#yeah he lasts about a month before declaring himself Jak's legal guardian

[radioactivepeasant]

Snippet Friday: Faulty Info au Strikes Back

Jumping back to the first chapter I'd posted, this is the immediate follow-up. Warnings for mentions of medical trauma (via the Dark Warrior Program)

The scanner the young woman waved over Jak's body was old technology by the standards of most. Cast-offs from Haven, welded together with bits and curses. But to Jak, it was as strange and new as the vehicles he'd seen since his rescue. What was the woman looking at on that screen? What could she see? He craned his neck, trying to see.

"Keep still, young'un," the woman scolded.

She waved the boxy device close to Jak’s ribcage and it sounded a long tone. The medic frowned at the readout and tapped it a few times. Periodically, she stopped to write something on a notepad. Jak watched the medic get a little more tense with each note, and her eyes darkened a little bit more. He knew by now that when someone's eyes looked like that, pain was sure to follow. 

They hadn’t strapped him down, though. And the door was unguarded. Weary though he was, Jak was pretty sure that he could escape the woman and the king both if he had to. The question of where to go after that was shoved away, to be dealt with later.

The medic returned and sat down on a stool across from Jak. "How old did you say you were again?" she asked.

"Fifteen." Jak closed one eye to think. "Maybe almost sixteen? I don't know what season it is."

For some reason, that seemed to be the wrong answer.

"You're sure?" The medic pressed, "That's how old your parents say you are?"

The dark eco throbbed, hot and acidic, against Jak’s ribs. His mood darkened with it.

"I never had parents," he signed, and not very politely, "Uncle had to guess."

An expression of understanding crossed the medic's face. "Ah. Were you tall as a little tot?" she asked.

Jak shrugged. "I guess so."

He'd always been taller than Keira and Daxter, anyway. There weren't many other children to compare heights with in Sandover.

"Why the questions, Maud?" Damas asked from the back of the room. He folded his arms and raised a brow. "Do you suspect his age is incorrect?"

The medic, Maud, leaned back to retrieve her notebook and flipped through the pages. 

"My lord," she said, "this young'un's physical development has been altered slightly by the dark eco poisoning, but not enough to change the development of his bones."

"My bones?" Jak was alarmed. "What about my bones?!"

Maud didn't look up from her notes, missing Jak’s question. "Comparing average Spargan and Havenite skeletal development to the eco scan, this boy has barely entered puberty. He can't be older than thirteen, by my calculation."

Thirteen?!

There had to be some mistake. Jak wasn't that young! He was just a late bloomer, that's what Samos always said. 

Samos wouldn't have sent a thirteen year old kid to fight Gol and Maia and all those Lurkers alone, right? 

...right?

Damas reached out and took the notes from the medic, and a chill ran down his spine. Only thirteen. This child was only thirteen and he had already suffered so much.

Please, Precursors, Winds, Volcan- anyone: don't let Mar suffer the same-!

Dark eco had been pumped forcibly into the boy's body for several months at least, according to the scan. Oddly, where most poisoning cases would have already had the unstable eco spreading through their body, Jak's case was isolated to his torso.

"How is-" Damas's voice betrayed him, weakening to a croak. He swallowed, cleared his throat, and asked, "How severe is the concentration of eco? Will he require an antidote?"

Maud sucked on her teeth and grimaced. "Ayup, I think so. Don't rightly know how he's keeping it from getting into his muscle fibers right now, but I doubt he can keep it up forever."

That, at least, Damas knew how to fix. Wordlessly, he moved to the shelves full of jars and boxes and began hunting for the ward's carefully conserved supply of light eco. The search, at least, could hold his attention and keep his mind from wandering too far from the matter at hand.

"What of his immunizations? Has he had any?" He asked over his shoulder.

"He said they didn't have a doctor in his village, just a green eco sage," Maud answered, "Which suggests he hasn't had many of his shots."

Jak immediately recoiled at the mention of shots. They were going to inject him with something! Blind panic seized him, and he bolted.

No more! No more pain! I won't let you!

"Hey, no-!" Maud skidded around the bed and jumped in front of the door. "Dangit, kid! You're still poisoned!"

Wild-eyed, Jak tried to shove her aside. The young woman barely budged. Spargans, it seemed, were very solidly built. Maud raised her hands and spoke quietly, trying to calm him, but the words seemed to float above his head as if he was underwater. Maud stepped closer, hands coming too close to Jak to feel safe. Panicking, he snapped at her fingers; she pulled back quickly. The dark eco boiled in Jak’s blood, and he could feel it spreading, seeping deeper into him. 

No-! 

With all his might he pushed at the chaotic substance, forcing it back into the wounds. 

His emotions were raw, and at any moment he felt he was about to snap. The medic still blocked his escape.

I don't- I don't want to hurt you! But- But you need to move!

With a silent snarl, Jak drew back and tensed to charge the woman, fist raised.

For years after, he would wonder how the king had moved so fast. One second he was peering into a glowing jar behind the counter, then within a heartbeat his arms were around Jak, restraining him as gently as he could manage against his chest. 

Jak thrashed in his grip, desperate to escape, but Damas held firm.

"Stop," he grunted, trapping Jak's arms beneath his own. "Stop, child! She will not harm you! Be still. Be still, Jak."

Jak couldn’t speak like this, hands pinned to his sides. He shook his head violently and tried to force a word -- a sound, anything -- out of his throat. A rusty, scratchy, cry faltered and trailed off between gasps for air.

Damas tightened his arms. "Be still, child. Be still," he whispered, over and over until at last the boy went limp. His heart still hammered against Damas's forearm, and the king frowned. He doubted the boy had calmed. More likely he feared the consequences of further resistance.

"Poor kid." Maud shook her head and slowly relaxed her guarded posture. "I'm betting he doesn't have any kinda good association with doctors. Lemme make a chart up for him, and we can figure out immunizations later. I think for now the light eco is the most we should do."

She crouched in front of Damas, trying to look into Jak's eyes.

"Hey, hey there, soldier. Breathe, breathe in now."

She waited until Jak had sucked in a ragged breath, then gave him a sympathetic half-smile. "Now breathe out, nice and slow. Easy does it, eh, kid? No shots today, it's okay."

Suspicious, Jak narrowed his eyes at her. The medic didn't seem to be offended. She stood and offered the glowing jar to Damas.

"I'd rather counteract the worst of the dark eco exposure and let that settle before introducing anything new to his system. For all we know about dark eco, it could exacerbate any potential diseases instead of inoculating him."

Damas sighed heavily. 

"Boy," he said, "I am going to let go now. Do not try to bite the medic again. She opened the clinic in the middle of the night to help you, is that understood?"

Oh, Jak understood. But that didn't mean he believed it.

He nodded and waited for a chance to run.

Before he could try, the jar caught his attention. This close to it, he could feel the contents being drawn towards him. It was...eco. Not dark eco, but warm, bright, good eco! Even after the experiments, he could still feel it!

It wasn't quite like green, nor blue or red or yellow. It was...it was all of them at once, just like during the battle against the Acherons. Was it really, truly, light eco? All the way out here?

Damas opened the jar and dipped two fingers into it. Light swirled around his hand, not quite liquid, but not quite vapor. 

He was channeling! Was the king a sage as well? Was that possible? Jak couldn’t stop himself from reaching out for the ball of light. 

"Don't-!" Damas tried to pull it out of the boy's reach. 

Only a trained channeler could use eco to heal another. Without training, it could end up doing far worse damage than the wounds it was meant to heal.

To his bewilderment, the light eco all but leaped from his fingers to the boy's outstretched hand. It jumped from finger to finger in sparks before being absorbed into the skin. Jak yelped in surprise and shook out his hand, then blinked down at his torso with wide eyes. One cautious hand pressed against the skin over his ribcage, gently prodding.

When Jak looked up, the shock was evident on his face.

"It...can heal?"

It took a moment for the medic to answer, as Damas was still staring at the boy with a perturbed look.

"Ah...that is, yes, yes it does. But you- kiddo, how'd you-" Maud scratched her freckled nose and squinted at him. "Only sages and the king can float that stuff around like that."

"Yeah, and me." Jak shrugged in a distracted fashion. "I think Samos wanted me to be a sage, but he gave up."

After a moment, he realized the sage's sign nickname wouldn't mean much to people from another city, and amended, "the Green Sage tried to train me to be like him, but I was too wild."

Damas and Maud exchanged a meaningful look. 

If the boy was claiming to be a channeler, that could explain the Baron’s interest in him. Channelers had become rare in the last two generations, and now only Sages remained. If word got out that a young boy had begun channeling light eco-

Like Mar? Like I can?

Stop. Don't do this to yourself. Focus on the task at hand. Focus on preparations for tomorrow's tasks. Focus on the next breath, the next step. 

"This visit will remain confidential," he announced. It was not a question, nor a request.

"Of course, lordship." The medic saluted him gravely. "He's one of my patients now. Would help if I had a responsible party to schedule with, but I s'pose it can't be helped."

Damas glanced down at Jak, who watched him with a mixture of curiosity and caution.

"I..." Damas blew out a breath. 

"I intend to declare the boy a ward of the city until his last known relatives or connections come forward. Winds know we've had our share of them in the years after Atys. Until a guardian can be appointed, I will handle matters for him to preserve confidentiality."

The medic made a little "hmph" noise and bobbed her head. "Makes good sense t'me, sire. The whole city don't need to see his chart, after all."

She pivoted on her heels to face Jak.

"You take care, kid. When you've gained some weight, and the light eco has been fully integrated into your system, then we can talk about vaccines."

"What's V-A-K-S-E-E-N-S?" Jak spelled out the unfamiliar word as best he could. 

Maud cracked a smile that was considerably easier in manner than her earlier ones.

"What's a vaccine? It's...think of it like a medicine where we take a tiny, weak, itty-bitty form of a really nasty disease -- like Dune Pox, or White Flu, or Crane Cough -- and we inject it into your bloodstream. It's not enough to make you sick, it's just enough to teach your body what those germs look like. Then your blood cells learn to hunt down and destroy those diseases."

Jak remembered Samos talking about germs once or twice as a little kid. Nobody else in the village ever seemed to know what he was talking about. Little beasties too small to see that made you sick? Equally tiny bits in your blood that hunted the little beasties? It all seemed like a silly story for children. Something to make sick days easier to bear.

"That sounds fake." He narrowed his eyes skeptically. "Blood doesn't fight, it's just blood."

Maud blinked several times. She glanced up at Damas. "Remedial classes?" she guessed.

"I suspect so," Damas agreed.

Maud picked up the medical scanner again and took it back behind the sandstone counter. "I'll be running some tests on these results in the morning. Should I contact you if I find anything of note?"

With a sharp nod, Damas answered, "You have the palace frequency should the need arise." 

"Understood." Maud dragged her stool back and took a seat. "I'd have liked to keep Jak for observation after that light display, but I doubt that would be good for his emotional state. Will you alert me if there are any changes?"

Ah. Damas hadn't anticipated that. The boy would require supervision for the next few hours to ensure that the light eco was working as intended. Usually, patients remained in the medical ward until the observation period was over. But Maud was right: the longer Jak was around medical equipment, the more agitated he was becoming. High levels of stress wouldn't help his case much.

Well. You did say you would look out for the boy until a place could be found for him. It's not Sig or the boy's fault that you didn't fully think that through. 

Damas gave a short, sharp, nod, then guided Jak out of the clinic. The boy was decidedly more subdued than he had been a moment ago, and thanks to the light eco, his breathing had finally calmed. Between streets, he periodically glanced up at Damas, then away just as quickly. By the time they'd gotten to the palm row, Damas had had enough of it. He stopped and turned to look down at Jak. Jak winced and hung his head, signing a contrite apology.

"I am not the person you should be apologizing to, young one," Damas answered. He clasped his hands behind his back and clicked his tongue. "I understand that you panicked. I understand that you feared for your safety. You do not know us, why would you trust strangers? But fear dulls the senses, Jak. You must learn to breathe first, and act second."

Jak fidgeted with his fingers and stared down at his feet. None of the twisting motions were words. Just the awkward fidgeting of a frightened boy. He nodded miserably. 

Damas stepped closer and crouched slightly to look him in the eye. Don't think of Mar. Don't think of him, he told himself, no matter how much it felt like a betrayal.

"Every person in Spargus has a part to play and a job to do," Damas gently admonished the boy, "Maud's role is to ensure that our citizens are safe and healthy, and to treat them when they are injured, not injure them further. That's her job. If you had managed to harm Maud back there, she might have had difficulty caring for other citizens tomorrow."

Ashamed, Jak hitched his shoulders. He knew the man was right. And it wasn't like he'd even wanted to hurt Medic Maud. But he almost had, anyway, hadn't he?

"I'm sorry I tried to bite her," he signed again. "I'll...Should I go apologize?"

The king shook his head. "Wait for the morning. When the clinic is officially open, then you may apologize. If you are reminded of something that happened in Haven, or something she is doing causes you pain, you can tell her, or me. But I will not have you attacking my people, is that clear?"

"Yes sir." Jak's hands moved so little that he was barely above a whisper.

Damas nodded curtly and straightened. “Good. We wish to see you recover from your trials, Jak, but there will be rules to follow in this city. For the sake of clarity, consider "no biting the medic" your first rule."

Not that having such rules had prevented little ones from occasionally biting Maud and the pediatrician, Petros, before. Jak certainly wouldn't have been the first to try to take a chunk out of the person with the needle. Damas knew it was a little too optimistic to hope he would be the last.

The remainder of the trip to the palace was unnervingly quiet. The boy stole glances periodically over his shoulder, in the direction of the clinic, with a perturbed expression. Perhaps the details of his moment of panic were beginning to set in. Or perhaps he was stinging from the scolding. He walked with the body language of a younger child, fidgeting with guilt. It was a blessing that the dim torchlights did not illuminate them enough for Damas to see the color of Jak’s eyes. The reminders of his son clung to his ribs and ached with every breath.

Please be alive, my son. Be strong, for me. I will find you, I promise.