Story by Joss Whedon and Zack Whedon
Pencilled by Chris Samnee
Colours by Dave Stewart
“We each get a time in this world, and I’ve had mine.“
Derrial Book
Haven, 2518
The sky rumbles low over Haven, a sound Book knows in his bones. The settlers ask when Serenity’s comin’ back, one of ’em wonderin’ how a preacher ever crossed paths with a man like Mal Reynolds.
Then the sound hits again — wrong pitch, wrong weight. Book’s face hardens.
“That ain’t no freighter,” he says. “That’s an A.V.-Sparrow. Alliance gunship. Thick skin. Thin underbelly.”
He moves like a man who’s done this before. Climbs into the turret. Fires true. The Sparrow falls in a blaze of metal and smoke.
A bullet finds him anyway.
He sinks to the ground, breath thin, voice soft.
“This is it. I can feel it. It’s okay. We each get a time in this world, and I’ve had mine. It can be tough. It can be ugly. But I’m grateful for the journey. I found faith. I found family. And in the oddest of places…”
The light fades.
And in his mind, Book’s story walks backward.
Serenity, 2517
Book’s on the bench press, Jayne spot‑checkin’ him like a bored wolf. They talk sins, heaven, and whether Jayne’s got a snowball’s chance of seein’ it.
River’s doin’ handstands like gravity’s a polite suggestion.
In the kitchen, Kaylee and Wash play cards. Book pours himself a glass of water. Kaylee watches him drink like it’s poetry.
“How come water always looks s’much better when you’re drinkin’ it?”
Book smiles, talkin’ about the beauty of creation, even in a glass of water.
He tells the Abbess he’s leavin’. Says the Cortex shows a world full of hurt, and he feels God callin’ him back into it.
“You were quite lost when you came to us,” she says.
“I was,” Book answers. “But I’m healed enough to walk again.”
He leaves the destination to God.
Later, in the shipyards of Persephone, he meets Kaylee for the first time. She smiles bright as sunrise.
“You’re gonna come with us.”
And he does.
2504
Rain. Mud. A thug hauls a drunken Book out of a bar.
“You’re gonna come with us.”
He hits the street hard. An Alliance officer recognises him.
“Derrial Book.”
Book laughs. “Guess again.”
The officer mentions the I.A.V. Alexander. Book says it’s a shame what happened.
The officer kicks him in the face.
Book wakes in a shelter. A man hands him soup. Book stares into it like it’s the first miracle he’s ever seen.
“The universe. Existence. All of creation supports this bowl. Which supports the soup. Which supports me.”
He finishes it. Walks into the night. He sees a neon cross glowing on a Church door, shining through the rain.
And walks toward it.
I.A.V. Cortez, 2498
Fire everywhere. Screens screaming red.
Book — an Alliance officer — orders retreat. Surrender. Save the three hundred lives still breathin’.
His commander relieves him. Says Book’s operation got the Alexander destroyed. Four thousand dead. Teachers. Doctors. Soldiers.
“The single greatest disaster in Alliance history.”
He tears off Book’s insignia. Throws him into an escape pod.
Book lands alone in a desert, stripped of rank, purpose, and name.
2494
Book interrogates a rebel. Hard. Too hard.
Officers watch him through glass, talkin’ about his meteoric rise. His ambition. His brilliance. His hunger.
“What drives him?” one asks.
“Endin’ the war,” the other says. “Like no one I’ve ever met.”
2490
He fights Alliance soldiers in the street — fast, brutal, efficient. He slips into a rebel meeting. They talk about infiltratin’ the Alliance before the war starts proper.
Everyone leaves but him.
“What would the mole do?” he asks. They show him a bio-robotic transmitter. A spy camera. The price is steep.
The Surgeons take his eye. Place the camera inside. They’ll watch everything he sees. Always. Then he fades into the background.
He finds a target: a lone Alliance officer. Without hesitation, he takes the man’s life. He reaches down, removes his identification pack.
And he takes his victim’s name.
And Derrial Book is reborn.
2484
He’s Henry Evans now — a street rat, a thief, a survivor. He mugs a couple. Runs from cops. Hides under a hovercar.
A cop later finds him. Offers him a place in the independence movement.
Henry turns him down.
Goes home.
Cops kick in his door.
He looks at the flyer again.
And walks away.
2474
A boy comes home to a drunk father. Relief — the man’s asleep.
But sleep don’t last.
The father wakes. Attacks. Chokes. Beats.
The boy packs a bag. Leaves for good.
And the boy walks into the world.
A long road ahead.
A long road back.
“This life is a fight.
If you sit still, someone gets the drop on you.
I won’t let it happen. I’ll protect myself. Take what I need. Keep movin’.
Get out of my way.
This life is mine.“
CONTINUITY
The boy listening to Book at the beginning of the story appears to be the same child that Kaylee is rather fond of in the feature film.
Jayne reminds Book that he did ‘right by the Mudders,’ a reference to Jaynestown.
One sequence flashes back to the moment Kaylee and Book met at the Eavestown Docks in Serenity.
Book’s escape capsule resembles the Operative’s used in the movie.
A report from an Alliance officer on Book says that he worked up the ranks of the local law enforcement on the planet of Jiangyin – which is the same planet he was shot on in Safe.
We finally discover the truth about Shepherd Book in this story, after several hints in the television series that he may not be just a Shepherd. The opening scene is set on Haven during the events of the movie.
COVER GALLERY
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STORY ORDER
The Feature Film / …
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