Karigoya Yabureme
Chapter 19
By shadows/of/flame

Sorry about the late update - holidays though it may be, I just needed motivation XD

'Stay calm, they'll be back soon, Veger will be dead... All will be fine! It'll all be over as soon as they get back.'
Ashelin tried to tell this to herself to reassure her frizzled nerves, but so far she was failing miserably.

Keira wasn't faring much better - she was fearing for Jak AND Torns lives - she had seen what Veger could do to people.
Two years alone in Haven City hadn't taught her nothing, and what else was she expected to do apart from go to execution after execution after execution at the Barons orders?

She wouldn't leave Torns seat, protecting it fiercely as Ashelin tried to coax her to go out for lunch; although going out to lunch in the middle of a war was not the best idea she had ever had.

But the poor red-head was just greeted with a cold stare, and she knew that she could do no more to help her friend.

Hope arrived along with their orange rodent friend and Tess, who came in later on, bundling food in their paws.
For ottsels their size, they could sure as hell carry a lot of food, and Ashelin was delighted to see them.

"Tess, could you try and get Keira to eat something? Shes worried sick about Torn and Jak, and shes not eating much, or leaving that chair." Ashelin hissed, trying not to draw Keiras attention to what she was trying to do.

"We heard about Veger, but wheres Jak and Tattooed Wonder?" Daxter asked, hopping up onto the nearby table and dumping the food uncerimoniously on it.

Ashelin sighed, wishing she didn't have to be the one to tell them the bad news.

"As you may or may not know, Keiras blind sided shot clipped Veger in the stomach. The Krimzon Guard have retreated, along with Jak and Torn, in dark mode, in hot pursuit of them to try and finish off Veger. If they're lucky, they can kill him before he has the chance to get back to try and finish Torn and Keira off."

A puzzled expression crossed Daxters face.
"... why is Veger after Tattooed Wonder and Keira?"

Tess was straightening up the food that Daxter had made a mess of on the table, and cocked her head as though she was listening.

As Ashelin opened her mouth to speak, a voice came from the blanketed figure that was sitting on Torns chair.

"Veger wants me and Torn dead, because... because we have "pure souls". We are the only two left, because Veger has managed to kill off all of the others. If all of the "pure souls" are dead, then chaos will reign - drugs, murder, sex, addictions... you know, everything... bad. And that stupid bald man wants that, because stupid, drugged people, are... easier to control. Easier to rule over. He wants Jinx and Ashelin to supply these drugs themselves FREE to the citys people, so the spiral can begin straight away..."

The two ottsels, and Ashelin, looked at the young mechanic, who was clutching Torns scarf to her chest, in utter surprise.

Those were the first words, well, sentences, that Ashelin had heard out of her all day.

"K... Keira?" Tess murmured, as the green haired girl burst into a flurry of tears, rocking gently to and fro.

Ashelin, Tess and Daxter immediately went to holdand comfort their friend, who had barely spoken a word all day.

After all, wars had many different effects on many different people.

"I jus... I just want them back! We've been through enough strife, why can't we just be safe and happy for once?"
Daxter and Tess sat on Keiras lap, while Ashelin hugged all of them, whispering words of comfort into the younger girls ears.

"W... when I joined the Underground, I... I never thought we'd be together. I thought I'd just live out my... my life, proving to... to Jak that I wasn't a weakling anymore. But, now me and Torn... and Jak and him, they've gone off to kick Vegers sorry ass, and I never... thought the outcome would be this!"

"None of us thought this would happen Keira. If there had been a way to know, we would have prevented it. But somehow, Veger has been changed back from an ottsel, and hes trying to kill you and Torn and spiral the world into drugs, sex and alcohol. We'll just have to continue fighting for the future we all want, so in the end we can reap the rewards."

The blue haired mechanic knew that the red-headed baroness was right, and slowly, her snuffles died away, and the tears on her cheeks dried leaving trails through the mud and grime caking her face.

She sat up suddenly, and looked at her three friends.
"Well, what are we all doing just sitting here moping then? We have two men to help to save our city!"

Daxter grinned, as Tess found their weapons and handed him an ottsel-sized gun.
The old Keira they all knew, was finally back.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Jak and Torn ran in tandem, ignoring the atmosphere and people gaping around them.
The KG Hellcat was slowing down, Jak noticed, and he slowed down slightly so that the two dark creatures wouldn't smack straight into it.

As the younger dark creature duly noted, for the zoomer to be slowing down at such a pace knew they would stop soon, and the older nodded slowly, also slowing with his partner.

Like the younger one noticed, the zoomer DID make a stop, and Veger was immediately rushed out of the Hellcat.

Torn acted fast, he dashed quickly but silently forward, and slid into the small gap that the closing door had left.
He jammed it with a nearby rock, allowing Jak passage into the room as well, and removed it quickly as soon as the other eco freak was through.

His blood ran cold as soon as he saw the corridors.
They were familiar in some way...

They were in the sewers. By the torture chambers where Torn had been...

Injected.
Tortured endlessly with dark eco to prevent himself from being killed by the ravishing amounts of it thriving inside him.

Jak could sense that Torn was upset, at what he didn't know.
But he then remembered the sobbing, crumpled, filthy wreck of an elf that he had taken from... the torture chambers! Of course, they were down in the sewers.

Jak lay a reassuring claw on his fellow dark mates shoulder, and after a moment of silence, and pain for the former, Torn allowed them to move on.

In their moments of silence, they had nearly lost Veger, and by some stealthy running only just managed to catch up as he was rushed through the endless winding passage ways.

'Theres a hospital or some sort of person in the sewers that can take care of Veger?'
Was the only concious thought running through Jaks mind as the chase wore on.

After minutes of running, Jak and Torn reached the last door that Veger had been brought through, and they panted heavily, having run from the Palace Ruins right the way through the sewers non stop, within about 30 minutes.

The blond laid a hand gently on the door, and with the brunettes help, pushed it open just a bit to see what was happening.

Torn, the smaller of the two, laid stomach down on the floor, and listened closely to the voices rumbling inside.

"Do you think we got enough Green Eco from that old fool to heal the army and Veger?"
Someone in the room spat to another.

Torns eyes burned slightly as a bright light filled the room, and when his vision cleared, what he saw amazed him.

There were lines and lines of jars filled with green eco, in pretty little neat rows, and two bent-backed elves, tinted with all different shades of purple, red, blue, yellow and green were hunched over beside them, talking.

"I don't know. But that poor old fool won't be... harbouring any eco anytime soon."

The two were obviously scientists, he noticed, due to the tinges of every type of eco staining their skin, and kept watching.

"We'd better go and give this to Veger before he either dies or kills us! I don't wanna be on the Crocadogs breakfast menu tomorrow morning! What do you think Crocadog food is made of?"

Torn pulled a face as the scientists pulled several jars of eco off the table, and slaundered into the hallway, tipping slightly to the side from the added weight as they did so.

"Now the coasts clear - lets go." Torn growled softly to Jak, and he pushed open the door.

As they entered, the green eco made Jak and Torns dark eco stores violently react, and all the jars shattered.
Apart from the fact that Samos' eco went to waste, and that the Krimzon Guards would never be healed without it, Jak swore loudly as screams and footsteps echoed around them.

They had done a lot of good that night, but the domino effect of said good would not have friendly affects.