A/N: Jak and Daxter are exclusively the property of Naught Dog (and potentially High Impact Games). I do not own them, or any part of their world that is recognisable.
Chapter 1: Revelations and Realisations
"FREEZE!"
The Shadow froze, along with the rest of the Underground that were waiting for Jak in the Tomb of Mar. Only Torn and Ashelin weren't here out of the members Jak knew. Hmm, Ashelin needs to maintain appearances, but why was Torn not here?
The Shadow was shocked out of his reverie by a Krimzon Guard in yellow armor whacking him across the back with the butt of his gun and the accompanying yell "Move it!". He looked up to see that everyone else was already being forced on to the lift, only to duck as the Baron dropped in with a nasty-looking machine that had no business fitting inside the elevator shaft. Cackling at the cowering members of the Underground, he flew over to the wall that Jak disappeared under when he entered the Tomb. The Precursor Oracle didn't even animate itself to forbid the Baron when his lethal flying spider assaulted the protections designed to keep out all those who weren't of Mar's blood.
BOOM! The stone construction gave several loud cracks as the claws on Praxis' machine started to rotate like a series of drills; the flying stone chunks were the Shadow's last sight of the legendary Tomb of Mar as the elevator started to rise.
Quickly, the Shadow glanced around to see how the rest of the Underground were faring, after all, he was their leader. Tess was sitting down, pouting at the Guard who was monitoring her, but a quick look into her eyes showed that she was genuinely worried about what was happening in the Tomb; more specifically Daxter (she really had a soft spot for that ottsel). Kor was looking, well, rather pathetic, as if he was a child that had his crocadog taken from him; well actually he knows of only one kid with a crocadog... But really, the old guy almost looked hungry at the thought of holding the precursor stone 'in his hands'. The kid looked ready to cry, and Kor had to reassure him that his crocadog was only stunned when it got hit on the head with a gun butt when it barked loudly and tried to bite a Guard. It was interesting though, why was Kor literally latched on to the boy, and why did he seem so happy that the crocadog was stunned? Curious.
The doors opened to show the entire area in lockdown. The Shadow could see yellow armoured commanders organising the rest of the Krimzon Guard on foot patrol, Hellcats and Patrol Cruisers were hovering roadblocks at every entrance to the Statue of Mar. Everyone from the Tomb was escorted to the Palace, and sent through the Warp Gate to the Fortress prison cells, but Kor and the Kid seemed to have disappeared in transit. The Shadow frowned; how had they gotten out? With a sigh he pushed such thoughts aside, almost glad to arrive at his cell and away from the violent Guard to just have some time to sit down, nurse his headache, and push all complicated thoughts out in a night of meditation. Sadly it was not to be, as someone was already sitting on the cot.
Someone who was going to make his headache much much worse.
Himself.
Samos the Sage.
SCENE BREAK
"By the Metal Nest!" The Shadow swore under his breath. His, obviously older, self looked up and said "Well well well, I was wondering when you were going to get here." Hearing the voice from his older self just made Young Samos groan "Unless you can take care of my headache, I don't even want to know what circumstances brought you here." Elder just placed his hand on Younger's head and drew some Green Eco "Being the Sage of Green Eco helps with headaches, among other injuries. And believe me you will have a great many more in the years to come. Now, when I was you, the Elder tried to explain what had happened, but I didn't believe him; if I use a memory transfer technique I made for this occasion while we're alone, and act as I did last time, then the time field won't be changed! Now hold still" Elder then proceeded to draw strangely charged Green Eco from his head then held it out to Younger. "This will explain everything, including what I just did." Elder said before he pressed his Eco filled hand to Younger's head. Visions of everything that was to be flitted through the Shadow's head: the jail-break, the life seed, Metal Kor, the Rift Gate, Sandover, everything that happened between the two times this moment occurred flashed through his head, along with many understandings. 'He betrayed Jak!' a part of him screamed, and it was true. Samos feared altering the time line so much that he'd done nothing to prepare Jak for Haven City, despite knowing what he'd become. In fact, the only time he showed any knowledge of the future were the words "Find yourself Jak." that he'd said as the Rift Rider broke. 'Damn' Young Samos knew that he had to watch himself, as Elder wasn't opposed to stealing the memories back if he thought Young Samos wasn't acting properly. The final touches to his plan had just been made when the door slid open...
SCENE BREAK
"Jak, wait!" Young Samos called after the Krimzon Guards left Haven Forest. Hearing the cries of the plants had troubled him deeply, and he knew that the Precursor Stone had to be recovered at all costs. "What is it Samos? I don't exactly have a lot of time." Jak waited for Samos to continue when he caught the look on his face. "Go on Dax, I'll catch up to ya in a sec. Wait for me by the Warp Gate." Daxter looked at Jak strangely before running off, with Jak turning back to a much relieved Samos. "I'm sorry." Samos blurted out before he could stop himself, "I'm sorry for what my older self has done." Jak frowned, was this about what he thought? "As you know, the Rift Ring took you into the future, yet here you find me, the younger version of the elf you grew up with." Jak's frown deepened. "What you may not know, is that while there is another Rift Ring in this time, I'm not the only elf going to travel through it. Jak my boy, you are also from this time."
Jak froze. What! That means that Samos knew... Dammit! "Yes, and you know yourself well, you are the Kid, the heir to Haven City." Jak was reeling by this point; he knew that Samos wouldn't lie to him, but this was a lot to take in. Also, if Samos was anything like his older self, then he would have delighted in withholding the information and driving everyone crazy with his 'old wise sage' act. So why was he being told this? "Now Jak, the reason I'm apologising is because all while you were growing up in Sandover, the Sage knew that this would happen because he knew you in this time as me. AND HE DID NOTHING TO PREPARE YOU OR SAVE YOU FROM THE DARK ECO!" Samos was (relatively) red in his green face and panting at this time, and he was genuinely distraught. "Shit." was Jak's eventual response as his face reflected rage and he understood what Samos was saying. However, Dark Jak had been introduced to the last wave of Guards, so he didn't have enough Dark Eco to transform and take out his frustrations. "Anyway, the older me developed the technique to make copies of a person's memories with eco, but it only works with elves who have eco as a part of their make up. This usually means Sages only, but I believe you can do it too, as courtesy of the Baron's experiments. I will give you the memory of Elder perfecting the technique, and I ask that you put all of your memories into this jar so I can eventually give them to the kid to help teach him what he needs to know." Samos then pulled a small amount of the strangely charged Green Eco from his head and pressed it to Jak's. Jak then simply nodded, and withdrew some Dark Eco from his own head and placed in the jar. It wasn't really Eco, but for beings that had Eco as a part of them found that their thoughts and memories behaved like the Eco that was a part of them. Jak then turned swiftly, and stalked out of the forest, his head whirring.
Jak didn't know what the effects of changing time would be, but knew that he didn't want to be the elf that had darkness eating away at him, he wanted to be the Coloured Eco Channeler he used to be. He glanced down at the KG boxes at his feet, and kicked them, scattering their contents. He picked up the Scatter Gun ammo first, and popped the lid on the disc-like ammunition to see smouldering Red Eco. He dipped his hand in only to pull it out quickly as it burned him; the Eco had tried to enter his body like it always had when it encountered the Dark Eco twisted channels. His body had always had those channels, but now they would only take Dark Eco. Everything else burned him, except Green, and that was only because it didn't Channel like it used to, but instead move on to the wound like everyone else. Everyone who couldn't channel Eco.
"Dammit!" Jak was frustrated, and mourned what he had lost. A quick glance at all the other munitions showed him the same result, although he didn't open the PeaceMaker cap; he had enough experiences of absorbing Dark Eco to know that he would just lose the ammo. Removing all of the mods he looked down at the Morph Gun itself, to see how the gun worked. Pulling it apart further, he noticed a flap open on the side of the gun, and a small booklet fall out. Opening it, he read The Morph Gun is the latest in infantry weapon technology, superior to all other weapons because of ability to use Coloured Eco in its raw form. The capability to do this came about from studying a legendary Eco Channeler, a subject from the Dark Warrior Program. This elf had physical Channels for Eco in his bones, and we replicated the physical Channel out of the synthetic material for this gun's barrel. NOTE: IF THIS GUN HASN'T BEEN FIRED YET, YOU MUST BREAK IT IN BY ADDING SMALL AMOUNTS OF ECO UNTIL THAT TYPE IS ACCEPTED... Jak stopped reading, stunned. He'd had the capability to channel Dark Eco, but couldn't simply because the stuff looked volatile, and had been forbidden by the Green Sage.
And now he was cursed with the stuff.
SCENE BREAK
BOOM!
Jak looked back at the Weapons Factory that exploded with Krew and his Piercer Bomb. Krew... Jak wondered if Krew had any more Morph Guns, since he loved weapons so much. Tess called on the communicator as Jak stepped of the Blue Hellcat in the Port. She said that Keira wanted her to show Jak and Daxter something in the Hip Hog, but she'd be around in a second after touring the Gun Course. Daxter looked like he really wanted to meet Tess, and Jak had his own agenda so he wordlessly handed his Jet Board to Daxter before walking towards Krew's old Saloon. "Hey!" Daxter called beside him, looking completely comfortable on the Jet Board. "You've been getting distant with me buddy, and you'd better have a good explanation!" Daxter was facing Jak now, not even looking at where the Jet Board was headed. "Yeah Dax, I've got some stuff I need to do. It's still experimental at this stage, so I'll tell you after I've sorted it out, alright?" Daxter scowled "Fine, but this better be really good!" and zoomed off, leaving Jak to his thoughts.
Entering the Hip Hog, Jak looked around, looking for any entrance into a secret weapons cache. He might have thought that the weapons might not be there at all, but he knew that Krew's obsession probably meant that he had to have the weapons close by, or else someone might touch them when he wasn't around, including any hired help he acquired to guard it. So, it was with this thought in mind that Jak searched the bar. Looking up, he discovered an apparent entry into the attic where only Krew's floating chair could reach it, not that anyone would be looking up there. Leaping up and grabbing the handle, Jak was glad that his body gained some benefits from the Dark Eco Treatments outside of Dark Jak, who was completely mindless and focused only destroying any creature that didn't stir enough of an emotional reaction that made it friendly. Dark Jak could have easily crawled up to the attic, if he could remember to do so, if he could do so without destroying the building, and if he could climb up there and remember to power down without destroying all the weapons first, assuming that was what was up there. Grabbing the handle worked, before Jak's weight pulled down the hatch and snapped it off at its hinges. Another leap, and he was pulling himself inside.
The hatch wasn't big enough for Krew in all his glory, so it seemed he programmed his chair to interact with some cataloging software to deliver what he wanted. Jak, however, had use of his legs and full access to the room, and it made him gape. Everything was here. Everything. The room was huge, it had extraction claws on rails hanging from the ceiling, and it housed all the weapons Jak had ever seen, and then some. Krimzon Guard rifles sat in a container, in the corner as if they were not weapon enough to be of any importance, a few Peace Makers like Sig's got wall brackets, a Hellcat Turret and a Ground Turret on pedestals, and an entire wall dedicated to the Morph Gun, two sets of brackets for guns (only one of them filled) and the rest of the wall filled with possible mods, two of each. Jak stripped the wall entirely, coming out with two fully modded Morph Guns with the second one bleeding in red Eco as its first ammo. He was curious as to why Krew would give such a powerful and rare weapon to a person that only just wanted to be a Wastelander; he just chalked it up to his gratefulness for the "...shipment of rare Eco ore is worth more than ten of your lives..." or something like that, until he saw the holsters. Marvels of modern technology, these holsters would return the weapon to them if the weapon was ever lost from the grip of the elf that had owned the gun, so Krew would get it back if Jak ever died. He slipped the one tuned to his gun inside his tunic, where it was deceptively thin so no-one would see it. He placed the other one in its holster and put it in his pack, to take to Samos. He didn't bother to read the plaque on the foot of the wall that said "The first rule to making any successful weapon is to always make two; there will always be those who claim that your weapon is too dangerous and attempt to dismantle it." Work done, Jak carefully dropped into the Hip Hog to see Daxter happily bonk the heads of fake Metal Heads in a game, and arrived just in time to see the Time Map released.
SCENE BREAK
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! *Click*"Fuck!" Jak yelled as his Blaster ran out of ammo. He quickly dove to the side as the Metal Head Leader swung itself off of its hanging position onto the ground right where Jak was five seconds ago.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Dark Eco splattered around the areas where the bursts landed. Jak was running and dodging the blasts of Dark Eco from Metal Kor, but Kor was slowly gaining on him. He had fought with everything he had, and now both were tiring and at the end of their tether. Unfortunately, Jak's Morph Gun was out of all ammo, including (much to his chagrin) the ammo from the second gun. The Scatter Gun had even been used on the smaller Metal Heads that tried to keep him in one position long enough for Kor to hit him with his exploding Dark Eco. The Metal Head Leader's wing-blades made it impossible for Jak to get close enough for hand-to-hand combat that was his last and most comfortable weapon, so he was running for his life trying to make a plan that didn't involve him dying horribly. He dodged more Dark Eco shots... hmm, Dark Eco shots. Before Jak could tell himself that he can't absorb Eco while it's used as a weapon that's being fired at him, he stood stock still for the next volley of shots.
Only the hunger from the beast that was Dark Jak saved him, and he used the concentrated Eco to transform. Pale skin, bulging unnatural muscles, white hair, horns and claws along with soulless pitch black eyes and purple lightning crackling across his fingertips; Dark Jak was back. The beast took note of its surroundings for a brief glance before turning its attention back to its enemy. This was the monster that tried to kill its host, and it was incredibly powerful. Not pausing for a moment, Dark Jak leaped into the air, focused all of its Dark Eco into one hand, and slammed it down on the Metal Head Leader's skull gem. The normally unfocused shock-wave was directed completely into the body of Kor, which collapsed, dead.
Jak was achingly tired, but walked slowly to the landing Lurker balloon with tunneling vision for one last conversation. "Samos..." he croaked, and both Sages rushed forward with hands glowing with Green Eco. Resting against the shoulders of Young Samos, Jak whispered "Here, I have a gun just like mine for you to train the Kid with. You'll have to refill the ammo at Eco vents, though. Also, do you have the jar with you?" Samos held out the jar containing Jak's memories as his older self marveled at Metal Kor and the Rift Ring. "I... hope this works..." His voice growing softer as his recent memories poured from his head. "Tell Dax... the truth... before you leave." Jak slipped into unconsciousness.