A/N: Hi everyone, thanks for reviews as always :D Early update tonight as am going out soon. Enjoy! ~ Mika

PS: Nel, Day and Rhogan are mine, almost everything else is Naughty Dog's.

PPS: No reviews = no update tomorrow. You have been warned.

Jakuelynn sprang awake at five-thirty the next morning, the same way and time she had done for six and a half years. She rubbed her eyes and pulled some clothes on, tiptoeing past a sleeping Deimin and to the back of the house to watch the new day break. She sat on the wide grassy platform near the edge of the cliff the house was built on and closed her eyes, tilting her head back as the sunrise warmed her face. She loved this time of day, and indeed, having a full hour in the morning to herself before the day began.

"Nel?"

The sleep-roughed voice of the brightest star in her sky reached her ears. She heard a soft padding as the grass bent beneath bare feet and Deimin flopped down next to her, resting a hand on her shoulder. She reached back, lacing her fingers with his, her green eyes locking with his pitch-black ones. Even after twenty-one years of knowing him, those eyes never failed to render her breathless.

"Hi, Day. You okay?"

That voice, distinctly female if not slightly roughened, not fitting the body it came from; the voice he loved to hear.

"Your comm buzzed," he said. "Rhogan wants you. He says it's important,"

"Ah...Really?" There was an edge of disappointment in Jakuelynn's voice – the warrior instinct struggling against the desire to, for once, not listen to Rhogan's call. "I...Excuse me." A look of regret crossed her face as she pushed herself up off the ground, strolling back to the house. She felt Deimin's eyes watching her go, feeling the message beamed from them.

"Morning, Nel," came another gruff, sleep-roughened voice.

"Morning, Father," she replied automatically, snatching up her communicator. "Word Runner, this is Viking Queen, come in,"

"This is Word Runner," Rhogan responded. Although the constrictive regime of his aunt was seven years long over, it had become a dictatorship-induced reflex to use code names. "Viking Queen, we have a situation out in the Wasteland with Metal Heads."

"Got it, Word Runner, what's the situation?"

"It's not exactly clear, but they seem to be after crates of Dark Eco. We've lost several men out there trying to get rid of them."

"So I'm a last resort," Jakuelynn replied, noticing an edge of retort in her voice. She knew Rhogan was her superior, having run the city – with her permission – over the past seven years, but the physical effects of that were beginning to take its toll on her.

She almost heard Rhogan bite his lip. "VQ, you and Big Daddy are the best we have. I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't serious,"

"So why not ask me first?" she replied, a little calmer, the warrior's instinct rising back up.

"We underestimated the seriousness of the situation."

That all you can give me? Jakuelynn took a very deep breath. "Okay, Word Runner, I'm on. Let me get my baby and go. Viking Queen out." She clicked off before Rhogan could confirm himself out, sweeping past Jak, whom was about to ask what Rhogan wanted.

"Nel, what did he want?"

"Something about Metal Heads and crates of Dark Eco." Jakuelynn grabbed her own Morph Gun. "Gotta go." Her communicator buzzed – Rhogan again. "Yes?"

"One more thing,"

"What is it, Word Runner?"

"Don't destroy the Dark Eco crates. Also, be careful about going Dark,"

Jakuelynn nodded. "Yes...I will. Where is this?"

"Where the Precursor Monk Temple used to be,"

"Understood. VQ out." She shut off the communicator and turned to Deimin, who just looked at her.

"Be back, won't you?" he asked somewhat reluctantly, phrasing it as more of a statement as his shoulders slumped.

The young warrior looked into his eyes, secretly wishing she could stay there forever. "I will," she promised, running to the garage where all her vehicles were kept. She eventually decided on the Dune Hopper, which bent as she jumped straight into it. Another weight bent the Hopper under her.

"Princess Jakuelynn Mar Hagai, what are you doing kicking arse without me?" a young voice demanded to know.

"Deimin Ghosten...didn't you say adventuring was not for you?" she asked pointedly.

"Yeah well...I...wanna taste it for myself." He shrugged.

Jakuelynn grinned. "Okay. But I will leave you behind if you call me 'Princess' again." She grinned. "Scarf up, goggles down, this is gonna get bumpy!"