"Oh, he's not blood relation," River answered casually, eyes falling as she recalled the first day she'd come here. She'd been all alone, alone without Simon, without her captain or her friends. But Dias had been there. Dias and Lust and Scar. "Got brought here a long time ago with another batch of cattle. In case you've not eyes in your head, I'm not quite right. Calmed me. He's a way with little sisters, and so he's my brother."

Talking. Oh, River was scarcely encouraged to talk, but here she'd even been asked!

"Came from a large 'verse, lots of worlds inhabitable. Governed by the Alliance, a group that fought in the war to end all wars, fought for what they liked to call 'unification'." River laughed, a bit sarcastically. "But that's not the truth of it. Dictatorship. Did all manner of unsightly things to folk just because they thought they could. They're looking for me, looking to take me back. My brother, my blood brother, Simon saved me from the smelly, white rooms. We've been running forever. Since we found a home. Serenity. Mid-bulk Transport. Standard Radion Accelerator core. Class code 03-K64--Firefly. Found a home there. Found a family." It was a pleasure to talk about home, but also a bit of a trouble. The secrets, the memories... "What they do to some folk here..." River's voice trailed off and a deep breath of air was taken in.

"Not unlike what the Alliance did to me when they took me away."