Jak was discharged from the hospital in another week. His wounds were fully healed much sooner but the doctors still wanted him to stay. The dark eco, that the tape proved, was still coursing through his veins and it sealed his cuts and scrapes without any lasting scars. Keria stayed with him through the whole thing. Jak was glad she was there with him.

Keria knew that Gol and Maia would want to use her as bait for a trap to lure Jak into. Keria knew that if she was ever taken Jak would go after her in a second, but she also knew that to get to her someone would have to go through Jak and that just wasn't going to happen. Still, everywhere Jak went Keria went and everywhere she went Jak went. No one was going to keep Jak away from her, if anyone tried too, and a few stupidly did, all he had to do was ask them if they had seen the tape of him. Those words got Jak clearance to anywhere.

Today Jak was back at the palace. Only Torn, Sig, Keria, and Samos were there with Jak and Ashelin. They were discussing what had to happen now. Sig had several of the best Wastelanders guard the breached wall until the "techno geeks" as he called them could get that part of the eco grid back online with the rest of the city.

Torn was all for chasing Gol and Maia down and launching a full scale assault on their citadel.

"We'll never have this same kind of momentum," Torn argued. "Morale is at an all time high, our troops are eager for combat. Why not assault them?"

Sig was with him.

"He's got a point. My boys are ready to start bashing some heads."

Jak wasn't listening to them. He was staring into the Wastelands, knowing their citadel was hiding there somewhere. He had had a lot of time to think lately and he had guessed Gol's mind. That battle wasn't a battle to take the city. No. Jak knew that that battle was for him. Gol and Maia knew that they themselves couldn't capture Jak alive so they decided to try and bring him in that way but that had failed.

"There's no hope of success if we try to directly assault them." said Jak simply. "We're not nearly strong enough."

"Are you nuts?" asked Ashelin. "Half a million Metal-Heads just tried to raze this city to the ground and all that happened was a hole in one wall."

"That wasn't a fight for the city. Those Metal-Heads weren't after the city, they were after me."

Everyone stared at Jak with silence but they understood that he had guessed Gol's mind.

"Gol isn't going to be frightened by our victory. He'll never rest until I'm dead." He sighed and went on. "200 years ago he tried to open the Silos; he had spent his entire life trying to, finding all the parts of and, building a Precursor robot. And then finally, when it seemed like he couldn't fail I destroyed everything he had worked for. He hasn't forgotten that, he never will. It won't matter what it costs him, he won't stop until I'm dead."

"So what do we do?" asked Ashelin. "If he has another army like that up his sleeve, we're done."

"I don't know Ashelin..." said Jak. "I just don't know."

"You're going to have to fight them again aren't you?" asked a timid Keria. Her eyes were not moving from Jak. She didn't see the darkness in them that everyone else saw. She saw the boy she had had a crush on in Sandover, the boy who didn't say much, the boy who saved them the last time.

Jak turned to look at Keria. She was all he cared about in this damned city. She was all he ever cared about. Anything he had done was for her. Even when he and Daxter had snuck off to Misty Island, that was just to try and impress her.

"Yes," he said. "The only way this can end is by one of us killing the other."

The room was silent for a while. They knew that Jak was right but, even if they would never admit it, they were scared for him. Each of them knew that whatever happened they would need Jak in one way or another but the also knew that only Jak could end this.

"I have to see someone." said Jak. He turned his back and walked away. Keria ran to follow him.

"Where are you going?" she asked. "You're not running off to face him are you?"

"Not yet," he said. "I have to see the Oracle."