Everyone exited the tent, trying to fully take in what Onin had revealed to them. Spyro and Cynder's expressions were astonished as much as speechless, Sparx was still wide-eyed, and Hunter kept a passive look yet couldn't help scratching his head in bewilderment. Jak was the only one with a neutral look while Daxter just seemed clueless.

Hunter broke the silence and turned to Jak, "We'll meet you back at the vehicles," he said before jumping to the rooftops to get out of sight, Spyro and Cynder followed in suit. Sparx on the other hand stayed back and flew over to Daxter on Jak's shoulder.

"Let's clear something up, I don't like you, you don't like me, and we both agree that Packer is an obnoxious arrogant featherhead, right?" he asked him.

"All true," Daxter responded.

"Putting that into consideration, would it be possible, if not ludicrous to suggest that we could find some common ground until we find a way to go home?" asked Sparx. Daxter scratched his head in thought while Jak paid close attention to see how this would play out, although he had a good presumption.

"I have much chance of getting along with you as Jak has of attending an anger management seminar and actually taking something out of it," said Daxter.

"So that's a no," Sparx replied.

"You're darn right it is," the ottsel answered. Jak smirked knowing he was right on both ends. Sparx flew up to the rooftops to catch up with his friends while Jak and Daxter walked off with the lifeseed enclosed in his shoulder knapsack. They left the bazaar and reached the zoomers and flew off over the bridge toward the forest. Jak led the way on his single seater while Hunter followed on his cruiser with Spyro and Cynder riding concealed in the back. They entered the farmer's bazaar and started heading toward the same lock they entered when traveling to Mar's Gate. Jak pulled left and turned toward the familiar elevated security lock with Hunter right behind him. As soon as they landed Cynder immediately recognized the path and spoke to Jak,

"Aren't we heading toward Mar's Gate?"

"The same direction, but not that way, the path to Haven Forest is taken via hover-platform," Jak answered.

"Any more hostiles on the side of this lock I should be aware of?" asked Hunter.

"Wouldn't bet against it," Jak answered.

"Figured as much, my arrow stockpile is getting low, and I feel foolish for forgetting to bring my broadsword."

"We've got you covered Hunter, but that reminds me, we could use a recharge," said Spyro. Hunter nodded and reached into his robes and pulled out the mystic gem.

"Unless you guys want to attract a crowd with that I suggest you do it on the other side of the lock," Jak informed. Hunter thought on his request for an instant, and slipped the mystic gem back into his robes before following Jak up the elevated walkway with the dragons and Sparx right behind. After entering the lock and exiting the other side where the warp gate was located, Hunter brought the gem out again and and held it out in front of Spyro and Cynder. Both of them put their paws on the gem, and in result the gem's shine slowly grew brighter and brighter and covered the dragons in shining light. The surrounding audience shielded their eyes from the light to ease the blinding pain. The dragons felt their strength returning and the aches from their previous battles leaving them, even Spyro felt his wing completely healed from the hit he took in the sewers. The shine from the gem reached its peak and then started to die down, the aura lifted from the audience, and returned to the gem. Retracting their paws, Spyro and Cynder stretched their limbs, feeling totally refreshed.

"Better?" Hunter asked putting the gem back into his robe pocket.

"Much" replied Spyro.

"Okay, now that you guys are replenished, let's find Samos," said Jak.

"Yeah, don't wanna leave young greenie waiting, already seen what that's done to his older half!" stammered Daxter.

"Can't you stop talking for one mission?" asked Jak.

"Can you refrain from making crazy and suicidal stunts for a change?" Daxter asked back. Jak fell silent for a minute, trying to elaborate his usual mission actions to see if there was any truth to that.

"Yeah, when I'm right, I'm right!" Daxter declared.

Jak just shook his head and turned to Hunter, "Hunter come with me, we'll jump up."

"Excuse me?"

Jak pointed to the warp gate behind him, then Hunter understood, "Oh one of those things again."

Jak jumped in and vanished in a flash, Hunter watched for a second and jumped into the vortex after him. Seeing him vanish, Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx took flight toward the cliff, upon reaching the top they saw Jak, Daxter and Hunter waiting for them.

"Ohh, please tell my bones to stop vibrating, its rather unpleasant."

"Oh great, another teleporting whiner," said Daxter. Jak ignored him and started walking across the cliff to the other side, where the temple elevator was on the right side, and on the left was a floating platform at the cliff's edge.

"Here's our ride," said Jak as he stepped onto the platform, then Hunter stepped on slowly, trying to ensure he didn't fall into the deep chasm below. The platform suddenly hummed to life and took off through the air, Hunter steadying himself as it moved. Spyro and Cynder watched them take off for a moment and then took off after them with Sparx in tow. The platform and the dragons flew down to an orange metal gate embedded in the rock which led to an open cavern in the mountain. They flew through the cavern and stopped at another gate which led out to a lush green forest. Jak and Hunter stepped off as the platform stopped and the dragons landed beside them, they all took their first good look of their green surroundings.

"Reminds me of my valley back home," said Hunter.

"It's beautiful," added Cynder.

"And peaceful," Spyro finished.

"Yeah, too bad metalheads are known to invade this area," said Jak.

"You're kidding," Sparx stammered.

"Nope, last few times I've been here I've always had to hunt down infesting metalheads," Jak added.

"Way to kill the mood Jak," said Cynder dryly.

"You don't think Samos is?" asked Hunter feeling concerned. Jak immediately caught where he was going and said, "No, the forest is his domain, if anything hostile were to come in with him around, he'd take care of it his own way, come on let's find him."

Finishing the discussion he brought his jetboard off from his back, mounted and sped off over the cliff. Hunter jumped after him while Spyro and Cynder took flight. Jak's board landed right in front of a small river, he flew over it and headed straight toward a hill and started gliding up, he kept climbing until he saw another cavern embedded in rock on the left and turned into it. His friends followed him through, and on the other side they came to a small valley encompassed with a single large tree, as wide and high as a Haven city building. Jak boarded around it, and when he reached the front, he found who he was looking for, Young Samos was sitting in front of the tree in a meditative state. Jak dismounted and let the others catch up as he walked up to him, Hunter and the dragons landed behind him and followed, they noticed the tree was atop a tall cliff over-hang with two paths leading down to lower ground. Samos opened his eyes and smiled briefly seeing the friendly faces.

"Samos told me to," Jak started trying to explain, "or rather you told me to, or well your older version…" the others behind him grinned at his clumsy attempt to elaborate.

"Whatever, we heard you needed the lifeseed," he finished clearly and brought the seed out from his pack and tossed it in front of Samos where it levitated.

"Yes, its power will help me speak to the plants," Young Samos replied.

"Can you ask them if any butterflies are around?" Sparx asked. Everyone turned to him with a stern and disapproving glare.

"What? I'm hungry!" Spyro just shook his head. Suddenly a blast of propulsion caused them to turn around. Everyone turned in shock to see two Krimzon jet guards flying toward them.

"There he is!"

"Roger that, target located"

"Bring in the squads"

"Who invited them?!" shouted Sparx.

"Jak! Everyone! Protect me from these guards, I must ask the plants vital questions about our future," Samos pleaded. Everyone nodded and got battle ready, Jak and Hunter unholstered their weapons while Spyro and Cynder took fighting stances. The jet-guards circled back around the trees and away from them toward the wall, at the same time, two large Krimzon transports flew out over it and headed toward them. The transports flew up toward the tree-overhang and stopped in front of the two paths. They sat for a few seconds, doing nothing.

"What are they waiting for?" Jak asked out loud. He got his answer, the sound of more jets caused them to turn around, two more transports came in from the opposite direction and landed on two small cliffs leading down to the tree.

"Reinforcements," Hunter responded.

The transport rear hatches opened up and Krimzon guards started running toward them, at least 5 in two separate groups. Jak turned back toward the other two in front, five were coming out of each one as well, and running up the cliff toward them.

"Hunter, you and me will cover the front, Spyro and Cynder, you take the rear! We hold them here!" Jak commanded. They each took their positions, save for Sparx who said, "I'll probably stay close to greenie, just for safety," blindly referring to him as he fluttered close to Samos while he meditated.

The five guards from the left backside charged toward the dragons as Spyro met them with a full wave of fire that swept right over them, causing them to scream in agony. Cynder finished up with a wind burst that sent all of them flying in a funnel and out in different directions.

On the other side, Hunter fired arrow after arrow swiftly at the quintal brigade coming at him. Three guards fell from direct headshots but two were left standing due to missing just on the side, damaging their helmets. Hunter jumped at them and kicked them over the edge, where they fell screaming to the bottom. Jak's scatter gun blew the group coming at him on their backs, as the five of them tried getting up, Jak fired twice more and they all fell back again and stopped moving. The jet guards started flying overhead firing their laser cannons at him, luckily he managed to roll out of the way in time while re-engaging his blaster. He returned fire, and although they dodged the first two, they got hit by one more each and fell losing their jet propulsion momentarily.

More guards starting running out of the transports behind the tree to engage the defenders. Spyro flew ahead of them and engulfed them all in a full wave of fire. The guards screamed as their armor melted away, until Spyro flew back around and covered them with ice, which extinguished the flames and knocked them out. The jet guards steadied themselves and propelled upward once again, aiming for Jak. Jak dodged their blasts once again and shot back at both, missing one and hitting the other back again. The guard flew out of control and into the mountain with a kaboom. The other jetguard prepared to take aim, but never pulled the trigger, as Hunter shot an arrow right into his arm. The guard screamed in pain trying to remove it, but taking his hand of the controls caused to him to spin out of control, right into the front wall.

With the jetguards finished, the remaining patrols exited the transports and headed up the ramps toward the tree in one final attack. All four heroes stood around Samos in a shield, and as the guards prepared to aim and fire, the attack was on. Spyro bit, Cynder slashed, Hunter fired and Jak shot and kicked the whole brigade in a complete assault. The fierce battle was soon over, and the guards lay defeated at their feet. Those that recovered collected themselves and escaped into the transports. Knowing they had lost, the transports engines fired up and flew away.

Seeing them depart, Sparx flew doing from hiding in the tree toward Spyro, "Way to go man, that's how we do it!"

"WE?! You did nothing glowboy! So stop sucking up all the gusto!" Daxter yelled.

"Who are you to talk? You did more nothing than me bushy tail!" Sparx shot back.

"At least I stayed in the action, unlike you who has nothing better to do than count the number of butterflies you stuff down…"

"ENOUGH!" The two bickering animals silenced themselves as Hunter yelled to both of them, "We have won this fight, let us not start another."

"Thank you Hunter," said Cynder, taking a sigh of relief.

Samos uncurled himself from his meditative position and set his feet on the terra beneath him, beckoning them to come over quickly.

"Samos, what did you see?" asked Jak.

"The lifeseed gave me a terrible vision, the Baron is planning to destroy the Precursor Stone! He aims to crack it open somehow, if he does the energy released will be beyond comprehension, far worse than his real intentions to exterminate the metalheads!"

Everyone was speechless, until Spyro said, "He's turning the Precursor Stone into a bomb?! To destroy the city?!"

"Unknowingly, but I'm afraid the city is just the start, the released energy would destroy the world and more, ending all life everywhere!"

All their eyes stood wide open, Cynder spoke with stuttered tone, "You mean…even…our home?"

"He truly has gone mad," Hunter added. Jak just gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

"Jak, everyone, please you must stop the Baron! Stop him however you can!" begged Samos.

The situation has become more dire, what will come next? please read and review