Darker by the Day
By JakAndTornSweetheart
Disclaimer: I own no rights to Jak II or its characters. I am merely an avid and obsessed fan using them for my own personal amusement.
Chapter III
Lost
Keira's eyes fluttered open, only to be blinded by the piercing white light that made them feel as if they had been stabbed with shards of glass. Wisely keeping her eyes closed, she gave a half groan, half whimper and tried to raise herself into a sitting position using her right arm. Again she was brought down in defeat as every muscle seemed to shriek with protest in unison. Even as her head rested on the pillow, she head spun with dizziness and her stomach lurched with nausea. But all of it was nothing compared to when her left arm had reached to try to sooth her aching stomach. Pain like she had never felt before shot through her entire arm and made her cry out in torment. Without moving, she tried as best she could to curl up into a ball and couldn't help but sob out her anguish. Why was her body betraying her like this? What had happened? Why did it have to hurt this much?
Seconds later, she felt a soothing hand run over her forehead and yell something she couldn't understand, though the voice didn't seem to be yelling at her. The voice seemed feminine, but in her current state Keira couldn't tell, nor did she care. She just wanted everything to stop. Where was Jak when you needed him? That thought lingered in her mind for a bit before, despite her excruciating pain, her eyes flew open and she sat straight up, startling her present company.
Jak. Daddy. The Rift. All those monsters. The crash. The entire morning's events all came back to her in a flood of flashing memories. She remembered going into the Rift and something going wrong, but she didn't remember coming out of the Rift or anything else that had happened after that. With her shock overwhelming her pain, she took a moment to analyze her surroundings. She was on a bed in a strange room she had never seen before. In the background, she heard a deep baritone yelling at some unseen person. She wasn't really paying very much attention, but with a voice like his, one could hardly help overhearing. "You will deliver that shipment of green eco here or, so help me, I'll have the Commander of the Krimzon Guard after your ass!... Of course we need it now! This is an urgent matter!... I don't care if your company doesn't deliver to our area, you prejudiced bastard. You'll get my package here pronto or you're going to be eating out of a tube!" She cringed when the man slammed down the phone. She was almost glad when he walked deeper into another room instead of coming into hers.
Her attention turned to the woman sitting beside her on the bed. The first thing Keira noticed was her beautiful long brown hair, and then her startling violet eyes. She was perfectly slender and wore a simple blue shirt with black pants. From the look in her eyes, Keira could tell that the woman was worried, but she tried to be soothing as she smiled. The way the woman shushed her and tried to get her to lie back down made her think of a mother, and for a second, Keira wondered if she had a child of her own.
All of her thoughts stopped when a tall, muscled man strode into the doorway and leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. He had to be the tallest man she had ever seen, his spiky, blonde hair almost brushing the top of the door. Eyes that were the iciest color of blue burned into her, and she couldn't tell if he was concerned or just malicious. His muscles bulged from under his blue shirt and his black pants showed several rips and tears, but it was his expression that made him look intimidating. It was either his expression or the large scar he bared along the left side of his face. Keira didn't really dwell on which it was. She was suddenly too scared out of her mind to think.
Vainly, she tried to back away from the scary man at the door, her eyes frantically moving from him to the soft-natured woman at her side that was trying to keep her from hurting herself. She struggled against the woman's efforts all the time shouting, "What is this place? Who are you people? What have you done with Jak! Where is he! Do you have my father, too?" The woman shushed her and tried to get her to lie back, but Keira refused to stop her struggling. Her head was spinning, and her entire body hurt like hell, but if these people were going to kill her or hold her hostage, she'd take her chances with the pain.
Finally, the gentle woman turned to look over her shoulder at the fearsome man. "Brice! Stop it. You're scaring her. She's not going to hurt us, now come here and help me… and stop looking at her like that!" Immediately, Keira could see Brice's face soften as he uncrossed his arms and pushed himself off of the doorframe. Wary eyes followed his movement until he kneeled on the other side of her bed.
"Calm down, little one. You'll reopen your wounds if you don't relax. Terri, she'll need something to drink. Could you go get a glass of water," he asked. His voice, despite his appearance, was a deep, smooth baritone that had a softness to it.
The full weight of what he had said didn't hit her until she finally looked down at herself. Her left arm was in a makeshift sling with a bandage wrapped tightly around most of her forearm. The other arm didn't hurt as much, but was still bandaged from the elbow up. Her stomach fashioned various patches of bandage and from underneath the tangle she had made of the blanket, she could see her right leg was in a splint. As if already knowing where it was, her gaze fell on the far wall to the mirror that hung there. She didn't recognize her own reflection. Her hair was matted in places where you could see it, the rest hidden by the dressing wrapped around her head, and her face had scrapes and bruises on it.
She looked… absolutely horrible.
Terri returned with the glass of cold water and, at Keira's horrid expression, she began to explain, her soft eyes full of worry for this girl she didn't really know. "You fell straight through the ceiling of our kitchen. We dressed your wounds as best we could, but we didn't know if you'd make it. You've been out for almost a week."
Keira's eyes widened. "A week! What date is it?"
Brice eyed her strangely, as if she should have known. "It's the twenty-third day of the fourth month."
That sounded right enough. "Where am I? What is this place?" she repeated.
"You're in the glorious High Slums," Brice said sarcastically.
"What part of Haven are you from, dear?" Terri, reclaiming a place at her side, asked.
"Haven?" Her eyes, full of confusion, darted from one face to the next.
"Haven City. You really aren't from around here, are you?" the woman asked sweetly.
"I'm from Sandover Village," Keira proclaimed, as if it were the most well-known place in the world.
To her surprise, they both just looked at each other and laughed. "Oh my goodness," the brunette started, still laughing. "You must have hit your head pretty hard. Sandover Village hasn't existed for, how long dear?" she asked Brice.
"I don't know, Terri. About five hundred years?"
Terri's soft brown eyes rested on Keira with a wealth of sympathy. "Don't worry. We finally managed a rare shipment of green eco, and it'll have you healed and on your feet in no time. It should be on its way now, but you never know with people today. Not many companies deliver to this area."
The question of Why not? should have come to mind, but right now Keira's mind was in a whirlwind of astonishment. About five hundred years… Her friends, the people she knew, all of them were… gone. Five hundred years gone. And now she was in a place she didn't know, full of people she didn't know. There was no real way of telling if her father, Jak, and Daxter were even in this same place. They had been jerked in different directions while in the rift. They could be in a different time, in a different place. She was alone… all alone.
"Here you go, honey," Terri said with a light touch to her shoulder, "have a drink of water." The faraway look in Keira's eyes settled on the glass of water and managed to focus. She didn't realize how dry her mouth was until then. With a shaky hand, and being careful to use her right arm, Keira took the glass and drank half the water in two gulps, took a breath, and downed the rest of the water. Silently, she held the glass out for Terri to take.
Brice, who hadn't moved more than an inch since he reached the side of her bed, jumped to his feet when two loud bangs sounded at the door. "That's the eco… finally," he grumbled and was out of the room in no more than three strides of his long legs.
As the raised voices started, Terri turned to Keira. "It's as we suspected. It was hard enough for us to get our hands on the green eco. It would have been even harder to request it be in its diluted form so it could be made into a solution or a pill. I'm afraid that you're going to have to absorb the eco in its pure form. We could inject it or…"
Keira held up her good hand in interruption. "It's okay. I can absorb it just fine. I would appreciate it if you could just bring it to me." She forced a smile that she didn't really mean. If she were able, she'd jump up from the bed and straight for the eco… anything to relieve the excruciating pain that seem to feel worse and worse by the second.
Giving her a strange look, Terri stopped Brice as the door shut suddenly and he made his way down the hall. "Brice, honey. She says she can absorb it pure."
Brice turned on his heel and appeared in the doorway with an astonished look on his face. "She can do what?"
"She says to give her the eco," Terri answered.
Keira felt uncomfortable with both their gazes on her so intently, but she tried to keep her focus on the eco, on being healed. "Thank you both for going to so much trouble over me, especially when I've done nothing to deserve it."
"Forget it," Brice responded simply, crossing the room with the spherical container of eco. "You're sure about this?"
With great effort, Keira nodded. "Could you open it for me?" she asked without taking her eyes from the metal container. Easily, Brice twisted the two hemispheres of the container so the green substance could be seen through the rectangular vents that had been opened. She inhaled deeply, holding her breath for the pain she expected to follow, and lifted her arm to the container.
Brice and Terri were amazed when the green eco seemed to pour from the container to her outstretched hand. The eco absorbed itself straight into her skin, and until all the eco was gone, her small form was engulfed in a soft green aura. Her skin flushed with its normal color again, and the cuts and scrapes too small to be dignified with bandages healed and vanished as if they had never been. Keira felt energy rush through her, the eco channeling expertly through her body to heal bones and tissue from the inside out. Deep wounds were closed and scars faded as newer skin was quickly developed. When the process was finished and the eco had done all it was able to do in healing her, the green aura was also absorbed into her refreshingly stronger body.
For a second, Keira just stared down at her hands, reveling in a feeling from home, the feeling of green eco surging through her. Her muscles were still sore from not being used in a week, but even the slight protest of her movement felt pleasant in comparison to the pain of her injuries. She flexed her hands, moved her arms this way and that, and then stretched with her arms reaching above her. She felt refreshed, momentarily forgetting the loss of her dearest friends.
"How… how did you do that?" Brice asked.
For the first time, she looked up at him with a bright smile, a real smile. The beauty and innocence of it almost caught him off guard. "Do what?" she asked.
"That. Absorb the eco," he replied more sternly.
"Oh. I've always been able to do that. Why? Can you not absorb eco?"
"Well of course not. The only other person that can do that is…"
"Do you think that he'll want to meet her!" Terri interrupted excitedly.
"Who?" Keira asked.
"He might. But he won't be back from his trip from Spargus for quite some time," Brice explained.
Keira was distracted by a waft of an extremely offensive odor. Her nose twitched and she sniffed to her left and right before realizing that the smell was coming from her. "Eww! Is that me!" she exclaimed and pulled a section of her hair into her face to smell it. Terri had been in mid-sentence when Keira had interrupted her, and now both her and Brice were looking at Keira. Her face twisted in a grotesque expression. "Ugh, gross. That is me. Could I possibly grab a bath or something? I reek."
Terri jumped back into her motherly mode. "Oh! I'm so sorry. Why didn't I think about this before? Of course you would want a bath!" She started to free Keira from the tangle of sheets she had made in her confusion. "Brice, go start the hot water in the bath, would you?" she ordered and then turned back to Keira. "I'll help you to the washroom and help you out of those awful bandages."
Keira sighed as she sank down into the steaming water that immediately began soothing her aching muscles. "Thank you… for everything. I really do appreciate it."
"It's no problem," Terri replied as she started from the bathroom. "It was the least we could do. We're just glad that you're okay now." She stopped in the doorway and turned back. "By the way… what's your name?"
Keira inhaled another long breath and let the sweet aromas of the bath salts calm her. "My name is Keira."
"Well… we were way off."
"What do you mean," Keira asked.
"We didn't know your name. So we've been calling you Jade."
"Hmmm… Jade." Keira turned the name over in her mind for a moment, then smiled. "I like it."
- Author's Note –
So sorry that this chapter took so long. I told you not to get used to the frequent updates! Lol. Maybe this next chapter won't take so long, but I'm not promising anything. I hope you liked the original characters that I incorporated into this chapter. Tell me your opinions! I'm taking a shot at what it was like for Keira starting out in Haven, since we never know that. I thought it'd be interesting if she weren't as lucky as Jak and Daxter in their landing. Hope I didn't go too off-scale with all this. Let me know what you think. And thanks for reading!
Oh, and I left a lot of things a little vague in this chapter. Can you tell the area where she landed? And who is the other person that can channel green eco?
Until next time! - JATS
- Review Responses -
Red Mage 04: Glad you thought my little romance scene was sweet. I wanted a stark contrast for the darker setting that they'll meet in later, and that way, the changes in their relationship will be more obvious. Thanks for reading. Make sure you let me know if my detail starts to weaken. ;)
Light-Eco-Sage: Thank goodness it wasn't too mushy. I'm a hopeless romantic, and I tend to just pour mush into stuff like this. :D Glad you liked Jak's romantic side.
shadows-of-flame: Yay! I'm not the only one who likes T/K. :D Thanks for noticing my shot at humor. I try to do little things like that, especially when Dax is around, but no one says anything about it. I just thought people didn't think it was funny or something. Again, thanks!
odoru: It's not too dark yet, but it'll get that way, especially with the next chapter. I added more dialogue to this chapter, so I hope that agreed with you. This was more or less a filler chapter as far as dialogue and everything. I just wanted to get across that Keira had a rough start instead of a clean landing like Jak and Dax did. Just the first step in affirming her tougher side. ;)
Sull89: Hope this was enough going-ons for one chapter. Not a lot happened, but hopefully you're not disappointed. I tried to put more stuff in it, but I liked ending it where I did. Thanks for reading!
SANDSOFTIMEIII: Nice to see someone from the Playstation boards actually reviewing. Thanks a bunch for reading. Hope you liked this chapter as well. And I'm glad you think that I tried to keep the original part believable. I really tried. :D
Cass: Thanks for reviewing! I'm really glad you liked it. I hope I kept up with expectations. I've never received such high praise from a reader as I have from you. You really did make me get off my ass and try to finish this. Thanks a bunch for the motivation! See you on the boards.
