Chapter 25: Strokes of Fear

Hours had passed since the desert planet's sunrise, and Jak, Daxter, Ahsoka, and Master Windu still had little to no luck in searching for the parts that they needed to reconstruct the pod. The group was sweating, panting, dehydrated, and exhausted. For hours and miles on end they walked along the barren sand dunes of Tatooine, yet the found nothing. Race day was looming the next day, and they knew time was running out.

"This sucks!" Daxter whined, hanging lazily on Jak's shoulder, "We've been wandering around this sand box, wasting away our lives, looking for some stinkin' pod parts that probably won't even work right! Sheesh, Jak! Why did you have to be so whipped to agree with your crazy wife!?"

"It's not being 'whipped' Daxter," Jak corrected his companion. "It's doing what we can to make this sticky situation work. The bottom line is, we need parts for the pod we have, with little resources, and not a lot of time, so we HAVE to make an effort."

"You know, the creature raises a point," Master Windu chimed in as Daxter growled, "It IS against the Jedi Code to form intimate attractions to fellow Jedi and colleagues."

"I didn't come from the Jedi Code," Jak replied, "I came from a world of democracy. A world that escaped tyranny, darkness, death, and oblivion."

"And that world was concealed from the Democratic Society of The Galactic Republic," Master Windu countered, "which is a longstanding tradition that you do not know and appreciate too well."

"How could I?" Jak argued, "Obviously, this 'Galactic Republic' of ours didn't work out so well. I mean, look what it's become now! After we destroy this 'Empire' we should reorganize the Galaxy into a society where everyone, including Jedi, don't have to be bound by a literal 'code' and experience a little bit of Free Will with some rules. Don't you think?"

"Arrogant fool," Windu grumbled, "speaking from a soul that is poisoned and controlled by a darkness that you can barely control. You clearly do not understand the longstanding tradition of being a Jedi. I can see that you WANT to be a Jedi, but there is a difference between wanting to be a Jedi and actually BEING a Jedi. You see, to be a Jedi, you have to stay committed to being one with the Force, and that includes remaining celibate, blocking yourself from any distractions that will steer your path into the Dark Side, including freedom, including power, and especially, including love. Distractions such as these can lead into fear, anger, hatred, and ultimately suffering, a type of suffering that can change you into a person you do not wish to become. Full of anger, twisted, evil, and dark."

"But Master," Ahsoka added on for a supporting rebuttal, "Jak does bring up a valid suggestion here. I mean, there have been plenty of Jedi that have broken the many rules of The Code before, and they turned out fine! Don't you think sometimes that the Jedi Code can be taken too literally sometimes? Can't the Jedi themselves can be too extreme? The rules within are code are so strict that there isn't much of a wonder that some of them turned to The Dark Side."

"And some Dark Jedi or even Sith ended up seeing the light." Master Windu argued.

"True," Ahsoka concurred, but continued, "but all I'm saying is that we should loosen up the rules of society a little bit. Let the Jedi marry others and have children, so that their legacies can be passed on from generation after generation. We can't keep heroes isolated forever; because when they break out (if they break out) they wouldn't know what to do with a world that is so unfamiliar to them. Master Yoda preached that while we have responsibilities, we do have the power to control our own path. And I believe the New Jedi Order, if there ever will be one, should allow them to express who they are freely, within reason of course, while still doing the duties for the people who can't fight for themselves, which is more than what we can count. Those people all over the Galaxy have that free will to be what they want to be, because of us! We serve them. So I believe that we should have that same right too."

"Those are the types of thoughts that can turn Jedi to the Dark Side!" Master Windu barked, stopped walking, and stood face-to-face with Ahsoka, "Now look (pointing at her), you can come up with theories of life all you want, but remember that you chose the life of a Jedi. You left, but returned to redeem yourself. I don't know how you spent your time between then and now, but if you really want to redeem yourself for your mistakes, you follow the Jedi Code to the letter. Got it?"

Jak stopped walking while this exchange occurred, and he turned around vigorously to confront Master Windu. He declared, "Look pal, I didn't come from the Jedi Code, I came from a world that gave a lot more responsibilities than any one can ever imagine, and I still have them today. But that didn't stop me from surrounding myself with the people that I chose to care about the most. Keira just happened to be one of them. I fell in love with her ever since I first laid eyes on her, and that was a long time ago. Sure, we had bumps in the road, but that feeling for her has never yielded since. I love her then, I love her now, and I always will love her, and there's nothing you or any other force can do to stop that. But it also means that I keep my priorities straight, and this fight against the Empire is my most important priority, as is everyone else's. So you can lead, follow, or get out of my way, your choice."

Master Windu looked away for a second, thought, and replied, "Fine, I'll follow you since you brought us all together, 'hero.' You want to fall deeper into darkness, that's your choice, but I'm staying true to the Code that shaped me into who I am, and what I will be." He glared at Jak, turned around, and bolted away down the hill of the sand dune they were on.

Daxter hopped off of Jak's shoulder and said, "You know something, Jak? You can be a pushover sometimes with what you wanna do. Sometimes, you just don't have your head on straight. Sheesh, I'm almost getting tired of reminding you what matters every day!" Jak raised his eyebrow as Daxter declared, "You know what? I'm gonna hang with Master Windy-Baldy over there and talk to him for a bit. Hear a different voice, ya know?" Instantly, Daxter sped off towards Master Windu, and hopped on his shoulder.

"Hey, hey, hey, buddy boy!" The Ottsel began to nag, as Master Windu growled, "So, how did you get into this Jedi-Business any how? Were you in it for the lite-brites? The fancy robes? The thrill to fly star ships and blow stuff up? Who got you in the joint anyhow? Was she hot?"

While Daxter was obnoxiously bombarding Master Windu with random questions, Jak and Ahsoka walked right behind them, and had a conversation of their own:

"So this is the planet where your master grew up, huh?" Jak asked.

"Yup." Ahsoka quickly replied.

"How did he even survive in this hellish place?" Jak continued, "This place is ten times worse than the wastelands back at home."

"I'm not even sure," Ahsoka thought, "I think it was ambition to be a Jedi that drove him away from here. You see, he was actually a slave here, him and his mother both, then Master Kenobi came here incidentally and freed them."

'This is all starting to sound hauntingly familiar…' Jak thought to himself.

"Then Master Kenobi trained him into the great and powerful Jedi that he was," Ahsoka continued, "The reason he took me in as his Padawan was because him and I shared so many similarities; Our ambitions, our eagerness, and yes, even our immaturity." She chuckled at the end.

"What was he like?" Jak wondered.

Ahsoka continued, "The best teacher I ever had. He was very intense, but as my master, he was very caring. He always looked out for me and made sure that I was being trained properly, and that I would be all right. I remember one time during one of our earliest missions, a series of unfortunate events caused us to split up, and he ended up leaving without me. So I was left behind, fending off the Trade Federation by myself. I was surviving with the methods that he taught me, and then he came and rescued me. He apologized to me for him being irresponsible and leaving him behind, but I told him, 'Master, do not apologize to me. I should be thanking you, because your teachings helped me survive on my own, and that is the mark of a Jedi."'

"Sounds like a pretty special guy." Jak commented.

"He was," Ahsoka added on, "He would get so defensive because he cared about everyone around him, especially the ones he loved the most."

"Such as his mother?" Jak eagerly prodded.

"Yes," Ahsoka solemnly quivered, "especially his mother. He told me that she died when the sand-people tortured her. It broke his heart when he saw her dying, because he made a promise to her that he would come back. It's a shame that it had to be that way. That's why he never considered this place home anymore, this place is full of pain and loss to him."

Then Jak thought, 'Strange, that's sounds a lot like the vision that I saw when my mother died!' and then it hit him. Like the rift that he came through time with that crashed into the grounds of Haven City, it came together. He thought 'If his mother and my mother were both killed by sand people, and Damas told me that he was once a slave, then that means…Anakin's my long lost brother!' His eyes widened with wonder as the epiphany struck him like a lightning bolt. In a split second, he goes through a roller coaster of emotions. He contemplated 'I have to go look for him! I have to see if…no. I can't I have already learned in a vision that Vader killed him. It was probably for the better, because he was the one that was destined to be consumed by darkness. Unless, he sacrificed himself to his hands so that wouldn't happen, which leaves me, the twin brother he never knew about, to suffer in anguish! Should I tell her? Should I tell The Apprentice that her Master, the 'great' Anakin Skywalker was indeed my long lost brother? No. I can't declare it. I can't share my feelings to put her at risk of suffering. I have to stay true to who I am, and where I REALLY came from; The House of Mar."

Ahsoka noticed that Jak was distracted in his own mind based on the perplexed expressions on his face that he was drawing. She came to herself to ask him, "Are you okay? Is everything alright?"

"Huh, what?" Jak snapped back into reality as he looked up, then pinched his nose while squinting his eyes, and replied, "Oh yeah, yeah. I'm fine"

Ahsoka touched his shoulder pad and asked him, "You really love her, don't you?"

"Yes," Jak replied, "more than anything in this galaxy."

"Well, I wish I had something that lasted as long as you guys did. You two should be lucky for each other!" Ahsoka lauded to Jak.

Jak replied solemnly, "Thanks, but it hasn't been easy, I can tell you that much."

"How so?" Ahsoka asked.

"Well," Jak looked at her and began, "Her and Daxter are the two best friends I ever had. I've known the two of them ever since we were like, five years old. We went on so many adventures together, for about ten years. After that, we all split apart due to unfortunate circumstances caused by The Metalheads. We all split up, and ended up in different areas of Haven City. Everyone changed, especially me. I got my dark powers because the leader of the city at the time tortured me at the time, and he turned me into a monster, a monster that I had a hard time learning how to control. Keira saw me at my worst. She saw me in my dark form, in my deepest of anger and hatred, and I lost it with her. Long story short, after fending off enemies with my anger, I mistakenly attacked her. We were both distraught, and we couldn't even look at each other. But then once she saw me save the world from The Metalheads, once she saw me use my dark powers for good, she forgave me, embraced me, and made me have a heart again."

"Wow," Ahsoka gasped in amazement, "what a story."

"But it doesn't end there," Jak continued, "Then I save the world a second time, in a worse conflict than the one before, and I emerge from the wreckage of our world's darkest horrors, victorious. It was the heat of the moment, and the first girl I see, wasn't Keira. It was someone else. I kissed her, out of adrenaline, out of euphoria, and it honestly felt great. But it wasn't the same spark that I had with Keira. Anyway, through the grapevine she found out, and she basically pretended that I didn't exist. I was crushed, heart broken, thinking that without her, I would never be the same again. Then the opportunity came again since the insurrection in our world didn't end. Remaining death bots that ransacked our city again and ended up capturing her, because other enemies feared for her potential to becoming the most powerful eco sage ever. They tried to kill her, and that was when I came in with my light powers, and destroyed any evil that would ever harm her. She looked at me, full of tears of joy, as I held her, spread my wings, and flew her to safety. From there on to the end, it was back to the way it was when we first met, when we were playing around as kids in Sandover Village, and I was happy with her."

"She really is amazing," Ahsoka commented, "more than I would've ever expected!"

"She is," Jak concurred, "Hell, most people normally get second chances, I'm lucky to have a third with her. If I blow this one, since we're married and all, I don't know what I will do if she ever walked away from me again. That's why if I'm not protecting anyone else, I will protect her."

Ahsoka could only tear up after she had heard this. She was left speechless. These were the types of emotions that she never had the freedom to feel because of the Jedi code. She thought to herself 'Now THAT is how true heroes should live their lives."

Meanwhile, Daxter kept prodding Master Windu to the brink of uncontrollable agitation and distraction. He kept riding on his shoulder, asking him questions and telling him stories of his adventures with Jak. Master Windu's head was fuming as he plugged his ears to try and limit The Ottsel's loud voice projecting through his brain.

"I told Jak that we should've never gone to that stinkin' island! I kept sayin'!" Daxter continued to agitate the Jedi Master, "Hell, if he had listened to Old Greenie in the first place, I wouldn't be a loud, blabbering rat riding on people's bony shoulders! Anyway, where was I? Oh…" Daxter's jaw dropped in silence when he looked up at an ominous structure lying in the desert. At first, Master Windu was actually pleased that The Ottsel was finally silent, but then he looked up as well, and was immediately marveled by the structure set before them.

Of the four that looked upon the gloomy edifice lying dormant in the desert, Jak felt the most fearful. The moment he laid his eyes on the massive, purple and black, egg-shaped spaceship with limp tentacles, he knew exactly what it was. It was a sight that was all too familiar to him. So familiar, it created a haunting flashback, of the purple Day Star that shined bright in the sky over Spargus. That same Day Star would awaken, and would eventually unleash horrors all over Eco. Various forms of dangerous creatures were terrorizing the people around him, poisoning them with dark eco. The most terrifying structure that the star unleashed was it's Terraformer, a multi-legged, massive, and heavily armored machine that attacked Spargus and Haven City with its horror. Thankfully for Eco, Jak was the one that stopped the Terraformer, and the man, or machine that controlled the terrors of it all. The last image that he saw in his flashback was a silhouette of a humanoid cyborg looking dead at him. He was adorned with red armor, and only half of his scarred human face had short, orange hair on it.

Jak knew what it was, and the haunting flashback made him scream of agonizing pain. He fell to the ground on his knees, holding his forehead with his hand, breathing heavily. Everyone noticed and sensed his pain, as they quickly rushed to his side.

"Are you all right, Jak?" Ahsoka leaned down as the first to ask.

"Looks like ol' dark boy had a nasty flashback," Daxter commented as he hopped off Master Windu's shoulder, "and I know exactly what it is…"

"The Dark Makers…" Jak whispered, and then looked up to the quivering ottsel, "…they're back."

"Dark Makers?" Master Windu inquired.

"Yes," Jak grunted as he stood up. He continued, "They're Precursors that have been heavily infected with dark eco. They have been at war with each other over control of the universe for thousands of years, similar to the Jedi and the Sith. The Dark Makers came to our world one time to destroy it, and Daxter and I had to save everyone from the brink of destruction." He pointed to the ship that lay in the desert, and concluded, "That was one of the ships that they used to destroy it. Horrors of unimaginable comprehension lie within that structure of terror."

"Sheesh, Jak!" Daxter groaned, "You didn't have to get all 'voodoo monkboy' on everyone here! We destroyed it once, right?"

"The fur-ball is right," Master Windu declared, "and I say we should go in there and collect the items that we need. We've been walking around this desert for hours and came up with nothing. I think we should take a chance and scout around for items that we can find. Who knows? It could give us good resources that we can use against The Empire."

"I know what resources they have," Jak sternly replied to Master Windu, "and I have a bad feeling about this one. The Dark Makers are obviously here for some reason, and I fear that if they form an alliance with The Empire, it could spell doom for The Galaxy as a whole, because now I know what they are both capable of." Then he took a moment and thought again, "But still, it wouldn't hurt to see what they're up to, right?"

"WAIT A MINUTE!" Daxter interjected, and began to stammer, "You mean to say that you both wanna go in there? Facing a bunch of creeps full of dark eco? With more weapons than we have? The four of us? By ourselves!?" Jak, Windu, and Ahsoka nodded, and then the ottsel sighed, "Sheesh, I guess if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?"

"That is NEVER the option," Master Windu sternly replied, "but in this case, I guess you'll have to tag along." Daxter gulped as he perched on Jak's shoulder, while him and the two leading Jedi walked towards the gloomy abyss of what once was a Dark Maker Ship. Jak had strokes of fear pulsing around his body, and Master Windu could sense it. He constantly looked back at him as they walked towards the evil edifice, and as they walked closer, the internal tensions raised.

The four of them stood at the bow of the ship, and Jak was the one to step forward and ignite his light saber. He stabbed it right through the steel of the ship, and carved out a doorway that they could walk through. Once the doorway opened, he retracted his blue beam, but kept the weapon in hand, because he sensed that trouble was afoot.

They all walked through a dark hallway and broke through a dismantled door, and ended up walking through the hangar bay of the ship. All four of them stood in awe and terror as they looked around all of the torturous devices that were cased inside the ship. The structures that caught their eyes the most were the five terraformers that were stationed around the base of the ship, similar to the one that attacked Spargus, the one that Jak himself destroyed.

"Well, so far so good. No enemies yet," Jak urgently declared, "but we haven't much time. Gather all of the resources you possibly can that will fit well with the pod. Get as many as you can quick so we can get the hell out of here!"

Without hesitation, everyone spread out all over the ship looking for parts and pieces that would give the pod power. Jak and Daxter found some energy gates and small spark plugs from old dismantled machines. Master Windu found a chest filled with dark eco crystals, and mischievously took a few handfuls of them and stuffed them in his pockets. Ahsoka found some small power cells and energy terminals out of other robots, but paused to rummage through the devices when she heard a sound behind her back. She looked around suspiciously for a moment, and continued to gather the items that she found.

The group converged together in the same hangar bay that they split up from, and they urgently sprinted towards the doorway, only to stop in front of it when massive dark eco stones blocked it. Jak felt a cold sensation tingling down his spine, as Daxter shivered. He looked behind him and saw thousands of Dark Maker bots teeming along the walls of the entire ship. Most of them looked like humanoid mosquitos with one arm larger than the other, while some of them were flying machines. More bots flew in, and were shaped like large tops with a clawed tentacle on the bottom. There were even a few alien mutants with eight legs and two arms crawling up to the gang. Jak, Windu, and Ahsoka drew their light sabers as the Terraformers awakened. This was the type of ambush that Jak and Daxter feared, one that they have never had to deal with before, but are forced to face with now, with the chances of survival truly from slim to none…