Naming something is to recall it, to give it form and substance. It can then be controlled and dealt with accordingly. Mal certainly believed in this, and it was certainly a relief to be poring over a map with Zoe, coordinating troops and strategizing. It certainly recalled different times, when they both thought things were much simpler.
"We won't lose anyone else," he told Zoe once they were alone in the conference room. The magicians had rapidly absorbed their plan and were putting it into action. But Zoe still seemed distant, and it bothered Mal more than anything else.
"You don't know that," Zoe replied, standing from the chair she had been sitting in. The move carried with it more weariness than she had any right to have. Mal felt vaguely guilty for dragging her through all of his messes, but she had known from the start what it was like to stay by his side. He'd lost much more than she had over his short lifetime.
"Still to come is the worst part and you know it, but they'll keep it contained. And if someone's lost it won't be none of ours."
"We thought that last time, didn't we?" she said shortly. Her lips snapped shut almost angrily, as if the retort had betrayed too much. Zoe knew she shouldn't take it out on Mal; he almost didn't make it out alive on Mr. Universe's moon. He had been lucky he was still standing after the beating he had taken. But she couldn't bring herself to be sorry too much. There is a numbness inside my heart and it's growing. Soon enough I won't care about you, either, she thought almost dispassionately. She couldn't bear to lose anyone else.
"Are you sick of pretending it's all right? You wanna scream or something? I'll leave the room if that makes it easier. You've been wound up so tight lately..."
"I'll be fine, sir," Zoe snapped, eyes flashing. She let even him only so far inside.
"You expect me to believe it? You think that all this trouble is really ending? Zoe, you know how wars are..."
"I'll do the job, sir. Don't worry on that."
"That's not what I'm worried about. That's the only thing that got me to accept this crazy plan, since there sure ain't coin involved." Mal looked at her, but she refused to meet his eyes. "I'm sorry, Zoe," he said, voice even. "The way things break up when we don't expect it to... Every step you take like it's betraying the ones we miss... It's not anybody's fault. It is what it is, and it's our job to live and remember. That's the only way they live on."
She finally turned to look at him, hard faced. "You done with the sermon, sir?"
Mal sighed. "I'm here if you need anything. If you want anything. I don't know what kind of help I'd be, but I want you to know I'm here. Just in case."
"No need, sir, but it's appreciated."
He watched Zoe leave the meeting room, spine ramrod straight. Oh, she was pissed off. Still, it was an emotion he could deal with better than grief, and it was something that could get her through a battle without falling.
He would deal with the fallout later.
River and Ginny sat in her room. Ginny was sitting cross legged on the bed, clutching a gaudy red pillow to her chest. River was wearing one of her new woolen dresses and combing Ginny's hair in the way she had seen Inara do for Kaylee hundreds of times. Ginny couldn't help but grin and clutch the pillow tighter as she squealed. Hermione and Luna were off hunting for Horcruxes and River was her friend now. She also knew about Draco when the others didn't, so it was more fitting for River to hear about the reconciliation.
"They're making plans for Hogwarts. We should probably go on ahead," River said after a moment, when Ginny's helpless spasms of joy subsided somewhat.
"Whatever for? Shouldn't we wait for fully realized plans?"
"Their plans won't include us."
"Oh."
"We can take Draco with us. I'm sure he'll protect you."
"He shouldn't be anywhere near where the Death Eaters would find him..."
"Didn't you say it was mostly deserted? And we can check the map."
"You just want to be there, don't you?"
"Don't you?" River countered.
"All right," Ginny conceded. "A quick peek."
The castle was deserted and rather spooky in the middle of the night. Ginny shivered inside of her coat and pressed closer to Draco as they walked toward the Great Hall's remains. The anti-Apparition wards had been destroyed long ago, but most people tended to Apparate into the kitchens. That was the last sign of life in the place.
River lifted the lantern she was carrying and looked over the stones lining the Great Hall. "To think these will be all that's left of this castle to bring you forward."
"What do mean?" she asked curiously. She came up behind River, and Draco followed her. "These are the stones that line the well?"
River pointed to one with a chip in it near the ceiling. "There. That's the capstone."
"Oh. That's one of the stones Fred and George's swamp anchored into. They ultimately had to carve the spell out of it."
River looked through the missing wall and could see the outline to Serenity. "Want to see the boat?" she asked Draco. "I can get inside, if you wish."
"A boat? Here?"
"Serenity. She is a calming place. She tends to bring people where they need to go, not where they want to go." River led the way to the ship and quickly bypassed all the security codes that were built into it. She deliberately tripped the locator code. Mal and Zoe would know that someone was at the ship and could step up the timetable. She put her left hand into her pocket, holding on tightly to the crystal paperweight Jayne had stolen from the sage's desk on Shinon. It still carried the ghost of Jayne's touch on it.
Draco was dazzled by the sight of the ship, and let Ginny lead him around. She showed him all of the rooms, and told little stories from her time there. River remained on the bridge, looking at the dimmed controls.
"You're back. Does this mean we're heading back home?"
River turned and shook her head at Wash. "I'll be there as soon as I can get us there, but I'm busy mending broken pieces of their lives."
"How's my Autumn Flower?" Wash asked, sinking into the pilot's chair. He looked up at River with a hopeful expression. "Less angry, maybe?"
"She needed to have you to fight for. She needed something to believe in stronger than herself. I think she can return from the void. We'll see what gets left over in the aftermath. A little joy, a little sorrow, and a little pride in a job well done."
"I think that's all we've got to ask for," Wash replied with a happy sigh. He looked around the cockpit. "I liked this place, you know. It's a great little place to haunt."
"I've enjoyed conversing with you."
"At least my dinos are all in the same spot."
"We wouldn't have it any other way."
River could see movement outside of the ship and smiled. "That looks like a sneaky face," Wash said in a warning tone. "What did you do?"
"Did you know that ghosts manifest clearly within strong magical fields? It's not enough to become corporeal, but certainly enough to speak."
Wash's ghost stilled. He stared at River, mouth falling open. "What?"
Mal's voice thundered something unintelligible in Mandarin, and River grinned. "Just wait."
Sure enough, Mal and Zoe ran into the bridge. They saw River in one of her new wool dresses and a properly fitting pair of combat boots. She had a confident smile on her face, as if pleased with what she had done.
"Now, li'l Albatross, you're gonna have to–"
Mal cut himself off as River moved to expose the pilot's chair. He could hear Zoe make a choked cry of pain.
A shadowy blue version of Wash, down to the loud tropical shirt, was sitting in the pilot's chair.
"Baby?" Zoe whispered, her voice cracking.
"Lamby toes... You can see me?"
Zoe fell to her knees and Wash moved forward to kneel down beside her. He tried to hold her, but his hands moved right through her. Their eyes locked, saying everything they needed to say to each other. I miss you. I love you. You will always be the one I love...
River tugged on Mal's arm and led him out of the bridge. "Let them speak. They have much to say, much to do. We can collect Ginny and Draco now."
"You knew..." Mal said, stunned.
"Of course. I've always been talking with him. No one else could see him before."
Mal turned his gaze onto River. "You never said..."
"No one was ready to hear it. There was too much pain. And no one would have believed me anyway," she added, only the slightest bit of anguish coloring her voice. "I'm crazy. I would have made it all up to antagonize others."
It was on the tip of Mal's tongue to deny it, but he knew better. "Yeah, well. It's been rough."
"Yes, it has," she replied primly.
Mal suddenly felt chastised, even if she didn't say the words. It wasn't as if she hadn't suffered since long before he had met her. She had been someone's pawn, the Alliance's test subject in a program she didn't volunteer to enter. It wasn't her fault she was strange and uncommon now. "I can't wait 'till we get up into the black in our own time. This magic nonsense makes my skin crawl something fierce."
"Soon enough, Captain."
"Yeah, I suppose so."
By the time he collected Ginny and Draco from the engine room, Mal felt old and cranky and tired. The hangdog faces of the magical teens were just pathetic. "Lookit, I don't care if you go necking or nothing. But a body's got to sleep some before a battle, don't you know?" he began, shooing them into the main hallway. "Now, let's just go down and back to where we came from, if you don't mind."
River stilled on the stairway down to the cargo bay. "It's begun."
Six shadowy figures in long black hooded cloaks, skeleton masks and wands were just entering the cargo bay.
"What aren't you telling me?" Ron demanded in his best demanding voice.
McGonagall wasn't impressed. "There were intruders at the spacecraft, so we're mobilizing forces now. Miss Tam had warned me of the possibility, but I hadn't credited it at the time. I suppose she's rather marvelously gifted at Divinations after all."
Harry pulled a face as he contemplated what McGonagall had just said.
"Divinations. That rot," Ron muttered, shaking his head.
"I never did meet her," Luna remarked, pulling thoughtfully on one of her butterbeer bottle cap earrings. "It sounds like she would have been marvelous to talk to."
McGonagall sighed and suppressed the urge to shake her head at the blonde girl. "Everyone's moving into position. I should think you'd want to be there, Potter."
"Me? What for? Voldemort wouldn't come back out here for a second try at the library. That's what he uses his minions for."
"It's because of the ship located at Hogwarts. Voldemort will think it's your latest weapon."
Harry goggled at McGonagall. "And why would he think that?"
"Because that's what our spies had told him. It's what we wanted him to think. So now his minions, as you call them, are at Hogwarts. He will join them soon enough. And then we can be done with this war."
Harry bit his lip. "We didn't find the last Horcrux. We won't be able to kill him."
"Rubbish. Of course you can. He's carrying his last one."
The teens in front of her blinked in surprise. "We were looking so hard... What is it?" Ron asked, straight to the point as usual.
"Miss Tam figured it out. It's his wand."
The boys groaned. Hermione looked appalled. Luna merely giggled. "So that's the dearest wood," she said. "And I was thinking it might be a mandragora vine."
"In any case," McGonagall said, not approaching Luna's line of thought. "They've already come in for the bait. The time to strike is now."
She waited until the teens Apparated to Hogwarts. She pressed her lips together and looked around the meeting room. It was stark and empty. Still, she would miss it. Hogwarts was already too damaged to continue to function as a school. If they survived this night, they would have to find another location to continue teaching youngsters in. Hopefully, it would be something further south, where it was warm and sunny for more of the year.
"I'm too old for this nonsense," she muttered, shaking her head. She withdrew her wand from her sleeve and Apparated to Hogwarts.
Mal thought that the worst thing he could have possibly experienced was in the Battle of Serenity Valley. Facing an army of Reavers and the knowledge of their creation didn't come anywhere near close. The second worst thing was Inara leaving the ship.
What River was proposing now could very well be the third worst thing of his life.
"I refuse to gut Serenity. She's mine, they can't have her, and that's just that."
She seemed infinitely patient, but Mal could feel the tension rising within her. "They know someone is here. They can't see, but they know." River looked at Mal, Draco and Ginny earnestly. "I can distract them while you hide. Or we can fight them all."
"This would be only an initial scout group," Draco whispered. "There would be at least two more outside. There might be more, since this isn't something we see every day."
"Double agents told 'em this is the latest weapon against them," Mal said, voice curt. "And now they're crawling all over the place trying to figure it out."
"If you let them loosen a few pieces for study..."
"Absolutely not!" Mal hissed angrily. "They ain't harming my girl, and that's that. Now, I say we hit 'em and we hit 'em hard. The whole mess is moved up, so we might as well take 'em down good. The others will come on by soon enough."
"Jayne will lead a regiment, and Simon and Kaylee would aid in medical treatments. Jayne would likely return to the ship at his earliest convenience," River told Ginny, who frowned in confusion. "He won't want anyone else touching his girls." River blinked for a moment, and it looked as though she remembered something. "I'll be right back."
Without waiting for a response, she flew off toward the passenger dorms. One of the more observant Death Eaters saw her, and headed straight for the stairs. Mal let loose with some of his more colorful Mandarin phrases as he drew his gun.
"I ain't goin' down without a fight," he declared, and rushed toward the staircase.
Ginny and Draco looked at each other for a long moment, then drew their wands. They followed Mal, grim expressions on their faces.
This would be a long and drawn out battle. Ginny knew she had to believe in something, and she chose to believe that those she loved would survive. They had to.
Instinct knew things the mind would not accept, and instinct was telling everyone in the castle that death was near. There was no use brooding about what could have been or should have been. There was only acting on what actually was. It was about action and reaction, moving and being, beginning and never ending.
Bellatrix Black Lestrange had led the charge into the strange object that would be Potter's weapon against her Dark Lord. Her mind skittered through the cold metal places, the gratings and stacks of boxes. None of it looked familiar, and her twisted mind couldn't reshape the images she saw into weapons.
It felt like a trap.
Movement caught her eye, a fleeting flash of white and red outlined against the darkness. It was gone before she could truly see it, but she thought she saw forms outlined in the dark above the stairs. She smiled and began to move up the stairs. The others with her could remain in the open space and try to divine its secrets.
We are born with the dead. See, they return, and bring us with them. They give us the promise of eternal life and eternal power. We kneel before the Master and bask in His Glory and His Gifts. And for that, we are so very, very grateful. Bellatrix smiled beneath her mask, wand extended in her hand. She ached for blood and pain, tears and screams. It had been so very long since she had inflicted it.
Bellatrix dodged the bullets when they came for her head. Not knowing what bullets were, she thought it a type of magic. She fired blasts, teeth grit. Her lord would not have to fight if she was successful. If she could do her job right...
Something burrowed into her side, knocking her off balance. She tumbled from the staircase, and three pairs of feet began to run as she fell to the cargo bay floor.
Just as Bellatrix lost consciousness, she saw the other Death Eaters swarm up the stairs.
Zoe stared at Wash's ghostly form, her hand going through his face. "It's not fair," she whispered, frustrated. "I finally see you, and I can't even touch you."
"Lamby toes, you have no idea how good it is to know you can see me." He traced the curve of her face with a fingertip, and tried to pull on a lock of her hair. "I tried. At first I thought I just wasn't trying hard enough. And then one morning, maybe a week or two after, River just started talking to me. And replying when I talked." Wash shrugged and gave Zoe a pleading look. "She was the only one that could see me. None of the others could. You couldn't either, no matter how hard I tried. I think I got into your dreams once."
Tears ran down Zoe's face, hot and angry. They were the tears she had never allowed herself to shed in the months since Wash's death. The fury she had bottled up was now being released, and it came in torrential floods.
"Baby... You're my Autumn Flower, my One and Only. That'll never change, no matter what. I love you. I always will. It won't matter if I'm alive or dead– though now I'm mostly dead, you know– but I'll always love you. It's okay, Zoe. It doesn't hurt being dead. It's frustrating, I'll give you that. I don't like it when there's only River to laugh at my jokes. Half of them she won't even smile to, you know. The girl's got an odd sense of humor..." Wash's voice trailed off and he wrapped his ghostly arms around Zoe.
"I'm by myself," she whispered, voice breaking.
"C'mon, baby. You'll be all right. You've still got me. For the rest of your life, however you want me. Can't do much, true. But I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere. I promised forever, and I mean it. Now, I won't deny that I'll be jealous if you find another dashing young pilot to make into your little boy toy. But if that's what you want, that's what you want." He tried to stroke her hair, but his hand passed through her. "I... I just want you to be happy, Zoe. I want you to smile again. I want you to wear that slinky dress again. I want you go to out on a job and do some crime like your heart's in it. I want you to be the warrior woman I know you are. You're strong enough for the both of us, Zoe. I know you are."
"What's it mean if you're not there?"
"But I am. Can't see me much, true, but I'm there. I'm here. I'm always here." Wash deliberately pushed his hand into her chest, his hand folding around her heart. "I'm here. I'm where I'm supposed to be."
Zoe howled in anguish just as River bolted onto the bridge.
"Death Eaters. Swarms. The timetable has advanced drastically."
Zoe's face hardened into the warrior's mask that Wash knew so well. "No, they don't. They ain't takin' my baby's ghost from me."
She pressed a kiss against the edge of Wash's ghost, then got to her feet. He did as well, and saluted her. Zoe left the bridge, guns in hand.
River grinned at Wash. "Just like doing crime, yes?"
He grinned back at her, feeling the ghostly version of adrenaline surge through him. "Oh yes. I think I'm going to like this ghost thing."
"I have a plan."
"You're always full of plans."
"Yes, but this one is cunning and full of tricks."
"How about monkeys?" Wash asked hopefully. River's brow furrowed in confusion. "Well, there's magic here, and you know monkeys are always full of lots of fun tricks. They're absolutely mischievous, you know."
Something cleared on River's face. "Oh. They are, aren't they?"
"Yes. Magic and monkeys. I think there's a joke about that."
"I don't follow," River murmured.
"Never mind. You get to your cunning plan, huh? I'll sit here and watch and be the peanut gallery. And if there's space monkeys... Well, that'll be quite the plan then." Wash gave River a playful shove, his hands going right through her. "Go on, shoo. You do your cunning plan thing, and they'll go off to be those big damn heroes we know they can be. I'll sit back and watch as I usually do, and maybe we can get off this rock and back to the black."
"It is uncomfortable on the ground?"
"Oh, yeah. Even as a ghost, I'd rather not be planetside if I don't have to be."
River smiled serenely. "Fear not, it won't be long now."
Harry looked over the ruins of Hogwarts, feeling the rage simmer within him. This would have to be it, then. He didn't think he could do this again. Everything was lost in rivers of blood and misery, and it was going to be the end of the Wizarding World.
This may just disappear.
He held tightly on to his wand. They had Apparated to a point just outside the edge of the grounds, in a spot that had once held Hagrid's hut. The hut itself had burned in the last battle held at Hogwarts three months before. Much of the castle had come down in the spell battle, and it was damaged beyond repair.
Hermione touched his arm. "Those who are treated unjustly will at last be heard, and their judgment will come, Harry. We won't let them get away with this. We won't."
"I know." He looked at Ron and Hermione. "Thank you."
"For what, mate?" Ron asked, curious.
"For reminding me I'm not alone. I used to think I was."
"Eh. What rot, that. Of course you're not."
"Rubbish, Harry. We're friends. That's what we do."
He smiled at them, the hurt bubbling within him easing somewhat. He looked over the hill, where Neville and Luna had gone ahead to serve as lookouts. "Strange thing, them," he muttered as he shook his head. "When did that happen?"
Hermione chuckled. "She's good for him, though. They needed someone to look after, and they look after each other nicely."
"And you two?" Harry asked, a smile on his face.
"Ah, you," she replied, ducking her head shyly. Ron just laughed and threw an arm around Hermione's shoulders.
"We're all doing good, yeah? We'll win it. We've got to."
That was exactly it, though. Harry was afraid he wasn't good enough.
Sparks flew overhead, red and gold.
"That's it," Harry said, voice grim. "The signal. Let's go."
Into the breech once more, the final battle in the war had begun.
***
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