Moonbrains 3: Into the Black

Chapter One

He was back in the Heel, walking through a field. The grass was tall and wild flowers shot up and dotted the place in a random but beautiful design. The sky was blue, soft white clouds whispered overhead, not threatening rain, just merely floating by, enjoying the day themselves. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and Jordan could hear a woman singing. It was an old song, about summer and flowers and mountains. And, yes, a little bit about falling in love. Jordan listened for a few more moments and took in the sweet smell of the flowers.

"Jordan!" the woman called, interrupting her song.

He saw her running towards him, her wild, brown hair flying behind her. There was a little girl running beside her, trying very hard to keep up. She looked just like her mother, like Jordan knew she would.

Cold water hit Jordan's face. "Come on back now, Cobb," an icy voice growled at him.

"Laura," Jordan said, fighting the returning pain. He just wanted to go back to Laura. And their child. What would they have called her? Jordan had always liked the name Emily.

"No one by that name here, boy," the icy voice said.

Pain had its full hold on Jordan Cobb now. He tried to breathe through it, but it radiated through every cell in his body. Slowly, Jordan began to remember where he was.

"Hey," he muttered to his torturer, "didn't I shoot you?"

"Yes, you sure as hellfire did, boy," Colonel Geming Smith growled above him. "And through my good knee, too." He glared down at him. "I liked that knee, Cobb."

"Oops," Jordan muttered from his table. How long had he been here? He did remember getting jumped on the way back to his bunk. A black bag had been pulled over his head. There had been at least six guys. He hoped, anyway. It would have been a disgrace to be taken by less than six guys. At six guys, well, no one could blame you for losing the fight.

"You're not payin' attention to me, Cobb!" Smith yelled at him. "I want answers, and you're gonna give 'em to me or pay even more for my favorite knee!"

Jordan laughed. He couldn't help it. "And what do you think I know?"

"Where did that idiot brother of yers take my weapons?" Smith yelled.

"Oh," Jordan muttered. "That's what you think I know."

"That's right, Cobb, so start talkin'!" Smith yelled.

"You're in for a long wait, Colonel, because I don't know a gorram thing," Jordan said.

"You were in on his plan, Cobb," Smith said slowly, losing patience.

Really, Jordan couldn't blame him. Torture was only fun for about a minute. Then what you really wanted was answers. So you could kill the guy. And move on to the next one. Not that Jordan had military training in torture. No, his training had come from sweet old fashioned vengeance. Not something he was particularly proud of, actually.

"What makes you think I was in on anythin'?" Jordan asked, confused.

"You shot my knee off!" Smith screamed. Really, if that scream wasn't enough to frighten the devil, Jordan didn't know what could. Maybe he could make him mad enough that he would just finish the job. Being with Laura would be better than being here.

"You were gonna kill my brother," Jordan said calmly. "You're lucky I only shot you in the leg."

"You sayin' you were aimin' for my head?"

"I'm sayin' maybe I should have. As it turns out, it didn't exactly do me no favors, sparin' your sorry life."

"I'm sick of listening to this wretch. Hit him again!"

That's when the world got interesting. Jordan had been electrocuted before while working on a piece of farm equipment. Hit the wrong wire and found himself flying through the air. This was like a thousand wrong wires, hitting all over his body. He wondered slightly how he was doing it, delivering it so pointedly to every part of his body. Then he didn't wonder about anything.

"Toora, loora, loora. Toora, loora, li. Toora, loora, loora. Hush, now, don't you cry," Laura sang sweetly over their little girl's bed, rubbing her back. The moonlight seeped in through a window, and made her face glow like an angel's.

"Laura," Jordan whispered. She looked up, those glistening grey eyes met his, and she smiled.

This time, Jordan came back screaming. They were still shocking him, killing him as slowly as they could. And they called the Alliance dogs. "You bastards!" he yelled.

"Tell us where Serenity is headed, and all of this can stop, Cobb,"

Jordan answered in extremely eloquent Chinese.

"Again, McMannus. I suppose we have to hit 'im again," Smith said, almost sadly, gesturing to someone behind Jordan.

Jordan continued to mutter to himself in Chinese as the new shocks rocked his body. He had no control. He was sure he was about to die, to join Laura and his little girl forever. And he longed for it. It would mean they could all be happy and together at last.

"Sir!" a soldier had yelled it, but Jordan barely heard him. The shocks stopped. The soldier continued, "we've just learned something, Sir."

"Well! Can't you see I'm busy here? Out with it!" Smith yelled.

"It's Connor, Sir. Kyle Connor?"

"River Tam's idiot boy-toy," Smith muttered. "What of the big-mouthed fool?"

"Well, Sir," the solider said, faltering. "He says he knows where Serenity is headed."

Silence, deadly silence filled the room. "Where?" Smith asked softly.

"Haven, Sir. Connor's sure they're headed for Haven."

There was another moment of silence. Smith was thinking. It had to be very difficult for him.

"And you are certain, Private, that Kyle Connor can be trusted? Was he not loyal to Serenity?"

"Until recently, Sir, yes, he was very loyal to Serenity, but now – " the Private stopped.

"Continue, Private. What has changed?"

"Jayne Cobb and River Tam. They're, uh. Well, Sir, Connor's lookin' for a little revenge on the crew of Serenity, especially those two."

"Then I see he and I are on the same page," Smith paused. Then he seemed to remember the half-dead Cobb on his table. "McMannus, you may finish up here. We don't need Jordan Cobb anymore."

That didn't sound good.

The Colonel's footsteps echoed on the stone floor. Then the pain started again, and all of Jordan's senses shut down in response.

He lay in a large, soft bed, facing his wife, looking deeply into her grey eyes. There was still love in those eyes, even after these years of separation.

The mountain folk had forbidden their union, had come for her in the night, had left Jordan beaten, nearly dead. Even now, years later, Jordan didn't know what he had done wrong. He'd seen a girl, beautiful and kind, and had fallen in love with her. Why had that deserved so much pain?

It didn't matter now, though. Now there was no pain. Now they could be together, the way they had always wanted.

"Not yet, dearest," Laura whispered, stroking his face.

"What do you mean?" Jordan asked.

"You know what I mean," she sighed. "Not yet. You got a whole lot more livin' to do."

"But what about you?"

"I'll still be here when you come. Just you make gorram sure it ain't 'til you're old 'n' grey. Make no mistake, Jordan Cobb. You ain't done yet."

He was being slapped. Hard. Was McMannus going to slap him to death? Seemed that'd be an awful tedious way to kill someone.

"Jordan! Jordan!" a woman was yelling his name. And slapping him in the face. "Wake up!"

"You ain't Laura," he muttered weakly.

"Oh, thank God!"

"General?" he asked. "Did you come to kill me personally, then?"

"Not rightly sure I'm a General anymore, Cobb," Sonja Gellar said. "Let's get you out of here."

Jordan moaned in agreement as Sonja began detaching him from the table.

"Jesus Christ."

"Nope, he was on a cross," Jordan said. "I am on a table."

"Just, shut up, Jordan," Sonja said angrily, finishing her work.

"Hey, Sonja?"

"Yes, Jordan?"

"Just in case I die, thanks for trying," Jordan muttered.

"Oh, you ain't gonna die, Jordan Cobb."

"Am I not?" Jordan asked. Now he was being lifted.

"Hey, man, you look like shit," another voice said. The voice that belonged to the lifting arms.

"Sam?" Sam Long, a soldier, a spy, a Browncoat. Jordan was pretty sure he now loved Sam Long. "You are beautiful," Jordan told him.

"That's great," Sam replied. "Up you get," he said, sliding Jordan off the table.

This was not the best plan ever. Jordan couldn't stand. He would have fallen to the hard ground if Sonja hadn't appeared on his other side.

"Thanks," Jordan muttered.

"You know the old saying," Sonja said. She sounded kind of annoyed. Well, it wasn't Jordan's fault she'd decided to come save him.

"What old saying's that again?" Jordan asked weakly.

"When you can't run, you crawl, and when you can't do that – " Sam started

"You find someone to carry your sorry ass."

"Not exactly how I remember it, General," Sam muttered.

"Are you denying he is a sorry ass?"

"Not at all, General. Just desputin' the wordin' of the sayin'. Gotta be consistent. Canon. Dong ma?"

"Can I ask where you're carryin' me?" Jordan asked. It didn't seem there were too many possibilities.

"Easy, Jordan. We're gonna carry your sorry ass straight back to your big brother," Sam said.

"Yeah, so you'll be his problem," Sonja added. "And, one more thing, Jordan."

"What's that?"

"No dying until we get there."