Disclaimer: I own none of the characters. They belong to the genius mind of Mr. Whedon and the entities that were crazy enough to cancel them.

This is my first fanfic ever so please be gentle in reviews! :) I so want to have all the feedback I can to make this journey play out in words as well as it is in my brain!

Nothing in the 'Verse can stop me. She wasn't surprised, she wasn't even shocked. The small woman knew that she could kill the Reavers when she's started running toward them. The stench of blood lapped at her nose until the blast doors finally peeled back with a welcomed hiss. She noticed Jayne's muscles tense expecting a horde of Reavers to overtake them; instead he noticed an all too familiar silhouette wielding far less familiar weapons. The blood of the Reavers fell to the floor, signs of the apparent massacre that had taken place, his eyes followed the blood and he noticed piles of the over aggressive monstrous bastards lying at River's feet. SHE had killed them all? The little… the doc's sis…. How odd to see the lamb slaughter the lions. He didn't feel so bad that she'd been able to take him at Maidenhead. 'Least she hadn't killed him!

No more running. She was resolute once she knew the Alliance battalion was storming toward her. Seconds later, as they brought down the wall, she resisted her every instinct to decimate every threat to herself and her crew. The Operative had a pardon in his heart. Say the words. She silently pleaded, Stand down. She wasn't sure she'd heard the words right, or if she was still repeating them in her own head, but the Alliance soldiers dropped arms and retreated much more silently than they had entered.

"Mal," River noticed the crew member who was definitely the worst off, "Kaylee, keep pressure on Simon. Inara, help me get the Cap propped up on one of these crates." They laid Mal on a crate and made a pillow for him out of Zoe's jacket. "He's losing a lot of blood... get Wa.." the realization hit River like a high-speed freighter. Wash, the quirky captain who loved few things as much as he did the open sky- He loved a great laugh, a good prank, he loved his dinos, he loved his… "Zoe!" Her thoughts were swimming too fast in her head. Wash could give the captain blood, except he was dead. Wash was dead and that weighed on her heart to an unquantifiable degree – how was Zoe holding up? Dear Zoe.

"Medics. We need medics," she finally deduced. She sprinted down the hall, away from the Reavers she'd just murdered, away from the Captain, away from Wash and Zoe and all of it. The voices in her own head were screaming loud enough to tune everybody out and formulate a plan. She knew the signal came from deep in Mr. Universe's facility and ran toward the thought signature she was faintly picking up from the Operative. It was scattered; he was a man dealing with the psychological fracture that occurred when everything you've believed in fervently for your most of your career has put you in position of being a bad guy. He had zealously, fanatically hunted the demonized River Tam, now he realized she was just another victim. How many innocents had he killed? How many…

"We don't have time for you wallow in your grief," the small Tam stood before him. "Please! We need medical attention. My captain and my brother are the worst." The Operative's eyes were vacant. He was still reminiscing on the base at Haven, and Whitefall, and all the children that had died – he'd even killed a Shepard… "Listen to me!" She grabbed his jacket in her two fists and shook the man from his stupor. "Our medic is injured. You have a whole team of medics 200 yards away. We need help immediately!" She slid the sword from behind him which allowed him movement, "Call for your medics immediately. You and I are going to walk up to my crew. Don't try anything funny. I just killed 28 Reavers. "

Unfazed by her warning the Operative radioed for Alliance medical care. They reached the rest of the team and the Operative kept walking stepping over bodies of the Reavers as he sauntered back to the Alliance ship in a stupor. River stayed with the Captain until stretchers came whizzing in the corridor. Mal was strapped to one and River informed them of his blood type so they wouldn't have to waste time running tests. Simon was taken next, then Zoe. The rest of them walked to the Alliance ship of their own will. Kaylee ran by Simon's stretcher while Jayne, Inara, and River kept a few paces back.

"River," Inara began "We are all so grateful," her words failed her as a crack in her voice betrayed her strength, "what happened to you in the Academy is unspeakable, definitely unforgivable; we'd all be dead though…." If they hadn't sliced your brain up.

"You would have never been here in the first place," River felt guilt wrap itself around her, "I wouldn't have had to run away, my brother wouldn't have needed your ship, you wouldn't have had to come here. And die." She looked back at Serenity as they walked past and saw the spikes through the windshield. "Wash!" she gasped and fell to the ground heaving as waves of remorse washed through her.

The Reaver's ship sat just 20 yards away – she glared at it and instantly sprung up and sprinted toward it. The mercenary and the Companion exchanged a glance and cautiously followed. The girl ran through the cargo doors into the ship spewing expletives the whole time. She ran through the halls and up stairs and down stairs until she found what she was looking for. "Gorram yi dwei da buen chuo roh! Gonna get what's coming to them, ruttin' liu kou shui de biao zi he hou zi de ben er zi!"A wild fit racked her whole body but it was controlled. Something was going on in the girl's brain. Jayne was a little excited to see what Moony could conjure up now, Inara was terrified of the young woman at this moment. She returned to where they had stopped in the cargo hold, "Get out. These ching soh are jwei gai wang se – and I'm making sure this ship never hurts another person. Get out!" She growled.

The containers were growing heavy, it had been a long day and her muscle fibers were showing signs of fatigue. Still she'd started in the bridge, through the hall, past the mess, into the ammo hold, through the engine compartment, and down in the cargo hold. The gelatinous soup was a mix of chemicals that swam in her nose and clouded her eyes – but as she doused the ship in it she knew it would do the trick. She then soaked all but a few inches of a long fibrous cord in the mixture and pulled all but a few inches out of the container. After placing the container in the cargo hold she ran the cord through the hangar of the base they'd landed on not but a while earlier. Jayne stared in disbelief. The gorram moonbrain was gonna explode the ship. He sent Inara to let the Alliance ship know what was happening so they didn't think it was a hostile move. She skirted toward the large cruiser that was sitting well out of the hangar they were now in.

"Girlie," he motioned to River as she approached "Now, this is gonna be great and all but…when that goes 'kaboom' that fire ain't got nowhere to go but here," he motioned all around them, "do you know how combustible that liquid was?"

"Very," she smirked at him. "And we just have to worry about the initial explosion," she confirmed. "Here," she threw a thermal blanket at him "Wrap in that. I am going to light this and run behind those crates there. I suggest you do similar." His fascination grew. Where was this girl all those months on the ship? Weren't no way in hell he'd a' tried to kick 'em off the ship if she'd just been this girl.

Hm. Better do as the girlie says.

Crouched behind the crate he still instinctively wrapped River in the blanket as she came running behind the barricade as well. He could track damn near anything and he heard the hiss as the fuse lit further toward the ship. "Boom," she smiled up at him seconds before the ground shook with the explosion. A fireball tried to erupt up toward the sky, but the ceiling redirected it in a radius through the hangar. Jayne collapsed around the girl and pulled the blanket in tighter as the flames licked the air just above them. Hope this crate ain't full of nothin' flammable. "THEY'RE FULL OF SAND!" River yelled an answer to his thought over the retreating fire.

He peeled back the thermal blanket and reluctantly let the assassin slip from his arms, "You ok?"

"I am. You're wounded though. Let's get to the cruiser, they have a doctor waiting for you."

"I don't like doctors," he insisted, "It can wait 'til your brother gets healed up."

"My brother is still a doctor. Either way you have to see one so git," she asserted herself and gave him a quick kick on his behind. Jayne glared back toward her and the ferociously burning Reaver ship, but just chuckled as he started toward the Alliance cruiser.