Hello. Here is my first fan fiction in many, many years. This story is intended to not only show one possibility of what may happen if and when Gol and Maia do return, but I want to try and get into their previous selves, too. Anyway, on with the story. Hope you like.

Oh, and these characters and places and all that are property of Naughty Dog, not I, because if I owned them, Gol and Maia would have returned for real by now. (And Daxter wouldn't have donned pants. He looked cuter without them.)

Blackened Hearts and Desert Pearls

Prologue

Far, far out in the Wasteland was a place few dared to go, even the Marauders and citizens of Spargus, who possessed spirits toughened to leather by the harsh life of the desert. This particular place had been forest once, centuries past, but the innumerable sands of the Wasteland had finally crept even here and swallowed up all the trees. Now, little stood there but dead pillars of wood, the remains of the trees whose roots had been choked with sand, and dunes that were gradually eroded away by the wind to only be built up elsewhere. And something else. Something else stood in this particular section of the desert and was the reason the people of the Wasteland did not tread here.

Several large pillars, once hundreds of feet high and now made considerably shorter as the sand built up around their bases. They were of varying sizes and of bronze Precursor metal, showing signs of wear, but less than expected from their treatment over the years, though with much of their original shine gone. The Dark Eco silos.

These pillars always filled all who saw them with dread, and who could blame them? These pillars, built possibly thousands of years ago by the Precursors, contained the majority of the planet's Dark Eco. Such a substance needed to be contained. While it had existed as long as any other kind of Eco, this variation was dangerous. It twisted all it touched, turning all who were exposed to it to something no longer quite human. Or simply killed them. The dark bubbling ooze meant death or worse, and it couldn't be allowed to coexist with the fragile life of this world. That was why the Precursors banished it away to the confines of the silos.

But, for some, it also meant power, and that was why, long, long ago, two people tried to open the silos. To take that Dark Eco and use it to reshape the world. They tried to play God, and they were punished for it.

And that brings us to the other reason why this was such a feared place. Centuries ago, those people had been locked away in those same pillars they had so desperately wanted to open. Some thought them dead. Some had their doubts. And the rest, well, they had forgotten the two had ever really existed. Their story had turned to legend for a time until so many years had gone by that no one believed any longer that it had ever happened. They were eventually reduced to monsters parents used to scare unruly children. In fact, few remembered anymore that they were even human. Even fewer knew what kind of people they had once been. Centuries ago.

Within one of the silos was the dilapidated head of a Precursor robot and inside lay two bodies. But, they were not dead, just sleeping. When they had first become trapped in the silo, they had tried frantically to escape. The man attempted to return function to the remains of the robot, but it was beyond repair, while the woman complained and questioned over and over how a mute kid and his orange rat could have done this to them. After weeks of fruitless bickering only siblings were capable of, they finally gave up. Not completely, however, as they continued this process intermittently, albeit halfheartedly, like some sort of ritual, as if the repetition of these same actions would magically reverse what was done. But it did not, and they gradually resigned themselves to their fate.

And now they slept. They did a lot of this, more and more as time went by. How long had it been, the man wondered. How long had they been prisoners here, stuck inside the machine that was supposed to secure their place as gods over this world, kept alive just to be tortured by boredom and hopelessness by the Dark Eco surrounding their cell. The very substance that gave them power also kept them trapped. It was as infuriating as it was ironic! He couldn't stand to be locked in here any longer! Enough was enough! All this because of a brat and his pet! It sickened him! He and his sister were meant to be the most powerful beings in the world, and this is what they were reduced to. He wouldn't stand for it!

Gol Acheron, the Dark Eco Sage, opened his bloodshot eyes, blue eyes turned red by Dark Eco only the Precursors knew how long ago. He clutched his chest and gasped for air, oh, how sick he was of this blasted wheeze, and got up from where he lay on the floor. He looked to where his dear sister slept, snoring quietly. If anything, he had to find a way out of here for her. She was the person dearest to him. The only one who stood by him when he decided to study Dark Eco, even when their parents rejected him. He was getting them out of here. Now.

He stumbled as the whole place shook, dull blue lighting flickering more than ever (it was a wonder it had lasted this long, apparently the Precursors made the lighting in their machines more robust than anything). Maia stirred.

"What was that?" She yawned and blinked at him, rubbing one eye.

"How should I know?" He went over to the console as Maia got up, brushing long tresses of her hair out of her face and rubbing her back, no doubt sore from all the time spent laying on the hard, metal floor.

Gol pressed a few buttons and brought up the view screen. He had turned it off long ago, both to conserve power and to avoid staring at the endless Dark Eco outside, as beautiful as it was. As of late, he could hardly stand the sight of it. When the screen came up, a new sight greeted them.

"Where'd it all go?" Maia asked, putting a hand on her hip. "What happened?"

"I don't- Wait!"

Maia ran to the door and opened it. Without a second thought, she jumped out, and he followed. Any further warning was pointless apparently. He put his hands on either side of the doorway and leaned out. They were in a large tunnel that went as far as he could see, lit by long rows of lighting suspiciously similar to what was inside the robot. Maia had already wandered off a short ways, looking all around in wonder. She turned to him as he stepped out, her arms open wide. "We're free, dear brother!"

"We certainly are, dear sister. But, where are we?" A channel ran down the center of the tunnel, Dark Eco flowing through it like a lazily-moving river. Aside from the silos, he had never seen so much of it in one place before. A large, curved wall perhaps twenty feet high stood to the other side, from which the Dark Eco flowed from a large arch. It was like they had been washed up somewhere.

"Who cares? All that matters is we're out." She sauntered back to him and put her hands on her hips. "So what's the matter? Nothing to say?"

"We must have sunk far below the surface. Perhaps to where the world's Eco originates," Gol said, more to himself than her. Fascinating. He had pondered about the existence of such a place, but never did he think he'd actually see it.

"And you know what that means?" She walked in front of him, a large, wicked grin on her face. "We finally have limitless Dark Eco. It took longer than we planned, but…"

A similar smile crossed the Sage's face, made even more wicked by his bizarre features. "I know, dear sister. Now we can continue from where we left off."

He raised a bent arm, and she linked her arm through his. "Exactly. Let's get to it." And they strolled down the tunnel, arm-in-arm, with one goal in mind.

And so the siblings began their search for a way out and a way to continue their wicked plans. But, this is not simply a tale of an evil reawakened. It is also a tale of redemption. Or at least, it could be.

Prologue complete. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Read and review, pretty please, and I'll give you cookies with a cold glass of Yakow milk. Chapter 1 should be up soon.