Prologue.

Clocks

All was quiet. The sounds of grinding gears and thundering ticking of the massive clock hands above resounded throughout the wooden and brass chamber. She stood, silently, amidst the highest level of the tower. A warm yellow glow flushed into the room through the pearlescent and translucent clock face, looking on to the outside world. Streams of yellowish light seemed to slip in through the cracks in the beams of the old and weathering towers and bounced off of the pseudo-golden gears of the old tower.

With a slight sigh, she strode across the wooden floor of the room. The more she moved away from the giant face of the illuminated clock, the better the room came into focus. There were several old and weathered shelves lining the walls of the large circular chamber. Upon the shelves were hundreds upon hundreds of ancient tomes, being propped up by rather odd looking knick-knacks and trinkets of every shape and size that hung off of the edges of the wooden shelves. Some hummed, rang, and chimed, making a delightful chorus of some of the most wonderful but peculiar sounds at the same time.

Old, somewhat musty jars and glass containers sat upon the tops of the book cases and upon their shelves as well. Upon further inspection, one could see on the inside that various insects and other amphibious and aquatic creatures lived inside, although their species was indistinguishable. There were also several bird cages hanging high above the room, inside of which were several strange and exotic looking winged creatures, fluttering and chiming about their homes within the clock tower.

Lastly, about the room, there were dozens, upon dozens, perhaps hundreds, of clocks, each one ticking away in an aria of time. They ranged in every size from pocket watches to grandfather clocks, to the breathtaking clock face of the tower itself. And every clock seemed to be just as strange and as beautiful as the next. What was so peculiar however, was that each of these clocks, seemed to tell a different time, regardless of what language the numerals happened to be engraved in.

However, despite all of the sounds and all of the business of the clock tower, there was an odd sense of peace that seemed to wash over the room. Perhaps it was the warm glow of the sun that washed in from the outside, or perhaps it was something else. None the less, she entered into the room, her long copper and brass robes trailing behind her as she walked. There was a small wooden desk covered in old pieces of parchment and a few particularly large and particularly old looking books laying upon its surface. Upon the desk, aside, were two other items.

The first, was what appeared to be a pocket watch. However, it was hanging on a long and thin golden chain, which she appropriately draped around her neck. Engraved into the golden surface of the timepiece was the image of an Ouroboros, circling around an hour glass. The second item was a clock, one of many in the room. It was small, with an elliptical face, and it was inside of a glass dome. Other than that, there was nothing that really stood out about this particular clock, but it was of interest to her at this moment.

She took the small clock in her hand, and opened the pocket watch hanging around her neck. She moved adjust the time on her pocket watch to synchronize with the clock. However, as she lifted the clock off of the desk, a strange wave of darkness washed over the room. The warm glow of the sun withered away and a cold blackness consumed the space around her. The various creatures within the cages and glass chambers within the room began to croak, chirp, squawk, and hiss in panic and confusion, as if the darkness flooding the room wasn't an indication enough that something was amiss. Quickly, she set her pocket watch to the time, date, and year set on the clock sitting on her desk. She then took the clock from the desk and slipped it into her robes. Her blue, bright eyes scanned the blackness, looking for any sign of an intruder.

"Give me…" A cold voice whispered, as a thin figure emerged from the shadow, "That clock…"

"Get out," She stated sternly, clutching the pocket watch in her hand and holding on to the clock beneath her robes, "Don't be a fool, Rouge. But then again…you're already a fool for coming here alone."

"You're weak Gazina," The dark specter stated from across the room, "And as time passes…the rest of the taigen are getting stronger." the voice laughed as two thin dark spines shot from the shadows and plunged towards her. She leapt out of the way, but the oily black spines snagged the sleeves of her robes as she stumbled to the ground, "Face it…you're running out of options Gazzy. And…hehe…running out of time! HA! Get it! Because you're a time keeper! I am a riot…"

"Yeah…" She scoffed, tearing the sleeve away from her copper robes, "You're a regular comedian Rouge…" She snapped as her torn sleeve went fluttering to the floor, freeing her from the hold of the spines, "But there is someone out there who's powerful enough to defeat you, the rest of the taigen, and your leader…"

"Heh…" The figure in the shadows laughed, "And you say I'm the funny one? Okay Gazina…then where are you going to find this so called hero?"

"You already know," She replied with a devious smile, as she took the small clock out from under her robes, "Or is this not the reason that you've come? You're master sent you here…for this, didn't she?"

"Give me that clock!" The figure hissed, leaping out of the darkness, and pouncing towards her. She quickly took hold of the pocket watch hanging around her neck and clutched it tightly in her fist. She closed her eyes, and in a bright flash of light and what sounded like the chime of the first hour. The dark figure let out a scream of rage as the small flash of light dissipated and she was now gone.

In a fury, the shadowy being tore apart the library, throwing books off of the shelves, smashing the glass containers and ripping open the cages of the creatures, and shattering the strange objects and trinkets that decorated the chamber. Finally, the shadowy intruder turned to the now darkened clock tower face, and from their hand, sent five long and sharp spines extending from their fingertips, several feet, penetrating the clock face. It cracked, and when the figure retracted their spiny appendages, the clock looked as though it was about to crumble, but miraculously still held up. The figure let out a hiss of anger and slid away within the shadows, taking the darkness with them.

The light, then slowly returned to the room, filling the clock tower with the warm glow of the sun once again, but the damage had been done. Several dozen of the clocks around the room were broken and shattered and the ticking had ceased. The old tomes that once sat neatly on the shelf were thrown about, torn open, and their old and worn pages were now strewn across the room in disarray.

"Gazina!" A small voice shouted from the bottom of the wooden spiral stair case leading up into the tower. The footsteps grew louder and louder as a small figure in burgundy and brass robes scurried into the room. She immediately tripped over a pile of the fallen books and one of the broken clocks. A pair of half-moon spectacles flew off of her face and skidded across the floor amidst the wreckage. She pulled her mousy brown hair out of her face and felt around the chaos for her glasses, "B-by the precursors…Gazina!" She shouted, blind as a bat as she lifted her glasses off of the floor and placed them back on to glimpse at the scene before her, "What has happened!"

She rushed over to the desk in the middle of the room which was overturned. She shuffled around the piles of torn pages and shattered glass to find a rather large parchment. Upon it was written a letter. She read the letter curiously and suddenly let out a gasp as she folded up the letter and thrust it into her robes, and rushed out of the clock tower in a panic.

[Message from Kingdom Come]: Hey all in the Jak and Daxter fandom community! I'm so glad to finally be starting a J&D ff! I've had this idea in my head for the past couple of weeks...well actually the past couple of years now XD and I just really couldn't wait to get it down on paper any longer, so I really hope you guys like it :3 Tell me what you guys think!