Epione
I hope you've been enjoying the story so far and all had a good Christmas, I thought I should get down and get another chapter on this done, hopefully you think it's gone okay. It has been a fair while since I've updated this story but here we go hope you enjoy, as always I don't own Jak and Daxter's universe but I do own my characters.
As Ortz lowered the car onto the roof of the HQ but just as he touched down Torn came steaming out of the door that led to the roof and dragged Ortz from the vehicle and smashed him on the floor, "Why the fuck did you take my car?" He shouted at Ortz, as Torn held Ortz in his hands and stared looking for an answer but Ortz didn't give one. "You are a waste of my fucking time, what the hell does the Shadow see in you?" he shouted again as he smashed his fist deep into Ortz's face and then kicked him as he walked off the roof in a huff.
Ortz laid there coughing up a bit of blood and rolling in pain over his beating, as he laid there waiting for someone to pick him up all Ortz could think about was that the brutality of the Guard was everywhere and that he should be used to it by now. As no one came to tend to him, he pulled himself over nursing what felt like a broken rib under his left arm with every breath feeling like he was puncturing his lungs. But he eventually found his feet, the hound who was still cowering in the vehicle as it spotted Ortz the creature collected the canteen and the bag which was still wriggling from the creature inside.
Ortz staggered over to the door and pushed his way inside, his lungs became overcome with pain and he collapsed to the floor. He looked up seeing a blurry light filled room as he crawled forward into the room he could feel the blood run from under his shirt and his lungs burn with pain. As he made it into the light he could see figures rushing around him but with all the panic he couldn't hear anything and he could feel his consciousness waning until it was a single point in the room which slowly faded into blackness.
"Ortz! Ortz! Can you hear me?" A loud feminine rang into his ears as he shook his head not able to open his eyes.
"Yeah I'm good," He replied trying to sound like he wasn't in pain.
"Bullshit you are!" The woman replied as she reached the bottom of his shirt and ripped it across exposing his chest, "Fuck!" She shouted as she placed her hand over the blood pouring down his chest.
"Panacea?" Ortz asked as he tried to open his eyes.
"Not her, her mom instead I hope that's okay," She told him as she pulled out a gauze and pressurised his wound.
"Arghh…." He shouted as she forced the wound shut, "I'll be okay if you stopped doing that."
"Well I'm sorry I don't want you dying on my floor," She replied sarcastically, "My names Epione, we met earlier." She told Ortz and he nodded as the woman tried to roll the gauze around his body.
"My god that hurts!" He shouted as she rolled him onto his side to tie the ends of the gauze up.
"Stop crying you baby, now can you sit up?" She asked him as she pretty much pulled him upright.
"Well I don't have much of a choice did I? How did you find me?" He asked as he looked over to her finally being able to open his eyes. Her face was pretty much identical to Panacea, soft with dark brown hair, her smile went from ear to ear obviously happy to help people.
"Well the dog came and got me," She replied as the hound licked Ortz's face, he spotted that it still had all of Ortz gear laid over its back.
"That's good, thanks boy," He told it as he tried to reach out and stroke it but it hurt his ribs too much so he couldn't.
"It's a girl you do realise that? right?" Epione told him with a chuckle as she stood up and grabbed Ortz by the arm and yanked him to his feet.
"Yeah of course," Ortz replied sarcastically as he grabbed his side and took a sharp breath, "so where is Panacea?" He asked as he hunched over and tried to stomach the pain.
"Take this," She told him as she passed him a pill, she watched him swallow it and then straightened him pup causing him to screech, "She's in with the Shadow," She smiled as she walked off down a corridor ignoring the masses of blood on the floor.
"Thanks," He attempted to say as he held himself upright.
"No problem, Váli," she said as she left the room.
"What did you just call me?" He shouted out to her but she had closed the door and wasn't listening, "Váli? What the fuck is Váli?" he said to himself as he staggered through the door trying to follow Epione. "Where did she go?" He wondered as the door opened into blackness. "Epione?" Ortz asked out into the dark.
"Ortz what the hell are you doing?" Panacea asked from behind him.
"Erm…. Your mom she went that way," He told her as he tried to point in the direction he thought she had gone.
She looked back at him in confusion, "Two problems with that, one," she said as she clicked a flashlight on exposing he was in cupboard, "and two, my mother has been dead for four years."
"But she wrapped me in gauze," he told her as he pulled apart the torn pieces of shirt and showed off his perfectly gauzed body.
"You probably did it yourself, how did that happen anyway?" She asked trying to ignore Ortz's ramblings.
"Torn," he replied as he looked around the cupboard for a sign that Epione had actually been there, that one word was enough for Panacea as she pulled him from the cupboard and dusted his hair off.
"We have a job to do come with me," She ordered to him as she guided him up the stairs towards the Shadow but Ortz couldn't get the image of Epione out of his head. She was real he could feel her hands and the warmth of her breath but she wasn't actually there? "Here we are, you alright?" She asked him as he cradled his ribs and tried to smile, but in the end his response was limited to a nod.
As she pushed the door open a shirt came flying out and hit Ortz in the face, "put some clothes on boy!" The Shadow shouted from within, Ortz slipped his ripped shirt off carefully and Panacea stood there staring at him as he made sure the bandages hadn't moved.
"Take a picture it will last longer," Ortz told her jokingly as he slipped on the new shirt which was a black old KG shirt but it had a distinct feeling of heavy cotton that he hadn't felt in a while.
"I thought you'd want your old shirt back," The Shadow told him as he walked into the Shadow's office.
"Thank you," Ortz replied as he straightened out the bottom of the shirt and the hound bounced in carrying the gear, Ortz took it all off the creatures back and placed the bag and the canteen on the table in the office.
"How did you get those injuries anyway?" The Shadow asked.
Ortz replied in the same way as he did to Panacea, "Torn," Sounding like it had been a regular occurance.
"Ah well he is under a lot of stress right now and I guess you bore the brunt, you shouldn't have stolen his car I guess," The Shadow laughed as he then picked up the canteen, "Now what have you got yourself here?" he asked as he twiddle the liquid within.
"I was hoping you could identify it," Ortz told the Shadow as the bag starting kicking as screeching so Ortz punched it, "Oh and that."
The Shadow chuckled and looked at Panacea, "Do you feel that child?" he asked her.
"Yes, Ortz where did you get this from?" Panacea asked him.
"Where the Shadow told me to go Old Town?" Ortz replied sounding confused.
"Do you know what this is boy?" The Shadow then asked.
"A green glowing liquid, which some weird ass looking creatures were mining?" He told the Shadow as he looked at the liquid swirl inside the canteen.
"What do you mean creatures?" Panacea asked.
"Well….." Ortz said as he opened the bag and the knocked out creature slid out of the bag, "These things."
"Oh hell," Panacea said in shock as the creature twitched.
"A metal head inside the city walls?" The Shadow said to himself.
"What did you just say?" Ortz asked as he moved around the table towards the Shadow.
"Ah a metal head? You don't know what it is?" He asked as Ortz walked right next to him.
"I don't know what they are," Ortz told him as the creature stood up. As it looked around it suddenly leapt towards Panacea but Ortz pulled a pistol off the table and shot it. As the creature wriggled on the floor he then put several more shots into it before shooting it in the yellow crystal on its head, "Is it dead?" Ortz asked the Shadow as he picked up the creature by its tail.
"Possibly, but they have a habit of auto resurrection," He chuckled as Ortz threw the creature on the floor, "I'm joking my boy."
"So what is the liquid then?" Ortz then asked.
"Mer al fyat," the Shadow said simply.
"Meaning?" Ortz shot back quickly.
"Water of life, in the ancient tongue," Panacea told him as she took the canteen from the Shadow, "drink it," She ordered as she unscrewed the lid and passed him the canteen.
"It won't kill me will it?" He then asked as he looked into the opening at the top of the canteen.
"It will only kill ten percent of cases and merely cause excruciating pain resulting in death in the other ninety," Panacea told Ortz as he swirled the liquid around the canteen.
"What?" He exclaimed as his head shot up and looked at Panacea's laughing face.
"Of course I was talking utter crap, so drink you baby," She told him sounding bemused but as he was about to take a gulp from the canteen he could only think about how much that phrase made her sound like her mother. He only paused for a second and then gulped the green liquid like it was a drink of water. After he wiped his lips the Shadow grabbed his arm and pulled up his shirt.
"You see that girl?" The Shadow asked Panacea as she looked at the wound on Ortz's chest.
"Amazing, pure eco," She whispered to herself.
"Eco?" Ortz asked as he felt under his shirt and felt no pain, "How? My rib was cracked and I was split open."
"Well this liquid has a miraculous ability to heal the sick without penalty," The shadow told him, "we know of this liquid as Eco, the ancient called it Mer Al Fyat."
"You keep talking about the ancients, who are the ancients?" Ortz asked as he placed the empty canteen on the table.
"A race that came even before the precursors, they were alive in the time before the three moons, our planets name szeretetreméltó szélhámos, the lovable rogue in the ancient tongue, this word was passed unto us in their last text which the precursors guarded closely until the metal heads wiped them from the face of the planet," The Shadow told Ortz as he walked over to Ortz clutching onto a small fragment of paper, it looked old and weathered like it had been around a while.
"How come this is all new?" Ortz asked as he looked at the scrap of paper, it was blank just old and yellowed.
"This paper seems like it has nothing on it but to those who know how to access its power," The Shadow said as he took the last drip out of the canteen and smothered the piece of paper with the droplet, slowly black writing faded onto the piece of paper, followed by images of creature unbeknown to the world.
"What does this all mean?" Ortz asked as a knock rang out on the door.
"That is not for me to tell you," The Shadow simply said as he opened the door.
The tight blue trousers of Torn stepped into the room and he looked straight at Ortz, "You?" he questioned, "What are you doing here?" he then asked.
"I summoned him," The Shadow rlied in Ortz's place sharply.
"As you wished," Torn said as he walked further into the room, "I have information that the guard have doubled their patrols in the last few days, I want to know why?" He asked the Shadow expecting an answer.
"You two go to Krew he will know, he has his hands in the pot of the Baron," The Shadow told Panacea and Ortz, they simply nodded and left the two men in peace.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter it shouldn't be too long until I get to update again but until then you can feel free to post a review and tell me what you thought and how I could be improve it. Until next time …..PEACE!
