A/N: Yay, new chapter!  Well, obviously, but anyway.  This one is from Dax's point of view on a random whim, and more people come.  Um… yes, the next chapter is going to be fun, this one is more of a transition, but I wanted to show Daxter's view.  So.  Have fun! ^.^  You guys are being so nice with all your reviews, thank you! :-D

Disclaimer: No, I don't own it.  It would be interesting to see if the creators ever ventured around here, though.  I know I would, just to see what the fans are doing.  But that's just me.  Yes. 

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"Ugh."  It seemed to be a very accurate depiction of his state at that moment.  Head pounding, the ottsel pressed a furry paw to his face and groaned again.  Beneath him, the warm form of Jak turned over on his side, making Daxter slip from his comfy spot on the elf's stomach.  Dax blinked sleepily at Jak as the elf threw an arm out towards the table, knocking the communicator off the stand and across the room.  It hit the wall with a crash and fell to the floor, beeping all the more loudly for the abuse.

Jak immediately jumped out of bed and stumbled over to the offending machine, smashing his heel down on it to quell the noise.  The motion was making his face turn a greenish color, and he abruptly turned and headed for the bathroom.  Daxter forced himself up as well and wandered over to the window.  As his friend purged himself of the remnants of the previous night's alcohol binge, the ottsel moved the blinds and peered out, recoiling quickly from the bright sunlight that assailed his sleepy eyes.  The orange rodent shook his fist at the sun from behind the blinds, yawning sleepily and extremely glad that he was able to hold his liquor much better than his friend.

He climbed back onto the bed, curling up into a ball and praying to any god that would listen that the pounding in his head would abate, the one symptom of a hangover that he could never get past. 

"…Dax?"  The word emerged from his friend's throat as a croak.

"Hmm?"

"Don't ever let me get that drunk again."  The elf flopped down onto the bed as well.

"Right-o.  But wasn't it fun?"  The hero made no comment.

Daxter moved to Jak's side and snuggled down into his warm friend, quite content despite the eco drill in his head that was trying to make holes in his skull.  Jak's hand came down to rest on his back, fingers gently stroking the orange fur from time to time as the elf drifted off to sleep again.  Daxter didn't realize that he had fallen asleep, but he was awakened some hours later by the sound heavy boots stomping around the room.  Eyes closed and not fully awake, figuring that it was Jak, the ottsel complained loudly.  "Geez, Jak!  Try and stomp a little harder, will ya?  I don't think they heard you down in the sewers.  Put some effort into it, man!"

"Shnurh…" came Jak's muffled voice from under his pillow.  Surprised, Daxter opened his eyes to see the leering faces of Krimzon Guards staring down at the bed.

"Oh great, just what I always wanted to wake up to see," the ottsel grumbled.  Beside him, Jak sat up to see what all the fuss was about, sleepy features hardening at the sight of so many red clad guards crowded into the room.  Daxter understood how he felt- even though their period of enmity was over, some things could never be forgotten, and years of fighting the guards could not be erased in the few weeks that it had been since the Baron's downfall, no matter if Torn and Ashelin were doing all they could to make that change.

"What do you want?"  Jak's tone could have frozen the soldiers to the floor on which they stood.

"We have come on the Governor's orders to escort you to the palace."

"Since when have we needed an escort?" Daxter demanded before Jak could speak.  A guard stepped forward menacingly, glaring at the ottsel, but Daxter failed to cower in fright, a reaction that the burly guard was unused to.  Dax raised an eyebrow.  "Well?"

"Take it up with the Lady Governor," the guard snapped.  "You are to accompany us immediately."  Still frowning, Jak rose and dressed, glaring icily at the guards as they retreated to the stairwell.  Daxter jumped up to his customary spot, glad that the pain in his head had reduced to a dull throbbing.

Daxter's eyebrows rose as the two emerged into the night and saw the abnormally large amount of guards that waited to escort them.  They were ushered into a transport ship filled with guards as more zipped around them in varying sizes of zoomers.  The ship slowly and precariously rose and moved into traffic, the guards around it using their cars to knock civilians out of the way if they did not move quickly enough.  Not that the procession was going very far or fast, but old habits die hard, and some things would never change.

"Bo-ring," Daxter complained after a while.  He never thought that he would see the day when he missed Jak's insane driving, but apparently today was that day.  Jak sighed in agreement from beneath him.

Then came the explosion.

The sound reverberated through the thick metal, startling the ottsel so much that he accidentally tugged hard on Jak's long hair.  All of the guards around them jumped up, pointing their guns at the walls of the ship as though they could see out to the threat.  As Jak rose, the pilots slammed on the gas and the transport ship jolted forward, throwing its occupants around.  Jak tumbled into a pile of guards even as Daxter fell and rolled into a wall.

"HEY!" Daxter yelled at the metal barrier that separated the pilots from the passengers.  "What's the big deal?"  The pilots gave no response.  For a moment, he thought that someone had been stupid enough to attack the escort.  But there were no more explosions, no shots were fired, the transport only continued to wind its way through the city at a speed dangerous for a car so big and unmaneuverable.  But all too soon, they saw what the explosion had been.

After only a few moments, the transport suddenly dropped to the ground and screeched to a stop, the back flying open.  Jak was the first to jump out, with the ottsel on his shoulder as usual.  The second that Daxter saw the palace, his jaw dropped open.  People ran around like mad, trying to put out the fire that was trying to destroy as much of the overly-elaborate building as possible.  An entire wing had been reduced to rubble and flame, thick smoke boiling into the sky.  There were injured people everywhere, and many elves frantically dug through the rubble to find others trapped beneath it.  "Precursors…" he heard Jak breathe in shock.

"JAK!"  The scream came only seconds before a very sooty Keira rocketed herself at Jak, flinging her arms around his neck and nearly knocking Daxter off in the process.  After a moment, he jumped down off of Jak's shoulder.  He looked around, forcing himself not to look at how close Jak and Keira were, forced himself not to be jealous at the worry that was so evident on his friend's face.

"Keira?  Are you okay?" Jak asked worriedly, awkwardly putting his hands on her back.  The frightened mechanic started sobbing in relief.

"Oh Jak!  I was working late and… and I decided to take a short break… and as soon as I got out of the building, it exploded!  A-and then I remembered that Ashelin had called you here earlier and I thought that you were still inside, and… and… and…"

"Shhhh… it's okay, I wasn't here.  Are you all right?  You're not injured?"  Keira shook her aqua head, drying her eyes.  Dax glanced back up, fist subconsciously clenching as he saw their faces hovering near one another.  He wanted desperately to go run up and shove theirs faces apart, as he always had done…

"Jak?  Where have you been?" demanded Ashelin suddenly, and all three of them jumped at the sound of her voice.  There were a bunch of guards around her, all looking around to make sure that there was no threat to her life other than the fire that illuminated the otherwise dark night.

Jak disentangled himself from Keira and turned to face the governor of Haven City, Daxter returning to the elf's shoulder.  "Huh?"

Ashelin frowned, pointing at him accusingly.  "I called you hours ago!  The communicator rang and rang, then we heard groaning and then it broke off into fuzz.  We waited in case you were out or something, but when you didn't come, we figured that they had gotten you, too."

Jak raised an eyebrow.  "They?"

Torn stomped over to them, glaring at the elf and ottsel heatedly.  "And just where were you all day?  I specifically left you a message last night to accompany a squadron of guards into the sewers to investigate some odd rumors.  If anything had happened, there would have been blood on your hands."

Jak stiffened and Ashelin laid a restraining hand on Torn's arm.  "Come inside.  We can't speak out here.  Keira, you're free to go find a room and get cleaned up."  Keira hesitated, but at a pointed look from Ashelin, she scooted off unhappily, barely noticed by the quartet of people intent on their disussion.

"I want an explanation NOW!"

"We ah… never got the message?" Daxter said, rubbing the back of his head.

Torn opened his mouth to snap at them more but was cut off by a sharp bark from Ashelin.  "Inside!  Now!"

Rather sullenly, Torn complied, Jak and Daxter following behind.  They went to a small conference room and sat at one of the tables, guards posted at all of the doors.

"Who is 'they'?" Jak asked before Torn could start laying into them again.

Ashelin sighed and ran her hands through her hair, saying nothing.  In the light, Daxter finally got a good look at her.  There was no other word for it- she looked positively frazzled.  There were lines of tension around her mouth and eyes that Daxter couldn't remember seeing before, and a close look at Torn's face showed the same.  Finally, she spoke.  "We don't know who they are, and that's entirely the problem.  They're obviously malcontents, but we just don't know.  There are many, many people that lost all their standing when I took control of the city, and they aren't happy about it.  But there is nothing we can do- they have to be hiring assassins, and unless we can pin them down, we cannot take action against the people paying them."

"Woah, assassins already?" Daxter exclaimed. 

"Yeah," said Torn, exhaustion coming through his deep voice.  "They've tried to kill Ashelin multiple times already, small, quiet, untraceable attacks.  But today they staged a number of carefully planned large-scale attacks to spread our forces out all around the city.  And then…"  The new commander of the Krimzon Guard shrugged.

"So what does that have to do with us?" demanded Jak.

"We believe that they're going to come after you, too."  It was a statement of fact.  Ashelin continued.  "You are, after all, the true heir to the city, and if they get rid of us both, they're free to do what they want.  They'll start a war over this, and no matter how many die, they'll claim the city."

"They'll try, you mean.  Those left in the Guard are loyal to you and will protect you," Torn corrected quickly.  There was implicit meaning in his words, and Daxter rolled his eyes.

"I can take care of myself," Jak snapped.  Daxter looked at his friend, surprised.  There was a note of defensiveness in his voice, one which was noticed only by the ottsel.  Those six simple words set Daxter's mind spinning, and he looked more closely at his life-long friend, something he hadn't done in a long time.  His heart nearly stopped as he saw a shadow in almost completely hidden in Jak's eyes- there was a trace of fright and a haunted look buried deep within those liquid blue orbs.  Confused, Daxter continued to stare at his friend until the elf turned to look at him, eyebrow wrinkling as he saw the ottsel's intense stare.  "What?"

"Nothing, nothing!" Dax said quickly, turning his attention back to Torn and Ashelin, pretending to be interested.  But Jak's gaze remained on the ottsel for a while longer, and Daxter had to force himself not to look at his friend again.

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Weeks passed, and for a while, Jak complied with Ashelin's wishes and was on his guard more than normal, being as low-key as was possible for the grand savior of Haven City.  But after a while, as there were very few Metal Head attacks and no more assassination attempts on either of the two assumed targets, the ottsel and his companion relaxed, tired of living a paranoid life.  Things got back to normal, the palace was slowly rebuilt, and life went on without a major incident.  But Daxter still could not shake the feeling that there was something seriously wrong with his friend.

"Hey Dax, have fun tonight," Jak said one evening as he wandered towards the door.  "I'm going out to dinner with Keira.  I'll be back later."

"Oh… okay… have fun…" Dax muttered distractedly, looking at the totals of the past month's revenues, trying to figure out just how much he had earned.  But as the door slid shut behind his friend, the ottsel threw down the papers and sighed.