I feel like I may have rushed this chapter, but whatever. Sue me. I am trying to make Senra seem an "anyone" type of character, in honor of my favorite author, but I don't know how I'm pulling it off. I didn't even want to name her, but I didn't really know what else to call her so...

In this chapter, you get to see some Jak! I hope I kept him in character for the most part. I dunno. I'm self conscious. Whatever. Here's your smelly chapter. (I love you guys.)

"Did you hear that the tomb of Mar was found?"

Senra looked up suddenly. It was some girl from Beta squad. She seated herself next to Senra without asking and plopped her bag on the table in front of her, upsetting the soup Senra had been trying to eat.

Sighing, she used her napkin to clean up the small amount of broth that had spilled and she turned her eyes to the girl next to her. Keeping her face neutral and listening patiently.

"The tomb was right under the statue of the barron! Can you believe it?"

Senra furrowed her brows. "But then wouldn't the barron have known it was there already? I thought he's been searching for it for years."

The girl shrugged. "We also got some info from Torn himself."

She raised an eyebrow.

"We learned that they were going to make a move so we moved in and also managed to capture the leader of the underground. The Shadow."

"And what do you know, that leaves Torn pretty much in charge." Senra mumbled, taking a bite of the bland food in front of her.

"Would you believe it?" The girl smirked. "It's almost like it was a part of his plan."

"I heard the Barron blackmailed him." She said through a mouthful of food. At least we can count on the barron to supply eco to metal heads and then take them out after throwing hundreds of KG soldiers at them. She thought, chewing her food slowly. Would it really be so bad to join the underground? Sure, Tess had told the guy, but she could count on Tess, right? She'd always trusted her since they went to school together. They hadn't seen each other in the past three years as often as they had in school, so she felt that they'd drifted apart, but Tess couldn't be that bad. It wasn't like she worked for the underground herself. Even though she had known that man and hadn't even mentioned that to Senra before hand.

The girl was rambling on about why she thought the Underground was bad and Senra found a counterargument in her mind for each point. Her mind drifted to the order to kill the kid. It drifted to the man who had protected him single handedly. The Baron's eco experiment, no doubt. In the end, the war with the metal heads was the Baron's doing. And so was the creation of a monstrous man. He may have paid her better than she had ever been paid working anywhere else, but was that really worth it?

Sighing, Senra stood up.

The girl stopped mid sentence.

"Sorry," Senra mumbled before taking her food to the trash and exiting the lunch room without a further explanation.

She told her commanding officer something about being sick from the food she'd eaten. It wouldn't have been a far stretch of truth. He begrudgingly let her leave after she convinced him that she couldn't be on patrol at the palace where a heavy guard was stationed. She argued that one less soldier wouldn't make a difference and he finally agreed after he found someone to take her place.

She knew that she was pushing her luck in taking a day off when she was still relatively new. A little less than a year and she'd already become sick of it. She chided herself for being so overly dramatic with Tess the previous night. So what? She suggested joining the underground. Like that was really that shocking and emotionally upsetting.

Instead of driving home, she drove straight for the Hip Hog.

Tess hadn't started her shift yet, but Senra waited, seated in a corner, hoping that the blonde would walk in soon. Every time the door opened, she snapped her head up to see if it was Tess. She was hoping to ask her for more information. But what she secretly wanted was for someone to give her a nudge in the right direction. She'd spent so much time being unsure of herself throughout school that she and Tess had made fast friends. Tess had offered to help out the shy girl and had even embarassed her on multiple occasions. Senra smirked as she recalled one day when Tess dragged her around the school grounds asking random boys if they would go out with Senra. It had been mortifying. But following instead of leading was comforting in the way that it meant being less responsible for one's own actions. She signed at the holes in her logic and sipped her drink, reminding herself not to drive tonight. Which would mean walking. All the way back to her apartment.

The door opened and she glanced up for about the eighth time, hoping that Tess would show up half an hour early for her shift. Which was unlikely.

To her surprise, it was none other than the Baron's eco experiment. She couldn't remember what his name was.

She kept her head down and tried to cover her face with her hair, hoping to go unnoticed. Unfortunately, she wasn't so lucky.

The orange rat literally announced her presence. "Hey! It's that guard who let us off easy. She ain't so bad to look at either, ey Jak?"

Senra rolled her eyes and then felt a trace of fear as the duo began walking towards her.

"Why'd you help us?"

She kept her face down, hoping that he would just go away.

"Jak," The rat practically sang. "Asked you a question!" His voice was so loud.

"Probably because I didn't want to get killed," she growled, finally looking up to see his face. Up close he looked normal. There wasn't anything that looked particularly threatening about him. Blonde hair, a goatee, blue and expressive eyes. She focused on his eyes, hoping that she could figure out what he was thinking by judging his reaction.

He sat himself down across from her. "Tess says that you're not happy with the guard. You know what happens to those who defect."

"Yeah," she snapped. "But what are you even getting at?"

"Sheesh! I guess bad attitudes must be a requirement for the KG." The rat gave her a funny expression and she scowled in response.

"I don't know. I was honestly just trying to figure out if you have any other motives for helping me."

"Watching you brutally murder the members of my squad wasn't motivation enough?" Her eyes fixed on his accusingly.

He flinched slightly but pressed on. "We're fighting a war here. I don't know what you expect. But everyone in this city can't wait for us to pussyfoot around this situation."

"Right," she mumbled, taking another sip of her drink. "Not all of them are bad you know..." Her voice trailed off and she met his eyes again.

He looked suspicious and guarded, like he knew what she was going to say next.

"A lot of those guards you kill are just people trying to support their families by doing the only job that they know will pay them a decent wage in this town."

His lips tightened. "I'm sorry, but I can't wait around for them to make up their mind on what side they're on. Especially when they stand in the way of rescuing my friends." He stood up. "You know, it would be nice if the Baron would stop throwing so many soldiers at the problem and would come up with real solutions, but we all know that isn't going to happen any time soon."

Something about the specific wording of his sentence made something click in her brain. "Wait, you mean... you freed the captives?"

He nodded and crossed his arms, trying to look imposing while standing above her.

"In the palace? Where dozens of guards were?"

He nodded again, not meeting her eyes this time. Was he actually ashamed?

"Did... Did you... kill them?"

He didn't answer. Simply met her gaze with an unreadable expression.

She tightened her lips and looked into his eyes. She found herself nodding, slowly. "I guess that makes sense..." She mumbled, her mind spinning rapidly. "But... Shit. I was almost there tonight. I had been stationed there..."

She met his eyes again and knew she didn't need to explain herself.

If she hadn't faked being sick, she would have been killed by him, specifically.

She took another drink, processing the thought. This time she gulped the whole drink down. "I guess fate's one hell of mistress..." She muttered, setting the glass down carefully. "I left early, pretending to be sick and some poor bastard took my place."

She wasn't looking at him, but she could see him awkwardly shifting from foot to foot.

"You don't have to stay. I'm... just going to be here if there was anything else you... well, anything else you wanted to tell me or ask me or... I dunno. Whatever." She swished the ice cubes in the empty glass, feeling her head grow fuzzy from both the alcohol and the convenient coincidence.

"Sorry," He mumbled, stepping away carefully, trying to not seem too eager as he moved to talk with someone on the other side of the room. Jesus Christ.