EDIT 8/20/18: PLEASE SKIP TO THE LAST CHAPTER FOR AN IMPORTANT NOTE.

Chapter 1: Dark Eco & A Sage

Chapter Song: The Reason, by Hoobastank

"I've found a reason for me, to change who I used to be.

A reason to start over new, and the reason is you."

Mood of the Chapter: Happy

"When reaching for our futures, we sometimes fall into our pasts. We encounter our fates on the paths we take to avoid doing so. In these desperate times, we must ask ourselves an important question. Are we truly ready to let go of the past and face our fate with open arms?"

It all started a year ago.

Teko and I were put into quite a spin when I accidentally knocked her into a vat of Dark Eco. We were on Myriad Island(1), exactly where Samos—yeah, that Samos—told us not to go. I never should have taken Teko there… I'm surprised she doesn't hate me for what happened.

"Hey, uh… Izaya… Old Green-stuff told us not to come here!"Teko said. That girl is the spitting image of her older brother.

I said nothing, and led her across the island. I knew my way around the island, considering I basically grew up running around on it. I clambered up a rock ledge and motioned for Teko to follow me. She landed next to me with a small sound of pain. I looked down at the land below us. A man and a woman walked out of an old door in a Precursor building that I'd often explored back before Samos had taken Teko and me in.

The man motioned toward the large open area in front of him where quite a few Knilarases were gathered. (Knilarases are large radioactive green monsters, much like lurkers, but just a little smarter, and quite a bit harder to kill.)

"Continue your search for Dark Eco! If any of the villagers own Precursor artefacts, you know what to do."He said. His voice sounded kind of wheezing, like he was having trouble breathing.

"Deal harshly with anyone who strays from the borders of the village. We will attack it in due time."The woman said, looking almost reverent as she said it.

Teko and I looked each other for a second before I dropped down off the ridge. As I did, I briefly saw a Knilaras look in our general direction. Luckily it didn't actually see us, so we kept walking toward where I actually wanted to go.

A large vat of Dark Eco sat in front of us as we walked. I didn't pay any mind to it, really, because Dark Eco wouldn't have any effect on me at all.

"What are we doin' here anyway, Izaya? This place gives me the creeps!"She whined.

I still said nothing. I really didn't say much back then. It just wasn't really my thing to talk. Actually, I'm pretty sure I never said anything at the time. I only remember screaming when I got frustrated or just about died falling off something.

Anyway, we approached the vat, and I heard a slightly muffled, "Oof!" I turned, ready to save her from whatever might have caught her. When I didn't see her, my gaze went to the ground. I chuckled lightly when I saw her flat on the ground. She gave me an indignant look.

She looked back to see what had tripped her. She got up on her hands and knees, and turned around.

"Ugh! Stupid Precursor junk!"She said, getting up and picking up said 'junk'.

I rolled my eyes and looked over at the Dark Eco, crossing my arms and leaning back boredly. Holding the 'junk'—which was a cylinder with a few markings that might as well have been squiggles on it—, Teko walked over to me.

"Eek! What is that dark ooze?! Sure don't look friendly…"She said. Seeming to forget though, she blew some dust off of the top of the cylinder. "The old Sagely-man yaps on about the Precursors who built this place all the time." She then tried to mimic old Samos—to her credit, she did a good job—, "Where~ did they go? Why~ did they build this crap?" On the last sentence, she threw the cylinder up in the air. I caught it quickly, before it fell to the ground. "Now, I like Precursor orbs and Power cells as much as the next guy, but if you ask me, they were real losers…Woah!"

The cylinder I my hands was glowing red.

"How did you do that?!"She asked.

I shook my head, shrugging. And then, a much larger than usual Knilaras dropped down behind us.

"Izaya, I think we're in TROUBLE!"She yelled, jumping behind me, her back to the Dark Eco vat.

The Knilaras roared and started to charge us. I did the first thing I could think of. I ran forward and threw the glowing cylinder right into the Knilaras's face. It exploded, throwing me back. I rammed into Teko, my back flat against her chest. She fell right into the Dark Eco as I got up, turned, and stared with wide eyes down into the vat right as it engulfed her.

I felt a rush of sadness and guilt flood through me, and then, the Dark Eco spat her back out. To my surprise, she was perfectly fine, except for one thing… She was an ottsel.

"Man, that stung!"She said. She turned around quickly and marched up to me, and I knelt to see her up close. Her anger was rather comical, considering her current situation. "I told you we shouldn't have come here!"She yelled, "And you listened." Sarcasm. Wow. I was staring at her, surprised. "WHAT?!"She asked, annoyed.

I raised an eyebrow. She hadn't noticed yet. Wow. Her arms and gone up and away from her body when she had yelled the last time. She then spotted her hands and her eyes widened. She screamed.

She fell to the ground and pounded the ground with her tiny ottsel fists. "WAHHHHH!"She yelled. "Okay, okay I'm fine, I'm fine."She said, her hands over her chest. She looked down and saw her tail twitching. She jumped on me and held my shoulders. "WAHHHHH!"

I rolled my eyes, and put her on my right shoulder. She muttered something under her breath and lay down with her head and arms on the opposite shoulder.

I was across the island and in the boat in less than two minutes. When we got to the mainland, Teko jumped off my shoulders and walked ahead of me up Samos's house-ramp. And as soon as she set foot on the floor in his house, he turned around.

"What in green tarnation do you two want?!"He asked.

"W-we were—They were—I-i was—!"Teko stammered, hiding behind my leg.

"Don't tell me. Instead of heeding my wisdom, the two of you went mucking about in the one place I told you not to go: Myriad Island."

"That's right! And then we—"

"And Teko, you finally took a much needed bath. In a bathtub filled with Dark Eco."Samos said.

Obviously, he likes her just about as much as he likes her brother.

"Look old man, are you gonna keep yappin', or are you gonna help me out of this mess?!"Teko yelled.

"I'm gonna keep yappin'! Because, in my professional opinion, the change is an improvement."He said. "Besides, I couldn't help you if I wanted to."He added as an afterthought.

"What?!"Teko asked. She looked so shocked, the poor thing. She should've expected it. He's only the Sage of Green Eco, it only makes sense that he wouldn't be able to mess with the effects of Dark Eco.

"There are only two people who have studied Dark Eco long enough to know how to get you back to your original form. Gol and Maia Acheron. They live far to the North. Far, far to the North. Nobody has spoken to them since they were revived some few years ago. I would teleport you there, but I can't do that either.

"None of the other three sages who maintain the other teleporter gates haven't seen fit to turn their ends on for quite some time. The only other way North is by foot through the Fire Canyon, but its volcanic soil is hot enough to melt Precursor metal, so you can't just walk through it."

"But you could fly over it."Keira said, leaning against the wall, "If you had a zoomer equipped with a heat shield."She pushed away from the wall with her shoulder and walked toward us. "I just so happen to be working on a new one at this very moment. All I would need are 20 Power Cells to give it enough energy to withstand the canyon's heat."

"Yes, that would certainly work, but where are a girl—" He then whacked Teko on the head with his staff, "and a halfgoing to find 20 Power Cells?"

"The same places the 'Boy and a half' found them: the villagers and out in the wilds."She muttered to him, "The villagers might not be willing to just give you Power Cells, but greasing their palms with some Precursor Orbs should do the trick. And, I'm sure there are even more out in the wilds, just waiting for some brave adventurer to find them."She said, smiling at me the same way she always did. Like a big sister.

"Well, we've got the brave adventurer at least."Teko said, looking at me.

"Brave adventurer?!"Samos asked, "You two couldn't find your way out of the village without training! Before you doanything else, you'd better go through the warp gate and get some practice on Geyser Rock."

"Eh... We won't find any more of that dark, gooey eco stuff, will we?"Teko asked, "'Cause I'd hate to fall in again and turn into you!" She was looking straight at Samos. I had to try extremely hard not to bust out in a fit of laughter.

"Get in there! Before I turn you both into ferns!"Samos yelled.

I looked at Teko and shrugged before bolting forward and jumping through the warp gate. The next thing I knew, I was standing on Geyser Rock, with Teko popping out of the warp gate behind me after a second. She hopped on my shoulder right before I started running.

A small blue thing with two antennae coming out of it popped up behind me.

"This device is a communicator, "Keira said through it.

No, really? I thought it was a Knilaras cub. I thought, rolling my eyes.

"With it, my father and I can give you advice at any time during your quest."She said, and I could hear the smile in her voice.

Oh, dear Precursors, I hear enough outta him when I'm at the hut!

Ahead of me I saw a few Precursor Orbs just floating around. How they managed to float is still a mystery to me.

"These floating egg-shaped orbs are Precursor Orbs, "Keira said, "Collect enough of them and the villagers may give you a Power Cell in exchange."

Really? I had no idea. Way to state the obvious, Keira.

I continued forward and took out a few of the fake Lurkers that had been set up around the place. Why there were fake Lurkers and not fake Knilarases is beyond me. Probably because fake Knilarases would've had to have been made of steel. But, I digress.

It kind of bothered me that I wasn't going to get any real practice before leaving for the real world, but I wasn't gonna complain about doing it the easy way at first. Not that I complained anyway. You can't really complain if you can't talk. But that's not exactly the point, and I'm sorry to say, you'll have to try pretty hard to keep me on track for a little while. I'll get into the story a bit better later.

Anyway, I managed to do what I needed to do on Geyser Rock and get back to Samos's hut. The old man greeted us with his usual attitude—annoyance at our appearance.

"And what are you two doing back already?!"He asked.

"Well, we already got all through Geyser Rock, there's nothin' left for us to do there."Teko said timidly.

Neither of us noticed the people sitting in the corner. Well, I faintly did, but I put it out of my mind. It was probably just some villagers, I reasoned.

"Very well." He sounded kind of haggard, like he was already tired of us going on adventures. "Go out and find some power cells, you two. And don't come back until you have them!"

That was all the prompting I needed to turn on my heel and walk briskly out of the hut. I didn't even look to see who was in the hut with us. I honestly didn't care, and I wanted to get away from Samos as quick as I could. I didn't care if he could contact me on the communicator, I still wanted to get as far away from the source of his complaining as soon as I could.

Or, get as far away from him with the source of his complaining. Teko and him don't get along too well. They get along about as well as I get along with Light Eco, but I'll get to that when it's important. Back to the adventure at hand. I needed to find 20 Power Cells, and I had to find them quick.

First stop—my Surrogate Uncle's house.

A/N: Yeah, here's my newest Fanfic. This one is going to be written on every week, regardless of my schedule. I just have no Writer's Block for this story whatsoever, and not having Writer's Block means I have more to write all the time. I'll still work on what I'm supposed to every week, but this will get updates too.

HSAY Muse: So much for that plan.

Hey, I'm still sticking to it, I already said so!

HSAY: Yeah, because your word means so much to them.

Muse: Rrr! (Translation: Shut up HSAY!)

Thank you, Muse. Anyways, Review!

(1): Misty Island, but with less mist and more Illusions. Literally just a mile to the west of Misty Island.