Heroes Ficathon Challenge
Title: New Day Dawning
Rating: Teen
Fandoms: Heroes -- Firefly/Serenity
Pairing: Nathan/Peter (nothing graphic)
Recipient: mandysbitch

Prompt: Details: The Alliance is looking for more 'special' children like River and so their attention turns to Peter and Nathan Petrelli. Nathan is a noted political figure in the Alliance who has to go on the run with Peter once the 'hands of blue' guys come knocking. I loooove Petrellicest but I just want to see Peter and Nathan fit into the Firefly universe. Go wild.

Author's Note: Not the best thing I've ever written, but I sure as hell had fun writing this. Spell-checked and re-read, but not beta'd (no time before deadline).

Legalese: Heroes, Firefly and any other properties referenced herein are copyright their respective owners. This is a not for profit work of fiction written for fun as a gift to a fellow fan.




Mal Reynolds has known Zheng Shih Moran for about as long as he's had Serenity. Rumor has it she's descends on both sides of the family from some legendary Earth That Was crime syndicates.

There's no particular bond between them. Zheng's core worlds, Niska's the Rim, and for that reason her business rarely brings her any place she's going to cross Mal's path. She's hard core and entrenched in a way that Mal is not, and never can be.

About the only thing they have in common is the fact neither has any use for the Alliance. But there are different reasons for this; had the rebellion succeeded, Zheng would have no use for it for the same reasons she had no use for the Alliance.

So, when Mal gets a message via Fanty and Mingo that he's to meet her ASAP because she's got a package of perishables for him, his interest is piqued. They've crossed paths in the past, but never done business ... that he remembers.

He half wonders if it's a trap.

In the end he decides to go. He doubts the Alliance has what it takes to get their hooks into Zheng.

He plans to take Jayne or Zoe as his backup.

River insists on coming as his second and won't take no for an answer.

~oo(0)oo~

Zheng's eyes are a peculiar shade of hazel. Their expression is just as flinty as Mal remembers.

He greets her in his best Mandarin.

She coolly replies that this would be so much better if he spoke Cantonese.

River, sitting silently by his side until this point, lets loose with a flurry of syllables, sharp and chinging, a contrast to the soft szhs of Mandarin. Mal has no idea what she's just said, but it makes Zheng lift an eyebrow and laugh, so he's just scored some major points with Zheng and that's a good thing.

Mal asks, "So, what's so important that you'd come all the way out here?"

Zheng and River talk animatedly for several moments and River claps her hands and bounces happily in her seat.

"I take it that's good," Mal mutters under his breath.

"My ship, now." Zheng says crisply and rises.

~oo(0)oo~

River's alternately nervous and giddy as they weave a complicated route to Zheng's ship -- Zheng's one paranoid bitch, but that's probably why she's lived as long as she has -- babbling about packages that aren't packages, surprises in boxes that aren't surprises in boxes.

Mal's got a sinking suspicion that like a lot of River's things that don't make sense, this one does ... once you've got the clue that gives you the cypher.

They arrive at Zheng's cruiser, and no sooner does the gangplank touch ground than River races up it, laughing and singing an old Earth nursery rhyme about "Peter Peter Pumpkin eater." Mal gives Zheng a look, but she's got a poker face, and he trudges up the gangplank beside her. His eyes adjust to the change in light just in time to see River throw herself at a thin, dark haired young man with an ecstatic cry of "Peter Pumpkin Eater!"

He seems just as delighted to see her, too, swinging her around with a shocked and delighted, "River?!"

"Yup!" She laughs delightedly, happy in a way that Mal has rarely seen.

A taller, more powerfully built man steps out of the shadows behind them. It takes a moment, but with a sinking feeling in his guts Mal recognizes him as Nathan Petrelli, a politician who's on the run from the Alliance.

Zheng looks at Nathan and says, "I have upheld my end of the bargain."

But it's Peter who stops in his happy reunion with River and replies, "Yes, Madam Zheng, you have. We won't forget this."

Her mouth twists wryly and she says, "But I shall work very hard to forget you. Now, my deal was to deliver you into to the care of Captain Reynolds. Grab your bags and get off my vessel."

~oo(0)oo~

They're barely the safe minimum distance away when Zheng's ship lifts off. Mal doesn't know what to think of this whole turn of events. He's just gotten himself and his crew clear of any major entanglement with the Alliance and now this, because these two are about as bad as it gets in terms of his getting back to a quiet life of off the books freight transportation.

On the one hand, Mal actually has a measure of respect for Nathan Petrelli -- there was a real move to punish the rebels after the war and Petrelli worked hard to curb the worst of it. He's also lobbied for several measures to help bring hospitals and schools to the Rim. Granted, that's more Alliance meddling, but hospitals and real schools are few and far between on the rim, and even Mal finds it hard to find fault with efforts like that.

On the other hand, Nathan and Peter Petrelli are wanted for "crimes against nature" and though he wonders if that's true at all, Mal really does not want any more fugitives on board Serenity.

What he's feeling must be showing on his face, because River turns to him and says, "Peter's an old friend from school."

Not surprising given that the Tams and the Petrellis probably traveled in the same social -- oh shit. There was no way in hell he was letting these two on Serenity. No way in hell.

Peter looked at him and said, "I know you've got Dr. Simon Tam, but I'm also certified nurse and Nathan can fly. We can pull our weight."

Okay. Useful skills. He might consider letting these two on for a short hitch but --

"Two by two, hands of blue, " River whispers, stricken.

Mal immediately reaches for his gun. He has never seen any of the agents that River has talked about, but for all of her other insane ramblings, he has never doubted the existence of these agents.

Peter's already pale face turns even paler and he clenches River's arm, causing her her to gasp in pain. "Where, River? Where? Show me."

She whimpers and points to the edge of the crowd. Mal sees two nondescipt men in crisp grey suits. Agents.

And then ... Mal doesn't really have the words for it, but it's as if an invisible hand reaches down, seizes the Agents' heads and twists them all the way around. Mal knows he's too far away to hear the sickening crack of gristle and bone, but he shudders all the same. The bodies drop out of sight. The crowd starts milling around the two unexplained dead bodies that have suddenly appeared.

Nathan puts his hand on Mal's shoulder, leans in and murmurs in his ear, "Unlike River, Peter graduated the program."

"I don't really have a choice in this any more, do I?" Mal rasps.

"Actually, you do." Nathan's voice is politician smooth. "Get us onboard your ship and off planet and Peter and I can tell you a tale that will make you want to join us."

Mal closes his eyes and grimaces. "I ... thought I'd gotten the Alliance off our backs, and having you on Serenity just --"

"You never got them off your backs, Captain Reynolds," Peter says, "you just put a hitch in their stride, but they were coming for you."

"What makes you so sure?"

"They were going to use me to do it."

~oo(0)oo~

"I don't much hold with incest, " Mal says when they've finally cleared planetary gravity and switched to the ion drive, headed for the Rim. Nathan Petrelli was right when he said he could fly, he got the Serenity out of port and into the black smoothly and efficiently. They've gathered around the table in the Mess. Mal feels that his crew has a right to know the truth if they're going to have somebody as dangerous and wanted as Nathan and Peter aboard.

"Most people don't, Captain," Nathan replies evenly. "But it's not like Peter and I have much of a choice."

So it wasn't something the Alliance made up to frame the Petrellis. Mal supresses a shudder of disgust. "How so? Because the way I see it, there's always choices."

Nathan and Peter look at each other for a second, something passes between them, and Peter nods once before he begins. "Say you were finding people with special latent gifts, and you needed a control mechanism, and you decided that the best control mechanism should be someone in their family that they felt close to, but you also needed a means to guarantee that your control agent would be under your thumb. What, deep dark secret could you threaten them with? What horrible thing could you hold over them to keep them in line?" He gives River and Simon a meaningful look.

"But we're not! We've never --" Simon blurts.

"But your relationship with your sister has become a lot ... more intense ... since she started at everybody's favorite government school, hasn't it?"

Simon's face flames red. "But I wouldn't! Never!"

"You would," Peter says coldly and evenly. "It would be an itch in your brain, in her brain, and one day you wouldn't be able to stand it any longer."

Nathan cuts in, "And some day, probably not very long -- we held out all of a month after Peter left school -- you'd scratch. And once you scratched? There is no just once. The programming kicks in. You want to. You have to." He reaches over and takes Peter's hand in his. "We'll keep it as quiet and subtle as possible."

Dead silence.

"Are -- are you saying that the Alliance made you sly?" Jayne asks, shuddering.

"Jayne," Mal says, forcing his tone to stay mild.

"Yes, Mal?"

"Go clean Vera."

~oo(0)oo~

"So what's the plan?" Mal asks as soon as Jayne has left the room.

"We rendezvous with our fellow gifted friends Sam and Dean on Miranda."

River starts to cry. She doesn't want to go back to Miranda. Too many ghosts.

Peter hugs her and strokes her hair and says that Sam and Dean know how to make the ghosts go away. For reals.

Mal groans. "It's no little thing to get to Miranda. That's serious Reaver country."

"You figured it out once. You'll figure it out again."

"Don't count on your friends showing."

Peter gives a cryptic smile and says, "Sam and Dean aren't soft boys from the core worlds, their daddy was Browncoat from the back forty. And when it comes to sneaking into places they don't belong, Sam and Dean are the lords of the dance -- they got moves."

"I think the Reavers are actually scared of them," Nathan says dryly.

"So what's on Miranda?" Zoe gets right back to business.

"Our futures," Nathan says. "It's the last place the Alliance will think to look for us --

"-- and when they finally do, it will be too late." Peter looks at all of them. "Sam, River, and I have what it takes to bring their house of cards down. For reals this time."

Pause.

"I've seen it."


----

Author's Note pt 2: My recipient also gave SPN and OZ prompts. It was fun working some nudge-nudge wink-winks for those into the story.