|Valentine|
Of course word of her kicking Jak in the chest spread around Spargus. Valentine was one of those high-profile people whose actions always got around, especially when they were so violent early in the morning. Of course most people didn't know about her being pissed at Jak. If it depended on her they would never find out, because she intended to steer clear from him as much as possible.
She wasn't allowed to kill him, and although Damos wouldn't be that opposed to her beating someone causing problems in a bloody pulp, she wasn't sure she would be able to stop it at that. Hell, she wouldn't even have gone down there with him near if Seem hadn't nearly gotten blown up. She'd warmed up to the woman. It was weird how much how people could warm up to someone, once that person stopped trying to get them killed.
Right now however she wished she'd kept herself out of it. Instead of being able to depart for Ma'als new nests she was standing in front of her King, looking like a child that was getting reprimanded.
'I already said I won't do it again.' She said, not sure what Damos wanted from her.
He looked at her, seemingly aggravated. He could have been carved from stone if it hadn't been for his index finger tapping on the side of the throne. When he did move, Valentine flinched for a second. When he put a hand on her shoulder, directing her to the throne, her heart started to pound in her throat. What the hell was he planning.
He sat her down, taking a few steps back, examining her. She sat up straight, ankles crossed and hands folded in her lap. She only ever sat in this thing as his General, and only when he was out of town. Sitting in it while he could see her felt like she was usurping his spot.
'You need to use your anger, Valentine, instead of letting it use you.' he finally said, shaking his head.
'My King?' she asked, not sure what he was talking about. Despite being seated here, she still felt like she wasn't in control at all.
'I heard about what you did to the new recruit. Even though you followed orders and didn't kill him, avoiding him is also a sign of weakness.' Damos told her. His next words nearly gave her an apoplexy. 'As the next ruler, you cannot allow your anger to rule you.'
'E-e-excuse me.' she stammered, holding on to the sides of the throne to make sure she didn't fall off. 'My King, I am your Guardian. My family has always served yours, I can't just-'
'My son is still lost to me, and I am growing older. This throne will be yours, until the day my son is found again.' He gave her a smile, that although encouraging still contained traces of his loss. 'You've grown into a fine warrior in the time you've been here, Valentine. Even if you deny it, even if you claim to be unfit. People respect you. You even managed to make Seem change her mind, and we all know how stubborn she can be when's she's hung up on an idea.'
'But that all still doesn't prove I can rule, my King! I'm just a hacker, someone who's been infected by Dark Eco. Even people who call me a heroine are mistaken, I'm just-'
'A brilliant negotiator.' Damos cut her off once again. Damn, it looked like he had really been thinking this through. 'Someone who is willing to sacrifice everything for a greater cause. And someone who can understand the pain of others.' He smiled again, looking tired. 'I wouldn't have picked you if I didn't think you couldn't handle it, Valentine.'
He motioned for her to get up from the throne. She obeyed, only too happy to be rid of the thing. If she ever did have to occupy it permanently, the first thing she'd do was install some pillows. Kneeling in front of Damos, her mind was racing. She was never meant to rule. She was the shield that protected those that did the ruling.
Damos touched her shoulder. 'This is the last time you will kneel for me.' he told her. 'And the last time you address me as King.' He took a deep breath. 'I've come to consider you as a daughter, Valentine. The next time you address me, it would greatly please me if it were as 'Father'.'
She could feel her mouth drop open. Was he being serious? The man she respected above anyone else… he only had to ask and she would lay down her life for him! And he was asking to call him father….
'Are… are you certain?' she asked. She couldn't believe the words as he spoke them. She could only remember always looking up to him. He knelt down, looking at her from her own level. He gave her shoulder a squeeze, looking serious.
'Of course I am serious. You will be my heir, until the day Mar is found. If that doesn't happen, your children will be the ones who continue the rule. It is time the Guardians of Mar take over the throne. Your original purpose has always been making sure that the people are safe, through us. This is cutting out the middle man.'
He closed her mouth with his index finger. Valentine couldn't remember ever seeing Damos look so gentle. 'What do you say… daughter?'
A single tear formed in her left eye. She couldn't imagine anything that could have made her happier at this moment. She nodded, swallowing back the lump in her throat. 'I'll do whatever I can do to make you proud… father.'
|Jak|
'She kicked me.' Jak repeated, still not believe what had happened. His chest was sore from the impact, but the thing that hurt the most was that Valentine had flat out rejected to talk with him. 'She just kicked me.'
Daxter patted him on the shoulder as they were making their way to Kleiver. The man said he needed someone to help take care of some Metal Heads. For some reason he had specifically requested them. Macie had shook her head when she gave them the message, before offering Jak to give him some ointment for his chest when he came back. When had she said Valentine was 'really just a very sweet girl' he had nearly choked on his yakow milk. Sweet girls didn't kick people who wanted to make up in the chest!
'I heard you guys are looking for a bit of action.' Kleiver said, polishing up his gun. He'd heard about the two hotheads going around, picking a fight with both Seem and Valentine. Somebody needed to cool these pups off a bit, and there was nothing like hunting Saurs to get people to get their system cleared.
'There's a bunch of Metal Heads moving through the desert not too far from here. That wouldn't be a problem, if they belonged to Ma'al. But since these guys belong to a different nest, they need to be dealt with.' Kleiver continued, pissed at the extra work he had in determining whether Metals belonged to a friendly group or not.
'Who's Ma'al?' Jak asked, hearing the name for the first time.
Kleiver let out a deep sigh, annoyed at having to explain this. 'Ma'al is the Metal King Valentine just had to make a deal with. If Damos didn't think the little miss farted sunshine, I wouldn't put up with this sort of stuff. But they did, and now it's all extra work. Look, I don't like Metal Heads, almost as much as I don't like you or her. You've still got some proving to do. If you do, I've been ordered to give you a sweet little toy for the efforts.'
Daxter shook his head. After the race where Kleiver had made very clear he would have liked to eat Daxter if he had won – he was still peeved with Jak for that bet – he did not trust the overweight man one bit. 'Why does this sound like you're leaving out the dangerous parts?'
He turned to Jak. 'I'm getting some nasty juju vibes here. When the Ottsel sense starts tingling, you'd better listen.'
'We've fought Metals before. No big deal.' Jak said, not seeing the problem at all. More importantly, he'd feel better if he could just shoot something.
Kleiver chuckled at the bravado. 'Sounds like you've never seen a Wasteland Metal Head before.'
'I don't like the sound of that.' Daxter said, the first pitch of panic rising in his voice.
'You shouldn't.' Kleiver made clear. 'Go out and see for yourself. Just don't get killed just yet. There's more to see in the Wasteland than those little puppies.'
|Later|
Well, that had been something different. Something in this place made them grow a lot bigger than usual. Jak poked the last one they had taken out with his foot, not trusting the thing. It had had the intelligence to feign it was dead, nearly gobbling him up when he had gotten closer.
'Hey, look, it's one of those crystal thingies the monks are so crazy about.' Daxter said, pointing down on the ground. Jak picked it up, examining it. Whatever it was, it made the Eco in his body increase. Putting it in a bag they'd gotten along with them, he looked what else they could find.
'Report, what's happening?' a metallic voice sounded from somewhere near the ground. Startled the due looked around, until they saw a communicator on the ground.
'If you lost that cargo and you're still alive, I'll kill you myself. I want every Dark Eco Crystal that forsaken Wasteland has to offer. Time is short.' The voice threatened. Whoever they were, they'd better have a big gun ready if they were planning on taking out something as big as a Saur.
Jak had heard enough. The vision was blurry enough to make the speaker unrecognizable, but he still saw enough to have an instinctive dislike. The head looked up at him as he was approaching, kicking up sand as he walked.
'Not you!' the voice said with an obvious horror sounding through.
Jak kicked down on the device, breaking it. 'I really don't like the sound of your voice.' He said, before picking it up. People in Spargus might find something useful if they looked at it.
'You sure kicked sand in his face.' Daxter reacted, never having been able to ignore an open goal.
Jak shook his head, looking down at the communicator. 'That face looked familiar.' He said out loud, looking to Daxter for confirmation. What was worse, it sounded like someone was controlling Metal Heads again. And it didn't sound like they were planning on organizing a pizza party either.
'Now you're just getting paranoid buddy. Don't worry, I doubt anybody other than Valentine is currently after your ass.' He hopped over on Jak's other shoulder, giving the man a grin. 'How's it feel to be hunted for a change?' he wiggled his eyebrows suggestivel.
'I'd feel a lot better if she was after my ass for a different reason than killing me.' Jak admitted, starting up the car. Even if she tried to kill him right now, Jak had to admit Valentine had really grown up. His face flushed when he thought about the leather outfit, before he shook his head. First he had to apologize. And then, when she could stand being near him again, maybe he could ask her an even more important question.
'Well, you know what they say. Love and hate are close together.' Daxter said, sitting down in the passenger seat.
Jak sighed, patting the crystal they had just found. 'Well, it could do with being a little less hated at the moment.' He ought to get Valentine cornered, so she couldn't run away from him anymore. They needed to talk things out.
|Valentine|
Meta gave her a soft nudge in the back, towards the entrance of the main Nest. Valentine groaned, taking the package from her friend's back, walking towards it. 'Sure you're going to be alright baby-sitting the kids on your own?' she asked her friend.
Meta sent through a feeling of confidence. And an image of her yanking some tails if the hatchlings decided to act up. Valentine let out a laugh. 'Fine, I'll let you know when I need you.' she said.
'Ma'al, get your scaly ass out here!' Valentine yelled inside the cave entrance. When she saw him approaching she quickly shut her eyes, throwing the package inside. 'And put some clothes on first!'
She heard stumbling and hissing. Ma'al always managed to 'lose' the clothes she brought him, even though she refused to look at him if he was in this form if he wasn't wearing any. At least she didn't force pants on him. He didn't know how to work with those at all.
Instead she always brought him a cream-colored robe, acknowledging his need for freedom, as he like to call it. When he finally emerged he looked quite disgruntled with the fact she had once again brought him garments. 'I fail to see your problem with me being unclothed.' He made clear, his black hair messed up from his struggle. 'In my natural form I am also naked, and it does not bother you then.'
'This and that are different things.' She told him, waving a finger in the air. It didn't help that he looked extremely attractive as someone of her own species. If she didn't know he was a Metal Head she might have been actually tempted to-
She coughed, face flushed. No, she had said it once to Daxter, she did not date outside of her own species. No matter how attractive the other party presented themselves.
'I checked the nests like you asked me to.' She told him. 'They're placed splendidly, and there's a good reserve of Eco down there.' Ma'al nodded, not bothering to get his hair in check. He understood very little of her concept of looking proper.
'I must thank you, King Valentine.' He said with a smile. Valentine had stopped her attempts to at least change the title to Queen. That inevitably let to him trying to convince her to have eggs together. 'How are my children doing?'
Valentine smiled, thinking about the hatchlings. 'They're doing splendid. They're already getting good at hunting, and they get along with their partners, just like I intended.'
'And yet you look troubled.' Ma'al observed, sitting down on a patch of dark vegetation. Valentine followed his example, looking annoyed at being seen through like that. 'Please do not give me that look, I have known you for quite some time now. You smell like the time I proposed you adopt my clothing habits.'
Which meant he had proposed she walk around naked when they were together. She ignored that specific incident, looking in the distance. 'There's been… a troublesome development.' When he raised his eyebrows at her, she continued. 'My previous partner… the one I allowed I be captured by my enemies, he is now in my nest.'
The gem in Ma'als forehead glistened for a moment. 'I can see why that would trouble you. Is there a reason you have not yet fed him to the hatchlings?' Ma'al always had a practical attitude when it came to this sort of thing. If it annoyed him, he killed it. Questions were asked later, if he ever considered questions. Not like he'd receive an answer from a corpse. Life as a Metal Head King could be pretty simple.
Valentine politely declined the offering of putrid flesh he made. Even after all these years Ma'al didn't believe she was being coy about not wanting to eat his food, instead of the simple fact she like her meat cooked and relatively fresh. When she had told him that, he had acted as if she had offended his mother… father… however Metal Heads worked on that area. She hadn't worked up the courage yet to be allowed to examine that.
'My King has accepted me as his daughter.' She said. 'He says I cannot allow my anger to guide my actions. He would be severely disappointed if I were to kill Jak.'
Ma'al nodded slowly, chewing the meat he had offered her just now. 'I see. Of course relations within one's hive are important. Would it please you if I took care of this nuisance for you?'
Ma'al looked extremely comfortable in offering that to her. His golden eyes shone with a certain feral pleasure. 'A man who is capable of giving you trouble must surely be an interesting Hunt.'
She considered the offer for a second. If Ma'al were to do it, she wouldn't have been the one to make the transgression. But she could still imagine Damos and how disappointed he would be in her if she were to accept his offer.
'I'll have to deal with this myself.' She admitted softly. The King shrugged, not offended that she had turned down his offer of help. Wanting to take care of one's own enemies was a sign of strength after all.
'Any more news on the Precursor things that have been falling from the sky?' she asked him.
Ma'al directed his eyes towards the volcano for a moment. 'One fell on the top of that fire mountain.' He told her. That was the same Seem had told her. She had already sent out an expedition of monks to investigate. 'It's more potent than the others that have fallen.' He added.
His nest had made it a priority to take out any of the probes – that's what Valentine thought they were – before they could spread, but he only controlled so much territory. It seemed like the other Kings were doing the opposite of them, aiding the probes in whatever way they could.
'I'll make sure to tell the others.' She promised him, getting up and dusting her clothes. 'You said something about having a worthwhile Hunt for me?'
Ma'al grinned, eyes shining as he did the same as her. 'One of the probes has been caught nearby. It can't get out, but it looks strong. This will be excellent for strengthening our bonds.'