Disclaimer: I do not own Jak and Daxter

Chapter Twenty-Six

For Darth Melly

You should know that things aren't always as they seem.

So why still swim in the depths of a tide that's pulling you in?

Makes you think your life has been a waste of time.

Leave the shade and step out into the glare.

Peace of mind awaits you there.

Don't be afraid to stand your ground.

Don't be ashamed of who you are.

Never had the help to find your way,

There's nothing you could do or say.

You had to find your own mistakes to learn.

Just look inside of you,

You've got to find your own way through.

~ Gonna Be Fine, Amy Studt, False Smiles

It was a hot evening. When she left it finally occurred to her as to how hot it was. When she was in the throne room with Damas she felt like she couldn't breathe. She wanted to run away as soon as she told him how afraid she was. She was scared that he might be able to pick out the truth from that and be able to see that she really wasn't that strong at all but she was weak. She was as weak as any woman which had been thrown in his direction to be a potential wife when he was the King of Haven City. She remembered watching them and there was always a moment when he did consider them but only for a moment and she would feel hot and sick in the stomach and now she knew why she felt that way. Even in that thin red dress she felt like the material was sticking to her skin like a second layer so she decided to take a bath. She was pretty sure it was because of being there with him. The sweat from that imagined passion which could have happened if she simply gave himself to him, but if she did that she would be no better than a sacrificial lamb. Calli seemed to anticipate this since when she walked in she was already pouring water into the tub and Aella smiled gratefully. She was beginning to take off her dress but then she heard Calli make a noise and she glanced up.

"Do you want me to leave?"

Aella smiled and shook her head. She was beginning to get used to the fact that Calli was so used to nakedness. From the life she had led it shouldn't have been that surprising to her though it was probably because she had never been intimate with another human being let alone having a close friend who had seen her somewhat naked. She knew her mother had a friend she used to go out with on those nights when she would spend most of her wages on drinking rather than the rent and she would sit on her bed while her mother went through outfit after outfit until she found the right one. She would watch her intently even when she was more or less naked with her legs dangling out the side of the bed almost as if she was studying every curve and line on her body. The memory of those nights made Aella shiver with someone which she was always uncertain of until she met Damas. It was then she would retreat to nights when she would imagine his every curve, muscle and joint, like an imaginary hand hovering over his imaginary body. She gulped and tried to control her emotions as she slipped out of her dress and turned around to step into the warm bath. She glanced at Calli and smiled nervously.

"I don't know why I'm so...I mean you've given me a bath before..." She said shaking her head.

Calli waved her hand. "It's fine. I can leave if you want."

"No." She said a little forcibly. "I'd like your company."

Calli smiled gratefully and knelt beside her and brushed her fingers against the surface of the water. She sat there for a while doing this as Aella watched her. It was the look in her eyes as she did this, she was completely fixated with the concept of water. There was something almost childlike in the girls expression it was like she had never seen water before. There was something innocent about the way that she looked at it, it was almost adorable. Aella would never have thought that she would appreciate such company. A giggle escaped from her lips and Calli looked up as sharply as a startled deer and started at her for a moment and slowly a small smile spread across her lips and she turned back to the water. She lifted her hand and wriggled her fingers as droplets of water rained down on the surface and Aella tilted her head. It very rarely rained in Haven City but whenever it did Aella would run out in the streets when she knew everyone else was asleep or her mother was gone and she would spin under the raining skies. She found it strange really how one could be so close to another without having it to go any further when really it was going beyond the norm anyway. She supposed she had never been told what was right or wrong when she was growing up. She had to figure all of that out for herself.

"Is it too warm?"

Aella shook her head. "No. Calli...I wanted to apologise about when before I left. I talked to cruelly and I shouldn't have done."

Calli shrugged her shoulders. "It's fine. I'm used to worser tempers."

Aella shook her head. "That life is long behind you, Calli. I hope you know that. I'll threaten the King with his life if he dares to send you back to that life."

Calli smiled. "Thereis no need for such actions, my lady."

"Aella." She corrected. "You must call me Aella...You see I have never really had a friend. Someone who I feel knows how I have felt...or had a life almost like the one I have had..."

Calli smiled sweetly and nodded. "I would like that very much."

"Did you have many friends growing up?"

Calli shrugged her shoulders as she washed her back. "Not very many. Only when I was a very young girl. Then when I was sold to the owner of the brothel...Well I had to contend with the company of the other whores and even their company was anything to desire. You could never really trust anyone in that life other than yourself."

Aella nodded and leaned back and relaxed in the water for a moment. "That is why I like you, Calli. You are a survivor. Like me."

"The King told me that you had a hard childhood. A mother who never cared much for you and that you never knew your father."

Aella's eyes were closed but she raised an eyebrow. "The King has told me an awful lot about me."

"I think he intended for me to be your serving lady before he even had the chance to snatch you away from the desert."

Aella grinned. "Sounds like something he would do..."

Calli began to massage her wrists and Aella felt herself sink further into the warm waters enclosing around her like a warm blanket.

"Where are you going?" She heard Calli ask, her voice was becoming a little more distant than it was before and Aella smirked.

"Make sure I don't drown..."

She sank into the white light which surrounded her and she saw only shadows, distant shadows or those no bigger, no smaller than a child's shadow looming near her and knew that it was them.

Yes, child.

I just felt like we hadn't spoken in a while.

We see that you've finally gone back on the path which we set for you.

Aren't you going to thank me?

This is no time for jokes, child. But we are grateful for your efforts.

I would hope so...

We can feel you calling to the future.

Yeah I thought I might make a call there. See if there is anything I need to know.

You know what your destiny is.

I think its about time I embraced my destiny don't you?

Greetings great warrior! Your return brings us great hope. This planet's future is at a critical juncture. The Dark Ones have found your world again, and fate hangs in the balance where the past and the future collide.

You will need all the power you can muster to survive this terrible test, great one.

It doesn't matter now. Jak, I need you to come back to the city. We're losing the fight. Veger is drunk on power and he's taken command. He doesn't understand what he's up against. I need you...

So the hero I knew did die in the desert or was it long before that? Don't you remember who you are?

I'm through saving the world.

You never told me that it was more than saving the city...

I suppose there was a part of us which thought that it was better you never knew that part of his destiny...

It was always so abrupt when she came back and almost slipped in the tub if it wasn't for Calli holding her. She glanced at her and nodded.

"Thank you."

She grinned a little. "You're welcome...What did you dream about?"

"Dark times ahead...flickering lights in the darkest nights...All that kind of wise crap. How long was I gone for?"

"About twenty minutes."

She frowned. "It was always seems like I hardly spend any time in there at all."

Calli leaned forward with an intent look on her face. "What happens? When you see the future?"

"It's almost like I go to another place." She began. "A place filled with nothingness...Filled with a bright light. It's...a blank slate which is soon filled by things which you need to either see of hear. It's like you die for a moment and then when you're done you come back. It's like your soul drifts to another plane and then drifts back again like waves on the shore." She added pushing the now cold water in the tub. "I think I best get out."

Calli raised her eyebrows. "Yes...We can't the King's favourite girl dying of a cold."