(walks out, humming "Imperial March")

Greetings once again, good people. For once, I've actually managed to get an update out on time, despite the adverse effect of school, family, writer's block, and waiting in line to see Revenge of the Sith. Though, if I may say so, despite what Rolling Stone would have you believe, it is a very, very, good movie. Ian McDiarmid's (Darth Sidious) fight with Yoda is worth the price of admission alone. But enough about Star Wars.

To those of you who have been kind enough to review

Farr2rich- I can tell you in the sequel that I am already trying to pin down ideas for that there will indeed be a weapon that draws its power form light, but that is all that I can reveal. I'm glad you like this story though.

SeventhSpanishAngel12- Sorry about the cliffhanger, though I can assure you that this one does not end with such a plot device, at least, I think that it doesn't. Thanks for the vote of confidence, though. (bows)

ChibiSess- Don't worry, as far as I can tell, I believe that I'm only going to put in two, possibly three more cliffhangers before all is said and done. And Yep, D.J. is about to make another appearance, and cause yet another massacre. (cackles fiendishly)

Shakai- Yeah, sort of a interesting way to spark up a conversation. As far as the over ripe melon thing is concerned, do be sure to wear an apron or something of that nature, as it is quite messy. Hope you like this chapter too.

Lunatic Pandora1- Yeah, between Vergil, Dante, and a few other characters, I've come to realize that if a person shows up in a game set in modern times and whips out a sword, it is officially time to panic, as that is never a good thing, lol. As far as D.J. is concerned, if you think that he is bad now, just wait until later, I can tell you he will be picking up a few new...tricks of the trade, so to speak, and Keira will get to see plenty of our hero's inner demon before the tale comes to a close.

Light-Eco-Sage- You don't give yourself enough credit, your own writings are pretty good, and you're able to start new stories in original settings in a way that I can only wish I could. I'm glad you like what I've been doing though, and hopefully, this chapter won't be a disappointment to you, as I'm not sure how good it is.

Paska- (brushes off ice) Thanks, I wasn't too confident on that chapter, to say nothing of this one. As far as the whole DFHKJ deal is concerned, that's my way of alerting myself that I need to insert a scene change bar, as the asterisk's that I was using originally kept getting erased for some reason. My little brother was distracting me, though, and I forgot about that, hehe, thanks for pointing that out to me.

Exardas- Ouch, my sympathies about the teacher deals, I know how you feel. Good luck on Jak 2, its a lot harder than the third one, but I think its personally got a much better plot. Thanks again for your support.

GoodMorningBeautiful2005- Okay, here's the update, hopefully its alright.

EvilManic- Yeah, Keira's going to have a first hand introduction to Tall, Dark, and Gruesome. Though, I'm going to tell you that Jak will come to realize that his gift hasn't so much been lost as its simply been...altered, so to speak.

DarkStarPhoenix- I'm glad that you liked the chapter, cliffhanger aside. And, yes, Alex is Jak's first name, as I decided to make Mar the family surname, sort of as a way to remind the populace of the glory of the old days, if you know what I mean. I'd have to agree with you on the enemies listing, I'm not entirely sure if I've got em down right, but hopefully, I haven't screwed them up too badly (crosses fingers). Also, did you get that e-mail I tried to send to you, I'm not sure if I got the address right.

daxter the otsel- Thanks for giving the advice, lol, and as far as scarring the crap out of Keira, I'm not sure if I managed to pull that off, but she will be more than a little surprised.

dude- Yeah, when I first saw her in the game, having changed in absolutely no way since the last one, i basically though, na-uh, that can't possibly be right. Hopefully, I won't botch anything too badly as a result of trying to keep her relatively realistic, please let me no if I start to do a bad job.

Xeno-Freak- Thanks for the vote of confidence, I was afraid the last chapter wouldn't go over very well with the general populace, to say nothing of this one. Hopefully, I've managed to create a somewhat realistic 'first encounter' between D.J. and Keira (crosses fingers and mutters a quick prayer)

To everyone else who read but did not review, I do hope you found this story to be worth your time and effort, and that I haven't disillusioned you in any way form or fashion.

To any and all lawyers who are reading this, please, you've seen the previous fifteen chapters, you know that I don't own anything about this story except for one being that made a paragraph long appearance, so can we come to an understanding? Thank you.

Final word of warning, I struggled writing this chapter, so I am not too sure how good it is compared to the others.

&

A Devil's Decision

The two swords grated harshly against one another, and Jak snarled as he ducked another blast from that thing's gods accursed cannon. Growling, he spun around, and swung Kitetsu with all of his unnatural strength. Much to the surprise of both combatants, the Precursor forged weapon actually bit into the Cloaker's sword, and sliced cleanly through it. However, not exactly anticipating this, Jak found himself off balance, and about to fall into the snow, which he knew would not be a good thing.

Fortunately, something happened that prevented such an occurrence. Unfortunately, that something happened to be the Cloaker's size twenty-three foot connecting with the side of his face. After completing its spin kick, the Metal Head took advantage of Jak's backwards stagger, and fired its shoulder cannon point blank into his chest. The elf felt a searing pain, and a fairly decent amount of Dark Eco tainted blood went flying as he went sailing backwards.

Jak had mentioned before that his alter ego only tended to manifest himself when things really began to go south, and this was most definitely one of those times. Almost before he hit the ground, the dark elf could feel his own control receding as the demon rushed to his aid.

Needless to say, the Metal Head that had dared to injure its host was in for a nasty surprise. There was a crackling of lighting, and a growl that could not have come from the jaws of any elf or natural creature split the air. Electricity coursed down the length of Kitetsu, and the demon sprang back up. Realizing that its foe wasn't quite as dead as it had thought, the Cloaker lined up to fire again, but a blast of Channeled Dark Eco from the demon's talons destroyed the weapon before it could get a shot off.

To its credit, the demon's adversary did not panic, and instead adopted a combat stance reminiscent of a martial artist. However that offered it little defense against the sheer power of this monster. The demon charged forward, and shrugged off a pair of punches that would have put a Wastelander down for the count, before ripping the Metal Head off its feet with a single hand. Bringing it down close, it breathed into the masked face of its foe, and for a brief moment, Jak could have sworn he heard his alter ego utter something.

However, that thought was driven away as he watched with eyes that were his own yet not, as his inner demon extended its other hand, and put the creature over its head. It then squeezed both of its arms together, and despite the Cloaker's struggles, had succeeded in breaking its spine at the waist within a matter of seconds. That accomplished, it let out another roar of triumph, and hurled the broken Metal Head into the clearing. It then paused, and straining its ears, heard nervous chittering on the far of the glade, and realized that another group had shown up.

Keira, meanwhile, stared at the area that the Cloaker's body had been tossed from, and then watched with a sense of awe and confusion as the demon emerged. She stared at it, and noticed its resemblance to her friend, and could not stop a gasp from coming from her throat. At about the same time, the other group of Metal Head's stormed into the clearing, only to find themselves checking their mad rush in a very hasty and comical manner, as some Grunts and Drones actually had a small pileup.

"Daxter," she muttered, her voice barely audible, "talk to me, what's going on here?"

"Praise the Precursors!" the Ottsel shouted in response, sticking his hands in the air. "Tall, Dark and Gruesome to the rescue!"

Was this the creature that the diminutive rodent had been referring to earlier? Some sort of demonic battle form that Jak seemed to have come into possession of? Keira stared it over, unable to tear her eyes from this creature that the former Channeler had become. From its talons to its horns, it was a being that seemed to radiate power, and something within her told her that these Metal Heads were about to die. Still, neither side moved, and, on cue, a wind whipped through the clearing, kicking up a small amount of snow, and carrying a steaming cloud of the demon's breath away from it.

Abruptly, the Crab Head barked out something in its native tongue. Keira may not have understood the Metal Head language, but even Daxter was able to get the gist of the message.

Translated, it probably would have been something along the lines of a combination between "every man for himself," and "run like hell!"

The creature had a verbal response of its own, and as its courage sapping scream tore thought the forest. The three remaining Centurions raised their shields and opened fire on the beast, backpedaling as they did so, but they succeeding in doing little more than drawing its attention. Their shields might have protected them quite well from blasters and the like, but against the awesome powers this creature brought to bear, they might as well have been trash can lids, for all the good that they did them.

Keira watched, awestruck, as an orb of darkness formed in one of its taloned hands. Completely ignoring the energy bolts whizzing by and connecting with it, it hurled it at the trio of Metal Heads. They died before they even had a chance to scream.

Even as the dark bomb was snuffing out their lives, purple lightning was flying from the other hand, where it lanced its way through the Grunts and Drones, whose bodies spasmed and convulsed as the power of the Dark Eco sent them into Death's domain.

This left the Crab Head as the sole survivor, and snapping out of its stunned state, it immediately sent its twin blasters into action, throwing two paths of fully automatic blaster fire at the demon as it apparently realized that running would do little more than allow this thing to attack it without fear of retaliation. But even as the first pulses of energy sailed at it, it leapt up, and buried its talons into the tree next to the one that Keira and Daxter were in. As the Metal Head went to adjust its angle of fire, the demon launched itself at it. There was another hasty burst of fire, but all it succeeded in doing was blasting off the branch that the other two were in.

Keira let out a quick yelp and Daxter once more demonstrated his ability to scream with a volume one would normally associate with a far larger creature. Fortunately for them both, the snow underneath their tree was quite deep, and injuries were minor, though both were a little dazed and disoriented.

Hearing their cries, the demon looked up from where it had tackled the Crab Head into the ground, and upon seeing their prone forms, stared back into the Metal Head's face, its obsidian eyes literally burning with fury. For the creature had had quite some time to ponder about why its host spent so much time thinking about that strange green haired female, and with its ever growing mental prowess, at last believed itself to have reached a conclusion as to what she was to him. Needless to say, it had become quite protective of what it considered to be its master, and what it considered to be things close its master, and thus, to say that it was quite thoroughly pissed would have been an understatement to the highest degree.

Snarling, it reached down, locked its fangs around the throat of the unfortunate Metal Head, and then proceeded to tear out its jugular. It then contemptuously spat out the bit of flesh and climbed off the thrashing monster as it bled its lifeblood out upon the icy ground.

Back on the east side of the clearing, Keira sat up, shaking her head and groaning.

"I'm going to feel that in the morning." she muttered.

Abruptly, she felt a shadow fall over her, and she looked up and leaned her head back. Not surprisingly, she found her emerald eyes staring into the abyssal blackness of the demon's. Curiously, she felt no fear towards the creature, no nervousness despite the fact that it had just butchered a squadron of Metal Heads as easily as she could crush a handful of ants. Somehow, on a subconscious level, she understood that she would not be hurt by this demon, that despite its fearsome abilities, it was not some mindless killing machine.

She got up, holding her back slightly as she did so, and Daxter also stuck his head out of the snow bank that he had cratered into, muttering about pretty stars. The demon then chose that point in time to relinquish its hold upon its host. Seconds later, a relatively normal looking Jak appeared before them, panting.

"What, what was that?" Keira asked, staring at him, and noticing, as Ashelin had those weeks ago at the pumping station, the tattoo on his chest.

"A gift, from the local ruler, and his right hand psychopath." Jak responded bitterly, turning his back to her, as her question had just given him a reminder of why he had to forsake what was so important to him.

He sent a mental thanks to the creature, and was very much surprised at what happened next. In his mind's eye, it appeared. For several seconds, it contorted its face, before something unbelievable happened.

No…problem…

For a few seconds he was stunned, unable to comprehend what had just occurred. His inner demon had talked, it had created an actual verbal response. This meant one of two things, either the stress that he had been putting himself through lately had finally caused him to crack, or this creature was beginning to become less of a beast and more of an actual sentient being.

Opting not to voice what had just occurred, and putting such musings aside until he was in a more secure location, he turned back towards Keira, who was currently staring around the clearing through her visor trying to make certain they had indeed killed every last one of the things. Once she had confirmed that, she walked over to the now headless Crab Head commander.

"I don't understand it, there were way more here than the scouting reports indicated, and nobody mentioned anything about a leader being here." she mused, rubbing her chin.

Jak remained quiet, instead noticing something resembling a small pouch hanging from the side of the creature. Curiosity overwhelming him, he reached down, and opened it. He reached inside, and felt a small object, spherical, but with many intricate groves and designs etched into it. Pulling it out into the light of day, he felt his breath depart.

"Oh my gods," he uttered before he could stop himself.

"What is it..." Keira began as she looked up, and she too felt her lungs become deprived of air.

On cue, the golden orb split open, revealing numerous tiny sphere's inside of itself. Almost instantly, they began to whirl around, spinning and twirling in a seemingly random way, stopping every now and then.

"That was part of the Rift Machine…" the mechanic said, her voice awed.

"That's why they're out here." Jak said as realization hit him. "They're hunting for Precursor artifacts!"

"Why though?" Keira asked aloud, as the strange device closed again.

Abruptly, she took it from him, cradling it as carefully as one would a newborn infant. Jak didn't know it, but she had just found something she needed, something that would be their ticket home. However, Daxter took that point in time to grab their attention, as the Ottsel had waltzed over to the third Cloaker, some morbid curiosity drawing him to the now maskless corpse, as its facial protection had gone flying when the demon had turned it into a shot-put.

"Man," the Ottsel said, staring at its reptilian face as he stood on its chest, "you are one, ugly, mother fu…"

The former elf's obscene phrase was cut short, however, when the creature suddenly opened its eyes, revealing that it was not quiet a corpse just yet. Daxter yelped, and fell over backwards, waiting for the end to come. However, after several seconds, the realization hit him that he was still alive. Slowly, ever so cautiously, he got back up. What he saw surprised him.

The Cloaker was attempting to move its right arm, apparently through sheer force of will, if the bones sticking out of its flesh were any indication of the condition of that particular limb. Despite the agony it was in, the creature forced itself to move, it knew that it had to accomplish its goal. It couldn't allow for itself or its gear to be captured by these pointy ears, fortunately, they seemed sufficiently distracted by the corpses of the others. It ignored the small rodent on its chest, and instead, with great difficulty, opened a panel on its left wrist. With a weak growl, it pressed a few buttons, and let its right arm slump back down, its final mission accomplished.

"Hey, guys!" Daxter exclaimed, causing Jak and Keira to suddenly look over to him. "This freak is messing with something, and I don't think it's his wristwatch!"

"Daxter!" Keira screamed, gesturing frantically. "Get the hell away from that thing!"

The Ottsel seemed confused, until he heard it. He looked down to the wrist panel that the Cloaker had accessed, and noticed a strange display, its symbols changing. Accompanying that, was a telltale beeping sound, growing louder and more frequent by the second. It took the Ottsel approximately three of those time units to figure out what that meant. His eyes widened, and he ran away as fast as his little legs could carry him, screaming all the while.

Meanwhile, the mortally wounded Metal Head stuck its left arm into the air, and made a fist. It then shouted something in its native tongue, before a flash of light enveloped it, and a roar drowned out just about every other sound.

Daxter felt the searing heat, and his cries picked up in their intensity. Amazingly, the Ottsel's diminutive size would prove to be his salvation, as the shockwave of the blast picked him up and actually threw him away from the small nova that the Cloaker had just turned itself into. However, much to his dismay, the end of his tail was still turned into a candle.

The fuzzy rodent hit the ground running, screaming at the top of his lungs as he raced back and forth in front of the two elves, quickly setting a new land speed record, and apparently forgetting all about the stop, drop, and roll maneuver that Samos had taught them as children.

"Waaaaaahhhhh! For the love of the Precursors, put me out! Put me out!" he shouted, repeating himself several times in a way that most would find to be quite humorous.

"Daxter!" Jak snarled, causing the Ottsel to suddenly pivot about in his panicking, and receive a rather large snowball to his chest, which knocked him backwards and effectively extinguishing the flames.

"Th-th-thank you." he stuttered, now painfully aware of the cold.

"What was that?" Jak asked Keira as he yanked their friend up out of the snow and into a pocket of his coat.

"A failsafe device that all Cloakers have integrated into their armor." the mechanic explained, following Jak as he walked back over to where he had dropped his sword and gun. "In the event of possible capture, they activate that bomb, and fifteen seconds later, anything within about forty feet of them is dust."

"Why would they be so worried about being captured?" the dark elf muttered to himself as he retrieved his weapons, not fully understanding what made those particular types so important.

"Think about it, Jak," Keira said, walking alongside of him, "if we ever got our hands on that technology, and we managed to crack it…just think what we could do with it!" She exclaimed, her eyes glowing with excitement. "That's another reason we got so lucky with that one earlier, that's probably the first bit of Cloaker gear to be retrieved that's actually salvageable. Every other time, they've either fought until their equipment is battered beyond recognition, or they've blown themselves up."

"So we're going to swing back by that clearing to pick that corpse up?" he asked, keeping his voice cold and neutral.

"Yeah, you give me two weeks alone with that stuff, without interruptions, and I can practically guarantee that I'll crack it!" Keira responded. "And then think of the advantage that'll give us in this war, the Baron and his men won't even see us coming, literally!"

That would definitely give the resistance forces an edge on Praxis and company, and it was something that the dark elf admitted, privately at least, that he wouldn't mind trying out. Still he did not let his mind dwell upon it for long. He had, at last, reached his decision about what to do about this elf next to him, one that he would have sacrificed anything for. Though it wracked his very soul with grief, he knew what he had to do.

They were almost back at their vehicles, having stopped only long enough to field strip the corpse of that rookie Cloaker. Throughout the trip back, the dark elf had remained quiet, and had kept his attitude towards Keira chilled, to say the least. She was confused about his actions, wondering what he was thinking. She had waited for this moment for so long, and of all things, to have it ruined by some eavesdropping Metal Head. Had it been possible, she had little doubt in her mind that she would have revived the creature simply so it could be killed again.

But that thought was a minor one, compared to the dilemma at hand, and no small amount of worry that was spreading through her like a dark tide. There was something about Jak, about the way he was distancing himself from her, that just had her on edge. Did it have something to do with what had happened to him? He said that the creature that he had turned into during their scrape with the Metal Heads was the result of something that Praxis and Errol had done to him. Was he afraid of what she thought of him?

Abruptly, she looked around, and realized that they were back in the place where they had left their transportation. Wordlessly, the dark elf set the captured equipment down by her backpack, before walking over to his own speeder, accompanied by Daxter, who had by this time thawed himself sufficiently to move around on his own again. Keira knew that she had to act fast, as she had come to realize how short life could be and how quickly death could claim someone.

"Jak," she cried, "wait up a minute!"

He turned around to face her, his stance radiating a chillness even greater than that of the winter air.

"What is it, Keira?" he said, crossing his arms.

"I…I just wanted to…" she began, before he cut her off.

"Trust me, Keira, you don't want to finish that sentence." he told her, his soul in agony over what he was about to do, what he had to do.

"What…what are you talking about?" she asked, her tone wary.

"What we once had, what we once shared, it's gone." he said, and he turned around to leave.

Only to be stopped by her grabbing his arm. He whirled around, noting the pleading in her eyes, that she was hoping, no, begging, that this was all his sick idea of a joke. How he wished that it was only that easy.

"I'm not the elf you knew Keira, I'm not the boy you used to love in Sandover!" he growled, ripping his arm back out of her grasp.

"You think I haven't changed either? You think that I just happened to crash land in this dump one day and have a nice cushy job as a mechanic the next?" she shot back, and tears began to brim on her eyes as the memories returned to her.

In a flash, Kitetsu had been drawn. There was a hiss, and the telltale sound of flesh being penetrated by the blade. Keira's eyes widened, and she choked back a gasp. Jak had just taken the dark katana and thrust it through his own left hand. Slowly, with deliberate intent, he withdrew the blade, letting her eyes drink in the sight of blood and Dark Eco coursing down the length of the alien weapon. He then showed her his wound, and she watched as it slowly closed, and the flow of darkness ceased.

"Before my first day here was out, I found myself conscripted into a military project of the Baron's," the dark elf snarled, "for the next two years, I got pumped so full of Dark Eco that I now bleed that shit!"

"You think I care about that?" Keira said, her voice finally breaking. "You think that I care that you bleed that stuff, that I care that you can turn into some sort of monster?"

"You just don't understand it, do you?" Jak responded bitterly. "The boy you loved in Sandover died in prison, those experiments killed him, and this," he spread his arms out slightly, "bitter, soulless shell is all that is left of him. I am a shell of what I used to be, Keira, something that is driven by vengeance and feeds off of the pain that I cause Praxis. I have become someone with nothing left to live for."

"That's not true." she whispered, as a tear streaked its way down her face. "You have us, you have Daxter, you have me…" she trailed off, and the dark elf knew what she would have said to finish that, had words not failed her.

Slowly, he turned his back on her, forsaking her for her own good. Summoning all of his willpower, the former Channeler resumed his walk towards his speeder, where Daxter stood, stunned into silence by what had just occurred. He mounted up, kick-started the hover bike, and turned it around. He then paused, and looked back over his shoulder, his eyes nearly seared by what he saw, by the pain that he knew he was putting her through.

"Forget about me, Kier," he said, once more invoking her old nickname, "I'm not what you think I am. I am a Fallen Angel, a devil." he paused, preparing himself for the hardest words he'd ever have to say in his life. "And demons…cannot…love…"

Without another word, he pressed the accelerator, and he was gone. Jak, the boy that she had loved in her youth, and the man that she still did, despite whatever had been done to him, was gone, this time, apparently forever.

Not knowing what to do, she collapsed to her knees, and let the tears fall.

What she did not see, and neither did Daxter, who was currently using what little bit of his mental resources that weren't reeling from what had just occurred to hang on to Jak's shoulder, was the look upon the elf's face. It was the face of a man who had been deprived of something more precious than life itself, of someone wracked by grief that went beyond simple loss. Navigating through the trees, he felt something that he had choked back for so long, but this time, he did nothing to stop it. It built up rapidly, and with a blink, spilled over. It was then, for the first time in his living memory, that Jak allowed for a tear, a single drop of sorrow, to trace its way down his face.

&

Okay, like I said earlier, I'm not sure how good this one was, as I am quite certain that Jak's actions are clichéd and that I sort of erred on overkill when it comes to the sappiness factor. Hopefully, though, it didn't suck too badly.

In the next couple of chapter's Jak's going to explain himself to Daxter, and we'll finally learn a little more about Torn, and this mysterious Delta Squad that he was a member of.

So, feel free to leave a comment if you want too, constructive criticism, idea (those are especially welcome), or even a flame.

Thanks for your time, and have a great day.