SC: Here is the oh-so-demanded (not really) sequel to Altered Reality! By the way, I need to pick a title, and i'm letting you guys vote. Here's the choices:

Eco in the Blood

Unwanted Demons (there's another option for this one: Unwanted Demons, Unthought of Angels)

Rejected Saviors

Disclaimer: I own Raye and Tyro. That's about it.

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Chapter 1

Aftermath

The door of the Naughty Ottsel opened, making the two girls inside look up. "Hey Ashelin." The blonde greeted.

"Hi Tess. What are you two doing down here?"

The other girl set a box down on the bar. From the clinking inside, the contents were probably bottles. "Still cleaning up from our little party last week. It's taken us almost five days to get this far."

"Where's Daxter?"

"Poor Dax can't hold his booze as well as he thought." She leaned against the bar. "He's over at Keira's with Jak if that's who your looking for."

The Governess shook her head. "No, I've already talked to Jak. Actually, I came to talk to you, Raye."

Raye shoved a few strands of hair out of her face. "What about?"

"I wanted you and Jak to become co-commanders of the new Krimzon Guard with Torn."

It took twenty-six seconds for Raye to start laughing. "Ashelin, you do realize who you're talking to, right?"

"That's what Jak said." The red head told her.

Tess sighed. "Can you really blame him?"

Raye picked up the box of bottles again. "Seriously. I don't think that any of them will take to kindly to being ordered around by- whoa!" Her fingers slipped from the bottom of the box. Ashelin grabbed the other side in time to stop it from hitting the floor. "Thanks." They set it down on a nearby table. "Like I was saying, I doubt any of them will take too kindly to being ordered around by someone who used to be, and still is last I checked, a convicted felon and mass murderer."

"Not anymore. I pardoned the charges on you and Jak."

Raye blinked. "Now, if I had been holding that box, we'd have a lot of broken glass to clean up. Are you serious Ashelin?"

Ashelin nodded. "It wasn't your fault. Vengeance does some really bad things to good people."

"Oh Mar…" Raye muttered, putting a hand over her eyes. She peeked at Ashelin through her fingers. "You're actually serious about this commander thing?" Ashelin nodded. Raye sighed. "One question."

"What is it?"

"When you say co-commander with Tattooed Wonder, does that mean he's my boss?"

Ashelin grinned. "He'll have some authority over you in emergency situations because he has senority, but other than that, no. You're equal."

Raye paused and stood up straight, removing her hand from her face. "What the hell. Sure, I'll do it. Hey, I'm not gonna have to get those am I?" She gestured towards Ashelin's tattoos.

She laughed. "Only if you want to. My father used these as a brand. I'm not going to do the same thing."

"Okay, good."

As Ashelin was walking out the door, Raye stopped her one more time. "Hey, what did Jak say?"

Ashelin glanced back at her over her shoulder. "No."

The door shut behind her and Raye scoffed. "Figures."

Tess walked out from behind the bar. "What does?"

"That I would do the exact opposite of him." She flashed Tess a grin. "Now get over here and help me with this box. It's your boyfriend's bar, so stop cleaning the bar and help me before I drop it." The blonde giggled and walked over to help.

XXX

"You said yes?" Jak asked. I felt like he was trying to scold me.

"Yes, I did. What's so wrong with that?" I flicked another strand of hair back out of my face. "Good Mar, I need to get this cut properly."

"Raye, stop changing the subject."

I stood up to face him. Jak was maybe, MAYBE, a half inch taller than me. "Look, what does it matter? I'll be working with Torn, no big deal."

"Yes big deal. Very big deal." He told me. "Raye, almost all of those men are old Krimzon Guards. They hate our guts."

"Well then they can just get over it." I told him. "Because I'm going to do this, Jak. I don't need your permission. You're my brother, not my father." And with that, I walked past him and out of the apartment we shared. Yeah, we had an apartment. It was pretty nice, actually. Both of us had a room to ourselves, and there was a kitchen. Better yet, I was learning how to cook! Thank god for Tess and Keira…

Ever since Jak and I had found out we were twins, he'd gone way too overprotective big brother on me. I guess his concerns are well met, considering most everyone in the city hates us, but it isn't exactly like I can't take care of myself. We both have enough power to take out a city block rushing through our veins.

Speaking of which, Ambika and Lykaios had gotten even more restless lately. Without the Metal Heads around, we didn't have anything to fight or a regularly available source of dark eco to fuel them. I don't blame them either. It's not that I didn't enjoy the peace or anything, it was…

Jak and I had been turned into weapons. Our instinct is to kill, to fight. We were just bored, like little kids with one toy to play with; it gets real old, real fast. That's why I jumped at the chance to do this. Maybe I'd get to smack some heads together or something.

'Raye, I'm bored. Can't we go out to Dead Town or something? You know, just to make sure nothing survived?'

I groaned. 'Ambika, we've gone out there seven times in the past eight days. All the Metal Heads are dead.'

'What about the Nest? Maybe some of the stronger ones survived.'

'We killed anything that moved when we left.'

'No, you and Jak shot at them from a balloon. We have no idea if they're dead or not.'

'Just give it up, will you?' I received silence. She was probably off pouting or something.

Unfortunately, I had been so caught up in my conversation with Ambika, I hadn't noticed the looks I was getting from the people on the street. They weren't pretty. I tried my hardest to ignore them and Ambika, who had started up again about how ungrateful this hellhole of a city was. On some level, I agreed with her.

"Raye!" I looked around and saw Torn walking toward me.

I shoved an offending piece of hair, probably the same one as the last forty times, out of my face. "Hey Torn. What is it?"

"I just heard from Ashelin that you're going to be my co-commander."

"You aren't gonna pull out a male ego induced temper tantrum on me, are you?" I asked seriously. Well, mostly seriously.

"Haha, no. Just wanted to say that if you need any help, I'll be there for you."

I raised an eyebrow. "Oookay… who are you, and what did you do with the real Torn?"

He glared at me. "Raye, I'm serious."

"Never mind, it's you. Just an uncontrolled burst of emotion getting loose. You should really keep that under control, Torn. You might lose your 'tough ass, I need no emotions' image." I started walking again.

He rolled his eyes and caught up with me. "Raye, listen. I didn't think it would be a good idea for Ashe to ask you and Jak to take this job on."

"Because we have no experience?"

"No, because you two are possibly the most prejudiced against people in Haven City. No one's going to follow you without a fight."

I looked over at him. Well, up at him, actually. "Funny, that's what I told her."

Torn smirked. "Well, you'd be right. But she has faith in you two. Probably because instead of trying destroy the entire city like you very well could have, you saved it."

I put a hand over my chest. "Be still my beating heart. Torn, do you realize that you've showed more emotion toward me in the past ten minutes than you have in almost a year?"

He shrugged. "I'm going to have to work with you, might as well get used to you."

"So, no more 'princess' cracks, right?"

"I make no promises."

I sighed. "That's close enough."

XXX

Dax jumped off my shoulder. "She's a woman, Jak. No one knows how women think. Well, except me, but I'm just like that."

I rolled my eyes. That was just like Dax: try to cheer me up and then praise himself, all in the same breath. "I know, but I really think she just does this to annoy me."

The door behind me opened and shut. "Love you too. And no, I didn't accept the job just to annoy you. I did it because I need something to do. I'm getting restless, and that isn't a good thing." I turned around to see Raye, a box of pizza in hand. "And I got pizza. You can thank me for that later."

I smirked. "I'll thank you for not forcing us to endure your cooking tonight."

"I'm still learning! And just for that, you don't get any pizza!" I heard her run down the hall to her room and shut the door.

"Raye!"

XXX

After threatening to break her door in, twice, all three of us sat on the couch, enjoying the pizza. Well, except Dax, who had to have his slice cut up for him so he could eat it. At the moment, I was busy trying to start a conversation. Not a good idea. "Did you finally get your hair cut the way you wanted?" I asked, noticing that she hadn't had to push any hair out of her face since she'd been home.

She grinned. "Yeah. I got another couple inches taken off too." I looked at the bottom of her hair. It did look a little shorter then when she had hacked it off. "Hey, I'm gonna be busy most of tomorrow, so I hope you didn't have anything that involved me being there planned." Raye told me, taking a bite of her pizza.

"What are you going to be doing?"

She set down her plate. "I'm going to some hearing of the Grand Council. Ashelin can't appoint me Commander without going through them first."

Daxter scoffed. "You're screwed." She glared at him. "What? Just stating the facts."
"He's got a point, Raye. We're at the bottom of the popularity list here." I told her.

"Well, I've still got a chance. A good few of the council members are old Underground members. Less than half, but with Torn and Ashelin there…" She trailed off. "I'm going to bed, okay? I'll talk to you in the morning." Raye headed back to her room.

I looked down the hall after her and sighed. 'She's screwed…'

'My, aren't you the supportive big brother.' Lykaios muttered. He hadn't been in the greatest of moods lately.

'Just stating the facts. It's not like I'm going to rub it in her face and say 'I told you so' when she gets home angry tomorrow.'

'You don't know that she won't get it.'

'Do I need to go walk around outside to remind you that the people here don't like us much?'

'You know, you seem to be emphasizing that point a lot today.'

I didn't say anything.

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SC: Haha, I know I told you guys a week, but I stayed up 'til two in the morning writing this, so there. Really need some reviews on this… I'd like to know if I've lost my touch or not.

Ja ne

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