Author's Notes: the response for this has already been really amazing. Just. Wow. Thank you guys I appreciate all the support. Also, to clarify! I have tweaked the ages for Keira, Daxter, and Jak by a smidge to make them a little older. She's 17 here now instead of 15 or 16, Daxter is the same age, and Jak is 18. other than that, this should be pretty straightforward!
Chapter 1
Present Day
"Ugh!" The thrown wrench easily crushed the metalbug that had been skittering along her work bench but sent the rest scattering for cover over the sides and into the vents, the only thing visible being the slight glow of their gems. Keira made another noise of disgust and rubbed the bridge of her nose, eying the splatter of bug guts, small skullgem, and dark eco that the creature had left behind. Great, just what she needed. A damned infestation.
A lone metalbug was not that dangerous, or even much of a problem. All it took was a well-timed boot or something else with weight to kill them. But when they swarmed they could wreak havoc, chewing through metal and wires and leaving dark eco residue everywhere. Not to mention the fact that in groups they could overwhelm and kill the unwary. As annoying as it was, Keira knew she wasn't equipped to deal with this new problem, and as much as she'd rather not she was going to have to shell out cash to get it fixed.
Farley laughed when Keira called her up, although it was more sympathetic than mean-spirited. Still, she assured the younger woman that there was a reputable exterminator that she could call up and gave her the comm number.
"I hear their newest recruit single-handedly dealt with the biggest infestations in the city, too, all the way up to the Palace. You should be able to get your money's worth."
"At least that's something." Keira grumbled, glancing back into her garage. Already she could see the little yellow glints creeping back out from their hiding spots. "Thanks, Farley."
The guy who answered her call to Kridder Ridder Extermination Company seemed a little eccentric, and he reminded her a bit of her father, but he agreed to send out his best employee to her garage to fix up her bug problem for her. Nothing left to do but to sit outside away from the pests and wait for him to show up.
Keira sighed and sat down on the curb, resting her chin in her hand and drumming her fingers on her knee. With the next round of races coming up within the next couple of months she had lot of work to do if she was to finish the zoomer for her team- and hell, to find someone to actually race for her. Commander Erol was a good customer when he wanted his ride fixed up but he had his own mechanic this season, so she had to look elsewhere if she wanted to keep her garage open in the Stadium. Not to mention her work on the Rift Rider, which had to be put on hold again while she worked out how to keep her job going.
Thus, this buggy interruption didn't do much for her mood.
When the sound of a scooter reached her nearly forty minutes later, coming to a stop about two meters away, she looked up and huffed. About time. As she stood she opened her mouth to start asking what had taken the guy so long before stopping short and staring; a very familiar orange rodent had hopped off of the bike and had begun pulling out gear from a compartment in the back of his ride.
"Alright, where're the bugs?" She knew that voice. "And let me tell ya, the pay better be darn good for this, because I just about got my tail kicked in by that metal creep on the last job and I'm still sore so you're lucky you even got Orange Lightning out here for this-"
"Daxter?"
The ottsel stopped and stuck his head out from around the scooter, blinking at her, before he shouted in absolute glee and ran up to leap into her arms.
"Keira!" Her hands came up reflexively as she caught him and he buried his face into her neck, holding the front of her shirt tightly. Oh yeah, it was him alright. "Precursors, it's good to see you! You would not believe the crap I've had to deal with the last few months!"
It was almost surreal. Two years without seeing hide nor hair of him, of any of her companions, and then suddenly he showed up more or less on her doorstep. Was this really happening, or had she gotten exposed to too much dark eco from the metalbugs and was hallucinating all of this? After a few moments of simply holding him, feeling his warm fur and coming to the conclusion that this was, indeed, real, she tightened her grip and hugged him close.
"It's good to see you too, Daxter." Very surreal. But very good.
It didn't take long for him to squirm back from her, though, and she let him hop down from her arms so he could look at her, and vice versa. If she didn't know better she'd say he'd grown a little taller, and his stance had changed from slouchy and utterly carefree to something a bit more alert and upright, but he still had his cocky little smirk and quick tongue. It was a comfort to see.
"Looks like you've been busy. A gig at the Stadium, huh? Guess you always were good with stuff like that." Daxter looked past her at her garage and winced when he saw the metalbugs. "Yeesh, you weren't kidding about the bug thing either."
"Yeah, it'd be nice to get those things out. I'm surprised though. You being the exterminator?"
Daxter glowered as he pulled on his backpack, belting his gear into place while he explained. "Eh, I got forced into this bug wrangling crap the last few months by a guy named Osmo, and then one thing led to another and I turned out to be pretty good at it. And then I figured I'd need to go find you 'n our boy Jak, but then I ran into this creepy sleazy guy named Kaden, who turned out to be a metalhead in disguise, and-"
"What?"
"Oh, uh, yeah. Turns out that he was actually a spy for the metalheads. It's all good though- yours truly took him down without a single scratch. Now, lemme just get ridda those pesky bugs in your shop 'n call it a day."
He didn't seem particularly concerned with the implication that there could be more metalheads in disguise running around inside Haven's walls, and Keira was still too shocked by the news to come up with anything to say. So she watched him march past her with his spray gun and head into her workshop to begin clearing out her infestation.
Shaking her head, she sat back down and waited for him to finish, thinking. It seemed unlikely that the metalheads would send too many of their own into Haven; from what she knew of the monsters, most of them lacked the intelligence to manage it, and besides, the more that were here the more likely they would be found out.
Small comfort, though.
Daxter finished up within a couple of hours and presented her with a sack of skullgems as proof of a job well done. Her garage, now bug free, was safe, and he hopped up onto her workbench as she poked around just to double check. No sense leaving even one of those things scuttling around if they could help it, though Dax seemed almost offended that she would even look.
"Bagged'em all, baby. I've been workin' this job for almost a year- believe me when I say I kill bugs faster'n a drunk falling off a zoomer."
"That's...vivid." Daxter just grinned at her, and despite herself she cracked a smile. "So are you going to head back now?"
"Eh, Osmo's gotten a lotta work out of me already and I think it's time to retire. Besides, hangin' around the stadium is a lot more likely to get me ladies than with that old geezer."
Keira folded her arms and cocked her head. "That 'old geezer' gave you a livelihood, from the sound of it."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, glancing out the door towards his vehicle. "I guess I gotta return the scooter, at least."
"I'll give you a lift."
–
Osmo was a strange man who talked a lot about bug infestations 'back in the day', but he charged her fairly and that was really all Keira cared about at the moment. He took the news of Daxter's resignation well, at least once the ottsel pointed out that his son did have potential, and wished him luck with his future jobs, whatever they were.
"Yeesh, I thought he'd never stop talking." Daxter grumbled, hopping up onto the handlebars of Keira's personal zoomer. "What is it with old people and yakking so much?" That got her to roll her eyes.
"At least he was polite." She offered, starting up the zoomer and heading off into traffic.
"Yeah, better than old logger-the-head ever was, that's for sure."
Keira glanced down at Daxter and hesitated; she knew he'd never really gotten along with her father, not even when he'd been young and alone, but she still wondered if he'd kept an eye out for him. Jak, definitely, given that they'd been inseparable, but her father was another story.
"Hey, Dax, did you ever...?"
"No. Never saw ancient green. Or Jak either." His voice lost its playful tone, and he hunkered down further against the zoomer. "Honestly? I think I'm lucky to have just found you."
"I see." That was disheartening, but she hadn't really been expecting anything else. Two years was a long time to look for people but it hadn't been like she'd had a whole lot of luck finding the others, either. Daxter seemed to pick up on her drop in mood, though, because he rapped his knuckles against the headlight of her zoomer.
"Seems like you've been doin' well, though. A garage 'n everything." He grinned back at her. "Even better- you're a racing mechanic. Betcha get a lotta work with that sort of gig, 'specially with the tournament coming up. You always were good with all this tech stuff. Must be pretty awesome, huh?"
His tone was back to being light, and she managed a smile as she brought her zoomer down to glide towards the stadium walkway. Count on Daxter to keep things from getting too depressing. Gosh, she'd missed him. "Yeah! It, ah, it definitely has its moments."
And some not-so-great moments, too. Given that racing was the biggest sport in the city there was a lot of shady dealings that went on around it, and in Haven City the one with his hands in the most pies was Krew. So when they returned to her workshop and found a message waiting for them, in the form of one of Krew's men, Keira couldn't say she was entirely surprised.
The man looked up when they approached and he straightened up from where he'd been leaning by her door, folding his arms to look more imposing. Keira glared at him and marched past him with her zoomer, much to his obvious consternation. Daxter scampered past him with far more wariness.
"What does that creep want now, Mog?" Keira parked her vehicle in the corner of the shop and turned to face her unwelcome guest, hands on her hips. "If this is about his last shipment of parts, tell him I've already left it at his warehouse."
"Krew ain't askin' about the parts. He jus' wanted me to talk to ya about the upcoming races."
"What about them?"
"Jus' a friendly reminder not to work too hard on any zoomer's besides the ones of the racers he bets on. Wants to make sure they have the edge."
"I got it." It went against a lot of her personal morals to have to agree but the fact of the matter was, Krew could make her life here so much harder than it already was. She had to look out for her own skin, as selfish as it sounded, and if giving a select few racers the advantage if they chose to hire her meant being secure for another season, then so be it. "Now get out. I've got work to do."
Mog ignored her, staring down at Daxter now. "What's with the rat? You get a new pet?"
"Excuse me?" Daxter hopped up onto the workbench so he could more easily meet Mog's eyes. "Who're you calling pet, you big smelly yakkow? Why don't you say that to my face instead of- mph!" Whatever insult he'd been trying to say was cut off as Keira quickly clapped her hand over his snout. Mog glowered at the ottsel, then at her.
"It talks?"
"A lot, yeah. Get out, Mog." She waved him off with her free hand. "Don't make me call the Commander out here." The large man put his hands up, taking a step back at the threat.
"I got it, I got it. Just don't forget what Krew says, 'kay?" Without further ado he turned around and left, letting the garage door fall shut behind him. With a sigh, Keira let go of Daxter and ignored his indignant spluttering. It was always tiring having to deal with Krew's thugs, no matter how briefly, but she really did have things she needed to get done that day.
"What the hell was all of that, anyway?" Daxter muttered, smoothing the fur on his face and watching her duck around the curtain that hid her long-term project from the main part of her garage. "You 'n old greenhorn always hated cheaters, and here you are working for one?"
"I can't be picky with people like Krew, Daxter. If I don't do what he wants then he can ruin everything I've worked for."
"Just doesn't seem like the Keira I know and love." He grumbled, hopping off the workbench to follow her through the curtain. "Seems like this place is- hey, is that what I think it is?"
The Rift Rider was nearly complete. Two years of on and off working, entirely from memory, had left Keira exhausted but pleased. Daxter was staring at it now, blinking twice, before hopping up onto the chassis to get a better look at it.
"Sheesh, you ever take a break from tinkering?"
"This is our way home. I couldn't just give up on it, and since I'm pretty sure there aren't any Rift Rider dealerships around here I had to build it myself."
"From scratch?"
She tapped the gear that still sat on the twine necklace, nodding. "From everything I could save, but yeah, mostly. Do you know how hard it is to find all the Precursor artifacts I needed? It's part of why I have to do things for Krew now. Every Precursor-related object tends to go through him before it hits any of the markets, so I had to make some deals for the more specialized stuff."
"And if you don't stick to the deal and do things for him-"
"He runs me out of business, yeah." Keira sighed again, frowning down at the hood of the time-machine. "I don't like this place. It's dirty, and crowded, and a lot of people here are really creepy and greedy. But it's not done, and even if it were, we can't leave without Jak and my father."
Daxter snorted. "I agree with you about Jak."
"Daxter."
"But yeah, I'm with ya. Except I haven't seen either of'em in ages. So where do we start?" Keira looked up from the chassis to him. Surely he wasn't serious. If she'd known where to look then she would've been searching there. But she supposed they did need a plan. Just somewhere to begin.
"I guess we can start searching the city more thoroughly?" She shrugged and pulled on her work gloves, grabbing her welding torch and mask, and kneeling down to continue her work. "I'll admit that there are a couple of places I haven't explored a lot, and with you around we can cover a couple of sectors in a day, maybe. See if there's any sign of either of them." She paused in her work to flip up her mask and smile at him. "At least with us together we're already halfway there."
Daxter grinned back at her. "Works for me. Say, got any grub? I'm starving."
"There's a fridge in the back corner of the shop." Was her reply, flipping the mask back into place and muffling her words a little. "Help yourself." The sound of Daxter's feet hitting the floor and moving out of the alcove let her know he was taking her at her word.
For several long minutes after that the only things she was aware of were the sounds of the torch welding together sections of the chassis, the sparks flying from the metal. Comforting, familiar sensations. And the very new realization that she was no longer alone. Daxter came and went from the alcove, watching her work for a few minutes before growing bored and wandering off to look through the rest of her space. She didn't mind, just glad to have the company. Just trying to get used to the fact that she had company.
Eventually, though, he got her attention by putting shaking her shoulder a little. She blinked and shut off the torch, flipping the mask up again; zoning out while working was something she was very used to, so it was a little jarring to have someone around that could bring her out of it so abruptly.
"Mm?"
"Some Guard came 'n left this on your door. Figured you'd wanna take a loot at it." He held out a flyer, emblazoned with the Baron's insignia, which she frowned at the sight of. Some sort of notice from the palace, then? Surely she hadn't done anything to warrant that kind of attention. Pulling off her work gloves, she took it from him and flipped it further open.
"It's... notice for an announcement, to be held tomorrow morning at the stadium." She murmured, flipping it over to read the finer print. "The Baron himself is coming out, apparently."
"He's coming off his high throne for once?" Daxter scoffed. "Must be pretty important." Keira caught him eyeing the pile of rags in a box that was just conveniently ottsel-sized, almost nest-like, and she poked his chest lightly.
"Attendance is required, by the way."
"Ugh. Fine. At least we can keep an eye out for Jak 'n the old green one, if everyone has to show up. But I'm sure as hell gonna catch a few z's before we run through any crowds tomorrow. Gotta catch up on my beauty sleep 'n all that." He slumped a little and folded his arms, though he smiled again when she laughed.
"Then let's get you all set up, huh? I get the feeling tomorrow's gonna be a long day anyway." A very long day indeed.
