Here I am again with the crazy author's note and junk. Just a thing, the title was no way inspired by the Good Charlotte song and any similarity between the two is purely coincidental (FB whistles innocently). Man, looking back over that sentence there are a lot of big words right there...

BW: You totally stole the title from the song didn't you.

FB: I don't know what you're talking about. (checks nails in dignified manner)

BW: (shifty eyes) I'm onto you.

FB: I'm sorry, you must be looking for someone else...

BW: (gives FB the ultimate evil eye)

FB: (sweating and breaking under gaze) SPONGE STAMPEDE!

BW: Where? (turning)

FB: (runs like hell)

Disclaimer: I do not own the Outlaw Star series or the title to this particular chapter by the looks of things...I'M DEPRIVED! (explodes in corner)

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Gene felt the soft orange gravel crunch as he jumped off of the Outlaw Star to get a good look around. His eyes stopped on the half buried, half in tact temple that Gilliam had pointed out just outside of the planet. It was entrancing.

A curling, devilish grin spread up across his face as he turned back to the crew.

"Aisha," he said calmly. "Get a shovel."

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Mortalis, Ghost of You

Aisha howled angrily and struck the hardened sand. The massive impact caused a huge section of sand, the bit Aisha was balancing on, to fall away. Aisha screamed and vaulted onto another nearby land mass as the sand crumbled. Anyone else would have been shocked beyond words, Aisha just shook her fist and bellowed:

"Why do I always get stuck with the cruddy jobs!"

"You missed a spot." Gene retaliated.

"You think you can do a better job well you can…"

Gene drowned her out. His eyes met Melfina's over the small fire. She tried smiling at him but he knew her well enough to see beyond the smile. She was very troubled. Expression unchanged, he turned towards Flynn who was sat hunched over, rocking slightly backwards and forwards.

"You okay Flynn?" Gene asked, sniffing at lunch.

"Huh?" Flynn jerked up, his head throbbed painfully in response.

"Is it your stomach?"

"No, my head." Flynn muttered rubbing the sore spot at the back of his skull.

"Do you want some asprin or something?" asked Jim trudging over with a bunch of tent pegs under one arm and the tent sheet in the other hand.

"No, that's fine, I'll-"

"Ugh." Gene recoiled from the pot on the fire and held his nose. "What is this Melfina?"

"It's Ctarl Ctarl stew!" Aisha yelled from the rafters.

Jim groaned. He'd had enough of the first batch she'd made them.

"Is this edible!" exclaimed Gene disbelieving.

"That's what I said." sighed Jim exasperatedly.

"You've had this before!" Gene was baffled.

"It's bad news," assured Jim. "It's what put Suzuka out of commission when we fought Leilong."

Gene backed away from it as though it was a nuclear weapon.

"If you must know…"

Jim spun round, startled.

"…Suzu was just finding a way to blame me for her defeat." Aisha exclaimed stiffly.

"How did you get down here!" breathed Jim, brain defying logic.

Aisha puffed up.

"I'll have you know that I am a proud Ctarl Ctarl…"

'Here we go.' thought Jim.

Aisha's persistent rambling was aggravating Flynn's headache. He felt as though a cork screw was being rammed into the back of his brain. Finally he couldn't take it anymore.

"I've had enough!" his outburst silenced Aisha's speech.

"This place is too damn claustrophobic! I'm going back to the ship." he snapped.

The rest of the crew gawped at him as he disappeared into the ship just a little way away. The last they saw of him was a flash of white hair.

"What's his problem?" commented Gene.

Jim stared after him for a while, contemplating whether or not to follow him back to the ship but Aisha slapped a bowl of stew down on his lap beaming merrily and all thoughts were taken up with ways of getting rid of the stew without actually having to eat it.

"She cooks worse than you Jim!" Gene said, poking what looked like an eyeball.

"What's that supposed to mean!" growled Aisha and Jim in unison.

"Sheesh, you two need to spend some time apart!" Gene said with a smirk.

Aisha and Jim glared at each other.

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Melfina's eyes scanned the carvings for anything she remotely recognised but each complex symbol was a mystery to her. A look of slight frustration distorted her features for a moment.

They had been working all day and still nothing. Why couldn't she read them? What was so special about this place?

Taking care not to make a sound she turned back to the camp and the sleeping forms of Aisha, Gene and Jim.

Suzuka still wasn't back yet.

Suddenly, something in the air changed.

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Gene was dreaming. He was laying on an open pasture, stretching lazily and chewing on a reed he had plucked from the field. His thoughts seemed to drift with the wind. The clouds were abstracted.

A bottle of liquor lay beside him on the grass.

"It's just in case I get sober!" he mumbled in a guilty tone to no-one in particular.

"Gene?"

The dream shifted as dreams sometimes do. He was standing under the light of a great white statue holding his caster on a figure he could barely make out. She was pointing her own gun at him. A stalemate.

"Who are you?" Gene asked gently but he knew.

Melfina stepped out of the shadows.

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Gene jolted awake, rolled over and (Sorry about this XX) was promptly sick on the sand.

"Damn Ctarl Ctarl stew!" Gene wiped his mouth shakily.

Sitting up in the sand, his eyes searched the sleeping figures for Melfina but she wasn't there. Automatically, his eyes surveyed the surrounding area until he found her. He could just make her out at the foot of temple before an open passageway.

He frowned slightly. Had that been there earlier?

Suddenly, Melfina stepped forward into the dark.

"Mel!" Gene attempted to yell but his throat was dry and burning. Grasping the handle of his caster and his belt, he staggered to his feet and lurched forward after her. As Melfina's frame disappeared inside, Gene could see the stone door closing rapidly.

"Shit!" he cursed breaking into a run. His heart was pounding in his ears, blood was pumping through his veins. He could feel the muscles in his arms and legs ignite. And all the while the panic grew as the doorway narrowed.

In desparation he pulled out his caster with a loaded number 16 and fired it at the door. The shell spiralled through the air on torrents of smoke and collided with the side of the temple.

Gene had expected the caster shell to blow the door to pieces but it merely froze for a few seconds. A few seconds was enough to get Gene inside before the door shut.

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Flynn sat up stiffly and shivered, his breath made a fine mist in the air.

"It's freezing in here Gilliam!" he stated grouchily.

"It shouldn't be, the temperature in the cock pit should be the same as the temperature outside which by my sensors is about 15 degrees centigrade." Gilliam replied in a puzzled voice.

"I think your sensors are malfunctioning." Flynn mumbled, teeth chattering.

"I shall go and see if any sensors need replacing." said Gilliam failing to note Flynn's sarcasm.

"You do that." said Flynn rolling his eyes.

When Gilliam didn't reply, it was obvious he's already left. Flynn sat huddled in Jim's seat, slowly getting colder.

"I hate th-this damn, crazy p-place." Flynn shivered to himself.

Suddenly the room grew dark and the frost deepened. The monitors he was leaning his feet on started fizzing and spitting sparks. He jumped up quickly and started backing away, movements flustered.

"What the hell's going on!"

As if in response a figure formed on the air next to the monitors. He knew her instantly, her long cascading hair, her pale, moon-white skin, her angular chin and nose.

He knew her.

She was-

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So what's inside the temple? Who is that annoying person that Flynn always sees? Is Melfina really the one that shot Gene? Ah...it brings a humble tear to the eye of moi to see the cliffhanger haters on the horizon with pitch forks and burning torches...so much power. Wait is that...is that BW? Okay must run like hell again! I've seen her with a sledge hammer! (runs like hell)