Yay! Exams are finally over I'm still stressing though, since the results
are still to come. But anyway, contrary to what I said in the note before
chapter eight, this WON'T be the second to last chapter. It is the FOURTH
to last, so there are only three chapters left AFTER this one. Basically,
because this chapter would be way too long if it was just one! I need
space between them; otherwise I'd get MAJOR typing cramp. But yeah, not
long till the end now (FINALLY!)
Also, I need to note to Michelle: My email won't let me reply to the ones you're sending me, so that's why you're not getting any replies, I'm not being rude! ( Also, do you mind just cutting and pasting your stories on the email text board and sending them to me? The links aren't working so I can't read your stories! (
Finally, another chapter dedication is up: This time to the wonderful Mandy, especially for that BEAUFTIFUL picture that she drew of Xema for me! *.* I can't thank you enough Mandy, so I hope this chapter dedication will suffice! ;)
~ Keysha
Jak and Daxter: Legend of the Lost White City
Chapter Nine: The Past
Xema gazed up at the tower, the place that she used to call home. It felt so unwelcoming. She just couldn't help but feel that something wasn't right.
"It's really quiet." Daxter noted, looking up at the empty sky.
"Yeah, TOO quiet." Xema replied. She heard a scared little gulp coming from her companion beside her feet.
"Is that normal?" Daxter quivered. Xema bent down and picked him up, trying to reassure him that everything was okay. But truthfully, she knew something was wrong.
"So, would you mind telling me where you've been young lady?" A voice whispered behind them. Xema spun around to come face to face with her father. Draco tensed up, ready for Xema to throw an onslaught at him. This time he was ready.
But Xema reacted in an entirely different way this time. She placed the ottsel back on the ground, before running up to him and throwing her arms around his neck.
"FATHER!" Xema burst into uncontrollable gasps for breath as she began to weep. "I'm SO SORRY! I didn't realize I would be doing the city so much harm if I ran away!" The princess gasped between breaths. Stunned, Draco wrapped his arms around his daughter and shushed her.
"It's alright Xema." He insisted. "You didn't know, I should have told you the truth a long time ago."
Through her gasps, Xema heard a voice she purely loathed behind them.
"Ah, here's the final traitor!" Karma hissed, grabbing Daxter by the tail and hoisting him into the air.
"Get off me you YACOW!" Daxter cried, taking a swipe at Karma with his tiny clenched paw, missing her by a mile.
Xema spun around, gasped, and pulled away from her father's grasp.
"Leave him alone you WITCH!" Xema raced up to Karma and grabbed Daxter by the waist, releasing him from Karma's tight grip, his tail now creased up from her hold.
"Witch?" Draco echoed Xema's words. "Karma's just trying to protect you Xema, after those horrid children tried to accuse her for your disappearance, that little hairball is probably part of their scheme!"
"Kids?" Xema echoed, realizing that her father was referring to Keira and Jak.
"Hairball?" Daxter also echoed with an annoyed voice.
"Father! Keira and Jak were telling the truth!" Xema insisted. She caught the glare of her sister out of the corner of her eye, mouthing the words: 'don't even THINK about it!' Xema swallowed hard. Karma couldn't kill in front of her father. She was safe to confess.
"Father, Keira and Jak have done nothing wrong. Neither has Daxter." Xema whirled around and pointed an accusing finger at Karma, who had turned a pale shade of white.
"KARMA!" Xema growled. "Threatened to kill me if I didn't leave the city! She wants the throne and was willing to take down anyone who got in her way!" She lowered her eyes at her older sister. "YOU bribed that guard to find me and have me 'disposed' of, DIDN'T you Karma?"
Karma was at a loss for words. She stood her ground and gnashed her teeth, glaring at Xema.
"Well, he's shark food now!" Daxter shot at the mad girl. Karma seemed to be cursing bloody murder now, glaring at Daxter like she was about to grab the orange furball and tear him limb from limb. Sensing her anger, Daxter, clung tight to Xema for protection. Xema backed away from Karma, standing beside her father, who also looked like he was about to blow a fuse.
"Karma, is this TRUE?" Draco growled. Karma's angry expression failed to mellow, she glanced angrily at her father, and then at Xema, who was tightly clutching the little weasel in her arms.
"I'll get you for this you brat!" Karma hissed, raising her fist in the air.
Suddenly, there was a flash of blinding silver sparks, and Karma was gone.
Draco rubbed his eyes, trying to get rid of the white spots in front of his eyes. "I can't BELIVE it!" He muttered. "Betrayed by one of my OWN children!"
Xema ignored his groans, more concerned with Daxter than anything else. "You okay?" She asked, worried that the whole ordeal had disturbed him in some way. He rubbed his eyes, then smiled up at her.
"Yeah, I've been in worse positions than that." He insisted, as Xema gently took the crease out of his tail. "Thanks." He smiled, nuzzling his tiny ottsel muzzle against her cheek. She smiled back, happy that he was okay.
Draco sighed heavily, before placing a hand on Xema's shoulder.
"Xema, I'm sorry I didn't trust you. Believe me, If I had KNOWN Karma was betraying me, I would NEVER have done anything to your friends.
Both Xema and Daxter gasped. "What have you DONE to them?" Xema chocked, fearing the worse. Draco shook his head.
"Nothing, They're just being held captive at the moment." He smiled at his youngest daughter. "Everyone deserves a fair trial right? I couldn't just have them executed or banished without proven guilty!" He laughed. "But after THAT experience with Karma, I don't think we'll be having a trial after all!
***
Late that evening, the four kids sat in Xema's room, glad that the whole ordeal was over. Jak and Keira especially, their time in the dungeon (Which didn't seem a fitting name for it, since really it was a suspended platform high up into the clouds) was an unwelcome one, and both were happy to be free and on 'slightly' solid ground.
"What happened to Karma?" Keira said rather nervously, looking up from the pile of pillows she had sunk into. Xema glanced down at her from her curled up position on the bed, not willing to talk about it.
"She disappeared." Xema sighed. Her sister was still on the loose, meaning that she was still out to get her and the other three.
"Disappeared? How so?" Keira seemed confused, and Xema couldn't blame her. But she wasn't the only one.
"Yeah, HOW did she do that?" Daxter asked quizzically. "There was some bright silver explosion and then she was gone!
Xema sighed. "Silver eco." She muttered. The reaction was instant and unexpected for her. Jak fell out of the chair he was leaning back in, Keira jumped to her feet, and Daxter sat straight up.
"WHAT?" The three of them gasped in unison. Xema almost would have laughed at the sight, had it not been so serious.
"Silver eco." She echoed, as if it was no big deal. "We used to mine for it thousands of years ago, in caves just outside the city, but we can't reach it anymore because of the curse."
The same, jaw-dropping expressions on the three faces told Xema she needed to explain more. She sighed and continued.
"It's quite rare, maybe that's why you act like you've never heard of it before." She smiled, and placed her hand under Daxter's jaw, shutting his mouth, which was still wide open. "It has the power of flight and teleportation, but it's not incredibly strong."
"What do you mean?" Keira asked. Her father would be THRILLED with information like this.
"Well, there's not much of it left. There may have been a lot more silver eco in the hills years ago, but it seems to be diminishing quite quickly. It might have been the eco that caused us to evolve with wings." Xema shrugged her shoulders. "At least that's what some people think."
"But that DOESN'T explain how Karma disappeared!" Daxter interrupted. Xema patted him on the head and smiled.
"Patience little one." She teased. "Like I said, it can also be used for teleporting people. Since we can all fly, silver eco has little use to us in that aspect. I guess Karma had some silver eco on her when she disappeared. It wouldn't have taken her far, but it took her further away into the city. It was enough to help her escape." Xema clenched her fist.
"Oh great!" Keira groaned, sliding down to the ground. "So we've still got that psycho girl on the loose!"
Xema nodded her head. "Yeah, who knows WHAT she has planned to do next."
Xema bowed her head, upset that all the torment still wasn't over. A small pat on her arm caught her attention, and she glanced up at Daxter.
"That silver eco?" He asked in a whisper, so that Keira and Jak couldn't hear him from across the room. "It wouldn't be able to help ME would it?"
Xema felt her heart sink.
"I wish I could say 'yes' Daxter." She whispered back, placing a hand on his back. "But silver eco doesn't have that kind of power." Xema felt like she could have died after saying that. The heart-broken look on Daxter's face was more than she could bear. "I'm sorry." She whispered, but Daxter just shook his head.
"It's not your fault." He admitted. "I shouldn't have got so hopeful anyway."
"There is something else." Xema admitted, this time loud enough so that Jak and Keira could also hear her. The two glanced up at her.
"There's another type of eco in the mountains, but we were only able to find it once, and we still have no idea what it does. It's much more rarer than silver eco, and my father thinks it's three times as powerful as blue, red or even dark eco.
The three listened intensely to her, waiting to hear about this new type of eco.
"Well?" Daxter asked, hungry for the information.
"Gold eco." Xema announced.
***
"We're still clueless!" The stocky little man announced. "The gold eco has still been a mystery since the day it arrived here. Not even my father, or my father's father's father could figure out what to do with it."
"That's a lot of father's" Daxter teased from his perch on Jak's shoulder. "That means even old Samos wouldn't be able to figure this out. He's still having problems with his green eco!"
The short man peered at Daxter through his thick-rimmed glasses. He was obviously some kind of researcher, trying to work on the mysteries of the gold eco. "GREEN ECO?" He gasped. "Green eco is NOT IMPORTIANT! Who CARES about green eco when we have something as beautiful as: THIS!" He gazed in awe at the small cloud of glowing gold, as if it were more important that anything else in the world. Keira began to feel angered that the man was disrespecting her father's position of honour. Xema was also displeased with the man's reaction.
"Green eco happened to save my LIFE." Xema growled with her arms folded. The man quickly changed his attitude and smiled at the group like an idiot.
"Eh! But what I MEANT to say, was the healing properties of green eco are quite remarkable, and nothing can compare to the power of HEALING! And lets face it, when green eco saves the life of our beautiful, charming princess, it INSTANTLY becomes my favorite eco!" The man spluttered. Daxter couldn't help but laugh. This guy was sucking up to Xema to the max! It almost made him feel jealous in a way. The man was trying to get the approval of HIS girl! But Daxter wanted all of Xema's approval to himself!
"Look four eyes!" Daxter piped in. "All we want to know is if this 'gold eco' has the power to, lets say, reverse the effects of dark eco?"
The man paused for a second, taking in what Daxter said, and then burst out laughing.
"Right! Reverse dark eco? Are you crazy furball?" The man continued to laugh, wheezing loudly. "NOTHING can reverse dark eco! As if we'd waste our time using gold eco for a problem like that!" He continued to chuckle away, as Daxter began to grow hot and red.
"WASTE of TIME? Hey! Maybe if I stuck YOU in a crazy ottsel body, you'd care to rethink that statement!" Daxter jumped off Jak's shoulder and tried to attack the man, but someone picked him up and held him back.
"Let go of me Jak!" Daxter yelled. "I'm gonna teach this guy a piece of my MIND!" The ottsel waved his arms about in the air, trying to punch the guy.
"I'm not Jak." Xema sighed. "Daxter, just ignore him. He's an idiot for saying stuff before he thinks!" Xema glared at the researcher, and he slunk away into the shadows, embarrassed.
"Daxter should know about talking before he thinks." Keira whispered to Jak, and he nodded in agreement, but had to admit he felt sorry for his best friend. Daxter was lying limp in Xema's arms now, exhausted and hurt inside. He was happy to watch Xema stroke the back of his head kindly and hug him gently. At least he had a girl like her to look after him. Xema was a great person, she saw Daxter as more than a furry creature.
She saw him as the boy he was inside.
"Jak? Is it just me, or has it gone very quiet in here?"
Jak glanced around. Keira was right: it WAS quiet. The researcher had disappeared, and the only sound was the sturdy hum of the gold eco as it hovered in the middle of the room. Jak pulled Keira in close to himself to protect her, and was just about to yell out to Xema and Daxter when the worse arrived.
There was that blinding flash of light again. Jak shut his eyes tightly, trying to avoid the light. Daxter was right, that silver eco WAS bright.
He blinked heavily, trying to clear his vision. When he managed to make out solid shapes again, he gasped. The place that Daxter and Xema were standing was now empty.
"What happened?" Keira gasped. A clinking sound behind them caught their attention.
"Sorry I had to do this." The researcher announced, pointing some strange kind of metal, precursor device at the couple. "I just CAN'T have you running back to the king and telling him that Karma's back. Now that he trusts you, I have no other choice."
Then he fired at them, and the two blacked out.
Also, I need to note to Michelle: My email won't let me reply to the ones you're sending me, so that's why you're not getting any replies, I'm not being rude! ( Also, do you mind just cutting and pasting your stories on the email text board and sending them to me? The links aren't working so I can't read your stories! (
Finally, another chapter dedication is up: This time to the wonderful Mandy, especially for that BEAUFTIFUL picture that she drew of Xema for me! *.* I can't thank you enough Mandy, so I hope this chapter dedication will suffice! ;)
~ Keysha
Jak and Daxter: Legend of the Lost White City
Chapter Nine: The Past
Xema gazed up at the tower, the place that she used to call home. It felt so unwelcoming. She just couldn't help but feel that something wasn't right.
"It's really quiet." Daxter noted, looking up at the empty sky.
"Yeah, TOO quiet." Xema replied. She heard a scared little gulp coming from her companion beside her feet.
"Is that normal?" Daxter quivered. Xema bent down and picked him up, trying to reassure him that everything was okay. But truthfully, she knew something was wrong.
"So, would you mind telling me where you've been young lady?" A voice whispered behind them. Xema spun around to come face to face with her father. Draco tensed up, ready for Xema to throw an onslaught at him. This time he was ready.
But Xema reacted in an entirely different way this time. She placed the ottsel back on the ground, before running up to him and throwing her arms around his neck.
"FATHER!" Xema burst into uncontrollable gasps for breath as she began to weep. "I'm SO SORRY! I didn't realize I would be doing the city so much harm if I ran away!" The princess gasped between breaths. Stunned, Draco wrapped his arms around his daughter and shushed her.
"It's alright Xema." He insisted. "You didn't know, I should have told you the truth a long time ago."
Through her gasps, Xema heard a voice she purely loathed behind them.
"Ah, here's the final traitor!" Karma hissed, grabbing Daxter by the tail and hoisting him into the air.
"Get off me you YACOW!" Daxter cried, taking a swipe at Karma with his tiny clenched paw, missing her by a mile.
Xema spun around, gasped, and pulled away from her father's grasp.
"Leave him alone you WITCH!" Xema raced up to Karma and grabbed Daxter by the waist, releasing him from Karma's tight grip, his tail now creased up from her hold.
"Witch?" Draco echoed Xema's words. "Karma's just trying to protect you Xema, after those horrid children tried to accuse her for your disappearance, that little hairball is probably part of their scheme!"
"Kids?" Xema echoed, realizing that her father was referring to Keira and Jak.
"Hairball?" Daxter also echoed with an annoyed voice.
"Father! Keira and Jak were telling the truth!" Xema insisted. She caught the glare of her sister out of the corner of her eye, mouthing the words: 'don't even THINK about it!' Xema swallowed hard. Karma couldn't kill in front of her father. She was safe to confess.
"Father, Keira and Jak have done nothing wrong. Neither has Daxter." Xema whirled around and pointed an accusing finger at Karma, who had turned a pale shade of white.
"KARMA!" Xema growled. "Threatened to kill me if I didn't leave the city! She wants the throne and was willing to take down anyone who got in her way!" She lowered her eyes at her older sister. "YOU bribed that guard to find me and have me 'disposed' of, DIDN'T you Karma?"
Karma was at a loss for words. She stood her ground and gnashed her teeth, glaring at Xema.
"Well, he's shark food now!" Daxter shot at the mad girl. Karma seemed to be cursing bloody murder now, glaring at Daxter like she was about to grab the orange furball and tear him limb from limb. Sensing her anger, Daxter, clung tight to Xema for protection. Xema backed away from Karma, standing beside her father, who also looked like he was about to blow a fuse.
"Karma, is this TRUE?" Draco growled. Karma's angry expression failed to mellow, she glanced angrily at her father, and then at Xema, who was tightly clutching the little weasel in her arms.
"I'll get you for this you brat!" Karma hissed, raising her fist in the air.
Suddenly, there was a flash of blinding silver sparks, and Karma was gone.
Draco rubbed his eyes, trying to get rid of the white spots in front of his eyes. "I can't BELIVE it!" He muttered. "Betrayed by one of my OWN children!"
Xema ignored his groans, more concerned with Daxter than anything else. "You okay?" She asked, worried that the whole ordeal had disturbed him in some way. He rubbed his eyes, then smiled up at her.
"Yeah, I've been in worse positions than that." He insisted, as Xema gently took the crease out of his tail. "Thanks." He smiled, nuzzling his tiny ottsel muzzle against her cheek. She smiled back, happy that he was okay.
Draco sighed heavily, before placing a hand on Xema's shoulder.
"Xema, I'm sorry I didn't trust you. Believe me, If I had KNOWN Karma was betraying me, I would NEVER have done anything to your friends.
Both Xema and Daxter gasped. "What have you DONE to them?" Xema chocked, fearing the worse. Draco shook his head.
"Nothing, They're just being held captive at the moment." He smiled at his youngest daughter. "Everyone deserves a fair trial right? I couldn't just have them executed or banished without proven guilty!" He laughed. "But after THAT experience with Karma, I don't think we'll be having a trial after all!
***
Late that evening, the four kids sat in Xema's room, glad that the whole ordeal was over. Jak and Keira especially, their time in the dungeon (Which didn't seem a fitting name for it, since really it was a suspended platform high up into the clouds) was an unwelcome one, and both were happy to be free and on 'slightly' solid ground.
"What happened to Karma?" Keira said rather nervously, looking up from the pile of pillows she had sunk into. Xema glanced down at her from her curled up position on the bed, not willing to talk about it.
"She disappeared." Xema sighed. Her sister was still on the loose, meaning that she was still out to get her and the other three.
"Disappeared? How so?" Keira seemed confused, and Xema couldn't blame her. But she wasn't the only one.
"Yeah, HOW did she do that?" Daxter asked quizzically. "There was some bright silver explosion and then she was gone!
Xema sighed. "Silver eco." She muttered. The reaction was instant and unexpected for her. Jak fell out of the chair he was leaning back in, Keira jumped to her feet, and Daxter sat straight up.
"WHAT?" The three of them gasped in unison. Xema almost would have laughed at the sight, had it not been so serious.
"Silver eco." She echoed, as if it was no big deal. "We used to mine for it thousands of years ago, in caves just outside the city, but we can't reach it anymore because of the curse."
The same, jaw-dropping expressions on the three faces told Xema she needed to explain more. She sighed and continued.
"It's quite rare, maybe that's why you act like you've never heard of it before." She smiled, and placed her hand under Daxter's jaw, shutting his mouth, which was still wide open. "It has the power of flight and teleportation, but it's not incredibly strong."
"What do you mean?" Keira asked. Her father would be THRILLED with information like this.
"Well, there's not much of it left. There may have been a lot more silver eco in the hills years ago, but it seems to be diminishing quite quickly. It might have been the eco that caused us to evolve with wings." Xema shrugged her shoulders. "At least that's what some people think."
"But that DOESN'T explain how Karma disappeared!" Daxter interrupted. Xema patted him on the head and smiled.
"Patience little one." She teased. "Like I said, it can also be used for teleporting people. Since we can all fly, silver eco has little use to us in that aspect. I guess Karma had some silver eco on her when she disappeared. It wouldn't have taken her far, but it took her further away into the city. It was enough to help her escape." Xema clenched her fist.
"Oh great!" Keira groaned, sliding down to the ground. "So we've still got that psycho girl on the loose!"
Xema nodded her head. "Yeah, who knows WHAT she has planned to do next."
Xema bowed her head, upset that all the torment still wasn't over. A small pat on her arm caught her attention, and she glanced up at Daxter.
"That silver eco?" He asked in a whisper, so that Keira and Jak couldn't hear him from across the room. "It wouldn't be able to help ME would it?"
Xema felt her heart sink.
"I wish I could say 'yes' Daxter." She whispered back, placing a hand on his back. "But silver eco doesn't have that kind of power." Xema felt like she could have died after saying that. The heart-broken look on Daxter's face was more than she could bear. "I'm sorry." She whispered, but Daxter just shook his head.
"It's not your fault." He admitted. "I shouldn't have got so hopeful anyway."
"There is something else." Xema admitted, this time loud enough so that Jak and Keira could also hear her. The two glanced up at her.
"There's another type of eco in the mountains, but we were only able to find it once, and we still have no idea what it does. It's much more rarer than silver eco, and my father thinks it's three times as powerful as blue, red or even dark eco.
The three listened intensely to her, waiting to hear about this new type of eco.
"Well?" Daxter asked, hungry for the information.
"Gold eco." Xema announced.
***
"We're still clueless!" The stocky little man announced. "The gold eco has still been a mystery since the day it arrived here. Not even my father, or my father's father's father could figure out what to do with it."
"That's a lot of father's" Daxter teased from his perch on Jak's shoulder. "That means even old Samos wouldn't be able to figure this out. He's still having problems with his green eco!"
The short man peered at Daxter through his thick-rimmed glasses. He was obviously some kind of researcher, trying to work on the mysteries of the gold eco. "GREEN ECO?" He gasped. "Green eco is NOT IMPORTIANT! Who CARES about green eco when we have something as beautiful as: THIS!" He gazed in awe at the small cloud of glowing gold, as if it were more important that anything else in the world. Keira began to feel angered that the man was disrespecting her father's position of honour. Xema was also displeased with the man's reaction.
"Green eco happened to save my LIFE." Xema growled with her arms folded. The man quickly changed his attitude and smiled at the group like an idiot.
"Eh! But what I MEANT to say, was the healing properties of green eco are quite remarkable, and nothing can compare to the power of HEALING! And lets face it, when green eco saves the life of our beautiful, charming princess, it INSTANTLY becomes my favorite eco!" The man spluttered. Daxter couldn't help but laugh. This guy was sucking up to Xema to the max! It almost made him feel jealous in a way. The man was trying to get the approval of HIS girl! But Daxter wanted all of Xema's approval to himself!
"Look four eyes!" Daxter piped in. "All we want to know is if this 'gold eco' has the power to, lets say, reverse the effects of dark eco?"
The man paused for a second, taking in what Daxter said, and then burst out laughing.
"Right! Reverse dark eco? Are you crazy furball?" The man continued to laugh, wheezing loudly. "NOTHING can reverse dark eco! As if we'd waste our time using gold eco for a problem like that!" He continued to chuckle away, as Daxter began to grow hot and red.
"WASTE of TIME? Hey! Maybe if I stuck YOU in a crazy ottsel body, you'd care to rethink that statement!" Daxter jumped off Jak's shoulder and tried to attack the man, but someone picked him up and held him back.
"Let go of me Jak!" Daxter yelled. "I'm gonna teach this guy a piece of my MIND!" The ottsel waved his arms about in the air, trying to punch the guy.
"I'm not Jak." Xema sighed. "Daxter, just ignore him. He's an idiot for saying stuff before he thinks!" Xema glared at the researcher, and he slunk away into the shadows, embarrassed.
"Daxter should know about talking before he thinks." Keira whispered to Jak, and he nodded in agreement, but had to admit he felt sorry for his best friend. Daxter was lying limp in Xema's arms now, exhausted and hurt inside. He was happy to watch Xema stroke the back of his head kindly and hug him gently. At least he had a girl like her to look after him. Xema was a great person, she saw Daxter as more than a furry creature.
She saw him as the boy he was inside.
"Jak? Is it just me, or has it gone very quiet in here?"
Jak glanced around. Keira was right: it WAS quiet. The researcher had disappeared, and the only sound was the sturdy hum of the gold eco as it hovered in the middle of the room. Jak pulled Keira in close to himself to protect her, and was just about to yell out to Xema and Daxter when the worse arrived.
There was that blinding flash of light again. Jak shut his eyes tightly, trying to avoid the light. Daxter was right, that silver eco WAS bright.
He blinked heavily, trying to clear his vision. When he managed to make out solid shapes again, he gasped. The place that Daxter and Xema were standing was now empty.
"What happened?" Keira gasped. A clinking sound behind them caught their attention.
"Sorry I had to do this." The researcher announced, pointing some strange kind of metal, precursor device at the couple. "I just CAN'T have you running back to the king and telling him that Karma's back. Now that he trusts you, I have no other choice."
Then he fired at them, and the two blacked out.