I do not own Jak and Daxter. Sorry!
Vacation or War-Endgame
Chapter Twenty Six-Light and Dark
"Great... another name I don't remember."
"You said it was comin' back to you, right Loor?" Daxter tried to cheer Loor up as she huffed over Jak's report about his encounter with Ryan. "And hey, now there's another person we know around. That's good!"
"Yeah, I suppose." She sighed, pushing her scarf back up to her forehead to keep her hair out of her face and sweat out of her eyes. "I'm a little wary of 'old friends' right now though. Pecker finally gave me that message from Onin..."
"Oh yeah?" Jak asked as the three of them moved to take shelter from the sun and heat of the afternoon; it had been a hell of a first day in the city. "Anything important?"
"Expect a foe with a friend's face." She quoted with her fingers, frowning. "As if I didn't have enough to worry about, now I'm gonna be looking at anyone who claims to have known me previously as a possible baddie... I realize that's sorta irrational but if I didn't worry it would kinda defeat the point of a warning... Onin thought it important that I know."
"Yeesh." Daxter shook his head. "That or Pecker is just tryin' to turn you all around. That bird brain has been known to stuff more than a few words into Onin's mouth."
"He seemed pretty damn serious." Loor said with a shrug. "I'll just have to play it safe. Keep aware and all that, try not to go mad with paranoia."
"We'll look out for you too." Jak assured. "We knew pretty much everyone you did, so that warning is sorta for all three of us."
"Then why was it Pecker had to tell me specifically?" She wondered out loud, sighing and shaking her head. "Dammit... too damn hot out here to think properly."
"Well, put your brain on hold." Daxter said while pointing ahead. "We have a paint-faced interception."
Loor sighed, looking ahead to see Daxter was right. In their path, leading a leaper by the reins, was the monk they had seen earlier that day, as well the masked man, her ever-present shadow.
Oh joy...
The one with the mask should die. Lyra hissed. I don't like the way he feels...
Feels? Loor could feel her face getting scrunched up as the three of them went straight for the over-decorated pair. What the hell are you talking about?
A sense... it's cold. Numbing. I don't let you feel it, it would disturb you.
How kind. Loor channeled sarcasm into her thoughts. A little chill would be nice out here.
"You are still here?" The painted monk spoke harshly, an icy hate in her red eyes.
"Where the hell else would we go?" Loor snarled, coming out of her thoughts as if catapulted back into the real world in a manner that was hardly graceful. "Unless you've got a suggestion better than 'go die,' we're kinda stuck."
"Chill, Loor." Daxter suggested. "He ain't worth it."
Loor gave Dax a look, feeling the urge to correct 'he' with 'she', but the truth was she didn't really know one way or the other. She just thought the monk was a 'she' in her own head. Then, rolling her eyes, she turned her gaze back to the person in question. "Alright, whatever. You don't like us, so let's get to the point. Who are you, what do you want?"
"I am Seem." The monk answered with her name. "We monks are sworn to discover and protect the secrets of the precursors."
"Right." Loor turned her gaze to the masked man. "And you?"
"He likes to think he doesn't have a name." Seem spoke before the masked man could, something bitter in the words. "You truly do not need to know, seeing as you will never last out here." She then turned her eyes directly on Jak. "The dark eco crystal from the satellite, I want it before it falls into the wrong hands."
"Too late." Jak snickered at her, smirking at the monk like a smart-ass kid. He was still in a good mood after racing with Kleiver. "Is this how you ask for favors?"
"No, it is how I extend challenges." Seem pulled on the reins of the leaper at her side. "All of my monks are trained riders so leaper mounts can help us travel where others cannot. I'll wager a light crystal against your dark crystal, if you race my monks on their leapers. Win, and they are both yours."
"Word doesn't get around out here, does it?" Daxter grinned.
"Apparently not." Jak chuckled, reaching out and taking the reins. "Show us the starting line, Seem."
Seem turned to the masked man, giving him a nod before turning to lead the trouble twins away. Loor moved to follow, but the masked man stepped in the way.
"What the-?!" She glared up at the man. "We going to do this dance again? I'm not after your mistress, I'm just following my partner."
"Seem only challenged him." He said simply, gesturing a different way. "We will go to the end of the course. We should also talk."
Loor looked to Jak, who was also looking back at her. A second passed and he shrugged at her, moving on with Seem. Sighing, she turned back to the guy. "Only if I get your damn name."
"... Kushik." He answered after a moment's hesitation. "You don't budge on anything, do you?"
"Depends on what it is." She turned to begin walking the way he'd indicated, the road being the one that would lead them out towards the cliffs and ocean. "And excuse me if I don't particularly want to talk to you."
He kept at her side, long strides to catch up followed by shorter ones to match hers. "Oh, I would assume not... it really hates me, doesn't it?"
Loor blinked, skipping a few steps ahead and rounding to stare up at him as a mixture of shock and rage ran through. Lyra's emotions were burning into her; before she'd only been mildly irritated and equally interested. Now she was fully aware and lowering her own safeties in preparation for a possible attack. Loor could feel it; the chill that Lyra spoke of. This man... Kushik he called himself, seemed to carry a cooling cloud. It was like balm to the senses.
Loor, in her own mind, found it pleasing. Soothing. Sadly relaxation is something too easily overtaken by agitation, and Lyra found it abhorrent and most privately... terrifying.
"What the hell are you?!" She snapped at him, her mind spinning between her split perspectives. "How did you-?!"
Kushik held up a hand to her, bowing his head slightly as a signal for calm and silence. "The same way you feel me, I can feel it... eating at your mind and your flesh. Seem is also capable of sensing this, but sees you and your partner as beyond help. Please." He gestured forward again, since she'd forced them to stop when she jumped in front of him.
"Seem is a piece of work." Loor growled, remaining wary. She didn't deny Lyra's presence, glad for the feel of power under her skin. It made her feel dangerous and confident. Either way, she turned and continued down the road. "And so are you. She... the one in me, didn't get this feeling off of Seem, just you."
"Of course." Kushik agreed as if that were an obvious fact, though she didn't see anything obvious about it. "I am... unfortunately unique among the monks. You could see me as an opposite number from you and your partner, but I fear that would be somewhat incorrect as well."
"Opposite...?" She questioned slowly, the road sloping down as they turned slightly and faced out to the ocean on the border of Spargus. The coast was turning red with the coming evening. "I'm not sure I get what you're saying."
"It's not something you need to get." He assured. If she had to guess from his tone, she felt as if he were smiling under that mask. A sad smile, one that had long given up on understanding and recognition. "Either way, I don't mean to interrogate but I did have a few questions for you."
"Questions that required my partner to be otherwise disposed?" She pointed out the fact that he could have spoken her a number of times, the only difference now was that she was alone with him.
"That required my various company to be otherwise disposed." He sighed, mask turning up towards the slowly descending sun. "I live for the service of the monks and the city of Spargus. I don't have many things left that are personal to me, but the things that are personal to me..." He shook his head. "Perhaps I should cut to the chase, but I imagine when I do you will have more questions for me than I will for you."
She huffed slightly as he was talking himself in circles. "Maybe you should plan stuff better before you take someone aside. If you've got something you wanna ask me, then ask."
He went quiet as they approached their final destination; a group of stands near the cliffs along the face of the city that was open to the ocean. The stands, open to the public, were filled with fruit with jugs of fresh water beside. People came and went from this place, helping themselves and walking off with whatever they liked in hand. No one stood by to regulate it, another reminder of the particular atmosphere of cooperation and survival the city carried within it. It would be easy to be greedy, but it seemed like no one cared to. It was a very interesting kind of person that one had to be to live here.
Loor was slowly becoming one of those people. Arriving at these stands she stopped when Kushik did, helping herself to one of the fruits that was familiar to her; it was all the same things that had been given to her and the other novices during training.
"Seem is not far behind us." Kushik said as she chomped away. "I would suggest you keep your hostility to yourself unless you want me to return it in kind."
"And your question?" She pointed out, swallowing and trying to calm herself a little. Her own mind was easy enough; it was Lyra's emotions that kept infecting her.
"I am left to myself after dark, and tend to wander near the stairs to the arena." He allowed himself to shrug now. "I will allow you to choose when you want to find me."
She looked at him, feeling one eyebrow raise slightly in an incredulous expression. "Assuming I'll ever want to talk to you." She said while noting that he was right; over his shoulder she could Seem on the approach, walking calmly to join them where the race would end.
"You're a creature of curiosity, Lauren." His tone became smug just before Seem entered ear-shot and the conversation would have to be over. "I just have to wait for a night where you can't sleep, which I imagine is most of them."
She had to blink at him again.
How did he know my name?!
Slimy thing... Lyra took any fear she could scrape up from Loor's mind and used it as fuel. Sneaking around in shadows, watching and acting, trying to trip us up.
No, no! Loor withdrew into her head as Seem joined the group in silence, content to keep the tense atmosphere as it was. I don't think I've used my real name since... well, since I've woken up. Only Jak uses it when he's talking to me really seriously... what the hell is going on?!
Let me find him in the darkness. Let me kill him.
NO! He knows something, we can't kill him when he might be useful alive- what am I saying?! We can't just kill people because they rub us the wrong way –
Her thoughts tripped as she realized something.
You, he rubs YOU the wrong way. Dammit, I'm not some kinda plaything on strings!
And yet, without me you'd never know the feelings you hold so dear. Lyra seemed to find Loor's resistance both futile and entertaining. You were correct before, it's the two of us. Isn't it more fun when we feel things together? You think faster, speak faster, act more quickly and decisively-
And rashly!
And you don't enjoy it? Loor... little Loor, you wouldn't be thinking of blocking me off again, would you?
There was a threat. It burned her. In that moment, she doubted if she had the strength to wrap Lyra up again. The sickness had sapped her in a way that was intangible in the same way Lyra was. Still, she knew the answer before that, as the question was asked.
You know I won't. I need you. I won't go back to being numb.
Good girl.
Lyra spoke as if Loor were some kind of pet; a dog who had preformed according to her mistress's will and earned approval.
The feeling made her sick.
Give it time, dearest. When you start to think like me all that's left is the pleasure and the rage, and they're both exhilarating. You'll love it, in time.
I don't want to think like you. We form a whole person because we're so different. I have to fight you.
The animal laughed in her head, making her want to clutch her ears in a pointless attempt to block out something that was coming from the inside. Either way, she came back to the sun and sand of Spargus with a sour expression and a headache. In moments her ignored surroundings rushed in; a leaper was mere inches from her and she backed up out of shock as she heard Jak and Daxter first whooping in victory before laughing at her reaction and asking if she was alright. Tripping over herself she let out a brief yelp, catching her balance and putting her arms out to make she had it. "Yikes!"
The situation hit her rather quickly; the boys had won the race with the monks, the other contenders speeding into the area and pulling up to a rough stop behind the dynamic duo. Kushik hadn't moved an inch, and Seem had begrudgingly stepped up to present the boys with their prize. The afternoon had worn on some from when she was last aware, leaving her momentarily confused before she pulled her hands in and stood properly, trying not to be too embarrassed.
"Ha!" Daxter taunted the jockeys behind them. "We kicked your scaly tails!" Then, as a leaper nosed closer in the curiosity that Daxter may have been edible, the ottsel flourished out a tiny fist to bop its nose back and warn it off. "Hey, back off, ya filthy animal!"
Seem, looking unimpressed about the whole event, pulled out a crystal similar to the one that Jak had received from the satellite on the beach. The difference was that this one was white with a rainbow-like shine in the light. Loor felt like smirking; maybe Seem would do her research before placing a winner-take-all bet with something so valuable next time.
"Fine, hero." Seem huffed while handing the crystal up to them, since Jak hadn't dismounted the leaper. "The crystal is yours."
Jak snatched up the crystal, eying it carefully before shaking it. Loor suddenly felt a lot less silly for tripping on air while coming out of her head.
"The two types, light and dark, when combined form great energies." Seem said with a stern tone. "Be careful with them, and when you die, do be kind enough to give them back."
Jak looked down at the little monk with a frown on his face; Seem was making a point of mucking up his victory buzz. "I don't plan on it. Why are you so obsessed with death?"
"Because of that!" Seem snapped, pointing up to the sky. Loor followed suit as the boys looked up, confused and curious. She was beginning to wonder if Seem had a few screws loose.
The object in the sky that Seem indicated was a large star that was bright enough to be visible during the day. Loor had noticed it some time ago; it was like a smaller sun that never moved in the sky, and it had been there since she'd woken without her memories. Jak, on the other hand, seemed to find it interesting and new. She'd take his reaction as the one to trust in this situation.
"The day star approaches, and every day it grows brighter!" Seem's voice had grown deadly serious, foretelling disaster. "This planet's final trial is coming."
"Right." Daxter sounded skeptic. "Cause that's all our day was missing; someone predicting the end of the world. Seriously, it ain't like we've never heard that one before."
Seem shook her head, turning to Kushik and making a motion. In seconds they'd turned their backs on the trouble trio and begun walking away.
"Good riddance." Loor muttered, finally feeling Lyra's aggravation come down a few pegs. A glance around showed that the other monks who had participated in the race had also turned and hoofed it, leaving it as just the three of them again. "What now?"
"Jeez, don't even ask us how the race went!" Daxter hopped to Loor's shoulder as Jak dismounted the leaper, leading it out of the main road before coming back and stretching his arms over his head. "What was with the spaz-attack? Were you spaced out?"
"In a way." She said with a shrug, looking to Jak. "Ain't like the dude in the mask was much for conversation."
"You alright?" Jak asked, his tone asking a question only he knew to ask.
"Good as I can be." She sighed while scratching the back of her head. "What now?" She repeated, eager to move on. Standing still only gave her time to think about how shitty her body felt on various levels.
"We're in the right place to meet up with Ryan." Jak said while checking the sky like one would check a watch. "Might as well hang around for the guy..."
Loor sighed, nodding while resisting the urge to groan out her distaste. Instead she grabbed another piece of fruit off of the stand in the area and went to go sit on the cliffs facing the ocean, happy to get off of her feet.
"You sure you alright, sweetie?" Daxter asked as she ripped into the snack; one of the pink citrus fruits with the thick skin. Once she was into it she split it in half to share with Dax; Jak was grabbing his own before joining them. "You looked pretty freaked when we came across the finish line."
"Yeah, Dax." she assured, kicking her feet over the edge. "I space out sometimes, I guess."
"Well, yeah." The ottsel agreed. "But it used to be you only spaced out right before something ugly was gonna happen. It's got a way of making a guy worry, y'know?"
"No ugly stuff!" She put her hand up to attempt added assurance. "Promise!"
The Author's Corner
Two chapters? In one day? WHAT THE HELL?!
Well, I am on vacation and stuff is just starting to get fun again. That might be what's happening. Maybe.
MEOW!
-Loor