I wasn't expecting to to update again this week and this chapter gave me a couple of issues, but I managed to get it done and cleaned up enough to where I feel okay posting it. This is the one of the last of the set-up chapters (at least for you readers. I need to get to Chapter 10 to start writing what originally made me want to write this fic out in the first place.) But anyways I hope you enjoy and feel free to leave a review.

EtherealTulip: Glad you're liking it so far!

Firelover11: Thanks! And stick around, he just might!


"Natsu! Help me! Please!" Lucy screamed as shining winged golden figures drug her away from Natsu's outstretched hand before ripping her apart in front of him. He tried to scream, only for nothing to come out as he stood frozen, unable to move. Everything was being destroyed in front of him. Millions of different beings were being slaughtered, ripped apart, burned alive, tortured by blindingly golden beings, brimming with malevolent intent.

He saw his other friends being tormented as well. Happy locked into a shining cage, his wings ripped off, bleeding on the ground next to him. Gray having his skin peeled off, screaming wordlessly into the red sky as Erza's corpse, impaled on a thousand blades, writhed in constant unliving agony. Natsu tried to stop looking, tears streaming down as he felt cold hands grab his shoulders and he tried to scream, words finally coming out.

"No! No! Get off me!"


Haven City, Planet Haven, Mallgar System, Mid Rim, Haven Republic, Edge Space

"Hey! Hey! Take it easy kid! We're not going to hurt you!"

Natsu shot forward, eyes wide and pupils dilated, still swinging his arms as he took several gasps of air. His senses kicked into overdrive, quickly assessing everything in the room as he scanned for threats. He was lying in small rectangular room, about twelve feet long, maybe eight across. The walls were a faded grey and lined with cabinets and strange looking stations, though Natsu did see a sink off to the far wall. The room was illuminated by four bright white light panels in the ceiling, bathing the room in a sterile white candescence. There was a solid door, smelled like steel, in the far right corner of the room, barely visible from his position, currently closed.

He was lying in a bed, covered in a pale white sheet, a pair of thin long plastic tubes going from a metal cylinder by his bed, filled with fluids, into a vein on his right arm. His clothes were gone, instead he was wearing some sort of gown, like he had seen on the gravely injured before. He realized his scarf was missing and he couldn't see it anywhere, couldn't smell it. A wave of anxiety washed over him. He needed that scarf back.

"Hey kid, can you hear me?" A cool female voice drew him out of his momentary panic and his tunnel vision cleared. It was the woman from before, the one with the eyepatch. She was leaning over his bed, one hand on the railing and another being withdrawn back as her visible blue eye regarded him with a mixture of both concern and wariness. She looked to be in her mid-to late thirties, dressed in a matching black turtleneck and sweat pants with a silver necklace with a purple crystal hanging form it's chain, skin pale and with numerous small scars across what would have otherwise been a flawless face. A wet, sloshing noise made his head to turn to the left in an instant.

Off to his left was the floating octopus-like alien, though with his vision no longer blurry, he could see that the creature, whose skin seemed to constantly shift colors, was dressed in a cloth ring that went around the front of its face, a bevy of small pouches and holsters attached along the ring. Its large orange eyes were staring at him as one of its many tentacles rested in an open pouch. He looked away form it for the moment as his nerves calmed somewhat and turned back to the woman.

"Yeah, I can hear you," he replied, a bit more curtly than he intended, "Where the hell am I? Who are you people? Where's my clothes at?"

"You're in the med-bay of the Albatross, our ship. We fixed you up. We're not your enemies," she said, stressing the last sentence, "My name is Lynn. The good doctor here is Choxin. Can you tell me your name?"

"Natsu. Natsu Dragneel," Natsu said as he scratched at the tubes in his arm, trying his best to get a read on the woman, "Thanks for healing me. I probably wouldn't have made it otherwise."

"Well you're welcome, but I didn't fix you up. That would be Choxin there," Lynn said as she pointed at the floating octopus, apparently named Choxin. Choxin let out a noise that sounded like a cross between a gurgle and a bubblegum pop and Lynn let off a small laugh. Natsu frowned before speaking up.

"Okay, how the hell do you know what he's saying? Why is nobody but the humans here speaking Fiorian?" Natsu asked crossly, not liking feeling out of the loop, especially when he didn't trust these people fully yet. Lynn looked annoyed at his tone before understanding flashed across her face.

"Oh yeah we noticed during your scans that you don't have your translator. Did you lose yours somewhere?" she asked before scrunching up her face, "Uh kid, what the hell is Fiorian? We're all speaking Mekartan. You're speaking Mekartan."

Natsu was silent for a moment, processing that information, before he spoke again, "I'm going to ask you a really weird question. What world am I on right now?"

Lynn looked at him strangely, wondering if the boy had head trauma they had missed in the scan. "You're on Haven." A blank stare was her response. "You know, the grand gateway into Edge Space, where anything can be bought and sold without the Empire breathing down your neck?"

"The Empire? Edge Space? None of that means anything to me. I'm from Earthland. Does that mean anything to you?" Natsu asked, getting the unsettling feeling in his stomach, "Fiore? Fairy Tail? Any of that mean anything to you?"

How the hell does this kid not know what Edge Space is, let alone the Empire? Lynn thought incredulously, And now he's spewing nonsense. Shit he might really have brain damage.

"No, I'm afraid not," the dark-haired woman said, though her tone sounded patronizing to Natsu, "I've been from one corner of the Empire to the other and visited all the important shitholes in the Edge. Never heard of an Earthland or any of the other things you mentioned. Sorry."

Natsu went to open his mouth in response but a deep rumbling from his stomach interrupted his thought patterns as he became acutely aware of how ravenous he was. It felt like he hadn't eaten in days. Lynn let off a light chuckle as Natsu looked a bit sheepish.

"How about we continue this discussion over lunch? You have to be starving, you've been out of it for two days," Lynn said as she motioned for Choxin to come over, "Before you go though let's get a translator hooked up to you, so you aren't gawking everytime somebody speaks something that isn't in Mekartan and we'll get your IV's out."

"I've been out for two days?" Natsu said in disbelief, before wincing as Choxin disconnected the tubes from his arm.

"You were pretty banged up," Lynn admitted, "Now as for your old clothes, we had to throw everything out. It was covered in garbage, blood, vomit, and scorch marks. We've got some old spares for you to wear till you can get some new ones." Natsu's eyes widened and he shot out of the bed, making Lynn take a cautious step back.

"My scarf! That was from my dad! Where is it? Don't tell me you threw it out to?!" he said as he grabbed Lynn by the shoulders, a mix of anger and worry in his tone. Lynn's hand went to her pistol holster before thinking twice and instead gently pried Natsu's hands off.

"Don't worry kid, we saved the scarf and those tacky as hell wooden sandals of yours. They were about the only things that weren't too gross to handle. We'll give them back after we get some food in you, so just chill out for a bit," her voice was gentle but stern and Natsu calmed a bit, the knowledge that his scarf was safe soothing his nerves. "Now hold still, we're going to implant your translator. This will sting for a second."

"Sounds good to- Oww!" Nastu yelped as Choxin floated up behind him and with machine like precision, placed a small black rectangle, barely a centimeter across, behind Natsu's right ear, "Dammit that stung!"

Lynn left off a small smirk as brushed a stray hair out of her face, "Price you have to pay to understand anybody. Now let's see if it's working. We've had that spare lying around for a couple of years, it might be a little glitchy. Choxin, start introducing yourself."

Natsu turned and faced the cephalopodic alien, who began to speak at him. At first it was the same wet sounding gibberish Natsu had heard before but then there was a brief hum that vibrated throughout his brain and Choxin became clear. Sort of.

"I Choxin. Meet you, good fellow. Did understand that?" the alien asked as it pointed a tentacle towards itself, it's voice slow and distorted, almost like Natsu was underwater trying to listen to someone just above him.

"Uh sort of? Is he supposed to speak broken Fiorian and sound like he's talking through a pipe?" Natsu asked as he scratched at the translator, uncomfortable with how the box had buried itself into his skin.

"Hold on, must be a bug in the cochlear matrix, give me a sec." Lynn said as she dug out a small rectangular device with a black screen out of the cabinet behind her, before drawing a circle with her finger in the middle of it, causing the black screen to turn a muted white as it flashed to life. Natsu watched with some interest as she swiped through several screens on it before a holographic keyboard sprang up into the air above the rectangle, where she typed a dizzying amount of characters and numerals into it. Natsu felt his mind hum again when she stopped typing.

"Okay, that should have fixed it. Choxin, say something to the kid," Lynn said as she canceled out the holo-board, making the shimmering projection dissipate as Natsu turned his attention back to the floating alien.

"I say, it is an utmost pleasure to meet you my good fellow," Choxin's voice still had a wet quality to it, but it was not at all what Natsu had expected. Instead of something creepy sounding, the alien's voice was melodic, sophisticated, like a wealthy aristocrat back home would sound, "My name is Doctor Choxinenexchelazgula, though you may call me Choxin for short, as you mammals have a rather difficult time trying to pronounce my full name. Did you understand of that or do I sound like an incomprehensible bore?"

"Hey! I understood all of that!" Natsu said excitedly as he grabbed one of Choxin's tentacles,, shaking it up and down, ignoring the clamminess of the alien's smooth skin "You don't sound like a deep sea monster anymore!"

"Deep sea monster? That sounds positively dreadful," Choxin said, shocked, as Natsu continued to shake is tentacle, "Is that what we sound like to everyone without a translation device? Monstrous?"

"No, you sound like an overeducated pansy Choxin, "Lynn laughed as she put the rectangle away into the cabinet, "Anyways, sounds like your translator is synching just fine now. Let's get you some food and introduce you to the rest of the crew. Wait here and I'll bring you a change of clothes and that scarf you were going on about."

Natsu's stomach growled ominously and he gave sheepish smile as Lynn waved her hand over a panel next to the door, the heavy steel contraption sliding upwards in the blink of an eye. "Better make it quick or I might have to turn your doctor into calamari!" he joked, chuckling a bit to himself as Choxin brought up a tentacle to his face, his skin turning a anxious blue shade.

"Calamari? Why does that term sound so distressingly familiar?"


Natsu was what many would call a glutton. A pig, a disgusting devourer of anything you put in front of him. He supposed that was a fair assessment, though in his defense, being a Dragon Slayer meant he needed extra calories just to fuel his draconic-enhanced body, let alone the basic energy for his magic. He was perpetually hungry. Even more so now, having gone at least two days without food. So the amazed and slightly disgusted looks the people in front of him were giving him didn't bother him at all as he shoved protein bar after protein bar into his mouth. He needed to eat after all.

After Lynn had come back with a spare set of clothes, which was an old pair of jeans and a faded, slightly oiled stained blue tee shirt, along with his scarf and sandals, she had escorted him down a small hallway into another room, saying the rest of the crew was eager to meet him.

He was in a large circular room that seemed to be the ship's combination commons room and kitchen. There were a few stained chairs and a well-worn red couch, the faux leather on it cracking off, seated in the left side of the room with a what looked like a vision-lacrima seated on a stand there for the those relaxing on the couch or chairs to view. The right side had a small kitchen, looking well-worn like everything else Natsu had seen on the ship, though it looked adequate to him, with a preparation counter, a pantry cabinet, refrigerator and freezer combo and a decent sized stove. The whole room was dimly lit by more light panels on the ceiling, though these werea muted yellow instead of the med-bay's sterile white.

In the center of the room was a large round table with several leather-topped stools placed around it, where Natsu and five others were currently sitting, with several glasses full of water and other stranger-tasting liquids, along with a large collection of protein bars, snack cakes, crackers, and other forms of small packaged food. Lynn had apologized for the "spacer food" as they hadn't had time to pick up groceries to make meals yet but Natsu didn't care. Food was food.

The red headed man and the lizard looked stunned at the amount Natsu was putting away, while Lynn regarded the scene with amusement as Choxin had a datapad out, typing away furiously, with two tentacles while a third brought up snack cakes underneath to his beaked mouth. Only the older human man, the one Natsu remembered as having shot one of the thugs, looked annoyed with him, regarding Natsu with open contempt.

"Well, Natsu, if you could take a moment to breathe, we can get introductions out of the way," Lynn said as Natsu paused mid-bite, half a cracker sticking out of his mouth, "I suppose I'll go first. I'm Lynn, ship's quartermaster and co-pilot."

"Dr. Choxin, Karswaorth graduate and the Albatross' Chief Medical Officer," Choxin said proudly next. The red headed man, who looked to be a bit older than Natsu but not by much, raised his hand and pointed to himself while slinging his free arm around the reptilian next to him.

"I'm Vernon Brogue, though you just call me Vern," he said with a cheeky smile, "I'm the Albatross' mechanic and resident badass." Natsu, always up to sparring, sized Vernon up. He was fit, though he lacked the muscle mass that Natsu had. He wasn't wearing any armor like either, just a muted yellow hoodie with a black splatter pattern on it and a pair of ripped up jeans. He did have a pistol holster on his right hip though. Natsu was confident he could take the guy on it if it came down to it but he was brought out of his thoughts by the green scaly reptilian alien next to Vern snorting before replying a smooth voice.

"Badass my tail. You woke me up this morning because there was a carbo-crawler on the floor next to your bed and I had to go smash it because spirits forbid you go near a bug without screaming like an hatchling."

"Hey! That's different man, crawlers are no joke!" Vern replied defensively, "And I would have smashed him myself, but he the upper hand and caught me by surprise is all!" The lizard-like alien snorted again, before turning to Natsu.

"Names Wresgar Mu'Dok, though everyone just calls me Wres. I'm ship security and the guy you want to talk to if you want to know all the good bars to go to in any port in the Edge." Wres was about as tall as the average human, with dark green scaly skin and silted grey eyes and a saurian head with small horned protrusions coming out of his chin and where his eyebrows would be on a human. From what Natsu could see, he had trimmed, but still very sharp looking claws on his four fingered hands. Wres was dressed warmly, a brown, fur-lined jacket on with thick heavy camo fatigue pants on, and what looked like thick black combat boots. There was a slot for his long, ridged tail to come out of in the back of his pants as well. Natsu did note that he had two holsters, one on each hip, weapons still currently in them.

Come to think of it, it is pretty cold in here, Natsu thought absently as he swallowed what was left of his cracker, but I'm not really feeling it. Hopefully that means my magic is working again. He was brought out of his reverie when his advanced hearing picked up the center man, the older one with the black leather duster and the salt and pepper hair, inhale quickly before speaking in a deep, powerful voice.

"Dekklin. Captain and owner of the Albatross," the man said curtly, "Now that this nonsense is out of the way, tell me. Who the hell are you? Why did you have Violet Suns chasing you? And what," he pointed towards Natsu's guild mark, "Does that tattoo mean?"

"Isanada above Dekklin, this isn't an interrogation," Lynn snapped, crossing her arms, "The kid only just woke up twenty minutes ago. Let him adjust a bit." Dekklin fixed her with a cold stare, dark brown eyes boring into her blue one.

"He's an unknown variable that didn't have a translator and he isn't showing up on any records. I want to know exactly who it is that I let you drag onto my ship," he replied coldy before turning his stern visage towards Natsu, "Well, I'm waiting kid."

Natsu frowned, not liking the judgmental look but partially understanding the man's caution as well.

"Alright, I'll tell you what you want to know, but I need some questions answered after I do. That sound like a deal?" he replied, holding out his hand over the table, where Dekklin stared at it for a moment before taking it.

"Deal. You first though," the older man replied as he took a sip from a steaming hot drink next to him, the other crew inching closer to hear Natsu speak.

"Well like I already told Lynn and Dr. Choxin there, my name is Natsu Dragneel. I'm a member of Fairy Tail ," he said proudly as the others gave him looks of confusion.

"Fairy Tail? Like a children's story?" Vern questioned as he pulled out his own datapad from his hoodies front pocket.

"No, not like a story! It's my guild!" Natsu said indignantly, "And this!" he pointed towards his mark, "Is their symbol!"

"Ah a guild you say," Choxin interjected, "Might I ask as to what their primary purpose as a guild is? Especially with such an… odd choice of name." Natsu chose to ignore that comment as he replied back to the floating alien.

"It's a wizard's guild! And it's the strongest one in all of Fiore!" he said proudly, holding his fist in the air as the crew shared uneasy looks.

"Wizard? As in a mage?" Wres asked, his tone suddenly apprehensive. Natsu went to answer him but Lynn beat him to it.

"Yeah the kid is one guys, our medical scans picked up the mana within him. You wanna give us a little demonstration kid? Nothing to flashy, just something to confirm the data," she asked as Vern and Wres got up from their seats, looking a bit nervous. Natsu gave everyone an uneasy grin as he tried to focus on his magic, the familiar warmth flooding him.

I really hope it doesn't mess up like it did before, he thought nervously, let's just try something small, to be on the safe side. He focused his energy, letting his emotions slowly take control and he felt his magic answering his call, this time in a much more controlled manner. He lit his right fist on fire, which made Vern and Wres wince and caused Dekklin to scowl at him.

"I'm a fire mage, a Fire Dragon Slayer to be specific," Natsu said proudly as he extinguished his fist, "My magic wasn't working right the other day though. It's the only reason those Purple Sun guys were able to get the jump on me, otherwise I would have kicked their asses up and down that alley."

"Rouge unregistered mage I believe. But a Fire Dragon Slayer," Dekklin said disbelievingly, "Now I know you're just making shit up."

"It's true!" Natsu said as he got up and slammed his fist on the table. "I'm a Fire Dragon Slayer and one of Fairy Tail's top mages!" Dekklin's hand was already going to his pistol when Lynn grabbed his arm.

"Dekklin," she said sternly and the man's arm relaxed before she turned to Natsu, "Alright calm it down pyro, we believe you. Why did you have the Violet Suns after you to begin with?"

"One of their little bug guys stole my sandal, so I chased him to their hideout and got it back," Natsu said simply, "Then they all came out, my magic went haywire and then I got stabbed and clubbed a few times. Then I wound up here. Does that answer your questions?"

"Not all of them, but that'll do for now," Dekklin said as Lynn withdrew form his arm, "Now you have some of your own to ask I take it?"

"I do. First off, where am I? You guys keep throwing names like Haven, the Edge, and the Empire around like I'm supposed to know what that means," Natsu said, already having a sinking feeling he knew the answer to that question. Vern and Wres, who had returned to the table, looked confused at his question.

"Wait, how do you not know what any of those are? Where are you from that you've never heard of the Empire?" Vern asked, bewildered that anyone could grow up and not know even the basics of the galaxy. Natsu sighed.

"I'm from a place called Earthland, which I think is in a different dimension then the one I'm in now. That bastard Xlyophone sucked us all into a rift and I think this where I ended up," Natsu said, frustration evident in his tone as everyone around him, even Lynn and Choxin, looked at him like he was a mental ward escapee.

"Different dimensions huh," Vern said skeptically, "What did like an evil wizard banish you here or something? Got sucked into a big swirling vortex of doom and then fell out of the sky into our dimension?"

"Yeah that's exactly what happened. Me and my friends were hired to bring in this dark wizard and we managed to beat him, but he opened a big portal that sucked us all in after we had him dead to rights, " Natsu said factually, not realizing how he sounded, "I don't remember falling, but it makes sense. I woke up in an alleyway on a pile of trash."

"Right," Dekklin said contemptuously, "Choxin you sure there wasn't brain damage in that scan of yours?"

"No, we were very thorough Captain," Choxin said as he double-checked the medical scans on his datapad, "We detected no signs of traumatic or even minor brain damage."

"I'm telling the truth," Natsu said irritably, "Why would I lie about this? And I wasn't the only one who got sucked in. I had friends with me. I'm sure they ended up here too. They could vouch for me."

"Hey guys check this out," Vern said as he brought his datapad on to the table, "He's definitely telling the truth about falling out of the sky. Some vlogger caught him falling into that alley he was talking about, not too far from the bazaar." Vern hit a button in the center and everyone gathered around as Natsu saw himself simply appear from the clouds, falling rapidly before disappearing into the alley below. The audio wasn't very good as the he nasal tone of the vlogger laughing at his apparent misfortune drowned out any other sound, which made Natsu grit his teeth, wanting to find the guy and punch him out. However, his irritation, quickly turned to hope as an idea popped into his mind

"Hey, can you check to see if anyone else fell out of the sky around here? Maybe my friends are somewhere around here too!" Natsu said excitedly, the thought of seeing Happy and Lucy again brightening his mood. His smile disappeared when Vern shook his head after a minute of searching.

"Sorry man, the only other person mentioned or recorded falling out of the sky on Haven other than you was over a month ago and it was just a drunk Schookla businessman falling out of a taxi," Vern said apologetically as Natsu's face fell, "But hey we'll keep an ear and eye out for anything while we're out."

"So, let's say I fully believe you," Dekklin said suspiciously, reentering the conversation, "Which I don't. From what I've gathered, you arrived here without any money, knowledge, or even belongings other than the clothes on your back?" Natsu nodded his head in agreement. "And there's more of you somewhere? That came through with you. Any in particular we should keep an eye out for? These extra-dimensional people." Dekklin didn't even bother to hide the sarcasm in his voice.

Natsu thought hard about that statement. He loved all of his friends and teammates, but he definitely loved some more than others.

"Yeah there's a girl. Lucy. A total weirdo and nerd, but super smart and talented." Absolutely beautiful too, he thought wistfully as images of chocolate-covered eyes and warm smiles filled his mind before he came back to the real world. "She's pretty easy to pick out, just look for the blonde who's yelling a lot," he chuckled as memories of Lucy played through his mind. Gods did he miss her.

"Oh, a girl you say," Vern leaned over the table, his equally red and bushy eyebrows wiggling, "She sounds hot. She your lady or something?"

Natsu frowned as unspoken words and feelings flashed through his mind, but he put them aside for now. "No, she's just a friend. One of my best actually along with Happy."

"The hell kind of a name is Happy?" Wres asked, "You humans are really strange with your names at times."

"Happy isn't a human, he's an Exceed!" Natsu retorted back, "And I've known him since before he as born, since I hatched his egg. He's always been my little buddy."

"That sounds sweet," Lynn said, "An Exceed. I'm not familiar with that species. What's he look like? Just in case we run into him?"

"Well he's only about two feet tall and he's a blue talking cat that can fly sometimes, Natsu said with a smile that quickly disappeared as the others stared at him.

"Well it's not the weirdest thing you've said in the last five minutes," Lynn deadpanned, "A blue talking cat. If he did land here, I'm willing to bet he'd be taken into a pet shop and passed off as some new exotic pet that can mimic speech. Cheaper than getting slave permits, especially if you don't know the species. Of course, that's assuming he wasn't just sold as meat in a market here. The vendors here are always creative with what ends up on the grill." Upon seeing Natsu's face turn into a panicky expression, she held out a hand in front of her before saying in an apologetic voice. "Hey that's not guaranteed, I'm sure your friend is fine!"

There was silence for a minute as Natsu sighed before looking at everyone in turn. "It's looking like I'm going to be stuck here for a bit until I can find my friends and figure out a way back home. But in the meantime, you guys saved me, and I owe you. A Fairy Tail wizard always repays their debts."

"I like your attitude kid," Lynn said, "Because you do owe me. Five thousand crysti-chips to be exact."

"As much as I'd like to pay you back right now, I don't exactly have any money," Natsu said rubbing the back of his head. Lynn gave him an understanding look.

"I know that, which is why from this moment on, you are a debt-bound employee of the Albatross Company until your debt has been paid in full."

"Which means?" Natsu asked, "Sounds like I can't leave here till I get fully paid up. I need to find my friends."

"I know, but I spent a lot of money bringing you back from the dead. I'll just have you do odd jobs until I figure you're paid up," Lynn said, "You can sleep here at the Albatross and as long as you promise to not always eat like you've done today, I wont add food costs to that debt. That sound fair to you Dekklin?"

"He's your stray Lynn. Just make sure he doesn't break anything," Dekklin said as he got up and left the common room, taking his still steaming drink with him.

"I don't get a say in this?" Natsu asked, incensed that she had talked over him

"No, you don't, but you should be paid up in no time," Lynn said, "Believe me, I don't want to have to keep you around any longer than I have to, especially if your itching to find your friends."

"We'll I guess it's only fair," Natsu said, "What do you need me to do?"

"Right now? Vern and Wres are going to take you into the city and get you some decent clothes, no charge to the debt," Lynn said while pointedly looking at the two men in question, "After that I'll get some work lined up for you to start working off that five grand."

"Well you hear that buddy?" Vern asked cheerfully as he got up and slung an arm around Natsu's shoulders, "We get to help you pick out some new threads. And you can tell us more about these friends of yours, especially the hot single ones."

"I'll keep them out of trouble Lynn. I'll try and make sure Vern doesn't dress him like a moron" Wres said, shaking his head as Vern grabbed Natsu and started leading him out of the Albatross, Wres quickly following behind.

Well maybe this won't be all bad, Natsu thought as he was lead out form the ship's landing ramp and into the hangar he had been bleeding out in only two days before, these people did save me. I owe it to them to pay them back as best I can. But I need to start looking for my friends, Happy and Lucy are out there somewhere. And I will find them, even if it's the last thing that I do.


Lynn watched the leaving forms of Natsu, Vern, and Wres with a cold smile as Dekklin came back into the commons and tossed his mug into the sink as Choxin floated closer to her.

"Well Lynn, what's the real intel on that kid?" Dekklin asked as he turned to face her, a frown on his face. Lynn grimaced.

"There's no intel. I ran that tattoo through every system in the Edge and even a couple Imperial ones. I got nothing. No gang, agency, spec ops unit or mage group is using that symbol and Choxin found something worse."

"Indeed", the Glokkin doctor said morbidly, "The full medical scans I ran on him shows that he has a large amount of unknown DNA bonded with his normal human genetics. The DNA markers test positive for features common in reptiles and it's changed his physiology.

"Which means?" Dekklin asked, not liking where this conversation was going.

"That he isn't entirely human Captain," Choxin said, skin scintillating through several emotional shades, "I can only hypothesize at his capabilities with the ship's equipment, but he appears to have enhanced senses, far greater than any normal unmodified human and his mana stream appears to be inexplicably linked to this foreign DNA. It does not appear to be a natural mutation either, so it is only logical to assume that he was engineered and modified to be how he is now. To do so would take significant expertise and resources that the governments and races in Edge Space simply do not have. Nor do I believe that any would have the inclination to carry out such a bizarre project."

"Which means this reeks of Imperial involvement," Lynn said, "I think he might have escaped a lab somewhere in the Empire and hitched a ride out to here. Or maybe the research ship he was on passed above Haven and he took the chance to bug out." Lynn crossed her arms, studying the floor before sighing, "I think he made up the whole story of being a wizard from another dimension as his way of coping with what happened to hm. Those two days he was out, his REM activity was consistent with the type that people have when they're having bad nightmares. Hell, the only reason I woke him up just now was because he was thrashing around. He even tried to take a swing at me when he woke up."

"Shit," Dekklin said softly, "Poor bastard probably has all kinds of PTSD."

"Which is why I say we just take the kid on full-time," Lynn said as she looked at Dekklin, "Poor bastard probably has nowhere else to go."

Dekklin shook his head. "No, once that kid earns back your money he's gone. I'm not keeping some Archmagister's pet lab rat on my ship just in case the Magisterium decides to come back for it's property. Is that understood Lynn? And you two better keep this to yourselves, the last thing I need is Vern or Wres getting drunk and blabbing about the escaped Imperial freak show we're taking care of here."

Choxin flashed a combination of green and brown, his species' colors for submission, while Lynn glared at him before resigning herself to defeat, "Understood. Hopefully the kid can figure out a plan when that happens. Nobody deserves to be an Imperial plaything."


Excepts from the Encylopedias Imperialis, the galaxy's largest, most trusted, and most unbiased source of information.

Region, Edge Space: While the noble and powerful United Galactic Empire spans most of the known galaxy, there are areas of space that are not yet under Imperial rule. While most of this consists of unexplored space, the Western Fringe is home to the anarchic and wild area known as Edge Space or simply the Edge. Originally named by the Imperial statesman Ozorg vul'Kress as the "edge of civilization, a barbaric place where murderers and tyrants put on a pale, brutal imitation of true high society" those living in the Edge took the name as a compliment and the region has been known as Edge Space ever since. Unlike the Empire, Edge Space is not a united entity, instead consisting of dozen large star nations and hundreds of singe system-states, along with countless more areas that have no formal governance. The Edge is a war wracked, crime infested quagmire, where wars are frequent and all manner of unsavory trades are plied in the open as greedy souls seek to profit from even the most heinous businesses. Despite this, the Edge is filled with many former Imperial citizens, renegades and malcontents all of them, who have mingled with the Edge's native races well. Travel to the Edge is ill-advised, as it boasts the highest murder and piracy rates per capita of any area of space. The traitors and rebels of the Resistance often use the Edge as base of operations and recruitment center, making it even more undesirable for Imperial citizens to travel to.

Planet, Haven: Haven is the fourth planet in the Mallgar System, a blue-green world covered in forests and swamps, home to a simple ecosystem of amphibians and arthropods, along with several sprawling cities. Haven is a part of Edge Space and thanks to it's position on the border of the Western Fringe and the Imperial Inner Provinces, is often referred to as the Gateway to the Edge. Haven is a bustling trade hub, where goods form all over Edge Space can be found, along with superior quality Imperial merchandise, often procured illegally. It is unknown when the world was first settled or even discovered, as it ha been home to every race in the Edge and the Empire for as long as anyone bothers to remember. The planet is run by the Haven Republic, a self-proclaimed democracy that is in reality, a gathering of criminal syndicates that run the system. There are few laws on Haven and those that do exist are more geared towards the Republic getting it's cut of any business deals and industries than anything, with the Republic only putting enough funds into a police force and public utilities to keep the planet functioning. Though it is only a single system-state, Haven has a dizzying number of defensive pacts with hundreds of powers, many who are openly hostile to one another. As Haven has integrated itself into the core of the Edge economy, as well as regrettably having a large influence over the nearby Inner Provinces, the world is rarely attacked and thus spends little on defense.

Species, Likili: The Likili are a roughly meter tall race of insectoids from the tropical world of Qozenl in the Mid Rim, with armored exoskeletons and quick reflexes. The Likili are organized into caste-based hive-states on their homeworld and colonies, though this is a cultural development rather than a biological one, as all Likili are fully sapient and able to reproduce with one another, unlike a truly eusocial race. As a race they are highly skilled at dexterous work and an assembly line of Likili can assemble just about anything only a few seconds slower than robotic workers. The Likili competed with one another fiercely before achieving spaceflight and discovering the Jump Drive around fourteen hundred years ago. Though their homeworld and colony worlds were long ago absorbed into the Empire, where they now provide the Imperial Throne with billions of skilled and unskilled workers to assemble Imperial products and war machines, many Likili have made their way into Edge Space, where they often live in the underclass of most Edge societies, making a poor and often short living as thieves, burglars, janitors, and panhandlers.