CLEANED UP

Clean up notes for this chapter: Some cleanup, more un-packing, a bit more focus on the 'wrong' feeling when Loor's in situations that could go horribly bad... yeah, that's about all.

ONWARD!

Don't own it. Never owned it. Though, if I ever got rich enough, I would love to buy the rights... Man oh man, would that be amazing or what? Buy the rights to Jak and Daxter; then I could publish this crap. BUT till then, it's fanfiction. I'm not making any money off it.

Vacation or War
Chapter Ten-Changed

Jak felt uneasy, walking along the docks as the strange sense in his head led him. There was something wrong in the air... things felt tense, like a rope stretched to the very edge of snapping apart. He had no idea why things felt that way, but he did know that this strange... wrong feeling clung to Loor. The girl didn't seem to note the tension in the air, looking quite involved in her own mind, but it got worse with every step they took together.

It was like a finger bent the wrong way, on the verge of breaking, or hyper-extending your shoulder. Things were just a few bits of force away from going to hell. Daxter was picking it up too, getting fidgety on his shoulder and looking back to their female companion often. The two didn't trade words on it, just anxious looks.

Loor, on the other hand, was too busy questioning what the current proceedings could possibly mean. The Oracle gave new abilities to Jak for his dark side in the game in exchange for skull gems, but she hadn't seen the blond youth collecting any. Anyway, collecting arbitrary numbers of items seemed too much like a game-play mechanic to make any sense. No, the Oracle had to do something else...

And she was getting pulled in too. That should couldn't forget; both she and Jak were being drawn across the docks toward one of the few buildings that wasn't completely falling apart. It had to be eco-related, but she currently feared asking Lyra. The creature had been loose in her mind only moments ago, when she'd gone diving to find her memorized time-line of game events, and moments later she began to experience a head-splitting ache that sent sparks down her spine.

It had made her twitch and jerk, like the strange seizures she'd experienced before, and she reacted by clamping down on her beast once again. Lyra had been attempting to do something, and she could certainly venture a guess as to what.

Lyra didn't start talking till after that strange episode the evening before; one could have called it her birth. Suddenly the beast was fully aware, articulate, where she had likely been nothing but a chemical imbalance hours previous. The sudden formation would cause the body to reject; violently. She could only imagine the types of development that'd been triggered since having eco mixed into her system, sure that a scan of her head would reveal several abnormalities. Her theory extended beyond explaining that event, though.

Jak knew what had been happening to her. She could only assume he'd experienced the same at a different time. He certainly didn't suffer such a difficult affliction now, but he had exchanged it for something else.

The transformation.

Lyra was trying to free herself. This call from the Oracle was a direct outside stimuli, and Lyra had likely tried to chase after it... even to the point of running right out of Loor's skin. Following that idea, Lauren had a pretty damn good idea of what was coming with the Oracle.

Jak was about to gain better control of his other side... and she had the possibility of gaining transformation. It felt like a double edged sword, if she was indeed right. The transformation would be the body accepting the eco, fully integrating it into her system, and thus taking away the risk of those seizures she'd gone through. But with the power to transform, she could only imagine that Lyra would have outside awareness and struggle harder for freedom both in and out of her mind.

The two would fight, war, over control if that was the case. Lauren was dominating right now, but was because Lyra didn't know how to fight her. She felt like she was leaning up against a door with a particularly sadistic if not stupid murder on the other side. Lyra just had to figure out where that door was and what to do with it.

Okay, she wasn't totally sure about that, but Jak talked about how he couldn't control his other side. She imagined it couldn't be anything but completely overpowering.

She would not be oppressed by her mind. She would control herself, no matter what.

"Loor? Earth to Loor! Baby, ground floor!"

The girl suddenly yanked from her contemplation of the situation, noting that they had arrived at their destination. Jak had entered the hut, and the door had swooped closed behind him. Daxter was standing right in front of said door, arms crossed over his fuzzy chest, looking miffed about having to wait outside.

Funny, she hadn't even noticed she'd stopped walking. She'd gone on auto-pilot to think and block Lyra at the same time.

Daxter took her attention, or at least silent recognition of him, as invitation to scurry up to her shoulder, settling and fidgeting. She opened her mouth to ask what was wrong with him, when she was suddenly hit with it so hard she felt a wave of nausea. The pit of her stomach turned cold as she felt all of her hair stand up on end, taking a similar posture as the ottsel. "What the hell...?" She questioned, quietly.

"You feel it too, eh?" Dax shook his head, the rest of his fur shivering after the fact. "Somethin' in the air ain't right. It's all tense, kinda like butterflies but worse..."

"Butterflies?" She questioned, the conversation distracting her.

"Y'know, getting' nervous right before something big happens. One person starts gettin' tense, then the next guy, and the next guy, till you can feel it just walkin' in. Butterflies in the stomach."

"Yeah, I get that..." She groused, shaking her head. "Ugh... feels like breaking a bone..."

"Reminds me more of getting my fur rubbed the wrong way."

"Well I don't got fur, so I wouldn't know that feeling." She felt her stomach churn, letting a shudder go up her spine. The call from the Oracle had strengthened along with the wrong feeling; she almost felt like the two different senses were battling for her attention.

"Ain't pleasant."

The door opened again, Jak's face nearly blank and otherwise impossible to read. Daxter hopped back to his partner, and Jak waved Loor along. "It... wants to see you."

She swallowed; this was her last chance to run. Did she want to go through with this?

The answer was obvious; she wanted to survive. If she was still at risk for those funky seizures, her chances had decreased that much.

She nodded and walked past them, entering the hut and jumping as the door slammed shut behind her. She stared at the portal for a moment, feeling trapped, before turning around to face the room ahead of her. It had a temple-like feel to it, the sweet perfume of candles saturating the air and giving the place an eerie glow. There was a rich blue rug on the floor, leading up to the precursor statue; the Oracle.

Its eyes glowed a pure blue, and she felt as if something were actually watching her. She dared to take a step closer, feeling the wooden floor creek under her. The air felt thick, and some how dizzying, from the candle's aroma. She felt as if she'd crossed into a new corner of the world where the laws of reality had just been tossed out the window.

Of course, that's how she'd felt for the past twenty four hours.

Then the statue began to talk. She knew it was supposed to, but it still froze her in her approach.

"You are the unplanned visitor, but you have been tied to this place by bonds that even we cannot sever. The dark taint is irreversible, and its madness will eventually be your undoing. What power we have remaining is your only salvation, but there is a price."

She knew why the door had shut behind her; she wanted to run very badly.

"If you have any hope of survival, you must trust your rage until you can control it."

The statue's inner glow suddenly changed purple, a sudden arc of energy striking out. She hadn't the time to scream before it hit her, and once it did... It overloaded her senses. She knew she'd curled up on herself, but she hadn't fallen to her knees. She wasn't on the floor anymore... she felt like she was going over the edge of the world, becoming unaware and burying her head in her knees.

Everything was dark, and she felt as if she'd lost her body. Formless, neither hot or cold, and floating in silence.

Her body was changing, and her own psyche sank away as one more suited emerged. She felt like she was sinking, falling through the floor, as her eyes went black, the pupil expanding to the full view. Hunter's eyes, along with claws that came from where her nails should have been, and her skin went deathly pale as her scream yielded sound. It wasn't Lauren's though; the scream wasn't human enough for that. No, this was a tortured animal screaming pain to whoever would hear as she changed for the first time. Her ears became black furred and pointed upwards, and she felt a tail from the bottom of her back, whipping about, wanting to put her feet on the ground.

Lyra had come alive for the first time.

She landed on all fours, her tail up, looking about as she realized something in her primitive mind. She was breathing. She felt an amount of energy, and bounds. Slight hunger, air, candles, heat, wood, carpet, light, blue, bronze, yellow, red, brown. She took account of all her senses, and snorted. She was alone, and trapped.

A purring growl rumbled up from her chest, standing up to two legs and wrapping her tail around her own thigh to keep it out of the way. She'd turned, looking at the door, hissing around her fangs in her inability to speak. She felt her body, the muscles, all stimulated to full power by the eco coursing through her blood.

Her fangs were showcased in a grin as she suddenly launched at the door, claws first, colliding and ripping through as if it were tissue paper. Her nose had come into play; she could smell new things on the other side of the door. Water and wood, but people as well. There was a particular smell that led her, and though it was attached to a person's scent she could still identify it quite clearly.

Eco. Her life-blood, sharp to the nose and sparking on the tongue, burning deliciously on her skin. She cleared the door, getting outside and looking around.

She screamed, and whimpered as the light hit her eyes. It was bright, rude, painful. Her eyes were not made for full brightness, the wide pupil optimizing for prowling about in the darkness. So disturbed over the light, she didn't notice she'd caused quite a disturbance by her appearance.

Jak and Daxter had jumped away when she'd first crashed through the door, Daxter letting off a short yelp as Jak had to allow a brief moment for shock. Very brief; he had to think fast. The guard was everywhere, and if they saw her like this...

He didn't dwell, tackling the animal while she was still fazed, right back through the broken door. His hands had gone for her thin wrists, collecting them together in one palm so that he could hold her head down with the other. The creature struggled wildly once she realized she'd been pinned, screaming and thrashing, eco arcing off of her skin in ways that would be lethal to normal people but simply made Jak grimace.

He couldn't let her up though. They had no way of escape if the alarm went up; the nearest zoomer was several bridges away, and said bridges were just bottle-necks to try and get through. Individual guards were pretty easy to deal with, but it was a bad idea to underestimate them in large groups.

Daxter had leapt off of Jak's shoulder, in case this beastly side of Loor managed to get a claw loose. He didn't want to loose any fur over this new development, and decided he'd be most useful standing at the door, keeping watch for unwanted eyes. At least, that was the idea. He had a difficult time dragging his gaze away from his partner, watching as this beastie wiggled her head to get around Jak's hand and snap for his face, making him stick a knee high on her chest to keep her down.

Then, with one last guttural howl, her struggles died. Jak hesitated before letting go, standing up, staring down.

Loor's proper skin tone and eye color had returned, the fangs and claws gone from her person. She had rolled to her side, curled up and holding her head. "Oh fuuuuck..." She groaned.

"Oh great!" Daxter groused while getting back to his partner's shoulder. "Like we needed a Ms. Tall Dark and Gruesome! I think Praxis has got a few screws loose to wanna do this to people..."

Jak leaned down when she said nothing to this, giving a slight push to her shoulder. "You alright?"

"My head..." She whined through clenched teeth, sitting up and putting her hand to the aforementioned body part. Then, once the worst of it seemed to go by her, she looked about and noted the damage done to the door, and the fact that Jak had been sitting on top of her. He was still crouched in front of her, that look on his face again. It was the same look he'd given her that morning, when she'd been having her little mental episode.

There was some fear on her face, fear that said she kinda knew, but she had to ask anyway. "What happened...?"

He got up, holding down his hand to help her. "You... I don't know what happened when you talked to the Oracle, but you changed, and..."

She had been in bad enough shape to take his help without complaint, and her grip stiffened with the rest of her body as he said this. You changed was all she needed to hear. "Lyra..." A deep frown had folded into her face, looking away as she got to her feet. "I know. I get it. I just don't remember." She then dusted herself off, dismissing the whole situation by moving for the door. "Let's go. I wanna know where my sister is."

"Wow..." Dax muttered. "She got over that faster than you did. No death threats to Praxis or nothin'."

Jak didn't comment on this fact, but nodded. It was almost as if she knew it was going to happen.

"Imoto-chan!"

Loor had shouted her greeting to her little sister, happy to have caught her. Jak had gotten through to Torn to find out Fury had been sent to rescue Vin from the strip mine. Of course Loor knew if they didn't show up fast enough Vin would sent her out on some other errand before they could catch up, that and the excuse to walk faster saved her from talking on the way over. It was clear that something about how she'd reacted to what happened with the Oracle had struck the boys as wrong. Maybe they expected her to hold on to the shock of it for longer, but she'd known it was coming.

Since Lyra had started talking, she had known it was coming. Her initial shock was mostly over with since what happened that morning. All that was left was the horror and fear of what could possibly come of the new development, and those were private feelings.

And rage. She wasn't sure how much was directed at herself and how much was aimed at the Krimson Guard, but it sat in her brain like a heated barb, distracting her from thinking clearly. Eco had catalyzed the very thing she'd been most afraid of for years of her life, and though she wasn't quite sure who to blame yet she most definitely wanted to pound someone's face in over it.

But those emotions were saved for later. Now she had arrived with Jak and Daxter at the power station, found her sister, and swept her up into a bone-crushing hug, not caring that she'd made Vin jump with her boisterous salutation.

"Onee-san!" Fury returned, though it was muffled as her sister squeezed her. She waited till Lauren let her go before speaking any further. "How's it going?"

"Alright." She smiled as the boys entered behind her, Daxter jumping down and looking about at all the computer stuff. "Can't say I liked my first taste of action, but it wasn't terrible neither."

"Tell me about it." She leaned around to look at Jak. "That gun course is nothing compared to the real thing, dude! They need to make the targets like eight time smaller for those little fuckers."

"You wanna tell Krew his shooting range needs fixing?" Jak asked as Fury leaned down to pet Daxter. The ottsel didn't complain.

"Ick... I wanted to shoot him when he offered us 'ladies' a job." She got up as the ottsel returned to his usual shoulder. "I'd prefer to avoid him at all costs, thank you very much."

"Can we get a move on here?" Vin asked, finally calling attention to himself. Loor glanced at him, then did a double take. She had expected Vin, somewhat short, techy-looking Vin. What she hadn't expected was all the stress wrinkles on his face. His animated self was much smoother skinned. "Someone has to take out those eggs if the shield wall even has a chance of staying up!"

"Oh, right!" Fury gave herself a light bonk to the head. "Loor, Jak, Daxter, this is Vin. Vin, my sister Loor, and a couple of the most kick-ass underground members you'll ever meet." She was grinning as Daxter preened at the latter comment, Jak just rolling his eyes. "Vin says we might have an infestation of metal head eggs on the drill platform... he wants me to go take care of it."

"You want help?" Loor asked.

"I'll take it if I can get it, but I thought you and Vin needed to..." Fury cleared her throat. "Y'know, talk?"

The elder sister nodded, about to ask the boys for their assistance when Jak's comm. unit went off. The person calling didn't wait for him to answer, simply talking once the connection was made.

That was somewhat expected; knowing Krew.

She winced, disregarding the conversation while wondering why. Jak and Daxter were the ones who did this shit originally, so why was another mission coming down the pike when stuff they usually did wasn't done?

She realized it with a short shock. She'd slowed them down. What happened with Sig shouldn't have taken nearly as long as it did because they were looking after her.

And now the boys were getting called off somewhere else while they picked up the slack.

Jak gave a shrug once the fat ass was done talking. "Looks like we're busy. See you two back at the underground, alright?"

"Right-o..." Loor sighed, watching them leave before looking back to Fury. "What do you wanna do?"

Fury gave a bright grin of confidence. "I can handle it. You talk to Vin, I'll go blow up some eggs, and we'll chill back at the underground and compare notes or something."

Lauren had to roll her eyes at her sister, ruffling her hair. "Just don't go getting yourself killed."

"Don't jinx me!" The younger replied, turning for the warp gate at the other end of the room. Loor watched her go, blinking as she vanished through the seemingly empty ring. She hadn't seen warp gates yet that day, and like the green eco it bent her brain in new directions. She suddenly wanted to take it apart and find out how it worked. What new wonders were possible with eco?

She had to shake her head to get her mind off the subject. That's not what she was here for. "So... Vin, you got surveillance on this place?"

"Mmm?" Vin glanced up at Loor, still working away on something on one of the many terminals in the room. "Of course. Nothing gets through my security. I installed that double reinforced door myself... I don't think it would stand up to a full assault, but if a handful of metal heads managed to get the warp ring to work, I could lock them in here and initiate a sterilization code from the out-"

"Fascinating." She cut him off. She was serious, it was fascinating, but she didn't have time to get wrapped up. "Listen, I..." She paused, sighing. "I need you to shut it off for a little while. I don't know if Fury told you how she and I ended up here in Haven, but I'd like to explain it to you... off the record."

The older tech head finally stopped working, looking a tad more nervous than usual with how intense she was being. "...why?"

"It was all a big stupid accident." She held out her empty hands. "We need your help to get home. Please, I can't let others get ahold of this information."

Vin ran a hand through the white tuft of hair that stuck up from under his goggles, frowning before turning to another terminal and putting in some sort of code. The door clicked when he finished, and she could hear something in the room powering down.

"You got half an hour." He said while facing her. "Talk to me."

The Author's Corner

Well that's a bit cleaner. Not massively better, but at least a bit more concise.

I hope you enjoyed Fury while you had her. She lasted twice as long in this version... haha that was terrible. I'm so mean.

I has chocolate for the up and coming scene... for those who have followed my writing for a while, you understand the dangers of me and chocolate. If you don't know, feel free to PM and ask.

MEOW!

-Loor