TITLE: "WAKING THE DRAGON"

AUTHOR: Alison M. DOBELL

FANDOM: "FIREFLY"

PAIRING: Zoe/Wash. Kaylee/Simon. Mal/Inara.

RATING: G.

STATUS: Sequel to "JOINING THE DOTS".

ARCHIVE: Yes. Just let me know where.

FEEDBACK: Welcomed.

EMAIL: AlisonMDobell@aol.com

WEBSITE: None. All Firefly stories archived at Fireflyfans.net

SUMMARY: "River and Jordan have more surprises for Simon.

Inara wakes up and realises that she is not the only one in danger.

Badger and his father talk while Zoe decides it is time to act."

The usual disclaimers apply. The characters and 'Firefly'

are the property and gift of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.

No infringement of copyright is intended.

"WAKING THE DRAGON"

"Firefly" story

Written by Alison M. DOBELL

* * * * *

Simon stared, barely able to take in what his oh so gifted sister was telling him. "You did what?"

"Gave it what it wanted. A host."

The smile on her face felt so wrong it physically hurt him. "*Shenme*? Are you insane?" He paused half a beat. "Forget that, of course you are."

"We wanted control."

"River, you can't gain control by giving up yours."

She shook her head. "*Ni bu dong*. We merged."

If anything, her explanation only increased his growing sense of panic. Horror heaped upon horror. What had she done? They were deep in the Black, the Alliance stealth pursuit craft leaving nothing in its' wake to indicate it had ever been there. River and Jordan had removed the more obvious tracking devices and a number of remote control switches and the control device had provided another very neat and specialised service for them. It had copied the craft's secure identification code into its' own matrix and when Jordan had armed it and placed it on the floor of the warehouse the energy signature of the ship had defaulted to the device leaving them free to take off while cloaked. The stealth ship now had no encoded transponder. It had been swit