Past attatchment

“Don’t tell me ya’ actually bought that?” Daxter asked in an accusing manner as soon as they’d gotten out of the dungeon and back out into the open air.

Jak didn’t even try to comment on this, he simply sighed and made an almost invisible movement with his shoulders.

Sig on the other hand didn’t feel like letting this pass.

“Now, listen chilli pepper,” he said without slowing his steps, “I don’t see any reason as to why we shouldn’t check this out. Personally I haven’t heard of anything such as catacombs beneath Spargus, and I’ve been here for quite some time now…”

“Ya’ see? Nothing to bother about then…” Daxter said eagerly, but was cut short before he could continue.

“That gives us even more reason to actually try to see whether these catacombs really do exist or not,” Sig said and gave him a stern look over the shoulder. “And as much as I appreciate your concern and eagerness, chilli, you better not keep on questioning my decisions in the future.”

Daxter closed his mouth around the things he’d wanted to say and managed to look a bit ashamed at this, ears drooping a bit and eyes turning towards his feet as he walked on.

“Sorry ‘bout that…” he mumbled apologizingly.

“No harm done,” Sig said in a chuckle as he saw this. “Just don’t do it again if you can help it, ok?”

While they walked back towards the palace, Jak silently put one arm around Daxter’s shoulders, as if to say that everything was all right and that he hadn’t done anything wrong.

The sudden gesture of comfort made Daxter feel warm all throughout his body, sending tiny signals of joy like electrical impulses over his skin.

He could feel the heat in his cheeks before he understood that he was blushing.

“He-hey, buddy, I can walk on my own, ya’ know,” Daxter stuttered embarrassed and weakly tried to push his friend away.        
   
Jak let go of him with a shrug and a soft smile on his lips, telling Daxter he’d noticed the red on his cheeks.

About halfway to the palace, the three men suddenly spotted Karidi who came running towards them.

“Something’s up at the gates, sir!” she yelled out as soon as she got within hearing distance. “I thought I’d get you as soon as possible,” she continued as she slowed down and turned to walk in the same direction as her king.

“What is it about then, more precisely?” Sig asked, worried and a bit confused by the way his commander was acting.

“Metalheads, sir. We’ve spotted a group of about twenty or more grunts some way west from here, moving towards us. It seems like they’re chasing someone, sir.”

This made Sig lengthen his steps as he turned down a new alley leading towards the western wall instead of the palace.

All around them the news was spreading and as the ones able to fight ran towards the wall to take their positions, others saw to that the ones not fighting got somewhere safer.

As they got to the wall, Jak made a move to get to the cars, when Sig suddenly stopped and turned to look at him.

“Not today cherry,” he said with a harsh voice. “You’re not getting out there while you still have wounds healing. You stand behind the wall this time.”

Jak looked at him as if he’d suddenly lost his mind.

Daxter let his eyes go from Jak to Sig with growing uneasiness.

“But…” Jak started, but Sig simply turned around to climb the stairs up to the top of the wall.

“No buts, cherry. You stay.”

Karidi shrugged apologetically as she moved passed Jak towards the car park at the gate.

“Sorry goldilocks. I’ll try to leave ya’ all the big ones the next time, all right?” she called out and winked at him before she got out of sight behind one of the cars.

Jak didn’t say anything, but stared blankly in front of himself, not quite believing he’d heard it all right.

For the first time since he’d put his foot in Spargus, he wasn’t allowed to fight.

Frustration was an understatement of what this made him feel.

Daxter slowly reached up and patted his shoulder guard gently.

“Aww, come on, big guy. Look at it this way; at least now we know you’ll survive this day,” he said in a try to ease the tension created by the silence that had risen after Sig’s orders.

Jak snorted at this and shook off the hand as he turned around and started walking back into the city. Daxter was quick to follow him, but did so a few steps behind as he didn’t want to press his luck by getting too close to his upset friend.

After a few turns Daxter realised they were standing in front of their apartment.

“So, you’re not going to be by the wall then?” Daxter asked, feeling he had to say something after having been quiet for so long.

“Just wait here, Dax. I’ll be right back out,” Jak said, ignoring the question and walked up the steps leading to the door and got inside before Daxter had a chance to say anything else.

He got back out within a minute, carrying with him two modguns and a few packs of ammunition. He threw one of the guns towards Daxter, who only barely managed to grab it before it hit the ground.

“He-hey, what’re ya’ doing?”

Jak gave him some of the ammunition packs and winked at him as he loaded his own gun and added a yellow mod, making the gun morph into a model more suited for hunting than eye-to-eye battle.     

“We can’t be of any help back behind the wall if we don’t have weapons, right?” he said and began to run back towards the wall as soon as Daxter had managed to load his own gun.

Daxter had to smile to himself as he ran after Jak. It was sort of funny to see him turning his restraining orders into something more suitable for him.

When they got to the wall, they could clearly hear the fight on the other side as metalheads cried out in loud shrilling voices from the midst of roaring car engines and the hammering pulses of guns being fired.

“Big one, nine o’clock!” someone suddenly yelled out and a loud bang against the closest gate sent a vibration through the foundation of the wall, unsettling the warriors upon it for a moment.

“Geez, so this is how it’s been lately, then?” Daxter asked in a shivering voice. He didn’t like metalheads, and he definitely didn’t like the big ones from the wasteland.

The fact that he hadn’t held a gun in his hands since ottsel –dom didn’t help his nervousness either.

Jak just nodded at his comment and ran to join the few men standing by at the gate, ready to fight in case the gate would give in.

Daxter hesitated for a moment before he followed, arriving just in time for the second hit by the enormous metalhead crashing into the gate from the other side, sending parts of brick and stone falling from the wall.

“Any guess at how things are going out there?” Daxter asked as soon as the ground stopped shaking beneath them.

“By the sounds of it I’d say we’re kicking ass!” the man closest to him answered and the comment was greeted with a cheer amongst the other wastelanders gathered.

Suddenly they could hear a missile being fired and soon after it the unmistakable sound of a wasteland metalhead being hit. A vibration went though the ground as it fell and a loud cheer rose from all warriors on the wall.

“Open the gate! Enemies taken out!” someone called down from the wall and some of the warriors at the car park ran to the task.

Daxter felt good at not having had to join the dangerous part of the fight that had been, but as he turned towards Jak, he could see a vague touch of disappointment in his eyes as he put away the gun.

“Hey, buddy, whadda’ya’ say we go to the bar and get our selves some memory blasters, huh?” he said and made a short nod in the direction of the inner city.

Jak first looked at him in a state of slight confusion before he understood what he meant and shook his head.

“No, we should get to the palace and meet up with Sig. We still have to take a look at that catacomb mystery.”

“Aww, buggers!” Daxter grumbled and kicked disappointedly at an invisible stone on the ground, but he quickly followed Jak as he slowly started to walk towards the palace.

Behind them they could hear the warriors returning from the fight outside the wall, but none of  them turned around to look; Jak because he didn’t want to be reminded that he hadn’t been part of the team and Daxter because he simply wasn’t interested.

But they hadn’t gotten far before Jak could hear a familiar voice call out to him from the ruckus behind his back.

“Well blow me up, ain’t this a pleasant surprise? Jak!”

Jak turned around as he heard his name, only realising who the voice belonged to as he spotted the man coming towards him from the crowd.

The blonde hair was drawn back in a short pony tail as usual, the dark eyes surrounded by not only the regular soot, but desert dust as well. While Jak watched him, he lighted a cigar and inhaled deeply, only letting out the cloud of smoke as he was about five steps away from Jak.

Daxter had stopped a few steps away as he noticed that Jak wasn’t with him. As he recognised the other man walking up to Jak, he decided he’d stay out of sight for as long as possible, not wanting to speak to the man unless it was truly necessary.

“Hello, pretty-boy!” Jinx said smiling in his ordinary witty manner and reached out his hand in a greeting as he got closer.

Jak didn’t take it.

Instead he stared at the explosives expert and waited for an explanation as to why he was there.

Jinx wrinkled his forehead at the hostile expression in Jak’s face and put his outstretched hand in his pocket instead.

“Lovely to meet you too,” he said with a short a laugh. “Someone’s woke up on the wrong side I see. So, where’ve you been the last couple of years, ‘ey?” he tried and puffed a bit nervously at his cigar.

Jak only kept on staring.

Daxter smiled as he watched from behind a corner.

He knew Jak would win this, being somewhat of an expert at the silent treatment. After all, he’d spent about half his life as a mute.

Jinx finally realised he wasn’t getting anywhere with his questioning and sighed as he moved one hand over his head, smoothening the already flat hair.

“I’m guessing ya’ wanna’ know why I’m here, right?”

Jak nodded slowly.

“Look, I’m just the driver, all right? Someone had to come with her and I was sort of the only one available, so don’t go blowing your fuses just because of me. I’m here because I’m getting paid, that’s all.”

Jak raised his eyebrows at the information.

“Who’s with you then?” he asked and tried to have a look over the other man’s shoulder to find this out himself.

But before Jinx could answer, the woman in question called out his name from somewhere to his left.

“Jak!”

Jak barely had the time to turn around before Keira threw herself at him. Her arms flew around his neck within an instant in a tight embrace that just about took the breath out of him, reminding him of a bruise still tender after a wound that had healed up only the day before.

“It’s really you!” she mumbled with her mouth pressed against the skin of his neck.

Jak suddenly felt an urge to run away and hide.

He just couldn’t figure out what to say or what to do with his hands, not wanting to return the hug and in the same time knowing he’d longed for this sort of touch ever since he’d left Haven two years ago.

Having felt it once he wanted it again, the feeling being just as addictive as the calm he felt when being affected by light eco.

Only he didn’t want it to be Keira in his arms.

“Dad told me you’d been in Haven some days ago,” Keira continued, mouth still at his neck and unaware of his agony. “I just couldn’t believe…” she sighed heavily and paused for a moment as she drew in the smell of his skin. “I’ve missed you.”

Jinx smiled widely at the scene and Jak felt like hitting him with something hard for not warning him sooner.

Some steps behind Jinx, Jak’s eyes caught Karidi’s, as the commander stood staring in confusion at him and Keira. He came to think about what Daxter had said earlier and suddenly he realised that maybe Daxter hadn’t been so far off in his interpretation of the dark woman.

Why me? he thought tiredly and gently put his hands on Keiras shoulders, carefully pushing her away from himself.

“Look, Keira, I…” he started to say, but she put a finger upon his lips before he got to say what he had in mind.

“Shh. I don’t want to force you to tell me anything about why you left or where you’ve been, ok? I’m just glad you’re alive.”

For a moment it was as if a shadow crossed her face and she looked into his eyes with sincere concern.

“I, I heard about Dax,” she said in a low voice.

Remembering what he’d said as he’d left Haven after leaving the coms, Jak felt he had to say something.

“Keira, about that, it turns out he’s a bit tougher than we all thought.”

Keira looked confused at these words and as Jak tried to find a way to explain what he meant, Daxter decided to come up to them, thinking he’d been hiding from Keira long enough to make his entrance just as great as he wished it to be.

“Well look at what the sand brought in!” he called out as he stepped out from his hiding spot. “Jak, don’t ya’ dare keep all the goodies to yourself like that!”

Keira’s eyes shifted expression from confusion, to vague recognition and finally to growing joy as she looked at the young redheaded man coming towards her.

“Daxter!” she managed to yell out as she understood what she was actually seeing.

“Yeah baby! 100 percent! Have ya’ missed me?” Daxter replied with a wide grin, enjoying the attention given.

Keira ran up to Daxter and threw her arms around him as her face got covered in tears of joy at seeing her friend alive.      

Jinx lifted an eyebrow in confusion and looked at Jak for an explanation, but Jak only shook his shoulders slightly and gave him an amused smile. He didn’t expect for Jinx to remember Daxter’s name, and since the man only knew of him in the state of a small orange animal, Jak was ready to excuse him for this lack of knowledge.

“But, how? I mean, it’s you, really you, I…” Keira stuttered, trying to make sense of all the things she couldn’t grasp concerning this meeting.

Daxter gave her a hearty squeeze, truly enjoying the fact that he now was just about as tall as she was, meaning all the good body parts actually pressed up against the right places in hugging her.

“Well, toots, I’m a freak of nature, ya’ know. It turns out all I had to do to get back to normal was to take another bath in some dark ooze. Not that I’d have done it freely anyway, ‘cause man that stuff stings! But yeah, that’s sort of all that there is to it. One big splash and I woke up looking even more gorgeous as I remembered,” Daxter blabbered on, eager to tell her everything, but still wanting her to ask him to talk more, he deliberately left out the parts he himself thought had to be the most interesting.

Keira only looked at him, somewhat dumbfounded and still not quite realising who she was talking to. She hadn’t seen his real face for so many years that she had almost forgotten what he looked like.

The blonde rooted red hair was a bit longer, but still just as bushy as before and he still had tiny freckles covering the pale skin in his face. He still had the buck teeth as well, even though they didn’t look as big as they used to. But a lot of his features had shifted with his age, making him look a little more grown up, even though he still would stand out in a crowd.

He’d simply become a man. And realising this, Keira couldn’t help but to give up a small chuckle.

“What?” Daxter asked and took a step away from her to get a better look at her.

“Nothing,” she said with a smile. “It’s just great to actually see you like this.”

“That goes both ways ya’ know,” Daxter replied and caught Jak’s eyes over her shoulder. “Ain’t that right, big guy?”

“Uhm, yeah,” Jak answered, a bit unprepared and let his eyes wander off towards the stairs leading up to the top of the wall.

Keira turned around to face him and noticing his absentmindedness, she crossed her arms over her chest and got a disturbed expression in her previously lit up face.

“Well, as much fun as it is just seeing you guys again,” she said in a more serious voice in a try to attract Jak’s attention. “I’m actually here because my father and Torn sent me to speak with Sig for them. They would’ve come themselves hadn’t they had too much to do over at Haven.”

Jak finally returned his eyes to her at this.

“Oh, right. Sig’s still up on the wall, but we could take you to the palace and wait for him there. Me and Dax were going to meet up with him anyway,” he said and turned to Jinx, who still tried to figure out who Daxter was, scratching his chin as he thought back in his memory.

“Hey, Jinx, you’ve got anything with you?”

Jinx snatched himself out of the mind loop and made a hinting motion towards the badly bumped car they’d arrived in.

“Nah, just some pretty dolls and a load of kisses, nothing much,” he said with a smirk and winked at Jak. “I travel light this time, didn’t know you’d be here.”

Jak tried not to notice the vague impropriate hint and pinched the root of his nose in order to focus on what mattered.

“Right, if that means you’ve got explosives in there, I suggest you get the stuff out of the car and into a safe store room, before the mechanics start repairing the car.”

Jinx took another look at the car and with one last bored look back to Jak he sighed and went to the task.

“Ay, ay, goldy. You go ahead and I’ll look you all up later.”

As Jak started walking ahead towards the palace, followed by a somewhat confused Keira and an overjoyed Daxter, he noticed Sig coming down from the wall and waited for him.

Seeing Jak’s troubled expression, Sig took a look at the two following him and as he noticed Keira, he put on a hearty smile.

“Well what do we have here?” he said and reached out his hand in welcoming the female mechanic from Haven. “What brings you here then, doll? My guess is you’re the one we got away from the metalheads just now, right?”

Keira smiled back and shook his hand.

“My father and Torn sent me. They wanted to speak with you, but couldn’t get away, so I brought a recorded message with me from them. It’s got something to do about some old maps Ashelin stumbled across some years ago, when clearing out the old archives they found under the ruins of the palace.

“Well then, let’s get over to the conference hall in the palace then, so we can have a look at the thing,” Sig said and took the lead through the city, asking Keira more about what was going on over in Haven while they walked.

Jak deliberately kept himself a few steps behind them, feeling a need to clear his head for a bit.

Daxter fell in beside him and gave him a concerned look.

“Hey, big guy, what’s the matter? I thought you’d be happy to see her again after all this time…”

Jak shook his head and sighed. He looked up to see if the others might hear what he had to say, and noticing they probably wouldn’t, he decided it was safe.

“Dax, you know why I left Haven in the first place, right?”
“Well, yeah, but…”

“No, listen, I’ve been thinking a lot during these past two years and you know what? I still can’t find any reasons to why I should be with her.”

Daxter almost stopped walking, widening his eyes in surprise at this statement.

“But, but it’s Keira! I mean, you’ve been like in love with her since we were kids playing together on the beach!”

“No, Dax,” Jak said silently and looked away. “Lately I’ve realised that I actually never felt that way for her, I just thought I did. I…” Suddenly he cut himself short, not wanting to reveal what he’d been about to say, fearing it might bee too much information and that it would only sound strange.

“What? Ya’ can’t say something like that and just leave the subject without finishing it!” Daxter demanded and taking a hold of Jak’s shoulder guard with one of his hands he made him stop and turn towards him.

“Never mind,” Jak answered and brushed off his hand to keep walking before they got too far behind the others.

“No, Jak!” Daxter said stubbornly and grabbed the shoulder guard again. “Now you tell me or you’ll be sorry. I’m your best friend; I have a right to know this sort of stuff! So, you’ve realised you don’t love the cutest girl in Sandover, who by the way is crazy about you, now I wanna’ know how you came to this conclusion while bumping around in the wastelands with me!”

Jak looked into his eyes with a start, thinking for a second that his friend had figured it all out himself, but noticing Daxter’s still confused expression, he took a deep breath and brushed off his hand once more.

“I just did. Now let’s try not to get too far behind, or they’ll come looking for us,” he said in a strained voice, trying to sound more at ease than he felt and started jogging to catch up with Sig and Keira, leaving Daxter even more confused than before.