Full Circle
Disclaimer: I do not own Jak and Daxter, nor anything that belongs to Naughty Dog.
Author's Note: After three years of a hiatus from in general, I was crawling through the J&D fanfiction and an idea sprung to me... thus, this late night posting to offer to my readers if any are still out there after all of these years.
Warnings: Spoilers for Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Jak II and Jak 3 knowledge.
Four Years Ago - July, 4998 - Wasteland, 44 clicks outside of Spargus City
"Are you sure we should be out here Cutter?" a short guard asked nervously, jumping from side to side quickly in the blinding gold sand. "We're too far away from the drop point, it's not-"
The other guard scoffed abruptly, hauling a huge drill over his bare shoulder. His own Krimzon Guard armor lay in a pile a few clicks back where they had abandoned the small dune buggy in favour of hiking the nearby mountain. "What? It's not safe?" he scoffed once again, louder than before and hocked up a wad of spit while he was at it, shooting it towards a sad looking plant. It evaporated before it even touched down. "Hate to break it to you Jasper, but no matter where you are in the Wasteland, you're not safe."
Jasper breathed heavily through his face mask, something he had refused to remove even as his partner shed all armor available, leaving him in trousers and bare-chested. "But, we're out of radio contact as well," he whispered fearfully, as if someone out in the desert would hear them. The sun cast a shining glare on the drill Cutter was carrying and Jasper averted his head, glancing out over the barren lands instead. "Why couldn't we drill out near the drop anyways? I'm sure the Baron would be happy with whatever dark eco we discovered there!"
Sighing heavily, Cutter dropped the drill near a large boulder and rotated on his heavy government-issued boots. The sun beat down on his back; gently burning old Krimzon Guard scars a darker black than what they had been. He was in surprisingly good shape for a guard that lived a cush life, guarding the old-people who were thrown into the Fortress Prison for "radical ideas". Most guards on that job ate, drank and might as well have snort away any body and muscle mass they had to begin with. Cutter, for some reason, had kept in shape. And it was that reason that the Baron asked he go on this mission into the Wasteland. A mission that Jasper was very ill-informed about. "Do you know exactly why we were sent out into the Wasteland to gather Dark Eco instead of the old ruins or somewhere else?"
Shifting on the hot sand, the young guard shook his head swiftly and uncertainly. "I thought it was..." he stopped and shook his head again. "No."
A breeze picked up and blew gently through them, rifling Cutter's slightly shaggy black hair around his tattooed and pale face. "A few weeks ago, a guard was sent on his rounds to the soothsayers down in the Bazaar. The job was to question them, you know, figure out if any new channelers were being born or found, where the latest deposits of eco were hiding... the usual," he waved his hand in indifference and shifted his weight. "But, while talking to an old blind woman, she mentioned a store of dark eco that would be shown by the next sandstorm."
"You mean the one a few days ago?" Jasper asked and Cutter nodded once.
"Exactly. When the guard relayed the information to the Baron, he became ecstatic. See, his lab rats, on their ever-money-sucking quest to create the "all powerful warrior", formulated a theory that dark eco, when pumped into channelers, or however they distribute the eco into those poor bastards, could do something new to the channelers," his voice, thick with disdain a moment ago, suddenly lightened into wonder. "This news of a cache of dark eco was beautiful noise to the Baron's ears. He wants REAL, UNTAINTED dark eco, not the fake stuff that the scientists are making."
Frowning in thought, Jasper looked at the coordinates on his small GPS and then slightly up the hill where they were supposed to be. "And this cache... should be here?" he asked softly.
Cutter laughed boisterously and clapped the young guard on his armor. "Hell if I know! I know these old hills pretty well, this one has yielded some interesting artefacts in the past, and I was making a guess this time around as well!"
Still laughing and imaging the look of disbelief that was on Jasper's face underneath his mask, Cutter grabbed the drill and started to hike back up the hill again, waiting for the other to scramble after him, stuttering out half-meant threats of court-martialing and other silly things.
As the sun started to make its final descent for the day and Jasper was getting really nervous with being so far away from the drop point, Cutter gave a loud exclamation a few yards away and threw the drill to the ground and dove his hands in a long, deep hole.
The sand was cool this far down beneath the surface and Cutter's sun burnt face was twisted with mild trepidation and fear. Stingers loved to hide in the sand, and for all he knew, he was sticking his hand into a big ol' bath of-oh. His eyes snapped open. "Jasper," he whispered and the guard scurried over. "Whatever I'm touching... it's not a Stinger, it's not fleshy, and it sorta feels like pottery."
He clenched his fingers around the sand-smooth pottery and gingerly started to pull, who knows what would happen if his fingers slipped and he dropped the piece down. The sand could move immediately and cover it up again, left for eons until another soothsayer mentioned it to some inquiring guard. But... he gritted his teeth together and pulled it further... if he managed to get it out of the sand, he would-
"You got it!" Jasper cheered, his young face beaming. His mask had finally lost itself an hour or three ago. "You've retrieved a..." he faltered. "What is that?"
Cutter had no idea. It wasn't pottery, that was for sure. It was long and cylindrical, but smooth and black like a piece of steel. But... "It looks like solid eco," he said aloud and turned it over in his hands slowly. It had no pulse to it like normal eco crystals did. He was no scientist, but having handled red and yellow eco crystals, Cutter assumed they were all have a certain "pulse of life" that they carried.
Jasper crouched down next to him and frowned, shivering unexpectedly. "It feels... evil, Cutter. Like we shouldn't have retrieved it," he whispered nervously, once again jittering on his feet. "Maybe you should put it back?"
Distracted by the movements the eco made as the sun collided with it, Cutter absently shook his head. "No... I think this is what the Baron has been looking for. It's..."
A voice, not his own, purred through his mind, it's perfect.
Two Years Ago - July, 5000 - Industrial Section, Haven City
The sky was silent and sludgy brown that day, not a lick of sunlight streaming through the polluted clouds. Cutter was quiet and distraught as he marched behind Commander Errol slowly. Two years had passed since he had delivered the eco cylinder to the Baron and his mind had yet to stop thinking. Unbelievably, he could still hear the voice in his head, whispering and telling him to steal it back, to take the cylinder away from this city and deliver it... somewhere.
"Lieutenant Cutter!" Errol suddenly barked and the guard straightened his back. "I will not have you day-dreaming like some fucking pansy while we're on-"
"Sir!" another guard suddenly shouted and Errol redirected his anger onto the young cadet. "I-"
Anger flooded the redheads' words. "I will NOT tolerate anyone, lest of all a lowly cretin like you to interrupt-"
Cutter realized what had caught the cadet's attention. "Commander, I suggest you-"
"STOP FUCKING INTERRUPTING ME!" Errol shouted but hesitated right after as he noticed everyone's eyes on the sky. Spinning around and following onlookers' gasps and points, he saw the sky open up, purple and violent, shooting out some black meteor. A grin spread across his thin lips and the anger left him faster than air. "Squad, we investigate now!"
Cutter assumed his role behind Errol as they took off at a run towards the crash site. It appeared to have been merely a few blocks away, the tremors could still be felt in the highway they were walking on themselves. Excitement flooded his veins and the voice in his head was momentarily forgotten as they spun a corner.
A young boy was standing barefooted, looking around with wide, terrified blue eyes. He was dressed in primitive clothing, ragged trousers and a fur vest of some sort. "There they are. Move in," Errol ordered in their headsets and the guard slowed, nearing them. A strange orange animal stood nearby, standing on its hind legs and looking bewildered and lost.
Errol stepped up ahead of his squad and held his gun up at the air. "Step away from the animal!" he ordered.
The orange creature took one look at the guard and screamed loud and too-humanly before running straight between Cutter's legs and down the ramp. Cutter stiffened and made to follow.
"Forget the rat. The Baron wants him," Errol almost purred and walked towards the short, terrified boy. "We've been waiting for you." He raised his gun and brought it down on his neck.
As the squad gathered their new prisoner and began to walk away, Cutter could have sworn he heard a vow, shouted by a small, squeaky male voice somewhere up in a zoomer.
"Don't worry Jak, I'll save ya before you know it!"
And welcome to chapter one!
As always, Read and Review lovelies!