Happy End of the World, everybody! Wanted to have this done for 12-12-12 as was my thing but there was a blackout then the internet went out after it. It bothers me, it really does. You have no idea.
Jak and Daxter: Hourglass
AU
PROLOGUE
The Secret Temple
A/N: Here's to trying to get back into fanfic writing, another poorly written mess.
Jak's uncle, the Explorer, is going to be called Karter. After Jack Carter, his voice actor. Yeah, it's unimaginative and pretty lame but it gives us something more to call him, and we can't have two "Jacks", right? Also, here in my fic, all the locations are in the same time. So, even though Haven City can start out as a village, Sandover Village and Haven City are going to be two different locations instead of Sandover evolving into Haven over time.
Sandover Village is a relatively small collection of huts located on and around cliffs by the sea, fairly isolated from the other villages because of geography; jungle and cliffs surrounded them on one side, the ocean on the other. There were few Lurker attacks as most of them tended to stay in deeper in the jungle, the people were more worried about the Lurker Sharks in the ocean just below, huge orange-striped beasts with beady eyes and a wide mouths, but it was a peaceful and friendly place. Not very many people lived there, and there was an abundance of wild life; idyllic with plenty of sunshine, warm breezes, and the pleasant sound of the native birds singing heard in every home. Many a colorful butterfly could be found fluttering gently through without a care.
This scenic little village was home to a bi-haired, blue-eyed boy named Jak. Jak has the pure gift for channeling Eco, natural energies that can be found in all parts of life, and the most powerful substance on the planet. He's about to learn how much of a coveted ability it is throughout the world when he wakes.
It was deep in the night when the clouds laden with rain completely blanketed the sky and blot out the luminescence that would've come from a full moon. The cold air smelled of a coming storm and was teeming with moisture as a rickety motorboat stole away across the black ocean, normally so bright and blue under the sun, with a low rumbling buzz. The sound seemed to be the only noise in the world in the deadness of night.
There were two occupants within, a man who was navigating and the other – a boy, who was heavily asleep. Their bodies rocked with the pull and sway of the boat speeding across the water. Karter's hands were stiffened with chill, the wind blowing past his ears deafened him and cut straight through him as he directed them towards the small island that he had left not that long ago. A dreadful calling pulled him in, not needing anything else to guide him through the blackness. The closer they came, the noose-like pressure around his neck would loosen.
Jaw clenched so tightly his molars ached, there was a fear that gripped his insides that made him swallow the heart throbbing in his throat with difficulty as he slowed and stopped the boat to drift on their momentum towards the beach of their reached destination and pulled them along an abandoned, rotted platform to dock. The boy, his nephew that wasn't blood-kin, had been bundled up tightly and Karter stuffed his hands under him after quickly tying the boat up and lifted him up to a sitting position, as he couldn't really carry him as well as he used to, then started to shake him with urgency.
"Jak," he rasped hurriedly with a dry mouth, why he was whispering, he didn't know, they already knew he was back, "wake up lad, come now." The cold will wake him, and he started unwrapping the layers, looking fervently around as he did, paranoid.
True to form, Jak's skin tightened in goosebumps, an unpleasant sensation just waking up, trying to keep the warmth in as the heat was sucked out when the blankets were pulled away, and he blearily opened his eyes and looked about incomprehensibly. Jak hiked up his shoulders in response to the cold, Karter moved about him gathering things before getting out. Keeping an oddly cut blanket, Jak felt a just-woke-up bit of irritation bleed in his chest at the rude awakening and was dazedly confused when his uncle took his wrist with a frigid hand and led him out of the boat. Not completely up yet, Jak stumbled awkwardly after Karter on stiff morning-legs across old wood that groaned terribly underfoot and felt the vibration of those creaking planks in the soles of his feet.
They set off into the dark jungle of the island towards an old, forbidden relic.
Behind them, at the beach, there was movement in the boat again after the sound of the pair walking over fallen leaves faded away. In his rush, Karter didn't notice, but there was a rolled up tarp used to cover the innards of this boat when it was not in use and it rippled with life as another person unfolded themselves from within it with an almost claustrophobic speed. Shaking out their hair and looking out into the foliage where the other two went, they decided it was too cold on the outside and grabbed one of the discarded still-warm blankets before following after them.
The soil was icy, hard and a little moist as Jak and his uncle hurriedly sped along. Jak's fingers and toes were frozen and little warmth came from the contact with his uncle.
For some reason, Jak thought his feet were burning – but not by the cold. It was more like he was feeling pain as they walked deeper and deeper into the heart of the island. It went up his shins until it was an ache in his bones. And he was feeling a sliver of nausea in the pit of his stomach; he thinks it's because of the very air he was breathing here. His heart went a little faster and he didn't know why.
Borne from years of living together, of one raising the other, Karter felt Jak looking at him in askance, wanting to know why Uncle Karter was dragging Jak along through some unknown jungle in the middle of the night like this.
Jak recounted some foggy memory of his uncle waking him and telling him to get ready just before coming here, he hadn't really been cognizant enough to question any of it at the time and his uncle was helping him into the boat he used when he went off exploring before he knew it. He also hadn't questioned the fact that his uncle was back before his planned trip was even anywhere near to being over and during the time Karter's been back, he's gotten more and more anxious as the days went by until he finally packed up and took Jak with him tonight. Wrapped up in the few sheets that came from his bed, as soon as Karter got him settled where he wanted him to be, Jak had gone right back to sleep as the motor got started.
He hasn't said anything to Jak about where they are, why they have to be here right this second that couldn't wait till daylight, what they were doing.. Karter just kept on as if his life depended on it.
As they got further and further away from the beach, the feeling of pain Jak was getting in his feet became more and more noticeable. With a buzzing feeling of lightheadedness setting in and sickness in his gut, he realizes what it was that was giving him strange symptoms – dark eco. This land is tainted! Saturated with it, he couldn't see it in the dark but the soil had an oily look to it, like black dye in water, there was probably a large amount just underground that seeped up in the topsoil, a closer look at the plants they passed found them to be warped too. It was making him feel very ill just being amongst it all.
Refusing to go any further, Jak makes a stubborn stand and digs his heels in the dirt that made him dizzy.
At first, Karter is in too much of an agitated state to notice and continues like Jak wasn't even an obstacle before realizing he wasn't getting very far very fast and was breathing quickly from.. fear? as he turned to look at his nephew. The boy was giving him a hard look that said he wasn't going any farther without a confrontation. Wanting him to cooperate, he relented.
"We are south, far east, from the village. It was during my annual explorational outings that I discovered this island we are on, I had never seen this place on any of our maps and so set about cataloging. It was an odd place to have not known about, seeing as it's not terribly far from where we live. I found a very old Precursor Temple here and I came and got you because I need your help. It is imperative that we hurry however, as we are already greatly strapped for time."
That still left a lot of questions unanswered; but the fact that there was so much dark eco here yet a Precursor Temple in the middle of it did make him curious. Karter flung an arm around him and pushed him along this time.
Strange, though, Jak thought. Didn't the Sages say not to go to places in the south? Geyser Rock was in the south, and that was safe, but Misty Island was further southeast and was branded "dangerous". Were there worse places than "the only place" Samos told him and Daxter not to go?
After tramping through the misshapen flora, they soon came upon a huge piece of ancient-looking architecture. There wasn't much light so it stood in shadow, a great mountain of a temple, and Karter ushered Jak in without further ado. ..it seemed to have sharp edges Jak wasn't used to seeing on Precursor buildings, though.
A little ways behind them was the person who had stowed away in the tarp without their knowing, a young boy named Daxter.
Daxter was the same age as Jak but he liked to brag that he was a few days older, which changed every time from a day or two older to a week or a month older. His long bristly hair resembled a fire, as his roots were blond but darkened into an orange and burned red at the ends. His face was round, pale, with faded freckles on his cheeks, which someone once called "precious" and "chubby", and had common blue eyes. He also had an overbite with a gap between two square front teeth that stuck out even when he closed his mouth, and were long enough to get him teased for having buckteeth, which didn't bother him any because Keira called him cute when they first met.
Jak's "partner-in-crime", they were often out mischief-making together, the villagers were all wary whenever they saw them together – which was all the time ever since they met. One was never far without the other for long.
Daxter's white long-sleeved one-piece, was high-collared and the leggings were tied at his shins. He had a red sleeveless tunic on over it that hung low, past his waist and (fingerless) gloves on, so he needed Jak's discarded blanket. Not surprising given he was in garb suited for the warmer climates of his home. The blanket was a pleasant fabric to hang on to as it clung to the remnants of Jak's body heat when he picked it up for himself.
It was an usually cold night for this time of year.
As Jak and his uncle went deeper into the odd temple, he realized it wasn't a Precursor Temple as torches along the walls would spring to life with an eerie violet flare and let him see a perverted version of what he was expecting, glowing dimly, making the shadows long and chilling.
His feet were only cold now, since he wasn't in direct contact with the soiled earth. Precursor metal usually seemed to have a strange warmth to it, almost like having a life inside it. Walking in these giant halls, on these floors, with its dark out-of-sight ceilings, was like walking in a new kind of deadness. Walking on the painful dirt seemed better in comparison because it wasn't as unsettling.
So this is why the spots of land further south of the village were off-limits and the ocean around it forbidden to cross. Who would make such a place?
They stop at the breadth of the mammoth doorway to the entrance of a location only named the Prayer Room, as stated by the plaque on the wall beside the rounded doorframe, written in an older fashion. Torches lit here, too. In pairs they brightened, starting on either side of the doorway and progressively going around the room until the inside was revealed in the glow of the pale shades of purple.
The inside is huge and the walls are bent outward going all the way from floor to top, like a giant egg-like prism. Large vats of a dark liquid with an iridescent shimmer, that Jak assumed was dark eco, were set into the floor around the edges, out of the way.
There are large chairs straight ahead at the farthest wall from the entrance, their backs stretch far upwards and fanned out like webbed fingers; they were embedded in the wall, immoveable, and seemed fitted for a throne room. There were five of them and since the room was round and the chairs rooted to their spots, they formed a half-circle and sit on a raised platform from the rest of the floor; housing shadows in their seats.
Closer to the two outsiders, in front of the chairs, was a large elevated slab on a thick trunk-like pedestal that sat in the center of the room. Rectangular, the slab's head and feet pointed away from the entrance and the chairs so it stood long-ways. The muscles in Jak's back coiled unknowingly in reaction to a stress he didn't quite understand, tight enough to cause slight trembles in his shoulders down to his elbows. His stiff jaw tired from the exertion of the muscles clenching it closed. The hand his uncle wasn't holding came up and gripped a cuff of the bulky coat Karter was wearing.
As Karter continued to pull Jak along, he felt, with his frozen feet, little niches in the floor. He looked down and saw that they walked over odd carvings and lines. There were several that went out in all directions from connecting with the base of the slab and ran along the ground to slim box cuts in the lower parts of the walls, maybe leading to a drain. It was strange, as he thought he could recognize the nicks in the flooring, they sort of looked like writing but they were different than the alphabet he knew.
Not many in the village knew how to read and/or write, but Samos made sure he knew how to; even though Jak hardly ever talks much.
Seemed like a straightforward place, wouldn't guess there'd be many other rooms – so what would uncle need him here for? Karter hasn't been known to be afraid of anything and was praised for his bravery and calm thinking, so it couldn't be that. He liked his solitude and so was a tad distant in raising Jak. Maybe there were locked rooms he needed an eco channeler for? Jak was very confused about the whole thing.
His uncle's breathing was still irregular even though they had walked the rest of the way in. Jak could hear him swallow hard and was fixedly looking at the chairs, or in their direction as there wasn't anybody there, and Karter's nervousness was only making him feel worse. The very air seemed to pause and he wet hips lips before saying, ".. well. I came back."
And just like that, his voice seemed to have caused a chain reaction.
The ear-grating sound of old machinery squealed and rumbled, bouncing off the walls so the noise was everywhere at once. Clanking noises like pulleys being used echoed throughout the chamber, tinkering thundered underfoot. Vibrations went straight into their bodies through the floor and large pillars with cages rose up, sliding into place, half inside the walls. Animal cries filled the room and Jak saw creatures he'd never laid eyes on before, reminding him of the distorted plants outside.
Then transparent things appeared before the towering chairs and hovered there silently, as though studying them with their featureless faces. Jak quite honestly didn't know what he was looking at, they could only be described as sentient shadows with flowing, dark robes as see-through as they were obscured the length of their bodies down to their feet like ribbons as they hung in the air. Shivery outlines of what Jak thought of as deer antlers sprouted from the tops of their heads, a gothic sort of crown that bent at odd angles upwards like scratchy, leafless trees in the tenth month. In the center of their chests was a throbbing inky squid, their forms flickered with every mimicry of a pulse through their hearts of roots. Their arms were long and had the appearance of looking like shriveled and withered branches, fingers long and pointed, that hung stationary at their sides.
Though there was no breeze, the translucent cloth that hung about their bodies swayed and flapped as solemnly as a flag at half-staff as though there were, as they surveyed Jak and his uncle before going through the motion of sitting down in their chairs.
The sound of a rushing viscous liquid bubbled up and poured out from the slits around the room at the bottom of the walls as black streams rolled out and touched the base of the slab in the center of the room. Jak thought it smelt strange as the odd odor of the substance with the iridescent film reached him. By watching the liquid, Jak saw the floor had a slight dip downward in the center where the slab was.
"Let us see."
It had to have come from their "hosts" but no formation of a mouth moved to speak, and it came as though there were more than a single person talking in a low hiss as one. Pricks went down his spine and Karter pulled his companion along until they were near the middle of the room and he swiftly picked Jak up and sat him down on the cold table, his blanket falling discarded to the floor, the beings seated on the platform didn't seem to notice them moving about them room until then.
Jak struggled fearfully as a violent purple light opened up above the table and an unseen force settled with increasing pressure on his chest until he couldn't keep himself up anymore and fell back onto its surface. Karter immediately withdrew after a few hushed and rushed consolidating words to his nephew for whatever he got him into.
The weight on his chest made it hard to breathe so each breath he took was short and fast, almost panting. He felt more grooves like the ones on the floor pressing awkwardly into his back as he lay there, pressed against the nippy slab.
He blinked up at the blinding light when he sensed movement and an eye formed just above, lidless and gaping, its irises bleeding red instead.
Airflow like a sigh whispered in his ear. "A good pick, this." Karter shifted where he kept himself near a wall. "The deal is struck. Leave."
"Now, wait–"
"Leave." Voices deafening, Karter found himself thrust with great force to the door where he lay sprawled on the floor, bruised.
Daxter, who had snuck in seemingly undetected, tucked himself deeper into his hiding spot at the entrance when Karter skid to a stop in seeing distance.
There was a sucking noise beneath Jak, the base was pulling in that thick ink in gulps, the motion made the trunk and table below him made wet hollow sounds as it filled up. His body was dragged along the table against his doing until he was stopped in the relative center. A spidery contraption lowered over him and he was restrained by it before the unseen weight left him, Jak coughed at its sudden departure. He turned his head to the side and squinted out from under the light to see the people had soundlessly gotten up from their chairs and were standing all around the table, heads tilted down like they had eyes to see him there. He hadn't even known they were there until he saw the waving cloth.
They raised their hands without a word over Jak and a low murmuring echoed endlessly.
It was a strange but frightening feeling that seized a hold over his body, like hands were digging into the very core of his being and sullying it.
It was such a powerful thing that it made him gag a little. He felt an intense burning in his back when the liquid pushed up through those funny little grooves he noticed before, spreading out until the length of his body was icy and burning at the same time. The surface of the table sunk in slowly, deflating and pushing more of that black goop up and it started to fill up like a bath pit back home and it already came up over his wrists.
And then there were voices.
Not just a few or a couple but a loud mob was suddenly there as if they were all right next to his ears. Jak gasped in surprise because he felt them talking like they really were right inside his head. They were all saying dark depressing things, some talked directly to him hatefully, others were whispering coldly. They brought with them a terrible influx of negativity that seemed ready to crush him.
He heard crying and yelling, someone screaming shrilly into his head that he was going to kill him; the ghostly people surrounding him were chanting louder and faster and Jak felt something indescribable happening because of it, like a huge presence with an even greater power was coming this way, coming steadily towards him. It wasn't one person, it had to be that great mob of angry, sad, and fearful people shouting in his head but not through his ears.
The ink came to his chest and when it blocked his ears he could only hear those people more clearly. He was disoriented and felt something burning into his back, a word, just as a great force seemed to try and move into him. The pain made his close his eyes tightly and grit his teeth, his head felt full and this had to be the worst experience he had ever had before, even worse than the wumpees nest incident. And he made a noise, it came out of the throat he doesn't use to make the sounds for words, it was a horrible noise that would come from someone being mauled to death by a Lurker; he screamed.
Karter lifted himself to his elbows and looked back at his nephew in surprise. This was the first time he had ever seen or heard Jak screaming, and he was the one who basically raised him.
That's right. He raised Jak, looked after him in the place of his assumed dead parents. Practically the only father Jak ever knew aside from the sage.
The spidery machine above Jak belatedly installed cuffs and anklets to hold him into the sluggishly filling pool and retreated, dripping, from holding him down. He was arching up and pulling on a vocal chord to scream, the chanting the Corrupted droned out was getting painful to listen to.
I took the role of a parent for him, raised him like..
Daxter moved from his frozen position near the door, pushing past his shock and disbelief that this was really happening right in front of him, dropped the sheet around him and stepped out to help–
..a son.
Karter picked his bruised body up and moved forward, towards the boy he helped rear, to–
'cursors. What was I thinking?
Jak's screaming stopped when the makeshift tub was filled up over his head and overflowed, thick strings like syrup dripped down and started filling the writing in the floor which started glowing with a hiss. A wind blew from within the chamber, going slowly until it was hard for Karter and Daxter to see. He noticed Daxter was nearby during then and briefly allowed himself to wonder when and how he got here. Dark figures rapidly came into the room with howls and moans that became apart of the sound of the wind. They went around the room in the way water went swirling down a drain until they got closer and closer to where Jak was, submerged in the table that had dented inward to make a pool. The energy in the room spiked Karter's and Daxter's anxiety until their innards quivered. Dark eco was burning their feet as the letters in the flooring were filled up.
Daxter was shorter than Jak and was very thin, the strong current of air kept his eyes shut and pushed him back step by step until a ruined face flashed in front of him when one of the shadows passed in front of his own and spooked him that he tipped back and felt his foot slip into a chill, followed by the rest of him.
Karter moved forward with difficulty, he was getting pushed and pulled with the wind but kept moving forward until he went in between two of the Corrupted and could reach over the brim of the changed table and dipped his arms in to grab onto an unmoving Jak. The restraints he had had around his wrists and ankles oddly burned off his body in the muck, and though Karter's arms felt like they could slip right out of his sockets he kept them in until he could lift Jak out. The eco was so gummy it felt like he was pulling a bag of bricks out of wet sand. When Jak's torso was out, Karter wiped his mouth and nose off and then he yanked the rest of him out.
A tiny, furry paw broke the sticky surface of the vat Daxter had fallen into and a moving lump of it slowly worked it's way over to the edge and gripped it with wet slapping noises. The eco sloughed off Daxter along with the clothes he had been wearing as he pulled himself out with difficulty.
Karter turned with Jak in arm and made time to grab the red-haired boy he was expecting to see, but paused for a split-second when he saw a dark, wet animal on the ground instead. Then he just picked him up without much other thought to it and half-dragged, half-carried his nephew out.
As he was hobbling and panting, carrying his load of eco soaked children down the corridor those loud voices that wanted Karter out during their ritual came back and tore at his ears, "You are the one that did not want to die. We had a deal. GIVE US THE BOY."
He could hear the footsteps of something that's either fast or there was a great number of them, as there is a thundering coming from behind them as he tries not to slip on slick muddy leaves when they get outside. He can feel it stomping after them in the ground, there are black roots coming up trying to wind themselves around his legs and the leaves and low branches are whipping them in the faces and keep trying to grab them around the middle. The entire damn island was trying to slow them down now?
Karter is getting very winded as they get closer to the beach. He's not dealing with the eco poisoning very well, he's hoping Jak faired better simply because he's a channeler, and he's not even sure how they're going to deal with Daxter – if this animal is Daxter to begin with. They're both getting very hard to carry and he's gasping in the frigid air – he's so tired..
Karter had set the two in the moored boat and almost tore the rope off when that thundering noise he heard barreling after them suddenly appeared, those beasts he seen in cages in the temple flooded the area. They were flesh and metal, a glowing yellow gem in the middle of their foreheads. The majority of them were ones that were standing on their hind legs, some looked like the exotic scorpions the sage had described to him, a flying breed made their way through the brush and Karter just about kicked the boat away from the dock when one of these standing brutes took a swipe at him as it reached him; long claws had cut a jagged wound deep into his side as he tried jumping into the boat, it stretched from his stomach all the way around his waist to the small of his back and he landed hard on the throttle which made their vessel sputter and jump as it took off.
Those creatures back on the island almost tried following as they charged into the water before stopping and roaring after them, the flying ones lobbed eco at them as they got farther and farther away.
Karter lies awkwardly inside with the other two and tries to steer haphazardly with his thigh in the direction of their village as he feels the sickening feeling of his blood leaving his body through the messy wound. As they get farther out to sea, it strangely becomes warmer as Karter's body gets colder and he realizes the sun will be up soon.
He turns his head and looks at that kid he isn't blood related to but raised in his home all these years and wondered how he ever thought he could do such a thing to him, he begs for forgiveness even though Jak was unconscious with his stowaway friend.
He dies on the way back and the boat scraped some rocks and almost crashed into the farmer's hut when nobody was awake to pull into Sandover's dock properly. The sun crests over the horizon and shines on familiar cliff faces as the sound of their return wakes up the whole village. They surveyed the sad, sad sight of the occupants and the vicious cuts their boats impact made on the farmer's property and Samos the Sage came hurriedly down.
This morning, dew was still on the grass and an early morning mist yet to be burned off by the sun hung low over their cliffs. It might promised to have been just like any other morning if the native birds still came out to sing the day's beginning before this bewildering turn of events, or the butterflies continued to flutter; but since they were scared off by the loud landing, the fact the sun was not yet up to shine warmly and that the breeze was cold, all at the same time, perhaps it was wiser to take it as an omen of things to come.
A/N: I made Dax's white tunic and pants a one-piece just because. I'm not sure if they aren't, not sure if they are. Doesn't really matter now what he's wearing, does it? Fufufu.
So. How was the prologue?