The young man adjusted his uniform, watching himself in the mirror. Making sure that his hair was perfectly coiffed and his clothes were straight and without wrinkles, Simon Tam was confident that he at least looked the part of an Alliance official. At least he better damn should. There was so much at stake and he had to succeed.

The most important thing being that he had to save his sister.

The codes she'd been sending him in their letters more than worried him, and it infuriated him that no one believed him —not even their parents. The fact that River was in pain and, according to what he deciphered, was being tortured in that so-called Academy...he had to do something. He couldn't sit by, twiddling his thumbs and brushing it off as nonsense and wallow in ignorance, and he still wouldn't sit by now that he was with people who could help him get her out.

He would do anything for River. She was his little sister, someone he swore to protect and be the best brother to. He wouldn't fail her, so he was going to do everything in his power to rescue her from whatever hell she was in.

"Ready, Tam?" one of the others asked him, suiting up for the job.

He took a deep breath and straightened his posture. He arranged his face into a cold, even a bit disdainful look.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" he sneered.

Hammond, the man asking after him, grinned widely. "Nice. You'll fool them right away."

Simon didn't lose his look, nodding slightly and keeping in character. He took center stage, heading to the front to lead his entourage, and they settled themselves into the Alliance-issued private vehicle.

Within the facility, Simon tried not to shudder in disgust. It was sterile-looking and practically all-white, which made the lights blaring against everything and nearly blinding him. He made sure to not slip in his facade though, listening to the man next to him intently. Dr. Mathias was apparently the one in charge in here and Simon was hoping to hear something important about this place, though he was even more hopeful about something on River.

"Now down this way is our prize subject. We've had multiple breakthroughs for her and I can say we're almost close to having her ready for use on the field," Dr. Mathias was saying.

Simon inwardly frowned, but nodded to show some sort of acknowledgment for the doctor. But then his breath caught in his throat as they entered the room and he saw River strapped to some sort of chair, needles stuck into seemingly everywhere. Her face was contorted in pain and she was screaming and crying and-and-and —

Simon's blood was boiling and he wanted to kill everyone in this room.

He wasn't sure how he got through the next few minutes letting this man talk, touting River as some kind of special project and sounding so goddamn proud. All he knew was that one moment he was a government official and then one little question from Dr. Mathias on who he was had him deciding enough was enough (and it was, because he was this close to bashing Dr. Mathias over the head).

It wasn't long until he'd freed River from her bindings and was leading her away. He was sure that they both had more than enough of this place.

Once they were out of the facility and back with the others, who hightailed it out of there and grouped back with their ship, Simon was just in the middle of helping his sister get settled onto the ship when he was approached by Hammond.

"We're going to have to put her in cryo," Hammond told him, looking exhausted in his worn trousers and wrinkled shirt.

"What? Why?" Simon was alarmed. Why would they need to do that? River was fine by his side!

Hammond gestured to her. "She's dangerous, Tam, and you don't even know it. There's a lot more to your sister, after the gorram Alliance messed around with her."

It brought an ominous and uneasy feeling to Simon, and he wondered what the other man meant.

"Look, we're going to have Tanner teach you some stuff you'll need to say, you know, in the case if she...goes off." What the hell did that mean? "Besides, look at your sister. She ain't right. You know she ain't right."

River was curled up on the bed, muttering something under her breath and occasionally tugging painfully at her hair. Simon felt his chest tightened and he bit down on his lip in pain. His sister was suffering and he had no idea what the hell to do.

"Okay," he muttered. "Let's get her ready to put into cryo."

He felt so helpless and bitter right now, but he also felt lost. If only their parents —

Simon felt a surge of anger rush through him, as well as it sparking an idea in his head.

~*~*~

Gege, I'm coming home. I need to show you something.

That was all that was said and the transmission had been encrypted at that.

Gabriel Tam hadn't talked to his son for a while, not since he'd bailed Simon out and they'd had their big blowout. Receiving a transmission from him now had caught Gabriel off guard. So seeing his son in front of him, with that huge metal box, he felt speechless.

"Simon!" he said aghast.

"Father," Simon said coldly.

"Do you know what you've done?! They're telling me you've broken into a secure facility, committed a crime, kidnapped your sister! What do you have to say for yourself, young man?" He was bursting with all the things he wanted to shout at his son; about how disappointed he was in him, how he shouldn't have done this to his sister, how he was ruining his life and future as well as his sister's...Gabriel felt so infuriated with his son that he could barely speak.

Simon's jaw visibly clenched. "They didn't say what they did to her, huh?" Simon sneered. He pressed something to the side of the box and it hissed as it started to open, cold wispy smoke creeping out. When it opened fully though, Gabriel staggered back and he heard his wife gasp loudly behind him as he saw the curled up, naked form of his daughter.

"What...what is this? What happened to River!"

"They tortured her, Dad! They tortured her and you left her there!"

And just like that, he stopped short and felt himself freeze up at his son's words. Gabriel's chest squeezed like he was about to have a heart attack, like the whole world had stopped. No. No, it couldn't be like that. There was no way that —and then River abruptly sat up and started to scream.

~*~*~

In the time later, as River rocked herself in a ball in the corner of the room after her outburst, Gabriel took shaky breaths as he watched his daughter ignore everything and mutter to herself.

"What did they do to you, darling?" he whispered, still in shock at River's appearance.

His wife was inconsolable in the kitchen while Simon stood by stoically. His poor River had hastily been dressed after being taken away from the metal box, but she was still incoherent and unresponsive. He could catch little phrases, like "Hands of Blue", "Mira", and more nonsense that he couldn't understand.

"They had her strapped to a chair," Simon started blankly.

Gabriel flinched, not wanting to imagine it but having the images come up nonetheless.

"She was strapped down and they'd stuck needles into her brain," disgust had slipped into his tone. The image grew more vivid in Gabriel's head and he couldn't suppress a shudder. Simon placed a hand on his shoulder, but he couldn't look anywhere but at his daughter. "Gege, we can't stay," Simon's voice was softer now. "I'm...sorry. I wanted to show you were wrong after all those times you refused to believe me about her, but...all I've done is put us all in danger."

"No, no..." In that second, he had made a decision. His face became grim and determined. "No, I'm glad to know the truth, Simon."

They hurt his princess and he was going to make them all pay.

~*~*~

When Simon was born, Gabriel had been very proud. He'd wanted a son to carry on the family name and be his heir. As Simon grew, he was everything Gabriel had wished for in a son. Intelligent, handsome, hard-working —Simon was a dream come true. He was a well-mannered son from the beginning.

And then Regan told him she was pregnant again. He was apprehensive. He'd already gotten his son and heir, but he suppose another child wouldn't hurt. He was wary when he found out it was going to be a girl, but he helped his wife as he did for Simon's pregnancy and focused on Simon in the meantime.

Then his daughter was born and he was holding her for the first time, and from that moment on he knew he was a goner.

His little River was his precious princess and he was going to give her the 'Verse. Even as she grew up and proved to be more troublesome and unruly than her brother, he loved her to pieces. She proved that, while Simon was intelligent, River was a genius. It worried him because it made her precocious and prone to being too frank. She corrected him, corrected Regan (drove his wife mad), and corrected and helped Simon out so much that Gabriel worried she'd make her brother feel inadequate.

Their dictionaries were always marked up because she tended to go over them and "fix" them. She'd insulted many of Regan's friends (though he agreed they were silly and supercilious). All in all, his River was a bright girl and over shone so many that Gabriel worried she wouldn't find friends or would get into trouble. When he and Regan was reached out to about a special school for kids like River, he felt relief and told Regan it was a good idea. He thought this was a chance for her to make friends, to not let her mind push others away. That she could learn to let her intelligence shine, but not have it be so insulting to others. Even River had been ecstatic and had wanted —asked to go, given how bored she'd become of her current schooling.

Then Simon told him about the letters and the codes, and he didn't want to believe. His princess wasn't being mistreated.

He'd even accused Simon of being jealous. Now here was the truth, staring him in the face, and he felt helpless as to how he could help his precious daughter. After everything that had happened, he felt like he was at fault for letting her go to that place. He'd practically handed those bastards his River and now this is where they'd been left off at.

"I contacted the people that helped me get River out of there," Simon came closer to him, even though he couldn't take his attention away from his daughter still in the corner. "We need to pack up and leave here before the government comes for us. River...River needs to be put back into cryo."

That snapped him out of it. "What? No!"

Gabriel couldn't do that to her. Not after being able to see his daughter for so long, when the Academy kept telling him it was fine and that it was better not to interrupt her schooling. They'd kept him away from her for so long, not being to see her and talk to her. And now that he had, they'd turned her into this! And that he was now going to have to put her back into that box and put her back to sleep?

"Gege, look at her," Simon said. "She'd stand out easily. More than that, I don't think she's really settled being outside that place and is still...recovering. Being in there might help her mind continue to sort itself out. They also...they also told me she could be dangerous."

Gabriel stared at his son. River? Their River? Their sweet, quirky River dangerous?

"Please, Gege," Simon pleaded, tugging at his sleeve.

Gabriel took in a shaky breath but nodded. He looked to his daughter.

"I'm so sorry, Princess."

~*~*~

Simon hadn't known what he was doing when he had the split second thought of returning home, and making his parents forcibly see that he'd been right all this time and to see what that place had done to River.

It had been half out of anger and righteousness, and half out of a need to make their parents understand.

But he hadn't wanted to hurt them, make them break down like this in front of him at seeing River as she was. Seeing his father like this, so lost and hopeless, it brought an empty feeling to him.

When River was born, she had become the jewel in their family. The three of them had become enamored and wanted to give her the world. Simon, even as young as he was then, had been overjoyed at having a baby sister. He'd been so eager to take care of her and he had volunteered for everything, even changing her diapers. Even though he'd grown up with occasional feelings of jealousy and inadequacy, he'd never stopped loving her and putting her on a pedestal. He'd always thought he was the one who'd loved her most and that no one would ever love her as much as he did.

And then he gets reminded that his father had seen her first and had loved her first, and that there was a part of Gabriel Tam that had always chosen River as the favorite.

This was one of those times, as he watched his father cry and trudge towards River, dropping to his knees behind her and wrapping his arms around her curled body. She cried and minutely began to struggle, at one point smacking Gabriel in the face, but his father just continued to hold on. She eventually stopped and went back to rock back and forth in a ball, but she kept crying just as their father did, and the two of them were a crying mess in Simon's eyes.

He swallowed harshly and covered his own eyes, pressing hard against them so he wouldn't start crying too.