A/N: *hides their face* Aaaah! I wasn't expecting so many people to like this! I'm filled with joy and at the same time paranoia that I will disappoint you all! Ugh! Thank you so much for the reviews, though! They really do help me to refine and edit and all that 'fun' stuff. I apologize for the shortness of this chapter, but the next one is longer!

DISCLAIMER: Is in the first chapter. If Jak and Daxter were mine...well...I wouldn't be writing this fanfiction because this would have happened in the game.

Jak and Daxter: A Twist of Fate
by Jam

"Sheesh!" Daxter yelled as soon as the two boys were out of earshot of Samos' hut and heading down to the boat. "What a grouch! Couldn't even spare us a little time to catch some Z's before throwing us back into peril!" But hopefully this time would be different. Daxter wasn't completely helpless this time, and Jak had proven that he could definitely take care of himself. They just had to keep an eye out for any nefarious pools of Dark Eco and make sure they didn't trip into them, and they could be back home in time for lunch. And then maybe he could finally catch a nap…Unfortunately, being unconscious was not the same as being asleep, and after fearing for his life all night and training all morning he was feeling pretty beat. Even Jak didn't seem quite as eager for adventure as he would when he was at 100%, but he didn't let that stop him.

This second trip to Misty Island passed in silence. Daxter was steeling his nerves for what he feared lay ahead and was too preoccupied to say anything. But the trip passed without a hitch, and soon the two of them were padding along the familiar dark beach of the island. It was just as deserted as before; however, because Daxter now knew the Lurkers were out there, the lack of them just made him all the more nervous. Had Jak taken care of them all, or were they lying in wait somewhere ready to ambush them? Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, they didn't have to wait long to find out where the Lurkers were.

They were on their way to the far side of the island that they hadn't explored the night before when they hear the grunting and growling of Lurkers nearby. Jak pressed a finger against his lips to show that they needed to be quiet, but it wasn't necessary. Daxter was not in any hurry to attract the attention of Lurkers, and it sounded like there were a lot of Lurkers up ahead. They hid behind a stone and watched the pack of Lurkers curiously. They seemed to be gathered for something, but what…?

Daxter gasped when two people suddenly popped out of nowhere in poofs of purple smoke in front of the Lurkers, and Jak slapped a hand over his mouth to make sure he kept silent. They were two elves, like Jak and Daxter, but they were markedly different. For one, they were floating in midair like Old Samos tended to. The most startling thing about them, however, was the fact that they were grey. A sickly, blue-looking kind of grey, at that. In fact, it was kind of similar to the pale shade that Jak had turned, if a hair darker. The two teens exchanged a confused look and waited to see what would happen.

"Continue your search for artifacts and Eco," said the male elf in a voice that had a disturbing echoing quality to it. He clutched at his chest and took a deep, rasping breath before continuing. "If the locals possess Precursor items…you know what to do."

"Deal harshly with anybody who strays from the village," his female companion ordered in a voice that was strangely clear compared to that of the man's. "We will attack it in due time…"

Attack the village? Busting open a Precursor Silo to destroy the whole world was one thing, but that was just making it personal! Daxter turned to see what Jak's thoughts on the matter were, but Jak had slipped from their hiding placing and was gesturing for him to come over. The two of them managed to creep away from the Lurkers and the strange elves undetected and continued heading toward the far side of the island. "You heard what the fashion reject said, Jak," Daxter whispered, referring to the woman who seemed to think that Precursor junk was an acceptable form of clothing. "They're gonna attack the village! We gotta go back and tell Samos pronto!"

Jak should his head quickly and pointed above them. There was a rickety wooden platform constructed over the Precursor Silo they had explored last night. If Daxter squinted, he could just barely make out the shape of a cannon like the one out at Sentinel Beach. Luckily, there didn't seem to be any Lurkers up here. Hopefully they were all still occupied. "Okay, destroy the cannon and prevent the world from being flooded with horrible dark ooze, then go warn Samos about the impending apocalypse! Let's just hurry it up before those fuzzy, purple creeps come back!"

Taking out the cannon was easy without any Lurkers to contend with. Daxter might have actually be a little disappointed he didn't get to try out his staff if he hadn't been so worried about being caught or about their coming doom. He had to wonder who those two elves were, though. Why were they grey, like Jak? They hadn't had horns or claws or black eyes like Jak did, so were they grey for the same reason or was it some weird skin condition? Why were the Lurkers listening to them? Lurkers weren't that bright and they didn't like elves, so it didn't make sense for them to be taking orders from a pair of them. Finally, why did the elves want to destroy the village and flood the world with Dark Eco? Jak had changed because he could channel Eco, bur what would happen to all the other people on the planet if they suddenly got dunked in the noxious stuff?

By the time they got back to Sandover Village, the sun was starting to set and Daxter couldn't keep from yawning. He had been awake for far too long, and he just wanted to curl up in their little cot in Jak's house and go to sleep to the sound of his uncle's obnoxious snores. Instead he had to deliver more bad news to Old Green Stuff, and he had a feeling that the old man wouldn't take it nearly as well as he had this morning. With no small amount of trepidation, Daxter tried to enter the hut as quietly as possible – only to step on the same obnoxiously squeaky floorboard from that morning. Samos whirled around to glare at him.

"It took you long enough! You two act like the world isn't in peril!"

"Yea, uh, about that-." Daxter tried to speak but the Green Sage was quick to cut him off.

"So you've destroyed the cannon?"

"Yes, but-." The orange-haired teen failed yet again to interject.

"Then I don't want to see either of you until you've collected all the Power Cells! I am trying to conduct delicate research and I can't do that with you yapping away!" With that, Samos turned back to the plant he was studying, and tried to ignore the two boys he could tell hadn't left like he had asked them to. A deep, menacing growl behind him caused him to rethink that plan. A glance over his shoulder revealed a Jak who honestly looked ready to jump across the hut and attack him. The sage wasn't sure if it was simply because the black eyes and horns seemed to make even Jak's happiest expressions look slightly demonic or if the boy really was that angry. He sincerely hoped it was the former, because the latter would present a problem. Jak never got mad. Frustrated, yes. Annoyed, maybe. But never angry. To see such a violent expression on the young boy's face now was worrisome. The Dark Eco had affected more than just his appearance. Best to diffuse the situation before it got out of hand. "Fine. What is it, Daxter?"

"The Lurkers are going to destroy the village!"

Well, that changed everything. "What in blue blazes are you blathering on about?"

Daxter rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his scrawny chest. Now he wanted to listen. "The Lurkers on Misty Island are plannin' on attacking the village! We heard 'em talkin' about it, didn't we, Jak?"

Jak seemed to have calmed down enough to give a shaky nod, but he was distracted. He had disturbed himself with how uncharacteristically angry he had gotten. He didn't approve of Samos ignoring Daxter and treating him like he was some sort of nuisance, not one bit, but that didn't warrant the sudden urge he'd had to sink his new claws into his mentor's face. And this hadn't been the first time he'd felt such rage. He had felt it back on Misty Island when he had torn into all of those Lurkers and, if he was honest with himself, it had been bubbling under the surface ever since. He hadn't known what to do about it, though, so he had pushed it to the side. It would go away as soon as they cured him…assuming he could be cured.

"You stumbled across a couple of Lurkers cordially discussing their plans to annihilate the village? Why do I find that hard to believe?" the old sage asked sarcastically. While he didn't necessarily doubt the claim that the Lurkers wanted to destroy the village, he did have serious doubts about the Lurker's ability to mobilize and launch an actual attack. However, their actions on Misty Island had been eerily coordinated and well thought-out as of late. He would have never previously thought the barbaric Lurkers had the wherewithal to try and break open a Precursor Silo.

"If you don't wanna believe us, fiiiine. But don't come crawlin' to me when the Lurkers are wreckin' the place!" Daxter spat, finally fed up with Samos' attitude for one day. You try to warn a guy of impending doom, and this is how they treat you! He turned toward the door with a huff and tried to strut out with as much dignity as possible. "Come on, Jak – we're outta here. Tall, dark, and wheezy and that tattooed chick probably wanna destroy the village to get rid of this guy."

Those didn't sound like the descriptions of Lurkers – at least, none that Samos had ever encountered. "Wait just a minute. Who else did you see on Misty Island?"

Daxter was sorely tempted to just ignore the old man and walk out. If there was one guy on the entire planet that he could maybe admit to completely loathing, it was Samos the Green Eco Sage. He was pretty sure the feeling must be mutual. Why else would the old log treat him worse than the mud caked on the bottom of his oversized green feet? He only put up with the sage because Samos and Jak were close. Jak, for some unfathomable reason, sort of looked up to Samos, and Samos treated Jak like the nephew he had never wanted but was stuck with and secretly actually liked. They were a lot closer than Jak was to his own uncle, and who was Daxter to deny Jak more family? His family had taken Daxter in, after all. And Daxter supposed he couldn't afford to be petty when the fate of everyone he knew (the whole village) and loved (his best friend, and that was about it. Keira, too, he guessed) was at stake. He stopped in the door way and shot the sage the dirtiest glare he could manage. "Yea, we saw someone. There were two elves there tellin' the Lurkers what to do. Real creeps, too. The guy was about yay high with a scraggly goatee and one of the ugliest mugs I've ever seen. Uh…white hair? Claws? Grey-blue skin? Sunken, yellow eyes and sounded like he was about to drop any second? Ring any bells?"

"No. I don't know anyone ugly enough to match that description," the sage couldn't think of a single person who looked like that. He had never heard of elves with discolored skin who weren't sages, and he certainly couldn't be referring to the Blue Eco Sage.

"Well, the chick he was with was pretty hot," Daxter added with a leer. "The tattoos were kind of a turn off, but you shoulda seen the chest on that babe. If she wasn't evil, I mighta-. Ow! Hey! You were thinking it, too!"

Jak had whacked Daxter over the head, again, and was frowning down at him. They had much more important things to worry about than the body of some woman who was much older than them and homicidal to boot.

"Hrumph. And you're sure that's what you saw?" Samos asked skeptically as he looked expectantly at Jak, who quickly nodded. Things were even more serious than he had previously thought. It made much more sense now. The Lurkers were more coordinated than before because they were being ordered by elves, but why were the Lurkers following their orders? Who were these odd-looking strangers and why did they want to attack the village? The fact that they had tried to break open a Precursor Silo full of Dark Eco was a clue, but Samos hoped that he was wrong about where that clue was leading his mind. The old sage stroked his beard thoughtfully as he tried to puzzle out what to do. He highly doubted they would be able to hold off an actual attack from the Lurkers. The villagers wouldn't go down without a fight, he didn't doubt that, but they didn't stand much of a chance with people like the Mayor and that odd bird woman.

"Uh, Samos? What're we gonna do?" Daxter asked when the silence seemed to stretch on for too long.

"Give me time to think!" Samos snapped irritably. He was too old for this! Couldn't he go one day without Daxter bringing him some sort of bad news? "Go home before you collapse on my floor. You both look like something a Yakow chewed and spat out. We'll settle this tomorrow."

Daxter was more than happy to leave. He was dead tired and he wasn't sure if it was because he hadn't slept in what felt like days or because he'd had to deal with Samos' surliness more than usual. He was glad it was so late because he did not want to deal with Jak's uncle's reaction to his nephew's impromptu makeover. The boys snuck into Jak's house with no problems. The village was silent and sleeping with the only sound being the old explorer's raucous snores. Jak fell backwards onto the cot with a contented sigh while Daxter just sort of flopped next to him pathetically. The old explorer's house was small, so there wasn't enough room for cots for the both of them, but neither of them minded. They had slept in the same cot since they were kids. The orange-haired boy yawned widely as he pulled his pillow to his chest and blinked through the darkness at his older friend, who was staring pensively out of the window. He didn't have to ask to know what Jak was thinking about. The way he was idly playing with the claws on his hands was a bit of a giveaway. It was so strange seeing his friend like this. With the moonlight pouring through the window, Jak seemed to almost glow white. The black of his claws and horns and eyes almost appeared to somehow shine in the glow. The purple lightning seemed to have settled somewhat, but it was still there and caused weird shadows to dance around the room. He was almost like something out of a dream.

"Don't worry, pal. We'll fix this somehow," he muttered sleepily. If Jak heard him, he didn't show any sign that he did, but Daxter never let unresponsiveness stop him. "Things'll look better in the morning. Ya might even wake up and be your old lemon-headed self again." That got an amused snort, which was good. "And then all we'll have ta worry about is saving the village. I'll take care of that. You just leave it to the professionals…"

Jak was at least smiling now, which was better than him staring forlornly out the window. Daxter yawned again before burrowing into the sheets. "G'night, Jak."

I will see you all next week!