Chapter 10: Reunion

"I want that zoomer up and running by tomorrow morning. You got it?"

"Tomorrow morning? I mean, sure I can fix it, but it'll be a rush job and won't hold up."

"I don't care if it immediately blows up after the race. I don't even care if it blows up with rider still on it. I just need it to last long enough to get across that finish line. Understand?"

"…Yes, sir."

"Good girl."

Keira screwed her face up in disgust behind her boss's back and resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him like she was still a child.

She turned back to the zoomer in questioned and scowled.
It was, literally, a pile of junk. The manager had bought it from a scrap shop and it had sat in the back of the garage with the intention of being used for parts. And now, Keira was being asked to turn it into a workable vehicle in time for the next day's race.

"It's going to be a long night." Keira sighed in resignation.

In a way, it was kind of a good thing that she already slept in the garage. It meant that she could work long into the night without having to worry about walking home afterwards. All she'd need to do after finishing her work was stumble over to the hammock she'd strung up at the back of her workspace to sleep in.

As she delved into the guts of the zoomer to try and bring it back to life for one last go around the track, Keira once again marvelled at how similar zoomers in Haven city were to the one she created back in Sandover.
She wasn't arrogant enough to believe that she had invented the concept of riding on the back of a powered machine, but she had still created her own unique design for it, working hours upon hours to perfect the design just right, something uniquely hers. So, it was a little, or maybe a lot if she was being honest, disheartening to learn that Haven had been far ahead of her in her specific angle of zoomer design.
There were differences. These zoomers didn't run off of Power Cells for one. But they were similar enough that it was as though Keira and the inventor of zoomers in Haven had been working off of the same blueprint. Even though Keira had come up with her design completely by herself.

It was almost morning by the time that Keira got the zoomer in workable condition. Though, whether it'd survive through the race was yet to be seen.
She groaned tiredly. This was hardly the first time she had spent all night working on a project, but back in Sandover that had been because of her getting so lost in her work that she didn't realise the time. With this, she had to force herself to stay awake and keep working. The alternative was getting kicked back out onto the street by her boss for not doing as told. And she was already lucky to get this job as a street rat with no prior history in the first place.

Keira dragged herself over to hammock and slipped into it after some difficulty. She didn't have long until the other staff returned, but she could hopefully get a couple hours of shut eye.

It had been a few months since Keira had landed in Haven and she was still barely just scraping by.
With no citizenship, the manager, who had taken Keira in with no questions asked "out of the kindness of his own heart," was free to take advantage of her as much as he wanted. What he paid her was barely enough to cover food and other bare essentials, and subject to what his mood was that week.
This was what led to Keira living out of her garage workspace. Not enough lari left over for rent.

To make things worse, she had yet to find any trace of her father, Jak or Daxter in all her time in Haven. No matter who she asked, no one gave her any info.
And those who had claimed to have seen them and could lead her to them, Keira had learned not to trust after the first time a fellow mechanic had had to step in to save her from someone who she had only learned after had a very bad reputation. Said incident had resulted in a lecture from her manager about "stranger danger", something that she'd never had to worry about back in Sandover but which was apparently common knowledge in Haven.

Unfortunately, there was only so much searching Keria could do. With the city split up into walled-off sectors as it was, she was trapped in Main Town until she could scrounge up enough lari to pay for a Green Pass.
And not just that, she'd have to pay extra for a counterfeit pass. With no citizenship, she couldn't obtain a Pass the legal way. And her manager refused to help Keira gain citizenship. Which she suspected was so that he could keep her working for him, as citizenship would allow Keira to find a better job.

With a Green Pass, Keira would not only be able to widen her search for the others, but she would gain access to the city dump. With any luck, it would provide her with scrap parts that she could use to start reconstruction on the Rift Rider.
She was working only from memory and what few scraps of the original Rider that she landed with, but she'd managed to create a blueprint that would, hopefully, work. Of course, there was still the matter of needing a Rift Gate to drive the Rift Rider through to get back home, but Keira would cross that bridge when she got to it.

In good news, the zoomer did manage to last the entire race. In bad news, it basically blew up as soon as it crossed the finish line.

Keira frowned as she regarded the wrecked remains of the zoomer she had spent so much time on and given up sleep to repair. There would be no repairing it a second time.

"Come on, man. How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Uhhhhh! Three?"

"Yeah, definitely a concussion on top of everything else."

Keira looked over to the unfortunate racer who had been given the doomed zoomer. He was in bad shape. Though, considering the state of his zoomer and how fast he'd been going when it gave up the ghost, it was a miracle that he was still alive, let alone awake.

"I'm screwed." The injured racer moaned. "I don't know if I'll be able to afford the hospital bills. I'm just starting out. I don't have any sponsors who can pay for me or get me the good stuff. And I can't afford to be out of the race while I'm healing."

The other racer got a thoughtful look on his face.

"Hey, man, I think I know a better solution." He said quietly

The other racer dragged the injured racer off to a more secluded area.
Intrigued, Keira decided to spy on them.

"Look, I don't want to get in dept with Krew. I've heard the horror stories around the track." The injured racer said sternly.

"I wasn't going to say that." His friend reassured.

Keira had heard whispers about this Krew person. Rumour had it that he owned half of the racers in the stadium in some way or another.
When she had first joined as a mechanic, a racer named Flit had been the top dog and dominated every race. But then, he had lost a race that he should have by all rights won, and Krew had "coincidentally" placed a large bid against Flit that same day. Rumours of Flit taking a dive at Krew's bidding had quickly surfaced and the racer had never quite lived it down.
It was a story that had apparently repeated many times over the stadium's history. And when Krew placed a high bid against a certain racer and lost, that racer would suddenly become very accident prone, other racers would suddenly start acting out against them on the track, or they'd just disappear.

"Look, there's this healer guy in the Slums. He can work miracles if you pay him right or bring your own med kit for him to work with. He's cheap too, much cheaper than the hospital or Krew's lot."

Keira barely held back a gasp.

A healer who could "work miracles". Could they be talking about her father?
Healing wasn't exactly her father's specialty, but it was still something he could do as a Green Sage. Really, it was one of the few things he would be able to do to earn his way in a city like Haven, as being a Sage was considered to be a dead profession due to the shortage of Eco.

"Really? Why haven't I heard about him before? And why is he in the Slums?"

"We're trying to keep it all on the down-low. If Krew finds out about him, you'll know what he'll do."

Keira's heart clenched. Her mind went back to Flit, who had basically ruined his reputation at the supposed orders of Krew, and the rumours of what had happened to the racers who wronged him.
Sage's were non-existent in Haven, which would make her father a valuable asset to the likes of this Krew person, or a threat.

"I need to get into the Slums." Keira announced with renewed determination.

It took a painfully long time for Keira to get her Green Pass now that she finally had a clue for the location of her father. Many times, she deliberated just trying to sneak through, but a look at the Krimzon Guard nearby, as well as the worry about not being able to sneak back through, nixed that idea.

But finally, finally, Keira earned enough lari to pay the extortionate price the counterfeiter was demanding. And she wasted no time in racing to the Slums, passing through the Green Gate with thankfully no issue.

It was only once Keira entered the Slums that she realised that she had no idea where exactly within the district the healer that was possibly her father was. Should she just wander around hoping to see him? Should she knock on doors until her father was the one behind it?
She tried asking around, but all she got were shakes of the head or suspicious looks. So, wandering around until she stumbled across her father was all that she could do in the end.

The Slums were much bigger than Keira had realised and soon she found herself lost among the crowded and maze-like streets.

"I should have listened for longer." Keira muttered to herself.

Maybe if she had listened in on those racers for longer, she could have learned the exact location of this healer.

Keira's wandering eventually led her to a stagnant body of water, on which stood huts kept out of the water by stilts and a rickety boardwalk that she felt hesitant to step foot on for fear of falling through. Though they were vastly different, the sight of huts instead of blocky buildings reminded her of Sandover, which only served to make her feel sad.
Hesitantly, Keira stepped foot on the boardwalk and walked along its many splitting paths.

"How do I even get back from here?" Keira wondered aloud.

She had spent so much time exploring the many streets, doubling back on herself and going in circles, that she realised that she didn't know the way back to the Green Gate. It was getting late and the sun was already on its way to setting due to the time of year and the city walls blocking it out, which made Kiera realise just how threatening the encroaching darkness made the Slums look.
Maybe she could get someone to walk her back to the gate.

Looking around, Keira spotted a young man working on a small shed-like building not far from the water. From his size, he looked like he could be around her age, though it was hard to tell with his back to her.

Keira approached the man and cleared her throat.

"Excuse me?" She said. "I was wondering if you could help me."

"Jus- a mom'nt." The boy replied with a raspy voice.

"It's just, I need help getting to the gate to Main Town. If you don't mind walking me there." Keira explained, rocking on her feet nervously.

"Ah can." The man nodded. "Fin'sh fi'st."

So, she waited patiently as the man finished what he was doing. It was kind of awkward, Keira just standing there while the guy worked, not speaking.

"Hey, Jak, have you finished-"

Keira turned at the familiar approaching voice and was greeted with the welcoming site of orange fur.

"Daxter!" She grinned at the site of the ottsel.

"Keira?" Daxter stopped and blinked in surprise before grinning. "Man, am I happy to see your beautiful face, sweet cheeks."

Keira usually found Daxter's nicknames annoying and even demeaning. But she found that she didn't care about it this time, all she cared about was finally finding him after so long alone.

"K-Ke'a?"

Keira turned and was shocked to come face to face with Jak. The boy she had just been speaking to had been Jak and she hadn't realised it.

His skin was paler than is used to be, though still darker than hers, though the shadows he had developed under his eyes matched the ones she had gained. And he looked…leaner. Living in Haven's Slums, a place where people did not have much money, had clearly taken its toll on her friend.
Keira blamed her lack of initial recognition on his hair. Rather than fluffing up above him, it hung limply on his head and looked like it was developing matts, with the green roots being hidden by the scarf he now wore.

"Jak!" Cried out.

She practically leapt at her friend, squeezing him a tight hug. A moment later, Jak returned the hug and her feet were suddenly off the ground as he swung her around.
When her feet met the ground again, they parted slightly so that they could look at each other's grinning faces. Then, she realised just how close they were and pulled away with a blush.

"What? No hug for me?" Daxter scoffed in offence, climbing up to Jak's shoulder. "I see how it is."

Keira smirked and the reached up and snatched Daxter off of Jak's shoulder, squeezing the ottsel to her chest so tightly that he made a squeaking noise.

"Yes, I even missed you, Daxter." She said.

"Ah, Jak, help! She's hugging me to death!" Daxter wheezed.

Jak only laughed at his friend's predicament.

Daxter scrambled out of Keira's arms as soon as she let go, climbing Jak and hiding behind the boy's head.

"It's not funny." Daxter whacked Jak on the head to quell his laughter.

"Sorree." Jak wheezed.

"So, you speak now." Keira pointed out the obvious. It had also been part of the reason for not initially recognising Jak.

"Eh." Jak shrugged the shoulder Daxter wasn't on, making a so-so gesture with his hand. "Gettin' therr'."

It was strange to hear Jak speak, no matter how poorly. She was used to her friend being silent, loud in ways other than his voice.

"I'm so glad that I found you two." Keira sighed. "Is father here too?"

Her heart sunk when the both of them shook their heads.

"I heard about a healer being in the Slums. I thought that it might be him." She explained sadly.

Daxter laughed. "That would be Jakky boy here." He rubbed the top of Jak's head.

"What?" Keira questioned in shock, wondering if Daxter was joking.

"Ye'h." Jak affirmed awkwardly.

"Turns out he's got a real talent for it." Daxter grinned. "And also, it earns us a nice bit of money."

Keira just stared at Jak. She could not imagine her friend being a healer. He was always more of a warrior, barely paying attention to her father's attempts to teach him.

"So, I'm guessing that you use Green-"

"A-ta-ta!" Daxter quickly cut her off. "Iksnay on the coloured stuff. It's not safe for that info to be public."

"What?"

"Channelers in danger here. Taken away." Jak signed to her.

Keira felt herself grow cold.

Channelers were in danger in Haven? They got taken away?
What did that mean for her father. Jak could hide his identity by just not using Eco. But there was no hiding that her father was a Sage.

"Then…father." Keira broke off.

"Ah, shoot. I didn't even think about that." Daxter said.

Jak put a comforting hand on Keira's shoulder before pulling it away again so that he could sign.

"Samos…smart. Be fine." He assured.

"I hope so." Keira choked.

What did they do with the Channelers that were taken? Were they simply illegal, or were they wanted for something, like how Gol and Maia wanted the Eco Sages for their rebuilt robot?

Keira's spiralling thoughts were interrupted by the door to the shed-like building opening and a small child toddling out along with a croca-dog pup.

"Hey, pup, how was your nap?" Daxter asked as Jak crouched in front of the yawning boy.

"Hungry." Signed the boy.

"Food soon." Jak both signed and spoke to the boy.

"Who's this little one." Keira asked with a smile, crooning over the cute boy.

"We're calling him Mar for now, since he don't speak. Jak picked him up when we first arrived in Haven and got attached." Daxter explained.

"Aw, poor guy." Keira empathised.

Looking at "Mar", Keira was surprised to see just how similar the boy looked to Jak. His nose, his eyes, the notch in his ears, that was all Jak. And she had vague memories of Jak's hair having much more green in it when they were younger.
Jak obviously couldn't have had a toddler-aged kid in the few months they had been apart. So, how had he managed to pick up a child that looked so much like him?

"Jak, do you have family in this part of the world?" Keira asked her friend.

Jak looked at her in confusion and shrugged.

"No know family. No know before home." He reminded her. "No know where this place is to home."

"Have you looked at maps?" Keira asked in vain hope.

Keira herself had looked at maps when as soon as she could, hoping to find some hint of where she was to Sandover, only to find nothing. But Jak had spent his childhood pouring over his uncle's maps, so he would be much more familiar with all the landmasses and locations outside of their small section of the world.

Unfortunately, Jak shook his head.

"He does look a lot like Jak, don't he?" Daxter laughed, looking to and from the child and his friend. "And old Log-head never did tell us where he picked you up, Jak. Maybe you already came from here."

Jak raised an eyebrow at Daxter's theory and Keira had to agree.

They couldn't find any recognisable landmarks on the maps Haven had, meaning that it was extremely far from Sandover. Yet Jak had somehow made it all the way across that distance?
Though, Jak did have a strong resemblance to Mar, and Jak himself wouldn't have needed to make the journey, just his parents. So, while it seemed far-fetched, it wasn't impossible.

Daxter then laughed loudly. "If you are related to the pup, wouldn't that make you-" Jak silenced the ottsel by pinching his muzzle shut.

The quiet stomping of feet alerted the teens to the fact that Mar was getting sick of being ignored, his chubby face scrunched up in displeasure. He's pout only deepened when Jak patted him on the head.

Jak opened the door to the shed and waved Keira in.

Walking inside confirmed that the small building really was just a shed made of bricks, made up to be a living space. It was cramped and cold, though efforts had clearly been made to make it liveable.

"So, this is where you've been living for the past few months?" Keira asked.

She tried not to judge. Afterall, she had been living out of the garage she worked at. At least Jak and Daxter had found a space to call their own.

"Yep." Daxter answered, disgruntled. "And where have you been?"

"I managed to find work in Main Town at a garage. I've seen sleeping in my workspace." She answered with a heavy sigh.

She watched as Jak took a box she recognised as bland ration powder and poured some of it into some bowls along with some water from a bottle, then took a piece of fruit and sliced it up between the bowls.

He handed one of the bowls to Mar, a smaller one to Daxter, and kept one for himself.
Before he sat down, he indicated to his bowl at Keira.

"No thank you. I already ate." She rejected.

The ration powder, as well as other ration products, were the cheapest food in the shops that supposedly carried all the nutrients a person needed. And it was horrible, like eating paper mulch. So, Keira didn't want to eat more than what was absolutely necessary to survive.

Jak sat down and he and Daxter consumed their food as fast as possible, Daxter even pinching his nose. It seemed that the boys had adopted the approach of trying to consume it before their brains registered the taste and texture. And their faces after told Keira that they hated the stuff just as much as she did.

Mar however, had eaten all of his fruit pieces and was now stirring the gunk in his bowl with a scowl on his face.
Jak tapped Mar's bowl with his own spoon before indicating at the boy, which earned him a pout. Jak only repeated the gesture.

"Come on, pup. We do this song and dance every day. Just eat the slop." Daxter complained.

The kid pulled faces and cried silently, but eventually ate most of the unappetising slop before throwing the bowl against the wall. Which cause Jak and Daxter to sigh in defeat.

"It must be so hard for you two, looking after Mar." Keira empathised.

"Yeah, it's been rough." Daxter agreed readily.

"Couldn't leave him." Jak signed. "Like me."

"Like you? He's a Channeler?" Keira blinked in surprise.

Jak shook his head, paused, and then shrugged.

"Unclaimed." Jak corrected. "No home but us. No community."

"Oh." Keira said in understanding.

She's already figured that Mar was an orphan from his name alone. But to realise that Jak had had to take care of the boy because no one else would was heartbreaking. Back home, Jak and Daxter had always had a place to stay and food in their bellies despite both being orphans, collectively raised by the village.

"Still, you look like you've been doing a great job with him." Keira added. "Who'd have thought that the budding hero of Sandover would end up a parent so young." She teased.

Jak gave her a mock scowl.

"Big brother." He corrected.

His attempt to assert himself was hampered by Mar starting to use him as a climbing frame.

"So, uh, what's the plan from here?" Daxter asked. "We've found each other and still need to find Log-head and a way back home. But what do we do now?"

"Well, I think I have a plan on getting home. Kind of." Keira announced.

"You do?"

Hopeful eyes looked towards her.

"I'm going to rebuild the Rift Rider that brought us here." She explained.

"You're going to rebuild it?" Daxter did not hide his disbelief. "With what? That piece of junk was made by the Precursors. And I haven't seen any Precursor ruins around here. Plus, you don't even know how it was made!"

Keira pressed her lips as the ottsel got louder.

"Thing is, I don't think it was actually of Precursor make, the Rift Rider I mean." She explained. "When I was repairing it, it didn't match the designs of Precursor contraptions that I've analysed in the past. There were some Precursor gadgets, which I can't replicate, but the main bulk of it was more in line with something an elf would make."

"How make?" Jak asked.

"I think I can make most of it out of salvaged scrap. Working at the garage has its perks." Keira outlined. "It'll take trail and error but I think that I can do it. Though, I have no idea where we're going to get the more special parts, like the Precursor compass. And we still need to locate a Rift Ring to use the Rift Rider on."

"Oh, so it's that easy." Daxter said sarcastically.

"I'd love to see you come up with a better plan." Keira snapped back, having had it with the ottsel's attitude.

"Shh." Jak calmed, hands up to try and ease tempers.

"It start. You smart. Make it work." He signed to Keria.

"Thank you. And now that I've found you, things should be easier than they were initially." She agreed.

Jak nodded.

"Stay together." He signed.

"Yeah, we're not getting separated again." Keira agreed. "Though, I should be getting back to the garage, if you're still fine walking me to the gate."

Jak shook his head.

"Stay together." He reiterated. "Stay here."

"Oh. I don't know." Keira said unsurely, looking around the hovel.

"Ugh, it'd be a tight squeeze with her added to the mix." Daxter complained, even though he needed comparatively lesser space, being as small as he was.

"And, well, Main Town is safer than the Slums." Keira added.

But even as she and Daxter made good points, her heart wasn't in it. No matter the squeeze and no matter how dangerous the Slums seemed, she was very reluctant to be so far from Jak and even Daxter after finally finding them. Haven as a whole was a dangerous place, and in it the teens only had each other.

"But I guess that I can stay the night for now." She amended.

Jak's face showed clear relief.

"Well, I hope yah don't mind sharing a bed then?" Daxter grinned.

Keira's eyes shot to the corner of the room to look at the single mattress there and blushed. She'd be sharing a bed with Jak? Looking to Jak, she saw that his face was also going red, which caused Daxter to laugh.

"Anyway." Keira burst out. "Do you have any gate passes?"

Jak nodded, face still slightly red, and pulled out a Red Pass.

"Good, that gives me access to the Industrial Sector and Docks, right?" Keira said, pulling out her own pass o compare.

"And us access to Main Town without havin' to sneak our way though." Daxter added.

"Book building." Jak signed.

It took a second for Keira to realise that he meant the library, which he didn't have a sign for.

"You're just full of surprises today, Jak. You've never been the type to be so excited to read books." She grinned.

Jak gave her a flat look that showed his distaste for the concept. It seemed that he still wasn't the type.

"Learn for healing." He signed. "Learn for Mar."

She nodded in understanding.

"I still can't believe you became a healer." She said. "I would have thought that you'd find a job more in line with being a hero."

"Well, there's not exactly much room for heroes here. At least, not our sort of heroes." Daxter said.

His remark dropped the mood.

Keira sighed heavily.

"I want to go back home." She stated. "I want to find father and go back home."

The tears were coming.

Jak moved closer to her.

"We find other. We able find Samos. Then go home. I help where I can." He comforted.

Keria broke, throwing her arms around Jak and clinging tight.

A pressure at her side made her aware of Daxter putting a paw against her in comfort. He didn't say anything.

Jak was right. They'd found each other, so they could find her father. Then they'd find their way back to Sandover. And this entire nightmare would be over.
They had each other now. And, together, they're find a way.