Daxter: Sorry CA isn't hear right now she's trying to kill Torn, for making the sign challenges so hard.

CA: Three orbs away from the Level Select and I can't win anymore!

Ashelin : Maybe we should get on with the story instead of trying to kill Torn . *Pulls out gun*

CA: *gulp* Ok.

Thanks to

Squabbit

Shark

Necralis and Kyren

and Flaming Chocobo

For reviewing.

I don't own a thing except from, Hope Trick Kick and Strife.

The rating has gone up because of something Trick told me that I really didn't want to know about the time in prison (That will come apparent later in the story) and because the swearing is going to go up.

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Chapter Three

Vicky and Hope

Torn had just arrived at the Stratum with Ruth and Strife. Ashelin had to deal with some unauthorised activity at the pumping station. Something had activated the security guns in the water. [1]

Strife jumped up on Torn's shoulder as soon had he saw that Kick and Hope had vanished. He also saw a very sheepish looking Trick trying to tell Ruth something.

Torn was glaring at Strife, he didn't like having an Ottsel perched on his shoulder.

"Torn sir, I would cover your ears if I was you." Strife covered his own ears as he spoke.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LOST HOPE?!" Ruth shouted.

Trick flinched and hid behind Jak. Both Jak and Daxter were also covering his ears.

"Kick is looking for her." Trick said meekly still hiding behind Jak.

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU LOSE HER IN THE FIRST PLACE!!"

Strife had jumped of Ruth's shoulder when she had stared going postal.

"Commander Torn, just stay back until she finished, the won't hurt anyone...except maybe Kick." Strife said jumping off Torn's shoulder.

Strife ran towards Trick and ran up to her shoulder.

"THAT STUPID, WHITE HAIRED, NO BRAIN, MORONIC, IDIOTIC..." Ruth was still shouting.

"Okay what happened?" Strife asked Trick.

"I don't know, she was here when we sat down...I think..."

Suddenly Kick was back. Ruth was so busy ranting that she didn't even notice him.

"I've covered the Stadium Area, Water Slums, the Regular Slums, Dead Town, The Port, The Bizarre, The Farm Lands..."

"Where haven't you checked?" Jak asked, he was getting a headache.

Ruth turned finally noticing Kick.

"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TO CHECK ANYWHERE YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE LOST HER YOU...YOU...ARGH!"

Ruth tried to punch Kick, he ducked. Ruth attacked again, it kept going like that until there was a blue whirlwind surrounding her.

"This time I am SO going to Kick your ass." Ruth was shouting.

A deep blood red light started glowing from the centre of the blue whirlwind

"Whoa cool pyrotechnics." Daxter said. Jak rolled his eyes.

"RUTH! KICK!" Strife shouted. "THAT IS ENOUGH!!!"

Kick ran too where Trick was hiding behind Jak. Ruth held a ball of red energy in her hands, a ball that looked familiar to Jak, but before he could place where he had seen it before it dissipated.

"We know where the girl is." Torn said suddenly a communicator in his hand. "A guard said he's seen her sitting outside the power station.

"So let's..."

A flash of blue and Kick was already gone.

"...Go...god I'm going to kill him one day." Ruth muttered.

Torn had already order a curser to take them to the power station. They found Hope sitting outside the power station. She had picked up a stick somewhere and she was using it to draw something in the dust on the path.

"Hope!" Ruth ran forwards and picked the girl up. "Why did you wander off? Do you have any idea how worried I was!"

Strife who was still on Trick's shoulder rolled his eyes.

"Excitable isn't she?" Daxter said.

Strife sighed. "It's the Red Eco, for some reason the green eco in Hope calms her down."

"Vin?" Jak asked.

Hope snapped her head around and looked at Jak. He was looking at the picture Hope had drawn. Hope wormed her way out of Ruth's grip. She took Trick's hand and Kicks hand and put them together. She then pointed at the picture and herself.

"Vin's your family?" Jak asked.

Hope nodded.

"How did you know that was Vin, it's a terrible likeness." Torn asked looking at the picture himself before turning to Hope. "Hope isn't your real name is it?"

"Look at her." Ruth muttered. "She can't speak how the heck are we to know her real name, we call her Hope and that's good enough for her."

"Why is it important." Jak asked.

"You may have noticed that Vin wasn't the bravest person in the world." Torn said.

"Really?" Daxter asked with a false smile on his face.

"Didn't you ever wonder why he joined the underground?" Torn asked.

"Not really, but now you mention it he didn't seem the type." Jak answered.

"Vin had a older brother. He was in the Krimson Guard with me. We joined the underground together. I left the guard but Vin's brother stayed, as a spy. Until the Baron found out. Killed him and his wife, and everyone believed that their child was killed too."

"That's terrible." Jak said, and putting two and two together he looked down at Hope. "Poor kid."

"But a week later and old friend of Vin's brother told us the child alive. She was in the prison but why was top secret, after that she vanished, as did the old friend. We never heard about the child again." Torn continued. "But Vin was convinced she was still alive, he joined the underground to help oust the Baron and find his niece."

"So that's why you left Hope...you was trying to find your uncle?"

Hope nodded.

"So you real name is Vicky?" Torn asked. "Isn't it."

Hope/Vicky nodded.

Torn knelt down by Hope/Vicky's and put his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, but your uncle is dead."

Hope/Vicky looked up and Torn, she started shaking her head silent tears falling from her eyes, she ran to Ruth and buried herself in the Red Eco Experiment's arms.

An awkward silence had fallen over the group. Save for Strife who whispered something to Trick.

"It's...it's getting late now. I think we should all go to bed for the night." She said.

"I'll take you to your rooms." Torn said motioning for them all to get in the cruiser.

Jak and Daxter watched them go.

"It's been a trough ride for the kid huh?" Daxter said. "And who would have thought Vin was an uncle?"

"We never asked, all we ever did was tease him, unless we wanted something out of him."

"Hey lay off the guilt Jak I done the teasing and if it weren't for us he would have died at the Strip mine." Daxter said. "Besides Teasing him was fun."

Jak tried not to smile.

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Ashelin and four guards had covered the pumping station and found nothing.

"I don't get it something triggered that alarm." Ashelin said. "And the door hasn't been opened since."

"There's another way out of the pumping station Governess." One of the Guards told her. "There are pipes leading down to a valley which leads to the weapons factory."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Ashelin asked jumping back into her Hellcat. "Let's check it out."

When they got to the factory they found the door was open.

"Okay men lets scope it out and be careful we don't know what's in there."

Ashelin and the men went in, but they didn't come out.

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Hope sat in her bed, she couldn't sleep. She knew the others were worried about her, after her crying phase she seemed barely effected by the death of her uncle, which in a way was true.

She didn't morn her uncle because she knew he was with her parents. And the statue where the Experiments had been living for the past eight months had told her that her parents were okay.

That wasn't the only thing it had told her and she wasn't the only one it had spoken to, but everyone had agreed that if someone didn't want to talk about what the Oracle told them they didn't have to.

Hope wanted to go and see the Oracle now but there wasn't one near as far as she knew.

Still she couldn't stay in bed this night. She crawled out of bed and tiptoed past the other rooms. She got a drink of water from the bathroom and glanced at her self in the mirror.

She looked at her curly hair, she had grown it so long for a reason.

It hadn't been totally green when she had escaped the prison.

It had been as white as the day she had been born when they had finished pumping her full of Green Eco.

The roots had turned green when Ruth had first been dragged half dead into her cell.

Her hair was half and half when they escaped the prison. She had grown it long to keep a least some of it white.

And now she managed to get a good look at her self for months. She already knew that the last trace of White had gone from her hair but now in the mirror she saw that her hair was turning a much darker green at the roots and that even some of the skin under the hair was taking on a greenish hue.

Vicky was a dead girl, as dead as her parents and uncle, only Hope remained.

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[1] If you know what I'm talking about here I'm sure you hate them as much as I do. Especially the one's in the water-slums at one point. _ I hate them!

Anyway tell me what you think of this chapter.