Disclaimer: I do not own the Jak and Daxter series or any associated franchise. I'm just making this story for my own personal enjoyment. I do however, own the character Nora.

The Pool of Tears

The first thing Nora noticed when she woke was that she had definitely felt better than this. In fact, now that one mentions it, she'd gleefully climb back into Dr. Sandi's lumpy chair and have that other wisdom tooth ripped out just for the hell of it.

She'd even give the grumpy badger a big kiss for the effort.

Spitting out the grit that crunched between her teeth, the disoriented woman slowly pushed herself up to a crouched, sitting position while trying to make her vision stop swimming. A fine dusting of black soot covered what the brunette could see of herself, the dirt beneath her fingers giving way like loose sand. It looked like fertile lava soil; appropriate considering the roaring LAVA POOLS spread around.

Why she hadn't fried like a boiled lobster was beyond her. Like an annoyingly muggy day, the temperature registered at only mildly stifling; but she was fairly certain that the skin should be bubbling off her arms...

Pulling off her head wrap and shaking out the dirt, the intern distractedly began to take stock of her unusual predicament. She remembered finding the gate... And the blinding light...

There weren't any volcanoes in Meroë.

That fact alone had her head whipping up abruptly-

Only to grind her teeth at the spiking pain of a headache thundering away at her cranium. Trying again, but more slowly, she glanced behind to the gate. It stood still and silent, looking for the entire world like a regular non-magical portal, statue, whatever. A heavy lead weight settled in her stomach as a niggling realization began to eat at a corner of her mind.

"Now don't jump to conclusions. Don't panic," she started to talk herself down, breathing deeply (another anomaly that she nearly gave into a hysterical giggle for- why wasn't the carbon monoxide starving her lungs?). Volcanoes existed in Egypt. Perhaps the gate just took her a few hundred miles down. She could find a village and maybe a phone and call the Professor for a lift.

Latching onto the comfort of a logical plan, Nora rose to her feet. Luckily her pack and equipment had fallen with her- she already anticipated a difficult hike, and it would have been far more unbearable without her gear. She took stock of her canteen, buck knife, the last of her glow sticks, some leftover ration bars she had forgotten to remove, a basic first aid field kit, some useless paperwork, camera, brushes, and various other inconsequential things. Though it smelled somewhat stale, the canteen still had a generous amount of water left and careful handling could wring out at least a handful of days of supplies.

Nora took a minute after checking her belongings to look around for a pathway. The gate had been built in a low point of what looked like a passively active volcano. Large rock walls stretched up around her, though a few scaled in sections, so in theory climbing up wouldn't result in instant death. Thick billowing trails of ash and smoke choked out the sky overhead, obscuring the location of the sun for time or the direction of North- but that could be easily fixed when she climbed out. Now that she took a moment to actually look around, however, there seemed to be a rather alarming amount of vegetation for a supposedly uninhabitable place.

"Could be why I can breathe down here..."

Shrugging off her scientific inquiries for a later and more appropriate time, the brunette walked to the least steep section of wall she could find. She had unfortunately used up her rope at the start of this whole adventure while repelling down into the tomb- so manually it is.

It would be prudent to mention at this point that Nora is actually a pretty active individual. Having done her fair share of hikes and rock climbing- or she would have been far more nervous about the current situation- she knew her body's limits fairly intimately. Therefore Nora's confusion makes a lot more sense when she found pulling herself up to be laughably easy. She wasn't in THAT good of shape... It could be adrenaline, but I don't feel my heart pumping that fast at all. What on Earth...?

Taking much less time than she expected to, Nora scrabbled to the top ledge (pausing once in her ascent to stare curiously at a strangely colored lizard, and then again during a harrowing moment when her boots slipped on loose stones). Stone arched overhead and it looked like a squeeze between some narrow cracks marked the way to freedom. Shifting her bag behind her and breathing in to make herself as skinny as possible, the brunette jostled and bumped her way through the tiny path in the rock, spitting out dust and leaves that showered upon her with the scrambling movements. Clawing away from the clingy rock, Nora finally popped free and stood out and along the outer-side of the volcano. To face a massive sea of sand.

"...Whooooo boy," she muttered under her breath. Knowing about the harsh walk ahead of her was one thing, but being physically faced with it was a pretty demoralizing sight. The lazily swaying lines of heat waves seemed to taunt from a distance, a dry wind that offered no relief kicking up curls of sand spitefully even as it slowly ate at the towering swell of the dunes. What appeared to be rock formations winked along the crest of the dunes further out- so it could be mountains. Giving a sigh of resignation, Nora finally looked up to try and get a good position on the sun and where she should be heading-

Her blood must have frozen because a sensation of cold flash flooded her stomach and limbs, thoughts stuttering to a stop.

Two suns.

Two suns. Two suns. Her brain continued to repeat the phrase, balking at processing exactly what that meant. Like if she didn't let it properly sink in then it didn't have to be true. Because the truth glaring down with both searing eyes was totally absurd. If she were to take the notion of space travel seriously, it would take months just to get to a planet as close as Mars despite whatever technology humans advanced to, so there was no WAY...

But her solar system didn't even have two suns.

And like a light switching off Nora lost consciousness to the encroaching darkness that picked away from the corners of her vision.

oOo

The ground rumbled and shook reproachfully under the harsh disturbance of spiked wheels and heavy machinery. Denizens of the Wastelands ducked into whatever nook or plant life accessible to them to escape a fate of trampling.

A Marauder caravan is a fairly familiar sight in the desert, especially nowadays with the escalating violence from the Metal Head colonies putting pressure on the trade lines. Defectors had become more and more common as Krimzon Guard or Wastelanders took up the immediately satisfying life of crime and joined the original Iceland outcasts. Less known, however, were the intricacies of the Marauder culture. They did not operate as a single mob, as those of Spargus believed- but as separate functioning gangs that performed different jobs. Each gang could be identified by an insignia inscribed into the metal of their vehicles or their armor. Tensions could be found amidst their numbers, but overall the gangs worked either in tandem or around one another.

The western side of the Great Volcano typically sat beyond the Marauder patrols due to the various Metal Head nests that dotted the landscape. This particular group (for they rarely traveled outside their packs) is taking the risk to scout for a route under the radar of the Spargus King, lest he discover the pathway of their cargo.

And quite precious cargo indeed. The Black Maw gang, known for the stylized mark of open jaws as their insignia, were slavers.

The leader of the Black Maw had scored a deal with some shippers willing to take merchandise to the Black Market in Kras City. They needed to find a route up to the docks near Haven, the western route made necessary to avoid the complications of the Wastelanders' itching trigger fingers.

A ruckus broke out in the line as a couple of the thugs shoved and argued with one another in their vehicle. For the most part the rest of the gang ignored their antics, such behavior commonplace, but when they swerved dangerously close to the others their line leader finally took notice and turned back in his seat to bark orders for them to stop acting like idiots. It was solely the timing of his turn that allowed him to catch sight of a flash of color up on the side of the volcano.

Fist going up in the signal to halt, he kept his sharp gaze focused. Anything out of the ordinary, the grizzled man had learned, meant for dangerous things in this desert. His passenger marked the tense twitch of their leader's ears and loaded their blaster accordingly.

Pulling their dune tanks a safe distance (at least safe from gun fire), the gang sent the two jokers that nearly wrecked the line to survey ahead. The size between the two was comically different; one small and ratty in disposition, the other nearly his height and half again and carrying enough weight around his gut to make up the difference. Weapons cocked and eyes shifting nervously amidst the rock, they slowly edged along and prayed against an ambush. So concerned with a potential attack they nearly overlooked the very thing their leader had spotted; but when they nearly tripped over it both let out relieved barks of laughter.

A woman.

Ribbing one another for their earlier fear, both marauders shouldered their blaster rifles and the scrawny one pulled out a sedative injection. He crouched over the woman's prone form and roughly felt for a pulse before stabbing the needle into her shoulder. The sedatives the gang used for retrieving 'cargo' were pretty strong, so they had to use a minor blood vessel lest they accidentally stopped the individual's heart. When her breathing settled into a lower pattern they hefted her up (making sure to snatch up the strange looking bag) and marched back to the gang.

"Hey boys! Look what we found," the hefty one shouted. A few responded with catcalls when they caught sight of a feminine form. Women were always harder to kidnap from the fortress-like cities, and as such sold for higher prices. Their leader maintained a shrewd expression, and when the captive was brought over and dumped onto the ground he went about briskly checking the new stock for potential value. She seemed heavier than typical of her frame, which hinted at unusually dense muscle. A little small on the bust and hip line- and her face wasn't particularly striking in appearance even though her teeth did seem to be in good condition. Definitely healthy, so a good mark there, but as far as a potentially high yield sex slave she wouldn't bring in much. Hoping to salvage something, the gruff slaver decided to check the quality of her hair and yanked off the wrap covering her head.

Several leering faces that had been hovering over their boss abruptly flinched back at the reveal of the woman's strange ears. Instead of the gracefully long and tapering cartilage they expected, their gazes fell upon some aberration, some mutation that cut the ears unnaturally short.

"Ugh! What the hell?!"

"Bet the bitch has some lurker in her. Ugly half-breed," many sneered disdainfully even as the gang guffawed to themselves in agreement.

Their leader sadly shook his head. Nobody would buy a hybrid for their bed... However, the added brutishness from lurker blood could be a good selling point as a laborer. A shame really- they had to brand the labor slaves and no matter her blood it was always a poor thing to mark a woman's face.

But business is business.

"Get out the branding acid. We'll mark her with the Maw when we next make camp."

oOo

Nora's consciousness drifted in a lazy swim, between the black of sleep and partial awareness. She registered noises and vaguely noticed the sensation of motion, but didn't immediately mark it as important. She did notice how uncomfortable she felt- her body seemed to be heating up, and the more it raised the clearer she thought, and then the more she noticed how hot she felt- in a big recurring circle. The brunette was content to try and ignore the sensation and bury herself back into sleep.

Until her world exploded into agony.

Before Nora's eyes even opened her arm shot out in reflex and fiercely gripping fingers closed around something pliable until a deafening CRACK rent the air, a dead weight slumping into her grip. Immediately a frenzy of sound erupted and crusty feeling eyes split open to a blurry world of bedlam. Shouts of gibberish and the clank of metal under the veil of rapidly forming tears confused her senses and when a shadow fell close Nora released the weight in her hand and struck out, heralding another dull thud and squelching sound with something hitting the sandy floor. The rift traveler cringed away from the noise, feeling fear build as she gingerly wiped at her eyes (shying from the scalding pain in her left cheek) and tried to take in her surroundings.

Men in frightening armor with gleaming spikes and cruelly sharp weapons scrambled away to what looked like plated vehicles. Calling out to one another in a loping, unfamiliar language they hastily loaded up and a few already skidded out, kicking up massive clouds of sand in their wake.

Finally Nora looked back to her feet and the sight immediately brought bile to her throat. She recoiled in horror while trying to scoot as far back as possible.

There were two corpses. One man with graying hair and a network of scars had his neck twisted to the side at an unnatural angle, spurs of bone peeking out from the neck from where the flesh wound too tightly. The other body, a younger man, looked like his chest had been caved in from some sort of impact, the front giving way to a small fist-shaped hole. Gouts of blood had leaked from the opening with broken pieces of rib surrounding- most likely he had died from shock. Had she...? Finally she acknowledged the sensation of sticky wetness on her fingers and looking down to her hands she took in the sight of rapidly coagulating red liquid. A squeaking sound caught in the back of her throat, a dry pathetic little thing, but inside the recesses of the brunette's mind it echoed with the mindless sound of screaming.

Outside of Nora's personal meltdown the slavers had worked up into their own state of panic. Things had been pretty routine while setting up camp for the evening near an outcropping of rock and cacti. They couldn't risk a fire in case it drew attention from the nearby Metal Head nests, so they had to make do with dried out rations and jerky. It also meant they couldn't fire up a brand the traditional way, so for such cases the slavers had developed a type of chemical acid strong enough to eat through enough layers of skin to scar properly. They had learned from experience to brand their cargo as soon as possible, lest another gang try to interfere or if the captive themselves escaped. A brand from a different gang assured that the slave couldn't be sold at full price, and in places like Haven City those that have a brand typically found doors closed in their faces - nobody wanted to risk hiring or providing shelter for a person that would likely just disappear in the near future when the slavers came. Not to mention the potential reward for returning an escapee...

The actual act of branding with acid was a delicate one, so typically the boss handled the job rather than allow his lurker-handed underlings. Disturbingly though, as the gang set up equipment and cleaned their weapons the hybrid woman seemed to stir. It shouldn't have been possible! The sedative could have knocked out a herd of yakkows- she should have been out for a couple of days, not hours! Speeding up the process, two of the bigger members flanked the hybrid and held onto her firmly in case she woke during the process and struggled. Dimly they noted to one another the unusual temperature of what bare flesh they felt- nearly blistering to the touch. Taking out the tattoo-gun injector that distributed the acid for application, the leader loaded up a vial of the corrosive liquid and set steady hands to quickly and efficiently start the brand.

The scarred man had gotten about halfway through the brand, with just the top row of teeth for the Maw bubbling away at the flesh of the captive's cheek, when the woman suddenly shrieked and jerked out of the strangle hold on her with laughable ease. The camp went abruptly silent, uncomprehending, until the loud crack of their leader's broken neck finally fired up the synapses in the Marauder's minds. Like kangarats bailing from a smoked out hole, the terror of seeing their untouchable leader squashed with such little effort sent those of lesser constitution scurrying- seeing the monstrous woman puncha HOLE through a fellow member's chest sent off the rest.

Eventually the chaos died down; the Marauders having taken off, too disturbed by their leader's death to rally morale to attack the strange woman. In the commotion Nora wedged herself under a little rock outcropping near the wrecked camp, huddled with her knees pulled up. As much as the young woman wanted to convince herself that she was stuck in some kind of nightmare, the throbbing pain in her face grounded her forcefully to reality. Time passed while she stared out unseeing, counting her breaths. The shadows lengthened slowly and the low light of evening began draining the heat from the parched sands. Silence had reclaimed its place, nearly painful to the traveler's eardrums in the absence of the roaring commotion of engines and raised voices. Finally, as the sheltering penumbra of shade from the towering clouds overhead passed, Nora's glassy eyes cleared- having reached a stable level of acceptance within her mind now having time to process it.

So I've rather obviously (regardless of impossibility) been transported to a different planet. The question of other sentient life is a moot point considering I've just met the locals. Having experienced their intent the planet-hopper determined that avoiding meetings with future locals would likely be a good idea...

All very logical observations and conclusions. The important question of course would be what to do now?

The continued deepening of the shadows around her finally began to press upon the traveler. She needed to find shelter for the night- no telling what she may run into, not to mention the already uncomfortable chill settling over the sands. Luckily the armored men from before hadn't taken off with her bag; a bit of toeing around the abandoned camp site revealed it shoved between a couple of rocks and mostly unmolested. Slowly scanning the dead camp, Nora pushed her resisting limbs from their frozen positions crouched in the alcove. She picked her way shakily toward her bag, resolutely avoiding looking at the broken bodies left like fallen mannequins upon the ground. If she didn't look at them then she might be able to shove the memory to the back of her mind and forget about it...

The walk across the rapidly darkening dunes pushed the limits of the young woman's stress tolerance. Every noise was a monster and every movement was a hiding enemy. The coming twilight strained her eyes and distorted her depth perception, causing her feet to drag and catch over rocks she couldn't make out and introduced her shins to many an unfriendly, poking bit of vegetation. Eventually she managed to stumble to another rock outcropping, hands groping outstretched to steady herself.

"There has got to be a cave- OUCH!" Nora growled at the sting of a stubbed toe, "a-a cave, around here somewhere..."

Stumbling along as she was, Nora nearly fell headfirst into the cavern she had been so adamant on finding. From what the brunette could see in the last vestiges of light, the cave extended pretty far back. A raised ledge on the left slanted out from the wall, and hiking her bag she clambered up.

Quick rifling through her gear produced an unused glow stick by touch. She snapped an end and raised it overhead, staring down into the cavern with squinting eyes. Thus far everything sat still and silent- not even the scratch of cave dwelling insects disturbed the area. Nora stopped shuffling along about fifty meters in, exhaustion abruptly eating at her limbs now that she felt reasonably safe from the dangers of the outside desert.

Winding down, Nora grimly took stock of her situation, back propped uncomfortably against a flattened section of the wall. Her priorities have changed now- somehow she needed to get back to the portal. She lost sight of the volcano after those...the locals took her, but morning light may illuminate the proper direction. The next issue would be getting the wretched thing to work again.

But that was the main problem, wasn't it? What if the portal only worked one way? What if it took you to a random place each time- there was no guarantee it would even take her back home. What if. What if. What if...

Gritting her teeth in frustration caused a flower of pain to bloom from her left cheek. Oh yeah...

Gingerly, hesitantly the brunette raised trembling fingers to her face. The first touch brought a flinch, but she tried again with bolder strokes despite the dizzying amount of stinging. The skin seemed to have risen, like maybe it had burned or produced scar tissue. What were they doing...? Flakes of blood and residual dead tissue came free with her insistent rubbing and feeling around, and with the debris cleared the raised scar tissue seemed to form a pattern under her searching fingers.

Pulling her hand away revealed her top digits covered in both dried and partially coagulated blood. The sight, far too familiar, caused her pupils to dilate and breathing to rapidly speed up, quick huffs escaping as she started to hyperventilate. Too much. Too much. Too much!

Rather suddenly the end result of near constant stress and the vivid recollection of two much too still bodies upended itself from Nora's heaving stomach onto the dusty ground of the cavern. Hands braced on the wall, she shuddered and retched until the muscles of her abdomen felt they would cramp and nothing further would come up.

Throat searing and dimly aware that she had expended precious liquid, Nora pulled out her canteen to give herself some relief from the pain and the taste in her mouth. Turned out a lucky thing she tilted her head back for that drink- it allowed her to see the lights early.

Nora wasn't entirely sure WHAT she was seeing, but peeking through the slits of pillars and around rocks were slowly bobbing, yellow globes of light. A scuffling sound built towards the back of the cavern, like the claws of an animal on stone... By the volume it had to be a pretty big animal. The lights multiplied and though she was ignorant of their origin, a voice within Nora awoke and screamed very loudly in her ear that shereallyshouldbegettingherb uttoutofhererightnowwhywasn'tshe moving?!

Heeding her mind's alarm bells the young woman snatched up her bag and moved to stand slowly in case she set off whatever predator instinct the things stalking her had. She had just begun to back away when the first one broke out into the light of her glow stick.

The first most noticeable thing about the creature was the nightmarish amount of sharp teeth in its drooling maw. It prowled forward on large haunches and the traveler couldn't immediately identify if it were feline in continence or reptilian. A metallic shell stretched over its muscled form, creating a rapid clicking with every shift and step. The glow that had initially caught her attention actually came from a strange gem-like development on the creature's skull, framed by more metal. So transfixed by the extremely dangerous looking beast, Nora paused in her retreat.

Unfortunately that hesitation nearly got her killed.

A deafening roar shook the air inside the cave as the thing charged, shockingly fast and eating up the distance in a matter of seconds. In a panic Nora stumbled over some loose gravel, her boots slipping in her hurry to get away. At the last instant her legs gave way and she hit the ground- just as the thing dove at where her head had been but a moment prior. The terrified woman didn't make it out unscathed though. As she rolled to the side it whipped around and swiped a glancing blow towards her face, the claws missing their mark at her eyes and snagging her lower lip instead. She let out a cry of pain and reflexively kicked out at the creature's face, a surprisingly effective sounding crunch signaling impact and sending it careening to the side with a loud yelp.

Nora didn't have time to ponder her victory as the metallic shriek of the creature's fellows resounded at her back. Scrambling to her feet she took off toward the entrance of the cave at a dead run, her breath sobbing out from her lungs. The fifty meters to the entrance were the longest of her thus far rather short life. Repeatedly the cave monsters caught her either at her back or legs, raking lines of torture where talons bit into skin and nearly rending the flesh from arms upraised in defense. Adrenaline allowed her to ignore the agony where her muscles might have given out, struggling against the teeming tide of the biting, shredding horde.

The choking heat from earlier was back and through her desperate animal panic Nora dimly noted the feeling of metal splitting over bone and muscle beneath the white knuckles of her fists, spreading aching numbness into her hands...

oOo

Nora wasn't entirely sure how she had made it out the cave intact, but her senses did sharpen out of the muddy haze her mind had somehow drifted into once the icy nip of the desert night air scraped over her face. Shambling through the dark and floating on the high that the last remnants of her fight-or-flight response provided her, the stressed young woman managed to get herself to high ground atop a cliff system above the caves. Blank spots became apparent in her memory-signs of shock she told herself- as she calmed the raging tattoo of her heart.

Her ears rang with the memory of too-loud gnashing teeth and shrill beastly howling despite the gentle whisper of sand rasping on stone. Curled up with her back against a depression in the rock she took a moment to. Just. Breathe.

And quietly the lost young woman wept.

tbc

Finally got off of my butt and got another chapter done. Looking forward to the future chapters- once Nora finally settles into her new surroundings the actions is gonna pick up like whoa. Also depending on how I size the next chapter we may be seeing our first main cast member. Until next time.