'I don't own any of the characters or anything mentioned here, this is just for fun!

For the next several days, Keira learned more than she ever wanted to know about combating metal heads and the mysterious KG robots. Of course, she never actually went out on the battlefield. Her father would have had an aneurysm had anyone even suggested it. Besides, Keira wasn't a warrior like Ashelin or even Tess, who both walked around with pistols and knives strapped to both legs.

That wasn't to say that Keira wasn't helpful. She reprogrammed the viewing screen to better show the battlegrounds. She pointed out things that her father missed seeing, and learned to read the eco grids and anything else she could get her hands on. Eventually the people in the command center stopped looking at her sideways and started accepting and even welcoming her help. Ashelin and Torn were often there too, but they were too busy to acknowledged Keira's presence. Keira tried not to look at Ashelin out of the corner of her eye too often. Jak said there was nothing between them, but Keira didn't like the looks Ashelin gave him once in a while. Or the way she talked to him, for that matter.

Keira scowled and shook her head, trying to focus on what her father was saying. Ashelin had been saying something about the city council causing trouble, and Samos was saying something about Jak maybe needing to stay secluded in the palace for a while. Keira got up from her chair, rubbing her sweaty palms on her pants.

"I'll go find him and let him know," she said in as casual a tone as she could muster.

She was out of the command center room before anyone could say anything. With everything that had been happening lately, she hardly got to see him at all. Jak was always out on a mission, or deeply engaged in serious, low-toned conversations with Torn and Ashelin. Keira would try to catch his eye whenever she could, but Jak rarely responded. She would have been angry at him if he hadn't looked so tired and worn.

Jak wasn't in his room, which was to be expected. He was almost never there these days. Keira knew that she should probably just call his communicator to find out where he was, but something stubborn in her refused. She wanted to talk to him in person for once.

After fifteen minutes of fruitless searching, though, Keira resignedly drew her communicator out of her pocket. Her finger lingered on the ON switch for a second, but then she put it back in her pocket when she heard a strange sound, almost like heavy breathing, coming from around the corner up ahead. Keira started to feel sick to her stomach. She had heard this sound before – when Jak had changed in her garage and slaughtered the Metal Heads. She started to walk a little faster, her heart thudding painfully.

"Hello?" she called nervously. When Keira turned the corner, she found Jak hunched against the wall with his back to her. He gripped fistfuls of his hair, and Keira could see his shoulders shaking as he sucked in air.

"Jak, what's wrong?"

"Stay away from me," he snarled. His voice didn't sound normal. It was deeper and had a ragged edge to it that scared her.

"Is it the dark eco?" she asked quietly, keeping herself very still.

Jak began to laugh, and it was not a pleasant sound. Slowly he stood up, bracing himself against the wall. When he turned around, Keira saw that his eyes were shifting from black to blue, back and forth. "When is it not the dark eco? It's taking me over and everyone knows it."

"Let us help you, then!" she said, forgetting her fear and taking his hands. "You act like you're all alone and you're not!"

Jak wrenched his hands away from her. "That's easy for you to say. You're not the one everyone looks sideways at. No one trusts me and I don't blame them."

"What are you talking about?" An apprehensive feeling started roiling in Keira's stomach. She knew that it wasn't like him to just spout out paranoid accusations.

"It doesn't matter," he said bitterly. "You don't have to force yourself to be over here talking to me."

"I'm not," she answered. "I came looking for you." She'd never felt so confused. One day he was holding her as she slept and letting her bandage his wounds, but now this?

"Just get away from me." Jak's voice had never sounded so quiet and dangerous. "I don't need you or anyone else."

Keira stiffened, and her hands slowly balled into fists. "Don't kid yourself," she said coldly, trying not to let tears spill out of her eyes. "My mistake, I guess. Looks like you've got everything under control over here." She turned around and walked back the way she came until she got back to her room. Keira didn't cry until she was in her bed with the covers over her head, and she didn't get up for a long time after that.

It was late at night when hunger finally drove out of bed. She found some chips sitting on a table in the guards' break room and took the bag with her, listlessly munching as she walked. Her eyes were red and itchy from crying, and she didn't much feel like seeing anyone. The plan was to hole up in her room with the chips and see if things looked brighter in the morning, but that wasn't going to happen that night. Halfway back to her room, Keira heard shouting coming from the command room, and recognized her father's voice. She turned around and peeked in the doorway, wondering what could have Samos so angry.

The Green Sage had drawn himself up to his full height, and was brandishing his walking stick in the face of a tall, bald, rather rat-faced man who Keira felt like she'd seen before. "You have doomed us, Count Veger, do you hear me?" Samos was shouting.

"Please get your green guard dog under control," drawled Count Veger to Ashelin, who stood with her arms crossed a few feet away. The look on her face was enough to kill, but it didn't seem to bother him in the least.

"You just wait, Veger," she snapped. "Things are really going to go to hell now."

"My dear Governor," he answered with a sneer, "if you haven't noticed, we are in hell. Metal heads and rogue robots are overrunning the streets, the hospitals are jammed with wounded, and the Palace has been blown up."

Keira took a few steps into the room, listening with interest. This was the first she'd heard about the Palace.

"I don't know what you think that Jak fellow could be doing to make things any better," Veger was saying, examining the tip of his jeweled cane. "The people demanded decisive action, and since our Lady Governor was not making a move, the Council had to act."

"And you just exiled our last hope from the city!" Samos shouted, waving his walking stick over his head, seemingly on the verge of whacking Veger with it.

"I exiled a dangerous eco freak," hissed Veger. "Shout at me all you like, but he's not coming back. He'll rot in the desert. Meanwhile," he said, delicately dusting off his sleeves, "I have other business to attend to, and I expect the lot of you do as well." He stalked out of the room, past Keira, who had dropped her bag of chips and was staring in horror at her father.

"Daddy, what was he talking about?" Keira asked faintly.

Samos and Ashelin both turned around at the same time. They hadn't noticed Keira standing there.

Samos looked sadly at his daughter. "Keira, I'm afraid Jak has been exiled to the Wasteland. They took him away this afternoon."

Keira felt a jolt, like she'd been walking up stairs and missed one. "This afternoon…" she said softly, covering her mouth with her hand. That afternoon was the last time she'd talked to Jak... he must have been taken away right after they'd fought.

She could hear her father speaking, but it seemed to come from very far away. "We have to go get him," she interrupted.

"I'm afraid that's impossible," answered Samos. "It's too dangerous to leave this building right now, let alone leave the city. Besides, he wasn't just thrown out, he was legally exiled. If we help him we could be exiled ourselves."

Keira stared at her father. "So that's it. You're ok with just leaving him out there to die?"

"That's not just it," put in Ashelin. "I couldn't say so with Veger here, but I slipped Jak a tracking device when he was dropped off. With any luck, someone will be able to pick him up."

"That's great," Keira said sarcastically. "But it probably would have been more helpful if you had stopped them from throwing him out in the first place!"

"Watch it, sweetheart," answered Ashelin in a deadly voice. "I fought harder than anyone to keep him here, but even I can't overrule the vote of the entire council." She stalked out of the room. "Go back to your machines and let me do my job."

Keira shrugged off her father's attempts at comfort and plodded numbly back to her room. She curled up on the bed, feeling as though the room was turning slowly.

Those things I said to him… she thought. What if that was the last thing I ever get to say to him? What if I never get to make things right with him?