Have you ever started writing with a clear picture of where you want something to go, and then part way through the story just decides that hey, maybe this will work better...Yeah that's what happened with this chapter.
Thank you to Pictomancer, Arenahi and DarkEcoFreak3 for reviewing~
To address a question, "Is Jak still alive?" If you had asked this a couple years ago when I first started this fic the answer would have been 100% no. Lately though I've been thinking of a way he could come back...you know just to add to the angst pile that is Daxter in this thing.
After the collective managed to get their shock under control their was a flurry of shout and activity that made even Daxter wish for quiet. Since then he had spent a week being poked, prodded, stared at and examined by Samos and the future gang's eco experts. As if having a barrel of dark eco dumped on him wasn't enough torture.
The egg heads kept going on and on in excited whispers about things like 'eco immunity' and 'unusually resilient immune system'. Not that they'd give Daxter a straight answer when he asked. Honestly he felt more and more like the rat everyone kept telling him he was supposed to be.
When it all came down to it he was just being used again. So in the middle of the night a week later when he'd been put on the proverbial shelf for the night to get some sleep, Daxter did what any oppressed teenager locked inside would do. He snuck out.
Security really sucked since all he had to do was cover his bright orange and yellow hair to just walk right past the guards with little more than a wave. No wonder these morons couldn't keep it together. Daxter had never seen one of them metal head things but he bet they weren't so tough.
The fact that it was the middle of the night didn't matter much to Daxter as he scramble over the rocky terrain. He'd always had pretty good night vision and all the lava glowing up from the canyon floor certainly helped. Daxter didn't really have a destination in mind, he just needed to get away from all the elves looking at him like meat. Though he had to admit they were better than the ones that looked at him with something akin to hope.
Like Tess.
"Girl has a rockin' bod I'll giver her that, but she's got to have at least ten years on me." Daxter grumbled to himself, finally letting his restless feet plop him down at the base of a Precursor idol. The teen had always felt calmer around these things and had an uncanny knack for finding them. Sometimes he even swore he could hear...something when he got close enough. It scared and thrilled him all at the same time.
Here and now though, nestled between the big lumps that could have been arms, Daxter simply felt a sense of peace. Until the ancient piece of crap started talking to him.
"The future and past are forever intertwined, young...hero." Said the Idol, humming to life. If Daxter had a little more time to think he'd have been insulted by how reluctant the orange mass said the last part.
"HOLY JUMPING YAKKOWS!" Screeched the elf, leaping to his feet and hopping a few steps before managing to turn around. It had felt like someone had poured ice over him when the Idol had activated. Plus there was the fact that despite years of prodding the Precursor Idol in Sandover the thing had never done anything but sit there like a dumb rock.
"Must you be so loud?" The Idol sounded aggravated and weary. "We have little time. This unit is not meant for more than relaying recordings."
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa WHOA, hold on, what the hell, we? What? Who? WHAT?" Was he dreaming? Probably. Heck he was probably still flopping out his last minutes of life on the floor of the future people's cave (Freedom League just sounded dumb), covered in dark eco and hallucinating.
"We are the Precursors and we have much to tell you." Daxter was sure he would quit hyperventilating if he could just pick his jaw up off the ground.
"The Precursors? Talkin' to ME?! I think you got the wrong guy here." He squeaked, trying to breath easily.
"Precisely the problem." Grumbled the statue, sounding a little like Samos. "Take the lift into the mountains, we will guide you to a more suitable place for us to bestow our wisdom from there."
"Assuming I don't FREEZE TO DEATH first! Why the heck should I even do what you say anyway? How do I know you're not just some dark eco induced hallucination huh?" That's it Dax, though the red head to himself, just keep talking and you don't have to think about this mess.
The statue was quiet for a time before replying. "Return to your...home...and collect the-" There was a burst of light and noise and smell and pictures in his mind that made the young elf stagger to his knees. "Take these power cells to activate them. Come quickly..." The idol trailed off, going dark.
Daxter held his head in his hands as he tried to get over the shock of just simply knowing all this new information. It was bizarrely close to how he would 'hear' Jak when no one else could (not that anyone believed him on that part, he was just good at reading body language to them) but at the same time so much MORE.
He knew everything about these...things he was being sent to get now. Knew what they looked like, what they were for, how they were made and programmed and it was just too much foreign information that didn't make sense...
Squeezing his eyes shut and forcibly shoving the images away, Daxter took a few deep and even breaths to calm himself. If he had needed any proof that the Precursors were actually talking to him, there it was.
It wasn't until he heard shouting in the distance that Daxter was able to force himself to move. He grabbed the power cells floating merrily on the cave floor and tucked them into his pouch. Standing, he peered out of the cave to see elves milling around the entrance to their head quarters in the former Spider Caves. Looks like they had noticed he was missing.
Eying the distance between them, himself, and the red sages hut Daxter shrugged and made a break for it. The older elves saw him right away and their shouts grew excited. Torn was leading the pack as they raced him for the Red Sages lab and BOY did he look pissed.
Even as he pounded over the swinging bridge leading into the sage's lab Daxter had to chuckle a bit at that. Serves him right for having such a large stick up his ass. The boy hoped he got stuck with more of that 'paper work' he'd been growling (read; complaining) about since Daxter had taken his eco shower.
Daxter had to admit the man was fast though as he lept through the telleporter ring. Just a little faster and he might have made it to through the ring as well before Daxter shut it off from the other side.
"Heheheheh, so long tattoo face." Daxter laughed under his breath. Taking a step away from the now inactive ring, he looked around Samos' hut.
"Look at that, it can stay pretty clean without old log head here to mess it up." Skirting the fanged plant in the corner with an almost skittish step (seriously why was that thing so creepy as of late, Daxter wondered) the red head stepped out into the early morning light of Sandover. Daxter guessed he had spent more time huddled on the ground next to that Precursor Idol than he thought. Time in the volcanic crater was hard to judge though since the high walls blocked out the sun unless it was directly over head.
"Yeesh, the Village sure smells like it could use a bath though." Daxter grumbled as he stepped off the wooded walkway. The little huts didn't LOOK any different, but man did the place smell. Kinda like something rotting now that he thought about it. Like the time he and Jak had come across that bloated, half decayed Lurker corpse in the Forbidden Jungle. Only about a hundred times worse and everywhere. Seriously he was starting to gag here.
Rounding the corner into the village square Daxter felt cold as the blood drained from his...everywhere. It looked like...dear Precursors Daxter didn't even have words for what he was seeing. Strength left his legs as he stared at the bloody, rotting piles of meat strewn across the village center. Limbs lay silently far from their bodies. HEADS lay...entrails...
All at once Daxter started throwing up everything he had ever eaten. Even when his stomach was empty he kept heaving, tears streaming down his face in little rivers. Shaking on his hands and knees the red head felt hot and cold and horribly numb all at the same time. He had to move, he had to get away from here. He had to go...
Half running half stumbling away he almost didn't see the creatures until it was too late. Maybe it was the years of training and running around with Jak. Maybe his senses of survival were heightened in his panicked and yet detached state. What ever it was that had the red head whipping out the EES and extending it just in time to slice through something heavy as it sailed through the air at him, it saved his life.
The almost familiar feel of dark eco sprayed over Daxter's skin, the pain bringing the world into sharp focus. It didn't hurt anywhere NEAR as much as the first time had but it was enough to snap him to attention. Appearing from over rooftops and around corners were green and grey creatures of various shapes and sizes. The only thing they had in common other than color scheme was the glowing yellow gem on each of the creature's skulls.
Metal Heads.
Suddenly the way the Freedom Leagued acted made sense. Suddenly these fairy tale monsters were real.
As the alien creatures began rushing him en-mass Daxter felt a calm sort of fury come over him. Something broken and becoming whole all at the same time. From there there were no more thoughts, just a whirlwind of death and color as the EES flashed from Eco to eco.
Blue, with it's sharp edge and lightning shocks.
Yellow, almost insubstantial as it flickered, lighting enemies a blaze with the screams of crackling fires.
Red, red almost didn't cut at all instead knocking foes realing and sending them flying only to land yards away, heads caved in.
Green however, Green was the dealiest to these creatures. Green cut them deeper than blue, burned them worse than yellow, and forced them away with snarls as though the sight of it were a red shockwave. Green also lept into Daxters cuts and bruises as he gained them, melting the hurts away.
Green was the first eco he ran out of as well. Which made sense as twice as much was used between fighting and healing. Yellow went next, sputtering to a glowing ember. Red lasted Daxter long enough to fight his way to the Blue Eco vent in Keira's lab and from there the slaughter continued.
Daxter couldn't recall later when it all ended. When the creatures stopped coming for him with frenzied passion. Dark eco dripped from him along side his own blood as the creatures lay dead around him. Leaning on the depleated spear Daxter panted and tried to get his legs to stop shaking. Now that it was over and thought was returning...well he wished he was still fighting.
Everyone was dead...just like Jak. Daxter wasn't angry or numb or even sad at this. Just...tired. So very tired. He tried to be angry at the people who had come from the future, bringing these monsters with them as he raided Samos' green eco store. Tried to be furious at them for bringing this mess back with them as he broke open the little wooden containers of eco. To blame them with everything in his being as the green energy healed his wounds once more.
Using the last of the eco to recharge the EES, Daxter wearily picked his way through the already decaying metal head corpses back to the village. It was time to meet the Precursors.