A/N: Hey, everybody and thanks fur reviews (JKA, your Italian was spot on :DD)! I'm kinda tired but unusually happy...this rarely happens. Enjoy it. Anyway. Chapter 9! Jumping back and forth, but that's what you get with a nonlinear structure. Read, review or no Chapter 10. :D ~ Mika

PS: This chapter contains yummy descriptions. Yum yum yum. No srsly, don't eat in the second half of it.

Present day, 3 a.m.

Erol was in a bad mood once again. Today had not gone well by his standards. To be perfectly honest, he never had good days, but this one belonged to the level of excrement compared to his other days. Finally, three hours into the next day, he was allowed a reprieve.

Being Commander is not everything it appeared, he mused as he threw open the front door upon reaching home. I do wonder how Torn managed...before he developed a conscience, that is.

Something clinked as he strode into the hall, interrupting his train of thought. Switching on the light, he removed his helmet and bent down to pick up the shards of glitter at his feet. Those shards amalgamated into a collection of metal objects on rings, which slipped through his fingers as he picked them up and studied them.

"Keira's keys?" he mused. "What are they doing here..." He looked up and around whilst filling his lungs with air, chest swelling. Before his face changed colour, he let that breath out in a yell of "KEIRA!"

No response. Not even the brat crying.

What's going on?

He stormed upstairs, almost punching the doors open, the emptiness of the rooms jarring his head like the butt of a gun on a human skull. Slowly, he began to piece together exactly what had happened, especially as, when he ripped open the designated drawers, every single thing of Keira's was gone. Everything. It was forensically clean of her, as if she'd never been there.

The brat!

He darted into Daniel's room, which, apart from the stripped furniture, was also completely and utterly empty.

"They've gone!" he growled, his whole innards twisting painfully. Not with emotion – Precursors forbid Erol feel emotion. No, it was...more down to hunger. "The whore and her brat!"

The Baron's words reverberated in his head.

WHY DID YOU LET THE PRISONER ESCAPE?

"The freak?" he whispered, aghast as it clicked. "Did he have something to do with it all?" He must have done.

Growling, he threw Keira's keys distastefully onto the floor, causing a loud, hard clang as they hit the floor. Although it was almost four in the morning, he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep, neither would he be able to go and look for the Hagai bitch right now. She was probably on the streets with that kid of hers or fucking some other man right now.

Both those notions made him angrier, his face turning as red as his hair.

Storming back outside, he took the Zoomer and sped off towards the Stadium, deciding to race a few laps around the Stadium by himself. Maybe it would work out his anger and stress as opposed to taking it out on Hagai.

He suddenly remembered the garage she had in the Stadium as he tore through Haven's streets.

And he grinned wickedly to himself.

Dici al diavolo che ho ditto "hey" quando torni da dove vieni.

~x~

1:30 a.m.

The couple were notably silent after that particular retelling.

"You remember that?" Jak said softly. At this point, the reunited couple were lying on the hard floor, a dim light illuminating one to the other.

Almost touching. Almost.

"Of course I do," Keira replied softly. It led to Daniel, she secretly and silently added.

Her right hand and Jak's left were resting loosely on the floor, their respective other arms providing some measure of comfort against the hard floor. Without warning, Jak used his middle finger to trace a line down Keira's middle finger, across the back of her hand and up her arm. Only lightly, but it triggered feelings that she hadn't had in ages.

Did I ever fall out of love with you?

She had tried to convince herself all this time that she had. What she'd told Erol did not and never matched her true feelings inside, even when he'd tried to beat her out of them.

His eyes snapped up, locking with hers.

No...I never did.

"You didn't flinch," he said softly.

She could tell he was trying to control his tone. "I know you won't hurt me, Jak. Not on your life."

He seemed to retreat into himself for a minute. "Keir, this...thing inside me; the thing that...Praxis and...Erol put in me. I can't...I can't control it, as you've seen. When I'm angry, when I'm scared or threatened...it takes over. It hurts and kills everything and everyone it can. You saw what it did with Torn..." He shook his head, shaking off the shame that had descended upon him. "I can't...let anything happen to you because of me. Because of this thing!" He clenched his fists as a growl filled his throat on the last sentence.

Managing not to flinch at 'Erol', Keira put her hand over his, her long fingers like strands of pale spider webs. Eventually, Jak relaxed, knotting his fingers with hers.

"Jak..." she began, swallowing, trying to regain her composure. "No matter what happens...what changes you've gone through...I...I..." Mar damn it, Keir, just say it. "I love you. You should know that by now. I've always loved you. Always will do..."

"Then why did you run off with him, whoever he is?" Jak replied sharply.

"Why did YOU run off?" Keira bit back, hurt, retracting her fingers.

"No..." Jak began, but the words failed in his throat. "Keir, I..." He shook his head – no mean feat whilst lying on his side on the floor. "Forget I said it."

She nodded, trying a different tack, attempting to placate him. "You tired?"

"No," he said stubbornly

"That's a yes then," she said lightly, eyes crinkling.

The damaged man chuckled, thumb caressing her skin. "That's one advantage to this thing. I don't tire as easily anymore,"

"Mm," she said noncommittally. "I guess that's a good thing. So...how did this...thing come to be inside you?"

Jak rolled onto his back and stared at the black ceiling, unwelcome memories of prison flooding back into his head. He heard the buzz of the machine as it injected Dark Eco into himself and other prisoners, smelled the putrid odour of rotting bodies from where Guards failed to clean the cells; felt the icy burn of the Dark Eco as it flooded his body; heard the screams, first and last, of the other prisoners. None of them survived. None of them lasted as long as he did.

"Why" was his only question.

"Jak?"

He snapped out of it and turned his attention back to Keira, who looked concerned.

"You okay there?"

"Yeah," he said automatically, swallowing. "I'm fine." He looked at her. "You sure you want to know where this thing came from?"

Keira nodded. "If it helps me understand, then yes."

It won't. He took a deep breath. "Okay then...Here we go."