Part Three: Sympathy for the devil
She fell and felt the darkness burning her. Her mouth opened in a silent scream, and the darkness poured in, filling her belly with cold fire. There was a feeling of her skin being striped from her flesh and water solidifying into icicles upon her raw flesh. She tumbled down, heat and life draining from her body until she was alone, small and naked under the eyes of the universe.
Then. Movement. Up. Up. Up. Up away from the pain and the cold. Was this death? Was she dead?
No. A voice spoke in her mind. As silent as the breeze, loud as thunder. Unassuming as the first cloud, as mighty as the thunder. Older than all things, greater than all things in existence come together. You have yet your task to complete.
Light.
Silence.
Pain…
Prism looked up at the sign above the bar in the waterfront. The legend "Naughty Ottsel" winked back at her.
Huh. She sat back on her haunches and raised her right back leg to scratch behind her ear. Probably the only place in town I can get a drink. Oh well, should probably go inside, otherwise another smart arse is going to park on me or something. I wish I was bigger.
The caturtle prodded the door with her nose and it opened with a phisssh. She padded in and looked around, Metal Head trophies glared down at her from every wall with blank, dead eyes. She felt the green fur on her neck stand up, they were really creepy.
Her pointed ears pricked up at the sounds of someone rustling behind the bar. She bound over and leap onto a stool. 'Yo!' She called out. 'How's about some service here?'
'Huh? Who's there?!' A tinny male voice replied. Prism sighed and jumped up onto the bar to find herself nose to nose with the ottsel himself. His fur was burnt orange and velvety with a lemon underbelly and stripes on his arms. On his head was perched a pair of racing goggles and on his hands a pair of brown, fingerless gloves.
'Are you Daxter? The new owner?'
He shifted his weight from one hind leg to another and folded his arms across his chest. 'Yeah, why? Whadda ya want?'
'Duh, this is a bar, ya daft fucker. A drink.'
Daxter looked the blue and green creature up and down. He didn't appreciate being called a 'daft fucker'.
'Really? And how do ya plan to pay for it?'
Prism blinked. She hadn't though that far ahead. 'Umm… with sexual favours..?' She hazarded.
'Piss off!'
'Oh, go on. I havn't had a drink in ages. I havn't gotten laid in ages either.' She added as an afterthough.
'Not my problem, soft shell. Besides, I don't do animals.'
'What the fu-? You are an animal!'
'Not the point you… you… what the hell are you anyway!?'
'I'm a curtle!' Prism snapped.
Daxter pulled a face. 'A what?'
'A curtle!'
'What the hell's one of those, then!?'
Prism grimaced. She hadn't walked across the city just to let this obnoxious fur ball get in her way. She needed beer, there was only so much window cleaner her one and three quarter foot tall body could take. 'Well, I'm not actually a curtle. I'm a cata... catat... cutatle... catle... curtal... ack! I can't pronounce it, okay? I'm a bloody fucking-'
'Caturtle!'
'Yeah, one of those.'
Prism the caturtle suddenly found herself enveloped in a crushing embrace, which wouldn't have been so bad except that she was upside down.
'Oh wow!' Tess gushed. 'I always wanted a pet caturtle when I was a kid!' A look of pure horror crossed Prism's face at the mention of 'pet'. ' What did the precious little thing want?' She asked Daxter.
'Precious?' Prism mouthed.
'A drink.' Daxter told the blond barmaid. 'But there's no way she's getting one since she can't p-' Daxter trailed off. Tess had reached behind the bar, opened a bottle of beer and was now feeding it to the blue shelled creature like she was a baby. Prism was looking confused and oddly satisfied.
Daxter sighed and reached behind the bar, opening himself a bottle.
'Women!'
Half an hour later.
'an', an' then she shays "Funny. It dinna do that larst night!"'
Daxter erupted into raucous laughter, pounding his fists on the table of the booth he and Prism were currently occupying. They were both sprawled over the table, surrounded by bottles, and they were both heartily drunk. Tess was behind the bar, dealing with the steady stream of customers that had started to fill out the area.
'Hey! Heyheyheyheyheyhey…' Daxter waved one paw in the air. 'I dun evan know ya… know ya name… babe… ya know?'
'Me namsh?' Prism asked, her voice rapidly descending into a 'I luv ya, yourra my besht fwien'' tone. 'I gottit 'roun' ma neck, shee?' The caturtle held up something that hung from a string around her neck. Daxter peered at it until it swam into focus.
'Isha… isha lupa glasch? Yurra, yurra name's Glasch?'
'Washa fuck? Na. Itsh a prism, onna, onna 'count of ma namesh being Prism, cos itsh ma name, Prism. Dat's me.'
'Prishm?' Daxter echoed. 'Thatsha pretty name.'
'Imma pretty person.'
'No yer not, yer weird.'
'An yer a fucker.'
'Ya like dat word, dontcha?'
Prism, gave this some though. 'Ish a good, alla pur-push word.'
'So,' Daxter said, changing the subject. 'Howya getting home?'
''Ome?' Prism looked depressed as only a drunk can. 'Baint got no home.'
'Oh.' Daxter considered this, and was suddenly struck with A Thought, the sort of thoughts you only get when your brain's been completely addled by alcohol and are going to regret in the morning. 'Yer can shtay here, wif me.'
Prism looked up. 'Really?'
Daxter nodded enthusiastically. 'Uh-huh.'
Prism gave a sort of lurch forward, and crushed the ottsel to her shell. 'Than' chu! Than' chu so much! No one's eva been dish kind ta me since… well, eva!' She nuzzled his chest. 'Imma, imma not jush shayin thish cos imm dwunsch, but ya der bestestest frien I eva had eva.'
Daxter patted Prism's head happily. It was kinda nice to have someone around who was shorter than him. 'Thin nothing oft tit Prishm… Prishm?' He nudged the female, she's fallen into a drunken stupour.
Daxter waved his arms about untill he caught Tess' eye.
'Umm… lil help?'
There was no heat in the prison cell, no running water, no light apart from what could find it's way down into the cells from the brightly lit corridors outside his door. Now the door was opening, a terrifyingly familiar shape eclipsed the light. He drew himself into a protective ball on the nest of rags he slept on.
'Time to go, boy.'
Two guards roughly grabbed him under the arms and dragged him out, in his weakened state he could not put up much of a fight, but he struggled feebly anyway, it wouldn't achieve much and he should really have tried to save his strength in preparation for the ordeal that was to come, but he did it in defiance, to show they hadn't beaten him. Yet.
'Jak?' Ashelin poked her head around the door of the young Lord's bedchamber, the heavy tapestries fluttered in the breeze that came through the open window. It was the hottest summer she could remember.
The lump under the bed sheets grunted softly. The Governor rolled her eyes and walked over to the bed. 'Jak, get up.'
'…go 'way!'
She prodded the lump, it yelped. 'Up! Now!'
A tussled, greenish blond head emerged at the bottom of the bed. ''M you sup'rior. 'M ordrin you ta lev me 'lone.'
'Nice try, but it won't work.' Ashelin siezed the bed sheets and pulled. 'You and me are on equal ground.'
Jak snatched at the sheets. 'N' shleep! Dinna shleep last ni'th.'
'I. Don't. Care.' Ashelin hissed, as the tug of war continued in earnest. 'You promised you'd get out of bed. We've. Got to. Go and see. The new Forman and technician!' She succeeded in wrenching the sheets from Jak and he muttered angrily. 'You promised.' Jak blinked owlishly at her. 'Oh, for Precursor's sake!' Ashelin pointed in the direction of the bathroom. 'Go have a shower and wake yourself up!'
'M'kay.' Jak stumbled off.
Ashelin sighed deeply and sank down onto the bed. She knew it was hard for Jak to adjust to his new life, and his insomnia wasn't helping things, but ever since the breach of the palace he was acting even more strange. Daxter said Jak hadn't been returning his calls and Kiera was complaining that he was being distant. Kiera had her own set of rooms in the palace, the ruler and his consort (or in Ashelin's grandfather's case, consorts) always had separate rooms, and took turns visiting each other. Indeed, the nobility were a strange breed.
Ashelin looked over at the clothes strewn across the floor. A smile curled on her rouged lips, Jak sure had kicked up a stink with regards to his new clothes. Ashelin had said that a Lord couldn't go around looking like a beggar. Jak had said that he had risen from humble beginnings and that he didn't want to lose touch with his past. And Daxter stole those clothes from a house in the richer part of town, thank you very much. Ashelin had said that they didn't need to wear expensive or extravagant attire, it just did look go going around polite society with a jacket covered in bloodstains. Besides, it was starting to smell. Jak had said, you got a point there, but the new clothes had better be like the old ones otherwise society wouldn't be polite for much longer.
So now it was the same pair of brown boots as before, only they'd had most of the grime and the occasional blood stain cleaned off them, white trousers and a new blue jacket with an important difference, attached to each shoulder was the symbol of the house of Mar, a sign of Jak's recently discovered heritage.
He'd been extremely stubborn about the chest ring.
Ashelin picked up the discarded clothing and laid them out on the bed, the new engineers wouldn't care what Jak was wearing and her time in the Krimzon Guard had taught her it was not a good idea to go rummaging around the lockers of young men, the slightly wrinkled clothes would do, at least they didn't smell, much.
Her sharp green eyes shot towards the door of the bathroom. Was it embarrassment? That Jak had been found bound up in his own throne room at seven o'clock in the morning when the guard changed and the bodies had been discovered. Perhaps it was guilt, for letting the maniac responsible escape.
Ashelin shook her head, she'd only known Jak for a short time, so she really had no idea what went on in his head. From the way Kiera, Daxter, and Samos talked, he'd been a sweet, shy, heroic kid. The sort of guy in fairy tales who came and rescued the princess. If that had been true, what had her father done to him, to make him change so? Whenever anyone, even Daxter, tried to talk to broach the subject of his imprisonment he clamed up and became snappish.
Jak emerged from the bathroom, wearing only a towel wrapped round his waist. He stopped and blinked at her, as is he was trying to remember who she was. The governor smirked, enjoying the view of well honed muscles and faded battle scars, the words dripping wet sex god came to mind and she felt a flash of jealousy at Kiera, but then she remembered with whom she had showers with. There was no one else in the world quite like Torn.
'I'll wait outside while you get changed.' She told him. 'But hurry up, we've got to be there in half an hour.'
Jak nodded, ''Kay.'
Ashelin walked into the PowerStation, and no one was there. Ashelin huffed her annoyance, this was not her day, he'd better still be around.
Jak walked in to see Ashelin standing in the centre of the thunderbolt symbol of the floor.
Jak looked around the PowerStation, it's was pretty much the same as when Vin and run it. Same big black globe with the little blue lights like dancing faeries spinning in mid-air just above Ashelin's head. Same bright blue screens stretching from ceiling to floor above the brightly lit control panels, white letters and numbers that meant nothing to Jak chased each other across the LED surfaces. Behind the panels those strange, flying saucer like things span on vertical axis, blue energy crackling off them like lightning, earthing themselves in nearby pipes, and, to the far right, the warp gate hummed happily to itself. Jak felt a stab of pain in his chest as he though about the paranoid scientist, Vin had been an okay guy, no one deserved that.
'Hello?' Ashelin called out.
'Hellooooooooo!' A high pitched female voice chorused. Ashelin jumped and look around her.
'Iris? Is that you?'
'Well who else is it likely to be!' The voice replied.
'Where are you?' Ashelin questioned, scanning the room to try and identify where the voice was coming from.
'Don't worry, I'll be with you in two ticks of a wumpbee's tail!'
Was… Was Iris' voice coming from inside one of the control panels?
Suddenly the PowerStation was plunged into darkness as all of the lights flickered off and their was a descending note.
'oh bugger.' The disembodied voice said quietly.
Ashelin, who had know Iris a good many years, knew what that signified. She grabbed Jak and dived behind a barricade.
KAAA-PHWOOOM!
The control panel to the left of the warp gate exploded in blue light and spat out a young woman with dark, burnished red hair held back in a messy bun, pinstripe flares, sandals and half moon glasses. She went flying across the room, landed in the dead centre, and slid on her front the rest of the way, until she came to a halt by crashing into a wall.
She waved one had in the air, and raw blue eco energy crackled along it. 'It's okay! No one panic! I know almost exactly what I did wrong!' The light's flickered back on.
She scrambled to her feet and brushed herself off. 'Ahh, well, back to the drawing board.' She stuck out her bottom lip and blew her long fringe out of her bright blue eyes. 'Hey there, Ash. Who's the cutie?'
'The "cutie" is Jak, the new ruler of Haven.' Jak, this is Iris, the new technician at the PowerStation.' Ashelin said miserably. Iris beamed and bounded closer to the pair. 'She's responsible for the Eco Grid, Precursor's save us.'
'Hey! I resent that remark, just because I'm a bit scatty doesn't mean that I'm not reliable!' Iris said. She held out her hand and shook Jak's vigorously. 'Pleased to meet ya.'
'Likewise.' Jak replied, looking a little nonplussed. 'Are you the new Foreman-woman as well?' His shoulder was starting to hurt.
'Who me? Naw. I would know the first thing about those huge drill thingies. You'll want Diego for that.'
'Where is Diego anyway?' Ashelin asked. 'He promised he'd be here.'
Iris released Jak's hand and jerked her head skyward. 'Crawling in the rafters somewhere.'
Ashelin looked up and saw an open hatch in the ceiling, a cascade of wires were hanging out of it, they were twitching slightly. The Governor cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled at the hatch.
'Diego!? It's Ashelin!'
'Don't bother.' Iris said. 'He probably can't hear you. I'll get him.'
The technician went over to a small cupboard and began to rummage inside, snapping her fingers and muttering.
'Where is it? Where did I put it? I know it's here somewhere. Ah, there we go.' She produced a megaphone and turned it on.
'Diego!' She yelled, causing Jak and Ashelin to jump and then cover their ears. 'Get your arse back down here now, we've got guest's who are important, and not tax inspectors!'
The wires stopped moving.
'Who?' A young male voice called down. 'And turn that bloody thing off!'
'Ash- sorry - Ashelin! She's brought the new Lord to meet us, remember the memo we got yesterday!?'
There was a pause. 'Bloody towers. I completely forgot. Sorry, I'll be right down.'
From the hatch came the sounds of someone shuffling along a small enclosed space, then an oddly metallic screech, followed by a curse and a whack.
'Diego?' Ashelin looked a little worried. 'You okay?'
'Don't worry,' Iris said comfortingly 'He's fine, it's just we've still got some Metal Heads in the system, nothing to worry about.'
The wires shuddered a little. 'Look out below!' There was a loud thump and something dropped out of the hatch and landed between Jak and Ashelin. Diego rose to his feet and smiled a little nervously. He was approximately the same age as Jak, slightly taller and broader shouldered. He was dressed in a pair of new, light blue overalls, now covered in oil stains, on the left chest pocked was a darker blue lightning bolt. Under the overalls he had on a white t-shirt, also stained with grease, as was the white scarf he had tied around his neck. However, Jak found his attention being drawn to Diego's face.
Diego ran his gloved fingers through his short brown hair, the oil causing it to spike up. 'Hallo, you must be Lord Jak.' He said the his guest, he had a cheerful voice with an odd drawl to it that suggested to the listener expensive education. 'I would shake your hand but,' the Forman held up his hands and wriggled the fingers, 'dirty hands.'
Jak continued to stare (rudely) at the left side of Diego's face. Ashelin glowered and nudged him.
'Jak!' She hissed.
'How rude. I would have though a Lord had better manners.' Iris interjected.
Diego's cheerful demeanour deflated somewhat. 'Urr…'
Jak blushed suddenly and looked down at the ground. 'Sorry.'
Diego smiled again, softly. 'It's alright, you're not the first and I doubt you'll be the last.' He reached up to touch the ugly, jagged end of his left ear, half of it had been cut off. 'Though generally it's small children.'
'And the tattoo, it's… kinda familiar…'
'Well it would be.' Iris put in. 'Diego here started out as a slave.'
'A slave?' Jak echoed.
'It's wasn't just the Lurkers who were forced into labour.' Diego said. 'I was a captured and forced to work in the slave pits until I was thirteen. A certain captain of the Krimzon Guard noticed I had a gift for mechanics and he needed a mechanic for his newly formed racing team. Since it was either this, ' Diego pointed to the tattoo over his left eye, 'or spending the rest of my life in the mines, I chose the race garage.'
'Erol? You were Erol's mechanic?'
Diego nodded grimly. 'More's the pity, this told everyone that I was his property, and that I was valuable. It's common practice to do that to your own person slaves in the KG, the old KG I mean.' He added, looking at Ashelin. 'So if I tried to escape the guards were only to shoot to wound.'
'The KG had their own slaves?' Jak asked. Ashelin looked slightly embarrassed.
'Only the high ranking officers, Torn and I never indulged.'
Diego nodded and looked around the control room happily. 'But now look at me, it turned out alright in the end. I'm free, I've got a good job, and I help people by giving them power so they can live in comfort.' Diego looked at Jak and his deep brown eyes glowed from pride. 'So I guess it all worked out in the end. And I heard you're the one who took out Erol, so I owe you my thanks, my Lord.' Diego inclined his head, Jak did the same and smiled.
'You're welcome.'
Jak found himself both warming to Diego and Iris, and slightly jealous of them. Both the ex-slave and the eccentric treated Jak as their equal, not superior. It was nice to find some people who treated him just like he was anyone, not a Lord, not a saviour, just a guy.
Diego studied the young Lord carefully without seeming to. It was a technique he had mastered when working for Erol. Obviously a warrior, from the way he stood, his muscles were lose, ready to tense in the moment of danger, so that he would remain supple and swift. There was an intensity in his eyes and his senses were on constant alert, on the look out for anything out of the ordinary. He was from base background, Diego could tell from the expression that crossed Jak's face when he called him 'Lord', Jak really had no idea what he was letting himself in for with this new status. A shotgun coronation Diego thought to himself the people need a ruler, they want him, get it over and done with before he has a chance to say no. There will be anarchy if government changes to quickly, at least this absolute ruler has a kind heart.
Iris' knowing eyes looked over at Ashelin, then to Diego. Her slightly manic exterior masked a diamond edged intellect, and she was good at reading people. She clapped one hand on Jak's back. 'Hey, I was a sorta slave myself ya know? I was kept locked up in the control room of the place and had to make sure everything was running. At the same time I was also working for the Underground, I was their inside informer. Let me tell ya 'bout it, I used to cause havoc! Like this one time, Erol had just won a race and came back dead drunk, so me and some new KG recruits decided to play a prank on him and we got some tar and-'
Ashelin touched Diego's arm. 'Are you sure you're happy?' She asked him quietly which Jak was being regaled by tales of Iris in the Palace.
Diego smiled. 'I said I was.'
'You don't have to do this, you know.' Ashelin said softly. 'I could announce it to the city, a simple DNA test would prove it.'
'No, Ashelin, we've talked about this already. What good would it do? What would be the point? Karka is a just a collection of bricks and mortar, there are only about two hundred survivors left alive. At least here I'm doing something constructive. Besides, you've helped me so much in the past, it's time I helped you.'
'But if it wasn't for my father, and the city, you wouldn't have needed help.' Ashelin said sadly, looking down.
Diego patted her on the arm. 'Don't worry about it Ash, what's happened has happened, we just have to move on-' he stopped as Jak let out a snort of laughter, Iris had evidently got to the tale entitled "And this one time I slipped some angel dust into Praxis' morning cup of coffee…" '-and deal with it. You need to get over your dad, Ash, otherwise you'll never be able to move the city forward. Now cheer up and bugger off, I've got a lot of work to be doing, and so do you. IRIS!'
Iris yelped and jumped like a scalded cat. 'Yes? Hello? What?'
'From the way those red lights are flashing on the Stadium monitor I'd take it you cocked up the wiring again?'
'So sue me, I'm not an electrician.'
'Iris, you are an electrician, otherwise you wouldn't have this job.'
'Oh yeah, but I never finished the course.' She defended herself.
'Why?' Jak asked, eyebrows raised.
'Blew up the teaching centre. But I know almost exactly what I did wrong.' Iris adjusted her glasses. 'I have an extremely high I.Q.' She said, as if it was an excuse.
'Just no common sense. And you get distracted by shiny things and flashing lights.'
'I can't help it, I was a bower bird in my previous life.'
'A moth more like.' Diego muttered, and turned back to Ashelin. 'You'd better get going, just remember what I said, and don't worry about me, worry about yourself. You're going to have a rough few days, especially from the aristocracy. I can't see Melva being to happy with the way things are right now.'
'You're right, she's not. I'm dreading meeting with her.'
'You'll be fine, just don't let her get under your skin. Come on, I'll show you out.'
Most of the inhabitants of Haven were outside, wearing their lightest clothes, if Daxter had been up, and not snoring off a hangover with his head on Prism's shell, he probably would have been out in the gardens ogling the sunbathing women, laying out on the grass, oiling their bodies like a turkey being prepared to be roasted. Despite this, one person was wrapped up. A figure crouched in a corner of the industrial section, cold in the shadows of the Palace, the dark blue of it's cloak causing it to almost blend in with the metallic walls. It's eyes were fixed on the door of the PowerStation.
Ashelin and Jak walked out of the door, blinking in the sunlight. Iris bounced after them. 'Hey, great to see you guys, come back anytime alright? Then I won't have to spend all my time with mister poopypants here.'
Diego rolled his eyes as he followed them out. 'Yeah, come back as often as you like, so I won't have to spend all day with miss "I know almost exactly what I did wrong".'
Ashelin swung herself into the driving seat of the Krimzon cruiser and started the engine. 'Don't worry, we won't.'
Jak sat next to her. 'Count on it.'
They took off, Iris and Diego waved them off.
'Now then,' Diego turned to Iris, 'let's go back and sort out whatever mistake you've made before we have some seriously P.O.ed racers wanting to bash our faces in with spare parts.' Iris opened her mouth. 'You dare.' Diego warned, waving a finger under her nose. 'You dare, and I'll have no choice but to tie you down and read you tacky romance novels.'
Iris' eyes bulged. 'NOOOOOOooooooo! Anything, anything but the novels!' She ran back indoors.
Diego sniggered. 'Ooh, I'm so evil sometimes.'
Rox hunched her shoulders and tightened the hood around her face as she watched the young Foreman walk indoors. She had to have made sure, and now she was. He'd changed so much, he was taller, stronger, but it was him. Her golden eyes shut and she uttered a name as a soft sigh of longing.
'Kai…'
'Rrrrawk!' The voice came over Jak's communicator. Ashelin looked over at him and the shared a frown. Jak held the palm sized thing up to his mouth.
'Hello? Pecker?'
'Ahh, so you are up.' The slightly static, overly sarcastic, voice of the Monkaw came over. 'Well, Onin and I have just had some very interesting visitors.'
'So? What's that got to do with me? Who where they?'
'That's the interesting thing, they were Metal Heads… and Precursors.'
