SC: To make up for the horrible shortness of the last chapter… here's a new chapter!

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Chapter 14

More Secrets

Raye fell back against the wall, sliding to the floor. "You've got to be kidding me. I must be in a coma and hallucinating or something."

Lyla chuckled. "No, I'm quite real." Her voice was higher and clearer, and her laugh sounded like bells tinkling. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you earlier, but I had to make sure that you were who I thought you were. The mark on your hand told me that."

Raye looked down at her hand. The mark was pulsing. "No, no. Not that one. You remember the incident at the beach?"

"You were the one who scratched me?"

She nodded. "Yes. With the shard of a light eco crystal. I didn't expect your blood to react so… violently to it though." She waved her hand over the bandages on Raye's left one. "There. That should have fixed it." Raye pulled to bandages away to see smooth skin.

"Okay, I believe you. I'm not hallucinating." She stood up so she was, er, eye-level with Lyla. "But I have some questions."

A warmth that could only be interpreted as a smile radiated from Lyla. "It is only to be expected. Ask away."

Raye took a breath, then paused and looked out to the room where Jak was. "Could you…?"

Another tinkling laugh."Of course. Jak may hear this too." Another wave of her hand. Seconds later, Jak burst into the room.

"Raye, what's…?" He trailed off as his eyes traveled over to the floating figure of light standing in front of his sister.

"Hello Jak." Lyla greeted.

Jak nodded. "Okay. That would explain why Daxter's frozen."

Raye glanced at Lyla. She shook her head. "I'm afraid I cannot allow Daxter to hear this. I am going to be in a great deal of trouble as it is if I should be found out. Now, Raye, I believe you wished to ask me some things?"

Raye nodded. "Well, for starters, what the heck is a Precursor doing in an elf body?"

"I have… borrowed it. Don't worry; it was with Lyla's consent." She added after a moment. A more serious tone fell over the room. "You two are very special. The balance keepers of the universe." She touched them both softly on the cheek. "I know your pasts have not been easy. But there is a greater evil that you must defeat now."

Raye paused for a moment. "The person in the hologram." She muttered.

A slow nod. "You have met him before."

"Then can you tell us who he is?" Jak asked.

Lyla shook her head. "I'm afraid I cannot. I am already breaking many rules by telling you these things."

"Then why are you?"

A pause. "Because you deserve to know." She said after a moment. "I do not believe that you should remain ignorant of your past or the future that will come into existence based upon your decisions." She looked over at Jak. "I know you do not wish to be the world's hero again, Jak, and it is your decision. I will not try to influence it."

Jak didn't say anything. Lyla turned back to Raye. "Is there anything else that you wish to ask me?"

"Could… could you…" She glanced at Jak. "Could you show us our parents?"

Lyla seemed to be taken aback by the request. "I… I cannot show you your father. But I can let you know your mother." She clapped, and the sparks that flew from her hands formed into an image between the three. "This is your mother, Sophia."

Jak walked over next to Raye. "She's…"

"Beautiful." Raye finished. Sophia was Raye's height, maybe a half an inch taller. Dark emerald hair fell to her waist in a tight braid. She had a kind face with sharp features; high cheekbones, the same clear blue eyes that Jak and Raye both had, a small, pointed nose, and full, heart shaped lips. Raye had obviously inherited her frame, covered in wiry muscle, looking as though they could cause some serious damage if they had a mind to. The same long, thin ears that both twins possessed stuck out from the sides of her head.

Raye squeezed Jak's hand, blinking away tears. Jak smiled over at her. "You look like her."

"You're just saying that because I'm a girl and you aren't." She chuckled. Then, she looked at Lyla. "Why can't you show us our dad?"

"I have shown you your mother because she…" There was a pause, much like there would be from one biting their lip. "Your mother died, just before you were sent to Earth, Raye. I showed you her because you will not be able to see her."

Jak's grip on Raye's hand tightened. "Wait, are you saying that our dad is alive?"

"Yes, he is. You've met him."

"Who is he? Can you tell us?"

Lyla shook her head. "Not a name, no. But I can tell you this: he was the ruler of Haven City. You two are the legitimate heirs to the throne there." She suddenly looked up, startled. "I've been found out. I must go." She grabbed their free hands. "Listen to me: whatever happens, do not give into the darkness. This new enemy must be destroyed before he can unleash his full power." She hugged Jak. "I will find a way to help you both if I can. I promise." She hugged Raye next. "Take care of your brother." She whispered before stepping back and disappearing in an explosion of sparks. The blue tint around the room began to fade.

Raye turned to Jak. "You'd better get back before Daxter comes back to reality." He nodded and walked out. Raye shut the door behind him and went back to digging through the dresser. She pulled out a red tank top that dipped low in the back and slid it on after pulling off the lavender one. Something black caught her eye and she reached back into the drawer, pulling out a pair of gloves. She slipped them on, surprised at how cool they felt.

There was a knock on the door at that moment. "Raye, are you decent yet?" Jak called.

"Yeah, you can come in." Jak walked in, a serious look on his face.

Daxter looked from one twin to another. "God, why are you two in such a bad mood? Six seconds ago you were both fine."

Raye smirked a little at that. Six seconds ago? More like ten minutes. "It's nothing, Dax. Just… a little tired." Daxter looked past Raye's shoulder and groaned.

"Yeah? Well it's about to get worse. Flying rat, out the window." Raye and Jak turned to see Pecker land in the window.

"There you two are! Do you have any idea how hard it's been to find you?!" He complained.

"What do you want Pecker?" Jak asked, obviously less then happy to see him.

Pecker put his wings on his hips. "Damas wants to see you two in the Arena. Now."

Raye sighed. "Go tell him we'll be there as fast as we can." Pecker flew off and they headed toward the door.

They grabbed a pair of Leaper Lizards as they walked out of Lyla's house. "It's a good thing that she doesn't live too far away from the Arena." Raye muttered as she and Jak walked up the steps.

"Yeah, wouldn't want to keep Damas waiting." Jak responded sarcastically. Raye laughed as they headed inside. Daxter laughed too, just relieved that his friend's gloomy moods were gone.

Jak and Raye hopped over to the platform in front of Damas. He gave them a look that said that they had just made it before the crowd went wild. "Once again, you must test your fighting skills in the arena. Face down your fears, defeat those who oppose you, and we will see if your skills are of use to us. The purity of the arena is our only guide!" Jak and Raye gave each other a look that said they though Damas needed to get his head examined.

Daxter, who had seen this look quite clearly, decided that he needed to speak up and keep the two idiots that he considered family in a good mood. "Excuse me... Mr. Sand King... Yes, I'd like to place a complaint. We've been training hard. My feet are killing me, and I think I'm getting a hangnail. So maybe I'll just sit this one out..."

Damas tapped his staff against the metal platform his throne sat on. "Enough talk! The arena awaits!" They turned to walk away. "Wait." They stopped and Damas tossed them both a gun mod. "You'll need them."

Jak and Raye hopped onto the platform that would take them down to the Arena. "Okay, is it just me, or has His Majesty spent a little too much time in the sun?" Jak laughed.

"Nope, it's not just you." Raye looked down at the metal floating on the lava. "Why is there more than one Arena floor?" Instead of the round battleground that had floated on the lava last time, there were four separate squares of metal.

"Obviously some people have too much free time on their hands." Jak muttered, looking at the four boxes around the Arena.

Raye voiced his thoughts. "Four times as many matter formers… that means four times as much eco. And four times as much eco means…"

"Four times as many people trying to kill us." Daxter shivered. "Perfect."

Raye laughed at him. "C'mon Dax; where's your sense of adventure?" He glared at her. "Oh never mind." She sighed, jumping to the metal floor. "Let's just see how these guns work." She pressed the trigger and felt the gun begin to vibrate slightly under her hands. Taking a glance at the glowing barrel, she let go, and a concussion blast was released from the gun.

Jak grinned. "Nice." He jumped off of the elevator, watching as it sunk down into the lava behind him. Two locks clicked in unison, and the matter formers opened. Raye kicked the two Marauders that came out from the one above them into the lava.

"Might I suggest moving?" She asked sarcastically, moving from underneath the matter former that was resting over their heads. Just in time, too, because two more jumped out of both.

Jak shot them both in the back of the head, and they fell, disappearing into purple sparks. Both winced as the sparks sunk into their skin before continuing to shoot. The alarm sounded, and lava began to flood though the holes that had just opened. Daxter looked around to see that none of the other platforms were sinking. He tugged on Jak's ear.

"Jump onto one of the other platforms!" He ordered. Jak and Raye looked over at the other platforms before running and jumping to the other platform. The familiar click of the locks overhead alerted them to move away from the matter formers before they got squashed. Well, that and Daxter yelling in their ears. Yeah, they were surprised that they could hear the locks click too.

A pattern began to develop. Jak and Raye would shoot, the alarm would sound, they'd move, and then they'd start to shoot again. This continued until the Marauders stopped coming. They hopped across the gap between the platforms and onto the lift.

Pecker gaped at them as they walked in front of the throne. "I can't believe you two are still alive!"

Daxter, who could never resist irking the monkaw, smirked and leant up against Jak's head. "Yeah. What a surprise."

Pecker glared at him for a moment before turning back to Jak and Raye. "Damas and I are very impressed." He smiled, obviously fake, resting his wings over his stomach. Raye had to suppress a laugh. Pecker looked like a very small, very feathery imitation of 'the Godfather.'

Thankfully, her attention was diverted by Daxter's protests. "Hey, feather butt, who appointed you king?"

"He did!" The monkaw snapped, pointing at the elf whose shoulder he occupied. Damas gave him a 'look'. "Well, almost. Kind of a semi-king, you know. You should see our sleeping quarters and his harem of love birds... oooh... I never get any sleep these days." Jak noticed Raye's look of disgust, a smirk on his face. That was Raye for you: once she got a grudge against someone, it took a LONG time for her to drop it. And Pecker certainly wasn't giving her any reason to do so anytime soon. "Hee hee... it's good to be the king, no?" Pecker asked the king, who actually smirked at him.

But a certain orange furball just couldn't let it go. He jumped down to the table in front of Jak and Raye. "I don't see no crown on that fat feather head!"

Pecker fluttered down to the armrest of Damas' throne. "You want a crown? I'll crown you! Don't make me come down there from this perch!" He threatened, shaking his fist.

Daxter glared at him. "I've got a perch for ya birdie, right here... twirl on it!" He lifted his hand, flipping Pecker off. A collective gasp went through the crowd assembled, and Raye had to fight an urge to kiss the little Ottsel.

Pecker gaped at his rival for a moment, then glared. "That's it! It's GO time!"

Dax smirked. "Bring it on, bird brain!" Pecker leapt at Daxter, and they proceeded to roll around, biting and kicking at each other until…

"Enough!" Damas shouted. Both stopped, looking up at him. Pecker had frozen in the act of biting Daxter's arm, and said Ottsel was pulling his other fist back to punch Pecker in the face. Thankfully, neither seemed to have any serious wounds. "If I wanted you to fight, I would have commanded it!" He looked up at Jak and Raye. "You two did... very well." Damas said awkwardly. "You make me proud... that our training program is so good." The last part seemed… rushed, almost, and Jak and Raye glanced at each other. "Here are your second Battle Amulets and new Weapon Mods. One more Arena win and you will be true Wastelanders!" He tossed said items down to them before standing and walking out, the curtain swooshing behind him.

Pecker glared at Daxter, mouthing 'This isn't over' before flying off after Damas.

On their way out of the Arena, quite a few people stopped them to say how much they enjoyed the fight. Jak grimaced, though, as he heard a pair of men talking. "… kinda hoping to see those demons again."

"Yeah, that woulda been some real entertainment." A pause. "Speaking of which, betcha that girl would give some real entertainment in be-" Then man cut off with a choked gurgle. This was caused by Jak's hand being wrapped around his throat, pining him up against the rough rock of the structure behind him.

"Jak!" Daxter gasped.

Jak ignored him, his eyes slowly being consumed by black. "If you want to keep your voice box, you will NEVER talk about my sister like that again. Understand?!" He snarled. The man's eyes were starting to bulge out of his head, and he was pulling uselessly at the infuriated man's fingers.

Raye ran over and pried her elder sibling's fingers away from the man's throat. "Jak, let go!"

Jak dropped the man, who landed in a heap, coughing and gasping for air. Raye tugged on his arm. "C'mon, Jak, let's go. Please." She begged. After glaring for another moment, he turned and let his sister pull him along. They walked in silence for a few minutes.

"I'm sorry." Jak muttered, breaking the awkward silence. "I just… what he said…"

Raye bit her lip. "Yeah, I heard him. I was just planning to ignore it. I had to do it all the time back in Haven."

Jak looked down at her, startled. She rolled her eyes. "Oh come ON, Jak. I work with a bunch of guys all day. Besides, they quit after I broke a couple of noses." She paused. "Mostly."

The blonde's jaw tightened. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I knew this is how you'd react." She sighed. "Look, it's in the past, and you can't do anything about it now. Besides," Raye smirked, "I take them as complements that I can stand up to Ashelin in the looks category."

Jak tugged her ear. "See, I can't say anything to that."

"Yeah, you're taken. Now see all the ladies cry and run away to burn pictures of Keira." Raye laughed. Jak flinched at the mention of the 'K' word. Raye sighed and kept walking until they reached Lyla's house.

Once the door was shut, Raye turned to Jak, hands on her hips. "Okay, we need to talk."

"About?" Jak asked, sitting down on the couch sitting in the middle of the room.

She looked up at Daxter. "Dax, could you…?"

"Say no more." Daxter told her, jumping off of Jak's shoulder and walking out of the room.

Raye sat down next to Jak and gripped his hand in hers. "How long is this aversion to hearing Keira's name going to go on? See? You just flinched again." Jak glared at her. "Jak, please."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Yeah, well I don't care if you want to talk about it or not." Raye told him. Jak looked away from her. "Look, if it makes you feel any better, I know how you feel."

Jak rolled his eyes. "Yeah right. How would you…?" He turned back around to see Raye focusing on the floor. "Who?"

She blushed. "Wait, you think I meant…?" Raye laughed. "Oh Mar, you're an idiot. I don't have anyone special like you have Keira. I just meant that all my friends are back in Haven too." Raye hugged him. "If it kills me, I'm gonna make sure you see Keira again. Promise."

Jak hugged her back. "I'll hold you to it." A loud beeping filled the room. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

Raye laughed and pulled out of the hug. "We are just not allowed to have a 'moment', are we?"

"Nope." Jak responded sarcastically. He looked down at the map on Raye's wrist to see a blinking dot representing the Garage. "Dax, come on!"

Daxter slunk out of the adjoining room and climbed back up to Jak's shoulder. "Do the people around here not know the meaning of 'peace and quiet'?"

Jak and Raye looked at each other, then, with a grin, responded unanimously, "Nope."

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SC: Okay, I felt like that was a MUCH better chapter than I've been spewing out lately. Sorry it took so long; I used the wrong Arena format (I used the third one instead of the second one). And to explain a few things:

Lyla isn't a Precursor. One is just 'borrowing' her body for a bit.

Yes, she just spilled that Jak and Raye are the legit heirs to the Haven throne. This is going to cause some… interesting scenes later, I can tell you that right now.

And Jak and Raye are NOT allowed to have a moment.

That's all. Read and review please!

Ja ne

SC