Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the Jak & Daxter™ series. The only character I own is my OC, Cara. All others are owned by Naughty Dog™. Any of the soundtracks I provide for future portrayal of my story are not owned by me and are used solely for the purpose of this story. The rating of the chapters in this story are subject to change, varying from T to M. This will be noted at the top of chapters for discretion.

R&R: Encouraged and appreciated.

She's Worth Defending

Chapter 1: Pilot

T

I closed my eyes. As I leaned my head back against a rock, I inhaled deeply and opened my eyes to see the sun peeking behind the smog of war. I slowly exhaled from my pursed lips. The sound of gunshots echoed inside my brain. The sound of an assault rifle firing in the distance comforted me until I heard a semi-automatic being fired directly behind the rock I was using as cover. For a moment, I had falsely convinced myself that the violence had drifted farther away. I gripped my rifle and could almost feel my knuckles turning pale. I didn't want to be here. This wasn't my job. At this moment in time, though, I wasn't particularly looking forward to performing my actual duties either. Instead of loving what I do, I always dread hearing that one word. The one word that was my title; it had the equivalence of my name. It was who I was.

"Medic!" I heard a fellow guard yell frantically.

I used only my pupils to look to the right of my refuge - my rock - my only guarantee of surviving for more than five minutes. My heart started to beat faster in knowing that someone needed my help and that I needed to abandon my cover.

"Medic! Now!" I heard once more.

The source of the voice couldn't be more than twenty yards away, but through the vicious sounds of battle, I couldn't be sure. I proceeded to get down on all fours and crawl to the side of the rock, peering around it. I saw a body, sporting the same red and black, metallic armor as myself, on the ground. Another guard was kneeling above him, tending to the other guard's wound to the best of his knowledge. That's what I'm for.

The guard, who was responding to the injured soldier, acknowledged my presence from the distance with a nod and a raised hand. I held my weapon to my side as I made a mad dash to the two guards.

As I was running to their aid, I heard a bellowing growl to my right. I kept running, not even bothering to check my surroundings. I focused on closing the gap between my fellow soldiers and myself, despite the clicking, hissing, and swift movements all around me that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. My line of vision of the guards bounced with every exhausted motion I made towards them. The conscious guard looked back at me once more before I dropped down to the wounded guard's side.

"Large bite to the left shoulder. He's bleeding out. I managed to stop the bleeding, but that's all I could do." The guard remained at my side, giving me a backstory to the injury, his voice comparable to a walkie-talkie because of his heavy-issued helmet.

"Where is your helmet, soldier?" He asked sternly between his heavy breathing.

"I can't work with it." I replied, unsnapping my medic kit from my belt. There was no conversation as I threw the kit's flap open, revealing medic supplies. I didn't hesitate to pull out a bandage and a roll of gauze. My hands shook as I released the bandage from his packaging. You would think I would be used to this by now, but I wasn't.

"I won't be able administer anything now," I said while removing the dirty material from the wounded guard's soldier. "All I can do is attempt to stop the bleeding. I can disinfect and perform anything I need to when we return to HQ." I rolled gauze around the guard's shoulder and under his armpit.

The mere thought of being bit by something that could rip armor clean off made me uneasy.

I placed the bandage gently over the bite, pressing down on the corners to keep it adhered to the guard's soldier. I then ripped more gauze from its roll with my teeth and applied another layer over the bandage.

I then heard a gun cock. I turned to look at where my fellow guard was kneeling, but my eyes were greeted by the sight of him standing, aiming his gun south.

"Don't move, soldier." He said, finger on the trigger of his weapon.

I stayed put, eyes plastered to my weapon that was in arm's length. I listened carefully, trying to make of what our potential threat was. Despite all the gunshots, explosions, gurgling barks of creatures, and the shouting from our men, I could hear what was behind me. The light from the creature's yellow, skull gem cast over me like a spotlight. I heard its bellowing purr turn into a frightening hiss.

I took one last glance at my gun before I quickly grabbed it, the beast quickly responding to my movement. It let out a shrill roar before trampling towards me, the guard immediately unloading fire. I rolled to my backside, only to see the beast coming down from its offensive pounce. I had no reaction time; I closed my eyes and turned my face away, blocking it with my arm. I heard the sound of multiple weapons now firing. I opened my eyes to see the beast above me, thrashing at every bullet that penetrated it. Its body uncontrollably bounced at all the impact until it finally fell limp onto me.

"Clear!" I heard another guard yell.

I squeezed my way out from underneath the beast's arm, immediately pulling myself up to my feet. I looked around to see that seven more guards have joined us, their armor damaged significantly. I picked up my weapon and walked into the circle of my squad.

"There are too many of them!" A guard yelled, frantically waving his aimed weapon into the distance.

"We need to get out of here!" Another hollered.

I looked out into the distance. The whole bank of a mountain in front of us was lined with the same beasts that attacked me.

One of the guards removed a communicator from his belt, immediately shouting into it. "Commander, Erol! Guard 231, requesting immediate emergency extraction! The Metalheads knew we were coming! Over!" Then there was static.

We all desperately awaited an answer. We watched from afar as the Metalheads slowly started making their way down the mountain bank. This could be it for all of us.

Just as we were losing hope. "Guard 231, this is Commander Erol responding. I already have a twenty-seat Hellcat coming your way. Coordinates are as follows: longitude at 73 degrees, latitude at 52 degrees. Move your ass."

We all heard it. We didn't hesitate to take action and abort the mission.

The clanking of heavy armor filled my ears. I watched everyone running without fear, which I know sounds strange, but this wasn't our first suicide mission. Not nearly. We had a good distance between us and the Metalheads, and by the looks of it, the Metalheads stood their ground and decided not to follow. We were in their territory, after all.

We made it to our coordinates.

Our Hellcat was already there, still airborne. As I got closer, the sound of the Hellcat eased my mind. The dirt that blew up from underneath the vehicle circled the area, making me raise an arm up in front of my face as I approached. I felt even better as I was climbing up the ladder that allowed me to climb on board.

"Nine by nine out of twenty-five guards on board, we're ready to extract." The driver reported before lifting us higher and out of Metalhead territory.

Twenty-five. We came here with twenty-five. Now, we're down to nine. We lost sixteen people today. We all road back to Headquarters in silence.

I opened my eyes when I heard the oh-so-familiar sound of the motor pool garage open. I must have dozed off. Could you blame me? I looked around to see many of the other guards' lift their heads as well. It was a tough day.

The Hellcat landed, the ignition turning off, and I could hear the sound of everyone releasing their harnesses. I stepped off the Hellcat and onto the strip. Everyone walked a lot faster than me, happy to be back in our safe zone. Some were quick to visit the emergency wing, some were quick to get to their rooms, and some were even quick to strike up conversation with others. I just walked in silence, looking at the ground, until I felt a rough arm reach around my shoulder.

"Cara, come with me." I looked up quickly to see my Commander. He hurriedly rushed me down multiple hallways.

"Why? What's wro-…"

"No questions! I need you prepared to work." He leaned into me, speaking quieter, but still stern, as he continued to rush me towards our destination. I was assuming it was my office, where I perform wellness checks, physicals, and surgeries as a Krimzon Guard medic. Obviously, something bad must have happened.

"We have a situation on our hands. You're aware of our Dark Warrior program, correct?" CDR. Erol asked.

"Yes?" I answered, but it came out more as a question.

CDR. Erol stopped me a few feet before my office and stood directly in front of me. "There was a small accident." He sounded incredibly calm.

My eyes widened, worried about whatever accident could come from Dark Eco. I watched as multiple guards ran into my office. I guess my suspicions were correct. It was bad.

"The specimen we were using for the program, he might not make it."

"What? But, the Baron told us that-…" I began, but was interrupted.

"Ah-ah-ah…that's what you're here for. It will be as if it never happened. If anyone can fix this," Erol put his hands behind his back and slowly started to circle me. He leaned in close to my neck and whispered, "It's you." I blinked and looked towards the ground, completely uncomfortable. "Good luck." CDR. Erol placed my white coat over my shoulders and then started to walk away, hands still behind his back. It was almost creepy seeing him walk away in such a tranquil way. The HQ was in such high stress from the mission today and, now, this situation.

I walked into my office and started to remove my upper gear. I couldn't see who I would be working on, for more than four guards circled my table. I quickly dropped my gear onto the bench and slid my white coat on.

"I'm here." I walked over to the group. They moved aside, splitting in the middle, and I was in complete awe over what I saw.

It wasn't a 'specimen', it was a man.

I swallowed harshly and turned to the group. "Thank you, I can take it from here." I quickly looked back to the young man. The group of guards were dismissed from my office.

This wasn't right. What was he doing here? He was the specimen for the Dark Warrior program?

This was the secret Cpt. Erol and Baron Praxis were keeping? They were pumping a person with Dark Eco, not a pup or a yakow calf like I suggested.

They had turned my program, my idea, into something evil.

The man laid peacefully on my table. His olive green jumpsuit cut vertically down the center of his chest and rolled down to his waist. His blonde hair dirty, his face bruised and scarred. I snapped out of it and quickly reached for chords and laid their sticky adhesive to his bare chest. Immediately, his vitals lit up on the screen. They weren't good. His heart rate was slow and dropping. He needed oxygen.

I pulled a nearby oxygen mask off of a rack on the wall. I lifted his head gently and put it on him. As I watched his vitals, I slowly and carefully turned on oxygen for him. I was relieved when I heard the sound of a deep, involuntary inhale and watched as the oxygen mask fogged from the inside.

He was stable.

This can't be. How much Dark Eco were they exposing him to? And those bruises.

I turned his wrist towards me and not only did I see the purple shade of new bruising, but also green bruising from older ones. He seemed to also have some purple bruising near his eye.

What have they done to you?

I decided to stay overnight with him. I ended up administering Green Eco through an IV and it seemed to have helped a little. I shouldn't have, given the experiment, but he really needed it. The Baron would have my head if he found out that I used some of the small amount of Green Eco we had left on him. It should help him in the future as well, since I'm sure the experiments will continue and I would have no say. Mutated Green Eco will stay in your bloodstream for ten days and he obviously needed it.

I jolted upright when I heard his heart rate shoot up tremendously. I, then, noticed he was moving and starting to wake up. He groggily lifted an arm, his eyes opening slowly and halfway. I rushed to his side just in time for him to come to, completely. He groaned and started pulling off the adhesives. Three or more notifications were going off and flatlining due to him ripping off equipment and as more time passed by, the more he started to freak out.

"No," I calmly said. "I need to keep these on you."

"No! Stop!" He started thrashing at his oxygen mask.

"You need to keep that on!" I placed my hand over his mask, keeping it over his nose and mouth.

The man ripped my hand away from the mask and struggled to sit up, kicking over tons of equipment.

This wasn't the first time I have had someone freak out in my office. I knew how to deal with these things, but between the medications, the Dark Eco, and, I assume, abuse, I didn't know for sure.

I rested my hands on his shoulders, gently trying to push him to lay back down. He fought it and, to my absolute surprise, started to cry.

"Stop! Let me go! You're one of them! I don't want to be here anymore!" He dropped his back onto the bed and gave up. I almost started to cry when I saw tears stream from his eyes and curve around his oxygen mask. I slowly reached a hand out to touch his shoulder for comfort, but a loud alarm sounded in the HQ. Soon enough, I had guards rush into my office, accompanied by my CDR., Erol.

"What the hell is going on in here, huh?" CDR. Erol demanded to know and made a bee-line straight towards me. Erol got directly in my face and spoke quietly. "I told you to keep him alive, not make the freak throw a tantrum…" I felt anger welt up inside of me, but all I did was look him directly in the eyes until he moved away from me and towards his experiment.

"Let's go, Eco Freak!" CDR. Erol grabbed the man by his arm and attempted to pull him to his feet, but was surprised that he was reluctant.

"I said let's go!" CDR. Erol continued to pull him up, but was only kicked or pushed away.

"Guards!" He yelled, looking back for help, while still holding the blonde-haired man arms.

"No!" The man yelled as he was lifted up by three guards. CDR. Erol followed behind the group calmly, but not before stopping to talk to me.

"This will be our little secret." He smirked and then walked away, his eyes still on me until he walked out of the door. "Take him to his cell!" He yelled at his guards.

I stood there mortified.