Fragments of Sorrow 4
By Sull89 and shadows-of-flame

That night, after Keira had taken her leave of Torn and Tess, she found herself walking through the streets of Haven City alone. Although both her friends had offered to give her a ride, Keira had told them no; she wanted time to be alone and think about everything.

As she crossed one of the many bridges placed in the Canal Zone, Keira looked up to see a huge poster of Erol in his racing gear staring her down. A slight shiver ran through her core; even though he had seemed so caring right before she passed out the night before, Keira still didn't like Erol.

The way he had described finding Jak and how he smiled about it whenever he talked about the pain they were putting the boy through, just by that Keira could tell that Erol had a callus heart. She didn't want to be involved with someone like that, especially when Jak was still alive and there was a chance she would be with him again.

Keira would wait for Jak forever if she had to. As long as he was alive, she would not forsake him and she would not move on. Jak had been with her through everything, he was always there for her when she needed it the most, and Keira wasn't going to forget that.

When he got out of that hellish prison, Keira would be waiting for him. Her whole entire heart and soul would be waiting for him, waiting for the chance to wrap him in love once again and shield him from the pain he had so wrongly suffered. Keira would protect him with everything she had, even if that protection came at the cost of her own life.

Keira would never loose Jak again. If only she could get him back from that prison, everything would get better.

Lost in thought as she was, Keira didn't realize she had reached the stadium entrance until she almost tripped down the steps. Gazing in the direction of her garage and home, Keira gave a little start. The lights were on, but she knew for a fact that she had turned them off before leaving.

Cautiously she made her way toward the building. Trying to walk as slowly as possible to muffle any noise she might make, Keira snuck up to the ground floor window of her garage and looked inside, hoping to find out why her lights were on.

Gazing through the window with her body shielded by the darkness, Keira stared into the living room of her home. A flicker of different colored lights caught her eye, and as she looked toward the corner of the room she saw that her television set was on and that there was someone sitting in the chair next to it.

"What the…" she whispered to herself, "Who is that?"

Getting very worried now, Keira tried to figure out what she was going to do. There was a person in her home that she hadn't invited, and she didn't know who it was or why they were there. She had to do something, but Keira didn't know what; there was a lot that could go wrong if the person was not friendly.

There was always the option of going to find a Krimzon Guard and having him check it out, but Keira did not want one of those filthy pieces of scum to enter her home. He would probably do more bad than good anyway, and besides all that Keira had some… prohibited items in her possession, and she didn't need the KG to find them.

As hard as she tried, Keira could not think of anything else to do. So, although it may not have been the safest plan, Keira decided to get check it out herself. Hoping that she wasn't about to make the biggest mistake of her life, Keira walked to the door of her garage and grabbed the gun she kept hidden in a loose floor plate beside it.

She wasn't completely sure how to use the weapon; she hadn't ever had to actually wield it before, but she had it just in case. Now it gave Keira a feeling of security when she really needed it, and for that she was glad. Holding it in front of her and aimed toward her door, Keira took a deep breath and then shoved open the portal.

She didn't expect to meet with the person yet; after all she had seen him or her in the living room, not her garage, but Keira kept her gun up as a precaution. As she had thought it would be, the shop was dark and empty, the only thing moving in it the fan she kept turned on to cool it.

Now knowing that she was safe for the moment, Keira walked inside and then lowered her pistol momentarily to wipe her face of the sweat that had begun to cover it. That was her one mistake, as the second the gun went down someone ran up and snatched it from her hands before she could react.

A shout had started to make its way up Keira's throat, but it was cut off when her mouth was covered by a gloved hand and a voice said, "Please, don't scream." Keira was startled at the tone of the voice; she realized it was female when it said, "I'm not here to hurt you, I need your help."

Keira knew she didn't have a choice, so she nodded her head. Slowly the other woman withdrew her hand and stepped away from Keira in a gesture of truth. Walking over to the wall by the door, the woman then flicked on a light so Keira could see her, "My name is Ashelin."

Keira heard the woman speak her name, but it didn't really register. All she could focus on was the KG tattoos that ran across her face, and trying to figure out what she wanted. Keira must have had a vacant or surprised look on her face, because the woman said, "It's alright. I really need your help."

Keira was still trying to figure out what this woman being here meant. Looking at her, Keira said, "Your name is Ashelin?" As the woman nodded, a look of fear and hatred crossed Keira's façade, "That's means you're the Baron's daughter! What do you want with me?"

Holding up her hands in a defensive position Keira said, "I'm not going to help you further your father's plans, so leave me alone!"

Keira figured she must have been imagining it, but she thought she saw a trace of sadness flit across Ashelin's eyes. "I'm not asking you for help in that," she said, eyes downcast, "I never would." Looking up, she threw Keira's pistol back to her, "Look, all I want is for you to hear me out. Keep that with you, to show that I'm not going to try anything stupid."

Keira looked down at the gun in her hand and figured that if Ashelin would give her the gun back, she really was sincere. Deciding that she would listen to Ashelin, she nodded her head before saying, "Alright, I'll listen, but just let me ask you one thing first; why did you have my lights and television on? I never would have even had the gun out if I didn't think anyone was here."

Ashelin laughed slightly, and a small grin crossed her features. "I did that because I wanted to see how you operated." She paused to shrug, "I figured if you saw someone was here and you didn't know why, you'd have to do something, and I wanted to know what."

"I had the television on and was sitting in the chair to make you think that's where I would be when you got in the house, but the second I saw your silhouette leave the window I went into your garage and hid in the rafters." Ashelin laughed again, "It's really easy to get up there with the all the lifts you have."

"So you did that just to test me?" Keira was indignant at the thought, and she did not appreciate being used as a guinea pig, "Why?"

"I'm sorry, but I had too." Ashelin held out her hands in an honest apology, "I needed to see if you really would be able to help me."