supposed to know."
She feels it bubbling up before she bends forward and vomits. It is like she is vomiting up the last of their lies and secrets...she feels him come over now and place a hand on her shoulder...
"River." Riddick says softly. She sees herself through his eyes in that moment...it's like he's seeing her for the first time all over again...
"I'm alright." She says offhandedly. It takes a moment for it to sink in that something has become more clear but when she does she looks up at him with wet eyes full of clarity.
"I'm all right."
XXX
...Serenity...
The cylinder is on the table. Mal stands at the head, looking at his crew.
"This report is maybe twelve years old. Parliament buried it, and it stayed buried til River dug it up. This is what they feared she knew. And they were right to fear, 'cause there's a universe of folk that are gonna know it too."
He touches the cylinder. "They're gonna see it. Somebody has to speak for these people." He pauses. Everyone waits.
"You all got on this boat for different reasons, but you all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. 'Cause as sure as I know anything I know this: They will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground, swept clean. A year from now, ten, they'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better." He says as he looks at River.
"And I do not hold to that. So no more running. I aim to misbehave."
Jayne lets out a deep breath before he speaks. "My grandma always told me: if you can't do something smart, do something right." He cocks his gun at the end and Mal regards him for a moment.
"That the same grandma told you there was an evil dwarf spirit living in your well?"
Jayne chuckles and nods. "She was a fun grandma."
"Do we have a plan?" Riddick asks now.
Book chimes in now. "Mr Universe. We haven't the equipment to broad-wave this code, but he can put it on every screen for thirty worlds. He's pretty damn close, too."
"Based on our orbital trajectories, he reached optimum proximity just before our sunset. If we make a direct run within the hour we're only 67,332 miles out. At full burn we'd reach him inside of...three- hours." River says nonchalantly as she runs the numbers in her head.
Everyone looks at her somewhat amazed. This is the most clear she has ever been...she looks around the room at all the slightly confused and amazed faces. Well all except Riddick, who just looks at her like he wants to devour her.
"What?" She asks still not understanding what the big deal is.
Wash sighs. "Still got the Reavers, and probably the Alliance between us and him."
"It's a fair bet the Alliance knows about Mr Universe. They're gonna see this coming." Zoe replies.
"No..." Mal says sternly. He takes a long moment, his jaw tightening imperceptibly. "They're not gonna see this coming."
XXX
Riddick's POV
Serenity takes off not long after Mal's little speech. We all know what we have to do...but we ain't to fond of the idea. River skirted out of the common area faster than anyone when we were getting set to take off and I track her scent through Serenity. I find her sitting Inara's old shuttle. She is sitting on the ground with what appears to be a compound bow in her lap.
"Where did you get that?" I ask as I walk in.
"It was hers." She says as she lightly caresses it. "She was full of surprises."
"Like mother like daughter." I say as I regret it slightly as I feel River's sorrow spike.
I sit down next to her and I can tell that she needs to say something, but doesn't know how to.
"Something I should know about River?" I say to prod her.
"Promise me...you will look after them." She says as her hand tightens around the bow.
This catches me off guard. "You planning on going somewhere without me?"
"I don't know."
I feel my anger rising. "What do you mean you don't know?"
"It could be nothing...but I have a feeling...in the pit of my stomach...I failed to protect her...if something happens to me...I need to know someone can protect them."
"I don't like this River."
"I'm not asking you to like it..." She turns and looks at me now, determination in her eyes. "...I'm asking you to do this for me."
"River..."
"Promise."
"River..."
"Promise!" She practically screams now.
"NO! Look get whatever fucking idea you have out of your head alright? You ain't going anywhere." I say as I storm out of the shuttle. My anger pulsating under my skin.
XXX
...Serenity's Bridge...
Book and Mal are talking with Mr. Universe. He's very animated. More manic than usual. Almost a little too manic.
"It's no problem! Bring it on bring it on bring it on! From here to the eyes and ears of the 'verse, that's my motto, or it might be if I start having a motto."
"We won't be long." Mal says.
"You're gonna get caught in the ion cloud, it'll play merry hob with your radar, but pretty pretty lights and a few miles after you'll be right in my orbit."
"You'll let us know if anyone else comes at you?" Book asks warily. He knows something isn't right. He's known Mr. Universe too long to not know.
"You'll be the first." Mr. Universe says with a flick of his eyes left.
That's when Book knows. "It has been a pleasure old friend." He says towards the end.
"Likewise, Derreial. Likewise. Please give my regards."
Mal closes the link and turns to Book.
"He's already there isn't he?"
"I'm afraid so." Book says with sadness.
XXX
River's POV
She sits there long after he has left. Her anger and sadness intermixed with all of the other things swirling around in her mind.
...Now I know
That I can't make you stay
But where's your heart...
She needs him to do this for her...she needs to know the others will be safe.
...And I know
There's nothing I can say
To change that part...
He will hate her for what she has to do...she knows this...but he must accept her fate...and his.
...But can I speak
Well is it hard understanding
I'm incomplete...
She gets up now and walks towards the shuttle door...bow still in hand. She casts one last glance back into the darkened shuttle before she turns and walks out into the light of the cargo bay.
...A life that's so demanding
I get so weak...
No...she won't let herself be weak now...she will fight...she will find the strength. She keeps walking...she knows her purpose...knows what must be done.
...A love that's so demanding
I can't speak...
He will come to understand what she must do. He may never accept it, but he will understand. She will not allow them to take anything more from her. She will protect them till her last breath.
...These bright lights have always blinded me
These bright lights have always blinded me...
She walks to the bridge. As she expected she finds him there.
"Hey there River." Wash says as he continues to pilot Serenity towards the Reaver armada. He's nervous...she doesn't even need to be a reader to know that.
"Wash...I need to tell you something."
"Okay?" he says with cautiously.
"I saw things...things I want to change...I'm afraid I need your help to change them..."
"What kind of things?"
"You die...and I don't want that to happen."
He looks at her with wide eyes now. "How?"
"You save us from crashing..."
The weight of her words begin to sink in now and the pilot slumps in his chair...like a ballon that is deflating.
"Zoe?" He asks somewhat fearfully.
"She will live...she will give you something you desperately want. But I want...no need to change this...for everyone's sake."
"What do you need me to do?" He asks hesitantly.
"I need you to trust me...I need you to trust Serenity to me."
He's getting more and more alarmed now. "River what exactly are you asking me to do?"
"I need you to let me pilot Serenity...I will need you to co-pilot...but I need you to trust me to read you and do what you would do."
"But how is that going to change anything?" He asks. "Won't it just be you that..." He can't bring himself to say it.
She smiles a soft smile now and walks over to him and places a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't be afraid to keep on living...I am not afraid to walk this world alone...if you stay, I'll be forgiven. I need you here...I need your help to keep them flying."
...Nothing you can say can stop me going home...
XXX
We are amongst the Reaver armada. Serenity slices quietly through the ships, as we come around and see Miranda receding in the distance. Serenity drifts through the armada - and suddenly another ship fires up, running next to her... The two ships pace each other, another vessel coming about as though staring at Serenity, who comes closer and closer.
That is when Mal strikes. He's in a suit at the cannon and he swings the cannon round and fires at the ship pacing them. It blows, fragmenting into burning bits that spiral into other ships, causing two smaller ones to blow as well.
Mal swings around and fires at another ship. The rest of the armada is now starting to move towards them.
"Now Wash!" Mal screams into the comm as he hurriedly moves to the hatch that will take him back inside Serenity.
A second after the hatch closes Wash goes full burn...with a trail of angry Reaver ships following Serenity's wake.
XXX
...Elsewhere...
In close orbit to Mr. Universe's moon waits the Alliance force, at least fifty strong, and clearly with high tech firepower. The Operative looks out from the bridge of one of the bigger warships in the middle of the cluster.
"I'm reading activity in the cloud." The helmsman tells the Operative.
"Lock and fire on my command." The Operative says into his com unit.
"You should have let me see her. We should have done this as men. Not with fire..." he says to himself.
The helmsman interrupts him before he can say anything else though. "Sir!"
The Operative watches as Serenity breaks through the swirling Ion cloud and heads at them, fully Reavered out. He looks confused, then smiles at the ruse. He hits the com. "Vessel in range, lock on..."
The Operative watches admiringly now. "Bastard's not even changing course..."
But as Serenity gets a bit closer, Fifty Reaver Ships suddenly burst from the cloud, also heading straight them. The Operative...and everyone around him...goes wide-eyed.
"That's not good..."
"Sir?" The helmsman asks freaked out.
"Target the Reavers!" The Operative screams into his com. "Target the Reavers! Target everyone! Somebody FIRE!"
The Operative watches as Serenity suddenly lists hard to port...until she's almost upside down... the Alliance ships FIRE, missing Serenity but tagging a few Reaver ships, none of whom have slowed down.
XXX
...Serenity's Bridge...
Mal runs back on to the bridge now...it's there that he is greeted with the surprise of River in the pilot's chair...and Wash in the co-pilot's seat.
"What the fuck is going on?" he angrily demands to know.
"Not now Captain Daddy!" River yells back to him as she grips the controls with all her might.
"Yeah not now Captain." Wash says as he mans his controls.
"We're too close for them to arm..." Wash calls over to River.
"This is gonna be very tight..." River says as she banks left.
"Why the fuck are you piloting?" Riddick says as he comes onto the bridge.
"NOT NOW PEOPLE!" She yells.
Wash is talking to himself in his seat. "I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar."
XXX
River's POV
She feels everything...can see everything as clear as the night sky in Wash's mind. She knows exactly what to do and when to do it...she can also feel the battle going on outside...The Reaver force hits the Alliance head on - and several ships do just that, smashing into bigger ships kamikaze-style, everything exploding -The fleet mobilizes, blasting Reaver ships, circling around, and an air war begins, a frenzied, balletic ecstasy of destruction.
They are nearly through...before a barrelling chunk of debris - which is twice their size - forces them to come hard about and remain in the fray.
They all look out at the chaos.
"Chickens come home to roost..." Mal says behind her.
They are suddenly JOLTED by a glancing blow from another ship - both her and Wash struggle to control Serenity.
"The hell?"
"It's okay! I am a leaf on the wind!" Wash says panicky.
"What does that even mean?" Mal replies with equal panic.
"He will explain it later...right now I need him to concentrate and for you all to get to the safety harnesses."
"But bit.."
"NOW!" She screams as Serenity makes her way past the carnage and heads down toward the tiny satellite moon.
"I'm not leaving the bridge!" Mal yells back. "Jayne, Riddick, go strap everyone in!" Mal says as he moves over to where Zoe normally sits.
"But Mal..." Riddick begins to protest.
"Just DO IT!" He says as he straps in.
"Come on!" Jayne yells as Serenity is rocked by another piece of debris.
"River you better have a fucking good reason for all of this!" Riddick calls to her as he leaves with Jayne.
XXX
...On the Operative's Warship...
As the vessel shakes, clearly breached, The Operative moves to a door marked: DART. He puts his thumb to a panel and the door slides up to reveal a standing, almost formfitting one- man cockpit. he enters quickly and seals the door. The Dart disengages a moment later and bullets down towards the surface.
XXX
...Back on Serenity...
Inside Serenity's bridge sparks fly as the ship is hit by an electronic pulse beam from the Reaver ship following them.
"We're fried! I got no control!" Wash says as he frantically begins engaging backups.
"Where's the back up? Where's the back up?" Mal yells.
River and Wash are frantically flipping buttons - the ship whirs to a semblance of life - -
"Back up reads at 20%..." Wash reads as he turns to River. " Are you sure you can you get us down?"
"I'm gonna have to glide her in!" River says as she grips the controls with enough force to turn her knuckles white.
"Will that work?" Both Mal and Wash ask.
"It's what you would do..." She says as she gives Wash a semi-reassuring smile.
Mal grabs the com near him now. "Everybody to the upper decks! Strap yourselves to something!"
They can see it, a long strip, which halfway along becomes a kind of hanger. Serenity arcs at it uncomfortably fast.
It takes no more than a minute...but that minute was the longest of any of their lives...they brace themselves for impact...for explosions... Instead they feel the jolt as Serenity hits ground...the landing gear folds and snaps under the weight - the ship keeps going, now inside the hanger, heading towards the entrance to the facility, slowing, fishtailing and coming about a full one eighty - it goes beyond the strip and crashes down into the pedestrian area, so that the nose is sticking back out at the runway but the body of the ship is hidden from it.
There is a moment of quiet before River yells at Wash and Mal.
"MOVE!" She says as she struggles to undo the harness.
Wash and Mal both unhook and begin to run out of the bridge...but River is still struggling with her harness which has jammed.
"RIVER!" Mal yells as he sees the Reaver ship flying in closer.
"I'm stuck!"
Mal runs up and starts yanking on the straps now. He manages to get the lock open and pulls River out of the chair and to the ground as a harpoon comes in through the window and lodges in the seat where River was a moment ago.
"Come on, you gotta move, you gotta move bit." Mal says as he yanks her up and out of the bridge.
"So much..anger...yelling...screaming..." She says as she grabs at her head and ears as she falls to the ground.
Mal doesn't think twice, just picks her up and continues to run...a trembling River in his arms.
XXX
Riddick's POV
Everyone has made it to the cargo bay before the Captain comes down the stairs carrying a semi-conscious River.
"What the fuck happened?" I bark at him when I see her.
"Reavers...just keep moving."
"She going to be okay?" Kaylee asks nervously.
"They get to her...make it hard for her." I say as I turn back to where Jayne is starting to unlock the small door in the outer cargo bay doors. Everyone has a weapon in hand...even little Kaylee and the Doc.
Jayne and I take point and go out to see if the coast is clear. There aren't any Reavers yet.
"Go!" I yell as the entire crew piles out, all heavily bedecked with weapons.
"Head inside!" Jayne says as he runs up and provides cover if we need it.
Everyone hurries inside and down a few corridors until we come to the entrance proper to the facility. Mal hits a button and huge, thick, blast doors open. The hall itself is smaller than the outer chamber to the facility, but still has the arrows on the ceiling, that point to an elevator some fifty feet away.
"Come on. Jayne, rearguard." I say as I move to where he is standing.
XXX
Zoe slows, looking around her.
"Sir." She says to Mal who hand River to Simon. He turns to Zoe now. "This is a good hold point."
"We all stay together..."
"No. They have to come through here; they'll bottleneck and we can thin 'em out. We get pushed back there's the blast doors.
"I can rig 'em so they won't re-open once they close." Kaylee says nervously.
"Then shut 'em and hide til..."
"We need to draw them til it's done. This is the place. We'll buy time."
Everyone begins moving in a flurry now.
"Move those crates back there for cover - and make sure they ain't filled with anything goes boom." Jayne directs Book, Simon, Wash, and Kaylee.
Riddick moves to stand near Zoe and Mal.
"One of us needs to go." Riddick says.
"Sir?" Zoe asks. She is back on the battlefield, and he will always be her commanding officer.
"It's you or me Riddick..."
"I'll do it...but you better all be alive when I get back. And if anything happens to her..." he says as he motions to River. He doesn't need to say any more and Mal nods in understanding. He takes the cylinder from Mal and begins walking down towards the elevator.
Zoe and Mal watch as he enters the elevator. As the doors close they hears the screams. "Move the gorram crates! Come on!" Mal says as he and Zoe push back more crates.
Mal moves to the door, Jayne beside him. they can both see Reavers rushing toward them. Mal turns to Jayne.
"Tell me you brought 'em..."
Jayne smiles grimly, tosses Mal a grenade as he pops his own and fastballs it at the Reavers. They close the door and hurriedly take cover. The explosion rocks everything in the room.
"Mind on the job people!" Mal yells as they all take up positions.
"Captain's right. Don't be thinkin' of anything else if we're gonna get through this."
"You really think any of us are gonna get through this?" Zoe remarks grimly beside him.
Jayne looks around at the rag-tag crew. An ex-Operative, a doctor, a pilot, two old war buddies, a mechanic and an unconscious reader. A beat, and he looks back at Zoe with forlorn hope...
"I might..."
XXX
Riddick's POV
As soon as the elevator stops I make my way to the island of screens and machines in the center of the space. Its a mass of wires shrapnel, and static filled screens.
"GORRAM IT NO!"
I see a trail of blood on the floor and my eyes settle on the pale and still form of Mr. Universe, lying dead, eyes open, half draped on his equally still lovebot.
I walk over to him and close his eyes. As I start to move back towards the elevator the lovebot turns her head, her eyes focusing with an audible whir. She speaks with surprisingly realistic expressiveness, and a warped, computery version of Mr Universe's voice.
"River." The lovebot says.
"He killed me. He killed me with a sword. How weird is that? I got... a short span here... they destroyed my equipment but I have a back-up unit... bottom of the complex, right over the generator. Hard to get to. I know they missed it. They can't stop the signal. They can never stop the signal."
A beat goes by before the lovebot says anything else. "I'm sorry...I couldn't be more help." She turns back, powering down. Recording over.
"You were a weird and creepy little man..but thank you..." I say as I get up and head towards the generator.
XXX
Jayne moves past Book and Wash to Zoe, takes position by her.
"She picked a sweet bung of a time to go helpless on us." Jayne says as he thumbs towards River.
"JAYNE!" Mal snaps at him from his position by Kaylee and Simon.
"What? I'm just saying we could use her right now!"
"You're an ass Jayne." Wash says.
"Jayne and I take the first wave. Nobody shoots less they get past our fire." Mal says as he falls back into military mode. He shoots River a worried glance before turning his attention back to the door.
Simon checks on River and then moves to Kaylee, who is shaky as hell. The bangs on the door continue.
"Oh, I didn't plan on going out like this. I think we did right, but..." Kaylee says nervously.
"I never planned... anything. I just wanted to keep River safe. Spent so much time on Serenity trying to figure things out that I never realized what was right in front of me."
Kaylee looks at him with soft surprise.
Simon continues now when he sees her smile. "My one true regret in all this is never being with you."
"With me? You mean to say, as... sex?" Kaylee says hopefully.
Simon smiles. "I mean to say."
Kaylee snaps her cartridge home with way more precision than we might expect from her, takes steady aim at the door.
"Hell with this. I'm gonna live." She says with determination.
Simon looks at her a moment, then turns his attention to the door.
Mal chuckles near them. "bout damn time Doc. Was wondering how long it would take you."
XXX
River's POV
...Reality Shifts...
She doesn't know where she is...her feet and hands are chained...she is being led somewhere by four armored guards...all with nasty looking spears pointed at her.
...He calls the mansion not a house but a tomb,
He's always choking from the stench and the fume...
She is led to a woman...she reminds her of...someone else...someone from her past... The woman walks up to her with an air of self importance.
...This elevator only goes up to ten...
"I'm so glad I could steal you away for a moment. Doesn't it strike you odd? Here we have the current Lord Marshal… destroying entire societies, and yet he can't bring himself… to kill you. Why is that? You don't pray to our god. You pray to no god, I hear."
"She...I... calculate..."
...If you marry me,
Would you bury me?,
Would you carry me to the end?...
"Don't we all...But now let's have first things first. What of Riddick?" The woman walks away now and something in her makes her follow.
...Lost in coma and covered in cake,
Increase the medication, share the vows at the wake...
"What of him?" She doesn't like this woman...she reminds her more and more of a gilded butterfly.
...(So say goodbye), To the last parade,
(And walk away), From the choice you make,
(Say goodbye), To the heart you break,
And all the cyanide you drank...
"In truth, I'm more interested in where he came from..." The woman says as she turns and looks at the girl again as she produces a wicked blade.
The girl doesn't say anything...which just earns her sharp thoughts of daggers and blood from the woman.
"Do me a favor. Calculate the odds of you getting off this planet alive… and now cut them in half."
..(Kiss…), To the last parade,
(The…), As the parties fade,
(Bride…), And the choice you make...
"Save your threats, Necromonger. I have seen more violence at the hands of men more self-righteous than you...and I am far more valuable to your Lord Marshall than you."
...To the end…
...Reality Shifts Again...
XXX
AN: Okay, so I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill off Wash. I love him too much to not have him around. So what do you all think? Are you excited? I am =) Till next time...