yay new story, as always i don't own SJA, credit goes to TKLee and DannyP these guys are awesome reviewers, please enjoy


Luke's POV

"please Luke, if i have to stand between the two of them for much longer i will explode"

i smiled at Marcus, for a week now he had been asking for permission to tell Rani how Clyde felt about her, and vice versa, ever since we all met up together over the Easter break

"no!, no playing matchmaker, those two have to figure it out themselves"

he tilted his head back and let loose a growl of frustration

"seriously! its so obvious, i can't believe neither of them have said anything yet"

he had a point

"i know what you mean, but regardless, no interfering!"

he relented for about five seconds, before turning to me with a mischievous grin on his face

"fair enough, i have other things i can interfere in"

before i could question him, he grabbed my arm and pulled me in close, we both leaned in for a gentle kiss, after a few seconds we broke apart

"you still can't interfere" he crossed his arms and turned to walk to his lecture "I'll see you later OK"

he was still sulking, so i sent a positive buzz of emotions across our mental connection, his expression was fixed for about two seconds before he started grinning.
walking in our separate directions i headed towards my lecture.

the lecturer was quite interesting, and i only needed to correct him once. i got a few strange looks but most people were used to me doing that by now. after i left the lecture hall i had about an hour left before Marcus would be finished in his lecture, so i called Maria on video chat

"hey Luke, whats up"

"hi Maria, listen i need some advice"

i was glad i could still talk to Maria, she always gave me good advice

"OK then Luke what do you need advice on"

"well I've been going out with Marcus for a little while, and we spend loads of time together, but we've never gone out or done anything together that didn't involve coursework or aliens"

she smiled at me, she knew why i was worried

"well then Luke that's easy, just grab him and go, do the first thing that springs into that super-charged brain of yours"

"OK but i don't have any good ideas, i mean compared to what we do most days, anything is sort of boring"

that made her laugh, movies about aliens can't quite compare to chasing them

"maybe that's exactly what you need, a little normal after a day chasing aliens might do you some good"

maybe she was right just doing normal stuff might be good

"OK thanks, Maria, i gotta go, say hi to your dad"

i logged off of video chat and went to find Marcus. i ran into him quite literally just outside his lecture, he crashed into me and we both fell to the floor

"oh Luke there you are, listen i think i found something worth investigating"

i pushed him off of me and got back to my feet

"i thought we agreed we weren't going to go looking for trouble"

my question dimmed his enthusiasm for about two seconds, before it bubbled back to the surface

"i know, i know, but listen, the focus of the lecture was on asteroids, and one of the examples caught my eyes, it fell to earth a little over a century ago"

i shrugged my shoulders, clearly he knew something i didn't

"OK but that's not all that uncommon, stuff does fall to earth all the time Marcus"

taking a quick look around to make sure we alone, he pulled out his scanner and showed me what had him so excited

"this is what makes it uncommon, i pulled up all data available at the time, with a little help from Mr Smith, it came down not too far from here, and it looks like it came from the sun" now he had my attention, what could have survived being that close to the sun. he closed his scanner and hid it in his pocket

"so what do you think Luke want to go take a look?"

it did sound quite interesting, and it wasn't that far out of our way

"alright come on then. I'll grab my keys and K-9 and meet you by my car"

he practically jumped into the air, it had been quiet for a while now, guess we were due an adventure. we loaded K-9 into my car, and set off in search of the crash site. the journey took about half an hour, he fell asleep on the way which suited me quite nicely, it was nice, just watching him sleep, all of the fears and worries that usually plagued him were gone and he looked quite peaceful, i couldn't see his eyes, but his hair had turned quite a natural brown colour, i think that might be what he looked like if he didn't have everyones emotions running through his head. he stirred a little before we arrived

"we're here already, great"

we both climbed out and helped K-9 out of the car, i took a moment to look around, whatever happened here a hundred years ago had long been forgotten, blocks of flats had been built over the impact site.

"OK then Marcus which way?"

he flipped open his scanner and turned in a circle

"follow me"

our search took us to the basement of one of the flats, i was worried the impact site might have been covered over, but as we walked into the centre of the room, Marcus's scanner flared into life

"hey that's weird, Luke, I'm getting life readings"

he had stopped in the centre of the basement floor

"do you think its something to do with the meteorite, could it have been a spaceship like Mara's?"

he shrugged his shoulder, it wasn't an impossible theory

"perhaps, but something is weird about these readings, look"

i took a quick look at the readings, the heartbeat was incredibly slow, it was hard to believe there was anything alive down there

"the readings seem to indicate some kind of hibernation"

he nodded his head in agreement

"yeah i can feel it down there, it feels like its asleep, almost like its dreaming"

i knew the building above us was built fairly recently, depending on the size of what was below us, they might have ended up building around it without even realising

"so something crashed to earth and has been hibernating all this time"

in answer to my question his scanner flared into life again

"whoa, you know what you were saying about hibernating, well i think it knows we are here, its heart rate is increasing"

the ground stirred and then the concrete basement floor started splitting under our feet, we all retreated to the far side of the room. a few seconds later, the cracks in the floor erupted with an explosion of earth. emerging from the ground, was about the size of a small horse but covered in thick black scales, it was crouched low on four legs and its tale slithered out behind it, helping the creature hold its balance, and as it moved closer a set of newly formed teeth glittered in the dull basement lights.

"Marcus, am i dreaming, or is there a dragon in the basement"

the creature was blinking in the dull light, it probably wasn't used to the light after being underground, after it got is bearings the creatures eyes focused on us and it hesitantly moved forwards. i thought about running away, but there was something about the way the creature moved, it didn't look like a confident predator, in fact it was acting a lot like i did, the first time i woke up. with a steady hand Marcus reached out to the dragon

"Luke i think that asteroid wasn't an asteroid, or a spaceship, i think it was an egg"

the dragon hatchling eyed us both nervously, i felt my fear replaced by sympathy, Marcus's idea made sense, if it fell to earth in its egg, it probably has no idea what's going on, Marcus edged forwards slowly but the dragon retreated in fear

"Marcus you said you can communicate with animals right, using emotions instead of words, try it now"

he shrugged his shoulders and reached out gently with his mind, i couldn't see any reaction from either of them at first, but slowly the hatchling moved forwards and let Marcus rest his open palm against its snout

"master Luke, i believe i know the creatures identity, it is known as a rishclaw by its native planet, fortunately my database indicates it is not carnivorous, it feeds on mineral rich rocks, dissolving them with powerful stomach acid, they are know throughout the galaxy because they can freely travel through space, often landing on different worlds to eat, before leaving again"

wow, a living creature that can travel freely through space

"oh no way, my mum told me stories about them, i thought they were legends"

Marcus let his excitement flow into my mind, it was infectious, even the hatchling was getting excited, its tail swished through the air like a dogs tail

"so it didn't come from inside the sun, its mother must have used the sun like an incubator, keeping its egg warm"

Marcus seemed to agree with me, but his face was creased into a frown

"i think you're right, but we have a problem, unless I've missed my guess, our baby rishclaw is very hungry"

the dragon had lost interest us and was nudging its way through all the earth on the floor

"K-9 said it ate mineral rich rocks right, a bit like crabs eat sand, I'm not sure where we could find anything suitable"

i highly doubted the thames river contained much in the way of nutritious rocks

"oh i got it, the geology department back at uni, they have loads of core samples there right, some of those should be suitable"

it sounded like a good idea, we just needed to sneak him passed the university security

"OK now we just need to convince the dragon to get into my car, something tells me it isn't going to like it"

i was right, it took us a long time to convince the dragon to get into my car it was already getting dark outside by the time we were ready to go, even with the back seats down the rishclaw barely fit, but once it noticed the great view out of the windshield, the hatchling seemed quite content. the drive back was quite eventful, at least two cars we drove passed almost crashed, we just hoped they didn't get a look at our passenger. we drove around to the back of the university and all got out of my car


Marcus's POV

"alright lets split up, i'll sneak in and open a window you take the rishclaw to the back of the building"

he nodded and we both ran our separate ways, the rishclaw seemed incredibly happy running around outside

i slowly edged my way along the back wall of the building, i don't know why i was bothering with sneaking, between K-9 and the rishclaw i had no chance of stealth. after a few minutes Luke appeared at one of the ground floor windows. he pulled me in through the window and the rishclaw poked his head through after us

"ok lets have a look around, i think they keep core samples over here"

after a few moments of hunting through the room we found several metallic cylinders, we picked out a few pieces of rock and turned to the rishclaw

"K-9 how does it actually eat these"

the rishclaw answered Luke's question for us, its tongue flicked out and pulled the piece of rock from my hand into its mouth

"Master Luke the creature will dissolve the rocks with its saliva until the rock is soft enough for its teeth, then chew and swallow it"

sure enough we saw a flash of white teeth as the rock crumbled and was swallowed. the rishclaws eyes quickly moved to the cylinders in our hands. smiling Luke held out the next rock and we both watched as it was swallowed. after about an hour of feeding it finally decided it was full

"well that's that, come on we should get out of here, it just ate its way through about five different pieces of geology coursework, if we get caught we will be in serious trouble"

it made me laugh that Luke was worried more about the missing assignments than the fact that campus security would find what looked like a dragon in the window

"OK come o..."

i was interrupted by a low bubbling sound coming from the rishclawsstomach, the next second a burst of fire erupted from the hatchlings mouth. me and Luke barely jumped out of the way in time, after the shock subsided i couldn't help but laugh, Luke was laughing as well from his hiding place behind the desks

"where did that come from?"

i had no idea

"master Luke, hydrogen is a bi-product of the rishclaws digestion of the rocks you fed it"

a massive bleeping sound blared through the building, we had triggered the fire alarm

"uh-oh come on we have to get out of here"

we both gently pushed the rishclaw backwards and climbed out of the window, running away from the building as quickly as we could. Luke and K-9 leading the way. once we had put some distance between us and the building we stopped, i checked my watch and saw that it was already gone midnight, no wonder i was feeling tired.

"are you alright you look really tired"

he was standing next to me his eyes were full of concern

"yeah I'm fine just more tired than..." oh of course "its not just me, I'm picking up on the rishclaw's tiredness as well, i was wondering why i felt this tired"

poor little hatchling he's just a baby, and its had a very exciting first day

"Master Luke, Marcus the rishclaws body temperature is lower than it should, the creature needs somewhere hot for it to sleep, before its temperature drops further"

guess sticking it in my room under an electric blanket is out of the question

"OK umm lets see, theres the boiler room in the basement of the student rooms, but i don't think we could sneak it across campus, umm we could try lighting a fire for it to sleep on, but that might draw a lot of attention, oh i got it, the gym"

i turned to Luke, the rishclaw needed sleep not a work out

"what are you thinking?"

"the gym has a steam room, we can crank it up full blast should be hot enough for the rishclaw"

it sounded like a good idea, the gym was on the edge of the campus, it would be pretty easy to sneak in

"alright sounds good lets go"

it took us about ten minutes to sneak across campus unseen, Luke's sonic pen managed to get us into the gym and disable any security camera, and with a little persuasion from me the rishclaw settled down into the steam room. i could sense it was warm and content. so i sat down just outside

"hey Marcus, do we have a plan for what to do with the rishclaw, we can't keep it hidden for long"

the no pets in dorms rule sprang to the front of my mind and i had to suppress the urge to giggle

"i know, I'm thinking once its warm and had a nap, we can find a decent hiding place then have Mr Smith contact the APL, there a group that help preserve rare alien life"

Luke looked impressed that i had actually come up with a plan, he settled down next to me and relaxed, curling his fingers around mine, after a couple of minutes of silence i felt something buzzing in Luke's mind, looking at him i could see on his face something was wrong

"are you alright Luke something is wrong i can see it on your face"

he turned his head so i could see him and gave me a faint smile, he always liked it when i could tell what he was thinking without my powers

"I'm OK, its just i was hoping to do something tonight, something simple like pizza or a movie, it seems silly but we've never really just gone out together, you know done something normal, like a proper date"

i gave his hand a gentle squeeze

"OK not quite the normal evening you had planned, but we have a few hours before the rishclaw wakes up, what do you want to do, we could just talk"

he seemed pleased with my suggestion moving closer i put my arm over him

"well you've told me loads about solaris, but what about people you knew, did you have any friends that you would hang out with before the war"

i thought back to my time on solaris

"yeah one she was called kiara, whenever i ran away from the palace i would find her and then we'd spend the rest of the time until i got caught doing anything we wanted, i lost track of her after the war started, i wish i had checked in on her before i ran away, she might have come with me if i asked" Luke smiled he knew what it was like having friends like that "OK Luke my turn, am i the first person you kissed"

i noticed a blush creep across his face

"no well sort of, you're the first person i kissed, but there was this girl, who i rescued from a game called combat 3000 she was grateful so she kissed me, i didn't really get why Maria and mum reacted the way they did, or how i was supposed to react, but Clyde explained it to me afterwards"

i could just imagine a young confused Luke and how he would react in that situation

"OK your turn again Luke"

i watched him think for a few seconds, until a flash of realisation hit him

"Marcus whats your last name?"

i looked at him for a few seconds, i couldn't believe we had gone all this time and i had never told Luke my full name

"i can't believe i never told you that, my full name is Marcus raylan-vensera"

it had been a while since i had used my full name

"raylan-vensera, is that your dads name, do you inherit it from your parents like on earth"

i loved the curious look on his face

"my mother took my fathers name, raylan, and the second part is the name of the city we lived in, Vensera"

content with questions for the minute we slipped back into an easy silence, i could sense the rishclaw just beyond the door it was still fast asleep, seeing the pool gave me an idea

"well to continue our normal evening slash morning out, fancy a dip in the pool"

he looked kinda surprised at the idea

"what are you serious?" i nodded and got up slipping my T-shirt over my head, the air was cool against my skin "but what if we get caught?"

i turned to him letting a mischievous smile cross my face

"come on Luke, you wanted to do something normal, sneaking in for a late night swim, sounds normal to me, besides trying not to get caught is half the fun, and if we do get caught we can just show them the rishclaw and they'll forget all about us"

i undid my belt and let my jeans pool around my ankles, stepping out of them i moved to the edge of the pool and dived in, i loved swimming it was one of my favorite things to do on earth, after the initial shock of the cool water i floated back to the surface and saw Luke waiting at the edge

"come on in the waters great"

he dropped his clothes on the ground next to mine and sat on the edge of the pool, he still looked nervous

"whats wrong Luke? you're not still worried about getting caught are you?"

he shook his head, there was definitely something on his mind

"no I'm not worried about that, promise you won't laugh"

"yeah i promise"

his eyes dropped to the pool

"i don't know how to swim, i never learnt"

oh that's what it is, i looked down where Luke's belly-button should have been, guess that would've been hard to explain. i pulled myself back out of the pool and sat beside him

"i guess things might have been tricky to explain, but that's no big deal, you're a fast learner, i can teach you now"

his eyes brightened at the idea and we both slipped back into the water, Luke kept his hand firmly on the edge at first, but eventually i pulled him away from the edge with me, after about ten minutes of splashing around Luke was swimming on his own. we lost track of time for a bit, eventually some of the tiredness of the day seeped in and we pulled ourselves out of the pool to dry off

"thanks Marcus, this was a lot of fun"

he had a big smile on his face

"you're welcome, but what happened when you landed in the ocean, when we met captain sparrow, i thought he said he fished you out"

he looked quite sheepish at that point

"yeah i got lucky, i sort of panicked, luckily the captain and his ship were already close by, they saw me flailing around"

i gave him a playful push, then yelped when i felt something poke me in the back

"relax Marcus, its just the rishclaw"

i turned around and sure enough the hatchling was behind us, apparently it felt left out of all the fun

"well since you're awake now, lets go find a decent hiding place for you"

it was refreshing not having to run away. we slipped quietly out of the gym and nobody was any the wiser. it took us a long time to find a decent hiding place the sun was just starting to rise, eventually we found the perfect place

"i can't believe i didn't think of this sooner, Mitch and Bev are out of town for a week, and they have a garage around here that Mitch rented to keep his car in"

Luke used his screwdriver and we let ourselves into the garage, it was a little cluttered but the rishclaw seemed quite happy, it ended up trying to eat the spare tire though

"there, right I've sent that message to Mr Smith he'll contact APL, they'll be here soon"

Luke gave me a tired nod of his head, we both sat down, with our backs against the garage door, i closed my eyes, and let myself fall asleep with Luke resting his head on my shoulder.

it must have been about midday when we both woke up, there was a strange bleeping noise it took me a second to figure out that it was Marcus's scanner

"oh Marcus wake up" he ignored me so i pulled his scanner out of his pocket" you've got a message from the APL they're, outside!, wow that was fast"

after convincing the rishclaw to wake up, i had to convince Marcus to wake up which was much harder, i opened the garage door and we met the members of the APL there were three of them, i couldn't help but notice they all had guns, i looked at Marcus he was suspicious too

"ah greetings gentleman, i am here to take the rishclaw off world"

the alien that spoke was all charm, but something made me distrust him, i think mum told me this was called trusting my instincts, so i decided to do what she would do

"that's an awful lot of guns for a harmless baby rishclaw"

his smile faltered for about two seconds and then his charm returned

"i know, but there is an awful lot of poachers that would quite happily kill for this little hatchling"

Marcus smiled and took over

"yeah i know, i heard you guys nearly lost an Arvon to a bunch of poachers

the alien stumbled for about a second

"but of course, luckily we were able to elude there attacks"

Marcus smiled wide, he had them

"really cause last time i checked Arvon was the name of my teddy bear, that i had on Solaris"

all the Poachers charm disappeared

"very clever boy"

he gave a signal and all of his men pointed their guns at us

"now the two of you back off and give me the rishclaw"

Marcus looked me in the eyes, and i gave a silent nod of approval

"wrong!, you're going to leave now!"

i took a step back from Marcus, i hate seeing him like this, his eyes were pitch black, all of the poachers stepped back in fear, except for their leader

"well, well ,well i heard rumours that their was a reneshan loose in the universe, who would have thought it was on earth"

at the poachers word all of the darkness in Marcus's eyes disappeared, replaced by fear, it was like all of the air had been knocked out of him, he stumbled and fell backwards, i didn't know what was wrong

"i don't know what you said to Marcus, but you still can't take the rishclaw"

i pointed my sonic pen at them, but they just laughed

"nice try human, now I'm a reasonable man, step aside, give me the rishclaw and we'll leave you alone no harm done"

i looked from Marcus to the rishclaw i have to do something, but i don't know what, the Poachers all moved forwards they were slowly surrounding us, but they were stopped in their tracks by an explosion high up in the sky

"what?, my ship"

the poacher turned on me, thinking i was responsible, he pulled his gun from its holster, before he could shoot me we were both knocked off our feet by an intense gust of wind, i caught a glimpse of wide wings and dark scales before i passed out. i was woken up by Marcus he was crouched over me his concern overshadowed by fear, he helped me sit up, i couldn't see the poachers, or the rishclaw

"what happened where is everyone?"

he gave me a small smile

"the poachers retreated to whats left of their ship, the rishclaw, got taken home, by its mother, or father, i couldn't really tell which, now come on we should get back"

he turned to walk home, i could always tell when he was trying to avoid something

"not so fast Marcus, what did he call you that made you react like that, I've never seen you so afraid"

he moved back and forth for a few seconds everything about his body language told me he was agitated

"I've made a mistake Luke"

he gently reached out with his mind, leading me deep into his subconscious, i found something there it was dark and seeping out into different parts of his mind, it was like a tumour, and it terrified me, he led me back out of his mind and I found myself back on the street

"Marcus what have you done?"


first chapter of a new story possibly the last story, i suspect there are some questions about the mystery man introduced in the last story don't worry he hasn't been forgotten, he will appear in the next chapter, as always reviews are appreciated

hint for next chapter: god i love messing with alternate realities