Miranda
"Don't move," Simon said gently as Harry regained consciousness. The doctor was almost done with cleaning and bandaging the boy's wounds. He had some pretty bad burns on his body, a couple of broken ribs and some shrapnel in his right arm. It had taken him some time but he was confident that Harry would make a full recovery.
"Wha- happened," Harry slurred. His mind was foggy and his body felt strangely light. He tried to move but the doctor held him firmly. "Where am I?"
Everything looked blurry to Harry and he could hear the sound of fire crackling around him. There was an unmistakable smell of burnt flesh lingering in the air.
"I said don't move," Simon repeated firmly. "You probably have a bad concussion and moving is not going to help."
Harry groaned and closed his eyes trying to put the broken pieces that were his memories together. Alliance, assault, murder; the three words pierced the haze in his mind and a single tear travelled down his cheek.
"Is anybody alive?" he asked softly. "Book? The children?"
Simon shook his head solemnly. "How did you survive?"
Harry blinked and then remembered the impact of the rocket. "Got lucky I suppose," Harry croaked grimly.
He then tried to push himself up to a sitting position but Simon won't have it.
"Please don't move," he pleaded. "I've just patched you up and your body is loaded with sedatives. It's a marvel you're awake but in any case I don't want you to move. There could be internal bleeding and I need to run a few more tests before I can let you up."
Harry roughly shoved his hands away and glared at him. "I need to see," he said, his voice radiating pain and anguish.
Simon stilled and then sighed. He quietly moved out of the young wizard's way. Harry was in one of the shacks which was still intact and he slowly walked out wincing in pain at every step. The pain was returning to his body.
The scene that met Harry's eyes was one of total devastation. "Why did they do this?" he whispered as he stared at the body of a boy not older than eight being carried away by Jayne.
"They did it because they are heartless," a stoic Mal said walking up to him. "They did it because they want River, they did it because they think they can get away with it, they did it because they are monsters."
Harry looked around and to his horror he saw Zoe and Jayne strapping the bodies of some of the dead on the hull of Serenity. "What are they doing!" he hissed in anger.
"We're going to a planet called Miranda," Mal replied instantly. His eyes were cold and there was no emotion in his voice. "To get to that planet we need to pass through Reaver territory and to do that we need to disguise the ship like one of theirs."
"Why?" Harry asked; his voice equally cold.
"Because that planet is the reason they're after River. It's the reason why all our friends are dead and it's the place we need to go to if we want to get some answers."
Harry looked around for River and spotted her applying red paint on the ship. Simon, seeing that Harry didn't need his assistance anymore went over to help his sister.
"Now, I need to know; are you with me or are you not."
Harry looked at the dead bodies once more and then replied. "I was in a war once," he said. "A war in which I had to endure the sight of my friends murdered right in front of my eyes. The man we were fighting was beyond human, he had become a monster and I was the only one who could stop him."
Mal listened quietly.
"I failed to stop him and I don't know how many people lost their lives as a result of that," he said dully. "I don't want to see people I care about die in front of me again, so yes, I bloody well am with you."
Once more Harry's story made no sense if history was to be believed but he could sense nothing but honestly from him and that confused him. But that was irrelevant right now.
"Do you think you can help out?"
Harry nodded stiffly.
"Then go and help," he said. Mal then called Jayne over and together they began to move the cannon to the top of the ship. Harry joined Wash and they silently dragged all the remaining bodies to one side. No words were exchanged and no words were needed to be exchanged. All of them knew why they were doing this and why it was so important.
Vengeance was a powerful motivator.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
The slow crawl through the Reaver infested area was probably the most terrifying and heart stopping moment of Harry's life. Even Voldemort or Dementors did not come close to making him experience the blood chilling fear that was crawling under his skin. He was reminded of the time Ron and he had entered the nest of acromantula but now he was in a single closed ship surrounded by even bigger ships filled with humans born of rage and to add a cherry to the lovely horror they faced, they were in space. It was certain death if they were found out and it would be in the most horrifying ways imaginable.
They could hear the screams of people who had been caught by the Reavers over the com and it wasn't a pretty thing to listen to. He was standing next to Jayne who was hugging his favourite weapon tightly and muttering indistinct things to himself. River was in front of him and her mouth was half open and eyes wide as she stared at the ships outside. He didn't know but she could feel and hear every emotion that the people were going through and it took all her will power to not let it control her. Everyone else looked expressionless but Harry knew their hearts were ready to burst at any moment too.
"Wash," Mal whispered and he signalled his pilot to turn off the com. They were scared enough as it is.
Everyone sighed in relief as they miraculously made it through that dangerous belt. Once Serenity had entered the atmosphere of the planet, Zoe began to run a check on the stability of the planet.
"Every reading I'm getting says normal," Zoe said. "Oceans, land masses, no tectonic instability or radiation."
"Yeah but there's no power either," Wash added.
"Nothing at all?" Mal asked frowning.
"Wait," Wash said suddenly, "I'm getting a signal. It might be a beacon but it's awfully weak."
"Alright, locate it and get us on the ground."
By the time they had zeroed in on the beacon they had flown over at least a dozen cities and it wasn't like they were small towns on the outer rim. They were enormous technologically advanced cities and were exactly like how Harry pictured the future to look like. But the only problem was there was no sign of life anywhere.
Mal, Zoe and Jayne suited up first and left the ship to look for any anomalies in the atmosphere but there was nothing. Finally deeming it safe, the rest of the crew exited the ship too.
It was eerie, was Harry's first reaction on stepping out. He felt like he had just stepped into the definition of a dead city and it sent a shiver down his spine.
"The beacon is this way," said Mal checking his tracker.
Cautiously they walked through the streets and Harry almost jumped out of his skin when one of the advertisement boards lit up.
"This is just too freaky," he murmured, breathing deeply to calm his over taxed heart.
"Over here!" called Zoe and everyone hurried over to her position and saw what she had found. It was a dead decomposed body.
"No gunshot wound, no broken bones," she said examining the corpse.
"Poison?" Mal asked.
Zoe didn't understand the cause of death any more than he did. She just shrugged and looked around for more clues.
"There's another one over here," Jayne said, looking into a hovercraft.
"One more over here," Harry said. He turned to his side and noticed River who was steadily growing more distressed.
"Kaylee," Simon called suddenly. He had a look of warning on his face. "Don't turn around," he said but Kaylee did turn and she let out a shriek and backed away rapidly.
Behind her there was a corpse leaning against the glass window and inside there were dozens more.
"Why are they all just lying there?" Inara asked fearfully. She had just voiced the question on everyone's mind. "They all just look like they fell asleep!"
"And why are these bodies more preserved than the others?" Jayne asked pointing inside. He too was looking a little freaked.
"The room is probably sealed tight," Simon said quietly. "And judging by the looks on their faces none of them seem to be in pain. It looks like they decided to close their eyes and then never woke up."
"They're everywhere," River cried out with a choked sob. "They're all in my head and they're saying nothing!" she said falling to the ground clutching her head. "Why are they saying nothing?!" she sobbed.
Simon hurried over to her and wrapped his arms around her. "It's going to be okay," he said softly.
"No," she shouted with tears streaming down her face. "It's not!"
"She's damaging my calm Mal," Jayne growled.
"Jayne," Zoe said, trying to placate the big man but Jayne snapped back. "She's right! Everybody's dead. And they're dead for no gorram reason!"
"We should keep moving," Mal said, ignoring the fear his crewmates were radiating. "The beacon is close."
Harry cast an odd look at River and wondered what could have just happened to her. How could she know that everyone on the planet was dead? The first time he had locked eyes with her he had felt like she had been trying to read his mind but he had not dwelled much on that thought. At that time he knew if he had asked questions about her questions about him would pop up so he had put the thought to the back of his mind. But this was different. You couldn't read the mind of a dead person... that was just impossible!
Wash noticed Harry's pensive expression. "She a reader. She looks into the truth of all things."
"Like a mind reader right?"
Wash shrugged. "I guess it's that and maybe more."
"We're here," Mal announced as the beeping on his device got louder when they neared a small shuttle.
"There's nothing here," Jayne said, sounding a bit relieved. Ever since they had landed, he had been expecting a thousand Reavers to jump at him. That thought kept him holding his gun in a way where it was easy to blow his own head off.
River on the other hand slowly walked up to the control panel and put a recorder back into its place. Immediately the holographic image of a woman came into view and along with her images of the dead people popped up too.
"These are a few of the images we've recorded," she said dully. "As you can see, it isn't what we thought. There's been no war here and no terraforming event. The environment is stable."
There was overwhelming guilt in her voice and with tears forming in her eyes she whispered. "It's the pax, the G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate that we added to the air processors. It was supposed to calm the population… weed out aggression." She looked ready to break down but she composed herself and continued her report. "Well it works. The people here stopped fighting and... and then they stopped everything else. They stopped going to work... they stopped breathing... talking ... eating."
"There are thirty million people here and they all just let themselves die."
She gasped in fear as there was a sudden roar outside. "I have to be quick," she said now openly crying. "About a tenth of the population had the opposite reaction to the pax. Their aggression levels increased beyond madness. They have become... ... well they've killed most of us."
"And they've not just killed," she whispered. "They've done things."
"Reavers," Wash breathed, comprehension dawning in his mind. "They made them."
"I won't live to report this, but people have to know," she said. "We meant it for the best." The growling voice got closer and closer and the woman began to moan in terror. With trembling hands she raised a gun to her head but before she could pull the trigger the mutilated madness that was a Reaver burst in.
Harry eyes were wide in horror as he watched those creatures tear into her flesh and eat her alive. The image was so gruesome but he just couldn't look away.
"Turn it off," Jayne said his voice tight and there was a look of utter disgust on his face. "Turn it off."
Wash quickly turned it off and took the recorder.
River was trembling and suddenly she turned away and threw up. Simon quickly went to her side but she stopped him. "I'm alright," she said softly. "I'm okay."
One by one they returned to the ship. The truth that the Alliance was trying to hide was finally laid bare for all of them to see and as always the truth wasn't pretty.
.
.
.
It was downright horrifying.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
The crew was in the galley of Serenity, restless. Their minds were heavy with dark thoughts and to quell the feeling of helplessness they each occupied themselves in their own way.
Mal was pacing up and down, his face devoid of any emotion. Jayne was sitting up against the kitchen table, his shoulders drooped and a bottle of whiskey in his hand to fog his mind. Zoe was resting her head on Wash's chest and he was playing with her hair absent-mindedly. Kaylee was sitting crossed legged on the chair and she alternated between staring at her feet and staring at Simon. Harry could tell she wanted nothing more than to be in Simon's arms at the moment like Wash and Zoe. Inara was standing at one corner of the room tracking Mal's moments and there was an unreadable expression on her face. Harry couldn't tell if she wanted to jump on Mal and kiss him to death or shoot him; it was that kind of a look.
Harry on the other hand was playing with a pocket knife by repeatedly jamming it into the table and he was silently observing River who had been staring at her hands, placed symmetrically on the table, for the past thirty minutes. More than the events of Miranda, he was trying to unravel the mystery of River Tam.
Suddenly Mal stopped pacing about and faced everyone. It was a testament to his position as the captain, friend and leader that everyone immediately looked to him for guidance, hoping that he had a plan that would ease the burden on their hearts.
He lifted his arm and showed everyone the recording. "This report is maybe twelve years old. Parliament buried it and it stayed buried until River dug it up. This is what they feared she knew and they were right to fear it. Now there's a whole universe of folk who are going to know it too," he said passionately.
"They're going to see this. Somebody has to speak for these people! Now you all got on this boat for different reasons and some of you by accident but you've all come to the same place. So I'm asking you more than I've asked before or maybe ever and sure as I know anything, I know this. They will try again. Maybe on another world or maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now or a decade they'll swing back to the belief that they can make people," he paused and looked at River. "Better."
"And I do not hold to that so no more running." A determined expression grew on his face. "I aim to misbehave."
"Shepherd Book used to tell me," said Jayne taking another gulp from his bottle, "if you can't do something smart, then do something right." His answer was clear. He was with Mal.
"Do we have a plan?" Simon asked.
"Mr. Universe," Mal replied folding his arms. "We haven't the equipment to broad wave this but he can put it on every screen for thirty worlds and he's pretty close too."
"But what about the Reavers?" Harry asked. "I mean they fell for our disguise once and they seemed to be a little busy at the time, do you think it'll work again?"
"Harry's right," Wash said. "It's not just the Reavers. I'm sure we've got the Alliance between us and Mr. Universe."
"That's two armies against our one bitty cannon Mal," Jayne said. He didn't say it sarcastically or negatively. He just wanted to know how they were going to pull this off.
"The Alliance is going to be waiting for us. It's a fair chance they know about Mr. Universe," Zoe said. "They'll see this coming."
A dark look came over Mal. "No they're not," he said quietly.
"So you have a plan?"
"Zoe, prep up a suit," he said, bursting into action. "Jayne, I want you to assemble every weapon we've got and distribute them to everyone on board. Wash, start her up and set course for Mr Universe. Kaylee, make sure this baby flies smoother than she ever has. Doc, prepare yourself to deal with the worst of injuries and River, help your brother out."
"Why'd you want to go outside?" asked Zoe as she and Mal headed to the cargo bay.
"Because when we reach Mr. Universe. We're not going to be alone."
"You mean?" she gasped, understanding his mad plan.
"I'm going to aggravate the Reavers and make them follow us," he said with a smirk.
"Oh the Alliance is definitely not going to see this coming."
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
"Guns and grenades," Harry muttered. "Where do you get all this?" he asked Jayne.
"Stole them, won them, bought none," Jayne said grinning as he and Harry loaded bags full of not just simple pistols but machine guns, semi automatics, shotguns. Each weapon looked different from the other.
"So what do you suggest I use?" he asked.
Jayne looked at him for a second before digging into the bag and he pulled out a silver gun which looked to be bigger than average and when Harry took it, it was heavier than it looked too.
"It's an automatic," Jayne said taking it back. "Press this button here and the magazine will pop out. Just shove another in when one empties," he said. "This here is the safety switch," he said and showed the tiny switch the wizard. "You just push it up to turn it off and down to turn it on. It's got twenty rounds so if you're aims good, you should have no trouble."
Harry kept nodding, drinking in whatever Jayne had to say about the gun.
"She's a little heavier than usual but it gives you better stability and lesser recoil force. She's the perfect weapon for someone of your build so don't lose her," he said and offered the gun back to Harry.
"You got it," Harry murmured taking it gently from Jayne. He then turned the safety on and shoved it into his pants.
"Keep five rounds of ammo too," said the big man. "You don't want to run out if those gorram Reavers jump on you." He grimaced as he thought about what those monsters would do to him if they caught him.
"Don't forget about the Alliance too," Harry said dryly.
Jayne glared at him. "The Reavers lay above the Alliance in my book but nothing beats my hatred for the Alliance now, knowing what they did on that planet."
Harry nodded grimly. He thought that Voldemort was the only one capable of such an act but clearly he was wrong. Non magical folk were just as dangerous as a person with magic. That's what happens when you have too much power at your disposal, he thought. You do things a moral human being would never do and if it goes wrong you just bury it instead of taking responsibility.
The com crackled and Mal's voice filtered through. "We're almost there people. So strap yourselves in. We've got a fleet of Reavers hot on our tail and a fleet of Alliance battle ships right in front of us."
"To ma duh," Jayne mumbled and rushed up to the bridge. Harry somehow lifted the heavy bags with all the strength he possessed and dragged them to the dining area. Simon, Inara and River were already there and they were sitting on the chairs holding on to the sides tightly.
Harry went and held on to one of the pipes and prayed that everything was going to be fine. He prayed that they were going to live and get out of this unscathed. Yeah right, whispered another part of his mind and anxiety began to pool at the bottom of his stomach.
Suddenly the ship shuddered violently and Harry realized that they had exited the ion cloud.
"Wash!" Mal shouted all the way from the bridge and from Harry's position he could see a dozen missiles flying all around them. His eyes widened as he saw one of the Reaver ships being blown to smithereens and the debris scattered all over them.
Wash somehow manoeuvred around the dozens of ships around him and not to mention the missiles and guns being fired from both ends. All of them had to hang on for their dear lives as entered the atmosphere at unimaginable speeds.
Harry winced as alarms began to blare all through the ship and Mal yelling at Wash only worsened his anxiety. He looked at Simon and River and saw that they both had their eyes closed tightly.
And then everything stopped. The sound of the alarm, the roar of the engine, the lights, everything went out. Simon quickly got up and rushed to the engine room to drag Kaylee out of there and strapped her into the last of the seats.
"That was an EMP!" cried out Mal before the ship began to spin out of control. "Jayne!" Mal screamed and Jayne rushed down and tried to make his way to the breaker box but the spin was too powerful. Harry felt like his body was ready to be torn apart by the amount of G force that he was experiencing at that moment and then suddenly the ship roared back into life and Wash pulled them out of the spin.
"Hold on!" Wash yelled suddenly and Harry didn't want to even imagine what was coming next.
The ship crashed into the ground nearly throwing everyone out of their seats and Harry lost his grip on his precious pipe and went flying into the cabinets in the kitchen. His eyes went wide when he saw a couple of knifes falling towards him and he managed to roll out of the way. He tried getting up and attempted to get a hold of his bearings but the ship then crashed into something hard and he was again flung into the air. His head slammed against the hard metal of the ship above him and everything went dark.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-
When Harry came too, he found himself buried under the entire kitchen. Boxes, cupboards, cans, glasses, wood, it was all there above him and with a grunt he pushed some of it off him and dragged himself out.
The next thing he realized was that the ship was not moving and there was a lot of noise coming from outside.
His head was throbbing and he gently touched the spot and almost cried out when the throbbing got worse. He looked at his hand and saw that it was coated in blood. His eyesight was a little blurry and he knew it wasn't because his eyesight was bad. He had gotten rid of that problem a long time ago. He fought the sudden onslaught of dizziness and tried to make his way out of the ship. Harry checked if he still had the gun on him. He did and he turned off the safety and held it loosely in his hand.
He had it as far as the door leading to the second level when there was a roar in front of him and a body rushed at him with a long knife raised high above its head.
Harry reacted instinctively. He raised the gun in his hand and fired multiple times. The thing cried out it pain but still hurtled towards him and Harry had to jump out of the way.
His eyes widened when he got a look at its face. It was cut up horribly. Blood was caked all over it and when it roared Harry realized that the thing had its tongue cut out too and then he understood that it was a Reaver. The Reaver threw the knife at Harry and he barely avoided it before burying three more bullets in its body.
The Reaver fell to the floor, dead.
His hands were shaking as the adrenaline rushed out of his system. "That was too gorram close," he said to himself casting a repulsed look at the once human creature. And this was all because the Alliance decided to play god, he thought in disgust.
He cautiously moved forward and looked around for signs of the crew, but there were none. He noticed that the bags of weapons were gone and came to the conclusion that they had left the ship and made their way to Mr Universe. They had probably forgotten about him in their hurry and that thought annoyed Harry a bit but then there was also the fact that he was buried under a pile of things and he was unconscious. They must have assumed he had gone ahead.
The noise of gunfire outside had ceased and when Harry came to the stairs he found himself face to face with a large number of soldiers who were armed to the teeth.
"Freeze!" one of them barked but all of them pointed their guns at Harry.
"Throw down your weapon and walk towards us slowly or we will kill you."
Harry stood still for a moment, his mind racing before he made a decision. He then threw the gun down and watched as it skidded to a halt a few feet from the soldiers.
"Good, now come down slowly!"
Harry steeled his nerves and summoned the memories of what these people had done on Haven. How they had killed so many innocent people. He thought about the millions of people dead on Miranda because of their leaders. He thought about the number of lives that the Reavers had taken because the Alliance had done nothing to keep them at bay or kill them all. After all, they had killed 30 million more in one stroke.
With these thoughts now raging through his mind, Harry stepped closer and closer until he was able to look them in the eye.
They were yelling at him to get on his knees but their voices had become a distant noise echoing in the background. "Legilimens," he whispered and tore into the mind of one of the soldiers and just like before they didn't have time to react as the man began to fire on his own men. This time Harry made eye contact with them and it was easier to control the man's movements no matter how hard he fought back.
Harry withdrew from his mind and ripped into another soldier's mind and made him start attacking his friends. The Alliance soldiers were in panic and they began to scatter. One of them had the sense to fire at Harry but Harry's mind was too aware of what was happening around him. He quickly dodged and pulled out of the soldier's mind and dived for his gun and began to fire indiscriminately at them.
His pupils were dilated as he plunged into the mind of yet another soldier. This time Harry made him pull out a grenade and drop it in the middle of the remaining soldiers.
Time seemed to come to a standstill as they saw the grenade bounce once, twice and thrice before it stopped moving. Harry pulled out of the soldier's mind not because he wanted to, but because he had to or else he knew he would have passed out from magical exhaustion and then he flung himself behind a pile of crates not caring if he got hurt.
Not a millisecond later the grenade exploded and Harry felt the crates rattle because of the force of the explosion.
Once the dust had settled he slowly peeked out from his position and saw that all the soldiers were either dead or unconscious with pretty bad injuries and there was a huge hole in the middle of Mal's ship. But he didn't care. He saw one still awake and he was trying to get to his radio.
Harry growled and stood up but almost fell back because of his overuse of magic. He felt like his head was about to split open but he steadied himself and slowly walked towards the man.
He could barely keep his eyes open because of the pain but he endured and picked up one of the soldiers' weapons and walked up to the man still alive.
The soldier looked up at him with terror. "Please don't kill me, I have a fa-"
Harry didn't want to hear it. He flipped the gun around and slammed its butt into the man's head knocking him out.
"Scum," he muttered and began to follow the trail of bodies. His fatigued mind noticed that all of them were Reavers and it probably meant that the other soldiers had gone ahead looking for his friends.
He tightened his grip on the rifle like weapon with one hand and pulled out his gun with the other. He was ready to die for his friends.
"Stand down." The voice echoed in front of him. He rounded the corner and saw more than thirty soldiers with their guns trained on River.
Surprise flooded him when he saw that she was holding a sword in one hand and an axe in the other. Her weapons were coated with blood and thick drops of blood were slowly dripping on the floor. He was shocked when he saw that the floor around her was strewn with the bodies of Reavers.
"Had she killed them all?" he gasped.
Behind her Harry noticed the rest of the crew looking equally banged up.
"Stand down," the voice repeated over the radio of the Alliance soldiers. "It's over."
Slowly the men disengaged their weapons.
"Come get me," said the voice and three of the soldiers ran past the crew and the rest turned back to go to their ship. Harry was relieved that they ignored his presence as they passed by him and a few minutes later it was just them.
Harry raised his hands and with a small smile, he said, "Hi."
River hadn't noticed him and she flung the axe in his direction with deadly accuracy.
Harry yelped and dropped to the floor before his head was separated from his body. "Gorramit River, it's me!" he yelled.
She blinked twice and then recognition filtered through her eyes. "Oh," she said, "The nonentity."
Harry rolled his eyes and threw down the Alliance gun. "And you're a crazy killer woman," he shot back.
River narrowed her eyes at him and tightened her grip on the sword.
"River," Simon called out tiredly. "Please don't attack the nonentity."
River glanced at Simon and then back at Harry while the rest just looked on, amused.
"Oh alright," she grumbled and dropped her sword too.
"Hi there Harry," Kaylee said cheerfully. "It's nice to see that you're alright. We thought you were dead."
How Kaylee could still be so cheerful was beyond him. Harry walked towards them and stopped beside River who still hadn't moved from her spot.
"Do you still want to kill me?" he asked her.
River looked at him with wide eyes and then a smile washed over her face changing her features from dangerous killer woman to a sweet little eighteen year old.
"Why would I want to do that," she said with a laugh.
Harry raised his eyebrows at that. "That personality shift is way too creepy."
River just rolled her eyes wondering what the hell he was talking about and ran to Simon. Harry just shook his head and winced at the stab of pain which shot through his head.
"You alright there, Harry?" Mal asked and Harry tried not to stare at the man's beat up body.
"I think I'm better off than you captain," he replied. "Did you get hit by a train or something?" he joked.
"Mal always get beaten up," Jayne said. "Don't know if he's won a fist fight in his life!"
"Hey, I wouldn't be down here if couldn't fight now!" he protested. "I just whooped an operative's gorram ass!"
"You got lucky," said a hoarse voice from behind. It was same as the one Harry heard over the radio.
A black man walked out of the lift with the three soldiers behind him. Everyone stilled, realizing this was the man in control of the Alliance troops.
He glanced at all of them and then turned to his men. "Help them to their ship and patch up their wounds," he commanded.
"Yes sir," they barked.
"I can move myself thank you very much," Jayne growled as one of them tried to help him up.
"Where's Wash?" Harry asked, suddenly realizing the fun loving pilot was nowhere to be seen.
An emotionless Zoe walked past him and said, "He's gone."
Her voice echoed in his mind.
"He's gone."
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
A week later
The rain was pouring down on the planet and Harry stood under it, his arms stretched out and face up feeling the water splash on his face. The last time he stood under the rain was when he was on the run with Ron and Hermione. That was a time that was literally several lifetimes ago.
It had taken them a fortnight but they had finally put the ship back together. They were ready to leave and enter the black once more.
"Hey Harry!" Mal yelled. "We're getting off this rock. You better get in!"
Harry sighed and hurried back to the ship.
"Were you trying to drown yourself?" Mal asked.
"I like the rain," Harry said shrugging.
"Help me with these bags," he said giving Harry an odd look.
"What in them?"
"Spare tools in case we have problems up there," he replied. Suddenly he stopped and his hand was quick to reach for his gun.
Harry looked confused for a moment before he heard footsteps behind them.
"It's not over, you know," said the operative. Simon and Jayne had told him all about the operative and what he had done. But after watching the report on the Miranda experiment, the operative had had a change of heart and he had decided to help them out instead of capturing them.
"What's not over," Mal asked coolly. Harry was suppressing the urge to turn this man's mind into a puddle of goo.
"I can't guarantee they won't come after you, the Parliament I mean," he said. "Your broad wave about the truth of Miranda has weakened their regime but they are not gone and they are not forgiving."
"Well that don't bode well, especially for you," Mal mocked. "Giving the order to let us go, patching up our crew."
"I told them the Tams were no longer a threat, damage done. They might listen," he said with a shrug. "But I think they know I'm no longer their man."
"If they take you down, don't expect me to grieve over it much." Mal then gestured at Harry to continue the loading.
"I'll like to kill you myself if I see you again," Mal added.
The operative smiled. "You won't... There is nothing left to see," he said cryptically and then walked away towards his shuttle.
"Well let's get going then," Mal said looking out one last time and then he shut the cargo bay.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
The operative stood in a chamber in his shuttle and in front of him was a huge screen on which five human shaped silhouettes could be made out.
"You know what the punishment for failure is operative," said one, a woman, coldly. From her voice could be made out that she was old and was probably in her sixties.
"I do," he replied. "But I was hoping I wouldn't have to live a life on the run in exchange for some information."
"What information?" barked a man. His voice was sharp and he looked to be the tallest among them all.
"Is it about the Tams?" croaked another. This man sounded like he was on his death bed and the operative recognized his voice. He had seen him on several occasions and was the military liaison to the parliament.
"No, it's not about the Tams but about another. A boy," he said. "Who recently joined the crew of Serenity."
"What about him?"
"One of the soldiers under my command had an encounter with him," he began. "Twenty three soldiers confronted the boy and asked him to surrender, to which according to the soldier the boy did."
The 5 members of the covert division held their tongue and questions as the operative spoke.
"He then told me that something… something unnatural happened. The boy's eyes seemed to glow for a second, but it was for just a second so they thought it was a trick of the light."
A woman huffed in annoyance.
"And then the men in his squad started turning on each other. First one soldier opened fire on the squad, then another and then the third dropped a grenade right in front of them. All this happened in the space a minute."
"Did the boy somehow make them do this?" asked the tall man in the middle. His voice was trembling with excitement.
"I don't know," said the operative. "It all sounded too farfetched to me but I thought that you might be interested in what this soldier had to say."
"I think we are," murmured the old woman.
"Why didn't you bring him in?" barked the sharp voiced man.
"I wasn't given the order too."
"So we're giving you the order now. Bring. Him. In!"
The operative shook his head. "I've had enough. I just gave you this information because I don't fancy having to kill all the men you send after me."
Silence followed his words.
"Bold words," croaked the military man after a while.
"You know they're true. After all I was the best you had."
"We don't need to tell you that if we catch your scent then we will most definitely send the hounds after you," said the old woman.
"No, you don't need to tell me," the operative replied darkly.
"This boy, what is his name?" asked the man in the middle.
"Harry Potter, I believe."
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