Part three of the Archer/defender82 collaboration. We hope it pleased the fans of Archer’s ghosts of Serenity series. The characters are ours, the universe belongs to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Please do not archive without permission. Feel free to send comments our way, neither of us is particularly sensitive. Again, our thanks to Wulfhawk for his outstanding beta.

Chinese Glossary

mei li de li wu [beautiful gift]

Gou zao de [This can't get any worse],

Je shr shuh muh lan dong shi [What kind of rotten thing is this]

wuh dhu pee-goo [My ass]

lìngrén jingyì [amazing]

xin gan [sweetheart]

bao bei [precious jewel]

nî hâo mêi [you're so beautiful]

PART THREE

As Kellerman walked through the dusty main street of town, a familiar voice yelled "Hey Kellerman!"

He turned to see Miloslaw trotting down the road after him, dodging past a slow-moving cart, a rifle slung over his shoulder. The new gold badge on his vest took some getting used to. Miloslaw had recently been deputized into the brand-new Lisskin Sheriff's Department. It was commonly understood that his job had rather more to do with military threats than with keeping the peace.

"Need to talk to you," Miloslaw said, slowing down as he caught up.

"I'm headed over to Caff's office. Can we do it in there?" Kellerman said with a conscious attempt at neutrality. Despite their shared service to the Alliance, he didn't trust the man any further than he could throw him, and he didn't much care for his seemingly close association to Cafferty. A man like Miloslaw tended to end up standing hip-deep in piles of dead bodies on a regular basis, and be damned if Kellerman's best buddy was going to be one of those corpses.

"Sure. Need to talk to him too,” Miloslaw said, and without any pretense of false pleasantries of the 'How-things-going-for-you?' variety, they continued side by side down the street towards the office where Caff