A/N: Hi!...I'm back, with an almost completely canon story. No idea how often I'll update due to other commitments...it will be as often as possible. I promise. This one's "Jak II"-set, AU for many, many reasons, the first of which you'll discover as you read. Meanwhile, read, review, enjoy. ~MikaHaeli8

One, two.

He reached up and pushed all his body up towards the ledge above him. He was exhausted, having wandered about this place for what felt like hours. He was almost there now. He felt the putrid air lazily caress his fingertips as it swept over them, dissipating in the higher, darker reaches of the room. Sometimes after this particular episode, he would always wonder why this room was always open, and why those boxes – whatever their purpose was – were stacked in such a way as to allow an easy escape.

C'MON, Jak. One. Two.

"C'mon, tough guy. Sure you haven't forgotten how to grab ledges? Last I check you got opposable thumbs after all!"

Jak said nothing, apart from uttering a small growl of frustration. Never mind the shock of seeing another part of the palace other than the cramped and putrid cell in which he'd spent what was left of his twenty-second year, his twenty-third and twenty-fourth birthdays in. He snorted when Daxter had told him this and replied, rather dryly, that he felt three, maybe four times that.

One.

He took a deep breath, coiling his body, tensing it. For once, Daxter wasn't talking, allowing him to think for the first time in two years.

Two.

He leapt up and grabbed the edge, letting out the breath he'd been holding in, lifting his head up as far as he could. Behind him, Daxter applauded, letting out a loud "WHOO!" that echoed around the room.

"Dax! D'you want us to be recaptured by Krimzon Guards and tortured for another two years?" Jak hisses, purple Eco sparks coming off him.

"Yeah, well, if they try then they gotta go through me first!" Daxter proclaimed boisterously. Despite himself, Jak's face unveiled a small smile. Ah, buddy, I've missed you.

He hauled himself up on the box athletically, stabilising himself as the box wobbled slightly. He crouched down, palms flat on the box, heart beating, ready to leap in case the box suddenly collapsed or fell altogether. When the reunited dynamic duo were certain that the box was stable, Jak straightened up, taking tentative steps towards the large square hole in the wall, where the putrid wind that had caressed his fingertips before now hit him full-on in the face, filling every available orifice with a smell that made him recoil.

So this is what Haven smells like, huh, he noted dryly.

"So, I guess you're keen to get back to Keira, huh," Daxter remarked, just as dry as his best friend's thought.

Did he just – Daxter's said best friend whipped his head around. "Keira? She...she's still alive?" Precursors, am I still dreaming?

"Yeah, she is." For the first time, Daxter's gut warned him to stop there, not wishing to reveal to Jak what Keira's situation was, or whom.

"Dax..." Jak's dark-blue eyes were wide open and staring at the ottsel. "How is she? Does she think I'm dead? Is she okay? Has..." He faltered as his mind spoke the words his mouth refused. Is she with someone else? Is he treating her right?

Daxter shifted very uncomfortably on his best friend's shoulder even as the Eco-infused human figure hauled himself onto the flat brick of the gap.

One.

He looked down at the three-storey jump below him. For the first time in a long time, he didn't buckle at the thought of a death-inducing jump. The deep breath he had taken in at that "one" was burning in his lungs, the oxygen well and truly replaced. Exhaling, he crouched, hands sliding down the side.

Two.

Releasing the sides, he closed his eyes, thought of Keira and jumped.

When he stopped falling, he opened his eyes, amazed he hadn't broken a single bone during his jump.

Right, he thought to himself. I've got a girlfriend to claim back.

"Right, buddy," Daxter said. "You got a girlfriend to get back,"

Jak gave him a look. "Since when have you been able to read minds?"

Daxter just wiggled his eyebrows. "Not just yours, but the laydeez minds too. They want a piece of me really. They all do. They just pretend they don't."

Jak shook his head and moved off in the direction where he hoped the garage was.