Disclaimer: I don't own any of the J&D characters. I do own Ezra though.
A/N: Again I apologize about the wait (I'm horrible aren't I?) Anyway please R&R and chapter 5 will be up soon. I'm finished writing it and I'm just editing it right now.
Thanks to Reviewers: Hellmouth2, Snowecat and Jess.
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Torn had gotten the message that Ezra had awoken late that night, and he was surprised to say the least. It had only been two days since Ezra was found, and already he was awake.
He made his way through the hospital ward, passing patients and nurses as he went. Ezra was being kept away from the main section of the hospital to prevent any unauthorized personnel from seeing him. He passed through a set of double doors and turned a corner.
Torn froze dead in his tracks at the sight before him.
One of the guards that he had told the doctor to keep around was lying on the ground in a pool of blood across from Ezra's room, the wall above him cracked.
'What the hell…!' He thought as he slowly approached the room, drawing one of his pistols as he did so. He flattened against the wall as he neared the door, doing his best not to step in the dead guard's blood, and slowly he peered around the corner.
The room was in total disarray. The second guard was slumped against the far wall, his shock rifle shoved through his body. The doctor was laying face down near the door, a syringe buried in his back and an IV tube wrapped around his neck. Hospital equipment lay in pieces all over the room. Blood and claw marks covered the once white walls, floor and ceiling. A bloody curtain hid the bed from view, so Torn couldn't tell if anyone else was in the room, but he had a gut feeling that there was.
Torn entered the room, mentally kicking himself for not calling for backup. Not that it would have been any help from the looks of it, but it would have made him feel better.
"I ask one simple question." Torn practically jumped out of his skin when the voice broke the silence, his heart pounding in his chest as he pressed his back against the wall opposite the bed. "And I can't get a straight answer."
Ezra sat at the head of the bed, his right leg tucked up against his chest and his left hanging over the side. Blood covered his arms up to the elbows and was spattered all over his body. Long fiery strands of hair hung in his face contrasting sharply with his now icy green eyes and dark facial tattoos. He held something shinny in his hands, and it took Torn a moment to realize that it was a scalpel. And that's when Torn remembered Ezra's love of bladed weapons, he couldn't think of a time that Ezra wasn't carrying or playing with a knife of some kind.
A whimper broke through the silence a second time and Torn's eyes were drawn towards the source of the sound. The nurse sat on the floor behind Ezra's leg with his tail coiled around her neck, her eyes wide with fear.
"Ezra," Torn said his mouth dry. "You didn't need to do this to them. I told them not to tell you."
Ezra's eyes narrowed as he spoke. "And why was that?"
"I was trying to avoid what happened here." Torn said glancing about. "It seems I was mistaken."
"No shit." Ezra said flipping the scalpel around between his fingers. "So, are you going to tell me what I want to know, or do you get to join your subordinates?" He asked pointing to the dead guard.
Torn remained silent for a moment as he eyed the guard, his stomach threatening to expel its contents. Ezra watched him, glowering, obviously displeased with the FL Commander's silence, and a low growl grated in the back of his throat. "Speak up Torn, my patience is wearing thin!" Ezra growled, his tail visibly tightening around the young woman's neck causing her to gasp. "Where. Is. My. Brother!?"
Torn swallowed past the lump in his throat, he was treading on thin ice. "He's dead." He barely got the last word out before he was lifted off the floor and pinned to the wall, one of Ezra's bloody hands around his throat, the other relieving him of his gun. The nurse was released in the process and ran from the room, seeking help. "Don't lie to me Torn." Ezra snarled, fangs bared.
"I'm not." Torn gasped as he felt razor sharp talons digging into his neck. "He was killed in a racing accident."
Ezra blinked, his grip on the Commander's throat relaxing. He eyed Torn skeptically. "When?"
Torn silently thanked who ever was watching over him. "A few months ago."
"And what was done with his body?"
"There wasn't a body to recover. He crashed in to a month's supply of eco."
To Torn's surprised Ezra smirked. "No body what-so-ever?"
"No." Torn said thoroughly confused. "Only pieces of his hoverbike and racing mask were recovered."
"So you saw him crash?"
"No." Torn said trying to figure out what Ezra was getting at. "I was told about it after."
"So how do you know that there was no body?"
Torn hesitated, Ezra had a point. He hadn't seen the crash himself and was only going by what Jak and Ashelin told him. But neither of them could have been sure either. Jak had run off right after the race, because the Baron sent the Krimzon Guard after him. And Ashelin didn't find out about it until the day after. And no one else had said anything about it, partly because no one else was asked and the Metal Heads had broken in to the city not long after. So there may have been a slim chance that Erol had survived.
"I don't." Torn finally said.
Ezra chuckled, an eerie chilling sound. Torn was suddenly released and Ezra backed away from him, his chuckle turning into laughter. Torn rubbed his neck as he watched Ezra wander to the other side of the room. "What's so funny?" He asked looking at his hand in disgust, semi-dry blood covered it.
"I'm willing to bet that Erol is very much alive." The hybrid said smirking. "Granted he may not be in the best condition."
Torn looked at him, horrified. "What makes you believe that?"
"Call it…a gut feeling."
There was no sense in arguing the point, especially with Ezra, and Erol wasn't much better now that Torn thought about. Once they had their minds set on something you had a snowball's chance in Hell at trying to change them.
Foot steps echoing down the hallway caught Torn's attention and he looked over his shoulder just as Ashelin and a group of guards reached the door. "Torn, are you ok?" Ashelin asked as she leveled her gun at Ezra, the guards following her example.
"Fine." Torn said still wiping blood from his neck.
"What in the hell happened here!? It looks like a pack of Metal Heads tore it apart."
Ezra snickered. "You're half correct."
"Why did you kill them?"
Ezra frowned slightly. "Hey, they started it. This wouldn't have happened if they had told me what I wanted."
"You could have waited for me." Torn said walking over to Ashelin, at the same time he waved for the guards to lower their guns. They did so reluctantly.
"I spent three fucking years waiting in a rotting prison cell!" The hybrid barked. "I'm a little sick of waiting."
The room fell into silence. The group at the door shifting uncomfortably under Ezra's icy glare.
"So, what do you want?" Ashelin asked, eyeing the hybrid warily. Erol, she could handle, his brother was another story. Especially now.
"Honestly…" He said suddenly becoming calm. "A shower would be nice."
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Author's Rant: Chapter 4 is finally finished yay!! Ending's kinda weird (shrugs) but I decided to end the chapter on a lighter note. Anyway, I should have my scanner up soon (crosses fingers) so you'll be able to see some pics of Ezra and some of my other stuff. Yeah so, R&R please, and I'll update as soon as it can. Oh, I forgot to mention that this story will eventually connect with the Jak 3 story line; I'm just waiting for more game info.
FL: Freedom League Guard. The renamed Krimzon Guard who now wear blue. Just FYI if anyone didn't know.
Notes on Ezra: When I originally created Ezra, I had chosen a far different personality than he has in the story. He was a shy, timid type that had one of those can't-we-all-just-get-along type of mentalities. In the end that didn't work for the story (I didn't want him to be a complete opposite of his brother). So I gave him a sarcastic, antisocial, don't-fuck-with-me kind of mentality, works much better I think.
As stated in the story, Ezra loves bladed weapons (could be considered a fetish) even though he is more than capable of firing a gun, but he thinks there overrated.