The day brightened and darkened quicker than anyone liked, especially Jak, whose fear grew bigger every minute he didn't see or hear Keira return. When Torn gave him and Daxter, as the neon orange ottsel would call it, "crappy missions", he did them with little heart thrown into them. So little heart, in fact, that the ottsel took a break from his tall stories and hiding behind Jak's ears to notice.

"Hey, buddy! A little off target today, are we?"

"Hungh?" Jak hauled his thoughts back to reality. "What?"

"I SAID..." Daxter took a deep breath, causing his little furry body to swell up with contained air. "You. Seem. Off. Today. Preoccupied, distracted, unfocused, diverted, sidetracked, "

"I thought you were gonna launch into this long speech about how I was distracted today," Jak noted, chuckling.

"I was,"

"But?"

"But, but, but – JAK, WALL!"

"Wha – " Jak pulled the Zoomer up sharply before actually looking and realising that there was no wall. In his ear, the ottsel shrieked with laughter turning into an actual shriek as Jak accelerated sharply round a tight bend, smirking in revenge.

"Ya know, if it wasn't so late, I'd get you back for that!" the ottsel harrumphed, reasserting himself on Jak's shoulder. "D'ya think Keira's back yet?"

The blonde warrior let out a long sigh. "Hope so. Danny was nervous and clingy every time I left. Promised him I'd be back, but I can't say the same for Keira." He hopped off the Zoomer and decided to walk across the rich, green fields in front of the Stadium.

"Ya think she's here?"

Jak took in a good amount of heavy, filthy air, taking out the Morph. "I hope so." Flicking through the individual mods, he checked to see how much of each he had, just in case, as was common in Haven, they encountered anything or anyone unwanted.

Slinging the gun around his shoulder, he released the breath he didn't realise he was holding and strolled towards the Stadium, senses on high alert for Krimzon Guards, Erol or anything out of place.

~x~

Keira struggled against her bonds, eyes fixed on the thin man standing in front of her, perennial evil grin on his face. She worked her teeth against the rag clinging to her mouth, but when the strands of material started to insinuate themselves between them she gave up.

The man in front of her let out a long, wicked laugh, full of self-satisfaction. Keira glared at him. How she longed to plant something sharp into his body many times until he stopped moving, or cave his skull in with a wrench; she wasn't a fussy woman.

"You can try all you want. Not even that freak is looking for you." Erol idly glanced at the magazine of his gun, ensuring it was full. Even if the blonde freak did find them, he would be dead before the sole of his boot landed in the room.

Taking a deep breath, closing her eyes and using her tongue to force down the revolting rag to her chin, Keira was finally able to speak, if only in defence of her boyfriend. "Jak is not a freak, and even if he was, you're the bigger one!"

"Oh yeah?" Erol suddenly swooped down, grabbing the young woman's jaw in his hand and squeezing it so hard her teeth became embedded inside her cheeks. "Who says? You, a no-good whore who simply happens to be good with a wrench? That bastard brat of yours...and the freak's, come to think of it?"

Keira felt a chill run down her spine, pooling into panic at the bottom of her stomach. He knows. He knows about Jak being Danny's father. Slowly, she raised her eyes to meet his, locking on like a snake locking onto its prey.

Briefly glancing aside for merely a second, she saw that he was squatting, one leg either side of her right one, leaving his groin wide open for attack.

She smirked, bringing her knee up quickly. Revenge.

The Commander howled, crumpling like a ball of paper under the pressure of a hand. Keeping his legs tightly closed and grunting in pain, he regained his position and struck Keira across the face with the butt of his service revolver. Yelping in pain, she curled up defensively, mouth filling with blood.

"That sound you make," the evil man grunted. "I always knew you were a bitch and that yelp just proved it,"

"Not as loud as the scream you made when my knee met your balls." Keira laughed thickly, spitting out blood and teeth. "You sure you actually felt anything down there, Erol? You never did have very much..."

"Are you sure that you want to be talking to me in that manner?" Erol hissed, ice punctuating his tone.

"Absolutely sure," Keira growled back. "For two years, you tortured me, you kept me prisoner, you threatened my son!" Her tone rose. "Not only that but you were busy pumping Dark Eco and Mar-knows-what into Jak at the same time!"

"Just Dark Eco," Erol said dryly. "Nothing else. Well, maybe sedatives on occasion, and we got them imported so who knows what they contained..."

Keira let out what could only be described as a growl, unable to think of a comeback.

Erol smirked. "I win, do I? Then what's my prize?" He put his finger to his chin, pretending to think. "Oh! I have an idea..."

~x~

It was the screams that drew Jak's attention to the upper levels of the Stadium. He recognised them immediately – frightened, pain-filled, female – Female?

"KEIRA!" he yelled, sprinting up the stairs round the back as the screams continued, growing louder, distressingly filling his ears. He used them as guidance towards where he hoped Keira was as he leapt down corridors, up stairs and off edges, drawing his Morph and reaching a dark door, behind which the screams continued, punctuated with sobbing.

Raising a boot, he kicked the door down, Morph pointed ahead of him. What he saw activated the Dark Eco, the substance pushing at the very walls of his veins.

"GET OFF HER!" he roared, face reddening, finger on the Blaster trigger.

"Jak?" Erol gasped in shock, attention momentarily diverted from his hostage. Roughly pulling out of her, he re-concealed himself with clothing before fumbling for his service gun. Keira scrabbled away from him, bloodied, clothes torn, tears streaming down her face.

"Oh, so you remembered my name, huh?" Jak spat, aiming and firing at Erol's hand just as it got near the gun. Unfortunately, he missed, but succeeded in coaxing a most feminine yelp from the Commander. The older man clenched tightly to the smaller gun, aiming it at the blonde's head.

"Well, well, well." The redhead laughed coldly. "Here we are again. You. Me. Her." He sniffed at the cowering, sobbing woman in the corner. "This all for her? Really, Jak? You're a bigger freak than I thought..."

"At least I'm not a woman-beating abusive coward," Jak hissed, wanting just to shoot him and get out with Keira.

"Who has serious repression issues!" Daxter added.

Erol growled. "Nobody asked you, rat,"

"Hey! Short-arse! Jak didn't ask you to knock Keira 'bout for two years but ya did anyway!" the ottsel interjected back, more offended by the derogatory "rat" than anything.

"She was never yours, freak!" Erol hissed at Jak, temper inflamed by the comment regarding his height.

"Keira was never anyone's, Erol. She's a human with much the same choice as everyone else." Jak slowly lowered the gun, the laser running down the Commander's body. "Although you took that away from her, didn't you? Monster."

"Me? The monster?" Erol laughed. "Who's the one who, when he gets angry, changes? Becomes another creature entirely?"

Almost there...

He bit the inside of his lip.

"Who, without thought or reason, kills anything and everything he sees?" Erol continued, not noticing Jak's actions.

The Blaster laser finally rested on the Commander's foot.

"Huh?"

Jak put pressure on the trigger.

"It's not me..." Erol smirked, but not for long as he saw where the Morph was aimed. "Oh, shi – "

Pew.

For the second time that day, Erol uttered a scream that sounded more feminine than masculine. Taking advantage of his opponent's pain, Jak ducked towards Keira, scooping her up in his arms and running out the room faster than his legs could humanly carry him. Only, he wasn't fully human; not any longer.

Keira moaned and shivered in his arms as he ran, clinging on tightly to him. He tried to reassure her as he ran, but it was hard to do both of those at the same time, and he knew he had to conserve breath else he would slow and Erol would catch up with them. Gently lowering Keira onto the single-seat Zoomer before swinging onto it in front of her, he instructed her to hold on before taking off.

When the sound of another single-seat Zoomer reached Jak's ears at the same speed he was going, he knew then not to head straight towards the Underground. As shots whistled past his ears, he ducked and leapt, changing zones and taking sharp turns when necessary. His heart raced, his breathing getting more and more shallow – part fear, part exhilaration.

Click.

He knew then what he had to do.

"Keira, take the wheel, and when you do, slow the Zoomer down!" he yelled to his girlfriend.

"Are you mad?" she yelled, releasing his waist instantly and digging her fingers into the back of the seat, having regained some measure of strength.

"Just do it!" Jak yelled.

"Fine!" she yelled back. "I need to get there first!"

Slowly, Jak twisted himself around on the still-speeding machine, steadying himself with the Morph. Eventually, when he was steady, Keira crawled between his legs, taking the wheel as instructed. Although she wasn't a confident driver, she felt safer knowing someone was driving.

Jak switched to the Peacemaker, charging it as he watched the red dot of Erol's Zoomer draw closer and closer. He felt the machine slowing as he'd asked, the Peacemaker's whine at its highest.

Erol's features got more distinguishable, and very soon he was within the range of the 'Maker.

"You. Don't. Win. This!" the deranged Commander yelled, not showing any signs of slowing.

"Jak, HURRY!" Daxter and Keira yelled simultaneously.

The blonde man raised the Peacemaker.

"You're wrong, Erol!" he yelled. "I have one thing you don't,"

The other man's face creased in a snarl. "Oh yeah? What would that be?"

The damaged warrior aimed straight for the Zoomer, a cocky smile on his face.

"A big fuckin' gun."

He aimed the 'Maker and released the trigger, savouring the look on Erol's face as he watched the ball of electricity arc towards him.

"Off the Zoomer now!" Jak yelled, diving off and grabbing Keira's hand as she climbed off. Shielding her with his body, he watched with satisfaction as electricity met red Zoomer, causing a hot, bright, noisy explosion directly in the middle of the square. The blackened Zoomer crashed to the ground and Erol sailed through the air, landing, as fate would have it, not too far away from the little group.

Switching to the Blaster, Jak got up, strolling towards the Commander, who by some miracle was still alive, albeit dirty, bloody, burned and mightily pissed off. His breath came in heaves, eyes alight with anger.

"Now who's on their back, Erol?" Jak sneered, cocking the Blaster. He looked over the fallen man, noting with pleasure that he had no weapon on him with which he could defend himself. "You got nothing to say? Well, that's unusual. You always have something to wrap your tongue around...and I'm not just talking about words here,"

"Oooooh!" Daxter exclaimed. "Want some ice for that burn, Erol? Or rather...burns. Gonna need a lot of ice for that, although I've heard they don't have ice in Hell,"

"You will pay for this!" the deranged Commander hissed, pupils contracted in anger.

Jak rolled his eyes. "I'm sure I will, but not by your hand." Hefting the Vulcan up and taking a step back, he rested the laser on Erol's forehead. He heard footsteps approach him and looked round to see Keira, fire in her eyes.

"May I?" she asked. She answered his look with "For both of us."

Jak nodded, handing her the gun, helping her with the weight. Focusing its laser on her abusive lover's forehead, she narrowed her eyes.

"This is for the two years you stole of our respective lives, for all the times you've beaten, raped, tortured, abused us separately but together," she snarled, eyes alight in fury.

"And also to make sure you don't come back as a cyber-ised version of yourself in a year's time," Daxter added.

Without another word, Keira jerked the trigger, supported by her boyfriend to prevent being knocked back by the force of the bullets. Eventually, she dropped the gun, sinking to her knees, and for a long time, Jak knelt beside her, holding her as the smoke from the gun cleared from the Commander's markedly still body.

After a long time, the group gathered themselves, got to their feet and strolled quite casually towards the Underground Bunker, the sun finally breaking through the smog for the first time in many a long year.

A/N: Now, from this chapter (and the title of it), can you work out who is The Hand (La mano), who is The Head (la testa) and who is The Heart (il cuore)? Answers in a review...