Disclaimer: Are you making fun of mocking me!?
A/N: Look, it's updated! Yay updates! I'm very pleased to the turnout for the first act. To the newbes welcome! To those returning, nice to see you again!
Alright, how about some warning before we begin? This chapter might not start out like it, but it'll get dark. Like I'm going to be a bitch and ruin Daxter's life dark. Look blood on the floor dark. Ready? Okay, we can begin now.
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Act II: Bless the Child
When the last of Keira's screams died in his ears, Jak managed to roll his weak, sweaty and sated body half off hers. He pressed his lips to her pounding throat, one hand cupped possessively on her waist.
Keira gave a throaty murmur of pleasure and ran her fingers through his soaked hair. He could feel her lips move along his hairline and he smiled against the pale column of her throat.
"Jak…" her voice was deeper then its normal tone, laden with sleep and exhaustion.
He looked down at her, watching the moon play across the soft of her features. She was like a heavenly angel caught in the throes of an earthly passion. Her body—naked, smooth, lean, and slender—was pressed so yieldingly against his that it was all he could do to simply look upon her.
"Missed you," he said in way of answer, dipping a kiss to her shoulder as Keira mumbled a reply.
After two days of scouting missions with the Wastelanders he had crawled into Keira's bed—well, really theirs now—exhausted, hungry, lusting, and maybe a little smelly. All of these Keira had accepted with open arms and a smile on her lips.
What had he done in a past life to gain enough favour to win her over? Keira put up with a lot of shit as his wife and she still hadn't thrown in the towel. He could be gone at any moment, for days on end, without being able to speak to her until he returned. She was always being harassed by the media with their endless questions on their love life and Jak's latest exploits.
It would be a lot easier, he knew, if she simply chose to settle down with an average Haven City resident. One who the media didn't care about or someone who had a steady job. Anyone but him to state the matter truthfully.
And yet, Keira stuck with it. She supported his missions and was understanding when he suddenly just had to be… be off. She refused to let to media intimidate her and she was always willing to answer their annoying and trifle questions.
He stroke her hair, a part of him wondering what in Haven he would do without her and another part demanding he didn't think about it. Thinking of life without her would be too painful. He just couldn't do it. He was like a soldier who had finally managed to return home to his awaiting wife.
"I missed you, too…" Keira replied, unaware of his thoughts. "Did your mission go well?"
"Hmmm," he mumbled and laid back down against her. "Nothing was there. I'm beginning to think Torn just drags me out there to piss me off. And you know what? It's working."
Keira chuckled and drew lazy circles down his back. "But it's a good thing, isn't it? No Metal Heads, I mean."
"Yeah. They're scattering now, away from Haven City. Seems without Kor they don't have much of a brain." Jak frowned whenever thinking about the former Metal Head leader. His friends often tried to keep his mind from the man.
She looked up at him and felt her heart constrict in her chest. It took all her willpower not to open her mouth and say all the little needs she had been feeling overwhelming her the past few days.
Jak, I want children. I want a family. I want to be happy. Don't you want that, too? She kept those thoughts locked away from him, afraid it would be one more burden on his mind. And he already had so much to do. There'll be time later, Keira. Jak and I… we have our whole life's ahead of us.
"Keira…? Something on your mind?" he questioned but the young woman shook her head in an answer.
He frowned again but didn't let her see it. Something was on her mind, but he wasn't going to probe her. Maybe he should, maybe he needed to know, but he wasn't going to.
She tilted her head and smiled up at him, her face catching the moonlight once more. "Jak, you know that you're all I want, right?"
Jak, for the life of him, couldn't guess why Keira was asking these questions. "I know, Keira. Why…?"
"I just wanted to make sure. No matter what happens, Jak, no matter what we decide, as long as I'm with you I'll be happy." Keira felt the urge to tell him so. She didn't want him to ever believe that she was unhappy when she was with him.
He kissed her full on the mouth, love and passion stirred in her breast. Keira's arms rose and wrapped around him neck, clinging to him. They had become so close over the past two and a half years that it was as if they breathed through the same mouth, shared the same heart, reflected the same mind. They were soul-mates, these two. Lucky enough to find each other in the whirling chaos known as life.
As she felt herself slip into the gentle arms of sleep Keira managed to mumble one last thing. "No matter what happens Jak, as long as we're together everything will turn out fine… all we have to do is be together…" And then a blackness accustomed to sleep took over her and she was falling into the awaiting arms of Lord Morphus.
Jak sat there, content to simply stare at Keira. In sleep she looked much like the girl he had first met and fallen in love with in an innocent little town called Sandover Village. That Keira fit that time and that place and perhaps in her dreams she was still in Sandover Village, with nothing to worry about except exploring the uncharted terrain. When she was awake she became the Keira that fit this city, hardened and sassy with an edge that gave her the survival she needed.
They all had had to sacrifice things to survive in Haven City. Jak, his kindness and his wonder of the world, and for Keira, her innocence and trustfulness. If these things had remained with them during their years separated in Haven City they surely would have been eaten alive.
And now the world was very slowly going back to the way it had been in his childhood. There were no wars, the Metal Heads were dispersing, and a whole new diversity was beginning to show up. Within time it wouldn't be one city standing against the world, but an entire world against the universe. Soon, the people who had lived on the land before Haven City's foundations had even been erected would scourer the earth once more. And the residence of this city would have to recognize that.
The people of Keira's home city—a city she had only recently been aware of—called her the descent of a Goddess. Nothing could have been truer. Being with Keira seemed unreal, like it was an illusion his tortured mind had assembled to comfort him. He worried sometimes that Keira would just suddenly one day leave him, step back behind the curtain of dreams and leave him standing empty and alone.
Perhaps that was why he clung to her so tightly. There always was, deep down inside, this fear that their peaceful time was ending with each passing day. He always allotted that to the fact that there had been never been a time of peace in his life. The peace his childhood had given him had been disrupted by Gol and Maya, then right after that any hope for peace had been destroyed by the Baron and his experiments, then he had become a renegade for Torn. When everything had settled down Keira had began her own adventure and brought another fight to Jak.
Where there some people who were not meant for peace? And more importantly was he one of them? Was this new life he had created—Wastelander leader, husband—just another hoax until the next thing came to threaten his peace?
"No," he said fiercely to himself, his grip on Keira tightening. "Not happening. I'm done with fighting…"
You owe me, Jak…
That voice always attacked his subconscious whenever he begun to hope that this life he had created with Keira was true. And it always renewed the doubt that clouded his mind. It made him wonder what was to come next. What would happen to him, to Keira, to everyone, in the next few years.
It felt like he was carrying a burden around in his heart, much like when he had first learned about his alter ego, Dark Jak. When he looked at Keira, or Daxter, or Torn he had the sudden feeling that he was keeping a deadly secret from them and by doing so he had just set in motion the very thing that would destroy their lives.
But it couldn't be true, could it? It was just Jak being Jak. They had finally been given their hard-earned peace. Nothing could destroy that. It was theirs now. They could do with it as they pleased.
He settled down against Keira, trying to grab the sleep that had so easily come to her. Stop worrying about it, Jak. You've got Keira now and you'll start a family with her soon, that's all that matters.
But in the back of him mind a voice whispered, you owe me, Jak.
--&--
There was only darkness around her, darkness. It consumed every little bead of hopeful light that might have thought to shine through and ease her worry.
She was used to the darkness, she had grown up in the desert wastelands where there were no light towards midnight. But this darkness scared her. It was an unnatural, perverse, darkness. It was forced here, in a place that was supposed to be filled with that. Who had dared to do this?
"Please… please… someone…" She groped around blindly in the dark, reaching out for anything that might clue her in as to what was going on. There was no noise here, only complete silence. Even the sound of her harsh breathing seemed to be swallowed up by the imposing darkness.
Suddenly, there was a hissing sound filling to room. It was soft, but the room was quiet that it seemed like a bomb had suddenly been let off into the room. She screamed loudly in terror, running headfirst into a wall.
Blood poured down the side of her face, falling into her eyes. She beat her fists against the wall trying to find someone who would help her, free her. It never occurred to her that no one would listen to the screams of someone from the desert.
Then her pounding ceased. It was like all the energy was being drained from her. A cooper taste flooded in her mouth and poured down her chin. She could feel liquid running down from all part of her body. It frightened her.
She opened her mouth to scream again, but only silence filled the room. She couldn't scream. Her hands rose and wrapped around her throat, pressing against the sticky liquid there.
Falling to the floor, she felt herself give a heaving breath. Her lungs were burning in protest. For some reason it seemed to her like they weren't taking in the oxygen in the room.
A new darkness surrounded her eyes, but this darkness was welcomed. A hand closed around her heart and creased it, held it with a warmth that made all her earlier panic leave her.
She collapsed into the ground, curling into a ball. But her soul had already left her body. She was unaware of the things she did.
A light in the room flickered on, but the girl was unaware of it. Her eyes were lifeless and unseeing. Though her lungs still heaved with breath she was in all sense dead. And only a few moments later her body shut down all together and she was truly and utterly dead.
A man walked into the room, a long, thick buttoned-down robe swishing against his ankles. The high collar of his robe hid the small bead of sweat pouring down from his neck. In this room it was hot and the stinging smell of death had already begun to fill the air.
Without an emotion flickering across his face, the man bent down and examined the body of the girl. Her eyes, jade green, stared up into his. Blood poured from her mouth and from her ears and from every other major pour in her body.
He sniffed and rubbed his nose in an uninterested way. "Failure…" he muttered to himself and the other presence in the room.
"Apparently so. Have you considered lowering the toxins?" another voice questioned and a much older man stepped forward, leaning heavily upon his jagged cane for support. "I dare say no one can survive so much poison being feed into their body at one time. Perhaps small doses at different intervolves of time?"
The younger man sighed and ruffled silvery blonde hair. "That will take time." He said it as if they were simply speaking of the weather, as if the girl laying before them was nothing more then a discarded piece of furniture.
"Yes, but it was patience that won the war," the older chided.
"Speak not to me of war! For you know well that it makes my mouth sour," the man thundered, his face contorted. "These fools today know nothing of war, of sacrifice! Oh, but we shall show them! We shall!"
"Of course we will. You shall see to that. You shall make everything as it was, as it should be," he said it like a soothing mother, slightly chiding, slightly comforting, and slightly amused. "I simply meant to prove that even if it takes us years to complete the experiments properly, it will only take us a day to win this war."
"Yes, yes. You're right. Of course, you're always right. I do not care how long it takes. We shall see this experiment finished," the man said as he clenched his fists together in rage.
"Leave these things to me, I shall handle them. You must concentrate on the task at hand. We can do little if we are not in power. Shall you see to it?" the older man asked, a small smile playing across his wrinkled and wizened face.
"Aye, that I shall." A mean smile crossed his face. "That I shall."
--&--
Keira's eyes fluttered open as she was greeted to, once again, the empty spot of Jak's side of the bed. She wasn't surprise. She could remember him vaguely rousing her just enough to whisper that he had to go back into Dead Town with Torn for more Metal Head scouting.
At another time in the past two and a half years, Keira would have been upset to find Jak gone, but today, and yesterday and the day before that, she was glad. The moment she raised herself a fraction of an inch of her bed her stomach recoiled in protest and punished her.
She pressed a hand to her lips and threw herself at the bathroom to the side of the bed. There she promptly brought up whatever food had still remained inside her stomach from the other day.
Shakily, she raised herself to the sink and looked at the woman staring back at her from the mirror. She was pale and trembling and worried and she was, in all aspect, reflecting exactly what Keira was feeling.
Turning the water on as cold as she could, Keira took a big gulp from the faucet and prayed that her stomach didn't turn it up. When it didn't she went to take a shower to warm her cold limbs.
When she was done and clean and smelling much better, she found herself yet again staring into the steamy mirror on top of the sink.
She was no doctor, but she knew the signs. She had been throwing up for the past week or so and certain foods that she had found appetizing before now made her stomach twist in anguish.
No one knew what she suspected, of course. She hadn't told anyone. She was afraid to. What happened if word got around to Jak? How would he take it? No, she had to be absolutely certain before she even dared to whisper it to anyone.
Her hands lowered to rest on her abdomen. No matter what, she was happy and the secret she carried around with her made her eyes shine and sparkle with womanly intuition.
She had a doctor's appointment today, near the palace. Sig had agreed to take her. The man who was her biological father must have had his suspicions about why his daughter needed to go to the doctor's but he hadn't asked and she hadn't told. Though Keira had sworn she'd tell him her suspicions in the car.
Twirling, she moved back into her room and hurried to get dressed. It was almost close to late morning and her appointment was at noon. Sig would be here soon.
As she got dressed she couldn't help but think about her father. Well, he wasn't really her father if one got down to the technical stuff. He had given her some of his genes, the green of her eyes being most apparent, but through the trickery of the Holy City's Royal Council he had abandoned both Keira's mother and herself. When her mother had been forced to flee from an evil god known as Erisen, Keira had wound up in the care of Samos the Sage of Green Eco, who then raised her as his own daughter.
Keira still considered Samos her father and she still called him 'Daddy'. The man was, in the emotional sense, her father. He had raised her and helped shape her into the woman she was today. She loved him and she wouldn't trade Samos in for all the money in the world.
As far as Sig went they were just barely beginning to understand one another. The tenseness that had plagued them both when Keira had first learned about Sig' past was slowly leaving them. Now they were trying to understand one another, trying to catch up on all they missed. It was futile, they had missed an entire lifetime, but Keira was becoming more and more friendlier towards Sig. Though she doubted he'd ever be a fatherly figure to her, she might look up to him in a few more years.
There was a knock on her door and Keira rushed to get. Big, tough Wastelander Sig stood there in his battle regale, looking a little nervous. He wanted to be a part of his daughter's life, but sometimes he wasn't sure how.
"Sig! Thanks for agreeing to take me. I didn't know who else to turn to. Everyone would just ask questions," Keira explained and stepped outside with him.
"Well, Keira, I wanna know just what the hell is goin' on, too, but I can wait seein' as how you were so anxious to get me to say yes." Sig shrugged his big, broad shoulders and smiled down into her face, pleased she had come to him.
"Okay… I suppose you got a right to know…" She smiled down at her stomach. "I think I'm pregnant. I needed someone to take me to the doctors for my tests to be sure. Everyone else would just ask me and bother me about it."
Sig stared at her for a long, silent minute. Then his dark face broke out into a grin that had an odd resemblance to the one Keira owned. "Well, hell, girl! And people said you and Jak were goin' slow!" He had the urge to pick her up and spin her around, but he resisted. Keira may not have any daughterly sentiments to him, but he sure as hell felt some fatherly ones to her. Every time he looked at her he was reminded of the woman he had left behind, Keira's mother.
Keira couldn't stop grinning. It had been pleasant to keep her secret wrapped around her like a warm security blanket, but seeing her joy mirrored on someone else's face was far better than that. "I—I can't be sure right now… but I think…"
"Let's get ya to the doctor then!" Sig grabbed her arm and started to make a mad dash for his hovercar when he stopped. "Take it slow," he advised her and started again for the car, slower this time. "We gotta be carefully, cherry. You're an expecting woman now…"
She smiled cheekily at him as they made their way to his hovercar. When Sig had retired as head of the Wastelanders and given his position over to Jak, Sig had revealed a secret hobby of his, engineering. While he was no where near as good as Keira was it served as one more proof of her heritage and it made their conversations easier; whenever someone said something that made them awkward they would fall back into talking about car parts.
Sig gunned the engine just as Keira snapped a seat belt securely around her body. She hadn't convinced him yet, but Keira was well on her way to persuading Sig to join her racing team. He liked barreling down the roads fast and wild, which was just the kind of driver the team needed for the season's races.
Keira smiled and thought nothing could ruin her perfect life.
--&--
Sala of Rye, ruler of the Holy City, sighed rubbed her temples fiercely. It was just barely noon and she was already beginning to fight a migraine. Being a ruler sucked… big time.
She sat at a large, hardwood desk covered with white lined papers. There were so many of them that they completely hid the wood from view. There were stacks to the right of her and the left and their were a number of them spread out so she could read them.
Suddenly, two hands cupped her fingers rubbing her temples and increased the power of the massage. She moaned in pleasure and felt two lips run themselves along the back of her neck.
Gareth of Luxhine, her husband of a good two years, ran his fingers through Sala's rich, mink hair. His laughing bright blue eyes were somber now, they had been for a almost year. He knew very well the weight Sala carried on her still young shoulders. And he knew very well there was nothing he could do to help her.
But they spoke none of this. Sala raised her arms and reached for him behind her back. Her fingers twined his black hair, the gold highlights stark against it. He spent most of his time out in the sun, he was the head commander of the Royal Fleet, and the burning heat source had left its imprint on Gareth's head.
Elegantly, Gareth bestowed on Sala's neck more kisses. Sala's eyes closed and her lips parted with a soft moan, her grip in his hair tightening.
"You worry too much," he told her when he pulled his full lips away from her neck.
Sala shivered and answered in a firm voice, "You don't worry enough." She lifted her fingers from his hair and pressed it against the white papers. "This is serious stuff, Gareth. It has to be taken so."
The young man took a seat on the desk, his eyes scanning over the papers. "I know, but it isn't reason enough to work yourself to death over it. We're doing just fine right now, Sala. Should any threat arise the Fleet is more then prepared to handle it."
"I know, you know I know. But, Gareth, I'm looking to the future. How can we be sure we'll be ready for anything in the next two years? Anything could change." She sighed and leaned against her desk. "This 'Restoring Act' is a more difficult one than I had imagined."
Since the Holy City had begun to collect and help restore the people and places the Goddess's power was slowly bringing back to life they had not seen a moment of peace. Sala and Gareth hadn't even been able to go on their honeymoon after their marriage because it was so taxing.
The revived people needed consoling and deep explanations. Many were enraged at missing so much during their time trapped in the Kraaz Lands and such anger needed to be destroyed so they didn't have a rebellion on their hands.
And on top of that Sage-Harmona, the ancient, grand city, had finally begun to appear. The rulers there, the family of Yoshimoro, had needed help from Sala and her city to help their people get back into the swing of life. The royal family had also needed to be filled in on the history they had missed, which had been a lot. They needed to catch up with the times if they wanted to continue to rule their people effectively.
"It's happening slower than I thought it would," Gareth admitted. "I thought it would be just one big boom and everything would be back to normal."
"I'm glad it didn't happen that way. We can barely handle the small groups the Fleet bring in everyday. Can you imagine dealing with them all at once?" Sala shuddered at the very thought.
"Well, that's mostly Nyx's fault," Gareth pointed out with a small smile. "The Fleet only brings about one or two groups a day. Nyx brings in at least five a day."
"Yes, she takes this very seriously," Sala frowned in consideration. "In fact, I don't think she's taken anything quite as serious as this."
"It's like Crea told us yesterday; Nyx is looking for that Nik guy." Gareth shrugged, but smiled when he remembered Crea and her saying how Nyx loooooooooved Nik.
"She hardly talks about him," Sala pointed out. "I mean, Crea talks about that Nik all that time, just as she does that Venn boy, but Nyx won't speak about anything from her past. Do you think she's afraid to?"
"More then that. I think it's too painful for her. Remembering the past just makes her think about Sage-Harmona… and you know what a mess that situation is…" Gareth trailed off and allowed Sala to fill in the blanks herself.
"That's what's worrying me the most. This Sage-Harmona business. The Yoshimoro family may be willing to accept that they won't be the hubbub of activity now, but not everyone else is so willing. The militants from that city… they're growing rowdier and rowdier by the day." Sala sighed again and began to rub her temples, which ached at the very thought of the Sage-Harmona mess.
Gareth mirrored her sigh. "This is a damned problem, Sala. I don't know how we're going to handle it… and I'm usually good with this kind of stuff. But we're talking about the Sage-Harmona military that's unhappy. I mean, even today they're stronger then anything we've fought before. If comes down to a war how can we possibly hope to win?"
"I hope it doesn't come to that, Gareth," Sala pointed out. "The Yoshimoro family needs to figure out who's leading this would-be rebellion and incarcerate him. You'll be pulling the weed up at the roots then."
"I think the Yoshimoro family is too 'fraid to try anything like that. I don't blame them… all those military men are hard-nosed, deadly fighters who grew up in a time when dying for your cause was accepted, even applauded. I don't think they would blink if it came down to killing the royal family." Gareth gathered her in his arms and stroked her hair. "But whatever happens, Sala, I'm by your side. Husband and commander."
"I know… and I can't tell you how glad I am for it, Gareth." Sala buried her face against the side of his neck. "When all this began I never thought about the penalties. When I learned that people from the God Era were going to be reborn and given a second chance at a life that was taken from them I never considered what it would do to this city. Somehow, I thought everyone would simply mold together and it would seem like Sage-Harmona was always with us. Should I have seen this, Gareth?"
Gareth tenderly raised her head he could look at her. Sala kept her head lowered and bit her lip, a very uncommon thing for a woman of her stature to do. He brushed the dark hair from her face and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Sala, you want only to see the happily ever after at the end. You don't like to think maybe some people can't have a good ending. I didn't think about this either. I saw the light in your eyes, the way you were visioning the future for this planet, and I only saw the good ending, too. I was the one who should have seen this; I was always the one that tried to see things as they were, to consider every angle."
"Whatever happens, we'll have this together… and not alone. If I have to, Haven City will be our firm ally. After all, we're facing these sudden and threatening changes together." Sala leaned against him, her eyes drifting closed.
"Yes, we have friends and allies. Whatever happens, we won't fail." Gareth rocked her gently, in a soothing motion.
Sighing in content, she fell asleep against him.
--&--
Crea, now almost eleven, blasted a hole into the wall with her twin guns… accidentally. She missed the little cardboard cutout she had set up by a good three feet. The little, poorly created cutout grinned at her.
Grinning sheepishly she replaced the guns to her calves and backed away before someone noticed.
"Hmm… yup, defiantly off…" Crea told herself and pressed a hand to her chin to consider it. She hurried through the gardens towards the entrance, walking past training Fleet members and mages and other officials at the palace without so much as blinking. A fire spell gone array zipped by her hair, singed the edges, and she continued walking as if nothing happened.
The mages, and warriors, and knights glanced at one another, shrugged, and then went back to their training. Crea's strange behavior had become daily routine for them. In fact, it might have seemed odd without her antics.
"Nyx! Hiya, Nyx!" Crea waved her thin arms in the air wildly and even though she barely got a nod of acknowledgement she squealed with joy.
Her sister, a twenty year old Nyx, held out her arms with a frustrated sigh as Crea threw herself into Nyx's lap. The water she had been dousing her hair in fell to the floor and spilled out its contents.
"Sorry!" Crea chirped and Nyx sighed.
"Doesn't matter… I was done with it anyhow…" She ran her fingers through Crea's hair, a habit she had gotten into in the past three years.
Crea sighed in ecstasy and leaned back against her sister. "My shooting's off… all your fault, Nyx, you know?
"How is it my fault?" Crea's hair was almost to her waist and the luscious locks were perfect for braiding. Nyx had never been one to play with her hair, but the feel of Crea's hair between her fingers soothed her.
"You're upset so I'm upset. When I'm upset I shoot holes into the walls!" the young woman explained, as if she thought it should be obvious.
"Well, sorry… I think…"
"Do you miss Nik?" Crea asked, changing the subject suddenly.
Nyx's hands stilled. "Why do you ask?"
"'Cause you always say his name when you're asleep. And you're always looking for him. The only reason you aren't looking today is because Gareth said you had to take a break, right?" Crea questioned.
"I dunno, Crea. You were little then, but Nik and I… well, we weren't exactly on friendly terms when Eris… destroyed Sage-Harmona."
Crea frowned. "It was about Venn, right?"
"He wasn't the real reason, but he was the catalyst for it," Nyx answered and resumed her braiding.
"Venn doesn't mean to be a burden to you two, Nyx. I know it." Crea sighed and squirmed in her lap. "I'm gonna have to go look for him soon."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, Venn hasn't shown up here so I figure he's out in the desert. He doesn't like cities you know so he probably wouldn't come here, but I promised I'd find him so I gotta… he was my best friend." Crea raised her head and smiled up into Nyx's wide eyes. "Don't worry, though, Nyx, I won't leave until I'm sure you can handle yourself." She patted Nyx's cheek in a friendly manner.
"Oh, looking after me are you?" Nyx questioned and raised an eyebrow. Here was Crea, who ran into walls at random intervals of time, saying she was the one looking that needed looking after.
Crea nodded, her blonde curls bouncing. "You need me, but once I'm sure you'll be okay on your own I'm off! I wanna see the world, Nyx! I wanna experience everything. The desert will be my first stop!"
Something inside Nyx tightened. Perhaps it was fear, or worry, or a combination of both. She didn't want Crea to leave. Her sister and she had never been far apart for so long that the thought of it frightened her.
At the same time, looking into the bright blue eyes of Crea, Nyx knew she couldn't ask her to stay. Crea was the wild child, she couldn't be tamed by anyone, but she would stay if someone she loved asked her to. But in return, her wings would be clipped, the fire would die, and she would become too much like Nyx.
The young girl jumped to her feet and smiled down into her sister's eyes. "I know, Nyx! Let's do something together, just to two of us! We're always running off after Niky that I never see you anymore!"
Crea was right, Nyx thought on a sigh. Nik had taken up most of her time. Crea was her sister and she hadn't really given her much thought since the people had begun to be reborn. She owned her, Nyx supposed.
"Very well, what do you want to play?"
"Hmm…" Crea tapped a finger against her lips, frowning playfully. "Hide and seek! You count and I hide!"
Nyx watched as Crea skipped off, humming an off tune sung under her breath. She stared at the little girl until Crea turned around and glared at her.
"Cheater! You're not supposed to peek!" When Nyx continued to stare, Crea stomped over to and demanded, "Hey! Didn't you hear me, Nyx!? You're supposed to close your eyes!"
But before Nyx could answer Crea raised a hand to her hair and felt the singed areas. Her eyes grew wide. "Hey! Who burned me!?"
Nyx sighed deeply, oddly relieved. At least, Crea's zany attitude would never change. That wackiness was a constant. She could always rely on that, even if everything else changed around them.
"Food!" Forgetting their game and her hair, Crea turned and made a mad dash towards the palace. "Me want food!"
She followed after the girl.
--&--
"Well, Mrs. Mar, seems you were right. You are pregnant." The blonde doctor, a pretty young thing that began her practice a year after Praxis's dethroning, smiled down into Keira's nervous eyes. "About two months along now."
"You mean it!?" Keira's face lit up as the doctor nodded. "Oh! You won't tell the media or anything, will you? I don't… I don't want…"
"Mrs. Mar, I am a doctor and as a doctor I am sworn to keep my clients secrets closed to the public. Even if I had wanted to I couldn't. You then have the grounds to sue me." The doctor gave Keira a reassuring look.
"Thank you! Thank you!" Keira hopped down from the metal slab she had laid on for her tests and stripped off her hospital gown. She pulled on her own clothes and pressed a kiss to the doctor's cheek. "I'm sorry happy!"
"Congratulations," the doctor said politely as Keira rushed from the room, barely sparing her a glance. The doctor chuckled and went to file the information on Keira Hagai-Mar away.
"Sig! Sig!" Keira cried as she rushed down the marble hallways, hopping on one foot as she struggled to put her foot in her shoe.
Sig had been sitting in the waiting room in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs like a nervous father. His leg had bounced nervously as he waited for Keira to show up and tell him the results. He was worried for her like any normal father would have been.
And when she came bounding down the hall he stood and sent her a chiding look. "Slow down! Remember you're—" Keira threw herself into his arms and hugged him as tight as her arms would allow her.
"I'm pregnant!" she cried happily. "The tests were positive! I'm two months pregnant. Oh, Sig, I'm so happy! I thought I wouldn't be 'cause I don't know how Jak will react but I don't care. I'm just so happy! I've never been happier in my entire life. I'm going to have Jak's baby!"
Keira was lucky that the waiting room was empty, because though the doctors weren't allowed to talk to the media patients were. It was quite possible Jak would have known about Keira's condition before he had even returned home.
The big, burly former Wastelander hugged her back, though not as hard as he could have, his mind already snapping at him to be careful with Keira. "Wonderful, cherry. You gonna be a great mother."
She raised her face form his chest and asked in a hurried voice, "What did you think Jak will say? Do you think he'll be happy, Sig?"
"Keira, he'll be the happiest man in Haven!" Sig answered with such confidence that Keira couldn't doubt him. "What do you want to do now, cherry?"
"I wanna… I wanna… go see Daddy. Daddy should know. Did you think you could take me, Sig?" Keira questioned, her eyes wide and her lips still curved in a large smile.
"Sure, cherry. No problem." In truth, he and Samos the Sage weren't on the best terms, but Sig would be damned if he let Keira walk the streets alone, especially in her new condition.
He smirked as he led Keira to his hovercar. If he was this protective over Keira imagine how Jak would be! The poor girl would be lucky if she was able to walk for five minutes on her own before Jak rushed in to rescue her.
It made him chuckle. Jak would make a great father, even if the boy had misgivings about it at first. He was a hero, a man's man, and completely in love with his wife. That was all a child needed to be shaped into a good adult.
"Do you think I'll make a good mother?" Keira questioned suddenly as they weaved in and out traffic. "I never thought about it before, but I really don't know anything about raising children…"
"I think you'll do fine, Keira. You and Jak are gonna be great parents. As long as you're happy and the kid's happy and Jak's happy then everything will be fine." Sig felt a little like a hypocrite by saying that to her. After all, he had run out on her when she was young, leaving her mother heartbroken, and Keira had turned out fine.
"I hope so. All I want is to see that this child of Jak and mine is happy and safe. No wars, no rebellions, I just want him or her to have a peaceful life." Keira's hand rose to rest on her abdomen, as if her child's life was already threatened.
Sig pulled up in front of Samos's flat near the palace and smiled at her. "Don't worry, Keira. Thanks to Jak it seems that there'll be peace for a long time to come. Let's go and tell the good news to your Daddy."
Keira hopped from the car and—despite Sig's many protests—took the stairs two at a time. She rang the doorbell and shifted from one foot to the other as Sig came up behind her. She offered him a nervous smile.
Samos the Sage opened the door and sent his daughter a bemused look. "Keira…?" He sounded more then a little shocked to see her.
Then Samos's eyes landed on Sig and they narrowed slightly. He didn't know all of Sig's history, but he had been filled in enough to know that Sig was Keira's real father. Though Sig and Samos had agreed to act at least civil around each other for Keira's peace of mind, the Sage couldn't help but feel tense around the man.
After all, how was he supposed to feel? The girl he had raised and loved like his daughter had gone off and come back with the man who had abandoned her and seemed to be trying her best to fix their broken relationship. Though he knew it was ridiculous, Samos felt like Sig was slowly stealing his daughter away from him.
"Daddy… can we come in, I have something important to tell you," Keira asked and offered him the special smile she always reserved for him. Not Sig, or any of her friends, or even Jak, got the smile Keira gave her father.
"Yes, of course, Keira." Samos widened his door and allowed both Keira and Sig to enter. Sig and Samos's eyes meet briefly and they nodded curtly to one another. For Keira's sake they would be friendly.
"Daddy, you'll never guess what…" Keira offered her father the biggest smile he had ever seen on her beautiful face and it twined around his heart and filled him with fatherly affection.
"What is it?" He found himself returning the smile, the love for his daughter evident on his face. A mixture of curiosity was also there. For the life of him he could not figure out what had Keira smiling so.
"Well, I'm pregnant!"
"WHAT!?"
--&--
The music, slow and sultry, filled the room as Daxter twirled Tess around in their living room. Light from the lamps around them made her eyes glow and the lust was very clear in his eyes.
"For someone who was an ottsel for a chunk of their life you sure do know how to woo a girl, Dax." He dipped her back and her fingers automatically locked in his hair.
"Well, Tess, I've been practicing," he answered and dipped his head to kiss the smooth column of her throat, licking it lightly with his tongue.
"Daxter!" Tess giggled and half-heartedly pushed against him. "I just put Lee down to bed. He'll be up again at any minute. You want to give him the birds and the bees talk?"
"Now, Tess, we have at least fifteen minutes before our darling Lee wakes up and I plan to use that to my fullest extent. Besides, I thought we agreed you'd be being the sex education." Daxter grinned into her face and snatched a kiss from her parted lips.
"Charmer…" Tess sighed and wrapped her arms around his neck. With one good push she had them both falling to the couch in the side of the room. Daxter landed on top while Tess squirmed playfully beneath him.
"Vixen," Daxter answered and ran his fingers through her hair. She looked beautiful, fair and white against the dark forest of their couch.
"Go on then, Daxter, kiss me before Lee comes down!" Tess held up her mouth to give Daxter an easier access. "But you're telling him what we're doing if he comes down and sees."
"We're wrestling," Daxter answered and pressed another, deeper, kiss to her awaiting mouth.
"Momma…?" a little voice squeaked and Daxter jumped away from Tess, all ready opening his mouth to explain to his son what he and his wife were doing.
But their son didn't seem to be seeing them at all. His eyes were glazed over and his face was pale and his little body was trembling. His eyes seemed locked a fixed point that was in his mind's eye. The little mouth was opened, but whether in horror or sickness no one could tell. It seemed to be a mix of both.
"Lee!?" Daxter made his way over to his son, Tess gathering herself together and biting her lips in worry.
"Dun feel good…" the boy admitted and then properly collapsed.
Daxter rushed forward and gathered his son in the circle of his arms, rocking the boy gently. They both fell to the ground, as if the tiny weight was too much for Daxter to support. "Lee… Lee?"
Tess gave a scream and hurried over to them, running frantic fingers down Lee's face. "Lee! Lee!" The boy gave a small moan at the sound of his mother's voice, as if trying to answer.
"Damnit, Tess! Call an ambulance!" His worry made his voice harsh. Tess nodded numbly and moved to the kitchen, sobbing out in terror.
Lee moaned softly against Daxter's chest and finally managed to raise his head. He looked into his father's eyes, wide and frightened. "Daddy… Ah'm… Ah'm scared. My head hurts."
"Hush, Lee. You're gonna be fine, Daddy's gonna protect you." Daxter's vision clouded with tears as he stared into the little face. The boy's fingers clutched onto the fabric of his shirt, using it as a lifeline. "I promise."
The little boy sighed deeply and gagged on it. "Please, Daddy, make the pain go away." Then his eyes fluttered closed and he fell asleep.
Daxter sat there for a long time, simply rocking his son back and forth. Tess joined them shortly and, with tears running down her cheeks, knelt besides Daxter. She ran her hands over Lee's face, struggling with her tears.
"He's been so sick all month, Daxter, and I didn't worry about it." She began to sob harder. "It's my fault. This is all my fault."
It wasn't, and Daxter knew that. But he couldn't answer. Lee was so small and tiny in his arms he was afraid that if he said anything he would smoother the boy. Tess's sobs faded from his mind and there only was Lee, his little boy, dying in his arms. Over and over again Lee's voice begged Daxter to take away his pain in his head.
He couldn't soothe Tess. He had become so cold, like his heart had frozen over. There was nothing he could do to thaw it. His very soul was dying with each step closer to death Lee took.
They sat their in silence, Tess and Daxter, with only her sobs breaking it occasionally.
Finally, after an eternity of waiting, the flashing red lights of the ambulance arrived. Daxter didn't feel anything, not even panic now. There was just this sense of dread welling up in him.
Lee was still breathing when they pulled him into the hovercar.
--&--
Black boots stopped in front of Daxter, slumped in his chair in the pale, marble hallways of the hospital. Besides him Tess was crying softly. They had been in the same spot for over three hours.
"Mr… ah… Daxter?" When the former Ottsel raised his head, the old doctor sighed. "We just received the test results on your son. He had an acute case of meningococcal meningitis. It's a rare disease that children can acquire through during their earliest stages of life and then festers as they age. It's a bacterial affection that inflames the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord."
Daxter couldn't stand to look up him. He had said Lee 'had' meningitis. "What are you… what are you doing t—to save him!?"
"I'm sorry, but even if you had gotten him to us earlier… there's nothing we could have done." The doctor looked between them, the numb father and the grieving mother. That was all he saw. They weren't people. They couldn't be people, it would burn him out.
"No, no, no…" Tess whispered at his side, clutching Daxter' shoulder as if it was the only thing keeping her grounded. "Please, no, please no."
"What are you saying… what are you saying!?" Daxter backed away from the doctor, as if doing so would stop the truth from reaching him.
The doctor hung his head. "Your son died… at eleven fifty p.m."
"NO!" Tess wailed and collapsed to her knees, pulling at her hair.
Daxter's back hit the wall and he began to tremble. "Lee… Lee… I promised everything would be alright! I promised!"
"I'm sorry for your loss."
"Don't!" Daxter hissed, almost jumping into the doctor's face. "Don't stand there and say you're sorry! You don't know! You don't know what's it's like. Get out of here! Get the hell away from me!"
The old man backed away, looking very upset for these two people. He had seen people lose children before and he himself had lost a grandson to the Krimzon Guard. And he knew nothing could ever heal that scar, not even time.
"Daxter… Daxter, please," Tess whispered, still sitting upon the floor. She looked up at him, her eyes begging. She needed him to be strong, she needed him to hold her. She needed him more then anything right now.
He backed away, unable to stand it. He couldn't help her, he couldn't help Lee. Something inside him was broken, broken beyond repair. He couldn't even look at Tess in her face. Instead, he turned to the chair and slumped into it. He couldn't stand looking at Tess right now.
"Lee…"
(To Be Continued)
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AN: Okay, I understand. Let's all attack Lizzy! Destroy! Destroy! Sorry. I really hated to have to kill Lee off (he'd have made such a cool guy) but it was necessary. The reason Lee died is an actual disease that many children died from. At one point I looked at the statistics but I don't remember the numbers. Poor Daxter, I'm always mean to him and yet, his my favourite character.
Act III: Jak learns about Keira's 'condition', the Yoshimoro royal family is introduced, Nik is finally introduced, and Daxter and Tess begin to fall apart at the seams.
Reviews:
Light-Eco-Sage: Gee thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed Secret Origins. I hope I don't disappoint you with this one.
FlutFlutLuver: Exceeeeeeeellent! Keep on reading and you'll see just how good this story will get.
Red Mage 04: I'm trying to update this at least once a month, maybe more. I hate taking such a long pause from my work.
Prexistence: Well, after all those games of NOT getting together (sans Jak 3) it seems that they're both a little slow, no? But at least Keira's getting on her way. Go Keira!
Hellmouth2: I don't usually write sequels to stories (we don't have a very good relationship) but I knew that Jak III had to have sequel because I knew it was so far from over.
Glorfindel Silverleaf: It took me forever to convince myself to post this fic. I wanted this to be just right (since it's most likely to be the last major Jak fic I do) and I'm finally satisfied. Nik's character is about to introduced and there's no kidding he's one of my favourites!
Lyzz2nwn: I keep telling myself to update faster, but school is a hassle and with midterms I have had no time to do a whole lot of anything!
Specter Von Baren: I had the whole summary and stuff sent out to you but my old computer caught a virus and it was destroyed. Since then I have had no time to rewrite. I promise to send it to you as soon as I can.
Maeieve Avvi: Ah, you see that's what a like! A reader tries to guess my plot and then I get to crackle in a corner and god maybe. crackles Maybe…
"Famous last words: so, you're a cannibal?"
–Lizzy Rebel
