Torn lay on his back, looking up at the branches interwoven above him.

Some time ago, Jak had apologetically woken him from his sleep in the Hellcat seat so that he could take his agreed turn. Torn obliged, but since then, he had lain on the leaves inside the cramped shelter unable to get back to sleep, listening to the sounds of Jak's quiet snores and the distant waves outside. He was chilly too, and no matter how many leaves he buried himself under, he could not stay comfortably warm. This was hopeless.

Just as the sunlight began to appear, he gave up and crawled outside, his itchy eyes squinting against the opening sky. The sunrise was evolving into another beautiful spectacle, but Torn had little interest in it. He stood up fully and stretched outwardly, feeling lethargic and miserable. He was hungry again, and ate another of the fruits from their gathered supply, slowly and deliberately, and washing it down with cold water from the flask. It was an unsatisfying meal.

He sat down with his back against a tree, still tired, bored already, and paying only minimal attention to his surroundings. This place was so empty, so remote, so lifeless. With nothing else to do, his focus turned inwards, trying to think of what else could be done to ensure their survival here, figuring it was the best use of his time. They knew where they could find food and water, check. They had somewhere to sleep (or try to sleep), check. Those immediate priorities were covered, and fire remained the next big thing. It would provide them both with more warmth and a means to cook the food and heat the water that they found. Back home in Haven, he was used to having fire at the flick of a switch, but out here, everything that they took for granted had to be done manually, costing valuable energy, and so far they had failed. Reduced to such primitive methods of living, it was something that would take a lot of time to adapt to, especially for him. Could he do it?

Escape also came to the fore of his mind. Today, he thought, he and Jak should dedicate their time to working out a means to get themselves back home, whether that be through signalling their presence here on this island somehow, or building some sort of boat that could take them back and braving the vast, open waters. Out on the sand lay their SOS message, though a good portion of it had been erased by the rising tide in the night. Torn felt insulted, as if the island itself were sabotaging their aspirations, like it wanted to keep them its prisoner. Even the early rising of the sun prepared to further torture his already burned face.

Though he was an intelligent and principled man, Torn could not ignore the doubtful feelings pressing down on him. But he kept telling himself stubbornly that if he could just keep it together, he knew he could pull through this. It would be a struggle though, especially after losing Ashelin. He still could not believe that she was gone. His partial night's sleep had done little to heal the hurt. She was the one woman he respected and cared most for in the world, and there were still a lot of things he needed to say to her. Things he needed her for…

As he contemplated sadly within the clearing, his eyes drifted automatically out to the growing light upon the ocean. At first, he did not register the dark shape floating around out there, and when he did see it, he thought little of it, for he knew it would only be another piece of wreckage from the battle. Parts were washing up on the shore all the time, and there was nothing he could do but wait until it reached the land. He hoped it was another Hellcat seat, so that he and Jak could perhaps both sleep more easily. But as the light grew and it drifted nearer, he realised that this was not just any old piece of metal.

Something in him yanked at his attention, the half-eaten fruit fell from his hand, and he leapt up to his feet with an energy that had not existed a few seconds ago. He strained his vision to make sure he wasn't imagining it, but yes, he could see the unmistakeable forms of two figures slumped over that object in the sea.

"Jak!" he shouted. "Wake up!"

Jak awoke in the chair with a snort, and looked around suddenly. He could hear the urgency in Torn's voice, but from inside the shelter, he could not know the cause of it. Was a rescue finally approaching? Or was it something else? Some danger?

When he crawled out of the shelter, Torn had already run half way down the beach and was fast approaching the waterline. "What are you doing?" he called after him.

"There's someone out in the water," Torn shouted back. "Hey!" he called to the object in the sea. "You alright out there?"

No answer or movement came back, nothing to indicate a sign of life.

Jak, realising the possibilities that this could hold, scrambled up and hurried after Torn, who was now up to his knees in the cold water, wading out to whatever was drifting near. Jak followed him in, and they were swimming by the time they came within touching distance of the wreckage. Now they were this close, they could see what it really was, and it stunned them. They recognised the two figures. Clinging onto a large piece of blue metal was a Freedom Fighter, most of his armour stripped off, and the second was none other than Ashelin herself, still in her best military uniform. Both were asleep or unconscious, and looked to be very malnourished.

"Ashelin!" said Torn, shaking her by the shoulder as he tried to keep himself afloat. But she did not stir. Nor did the Freedom soldier.

"We've got to get them back to land," said Jak, fighting against the slow tide.

It took most of their energy to swim around to the other side of the wreckage and push it back to the island until it met with the sand. Ashelin and the Freedom Fighter, now recognised by Torn as a soldier named Olto, still had not awoken when they got there, and Torn was worried. He turned Ashelin over, and saw that half her face was crusted with dried blood from a nasty-looking cut across her forehead.

He shook her again desperately. "Come on, Ash! Don't do this to me!" He held two fingers against her neck. "There's still a pulse," he said with relief. "We can save them."

He summoned his last strength to lift up Ashelin and carried her protectively back to the camp, while Jak staggered along in his footsteps bearing Olto over his shoulder. Back at the camp, they lay them both down upon some of the large leaves and tried to assess them for injury and further vital health signs. Torn pulled off his soaking wet shirt and used a corner of it to dab across Ashelin's skin, trying to clean up her wound. She groaned and moved her head unconsciously at the touch, but then her eyes fluttered open slowly.

"Jak, she's waking up," Torn said. "Ashelin, can you hear me?"

The first thing Ashelin saw was Torn's concerned face coming into focus above her. She nodded faintly in response to his question, groaned and tried to sit up, but Torn kept her on her back.

"Take it easy, Ash," he said quietly.

Then Ashelin's bleary eyes widened with recognition. "Torn...? You're alive?"

"Yeah, I'm here," Torn answered in a whisper of care, and he allowed Ashelin to grasp hold of his hand. Her grip was weak, her usual strength and sureness gone, but there was a faint glimmer of happiness on her face, happiness tainted with confusion.

"What's happened?" she asked weakly.

"I just pulled you out of the sea," said Torn. "Don't worry, you're safe now. But just hold still a moment."

He very carefully dabbed at the gash across her head some more, making sure it was as clean as he could make it, but Ashelin winced with every touch.

"That's gonna take a while a heal," Torn said grimly. "Might even leave a scar. Are you hurt anywhere else?"

Ashelin tried to raise her other arm, but it felt heavy and inflexible. "My arm's a little..."

Torn held it delicately and tried to feel for any bones that were out of place. "I don't think it's broken," he said, "But best to keep it still for a while, just to be sure."

She blinked heavily at him as she regained more of her senses, and Torn kept his eye on her. Though her face looked beat up, just seeing it again was the greatest thing that he could have wished for. He'd thought her lost, but she was still alive, though only just. She and Olto had clearly spent all the time since the battle adrift at sea without sustenance; that was three whole nights and two whole days.

"Here, keep drinking this," he advised, and he fed Ashelin some water from the flask. She drank as much as she could, but coughed up a lot. Her throat was so rough it felt like sandpaper, but the water she swallowed washed that feeling all away until she could actually breathe painlessly again.

Then Jak's face loomed into view beside Torn's. "Hey, Ashelin," he said simply. "You feeling OK?"

Ashelin nodded bravely, but she was concealing the pain and disorientation that she truly felt. Then she rolled her head to the side and found Olto lying there, making very slow unconscious movements.

"Is he alright?" she asked.

"I think so," said Jak.

"Help him," Ashelin spoke. "I'll be fine. Help him."

Jak moved back to Olto and gave him another check over, while Torn allowed Ashelin to sit up a little, pulling her by her good arm. She looked around, semi-lucid, at the patterns of sunlight dancing through the trees, and the odd bits of scrap lying around in the white sand.

"Where... are we?" she asked.

"Uh, we don't really know," Torn answered spiritlessly. "Hate to break it to you, but we've been washed up on this island in the middle of nowhere. And we're stuck here."

"Olto's fine," said Jak. "I don't think he has any serious injuries, but we'll check with him when he wakes up."

Ashelin looked relieved. She was starting to remember their time floating together on the ocean.

"What happened to you both?" Torn asked. "I thought I saw you explode at the end of the battle."

Ashelin looked alarmed, but then contorted her face in concentration. "Uh... I don't really remember all too well. But I know the two of us were out in the ocean for a long time. Do you have any food? I'm starving."

Jak reached over and handed her one of the large fruits, splitting it apart for her. She bit into it, and felt its sweet juiciness in her mouth. It was so good to taste something again after so long, even if it was only basic.

Very soon, Olto was brought round too. Just like Ashelin, he was initially weak and confused, but was relieved when he saw her nearby, apparently well, awake and alert. Then his eyes found Jak and Torn.

"Commander," he groaned with a pitiful salute, still on his back.

"At ease, soldier," Torn said casually. "No use for formalities out here."

"What do you mean, commander?" he asked.

"Look around you at where we are."

Olto did, and groaned again. "Let me guess. Shipwrecked?"

"Got it in one," said Jak. "But are you feeling OK? Are you hurt?"

"Just a headache," replied Olto. "I've had worse. I'll make it."

Once both Ashelin and Olto were feeling stronger and clearer of mind, Torn and Jak fully debriefed them about their predicament, and the full weight of it all finally hit them. Though they had made it out of the battle alive, how would they fare here? What costs had their sacrifice brought to the mission, and the war at large? Would the city be able to survive and carry out the final plans without them? It was a grim and uncertain prospect to contemplate, and having no way to find out made it all the worse for them.

For Torn and Jak, it was a great surge of morale to find both Ashelin and Olto alive and to be with them again. However, they also knew that this would mean a lot more work from now on; more food would have to be obtained now to sustain all four of them, and the shelter would again have to be further enlarged so there was space for them all inside.

Luckily, they now had just the thing that could help them do that, as they went and retrieved the large piece of wreckage that Ashelin and Olto had brought with them. It was an entire half of a Hellcat cruiser, kept afloat by a pocket of air trapped inside, and it contained further useful equipment which had somehow survived the crash. For one thing, there were still seats attached to the underside, which could be made into extra beds for them all. There was also a small first aid kit, which would definitely be helpful. For the time being, Ashelin and Olto both took a painkiller for their injuries, and Torn applied some disinfectant and a bandage across the cut on Ashelin's head. She also revealed that she had retained her eco pistol, which remarkably still showed signs of functionality. Olto had held on to his pocket knife, and his lunchbox, which even though the contents were all gone, would still serve as a useful container for storing or carrying other supplies in.

Throughout the rest of the day, Torn and Jak got to work while Ashelin and Olto rested, rehydrated and recovered. Though they were both feeling stronger and ready to help after a few hours, Torn was concerned about their injuries, and insisted they remained comfortable.

Jak went around to the fishing pool again before midday, where he spent about an hour, watching the waters patiently, his mind often wandering to Ashelin and Olto, and the feelings of finding them alive again. Something moved among the pools, and he looked. There was a fish there. Carefully, silently, he raised his spear and took aim…

Back at the camp, Torn had been working on extending the shelter, and was making rather good progress. As he worked, Ashelin and Olto kept asking him questions, such as what kind of things were on this island and what he could remember from the battle, piecing their memories together to complete the whole picture. Torn told them what he could, and didn't spare the disappointing details, made no secret of the fact that living here was going to be rough. But the mood improved slightly when Jak returned, and proudly displayed his catch, holding up a dead fish that was about as long as his forearm.

"Look at that!" said Olto. "And you caught that bare-handed?"

"With the spear," Jak corrected, not that it was important.

"Good work, Jak," said Torn, as if he'd just completed a mission back in the city or something. "But we still need a fire. The crabs were one thing, but we can't eat that raw."

"I've got an idea," said Ashelin, drawing out her eco pistol again. "Let's see if this still works."

They piled up a few sticks and leaves into their fire pit, and with a careful aim, Ashelin fired at it with her pistol. The eco-heat of the impact sent sand and several sticks flying all around the camp, but the ones that remained in place were glowing hot. Torn quickly dived in and began blowing on the material, and Jak gathered up the scattered sticks. The glow brightened, faint clouds of smoke started to rise, and then…

Whoosh. A flame was born.

"Yes!"

There were cheers all through the camp. They had fire!

Ashelin cocked her weapon and looked at it with new appreciation. "Never used it like that before. Not pretty, but it worked."

"Ashelin, you're a lifesaver!" said Jak, and he wasted no time in cutting the fish into pieces with Torn's knife so they could cook them properly, while Torn added more fuel to the fire to keep it from dying. It was the first hot meal any of them had had in days, and it did much to replenish their strength and resolve.

As the afternoon progressed, with fuller bellies and higher spirits, things felt good on the island for the first time. When they felt strong enough, Jak took Olto and Ashelin for a short walk into the woodland to the hill, and showed them all around from the top, while Torn continued working on the shelter. He showed them the lake, pointing out the fruit bushes and the other sources of food they had found so far, gathering some extra supplies while they were there.

Ashelin's and Olto's first impressions were not optimistic, and a little daunting. Like Torn, they were used to the busy life of running a large city, where there were always jobs to be done and people to manage, and especially in Haven's case, constant hostile threats to repel. On this island, however, there were none of those things, nor any of the comforts of home that they had become accustomed to. Even the pure, undisturbed silence felt unnatural.

But by evening, all four of them were gathered around a fire in their camp, tucking in to some freshly cooked crabs. They shared in the taste and the positive feeling that it brought, for a moment forgetting the despair that had hung over them all earlier. Coming together like this strengthened them as a unit, preventing them from sinking any lower into depression, and they chatted with each other pleasantly over the food.

"You know, I've never cared much for seafood before," said Olto, "But this isn't bad at all."

"You said it," said Ashelin, who was also savouring every bite.

"It's great to eat this cooked," said Torn, "Because I don't think I could have coped with eating raw crab for much longer."

"You see?" said Jak. "What I told you back in Haven was true. If you want cooked food, all you need to do is find a woman!" he joked.

"Hey!" protested Ashelin, but she could not prevent herself from breaking into a laugh with the others.

An unspoken, shared realisation spread through the small group. Despite their bleak situation, against all odds, they were actually having fun here, and it warmed them more than the fire ever could.

However, after the laughter died away, there was a short moment of silence.

"But still..." said Jak in an entirely different tone, "...being stuck out here... it's still hard to take in, you know..."

Everyone else immediately understood. The enclosing dread of isolation kept returning, no matter how they tried to distract themselves from it. It was a heavy and powerful feeling that could not be put into words, being so cut off from home with no way of getting back or even knowing what was happening there. As the governor of Haven, Ashelin was feeling it the most; she felt a duty to the city, and sitting here not doing anything to help or protect it felt like abandonment.

"Yeah..." said Olto slowly, resting back on his arms. "Can't believe this is happening to us. Sure is lucky we all ended up here together though. Do you think we'll ever make it back home?"

"We've got to try," said Torn determinedly. "If a rescue never finds us, I'm sure as hell not going to sit around here waiting to die."

"Don't say that," said Ashelin. "None of us is going to die here. We're gonna get off this island, and we're all gonna get back home, no matter what. Agreed?"

"Agreed," said everyone else, but Jak suddenly became very quiet and subdued. Ashelin's words had struck him more than she realised, and his head drooped low on his shoulders.

Ashelin, who was sitting directly opposite him, had her attention drawn. "Jak? You OK?" she asked. But then she realised something about him that had been staring her in the face all day, but she had somehow failed to notice until now. He looked... incomplete. "Jak... where's Daxter?"

All happiness turned to sustained sorrow once more. Torn, who already knew the answer, looked anxiously to Jak, but remained silent, thinking that this was something that Jak himself had to answer.

"He didn't make it," Jak said heavily. Admitting it like this really seemed to make it all the more real, and it smothered the positive mood.

Ashelin anticipated that he would say that, but it still struck her hard to hear the words come out of his mouth. "I... I'm sorry, Jak... that's terrible..."

Just like Torn, she did not believe that she would ever miss Daxter that much if he were to disappear, but now that it had really happened, the power of her feelings took her by surprise.

"I remember him," said Olto reverently. "He always used to ride around on your shoulder, didn't he? Poor lad." Though he had not got to know the ottsel as well as the others present, he shared his sympathy with Jak and gave his condolences.

Another moment of sad silence fell among them, broken only by the crackling of the fire and the never-ending wash of the shore.

"I still don't know how they could have got the jump on us like that," said Torn, wisely trying to change the focus onto something else, and the battle was all he could think of right now. "It's almost like they knew we were coming."

"We lost so many people," said Ashelin. "Our people. I wonder how many made it back..."

They all sat in quiet contemplation for a moment, remembering the ones they had lost, and the ones who they may never see again.

"I miss my family," said Olto. "They probably think I'm dead. I wish I could tell them I'm still here."

"You will," Ashelin assured him kindly. "We'll get out of here, and you'll see your family again, Olto."

"Thanks, governor," said Olto with an appreciative smile. "Coming from you, that means a lot. But hey, we've still got each other for the time being, haven't we? I don't know about you guys, but I can't think of better company to have on a desert island."

The others looked at him, smiling warmly at his compassion.

"I mean, I'm just a grunt, but you three practically run the city, and we all look up to you in the ranks."

"Well, we're all equals out here, pal," said Torn. "Better get used to the feeling."

They chatted together for a while longer, managing to maintain steady spirits, until the sun went down. They sat there under the trees, red with falling sunbeams, and then stars appeared high above them, twinkling into existence one by one. Olto and Ashelin looked up in wonder as the night set in.

"Wow, look at this!" said Olto with wide eyes.

"I never knew there were so many stars," Ashelin muttered serenely. "We never get to see them back in the city."

Far from Haven's eternal light, the beautiful constellations were allowed to shine unimpeded, and as the night grew deeper, they only became more spectacular. It was like a whole other ocean existed above their heads, an ocean of faraway worlds that they could never know, twinkling in the depths of space. But with the darkness came cold. Though the fire provided some warmth, the chill of the night could not be banished. They each had only the clothes on their backs and nothing else to change into. Soon they were shivering.

"We should get to sleep soon," Jak suggested at last.

"I wonder what the time is," said Ashelin.

"Let's just settle for late," said Olto. "I agree with Jak. Let's sleep. It's been a tough day."

Together, the four friends prepared themselves for the night and then crawled into the shelter together. Torn had done a good job making the whole thing big enough to accommodate them all, but despite how tired he was himself, he generously gave up his Hellcat seat to Ashelin, which she was grateful for. In fact, the other men chivalrously agreed that she should have it too.

And so together, they all tried to settle down for a good night's sleep, feeling secure and safer in each other's company. But they had only just begun to experience the full vigour of the mysterious island they occupied, and many more challenges and mysteries awaited them in the very near future.