****This is my first fan fic, if it goes anywhere I didn't see it coming. Tell me what you think. I have yet to decide when it takes place though I was saddened by Wash's untimely demise (keep that in mind) If 'they' show up you'll know****

Footsteps. The soft scuffle of bare feet on the cold white tile, drowned out by the overhead lights. A harsh white that flicked occasionally, or was she blinking? She couldn’t tell, didn’t have time to devote her mind to answering the question. It would take minutes to sort out, minutes she didn’t have. Even so her mind had trouble moving around it and when she caught herself waiting for the flicker her eyes would squeeze shut her pace quicken.

The compound had no windows, or maybe it did somewhere. The size of the place was vacant in her mind. Black spots of possibility on a small map compiled of the places she’d seen, outlined with that crushing black space. Shaded areas. Questions lurked around corners, possibilities hiding behind doors. She could be anywhere; underground, on a ship, dreaming this entire escape up, it was all too plausible. If it wasn’t happening now had it happened before? The halls held familiar sights, but in what way? Was she buried so deep in a memory that reality ceased to exist? A pipe running along the roof where did it lead? Why did it matter? She felt a sense of pride in the pipe, at its recognition. Reality was such a fleeting concept; once she got a hold of it she had never been fully grasping it in the first place. This, this was real. It had to be real; she needed to be stalking down the hallway, walking on eggshells. It was important to be walking, turning the corners, facing the room. She needed to be facing the door to enter it, to talk to the person on the other side. To inform, or was it warn? Such circumstances were fleeting.

The keypad outside the door demanded the password. Numbers reached her fingertips, where had they come from? It had taken her a long while to realize she had them, buried in her brain, enclosed in her fin