DISCLAIMER: Forever and always the 'verse and all in it belong to Joss and we thank him for letting the rest of us play here.

A very big thank you to nomad62 for being my beta and sounding board.

I seem to feel a need to fill in the blanks right now so bare with me please. This is what I see as possible after the fight at the end of Serenity.

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The outer wall collapsed leaving a slender blood drenched figure between his crew and the Operative’s forces.

Malcolm Reynolds wasn’t sure he had the strength to reach her, but he knew he had to try….. one breath…..one wrong step and a bloodbath would commence that nothing in this ‘verse could stop….. and she would die. His heart wrenched with the anguished thought, “No ! No more dyin !”

Staggering forward he called her name softly, uttering meaningless soothing phrases. Cautiously reaching toward her he made physical contact. Mal stroked a trembling hand slowly down her arm his fingers gliding over tensed muscles and the rents in her porcelain flesh. The coppery odor of the blood and sweat that slicked her skin filled his nostrils. “River…’tross….its over darlin.”

River’s eyes were trained on the Alliance troops but the sound of Mal’s voice caused them to flicker his way. He looked into her eyes and through the gates of hell. An old something from earth-that-was passed across his mind…”Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war” He had seen men like this before. Berserker rage consuming them. Cold fire burning from the inside out. Past pain. Past reason. Killing machines fighting beyond time most bodies were on the ground dyin. They perished on their feet, surrounded by carnage and death rode on their shoulders. To the warrior in him it held an obscene sort of beauty. To the man it was a desecration to see such eyes in the face of this elfin woman/child.

Knowing he had little time to reach her his voice took on a command edge many a recruit and not a few junior offices alike would have recognized. A tone