Two Sides to Everything

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Jak trilogy of games, they belong to Naughty Dog. The only things I own are my original characters like Colle and Zack.

Chapter 5: Exploring Spargus

Colle sat by the water's edge with her feet gently kicking back and forth. She sat by her brother as she watched him sleep peacefully. His shoulder had healed completely and the bleeding had stopped. All that remained was a scar from where the bullet had entered his small body.

The fact of where the two of them were was still a bit overwhelming for her, but Colle was beginning to accept the fact that they were inside the world of Jak 3.

'But how? The game's creators only set it to last until the defeat of Errol. How does it go on? Maybe I am dreaming.' Colle looked around the palace that was definitely from Jak 3. It was the same place that Jak and Daxter had been brought to when Damas rescued them from the desert. But right now it was empty. The only people in the chamber were herself and Zack.

For some reason she could now believe this was all real. She could feel the cool wetness of the water against her feet as she moved them. If it wasn't real, then how could she feel everything? At least is was better then what was waiting for her when she returned home.

'What if we can't go back?' Colle thought with a slight twinge of fear, but the more she thought about it the better she began to like the idea of staying.

At that moment, Zack began to stir.

"Morning, sleepy head." Colle moved her feet out of the water so she could look at Zack properly. "How do you feel?"

"Weird. I had a dream that we...were..." His eyes grew big and round. He stood up to get a good look at where he was. "It's real! This is so COOL!" Zack began to run around looking at everything.

"Careful, little bro. I don't want you getting hurt again." She followed after him.

"You worry too much. Don't you want to explore?" Zack ran back to his older sister. "Can we go outside?"

"No. I think we should stay here." She looked down at the child in front of her. 'Here we go.'

He poked is bottom lip out and gave her the biggest puppy eyes he could manage. "Pweease? I'll be good."

"Fine. Let's go" She couldn't resist his little routine. She knew he was faking and she also guessed he thought he had complete control ofsome thingsthey did. It was true though. Zack wasn't a spoiled kid, he didn't ask for much, but when he wanted something, he usually got it. Still, she couldn't wait for him to grow out of it.

Picking up the thin book that lay next to him, Zack headed for the elevator.

Having played all three Jak game gave the two of them a small advantage over knowing where they were going. The only problem was that everything looked real, nothing looked like it did in the game. Almost everything was in the right spot but it looked different. That threw things out of perspective.

Jumping onto the elevator, they waited for the ground floor. At the bottom the doors opened and small clouds of sand swept over their feet. The sight that awaited them was nothing that they had expected.

"Whoa." Colle whispered as she walked through the doorway and stepped into the warmth of the sun.

"This is better than the game." People were everywhere. The city was much bigger than they had seen before. Zack looked amongst the crowd to find the one reason why he liked Spargus. "Found one."

Before Colle could stop him, Zack ran off. "Come back here, Zack!" She yelled but had lost him in the midst of the people. "There's no way he could've disappeared that fast." She tried to force her way through the crowd in the direction in which he had gone.

When the crowd finally broke way, Colle found what Zack had been so excited over: Leaper Lizards.

The leapers were tied to posts for any of the citizens wanting to use one. There were three, but it looked like there might have been a fourth one missing. Next to the leapers was a large slightly overweight man, looking quite angry. Colle walked over to him afraid to ask what she knew had happened.

"Excuse me, Sir?"

"Yeah? What do you want?" His deep voice adding to the fact that he was unhappy about something.

"I was wondering, if you had seen a small boy? He's only about seven years old." She lowered her voice knowing the man could here her perfectly.

"Was that your brat? He stole one of my lizards. You gonna pay for it or am I gonna have to take it out of your hide?" He lifted his gun that was laying against one of the leaper stalls.

"I-I don't have any money." Colle backed away, ready to run in any direction the she was able to. It looked as if the people of this desert city didn't care what individuals did as long as it didn't effect the whole of the city.

"Idon't much care for thieves." The burly stall keeper walked forward raising his weapon.

"That's enough, Goer."

"So, why did you ask me to come all the way out here again? Why not just tell me over the communicator?" Jak walked into the center of the Monk Temple. Not really upset just a little irritated. He hadn't had a good nights sleep in over a week. Last night he hadn't closed his eyes for a minute or two before his comm. started buzzing again. It was Seem, she wanted to meet with him at the Temple as soon as the storm ended. And here he was.

"It was too risky." Seem motioned for Jak to follow her. "I see you did not bring the little orange one with you."

"He complained that I attracted too much trouble." Jak followed the young monk leader down a long hallway and into a large circular chamber.

"He is correct, and it seems that you have done so yet again." Walking through the central chamber, Seem continued to move on.

"What kind of trouble?" Jak guessed that they were heading towards the Oracle.

"You will know when we arrive." That was all that was spoken the rest of the way.

"You have arrived, warrior." Came the Oracle's booming voice. "Once again you have been called upon to protect our planet. A great evil that has once plagued our world has returned." The Oracle became silent.

"Can you be a little more...I don't know, specific?" Jak had never really liked visiting the Oracle. It would always draw things out.

"You need patience, dark one. The Oracle has seen many things in its life." Seem spoke soothingly. "Be respectful."

"Warrior, your enemy has chosen its form well. The ones found in the desert are the key, they may decide whether which side will be victorious. Many trials will present themselves to you, some more challenging than others. Do not be ashamed to seek help." The Oracle fell silent once more.

When the thundering voice faded away, Seem began to led Jak back through the Temple.

"Come back when you have found the Precursor Crystal." The Oracle boomed one final time before the two had left the inner sanctum.

"What's the Precursor Crystal?" Jak asked heading for the Dune Hopper.

"It is a crystal that contains immense power. It is similar to the stone that once resided in the Tomb of Mar. Like you, he too possessed the powers of light and dark." In the central chamber Seem stopped and bowed her head. "You may return anytime you desire. I wish you luck in your search."

Jak returned to his Dune hopper. His mind racing with questions. What was he supposed to do now? The Oracle told him to find the Precursor Crystal, but where was he supposed to start looking?

"Just great, they tell you it's the end of the world and to go find some lost rock, but don't tell you where it is." Daxter met up with his friend on his arrival to Kliever's garage.

"It just means more work for us." The two of them walked through the streets of the desert city, Spargus.

"You know, Dax, since I woke up this morning, it's felt like I forgot to do something." They walked in the direction of Dama's old palace.

"Well you know what they say pal, when you get old your memory is the first to go."

"You should know, you're older." Jak smacked Daxter on the back of the head.

"Ha, ha. Laugh it up, green boy." Daxter then picked his ears up when he heard something close by. "Hey, it's that girl we saved."

"Yeah, let's go." A small commotion was coming from the palace entrance.

Jak went through the throng of people to find a leaper breeder aiming at the girl from the desert.

"That's enough, Goer."

"Keep out of it, kid. This ain't none of your business." He looked over at Jak.

"I don'tlike senseless killing." He was getting angry now. The people of Sargus knew what happened when their champion was angered. The nearest bystanders hurried to get out of the way. It seemed the lizard breeder knew as well.

"Fine. But if I catch her or her little brat near me leapers again, it'll be the end of'em." Goer turned back to his duties of lizard caring.

"Where's the kid?" Jak turned to the girl.

"Wha-?" Colle had realized he was looking at her. She lowered her eyes. "He ran off with one of this man's lizards. I don't know where he went."

"Hey, buddy. We'll need two of you leapers. If you don't mind that is." Daxter added that last part after seeing Goer give them a death glare.

"I'll give you enough for all three." Jak pulled out some coins and put them in the guy's dirty hands. He took the ropes of the leapers and handed one to Colle.

"You have ridden one before haven't you?" He straddled the animal and waited for Colle to do the same.

"Ye-yeah." She tried to get up onto the lizard, but didn't jump high enough. She tried again then was able to get up onto it.

Jak watched her thinking it some what humorous. She said she had ridden one before.

The two rode in silence for ten minutes before Jak spoke.

"What's your name?" He looked over his shoulder.

"It's Colle. And my brother's is Zack." She sped up to walk next to him. "What's yours?" She figured it would be best if she pretended she didn't know him.

"It seems you already know it." Jak looked at her strangely.

"Sorry. I just don't know what's going on anymore." As if on another note, Colle asked, "You weren't really going to hurt that man back there were you?"

"No." He wondered why she had changed to topic. He could wait until later to find out more.

"Colle!" Came a yell from behind them. Zack came running up to them on his leaper. "You found him!" Zack moved in front of Jak to look at him. "Jak."

"Seems like you have a fan club." Daxter spoke a little insulted. 'Who made him king of Spargus?'

"Daxter!" Zack jumped down and ran to pet the ottsel. He stopped when he looked at his sister. She gave him a look that said to cool it. "Sorry for running off like that. This place is so cool though."

The comm. went off and Jak answered it.

"Where are you?" Torn's voice echoed.

"Spargus." Jak was getting a pit in his stomach when he began to remember what Torn had given him to do that morning. "Crap."

"You better believe it. What happened? You were supposed to train that new recruit. Why are you in Spargus?"

"It's my own business." He didn't need to know what he didn't have to.

"Well your business is complete. Get back here and begin training. We don't have time to do nothing." The voice stopped indicating the conversation was over.

"I have to get back to Haven City. I'll take you two back to the palace." He turned his mount around. "You can get cleaned up there."

Back at the palace Jak left Colle and Zack heading toward the Transporter outside of Kleiver's buggy garage.

"I have to admit, little bro, from what I've seen of this place, you were right. It is better than the game."

"You weren't even looking at the city. You were looking at Jak." Zack loved to tease her about this and since they were now in the game it was even better. "You like him."

"No, I was just wondering something." Colle's cheeks went pink.

"Yeah right. At home you draw him all the time."

"So what if I like him. He's meant to like Ashelin. Remember the game ending?" She went looking for some clothes to change into and a place to bathe. Didn't a place like this normally have people to help with this sort of thing?

"The game also didn't continue after the Precursors left, remember? Anything can happen now."

For a little kid, he was smarter than he let on. Hopefully he wouldn't get too much smarter. At least not yet.