![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trillianastraTitle: Broken Toy Soldiers
Fandoms: Heroes, Supernatural, Firefly, Torchwood, BtVS
Rating: PG13 (for now, later chapters may be higher)
Warnings: it mentions the Unification War. That's it.
Pairings (if applicable): none currently, but later Sam Winchester/River Tam, Jack Harkness/Claire Bennet, Dawn Summers/Simon Tam.
Character(s) (if applicable): Sam Winchester, River Tam, Jack Harkness, Claire Bennet, Dawn Summers, and various Firefly characters.
Spoilers: None for Torchwood, Heroes or Firefly. Slight spoilers for S5 BtVS and S3 Supernatural (SPNL s3 finale, and also Where Dawn Came From)
Summary: Sam and Dawn try to work out what happened to them, and in the process they discover that they're more alike than they think. In an Intermission, we find out how Jack and Claire have been keeping themselves busy for the last 500 years.
Chapter Two: Collision
Once Serenity had touched down at Eavesdown Docks, Kaylee made her way down to the cargo hold, picking up her old folding chair. The Captain, Zoe and Jayne had gone already, to meet with Badger and see if there was any work available. Wash had taken the mule to get fuel and supplies, Inara had left to meet a client, and Simon was looking after River in the dorms.
She was planning to just set her chair up by the entrance to the hold, keeping an eye out for prospective passengers. But Kaylee didn’t exactly get that far… she’d almost got outside when suddenly a tall young man and a teenage girl ran up the ramp – into the ship – and the young man collided with her.
At least he had the decency to look embarrassed. He looked around at the girl, and shrugged helplessly before turning back to face Kaylee. “Uh… this is going to sound really weird, but there are these guys chasing us and we really need somewhere to hide out…” He gave her a crooked, apologetic smile, and she couldn’t help but smile back.
“I guess you could, just for a little while. You prob’ly shouldn’t be here when the Cap’n gets back, the last time we had fugitives on board it sorta made things maybe a bit more interestin’ than he generally likes. No reason you two can’t get yourselves out of sight for a few minutes though.” She looked past them, out at the market. “Who were the tian sha de e mo chasin’ ya, anyhow?”
The young man looked confused. “Er… what did you just say?”
“Who’s chasin’ you? And what for, ‘cause you don’t look like no xiong can sha shou t’me.”
“That’s a really good question…. I dunno. And I also don’t know what you just called me, but that was not English.”
“English? Ain’t that what they used to call Universal Speech, back on Earth-That-Was?”
That only resulted in the young man’s frown deepening, and Kaylee decided that there was obviously somethin’ different about him… maybe he’d been experimented on and escaped, like River, an’ it had made him not right in the head. The girl hadn’t said anything yet, but she was looking at Serenity in a weird way. Then she ‘parently had something to say.
“Hey, uh, Sam… I think she said something in Chinese. I don’t know what, but it sounded like it.” The young man – Sam, apparently – turned to his friend and lowered his voice. “Why would she be speaking Chinese?”
“Remember that stuff we saw? Chinese letters everywhere… it makes sense…” The girl stepped around Sam, and smiled brightly at Kaylee. “Hey, I’m Dawn, this is Sam. We’ve had kind of a weird day, but we’re not actually crazy. Well, I dunno about him, really, I only met him today, but we’re not, like, dangerous or anything. I have a question though… what planet are we on?”
“Persephone, o’course. Right in the middle of Eavesdown Docks.”
Dawn nodded. “Okay, not Earth then. I thought so. Er… second question… what’s the date?”
“March tenth, leastways I think it is. March tenth, 2519…” Kaylee realised what Dawn had said. “Wait… Earth? You mean Earth-That-Was?”
Sam looked over his shoulder, trying to see if they were still being followed, and eventually interrupted the two girls. “Look, we can sort out where and… when we are later, when we aren’t being followed by those guys with guns, but right now we really do need somewhere to hide.”
“Oh… well, let’s see…” Kaylee turned around, frowning a little. Then she turned back to them and smiled. “Come on, I know somewhere.”
She crossed the cargo bay, and had soon removed a section of the panelling to reveal a storage space. “Should be big enough in there for the two o’ ya.”
Sam eyed the opening warily, and looked down at Dawn, who shrugged.
“It’s not like there’s anywhere else.” She pointed out.
“True.” He looked at Kaylee. “I guess it’ll have to do.”
Sam and Dawn quickly clambered into the storage space – it was a bit of a squeeze, but they managed, then Kaylee crouched in the entrance and reassured them that she’d keep an eye out for the purplebellies chasing them, and that she’d let them out when the coast was clear, before she fitted the panelling back in its place.
Kaylee went back to her chair, and as she sat people-watching she wondered about Sam and Dawn, and what they’d done to have purplebellies chasin’ ‘em.
In the storage compartment, Sam and Dawn were both thinking of something to occupy themselves. Dawn whispered. “So, what’s your story, then? What’re you doing here?”
“It’s kind of a long story…”
“I’ve got time. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”
“Good point. Well, I used to work with my brother. We were… we hunted demons. It’s sort of the family business. And he… my brother, Dean… he made a deal with a demon to save my life, and because of that, he was sent to Hell. I spent months trying to get him back… then I found this ritual… made a deal of my own, and got him back. Then everything went black and I woke up to you shaking me.”
In the semi-darkness of the storage compartment, Dawn gaped at him. “You… hunted demons?”
“Yeah. They’re real, you know. Demons, werewolves, ghosts, vampires… it’s all real.”
She nodded slowly. “I know.”
“You do? How?”
“Have you fought vampires before?”
“A few times, why?”
“Ever heard of the Slayer?”
“Never.”
“Oh. Uh… well, the Slayer is a girl, chosen to fight vampires. There can only be one at a time. They train, they stake loads of vampires, and when they die, a new Slayer is called.”
Sam frowned. “How do you know? Are you one of them?”
Dawn stifled a laugh. “No. My sister is. Buffy. She… she was trying to protect me. She died to save me. And… I sort of… made this deal, to get her back. Then it all went black and I woke up here.”
“How old are you, Dawn?”
“Sixteen. Why?”
“You seem older. Something about you… feels older. Way, way, older...”
Dawn swallowed hard. How could he know… how could he possibly know about that? “Uh, yeah… it’s complicated. I sort of… used to be something called the Key. It is, er, was this ball of magickal energy… there were these monks who were in charge of it, and to protect it, they made it into… well, me… how did you know?”
Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. It was just a feeling.”
She looks at him, thinking that maybe he is crazy after all. “Just a feeling?” She whispers. “You might want to tell me some more about this ‘feeling’.”
Though he can barely see her, he realises that he’s managed to upset her. “I can’t. I guess it might have something to do with my visions. Maybe I… picked up on something about you, without knowing.”
“You get visions?”
“Uh, yeah. Since I turned twenty-two.”
“Oh.”
“Why?”
“I’m just wondering how we got here. Neither of us is exactly normal, and apparently our families aren’t, either…” Suddenly she looked up. “Hang on… before you got to this place, Persephone or whatever… what were you doing?”
“The ritual. To get my brother back.” Realisation dawned on his face. “Oh… you don’t think…”
“… that the “price” we had to pay for getting your brother and my sister back was ending up here? I’m starting to, yeah…”
“It does make sense.” Sam sighed and resettled himself against the wall of the ship. “Do you think there’s any way back?”
“I don’t know.” Dawn shifted position, so that she was leaning against him. “But I hope there is.”
Intermission: This Is How We Pass The Time
The day Jack met Claire Bennet, he had no idea that they’d still be together – in a strictly platonic sense – almost five hundred years later. He was glad that they were, though. He’d spent so many years with friends (and lovers) who aged and died before his eyes, it was almost refreshing to be around someone who was in the same position.
He suspected that she felt the same way about him, though he’d never asked her about it.
She had changed a lot over the years. He’d taught her to be self-reliant, taught her how to survive. She’d worked with him for a while, at Torchwood (while there still was a Torchwood) at first, then in a more freelance capacity. That got easier when the government of the time started the exodus from Earth… hundreds of generation ships launched, carrying the human race to the new home they’d found in another galaxy.
They helped where they could with the settling of the new worlds. When the Alliance had become more established, Jack had… acquired a small ship, giving them some freedom. Then the Unification War came. Jack enlisted with the Independents, but Claire… couldn’t. She wanted to help, but she wasn’t as used to battle and war as Jack, and she found that she couldn’t.
The night that she told Jack she wasn’t signing up, he smiled, and hugged her, and told her that it was all right, that she didn’t have to be a soldier. And so, when Jack went off to war, Claire stayed behind in the Independent Headquarters, where she helped to take care of the injured. Sometimes, when a soldier was brought in with very severe injuries, she would give them some of her blood, to heal them.
For seven years, Jack fought and Claire helped the injured. By the time the Independents finally surrendered, thousands were dead. Jack had added a few more deaths to his personal tally. Claire had seen her share of horrors, and seven years in an army medical facility meant that she was on her way to becoming a good combat medic.
When they found each other after the surrender, they retreived their ship – a sturdy little trading ship, a Firefly-class. Claire had named it Odessa, after the long-gone town where she grew up. It was big enough that they could have brought in more crewmembers if they wanted, but they liked their privacy. Claire was the medic and the cook, Jack handled the engine room, and they shared the piloting. Sometimes they took on passengers, which brought in a bit more money.
They took freelance work where they could, making enough money to take care of their ship and themselves.
In an interesting coincidence, on the tenth of March, 2519, the Odessa was en route to Persephone, with the intention of picking up passengers for the trip to Boros.
Fandoms: Heroes, Supernatural, Firefly, Torchwood, BtVS
Rating: PG13 (for now, later chapters may be higher)
Warnings: it mentions the Unification War. That's it.
Pairings (if applicable): none currently, but later Sam Winchester/River Tam, Jack Harkness/Claire Bennet, Dawn Summers/Simon Tam.
Character(s) (if applicable): Sam Winchester, River Tam, Jack Harkness, Claire Bennet, Dawn Summers, and various Firefly characters.
Spoilers: None for Torchwood, Heroes or Firefly. Slight spoilers for S5 BtVS and S3 Supernatural (SPNL s3 finale, and also Where Dawn Came From)
Summary: Sam and Dawn try to work out what happened to them, and in the process they discover that they're more alike than they think. In an Intermission, we find out how Jack and Claire have been keeping themselves busy for the last 500 years.
Chapter Two: Collision
Once Serenity had touched down at Eavesdown Docks, Kaylee made her way down to the cargo hold, picking up her old folding chair. The Captain, Zoe and Jayne had gone already, to meet with Badger and see if there was any work available. Wash had taken the mule to get fuel and supplies, Inara had left to meet a client, and Simon was looking after River in the dorms.
She was planning to just set her chair up by the entrance to the hold, keeping an eye out for prospective passengers. But Kaylee didn’t exactly get that far… she’d almost got outside when suddenly a tall young man and a teenage girl ran up the ramp – into the ship – and the young man collided with her.
At least he had the decency to look embarrassed. He looked around at the girl, and shrugged helplessly before turning back to face Kaylee. “Uh… this is going to sound really weird, but there are these guys chasing us and we really need somewhere to hide out…” He gave her a crooked, apologetic smile, and she couldn’t help but smile back.
“I guess you could, just for a little while. You prob’ly shouldn’t be here when the Cap’n gets back, the last time we had fugitives on board it sorta made things maybe a bit more interestin’ than he generally likes. No reason you two can’t get yourselves out of sight for a few minutes though.” She looked past them, out at the market. “Who were the tian sha de e mo chasin’ ya, anyhow?”
The young man looked confused. “Er… what did you just say?”
“Who’s chasin’ you? And what for, ‘cause you don’t look like no xiong can sha shou t’me.”
“That’s a really good question…. I dunno. And I also don’t know what you just called me, but that was not English.”
“English? Ain’t that what they used to call Universal Speech, back on Earth-That-Was?”
That only resulted in the young man’s frown deepening, and Kaylee decided that there was obviously somethin’ different about him… maybe he’d been experimented on and escaped, like River, an’ it had made him not right in the head. The girl hadn’t said anything yet, but she was looking at Serenity in a weird way. Then she ‘parently had something to say.
“Hey, uh, Sam… I think she said something in Chinese. I don’t know what, but it sounded like it.” The young man – Sam, apparently – turned to his friend and lowered his voice. “Why would she be speaking Chinese?”
“Remember that stuff we saw? Chinese letters everywhere… it makes sense…” The girl stepped around Sam, and smiled brightly at Kaylee. “Hey, I’m Dawn, this is Sam. We’ve had kind of a weird day, but we’re not actually crazy. Well, I dunno about him, really, I only met him today, but we’re not, like, dangerous or anything. I have a question though… what planet are we on?”
“Persephone, o’course. Right in the middle of Eavesdown Docks.”
Dawn nodded. “Okay, not Earth then. I thought so. Er… second question… what’s the date?”
“March tenth, leastways I think it is. March tenth, 2519…” Kaylee realised what Dawn had said. “Wait… Earth? You mean Earth-That-Was?”
Sam looked over his shoulder, trying to see if they were still being followed, and eventually interrupted the two girls. “Look, we can sort out where and… when we are later, when we aren’t being followed by those guys with guns, but right now we really do need somewhere to hide.”
“Oh… well, let’s see…” Kaylee turned around, frowning a little. Then she turned back to them and smiled. “Come on, I know somewhere.”
She crossed the cargo bay, and had soon removed a section of the panelling to reveal a storage space. “Should be big enough in there for the two o’ ya.”
Sam eyed the opening warily, and looked down at Dawn, who shrugged.
“It’s not like there’s anywhere else.” She pointed out.
“True.” He looked at Kaylee. “I guess it’ll have to do.”
Sam and Dawn quickly clambered into the storage space – it was a bit of a squeeze, but they managed, then Kaylee crouched in the entrance and reassured them that she’d keep an eye out for the purplebellies chasing them, and that she’d let them out when the coast was clear, before she fitted the panelling back in its place.
Kaylee went back to her chair, and as she sat people-watching she wondered about Sam and Dawn, and what they’d done to have purplebellies chasin’ ‘em.
In the storage compartment, Sam and Dawn were both thinking of something to occupy themselves. Dawn whispered. “So, what’s your story, then? What’re you doing here?”
“It’s kind of a long story…”
“I’ve got time. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”
“Good point. Well, I used to work with my brother. We were… we hunted demons. It’s sort of the family business. And he… my brother, Dean… he made a deal with a demon to save my life, and because of that, he was sent to Hell. I spent months trying to get him back… then I found this ritual… made a deal of my own, and got him back. Then everything went black and I woke up to you shaking me.”
In the semi-darkness of the storage compartment, Dawn gaped at him. “You… hunted demons?”
“Yeah. They’re real, you know. Demons, werewolves, ghosts, vampires… it’s all real.”
She nodded slowly. “I know.”
“You do? How?”
“Have you fought vampires before?”
“A few times, why?”
“Ever heard of the Slayer?”
“Never.”
“Oh. Uh… well, the Slayer is a girl, chosen to fight vampires. There can only be one at a time. They train, they stake loads of vampires, and when they die, a new Slayer is called.”
Sam frowned. “How do you know? Are you one of them?”
Dawn stifled a laugh. “No. My sister is. Buffy. She… she was trying to protect me. She died to save me. And… I sort of… made this deal, to get her back. Then it all went black and I woke up here.”
“How old are you, Dawn?”
“Sixteen. Why?”
“You seem older. Something about you… feels older. Way, way, older...”
Dawn swallowed hard. How could he know… how could he possibly know about that? “Uh, yeah… it’s complicated. I sort of… used to be something called the Key. It is, er, was this ball of magickal energy… there were these monks who were in charge of it, and to protect it, they made it into… well, me… how did you know?”
Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. It was just a feeling.”
She looks at him, thinking that maybe he is crazy after all. “Just a feeling?” She whispers. “You might want to tell me some more about this ‘feeling’.”
Though he can barely see her, he realises that he’s managed to upset her. “I can’t. I guess it might have something to do with my visions. Maybe I… picked up on something about you, without knowing.”
“You get visions?”
“Uh, yeah. Since I turned twenty-two.”
“Oh.”
“Why?”
“I’m just wondering how we got here. Neither of us is exactly normal, and apparently our families aren’t, either…” Suddenly she looked up. “Hang on… before you got to this place, Persephone or whatever… what were you doing?”
“The ritual. To get my brother back.” Realisation dawned on his face. “Oh… you don’t think…”
“… that the “price” we had to pay for getting your brother and my sister back was ending up here? I’m starting to, yeah…”
“It does make sense.” Sam sighed and resettled himself against the wall of the ship. “Do you think there’s any way back?”
“I don’t know.” Dawn shifted position, so that she was leaning against him. “But I hope there is.”
Intermission: This Is How We Pass The Time
The day Jack met Claire Bennet, he had no idea that they’d still be together – in a strictly platonic sense – almost five hundred years later. He was glad that they were, though. He’d spent so many years with friends (and lovers) who aged and died before his eyes, it was almost refreshing to be around someone who was in the same position.
He suspected that she felt the same way about him, though he’d never asked her about it.
She had changed a lot over the years. He’d taught her to be self-reliant, taught her how to survive. She’d worked with him for a while, at Torchwood (while there still was a Torchwood) at first, then in a more freelance capacity. That got easier when the government of the time started the exodus from Earth… hundreds of generation ships launched, carrying the human race to the new home they’d found in another galaxy.
They helped where they could with the settling of the new worlds. When the Alliance had become more established, Jack had… acquired a small ship, giving them some freedom. Then the Unification War came. Jack enlisted with the Independents, but Claire… couldn’t. She wanted to help, but she wasn’t as used to battle and war as Jack, and she found that she couldn’t.
The night that she told Jack she wasn’t signing up, he smiled, and hugged her, and told her that it was all right, that she didn’t have to be a soldier. And so, when Jack went off to war, Claire stayed behind in the Independent Headquarters, where she helped to take care of the injured. Sometimes, when a soldier was brought in with very severe injuries, she would give them some of her blood, to heal them.
For seven years, Jack fought and Claire helped the injured. By the time the Independents finally surrendered, thousands were dead. Jack had added a few more deaths to his personal tally. Claire had seen her share of horrors, and seven years in an army medical facility meant that she was on her way to becoming a good combat medic.
When they found each other after the surrender, they retreived their ship – a sturdy little trading ship, a Firefly-class. Claire had named it Odessa, after the long-gone town where she grew up. It was big enough that they could have brought in more crewmembers if they wanted, but they liked their privacy. Claire was the medic and the cook, Jack handled the engine room, and they shared the piloting. Sometimes they took on passengers, which brought in a bit more money.
They took freelance work where they could, making enough money to take care of their ship and themselves.
In an interesting coincidence, on the tenth of March, 2519, the Odessa was en route to Persephone, with the intention of picking up passengers for the trip to Boros.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-03-27 07:38 pm (UTC)