(Disclaimer: I don't own Outlaw Star...If I did, it would probably be a hentai or something around that category...)

OUTLAW STAR: THE YU LING SAGA

(Dedicated to The Ronin, because with out his helpful words, I probably wouldn't have been able to write this...)

Chapter 2: Hiding in the Windows

He looked up at the clock set up on the wall, reading out almost a quarter past five in the early morning darkness. He was a bit worn out and he saw the negative effects of not getting rest would affect his training routine, but he had his work to do. Staring out through the cracks between the blinds of the window of his apartment, he absent-mindedly twisted the focus on his binoculars in and out with his thumbs. It was dark outside, but he could still see perfectly the figures of the occasionally passing cars on the bridge below him. He had to watch everywhere, there was a chance that they would appear and strike at any time. Renting out the apartment for three months now and paying for the port where his ship was docked, he was starting to run out of money. It wouldn't be long until the landlord of the complex would kick him out. But even if he did, he would simply camp out at the top of the building, this area was perfect for spying on the crew of the Outlaw Star.

His eyes changed their attention to the Starwind & Hawking building across the bridge. It's lights were off, but based on the time, the Melfina girl would approximately wake up in a half an hour to cook breakfast for the rest; the breakfast time usually lasted 1 to 2 hours. After that, Gene Starwind and James Hawking would begin their business day, which was difficult for him to keep track on those two because they would sometimes leave to go do a job together, Gene would go all by himself, or both would just simply stay in their home. The business day lasted all the way until six or seven o'clock; after those hours, sometimes Gene would leave to go to the nearby bar a few blocks away or stay. As for the other three, Melfina stayed inside unless she was going to the grocers' market to get groceries or going out on a date with Gene, "Twilight" Suzuka came and went as she pleased at various times, and Aisha would leave around 3pm to go and work as a waitress to the Won restaurant and come back at 8pm. It was the same thing everyday, but that was a good thing.

He stretched and kicked his feet up on one of the wooden chairs turned away from the dinner table in the middle of the room. At the back of his mind, he was hoping to becoming a peeping tom again during the night hours. A week ago, he was doing his normal watch over the Outlaw Star crew during the night when he noticed one of the lights on the 2nd floor of the building turned on, Suzuka's room. Looking at her window, he noticed that her blinds were pulled up. He was thankful that he was too far away to be seen by her for she removed her white robe and started to remove the ribbon that supported her chest. He wished he had a camera rather than the binoculars when her perfect naked chest was revealed. He didn't see himself as a guy that would stoop so low as to look through a woman's window to see them naked...but he had learned to always take chances when they are presented to him. He remembered how he was pleasuring himself as he gazed at her. She was rubbing her fairly perfect, full breasts, most likely from the ache of wearing those ribbons tied around her. This had turned him on even more, eventually causing him to run to the bathroom to find a rag to clean up the floor. When he had returned though, Suzuka was wrapping herself up again. He remembered himself laughing after admitting he needed a girl to screw for he went insane, but brothel prostitutes weren't for him. Too trifling.

He yawned. Maybe a quick nap wouldn't be so bad. Nothing was going to happen to the Outlaw Star crew yet, he had nothing to worry about...

OOOOOOOOOO

The navigator of the Outlaw Star searched around the vegetable area in the Grocers' market for some ripe onions and tomatoes. Picking up two bright red, juicy tomatoes, she felt their exterior and then placed them in the straw basket hanging from her arm. Walking around the tomato stands to the onion stands, Melfina noticed a young couple at the flower shops across from the vegetables amiss the crowds of shoppers.

The tall blonde male was selecting a bouquet of various types of roses. Beside him holding his hand was a petite brown haired woman. To Melfina, it looked as though the woman was telling the man not to buy any flowers, her voice sounded a bit upset even though there was a smile on her face. But the man wouldn't listen, he picked out the best bouquet for his woman, an assortment of Don Juan's and pink roses with a single white rose in the center. He paid the owner of the stand and gave the flowers to the woman, who in return said thank you. The man placed his hand on her cheek and looked into her eyes, and with a warm smile, kissed her with fondness. Melfina felt happy looking at them, she felt even more when she noticed they both had wedding rings on their hands.

"Gene..." She held her hand to her chest and closed her eyes. She started to recall the day Gene proposed to her. It was four months ago, the crew were leaving the Arasean system after working with the Arasean Space Authorities to end the sudden increase of trafficking illegal substances in the area; the jobs given to them earned enough money to finally pay off Fred (even though Gene wanted to skip town on the weapon dealer, he decided to just end the debt while he had the money to do so.) Gene used his share of the money on outfitting the ship with a new grappler arm artillery; the axe was replaced with a stronger and lighter version and the grapple extensions on the arms themselves were extended. While on the trip back to Heiphong, everyone was lounging around while she was in her navigation chamber reviewing over the coordinates of areas visited in the past. Gene came into the cockpit and told her that he wanted to show her something important in his bedroom. She got out of the tube and followed the giddy and jumpy red-head to his room, a wide grin was on his face the whole time. He closed the door behind them and told her to close her eyes. Melfina did so, playing along with Gene's game and thinking about how immature he was acting. She heard him open up his dresser and close it before hearing him telling her to open her eyes. When she did, she saw him on his knees holding up an open ring box. Inside the box was probably the most beautiful ring she had ever see, with its gold band and large triangular amethyst stone. Melfina was confused for a moment, she had seen these things on TV and read about them in some of Aisha's romance novels. She deducted in her mind that Gene was proposing to her...and that meant that he wanted to marry her. She sat down on his bed and started to cry, uncomfortable thoughts about her being a bio-android started to come to her; even though the part of her that was connected to the Leyline was gone, she was still a bio-android, an imitation of a human. Hearing these words coming from Melfina caused Gene to move her hands from her face, holding them tightly on either side of her. He pushed her down onto his bed and told her to never say or think that again. Melfina said she was afraid that she wouldn't be a good wife to him and she had no idea if she would age the same as normal people do or at all. Gene, with his determination, said that he would live with it just to be with her. Melfina was about to start crying again when she asked about children, that she had no idea if she could even bear a child. He simply ignored her saying that and kissed her deeply. Breaking the kiss, he asked her again if she would take his hand in marriage, and with no negative questions, Melfina said yes.

Melfina stretched her hand out and imagined the ring on her finger. Getting married to Gene was the best thing that happened in her short life ever since she and Gene made the wish that they wanted to be with each other when they were at the Leyline. This was going to make sure of that. As long as she could stay with Gene, she was happy.

Coming out of her daydreaming, Melfina picked out some fresh onions and paid the owner of the vegetable stand her money. Melfina left the hustling and bustling grocers' market with her basket, still thinking about how happy her future was going to be with Gene. Her home was only a few blocks from the market. Along the way, she passed by one of the many parks of the city. This one was special however, Gene would take her here on dates sometimes; they would walk around on the cobblestone path and talk, they would lay on the grass and look up at the sky...this place was really romantic. Melfina looked up at the black iron gate to the park, above it was a grand clock that read a quarter to ten.

There was plenty of time, Melfina thought to herself as she walked through the park's gates. She inhaled the air around her, allowing her body and mind to feel the joy. She followed the cobblestone path, looking around at the trees and the birds. As good as she felt, she noticed that there was no one else in the park at all. Usually, there would be families here with picnics and barbeques or people walking their dogs, but she dismissed it because it may have been too early for people to start coming. The path led her down a hill, this was were most of the trees were. Beyond those trees was a hidden pond; she remembered this from the time Gene took her there and started to tell her stories of his past adventures. Melfina kept on the path. Up ahead, she noticed a little girl with light brown hair in a white dress sitting against a tree. It looked as though she was crying in her arms.

Melfina ran up to the girl, she crouched in front of the girl. "What's wrong? Where is your family?" she asked in a caring voice. The little girl raised her head to see the woman talking to her and wiped the tears off her face. Her green sad eyes looked into Melfina's brown concerned eyes.

"I can't find my daddy. I don't know where he is," said the little girl, her small voice was broken by the crying.

Melfina stood up and with a warm smile, opened her hand to the little girl. "Don't worry, I'll help you find him." The little girl still gazed into Melfina's eyes with uncertainty.

"You're pretty, miss." Melfina laughed a bit, she replied with, "You are pretty also."

The little girl giggled. She took Melfina's hand. "Me and my dad were about to leave. I thought he'd be at the entrance, but I went there and he wasn't. That's why I came back here." The little girl stared into Melfina's eyes once more. "You have very nice eyes, miss."

"Why thank you," said Melfina she backtracked though the park to the entrance. She had figured that the girls father would return there again after not finding her in the park. When they had climbed the hill, Melfina became curious about the girl.

"What's your name?" she asked. The little girl once again looked into her eyes.

"H..." the little was speaking in an exasperated voice. Her inquisitive gaze turned into stressful strain. She fell on her knees and started hyperventilating. Melfina, worried, placed her hand on the girl's forehead and checked her pulse. The girl collapsed on her back, wheezing heavily. Melfina was afraid, the little girl was probably having an asthma attack. She was confused and shocked. She started to think about what to do to help the girl, then she remembered a hospital TV show she saw a few weeks ago. There was a boy who had passed out from an asthma attack during a birthday party, but the people who helped the boy used a device called an "inhaler" that made him better. Melfina didn't have one in her possession. Fearing for the struggling girl, she started to think about what the people had to do to the boy before they got the inhaler. It had gotten the boy to breathe a bit and it was her only thing she could do to help the girl...

Melfina made sure the girl was flat on her back. Making sure she put her basket down, she put her right hand over her left and intertwined her fingers, then she placed her left hand's heel in between the girl's chest and stomach. She moved her hands up the girl's chest repeatedly in a rhythmic pattern. Every time she put pressure on the girl's chest, it caused her to breath deeply. It was working.

The girl inhaled sharply and croaked a bit; she was breathing deep again. Melfina was relieved, she had saved the girl. She got up off her knees and picked up the little girl, carrying in her arms. She's too weak from that asthma attack to walk, thought Melfina. She asked the girl if she was feeling any better. The girl responded with "Heather."

"Heather? Is that your name?" asked Melfina.

"Mmhmm. And I feel better now." Heather kept her eyes open, looking into Melfina's eyes every time she looked down at her.

"That's good to hear," said Melfina with a smile. The girl looked afraid. Every time Melfina would look at Heather, she'd look straight into her eyes as if she was searching for something. She had very nice eyes though...

Melfina carried the girl back to the park's entrance. When they got there, she found a man with graying hair pacing around on the sidewalk in a worried fashion. He noticed the her carrying the child.

"You found her! Thank you miss! I thought I had lost her!" The forty-ish man took Heather from Melfina's arm into his. His rugged features turned more peaceful when he noticed that her eyes were closed. "She's sleeping," he said quietly.

"Yeah," said Melfina, "she had an asthma attack shortly after I found her. I made her better, but I think it still wore her out." The man looked at Melfina with fear.

"She had an asthma attack? Oh my god...I should have given her, her inhaler." He rocked Heather a bit before kissing her on her nose.

"Don't worry, sir. Just give her the inhaler and she should be fine," assured Melfina. The man placed his large hand on Melfina's shoulder.

"Thank you," he said, "I'm in a hurry now, but I promise I'll soon repay the favor to you." His tone was very masculine and definite with his words.

"Oh sir, you don't have to," said Melfina, "I'm just happy she's ok and with her father." Both of them laughed politely to each other.

Heather's father looked up at the clock. "Oh! I have to go, it was nice meeting you and thank you!" With that, he ran down the street, making a turn behind a building and out of her sight.

Melfina proceeded to go home, now with thoughts of children. She decided that she would want a child. Without her being there with Heather, she probably would have stayed lost and gotten hurt from an asthma attack. Or probably worse. Melfina didn't think about that, but she felt as though she was needed during that moment. A child needs a mother to look after them, and Melfina loved feeling needed to someone who needed her. She remembered when Gene said she was too helpful. She simply told him that if he needed her, she would be there and if anyone else needed her, she would be there helping them as well. With a child though, they would always need a mother, and protecting them would be one of the happiest things for Melfina.

OOOOOOOOOO

Hulas ran as fast as his legs would carry him back to his apartment. The girl had done her job, and now all he had to do was give the memory scan to Atton and the first half of his mission would be over with and he'd be one step closer of being rid of these Feng bastards for good. He entered the abandoned apartment building and ran up the staircase that led to the various floors. Reaching the 3rd floor, he opened the door and ran down the hallway of apartments. He stopped in front of the door at the end of the hall and shifted the girl on one arm so he could open the door.

The apartment was only a makeshift base of operations, which explained the emptiness. He was going to be gone by tonight, so he could just gather all of his stuff and head to the old train station. From there, everything would be smooth sailing. He set the girl on the floor and sat at the table, on it was a communication device. Hulas turned on the monitor and waited for the white noise to go away. After it settled, a man wearing a red featureless mask appeared.

"Ahhh...Hulas, I didn't expect you to contact me so soon. The plan went well I'm guessing?" The way Atton talked annoyed Hulas greatly. He couldn't stand how he acted like he was his friend. First the Feng offered him freedom in exchange for a job done and they have him working with this irritating priest. The main reason Hulas hated him was from a past debate the priests had with each other about whether or not the male slaves older than sixteen should have been executed. Atton approved of the idea, but the majority of his colleagues didn't luckily.

"It seems that way, the girl fell asleep like you said she would. But the android said that she had an asthma attack." Atton looked away from the screen, it was impossible to tell his expression without him talking. It was silent for a few seconds before Atton spoke.

"I will have to talk to Kijo about that, but still send the data." He could tell Atton was a bit nervous. If there was a complication in his part of the plans, he would may as well committed suicide. Hulas snickered a bit, thinking about how Atton would be forced to report to the Yu Ling or the Emperor himself and how he would have to explain his failure.

"What's so funny?" snapped Atton. "Hurry up and send the crystal's data, slave!" Hulas grumbled something under his breath. The only reason he was doing this was because he wanted his freedom. The job was going to be easy, though he didn't want to help destroy whatever family thing the Outlaw Star crew had going for itself. But he reasoned with himself, if they were put in his position, they probably wouldn't have given a damn. Behind him, he heard a familiar hissing sound. Turning around in his chair, he saw the girl starting to dissolve. Green steam was emitted through her pores as her body started to deteriorate. It was like looking at something burning, where the object's parts would turn into ashes and float off into the air. He was used to seeing this all too well.

"She's dissolving now. The crystal should be visible shortly," said Hulas.

"Good," said Atton.

The girl was now completely gone, leaving behind strands of the green steam and a small, perfectly-rounded pearl. Hulas picked it up from the floor and held it in between his thumb and index finger. He was still amazed after all these years that so much power and magic were contained in these crystals. The one he held in his hand was specially crafted and alchemized by the Yu Ling's 'memory witch' herself, Kijo. The girl was nothing but molded caster magic that the crystal released, the embodiment of the caster crystal itself. The girl was probably modeled especially for this mission for it was rare for an embodiment to be so detailed such as the girl was; usually, they were crafted into crude figures such as the Rei. Speaking of the Rei...

"Hey Atton, will the Rei with me take on any one that tries to attack me?" asked Hulas.

"The Rei are programmed to handle anyone and anything hostile to our plan at hand. As far as the Rei and Feng are concerned, your done with the hard part. We can handle it from here without you, but since the you want us to set you free, we'll let you take care of the rest and leave a group of Rei with you. Just get the android and the crystal to the pickup spot and we'll relieve you of her and your slavery.

"Now just finish up with the mission and you'll be free."

Hulas brought up a mental picture of Kijo, she had plenty of the crystals hanging from her wrists. "The witch has enough crystals. I can make some money off selling this, so how's one crystal missing going to hurt her?"

"Mistress Kijo and the rest of the Yu Ling needs that crystal almost as much as they need the android. The retrievers we sent will ask for both the items." Hulas thought he heard Atton laugh a bit, "You don't have too, of course; you're not going to be a slave after all, but the Yu Ling will make sure you are killed. Mistress Kijo will, without a doubt, hunt you down personally. As you can see, she really likes her crystals."

It would be best if I did just give her the thing, thought Hulas. "Ok, I'll do that. It's still the morning time, so I'll see if I can complete this damn mission today."

"You do just that Hulas. Our men have already waited patiently for you to get the android and the crystal," said Atton.

"So be it. Signing off." The Feng slave made sure he put the crystal in his pocket before doing anything else. Hulas turned off his communicator and immediately dissembled it. Taking the pieces with him, he left the apartment and headed out the building. Making sure he didn't forget, he dumped the communicator into the nearest trash bin. Now all he needed to find was a payphone...

OOOOOOOOOO

Melfina returned home with her vegetables. After cleaning them up and storing them, she told the rest about her and the lost little girl in the park.

"Wow Melfina, you're a hero!" said Jim. "If you hadn't been there, she probably would've died from her asthma!."

Melfina laughed at the boy's words. "You give me too much credit Jim."

"But he's right. You saved her life," said Suzuka.

"Good Job Mel!" said Aisha.

Melfina smiled, all her friends were praising her. Even though she did save a child, anyone else would have done the same in her position. Melfina said that was about to go into the kitchen to prepare food for dinner, she still had her duties. Gene, who was leaning against the wall next to the doorway to the kitchen, extended his arm out and stopped her.

"Hey, you don't have to worry about making dinner. It's on me," he said showing the same praise to her. He wondered why she would always worry about her jobs like that, here she was getting all this attention and praise and she still wanted to go and fix dinner.

Melfina wouldn't hear of it. It was seldom Gene was sincere like this, but he didn't have to take her out to a restaurant. "No, its ok. I'll cook for everyone."

"I'll buy a buffet for everyone," replied Gene. He wouldn't hear of it either...

"Alright!" shouted a happy Aisha.

"Wow Gene, that's pretty kind of you," said Jim.

Gene raised his shoulders and opened his hands, "It's the least I can do."

Everyone approved of Gene's notion. It was rare that they did eat out, even rarer if Gene was paying for it. The girls got into the backseat while Gene and Jim sat in the front. Usually, Jim would drive his Eifaru, but he had gotten in trouble with the local law enforcers by being too young to be behind the wheel. Gene, being Jim's guardian, had to pay the fines. Jim was furious about pratically being banned from driving his own car, but Gene said he would drive it around Heiphong and Jim could drive it at any other planet. They were all ready to go, but as soon as Gene took out the ignition key from his pocket, he knew he had forgotten something.

"Damn, I left my wallet in my room...sorry everyone, I'll be right back." The red-head got out of the car and went back into the building, ignoring the muffled loud cursing of Aisha.

He went up the stairs and into his and Melfina's bedroom. As soon as he reached for the leather wallet on the dresser, he heard the phone ring from the den downstairs.

"Damn...probably someone with a job," said Gene. It was still daytime business hours anyway, but he couldn't wait till nighttime to take everyone out to eat. At night, all the good restaurants became loaded with the snobbish 'rich' people and made everything expensive. He had never witnessed this himself, but he did one day see limousines parked outside the local Italian Wine Cellar, one of Gene's favorite restaurants and the one he was planning to take his friends to. Gene sighed, he'd just have to tell whoever's calling to reschedule a good time...probably taking out a bit of money from what he or she planned on giving originally.

He went back downstairs and picked up the phone just in time. Instead of an image of the caller, the words 'payphone' popped up. Who would be calling here from a payphone, thought Gene. "Hello?"

"Yes," said the deep voiced man on the other line. "I'm guessing this is Gene Starwind I'm speaking to."

"Who wants to know?" asked Gene automatically. That saying may as well have been trademarked to him since he always replied it when someone asked him if he was Gene Starwind or not.

"You're him, I can tell," said the caller. "I have something for you that you might be interested in."

"What? We're not taking jobs at this time," said Gene.

"Oh, what I have isn't a job, but I think you'll come and get it anyway..." The man let out an utterance of what he probably considered laughing. "You'll come if you value your crew's life. Especially Melfina's, the Feng will take her and kill off the rest of you."

What the hell? Who the fuck does this guy think he is? "Who are you! What do you know about all this Feng stuff! And what the hell do they want with Melfina"

The man acted as though he was thinking for a second, pissing Gene off. "Hmmmm...I know the Feng are coming for you. They want Melfina and the XGP for some reason I don't know of and they will kill you and your friends regardless. But I don't want that to happen to you guys..."

"Gene, what's taking so long?" asked Jim. He had gotten out of the car and went inside to find out what was holding up Gene.

Gene just held his hand out signaling Jim to wait. "What do you have that we may need?" Gene looked like he was talking to the devil with a hint of fear in his eyes that Jim noticed. He was going to ask what was going on, but Gene wouldn't have answered.

"I have some launch codes for the ship, that'll keep the Feng from tracking your ship through computers. They do know it looks like however, but it's up to you to figure out how to keep them from distinguishing your ship. The launch codes will be a big step into doing that."

"So why can't you come over here and give us the codes?" asked Gene.

"Because I'm being chased by the Feng too. I don't want to show up at your doorstep and have the Feng come and kill everyone. They may know where you are already also, so it's best for you to come to me. They don't know where I'm at."

Gene couldn't believe this guy. It was so obvious it was a trap...but that meant that all this Feng stuff must be true... First the guy in the bar, and now this. More goddamned pirates... He slid to the ground and his hand on his forehead. "This can't be happening," he whispered to himself.

"What can't be happening," said the man on the phone.

This is fucking great... He just wanted to be done with pirates. They'll always follow me I guess... The man on the phone cleared his throat, getting Gene's attention back.

"Just come to the oldNeotrack Train Station and I'll give you the codes. Sometimes...it's best to let things happen so they'll get done faster. If you run away from things, then your only prolonging the unavoidable." And with that, the man hung up. "FUCK!" shouted Gene in his frustration. Jim looked at him with a concerned face.

"What's wrong Gene? Who was that on the phone?" asked the boy.

Gene thought about his friends, they would all be hunted by these new pirates. If what the man at the bar said was true, then the Feng were more powerful than the Kei by a longshot... And even if they did somehow take down everyone and him, they would take Melfina and use her for something nefarious. He would lose his fiancee'. And Jim, they would kill him too even though he was just a kid... Aisha and Suzuka would be killed...and him... It didn't matter if they did try to run, the Feng would come after them all...

"There's been a change of plans Jim. We're not going out," said Gene. Jim was heartbroken.

"Why not? It'll be good for everyone," said Jim.

Gene got up from the floor, "I'll explain while we're on the road." He then went upstairs, to get his weapons.

OOOOOOOOOO

(Wow...another guy is talking about the Feng. Will Gene, Mel, and the others fall into Hulas' trap? Is there even a trap? And what about the guy that was watching him? Who was he? Are his intentions good or is he one of the Feng's associates? What will the Feng do with the memories of Melfina and if they somehow get her, what will they do with her? Who exactly are these Yu Ling people and how do they get their powers, whatever they are? How will the crew react to Gene's story when he finally tells them what he knows so far about the Feng? Ansem knows all that there is to know and he also has the ability to change the story on a whim for he is confused. Remember to review cause I really think that it's messed up if I write all of this and no one reads it ... Anyway R&R!)