A/N- This is in a parallel 'verse where Book and Wash are still alive.

Give me feedback or I will die an unpleasant death.

Part 1

What is death really? Is it when the human heart finally slows its frantic rhythm? Or is it when one loses oneself in the midst of this façade?

All Zerri was aware of was the light at the end of the tunnel, and that the light was not good for her. Light was bad. Light=bad.

And then she was suddenly aware of loud voices interrupting her quiet, still darkness, and the light suddenly enlarged and enveloped her until she was staring it in the face, and it looked surprisingly like the overhead light the doctor used when examining patients.

“Ow,” Zerri finally decided on, blinking blearily. She wondering briefly why she was in fact in so much pain, and then the facts came rushing back to her with the speed of a train.

Zerri had been a Brown Coat, and she had fought dearly for independence. She had been young, only seventeen, but had been talented at killing people. Somehow her mother and father didn’t understand her belief in independence, and she had been marked the black sheep and disowned.

Zerri took to roaming about between worlds, taking whatever work might come her way, legality not an issue, along with Luke, a prominent young doctor who had quit work at one of the largest cities hospital, Kiri, who was a violent psychopath with a manic love for big guns, Ryan, the pilot, Peach, the mechanic, Keith, who was kept around mainly for his fighting skills, and Staci, who could kill a man with as much as a look.

Their latest job had been of the not so legal persuasion, and the last thing Zerri remembered was bargaining for Luke’s life when someone had shot her.

“Hey, Zerri, you’re finally awake,” said Peach delightedly from her perch on an old bar stool.

“Are you sure about that?” Zerri moaned, stretching her arms only to feel a shooting pain in her stomach.

“Stop stretching, I nearly have it stitched up,” Luke admonished her, sw