Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.

A/N: Please don't hurt me.

Object in Space (Checkmate)

The good news was that Jubal would get bored.

He was not a patient man, nor an irrational one. Cruel, certainly, and eccentric, and prone to talking circles into the air, into his head, into the darkness and the hearts of his victims. But not patient. Not prone to violence where it could not benefit him.

Yes, River decided. Jubal would get bored, and then he would leave, and everything would be all right again.

There was the bounty on Simon, of course. That was problematic. But it was such a small one, really, insignificant and frankly worthless without River herself. Not an optimal use of the Jubal's time. River had calculated, had drawn scribbles in the air with her fingertips, had concluded that the risk was small and necessary, and Simon would be all right. As soon as the bounty hunter figured out that River wasn't on the ship, he would get bored, and he would leave.

Serenity hadn't wanted her, had been the bigger issue. Pretty Kaylee with her sunny smiles had been scared of her, and poor, broken Mal couldn't keep the cracks from growing, couldn't keep finding ways to keep the family together and the ship in the air when a crazy psychic girl with a bounty on her head kept haunting it.

River had been a problem. And so River had removed herself.

Sneaking out of the ship had been easy. Sneaking into Jubal's and turning his head games against him had been easier still. Convincing him of a non-entity, of a talking River who didn't exist anymore, that had been almost fun. Outsmarted, outmaneuvered, Jubal couldn't win this time. Checkmate.

Simple, and easy, and fun.

Leaving the ship, though. Leaving Jubal's little hunting vessel, clinging to Serenity's skin for one final goodbye, that had been the hard part. She'd had to close her eyes when it came time to shove herself away.

Now, as she floated through space and listened to the stars sing, as she felt the thin material of the spacesuit that separated her from the void and the little hiss of her oxygen as her lungs kept breathing it up, running out, running out to leave her gasping, River hoped that Simon wouldn't be too mad at her. He'd given up everything for sister dear, and now he was ready to give up even more, to destroy his chance with pretty Kaylee, to shatter hopes like shards of glass and cut himself deeper and deeper because sister scared the sunshine away, but sister wouldn't let him bleed anymore.

It was better this way, really. She would take Miranda's secrets to her grave, and they would stop hunting Simon, and Kaylee would stop being scared. Little sister gets to take care of brother, this time, and even if it is the last thing she'll do.

Two by two and hands of blue, they were just like Jubal. Outsmarted by a little girl.

Drifting in the Black, listening to the voices and whispers and screams in her head, the ones she wasn't ever meant to hear but did anyway because bureaucrats are stupid, River counted her breaths and wondered if she'd reach a hundred, a thousand, probably not a million before they ran out.

And she smiled.