"In the land of gods and monsters; I was an angel, living in the garden of evil. Screwed up, scared, doing anything that I needed, shining like a fiery beacon." Gods & Monsters © Lana Del Rey (Paradise 2012)

The ABC's of Gods & Monsters

Chapter Seven: G is for Gods & Monsters

She'd only seen men cry whenever they were stuck in a corner, a frustrated response to something you couldn't control -or fix. She'd seen her father cry once. She was very young and was supposed to be in bed, but she couldn't sleep. So with a tiny candle, something her mother lit for her before bed, she climbed down the stairs, hoping to find her parents. She found her father in his study. One single bulb glowed in the night as he cried over a map of the city, the family's talismen and the Mar's talismen. A bottle of whiskey sat open next to him. Parker never learned why he was crying and didn't want to know.

She choked on a gust of wind. A gritty and hot breeze that burned her throat. Slumping forward, Parker let out a sob. She didn't even cry tears, her body was too hot for that. Her hair whipped around her, blurring her vision and getting caught on her chapped lips. She let out another sob when she heard the whip hit something or someone.

For the first ten, Olivia had been brave. She didn't scream or cry out, but after the whip started hitting exposed and bloody flesh; she couldn't handle it. Veger ordered fifty whippings, fifty rules that Olivia had broken turning to gain access back into the Northern Section, ordering her Elite Guards to turn on Veger, befriending an enemy and stealing from the city. Parker never imagined Liv doing any of those, but she, nor her men, were in the position to argue.

To her left, the men that had already been whipped, were digging in the sand. Parker's heart sunk when Amberly ordered the men to dig, when asked why, she just laughed. It didn't take the group long to figure it out, they were digging their own graves. Amberly paced back and forth, watching them dig, twirling her parasol under the burning heat.

"Let's pick up the pace boys," Amberly twittered. "We don't have all day."

"Leave them alone," Veger commented walking past Parker. "I don't care how deep their graves are."

She sighed. "Fine. Is Liv done, yet?"

"Five more." Veger answered walking back to Olivia at the whipping post. Parker watched him with as much hate as she could muster. She felt it in her bones, an icy feeling that spread throughout her core and stretched through her limbs. Although they were numb from the ruthless sand, she still felt the slight pricks of pain and the cold feeling of anger.

Once Olivia had gotten her last whip, the guard cut away her ties and she dropped to the ground. Olivia gave a moan as two other guards picked her up and dragged her over to the line of men and women still digging. They dropped her next to the group and she didn't move. She watched several of Liv's men crawl over to her, they touched her lovingly as if caring for an infant. They pushed her hair back and whispered in her ear, a couple tried to look at the ripped flesh on her back but their grim expressions didn't inspire much.

"So," Amberly said stepping into Parker's line of sight. "are you ready for your punishment?"

Parker glared up to her. "I'm not scared of you."

Amberly paled, her eyes going wide before she turned to her men. "Cut her loose, tie her to the pole and take off her shirt." Parker's arms dropped like a weight, falling beside her and forcing her down to the ground. She coughed into the sand before someone lifted her up by her armpits, they dragged her to the blood soaked sand where Olivia once was. Tying her wrists together with rope, Parker knelt in the sticky sand while a guard ripped her shirt with a knife. "Parker Drake," Amberly said stepping behind her. "You are hereby sentenced to twenty-eight whippings, seven for your father, seven for your mother, seven for working with Jak and Daxter, and finally, another seven for betraying the orders of Count Veger. Do you have anything to say for yourself."

"Don't give her that option." Veger snapped. "Nothing she can say can fix this. The stain of the Drake name ends here. Go ahead." He said to the guard.

Parker sucked in a breath, waiting for the first strike when Amberly shouted, "Wait!" A small feeling grew in her chest, maybe Amberly's giant heart grew back. Maybe she remembered they were practically sisters and they grew up together. "Let me do it." Parker sighed, of course she wanted this.

The first lash burned against her already sunburnt skin, she gasped as she felt the burn of Eco. At first she thought she imagined it but after the fourth hit she knew what Amberly had soaked the whip in. Yellow Eco entered her body with every hit, she felt the warm tingle in her skin as she yanked on her rope. The sudden yearning for more Eco made her body shiver, she thought with the Eco Samos had given her helped with the addiction. Although what hurt more was the fact that Amberly was doing it. She hadn't said a word since she took the whip from the guard, Parker glanced over her shoulder when the whipping finished. Twenty-eight hits for doing the right thing, and she'd wear them like a badge of honour until her last breath.

Amberly huffed and handed the whip back to the guard. "Untie her." The guards did just that, cutting the rough rope with a knife. Parker pulled her arms in to cover her chest. She felt naked without her shirt and her bra was hanging on by shreds. She got to her feet on her own, feeling the spin of Yellow Eco as she followed the guards to the shallow graves. Amberly came to stand beside her. Parker could feel her glare as she handed her a gun.

Parker stared at it. "What do you want me to do with that?"

"You're going to execute these traitors."

Parker's head snapped to look at Amberly. "You can't be serious."

Amberly pulled the hammer back and pointed it at the first guard in line, she didn't blink as she fired. The man collapsed into his shallow grave, dead eyes staring into nothing. "I'm deadly serious."

"You're insane." Parker snapped. "How do you expect to win a war if you kill everyone?"

"Only the strong surive." Amberly answered. "You're little gang here isn't welcome if you can't follow simple rules."

"You cut South Town of from the North!" Parker shouted. "What were supposed to do? Lie down and die quietly?"

"Kill the traitors!" Amberly screamed shoving the gun into Parker's hand. "And don't you dare miss!"

Parker took a deep breath and stepped up to the second guard, he prayed quietly and rocked back and forth. She fired, in an expolison of sand and blood, the guard fell face first into his grave. The next dropped into his grave when the gun jammed, clutching his heart. The next several guards were already dead, bleeding out of their wounds or from sliced wrists. One guard turned to face Parker, his haunting brown eyes staring right into hers when she pulled the trigger. With a shaking hand, she finished off the last ten without pausing to look at what she'd done. At the end of the line was Olivia, face down in her grave. Parker lowered her gun as a guard walked over, he pressed a finger against her neck. Parker held her breath, the worst thing she could do was shot her friend. Sure she and Olivia started out on a sore note, sure they hated each other from day one but over time she grew to be someone she trusted. She couldn't imagine her life without Olivia, she was always there, in her yellow uniform cursing at everyone.

"Well?" Amberly asked.

"She's dead."

Parker gave a hiccupped sob and dropped to her knees behind Olivia. She dropped the gun and covered her face, with shaking bloody hands she tried to find the tears to cry for a friend but they never came.

"Good." Amberly answered. "Farewell to Haven scum and slummers."

Lowering her shaking hands she looked at the group she'd just killed. All of them, were citizens of Haven -no matter where they lived. Once they joined the guard they were brothers and sisters in arms, it didn't matter to her if they were a Slummer or from Main Town -they were family. She killed many in her days, she fought for so many wrong things and took the sides of madmen, she hoped the Precursors would forgive her for that but this... was unforgiveable.

She and the Precursors never got along anyways.

She picked up the gun with a shaking hand, standing slowly she turned to face the group of guards that laughed and cheered. Amberly stood in the middle of them, twirling her stupid parasol. Veger stood near the Hellcat, ordering a group of men to load up what was left of their post. They didn't care that they sentenced fifty to death. They didn't care that they whipped Liv to death. They didn't care that their brothers in arms would decay in unmarked graves.

She shot the closest guard. He dropped to the ground like a stone, he gasped for breath and made bubbles with his own blood. The other guards were stunned for a second before they took out their guns, Parker fired again, this time hitting one of the boys next to Amberly. One of the guards shot her, hitting her in the shoulder. She fired at him, hitting him right in the eye. He screamed and dropped to the ground, holding his bloody face. Several of the guards froze watching their comrad wither in pain. She fired another shot, this time the bullet whooshed past the group, hitting no one.

"Marauders!" A guard next to the Hellcat shouted. The guards picked up their fallen comrades and ran towards the Hellcats. Amberly stayed where she was, glaring at her best friend before motioning her men to follow.

"She dead anyways." Amberly snapped running back to the Hellcat. She followed behind Amberly, firing wildly. Hitting nothing and no one. Behind her she heard the sounds of distant engines coming closer; but that didn't stop her from shooting at the closed hatch of the Hellcat Amberly was on.

The Hellcats kicked up sand, whipping it around Parker before they took off, leaving Parker behind. She stared at the fading outline of the blue Hellcats, her ride back to the city, her ride back to everything she knew... gone. The hum of the engines behind her stopped and she heard talking, someone ordering to check the graves.

"Yo!" Someone shouted to her. "Hey you! Are you okay?" She turned to look at the man shouting at her. He wore a pair of goggles and a green open vest, she laughed when she saw his lionclothe and giant sandal-boots. Is this what Marauders looked like? If so, they weren't very scary. Behind him several men climbed out of their large cars, they walked past the dead and looked towards her. One man, that had a tiny car, knelt beside Olivia's body. He reached out and touched her face.

"Get away from her!" Parker screamed, her voice startling the man and everyone standing around the graves. She stepped forward, pointing her gun at the man. "Don't touch her! Get out of here! Leave us alone!"

The man stood slowly and stepped around Olivia's body, he walked closer and stepped past the first man. A blur of orange appeared on his shoulder, staring at her with wide blue eyes. Parker lowered the gun as the man, with dirty blonde hair, pulled his goggles off his face and tugged his scarf down. Her heart sped up as he stepped forward again, hands out as a gesture of peace. He was darker, sunkissed with a green goatee and stronger.

"Parker?" He asked as if she were a stranger. As if she hadn't spent the last two weeks mourning his death, mourning the idea of what they could've been and how they would save the city. But he was here, as real as the blood in the sand. Alive and breathing like a newborn. "Park," He said again. "It's us... Jak and Daxter."

"Jak's dead." She answered as her vision darkened at the edges. She dropped the gun and felt her knees start to shake, as if she were a newborn trying to walk. "That's alright with me..." Her vision clouded over and she dropped into the blissful arms of sleep.

TBC...

Author's Note

Just one update for you guys today. I was working on a new fanfiction that's been bouncing around my brain for some time now. Head over to my new story, Running with the Boysif for you who like Cannon based stories. Update next Thursday. Thank you EcoSeeker for her review! xoxox Paradise Eco.