Keira was roused the next morning by the sounds of a commotion outside, a burring undercurrent of voices. She opened her eyes, and the sunlight beamed in through her still open window, illuminating her bed sheets with a glare that was painful to her sleep-soaked eyes. She turned over and slowly sat up, rubbing the brightness out of her vision. She was still feeling rather dozy and just wanted to draw the curtains shut and go straight back to sleep again, but there was no chance with all that noise going on outside. What could possibly be happening out there?
But then she remembered: the celebrations must have begun!
Tiredness quickly forgotten, she excitedly unwound herself from the sheets, got to her knees on the bed and leaned through the window. Outside she saw an overwhelming sight. The street below, right in front of her house, was so tightly packed with people that the road itself could barely be seen, and hundreds of voices rose up and mixed together in a great, cacophonous chatter. At first, Keira looked on with wonder and delight. Nearly everyone in the entire city had to be here.
But then she realised that things were not as she had thought; nobody looked happy, and whereas yesterday there had been cheers of gladness and patriotism during the great speech, today their voices bore the tones of confusion and panic. This was no party or parade of victory. Something was wrong.
Suddenly, a Freedom trooper shot past Keira's window on a zoomer, speeding over the heads of those below. She fell back onto the bed in surprise, and the rush of warm air blew the curtains into her face. When she pushed them aside again and climbed back to her previous position, she discerned one voice among the many that she recognised. It was her father, and when she looked down, she could see him pushing and shoving his way through the throng with his walking stick in hand.
"Get out of my way! Let me through!" he was shouting.
"Daddy!" Keira called from the window, but Samos made no response and continued moving through the mass of people. "Daddy!" Keira shouted again, louder this time.
Samos looked up and saw her at the window, as did a few others nearby who had also heard her shout. "Keira! Stay inside!" the sage ordered. "Don't come out! I'm going to Freedom Headquarters!"
"But Daddy, what's happening?" Keira called out, but suddenly, she had lost sight of him. He disappeared among all the other people (who were all much taller than he was, even with his log shoes on), and she was left alone without any answers. His little blue bird was seen to rise up above the crowd and then flutter away above the buildings, escaping from the madness.
Keira felt a surge of panic, but that was soon replaced by defiance and determination, and it made her clench her teeth. She had been told to stay inside throughout the whole war, never allowed to get involved with anything, and enough was enough. She did not have to put up with this anymore. She wanted to know exactly what was happening, and she was going to find out, one way or another.
Off the bed she leapt into the middle of the room, and then she flung her door open and dashed downstairs, not even bothering to put on her dressing gown. She ran to the front door and hastily unlocked it, bursting onto the porch, but there was nowhere to go. The dense, impenetrable wall of the crowd was pressed right up to her doorstep, and there was hardly any space in between anymore. Keira blanched. Trying to follow her father into this was just stupid and dangerous, and if she wasn't careful, people would soon start spilling in through her front door. The faces of the ones right in front of her looked lost and uncertain, none of them had seen her father pass through, and they could provide no answers of what was happening.
Keira did not know what to do, and stood on her tiptoes to crane her neck higher, in a vain attempt to sight her father. She did not succeed, as she fully expected. She got frustrated as she understood that he had definitely been right — as usual — that she should stay indoors, for the sake of safety if nothing else. There was nothing she could do, nowhere she could go.
But then she heard another familiar voice calling her name. To the left, above the heads of those in the crowd she saw Tess waving for her attention. Keira called back and beckoned her over, encouraged by the sight of someone she knew. Tess slowly drew closer, and then it was revealed that she was riding atop Azyma's head, who was squeezing her way through the gaps in the tight crowd.
Keira helped pull them both out onto the relative safety of the doorstep. "Get inside!" she said urgently, and without hesitation the three of them quickly jumped into the house and shut the door behind them. Keira locked it fast.
"Man, am I glad to be out of that!" said Azyma, able to breathe again, as Tess jumped down from her onto the floor.
Keira turned to her friends. "Are you guys alright?"
"Yeah, I think so," answered Tess, looking shaken but relieved.
"Can I get you anything? A drink of water or something?" Keira asked.
"Oh yes please," said Tess and Azyma together. "Feel like we need one after that."
"Sure," said Keira, putting the comfort of her friends before her immediate questions. "Go sit in the front room. I'll bring them in."
"I guess we're your customers now, huh?" said Azyma with a little smile.
Keira showed them into the front room and then headed off into the kitchen to fetch the drinks. Tess and Azyma flopped onto an empty couch. Seconds later, Keira returned to them with a cool glass of water in each hand.
"Thanks," they both said, taking grateful sips as Keira sat down on the seat opposite. A calming silence was in the room, but the muffled noise of the crowd outside could still be heard permeating through the walls and windows.
Then Azyma looked around, impressed. "So this is your house, huh? Nice place. Beats mine."
But Keira did not respond to the compliment. "What's going on out there?" she asked impulsively.
Azyma lowered her glass and explained, looking ambivalent. "I think the bombing fleet's back."
Keira's long ears twitched, her suspicions from earlier partially confirmed, but she did not speak and listened intently to what more Azyma had to say.
"I saw some vehicles fly over the city earlier this morning on my way to the bar," continued Azyma. "There was definitely a bomber with them. They disappeared behind some buildings and I lost sight of them, but they were definitely heading to the top end of the city."
"To Freedom HQ," Keira said in realisation.
Azyma nodded and continued. "I guess other people saw them too, and they started spreading the word that our heroes had returned. Next thing I knew, everyone was following them from the street toward Freedom HQ, saying there'd be another big speech or something, but I got to the bar and told Tess."
Tess then took over. "We locked up and followed all the people heading north, hoping to learn something, or give Daxter a nice surprise. It was before opening time anyway, so we thought we could make it. But we got caught up in the crowds, and soon we couldn't go anywhere, trapped. It's crazy out there! There's just so many people."
"I wish we'd just stayed at the bar," said Azyma. "We still haven't learned anything. We still don't know if we've even won."
"We've got to find out!" Keira said at once, her feistiness finding new fuel.
"But how?" asked Tess. "We can't use the streets, Keira."
"Quick, to the roof!" said Keira. "We might be able to see more from up there. Come on."
They all immediately headed up the stairs to the top floor, leaving the water glasses behind on the coffee table. Once on the highest landing, Keira pulled down a ladder from the ceiling, climbed up it to open a hatch, and then helped her friends through. They came out on the flat rooftop terrace of the building. It was a place where Keira would sometimes come to relax on a nice day, and there was also a small potted garden growing in the corner that belonged to Samos. But there was nothing peaceful about it today, for when they emerged, the many voices of the city were loud and strong in the air again.
The three girls moved to the low stone wall at the edge and looked down upon the scene. From up here, they could behold the full scope of whatever madness was consuming the people. The crowd below had come to a complete standstill now; nobody could move forwards or backwards, and it extended down the road both ways, left and right, disappearing around the corners. There were desperate cries for help coming from those stuck in the middle, while at the edges, others were spilling out and falling into the waterways that lined the roads.
"Oh those poor people!" gasped Azyma.
Keira looked tremulously down upon it too. This was much worse than the big speech yesterday, much more frantic and uncontrolled. What was all this? But finally she wrenched her eyes away from it all and looked towards the spire of the HQ building that stood not too far away, towering above all else. There she knew answers must lie. She reached for a set of binoculars that were kept up here on the roof, and lifted them before her eyes. The building definitely looked closed off, but she could not see the front doors or the fountain courtyard, hidden by the houses in front. Then she moved her line of sight up the walls, storey by storey, for something that might offer a clue, but the windows were all blank, no signs of any activity. Nothing even of her father or Jak or anyone else. Just what was going on over there?
"What can you see?" Azyma asked her.
"Nothing yet," Keira answered, still scanning the windows.
"Can I have a look?"
"Wait..." Keira squinted her eyes at the lenses, thinking she had seen something, but then it was gone, or perhaps she had imagined it. Just another empty window. "No, it's nothing," she said, and handed the binoculars over to Azyma, who peered into them with interest.
Meanwhile, Tess had scrambled up a nearby metal pole to get an even higher view point. She clung to the top, shading her eyes against the sun with one hand and looking all around.
"Can you see anything from up there?" Keira asked up hopefully.
"Probably not much more than you can," Tess answered.
Keira then turned to Azyma again. "Azyma, how many cruisers did you see flying over the city earlier?"
"Not many," Azyma answered without lowering the binoculars. "Only looked about... fifteen at the most."
Keira was concerned. "There were way more than fifteen when they all took off yesterday. Way more."
"Or... I don't know," Azyma continued unsurely. "I only caught a quick glimpse of them as they flew over. There might have been more, but I couldn't see them from the street because of the buildings."
Keira chewed her bottom lip worriedly and continued to think, attempting to connect together the pieces of information that were apparent. If Azyma's guess count was accurate, then where were all the other aircrafts? Had they come back at an earlier time, quietly and unnoticed before most of the city was awake? Or had they not made it back at all yet? Were those cruisers even part of the fleet or had they been in the city all along? And where was Jak in all this? How she wished that she had all the answers, but it seemed that nobody else in the city knew either. At least, nobody who was out here right now. Who could tell what was going on inside that closed-off building?
"Keira, doesn't your father work at Freedom HQ?" Tess asked from atop the pole.
"Yeah, but he left just before you two got here, trying to make his way over there," Keira explained. "I wasn't able to catch him. If he knows what's going on, he didn't tell me anything."
She looked back down upon the flooding and chaotic streets, wondering where her father was now. He might have made it to Freedom HQ, or he could still be stuck in the crowd somewhere, but there was no sign of him at all. It was like trying to spot a small twig in a field of wild, waving grass. She hoped he was alright, wherever he was right now.
They hung around on the rooftop for the next few minutes, keeping a watch on things for any more clues or in case anything new happened. It wasn't like they could go anywhere else, after all; they were stuck here in the house, an island of refuge in a sea of faces. Some of the other neighbours had the same idea and were on their roofs too. Every so often, they looked to the sky as well, but it was always devoid of any other vehicle. All the while, the terrible clamour continued to rise up and fill the air of the whole neighbourhood, an unsettling din.
But then, louder, more commanding voices could be heard below. They looked down, and could see that some Freedom guards had finally showed up, on foot and on zoomers, trying to restore order and helping people out of the streets. Gradually, the noise began to filter away, the vast crowd started to break up, and calm made its way back into the city.
When the immediate space at the front of the house was cleared, Keira decided that now was the time to get going. "Now's our chance! Let's get down there!"
Though Tess and Azyma shared her desire to find out more, and would have followed her, they stopped her. "But Keira," said Tess with mild embarrassment, "You're still in your pyjamas!"
Azyma smirked, and Keira looked down at herself, and found that Tess was right. In all the excitement, she had completely forgotten that she wasn't dressed yet.
"Wait for me by the front door," she said, and then she disappeared down the ladder.
Tess and Azyma followed her down shortly after and closed the hatch, before heading straight downstairs to the front door. They did not have to wait there long; Keira was in and out of her room in less than two minutes, and came down the stairs now properly dressed, albeit looking slightly ruffled from her haste.
Together they left the house and moved briskly along the now much emptier streets. There was room to breathe now, but some people were still there, gathered in small clusters outside their own homes. Some were wet from falling in the waterways and wrapped in blankets, and others were seated on the road or lying down, suffering from injuries sustained in the crush, as friends and medics tended to them.
"Oh dear," said Azyma worriedly, as they passed someone who looked quite seriously hurt.
But they did not stop until the Freedom HQ Building stood clear before them. When they got there, however, they were greeted by a hastily erected barrier in the middle of the road being manned by several soldiers, barring their way. They did not let them pass.
"Please move along now," the nearest soldier ordered politely. "The area around Freedom HQ is off limits."
"Why?" asked Keira regardless, getting hopeful for answers. She was not to be deterred that easily. "What's happening here exactly? Please, we want to know."
The soldier looked strained and harried, but since the three of them were the only ones here and they were behaving calmly, he took a moment to quickly explain what little he knew. "I shall tell you what I've told everyone else. There is urgent business being conducted in the HQ building, for city officials only. Strictly classified. Not even I know what's happening in there. Nobody else is allowed in. I'm sorry."
Keira was frustrated. Even though she had been inside the HQ Building on many occasions before, she did not have the proper clearance to enter by herself, and had to be with her father in order to gain entry. But even today, her chances of getting inside looked slim and unlikely, even if she could find her father.
"I suggest you move on now," the guard reiterated, signifying that the short talk was over. "Please, we don't want another crowd to form."
"Come on Keira," said Tess rationally. "I don't think we're going to learn anything right now. Let's go open the bar, you can come with us."
Keira stood still for a moment, looking up at the HQ Building that stood tantalisingly out of reach. Her eyes found the great window of the main control room, tinted from the outside so that nothing but the reflections of the surrounding buildings could be seen in it. That was most likely where her father would be right now, and possibly Jak too. She wondered if they might be looking down on her at this moment through that darkened glass.
"Alright," she then said, accepting defeat for now, but she told herself just to keep patient. All she needed to do was wait for her father to come home later in the day, and then she would be sure find out everything she wanted to know from him. She turned away, accompanying Tess and Azyma back into the heart of the city.
An hour later, Keira was at the bar, occupying the very same chair as on her visit yesterday, and she cast her eyes around the room. How different the present atmosphere now was, compared to what should be happening in here today. They should all be celebrating right now, well into the heat of the sure-to-be raucous party that had been planned, with Daxter no doubt commanding the festivities. Jak should be sitting right at her side, his arm around her. But instead, she sat by herself, and the whole place was a tense nest of speculation, controversy and conspiracy. The main topic of discussion on nearly everyone's lips was the same. Had they won the war? What was happening at Freedom HQ? Where was the word from their leaders on all this? Should they start the party yet?
"Another glass of water, Keira?" Azyma offered from behind the counter.
"Sure, thanks," Keira replied. "I don't suppose you've got any food either, do you? I didn't really have any breakfast before all this started."
Azyma looked to Tess by her side, who said, "Well, we don't really serve proper meals, but we should have a snack or two lying around. I'll go check."
She disappeared into the back rooms, leaving Azyma and Keira alone together for a moment. "Do you think Jak's got anything to do with all this?" Azyma asked.
Keira shrugged. "Honestly, no idea. Maybe, but who knows?" She knew it was a lame answer, but it was what she most wanted to know too. "There's definitely something strange going on."
"But he'll pull through, huh?" said Azyma. "He can solve anything, can't he?"
Keira looked at Azyma and couldn't resist a little smile at her optimistic faith in Jak. Sure, Jak was pretty reliable when it came to saving the day, and he'd got them out of so many perils before, but privately Keira wondered if things really were as they seemed.
"You know, it's funny," Azyma went on, resting her hands upon the table top. "Tess told me he was in the Underground the same time I was, yet I never ever crossed paths with him. Never got a chance to meet him in person. Weird, huh?" She smiled awkwardly.
Keira raised a foxy eyebrow. "Well, I'm sure that'll change real soon," she said, still smirking.
Azyma giggled. "Could you introduce me?"
"Yeah, sure, whatever," said Keira, and Azyma giggled again like some kind of excited fan girl.
Keira brushed it aside and continued her thinking. She assumed that Jak and Daxter must be in Freedom HQ right now, alongside her father, wrapped up in whatever was going on over there, but once they were done, their first stop was sure to be straight here to the pub. She frequently threw glances over her shoulder to the front door, hoping to see them come striding in at any moment, perhaps a dramatic entrance as Daxter so often loved to do. But every time she looked, there was no one there, and whenever she did hear it open, causing her head to immediately snap around to see, it was always someone she did not know, come to join in with the rest of the clueless chatter.
The times in between, she speculated with Azyma and Tess, trying their best to fit a story to what they thought they knew, what they had seen going on so far, but it always felt like they were going around in circles. People continuously came and went, but by mid-morning, Jak and Daxter still had not made any appearance. Noon arrived, and still there was no sign of them, and the Freedom League remained ominously silent. No official announcements were made.
"This must be pretty serious," said Tess with worry.
Keira was beginning to feel the same way. Clearly something very unexpected had happened that the city had not prepared for, and the only explanations she could imagine did not bode well. She felt a feeling of unease taking seed in her stomach, and slowly spreading throughout her whole body like an infection. The longer they were left uninformed, the worse it became.
By lunch time, Keira was getting restless. Again, here she was sitting idle while important things that she could not be a part of were developing elsewhere. Her curious nature strongly tempted to draw her out, to try and investigate further on her own. Talking about it with Azyma and Tess was taking her nowhere; they just couldn't work it out with what little they had. Eventually, she decided that she would waste no further hours here in the pub, and would head home to await her father's return. Tess and Azyma saw the sense in this choice, and said they would remain here for Jak and Daxter. That way they could cover two places at once.
"I'll let you know as soon as I find anything out," Keira promised to them, and they likewise promised to get in touch with her should Jak and Daxter turn up. "Take care."
The streets were a lot calmer now, and when she got back to her house in New Haven, it was still empty, just as she had left it.
"Daddy?" she called out just in case, but there was no answer.
Clearly her father had not returned yet. For a while she resigned herself to waiting, but she lasted only about half an hour before her impatience got the better of her, and she decided to try calling him. After rummaging around in her bedroom for her communicator, she attempted to get through to him, only to hear her own voice echoing from somewhere else in the house. She followed the sound, and found her father's communicator left on a table in one of the downstairs rear rooms. Keira was concerned, for it was unusual for him to be without it, but in the few times when he did leave it behind like this, it normally meant that he did not want to be disturbed, or he had left in a hurry. Today, both reasons were equally plausible.
With that idea coming to nothing, she moved into the front room and sat down on the couch. There was one other person she could try calling, however… Jak always had his communicator with him, and if he didn't answer, then Daxter undoubtedly would. It took her a while to summon the bravery, but finally, she typed Jak's number into her own device, hesitating before she pressed the call button. She couldn't remember the last time she had tried contacting him in this way, and she felt apprehensive as it vibrated its ring tone in her hand. However, Jak did not answer; his end was uncharacteristically and disturbingly silent. Not even a word from Daxter. Figuring he must have it turned off or something, Keira gave up, having no more contacts she could think to try.
With a sigh, she threw herself back into the squishy depths of the couch. It looked as though there really was nothing more to do but wait for her father to come home, whenever that would end up being. She might as well just get on with her day the best she could, long, lonely and boring though it may be, just like the many others before. Some fresh start this was. It was like nothing had ever changed at all.
She prepared herself some lunch, ate it in silence, and then spent most of the rest of the day in her bedroom, just finding things to do, anything to pass the long hours. She tinkered with some of her mechanical toys, gadgets and small projects on her work desk. When her eyes could squint and focus no longer, she took a break and went downstairs to get more food. Still no voices on the communicator. After that she lay in bed and read a book about the Precursors. Occasionally she would sit up to look out the window again, checking outside whenever she heard footsteps pass by. But none of them were ever the distinct, hollow clunk of her father's log shoes. The Freedom HQ building still showed no signs of opening up either, and nobody was seen to ever enter or leave. The communicator lay cold on her bedside table, and Keira wished it would speak to her. But nobody called, not Tess, not her father, not Jak. Nobody.
The day tiredly wore on into the evening, then into the night, and still Keira waited patiently alone. She did not turn on any lights as it grew darker, but just lay in her bed and read her book by the streetlight filtering in from the outside. Eventually she got bored even of reading, and just lay there, thinking. Time ticked by slowly. Soon she found it hard to keep her eyes open, and she could no longer distinguish between her waking thoughts and the nebulous onset of dream imagery.
Some time later, a light came on in the hallway and Keira's door pushed open gently. Samos came in to find his daughter asleep in her bed, lying peacefully on her side with an open book by her hands. Rather than disturb her, he carefully drew the blankets up and lay them around her shoulders. Then he quietly departed and closed the door to, hoping to get a few hours of sleep himself.
He had had a stressful day.