Chapter 29: The Return of Errol
The Crew emerged from Keira's eco shield unharmed as the explosion subsided, and they all stood up looking around the wreckage that destroyed the Mos Espa arena. Most of the spectators were dead, few were wounded, but the ones that remained living shrieked with fear and sprinted frantically away from the aftermath. Jak and Keira slowly walked over to Tym's limp corpse that was burning inside the false eco tanker. They couldn't feel anything but sorrow for him.
Jak bent down and noticed a light purple substance dripping from one of the holes of the "wrecked tanker." He dabbed it with his two fingers, observed it, smelled it, and concluded, "It's a trick! This isn't even dark eco. It's plasmite! The Empire somehow knew we were after it."
Keira crouched down over Tym's body, rested her hand on his charred face, and quivered as she shed a tear, "I'm sorry, Vin. I wish we could've known earlier so we could save him. But it's okay. You guys are together again now. Finally. At last."
"VIN!?" Daxter chirped, "Why the hell are you apologizing to him!?"
"Because," Keira started.
"Tym was Vin's father." Jak finished.
Daxter looked at the dead body, puzzled, and then figured it out. "Ooooohhhhhhhhhh. I get it! They were both kooky mechanical 'geniuses!' It all makes sense now!"
"Yes, it does, doesn't it?" A voice bellowed from the top of the ruins of the stadium. That prompted everyone to stand up and look towards that direction, staring at a stoic black figure with a cape whistling with the wind. The figure drew a red light saber out as he continued, "Such a shame, a father and son die at separate times, never to see each other for one last time. You would know a lot about that wouldn't you…Jak?" As he finished stepping down the ruins of the stadium, his face was revealed. Jak's old arch nemesis had been given a third chance at life, and he was more bloodthirsty for revenge than ever before.
"Errol!" Jak shouted as he drew his blue-bladed light saber, "How are you alive!? You became one of Vader's pawns, didn't you?"
"Yes…"Errol hissed as he became face to face with his enemy, "Do you see what you have made me now? Do you see what I must do to survive, because of everything that YOU destroyed for me? I had it all, and you took EVERYTHING from me! Damn you, you eco freak!"
"You have done all of that yourself." Jak retorted, "If Baron Praxis didn't corrupt you in the first place, you would've never consumed yourself with dark eco to destroy our home, and you definitely would've never fallen for Vader's scheme now!"
"My master's plan is much more grand than you think," Errol argued, "I shouldn't tell you, but long-story short, it involves killing you and your friends first…"
"That'll never happen, you slimy, wretched, bucket-brain!" Keira boldly stood forward as she drew her purple-bladed light saber. She walked from behind Jak to in front of him and continued, "You have no idea what YOUR Empire plans to do with this universe!"
"Ahh, Keira!" Errol greeted her, "Oh how I've missed you! And how I pity for you, that you unwisely chose this dark eco freak over me in the end. This loser that didn't even save his own planet and his own people when it mattered the most."
"How would you know?" Keira snapped, "You weren't even breathing when all of that happened. Besides, judging by the looks of you now, I would say that marrying this "eco freak" was the best decision I ever made!"
"SILENCE!" Errol shouted as he lifted his light saber to strike her down.
"BACK OFF!" Jak yelled as he used The Force to push Errol back ten feet before he could swing at her.
"Let me fight him with you." Keira pleaded softly to her husband.
"You'll have your chance, believe me." He replied.
"Ah ah ah! Careful, Jak. Temper, temper!" Errol began to taunt him, "We all know what happens when you get…angry. It was once your strength, now it's my advantage."
"How do you figure?" Jak asked.
"Because," Errol answered, "I have earned a power that not even The Precursors could control, a power beyond your wildest imaginations."
"You said that the last time, metal monkey!" Daxter interrupted.
"Oh…but this power is nothing like that, I assure you. The Dark Side of The Force is so powerful not even you would understand. I used that power to make the Dark Makers regain my trust, as I am the bridge that joins them with The Empire! I crashed one of those Dark Maker ships onto this planet, thinking that you would search for supplies that you need to win your pathetic little race, a race I could've easily won in more convincing fashion. But I refused to let that happen, so I sprung the trap in that ship, and tried to kill you and your fellow Jedi friends that way." Keira turned to Jak with disgust, and then glared right back at Errol who continued, "Although, I must say I wasn't expecting you to destroy the entire ship on your own. I am impressed with you on that, but that just called them all to join The Empire, so we as a unified militia, can wipe out all the remaining Jedi left in The Universe! Including you…"
"Apparently I didn't do a good enough job 'killing' you these past couple of times," Jak boldly implored as he pointed his blade towards Errol, "So I guess third time's the charm!"
Errol only chuckled in response, "I wouldn't be too sure." As he finished, a whole army of Storm Troopers ran over the mountain and opened fire towards the remaining spectators, prompting Ahsoka, Master Windu, and Ratchet to draw their weapons, ready to defend themselves. Commander Creed led the fray, adorning black armor and an open-faced Imperial helmet, drawing an electro-staff and a pistol.
Errol charged at Jak and Keira, swinging at both of them with his light saber. They both blocked each of his strikes three times. Frustrated, Errol furiously leapt and swing his blade hard over them, careening his tip to the ground. Jak and Keira ducked and rolled, got back up, and charged at the dark eco Cyborg. Jak swung, spun, and clashed blades with Errol in all directions, before locking blades with him.
That prompted Keira to deliver an open hit to the body. She slashed his right shoulder and created a cut on the side. That prompted Errol to break off the lock he had with Jak, as he proceeded to scream in agonizing pain. He stepped back, held his opposite hand over the wound for a few moments, and then let it go as he glared at his two combatants.
Panting with rage, Errol charged up a dark eco ball with is right hand and threw it at Keira, causing her to fly a few feet in the air before temporarily resting unconscious on the ground, while Tess flew even further away from the scene. Before Jak could comprehend that situation and fume himself up to stimulate his dark powers, Errol leapt towards him and wildly struck at him. Panicked, Jak tried to block as many strikes from Errol as he could, but would remain helpless when Errol threw his steel elbow at his jaw, knocking him backwards. Then, Errol used The Force to lift him up off the ground, suffocated him, and then jettisoned him towards a large pile of crumbled rubble, knocking Daxter to the ground in a different direction.
Meanwhile, Master Windu, Ahsoka, and Ratchet were doing a fair job at fending off themselves from the wave of storm troopers. While Ratchet shot down as many storm troopers as he could with every weapon he had in his arsenal, Ahsoka and Master Windu stood back and simply deflected bullets with their light sabers back to charging troopers. Commander Creed pranced around the area until he caught sight of The Lombax. He glared at Ratchet with fierce rage, and stared him down.
"YOU! LOMBAX!" The Commander bellowed as he dropped his pistol, prompting Ratchet to turn around.
"You…" Ratchet growled back at him.
"I thought I killed you back over Eco!" Creed exclaimed.
"You thought wrong…"Ratchet sneered, "and I'm glad it turned out that way, because now I can finish you off the way I wanted to! You're gonna pay for what you've done to Talwyn."
"Well," Creed continued, "At least I was successful in dispatching General Apogee. You 'Galactic Rangers' and the rest of your 'Halo Army' were a menace to The Republic!"
"You wrongfully killed innocent brave soldiers that wished to fight WITH The Republic, not against them!" Ratchet retorted.
"WRONG!" Commander Creed fired back, "You don't even know half the story of the army in which you command! Your regime, led by The Master Chief that served before you, pillaged and gutted my home world of Horus, taking away the innocent lives of men, women, and children."
"W-Well," Ratchet stammered, "I didn't lead them at that time! You attacked us for no reason with your Clone squadron! YOU KILLED MY FIANCEE!"
"Your 'soldiers' killed my family," Creed softly spoke as he removed his helmet, pointing at his scar, "They gave me this when I narrowly escaped."
"You can't blame me for something I didn't do." Ratchet defended.
"Enough talk!" Creed commanded, dropping his pistol, and gripping his electro-staff tightly, "I wish to finish this once and for all!"
"Gladly!" Ratchet declared, dropping his gun and grabbing his Omniwrench. He whispered softly, "This for you, Tal." Then he screamed and charged at the Imperial Commander charging toward him as well.
Meanwhile, Daxter struggled to get up and rubbed his eyes, surrounded by a massive cloud of dust. He turned around looked all around him until he caught a sight of Jak. Once he did, he noticed that he was lying helpless, trapped under large rocks of rubble, and Errol was walking towards him with his light saber drawn.
"Jak!" Daxter yelled in panic, "I'm coming for ya, buddy!" As he sprinted over to Jak's aid, a squadron of Imperial Troopers cut him off.
"You go nowhere, weasel." The lead trooper sneered. He opened fire at Daxter's feet, making him dance, scurry, and sprint in fear. He ran around in circles screaming as the troopers chased him around, until it got to the point when Daxter turned around and suddenly sprung up into his dark mutant form. He roared and beat his chest, then growled at the five troopers aiming their rifles at him. He swung his large arms, slashing them all with his long claws. He devoured them, roared, and then looked to his left, noticing that Ahsoka and Master Windu were struggling to fend off the army of Imperials. He rushed to their aid and became oblivious to Jak's wellbeing.
While all of that occurred, Errol removed the rubble that shrouded Jak by using The Force, and pointed his red blade right at Jak's grimacing face. Jak was hurting, struggling to get up. He grunted as he sat himself up when he noticed that Errol was about to kill him.
Errol laughed with a grim grin, "Finally, at long last! After spending years in hellish purgatory, twice, dwelling on no one and nothing but you, nothing but this moment, I rose from the ashes again to fulfill the destiny that I have longed to deserve! You took everything that I have rightfully earned; my pride, my power, my glory, MY LIFE! And now, you will meet the eyes of Death when I deliver the strike that takes it all back for me, eco freak!" He then lifted his light saber up, ready to deliver the deathblow to the defenseless Jak.
Suddenly, Errol felt a fireball crash into the back of his head and he stumbled to one knee, saving Jak's life. Once Errol turned around to figure out where it came from, another fireball crashed into his face, blinding him temporarily. He screamed of pain for a split second, covered his eyes, and struggled to get back up. These attacks prompted Jak to spring up and discover that it was his wife that pelted his adversary with those fireballs. And they weren't fireballs either; Jak discovered that Keira was also able to channel yellow eco.
"My, my, my!" Errol marveled to Keira, "I guess you're not a green eco freak like you decrepit father after all. You're just another eco freak like Jak!"
"It's you that's the eco freak, Errol!" Keira argued back, "You're the one that has dark eco flowing through your bloodstream!"
"And your pathetic husband doesn't?" Errol asked her.
"One," Keira listed, "he's not 100% dark, you didn't care to discover that about him. Which leads to two; at least we aren't corrupt with The Dark Side of The Force!"
"Is that so?" Errol inquired as he heard Jak ignite his weapon right behind him. He noticed this, and levitated him up off the ground, suffocating him once more. He sneered, "Well then, let's put your eco skills to the test!" He flung Jak towards her, which then lead to Keira using The Force to grab him, set him down slowly, then swiftly charging after the eco cyborg.
Errol tried to strike his weapon towards her in quick and rapid movements, but he was unsuccessful since she used her blue eco powers to zoom around his attacks. Then, she channeled her frustration into an unusual form of strength for her; perplexed, she noticed some red eco boiling out of her fists that clenched the hilt of her light saber. But she didn't spend much time pondering her new eco abilities as she furiously swung her sword at Errol's. The strikes produced by the red eco were so powerful and pungent, each one knocked Errol back a few feet, eventually knocking him on the ground.
Keira pointed the tip of her light saber right in between Errol's eyes and sneered, "I married a guy who IS tough, not someone who ACTS tough like you!"
Errol screamed, then extended his long arm and grasped it around her neck. He used dark eco to create a pulse that shocked her. The shock traversed from her neck down to her feet, and she screamed of agonizing pain, prompting Jak to wake up and witness the sight far away from him. Her body became temporarily paralyzed and she fell limp to the ground.
While all of that occurred, Ratchet was still dueling with Commander Creed. The Lombax swung his Omniwrench towards the Imperial Commander, driving him back, and blocking all of his strikes. He swung with such violence, such aggression; it was hard for Creed to keep up. Eventually, Ratchet used his wrench to sweep the commander's legs, dropping him on his back as his helmet fell off his head. Ratchet clenched the head of his large wrench around the commander's neck, choking him.
"It's over…" Ratchet growled as he grasped the wrench on his neck harder, causing his head to swell like an inflated balloon, "You'll never harm anyone again after I'm done with you." Out of a sudden burst of desperation, Commander Creed grabbed his electro-staff and swung one of its electric ends at Ratchet's knee, stunning him and causing him to drop his wrench. Then, Creed mercilessly beat and tortured Ratchet with his staff, hitting him in all areas from his head, to his shoulders, back, then legs, but he refused to go down. He dodged one of Creed's strikes to pick his wrench back up and continued fighting him.
In the midst of this destructive fracas, Clank stood helplessly, looking around, feeling like a small child in an adult world. He didn't feel threatened by a bit, even though he saw the others struggling to fend off the Imperial Army. He saw Daxter pelted with bullets from Imperial blasters and he saw Ahsoka and Master Windu cornered. He saw Jak and Keira struggle to fend off Errol. He really felt ashamed of himself when he saw Commander Creed beginning to dominate over his best friend, Ratchet. He wanted to help. He wanted to help them all. He instead thought he could not. He didn't know he had a little bit more in store inside of his small body until a trio of Storm Troopers held him at gunpoint.
"He's harmless," One of the troopers scoffed, "Lord Vader will have fun dismantling him…again." The troopers laughed, which caused Clank's eyes to glow from green to red.
He then screamed a deep but booming scream that no one had ever heard before, not even Ratchet. As everyone turned their heads after they heard this, Clank began to transform. His small frame suddenly grew, and grew, and grew, until he was about thirty-feet tall, towering over most of the Imperial artillery and even the mutant Daxter. His left arm suddenly became a large but powerful blaster that he first used to fire at one of the oncoming Imperial Walkers, destroying it with one red eco rocket. His left arm transformed into a contraption with a spinning gyro disk with two needles rapidly tapping on it, causing yellow eco bullets to ricochet into a battalion of at least twenty Storm Troopers. Then his head slunk down into his neck, and was cased with a glass dome. Sprouting from his back were three tentacles that beamed a type of blue eco that vaporized oncoming TIE fighters. The most diabolical and most destructive portion of his transformed frame was his chest; it opened up into a massive dark eco reactor, one that was powerful enough for obliterating up to three Star Destroyers.
"Keira…" Jak whispered to himself as he gingerly stood himself up, "what the hell did you do to him?"
"Showoff." The mutant Daxter commented as the giant Clank winked at him. As Daxter leapt and crawled upward toward his shoulder, the Imperial Army frantically retreated.
"LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" The lead Storm Trooper shrieked with fear as he and his fellow soldiers sprinted away from the giant robot that was firing every weapon he had.
Looking at the chaos the giant was causing to his army for a brief moment, Errol turned back to Keira and shouted as he pointed his blade at her, "YOUR'E WRONG!" She looked up as he continued to declare, "I will show the Galaxy what it means to be 'tough.' My plan in place will rule over every system in the Universe, including the planet in which the Precursors originally came, and including our home! The Dark Makers will be mine, The Empire will be mine, and I will rule over EVERYONE! Including you, and your pathetic husband! I will accomplish this by using the ultimate power of darkness; one that will vanquish all that is good left everywhere, including you! And there is nothing you can do to stop me!"
As Errol was about to strike Keira down, Jak in his light from released a beam of light eco from his hands at a far distance, and knocked Errol to the ground. Jak then rushed to his wife and reached his hand out to her. She looked up at her light eco angel, and grabbed his hand, pulling herself up. They drew their weapons as Errol stood up. He was slightly damaged, but still fully mobile as he flew towards them to continue to fight.
Ratchet and Creed continued their duel, but this time it was the Imperial Commander that had the advantage over the Lombax. As the Commander drove him back, he was able to pelt his adversary's limbs with the two edges of his electrostaff, causing a conduit of electricity to stun Ratchet's body every time he got shocked. After suffering ten shocks from him, Ratchet finally fell to the ground, lying on his back, looking up at the sight of Creed towering over him, who was also pointing the tip of his staff down towards his heart, ready to thrust it through him.
"Finally," Creed growled, "The last Lombax to ever exist in the Galaxy will perish under the strike from The Empire."
"NO!" Someone suddenly shouted. It was Ahsoka, who came out of nowhere after fending herself off from a horde of Storm Troopers to use The Force to push Creed out of Ratchet's way. The Commander tumbled on the sand and eventually smashed his face onto a rock, knocking him unconscious. She and Master Windu rushed to his aid.
"Are you all right?" The Togruta asked The Lombax.
"Y-yeah…"Ratchet strained as he stood up and balanced himself on the shoulders of the two Jedi aiding him. He turned to Ahsoka, "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Ahsoka replied, "You're a life worth saving."
Ratchet smiled, then asked his fellow companions, "Where's Clank?" They frowned at him, looked towards the direction where the giant was walking towards, prompting Ratchet to look the same way. He gasped, "Oh no…"
Clank continued to wreak havoc over the Imperial Forces. One by one, any and every form of arsenal that they had was quickly obliterated by a large array of Clank's weapons. Star Destroyers moved in and frantically fired at the giant, but he refused to go down. They got one lucky shot off and hit the mutant Ottsel, causing Daxter to fall down from the giant's shoulders as he shrunk back down to his normal self. As he landed hard on the ground, he sat himself up, and scratched his head. He heard a voice in the distance.
"DAXTER!" He heard someone yell, he opened his eyes, and his vision was blurred. He could see faint orange but couldn't tell exactly who it was. "DAXTER!" he heard again. It was Tess who was calling to him, and helped him stand up straight as she wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She asked him, "Are you okay?"
"I don't feel too good." The groggy Ottsel replied.
"Ratchet just called The Renegade over here to pick us up," Tess told him, "I need to get you over there with him and Ahsoka. Master Windu will be there too."
"Wh-what about Jak and Keira?" Daxter asked her.
"I think they'll find their way over to us," She replied with haste, "but we have little time! We need to get over there!"
While Daxter worried about what could happen to his two best friends, Jak, still in his light form, helped Keira fend off a charging Errol. Now filled with rage, the Dark Eco cyborg crackled with dark eco pulsing throughout his artificial veins, and his eyes glowed a deep red and yellow. He growled as he sprung up towards Jak, swinging his blade at him vigorously as Jak blocked all of his strikes. Keira tried the sneak attack once more, but Errol quickly turned around and locked blades with her. At the same time, he fired off quick bursts of dark eco energy from his hand, trying to aim for Jak behind him, but he was successful in blocking off all of those shots.
While all of this occurred, military officials in the lead Star Destroyer were panicking over the giant attacking the Imperial Fleet.
"There's nothing that we can do sir!" One officer shouted at The Admiral, "We've hit him with everything we got!"
"The only way to destroy that giant," the other officer hypothesized, "is that we detonate all of the dark eco we have in that tanker right by him."
"And we can't afford to lose any of that dark eco," The Admiral concluded, "Because Lord Vader requests it be brought to him." He ordered, "Send down a shuttle to pick up Errol and Commander Creed from the battlefield, and order a full-scale retreat! And deploy the shields on the eco tanker, so that nothing can destroy it!"
As he noticed the Imperial Fleet retreating, Errol broke off the stalemate between him and Keira, used The Force to push her down, and then flipped and leapt backwards towards the dark eco tanker. He stopped at about 300 feet away from it when he noticed that Jak was charging towards him and hurling light eco fireballs at him, but Errol was able to dodge and block them all with his light saber.
As the eco tanker prepared for takeoff, he declared, "I really enjoy playing with you freaks, but I'm afraid I must be going. I have a Universe to take over!"
"NO YOU WON'T!" Jak shouted as he streamed a beam of light eco from his hand towards Errol. In response, Errol blasted a ray of dark eco from his hand and clashed it with Jak's light eco beam, creating a massive orb of eco energy right in the middle.
"Jak, no…" Keira quivered as she retracted her light saber.
"KEIRA! JAK!" She heard Ahsoka call out to her, and noticed she was already on board of The Renegade, with the ventral door hanging down. She was grabbing onto one of the railings with one hand, and motioning her frantically with the other. She screamed, "We have to leave, now! Let's go!" Keira hesitated. She looked at Jak struggling with Errol, then looked at everyone else on board, and went back and forth frantically a few times, until she ultimately decided to stand by her husband. Clank however, shrunk back down into his normal form after most of the Imperial Fleet left, and rushed to hop on board of the ship as it hovered slightly behind Jak and Keira.
Jak and Errol's eco standoff was a struggle for the ages. Both men grunted and grimaced as one tried to push his eco beam towards the other. The beams fluctuated in opposite directions several times, but ultimately, the central orb was fixed equidistant from the two adversaries. The orb of eco energy grew larger, and larger, until it created a seismic explosion throughout the desert, sending Jak and Errol flying in opposite directions.
Errol landed inside the dark eco tanker right when its shields deployed and immediately took off away from Tatooine's atmosphere. Jak and Keira were jettisoned back into the cockpit of The Renegade as the ship's passenger hangar closed shut. Ratchet was able to recover fast enough to fly back towards Jabba's palace to collect the supplies the crew left behind.
