mhalachai | FIC: Secrets (Firefly/Merry Gentry)

I am officially on the crack. This isn't my fault, I swear.

Title: Secrets
Characters: Inara and Mal and everyone else from Firefly; Merry and Frost and Doyle et al. from Merry Gentry. Set after Serenity, but only tiny spoilers for that.
Disclaimer: The Firefly universe belongs to Joss Whedon et al. Merry Gentry belongs to Laurell K. Hamilton. I'm only borrowing and will return them at the end of the fic.
Author's Note:

waterfall8484 wanted some Firefly/Meredith Gentry, with a theme of blood. (Ficlette Fiasco III master list found here). This story is set in the Firefly timeline, referencing Merry Gentry stuff.
Word count: 1,789 or so
Summary: Serenity is flying to a world of magic, and only Inara knows what lies in store.

~*~

There was a place on the outer planets that no one went. That was the rule, deeper than law, sunk into custom. Inara learned it at the Companion training house, ingrained. The reason why was one of the deepest secrets a Companion held, and doubly important to Inara.

And Serenity was flying there.

Inara stood in shadows on the bridge, watching as the world came into view. It was just another planet, nothing special to the eye, but to Inara it was the most beautiful place she had ever seen.

"Living," River murmured dreamily as she eased Serenity into an orbit. "A place they could live."

The simple words brought tears to Inara's eyes. Quickly, she blinked them down. "What anyone could want?"

River gave her a look as the Captain stormed onto the bridge. "Why ain't we landing?" he demanded. "Can't do business if we're up here and they're down there!"

"The time isn't right," River said, unperturbed.

Mal put his hands on the edge of the controls and glared down at his pilot. "This your ship now? No. My ship, and I say we land."

As River continued to ignore him, Inara stepped out of the shadows. "She's right, Mal."

Mal jumped slightly. "Why's everyone lurking about today?" he demanded. "Jayne's lurking in the engine room, Simon's lurking in the cargo bay and now I find you lurking in the rafters up here!"

Inara looked once again at the world, the distant sun dawning over the far horizon. "I have to go with you."

Mal blinked. "Did I miss a memo where I wasn't captain of this boat no longer?" He was going to go on, but Inara laid her hand on his cheek, a gentle touch with just enough pressure to be firm. He stuttered to a halt. She so seldom touched him; the shock would only last a minute.

"You don't know what you'll find down there. I do. I'm going with you."

Mal stepped out of her reach. She had discomforted him, and he disliked that more than anything. He would need a moment to regain his bearings, a moment Inara could use to dig further into his defenses.

"You were told to drop off cargo on a world you've never been. Do you wonder why that is? Why no explanation came with the instructions?"

"Some men don't like talking about their underhanded plans, is all," Mal said. "We've gone in blinder."

"Not here," Inara contradicted quietly. "Mal, no one goes here. Not cargo ships, not Alliance, no one."

He picked up on the phrase she knew he would. "No Alliance? My kind of world."

"No!" Inara almost lost her temper; pulled back into the calm of years of Companion training. "They are not welcome here. Do you understand that?"

Some part of her anxiety must have surfaced to the point Mal could see it. His anger faded. "You saying there's danger down there? We should run?" he asked as Zoe came up the stairs, all geared up for planetside.

"They know we're coming," River said, wide eyes fixed on the planet. "They know we're here, want us here, but not all."

"How can she know that?" Zoe asked Mal. "We're miles up."

River turned, a fervent light on her face. "The world is talking to me."

"Huh." Mal looked at Zoe, then Inara. "So we go down."

"I will be with you," Inara repeated. "Jayne needs to stay on the ship."

"We may need the gun," Zoe said. "Jayne should come."

Inara turned and stepped silently through the bridge door, the matter already settled in her mind. "Why is it Jayne can't come?" Mal called after her.

"He'd be elf-struck," River's voice floated down the hall.

River always knew the truth behind secrets.

~*~

Mal, Zoe and Inara stood by the large crates in a moon-lit meadow. River had flown Serenity away as soon as they unloaded, a protesting Jayne sputtering over the com the entire time.

"Don't know why I'm listening to you," Mal muttered, looking out over the empty land.

"You're listening to me because I'm right," Inara said, smoothing nervous hands over her dress. It was ridiculous. She had been a Companion for years, but standing here, here, she felt as nervous as she had been when she first entered the Companion training house as a girl.

"There's someone coming," Zoe said, one hand resting lightly on her gun.

Her breathing coming faster, heart racing in excitement, Inara stepped forward. Mal caught her arm, but she deftly moved away. "It's going to be all right," she said distantly. He said something under his breath, but Inara was past caring.

A whole procession was headed in their direction. In front came a row of warriors, wielding weapons and wearing amour, lit up by strange floating lights of every color. There were no firearms to be seen, but Inara knew those weapons could be more deadly than any gun.

Behind the warriors, riding bareback on a huge black horse, was a woman wearing a cloak, her face hidden. Inara's heart almost stopped. She had come, herself.

"Zoe?" Mal said behind Inara.

"Yes, sir?"

"This as weird as it looks?"

"I'd say so."

"Yeah."

One of the warriors, taller than Mal, with long silver hair glistening in the moonlight, broke away from the group and came toward Inara. He looked at the trio for a very long minute, his gaze lingering on Inara. "What is your business here?" he asked, his voice like a cool breeze in the night air.

"Cargo delivery," Mal said shortly. "I believe we was expected?"

The woman on the horse slid to the ground, and the warriors parted like the sea to let her pass. Her horse followed her, hooves silent on the grass. "Frost, it's okay," the woman called.

Unbidden, Inara sank to one knee, her head dipped in a signal of respect. She ignored Mal's hissed protest.

"You honor us with your presence," Inara said, voice wavering slightly.

"Oh, no more bowing," the woman said laughingly. "I suspect you know who we are, so no need to stand on ceremony." She reached out her hands to Inara. Without thinking, Inara used them to help her stand. Once Inara was up, the woman pushed back the hood of her cloak.

Those shining eyes, layers of gold inside green, looked upon Inara, and Inara was blessed.

"Who are you?" the woman asked, a strand of ruby hair brushing over her fair cheek in the wind. "What is your name?"

Mouth dry, Inara had to swallow twice before she could say, "Inara Sera."

The woman's face blossomed into a look of wonder, then happiness. Inara thought that if she died that very second, her life would have been worth it, because she had seen this woman smile upon her.

"Merry," the silver man said. "We should return."

Merry's smile turned a little sad as she reached up to touch Inara's cheek. "You look so much like your grandmother," she said, her voice almost breaking Inara's heart.

Around them, several of the warriors were gathering up the cargo. "Uh, ma'am?" Mal said, stepping closer. "Not that I've any objection to getting on with business, but there's the small issue of payment..."

His voice trailed off when Merry beckoned over one of her men. "It's not the coin of your worlds, but it will do," she said as the man with green hair peeking out under his helmet set a small box down at Mal's feet. "Silver."

"Thanks," Mal muttered, letting Zoe open the box to check the contents. She lifted the lid and gave a low whistle.

Merry reached up around her neck. "I do regret that you cannot stay," she said slowly, the very wind echoing her sadness. She removed her necklace and placed it around Inara's bare throat. "I wish..."

The horse beside Merry touched her shoulder with its muzzle. It whinnied, and it sounded like Merry's name.

"I understand," Inara said, and in that instant she did.

"We will leave you, then," Merry said, stepping back. "You can call your ship back, we will not stop you."

"Wait, stop us?" Mal exclaimed.

Inara hurried to interrupt before he did something typical and stupid. "We'll leave. Quickly." She turned to Mal. "Just call River."

As Inara spoke, Merry was lifted onto the horse's back by one of the warriors. The horse stepped forward, and touched Inara's hand with its nose. There was something human in its eyes, strangely sad.

Inara wanted to tell them to stop, to take her with them, but she swallowed down those dreams like broken glass, and made herself stand still in the night as the group moved farther away, finally vanishing in darkness.

"Inara?" Mal said after a while. She looked down, and realized she had a death grip on his arm. Her fingers shaking, she let him go, waiting for the question, the retort, something, anything.

He didn't say a word.

~*~

"It's so pretty," Kaylee gushed, fingering the necklace still around Inara's neck. "Like stars."

"How come she gets extra pay?" Jayne grumbled, stomping past. "You all wouldn't let me go, and she gets them baubles?"

"Come on, Jayne, you'd have nothing to wear it with," Zoe said as she passed them all by. "Take's stowed away, sir."

Mal stuck his hands in his pockets. "Going to be harder than usual, fencing that silver."

"It's worth five times the original price of the cargo, we made out rich in this," Zoe said. "Dinner's ready."

Simon leaned through the door by the kitchen. "River said she'd come when the 'magic went away', I have no idea what that means, but...."

Kaylee touched the necklace one last time. "Magic never goes away, that's why it's magic," she said wistfully.

The catwalk slowly emptied until Mal and Inara were the only ones left. "It's a mighty fine piece of shininess," Mal said. "Mighty fine."

"Yes, it is," Inara said. She was still trying to piece her mask back together, to pull the secrets and lies over her as protection from the truth.

"Real fine." Mal gave her a sideways look. "You do realize that now you have to tell me about why that shiny lady gave you that bauble?"

Inara fingered the stone in the heart of the necklace, remembering whispered secrets from her childhood from her ancient grandmother, stories about a fairy princess and a dark warrior, saving the magic on Old Earth. Of their child with dark hair and pale skin and laughing eyes, who had been Inara's grandmother's great-grandmother.

Inara wrapped her fingers around the necklace her ever-so-great-grandmother had given to her that night, and said to Mal, "No, I don't."

--fin

Current Mood: accomplished

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From:

deepfishy.livejournal.com

Inara always did have something of Faerie about her. I'm not very up on the Merry books (have only read part of the first), but this was a very interesting crossover!

From:

mhalachai was here

FIC: Secrets (Firefly/Merry Gentry)

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