Disclaimer: I don't own Outlaw Star, nor do I claim to. I do own Dijin, Ravyn, the Fyren galaxy and C24's and the plot. Those are all © to me and will always be © to me. So don't take them
Author's notes: This is the first chapter obviously. This is pretty much an old idea that I had when I was like 12 and now I've revamped it, a lot. I might do some sort of dictionary of encyclopedia telling about Dijin and Ravyn's world and language, but that's going to come in the far, far future and I doubt any of you care that much anyways. That's about all I have to say, Outlaw Star Rules!
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Chapter One
The Raven and the Dove
Everything lost is meant to be found. When a human loses something that is most precious to them, they will go to the ends of the universe to find it. Whether they find it or not depends on their own skills and cunning. Though people aren't the only beings blessed and cursed with this emotion, the urge to find what is lost, other races will also search for the most desirable of discoveries, killing all who cross their path. Centuries have passed and discovery of new planets and races becomes less and less of a surprise, but discovery is still something that pushes mankind forward, discovery of something new, or something lost. Discovery of the people we are inside, whether that is something we want, or not.
***
A huge explosion took place on a remote desert planet. Two female figures ran stealthily from where there had once been a manor. Their feet barely touched the ground as they ran to the place where they had parked two hover-cycles. They were quickly cut off by six men carrying a struggling child, The men towered over the women, looking down at them with smirks of satisfaction. The man closest to them pulled out a blade, placing it at the neck of the child. The women looked at each other, panicked. The woman nearest to the child raised herself to full height and pulled a pistol from her holster. The man just smirked even wider, and using his fist, punched her once in the face, knocking her completely unconscious, he took his blade away from the child's throat and placed it away, he turned and signaled to his following and all of them quickly turned into a group of huge wolves. Taking the child in his mouth the leader signaled to two of his following, they tore loose the wires of the hover-cycles, destroying the women's only means of escape, then stealthily followed their leader off into the distance.
***
Jim Hawking sighed and looked at his computer, It was three days since Melfina had gone missing and he still had no leads. Gene was no help, he hadn't come out of his room. Jim made another batch of coffee and sat back down. Jim was certain she had been kidnapped, he just couldn't see Melfina running away from them. Although Suzuka had been quick to say that, knowing Gene's antics, that was probably what had happened. Jim took a gulp of his coffee and swallowed it with a grimace, god he wished Mel was still here.
It had been 2 years since the Leyline, and Jim was now thirteen. He had grown quite a bit and was now as tall as if not taller then Melfina. Gene hadn't grown much, mentally or physically, except that he was much more sensitive to matters involving Melfina, and his hair was long again. He'd spent a lot of the last couple years in and out of jail, sometimes narrowly escaping prison time, but it was his nature.
It was growing dark out and it was obvious that a storm was approaching, Jim turned off his computer and stood up, heading to the kitchen, he opened the fridge to rummage, when the sharp knocking came to the back door. Thunder cracked ominously and he looked behind the refrigerator door to see if he could tell who was knocking. Unfortunately for him the only thing he could see out the door was a shadow. He put away the armload of food he had grabbed and began inching towards the door. He was somewhat worried about who it could possible be at this time at night, and he looked out into the main room as he passed, hoping Gene would open his bedroom door and come out to help. He wondered if Gene would even come out if Jim screamed for him.
Whoever was at the door knocked sharply again, they could see him coming and they were probably wondering what was taking him so long to get to the door. A low rumbling of thunder was followed once again by more lightning. Jim snapped out of his thoughts and came to his senses. There was not going to be an axe murderer behind the door, probably just someone who was lost and needed directions to the nearest inn. He tried to look out the door window to see who it was, but he could still only see a shadow. He unlocked the door and pulled it open.
"Oh thank Deio someone was here, I was worried we'd have to walk another few blocks in this shit" , said a distinctly female voice. Jim moved out of the way as a tall woman pushed passed him into the hallway.
"Umm we?" , Jim asked, looking around, he looked down and was surprised to see another woman lying at his feet, her eyes closed and with blood coming from her nose, lip, and what looked like the back of her head, for her black hair was covered in blood. ,"what's going on here?"
"We need a place to stay, we read you're business does ALL business and we figured since we had a proposition for you that we'd see if we could crash here." She said matter-of-factly.
Jim paused, "You're friend looks unconscious"
"Well obviously I did most of the thinking in this situation, but the situation involves the both of us, so I brought, the both of us"
"Okay then" ,Jim said, "I'll take her to the guest room, we'll lay her down then we'll talk"
Jim picked up the woman in his arms, she was tall and thin, just like her partner, they were both taller then him, probably around 5'9" versus his 5'5". The woman he was holding was light too, he guessed around 120-130lbs. She was also bleeding all over him. He walked as fast as he could to the empty room next to the one that belonged to Gene and Melfina, dropping her lightly on the couch. The couch was a fold out and he could have changed it into a bed, but he was in a hurry. He went into the bathroom that connected to his room and began to wet a towel. Walking back into the guest room he saw the other woman standing in the doorway. He turned on the light so that the room lit up. The room was very small, they couldn't afford much bigger. It was completely cement although there were some blankets on the floor to keep bare feet from being cold. The only furniture in the room was the previously mentioned couch, right underneath a window that Gene had taken a marker to and written "Drifty Business" a few months before. What that meant, Jim had no clue, but it wasn't important now. He placed the towel around the woman's bloody head then he motioned for the other one to sit on the arm of the couch, but the woman shook her head and walked away from the doorway, heading back to the kitchen. Jim shrugged and followed her, he looked back once at the unconscious woman on the couch and turned off the light.
The woman in his kitchen studied him as he walked in, he did the same to her. Sizing her up, you could say. She had been wearing a beige trench coat, but now the bloodstained object lay over the back of one of the chairs. She was dressed casual normal enough. She was wearing a high collared white button-up blouse that looked like something a 16th century ship captain might wear, along with black leggings and brown boots that went up past her knees. Even through the nice clothing though, Jim could tell she had been through hell. Her face was dirty and bloody, and her green eyes were tired. Her blonde hair was cut like Melfina's and she looked strikingly similar to a woman named Valeria Jim had met once on a military ship.
"First I wanna know your name" Jim broke the silence.
"You may call me Dijin" She answered.
"Eee-what?"
"Eee-jinn. It means little white bird in my tongue. You would know it better as 'Dove'" she answered, exasperated.
Now that Jim thought of it, she did have a peculiar accent, "What about her?" he made a quick hand motion back to the guest room.
"Ravyn"
"And what does that mean in your tongue?" Jim asked sarcastically.
"Exactly what it sounds like!" ,she was getting angry, "Now are you going to introduce YOURself so I can get to my point?"
"Okay, Okay don't get your panties in a bunch" ,she glared at him, "You wait here I'm going to go and get my partner, He needs to have an idea of what's going on here."
Jim ran quickly to Gene's room. The nerve that woman had to come to HIS home and shop AFTER HOURS to bring up a business proposition! What sort of business did she think they ran? It's not like they were as dead broke as they had been, sure they could use the money, but they didn't have to do anything "unclean" anymore. They could make enough money to survive and even have a few drinks on the weekend just running a good clean business. Gene hadn't had to take on a bounty in three months! Jim was fuming with anger as he got to Gene's bedroom door and he pounded on it a little bit harder then he had expected to.
"GENE!" then, realizing that this might not be the best way to go about doing this, he opened the door just a crack instead and whispered, "Gene?"
"What?!"
"Ack!" Jim yelled and jumped back Gene appeared very slowly from the shadows. It was obvious that he hadn't been out of his room for three days, and to Jim it seemed like longer. Gene's hair, now almost shoulder length, was dirty and hanging around his face. His face was littered with 3 day old stubble, and with the strange glint in his eye, he looked like the murderous man that Jim had been worried was at the door. The thunder and lightning storm rumbling the house wasn't helping Jim's nerves either. "We have a client" Jim said.
Gene just stared. Jim looked at him and repeated, "We have a CLIENT" this time more slowly.
"I heard you the first time, but why are you telling me this NOW?"
"because the aforementioned client is in the kitchen RIGHT NOW." Jim said, nodding back to the kitchen.
"Yes, your "client" is waiting for you to return so she can get straight to business." Dijin said, she was standing in the doorway from the kitchen to the main room.
Gene, who was only wearing a pair of boxers sunk back into the shadows with a mumbled "I'll be right out."
***
Ten minutes later they were all sitting around the small kitchen table sipping some coffee. Gene had changed into a long sleeved formfitting black shirt with blue lining and he had washed his hair. He was wearing the same black pants he always wore and he had put on his gun holster. You can never be to safe right? His feet were cold but he wasn't going to put on his boots. Jim was wearing just his pants and a blue tank top. He had been about ready to go to bed before all this had happened. Gene had been in bed, but Jim had a knack for not letting Gene get an ounce of sleep.
"Now what is it that you need to talk to us about?" Jim asked
"I have an idea as to where your friend is." Dijin answered
"Huh?"
"Your friend with the dark hair, I saw her in the picture for your ad."
"Mel?" Gene asked, "You know where she is?"
"Now don't get ahead of yourself sparky, I said I have an IDEA"
"Well do tell us your IDEA" Jim said, somewhat sarcastically.
Dijin glared knives at him, "Hon you should learn to hold your tongue, I might just leave."
"Ignore him, it's the hormones, he just hit puberty." Gene said to her.
"Shut the hell up Gene." Jim said
"Anyways" Dijin cut in, "I believe she was taken to the Fyren galaxy."
"No one goes to the Fyren galaxy." Gene said
"Excuse me? Who do you think you are?" Dijin asked
"I'm Gene Starwind, Who are you?"
"I was born and raised in the Fyren galaxy, I think I know very well that people DO go there."
"All those planets are wastelands, why would anyone go there?"
"To hide a woman from her boyfriend that would never think of going there because he believes those planets are nothing but wastelands."
Gene just stared, "How do you know this?"
"Someone very important to me was also kidnapped, 2 days ago." She answered
"So?"
"That someone was kidnapped by a gang notorious in that galaxy." came a deep female voice from the doorway. Gene and Jim turned to see who was speaking.
"Ravyn, Hon, good thing you're up."
"Who's this?" Gene asked, bewildered
"My partner, Ravyn." Dijin answered
Gene looked at Jim, who just shrugged.
"What happened to you?" Gene asked, taking in Ravyn's bloody face and the bloody towel wrapped around her head.
"I fell" she answered, unconvincingly. When Jim had carried her to her room she had been wearing a blue body suit and a little vest with shoulder pads along with boots, some gold hoop belts and a gun holster, now she had stripped down to her black sports bra and black boy-cut briefs.
"So you want us to retrieve your friend, and save Melfina in the process?" Jim asked
"That's the idea yeah" said Ravyn
"Hold up a second." Gene cut in, seemingly angry. " Why the hell did this gang of yours take Mel?"
"How the fuck should we know?" Ravyn answered
"And how do you know Mel was taken?" Jim asked
"What other leads do you have?" Dijin asked calmly
"She has a point Jim." Gene said, "Gear up we're going to the Fyren galaxy."
"First though we have to go and get our ship, we traveled here in Ravyn's 2 person C24." said Dijin
"You actually ride in one of those pieces of shit?" Gene asked
"You'd be surprised what one of our "pieces of shit" can do." Dijin said with a smirk.