Shades of the Past – Chapter Sixteen

Just a reminder, Joss Whedon et al own all the rights to FF/BDM. Just hanging out an having fun with them.

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“When Shade was fourteen,” Ami told the crew, “he went on what the Yaquay call the ‘raising’ ceremony. Young boys who had completed a series of tests and challenges were deemed ready to be raised to the status of warrior, or manhood. It was a very important time in a boy’s life. The chance to prove he was worthy of respect.”

“The ceremony included the boy venturing into the wilds, alone, with only his knife. And not just any knife, but one the boy had made for himself from either stone, or the bone of an animal he had killed himself.”

“The boy must survive for ten days in the wild, with no help of any kind, and return to the village center with no one seeing him get there. Most fail on their first or even second attempt.”

“But when Shade returned, his village was gone. A smoking ruin, his people dead. His family slaughtered, mother and sisters raped, then left over a fire. His father and brothers shot to rags.” Exclamations spread around the table. Kaylee started to cry, and Inara wiped at her eyes carefully. Zoe was stone faced.

“The Alliance had a special operations unit called the Scorpions. They did things like this on the rim moons to ‘bleed’ their troops. They called it training. Shade found a patch from one of their uniforms.” She faltered for a moment, recalling the night he had admitted all this to her, months after their meeting.

“Shade buried his people, alone,” she continued. “Took him days to do it. Men from other clans in the area offered to help, but he turned them away. It was his responsibility, he said. His burden. His gift. . .gift to his people,” she choked out around a sob.

“When he finished, he made his way to the spaceport, and stowed away on an outbound freighter, which took him to Wilhaven. There he managed to get onto one of our transports, and rode to Aurora. Right in the middle of the battle.”

“Once he wa