Bed of roses
Chapter 9
By shadows/of/flame

Another chappie - Armageddon in 2 days. Yayses!

"So, first day of duty."
The Shadow paused, looking briefly at Torn.

"Whats my job?" the dreadlocked man asked out loud, hoping to be given a reasonably challenging job.

The Shadow sighed and propped his large, rather hairy feet up on the table, knocking off a stack of unruly maps that had previously tottered uncertainly upon the table.

"Theres a... on darn it..." the sage scrambled to pick up the fallen maps, and muttered Precursor swearwords under his breath.

"Theres some mechanic girl in the section by the racing stadium. She has been receiving death threats lately, so I want you to go down there and find out whats going on."

Torn nodded, remembering having smuggled a set of every city keycard out of the Barons bedside table drawer when he was asleep one night.
The overly fat ruler, nearly rolled off the bed and squished Torn, but the poor commander just managed to escape with his life, narrowly missing out on a life of being fed through a tube.

"Thers an unmarked hover outside. Be on the look out for any Krimzon Guard, as I heard they are looking for you. Also, take care of that fricken' hover, as there is no easy way to replace ones you have damaged!"

The brunette nodded, and was soon on his way out the door, Tess yelling after him to not forget his pistol, and wrap up warmly against Haven Cities cold, etc etc etc.

It was indeed cold, and Torn was lucky that his trenchcoat was so warm.
The Yakow fur helped keep him warm too, and that he was grateful for.

A storm was quickly approaching, and Torn squinted against the sudden rain as everyone ran quickly to the nearest shelter.

'I hope I get there soon, its going to rain...'

After a few minutes of walking completely soaked, Torn found a faded sign pointing to a garage.

He followed the sign in the hopes of finding a place to get shelter, and hopefully find this girl that was receiving death threats.

The signs eventually lead around to the side of the stadium, and Torn knocked cautiously.
"Is anyone there?" He called, and a knife was immediately held to his throat.

"Who are you? What do you want?" the girl demanded, holding the knife closer and closer.

"Look, I'm Torn, an ex-KG. I only want to help you. The Shadow sent me, I'm with the Underground."

The girl sighed, and released her grip.
"Look, I'm really sorry about that. I've just been so worried lately, I just..."

Torn closed the door behind him, not letting the cold get in anymore than it already was, and shook some water from his coat.

"There is no way you can go back home in this weather. I know we just met and all, but stay here the night."

He wasn't about to disagree, and she relieved him of his coat.

"I'm Keira, you may or may know that already"
She whisked off into the kitchen to make something hot to keep them warm, and the soldier could only follow her, dazed by how amazingly happy she was despite the death threats.

"You seem exceedingly cheerful." the solemn man observed as she brewed a pot of tea with amazing grace and speed.

"Well, I have to do something to keep my hopes up; this city isn't exactly the most pleasant place in the world. After I lost my two best friends and my father, I was shoved into this dingy little place to work. And I've been working here ever since the KG captured my best friend, Jak. I have no idea whats become of him or his annoying talking rat Daxter."

Torn paused. "Jak you say? A little blond fellow, blue eyes, can't talk?"

Keiras green eyes were immediately on him.
"You've seen him?"

Torn bowed his head. "Like I said, ex-KG. I quit because of the horrible things they were doing to the prisoners they caught..." he hung his head again.

"Jak was one of the ones experimented on."

Keiras eyes widened, and she gasped in utter shock, almost dropping the tea pot.
"Believe me, I did all I could for him, even gave him my share of food for a few days, but for it I was demoted and beaten up by a fellow guard member."

She looked into his eyes, and her pain at losing her friend mirrored his own.
"Look, I must thank you for helping him..." she murmured, not meeting the hard-asses gaze.

"Look, its fine..."
He looked at her, surprised as she wrapped a blanket around his shoulders.

"What?" she asked. "Are you too hard-ass for a blanket?"
He almost laughed at her quick wit.

For only having met about quarter of an hour ago, they were getting along quite well.

0o0o0o0

The two sat in the lounge for the remainder of the night, talking about the death threats Keira had been receiving.

Torn was making notes in his notebook as she spoke, nodding for her to go on as he finished each section of notes.

"Oh gosh! Look at the time!" Keira exclaimed, jumping up from her seat.

The two had been talking and recording for so long, that the clock in the corner now read 10:34pm, in other words, time to hit the hay.

The rain still hadn't ceased, and Torn was beginning to get rather cold and knackered from his eventful day.

"I am so glad - spare rooms with plently of blankets do come in handy! Come on, I'll show you to your room."

He dared not disagree, and Keira opened the door to a little, brightly coloured, warmly lit room.
Torn found it to his taste, but as soon as he turned to thank the polite young mechanic, she was gone.

"Night Torn. Sleep tight." Were the only words he heard before the door down the hall slammed shut.