Disclaimer: I do not own Outlaw Star. Jex is mine though, not yours, MINE! With that out of the way I'd also like to thank The Ronin for letting me make a sequel to Ryunoken Sword. If you want some of my chicken scratch to make sense, read Outlaw Star the Ryunoken Sword first.. As to the owners of Outlaw Star, PLEASE DON'T SUE ME! I'm honoring your work. I've decided to re-post my fic, because my fist try was crap and I apologize.. Please enjoy my revised craptastic first fic.

Shadows and Starlight

Chapter 1: Strangers in the Shadows

Location: Heifong

"Gene you've had a lot to drink tonight" Melfina observed. Gene looked up. In the six years since the Ryunoken Sword incident and the fight with Shidowkun, things had changed.

Mazren and Suzuka were now married. Jim who was now 18 was developing a crush on Aisha who had just had her 22nd birthday (Gene was still a little confused about the fact that Catrls age slower than Humans) and he and Mel were married.

But as he thought about the changes he also noticed that some things never change. Like Mel bugging him about his drinking.

"Awwww, I'm fine Mel, at least I don't drink like Mazren does. Am I right, huh?"

Melfina sighed "While you don't drink as much as he does, my bother doesn't get drunk ether" "I'M NOT DRUNK!" Gene retorted, immediately regretting shouting when he saw the look on Melfina's face.

"Smooth Starwind" a rough voice from the corner called out "You can't do anything right can you?" the voice scoffed "I can't believe a drunkard like you defeated Hazanko and Shidowkun."

"Yeah? Why should I care about what some stupid bar-scum says?" Gene retorted.

"You know, I think it was someone else and you just took the credit. Not only are you scrawny, and stupid, you have absolutely no combat skills. If you want a lesson in those as well as how not to be an asshole to women, give me a call"

Gene stood up enraged "What the hell do you know asshole? Step into the light so I can show you how I thrashed both major pirate guild leaders!"

The stranger chuckled. It was a cold, unfeeling laugh that sent chills down Gene's spine "Gladly, you little worm."

Out of the shadows stepped a man wearing a black knee length jacket, it was a material similar to leather, but looked stronger as well as it would protect better against an attack than plain leather.

The right sleeve was torn two inches below the elbow. He stood about 6'2", wore black jeans and a black shirt with a red dragon design. But Gene had seen much more remarkable outfits, especially on Tenrei.

But his face is was what caught the attention of Gene the most. While gene had scars, this guy had tattoos.

Under his right eye, he had two, one that stretched from the outside of his eye to below the edge of his mouth in a fang shape. The other one was smaller and curving the other way, ending between his mouth and his nose.

Under his left eye was a single tattoo that curved right under his eye then angling down sharply at the outside edge of his eye into another fang like shape ending about the same distance down his face as the other long tattoo, all of them black.

His face was paler than Gene's but not much. His black hair was streaked with red, and was sculpted into three swooping spikes.

His wardrobe was almost funny, and it would have been if he didn't have an aura like the Grim Reaper

The stranger taunted Gene, "What are you staring at you skinny drunk? Did I scare you, you little weakling?"

Gene snapped out his lapse and despite his bad feeling, reached for his knife.

"Try this, bastard!" and began to rush the man in black. The stranger didn't move.

"Looks like the bastard is all talk, at this rate I'll just stab him in the chest and then…"

Gene saw the stranger crack his neck and the next thing he saw was the ceiling of the bar thinking "What the F…"

That was Gene's last conscious thought of the day.

Gene awoke to feel a pain in his chest. He looked down and saw bandages, and wondered what the hell had happened. Next he looked at the clock, he had been out for 14 hours.

By this time, gene had realized that he wasn't alone in the room. Jim and Aisha were standing about a meter away talking to one another.

Gene's guess was that Jim had come to lecture him and Aisha had come to be alone with Jim, or as alone as you can get with a unconscious guy in the room.

Of course, with Aisha being a person who is easily embarrassed, her excuse will be that she wanted to taunt Gene for losing a bar fight.

Gene mentally shook his head, he knew that once Jim gathered up the courage tell Aisha about what he felt for her, she would probably confess her own feelings for Jim.

Gene grinned evilly, he really loved to embarrass these two would-be lovers. He cleared his throat and said "You guys can knock me out again if you want to have some time alone with each other."

Both of the wannabe lovebirds blushed a bright color that Gene thought wasn't possible. The color was so red that 20th century Communists would feel insignificant.

Jim was the fist to respond. "GENE STARWIND! YOU PERVERTED, SLEASY, NO GOOD, GUTTER BRAINED SCUM BAG!"

Jim's outburst was so huge, there was steam coming out his ears as well as fire coming out of his mouth, even his tongue was in on the act, because it had gone all demon style.

This was much more than Gene had ever expected. "He must really be falling in love with this psycho cat girl" he thought to himself.

But while Jim was yelling, Aisha was still bright red, but looking forlorn at Jim's reaction.

She moved quickly to cover her ass and retorted "You have a sick mind Gene, Jim's still just a child compared to me, I don't think he'll ever be more than just a friend"

Now it was Jim's turn to look disappointed. It was obvious to Gene that Jim was trying to do the same thing Aisha did, cover his ass in case she rejected him. And, in a way she had, just like he did.

Gene sighed, it will be resolved eventually.

But Gene looked at the ceiling and wondered what he had gotten into this time. He closed his eyes and thought "Only time will tell…"

That's all you get for now, please review. And if you must flame me, make it good will you? If I'm to get flamed, I want it to be worth my time. By the way, Xbox is addicting just like crack, so don't do Xbox…I mean crack…I mean…uhh…uhhhhhh, OH SHIT! Xbox Ninja Enforcers from Hell have appeared in my room, this could be it…NOOOOOOOOOOO

"Why use a Kamehameha wave when a #4 caster shell looks cooler"

-GeneKoshStarwind