A/N: This is a day late because I didn't realize that it didn't get posted yesterday. I had the chapter ready to be uploaded and everything. Anyway, without the author's note this chapter is actually exactly 3600 words long. And I think that's neat.

"What the fuck is that?" I grabbed onto a nearby piece of machinery to steady myself as my Citadel shook. Another loud thump. I lost my balance along with my grip and slammed onto the floor. I felt my lip split.

"The reason we were going to stay inside!" Daxter replied, clinging to Jak's shoulder like his life depended on it.

It probably did, honestly.

And what a beautiful thing to wake up to. Such a great beginning to my real life in the future.

The floor near the main door began to crack. The shaking and thumping stopped, and as I began to lift myself up, the crack spread in three separate directions. I gave an angry noise somewhat like a snarl and forced myself the rest of the way to my feet, bolting across my lab. There were some very important test tubes I was going to need soon, and if they were broken someone or something was going to pay dearly.

Luckily for whatever was ramming into my Citadel, they were unscathed.

There were about 10 of them, each nearly half a foot long and about an inch wide. You may be wondering what they contained, and the answer is Light Eco. Pure, undiluted, Light Eco. It took me weeks to harvest enough to fill all the vials, and I had more than a couple of burn marks before Teko and I went into stasis. That stuff is like molten lava to me if even a drop touches my skin. Touching enough to absorb any would most likely kill me.

With those facts, you're probably wondering, "Why would you collect it, then?"

The answer is simple… To turn Daxter human. I realized he probably didn't want to permanently be changed back, and I understood. I didn't intend to force him. Once I mixed it with some water and Green Eco it'd be almost exactly the same mixture I'd put Teko in, and if he stayed in it for the right amount of time he'd have the same ability as her. The ability to switch back and forth at will. Really, I just wanted him as happy as Teko, though I couldn't be certain of why.

My crush on him aside, of course.

Anyway, I doubted the amount of time I'd have to make sure they were safe, so I wrapped them each in towels from my lab and stuffed them somewhat haphazardly into my duffel bag. I'd just have to pray they survived. My timing being as good as it seems to be, the moment they were tucked away the thumping and shaking started again. The cracks in my floor spread further.

"God dammit." I stumbled and almost lost my footing completely. "I'm serious you two, what is that?!"

Jak looked pale and worried - that was not an expression I was used to seeing on his face. Obviously, I went from angry to petrified in less than three seconds. If Jak was worried, there was a damn good reason - Jak wasn't scared of anything. Funny how much I looked up to him - how much I still look up to him. You never really shake that admiration for your older sibling, no matter what they do to piss you off. Not unless they, like, abuse you or something.

Either way, in my eyes at that point, if Jak was scared, I needed to be scared too.

"Let's call it a very angry Metal Head and leave it at that." Jak paled further.

I repeated my most recent curse as I was suddenly thrown into the nearest set of cabinets when the whole Citadel listed backwards. Teko was ripped from her previously safe pile of blankets. Jak tried to catch her but found himself a little busy avoiding being crushed by some of my furniture. My largest container of Dark Eco began to tilt as well, and with three other people in the room who couldn't handle being dunked in a bathtub of Dark Eco again, I decided it was in my best interests to try and stop it from tipping. I bolted for it, nearly falling through multiple spreading cracks and holes in the floor.

As quick as the building had tilted at first, it was now slowly continuing to fall.

And, as suddenly as it had tilted, it slammed back down into the correct position. I face planted and watched in bemused interest as the container then tilted in the opposite direction… And spilled its contents all over the Citadel's entryway. That was going to make the exit even more difficult for the others… Me, on the other hand? I think we all know it would help me more than hinder me.

Or at least that's what I thought at the time.

So I got up, wiped the blood off my lips from the earlier split, and stumbled toward the door. All the shaking and tilting had thrown off my equilibrium. I distantly heard Daxter yelling for me not to go outside or even get near the door - but since when do I listen? I waded my way through the Dark Eco, knowing Daxter wasn't stupid enough to follow me through it. Hopefully the other two weren't either.

But as I waded, I felt a strange sensation wash over me. I was still absorbing Dark Eco, though I'm not sure how there was any room left in my body for more. I felt something weighing down on me, like I was carrying a heavy backpack, and I felt warm. And my vision began to go blurry, then faded out completely.

When my vision came back, everything was distorted again. The colors of the room were swirling, the Dark Eco was clinging to my legs and I felt… Powerful. Like nothing could stop me. Like nothing could ever even hurt me again. I wasn't even scared anymore.

I wasn't wading anymore. Hell, I wasn't even moving my legs. The Dark Eco was just pushing me toward the door. It ripped open suddenly and after that… Well. I think the best way to describe the ensuing events is a "massacre". Of course that's only the short version of the 'fight' that the "very angry Metal Head" and I had.

The long version is that, after the door was sent flying out into the wilds beyond us, the Metal Head charged at me. Right before it rammed its very large head into my Citadel for a second time, I extended my hand toward it. It stopped in its tracks, almost as if it couldn't move. After a moment… I finally processed that it really, really, couldn't… But I was already moving closer before that fully registered in my mind.

Its eyes grew wide the closer I got, but although I could clearly see it working to back away, it couldn't get anywhere. Was it scared? There was no reason to ask that question - I knew it was scared. I knew why. I knew everything.

I came to a stop a foot or so in front of the Metal Head and smiled up at it. Daxter later referred to the smile as something of a "sickly sweet" grin. But it felt like nothing more than a casual smile to me. "I believe…" I began softly, "That you have just made the biggest mistake of your short life, my friend…" I lifted my hand and then slowly lowered it, palm down. While my hand came down, so did the beast's head. Its eyes widened more, pupils dilating in terror while I inched toward it. "... Don't worry…" I placed my hand on its snout and felt my lips pull up into a wider grin. "... I'll make this quick."

I knew there was a multitude of things I could do to it. So many horrible ways to end its pathetic existence. I could melt its body down and extract the Dark Eco from it - I could melt it so it was nothing except Dark Eco.

There were so many things I could do… But no. I didn't need any more Dark Eco… I had plenty right here at my Citadel.

I had a much better idea.

So, grin still on my face, I watched as its eyes began to turn from the glowing yellow all Metal Heads had to purple, and then, slowly, black. It started to swell up. Bigger… bigger…

And… boom. Chunks of Metal Head went flying for miles. The air from the initial explosion blew my hair back and the following shockwave knocked my ass flat. My head hit the ground hard, knocking the smile right off my face and me right the fuck out. Everything went blurry again right before my eyes closed. The feeling of power faded. I felt nothing now.

When I opened my eyes again I was floating in a black abyss. This reminded me tremendously of my nightmares, so of course I treated it with scepticism and suspicion. I wasn't eager to repeat those dreams, for a multitude of reasons… I'm sure you can guess that one of them is, clearly, the dreams terrified me.

My suspicion began to fade when I realized I could move. I slowly turned to look around. I saw something move in the distance. Something made a rustling noise behind me. I didn't turn, swallowing hard. Should I face whatever was there?

No.

I assured myself that I was hearing things. Seeing things. Nothing else was there. There was nothing to be afraid of here.

With those thoughts the abyss became much less dark. I found my feet planting themselves firmly on the ground. I could see some structures now, and the more I focused, the more it began to look like Haven City. After a long moment I realized I was standing in the Palace Courtyard. It was the dead of night.

Now incredibly confused, I took a few steps forward to examine the rest of the city, if I could. That was odd… The wall was missing. There was nothing to protect the city from Metal Heads. Or at least I thought so until I stepped out of the Courtyard and onto the street - the wall wasn't missing, it was still being built! As far as I could tell, most of the wall was only about 10 feet tall at the moment. That wouldn't stop Metal Heads… It might slow them down, though.

But that was unlikely. Metal Heads are notoriously determined when they really want a bite to eat. Doesn't matter if there's a 10 foot wall keeping them away… Damn things will climb right over it.

I turned back toward the palace and saw a light come on inside. A figure moved toward the window - I couldn't tell if it was a man or woman from where I was. I was about to move closer to see if I could get a better look when I heard rushed footsteps behind me. And not the footsteps of one person - the footsteps of many.

I spun back around, seeing a group of people rushing toward the castle. They looked angry. They were all holding things - one of them held a large rock, a few others held lengths of rope, and one or two of them had torches. I wondered what they could be doing.

A loud noise behind me. I was beginning to give myself whiplash from looking around so much.

It seemed to be more members of their group. The held a struggling woman in their grasp - a woman who looked a lot like me.

They were shouting, she was shrieking, and I could only watch in mildly horrified silence as they tied her up with the ropes until she couldn't so much as twitch her wrists. She didn't seem scared - only offended and perhaps angry. The group began to march off, toward the wall. Out of morbid curiosity, I followed them. I wanted to see what was going to happen to this irritated and heavily bound woman. Perhaps it was important - significant to me in some way.

They trekked to the wall with her, and out into the Wastelands. I tilted my head, but continued to follow. No matter where they were going, I was interested. Especially now that they'd left the city with her.

I swear the woman looked right at me. I swear she looked me dead in the eyes in between her shrieks and smiled.

At some point, her angry shrieking seemed to begin to grate on the group's nerves - they shoved a wadded up piece of cloth into her mouth and used a spare bit of rope to tie it there and keep it in place. They were careless enough to catch her hair in the ropes. I winced out of sympathy - it hurts to get your hair caught on anything, especially ropes.

It took a great deal of time, but soon I noticed a familiar shape in the distance… My Citadel. My brows furrowed - were they actually going to my Citadel? And if so… What were they planning to do there? The only thing there - aside from Teko and myself, I assumed, given the state of Haven City - was…

The Silos.

I found my face contorting in astonishment - perhaps even disgust. They were going to dump this woman into one of the Silos. And even though the Silos closed automatically, they were going to tie a rock to her so she'd be stuck at the bottom if she even survived the initial dunk into the Eco, which I doubted she would.

How incredibly cruel…

I loved it.

My suspicions were proved correct when we arrived at my Citadel and they bypassed most of the internal chambers completely in order to go straight to the nearest Silo.

They got it open - and you may be wondering "how?", but the answer is very simple; I installed a switch that would let me open it whenever I happened to need Eco - and placed her next to the opening. She was beginning to look afraid now, as they tied the heavy rock onto the end of one of the ropes.

Three or four of the people picked her back up, swung her a couple times, and plopped her right in. I briefly wondered what she had done to deserve such treatment, plopping myself into the Eco to see what happened to her. The Silo closed over the top of us.

As she floated down toward the bottom, she looked right at me. I'm not sure how I could see anything inside the Eco, but I know she looked at me. The rope keeping the cloth in her mouth began to dissolve, along with the cloth itself. When it was gone, she took a large gulp of Eco.

She spoke. Her voice chilled me straight to my core.

"This is what happens when someone like us takes the throne, little Sage." The other ropes began to dissolve as well. "We are never appreciated. They see as as bad omens." She moved toward me, hands outstretched, "You and I… We could teach them a lesson. We could teach them not to kill us like this."

I tried to back away, my back touching something that felt… Gooey. I turned, deciding this dethroned Queen would probably do less harm than whatever else was lurking in the Silo. I shrieked at what I saw - it was me, but not. Her skin was pure white, and seemed to be slowly melting off of the bones beneath. Even her hair looked like it was melting. Her eyes were empty black sockets and she was just… Smiling. She, too, had her arms outstretched toward me.

I backed away again, this time bumping into the Queen. She wrapped her arms around me in a hug, pressing her lips to the back of my neck. The other one pressed up against my front and wrapped her arms around me as well.

I couldn't breathe. They were squeezing me - squeezing the life out of me. The Dark Eco around me began to feel like it was liquid fire.

I was burning alive.

I jolted awake, suddenly.

I was still outside of my Citadel, laying on the ground and surrounded by the blood of the Metal Head's initial explosion. I slowly sat up, looking behind myself to see Daxter, Jak, and Teko peering out at me from behind the spilled container of Dark Eco. Their expressions were each a unique blend of horror and worry - Jak's contained just a pinch of pride.

I stood and walked hesitantly back toward the door. I was shaky, not just because of my dream. I felt weak at the knees and queasy, though I wasn't sure why.

"You look drained." Daxter noted as I approached. "That musta taken a lot out of you."

So that was why I felt weak. I had no Dark Eco left in my system - that was a real shock. It usually took a lot longer to run out - maybe it had been that whole exploding thing. I tried to ignore the thought that maybe it had been because of the dream.

Instead of replying to Daxter, I leaned down to the puddle of Dark Eco that remained. It seemed there was just enough left to fill my bodily supply again. I absorbed it and took a deep breath, looking back up at the others. Teko slowly moved toward me.

"... Uh… Izaya, I don't mean to startle you, but…" She knelt down next to me and touched my face. "There's blood coming out of your eyes."

"There… Is?" I blinked and furrowed my brows.

She nodded and swiped a finger over my cheeks, lifting it up to show the crimson substance glistening on her finger.

I wiped my face on my shirt. "Better?"

She nodded. "Your tear ducts are bright freaking red though." She paused, "And you have pink stains on your lower eyelids."

I sighed. "Oh well. They'll go away eventually."

I scratched at the side of my head, picking out a small chunk of Metal Head skin. Teko gagged when she saw it. I discarded it into the abyss below the cracks in my floor. I no longer heard the Metal Heads down there - perhaps they'd all melted in the massive flood of Dark Eco. Or maybe they'd decided to be quiet after they heard the much larger and stronger Metal Head outside get exploded.

I didn't really care what the reason was, as long as they didn't give me any shit. I wasn't in the mood for Metal Heads right now - I was in the mood for a tall glass of whiskey, a warm room, and cuddles. That sounded really nice right about then. Especially if it was Daxter I was getting cuddles from… And if those cuddles ended up leading to something much more serious and tiring. And pleasurable.

I was still a virgin at the time and really horny, so shush. I couldn't help it.

Teko knew where my mind was and giggled. "God, Izaya." I swatted at her.

"If you say anything I will skin you." I uttered. She rolled her eyes as I turned to Daxter. "Anyway, while we're here, I wanted to offer you something."

Teko coughed to cover up her saying something that sounded distinctly like "her virginity", but was ignored by me and unheard by him. "What is it?" He lifted an eyebrow.

"Well," I began with the slightest twinge of uncertainty, "I have a way to give you the same ability Teko has."

He blinked. "You mean… Turn back into a human?" Disbelief was written all over his face. He glanced to Jak for reassurance that he'd heard me correctly.

"Yes, exactly. And be able to change back into an Ottsel, should you ever want to." I bit my lip. He turned to me and I swallowed quite audibly as he stared at me. His silence stretched on for a few minutes before he dropped his gaze to the ground and took a shaky breath.

"... Izaya… Even after I told you that I didn't wanna change back… You still want to offer me the chance?" He slowly looked back up at me. I nodded hesitantly. "Why?"

"Because even if you don't want to be human all the time… I know that, deep down, you still crave it." I was bullshitting, really, but hopefully I had hit the mark with that. Maybe he was enough like Teko for me to guess right.

He lips trembled even as he pulled them into a smile. "Thank you." He whispered.

I took his answer as a "yes, I want you to change me back" when he didn't say anything else.

"Alright." I said softly, "There's a pod over there - if you get in, I can start the process."

I'd never seen him scurry so fast in all the time I'd known him. Not even when he was looking for me in Haven. So I had been right. He did crave humanity. That was a relief. I followed him to the pod, picking up my previously discarded duffle bag along the way. I was very, very lucky - and glad - that none of the vials had shattered on my clothes inside of it.

Daxter climbed right into the pod, no hesitation, no questions asked, and let me close it up.

I placed each of the vials cork-side down in holes on the pod, quickly moving to hook up the feed of Green Eco to the pod as well. Hopefully it and the water pump still worked.

"You ready?" I asked.

He nodded.