Authors Note: Yea, I have another fic in progress, and yea I should probably finish it. But when the plot bunnies strike...

This story contains MASSIVE spoilers for Gunslinger Girl up to chapter 90 of the manga. If you dont want it spoiled, dont read yet.

I dont Own Gunslinger Girl, I dont own Firefly. If I did, I wouldnt be posting my ramblings here.

/Piemonte, Italy. New Turin NPP\\\\

Dying, he turned the pistol that had been his death, Henrietta's retribution, back towards the cyborgs eye . As the cyborg, no, little girl, begged and wept for him to live, to be fine, he corrected himself... but he knew that he was a dead man, just the same. "If you meant that..." he wheezes out, as he pushes the handgun into the girls shaking palm, or was it his that was shaking? "then I want you... to fulfill, your promise."

****Broken****

Rico leaned over Jeans prostrate form, the massive hole in his side from the anti-tank rifle she had fired through him oozing blood. This was what he wanted, right? Giacomo dead, his family avenged? This was what he trained her for, to be his revenge, why he saved her from her broken body, right? Then why, now that she had fulfilled her mission, did she feel so sad, so empty.

As the man who had given her purpose, life, surrendered to the abyss in her arms, to week to gasp out more thana word or two, she felt tears roll down her cheeks. Without thinking, the words began to tumble from her mouth as freely as the tears were falling from her eyes "You cant... it would be such a waste if you died now." she half pleaded, half-sobbed. As she took in another ragged breath, she felt Jeans last pass through his lips "Your my only reason for living!" she confessed to the fresh corpse.

****Broken****

Alessandro couldn't help but smile. They had done it, the cost may have been heavy, but the reactors wouldn't melt down, the stolen nuclear bomb would go off. The Five Republics would be all but wiped out after tonight, Italy would have peace, finally. Petra wrapped him up in a tight, celebratory hug as he stood in the center of the room. She gives back in such small ways, he muses to himself.

/Italian Prime Ministers Office\\\\

"Are you certain?" the minister asked, voice laced with fear and resolve. The man opposite the ministers desk nodded, solemnly. So the Five Republics had a nuke... no, that madman Giacomo did. "I had hoped that the Social Welfare Agency and the Five Republics would simply wipe each other out, but like this, there would be too much collateral. The new weapon we recently acquired from the Japenese... I want you to use it on the New Turin NPP."

The messenger faltered "But, Minister, our people in the plant..."

He sighs "The cyborgs are certain to survive, and, with any luck the handlers will as well. After tonight, we will have no immediate need of the SWA. God-willing, we wont have to defrost any of them for a very long time. Use the Cryo-bomb. Thats an order."

/Ghost Lane, somewhere between Greenleaf and Persephone\\\\

"Now who will stand on either hand, And keep the bridge with me?" the Bits voice from echoed from behind him causing Mal to leap up from the captains seat. Today had been one of Rivers better days, by the more sane standards they judged her by since Miranda. So of course, Mal was shocked for her to be about so deep into the ships night cycle, spouting crap that didnt make sense.

"Gorramit girl! What'd I tell you 'bout sneakin' up on me like that?" the captain demands, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes. It was damn hard to stay awake sitting in the cockpit during the ships night cycle.

River shrugs as she drops into the co-pilot seat, and starts moving to end the night cycle "Horatius, by Macauly. It was the last thing he had been thinking before they made him sleep. You would have missed them if I had not woke you."

Mal shook his head inwardly, and she had been doing so well today too. Before he could respond however, the lights flicked from the dark, soothing hues of the night-cycle to the harsh, brighter tones of the middle of the day cycle "What in the ruttin hell are you doin Bit? Jaynes gonna skin you alive, an I dont know if I'm gonna have a mind to stop'im. And who was thinkin that, Horatius?" Mal presses, trying to ignore the phrase commonly associated with the conditioning and experimenting that had been done to his Albatross.

River shrugs "He couldnt if he wanted to, and you wouldnt let him..." River trails off musically as the unhappy sounds of what was left of the crew being rudely awoken filtered up to the cabin. Before long the crew filtered in to the cabin. Simon in a pair of plain slacks, Kaylee in one of his longer shirts, Jayne in boxers and an open shirt of his own... Inara was in her shuttle, so still sleeping. And Zoe, she would come back, just as soon as her and Washs kid was old enough to leave with family. Mals mind continued to wander, quickly returning to that day, not too long after building their memorial she had realized she was pregnant. After loosing Wash, Mal simply hadnt had the heart to ask Zoe to stay. She had promised to come back, and Mal to leave the locks so that she could get onboard.

"Anyone mind tellin' me why the ruttin' hell we're all up in the middle of the night?" Jayne asks, not bothering to hide his grumpieness, nor his move to scratch his ass.

Mal nods "I do believe that you were about to tell me what was goin' on, Bit."

River stares off into the black "More like us..."

Mal sighs "Still havent told me why we're up."

"Another Firefly? Nuthin special'bout that..." Jayne interjects grumpily.

River shoots him 'the look' that only she seemed able to pull off, as she replies "No, broken."

Jayne cocks his head to the side "Boken? What're you on about girl? Aint nothin wrong with me! Doc, I though you said your feng le sister was getting better."

Simon blusters "I, she... I told you that..." he trails off as a large, but not quite massive ship floats into view.

Mal lets out a low whistle "Not every day you see a ship like that."

"Shen sheng de gao wan" Jayne trails off, suddenly transfixed by the artifact of a ship floating past the viewport.

Kaylee galnces about "That looks to be one'a the sleeper ships they sent from earth-that-was, but..."

Simon interjects for the mechanic "Not all of them made it. Nearly 10% were lost in transit, this must be one of them."

"Probably full'a all sorts a shiny." Jayne postulates, suddenly awake, and grinning like a kid in a candy shop.

Mal sighs "Shiny thats gonna be a right pain ta move."

"Worth more than the crap jobs we've been flyin lately." Jayne retorts.

Not looking away from the ship drifting past them, Mal replies "Wasnt sayin we shouldnt have a look, just that anythin' we takes gonna take a bit ta unload is all."

River looks up from the co-pilots screen "Several cryo-chambers are still functional."

Simon does a double-take "Th-that should be impossible, that thing has been adrift for hundreds of years."

Kaylee shrugs "One thing that didnt ever get better after we left earth-that-was was cryo tech. We got better ways'ta wake a body, an better meds to make goin under easier, but still freeze'em the same way."

Jayne shakes his head "Bullet'll put'em down. Aint no place in the verse fer'a 500 year old refugee from earth-that-was anyhow."

Mal glares at Jayne "Aint no-one shootin anyone without my permission. Refugees delivered to a Uni or an interested historian could fetch almost as much as antiques from the ship. An we may even be able to let'em talk to more'n one iffin we paly our cards right."

Jayne shakes his head again "An how the gorram hell do you expect to find a core-bred scholar that'll believe that we found an honest-ta-god sleeper ship, complete with sleepers and goodies, cap'n? They'll just write us off as crazy rim-born idjits an ignore us."

Mal shrugs "We'll see what we find. Everyone suit up, Kaylee, wake Inara and have her watch the bridge while we search this hulk."

****Broken****

"Atmos thin, but good" Kaylee announces over the short-range radio in their suits. Simon breaths a sigh of relief as he removes his helmet.

"River, which way to the cryo-tubes? They may be running, but that doesnt mean the people inside are alive." Simon asks his sister calmly, fully expecting to spend the day looking at corpses.

The girl simply inclines her head for Simon to follow, her face cross with concentration. They all knew that she still had no control over her 'powers' but she had been trying more and more to reign them in of late. Though without much success, unfortunately. They walk in silence for a while, Simon not even needing to check most of the tubes to see that they hold only corpses. Eventually, they reach a section lit by ship power, not their flashlights. "Here they are, the sleepers." River inclines her head to a score of tubes. Off to one side, are two young girls, alone, plain, large lockers near the tubes, exactly the same as the corpses before and after them. To the other side, are two girls, older, but still young, each with a man not much older than the captain to their right.

After a few moments, during which Simon confirms that they are, in fact, alive, he replies "Six survivors... incredible." He looks up only to see River shooting him her patented 'your such a boob' look.

Before either can say anything, Jayne and Mal arrive "So doc, we have any survivors? Kaylees lookin at the workin bits'a this old girl, and I figured itd be best ta check in with you before we go off lookin for bits a shiny to stuff our holds with."

Simon nods "Six, actually. I think I can wake them, but I have no idea what the side-effects will be."

Mal nods "Might as well, maybe they'll be able to help us out."

Simon moves into action, choosing one of the lone girls, shoulder-length brown hair, cherubic features... most likely to be a safe choice. He dusts off the control panel, and, after pressing a few buttons, the young girl inside begins to stir, as the tube opens up to allow her to exit. Simon steps back, remembering how River had reacted when he woke her up. Part of him thinks it will be worse, but he pushes that to the back of his mind. The entire crew seems to be holding their breath, save River, who looks torn between going to the slowly waking girl, and standing back behind Mal. After stretching, yawning, and saying something Simon doubts anyone can understand, she looks around. At first she looks like anyone would expect a 14 year old girl to look and act after waking up from sleeping. Then, something crosses her mind, and she simply asks, in her lilting, gentle little voice "Jose?"

Jayne leans over to quietly ask Mal "Whos Jose?"

The captain looks over to his public relations officer and responds blankly "Aint got a clue." as the girl asks for Jose again, though it seems more of a plead than a question the second and third times she asks for him, as she slowly climbs from her stasis tube.

"Lost her gege." River observes, still behind Mal and Jayne, as the young girl crumples to the floor, crying bitter, devastated tears. She periodically fits words in-between her heartbroken sobs, but no one can understand her.

"Any idea what shes sayin?" Jayne asks, as the others stand frozen on the spot in confusion.

"One of the Romance Languages from earth-that-was. Dead for centuries." River replies, cautiously edging towards the girl.

"They had whole languages fer pillow-talk on earth-that-was?" Jayne asks.

River freezes in place long enough to shoot Jayne a sour look, before tentatively kneeling down to comfort the girl, though it is clear that she has no idea how to proceed. "Simon, try wakin' up one of the pairs over here." he orders, inclining his head to the linked cryo-tubes. "Wake the blond and black haired guy please, I dont have the best luck with redheads..."

Before Simon can respond, Kaylee walks into the hallway "Ship wont give out on us anytime soon, but the parts aint worth nuthin..." she trails off as she absorbs the scene before her "What the helld you say Jayne?" she asks the merc, clearly very ready to be quite pissed at him.

Jaynes head snaps over to glare at Kaylee as Simon goes about waking up the pair inside the cryo-tubes Mal indicated "I aint even said nothin to'er. She came out of her box an just started cryin like that. Aint my fault..."

Before the argument can come to maturity, the sound of the tubes opening cuts both Kaylee and Jayne off, as they turn to greet the waking pair. The girl fully wakes first, and drinks in the situation much more quickly than the first girl to wake. She glances about, her face flashing from confusion, to worry, and finally to protectiveness, as she interposes herself between the now fully awake man behind her, and the crew, bristling. The pair begins to have a rapid-fire conversation in the same language as the first girl to wake up. "An here I was hopin that someoned be able to tell me whats goin on. Kayle, Bit, Simon, watch the sleepers an wake t'others up. Keep'em here, dont need no tetchy oldtimers getting in me an Jaynes way while we gather up the goods."

Before Mal can leave with Jayne the black-haired man speaks up "We can... speak english. We were simply trying to determine what happened, this is not where we last remember being."

"An where do you remember being last?" Mal asks the man turning around to face him.

He hesitates, before continuing in his strange accent "We were... doing work for the government, and, I'm not certain if I should be discussing it, or how much detail if I do."

Jayne chuckles "Doubt a'buncha deadmen'll care if ya talk 'bout their secrets. 'Sides, been at least 500 years by our reckoning."

The girl looks over to Jayne crossly "Your lying. Now tell us where we are." she threatens darkly.

Jayne snorts as Mal replies "On a sleeper ship out in the black. Yours got lost during the evacuation from earth-that-was. We just happened to find you."

The man stands up, and moves to stand next to the blond replying "I hope you wont mind if I ask for proof, and point out that it is impossible fro one to sleep for 500 years."

"Is in a stasis pod." Kaylee cheerily points out as Simon sets about waking the smaller blond girl up.

Mal shrugs "Follow me then. Kaylee, wheres the nearest viewport?"

The mechanic glances over her shoulder as the little blond happily stretches, grinning from ear to ear as she does so, before her face falls too. She doesnt break down like the brown haired girl, but she does collapse back into her pod, not bothering to get out of it, as tears begin to silently track down her face as well. "Keep headin down the way I came, you'll see one soon enough."

After walking for a while in silence Mal and the recently awoken cyborg and her handler reach the viewport. Mal doesnt know exactly what the man says, but he knows a curse when he hears one. "And your name was?" he eventually asks as the shock finishes washing over him.

Mal smirks as he turns to follow the young girl and her... relative, he decides, back to the rest of his crew. "Malcom Reynolds, captain of the Serenity. Most just call me Mal though. And you are?"

The man pauses, before beginning to follow Mal back towards the others "I'm Victor Hillshire, and this is Triella. The brunette you woke up already is Henrietta, and the little blond is Rico." he explains as they return to a very groggy looking Allesandro and Petra slowly stirring as Jayne happily goes through one of the lockers by a pod occupied by a dead cyborg.

"Ruttin hell Mal, you see the pieces these folk had? Worth an awful lotta plat to the right buyer." Jayne crows loudly enough to gain Mals interest as he hefts the antique gun that he had just pulled from a locker.

Mal glances over to Hillshire "Well Victor, hope you dont mind us takin' some of the pieces you wont be needin."

Hillshire sighs "Let me see what Allesandro thinks." Mal nods, and quietly leans against the bulkhead, watching Jayne rifle through the corpses lockers for a bit. As Hillshire and the other adult, Allesandro, apparently continue to argue heatedly as River tentatively continues to comfort the still sobbing Henrietta, running her hand up and down the girls back. Henrietta's face shifts noticeably, and River tenses. Mal sees the Bits face shift as well. He watches it shift to an all too familiar, dangerous look as Henrietta anounces something to herself if the mystery dead language. As everyone else in the dimly lit corridor sits confused, understanding, and horror, flash across Triellas face. All this in the blink of an eye, before the young chestnut haired girl surges to her feet, still weeping. Henrietta easily breaks Rivers shocked hold, and throws the small locker at the foot of her stasis-tube open. "Jose" she reverently breathes, as she pulls her P-239 from the chest. As Triela launches herself across the corridor, the only other person not too shocked to move, Henrietta slams the pistols magazine into its butt. The weapon lines up with Henrietta's right eye, and, just as the safety is clicked off, the older cyborg knocks the weapon from the younger ones hands, before sliding behind her, and restraining the grief-stricken girl.

As Henrietta begins to wail again in the same language as her other recently awoken comrades favor, still struggling against Triellas grasp, Mal asks "Anyone mind tellin' me what the ruttin' hell just happened?" tersely.

For a few minutes there is silence, before Hillshire looks to his charge "Triella?" the spunky cyborg raises an eyebrow, despite the obvious strain she is going through in her attempts to keep Henrietta restrained. Hillshire simply nods in response.

Triella sighs "Henrietta figured out what killed Elsa." this response of course, helps no one, so she continues "She told Jose, and the Section One agents that were visiting the two of them that in Elsas position she would do the same as Elsa did. I dont know what Jose said to her before he died, but its pretty clear that he did." She nods her head back and forth, indicating the stasid tubes all filled with cyborgs, no handlers next to them, as Triela and Hillshire had been placed.

Jayne scratches at the back of his head "And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Hillshire looks over to Allesandro, and, in english, says to him "If we want to live, we need these peoples help Allesandro. They are likely to figure out for themselves anyways, so we may as well tell them now. Its not like we can be killed for leaking information on the Social Welfare Agency now."

The other man nods, resignedly "The girls... arent human. Not completely."

Kaylee glares at the man as Mal scratches at his head and asks "Care to explain?"

It is Hillshire that picks up for the other surviving handler "The Social Welfare Agency was a secret branch of the Italian government. It combined research with... black ops political assassination, infiltration and counter-terrorism. The technology was, is, cybernetic enhancement of human beings."

"So, who'd you enhance?" Jayne asks, curious, and oblivious.

Hillshire cringes with guilt, looking away from the rest of the people in the room as he replies "The girls. The SWA would take children who would otherwise die, and save them, by turning them into cyborgs."

"Why?" Kaylee asks, mortified.

Hillshire takes in a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment, and replies "Because, it was the only way we could make the... modifications, stick, or so I was told."

Mal knows the look that he currently bore on his face, he knew what he was feeling. It was the same look he had when he had first joined up with the Independants, the same look he had before going to Miranda "Then you forced those girls to do your dirty work?"

"Wonder how they managed that. Aint never seen a kid that was a willing killer before. 'Specially one that'd just nearly died." Jayne ponders.

Mal does not lighten or shift his glare from Hillshire, but before he can reply, River informs the group "The same way they wanted to make me a killer. Filled them with drugs, moved things around in their heads. Took away some of their memories." Mal hears something, strange, on Rivers voice, and it is that that momentarily compels him to not shoot both grown men on the spot, to save these girls.

"And just what part in this did you have, Hillshire?" he asks the man.

It is Triella that answers the question "Hillshire and I are a Fratello. Every cyborg has a handler. He trains her, sees to her education, her well-being, and supervises her on missions."

Mal flips the leather off his gun, and clicks the safety off, ready to shoot the bastards that made these girls do their governments dirty work, until River translates something "Siblings..."

Mal tilts his head to one side in confusion as Triella lowers the once again unconscious Henrietta down tot he floor, and moves to take her place at Hillshires side. Her eyes affixed on Mals gun-hand, silently daring him to use the weapon. "That all you did for them? Take their memories, fill their heads with nuthin' but killin, and make sure they dont kill the wrong folk?" his voice icy.

Allesandro shakes his head "It is different for every fratello, but I only know of one case where that was the truth."

"Elsa" Rico continues for Allesandro, still not leaving her tube, simply leaning against its cushion, dejectedly.

"Mind expainin' who this Elsa was?" Jayne cuts her off, growing noticeably impatient.

Mal allows himself to enjoy the shocked look on Jaynes face, clearly the merc had not expected a kid to obey him so readily as Rico nods and answers "The conditioning drugs ensure that a cyborg is at the very least loyal to her handler. But it always grows into something more. Elsa, loved her handler, Lauro. So much that she alienated herself from the rest of us. When she realized that Lauro did not love her back, that he only saw her as a replaceable tool, she killed him, then herself."

After a brief time, Mal looks to Hillshire and the man that Mal could only assume was Allesandro "And the two of you?" he asks them, as his mind wanders to what possibly could have been said to Henrietta to make her want to follow in that Elsa girls footsteps. He suspects that something similar is running through the minds of both men from the past, but, from the way Victor looks at Triela, and Allesandro at Petrushka during the continuing silence, he suspects that they treat the girls well. Mal returns the safety on his weapon, and closes the holster before continuing "I'll bring'ya up to speed on what the verse is like, and get you some coin if you help me sell the loot from this boat. Been shorthanded lately, an I doubt you'll wanna bump into the Alliance without any papers, or coin. Chances are you'll end up doin nothin but what you were before you woke up here for them, or worse, if you did."

After a brief while, and more rapid-fire conversation in the language Mal doesnt recognize, Hillshire, who Mal has pinned for the leader of the few survivors found on this ship, responds "Thank you, Captain."

****Broken****

Hillshire sat across from Mal in the Serenities common room, Triela in the seat to his right, Alessandro and Petra past her. To his left sits the morose Rico, while Henrietta was in the ships infirmary, on Dr. Tams orders after he learned the completeness of the cyborg condition. At first Mal had forbid him from taking any conditioning drugs, or anything else, from the infirmary on the sleeper ship Hillshire had woken up on but a few hours ago. After hearing Hillshires reason he had sent Jayne and Kaylee to clear space in the cargo-hold for as much as the sleeper ship had stored, as well as more than a few sets of replacement tissue for the cyborgs. Hillshire half-smirked, the captain was a good man. The smirk quickly faded, as he finally came to a decision, at least a temporary one, based on what the captain had told him of current politics. "We cant let the Alliance find us, we need to stay under the radar for as long as possible." The Alliance was, after all, exactly what the Five Republics would have been had they not been stopped.

Mal nods "It'll take a while for us to find buyers for all these antiques we took from that ship, so you shouldn't have to worry for a bit." it seems that he has more to say, but a voice from outside the room cuts him off.

Hillshire wonders who it could be, as the entire crew, save Dr. Tam, who was in his infirmary seeing to Henrietta was present. "I take it you plan to abuse my contacts again in attempt to sell whatever it is you found on that ship, Mal?"

Hillshire feels his face contort into a mask of shock and confusion as a beautiful, elegantly dressed, raven-haired woman enters the room on the heels of her barb. She of course, freezes in confusion when she sees the new people on the ship, looking back and froth from them to Mal "Inara, this is Rico, Victor, Triela, Allesandro, and Petrushka. found'em on the sleeper-ship."

Inarra nods, blankly as she replies "A pleasure." and inclines her head to each of them, clearly acting more on habit than any conscious thought, before she sits down next to Mal.

The former SWA agents return her greeting, though it is clear to Hillshire that the depressed Rico had caught Inaras attention "What is her post on the Serenity?" Allesandro asks, breaking the silence.

Kaylee answers the companions question for her "Shes our ambassador."

Triela looks at the mechanic in confusion "A ship this small needs an ambassador? Are port authorities really that bad?"

Kaylee chuckles "No, shes a Companion. We just call'er our Ambassador on accounts of her being our connection to folk with more money'n class."

"Companion?" Hillshire asks, still not following fully.

Mal chuckles "Dont let the fancy clothes'n properness fool ya, shes a whore."

Inara glares daggers at Mal "A companion is much more than a common whore, Mal. And how many times do I have to tell you to NOT call me one?" Hillshire watches the pair bicker for a few moments, before Inara huffs a sigh and turns back to him "So, how did you survive so long in cryo-stasis?" Kaylee quickly informs the Companion of the science behind the survival of the newest people on Serenity as Hillshire thinks back on the day, and before.

It had taken them hours to move everything of value over to the Serenity, but with the extra hands, they had been able to make the move all the quicker. He and the others had all simply moved their lockers, which, were luckily not welded to the ship into the storage. So, he simply tuned out Allesandros explanation of who exactly they were and how they cam e to be here. When Inara is finally satsified, Mal heaves a yawn "'Tween River wakin us all up so gorram early, an movin' all them boxes, I'm damn tired. Gonna push the ships night-cycle up a few hours I think." he turns to face the cyborgs and handlers "We have four passenger rooms, so if the girls share theres enough for all of you. I'll leave the decidin up to you... an we can sort through all the shiny we pulled from that ship tomorrow mornin."

As the captain leaves, Hillshire turns to Triela "You will room with Henrietta once she leaves the infirmary, Triela. Petrushka, you will be with Rico. Move your things and get some rest. We'll take the next few weeks as they come."

Well, thats chapter one. This fic will hopefully update fairly quickly, as the pot bunnies have been mobbing me about it lately. As to the SWA agents speaking English, its not all that uncommon for people in European countries to know multiple languages, add to that the fact that they are intelligence agents, and its not that much of a stretch at all.

As to the cryo-bomb, GSG already has plenty of light sci-fi stuff in it, so I figured that a bomb/warhead that freezes everything in an area isnt much of a stretch.

PLEASE read and review, knowing that someone is enjoying my story is what makes writing fanfics worthwhile.