A/N: *nervous laughter* Oh wow, one more chapter until part 1 is done. *sweats*

The next day came a little too fast for my liking. Despite being awake the whole night, I did not feel tired in the slightest, and it only felt like it had been a few minutes.

The fact that the end of our Survival Run was approaching so quickly made me deeply uncomfortable, and, admittedly, scared. Sure, I was eager to return to the Citadel, where I had a practically unlimited supply of Dark Eco, but at some point I would have to find a way to preserve Teko and myself. I know I've mentioned that before, but at the time it was a very big deal to me and it was almost constantly on my mind. So please excuse my constant reiteration of the fact. I apologize.

Luckily, nothing much happened that day. The next day was the same story. And the day after that, and the day after that one. Every single time I slept, I woke dreading the day ahead of me… But nothing happened. Every time I saw the sun peeking over the horizon, I almost cried. But nothing happened. Nothing ever happened.

It went on for almost a month like that, until Jak was confident about my wound having healed enough to get the stitches out.

Of course, after that the trend of nothingness continued for three more days.

By this point, I was getting very, very tired of always sitting around doing nothing. Not being able to be up and moving around drove me absolutely insane. And while I could pace as much as I damn well wanted to, and take walks through Haven if I felt like it, it wasn't enough. Mostly due to the fact that I wasn't eager to wander Haven city by myself just for the hell of it.

Didn't seem like the smartest decision, I thought to myself near the end of those three days.

Although I doubted there was much chance that Errol would be touching me for a while after Jak dealt with him, there was still the possibility that he would be lying in wait for me. I wasn't taking any chances that I didn't need to… Not within the city walls at least.

And now that I was thinking about it, Errol was a cyborg. He could probably change his voice - he could have faked the call from Samos. Not to mention the old man's appearance wouldn't be hard to replicate. Not from the shoulders up as the calls usually displayed him.

"That gear-headed, sneaky, metal-assed dickhead!" I found myself rasping out at a rather quieter level than I intended. I cringed. That had hurt my throat. I hadn't spoken much since the incident and understandably my throat didn't take kindly to me trying now. Not after almost a month of inactivity.

Teko glanced at me. "That sounded painful."

Daxter nodded in agreement.

"She hasn't spoken in a month." Jak said offhandedly as he tinkered with my gun. He had randomly taken it and started messing with it almost a week earlier. "What did you expect?"

Teko sort of nodded and Daxter only shrugged. I cleared my throat a bit and coughed. "Ow…" Weakly escaped me and I winced. Jak chuckled at me, finally putting down my gun to look in my direction. Something was different about him today. His eyes were lighter than usual, and his lips were turned slightly upwards at the sides. I'd almost call it a smile - impossible, I know... Especially since it was a calm smile, not a psychotic one.

It sort of creeped me out, to be honest.

And that's not just because I didn't seem him as the smiling sort, I swear. In certain situations, I could imagine him smiling just a bit bigger than he was now. But it had to be some sort of special occasion for the muscles of his lips to twitch up like that with no obvious reason for it.

"Izaya, you think you're ready to head back out into the Wastelands one more time?" He asked me suddenly, holding up my gun.

My eyes widen, I felt a grin plaster itself onto my face as I nodded excitedly. Teko immediately jumped from where she lay and vaulted onto my shoulder.

Jak chuckled again, a much more definite smile forming on his face. The corners of his eyes crinkled a bit. Daxter grinned. "What are we waiting for then?"

This time, when we emerged into the Wasteland, a car of sorts was waiting for us outside the gate.

"What's that?" Teko's eyes widened. I could see her internal love of vehicles coming to the surface.

"My baby." Jak replied, patting the front, "The Sand Shark." He climbed into the driver's seat. "Hop in."

I did not hesitate to do so. Very few things excited Teko and I as much as getting to ride in or drive a new vehicle. And few things made her happier than an old vehicle that was obviously well taken care of.

Jak drove us off into the desert… Farther than he'd taken us before. We passed what looked like another city on the way, but Jak claimed that going there was "for later". I didn't feel like questioning it, at least not for the time being. I was looking forward to whatever he thought was such a great thing that his smile still had not left his face.

Eventually he slowed to a stop near a cave. It took him a moment to decide to exit the Sand Shark, but when he did his grin widened.

"So, what're we doin'?" Teko asked as I followed suit.

He turned his grin to us. "Metal Head hunting."

Remember when I said "few things" excited us more than riding in a new vehicle? Metal Head hunting was among them. In fact, it was right at the top of the list of things that excited us. Sure, we hated Metal Heads, but to us it was fun to blow up their ugly faces with whatever weapon we had on hand. It amused us. Well, it amused me a great deal more than it amused Teko, but still.

"So, what kind of Metal Heads are we hunting?" Teko asked Jak as we entered the cave.

"Any of them that live here." He replied. "We've been trying to eradicate the last of them in here ever since…" He shook his head, "Well, that's a story for another time. Regardless, we've been trying to get rid of this nest of them for a couple of years now." He led us deeper into the cave, "Usually I'd bring the Sand Shark but I'd rather use my hands this time. Seems to be more effective." He paused near an opening. "... This is one of the last Metal Head Nests that we know for sure exists." He off-handedly said as his eyes scanned the area ahead.

I stayed behind him until he decided it was safe.

"Most of the Metal Heads you've fought in the Wastelands have come from this one nest." He uttered. "By now they've probably spread to other parts of the Wastelands."

I was both annoyed and excited by that thought. Annoyed because, dammit, I wanted to be able to go out into the Wastelands and only have to worry about Marauders. Excited because… Well. You should know by now.

We made our way through the cave, rather systematically, and wiped out any and all eggs we found before we ended up having to deal with some understandably miffed Momma Metal Heads. My already rather hefty collection of Skull Gems had grown exponentially just within the first ten minutes of the hunt. It should be common sense that when we finished some four hours later, I had a lot more than was necessary for just having them.

"I'll take you to a place where you can get rid of them and get something useful in return." Jak said in between shooting a Metal Head in the face and stomping on an egg. "Believe me, you'll be glad you kept them."

Eventually we cleaned out the entire cave and I took a quick dip in a rather convenient puddle of Dark Eco to recharge. We ventured back out, everyone being careful not to touch me until I had absorbed every last bit of the Eco, and ended up just cruising around in the Sand Shark for another hour or so. I relaxed and closed my eyes, getting the first bit of shut-eye I'd had in about a week.

Even asleep, however, I could feel Jak steadily growing more and more uncomfortable. It radiated off of him in waves the worse it got. I tried to ignore it - I knew he wasn't likely to tell me what was wrong. I knew Jak well enough to know he was a very private man.

"Hey." He had stopped the Sand Shark a few minutes before from what I could tell. "Izaya."

I opened my eyes, looking at him somewhat blearily. "Hm?" It was then that I noticed an absence of Teko on my shoulder. I looked around and saw her and Daxter sitting on a nearby rock.

"... I have…" He sighed and took a deep breath. "Something I need to tell you."

In light of Daxter not being able to hear me from the distance he was at, I sat up straighter. "What is it?"

He was silent for a moment. "I wish I could keep putting this off." He admitted, "But I have to tell you before the survival run is over… So. Here it is." He took a very deep breath and began, "To put it bluntly… I'm your brother." I blinked owlishly but had no time to question it, "And technically, you're royalty. Part of the royal family of Haven, actually. A direct descendant of the founder of the city. The only reason that you or me isn't on the throne, ruling Haven - aside from my not wanting to be in control - is because Torn and Ashelin don't seem to trust me enough to let me rule. For the time being they've turned it into a democracy… But they leave a constant reminder that the House of Mar still exists and that if a member aside from myself wants to take the throne, it will be turned back into a monarchy." He sighed again, "I understand them not trusting me to be the "ruler" of Haven… I'm not the best choice… But I really hope they trust you more than they trust me - not because I want to force you to be the ruler, but because you would be a great ruler, and because with you on the throne the city could be rebuilt in a few months. With the way you fixed up the Citadel so quickly, I'm sure you could easily help the citizens rebuild. And eventually one of us will end up continuing the family line…" He went silent for a moment, then quietly continued, with much less conviction than before, "You would be the perfect ruler. Dark as you are, it'd be hard for the people not to trust you once you got on the throne."

I stared at him blankly for a moment, noting an almost defeated slump to his shoulders. I thought very carefully about my response, rolling the information over in my head a few times.

"Well, bro," I finally said, "That's a lot of information to take in…" I paused to consider the next part of my response. I was treading on the subject as carefully as I could. "But if you really think I would be a good ruler, I'll just have to get to work on making Torn and Ashelin like me."

His eyes snapped from the steering wheel to my face. "Really?"

I nodded, "If it means that much to you, I really can't just say no. Besides… I'm already the only Sage of Dark Eco, an accomplished scientist, and the owner of the Citadel, why not add "Queen of Haven City" to the list?" I smiled at him, "Not to mention, what better choice for a queen than someone who can control and harvest Dark Eco without having to put innocent lives at risk?"

He hesitantly began to smile back at me. "Thank you." He said after some silence, "You're already turning out to be a great sister."

Now that I was thinking, it made sense now. Almost a month before, he had slipped up and called me "Sis". And he had taken various trips out of the city by himself the whole time Teko and I had been there. Daxter claimed that he was going to check on the future us to see if we had woken up yet. Why else would he have been so worried about us? It made perfect sense - he was checking on his little sister at least twice a week to make sure she was alright. It was honestly kind of cute.

Especially since I knew Jak wasn't much for caring about people, let alone to that kind of level. Sure, he cared about Daxter that much, but Daxter and he had been friends for longer than Teko and I had. It only made sense for him to care about Daxter.

Him caring even a smidgen more about me than he did about everyone else made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

We were prevented from having any further conversation on the matter by Teko hopping into my lap. "Well that's… Weird." Was all she said before she laid down.

Daxter was laughing when he, too, hopped into the Sand Shark. "Get used to it."

I shot a questioning look at Teko, who promptly replied, "He's my brother, apparently."

Shit. I'm crushing on my best friend's brother. "Jak's mine." I rasped back to her. Had to keep up appearances in front of Daxter.

She looked up at me almost in horror, "You're… Not serious, are you? You've gotta be joking." She looked to Jak, "Please tell me she's joking." He smiled apologetically, "Oh god." She fell onto my lap, "I fucked my best friend's brother."

Daxter looked at her in shock, "You fucked Jak?" He looked at Jak, "Dude why didn't you tell me? Did you think I was gonna be mad?"

Jak chuckled as he started up the Sand Shark, "Of course not. I just didn't want anyone to know. Izaya found out all by herself."

He started back toward Haven - probably because it was beginning to get dark. He drove back toward the city at top speed. The wind blowing through my hair was nice...