I am very out of practice when it comes to writing fanfiction, and I apologize for this. This first chapter also turned out a lot shorter than I had originally hoped it would be. Ah, well- live and learn.

Disclaimer: I own neither the Jak and Daxter series nor the Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy series. They both belong to their respective owners.

It was evening in the Uruk desert and the sun appeared to be a great ball of fire as it slowly dipped under the horizon, illuminating the rocky world with a harsh light that seem magnified when shone upon an environment that was just as harsh and demanding. A crow peered down from its rock at a cobra that had been knocked loose from one of the rare coconut trees earlier, the evening sun sending their shadows far across the ground. There was a sudden noise and the crow jerked its head up, taking flight moments later and narrowly escaping what would have been certain death at the jaws of the cobra. The source of the birds distraction was momentarily obvious- Two figures were briefly illuminated as they darted from the base of one cliff to the base of another, one heavily wrapped in bandages and the other sporting a tail and a shinning gold headdress. The one covered in bandages tripped over a pebble and sprawled on the dense ground. His companion, the tailed one, halted quickly and held out a clawed hand that was quickly accepted. Hauling the first to his feet they both quickly darted to the safety of the shadows. The first figure turned to his companion and he brushed sand off of his bandage covered shoulders with clumsy hands as he spoke. "Why are we here again? Your master was not very clear..."

Fierce red-brown eyes turned on the first figure. "Keep your voice down and I'll tell you again." he frowned, tattoos about his face pulled at the motion. "You know, this is the fifth time I've had to tell you."

"My memory is no where near as good as it was years ago. " the first person replied apologetically. "This condition of mine does that to people, I'm afraid."

"Heh," pointed teeth flashed as his companion grinned. "Fair enough. Imhotep said that right now it looks like Set- remember him?- isn't at his palace, or if he is security is really low." he crouched down, pointing with a clawed finger towards a towering, impending building far in the distance. "That's his palace, or what ever you want to call it. The whole place is littered with tunnels and secret passages."

"So," he frowned, thinking. "That means we might be able to sneak in and if Set is there we could finally weaken him enough for Osiris to do something with him?"

The cat like figure grinned again, showing off those pointed teeth once more. "Exactly so. Plus, even if he isn't there we can still leave a trap or some such thing for him to walk into."

"But I thought Set was a god, Sphinx?"

Sphinx nodded, a look of puzzlement on his angled face. "You're right about that. Why?"

He fidgeted, glancing between the tower in the distance and Sphinx. "Well... Would he not be able to tell if we had left a trap for him?"

Biting his lip, Sphinx waited a while as he thought over that. "You're right, he probably would know. But if that's the case, why wasn't he able to tell when you were running around in there?"

"Well you must keep in mind," he pointed out, "I'm much different than you are. My unique situation probably made it so Set was unable to sense that I was in his palace."

Sphinx opened his mouth to say something in reply, but before he got even a word out the demi-god snapped it back shut and hugged the shadowed cliff wall. "Patrol! Quick, get against the wall." he hissed quietly.

His companion had already begun to vanish as soon as the word 'patrol' was out of Sphinx's mouth and was fading into nothing. The two were as silent and still as they could be as the patrol approached, the sound of bone against sand one of the most prominent noises. The patrol passed around the side of the cliff and into their field of vision- two skeletons armed with a staff each made up this patrol. Glowing balls of yellow flame sat in their eye sockets and they paused, surveying the area carefully before moving along. Once the sound of their shuffling footsteps could no longer be heard, Sphinx relaxed and was stepping away from the cliff as his companion faded back into view. "That's the tenth patrol this candlemark." Sphinx said crossly. "I'm pretty sure that they're onto us. We have to move faster."

With that he darted over to a ledge that protruded from the face of the cliff, leaping onto its surface with one smooth, fluid motion. Turning, he raised an elegant eyebrow at his companion. "You coming, Tut?"

That was one thing so vastly different between Tut and Sphinx. The latter always seemed to have this elegant look about him, in the tattoos on his face, in the headdress and the simple style of his clothing, in the way he held himself during battle or on watch, even though he was a warrior by nature and by training all of this seemed to be no more than an after thought to impress those he ran into. Whereas Tut had to honestly try and work hard at looking and acting as elegant and commanding as he was suppose to be for one of his social status and still routinely failed, to one such as Sphinx it was less than an afterthought, less than second nature.

Tut frowned at him before dashing clumsily forward, grasping at the ledge's edge and trying to pull himself up. The mummy failed several times and each failure ended with him ending back up on the sand under the ledge, more often than not accompanied with a tear in one of his bandages as thanks for his effort. After watching the pathetic display for a time, Sphinx grinned and grabbed his hand with a clawed one of his own, strong arms pulling him onto the ledge effortlessly. This was repeated several times as the two made their way up the cliff face until Tut finally spilled over the final edge and onto the top of this grueling cliff.

As they waited on the top for a moment before they continued in order to make sure there were no more patrols coming that they could run into, Tut laid on the sand and allowed the grains to work their way into his bandages. They would be annoying to pick out later of course, but right now the mummy did not much care. Sphinx stood still as a statue as he strained his sensitive ears for any sound of a patrol or monster in the area, the fiery evening sun accentuating the muscles on his arms.

A harsh wind whipped up and began to blow huge gusts of loose sand every which way. "Sandstorm!" Tut said breathlessly.

"That's just a tad obvious." Sphinx squinted around, trying to make out where the next ledge was so they could continue forward.

Tut scrambled to his feet and grabbed his companion's arm. "We have to either turn back or find shelter, Sphinx."

"Not happening!" He shouted stubbornly through the howling wind. "We move forward. Come what may we have to get to Uruk Palace."

With that Sphinx leapt forward through the storm and searched cautiously with his clawed hands for the cliff until his hand brushed stone. Grasping at it while Tut hurried after him before they got separated from each other, both of them were quickly moving up the face of the cliff before long. Each time they could not find the next ledge to move to, Tut had a sinking feeling that they would be stuck here until the sandstorm blew over. Each time Sphinx proved him wrong by leaping up through the sand and the wind to land on their next rocky outcrop before hauling the mummy up. They kept this up until they reached the top and by the time they had stepped up onto it the storm had grown so bad that Sphinx hadn't been sure he could find Tut to haul him up for a moment. "Fine, you win." he shouted to his companion over the wind. "We'll find some shelter and wait out the rest of this storm."

The phrase "Easier said than done." springs to mind at those words. After a few near spills over the cliff's edge and wandering for a long while, Sphinx found a cave set into the side of yet another rock wall. Once inside it, they retreated to the far end of the cave and made camp there. Huddled down out of the wind, Sphinx found himself wishing that they had brought the things for a fire as he brushed sand off of his golden headdress- and everything else. "This is going to be a long night." Tut comment as it grew dark quickly, what little that could be seen of the sun finally sinking that last bit and plunging the world into darkness.

~*~*~

As if to contrast to this, the sun was only just rising in Haven City, it's pale beams peaking over the metal walls that encircled the city and filtering through the occasional window. The old Underground hideout in the slums did not have such luxuries as windows, but it was relatively snug so Jak stayed there anyways. He had been offered rooms in the palace once it had been rebuilt, of course, but he had declined quickly, almost bitterly. The Baron's palace held far too many bitter memories for Jak to allow himself to live there.

Rolling over and blinking the sleep from his eyes, Jak stared up at the bottom of the bunk above his own. Curled next to him on the blankets was a ball of bright red-orange fur that rose and fell in time to its gentle breathing. He slid out of the bunk from the other side, pulling on his boots and rising to his feet. A pot of hot coffee was placed on a large, circular table made from wood. Accompanying the dark brew was several mugs and a plate of fresh muffins, all placed by the pot. Jak found himself smiling- Torn must have come by while they had been sleeping. Even through the Underground had long since been dissolved, Torn had not stopped quietly looking over the key members that had survived the old days. Though pretty much all he did was make sure that they had a hot breakfast. If you had worked for the Underground in the days when Praxis ruled and lived to tell the tale, you could watch your own back.

Jak was already helping himself to hot muffins and coffee by the time the ball fur that was Daxter had woken, much to the Ottsels annoyance. "What, you couldn't have waited for me?!" he asked in mock fury, leaping from the bed to the floor, then up to a chair and from there leaping up on to the tabletop.

"Not if I wanted any." Jak replied with a smirk, snitching another muffin and biting into it.

The Ottsel rolled his eyes. "Jak, buddy, pal... you eat about ten times more than I do."

"You both eat enough to feed a small army." came a rough voice from the stairs. There were the heavy footsteps of one walking in boots and moments later Torn stopped before the table, looking at the two friends with that steely sight of his.

"With the things you put us through, you'd think that we are a small army!" Daxter replied accusingly from around his muffin, his mouth full of the delicious baked good.

"So why are you here?" Jak asked, picking up a rather worn looking mug and pouring some coffee for the commander. "I take it that this isn't just a house call."

"Is it ever?" came the snarky comment from the Ottsel, accompanied with a roll of his eyes.

Torn accepted the mug of coffee, light from overhead reflecting dimly off the Krimzon Guard tattoos that crisscrossed the majority of one side of his face. "Sig sent some men to report in to me late last night. They've found what looks like giant stone ring in what looks like the remains of a small, single room temple out in some ruins in the Wasteland."

This information caught Jak's attention and held it fast, leaving his coffee it be forgotten. "'Giant stone ring?' Could they have found another one of the Precursor's gate?" he asked curiously. If it was another one of those gates, the possibilities it presented for him and his companions were... amazing.

The ex-Krimzon Guard shrugged and took a sip of his coffee before answering Jak's question. "I don't know, though that is a distinct possibility. What I do know is that Sig wanted you to get out there as soon as you could."

Daxter's head shot up at this bit of news. "What? Why us?" the Ottsel demanded, rising to his feet and leaving the half eaten muffin be. "We aren't exactly Precursor professionals here! If they want someone took look at it, Sig should get one of those half-baked monks to do the job."

"Like I said- I. Don't. Know," Torn replied crossly with a nasty look shot in Daxter's general direction, the glare landed on the coffee pot rather than the rodent "I'm only relaying the message since I'm here. I'm not a damn messenger boy."

"We'll do it." Jak said suddenly, setting down his coffee mug and grabbing another muffin.

Daxter looked at him in a sort of dismayed manner. "We will?"

"Well, why not?" the young man raised a green eyebrow at the Ottsel.

There was no reason that they could not, certainly. Doing a favor for an old friend was the least they could do, and it had been months since either Jak or Daxter had found the time to visit Sig way out in the Wasteland. When they did have the time to go visit, Jak was general annoyed enough at something that had happened during the day that none of his friends wanted to release him on the inhabitants of Spargus. While there was many things Wastelanders could defend themselves against, Dark Jak is not among those many things.

"And I... don't suppose that there is anyway I'll be able to talk you out of this?" the furry one ventured to ask once Jak had not replied to him after a long while, "My idea of fun isn't exactly baking my tail off out in the middle of nowhere!"

Jak snatched his goggles and gun hostler off of the worn table, slipping them both on before snitching another muffin and striding over to the sliding door nestled in the wall between two bunks. Light reflected off of the goggle lenses and shone against his odd green hair. Jak grinned as the door automatically slid open to reveal the stairs. "Relax, Dax. You're with me, remember?"

The Ottsel rolled his eyes before looking to see if there was some way to bring along more of their breakfast. "I know. That's what I'm afraid of."