Character: Malcolm Reynolds
Fandom: Firefly/Serenity
Rating: PG
Word Count: 400
Prompt: So is this an audience or a mosaic? .... Hades Week 16 for scifi_muses,
Fic Challenge: 3/7 for catalyst2
Setting: After the Big Damned Movie

The cuffs were digging into my wrists. I’d stopped struggling. I knew I couldn’t break the damned things, and I’d never been good at slipping out of them. Only person I knew who could do that was River, and that girl has bones that just don’t bend like normal folks. The guard to the right of me, yanked on my elbow. I hit the ground hard, my knee getting ripped open by a chunk of jagged rock. With my hands bound behind me, I had no way to break the fall, and my face hit the ground next. I could feel the blood soaking into my pants while I hissed through my teeth.

“Gorram son of a whore.” It slipped out before I could stop it, and the other guard’s foot came down in the middle of my shoulder blades. The ribs that had only just healed threated to brake again as he put his weight on me.

“If you try to escape again, Reynolds, I will shoot you.”

“I weren’t tryin’ to escape. I tripped.” They watched me, smiling from ear to ear, as I struggled to get back on my feet. “When I try to escape, you’ll know it.” Because you’ll be dead on my way out the door.

They each grabbed an arm when I didn’t get up fast enough and had me walking before my boots were firm beneath me. Felt like a little kid being walked tween my parents. I kept my eyes on the ground this time, making sure I didn’t trip on anything else. I’d given up finding an opportunity to get away, and I knew that sooner or later that Zoe would come for me. Sooner would be better though.

Sooner would be a lot better.

It didn’t matter which border moon you were on, every magistrate’s office looked the same. I was dragged down the middle to stand before the big man himself, and I waited patiently while they read me the charges.

“Do you understand?” the man with the heavy white wig asked.

“Yes, I understand. Know most of those by heart actually.” I turned to look at the crowd who’d come for the show. They all looked bored as hell. Guess catching a desperado like me wasn’t as interesting as I’d have thought. I was going to have to work on my reputation. “So is this an audience or a mosaic?”