Haven

It was raining again. Or rather, it was about to. The sky always seemed to be dreary and gray, but today was especially depressing. The clouds were moving quickly across the sky, angry concrete forms rolling, spatterings of light flashing deep within them, the low rumble of thunder announcing the threat of rain. Keira sighed and grabbed her jacket from a small closet, slipping it on before heading out her front door. She had despised Haven City since their arrival. She and her father, Samos. Recklessly throwing themselves, Jak, and Daxter through that stupid portal, not knowing what would come. She walked briskly down the dank street, trying to get to the garage before the bottom fell out of the clouds, avoiding the eyes of others. Keira tried to keep herself busy day to day, tinkering with any kind of machine or vehicle she could get her hands on. Building, creating, investigating these machines, that's what brought her the most peace nowadays, the closest thing her ever-chattering brain knew to silence.

She was worried, but what could she do? They were gone. Her childhood friends were missing, hell, were they even alive? The last time she saw Jak and Daxter was when they went hurtling through that goddamn portal. All four of them went in, but why had only she and her father ended up in Haven City? Arrested immediately and questioned, days spent being interrogated by those Krimzon guards and Erol. Erol. Keira shuddered at the thought of that troglodyte.

Uh oh. A single raindrop plinked on Keira's forehead. She looked up, she felt a second, a third, a fourth, it had started. Keira pulled her jacket up over her head and started jogging towards the stadium. She saw the spotlights before the building, beacons shining above the gray buildings, advertising the promise of entertainment in this desolate city. Zoomer racing and spectating was one of the few fun things to do that wouldn't land you in jail if you were caught. The sport wasn't entirely savory, since money exchanged hands, racers cheated, and it was unusual if at least one person didn't die during the tournament. But it was fun. And the excitement was welcome here; the denizens of Haven City did not know an abundance of joy, not with the threat of the Metal Heads outside the walls, and the threat of arrest or violence within. Baron Praxis was a horrible man, a dictator, a monster, thought Keira, but at least he keeps the Metal Heads out.

Thankfully no one save a few Krimzon guards were in the courtyard, and Keira didn't feel self-conscious about sprinting to get under the cover of the stadium. A sigh of relief as she rounded the bend towards her garage. Before unlocking the door, she removed her jacket, shaking it vigorously in an attempt to rid it of any water that she could. She pulled the key from her pocket and grabbed the padlock, which secured the huge garage-style door to the floor. With a quick maneuver, the padlock was off and she was lifting the door up above her head, listening to the satisfying click-click-click as it formed into a roll above the large opening. She flicked a switch, and her garage was illuminated. The faint buzz of the overhead lighting was harmonized by the muffled thunder of the storm outside. Keira breathed deeply, taking in the smell of oil and metal, feeling as if it were the first true breath she had taken since she woke up that morning.

First things first. Her coffee. She was particular when she could afford to be, but today she was running low on her supply. Coffee beans were hard to come by, with the limited farming land usually being reserved for "necessities." How the definition of that word did not include coffee, she didn't understand. That idiot Baron must've never had a good brew, like Brutter makes.

It had been strange at first, seeing Lurkers like Brutter. It was one of the indicators that she and Samos had traveled to some time in the future. Keira knew that in her past, Lurkers must've had some sort of communication. But they didn't usually work with humans, let alone speak with them in a common tongue. Now she saw them walking through the Bazaar when she'd make the trip, or sitting at Brutter's bar when she'd had too long of a day and needed a drink. Not nearly as many Lurkers as humans lived in the city, but enough that she knew about a half-dozen of them on a first-name basis. She'd embraced the change; it was always nice to have more friendly faces to talk with, even if that friendly face features a smile as long as her arm.

Keira ground the dark brown beans in a machine she had designed and built. The warm smell added to the welcoming ambiance of her own personal respite from the cold city. This was her haven. She packed the beans into a second machine, adding the water, and pushing a button to begin the process. The machine started to warm as the coffee dripped into a glass container, and the bitter, delicious, energizing, wonderful elixir began to slowly fill the pot. She washed out her coffee cup and filled it with the hot liquid. She could never wait long enough to let it cool and would burn her lips on that first sip. The warmth ran down her and she shivered slightly. Keira would spend a month's earnings on a bag of coffee beans, if that's what it took. Keira didn't care. It was her one weakness in this sordid city.

I don't own these characters or locations. They belong to Naughty Dog.

Shout out to my beta reader and biggest cheerleader ever, RayneKumo :)