Sorry for the delay with this installment. I have been swamped with coursework. Hopefully the next one won't take quite as long to write. Anyway here it is. Enjoy!

Same deal as before all comments welcome, even criticsm so long as its constructive.

Obviously I don’t own Firefly or Serenity…blah blah blah… Joss Whedon rules the world…blah blah blah… Hope that you like it. Yay fanfic!

Chapter Two.

The Hunter slunk silently over the rocky desert soil, making no more sound than a shadow as he approached the dark and slumbering firefly vessel, which stood before him silhouetted against the new moons. As he stood before its patched and welded hull a peculiar feeling came upon him, an epiphany of sorts. This ship, this pile of rust and bolts and tears, was more that just all that. What this ship was, was freedom. The freedom to go anywhere and be anything. The Hunter leant forwards and pressed his ashen cheek against the cold metal skin of the ship and felt the vibrations of machinery deep within. He strained his senses further and felt as if he could pick out, amid all the background humming, the sound of seven hearts beating, of six sets of lungs breathing the deep breathes of sleep, of sorrow and of love. It was in short a perfect dream… such a shame he would have to turn it into a nightmare.

The Hunter slipped a pair of leather gauntlets over his cruel hands, the palm side of which were covered with hundreds of tiny metal filaments, each one barely thicker than a pencil lead yet still capable of supporting three times the Hunter’s body weight. Humming disjointedly to himself the Hunter began to climb up the side of Serenity’s hull, using the gloves and weld lines to help the process along. He paused for a moment to slip a small bundle inside the port engine nacelle before continuing silently on to the top of the ship.

The Hunter pulled himself gracefully onto Serenity’s top and knelt in front of entry hatch which resided there. He shed the gauntlets and delicately laid both his right cheek and both