Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own any of these wonderful characters, or even the setting and world of Firefly. They all belong to Fox/Universal and Joss Whedon.
James Norrington and related belongs to Disney, Gore and Ted and Terry.
Setting: Takes place right after Down the Aisle
Pairings: Kaylee/Simon, Mal/Inara
Can’t Stop the Music
Chapter 24: Ballad
Mal felt his blood rush as the major struggled beneath him. He did not focus on sounds of various scuffles behind him. He gritted his teeth as he removed the gun from the leather holster and braced himself for the Major to retaliate.
The Major did retaliate with a jab of his knee, right to Mal’s left kidney.
“You have lost your mind,” The Major said as Mal rolled off him.
“I could say the same for you.” Mal grabbed the collar of the leader of the Badcoat’s. “You have lost it for some time.”
“I thought you were regrouping. We were fighting for freedom.”
“We are regrouping,” Mal glared into the other man’s eyes. “But we are fighting for the freedom you have taken away.”
The other man blinked and struck Mal in the chest with his fist. Once Mal’s grip had loosened he slipped away.
“Don’t,” Mal said between gasps. The major’s punch had knocked the wind out form him. “Run away.” He knew it was foolish to just order the man to not run, and he still had to catch his breath before he could chase after him.
The ground was littered with bodies of unconscious and still breathing Badcoats, and members from both Monty’s and Katy’s crews. Both former Browncoats were beating the tar out of two more of the enemy. Zoë lowered her foot and leg as another collapsed and Mal had the opportunity to watch as Jayne had two youths by their collars and used his strength to knock their skulls into each other.
“Where are River and the Commodore?”
“They said they were going to find Vera,” Jayne rubbed away some blood from his temple.
“Where is the Major?” Zoë asked.
“He went that way,” Mal pointed towards the direction he had seen the major run towards. “I’ll get him.”
“Need any help?” Monty asked. The left side of his cheek was already starting to puff up and blood was trickling out of both nostrils.
“You stay here and watch over our crew members,” Mal instructed. “Zoë I want you, Jayne and Katy to find Cyn’s mother and sister and the other folk.” He didn’t need to say the major was his.
-
Everything had turned chaotic, and considering her unwanted gift, River could not handle chaos. There were new thoughts and voices swarming around from every direction. She could not focus on just the one. She just managed to control herself after she had come across the pain those who were enslaved had suffered when several new voices rushed in, and it wasn’t just the pirates. She heard fighting and screaming and when her captain had tackled the major she had lost herself.
River had no idea what was happening, did not completely realize she had been turned into a weapon again until she had heard one voice, his voice, break through the barrier of insanity and reach the real her.
“River,” James called to her.
She had lowered her arm, after flipping another Badcoat onto their back and turned to him. He had also engaged in a battle with another man, and succeeded with his fists.
“We need to find our weapons.”
“That way,” she pointed towards the direction. It was the hallway they passed through.
“Let’s leave shall we?” He grabbed her by the wrist and together they left the chaos.
It was not much better outside. There was still noise and several people running around. She felt energy inside her, wanting to escape. It was the weapon and it wasn’t finished fighting for that day.
“You wouldn’t know exactly where they are?” James wrapped an arm around her shoulders. His focus was on everyone else around them.
“They took them there,” she pointed towards the direction of another opening. “I didn’t hear, I saw. I watched them while everyone else was facing front.”
“I should be ashamed that I wasn’t as observant as you.”
“Don’t be,” her voice dropped to a whisper as they entered the new tunnel.
“Now is the tricky part,” James’s sea green eyes kept darting about.
There were a few people in the hall, and surprisingly not one took any real notice of them. They were quiet; save for a few grunts and swear words, but their mouth voices was not what River wanted to hear. She focused on their inner voices. She keyed in whenever someone said anything about new people or weapons, and when she heard someone mention sword she knew she found the right room.
“This one,” her fingers grasped onto the wooden support beams and stared inside. She saw one man stand in front of several guns that were strewn across the floor, but the man was not paying attention to the guns. He was staring at a sword in his hands, James’s sword.
“How many?” James asked.
“Just the one.” She could only hear one mind voice and with the chaos she knew why.
“I can think of a way to distract him.”
“No need for distractions,” River said. “Leave it to me.” The weapon was ready to be unleashed. She ran towards the strange man, and just as he looked up at her she lunged, one foot stretched out and kicked the sword from his grasp. Once her feet had touched the ground she spun around and kicked at him again, this time striking his flesh before she used her fist against his head with enough force to knock him out.
“I still cannot believe you were able to do that,” James retrieved his sword from the ground. “That wasn’t what I had in mind.”
She shrugged. “Sorry.”
-
Zoë folded her arms as she stared at their hired gun, or she would have if they weren’t sore to the touch from bruises that she had recently gathered. The three of them had taken more guns from their captors had used and even fired them at their enemies as they tried to make their way through the underground maze in search of the slaves.
It was Katy’s idea to nab one of them, and force them to reveal the location. She had selected one that was young, and not too built and a complete coward who begged for his life to be spared. An original Browncoat he was clearly not, and not just because of his age.
“You haven’t told us anything we wanted to hear,” Jayne’s grip on the kid’s shoulder increased. “Now we might spare your life, but I’m not above pain.”
“Jayne,” Zoë snapped at him. “Try not to break him.”
“I won’t,” Jayne picked their captive up and instantly the boy went as limp as noodles. “All ya gotta do is point to the right way, can you do that?”
“They are that way,” the youth whimpered. “Please have mercy. My uncle fought in the war, I was just a kid.”
“He still is just a kid,” Katy shook her head. “Poor guy hadn’t cut a tooth on proper combat skills, look how he held up in this little scuffle. He’d be curling up into a fetal position and wetting his panties if this were a real battle.”
“No panties,” the boy choked. “No more panties, just once.”
“That aint what we wanted to hear,” Jayne’s bottom lip curled down in disgust.
“I agree,” Zoë tired to push that mental picture out of her mind. “That was more information than we needed to know. Just show us were you keep the slaves and we will let you go.”
“I am,” he kept a bent finger raised. “That way.”
They followed the direction the kid gave, turning whenever they boy said to turn. Zoë and Katy used the stolen weapons to attack any enemy that may come by but as the minutes wore on there were less Badcoats and more and more members of the Trio’s Katy’s crews walking around.
“This room,” the kid pointed at a sealed entrance. “They are in there.”
“You better be telling the truth,” Jayne grabbed a shock of hair and pulled.
“I promise,” the boy cried out in pain.
“You better,” Jayne kicked open the entrance.
Zoë was hit hard by the stench that came from the room. She smelled sweat, body odor, urine, excrement and vomit. It was barely lit inside the room, and the floor was covered in dirt, and possibly what caused most of the stench. She would have thrown up if there were dead and decaying bodies inside as well.
“Hello?” Katy had pinched her nostrils together, causing her to sound like she had a head cold.
“Good thing I swiped this,” Zoë held up the lantern and stepped inside.
The people inside were dressed worse than the little moon they were on a few days ago. They were barefoot, forced to walk around in their own waste. The men only wore loose loincloths and despite the bad light Zoë could see the scars from the different lashes that were left on them. The women wore loincloths and had material wrapped around their chests. Their heads were shorn; the longest length was only a few inches.
“Something is missing,” Katy said.
“Yeah,” Jayne picked up the boy and set him down hard against a wall. “No toilets, no clothes and no hair.”
“And no children,” Zoë hadn’t seen anyone younger than seventeen or sixteen in the room. “If they were not allowed to have any more children the youngest ones should be around eight years old.”
“You heard her,” Jayne said. “Where are the children?”
“What children?” The youth asked.
Jayne struck him, apparently too hard for the boy toppled over and landed on the muck.
“Now what?” Katy asked.
“The children?” A thin and weak voice came from one of the youngest in the room. “They keep them there.” She pointed a bony finger to the back wall.
“Thank you,” Zoë didn’t have to ask why she still had her tongue. The young woman was probably ten or eleven when the Badcoats came.
Katy tore off the cloth, revealing another room that had the same amount of light as the one they were in. The room was filled with children. The oldest ones were fifteen or fourteen in years and one held an infant in their arms. There were a few toddlers in the room, and several others under the age of eight.
“Don’t be afraid,” Zoë said softly as she entered the room. “We have come to save you. You are going to be free, and receive warm baths, and food, medicine, nice and clean clothes and books and toys, and candy.”
Some of the older children smiled, a few of the girls even broke down and cried. Zoë ignored them all and looked for a particular girl, one who should be about eleven or twelve years in age.
Zoë found her curled up against one of the walls, so thin she was almost a skeleton and there was a lash scar near her right eye. The peach fuzz on her head was as dark as Cyn’s, she had the same oval shaped face, and same nose and mouth. The only difference was her eyes and the shape of her chin.
“Are you Sally Driscoll?”
The girl nodded. “I am Sally.”
“We are going to take you to see Apollo and Cynthia.”
“Apollo and Cynthia?” The girl repeated the names before she broke down and wept.
“Shh,” Zoë comforted her. “It is all over now.”
-
Mal had tried to avoid the scuffles that took place between himself and the Major, only pausing to strike his fist against the face of those how had tried to get into his way. A part of him knew he should have tried to fight along with the others, or gone to search for their missing weapons, or joined Zoë in the search of the slaves, but the louder part told him to continue in his search for the Major, he needed to fight this guy. He needed to punish the bastard for what he had done.
He found the Major at the end of a hallway. Loading up a hypodermic dart gun with needles filled with a milky white liquid. There were only two guesses at what the Major could be planning and Mal was not going to have any of it.
“No you are not,” Mal said loudly enough to grab the Major’s attention. “You are not going to take the easy way out.”
“Everything is dead,” the major smiled weakly. “Our freedom is gone, or planet is gone, everything.”
“So you are admitting defeat.” Mal kept his eyes darting from the Major’s face to the needle.
“It is worse than defeat when your own fellow soldiers betray you. I just want to know why.”
“Remember those slaves that escaped? My crew ran into one, she grew up strong, is living her dreams now, but the largest dream involves being reunited with her family.”
“You did it for that Alliance scum?”
“She was just a child when you killed her father, her brother and sister were even younger. They were just children.”
“They were Alliance.”
“This girl dislikes the Alliance as much as I do. She and the other who escaped tried to tell them, but they didn’t listen. There are a lot of folk who hates em.”
“They were the enemy,” the major blinked away his tears.
“Key word is were,” Mal took another step towards him. “They are not anymore, sometimes they can be and we have to dodge em, but folk like the ones you enslaved, don’t really care what I do.”
“They were the enemy.”
“No, they aint. You keep telling yourself that. These folk just volunteered, thought it would be good. The Alliance’ didn’t know you guys had this rock prepared and even picked a name for it. They just sent some settlers here, and you were still pissed off about loosing, thought the Alliance were honing in on your turf and you took it out on a bunch of innocents.”
“No such animal,” the major’s fingers grasped the trigger of the gun.
Mal had anticipated such a move and fired at him. The bullet struck the Major straight in the chest. “It was either for your or for me.”
“Why?” The major asked as he gagged on his last breath.
“I already explained.”
“You betrayed everything a Browncoat stood for when you became like them.” He dropped the gun.
-
Mal was still sore and angered as he walked down the halls, searching for his crew, but at least he felt some form of closure. He didn’t see much in the way of anybody, just few folk who weren’t fit to fight a chipmunk huddling in the corners.
“Captain,” the commodore was the first to greet him. “What happened?”
Mal shrugged. “Took out the major.”
“We found this,” River held up Mal’s gun. She had several more strapped to her chest and resting in her holsters. James was just as equipped and he held onto the handle of his sword.
“Thanks Darlin’,” Mal accepted his gun. “That all isn’t Jayne’s now is it?”
“Some of it, some belonged to others who had run, some also belong to Zoë.”
“Which one of you got Vera?” Jayne nearly jogged up to them.
“I have the woman of your dreams,” James reached behind his back and extracted the weapon.
“I have more,” River removed two of the guns from her holsters and a large knife.
“You got them all,” Jayne smiled as he accepted them. Behind him Zoë and Katy followed, along with a girl Mal had guessed to be Cyn’s younger sister.
“This one is Mrs. Washburne’s,” James handed Zoë back her rifle.
“The girl has my gun,” Katy said. “And the tall one has my knife.”
“I don’t got your knife girl,” Jayne placed his knife back into place.
“I should correct myself,” Katy rolled her eyes. “The tall and smart one.”
“Here is your knife, Miss Chalmers,” James hand her knife back.
“Captain,” Katy corrected with a wave of her finger.
“No matter what the time, they are all the same.”
“We will talk about this later,” Mal said. “Where the hell is everyone?”
“Heading back to their own ships,” Katy explained. “Heard rumors that Alliance ships are in the vicinity. We can’t risk getting caught, that is why my ship has already left.”
“Ah,” James nodded. “They left you because you fell behind.”
“No,” Katy glared at him. “I sent them an order over a transmitter, can’t risk everyone’s safety for little ole me.”
“What about the Badcoats?” Mal asked.
“We heard Daisy has just landed,” Zoë said. “She will be watching over them until the Alliance arrests them all, also sent word to Inara. She came through with her shuttle.”
“We gotta get on there and fast,” Mal instructed. “Get back to Serenity and get off this rock, Katy hope you don’t mind a small trip to Beaumonde before we find a way to reuniteyou with your ship.”
-
Cyn watched as the ivory discs spun and waited for the blinking red light to turn green. That was the signal to perform, to record.
“This one followed by the Message,” Dustin said. They had decided which would be the first five songs to record. The third was the song they performed on Skyplex Lady Washington. The other two were songs they performed at the bar and grill on Salisbury.
Amistance started playing the first notes while Cyn sang. The few lyrics ended with a bang from Ray’s drum and continued with all their instruments being played and Cynthia continued to sing while Amistance and Dustin backed her up on the chorus.
The song had ended and the green light shifted to red.
“Great,” the director said. “Get some water before we-“
Apollo stormed into the studio. “Cynthia,” he cried out and placed his hands on the holographic barrier. “Captain Reynolds is returning.”
“He is?” Cyn blinked. That could only mean one thing. “Sally?”
“I have talked to her,” Apollo smiled. She told us the story mother used to tell us and sang the old songs.”
“What about mom?” She didn’t know if their mother was also on the ship. She knew her sister was safe. They found her, they found Sally.
Apollo’s smile disappeared. “She didn’t make it, Sally said they killed her two years ago.”
“No,” Cyn closed her eyes, but she couldn’t hold back the tears. She felt them making their way through her closed eyes and burning her cheeks. “I failed.”
“Don’t tell yourself that,” Alfie said. “You found your brother and sister, you freed your people, and you got everyone to listen.”
“If it wasn’t for your music and Captain Reynolds I would still be a slave,” Apollo said. “We wouldn’t have found each other, or Sally.”
“No,” Cyn couldn’t keep from crying. “We wouldn’t.
“They are waiting for us.”
“Sally,” Cyn wiped away her tears. “We are going to see her.”
-
Mal stood at the top of the docking platform and watched for any form of vehicle, whether it be on the ground or in the air. His eyes were on Sally Driscoll. River had donated an old dress and Inara gussied and hemmed it until it was able to fit the child. Inara had also used the comfortable soles of a pair of slippers along with macramé to create sandals for her feet.
“Is that them?” Sally pointed to the hover vehicle that was approaching them.
“It could be,” Mal shrugged. The kid still appeared to be in pretty bad shape. She had showered every day and night she was aboard Serenity and had eaten well. The chickens hadn’t provided enough eggs for everyone yet, but Mal was able to create a decent omelet for the girl.
The hover vehicle paused and after a few minutes several people disembarked. Malcolm recognized them as The Royal Navy of the Caribbean and young man that could only be Apollo.
“It is them,” Mal said.
Sally slowly approached the group until both Cyn and Apollo broke from the crowd and ran towards her.
“Sally,” Cyn cried out.
“Cynthia,” Sally cried before her older sister embraced her. “Apollo.”
“Sally,” Apollo managed to embrace both his sisters.
“Oh god,” Cyn said before tears streamed down her face. “I’m sorry.”
“You kept your promise,” Sally said. “You kept your promise.”
“I had help,” she turned to face her band before she looked towards Malcolm. “Thank you, Captain.”
“Your welcome,” Mal nodded.
“Sir,” Zoë said from behind his shoulder. “The Alliance got word about us keeping one of the slaves.”
“They can come here and find out why.”
“We don’t want to risk them finding Katy.”
“No we don’t,” Mal tool one last look at the happy reunion before he stepped away from the platform and airlock. “We were big damn heroes again, weren’t we?”
“We certainly were.”
“Better get off and figure out where to go next.” He had an idea. First they were going to return Katy to their ship, then some relaxing time on Santo, and then find a new job.
-