Chapter IV: The Accident and the Escape

We open up near the Pumping Station and we hear Praxis' voice, "Now you wait here, your father has a marvelous surprise for you!"

Jak and Praxis come into view. "Oh! What is it?" Jak asked.

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise now, would it?" Praxis said.

"If you tell me, I'll still act surprised." Jak said.

Praxis laughed. "You are such a naughty boy!"

"Come on, Uncle Praxis!" Jak begged.

"No, no, no, this is just for you and your daddy." Praxis said, "A sort of father/son… thing… Well, I'd better go get him!"

"I'll go with you!" Jak said, getting ready to follow Praxis as he walked off, but Praxis stopped him.

"NO!" Then he realized he might've been too forceful. "No," He repeated. "Just stay right here. You don't want to end up in another mess like you did with the Metal-Heads…"

"You know about that?" Jak asked.

"Jak, everybody knows about that." Praxis said.

"Really?" Jak asked, feeling embarrassed that everyone knew about that.

"Oh, yes." Praxis said solemnly. "Lucky daddy was there to save you." Praxis turned to leave when Jak called after him.

"Hey, Uncle Praxis, will I like the surprise?" Jak asked.

"Jak, it's to die for!" Praxis said, but Jak missed the emphasize on 'die.' Praxis walked away, leaving Jak alone.

Not too far away, a couple dozen Metal-Heads, led by Firenza and Phoenix, stood waiting.

"Can't we go now?" Phoenix asked.

"No!" Firenza answered, "We wait for the signal from Praxis!" Suddenly, Praxis appeared on the above ledge. "There he is, let's go." The Metal-Heads grinned.

Meanwhile, Jak sat on a small rock actually content on NOT disobeying his Uncle. But, as fate is evil and vindictive, Jak spotted a Precursor Orb floating nearby. See, Jak just LOVED Precursor things and he just HAD to have it. So he got up to get the Precursor Orb. Jak got to the Orb, and all of a sudden, dozens of Metal-Heads appeared out of nowhere. Jak gasped, and began to run in the opposite direction as fast as his young legs would carry him…

(Palace)

Damas and Erol stood on the roof of the Palace, Erol looked toward the Pumping Station.

"Oh, look, Sire." Erol said, "There's activity at the Pumping Station." He said, watching the dust clouds rise.

"Odd…" Damas said.

Suddenly, Praxis pulled up in a Hell-Cat Cruiser. "Damas! Metal-Heads at the Pumping Station!" Praxis yelled. "Jak is there!"

"Jak!" Damas didn't waste a second, and nor did Erol. Both jumped into the Hell-Cat, and Erol took control of the wheel, and they headed full speed to the Pumping Station…

(Pumping Station)

Jak had managed to climb up on a small ledge, but sooner or later, the Metal-Heads would make it up there. One particularly big one almost took off Jak's foot. Jak screamed as he realized that he was just a ten-year old kid who didn't stand a chance against a Metal-Head, let alone dozens of them!

"Help me!" Jak called out.

(Not too Far Away)

"Help me." A little call that Damas, in his panic, couldn't hear. Thankfully, for Jak, Erol heard it and looked in its direction.

"Sire, look!" Erol cried, "On that ledge!" Damas looked and saw his son, stuck on a ledge, being cornered by at least five dozen Metal-Heads.

"Pull in closer!" Damas ordered. Erol messed with the controls and brought the ship closer. But then he stopped, well away from the mountain side. "What are you doing? Pull in closer!"

"I can't!" Erol yelled. "It's suicide! We could hit the mountain, then all of us will die!"

"Jak!" Damas roared at his son, "You have to jump towards the zoomer!"

"I can't!" Jak yelled. The yell turned into a scream as another Metal-Head almost got him.

"Yes, you can!" Damas roared, "You can do it!"

Jak eyed the gap. Maybe I can do it… he thought. Then he made up his mind, he was going to try and make it. He jumped… he was going to make it!

But, Praxis couldn't allow this to happen. Jak as Jak had jumped; he 'accidentally' bumped into Erol, causing him to lose control. The zoomer pulled away! Jak wasn't going to make it! In pure fatherly instinct, Damas jumped from the zoomer, caught Jak, and fell to the ground by the Metal-Heads.

"Oh no! This is awful!" Erol yelled, watching Damas run with Jak to get him somewhere safe. "What do we do? What do we do? I know! I'll go back for help!" Praxis defiantly couldn't allow this. With a quick punch upside the head, Erol was out cold. Praxis reclaimed the zoomer controls.

Meanwhile, Damas had found his son a better ledge to stand on. Damas was about to join Jak when a Metal-Head grabbed his ankle and pulled him back towards them.

"Dad!" Jak cried as he tried to find some sign of his father in the fray. He searched and searched for his father. Jumped out and began to climb up a different path then the one Jak was on. Jak could only see one way to where his father was going, but it would take awhile.

Meanwhile, Damas got on a high ledge, and gasped as he saw the number of waiting Metal-Heads. Thankfully, Praxis landed the zoomer on the platform next to him.

"Praxis, brother, help me." Damas begged. Praxis got out of the zoomer and stood by Damas' side, as if to fight the Metal-Heads. "Let's take them together, brother."

"Not this time, brother…" Praxis said as he walked away from Damas, towards the Metal-Heads. When he got there, he turned around to face Damas.

"You!" Damas yelled, "Traitor!"

"I'll do it." Praxis said to the lead Metal-Head. Praxis took out his weapon and used it to back Praxis up against the cliff. Damas looked back, if he fell, then he would die. "Rest assured that your precious son will not live long enough to grieve over your death."

"Jak…" Damas breathed.

"Long live the King!" Praxis said, and with that, he pushed Damas off the cliff.

"NOOOOO!!!!" Damas yelled on the way down to his death.

Jak saw his father falling, he didn't see Praxis push him, all he knew was that his father was falling. "DADDDD!!!!" Jak yelled, he didn't see his father land, bones shattering on impact, causing instant death.

Jak climbed back down. The Metal-Heads had all gone, but there was no sign of his father. "Dad!" Jak called, there was no answer. He looked around again and gasped.

There was a shape on the ground, right at the place he had seen his father fall. Jak approached the form, it was his father… and Damas, the Great King of Haven City… was dead. But, poor Jak didn't know how to react, so he did the only thing that made him feel better… denial. "Come on, Dad," Jak said, pushing his father's body as though he were just sleeping. "You've got to get up. We've got to go home." Damas didn't move, and Jak couldn't deny it anymore. He looked around, "HELP!" He cried, "Somebody! Anybody. Help…" He finished, but no one came. Tears ran down his face as he walked over to the lifeless body of his father. Jak did the only thing a child can do in a situation like that… he cried. He didn't notice that Praxis walked up behind him until he spoke.

"Jak," Praxis said, "What have you done?"

"There… were Metal-Heads… he tried to save me." Jak explained tearfully. "It was an accident, I didn't mean for it to happen!"

"Of coarse, of coarse, you didn't." Praxis put his arm around the young boy to offer comfort that wasn't there. "No one ever means for these things to happen. But the King is dead, and if it weren't for you he'd still be alive." Jak tried to digest this, his fault? Praxis gasped, "What will your mother think?"

"What am I going to do?" Jak asked.

"Run away, Jak!" Praxis said, Jak gave one last longing look at his father's dead body. "Run, run away and never return!" Jak started to run away. Praxis watched him for a second. Firenza and Phoenix approached him from behind. "Kill him." Praxis ordered, and the two Metal-Heads began to chase Jak.

Jak ran and ran, many emotions going though him. Grief, sorrow, fright, anger, were just a few. He ran until he came to the edge of the desert Wasteland.

(A/N: For future reference, I don't care. If something doesn't go with the game exactly, I don't care. Like 'How did the Wasteland get so close to the Pumping Station?' I DON'T CARE! Okay, on with the story.)

Jak stopped at the edge, he knew that going into the Wasteland unprepared was a death sentence. He turned and looked back at Haven City in the distance, and his home, the Palace, rose above everything else.

Suddenly, there was a growling and two Metal-Heads appeared. "Oh no!" Jak cried. He turned and ran down the slope into the Wasteland. Jak kept just ahead to the Metal-Heads' snapping jaws. Blocking his path was a patch of cacti. "Now what?" Jak cried as he approached it. Lucky for him, he spotted a path going though the spikes, large enough for a ten-year old boy, but far too large for a full-grown Metal-Head. Jak slid into the tunnel and began to crawl his way though.

Behind, Phoenix, who was leading the way down, noticed this small obstacle. "Whoa!" He skidded to a halt not a foot for the thorns. He breathed a sigh of relief… too soon. Firenza hit him from behind, sending him into the cacti. "OW!!!" Phoenix screamed. Firenza laughed as Phoenix climbed out of the cactus, covered in needles.

"Hey, there he goes!" Firenza yelled as she watched Jak run off into the sunset.

"Well, go get him!" Phoenix said while picking out thorns.

"There ain't no way I'm goin' in there!" Firenza said, looking at the cactus. "What? You what me to come out looking like you, Cactus-butt?"

"But we've got to finish the job." Phoenix said.

"Well, he's as good as dead out there anyway." Firenza said, squinting at the setting sun and the little dot that was Jak. "And IF he comes back, we'll kill him."

"YEAH, YOU HEAR THAT?" Phoenix yelled at Jak's running form. "IF YOU EVER COME BACK, WE'LL KILL YA!!!" They laughed as they went back to Praxis.

(Back at the Palace, Night)

Praxis was busy giving the eulogy for King Damas and Prince Jak.

"Damas' death was a terrible tragedy." Praxis said, his voice full of pretend grief. "But too lose Jak, who had barely begun to live."

Queen Ashelin sobbed over the death of her husband and her son. Erol put a comforting arm around her in her grief. The Queen was not the only one in tears. Keira sobbed into her own mother's robes.

"For me it is a deep, personal lose." Praxis said. "So it is with a heavy heart that I assume the throne. Yet, out of the ashes of this tragedy, we will rise…" Metal-Heads appeared behind Praxis and everyone present gasped. "To greet the dawning of a new era! In which elf and Metal-Head come together, in a great and glorious future!" Praxis ascended the stairs to the throne, picked up the crown and put it on his our head.

Old Samos watched from a distance as Metal-Heads swarmed the City. "No." he breathed.

(Later in Samos' House)

Samos sat quietly in his study; a single tear fell from his eye. He looked up at Mar's Family Tree. He grabbed a pen, and another tear fell as he scratched out, first Damas' name, then Jak's.

LES: Yes, I brought Damas back to life just so I could kill him again. How screwed up is that? Next chapter…