Chapter 11: Watch Your Words
Jak scowled at the tiny collection of Yellow Eco in the jar he held. Keira had found it for him, so that he could continue his Eco training, which only made him extra annoyed that it was likely going to end up getting wasted.
It had been over a month since being given his task by the Oracle, and he was still no closer to learning how to store Eco within himself. He had even undertaken the dull task of meditating with the Oracle to try and gain a better understanding of what exactly was being asked of him, the Precursor statue gifting him vague visions of Sages past, yet nothing.
Jak knew that he could do it, but he lacked the Eco to properly practice. In the past, a Channeler could just find the closest vent and restock on Eco when they ran out, but that was no longer an option for Jak. Each dose of Eco was now a precious resource that he couldn't afford to waste. He had to learn quick and hard, or be stuck unable to learn any further.
"Are you going to just stare at it all day?" Daxter complained from Jak's shoulder.
"Still no closer to understanding how to keep the Eco inside of you, then?" Keira asked in sympathy, heading over to her Rift Rider blueprints.
"No." Jak shook his head and sighed.
"If only father were here, he'd be able to help?" Keira bemoaned.
"I'm still wonderin' why he didn't teach this to Jak in the first place." Daxter pointed out.
"Maybe it's not something Jak could do before a certain age?" Keira shrugged, trying to defend her father.
Jak frowned. He didn't like that idea. What if he was struggling because he wasn't old enough? Did that mean that he used up all his precious Eco for nothing?
No, the Oracle would have set him this task if he wasn't ready. Right?
"Anyway," Keira said, bringing attention to her blueprints. "I think I'm getting closer to a solid plan for the Rift Rider. The only problem is the parts. A major one is Power Cells. And those things are rarer than rare here, and that's just the damaged and drained ones. An active Power Cell is unheard of, from what I hear."
"Wait, drained Power Cells? Aren't those things meant to be self-perpetuating or somethin'. I swear I remember old Green Stuff sayin' somethin' about it drawin' in Eco from the air." Daxter interrupted.
"That's only if they're used properly." Keira shook her head. "If they're misused, drained too much and too quickly, they break and stop feeding on ambient Eco. And no one knows how to fix them. Apparently, the Metal Head invasion caused people to not be careful about using them."
"You fix?" Jak rasped.
His friend was smart, really smart. She had restored the first Rift Rider and Rift Gate, and was making solid plans for creating a second Rider from scratch. If anyone could fix a broken Power Cell, it would be Keira.
"Well, I don't know." Keira replied unsurely. "If no one else before me could fix them, then how could I? But, I suppose, I could give it a go, if I had one. But those things are stupid expensive, just for broken parts of one. There's no way we could afford it, not even if we saved for ten years."
"Well, we could just steal one." Daxter suggested with a shrug.
"Daxter. No." Keira shut down succinctly.
"I was only joking." Daxter held his hands up in defence.
Keira went back to her blueprints, going over them even though Jak and Daxter understood very little of what she was explaining.
"-the wires and pipes connecting the, theoretical, Cells to the engine. Allowing the stored Eco-"
"Wait!" Jak exclaimed at that certain part of the explanation.
"What?" Keira looked up in surprise.
"H…ow tha' w-r." Jak signed and spoke, pointing at the part of the Blueprint Keira had been tracing her finger over.
"The engine?" Keira asked. "Well, the Power Cells would go here, then these wires would syphon off the energy from them, the circuit delivering the power to the different parts of the Rider that need it, like the levitation systems, navigation tools, and so on."
"H-w, cell w-r'?" Jak began getting jittery.
Something was beginning to fire around in his brain and he struggled to get his thoughts into order.
"Well, they're basically power converters. They take in ambient Eco from the world around them, convert the Eco into pure energy, then store the energy inside until a machine extracts it.
Store energy? It wasn't exactly what Jak needed to do, he needed the Eco not energy, but it was similar. And what Keira had said, about wires, syphoning off the energy, it passed through the wires from the store of energy to be utilised. Basically, a reverse of what Jak needed to do.
Jak began to pace, his racing thoughts demanding he move to burn off the suddenly energy running through him. When that didn't work, he began slamming his hands together.
"Wow, I haven't seen him this worked up in a while. Look, you can see the steam coming out of his ears." Jak ignored Daxter's words.
Abruptly, Jak remembered something from the medical texts he had been studying. Veins and arteries. They carried blood around the body, passing through the entire body. And Eco travelled along those same channels. At least, he thought it did. Eco always seemed to prefer moving a certain way through the body, and it matched with what the texts said about how blood moved. A constant cycle.
Jak pulled out the jar of Eco Keira had given him and stared at in contemplation.
Maybe, he had been approaching this the wrong way. He had been so focused on storing the Eco within himself that he hadn't given proper though as to how it would get there. Through wires. Through veins and arteries.
Opening the jar, Jak pulled the Eco to himself and concentrated.
Instead of trying to pull the Eco into some ill-defined core within himself, he instead envisioned it flowing through him like how he pushed Green Eco into the wounds of his patients without letting it get used. It tingled, flowing down his fingers and into his hand, then down through his arm and into his body.
It cycled around his body, a pale imitation of what it felt like to be filled by Eco. But now what did he do? It was in his 'wires', but he still could locate his 'battery' to store it with. If he let go of his control, it would get used up like usual. He felt around with the Eco but couldn't find anything.
Did he not have a place to store it? Did he have to make one? Come to think of it, he'd never felt anything like a core inside of himself when he overflowed with Eco back home, it just flowed through the entirety of his body, as if his entire body was the core.
Jak paused and almost lost control of the Eco. As if his entire body was the core?
Was that it? There was no specific place in his body to store the Eco? Like his blood. He'd been thinking too much about comparing it to wires and machines. His blood didn't stay within a certain place in his body, it constantly flowed through him. Did that mean that the Eco needed to be constantly flowing though him? How? Did he store it in his blood, or alongside his blood?
He remembered the Sages, skin and hair dyed the colour of their Eco. And he remembered how a person's skin would lose its colour from blood loss, meaning that blood affected how someone looked. If Eco flowed alongside that blood, then that would have to affect what colour that person would be. So, Sages had to have Eco flowing through their veins, right?
He was losing control of the Eco. He needed to do something, now. But he still didn't know what to do. How was he meant to keep the Eco flowing through him without controlling it?
Breathing deeply, Jak felt his heartbeat in his ears. The excitement of finally getting somewhere had sent his heart racing.
And maybe that was the answer. His heartbeat. His pulse.
He focused on it, cycling the Eco through his body in time to the beat of his heart, imagining the Eco becoming one with the flow of his body. Even as his heart slowed, he kept them in sync.
There was no sudden shift. In fact, it took Jak a bit to realise that something was different.
The Eco was still there, he could still feel its thrum, though more muted than before. And it didn't feel like it was fighting his hold any longer. When had that happened?
Slowly. Cautiously. Jak released his hold on the Eco. And it stayed within him.
"Yes!" Jak cheered so loud that it hurt his throat.
Keira and Daxter startled from where they were sitting. When had they sat down? How long had he taken?
"Did…did you do it?" Keira asked.
"Ye'." Jak nodded, wincing slightly at how the word irritated his throat.
Apparently, his exclamation had strained his throat.
"That's great!" Keira cheered.
"About time, buddy." Daxter grinned. "I was starting to get worried. So, can you pull the Eco out again?"
Jak paused.
Could he? He should. It was just a matter of reversing what he did before.
Breathing deep again, Jak felt for the Eco inside of him and pulled.
Boom!
Everyone flinched as a blast of Yellow Eco flew from Jak's hand and into a pile of scrap, blowing it apart.
Looks like Jak had pulled too hard and the Eco had slipped from his control. Oops.
Thankfully, Keira just sighed in exasperation.
Jak stood proudly before the Oracle.
"You have done well, Great Warrior." The Oracle praised in its deep voice. "You have now taken your fist step onto the path of the Sage, against odds far greater than those who have come before you."
Jak grinned and stood straighter at the praise.
"But the path is only just beginning. Bring to me one-hundred Metal Head Skull Gems to prove that you are ready for the next stage in your teachings."
Jak deflated at that.
"What?!" Daxter yelled for the both of them. "You want more?"
The Oracle didn't respond.
"Do you know just how hard it was for us to gather those fifty Skull Gems? How has Jak not proved himself already? This is extortion! Yah know? Your oddly concerned with collecting Skull Gems when you said before that Jak needs to be prepared for something in the future."
"Dass, fane." Jak rasped, trying to calm his friend.
He was used to this sort of thing after all.
Daxter continued to grumble to himself.
Sighing, Jak turned to leave.
"Take heed, Great Warrior." The Oracle suddenly spoke up. "There is more to Eco than what you have been taught. Search within yourself and take your capabilities to new heights. Challenge what you already know."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Daxter complained.
Again, the Oracle didn't respond.
"Yah know, Jak?" Daxter huffed as they left the hut. "I get the feeling that the thing doesn't like me."
"Thank you, again, for looking after Mar." Keira thanked Beatrix.
"Oh, it's no trouble, dear." Beatrix waved off. "He's a delight to have around. Keeps us on our toes."
"Kid needs a leash." Teddy commented gruffly.
He wasn't wrong. Mar loved to wander where he shouldn't.
Teddy then looked around the street.
"Are you sure you need us to take him today?" He asked.
The teens looked at each other. While Teddy liked to be grumpy and complain, he had never been reluctant to take in Mar.
Keira shook her head.
"We're going somewhere not safe for him, and we don't have anyone else." She explained.
"Well, here isn't always the safest either." Teddy muttered. "Bloody Baron."
"Teddy!" Beatrix hissed sharply, whacking his arm. "We're outside."
She looked around worriedly to see if anyone had caught her husband's comment.
"We can pay if-" Keira started to say.
Beatrix held up her hand to stop her.
"Now, the boys already well know that I'd refuse. I don't need any payment to help out some struggling youngsters. And having Mar around is its own reward." She refused.
Mar beamed up at her.
Not happy with being ignored, Chomp jumped up to place his fore-legs against Beatrix, giving the old woman a wide grin.
"Yes, yes." Beatrix rubbed the animal on the head. "I'm paying attention to you."
She then slipped him a treat.
"You spoil that thing." Teddy complained. "You've made him think that he has rule of the house."
"Oh, you're exaggerating dear." Beatrix dismissed.
"He doesn't respect me at all." Teddy pointed out. "But he listens to you because you feed him all the dinner scraps."
"Well, it's better than them going to waste."
The teens decided that they were done listening to the old couple banter and said their goodbyes, leaving Chomp to look after Mar with them.
…
Keira shifted uncomfortably as the heavy metal door behind them slammed shut and then shrieked as the lock engaged. Once that was done, the door in front of them made the same shrieking as its own lock disengaged.
As the door in front of them began to open, she tightened her hold of her homemade weapon and prepared to be greeted by any possible enemies.
Her weapon had been assembled out of spare zoomer parts and whatever else was on hand. It was basically a long and heavy pole that she had beaten into a hook on one end, and wires came out of a power box and curled around the other, sending out high-voltage shocks at the press of a button. But it came with a limited charge, so she would have to be careful when using it.
Thankfully, there was no immediate danger when the doors into Dead Town opened up.
"Okay," Keira said. "Where's this dump you mentioned?"
"Thi- way." Jak pointed, leading the way.
Quietly and carefully, the teens made their way through the partially sunken and crumbling ruin of the abandoned city sector, towards where Jak had spotted a dumping ground the last time he had been there with Sig.
With no one living in Dead Town, the people in charge of waste management and others had apparently taken to occasionally dumping their trash there rather than to the official dump. And Keira hoped to scavenge some supplies from it.
To Keira's surprise, Jak had initially been reluctant to go outside the walls. Usually, Jak had no reservations about exploring, no matter the danger.
But he had apparently promised a man named Sig that he wouldn't go beyond the Walls without him. It would have impressed Keira that Jak was finally listening to authority if it wasn't so inconvenient to her plans. And they couldn't exactly get this Sig guy to come along, seeing as they didn't want to have to explain why they were scavenging in the abandoned city sector. And he'd probably deem it an unnecessary risk anyway.
Thankfully, enough prodding had gotten Jak to agree. She knew her friend, and she knew that he could never resist exploring the forbidden for very long.
On reaching the dump, Jak took care of a pair of Metal Heads that were crawling over it, then stood guard while Keira scavenged.
It ended up being…disappointing. Keira knew that she should have expected it, it was a dump after all, but she had sort of hoped that people going out of their way to dump in the abandoned sector would be dumping things they didn't want going to the regular dump.
Still, she did manage to find some loose ammo scattered within the piles and some scrap that she could reuse.
"Ugh, I feel like I need to shower for an hour to get clean." Keira complained, shaking the muck off her hands.
They were interrupted by more Metal Heads attacking, which Jak managed to take care of with a little help from Keira's shock stick. They were stronger than the ones before.
Keeping watch while Jak harvested the Skull Gems, Keira regarded the dilapidated buildings before them, recalling what she had learned about the history of this sector. It had been abandoned in a hurry when the protections fell and the Metal Heads flooded in.
Which meant that people likely didn't have time to grab much before leaving their homes behind. And what was the likelihood that people were able to come back to reclaim their things after the invasion had died down?
"Hey, how about we go into some of the buildings for supplies?" She suggested. "There'll still be stuff in them, won't there?"
Jak hummed and nodded his head in agreement, then frowned and shook it.
"No stron' 'nuff." He rasped. "Too many danger-creature. Knife not enough." He added in sign.
He then pointed off in the distance, where Metal Heads could be seen, roaming.
Keira groaned in annoyance but had to admit that Jak had a point. And wasn't it funny that Jak was currently the voice of reason. Still, she wasn't going to give up completely.
"What if we got our hands on a blaster? We'd be able to go further in then, right?" She suggested.
Jak nodded, the grin that she was used to seeing appearing on his face.
"And how are we gonna get a blaster?" Daxter had to burst their bubble.
"We'll…" Keira tried to come up with a plan.
"F'ggrr ih ou'." Jak finished for her.
"Yeah, we'll figure it out." She agreed.
"Wow, what a plan." Daxter said sarcastically.
After dropping their finds off at their hovel, the teens went to go pick up Mar and Chomp.
"I think I know a place where we could get a blaster." Keira was going over the plan for getting further into Dead Town. "My Green Pass isn't exactly, you know, legal."
"Keira, oh Keira." Daxter tutted mockingly. "What would your father think?"
She just rolled her eyes at him.
"So, my contact might be able to get me in contact with an arms dealer." Keira looked very uncomfortable as she talked.
She definitely didn't view herself as a criminal, but she was currently talking like one.
"However, even then, I'm not sure we can get one. We'll get charged a jacked-up price, and that's if the dealer is willing to risk dealing with us. We aren't exactly adults." She reluctantly admitted.
After everything she'd been through, Keira didn't feel like a kid anymore. She had been forced to survive on her own for months, she had a job, even after finding Jak and Daxter it was still just them with no other adults around, she was helping look after a small child that Jak and Daxter had adopted, and her father wasn't there to offer her any guidance. But at the same time, she didn't view herself as an adult either.
Turning the corner onto the old couple's street, the teens were met with the shocking sight of multiple Krimzon Guard blocking off the area. And, horrifyingly, they were going in and out of Beatrix and Teddy's home.
Jak let out a wordless cry and ran forward.
"Woah, hey." One of the civilians crowding behind the barrier caught Jak before he could go past it. "I wouldn't go this way if I were you, kid."
Keira quickly caught up to Jak and grabbed onto her friend's arm just as he pulled away from the civilian and made to go past the barrier despite the warning. She hadn't had much interaction with the Krimzon Guard, sequestered away at the Garage most of the time, but she knew what they were like from what other people said and what little she had seen for herself.
Everyone feared the Krimzon Guard, and for good reason. If Jak went barging in there, trying to get to Mar, Beatrix and Teddy, they could beat him up for interfering, arrest him, or just shoot him down. And no one would be able to do anything.
"Jak, don't." She put as much authority into her voice as she could to stop her friend from doing something stupid.
Jak looked at her, then at the old couple's home, his entire body vibrating with clear anxiety.
"Jak, you are not draggin' me into that. I'm sure the kid and the old geezers are fine." Daxter said, yanking on Jak's ear to force him to listen.
It was harder for Keira to read Daxter's face now that he was an ottsel, but she could see that his body was tense despite how uncaring his voice was.
"What's going on?" Keira asked, hoping that someone in the crowd would answer her.
"Someone got taken away by the Guard." Someone answered, pointing at a prison transport that was already turning a corner out of sight.
There was someone in the cage, but it was too far away to make anything out before it was gone.
Jak suddenly jerked forward and Keira had to grab onto his other arm and pull with all her strength to stop him. If he really wanted to, she knew he could break her grip, but thankfully didn't try too hard.
"Who?" Keira asked.
It was easy to guess, considering the house the Krimzon Guard were raiding. But did they take just Beatrix, Teddy, Mar, or all of them. And why?
"The old guy that lives there." The person shrugged. "Can't remember his name."
"Teddy." Jak frowned.
"It's not really a surprise." Another person said. He looked familiar, likely someone who lived in their area. "The way that man talked, he was practically begging for the Guard to come down on his head."
"It's honestly a surprise that they didn't come for the poor guy sooner." Another person commented. "Bea's going to be heartbroken."
"Where Bea. 'nd kid." Jak rasped. He was getting more worked up, looking around as if he would suddenly spot the old lady and Mar.
"Don't know. I didn't see the Guard take her or anyone else."
"I don't think she's still in there. The Guard wouldn't hesitate to take her too."
Jak looked up at Daxter and signed something to him, worry clear on his face. And Daxter signed back instead of responding, keeping the conversation secret.
It was hard for Keira to read at the angle she was, but she caught something about Mar, an amulet, hidden, danger, and Jak also indicated to his chest.
"We f'nd Bea, 'nd Mrr." Jak turned to Keira.
"Right." She nodded in agreement.
…
The teens searched for hours to no avail, and Keira could see that it was taking its toll on Jak. She had never seen him so anxious before.
"Jak, it's…it's getting late." She said to her friend when they reunited after splitting up for their search.
"No." Jak shook his head, unwilling to give up the search. "No."
"Maybe Mar made his way back to the hovel." Daxter suggested, more of an attempt to just go rest than an actual suggestion.
"Rrst ff ya w'nt. I keep." Jak mumbled, his clear tiredness affecting the effort he put into speaking.
Keira sighed heavily.
"Fine." She said, knowing that there was no point in trying to change Jak's fine. "But can you walk me back.
She looked around the darkened streets uneasily. She hardly felt safe walking them during the day, let alone while it was dark.
Jak walked them back to their hovel, but just as they were approaching it, he suddenly put his arm in front of her.
"What is it?" Keira asked.
"Light." Daxter answered for Jak, his hackles up.
Looking at the hovel again, Keira realised that there was a faint light shining from under the door. They hadn't left any lights on when they had stopped by earlier.
"Stay." Jak ordered, drawing the knife that he had hidden in his boot.
Jak cautiously approached the door and pushed it open slightly. Surprise and relief then crossed his face and he pushed it open the rest of the way.
"Mar! Bea! Chomp!"
Keira rushed forward just as Mar toddled out of the hovel and crashed into Jak's legs, crying all the way, followed by a happy Chomp. Looking inside, she saw a very harried Bea, slowly making her way to her feet, and rushed to help her up.
"What are you doing here? What happened?" Keira asked.
She was sure that Beatrix and Mar hadn't been there when they'd dropped off their scavenged loot. So, when had they arrived? Just after they left, or sometime while the teens were out searching?
"I-I didn't know where else to go." Beatrix cried. "The Krimzon Guard, they…they… oh, Teddy-"
"Hey, come on, breath." Keira instructed as the old woman got worked up.
As Keira worked on calming Beatrix down, sitting her down on the mattress, Jak picked up Mar and brought him inside. Then fixed the old woman a cup of water from a canteen of pre-boiled water.
"Alright, lady." Daxter said, hopping down from Jak's shoulder. "Why don't we start from the beginning? What happened after we left?"
Beatrix took a deep breath to steady herself, and stroked Chomp's back when he sat down beside her.
"Everything was fine, at first." She sniffed. "But, Teddy, he was looking out the window a lot. I didn't think anything of it at the time. Then he suddenly told me that I needed to go shopping. I knew that I'd done it only the other day, but he was insistent that I hadn't. He said that I should take Mar and Chomp with me, that a walk would do us all good. But Teddy's always preferred that we stay inside, saying the streets were too dangerous. Then he shoved me out the backdoor of all things."
Beatrix had to take a moment to compose herself.
Keira shared a look with Jak and Daxter. It was clear that Teddy had known what was going to happen, and managed to get his wife, Mar and Chomp away in time.
"When I came back, the Krimzon Guard were already raiding the house, and taking Teddy away. Oh, Precursors, his face. They were dragging him. My poor Teddy." Beatrix struggled to say before bursting into sobs again. "What do I do now? What do I do?" She begged.
The youths did their best to comfort and calm the old woman, but they were at a complete loss as to what to do. They were completely out of their depths and could only wait for her to calm on her own.
A sudden knocking on the still-open door startled everyone in the hovel. Tensions as high as they were, Keria was in a battle-ready stance before she could even think about it.
"Hey, is everything okay?" The person at the door asked.
It was one of the people from the Water Slums, though Keira couldn't remember their name.
"Her house got raided. Her husband was taken." Daxter explained, his voice unusually sombre as he explained the situation.
"Oh." The person's face fell. "I'm sorry for your loss."
'Loss'. Like they fully expected that Teddy would never be seen again.
What could Teddy have possibly done to deserve that. Someone from the crowd earlier had mentioned something about what Teddy said. Did they mean the disparaging comments she'd heard him make about the Barron? Did that really warrant being taken away forever?
Keira shivered and hugged herself. More and more she wished that she could just go home.
Beatrix only cried at the reminder of what had happened to her husband.
"They'll come for me next. I just know it." She sobbed in fear.
"Hey, now, I haven't heard any fugitive reports." The neighbour comforted. "If they were after you too, we would have heard about it already." Then he paused. "Though, I wouldn't go home. At least for tonight."
"Why not?" Daxter asked. "They'll be gone by now, right?"
The neighbour shook his head.
"If they're still there when she shows up, they might take her in anyway." He explained.
"W-where can I go?" Beatrix whimpered. "I have nowhere else. No one else."
"Sta-" Jak broke off as he looked around their hovel and frowned.
It was already a tight squeeze with the five of them, even with two of them being animals and one of them being a toddler. There was no room to let Beatrix stay with them, not even short-term.
"Well, you can stay with me." The neighbour offered hesitantly.
"Really?" Keira, Jak, Daxter and Beatrix all asked at the same time.
The neighbour looked uncomfortable.
"Yes? I mean, you're friends with the boys. So, it should be alright. Just for a little bit though. Until you can go back to your own home." His words sounded more like a question. As if he was unsure of what he was saying.
Beatrix turned to Jak, who smiled at her and gave a thumbs up.
She took in a stuttering breath. "Well, if it's fine with you, I accept. Thank you." She replied.
Keira and Jak helped Beatrix back up and then guided her out the door, to their neighbour's home.
"Tha'ks." Jak said to the neighbour as they left her in his care.
"It's fine." He replied. "It's only for the night. And you care about her. Now, I think you should go back and get some rest. You all look like you need it."
And he was right. Keira felt absolutely exhausted. Jak looked dead on his feet, and Daxter was slumped on his shoulder.
"Goodnight." Keira bid as they all turned back to their hovel.
Beatrix hesitantly walked towards her home, Jak and Keira either side of her and the man who'd taken her in last night, Harper, following along as well.
The Krimzon Guard would be gone by now, so it was time to go see the damage.
She bit back tears when she saw the open doorway, the door itself completely gone from the Guard likely knocking it down when they came for her husband.
The desire to cry got even worse when she saw a stranger backing out of her home, carrying her nice table, followed by another on the other end. Looters had already come.
"Hey!" Daxter yelled on spotting the looters.
Jak moved quickly, running at the looters.
"Oh, shit!" One of the looters said when they saw Jak coming at them.
They dropped the table and ran. Thankfully, they were just opportunists who didn't want to fight.
"Vultures." Harper spat.
Bracing herself, Beatrix entered into her home and felt the desire to cry nearly overcome her.
Her home was completely trashed. Furniture was toppled and broken, cushions ripped open, picture frames were cracked, there were holes in the wall, etc. It was hard to see what could possibly be salvageable, or what had already been taken by looters before they'd gotten there.
"This is awful." Keira stated. "Why would they do this."
"Standard procedure for any citizen 'promoting terroristic propaganda'." Harper quoted with a sneer. "They try to find any evidence that they might be linked to 'terrorist movements.'"
"What's that mean?" Daxter questioned.
"Rebels. People who don't want Praxis in charge." Harper explained.
Beatrix sighed. At the very least, the Guard wouldn't have found anything like that. Teddy may have been too vocal about not liking Praxis, but both she and her husband had followed orders to keep their heads down and stay out of that sort of business. Not that it would make much difference for what would happen to Teddy. People rarely reemerged from the prison.
Except! Beatrix's heart seized as she remembered her hidden treasure. If the Guard found that, it would be as good as any evidence of rebellion.
Shuffling away from the group, Beatrix went into the bathroom and reached behind the toilet, sliding a loose tile out to reveal a small box hidden behind it. She sighed in relief and clutched the box to her chest. They hadn't found it.
Slipping the box into her coat, she rejoined the others in surveying the damage done to her home.
"The heating is damaged." Keira reported, emerging from the kitchen where the boiler was kept.
Beatrix's heart sank even further. Winter was about to arrive, she couldn't afford to have the heating broken, especially not at her age. And she didn't have the money to fix it.
"Fix?" Jak asked, along with some signing.
"They did a lot of damage, but I think I can fix it." Keira said. "But I need some parts and it's going to take a while.
"Add to that the busted door, broken furniture, and broken stuff everywhere." Daxter ticked off his fingers. "And this place is uninhabitable."
Beatrix shivered at the news.
"I…I can make it work." She insisted. "I just need a little floor space clean for now, and I have plenty of blankets.
"And the door?" Daxter pointed out.
"I…I…can it be put back on?"
Jak shook his head.
"Too d'm'ge." He explained. "N't safe heer."
"This is my home." Beatrix insisted. "I don't have anywhere else to live."
"You could keep living with me for a bit." Harper offered.
Beatrix looked at him, stunned. It was one thing to offer a complete stranger to stay for one night, which was already unusual in Haven, but to let her stay in his home until her own could be repaired was unheard of. Why help her in such a way? What did Harper get out of it?
"See? Sorted." Daxter said, as if there was nothing unusual about Harper's offer.
"Are you sure? I don't wish to impose." Beatrix asked.
"Sure? No." Harper answered honestly with a laugh. "But the boys have done a lot for me, and you're important to them."
Beatrix looked from him to the boys and felt warmth fill her, a welcome change from the cold sadness that she had been drowning in since yesterday. This man, both of them strangers to the other, was willing to help her just because of the boys. No need to be convinced, no demand for payment. He offered it of his own free will, because she mattered to someone else.
"I…thank you." She said.
Harper just smiled back uncomfortably, as if he was unsure of his own offer.
Beatrix decided to not give him any time to possibly rescind it. She went about gathering up what she could salvage from the mess inside her home and packed them up, as well as any money and supplies that the Guard/looters hadn't taken for themselves.
Thankfully, she didn't have much that she couldn't bare to part with, though some of it had been broken by the raid, so she wouldn't be taking up too much room in Harper's home.
With one last mournful look at her home, she followed Harper back to the Water Slums, leaving Jak and the others behind to clean up the mess.
Author's note:
I constantly struggle with four things in this story:
- Remembering to give Daxter an accent.
- Working out what Jak's speech should be typed as.
- Finding reasons for Mar to be there.
- And remembering that Chomp exists.