Legal Disclaimer: I don't own Outlaw Star, any of the characters from Outlaw Star, and I don't intend to claim ownership for anything but my one definably original character (Drakeem Sraconid) and the general ideas of this storyline.

I'm thankful for the few reviews I've received so far, and I hope this next chapter meets up to the expectations of everyone who read the first. If it doesn't exceed them that is.

Outlaw Star: Drakeem Sraconid of the Dragon

'by Draco Serpens'

Chapter 2=Honest Revelations

Just as Drakeem was about to push forward with his business proposal, Aisha ClanClan entered the room and loudly said, "Grandma! I'm hungry! When's our food gonna be ready?"

Mrs. ClanClan blinked several times, then said "Aisha and Rella, go set the table. The food is all ready." She looked at Drakeem. "And set one extra place for Drakeem."

Drakeem gave the friendliest smile he could to Mrs. ClanClan as he slowly walked past her towards the dining room.

"It will be interesting to hear your proposal for my granddaughter's friends over dinner."

Drakeem sighed inwardly. He knew that tone of voice from Mrs. ClanClan meant she was telling him to, not asking. Externally, he kept up the act. "I'll do my best to keep it interesting."

*********

Unfortunately, Drakeem had to wait until after the meal to say anything to Gene Starwind, or anyone else for that matter. No one could hear him over the sound of Aisha's eating. So everyone who was there, Gene, Melfina, Suzuka, Jim, Aisha, Rella, and Mrs. ClanClan, sat in the living room after the meal so they could all hear Drakeem's proposition.

\\ I can't really rely on momentum or surprise anymore to get my proposition to them, so I may have to do this the difficult way. //

Mrs. ClanClan interrupted Drakeem's silent thoughts with a suggestion. "It seems to me that the board is unbalanced, Drakeem. You know secrets about them and they know nothing about you. Perhaps you should tell them something to . . . even things a bit."

"Yeah. I never get tired of learning something new about my sweetie," Rella purred. Her arms were around Drakeem's neck from where she stood behind him, leaning down.

"I was thinking something similar to that line of thought, Mrs. ClanClan." Drakeem shuddered. Not so much at the thought of telling them one of his secrets as it was at the tickle of Rella sniffing the back of his neck, inconspicuously, to see if he had been with anyone else recently. He supposed it was a decent suspicion given that she hadn't seen him for about a month.

\\ I can tell them a few secrets. If they agree they'll find out eventually, anyways. //

\\ Or I could just kill them afterwards... //

\\ Inanise? //

\\ Yeah? //

\\ Shut up... //

"WHAT THE ... !" Gene sat there, mouth agape staring at Drakeem's eyes. Everyone else seemed to be doing the same except for Mrs. ClanClan, who merely looked intrigued, and Rella, who hadn't noticed what startled everyone else.

Drakeem's thoughts were instantly pulled back into reality by the startled exclamation, and a sensation in his eyes instantly told him what was wrong. During the inner conversation, his eyes had shifted to his draconic version, and had shifted between the voices of the dragons to match the speakers. Red and black for Inanise, gold and blue for Korta.

\\ Well, that saves me from needing to come up with a good way to introduce the topic in question. //

" For starters," Mrs. ClanClan stated, " you can tell us all how your eyes can do that."

"To start off, I'd like to recommend that Rella sit down." Rella leaped over the back of the loveseat and sat next to Drakeem, an arm around him, and her hand resting on his opposite shoulder. Drakeem would have liked to squirm, but he wanted to look calm at that moment.

"That's better. Now then, first off, you have to understand that I'm not a Terran."

"Then what are you?" Rella asked, looking at him and blinking.

"I'm a dragon. A draconis." Drakeem smiled. "A drakon."

"But dragons were just mythological gigantic reptiles." Jim said, a skeptical look on his face.

"I see that your information is limited." Drakeem said, standing up so as to stand in the middle of them. "Besides, you didn't let me finish."

"I wasn't born a dragon. At about the age of ten, I was put in a tank where the power of the Four Tablets of Dragon was invested in me. After that, it took me a long time to figure out how to perfectly change into a human form. Fortunately, I've had plenty of time to learn."

"What do you mean by that?" Aisha asked.

"It has been 400 years since I became a dragon. In that time, my body has only aged 8."

"That seems highly... unbelievable." Jim said, still a skeptic.

"I can understand your skepticism, and proving my age is impossible without taking a very long time. However, I can prove that I am both invulnerable and inhumanly strong. And, if you wish, I can change into one of my dragon forms." Drakeem looked around for a couple seconds. "Although this house doesn't have a large enough room to contain it."

"How you gonna prove you're invulnerable, huh?" Aisha asked, giving Drakeem a cocky grin.

"By letting you 'try' to beat the snot out of me."

*********

Drakeem smiled at his opponent across the makeshift ring that had been set up in the backyard of the ClanClan residence. Aisha sneered back at him. "Anything goes, as far as what you are allowed to do, Aisha. Weapons, below the belt, buffed up, or whatever else you can think of. Only one rule. You have sixty seconds to do it all."

"I almost feel sorry for you, Drakeem. But you asked for it."

Rella was pacing behind Drakeem's side of the ring, nervousness in all her features as she looked on.

"What are the chances that he's actually not bluffing?" Jim whispered to Gene.

"Wouldn't be the weirdest thing that's ever happened to us."

Mrs. ClanClan rang the bell that started the fight.

*********

Everyone, for the second time that day, stood with mouths agape. Mrs. ClanClan was so surprised that she almost forgot to ring for the end of the fight.

Aisha had started with some punches and kicks. When that didn't effect Drakeem, she kneed him as hard as she could in the groin. It still didn't effect him. She buffed up, and did it all over again. In the last ten seconds, she grabbed Gene's castor and shot it at Drakeem before Gene or Jim could protest. A number three castor shell was loaded.

The blast hit Drakeem square in the face, and suddenly dirt exploded everywhere. When the dust cleared, Drakeem stood there still. "I'm also immune to the powers behind castor shells."

Several seconds later the ring of Mrs. ClanClan's bell was heard.

*********

Everyone was sitting in the living room again, and they all seemed uncomfortable for several seconds before Jim spoke.

"Mr. Drakeem, why would someone who's nearly immortal and invincible like you want with the Galactic Ley Line?"

"I'll start off with saying that immortality isn't all it's cracked up to be. Jim, if you were to suddenly become like me, how would you feel when your friends grew old and died while you stayed young?"

"Terrible, I guess."

"But you'd eventually meet and make new friends, right?"

"Well, yeah."

"And what happens when they grow old and die? And the ones after them, and after them, and after them? See what I'm getting to?"

"I think I see where you're coming from." Melphina suddenly said.

"Eventually, I'll wind up either going insane from overwhelming pain," \\ and Inanise's taint// "or I'd keep my sanity by becoming cold to the world. Even then, that would make me a ruthless creature."

"So what do you want with the Ley line again?"

"I want to reclaim my mortality... or at least find out a way to do it."

"Given that if we don't do this there'll eventually be an insane or ruthless dragon terrorizing the universe and that you'll be paying us ... how much again for helping you?" Gene said.

"Seventeen and a half million wong."

"WHAT?!" the group seemed to jump out of their seats.

"We'll take the job!" Gene said, and hastily shook Drakeem's extended hand. Drakeem's business-like smile, which he had kept on through most of this ordeal, grew warmer and wider at the answer.

*********

The Outlaw Star crew stood at the door, getting ready to go out to the Outlaw Star. The only one not already there was Aisha, who was still getting her things repacked.

"C'mon already, Aisha, or we're going to leave without you!" Gene screamed towards Aisha's room.

"You're not leaving without me!" Aisha said, running towards them, leaping down to the first level over the railings.

"You know, why exactly are we taking you with anyways?!" Gene yelled at her, frustrated that they weren't yet on their way to making 17 and 1/2 million wong.

"What?! You'd be nowhere without me, Gene." Aisha growled.

"We don't need you anymore. We've got a dragon who's invincible, self-controlled, and food-conservative. He can take over your place on the bridge, and if he doesn't know how to operate a grappler, he can probably learn pretty fast."

"How dare you. HOW DARE YOU! I'm a C'tarl C'tarl, an immortal, a model of discipline, and I never eat more than my fair share of -- Grandma, let me go! I'm going with them!" Aisha had been right in Gene's face until her Mrs. ClanClan began pulling her back in an arm hold.

"Aisha, why would you even want to go with such an insulting, inconsiderate Terran as your captain? You could have a lot better than --" Mrs. ClanClan was saying as she drug Aisha back.

"CAUSE I LOVE JIMMY AND DON'T WANNA LOSE HIM TO SOMEONE ELSE WHile he's off..." Aisha calmed her voice as she realized just how loudly she was exclaiming her secret reason for sticking with the Outlaw Star crew for this long in the first place.

Sazuka caught Jim just before he hit the ground, then a small smile crept across her face as she looked knowingly at Aisha, an 'I knew all along' smile.

Gene, for the fourth time since Drakeem showed up, was taken completely aback. His mouth open, a step back, arms half-tensed at his sides.

Melphina smiles widely, then hugs Gene and says, "This is so wonderful. Doesn't it just remind you of when we finally admitted our feelings to each other? Gene?" Melphina looked up at him, as he absent-mindedly nodded his head. "So she can come with us, then."

Gene snapped out of his trance instantly. "But ... Uh ... Mmmm ... I ..." He looked down at Melphina, who simply gave him 'the look.' "Of course she can." He smiled defeatedly.

"If you want to win his heart," Mrs. ClanClan whispered in her granddaughter's ear, "you better make a move before another girl comes along and does so."

"If Aisha can come along for Jimmy, then I can come along for Drakeem!" Rella exclaimed.

"I'll give you five minutes to get packed." That was all Gene said.

*********

As Gene walked out the door with his crew, he silently cursed himself for not making it four minutes instead.

=to be Continued...=

Yeah, I like the AishaXJim fics. Please continue to R&R. Even if you don't like A/J fics, keep reading. I don't make them such a big deal that it dominates the fic, but there should be enough there to satisfy most of the readers who do like A/J romances. I hope. On both counts.

For those who were wondering about the multiple words used for 'dragon' by Drakeem, 'draconis' is the Latin masculine for dragon, and 'drakon' is the Hebrew for dragon. As for the name, Drakeem Sraconid, drakeem is the Hebrew for 'dragon of', and 'sraconid' is 'draconis' with the first and last letters switched. Roughly translated, Drakeem Sraconid means 'dragon of dragons.' The translation of these words is based on two books I have: The New College Latin & English Dictionary , and Webster's NewWorld Hebrew Dictionary.

In the next chapter... How is the Outlaw Star crew going to deal with the fact that Melphina is no longer Maiden of the Ley Line? How are they going to find the Ley Line? What will happen when the crew finds out about the four minds of Drakeem Sraconid?