Chapter II: Though the Rift
LES: The fateful day where everything, for everyone, changed forever…
(Samos' Journal entry for March 16, 1767)
'For every age, there is a time of trial. The rocks faced such a fire before they were the strength beneath our feet. The plants braved vast winds before their roots could give us life. As a Sage of considerable years, I have known only one such great ordeal… yet the hero it created was a champion… for all time.
Yet… for many weeks now, I have wondered if I should really let Jak go though with this. I know what happens. Could I live knowing all the people that are going to be hurt by this? If Jak knew… I don't think he'd go. Many people are going to sacrifice everything in the next several years of Jak's journey. But Jak himself will lose the one thing that he holds dearest… his humanity…
(Keira's Room)
Keira was asleep, and she could barely hear the voice that was calling out to her though the darkness. "Keira…" But Keira was so warm, she didn't want to leave. "Keira… wake up…"
"Just five more minutes…" Keira yawned as she rolled over in her bed.
"Keira, you need to get ready." The voice said though her sleepiness.
"Ready for what?" Keira asked, sleepily.
"Don't you remember?" The voice asked. "The machine?"
"Oh… OH!" Keira sat bolt upright in her bed as she remembered that they were testing the machine that day. She saw that the person that woke her up was her father, Samos.
"You'd better pack." Samos said. "I'm not sure how long we'll be gone, so pack as much as you can." Samos left Keira alone in the room.
Keira rubbed her eyes to wake up the rest of the way. As soon as she felt awake enough she got up and began packing her possessions in a small bag. Once she was done, she put her journal in the bag. "Might as well take that." Keira said to herself as she threw the bag over her shoulder, took one last look around her room, and then walked out.
She walked out of her workshop and up the ramp that led towards where the Rider waited, along with the Ring, supported by several poles just off the island. Occasional white sparks fell from the ring and landed on Keira's skin, causing her to giggle from the sheer feeling it left. Jak had once told her, by way of paper, that it was Light Eco. If one little spark could uplift the spirit that much, Keira couldn't imagine what a whole glob of Light Eco would feel like… she'd have to ask Jak, and speaking of Jak…
Jak stood by the Rider, smiling up at the Light Eco in the Ring. Daxter seemed to be taking a nap of the front of the Rider. Samos was there too, he was talking to Jak.
"Today's the big day, Jak." Samos said. "I hope you are prepared… for whatever happens."
"I think I've figured out most of this machine." Keira said, walking up to them and putting a hand on the machine. "It interacts somehow with that large Precursor Ring." Keira sat down of the far right side of the machine's bench seat. "I just hope we didn't break anything moving it here to the lab…" Jak sat down on Keira's left side. Keira could sense Jak there, she turned to look at him, he was grinning at her.
Suddenly Daxter popped up between the two teenagers. "Easy for you to say! We did all the heavy lifting!" Daxter said, pointing to Jak and himself. Keira almost said that JAK was the one who did the heavy lifting while Daxter sat on the sidelines and gave helpful advise. Not that it was very helpful, Daxter had nearly let Jak go over a cliff and fall into the ocean below, had Keira not noticed the impending crisis, he would've been fish bait. Daxter settled himself between Jak and Keira, which neither liked, and reached out to touch the Time Map when a voice stopped him.
"Daxter!" Daxter flinched, withdrawing his hand. However, Samos continued to lecture him. "Don't touch anything! Though the Precursors vanished long ago, the artifacts they left behind can still do great harm…"
"Or great good." Keira interrupted. "If you figure out how to use them."
"I've had… some experience with such things." Samos said, sitting on Jak's left. So, from left to right, there was Samos, Jak, Daxter, and then Keira. "I know you can make it work." Samos said to Jak.
Jak leaned forward and studied the ruby gem. After a second's hesitation, he pressed it. The Time Map activated. "Looks like Jak's still got the mojo!" Daxter exclaimed, Jak grinned. Keira leaned forward to study the inner workings of the Time Map.
"Interesting." Keira breathed, watching the orbs dance inside the Map. "It appears to be reading some preset coordinates!" Suddenly, there was a deep rumbling as a spark that looked like Dark Eco shot at the Ring. The Light Eco instantly turned into a substance that looked like Dark Eco; it swirled within the Ring in a most hypnotic way.
"Wow…" Daxter breathed as he stared at the Ring. "Look at that!"
Suddenly, a terrible voice rang from the Ring. "Finally!" It boomed, "The last Rift Gate has been opened!" Hundreds of strange flying creatures began to fly out of the Ring, and each one had a strange, glowing gem on their foreheads.
"AUGH!" Daxter screamed as he hid behind Jak. "What are those things?"
"So this is how it happened…" Samos whispered, but no one else heard him, because they were slightly distracted by another monster coming out of the Rift. It was the biggest and ugliest of the lot. It roared with animalistic fury, slime dripping from its huge fangs. Four eyes glared at the group, and a huge claw pointed straight at the little vehicle that thefriends occupied.
"You cannot hide from me, boy!" It roared.
"Do something, Jak!" Keira screamed in pure terror. Jak glared up at the monster. It must've been just him, but the monster looked strangely familiar, like he had seen it before…
Daxter panicked, "What does this do?" He asked, pointing at a random button. "Or how 'bout this?" Another button. "Everybody, press all the buttons!" The monster growled just as Jak pressed the ruby button again. The Rider shot forward, straight toward the beast, but the Rider slipped safely past and into the Ring.
"What was that thing?" Keira asked out loud as the Rider was catapulted into a long tunnel of purple light, no one answered Keira's question.
Instead, Samos yelled, "Hang on, everyone!"
"AUGHHHHHH!" Daxter screamed as the Rider accelerated to an impossible speed. "I want off this thing!" Daxter screamed.
Unfortunately, he got his wish. A bolt of Dark energy hit the small rider. As a result, the rider exploded into a thousand pieces. All four separated. Keira fell to the right, Samos to the left, and Jak and Daxter continued toward the light at the end of the tunnel. "Find yourself, Jak!" Samos yelled as Jak and Daxter disappeared into the light…
For Jak and Daxter, the tunnel had suddenly ended and the pair were high in the air, shooting down towards the ground. Jak felt himself hit the ground, hard, and he gave out a loud grunt. Jak lay there on the cold, hard ground for only a few seconds, just long enough to see if he had broken anything. Everything seemed in order, except that he was sore from impacting with the hard metal ground at high speed.
Jak paused. Metal? Jak lifted himself up into kneeling position as he took in his surroundings and gasped. Everything, not just the ground, was made of metal, and he seemed to be in a 'city.' He knew the Precursors once built cities and, for a crazy moment, he wondered if he had found where the Precursors had been hidden for the eons. This theory was quickly dismissed at the sight of other elves, running away from him. This must be some sort of advanced Elvin race that lived on another part of the planet then from were he came.
Jak pushed these thoughts out of his head as he looked around some more. A lot of the people were riding around on zoomers more advanced than he had ever seen, none of them had propellers and they were able to get as high as ten feet off the ground with absolutely no effort.
Jak looked off into the distance. A single building towered above the rest. A clanging noise caught Jak's attention. He looked down and was greeted by the sight of Daxter, throwing a piece of metal machinery that he had been holding away. "Okay, I swear!" Daxter said, pointing at the offending piece of metal. "That's the last time I ever, EVER, touch any stupid Precursor crap!"
Jak shook his head in exasperation for his friend. Jak looked at his surrounding once more. The strange thing was, even though he could never remember seeing this place, it looked strangely familiar. Not only that but, in a way he couldn't explain, he felt he knew exactly where he was.
One of the strange advanced zoomers passed by, on that had two seats instead of the one that Jak was used to. Quite suddenly, an image passed before his mind's eye.
He was riding in the passenger side of one of these zoomers. Someone was driving, he couldn't make out the face of the man, but the man laughed insanely as he wove expertly in and out of traffic. People said he was a demon, but he was a protector… one who could be trusted…
As quickly as the memory, or whatever it was, came, it faded away to nothing. Jak shook his head. Now was the time to focus, not slip into strange hallucinations.
"So, Jak, where do you think we are?" Daxter asked. Jak tried not to react to the question, he was still have that feeling that he knew where he was, without actually knowing where he was. Jak shook his head 'no.' A half-truth. "Well, one things for certain…" Daxter cracked a grin. "I don't think we're in Sandover anymore."
Jak shook with silent laughter. Suddenly, a commanding voice sounded behind the duo. "There he is!" Jak and Daxter spun to see a group of men in a strange type of armor heading their way. "Move in." A man in the front with cold eyes and fiery orange hair motioned for the other men to follow him as they approached Jak and Daxter.
"Step away from the animal!" One man ordered. In his panic, Daxter ran away, screaming, leaving Jak to face the strange men alone.
"Forget the rat, the Baron wants him!" The orange-haired man ordered, pointing right at Jak. Needless to say, Jak was very confused. He had half a mind to run away, and the other half to fight back. But he seemed to have frozen to the metal ground. "We've been waiting for you." The orange-haired man sneered. Before Jak had time to defend himself, one man rammed the butt of his weapon right into Jak's face. Everything went black and Jak felt himself hit the hard ground.
Daxter's voice called out though the black void. "Don't worry, Jak! I'll save you before you know it!" And then unconsciousness was complete, and Jak remembered no more.
"Uh…" Keira groaned as she picked herself off the unnaturally hard ground. "My head…" She struggled to stand up straight, but her body didn't seem to want to cooperate. All she could see were black spots and a wave of dizziness washed over her as she got to her feet, she leaned against a nearby building for support.
Finally, the black spots and the dizziness cleared and Keira looked around. The first and only thing she noticed was that she was alone. "Jak?" She called out. "Daddy?" No answer. "Daxter?" Once again, no answer, thank the Precursors. She didn't want to think about being alone with Daxter. She could barely stand him round other people, she would lose her mind. However, Keira was alone
So Keira took in more of her surroundings and gasped. She had read about the old Precursor cities, but she never thought she'd actually see a city with her own eyes. She seemed to be in some sort of alley, so she walked out into the main street.
Once again, Keira marveled at the sights she saw. Some of the people were riding around on zoomers! More advanced ones then she had ever worked on. Keira's inner mechanic rose within her and she wanted nothing more than to go and examine one. She wanted to see what type of power source they used to get so far off the ground and how it moved forward without propellers.
Keira mentally slapped herself. Finding her friends should be her top priority, not examining the local technology, no matter how fascinating.
There was a small canal in the middle of the road, so Keira decided her best bet was to just follow the canal, so she set off in a random direction, which happened to be south. (A/N: Away from the stadium, and towards the farming district.)
Keira looked up at the sky. It was getting dark fast that the shadows between the buildings were growing fast, not at all safe.
"I'll continue tomorrow." Keira promised herself. She crawled into a dark alley between two large buildings. After carefully making sure that there were no crazy axe-murderers that had already taken up the space, Keira settled in as much as she could. "Where are you?" Keira asked nobody as she fell into a fitful sleep…