Disclaimer: I do not own Jak and Daxter

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry I know it hasn't been that long since I sent out a chapter but still since this is the first chapter I'm sending out since my first exam I feel like being...talky. I have two down and two to go! WOO! I'm sure some of you can emphasise with all the pressure I haven't been able to eat properly for the whole week and I'm not meaning to sound like an anorexic, angsty teen. It's literally been nerves. This is what happens when someone has a Dad who went to Cambridge and did Medicine when they feel they're struggling to get into Lancaster. (For Cambridge you need 4 A*s and for Lancaster I need ABB. The A being in English Literature). So thank you for supporting me in all this and really I'm doing myself a favour by writing this chapter because I'm just trying to relaaxxxxxxxx right now and this is the only way I can think of going about doing that.

Chapter Twenty-Five

For Mental Verin

King Damas stood over the unconscious Captain as she rested and recovered from the attack staring gravely down at her. She wasn't in good condition when they found her. She had scratches all over her face and bruised across her body. She had broken her bones in a few places and no one knew when she was going to awaken again. It was a miracle she was still breathing it would be too much to hope for her to be awake any time soon but he was going to hope for it anyway. When he looked down at her now she wasn't Captain Auroalis any more. Suddenly she became Aella. He only referred to her by that name when he first met her but that was the only time. What was even stranger is that he was now struggling to even say the name aloud. He felt all the muscles in his tongue go stiff and his jaw felt like it had been broken into a thousand pieces. His chest felt like he had sword stabbed through it whenever he looked down at her. She was a lot worse when he found her. When he walked in the doctor was surprised to see him there. He was even more shocked that the King came to see how his patient was doing. Not many monarchs would come in to see how a Captain's was doing after being heavily injured. Most were more concerned with aristocrats and their mistresses.

However King Damas wasn't like many Kings. The doctor nodded his head to allow him some privacy and began to walk over to the bed after the shaking man was gone. He guessed the doctor was more afraid of him than surprised that he was there to check on Aella. It was such a shock for him to see her like this. He was in such a daze when the search party was sent out, the whole episode was just surreal. Huan, the head Guard ran out the palace gates once all the metalheads were taken out. When Damas realised what had happened he singled handedly went out with them. Huan told him her position from locating her communicator after this he searched through trees which had been ripped out of their roots and rubble in order to retrieve her. When he stood over where she was supposed to be he began to dig through the rock and dirt with his own bare hands. Well after they began to bleed or when his own men tried to pull him away he still continued to dig through the mountain of rumble. The uncontrollable will had taken over him and couldn't be rid of until he found her and knew she was going to be alright. He had never felt like that before. He never felt the need to save another human being otherwise it would tear you apart if you didn't.

Eventually he found something which looked like a part of a body. He was becoming frantic now. No one dared to stop him anymore or even interfere. He called over his shoulder to get a medic which was promptly obeyed. The only thing they could do was obey him without antagonising the King. He began to dig faster until enough had been taken away in order to pick her up. It was quite a spectacle to see the King carrying the Captain into the palace demanding at the top of his lungs for a doctor to attend on her. He was already rushing over to him and then had to go back up the stairs to where the King decided to put her. They operated on her immediately and instead of making it seem more suspicious he marched into the throne room where all his councillors were waiting. He had never felt so angry before. Aella could've died and to save hundreds- no thousands of lives which could have potentially been lost. She could've already been out in the battlefield and yet theses councillors were still sitting at home in their comfortable lodgings while the metalheads were literally at their door and they knew it. They were just self-assured by the false presumption that since there was no major attack made by them that one would never come. He roared, screamed at them that this was the signal for them to go to war. They had almost and may have lost one of their best officers and just because of his sisters influence.

The King of Galna had already paid them a visit and he saw him as a fit ally and potential husband for his sister. Everything was now going to go his way now, no councillors were going to be manipulated any more. The game of politics was going to be forfeit. It was war now. He ordered them to prepare for war and that if there were any delays they would be held responsible and would be punished for it would be seen as an act of treason. He stormed out the throne room and headed to the cause of this. He was going to eradicate his enemy but he was also going to deal with the influence which hindered him from preventing this. He knew that it would lead to future issues which decisions and orders during the wartime and knew that there was only one way to admonish his court of it. He then headed to his sisters chamber and strode through without knocking, announcing himself or even acknowledging any of her ladies. They all bowed as he strode past and shook in their gowns knowing that this was a sign of him being in a thunderous mood. He pushed open the doors to find her reading the scripture. Typical. She was truly naïve if she believed she could find any justification for her actions through divinity. She got to her feet and walked over to him swiftly.

"I heard about-"

"Yes. I am sure you heard." He replied curtly. "I'm also sure you heard about the casualties as well."

She smiled. "Brother. I heard that hardly any were lost."

"Ah, yes. Not many. But one was brutally injured. One of my best soldiers. Lady Auroalis." Her eyes widened and looked away. He noticed that she winced at the mention of her name.

"I do regret that brother. I am sorry for you to lose someone so valuable to you." Her voice was shaky but also there was a hint of venom in it along with some insincerity.

"Yes and I hope that she won't be lost to me. Unlike you. I am here to inform you of a marriage I have arranged I doubt you haven't heard about it from the councillors."

She tried to maintain her composure and nodded. "Yes I have heard."

"Good. You can prepare for your departure. As I am about to write to his Majesty, the King of Golna that you are going to be arriving in a few days. You may take two of your ladies, I suppose. You are to be leaving in two days time."

"But brother-"

"No. I demand it. I will need this alliance for the war we have just declared. I am sovereign and you will do as I command." He replied sternly.

"And all over this woman?" She screeched. "She is going against all the duties of a woman! Overreaching herself."

He shook his head. "No, sister. She is not the disgrace. You are. You are born of a warrior princess and you do not even have a drop of it in your blood. I hope that this marriage might stir your ice cold blood if I can't."

~ (***) ~

He opened his eyes after thinking over the events over the past few hours and turned back to Aella. Those chaotic blurry hours now appeared before him so clearly in one transcendent moment. It was laid out before him and he accepted it as it was. Despite the risks, despite the mistakes that he could now admit that he had possibly made but he accepted it because he had to. He knew what was necessary now. Everything which had been lain before him now, right this moment was necessary, as it always had been. It just took him all this time to realise it. She seemed so peaceful as she rested. She looked like a calm, content angel dwelling in divine rest. Nothing like she did when she was conscious, then again she wasn't exactly 'angelic' when she was awake either and he was all the more grateful for it. She always looked so troubled, so restless when she was awake or whenever he saw her walking into the throne room. He would ask her but those sorts of queries were questions which could never be asked. They were things which were beyond each others reach. Her blonde hair was the colour of corn with lime green roots which suddenly seemed so seductive as it was splayed out across the pillow like a halo. It was so beautiful and looked so silky he wanted to reach out and touch it but he restrained himself.

Why would he do such a thing? She was his Captain and advisor not a princess being thrust under his nose. He was a warrior not a man dedicated to pleasure and indulgences. He had never taken a mistress like so many other Kings. Even his father took a mistress sometimes, even though it made him angry when he thought about how he could trade off his mother for a woman so willing to sell her body. He had more dignity than that. She had more dignity than that. It was not his place to think such things. She was something more than that, she would become something more than that. She was more to him than that. She would be remembered throughout the centuries for her courage and fearlessness. She meant more to him than a mere princess who could bear him five sons. Or relieve him of any worries or stresses by residing with her for one night in her bed. Aella was more than that to him. She was there to advise him or give him a second opinion when others would be afraid to. She was there to make all those things which worried him beyond the city wall vanish in the twilight air. The gratefulness he felt for her would go on as the currents would continue to flow and were as vast as the sky.

"Lady Auroalis."

When he was with her the pain of losing his mother had subsided, when she left he dreaded it in case it it ever returned. When he found Aella he knew within a split second that he was going to experience what he did when his mother was dying. Aella had become the one thing which he had long searched for the fill that void which had remained, it was so absolute it was branded in his soul. He would see the ghost of his mother being sent by the dark makers to torment him for his loss and his loneliness. Ever since she left he felt more alone than he ever had done in his life. He just realised it until the moment he first met Aella. He suddenly felt happy again. He didn't feel like he was completely at the mercy of the council anymore. He had someone to stand beside him when things were getting difficult with them. He even considered at times to take up a mistress but soon he found something to distract himself with. He hated it when Aella wasn't there. She made the ghosts disappear. She banished all those demons which tormented him. She was the one which he had been waiting for. He hated it when his mother wasn't there. His mother was always brave, honest and true to who she was. As was Aella.

He couldn't bare to be away from either of them. He had to admit there was no point in wishing to see his mother again since she was long dead for many years now. Aella was more close at hand. There was still the possibility of her surviving this. She had to. She was stronger than this. She could survive anything. She had always been able to return from all the other missions outside the city walls. She had to survive this, otherwise...He didn't know what he would do. He so wanted them to meet but not yet. Not until...Then when he thought of this he could think of no time where he would want her to drift from this world. He could only imagine a unified existence which lasted for an eternity. He couldn't imagine being apart from her. He hated looking down at her angelic face after knowing that it had been brought by pain and hurt. No matter how beautiful the heavenly muses say it would be he hated it because he knew that it could be an omen of where she would next rest her eyes upon and he dreaded to think that she would be venturing there so soon. There would be casualties in a war but this was one which he didn't want. He was willing to trade any other life for hers.

"Captain Auroalis."

He couldn't imagine her not being in the world. The thought of it was too painful. It was like having his heart ripped out. He would turn to his side and find the guide he always needed in his time when he couldn't turn to another. If she was gone all he would do is stare at an open space. He would turn to another and rather choose to walk in the dark blindly. The thought of it killed him. He would be completely devoid of living. He would be the walking dead. Before he read her report, before he met her his life was almost grey. If there was any good way of putting it. There was no way of putting it. There was no other way of putting it. There was no other way of him denying it any more. He fell to his knees and took her hand. He looked at her desperately. Begging her not to drift from this world. Not yet. If she has to go someday, not yet.

"Aella. Aella. Aella."