Alliance intelligence, lies, deception, and fear ran rapid through the dreams of the crew of Serenity. Their lives had taken a decidedly serious turn into the deepest corners of a life they had not conceived their beloved captain could live. They had discussed so many possibilities that they had begun to imagine the fantastical, until Zoe had reined them back in and reassured them, reminding them that they had all been through thick and thin together. They had listened to her, and believed that no matter what was going to happen Mal would not abandon them, and once again everything would work out in the end. But while their bodies tried to get some rest and relieve stress, their minds kept ticking on, dreaming.

Mal couldn’t sleep, hadn’t sleep the night before either. Silently he paced up and down the quiet corridors of his ship. He breathed in deeply and brushed his hand against the metal, cold to many who passed through the gray corridors, but for Mal it was warm to the touch, pulsing with life. Serenity was his ship, and the bond between them went far deeper than many realized. It was his way of being free, free from the tyranny of the core, the Alliance military, and free from the dreams that haunted him of blood, dirt and war. But now those dreams had followed him to his ship, to his freedom and with every second that passed by that freedom was fading away.

He balled his hand into a fist and breathed hard. So many images flooded his mind, he couldn’t keep them at bay; images of men and women that he served with during the war, smiling faces and torn and bloodied bodies. The war had changed him, the very core of who he was, he had seen so many horrific images that sometimes he wondered if he was really sane or just living on the edge of insanity. Zoe was a god send to him, and if he did believe in a god, then Zoe would have been an angel sent to him to keep him grounded in reality. Together they had made it through and helped each other. And in those dark times that came unexpectedly, haunting them, they