Day 26

Nothing much was happening when I got out of bed; I was checking my e-mail on my computer and it appeared to be empty. Thank God, no spam!

I was going into the city stadium for some time with Keira until I heard my guardian's voice along the way to the garage

"Well, if it isn't the Dark Eco Freak!" he said evilly from distance. Those last three hateful words got me a signal to hide behind a wall and peer around the garage area. All I saw was my guardian glaring at Jak closely.

"Where's Keira?" I heard Jak ask without hesitation. He must be surprised that he's facing his arch nemesis again. Or was Erol stalking him more often now?

"Don't worry," Erol answered with intimidation. "I'm keeping a good eye on her." As I kept on peering around and taking over whenever they set eyes on me, I was able to depict the scene before me. Jak was just standing where he was while Erol was circling around him slowly as he spoke. "You're the talk of the town, Jak. You give them hope. How pathetic! I would've enjoyed killing you in prison. But now, it will be so much fun, to take you on in the entire racetrack." He now had his back on Jak and I took cover before I got caught in his sight. "I can hear the crowd going wild now; as everyone sees their hope… DIE."

I just couldn't believe my eyes or ears. First he threatened me into playing a song I didn't want to practise on, let alone perform, and now he's threatening Jak into giving up. He was right; Erol IS an asshole, and to think that he cared for me since my early childhood years!

On the side of the scene, I peeked out to see Keira coming in the garage with an old man with yellow-green coloured skin, spectacles with the left lens bigger than the right, wore high wooden sandals and a log on his head (Daxter did mention about a man being described with something like that a few days ago) and was carrying a walking stick almost twice his height.
"It's good to have you back Daddy," I heard Keira say.

"Yes. It's good to be free again," the elderly man replied slowly and calmly. My guess is that he must have been Samos, Green Eco Sage and Keira's father, and of course in Daxter's description, a cranky old lunatic.

Turning back to where the interrogation took place, both Jak and Erol looked at Keira and Samos, having Erol talk again to Jak closely. "You know, Keira loves a winner. Someday she'll be my mechanic!"

"Stay away from her," Jak warned.

Erol just left with an evil laugh. I'm not quite sure if the others heard them, but I can easily tell that I did, and as soon as I got the chance, I went up to my guardian to find out what he was really on about when we both got outside.

"What was that?" I asked in annoyance before he turned to face me.

"What was what, dear?" he responded innocently.

I got angry at him and scolded at him, "Don't you give me that tone! I saw you back in the garage taunting that guy in blue and white! What were you doing, planning to kill him?"

"He was just going too fast on a young girl and,"—I saw a drop of sweat come down his forehead as he raised his hands halfway up—"I was just…giving him some good advice."

"Are you outta your freaking mind? You were getting him to sign a death warrant! Jesus you've become homicidal, haven't you? You're to stay away from that guy from now on!" I wasn't really sure how loud I was shouting but I could feel my blood boiling with anger as he was looking and talking like he'd done nothing wrong.

"But, dear—"

"Don't sweet-talk me!"—I took a deep breath before I could let anything else to say from my mouth and began to speak more in a neutral tone—"I'm not truly your daughter; you should know that already. Think of this as advice: stop hunting down people for fun before you become a victim yourself and start repenting for your actions, especially the part where you were making that Jak guy into a tool on the D.W.P."

My guardian's eyes became very wide.

"That's right—I know!" I stormed off back to the garage, leaving him stricken with awe, and saw Jak passing me with a worried face. I stopped to whisper to him, "I'll get him. Don't worry about it."

Next I saw Daxter padding his way to the opposite gate where the racing participants go to hop on their zoomers and race.

By the time I was back, I saw Keira looking down at the metallic floor. Samos was busy looking at the books piled on a low shelf near the supplies stacked on higher shelves along the wall. I heard Keira talking to herself, "What has happened to him? It's like he's a completely different person now."

"Who are you talking about?" I asked her in wonder.

"Jak. He's changed."

I still got confused as to what she meant. "Well, what was he like before he…changed?"
She looked up at me and answered, "Well, back at home he used to be quiet and silent—he was originally mute at the time—plus he'd do what he's told with no complaints." She wondered for anything she hadn't said yet. "Oh! Usually, whenever he's taking a break from studying, he liked to go to Sentinel Beach and just hang out, and whenever he looked at me while I was at our workshop, he had the most beautiful blue eyes in the world, thought to be as blue as the ocean." Keira sighed, but then changed into a concerned expression. "But I guess that's all over now. He's changed; he can talk, he's aggressive and…he can somehow transform whenever he got angry."

"Those are just some things that he's recently experienced," I assured her. "Don't think that the old him has died or anything. You're just seeing something that you've missed out on before."

"Well, I have missed him for over two years, until two weeks ago. I would like to find out what has happened to him all this time."

"Trust me—you don't," I exaggerated.

"Why not?"

"…It's scary." It truly was, even when I experienced a fraction of what he went through when I got exposed to that stuff.

"How scary?"

Man, she was very curious. I thought for a moment to see how I could explain this to her. But if I told her the whole story—or at least a synopsis of it—I couldn't get her worried in any possible way; that would put Jak into paranoia. "Let's assume that I ended up eavesdropping and wished that I hadn't known anything in the first place."

Keira now became even more curious than from before. "OK, I get the hint. I'll just ask Jak myself." And after she finished talking, she was going up to a small TV hanging up on the wall that viewed the racecourse.

Now I wish I hadn't said anything at all today. But I guess Daxter can explain it a little better than me. Keira would at least understand this from him, especially when he's an ottsel—among all animals existing.

Speaking of which, didn't he go to the Class 2 Race all by himself?

I really hope he doesn't crash.

Sometime after the race…
I was back in the garage after I went shopping for my new outfit. I saw Keira and Tess together with a large silver trophy on a stand beside them.

"Hey, girls!" I greeted them. "Where are Jak and Daxter?"

"You just missed them," Tess answered.

Keira was moving towards the curtain, and just disappeared as she pulled it to the side, covering herself. "If anyone needs me, I'll be here for…the rest of the week." She still sounded a bit depressed.

Tess and I were walking out of the garage together. She said to me, "Don't worry about her—I think she's upset because her boyfriend is avoiding her too much."

"He's just so busy that he doesn't have much time to spend with here," I reconsidered. "I wouldn't say that he was avoiding Keira, though."

Tess suddenly changed the whole subject. "You know, I never got to get to know you last week! Tell me; what's your name?"

The question went so fast my mind felt like it was running around in circles and getting nowhere.

"Err, Vaia. You're Tess, aren't you?"

"Yes, that's right! So what do you like to do for fun?"

"For fun? Well, I play the guitar so I like to listen to some music, and I don't know much about people and what they wear but I do some shopping every once in a while."

"Cool! And do you have any friends other than Jak, Daxter, Keira and me?"

"Not really. I didn't have many friends back when I was young. I was mostly home-schooled, plus I didn't fit in very well with other elves here."

"You sure you didn't have friends back when you were younger?"

"Hmm, not sure. I have very little memories about my past, and my guardian usually was the one to tell me of what happened when I was really young."

"Who is your guardian?"

"You don't want to know."

"Oh, but I do! Please, tell me!"

I sighed and but said in regret, "Erol." And after that, silence fell down for a few seconds. I could already tell that Tess became speechless and shocked at the same time.

"Oh..." She later got out of her jean-shorts pocket a piece of paper that had numbers written on it and gave it to me. "Call me!" she said cheerfully again. "Maybe we could talk some more."

I accepted the paper. "Thanks. I may not be able to talk to anyone though—I'm rather busy—but I'll give you a call whenever I get the chance to; I promise."

"Great! See ya!" She left on her way down the long and expansive stairs from the stadium past some poster advertisements.

When Tess had gone, I had a closer look at the posters she passed and I could already tell what it viewed. My ex-guardian's face was on them, and they were announcing the Class 1 Championship Race.

Two words: sucker punch... And it will suck greatly with the amount of punches he will be taking, whether he likes it or not.