1Disclaimer: I only wish . . .

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Chapter 27

Plan? What Plan?

"Do you think they followed us?" Raye asked.

Jak, who had gone back to normal, shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe." He laid back against a wall. "Even if they did, we'll be able to ditch them here." 'Here' happened to be Dead Town. More precisely, Samos' old hut.

Daxter, who had been running around outside, slipped through the door. "No sign of any of the guards. Just the usual Metal Heads." He climbed back onto Jak's shoulder. "So what now?"

Jak put a hand over his face. "I'm not sure. We can't just head back to Haven. Praxis probably has guards at every entrance to the city."

Raye shook her head. "We'll never get into the Palace now. We're completely screwed."

Ambika scoffed in the back of Raye's mind. 'And I thought I was the pessimistic one.'

'Shut up.' She snapped back. "I could always fly in. You know, as Ambika."

"Feh. That won't set off a few dozen alarms." Jak muttered.

"Hey, at least I'm coming up with ideas instead of standing around being moody!" Raye yelled.

Jak glared. "At least I'm not coming up with ideas that would never work!"

Raye stood. "Excuse me?" She walked over and shoved him. "I'm trying, so cut me some slack, okay! I just saved your ass from getting fried back there!"

"I didn't ask for your help!"

Raye pulled back. "Then you know what, I won't help next time. You can up and die for all I care!"

Daxter coughed. "Guys? Um, guys? Could we stop the yelling?"

"Hey, you'd still be rotting away in the Baron's prison if I hadn't decided to rescue you! Or maybe I should've just left you there to be Errol's bitch."

Daxter shook his head and put his hands over his face. "You've done it now, buddy."

Raye's eyes filled with anger and disgust. "Why you-!" There was a resonating 'smack' as her palm squarely hit Jak's cheek. Jak reached up and touched his cheek, which was now throbbing.

Daxter jumped between them, holding himself up by pressing both his hands/paws on each of their collarbones. "ENOUGH!" Both looked down at him. "I am so sick of you two arguing! You're acting like little kids! Now," He looked at Jak, "Jak, apologize to Raye for being an asshole, and Raye," He turned toward her, "Say you're sorry for hitting Jak."

Both elves looked away. "Sorry for hitting you." Raye muttered.

"And I'm sorry for even suggesting that I should have left you in prison."

Daxter let out a relieved sigh. He hadn't thought they'd actually listen to him. Well, as long as they didn't go postal and turn dark on each other. "Okay, good. Now, can we come up with a plan together this time?"

With impeccable timing, Jak's talkbox flew up. "Jak, Raye, where are you?" It was Samos. The sage, not the Shadow.

Jak let a relived smile spread across his face. "Out at your hut in Dead Town."

"Good, that's far enough away from the city that the Baron's forces shouldn't find you."

Raye snatched the talkbox. "What do you mean, they 'shouldn't' find us?"

"After the little stunt you two pulled at the Stadium, Praxis tripled the Guard patrols." Torn's harsh voice snapped through the usual static. "Now a fly couldn't even get into, or out of, the city."

"Glad to know you're in a good mood today, Torn." She muttered. Then, at a normal volume, "There's got to be some way to get in."

"The possibilities are bleak, Raye." The Shadow said.

Jak frowned. "Couldn't Vin fake a disaster? One that would require most of the Guards to get away from the Slums for a little bit?"

Raye pulled out her own talkbox and punched in Vin's number. "Vin?" She heard typing in the background. "VIN!"

"What, what, what!"

"Woah, Vin, calm down. It's Raye."

"Oh... don't do that! I nearly had a heart attack!"

"Vin, Jak and I need a really, really big favor."

There was a pause. "How big?"

"Big enough to get, say, all the Krimzon Guards out of the Slums long enough for me and Jak to get back to Underground HQ?"

Silence. Ambika started counting.'One, two, thr-' "ARE YOU TWO INSANE! That would require... a red alert! If I faked one of those... oh Mar, Praxis would kill me!"

"Not all of them, just enough to let us sneak in without drawing any attention. Vin, we really need you to do this. Praxis is planning something really big and really bad and we've got to get into the Palace to stop him!"

Vin sighed on the other end of the line. "I can't do that, Raye. Only Praxis can authorize a red alert. I have to send it through him first, and then he has to send the okay. Otherwise, I can't even get into the system."

" S' okay Vin. Are you sure there isn't anything you could do?"

"Well... I could shut down all Guard vehicles and weapons and blame it on the eco shortages. But it'll take a while, so I'll call when I finish."

"Please and thank you." Raye clicked off.

Jak blinked. "When did Vin get so brave?"

Daxter shrugged. "I don't know, but it sounded like he was about to throw up to me."

"He probably was." Raye said, standing up. She plucked Jak's talkbox out of his hands. "Torn? If you were listening to that at all, just three words: ha, ha, and HA." She tossed it back to the blonde.

"You done?" He asked, standing up.

"Yep, pretty much." She took his hand and let him pull her up. "Let's go. I'm getting claustrophobic." Jak grabbed her shoulder. "What?" He pulled out his Blaster. "Oh. Right. Metal Heads."

"Yeah. Metal Heads."

--

'Anger issues? We don't have anger issues. We have you two.' Raye thought as Ambika and Lykaios slashed through another wave of Grunts.

'Could we cut the sarcasm while I'm trying to save our ass?'

'Who said I was being sarcastic?' But she shut up anyway.

Ambika shoved her claws through another Grunt's stomach. "Where the hell are these things coming from!"

"Don't ask me." Lykaios growled, shoving one Grunt's severed head down a Juice Goons throat. "Ask the goddamned Metal Head leader!" He blew up the last one that had headed toward Ambika's turned back.

"Point out to me where he is and I will. Thanks, by the way."

"You owe me. Try the Metal Head Nest."

"No fucking duh, bro." She snapped. "And before you ask, technically, we're siblings. Sort of." She shuddered as the features shrank away and she turned back to normal. "Oh gross.""What?"

She spat. "That." There was dark eco contaminated blood mixed with her spit.

"That's not yours, is it?" Jak demanded.

"Pfft, no. Ambika decided to play vampire on one of the Grunts." She spat again. "I think I'm going to puke."

"It'd probably taste better than Metal Head blood."

"Probably." She then promptly ran off. Jak, with his super-sensitive hearing, could hear her retching. She walked back a few minutes later.

"Better?"

"Much." She nodded, still looking a bit sick.

Daxter, who had gone and hid up on a ledge for safety on Jak's orders, climbed back down. "So did Vin say what the signal would be for us to go back?"

"He said we'd know it what it was when he heard it." A loud alarm sounded from inside the walls.

Jak looked at Raye. "That sounds pretty dang signal-like, don't you think?"

"One way to find out." Raye muttered, closing her eyes. "Twice in a half hour. This has to be a new record." Wings appeared, and she took off. "Two guards, maybe, and the civilians are all inside. We're good."

-Daxter's POV-

Jak took off running as soon as the second door opened. I hated running, it always made me feel like I was going to fall. Raye landed in front of us, wings shrinking by the second, and matched pace without missing a beat. "We've got to hurry. No doubt Praxis is going to tell Vin to tap into the extra eco supply." Jak said.

"You think?" Raye muttered, turning into the alley that held the door of the Underground. "Torn, open up!" She yelled. The door slid open, and all three of us ran in. Well, Jak and Raye ran in. I was still sitting on Jak's shoulder.

Raye collapsed gratefully onto one of the beds. "Remind me... to thank Vin later. Because he is awesome."

"Are either of you injured?" Samos asked. Jak shook his head.

"No, but we did get ambushed by a huge group of Metal Heads."

I stood up. "Of course, I told them what to do."

Raye scoffed. "You were hiding on top of a ledge, shivering in fear." I glared at her.

"It was cold!"

Jak put a hand over my mouth. Why does everyone insist on doing that! "The Metal Head Leader really has it out for us. Now more than ever."

I saw a mixture of emotions cross Raye's face for an instant; pain, anger... guilt? "Are you sure you're all right Raye?" Torn asked. Good, I wasn't seeing things.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just... worn out." She was lying. I should know, I did... okay, do that a lot. Though I couldn't blame her, she'd changed into Ambika more times in a shorter period of time than I though possible.

Jak pulled the security pass into the Palace out of his pocket. "We need to get into the Palace. We need to get the Precursor Stone back."

"Not to mention the boy." Samos added. I saw another flash of pain across Raye's face. She stood and, after roughly shoving Torn out of the way, ran to the back, no doubt to the bathroom again.

Torn rubbed his shoulder where it slammed against the wall. Raye was stronger than the average girl. Trust me, as many times as she's smacked me, I should know. "What's with her?"

Jak grimaced. "Too much eco." Torn obviously took Jak's tone as a 'shut up or I will rip your head off' tone, and just grunted.

I looked at Jak. "So, any brilliant plans to sneak into the Palace?"

He gave me a 'look'. "If I did, would we still be standing here?"

"So that's a no, then?"

"Yes, Dax, that's a no." He sighed, exasperated.

Torn paused. "Disguises may work. If the Baron thinks you and Raye are still out in Dead Town, then he may not be looking for you that close to the Palace."

Raye walked out from the back. "That may be the smartest idea I've heard yet."

Jak sighed. "Disguises it is. Let's get started."

--

SC: I can hear you all now: an update, finally! Yes, it's an update, and yes, it's short, but that's just something you need to deal with.

Ja ne

SpontaneousCombustion

Next Chapter: To the Palace! Sneaking into Praxis' Palace is easier than it should be, but what's waiting for Jak and Raye inside?