I do not own Jak and Daxter. Does anyone know when this property becomes public domain? Really need to look up the rules on that.

Vacation or War-Endgame
Chapter Forty Five-Walking Dead

For a moment Loor was sure she was slipping into shock. Her body felt numb, cold, and she had to force herself to breathe. What had just happened to her? She had gone from being on a rescue mission to being suddenly assailed by a dark eco creature wearing a woman's form. Her guts had been scrambled, ripped and mixed by five talons that had probably run her through to her back. Warm and slick blood covered her stomach and seeped into her clothes, pumping out faster than she thought possible.

Who had that creature been? What human life had been lost for it to gain freedom?

She was getting colder. Even as she laid out on the sand she felt as if her body were turning to ice. Her body had abandoned pain as the edges of her vision darkened; this was bad. Was she going under?

"No..." She muttered to herself, shaking her head and concentrating on breathing. Her lungs were fine, she could breathe deeply and clearly. She had to focus on that and keep herself from slipping into shock. There was still a wastelander laying in the sand, like her, a mere few yards away. What if he was still alive? What if the creature she'd just encountered had ripped both of them and ran off with that eco crystal? She may have been wounded, but she was far from dead. Jak was on his way. She remembered that; she'd called for him to back her up right before she arrived. He would be here soon.

Her vision was clearing. Her limbs, though they still felt cold and leaden, were willing to move. She pressed one hand to her stomach, bunching up her shirt in her hand and pressing it hard. Pressure. It was good to keep pressure on wounds, right? The second she did a fresh flash of pain ran through her, a short yelp coming out of her efforts as her attempts at steady breathing became desperate sucks of air through her scarf.

What was she thinking? These were puncture wounds with internal bleeding. Pressure wasn't going to do that much in the line of helping her. And yet, even as she thought these things, she felt as if some of her pain were being eased from the inside.

A different chill was welling up in her person; a soothing cool replacing her pain and making it seem to her as if time had stopped. Something was happening to her, and she hadn't a clue what it was... all she knew is that the pain was driven away.

A moment later she found herself upright, kneeling in the sand with her hand still pressed to her stomach. Her fingers were still covered with blood, her shirt and upper hem of her pants still stained with it, but everything else was suddenly gone. The numbness, the cold, the disconnected sensation that had her fearing loss of consciousness; all of it was gone. She felt fine.

There was no time to think about it; if her body was telling her that she was okay to get up then she was going to get up. On her feet again she ran to the wastelander that laid sprawled out on the ground, hopeful that he might have been alright.

Those hopes were dashed; the body was still warm, but his wounds were obvious and grievous. His breastplate had been ripped open as if it were a paper cover. Five points had been carved out of his chest, not dissimilar to the ones that had been dug into her stomach... With broken ribs visible through the flesh. More cuts were on his right arm and hand; he must have been the one who found the eco crystal in the first place. The animal had killed him for it, and even if she hadn't the eco crystal itself probably would have poisoned him beyond help soon enough. It was too late for this man.

Still, Damas had ordered for all four of them to be brought home. She'd rather drag a corpse back to Spargus than leave it out here for the metal heads to find and scavenge. With that thought she swept her hand over the man's face to close his still-open eyes and gripped him around the shoulders, beginning to pull him across the sand and back to her vehicle. It wasn't easy; he was dead weight wrapped in armor, but with enough effort he began to move.

After a few feet of progress, the sand that had been under the man's original resting place shifted in a great wave. She looked up, alarms going off in her head as all she could think was; What now?!

The answer had been the thing she'd expected in the first place, when she first felt the eco crystal's energy; a dark satellite. It had been buried in the sand like a snake hiding and waiting to strike. Its dark bulk rose into the air now, looking to be fully functional if she had to guess... and hostile.

"Loor!"

Her head turned suddenly when her name was shouted at her; Jak had arrived. Like her he had abandoned his vehicle a little ways away, sprinting forward with his weapon drawn and his focus on the dark satellite that was now bearing down on his partner. There were no questions to be asked, just orders to be given.

"Get out of here!" He shouted at her. "Me an' Dax will deal with this thing!"

She glanced back at the machine. It was huge. She wanted to argue, but Jak was already rushing in and shooting. He thought he had it handled... or he thought if he didn't, at least she'd get away.

She didn't like that, but she continued dragging her burden back to her vehicle while keeping her head up to watch the battle. The mechanical monstrosity was adsorbing bullets and not seeming to be effected, the long tail-like part of its body hanging down and swinging in wide motions with enough force to flip a car. Jak's reflexes were saving him for the moment, but he needed a better way to do damage to that thing. They didn't have the time to waste fighting it. If the storm got bad enough their vehicle wouldn't function, and they'd be stuck out here to have their bones stripped by the storm.

Getting back to her vehicle, Loor looked down at the body she'd just hauled. The wastelander was dead, no doubt about that, but he was also armored and armed. Only his breastplate had been ripped through, the rest of him left mostly untouched.

Strapped to his back was a weapon that reminded her of Sig's peacemaker; a heavy thing held on by an equally heavy-duty holster. Without thinking about respect she rolled the guy over to get a better look at what he had. If she could use it, she could help. She wasn't going to leave Jak to fight on his own; this adventure may not have been the place she was meant to exist, but it was where she existed now.

The thing on the dead wastelander's back was heavier than she first thought, getting it loose from its straps and hefting it up into her hands. The stock had a curve in it that she settled onto her shoulder; it felt right as she searched for a trigger, finding the front end of the stock split into three sections. One was a mechanism that led to the gun-head, a rounded piece that she'd give closer examination later. The other two, which had originally appeared to be part of the stock, folded down as handles with red triggers on the inside. Clear safeties had to be slid off of them before she could press them down.

She looked up again. Jak was still dodging around the airborne enemy. Was he even hurting it? She hadn't a clue. All she knew is that the big bit looked to be the important part. She'd aim for that, aiming the shoulder-canon of a weapon as best she could in the short time she had to learn how it worked. Her thumbs slid the safety covers out of the way once she thought she had it, taking a wide stance to steady against some kind of kick. She had no idea if this beast had a kick, but it was better safe than sorry.

Pressing the triggers, she heard energy moving through the thing settled on her shoulder and, by proxy, next to her head. In seconds a blue glow had built up within the gun head, sparks snapping in the air as the handles vibrated in her hands.

All she could do was pray that this was super-effective.

Letting go of the triggers, the shot flew. So did she; despite being braced the kick of this weapon still threw her onto her ass, making her yell as her shoulder was painfully jerked with the force. Somehow she managed to keep her grip on the gun itself, though she let it go when she hit the sand and let it slip off of her shoulder in favor of sitting up as fast as she could to see what she'd just done.

The blue sparks had reminded her, again, of the peacemaker. When she looked up she expected to see her shot flying in a corkscrew, but she was surprised to see the shot she'd fired was not only going straight, it was bright yellow at its core. Able to gape at it for less than a second, the impact stupefied her when the shot plowed into the dark satellite and knocked it out of the air. The blue sparks on the outside edges of the shot spread over the surface of the creature-machine, a clear squeal sounding that reminded Loor that the thing was at least somewhat alive.

For the moment.

The shot she fired detonated before the monster hit the ground, the yellow core exploding after being embedded in the armor of the satellite. The first part may have stunned and hurt it, but she saw a chunk of it suddenly crack open before she had to turn away and hide her eyes from the light, the sound of the burst making her ears ring. She'd caught a glimpse of Jak turning to run from it. She imagined he was going to have more than a few words for her once they got back to the city.

For the moment though, it would seem the move she had just pulled had killed it. It certainly wasn't moving anymore. Jak looked up at her; his face was completely covered between his goggles and his scarf, but she still got the definite feeling that he was giving her a look. Shrugging slightly, she turned her attention to folding up the shoulder-canon she'd just used and getting its original owner into the passenger seat of the Sand Shark. Jak and Daxter were almost back to the Dune Hopper by the time that she was back in the driver's seat and revving to go; they needed to get back to the city.

She'd explain herself once they were safely behind walls.


"What the heck was that?!" Daxter demanded before the big door between them and the outside closed. The storm was getting worse by the moment, but they had made it back in time. Ending up parked side-by-side, Loor just leaned back in her seat after shutting off the engine, slowly lifting her goggles and tugging her scarf down while breathing clean air. She'd spent half the trip keeping her deceased tag-along in the vehicle with one hand, and tense was the word.

On the other hand, both the boys wanted information. Daxter had just been the first to burst.

"Where'd you find a weapon like that?" Jak was the next to ask. Cracking one eye open she could see him dismounting the Dune Hopper to come over to her.

She jerked her thumb at her passenger. "That guy." Her answer was simple and reflected exhaustion. "He ain't using it anymore... found him already dead... had a close encounter with what killed him." With that she lifted her head, looking down at her stomach and pulling up her shirt. The holes in the fabric were still there from when she'd been struck, but there was almost no evidence of the fact that she had been mortally wounded. All that remained were five tiny scars that were almost unnoticeable. "What the...?" She knew something had happened that had made her feel better, but she hadn't expected to find herself that perfectly fine. "That thing tried to pull my guts out..."

"Healing." Jak said quickly, now crouching down next to her. He'd cleared his own face of his effects, aqua eyes scanning the bare skin she was showing. "Surprised there's even a scar... though you've still got scars from when Dark gored you back in Haven... just as light, too." He pointed briefly to another set of extremely light marks. At any other time Loor would have missed them, only seeing them because he had pointed them out.

Still, she focused on the first thing he said. "Healing? Something to do with the new thing, huh?" She started messing with her shirt now, one of her hands under the stained fabric and sticking her index finger through one of the holes that had been ripped during the attack. Whatever had happened at the precursor temple had saved more than her brain, it seemed. "First my head, now this." She chuckled. "Don't I feel like one lucky sonofabitch." She then looked over to the dead guy she was riding with. "Not so lucky for him though..." She huffed, leaning forward and trying to get it back together. She didn't have time to be exhausted. "What killed him..." She turned and looked to her partners. "Jak, it was another one like us. A woman. Her face was covered up, I have no idea who she used to be, but..." She shook her head. "Black eyes, white skin, horns, silver hair. She had a dark eco crystal; my guess is she found it on my friend over here and ripped him open over it."

"Wastelander out on the desert, looking for artifacts before the storm gets too bad, finds an eco crystal, eco starts messing him up before he even knows what he's picked up, and..." Daxter cringed, trailing off in his summary of events. "Gets his heart ripped out by a nasty."

"Donno if she actually tore out his heart..." Loor looked over at the dead body. For some reason it didn't disgust her as much as it should have. Maybe she was getting used to this. "Sure as hell tried though. Got a couple of ribs... she must have been in a rush to get out of the light. Lyra complains about that; she hates anything brighter than a candle, says it hurts. If that animal had spent any more time with me, I'm pretty sure even these new powers from the precursors wouldn't have saved my ass." With that she found herself relaxed back into her seat again. She didn't want to get up. It wasn't even noon yet and she was so done with this day. "So, what now?"

"Find one of the monks?" Jak suggested dumbly. "I donno what they do with the dead, but we should probably tell someone that one of these guys didn't come home alright."

"We figured as much when we saw the extra signal riding back with you." A voice spoke behind them. Eyes turned to see the door to the city had opened up, allowing none other than the masked man, Artimus, to enter. He was flanked by Seem and several other monks. Artimus was the one who had spoken, his voice as calm and even as ever, so long as he was behind that mask of leather and bronze.

"We will take care of him." Seem announced, stepping in front of Artimus once the entourage was through the door. "If you desire to relieve any equipment from him, take it now."

Loor blinked. Artimus had taken her focus, reminded once again that he was someone she needed to talk to in her desperation to know what the hell was actually going on out here. Still, Seem's words hit her and caused some confusion. "Wha-? Shouldn't his stuff go to someone who knows him?"

"Wastelander rights." Artimus reminded. "You got there first. Not to mention very few of us have any next-of-kin. It's more likely his weapons and armor will be cycled into the arena as prizes."

"Take the boom-stick." Daxter encouraged her, the explanation more than enough for him. "You could use some heavy artillery, sweets."

She felt color flushing her face; everyone's attention was on her since Jak wasn't making a move to loot the body for anything. Guy had his morph gun; unless the corpse had a mod on it he wasn't interested. As far as the armor went the man was much bigger than both of them, none of it would fit properly.

Letting out a tense sigh, she nodded and reached over to relieve the body of the holster for the heavy gun. It was nearly exactly the same system of straps she currently wore for her stave, just thicker straps for the heavier load and a different shape of sheath to hold a different kind of weapon. She wondered how she was going to carry her regular melee weapon if she switched up for this thing, but she'd ponder such things when she didn't have the attention of Seem, Artimus, and several stranger-monks whom she would likely never learn the names of.

With that taken care of she backed off, getting out of the vehicle and the monks moving to retrieve the body.

"What did this?" Seem asked as Loor negotiated holding both the gun and its holster in her arms at the moment, clutching them to her chest.

Loor knew for a fact that Seem wasn't going to like the answer to that question. Seem didn't like the fact that she and Jak existed. The idea of another creature like them, living free out in the wastes... Still, it was better that the danger was known. "A... someone like me and Jak. It was... an animal at the time. It attacked the wastelander first, then tried to go after me."

Loor had expected some sort of smug response from Seem for that admittance, something about animals trying to kill each other, to try and make a point about how terrible it was that she and Jak were in the city. Instead, to her surprise, Seem's eyes widened while a frown deepened on her face. "I will report this information to Damas." She said after a pause. "You may go."

"There was a crystal." Loor spoke suddenly, complete disclosure seeming to be fair. "It... took it. Ran off with it after it attacked me."

Seem only nodded, waving them off without answering. Loor slowly started walking backwards, turning around when she bumped into Jak and he took her shoulders to point her in the right direction to go inside. He leaned in as he did, muttering "Didn't you want to talk to Artimus?"

"Later." She answered in an equally hushed tone. "I know when and where to find him alone..."

"Nice." Daxter's own whisper was louder than theirs, but they were upon the door and through it before he'd even spoken. She wasn't worried about the ottsel tipping anything off.

"I should probably talk to him alone." She said as the door shut behind them, Jak letting go of her. "He... he's ashamed of who he was back in Haven. The less people listening to him, the more he's likely to say."

"What about Ryan?" Dax quested. "Is he a solo mission too?"

She bit her lip, considering it. She needed to ask Ryan about his sister, Morgan. He had mentioned her before, but Loor needed to know more than where Ryan had last seen her. She needed to know what had sent her back to this era; why had Morgan come back? For that, it was best if Jak and Daxter were not present. She had her suspicions, and if they were confirmed there was a certain amount that the boys could not know.

"Yeah." She nodded. "Sorry."

"Don't be." Jak gave her a nudge. "We know you tell us as much as you can."

"And then some." She groaned, shaking her head.


The Author's Corner

Hehehe... I'm not sorry about the cliffy on the last chapter. Not even a little.

Let's keep it going, eh loves?

-Loor