Darker by the Day

By JakandTornSweetheart

Disclaimer: Only in my greatest fantasies do I own any part of the Jak and Daxter franchise.

Chapter Four

Torn Asunder


"Keira!" Brice called as the door shut behind him. His voice boomed throughout their small home, and if one didn't know him, as Keira did, one might think he was in a perpetually horrible mood.

"I'm in the kitchen!" she answered.

He grumbled to no one but himself and shook his head, starting in her direction after putting his coat and tool bag in the hall closet. "You're always in the kitchen. You really don't need to spend night and day in there trying to fix that hole in the ceiling. I can…"

Brice stopped short as he stepped into the kitchen to see Keira stepping off the A-ladder, wiping the dirt off her hands with a dingy rag. She had on a pair of Terri's old overalls and a bandana tied around her head to keep her bangs - and her sweat - out of her eyes. If not for her green hair, he would swear that Keira was the daughter that he and Terri were never able to have.

But that's not what caused the sudden drifting of his words. To his utter surprise, the gaping hole in their ceiling was completely fixed, and turned into a skylight no less.

"What do you think? I didn't have enough concrete mix to finish the entire ceiling, so I thought a little more light in here would be the perfect way to go… and the easiest. Terri hasn't seen it yet, but I think she was excited about the new window."

"She'll love it," he said simply, still a bit in awe. Terri had always complained about the lack of light, and without knowing it, Keira had granted his wife's not-so-silent wish.

"I'll love what?" came a voice from behind him. A familiar pang sounded in his heart that sent his spirits lifting at hearing the soft sound of her voice, and as he turned to face her, he was satisfied to see her face light up. In her joy, Terri almost dropped the two grocery bags she held against her chest.

Taking the bags from her, Brice half-smiled, half-groaned as Terri gushed over Keira's handiwork.

"You finished it already! Oh, it looks wonderful. It's what I've always wanted," she praised. Without hesitation, she pulled Keira into a firm hug, and Keira wrapped her arms around the older woman in return.

The first time that Terri had hugged her, Keira had been taken so aback with emotion that she had allowed herself to break down and cry. After having her father and best friends ripped away from her, these kind people had taken her in, given her food, and treated her like she belonged. And the way Terri hugged her with such care that first night before she had gone to bed, Keira felt as if she had finally found some semblance of a mother. The gesture touched Keira's heart in such a way that at first, she was merely shocked, and then a wave of overpowering emotions took her so that all she could do was cry. Terri, with the knowledge of an experienced mother, sat and soothed her until Keira had fallen asleep.

"You've really outdone yourself, Keira. I never expected you to have done so much after only a week," Terri said as she left Keira's side to peer up at the window from every possible angle.

"Well, it was my hard head that destroyed your ceiling in the first place. I wouldn't have felt right if I didn't fix it as soon as I could. So you really like it?" she asked.

"Oh, I absolutely adore it," Terri gushed. "This calls for a celebration!" she exclaimed after a moment of thought and clapped her hands together. "Tonight we'll have a feast of a dinner. My specialty!"

Brice heaved a heavy sigh. "Oh, almighty Precursors, please not…"

"Roast Beef Deluxe! With all the fixings too. I'll have to go to the bizarre district and pick up a few things, but…"

"I'll go," Keira offered. "I mean, give me a minute to clean up, and I'll gladly go. I've barely left this house, much less seen any of the city. If you've got a map handy, I'll find my way without a problem."

"I'm not sure…" Brice started.

"What a wonderful idea!" Terri interrupted. "This way I can get started right away! You sure that you don't mind going, Keira?"

Keira made a casual gesture of disregard with a wave of her hand. "It's no problem at all. It'll give me a chance to look for some sort of job while I'm out."

Terri's face fell for the first time since she had stepped into the house. "What do you mean? Are you going to be leaving so soon?"

"No, no. That's not it at all," Keira assured. "It's just that I want to help out more. You've both been so kind to me since the accident, and I don't know any other way to repay you."

Terri wanted to say that she had already done more than enough for them by bringing company in a household that had been empty for far too long and light to an increasingly dark situation, but Brice held up his hand to silence her before she could speak.

"I think that if you're able to find a decent job, then you should take it. But be warned that few women in Haven hold jobs outside of bars and other, less reputable establishments," he said.

"Brice!" Terri admonished, obviously astounded by his frankness.

"Terri, she needs to understand the reality of our situation; the situation of all Haven citizens. I don't want her to be disappointed."

"It's not her being disappointed that I'm worried about. The KG have their hands in everything, and you know how corrupt they've been since the Baron took over. If she manages to find work, the KG… well, I don't want to imagine what they might do. It's bad enough that Torn…"

Terri was interrupted when Keira stepped back into the kitchen, purposely making noise to break up the to-and-fro that had been going on between husband and wife. Neither of them had realized that she'd gone in the first place. In the short time she had gone, she had cleaned herself up and changed into her normal, recently repaired attire.

"I found a map," she announced and stuffed it into her pocket. "Listen, you both don't have to worry about me. I've been up against worse things than the Krimson Guard; like vicious monsters and eco junkies bent on world domination. A few goons in red suits of armor are nothing by comparison," she assured them, and tried to assure herself at the same time.

In truth, all their awful stories about what the Krimson Guard were capable of scared the pants off her.

"Just be careful, Keira," Terri said in her always-motherly way, handing her the recipe card that listed all the ingredients.

"I will. Don't worry. I'll be back before you know it," she replied and started for the door.

"Keira," Brice said as the doors slid open for Keira's exit. "Haven is different inside the walls. Don't let anyone, especially the KG know that you're from the outside."

She nodded, trying to hide her anxiety and excitement about venturing out into the new place. "Got it."

"Hurry back, dear!" Terri called from the kitchen.

Hoping for no further interruptions, Keira slipped out of the house she now called home and headed for the zoomer garage to borrow transportation.


Kiera drove back toward the Slums with an overall feeling of relief. The city within the walls wasn't as bad as she had thought. All the horrible stories she had heard painted a picture of a city in ruins, with people in rags and huddling around fires for warmth. That wasn't the case at all.

The Slums did look pretty run down, almost what she imagined the whole city to be like, but still not quite as bad. She drove a very short distance through the Industrial section, and was absolutely astonished at all the catwalks and metal buildings. It looked like a maze, and it excited her all the more that there was such detail and function to the whole environment. She decided she would have to go exploring on a day when she didn't have errands to run. She absolutely couldn't wait.

She turned left into the Bazaar district and was equally amazed. She had never known a city where every section was its own different environment. There was a barrier in the entryway, so she lowered the zoomer and hopped off. She didn't mind the walk at all.

In the Bazaar, there were tents everywhere and stone buildings. The architecture was like none she had ever seen. There were arches and breezeways here, fruit stands there, and pillars supported the interesting pathway above. People were walking casually around and shopping just as she was.

Ah yes, there was in fact a reason she had come to the Bazaar. She had almost forgotten. Stuffing the map in her back pocket, she removed the recipe card and reviewed the ingredients. Surprisingly, she had heard of most of the vegetables. Still, she had to ask some of the merchants what some other vegetables and spices were and where they were sold. While she shopped, she hesitantly made small talk with other Haven citizens, and again she was surprised to see that most of them were very nice people to talk to. So much for Brice's warning that people were horrible inside the walls.

No more than an hour later, Keira had found all the things on the list and carefully packed them onto her zoomer. She took her time driving back home, although she knew that Terri was probably either worried about her or irritated that she hadn't brought the food back yet. With consideration for her new-found family, she sped up as much as she could considering the grandma drivers in front of her. There were two things she could say for sure about Haven: one was that the city deserved some extensive and detailed exploring to ease her growing curiosity; the other was that the traffic was simply awful.

When she had finally gone halfway through the Slums toward the only gateway open to the High Slums, she could hear a barrage of blasts ahead. Just then, a pack of Krimson Guards rushed through the people below her. Most of them were shoving people and yelling at them to clear the way. One stopped long enough to try to hear the message over his intercom.

"Get your asses over here! The metal heads have taken over the Slums outside the wall, and now they're threatening to break through to the rest of the city! We need backup to help recover some of our guys. Everyone else is going to have to provide cover fire. The Commander is on his way, and you know what kind of disaster that will be. So get here, now! We've got to close the gate!"

Her new home was under attack! That meant that Terri and Brice were...

After losing her family and friends, she was not intent on losing her new family so soon. Ignoring the sinking feeling in her chest and her rising emotions, she dropped down to the lower zone and weaved through the mass of people. Mostly everyone was running away from the danger and she was running toward it. With a flick of her wrist, she changed zones to avoid pedestrians and other zoomers. Awful thoughts plagued her mind, but nothing prepared her for what she saw when she rounded the corner and saw the commotion at the end of the alley.

A barrier of red surrounded the gate. Bullets and energy beams were shot to and fro. Screams came from the other side of the wall, and yells came from the Krimson Guards that were inside the gateway fending off metal head after metal head. She could even see the billows of smoke from various fires. It was complete chaos at every glance.

"Shit, the Commander's coming! Shut the gate! Shut the gate! Get out of there!" one of the Guards yelled.

When she saw the guards pushing back people and metal heads alike, she leapt off her zoomer and fought her way through the distracted guards. She was sure all of them were trying to think of some way to avoid this Commander guy they kept talking about. And no sooner had she thought it, she heard a loud bark of a voice come from far behind her.

"Erol! What the hell do you think you're doing! There are people as well as our own men still in there. You cannot close that gate!"

"That's what you think, Torn," Erol said with an exceedingly arrogant tone. "As second in command, I'm taking over because of your personal interest in the situation. You're not getting through that gate and risking all the lives in Haven City. I'm doing what's best. Sometimes, sacrifices just have to be made," he finished in a mock-sympathic tone.

"You only do what's best for yourself, you bastard. All you care about is saving your own ass. Now, let me through!" By this time, he had made his way past Kiera (hiding within the mass of Guards) and the rest of the crowd. "This is a direct order from your superior officer, Erol. Stand down and open the damn gate!"

Erol sighed and began to pay particular attention to his nails. "Restrain him," he ordered, and was satisfied to see several of his men try to take Torn by the arms. The Commander, Keira found out, was not so easily taken down. He fought against them as they surrounded him in a tight circle to take him down.

Keira knew she had to do something. The only person that seemed to be on her side was being swarmed by the med in red, but that Erol guy was completely unguarded, and that smug grin he was wearing simply grated on her nerves. He was the only person standing in her way from opening the gate. Over all of the commotion around her, she could still hear screams coming from the other side. There were people still alive in there, and she intended to get them out… however she could.

Without much time to prepare, she grabbed the largest wrench she had from her emergency tool kit and charged the red-haired buffoon with the smug grin.

Her heart was pounding as she raced toward the boxes stacked before her. She quickly climbed them like steps and used them as a launch point to come at him from above. He dodged her blow, but to her satisfaction, she managed to clip the back of his head.

Erol lost his balance and toppled ungracefully to the ground. Unfortunately for Keira, so did she. She tucked and rolled, and only her back slammed into the hard metal of the Slums gate. The fall knocked the wind from her, but she was not all that fazed. As quickly as she could, she scrambled to her feet and rushed to the code panel to open the gate. Yet, before she could enter the code to open the gateway, Erol kicked her feet out from under her.

Her face planted hard into the ground, and she was pretty sure that her nose was broken, but still she fought against Erol's attempts to press her face and chest into the ground. She kicked and flung her arms at him fiercely. "No one touches me," he said low into her ear and tugged her hair back so that she was looking at him. "No one. You got that?"

Hate for this man she didn't even know boiled within her. Her family was suffering, possibly dead, behind that wall, and it was all this man's fault. Suddenly, she spat in his face, which got her a sharp slap across her own. She was still pinned to the ground, but she used all her strength to try to throw him off of her.

"Let me go, you bastard! My family is in there. Let me go! Get off of me!" she yelled. "Terri!"

At that, Torn's head jerked in the direction of the girl struggling to free herself from Erol's grip. He knew that name, and to hear her say it sent fire rushing through his veins. He fought even harder against the men who tried to pin him down, but so many more guards took hold of him and jumped onto him that he finally was forced to the ground.

Keira screamed as someone twisted her arms behind her back and bound her hands with something.

"I hope you enjoyed your time in Haven, you bitch, because you're spending the rest of your short life in hell!" Erol yelled from above her and swiftly kicked her in the stomach. The blow forced all the air from her lungs, and she couldn't seem to inhale. She saw the smoke still billowing above the wall, then nothing at all.

"Take her to headquarters and put her in one of the holding cells. Make sure she doesn't have any food and water until I deal with her," he commanded.

"Sir, what about the Commander?" one Krimson Guard questioned.

"It's too late for him to do anything now, and the Baron won't believe or care about whatever he has to say about this. Change the access code for the gate and drop him off in the farm district. That is all."

"You will pay for this, Erol! You will all pay!" Torn snarled from the ground.


Keira awoke with a throbbing headache in yet another unfamiliar place. Her nose hurt like hell, and she could feel bruises over most of her arms and legs. It was like waking up after falling through a roof all over again. She sat up on the small, uncomfortable bed she had been resting on and looked around. The room was small, with walls that were no more than ten feet long. Exactly where the hell was she?

There was a sliding door in front of her, but no keypad. Bars covered the small window that was almost too high for her to see out of. The light above her was dim, but since it wasn't flickering and she assumed Haven's electricity ran off of a good power grid, she supposed it was meant to be dim. In addition to there being little light, the concrete walls kept the room cold.

But it wasn't the cold, the light, or the little space in the small room that gave her goosebumps; it was that she could hear nothing. There were no sounds coming from outside. If there were other people being held as she was, they made no noises. She heard no steps and no voices, as if she wasn't being guarded. The light above her didn't even hum with the sound of electricity. There was absolutely nothing but herself.

She had never felt so alone in her life.

She had lost her friends, her father, and now her new-found family. How horrible was this place she was in for people to just be imprisoned behind a wall and left for dead? She had to do something. She didn't know what. But something had to be done about this.

First thing was first; she had to get herself out of this cell before Erol came back to do Precursors-only-know-what to her.

She thought if she could see out of the window, then she might be able to come up with some sort of way to escape, so she slid her tattered bed against the door and climbed on top. She peered out the window and found that she was right in assuming there were no guards. As it turned out, the outside of her cell was just as glib as the inside.

In the middle of the room, there seemed to be an island-like walkway to a chair. Wires were hanging everywhere as if they were still building whatever the chair was supposed to be used for. Beyond the island was another row of cell doors, so she guessed there were several cells on each side of hers as well. Next she tried to angle her head to study the keypad that opened the door. To her great relief, it was just a standard keypad that would open if the right code was entered.

Her first idea was to wear away the concrete and open the door by connecting the right wires from the back of the keypad. But then she remembered Erol's promise to make her life a living hell. Wearing away the concrete would take far too long. She needed to escape now.

Perhaps if she just entered the right code into the keypad, then she could set herself free. This way was much faster, but she would have to find something long enough to reach outside of her window and touch the keypad. As she was assembling wire from the mattress along with other materials she managed to find useful in her room, the thought came to her that she might not be the only one being held prisoner.

Quickly, she jumped back on the bed and yelled as loud as she could.

"Hello! Is there anybody here? Can you hear me? Hello!"

Finally, just as she was beginning to think she really was all alone, she heard the loud clang of metal on metal, and then something hitting the floor. She guessed that someone had thrown something against the bars of their cell. There really was someone else there.

"Hello! Is there someone there? I'm going to get us out okay?" she responded.

No sound answered her.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt? Say something!"

Again, no sound answered her. Little did she know that her fellow prisoner had never spoken a word in his life, and couldn't answer her even if he wanted to.

She was about to try a third time to get a response, but a loud noise that nearly made Keira jump out of her skin resounded through the room as someone entered. Keira quickly and quietly replaced her bed and feigned sleep. Hopefully, if Erol thought she was still unconscious, he would leave her alone for a little while longer. It was a plan doomed for failure, but she had to at least try.

She tensed as the footsteps approached her door. She tried hard not to whimper as her cell door opened. And it was all she could do to keep her breathing even as he entered the cell and stood beside her bed.

"Hey, get up," he said softly, and nudged her. "I know you're awake."

It wasn't Erol's voice. It was someone else. It wasn't Erol. Thank the Precursors! But who…

Slowly, she peeked one eye open, and to her relief, it really wasn't Erol. The man that towered over her wore a Krimson Guard uniform. His helmet was removed, and the first thing that caught her eye was his corn-rolled hair. With all the strange things she had seen since her arrival in Haven, this had to be the strangest. He also had tattoos all over his face, another thing that seemed strange to her. As she looked into his eyes, she had to stifle a sharp gasp. His eyes were the iciest blue she had ever seen. His eyes made her think of Brice and all the other people in the High Slums who must have suffered.

"You… you're that commander guy, aren't you?" she asked quietly.

A stern look crossed his face as he tossed a heavy uniform onto her bed. "Not anymore. I'm leaving this god-awful place, and I'm taking you with me," he said.

"What? I don't understand."

"You're the girl who tried to open the gate to the Slums, right?"

"Yes," she answered simply.

"And you knew two people called Brice and Terri, isn't that right?" he questioned.

"Yes… they are… they were… my family," she answered him.

"Then put the suit on. If you wear it, that should give us enough time to get out of here before they discover you're gone," he ordered. For a moment, she just sat there as if she hadn't heard him at all. "Hurry up! We're getting out of here."

As he helped her put the uniform on, Torn became lost in his own thoughts. He knew that he had to do something to bring the Baron out of power. Things were getting out of hand, and someone had to stop him. And with Erol moving up in the ranks with his own absence, things could get a lot worse. He didn't know for sure if this girl would be of any help, but he knew he had to protect her.

Not long ago, he had made a promise to his mother and father when they had taken in a young woman after she had suffered a harsh fall through the roof of their home. He had promised his parents that in their absence, he would protect her.

In memory of his parents, he would do just that.


Well, how did you like the surprise? Was it even a surprise at all? Hope you all enjoyed seeing some familiar faces in this one. I took a different spin on it than I had originally planned, but I think it worked out better. This way, I got to let Keira communicate a bit with her fellow mute prisoner (wink, wink). What do you think so far? Did it totally go a different way than you thought it would? Is it horrible? Tell me! Review! I'll have the next chapter up much faster this time, I promise! -JATS