Chapter 1: Dark Eco and A Sage

Chapter Song: The Reason, 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."

Word count: 5,101

"When reaching for our futures, we sometimes fall into our pasts. We encounter our fates on the paths we take in order to avoid them. In desperate times such as these, we must ask ourselves an important question. We must ask ourselves―am I truly ready to let go of the past and face my fate with open arms?"

It all started something like a year ago.

Before I get into it, I really think that now would be the best time for me to introduce myself. My name is Izaya. When this story began, I was 16, scrawny, and had really only ever done one notable thing (aside from befriending a girl around my age from Sandover named Teko), and that was hunting Metal Heads as a favor to both Samos and the Mayor. At the time, I had three concerns in the world; following Samos' orders in a timely fashion, keeping Teko and myself alive in the process, and having some fun.

Now, like most tales, especially the one probably most prominently on your mind given the mentions of Sandover and Samos, this tale began with a simple act of disobedience on the part of a couple of dumb kids. Big surprise, right?

Yeah. Teenagers are all idiots.

Despite various warnings from Samos, the two of us hijacked the Fisherman's speedboat one fine morning, intent on travelling to Myriad Isle and having a nice look 'round. You know―for fun. Because wandering around places you've been warned against wandering around in due to high levels of danger is always fun.

For those wondering, Myriad Isle is a small island roughly a mile and a half East of Misty Island, and is composed of largely the same basic layout, to the point of looking like a mirrored copy. Biggest difference was that Misty Island was almost entirely drenched in fog at all times, while Myriad Isle was relatively free of it and had a rather long history of making people think they were crazy due to some assorted illusions here and there.

Though I wasn't supposed to go there either, I'd been to Misty Island several times and by now knew it almost like the back of my hand. I'd wandered it plenty against Samos' wishes, and by some small miracle he never found out.

The allure of Myriad Isle, to me, was that it was new. It was a new place, easily accessible, and with an interesting history. Of course a bored 16 year old girl who was best friends with someone who only fed into her bad ideas would want to check out a place like that. Especially if someone told her not to.

That's just how the world works.

We arrived on the shore of Myriad Isle in short order after leaving Sandover, and although Teko looked rather green around the gills she didn't seem particularly bothered by the situation or the ride until we left the boat. She stumbled up the dock to the shore, plopping herself into the sand and sighing before blowing a breath out to knock her fiery hair out of her face.

I followed behind her with a silent chuckle, much less unbalanced because of frequent boat trips.

"Hey, uh… 'Zaya?" Teko spoke as I moved past her, "Didn't Ol' Green-stuff specifically tell us not to come here?"

I paused to quirk a brow at her, more or less asking if she was really worried about that. The mild grin she gave me in reply told me, no, she wasn't worried about Samos. She was only worried about what might be on the island.

But she got up and followed me anyway.

Using my mental map of Misty Island, I was able to more or less navigate Myriad Isle, leading Teko to an area I was sure would be the mirror of a certain Precursor ruin over on Misty Island. I used to spend a lot of time in that ruin. I really wanted to see if this one was going to be any different.

It should be noted, also, that Teko and I had only very recently arrived back in Sandover after a long, long trip that Samos had sent the two of us on to a distant land that I… Admittedly don't remember the name of. I just know we spent like two and a half years or more there and that I spent the majority of those two and a half years feeling uneasy and keeping as close to Teko as possible while we wandered around like Samos had encouraged us to.

Definitely taught us some valuable survival skills, if nothing else, and it may or may not have jump-started my love for adventure once more, as that had mellowed significantly over the years leading up to the trip.

Anyway.

Soon enough, we came upon the place that the ruin should have been at, but before we entered the area, I heard something. So, grabbing Teko, I pulled her over toward a rock formation and climbed up it with her at my side. We peered over the edge to peek into the open area at the mouth of the ruin.

Just as I'd feared, the area was teeming with Stalkers.

(Quick note: Stalkers are kind of like Lurkers, but they only come in two varieties―the big, angry, radioactive green ape-looking monstrosity variety, and the slightly-less-big, even angrier, pastel green lizard-looking monstrosity variety―and are significantly smarter and notoriously harder to kill.)

I wanted desperately to curse, but couldn't for a multitude of reasons.

So instead I watched and listened.

My patience was rewarded when out of the ruin floated an odd pair―a man, who appeared to have seen much better days, and a woman, who wasn't looking so hot herself.

The man looked like he may have been handsome once upon a time, but that time was obviously long in the past. His skin was now a sickly shade of ashen purple, eyes like black voids, and pieces of his hair hung in stringy white clumps over his face. His clothes hung in ragged tatters, barely clinging to his body aside from the belt around his waist that looked like it had once had something hanging from it. The only part of him that looked pristine in the slightest was his metallic right arm, and even it was far from shiny and new.

The woman looked like she could have been absolutely radiant at some point, but, again, it was obvious that time had long past, for she, too, had ashen purple skin and black pits for eyes, though her hair was in better shape, nearly reaching to her knees, and it looked like it may have been blonde, once, near the ends. Her clothes were in tatters as well, hanging on just barely via what looked to be pieces of armor and a belt. She had a helm, as well, that looked like it was probably meant to be the visage of a bird.

I shivered at the sight of them.

Teko squeaked.

"You must continue your search for Dark Eco!" The man snarled out at the gathered Stalkers, and his voice made me shiver again. There was an echoey, ethereal quality to it, but it was dark and rumbling in a way that set me immediately on edge. "If we are ever to completely unearth the second Precursor robot and do as we originally intended… We need… More." He sounded… Like he might be having trouble breathing. "Take what you need from those moronic little villagers. Do what you see fit to get it."

Oh, crap baskets, were these guys going to attack the village?! Who was this guy? Why was he doing this?

"I want anyone who strays from those trash heaps they call villages destroyed." The woman snapped, her voice grating in much the same way that the man's was, echoey and harsh. I could hear a definite accent in her voice. Maybe English? "We cannot have a repeat of the last little fiasco."

Teko whimpered next to me, prompting a Stalker to shoot a glance in our direction. I don't think it saw us.

I patted her shoulder and motioned for her to climb back down. We had to warn Samos about these two when we got back, but right now I wanted to explore a little more... If only to distract Teko some from her fear. Wandering aimlessly in new places usually placated her a little bit.

So we climbed back down and she followed me around for a while, until we came upon what I knew to be a huge vat of Dark Eco. I didn't exactly avoid it, per se, but I kept to what I considered to be a safe distance. Who knew what that stuff would do to me? I'd heard enough horror stories from the folks in Sandover (and Rock Village) about it to be wary, if nothing else.

"Man, this place is creeeeeepy." Teko complained mildly, "What gives with every place we go to being super creepy?"

I snickered into my hand, making her stick her tongue out at me.

"I blame you for that, actually," She informed me, "You love creepy junk."

As she said it, she happened to trip over a piece of "junk" and fall flat on her face with a rather muffled yelp. I immediately took a step back toward her to help her up even as I pressed my lips together so I wouldn't laugh. Yep―true friend, right here. I laugh at my best buddy's misfortune while helping her out of it.

She got up on her own, however, grumbling under her breath about 'stupid Precursor junk' and turning to pick up what had tripped her. She didn't even bother dusting herself off, which spoke volumes to how interested she was in whatever it was. She was by no means afraid of a little dirt, but it was her custom to at least brush off any that got on her on accident.

She turned back to me once she'd procured the troublesome item, turning it over in her hands as she contemplated it.

It was cylindrical, made of bronze Precursor metal, and covered in Precursor markings that I couldn't decipher without taking a closer look. After a moment, she hummed noncommittally and tucked it against her chest, approaching the vat with a good deal more care for where she stepped. She peered over the edge with clear interest.

"Yeek, what is that dark ooze?" She asked, squinting at it despite being very much aware of the fact it was Dark Eco, "Sure don't seem like anything I wanna mess around with." She decided, removing her eyes from the roiling, moving viscous liquid before her to gaze at the Precursor cylinder she held once more. She held it out, dusting off the top with her hand, then blowing on it, expelling a small cloud of dust. "Y'know, Samos yaps on about this sorta crap all the time," A snort, "Precursor orbs, power cells, the ecos, Precursor ruins like this one―you name it, he's yapped about it enough that I have an unfortunately intimate knowledge of it."

These observations were less for my benefit and more for the sake of her being able to rant, as I was well aware. I heard just as much from Samos as she did, maybe more due to me having much more patience for him and his ramblings. That said, I listened to her rant and didn't bother trying to stop her. I was fine with listening to her a bit, honestly. At least it filled the silence.

And admittedly I kind of liked listening to her once she got on a tangent like this.

"He never shuts up about the Precursors themselves, though," She laughed, "Not that I need to tell you that. But really. All the time." She cleared her throat before continuing in a fairly decent mimicry of Samos, "Where did they go? Why did they build this crap?" She rolled her eyes, tossing the cylinder toward me, "Believe me, I like Precursor orbs and power cells as much as the next guy―I even like their dumb ruins! But if you ask me? They were all a bunch of…" She paused, staring at the cylinder I had caught.

I glanced down at it, feeling my eyes grow wide at the knowledge that it was glowing, the spaces between the markings on it having turned bright red. I gulped. That wasn't ominous at all.

"How did you do that?" Teko asked, clearly perplexed.

I only managed to shrug, shaking my head. I had absolutely no clue―although I wouldn't complain about the opportunity to study it a little. If I could have an effect on Precursor relics, then there were a great many things I could do with that. The possibilities almost made me grin right there.

As usual, however, my moment of happiness was―rather rudely, if you ask me―interrupted by a Stalker dropping down behind me. I heard it before I saw it, but I spun on my heel immediately to examine it. It was one of the ape-like variety, meaning it was stronger than I could take on without time to prepare or a second to get my bearings, but it was also less likely to charge us immediately than a lizard-like one, so I might actually get those precious seconds it would take me to prepare.

"Uh, Izaya," Teko said, even as I put myself between her and the Stalker, "I think we're in trouble."

With both of our backs to the vat of Dark Eco, I could only hope that nothing happened to trip us up.

And then the Stalker let out a loud roar, backing up a couple of steps and getting ready to charge. I did the first thing I could think of―I raised the Precursor cylinder above my head, bolted forward a couple of steps, and launched it at the Stalker with all the strength I could summon.

It impacted the Stalker directly in its face. I had a couple of seconds of sick satisfaction at that, but no time to prepare myself for the backlash of the cylinder exploding on impact. The recoil not only of the throw, but of the explosion as well, knocked me backwards, sending me stumbling toward the vat, trying desperately to keep my footing and failing quite miserably, slamming into Teko's chest and offsetting her center of gravity…

… Knocking her directly into the vat.

I scrambled to my feet after landing on my butt, peering in horror over the low ledge surrounding the vat. A wave of sadness and pure, unfiltered guilt washed over me. Oh, Precursors, I'd killed her. I'd killed my best friend. And all because my dumb…

I jumped back, unable to finish the thought, when the Dark Eco bubbled and then forcefully expelled something from it. Overwhelmed with guilt though I may have been, I wanted no part of being hit with any of that deadly ooze.

Something thumped heavily onto the ground behind me, and I turned to see what it was.

A small, furry creature was lifting itself onto its back legs. It looked like… A cross between an otter and a weasel? An ottsel?

It was then, when it turned toward me, frowning, that I realized it was wearing Teko's goggles and had the same intense blue eyes as she did.

… No way.

It opened its mouth, Teko's voice coming out, "Man, that stung!" She exclaimed.

Holy crap.

"I knew we shouldn't have come here," She groaned, "Why did I let you talk me into this?! Gah, do you know how bad Dark Eco hurts? It's-" She cut herself off, staring at me while I stared back, still a little shell shocked, "What? Is there something on my face?"

I just continued to stare, slowly dropping to my knees to get a better look at her.

To my knowledge, (primarily what I'd been told by Samos) ottsels were supposed to be of an orange/red hue, with light yellow fur covering their stomachs. Teko was not. Her primary fur color was a washed-out orange, with white fur on her stomach and under her chin. Upon closer inspection, the undersides of her arms, the insides of her legs, and her 'fingers' and toes were all white, too.

She seemed about to demand an answer from me, but stopped short, staring at her front paw with wide eyes. Her left eye twitched.

And then she started screaming.

I winced, clenching my teeth slightly, peeking one of my eyes back open when she stopped. She took a deep breath, making a valiant effort to calm down.

"Okay. Okay, I'm fine. I'm fine." She looked down, like she often did when she was trying to convince herself of something, only to catch sight of her twitching tail next to her back paws.

She started screaming again, grabbing my shirt near my shoulders this time and bracing her feet on my stomach. I winced once more, clapping my hands over my ears in addition to the instinctual closing of my eyes with the wince.

When it sounded like she was done, I peeked my eyes open again, then slowly removed my hands from my ears. I chose to grab her gently, under her armpits, and lift her to my right shoulder instead of letting her dwell on this too much. She went willingly, obviously doing her best not to claw at me or hurt me at all while she moved under the heavy curtain of hair laying on the back of my neck to stretch across to my other shoulder. She clung to the material of my shirt with all her strength, but thankfully only my shirt.

There was a small grumble of dissent from her about something, but she didn't complain when I straightened and started on my way back toward the boat. I needed to get her back to Sandover as soon as possible so that, with any luck, Samos could tell us how to change her back.

I doubted Samos, himself, could do anything of the sort, but maybe he would know someone who could? Maybe a Sage of Dark Eco? It was unlikely, but not impossible. There was a Blue Sage, and a Red Sage, and a Yellow Sage, and Samos the Green Sage, so it wasn't too farfetched to assume that, maybe, there was a Dark Sage too.

Teko clung even harder to my shirt on the boat ride back, doing what I could assume to be her very best to not throw up in my hair. That would take forever to wash out.

We arrived back in Sandover without much fanfare, but I made the trip up to Samos' hut on the cliff as quickly as I could while still being mindful of the dangers of the rope and plank bridges leading up there. They were slightly rickety and had no handrails besides, so I had to be very careful to stay near the center while I bolted across them.

With clear unease, Teko dismounted from my shoulders when we reached Samos' hut at last, plodding up the ramp and looking for all the world like a girl who'd just been handed down a death sentence. I trailed behind her, hands twitching. I knew Samos wouldn't hurt her, but… Well. I was protective. Always was, and still am. At the slightest implication she was in any danger from Samos for our disobedience, I'd be ready to throw down no matter how much I respected the Sage and his power.

"Don't tell me," Samos said, the moment we stepped in, turning to us with a very dissatisfied (perhaps disappointed) and exasperated expression, "Instead of heeding my wisdom, the two of you went mucking about in one of the very few places that I expressly told you to avoid." He motioned to the distant silhouettes of the islands, "Myriad Isle."

"Well, yeah," Teko began nervously, "But, um-"

"And Teko," He ignored that she'd spoken, "It would seem that you finally took a much needed bath, in a bathtub filled with Dark Eco."

Teko scowled, "Buddy, are you gonna keep yappin' or are you gonna help me out of this mess?"

"I'm going to keep yappin'." Samos informed her flippantly, "Because, in my professional opinion… The change is an improvement." As an afterthought, he added, "Besides, I couldn't help you if I wanted to."

Teko's crestfallen face seemed to, shockingly, have some effect on Samos' disposition at the current moment. She didn't question what he said, but he sighed nonetheless, scrubbing at his wrinkled face with equally wrinkled hands.

And then he began to explain, "There are only two people who have studied Dark Eco long enough to know how to get you back to your original form," He said, "Gol and Maia Acheron. But they live to far to the North. Far, far to the North." We accepted this information quietly. "Nobody has spoken to them since they were revived directly before your return to this land. I would teleport you there, but I can't do that, either, as none of the other Sages have seen fit to open up their teleporter gates in quite some time." He took a breath, "The only other way North is by foot through the Fire Canyon, but as you know, its volcanic soil is hot enough to melt Precursor metal, and as such you can't just walk through it."

"But," His daughter, Keira, suddenly piped up, padding into the room, "You could fly over it." She paused next to the wall, "If you had a zoomer equipped with a heat shield!" She began walking again, "And lucky for you, I just so happen to be working on a new one at this very moment."

Teko seemed to perk up a bit at that, ears immediately flicking upward, hopeful blue eyes turning toward Keira.

"All I'd need is 20 more power cells to give it enough energy to withstand the canyon's heat." She explained, "Given time I could probably get them myself, but since this seems like an emergency…"

"Yes, that would work," Samos agreed, "But where are a girl," A motion at me and then a fairly gentle thwack on Teko's head with his staff, "And a half going to find 20 power cells?"

"I'm extremely confident in Izaya and Teko's ability to find them," Keira brushed his concern off, "They're good at finding things. But," She looked to me, mostly, "The villagers may not have much, but a couple of them should have some spare power cells lying around, and while they probably won't just give them to you, greasing their palms with a few Precursor orbs should do the trick." I nodded my understanding and she continued, "Additionally, there's bound to be several of them out in the wilds, just waiting to be found."

She smiled at me, then at Teko, and the moment was only really ruined by Samos beginning to talk again.

"I can see that need for adventure burning you two up," He said, "But before you do anything else, you'd better go through the gate," A brief motion behind him, "And get some practice on Geyser Rock."

Teko frowned again, ears going back. "We won't find anymore Dark Eco there, will we? Cuz I'd hate to fall in again and turn into your grumpy a-"

"Get in there before I turn you both into ferns!"

I scooped Teko up and obeyed, not really wanting the fallout of her arguing with him at the moment. Especially not given the mood she seemed to be in. That was better left for later, or, preferably, not at all. I hated it when they argued. Both of them were far too stubborn to give ground and it usually left Teko feeling unbelievably bad about herself. If I could have vocally defended her at any point in that exchange I would have.

I paused once we emerged on Geyser Rock, giving Teko a look, silently questioning if she was alright.

"Yeah, yeah." She grumbled, climbing up onto my shoulder and reminding me that I might want to consider actually wearing the shoulder armor I'd acquired on our little two-year vacation from here on out, "I'm fine."

I wasn't sure I believed that, but I didn't press the matter.

"Really," She assured me, sighing, "I'm fine. Just really tired of this crap."

I patted her furry little head in an attempt to comfort her, but also tried to convey that I was also asking about her current predicament.

She gave another sigh, "It's weird and I don't like it," She admitted, "But it's not that bad. I guess." She nuzzled into my hand somewhat, closing her eyes. "If I need to I can probably get used to it. Not sure how okay with it I am in the long-term, but short-term… Short-term I guess it's fine."

I nodded slowly, carefully moving my hand to rub behind her ear as soothingly as I could. She relaxed a little bit at that, a contented-sounding sigh leaving her, which was an undeniable step up from the more depressed sounding ones she'd been giving beforehand. I lingered where I was a moment longer to continue, until something floated out from behind me, coming through the gate.

"This device," Keira's voice said through it, crackly with static, "Is a communicator."

I examined it with a rather snarky thought about how it was clearly a Stalker cub, but didn't reply. Teko didn't either, which was likely much more surprising.

"With it," Keira continued, "My father and I can give you advice at any point in your quest!"

I wrinkled my nose in distaste at that thought. So now I had no real reprieve from Samos' lecturing, huh? He could just… Start talking to me whenever he wanted? Ew. I didn't want any. I'd have to find a way to ditch the comm as soon as I could, because, heck, I respected Samos, but that didn't mean I wanted him to have the opportunity to yap my ear off even when I wasn't in his hut. I enjoyed my time away from him, thanks-so-much.

I gave a soft huff, removing my hand from Teko's head and starting forward. I'd been to Geyser Rock before, when I was younger, living with the Blue Sage, and had nothing better to do with my time than train, so I more or less knew what to expect from it.

I examined the Precursor orbs floating before me.

"I'm sure I don't need to explain what these are," Keira said, "Just keep in mind that you'll want to collect as many as you can so that you can… 'Persuade' the villagers to give up their power cells."

A derisive snort was my reply as I picked up the nearest ones. Or, well, not really picked up, it was more like drawing them to me. They more or less put themselves in my orb pouch once I got close enough, which was one of the more curious things about Precursor orbs out in the wilds. They just kind of… Launched themselves into your possession when you got close enough, and then they went back to being regular orbs. No more launching themselves around.

I continued forward, taking out the fake Lurkers that had been set up at random intervals and netting myself a power cell in the process. I also freed Keira's scout flies that were trapped in the area. She mentioned, via communicator, not being sure why they were here since she couldn't remember sending them out again after the last time they'd all been captured and released.

The rest of Geyser Rock was something of a cakewalk for Teko and I, admittedly. Not that Teko really had to do much―it was mostly me, but I didn't mind. She was still adjusting to her new form and it was just easier for me to do it anyway. She wasn't near as effective as I was at fighting even before she was turned into an ottsel; not for lack of trying or lack of skill, but merely because she wasn't big on perpetrating violence. She was much bigger on encouraging others to be the perpetrators of it.

… And by others I mean me, primarily.

I didn't have any issues being violent, it was kind of in my nature. I liked fighting, to some extent.

It didn't really take a whole lot of encouragement to convince me to punch someone, is all I'm saying.

When we emerged back through the gate into Samos' hut, the first thing I noticed was that Samos seemed to have visitors. I didn't get much chance to examine them, though, because as soon as I'd rolled to my feet, Samos was yelling.

"What in green tarnation are you two doing back here already?" He didn't sound annoyed, as I expected when he raised his voice. He seemed more concerned than anything. Maybe a little startled.

"We already finished up on Geyser Rock," Teko said, sounding a little more timid than usual, "There's nothin' left for us to do there."

Samos stared at us for a long moment before sighing, sounding haggard in a way that implied he was already tired of us adventuring before we'd even truly started. I tried to get a peek at the visitors, who I assumed were villagers, while he prepared to speak, but didn't get the chance.

"Very well." He said through another sigh, "Go out and find some power cells, then," He said, "And while you're at it, my darn Green Eco collectors are clogged up again. Unclog them."

Without further prompting, I huffed out a breath and turned on my heel to leave the hut. Sure. I could do that.

"And don't come back until you've found all the power cells you need!" He called after me.

Teko let out a groan loud enough for the both of us at that.

Seriously? Did he have any clue how long it could potentially take for us to find 16 more power cells on our own? I bet he didn't even plan on helping us at all.

Performing the mental equivalent of grumbling under my breath, I slunk down into the village to see if there was anyone I could weasel a power cell or two out of with relative ease. I needed all 20, and I needed them quick, but I figured starting off fairly slowly was probably the best plan. Personally, I didn't really want to run myself ragged just yet. So I'd take a couple of the easier missions the folks around town could possibly have for me, and then I'd work on finding the more difficult ones. Or I'd take one easy one, then a hard one, and then another easy one…

Phew.

Okay.

First stop―my Surrogate Uncle's house.

A/N: Hello, and welcome to the rewrite of Izaya and Teko: The Dark Eco Legacy!

This rewrite has, admittedly, been a long time coming. Almost before the story was fully complete I can remember wanting to change things - I've only just recently actually started working on it in my free time, however, and within the past few days I have completed a couple of the chapters. I waited this long to rewrite this story for several reasons, most prominently that I was never quite sure what I should and shouldn't change and never felt confident enough in my writing. Having reread the original DEL, I've finally decided on the things I want to change and have therefore gotten my butt moving on it at long last.

I will be providing a full list of the changes made in the rewrite in the author's note of the last chapter (the epilogue), more likely than not.