A/N: Yeah…new chapter… after how many days..? And I said two weeks last chapter… -sigh-
Thanks go out to:
Ashley
Fluffys-sidekick: My brain agrees with you and tells me to go out more. –.–; It's gonna demand to join a union next…
Emera Took
M-Python-Girl: feedback appreciated.
Kitty Kat-chan: …I fear for my life. I'll fear for it more in a couple of weeks when I get up to the "will Jak live or die?" chapter(s).
Raven Cactuar: Torn and Jak may be vampires but they aren't exactly undead. They still have heartbeats and body temperatures, they breathe and they –can– eat mortal food if they have to so there's no reason for any of the others to think they are anything but mortal.
Warnings: vampirism, thoughts of suicide, yaoi, frustrated female vampires who are an inch away from banging heads. Lucia isn't happy with Jak and Torn… Oh, and a weird part that was kinda inspired by GothicJak. "Sis", (XD) you'll know it when you see it…
Disclaimer: Lucia's mine. Everyone else belongs to ND.
Chapter start…
The next few days passed pretty much the same. Torn would spend the daylight hours behind his desk, catching up on the paperwork. Jak hung out with Daxter at the gun course, the stadium and the Naughty Ottsel. Lucia hung around talking to everyone and telling them all where she had been for the last few years. After she revealed she had been a Marauder Sig didn't get on very well with her though.
At night Torn would go out hunting with Jak, watching his childe improve his vampiric skills quickly.
Jak was almost enjoying spending time with Torn. He also realised that he didn't hate the taste of blood, a fact he kept secret from his sire.
'I don't want to be a vampire and he knows it. I can't watch my friends die, knowing I'll never age and never die. How can I live knowing that someday I'll be alone forever?'
The two vampires headed back to Lucia's apartment.
"Torn, you know this is the last night…" Jak began.
"So I only have tomorrow to make you change your mind?" asked Torn.
"I'm not happy as a vampire, Torn. I can't see my self ever being happy as a vampire," replied Jak. "You said you'd let me go if I wanted to."
"When I said that I had something less permanent in mind," Torn muttered.
They arrived back at the apartment in silence, heading straight to bed without a word. However neither vampire slept at all.
Torn tossed and turned all night, trying to come up with ways of making sure Jak didn't kill himself.
He couldn't think of anything.
'I've failed,' he thought miserably. 'I've failed as a mentor, a sire, I've failed Daxter and all of his friends and I've failed as a vampire.'
Jak lay awake in the next room, using his fangs to slice his wrist open and watching it heal in a few seconds.
'I wish none of this had happened. I wish I didn't know anything about Torn being a vampire,' he thought.
The next morning Lucia could sense the tension between the two vampires. She felt horrible for not doing anything more to help her brother.
'But Jak is his childe and his responsibility. He'd only tell me off for interfering if I tried to help,' the female vampire thought but it didn't make her feel any better.
Jak left first, saying he was going to help Keira out at the race garage.
Once he was gone Torn sank down on the living room sofa miserably.
"I've failed, Lucia. He still wants to go through with it and I can't change his mind!"
"Torn, you've still got today, right? You still have a chance!" Lucia replied, trying to give her brother the confidence to try. She sat next to him and hugged him.
Torn shook his head. "He's convinced he's a monster, Lucia. I can't make him think differently in a day!"
"Torn, you have until tonight! You can convince him! I know you can! Don't give up now! Lucia said.
Torn stood up. "I should be getting to work," he said, heading for the door.
Lucia sat on the sofa and pouted. 'Dammit! What is it gonna take to keep Jak alive and my brother happy?' She stood up. 'Time to pay a visit to Jak, I think."
Twenty minutes later, Lucia was jogging up the steps of the stadium, cursing stubborn males.
"Hey Keira," the brunette vampire greeted. "Is Jak around? I really need to talk to him."
Keira shook her head. "He was here earlier but he just left with Sig to hunt Metal Heads," the mechanic replied.
"Oh damn," Lucia cursed. "Any idea where?"
"Um…Haven Forest maybe, or the Pumping Station…I can't remember. I was repairing an engine at the time," Keira replied apologetically.
"Okay then. Thanks anyway," Lucia replied.
The vampiress went to Haven Forest first but only found Samos meditating. He hurled a few logs at her for disturbing him but she ducked them easily and headed to the Pumping Station.
When she arrived at the Pumping station almost an hour later, Lucia found Sig and a bunch of dead Metal Heads.
"Hey Sig! Where's Jak? I heard he was with you," Lucia said.
"He's gone to help Daxter and Tess in the Naughty Ottsel," Sig replied, decapitating a Metal Head corpse to make a trophy.
"Thanks," Lucia said, turning and running back to the city.
'Jak's very helpful today,' she thought, realising what he was up to. 'He's saying goodbye without them realising what he was planning!'
Lucia raced to the Naughty Ottsel as fast as she could with her vampiric speed. She slipped down alleys and back streets to get to the port. Once she passed the gun course she slowed down to the speed of an average mortal elf so that she didn't startle anyone near the bar by suddenly "appearing".
"Hey, Tess, Daxter!" Lucia greeted as she walked into the bar. "Is Jak around?"
"He's cleaning out the back room for us," the blonde barmaid replied.
The back room was cluttered with crates and bottles that needed to be sorted out. Jak was in the middle of it, trying to sort out different bottles into different crates.
"Hey, Jak. Can I talk to you for a minute?" Lucia asked.
"Is it about…you know, tonight?" he asked quietly.
"Yes," Lucia answered honestly. "But also about Torn."
"You can't talk me out of it, no matter what you say," Jak said. "I was enough of a monster before I started drinking blood and I don't want to continue this way."
"You're not a monster any more than Torn and I are," Lucia said. "We're simply predators like any other out there in the wild. We just happen to be able to walk and talk like the mortals who don't like the idea that there can be anything higher than them on the food chain. They think taking blood for food is horrible and so my people – our people – have been forced into hiding to avoid being wiped out and we have been made into creatures of myth, horror stories to scare people in the dead of night!"
Jak set down the bottle he was holding. "Lucia, I'm going to watch all my friends grow old and die," he whispered. "I can't do that."
"What about Torn and I? Aren't we your friends?" Lucia asked.
"Uh…well…"
"And what about what your decision is doing to Torn?" Lucia asked. "Do you have any idea how much you're hurting him?" She paused and continued her rant. "Of course you don't! Hell, he doesn't even realise why he's hurting so much! Goddamn stupid males who can't recognise their own feelings! The only thing stopping me from telling him what he feels is the fact that he'll deny it until the end of the world unless he realises it for himself! And you're no better!" Lucia kicked a crate in frustration.
"Hey, hey! Watch the crate!" Daxter yelled behind here. "That's some of the good stuff!"
The Ottsel inspected the bottles. "None broken…so what's all this stuff about monsters and mortals then?"
Lucia and Jak shared a look.
"And what about Torn?" asked Tess from the doorway.
"Oh fuck," Lucia cursed.
"Are we going to tell them, Lucia?" Jak asked.
"We can't," Lucia answered. "Once we tell them everyone else will know and then…"
"What do you mean, you can't tell us?" Daxter asked indignantly.
"Don't we have a right to know?" Tess added, folding her arms across her chest.
"Remember when Onin said there were secrets meant only fore a select few?" Lucia asked. "This is one of those things. It's best if you just forget you ever heard this conversation."
Daxter raised an eyebrow. "And how are we supposed to do that when we know you're keeping something huge from us? It's easier said than done!"
Lucia smirked. "It's easier than you think…" she murmured.
The vampire sent thought tendrils into the minds of Daxter and Tess, carefully rearranging their memories and erasing all traces of the conversation they had heard. She fabricated a new memory of Lucia helping Jak for a bit and then leaving.
While the Ottsel and woman were still in a trance as their memories rearranged and settled Lucia turned to Jak.
"The ottsel's mind is strange. It isn't like that of a normal animal," she said, puzzled.
"Daxter used to be an elf. He fell into a vat of Dark Eco and it transformed him," Jak answered.
"Well, okay then," Lucia said, absorbing the information. "Think about what I said, Jak. I'll see you later." Lucia turned and left quickly.
Moments later Daxter and Tess came out of their trance. Jak carried on sorting bottles as though nothing had happened.
Lucia's next stop was Torn's office in the Palace.
She knocked quickly on the door and entered. "Torn? Mind if I come in to chat?" she asked.
"I'm busy, Lucia," Torn said, scribbling on some forms and throwing them in his outbox.
"But this is important!" Lucia said. "Yu can stop signing forms for five minutes!"
"I'm behind enough, Lucia. I need to catch up!" Torn growled.
Lucia gave an exasperated sigh. "Your childe is out there, helping his friends as a way for saying goodbye without them knowing he's not going to be there tomorrow and you're not even trying to change his mind!"
"Because I can't, Lucia! I want nothing more than to stop him but I can't!" Torn said despairingly. "He's stubborn and unhappy with the way he is…. Besides, I told him that if he wanted to leave me he could."
Lucia resisted the urge to bang her head off the wall.
"Torn, you can't let him go through with this!" she protested.
"I am. End of story," Torn said firmly. "It's his life, Lucia. Let him do what he wants with it."
Lucia was furious. "Oh, you're both completely fucking hopeless!" she screamed, turning on her heel and storming out.
Torn watched her leave and then locked his office door. Once he was sure nobody would disturb him, he opened a draw in his desk and pulled out a large bottle of whiskey and a glass. Pouring himself a double shot, the tattooed vampire settled down to think.
'How am I supposed to persuade Jak not to kill himself? It's not like I can tie him up and lock him away for eternity. He'll only hate me more for that,' thought Torn. He tried to ignore the emotional pain he felt at the thought of Jak hating him.
'Is it even my business to stop him now? I had my chance and I failed. I'm no good as a sire or a vampire.' Torn poured himself another shot and downed it.
"Should probably top myself too," he murmured. "How much can a stake through the heart hurt?"
The vampire sighed heavily. 'I shouldn't feel this bad…if it was anyone else I know I wouldn't feel like I'm about to lose my most important possession,' he realised.
He poured himself a third shot of whiskey and downed it while he considered this.
'Its probably just the fact that we have a Blood Bond, strengthened by the fact that he's my first childe,' the vampire reasoned. 'Nothing more. It can't be anything more.'
Torn gave up on poring shots and started drinking from the bottle.
Several hours later saw Torn passed out drunk on his office floor. Several times someone had come by with more paperwork but had assumed Torn was out when he didn't answer.
In his drunken sleep, Torn dreamed.
The tattooed vampire was sitting on a rock in Haven Forest, watching Jak and a girl play in the pool. The pair were laughing and splashing each other playfully.
Jak turned to Torn. "Are you sure you don't want to come in, love? The water's lovely," she said, smiling.
"No thinks, I'm fine watching," Torn replied.
"Aw, come on, Daddy Torn! Please?" pleaded the girl.
"I said no," Torn replied, looking away. He knew the girl, his daughter would be pouting at him and try as he might, he couldn't resist it.
There was some more splashing and Torn found himself being carried into the water by Jak.
"Put me down, Jak!" he ordered.
"Aw you wish," Jak smirked and put Torn down – in the water!
The older vampire glared. "I meant on dry land."
"Should have been more specific then," Jak chuckled. The blond vampire leaned closer to Torn and pressed a kiss to his lips.
Torn woke with a gasp, the last scene from his dream playing over and over his mind.
"Just a dream, doesn't mean a thing, just a dream, doesn't mean a thing, justadreamdoesn'tmeanathing…" he murmured, repeating the mantra over and over again.
When he had calmed down enough, Torn looked at the clock.
'Jak's probably looking for me to tell him a vampire's weaknesses,' he thought.
Slowly he stood, thankful that alcohol didn't affect him for long and that he never suffered from hangovers. He unlocked the office door and stepped outside to find Jak waiting for him.
"You know why I'm here," Jak said simply.
"I do. Let's talk on the roof. Less disturbances up there," relied Torn.
The two vampires climbed into the elevator and rode to the roof of the Palace. Torn had hidden a bag of everything Jak could possibly need to kill himself there earlier. When they exited the elevator, the first thing he did was retrieve it.
"You still hate being a vampire," Torn said. It was more of a statement than a question. "You want to end it."
"Yeah," Jak confirmed.
"Just remember, there's no coming back after this and if you screw up, you'll be stuck here bleeding to death until either I or Lucia come up to put you out of your misery," Torn warned.
Jak nodded so he continued.
"A vampire's main weakness is wood. Silver is also harmful but wood is poisonous to us. Any little cut that would normally heal in seconds would take days if it was made by wood or silver. That is why a stake to the heart is the most common method of killing a vampire in myths," Torn said, taking a stake out of the bag. "Alternatively, you could cut your wrists of neck with wood. However, if you screw up slitting your own throat you'll be bleeding painfully for a long time unless you have the good fortune to black out,"
"Gee, thanks," Jak said dryly.
"Everything in this bag will create wounds that can be fatal but a stake through the heart is the quickest," Torn informed Jak, handing him the bag.
The older vampire turned away as a wave of despair coursed through him.
"Have fun," he said emotionlessly, trying to pretend nothing was wrong.
"Where are you going?" asked Jak. "Don't you even care about what I'm doing?"
"It's killing me, Jak," Torn whispered. "I just need to get away from here.2
Jak nodded, understanding. "Well, uh…goodbye then," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Goodbye," Torn whispered. He left quickly, running to the elevator before he could turn around and grab the bag out of Jak's hands.
When he was gone, Jak sighed and looked down at the bag.
'Now here comes the hard part…'
Torn ran from the palace to his sister's apartment, hoping his sister would be there. It seemed she had been expecting him for she had been standing just inside the door.
She pulled her brother into a hug and told him to go and sit in the living room. When they were sitting down, Torn told her all the tings he had been keeping inside of him, shielding then from everyone.
"I've failed, Lucia. I failed at being a sire, as a vampire and I've failed at being a friend," Torn said, trembling with despair. "He's gone to kill himself and I can't stop him."
"Torn…" Lucia said sympathetically, wondering what she could possibly say to make him feel better.
"Nothing will change his mind, Lucia. I'm not even sure I have the right to after all the trouble I caused him," Torn continued.
"I'm sure somewhere inside him, he doesn't really want to do this," Lucia said comfortingly. "He's just scared of watching his friends die before him."
"He thinks he's a monster, Lucia!" Torn exclaimed. "How do I get him to stop thinking that in the few minutes I possibly have left before he stakes himself!"
Torn buried his face in his hands. "Why does this hurt so much, Lucia? Is it because he's my friend? My childe?"
"The answer to that is something only you can figure out," Lucia replied.
"I had a dream earlier… fell asleep in my office and dreamt that Jak and I were in Haven Forest with a girl who was our daughter. I wouldn't go in the water so Jak picked me up and dumped me in it and then he…he kissed me… That was when I woke up," Torn said. "But…it's just a dream. Dreams don't mean anything."
"Is that what your heart tells you?" Lucia asked.
Torn paused at the question. "Well…I know…I don't want him to go. I want him to stay forever and not hate me. I…want him to like me, Lucia. In the dream, the kiss seemed…natural. Like he was used to doing it, if you know what I mean."
Lucia nodded. "So do you really think your dream means nothing?" she asked.
Torn thought for a moment about all he had said to Lucia. "You know… with the way I'm acting, you'd think I…loved him…" Torn's eyes widened with realisation. "I do, don't I? I love Jak."
Lucia smiled, glad her brother had finally figured it out. "You still have time, right?"
Torn nodded. He'd be able to tell if Jak had died yet.
"Go tell him then! If anything will save him, it will be your love!" Lucia said, shoving her brother out of the apartment.
Torn gave his sister a quick smile. "Thanks. And try not to sound like someone out of a corny old romance novel!" he added before he started running to the Palace as fast as he could with his vampiric speed. He no longer cared if any mortals saw him. All he wanted was to be able to tell Jak how he felt while there was still time.
The elevator ride to the top was pure torture. Torn had no clue how close Jak was to driving a stake through his heart and he could only pray he arrived in time.
Jak gazed at the stake in his hand.
"It's now or never…" he whispered, positioning the stake over his heart and preparing to push.
Chapter end…
A/N: O.O So, Torn's realised his love for Jak and last and Jak's about to kill himself…so, will Torn make it in time or will he be too later? Muahahahaha! You'll have to wait a DEFINITE minimum of two weeks for the next chapter but I'll post two then to make it up to you all.
Review please?
