Kiri: Awww! You guys melted my itty bitty heart! I love you all! Since your reveiws are all so awesome, I might just finish this story this weekend, since I have all this time on my hands! the next couple of chapters will just be them preping for battle and such, and a couple more left out questions will be answered! Like that thing that Erol gave to Jakie when she left, and the whole 'you'll find it in the forest' thing. Well, anyways, I'm sorry if this chapter is a bit... lacking in the detail department, but I kind of had to rush.

Chapter 30

It's times like these I'm glad that Jak Mar is my father. Because when he transformed into Dark Jak, the only ones left standing were the four of us, plus Vegar, who had run away like a coward during the fight. And, thank the Precursors, he had changed back on his own so I didn't have to kick his ass to get him to change back into my old man.

"Looks like you've been practicing," I teased.

"Well, when you're stuck in a cell for so many years you tend to run out of things to do," dad replied, then gave me a weird look, "you should know that." I guess he's right. After all, I'd spent two months locked up in a cell being tortured by dark eco injections. I'd been bored as all hell when I was shut up in that pathetic spit of room.

"I guess you're right…" I admitted, "but enough of that! I have to get to the cellblock controls and release the others."

"Right, it's this way," dad said and quickly ran off. I followed, of course. Dawn and Daxter were running behind us, jibber jabbering away about this and that and catching up on their lives.

After a good long run around the overly large room, jumping over rubble and ducking under pipes and such, dad led me to another set of controls and switches.

"This is it," dad announced. I immediately began fiddling with the switches, trying to figure things out. It was a bit more difficult than it seemed.

"So uh," I heard Daxter start as he hopped up on the large rubbles heap nearest to me. "How's the rest of the family?" I froze. Crap, I forgot to tell him earlier! Now what the hell was I going to do?

"Well, dad…" Dawn began, "You see… when the attack happened… Jakie and I were lucky enough to take shelter, but the others… well…"

"They were crushed to death," I finished. A long eerie silence filled the room. Way to go, Jakie! Just blurt out the truth and get everyone all upset! Argh, stupid, stupid, stupid…

"All of them…?" Daxter squeaked. I slowly nodded.

"Yes. Dawn and I are the only ones still alive. For a long time, we thought that we were the only ones left in the entire family. I guess persistence does pay off," I said, throwing a tiny smirk at Dawn.

"Hey, that wasn't funny, Jakie!" she exclaimed.

"Curiosity killed the cat, Dawn," I replied. I flipped a few more switches. "Ok, I think I got it. Now lets get the hell out of here and go back home!"

We'd made it only a few levels before we ran into trouble. I stopped dead along with everyone else when I saw Vegar again. Him and his greedy little smirk… that look of his makes me sick. He had a scarf tied around his neck, hiding the missing chunk I'd taken out of him. Heh.

"Going somewhere, eco freaks?" he taunted. I folded my arms.

"As a matter of fact, yes we are!" I answered in a smart-assy tone. "Now unless you want another piece of neck taken out of you, you'll stand aside." Oh, that stupid look of his! I HATE it! I watched curiously as he pointed his scepter at something… I don't know what happened, but the next thing I knew, there was a rather large Precursor robot standing behind us. Crap.

"RUN!" Dawn suddenly screamed. Good plan buddy! So all four of us ran like hell, shoving Vegar out of the way.

"Kill them!" Vegar ordered, and the chase began.

We all dashed up the stairs as fast as we could. Since the stairway was small, I was hoping that it would give us a few seconds to spare. When we reached the top of the stairs, I opened the door with my seal and quickly closed it after we were through. Uncle Torn wasn't there… but his cell was opened… well, maybe he was outside waiting for us? I hope so… in the meantime, the four of us ran like hell, trying the bar the robots path as best we could to get a little extra time. Aunt Ashelin wasn't on her level either. Nor was Kliever. I hope that they're just outside, waiting! Once at the elevator shaft, we used our extra time to get the stupid thing working, then we shot skyward.

I was right. Uncle Torn, Aunt Ashelin and Kliever were all waiting for us outside. That's a relief.

"There you are! We thought Vegar had caught you!" Uncle Torn exclaimed. Dad and I immediately jumped in the Sand Shark. The others followed suit.

"Can we continue this at home? Because we've got a damn robot on our asses!" I exclaimed. Once I was sure that everyone was in, I slammed my foot down on the accelerator petal and sped off towards Spargus. After only a few seconds, the rock that hid the elevator exploded and the Precursor robot, obviously very pissed off now, started up the rockets on its legs and charged after us. "For fucks sake!" I yelled. The things I go through for my family… It was gaining on us, slowly but surely. It's times like these I wish Sig were here.

"It's gaining, Jakie! Do something!" Dawn shouted. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I felt the Earth trembling as that thing slowly closed the distance between us.

"Veer, Jakie! Veer!" Uncle Torn hollered to me. Good idea, uncle! I jerked the steering wheel to the side and the Sand Shark cut off and sped in another direction. It gave us some more distance.

"You've definitely improved, kid," dad complimented.

"No kidding. I'm in a damn panic right now!" I replied. I was telling the truth. Then something occurred to me. I had a damn Peacemaker! Ok, this is silly! "Dad, can you take the wheel?" He nodded quickly and we switched positions. I reached for my Peacemaker and started to shoot at the robot while dad drove towards Spargus like a lunatic.

I missed… I don't know how many shots because I was so damn nervous. But I had plenty of ammo. Well, sort of. I landed several shots on its head, slowing it down some, and a couple on one of the rockets. And then dad veered sharply off to the side, and I almost fell out of the vehicle. Argh, how the hell am I supposed to shoot that damn thing when he's driving like a chimpanzee! Ok… take careful aim… don't rush… just make this hit coun- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT! The damn thing had a lazar! And it damn near hit us!

"Dad… go faster…" I squeaked. He veered again, putting us out of range of the lazar. Holy CRAP! That scared the hell out of me, I swear! During my few second break, I caught my breath. "I'm suddenly glad I kept this thing in good shape."

"Look like you have your mothers mechanic skills," Kliever commented. Hold it…! Mechanic? My mother? There's only one mechanic I know of and… is it possible?

"I wouldn't exactly know, since no one ever told me about my mother," I replied, getting into a shooting position again. The robot was getting pretty pissed at us. Since it's eyes were now bright red.

"Keira was your mother, Jakie!" Dad called over his shoulder, "Sorry I never told you." So that's it, huh? Well, at least I know now.

"Uh, Jakie…?" Dawn said, staring at the robot that was now right behind us, charging up its lazar. I let out a started yelp and open fired on it until something, anything happened! I managed to blow up one of the rockets on its legs, and I think I jammed the lazar… I HOPE I did.

"So… Keira was my mother? Wasn't she the one that Erol was trying to charm?"

"Eh, that bastard tried to charm you, too," Dawn added. I snorted.

"Like that would ever happen… he's a creep as far as I'm concerned. And I think we finally lost that… whatever it was."