Ch.45

Mal told us he wasn't going to make them get off at Whitefall if it means losing me and his ambassador. A bit later he woke me up on the coms saying we had work to be doing. I spoke with Patience over the coms as an official guild merchant with enough fair priced goods to set her people up for a while. She was skeptical, but talked me down to five hundred in platinum before I cut her from going lower.

We met on the outskirts and Jayne took out the snipers with Zoe before Mal and I met with Patience. The old bat asked what was keeping her from shooting us and taking all the goods we have. Mal put a gun to my head and fired before I peeled the flattened bullet off and tossed it to Patience.

He told her. "He's a synthetic humanoid war machine. The alliance made a couple just before the war ended six years ago and near as we can tell the merchant guild bought them to ensure goods were delivered nice and proper. You can try him out, but if he kills all your men, horses and yourself that's on you."

My claws came out and Patience tossed the platinum to me. I caught it before setting it in the palm of my hand. I looked to her. "A hundred light."

She sneered before tossing another bag and I caught it before taking a rifle round to the chest. I tossed the money to Mal who hit the ground before I killed all the men, ignoring their weapons and tearing them apart. Only Patience survived under a horse Mal shot. I took the weapons and four horses before loading up the extra rounds as Mal and Zoë came running and yelling about Reavers. We road off leaving Patience there with the goods and a dead horse.

We got back to the ship and I took the guns and ammo before telling Mal what I wanted to do. He asked if I'd survive and I gave him a grin before he ran inside, telling Wash what to do. Inara asked from the second floor in the cargo bay if I was sure. I nodded and smiled before bringing out my claws.

We got high and the Reavers followed hot on our tail so I got a running start before leaping with a great deal of strength. I was a deadly clawed missile that tore a massive chunk out of their ship as we got to near orbit. The reaver ship exploded around me and the dead reavers flew out. I don't know if it was my desire to be there or what but when I fell, I landed in the cargo hold.

Inara got on the coms and told them I was back aboard so they should shut the hatch and take us out. My clothes were torn all over and I was covered in reaver blood, ship oil and gas. The reaver ship blew the fuck up rather spectacularly before Mal asked how I got aboard. Inara told him I fell through this mist that formed and asked if I knew what it was.

I shook my head and shrugged before asking in sign language: What Mist?

Inara tried but failed to describe it so she asked me what I was doing and I signed that I was falling and wanted to be with her before I smacked into the cargo hold floor. She smiled saying I was unique and special. I signed that I had fun and now I wanted to wash, eat and have her. She chuckled before explaining to Mal what I said, leaving out the last part.

Mal asked Wash for any signs that the Reavers survived. Wash said the explosion was powerful enough to knock out EMP transmissions so it wasn't likely considering it originated from their ship's reactor core going critical from where I hit it. Inara asked if I felt sick and I shook my head so Mal told me to get washed off and report to the med bay for the doc to check me over since we had a proper doc and we might as well make use of him while we're sticking out our necks for him.

A bit later I started feeling unwell and luckily I'd showered alone and gone straight to the med bay after my shower. Simon said I had low levels of radiation outside my body, but inside my body the blood samples he could get from me using my claws indicated I was fighting off severe radiation poisoning. Half an hour later I was fine and Simon said that the radiation was being flushed out of my body which went out the air lock in my piss.

Beyond that he was able to get imaging down of my body and it showed I was immune to X-rays because my skin had a metal mixed in on a cellular level that made me essentially a metal man hybrid. He was stumped because he looked at my blood samples and all my platelets were bonded with some sort of metal material he'd never even heard of and showed signs of having an unknown energy he'd never seen before supercharging the cells.

He found something even weirder. One of his tests showed that not only was I healing so fast that I was effectively immortal, but the carbon dating on the small bone sample I was able to give him showed that I was older than any living human in recorded history by billions of years. Mal asked what it meant and Simon said he didn't know because I was something that shouldn't exist, but did.

I shrugged and asked him in sign language if he could help check my head. He said the scanners on the ship couldn't penetrate my skin when Inara translated. He called me a medical science miracle because I was somehow immortal and indestructible. He told me my DNA was weirder than anything he'd ever seen and yet it resembled a human's at the basic level like I'd started out human and someone experimented on me to create the ultimate human.

He sighed. "If it wasn't for the amnesia you very well could be the pinnacle of human evolution. Immortal, unstoppable, indestructible and with heightened senses so keen you could be a prehistoric predator and man combined with future technologies I've never heard of with elements we've never discovered."

Jayne asked how much he thinks the alliance or a museum would give for me. I was up off the table and snarling with claws at his throat. Jayne pissed himself saying he was just joking. Mal said it might be best he rethink his sense of humor cause even if I didn't kill him Zoë and he would.

Jayne turned to see Zoë's gun at his temple and she told him coldly that I saved a hell of a lot of lives in the war battle of Serenity including hers and Mal's. I put my claws away and Simon said the government wouldn't pay a dime for me because they'd just kill whoever knows about me, kidnap Inara and use her to keep me calm while they figure out how to take me apart and make soldiers like me. I pulled Inara into my arms and she said it wasn't going to happen cause I wouldn't let anything happen to her, Mal or Zoë.

Mal smiled and said I'd make him blush. I huffed and Inara said as I signed that he was family, close, brothers. Mal smiled and I signed a bit more before she told Zoë that Wash is fine so long as he doesn't grow the mustache back as well. She smiled and said she wouldn't let that happen regardless.

I rolled my eyes and Simon asked if there were other samples I'd be willing to give. I growled and he said the more he knew the better he could help me. Inara said she'd get him whatever samples he required even if I wasn't cooperative with him if it meant helping me even a little.

Jayne was already off recalibrating his stupid mouth while changing his clothes. I signed to Simon and Inara translated asking if it was safe now for her and I to make love. Simon said he'd need to know more to be sure because my body had a weird energy in it and enough to power a thousand planets and stars combined if the readings he'd taken were accurate, but so far as he could tell the radiation was gone and the energy remaining wasn't radioactive.

I huffed and signed once more before Inara said it was likely there before and harmless to her since we'd been together for six years now and nothing came up on her mandatory companion physicals. I lifted her up and was gone before Mal could ask me to get more tests done. Weeks later we were on a back water moon during unification day.

We made a scene when Mal started trouble with the local drunks after getting our contacts for the next job. I knocked out half the bar and took their guns along with the other half's guns for pointing them at me. They didn't resist after the first half were disarmed and unconscious. We left and headed to a skyplex space station.

While Mal, Zoë and I met Niska, the kingpin of this area, we were threatened over a job about what would happen if we failed. It was a train job we pulled off with a small hitch. Inara had to step in and help them while we waited for them to return while I dealt with Jayne.

He wouldn't shut up so I knocked him out until Mal, Inara and Zoë returned. When they did Niska's men tried to kill us so I knocked them out before tying them up and taking the medicine back with Mal. The sheriff took the medicine and said they were tough times before letting us go seeing we were just looking for work and trying to do the right thing.