Alright, so here's my next chapter to The Heart of a Warrior, if the last little bit is kinda messed up, I'm sorry, but I surpassed my hard copy as I was typing and had to wing the last few paragraphs. Yes Karn is back, for all you fans of my little OC he is here in this chapter. I've had the idea to make a trilogy out of this, but I'm not all that sure about it, yet.

On a side note, not that he's actually in this chapter, Blade will now be reffered to as RIPP, this is because it's too difficult for me to remember to call him Blade. Most likely this is remaining from "A Family Ripped and Torn" (Sweet Mar, I must learn to come up with better titles) where he is called by his real name.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter.

Karn and Blade/Ripp are all that I own, everybody and everything else is copyright to Naughty Dog, so if anyone is looking for a lawsuit go elsewhere.


Two days passed. Jak realized that Keira was taking Torn's instructions very seriously, she was always around him, every minute of every day it seemed. He could tell something was bothering her though, she seemed like there was a question she was dying to ask, but was afraid to.

Jak longed to go back to Spargus, he hadn't seen the sun for a day and a half and the constant drizzle made the gloomy days within the confines of Haven's walls even worse. He was staying with Keira in her apartment, seeing as she didn't trust him enough to let him out of her sight while Torn had put him under her charge.

Jak stood at the door leading out to the balcony, watching as rain ran down the windows. It was just a light shower and it had nearly let up; Keira had gone into the kitchen, so without waiting for her, Jak slid open the door and stepped outside. Raindrops slid down his arms, giving Jak a renewed vigor. It felt good to be in the fresh air, invigorating, he knew Keira would probably have a fit seeing him out in the rain, but he didn't care. Jak felt like he was being kept in solitary confinement. He hadn't seen Daxter since the day he'd taken Karn to DeadTown, and he felt strangely alone without the boy following his every move. He leaned against the railing and surveyed the city. Freedom Guards patrolled the streets in their blue armor; citizens on zoomers drove along in an orderly fashion, civilians on foot either ran quickly through the streets with arms shielding their heads, or walked calmly along under umbrellas.

"Jak!" Keira cried; he turned slowly to look at her, "Get in here! You'll catch a cold out there!"

He raised an eyebrow at her, "You're telling the guy who ran around Snowy Mountain in nearly bare feet, a sleeveless top, and shorts, that he's going to get sick from standing out in the drizzle? Don't make me laugh." Then Jak added in teasing voice, "I think that was on the list of things Torn told me I couldn't do."

"Well, I guess a few minutes out here won't kill you." Keira said as she joined Jak out on her balcony. She handed Jak a glass of thick green liquid, "Drink it," she said firmly, "It'll help you recover faster." Jak gulped it down without argument and pulled a face at the unappealing taste. He set the glass down and leaned on the railing once more, this time he was looking at Keira instead of the people of Haven, he could tell she wanted to say something. "Jak?" she asked, and his ocean blue gaze became more concentrated on her. "Back… back in the garage, did you mean what you said? That… that, you loved me?"

Jak's eyes widened in surprise, he nodded saying slowly, "I did." For some reason he felt awkward admitting it now that his life was in no immediate danger, he knew that answer wouldn't satisfy her, so he added "I love you Keira, more than you know."

Suddenly they were a lot closer to each other; both were leaning forward to the other, their eyes were half closed as they prepared to share what they had been denied so many times previously. The gap between their lips was shrinking, an inch away from meeting, they were interrupted yet again.

"Hey!" Daxter cried upon his arrival; Keira shot the orange ottsel a death glare. Jak smiled sheepishly at his best friend. Daxter stood just in the doorway between the balcony and Keira's apartment, he held a canister of what appeared to be eco; the ottsel obviously hadn't been in the apartment for long, his orange fur was wet and stuck up off him at odd angles. It was apparent that he had walked from wherever the origin of his miniature journey had been; mud covered his feet as well as dripped from the cuffs of his blue pants. "I knew you were in rough shape, so I went to get some eco for you. I had to go out to the wasteland for it, don't say I never do anything for you."

"You know I'd never say that Dax." Jak said "Hey, you didn't happen to hear anything about Karn while you were there, did you?" he asked hopefully.

Silence followed Jak's question, Daxter had nothing to say on the subject. For the first time the ottsel was lost for words. It didn't last long, but it was long enough for Jak to know something was wrong. When Daxter did speak again it was as though he hadn't even heard Jak's inquiry. He walked out and held the eco canister to Jak saying, "Uh, here you go."

Jak crouched down to take the eco, but he seized Daxter's arm with one hand. "What happened?" he demanded, Daxter wouldn't meet Jak's eyes. Jak tightened his grip and gave his friend's arm a painful jerk. "Answer me Daxter!" he snarled, an icy edge to hi s voice.

The ottsel strained away from Jak, trying to tug his arm from his friend's grasp. "He… he wasn't doing too well." Daxter finally managed a stuttered reply, and he fell backwards as the grip in his arm was released.

Jak stood up quickly and pain passed suddenly across his face. His hand flew down to his side as he realized too late that he shouldn't have moved that fast. "Whoops," he hissed as he felt a warm liquid begin to seep through the torn stitches in his side.

Keira was beside Jak in an instant. "Should I get Torn?" she asked with the voice of someone who was trying to sound calm and was doing a bad job of it.

Jak shook his head. "Don't bother, I'll be okay." He replied taking his hand from his side to open the eco canister. Light eco flooded into him, flowed through him, purifying him.

A warm voice was heard in his head. "Ah, my strength returns to me, I was beginning to think I'd been forgotten, but you wouldn't do that to me would you Jak?" Light Jak's kind compassionate voice filled Jak's mind. I suppose you need me to heal you a bit, am I right?"

"Yes, I could defiantly use that, thanks." Jak replied mentally.

Keira watched in shock, Daxter had rather expected this, as Jak's head tilted towards the sky, a column of light formed around him and he gently rose a few feet off the floor of the balcony. He changed to a bright glowing blue, his arms were outstretched to both sides and he bobbed slowly up and down for about twenty seconds before landing with a puff of eco sparks as he reverted back to his normal self. Jak's face was momentarily frozen in a look of contentment; he gave his head a little shake. "Well I'm going to the wasteland. Anyone care to come?"

Daxter shook his head, "No thanks, I just got back."

Jak started to leave and he was caught off guard by Keira saying "I'll come with you, Jak. I've only ever seen Spargus once and I wasn't there very long."

Jak paused, unsure of what to do, that invitation had been more directed at Daxter rather then his general present company. He knew Keira would be upset if he told her she couldn't come, but if he chose to let her accompany him he could leave her with Sig or Kleiver while he went to go see Karn. "Okay, come on then." Jak replied, the latter option sounding more appealing.


Jak and Keira dropped Daxter off at the Naughty Ottsel on their way to the airtrain, during the trip Keira asked Jak many questions about his light eco skills; Jak was rather reluctant to answer these and gave her very sparing replies. He so rarely spoke of his eco abilities after the experiments, that'd he'd neglected to mention his gift of being able to channel light eco to anyone, Daxter was the only one who'd known, seeing as he'd been around when Jak got this new power.

Their arrival at Spargus' gates made Jak nervous, he was unsure what to expect when he'd see Karn. Keira knew Jak well enough to tell he was worried and she placed a hand on his shoulder, offering what little support she could.

When they walked though Kleiver's garage Keira couldn't help but want to stop and examine all of the vehicles, that was until Kleiver came along and told her that tinkering around with his delicate cars was best left to the 'big kids' and an anklebiter like her should just run along and play. Jak led Keira away from the garage rather quickly after that, seeing as she was very close to saying things that would get her into Kleiver's bad books. Jak knew that man was not someone to tick off, and didn't want to see Keira get hurt by testing the limits of Kleiver's patience.

Jak took Keira to Sig's throne room and asked her to stay with the wasteland king. She reluctantly agreed. Jak obtained Karn's location from Sig and left.

Jak stood outside Karn's home; he took a deep breath attempting to quell the butterflies in his stomach, and knocked. Cyri opened the door.


"Oh, Jak," she said, surprise prominent in her voice. "I suppose you've come to see Karn." She continued and Jak nodded. "I feel I owe you an apology Jak, I was just so upset over what happened that I never considered it was an accident. If you hadn't gotten him here so quickly, Seem said we would've lost him. Oh, but look at me, I'm just standing here talking and you're waiting to see Karn," Cyri moved aside to grant Jak passage into the household, "Come on, come in."

The warrior stepped inside and Cyri closed the door behind him. "I heard from Dax that Karn wasn't doing too well, am I to assume that's changed?" Jak asked.

Cyri nodded. "Karn was nearly sent into a coma a couple times these past few days, and he had a very high fever, but this morning it finally broke. He's dong much better now. Jak I think you should know, you're the best thing to happen to Karn for a long time. When I see him with you, I know that he's happier than he's been since you failed to get my husband from the sandstorm in time." A look of guilt, mixed with surprise flashed over Jak's face as she said the last bit. "Yes I know it was you who was assigned to go get my husband's team, but Jak I hope that this incident hasn't ruined that bond that you and my son have forged." Cyri pointed to the stairs. "Karn's in his room, it's the first one at the top, I'm not sure what he's doing in there, so you should knock first."

Jak nodded in acknowledgment and ascended the stairs quickly, when he reached the boy's door he knocked softly.

"Come in," was Karn's muffled reply.

Karn was sitting on his bed, his back was to the door, he was looking over his right shoulder to see who it was entering his room. "Oh, it's you." He said dully, seeing Jak. "What do you want?" Karn demanded irritably, "Come to ruin some more of my life have you? Or do you just want to try killing me again?" He turned away from Jak.

Jak sighed; those comments had stung, a lot. "I'm sorry Karn, for everything. There was a lot I should've told you."

"Darn right! You didn't think it was important to tell me that you're a demon?! That when you get mad you turn into a monster?! What other secrets are you keeping from me? What else do you think isn't important enough to tell me?" Karn shouted looking accusingly over his left shoulder, allowing Jak to see clearly for the first time the left side of his face. Four angry red cuts streaked across his cheek. "Just leave me alone!" He cried, "I hate you!"

Jak refused to let Karn get to him. "What other secrets am I keeping? Do you really want to know the answer to that?" Jak asked the boy.

Karn glared at Jak, his grey eyes narrowed, "Yeah, I do!" he snapped.

"Fine, but you won't like this." Jak replied, he thought for a moment before deciding to say the one that directly affected Karn. "I was the one who was assigned to go and save your father and his team from the sandstorm. I'm the reason that your father didn't make it back."

Karn's jaw dropped. The look on his face could only be described as utter betrayal. "No," he said, shaking his head in denial. He became lost for words and a choked sob escaped his lips, tears filled his eyes and began to roll down his cheeks. He turned away from Jak, not wanting his former idol to see him crying. He whimpered in pain as his salty tears got into the cuts on his face. "It was really you? You were actually the driver? You couldn't have gotten to him faster?"

Jak looked sadly at the boy's turned back and when he spoke his voice was pained with the memory of his failure, "I'm the fastest driver in Spargus to date, if I couldn't, there's little chance anyone else could've either. I don't even think Mar himself could've gotten to your father in time."

Karn whipped around completely. "That's not true!" he cried. "Mar was a hero, and they can do anything! Everyone says that Mar rose from the dead last year to destroy the Darkmakers, and a few months before that, he killed the metalhead leader. What would you know about Mar?" Karn demanded.

Jak was struggling to keep calm while Karn underwent these rapid mood swings. "I know a lot more about Mar than you give me credit for." Mentally, Jak was wondering how this conversation had turned to the hero, he didn't mind, it was just odd that it had gone from Karn shouting at him to talking about the founder of Haven City. "I bet I could tell you a couple things about him that you didn't even know."

"Like what?" Karn asked Jak skeptically.

Jak shrugged, "I'll tell you some later." As Jak said this he had an idea. "Hey Karn, you wouldn't be interested in coming out into the wasteland with me, would you? Keira came out here with me and I was kind of planning on taking her around the desert, showing her some interesting points, you could come with us if you wanted."

Karn had a look on his face that asked 'What's in it for me?' and he said, "That sounds interesting, but why would I want to come?"

"We both know lots about Mar; I mean if you're interested, we could tell you loads about him. Besides I think that you and I need to patch things up a bit after this incident, it's your choice though."

Karn was silent for a minute or two, mulling things over in his mind, "Sure, that sounds fun, well; I probably can as long as my mom doesn't mind."

Jak smiled knowing that they had just taken the first step to rebuilding the friendship he had nearly torn apart.


Right, I'll try to keep this shorter than the note up there. I hope this chapter was up to everyones' standards, I think it went pretty well.

If you have any: questions,comments, praises, flames (though I won't pay that much attention to them) or anything else, please send me a reveiw. PLEASE, I NEED THEM!!