"When we taste the bitter end and hunger lives again. We take another turn with a better hand. Highs and lows, there are pits and lands on the ground that you stand. Flux and flow; and you fix your plans. Then you trade in your hand."
Flux & Flow © LIGHTS 2011 ft. Shad from the album SIBERIA.

The ABC's of Perfect Mistakes

Chapter Six: F is for Flux & Flow

Parker reached for her communicator when it went off the third time, she saw Jak's face on the unit but heard Daxter's voice. "Good morning sunshine."

"What do you want?" She snapped reaching for her clock but remembered Tess took it because she had an early start today, first thing she was going to do was buy that girl a clock. "It's… early."

"Come to the window." It was Jak's voice, she could hear Daxter complaining in the background about waiting to talk to his second favourite Krimzon Guard. She swung her legs out of bed and brought her feet back to the bed when they touched the floor. "What's taking so long?"

"The floor's cold." She mumbled into the unit.

"Don't be such a big baby." Jak snapped. She groaned and got out, she tip-toed to the window and pulled the patch worked sheet back. She looked down and yanked the curtain closed with a yelp, she felt her face redden as Daxter laughed into the communicator.

"Nice nighties!" Daxter shouted.

"What do you want?!" She shouted back.

"Torn has a mission for us."

"No Torn has a mission for you, I haven't been phoned in yet."

"We want you to come." Jak said a quiet voice, so quiet she didn't know if she heard it.

"You want me to come?" She peaked out the window through the sheets. Jak sat leaning forward on his zoomer, he and Daxter were across the street. Parker couldn't see his face from here but she had a feeling he was seething about asking her, of all people, for help. "Why do you want my help?"

"I was told you've had experiences in the place we need to go. That you're good a killing Metal Heads."

"Yah I know that but why me?" She picked her clothes off the floor while her unit followed her. "I'm not your favourite person." She chuckled. "I've never been your favourite person."

There was a pause before he spoke again, "I want to see the Shadow. Torn said he might want to meet with us I do this for him." Parker knew that Jak's main goal was to meet with the Shadow, granted she never knew why he wanted to meet that cranky old man in the first place. She sighed.

"Give me a minute," She disconnected the unit and finished getting dressed, she ran down the stairs tightening her belt and activating her knives. Somehow over the night it got colder and she shivered against the cold bite in the air. Jak and Daxter were still sitting on their zoomer, she paused and went to get her own zoomer. She drove up beside him and leaned on the bars. "Lead the way."

Jak nodded and raced away, pausing only for second for her to catch up. She followed him out of the Bazaar, but she slammed on the breaks when he made a sharp right. His mission was in Dead Town. Her mind flashed back to the last time she was there, everything was red, with hints of Dark Eco splattered here and there, and of course she couldn't forget the screaming. The cries the children made, the sobs the men gave and the gasping weeping that the women had. She swallowed as Jak circled around her.

"Come on," He said motioning to Dead Town. "Our missions in there."

"Who told you I'd be good for this mission?" She whispered.

"Huh?"

"Who told you?!" She screamed. "Who told you about me and Dead Town?!"

Jak blinked, taken back but the sudden outburst, he recovered though with a steady glare. "One of the operatives, he said you were a beast in there. Cunning, fast and fierce, I need someone like that to have my back."

She looked away. "I'm not the right person. I'm…" She searched for the word. "Dangerous and crazy…" She brought her hand to her mouth. She sounded like Erol, he liked her crazy side, the side that craved blood and lusted after disasters. She looked to Jak, he and Daxter looked confused. "I can't go back in there."

"Are you scared of Metal Heads?" Jak asked.

She snorted, the Metal Heads should be scared of her. She and her Wolves carved them up last time she was in there, they never really had a chance after they were cornered by her Wolves. She sighed and jumped off her zoomer, walking towards the entrance to Dead Town. Jak was behind her and she heard him load his guns, she did the same taking only blaster mods. She took a deep breath and walked out on the sandy patches. She shot down the first Stingers that flew over to her with her pistol and felt the itch to keep moving, feeling a pull towards the Sacred Site. She climbed up a couple of pillars glancing around the ruined section of the city. Before it was Dead Town it was the Outer Section, still protected by the Eco Grid and a lively place. Now she only saw skeletons of the section she enjoyed, she enjoyed the smells and odd characters that lived in their old buildings. She heard it was where Baron Damas and his wife lived when they weren't at the palace. She shuddered, hating the feeling of being watched by Dead Town's ghosts.

"Let's go!" Jak shouted jumping down the pillars and using his new gun to stun the Slingers. She hissed and followed him down, slipping in the slick sand before chasing after Jak. She shot down a couple of Stingers with her blaster, she smirked as she collected their gems and jumped across three floating chunks of wood. She pulled out her knives and ran up the beach, throwing the knives at the Slinger's arms and jumping on the Stingers. She dug their Skull Gems out of their heads and ripped the knife out of Slinger's arm taking flesh with it. She pulled the gem out and climbed onto the out cropping of broken concrete. She threw another knife at the Grunt and it fell back in the murky water, she pressed her button and she felt her knives return to her belt. She ran down the small strip of jagged rocks and kicked a Grunt off the strip, she landed like a cat on all fours and fired her gun at the Metal Bugs that raced towards her. She took a deep breath and stood slowly, looking behind her at Jak and Daxter.

"I don't know if I should commit you or marry you." Daxter said in an amazed tone.

"Don't forget about Tess, Dax." Parker mumbled. "Let's go, we have a long way until we reach the Sacred Site." The boys nodded and ran past her, using their new gun to take down a Gunner. Parker paused, briefly, to ask herself how a Metal Head got a hold of a gun but remembered the deal Praxis made with them. She shook her head, anything to keep that man in power. When the Gunner was down she ran past the boys, pulling out two knives as the Grunts charged towards her. She flipped backwards missing the Grunt's claw by inches, she landed on her right foot and with her left swung and kicked the Grunt. She whipped the first knife and it imbedded in its chest, she threw the other knife at its head and his Skull Gem popped out –and for good measure, she shot it too. She turned when she heard a growl but was surprised the Grunt was dead and Jak was running past it. She got to her feet and raced after him. He took out the smaller Metal Heads with the scatter gun, Parker noticed he did slow down a bit for her but ran ahead when she saw the balls of Dark Eco flying towards them. Parker ran after them stopping briefly to look at the small collapsed pit behind them, there were a lot of dead Metal Heads down there. She wondered if her handprints still stained the walls.

"Is that," Daxter gasped.

"Yup," Parker said stepping up beside the boys. "That's the Sacred Site. Kinda pitiful isn't it?"

"Is that…" Daxter repeated pointing at the hut. "No couldn't be! That's not-"

"It's Samos' hut." Jak whispered looking at the broken house.

Parker stepped around to look at them. "What are you guys talking about?!"

"But what- how- when- where- why!?" Daxter stuttered.

"We're in the future Dax." Jak said looking around and his eyes landed on Parker. "This horrible place… is our… world!"

Parker stepped back. "I don't understand…"

The boys looked at each other before looking at her. "You wouldn't understand," Jak muttered. "All you know is blood and gore... all you know is Haven City. Cold metals and burning weapons..."

Parker clenched her fist. "What do you mean?"

"You live in a world where a six-year-old carrying gun is normal, where a man bribes the enemy and no one does anything about it." Jak turned away from her. "You don't know what this place used to be."

"You think it was like this all the time!?" She shouted. "Haven used to be a peaceful city until the Metal Heads broke the Outer City and made it their nest. What were we supposed to do? Offer our lives to our cruel big brother?" She ran around to face him. "I may not live in the best city on the planet but we've lasted longer than your old one." She motioned to the Sacred Site. "And I'll protect Haven until my last breath."

"Keep talking and you're last breath will be right here." Jak growled pushing past her.

She turned quickly. "You need to keep moving!" She shouted. "Always pushing forward and moving until we learn from our mistakes." She motioned to the hut. "Obviously we learned from this, we moved on, made weapons and kept fighting to make it to this spot!" Jak turned to her.

"I don't understand."

"We follow the flow..." She whispered. "Move with the disasters that follow us."

Jak chuckled. "And when the flow ends?"

Parker shrugged. "We'll figure that out when we get there.

TBC…

Author's Note

So ya'll get only one chapter today since I've been pretty busy with work and stuff. Although I've been itching to write more chapters tonight (since I don't have to work in the morning). Thanks to EcoSeeker for her review. xoxo Paradise Eco.