Chapter 10, Bonds

As he slammed his heels into its sides, the leaper lizard beneath Jak squeaked in protest but sped up. The rider did not care if the animal was uncomfortable.

Only a few minutes ago he had been relaxing and daring to feel just a little happy for the first time in ages, but now anger clawed his heart. It was the only way he could deal with the choking, trembling feeling of fear deep down.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he tried to be reasonable and know that he was overreacting. Kleiver had no respect for non-fighters, he would gladly blow things out of proportions. But it was Veger, once again Veger who strung Jak's mind like a devilish composer. He who had, would and could if given the slightest chance, take everything away. Again.

Just the fact that he had said anything at all about her, could spell Keira's doom.

"Sig…" Jak hissed, pulling the reins to make the lizard leap over a heap of boxes.

He hardly noticed the obstacles.

Logic still worked somewhat, leading him towards Sig's house first. There was only one place where Keira could have spent time "below that vehicle", and Sig lived close to the town gate.

More people were out by now, and he subconsciously steered the lizard to zigzag between the moving hindrances. His mind was elsewhere, and it was probably lucky that he was riding a sentient being and not a zoomer or buggy. The lizard could after all think practically as well, and it did not like being shot down by angry wastelanders. No sirree, not this lil' creature.

Further down the street and one stair higher up, Sig had been spending the last half hour picking his beloved Peace Maker apart and cleaning it. He was in the process of starting to put it back together again when he suddenly heard a familiar voice calling his name from the street below. It was not a happy voice, either.

"Crap," Sig concluded and stood up.

Throwing a glance at the bedroom, he saw Keira stir. Slowly she lifted her head and turned over, groggily looking at the tall man in the main room.

"Jak…?" she mumbled, hoarsely.

Sig hesitated for a moment, but when Jak roared at him again, the wastelander cursed and dove for the door. He tore it open and marched down the stair, narrowing his eyes at the blond man throwing himself off an exhausted leaper lizard. The poor beast staggered a few steps forwards before crashing in the nearest shadow of the wall. Jak had no such problems.

"Where's Keira?" he snarled, coming to a halt just before the lowest step of the stair.

Was this a good time to take Keira's joke about not wanting to be found seriously? As he looked down at Jak, Sig could really only conclude that the youngster not exactly looked like he was in a proper mood for seeing a lady. It could be heavily questioned whether he was worried beyond reason or royally pissed off. With that manic look in his eyes beneath the crumbled forehead, both options seemed possible.

How could he possibly be stopped, though? Sig doubted that Jak was in the proper mood for listening to reason, either. And stopping him by force, well… there was that "like the little brother I never had" business, plain friendship loyalty, lack of Peace Maker and the fact that people trying to put a stopper to Jak tended to end up making the landscape more colorful.

"I… guess I'm busted again…"

The weak voice came from behind Sig, and he turned around to see Keira stagger down the stair. She stopped three steps down, leaning against the wall while blinking sluggishly.

Not good.

Sig quickly reached for the woman, but before he could even start realizing that he needed to hurry up the stair to even touch her, a radiant flash carried on wings thin as spider web passed above him. He and Keira both blinked as the light shattered in a thousand tiny stars and Jak landed on the stair just beneath the young woman.

"Keira!"

His voice had lost the furious edge, this time sounding more choked than anything. Keira still flinched as his hand flew upwards, but relaxed again when he pressed it against her forehead.

"I'm okay, just sleepy…" she said, still hoarse.

"What are you doing here?" Jak demanded.

She bit her lower lip.

"More water?" Sig asked from below.

He could almost feel the gratefulness popping up inside Keira.

"Y-yes, please," she quickly said.

"Well don't just stand there, then!"

Nodding, Keira backed up and turned around to dive for cover inside Sig's simple home. Before he followed her, Jak threw a suspicious glance over his shoulder at the host. Sig glared back.

Somehow Jak managed to swallow his frustration and headed inside. He found Keira sitting down on the only chair in sight, and noted the small twitch of her fingers as she glanced at the pieces of the Peace Maker sprawled across the table. Had he been in a better mood, that would have made him smile.

She turned to face him as soon as he stepped through the door, and a glimmer of tension sparkled in her tired eyes.

This was the second time in a very short time that he had found her looking like a naughty child caught in the act, and it was quite aggravating. What had she hid from him this time?

But the anger flared up again only momentarily. Keira slumped against the backrest of the chair, exhaust taking all priority from her guilty look. How could one be angry with somebody who looked like that?

No, he had not really been angry, now had he? He had almost expected to find her dead. The problem was that he completely lacked the sense to deal with worry in a civilized manner.

Jak's mental beating himself over his head was interrupted by Sig.

"Hey, move already."

A big hand shoved at Jak's back and he stumbled forwards, making way for the taller elf. Sig grabbed an empty clay bowl from the table and filled it with water from the barrel in the right corner of the room. Silently Jak watched all this, and he held his peace until Keira had taken the bowl and a few deep gulps of water. As she lowered the bowl, he decided that the time had run out.

"Now, what are you doing here?" he repeated.

He saw her jaw clench, and when she looked up her tired eyes had narrowed slightly.

"I was worried about you," she said in a defensive tone.

"What?"

What he really meant was "what does that have to do with almost giving yourself a sunstroke", but with his usual luck with words only that first one made it.

Keira glanced at Sig for support. Knowing that he already was knee-deep in, the wastelander simply decided to go along and help again.

"Your little friend here came over to tell me that you didn't seem to be doing too well," Sig said.

He crossed his arms as Jak turned to him with a frown on his forehead.

"I was thinkin' of talking with ya about my mess-up with you and Damas," he continued and nodded at Keira, "she just got me to do it sooner. Elda wanted you here too, anyway…"

"I didn't even know about Elda," Keira added.

All three of them shared an uncomfortable feeling that this somehow had turned into a miniature trial of some kind. Jak looked between the two defendants, trying to sort out whether he was just confused or irritated.

Why all this secrecy? Why would they have to make things so convoluted all of a sudden? If they cared- no, not they.

"Why didn't you come to me yourself if you were worried?" Jak asked Keira, the frown still stuck on his forehead.

She looked up at him, her fingers turning white against the bowl.

"I never knew Damas," she said.

She had to use all the willpower and morals vested in her to keep from mentioning Ashelin, and could only hope that Jak would not ask about her. Keira knew that she was not that strong even in decency.

"Is that such a disadvantage that you won't even- gah!"

Jak took in a deep breath and pressed a hand against the back of his neck to calm down. As soon as he trusted his voice again, he tried once more.

"Why not, Keira?" he said.

Her fingers nervously drummed against the bowl as she watched Jak.

Sig gave up.

"Tell you what, people," he said, "I'm going out. I'm coming back in two hours. Sort this out by then. See ya."

And with that, he fled the battlefield of emotions. While he did feel naked going out without his Peace Maker, it was a small price to pay to get away from the tense air inside. As he stomped down the street, he decided to find Seem, order her to start praying, and then go buy himself a drink. A strong one.

Not once did Jak look away from Keira's face, even as Sig left and closed the door behind him. Realizing that she had no way out of this, she closed her eyes for a moment and tried to assemble her cracked composure.

"It's like… with the guns I was working on…" she finally said in a low voice.

Jak raised an eyebrow, but forced himself to remain silent. Such a strange thing for him to do, really.

Keira looked up at him, guilt exchanged for frustration in her eyes.

"I want to help you, Jak, I've always wanted to help you!" she said, as forceful as she could considering how tired she was, "it's just that…!"

She paused and looked down at the water and pottery in her lap.

"I can't do anything anymore."

"That's-" Jak started.

But she was so drowsy and her brain did not want to work properly and he was staring at her without the faintest understanding and she was starting to feel ill and everything just came crashing down on her, just like it had done when she tried to ally with Ashelin yesterday.

"When was I last able to help you with anything?" she snarled, the bowl starting to shake as she pressed her unsteady hands against it, "honestly, Jak? Ever since I helped you race for my team and made the Rift Rider, what, what have I added? And even back then I- I was such an idiot…"

She pressed a hand against her eyes, gritting her teeth. The sudden touch of a hand on each of her shoulders made her look up again. Jak more glared than watched her, again. He seemed to always do that with everything nowadays, on the other hand.

"When did you become such a girl?" he asked, repeating the question from the last day.

Busted. Third time in two days. The "little girl" act was always much simpler when she was not so bloody drowsy, and now she had messed it up again.

Oh, this would be a riot. How in the Precursors' names could she possibly make this come out right? And he kept glaring, despite all her efforts to tell herself that he surely did not mean to look that irritated.

"I was- was stupid," she tried to start, "I should've… Erol…"

Her voice cracked up, held back tears of frustration and the thirst teaming up against her. Desperately she raised the bowl and filled her mouth, gulping down small amounts of the liquid to gain a little time. Jak could not wait until she was done.

"That's in the past," he said, squeezing her shoulders, "I'm not mad about that."

Keira tried not to choke on the water, and lowered the bowl again. Blinking furiously against the tears to keep them from coming, she tried to face Jak again.

"But I was! Am!" she said in a harsh whisper, "and then things only got worse in Haven…"

All the attacks from metal heads and the uprising of the Krimzon Death Bots, all the missions away from Keira and Samos, all the attacks he had fought back with Torn, Sig and Ashe- oh hell.

A suspicion began to grow in Jak's mind, and his frown only grew deeper. As Keira remained silent, staring down at her lap in a futile search for words to carry her, he decided to give it a try.

"Ashelin?" he said, his voice as low as hers.

Keira bit down on her lower lip again, nodding.

"I thought she understood you better than I ever could," she whispered, every second word coming out as a hiss, "I thought you needed somebody like that better."

Jak could only stare at her for several moments, his mind in complete chaos. He wanted to shake her and scream that she was stupid, press her against him and assure that she was wrong, demand to know how she could have been such a moron, and he definitely wanted to be at loss of words for her sacrifice. He could have doubted it, suspected that she was just trying to worm herself out of an unwanted relationship by making excuses, but Keira looked up at him with such bitterness that he could not feel even the tiniest grain of distrust.

And as he started to calm down a little and sort out his feelings, the first realization was that the assurance that she had been wrong, could not be spoken honestly. He breathed in deeply and faced her.

"Keira… when we met again in Haven, met properly I mean," he said, trying to keep his voice under control, "after the race, the first thing I did was finding the nearest loudspeaker and listen to Praxis' bullshit for a while."

She watched him blankly. Nodding, he continued:

"I was feeling better, and it didn't work back then. I needed to be pissed to keep moving."

You calmed me down. Even when jealous.

There was a slight sparkle in her eyes now, even if it still could not be called even relieved. At least it was bit by bit getting there.

"It's not- I'm not like that now," Jak said, squeezing her shoulders again, "I don't want to be… rash anymore."

Some strange part of her brain made Keira move the bowl of water to the table, but her hands fell back into her lap even after that.

"I know…" she whispered, "that you kissed Ashelin…"

Jak flinched, but only for a moment. He had hoped that the news had not spread.

"No, she kissed me," he said, shaking his head, "I shouldn't have let her."

"Huh," Keira mumbled, still passively looking up at him, "and all those times we tried to kiss and something got in between…"

A small smile was slowly forming on her lips, however. Not a dreamy one. A real one.

"Dax isn't here," Jak murmured, moving his hands to her back.

Keira reached up and hung her heavy arms around his neck, letting him lift her into standing. And finally, finally nothing stopped them mere inches from touching each other's lips. Even to Keira's dozy mind it was wonderfully sweet, even with the slightly rough taste of teskey remaining in Jak's mouth, even though they both knew that this was unfair to another woman. Everything else but "right now" could wait until later.

She struggled against the mist filling her head, weighing down her eyelids. No, no, no! Not now!

It must have been even more apparent than she already feared it was, because the corners of Jak's eyes crinkled in mild amusement. His lips left hers, and he bent down.

"Hey…!" Keira weakly protested as her feet left the floor.

Jak merely smirked and stepped inside the sleeping room. He put her down on the carpet and seated himself beside her, both leaning their backs against the warm wall. Keira's cheek sunk down onto Jak's shoulder as his arm remained behind her neck.

She could feel his gaze on her face, and told herself that she would only close her eyes for a couple of minutes. But just before she was about to slip into unwanted slumber, Jak's voice momentarily brought her back.

"Just… one more thing before you fall asleep," he said.

The amusement that had been there previously was suddenly gone, and instead he sounded dead serious. Keira's eyes snapped open and she looked up at him, trying to lift her heavy head.

"What?" she mumbled.

His hand squeezed her shoulder, and his head lowered a little.

"There are things I can't risk no matter what, Keira," he said, sighing softly, "you know I'm shock-full of dark eco."

In her state, it took Keira several moments to realize what he meant. As it finally dawned on her, she raised her hand and stroke his cheek. He needed to shave, but that was irrelevant.

"We'll think of something later…" she murmured.

"No. It's too dangerous," Jak insisted, clenching his teeth.

Finally Keira managed to raise her head and give him a sleepy smile.

"You're just saying that because you know I'll take it as a challenge," she said.

"No, I'm serious… hey."

Her head had already fallen back onto his shoulder, and her eyes were firmly closed. Jak sighed again, carefully shaking his head not to disturb her. He leant his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, listening to Keira's soft breathing.

Hmm. How strange. He liked this peacefulness. The near silence completely failed to drive him insane with lack of things to occupy his mind… well, actually the silence was offering. That, and the weight of the closeness to Keira.

This was a good moment.

A couple of hours later Sig and Elda found the pair sleeping just like that, but silently decided to leave them. There would always be another air train, and even if there for some reason would not, did it even matter to those two?

The world was a good place.

The End.

End note: Again, thanks to everyone who reviewed.

All characters and places (except for Elda and Etche) belong to Naughty Dog Inc, who have done a wonderful job with the Precursor Legacy Trilogy. This piece of fanfiction was written for fun and I didn't get a penny from working on it. I doubt I'll get a penny later, either. Or even a cent. Or any other bit of currency.

Ah yes, one more thing before I leave you to your homework and other things, let me just address one more thing left in an earlier review, by quoting a truly great man:

"Think of it as Star Wars. Its stories are broken up into trilogies, but they're part of a bigger, more involving saga. Just because the Precursor Legacy may be coming to an end, it doesn't mean that we are."

-Evan Wells, Game Director of Naughty Dog, on the question whether Jak 3 was the end of Jak and Daxter. Quote taken from ign . com . (remove the spaces, this place eats even fragments of links. Pff.)

So no, I don't think we'll be forever left hanging wondering what the Mar-Jak connection is. :)