Author's note: Thanks to Jaxomruth for pointing out a silly mistake I had done, and now corrected. It was all Daxter's fault, anyway! He called Seem "monkboy"!

And to ChibiSess about the speed of updates; I had most of the story finished when I started posting it, so I'm just updating whenever it gets pushed off page one of the fic-list :) That's something I should do more often, really… ahem. Got a lot of stuff hanging in the air and screaming at me to work on them instead. Shh! And while this is slowly, slowly moving towards its end, the sequel is already in my head. Bad brain! Focus! … nope, it won't.

I'm also relieved to be reinformed that Elda is alright and not Sue-ish.

Oh yes, one more thing (last one, I promise, and then we can get to the story. Or you can just jump ahead, it doesn't matter), don't worry about Veger. As some great villain once said, there are things so much worse than death, after all. You may now cue insane laughter and thunder.

Da-yum, what a long author's note. Well, this is the shortest chapter of them all, so I guess it evens things out. Yup.

Chapter 8, Exhaust

Keira crawled out from her hiding place and forced herself to stand, heavily leaning against the hot Sand Shark. Her tongue was dry as a dead leaf and sweat covered her entire body, but at least she could finally move freely again. She weakly hoped that Jak and Elda could sort out their newborn troubles, but most of her mind was occupied with screaming for water.

She took a few staggering steps towards the city entrance, and flinched when the doors slid apart. However it was only Kleiver and Sig. They must have been waiting close by.

She would have sighed with relief if she had dared to waste that much breath.

"I was startin' to think ye'd died from heatstroke, hotshot," Kleiver said as he lumbered closer, "what took ye so long?"

"Double checking," Keira replied, her voice a lot more hoarse than usual.

"Spying?" Veger asked, trying to look smug, "for shame, girl…"

His weak smirk widened a little as Keira was unable to keep from cringing a little.

"Well," Kleiver said, poking a huge fingertip at the woman's moist forehead, "I'm takin' the Shark for a spin and if it ain't working well ye'll be in deep, kid."

"Doubt it," Keira said, glaring up at him as she pushed his finger aside.

"We'll see…"

And with that, Kleiver headed over to the Shark and hopped inside with surprising grace for his size. With that, I mean that the poor thing did not break apart even when the lug jumped inside it. Veger had begun chewing on his tiny claws, all smugness evaporated.

The engine roared to life, with a much smoother sound than usual. Keira grinned with a sparkle of craftsman's pride against the exhaust. Kleiver even threw her a brief glance before he steered the big vehicle out into the desert.

Sig did not wait even until the gates began to close before he placed a hand on Keira's shoulder. It was hard not to notice the feverish glimmer of her eyes.

"Come on," he said, "I'll get you something to drink."

"Thanks…"

She managed to walk beside him by her own force, but it was a stretch. Thankfully soon after they entered Spargus Sig led her up a stone stair at the side of a building. He knocked a door open and she followed, stopping only when a skeletal chair came into view. It made a dry, groaning sound as she crashed on it.

"Sheez. You almost got fried," Sig said.

A small clay bowl filled with water came into view and Keira eagerly grabbed it, emptying it in a few gulps.

When all the water was gone she lowered the bowl to her lap and loudly sighed with relief.

"I didn't want them to see me…" she finally said, shaking her head.

"Hm."

Sig took the bowl to refill it from the barrel in the corner of the sparsely decorated room. There was really just that woven chair and a stone table. An empty doorway led to a smaller room with a sleeping mat on the floor. Just a place to stay between going from point A to blow stuff apart at point B.

Keira emptied the bowl again, just a little less desperately. It was lucky that it was almost time to get another ration of water, meaning that Sig did not have to worry about sharing. As she took the third bowl, she looked up at him. Her eyes were less glassy now, thankfully.

"I hope I'm not taking up your time?" she said, slightly nervous.

"Eh? Nah."

Sig sat down on the table, crossing his arms.

"Damas just shouted 'take care of things a while' at me before he took off in a cloud o' dust," he said, looking out at the blue sky through the empty window, "I was just within sight. Elda doesn't wanna rule, with her leg it'd just be bad for moral."

Keira looked down at her reflection in the bowl. Yes, these people valued strength above all, of course they could not have a crippled leader.

The woman seen in the water was not strong, either. She closed her eyes for a moment, until Sig started talking again.

"But I guess Jak's our king now," he said, still looking at the sky.

Keira reached out and dipped her fingertip into the bowl. The reflection shattered. She moved her fingertip around to keep the image away.

"Ashelin might accept him as the true heir of Haven city, as well," she said in a low voice.

Looking up, she caught Sig's eye. Together they pondered these pieces of information.

Finally, they both shook their heads.

Not gonna happen. Jak was a soldier. He took orders, he did not give them.

It felt like a relief, in a way.

And yet…

"I… think he's going away," Keira murmured.

"What?"

She stared intently at the water, moving her hand around until the liquid almost spilled over the edge of the bowl.

"Not now, maybe, but at some point… his name is Mar. Is he the Mar who built Haven?"

"Damas named his son after that Mar," Sig said, but he was frowning.

"I understand that. But… remember that the precursors said something about things to do in the past?"

"Huh. That."

He watched her gloomy expression. It seemed to ooze out of her in an invisible cloud, spreading all over the room.

Then suddenly she shook her head and tried to smile a little.

"But we better take care of him until then," she said, "since he's out there beating down everything the rest of us can't deal with."

Raising her hand from the water, she pointed a playfully accusing and wet finger at Sig.

"And you didn't even tell me his mother was around!"

Smiling a bit, Sig pushed away from the table and headed over to the window. He placed his hand on the bottom of the square cut in the wall.

"Elda wasn't gonna accept that our chili pepper was her son just like that, so she told me to shut up about it until she was sure."

"I'm happy for him…"

Keira smiled, dropping her hand to the bowl again as her eyelids began feeling heavy. Now that her need for water had been fulfilled, she could focus on being exhausted.

Noticing this Sig motioned at the bedroom, if one could call it that.

"The next air train won't come in for a few. You should get some rest."

"Mhm… thanks."

Keira slowly drained the bowl and put it on the table. Standing up and walking across the room went better than she had thought. In the doorway she turned around and gave Sig a sleepy smile.

"Don't let Jak find me, okay?" she said.

It was not meant to be too serious.

"You can count on me," Sig said, waving his hand at her.

He turned away as she crashed on the sleeping mat.

In his view, there were still a lot of things to question in her reasoning for not being the one to help Jak. On the other hand, Jak had let Ashelin kiss him, Sig had stood and watched that himself. And if Keira knew about that, which he suspected she did… still, if she cared about Jak she should not just…

Bah. Whatever, it was none of his business, anyway. Even if Jak was like that little brother Sig never had, that was really just another reason to stay far, far away from any relationship business.

He shrugged to himself and returned to watching the street below.