Chapter XXXII: Finding A Way Into The Factory

LES: I think, at this point, I can safely say that 'War Of The Champions' is going to meet or exceed the number of chapters in 'Back To You'. Besides, the title is much cooler and didn't need to be changed.


As Jak, Keira right beside him and lovingly holding his hand, walked through the hallways of the Freedom League Head Quarters, the lovers were confronted by Daxter.

"Well, good morning, you two." Daxter said with a large boyish grin. His eyes glancing from Jak, to Keira, and then to their interlocking hands. "You two disappeared rather early. Did you have a very... 'productive' night?"

As much as Jak loved Keira, he wasn't about to admit to Daxter what they had done. He was sure than Daxter would tease him forever, or get mad at him. Either way, Daxter would never find out. Besides, Daxter had the loosest tongue in Haven City. If Daxter found out that he slept with Keira last night, it was possible that everyone they knew would know by nightfall. There were people that Jak definitely didn't want to find out... Samos for one. If Samos ever found out that Jak had slept with his only daughter before marriage... let's just say that everyone in the City would hear the screams.

So, Jak did the only thing he could do... he lied. "You are a dirty little animal, you know that? I was just tired after all this recent crap. Is it a crime to go to bed early?"

"Oh? Keira at the same exact time?" Daxter asked disbelievingly.

"Sure, why not?" Keira asked. She understood as well as Jak why Daxter couldn't find out about them becoming lovers.

"Yeah right." Daxter said. "You two are such bad liars."

"Daxter!" Jak growled, deciding that the only way to shut Daxter up was to go dangerous. "Nothing happened!" He hissed through gritted teeth.

Daxter backed away. He had a healthy respect for just how dangerous his friend could be. He also didn't want to piss Jak off so much that he turned Dark because Dark had a rather large grudge against him for a small 'homosexual' comment. "Okay, okay, nothing happened! Just calm down before you lose it and kill again!"

Jak calmed down almost instantly. "Good, now that we are on the same page..."

"Oh, Jak! You just missed it!" Daxter said, suddenly remembering why he had been looking to see if Jak was done with Keira yet. (He still believed that Jak got some, he just wasn't going to say it out loud.) "A few minutes ago... HQ was attacked!"

"What?" Jak demanded. He felt Keira grab onto his arm, probably out of fear and worry.

"Yeah, it was a KG Bot force!" Daxter exclaimed. "And you missed it!"

"So, it's already been taken care of?" Jak asked.

"Sure, Torn and Ashelin sent out some Freedoms. I tell you what, a lot of them were killed or seriously injured in the assault."

Without another word, Jak took off down the hallway, leaving Keira and Daxter behind. Keira watched him go... willing with all her might to stop the tears from coming. He was running away again. He had given her a night she would never forget, and at the first sign of trouble... he was running away.

It made Keira wonder... would he forever be running away? Would he always be fighting his various enemies? What if he died? The thought was more than Keira could bare.

Daxter happened to notice the look on Keira's face. "So, you sure nothing happened?" Keira ignored him. "Cause I don't disapprove of your relationship anymore. You two are sort of like those old Precursor 'soul-mates'."

Daxter caught Keira's attention now with the mention of the ancient lovers. Precursors did not 'marry' as we think about it, nor did they have any formal ceremony of binding. Instead, they had soul-mates. Every Precursor had a soul-mate, another Precursor that they would love more than life itself. In fact, their very existence depended on their soul-mates. It was not uncommon for one to die when their mate died... grieving to death over the ones that meant everything to them. All a Precursor had to do was find their soul-mate, and then they would know instantly. They became soul-mates for the rest of their lives. Soul-mates were more than just lovers... they were connected on a deeper level... a complete melding of two souls into one.

It was nice to think of herself and Jak as soul-mates... if not a little disturbing. If they were, somehow, soul-mates, then their very existence was dependent on the other. That meant, if Jak died, Keira would grieve to death, simply unable to live on without him. But that wasn't enough in Elvin society to constitute marriage. Until you got married legally, you were just a couple... not husband and wife.

That last thought only made Keira think about what Jak had said that morning. 'I can live with that... for now.' To Keira, that could only mean that one thing... that Jak was at least considering proposing to her.

She could see herself and Jak getting married, and she could see a future with him. He was her past, present, and future. If he wasn't there... then she had nothing.

Not for the first time, she thanked the Precursors that she had met Jak all those years ago, and even more than she had reunited with him after all those years apart... and had fallen in love with him all over again.

She loved him with all her heart... and nothing was ever going to change that.


Jak rushed into the HQ control room just in time to hear Ashelin talk about the assault. "That was one hell of an assault wave. We can't continue to repel such large assaults forever."

"What did I miss?" Jak asked, walking up to the hologram display.

"So... you've finally decided to join us?" Pecker asked.

Jak opened his mouth with a ready-made excuse as to what he was doing last night when Torn stopped him. "Don't even give us some lame-ass excuse as to where you were. Where you go and what you do is your own business unless it affects our war effort."

"Now, back to business..." Ashelin said. "That floating War Factory produces more and more Death Bots every day. Before long, they'll make an assault force large enough to overwhelm us. That Factory must be destroyed if we are to survive this war."

"That is not all." Samos said. "The Catacombs below the Palace seem to be central to this whole conflict." The door to the hallways opened and Keira and Daxter came into the room. Daxter jumped up on the holographic display while Keira took a spot next to Jak. Samos looked between the two, as if he suspected what they had done. But he didn't bring it up. "And I think everyone will agree with me when I say that Jak's the best man we've got to lead an expedition into those Catacombs."

Everyone, except Jak and Keira, nodded in agreement. Jak simply listened quietly, and Keira was still worried for obvious reasons.

Suddenly, a new voice joined the rest. "Now, now, let us not be too hasty." Everyone turned around. Vegar had entered the room with a rather smug grin. "Are you sure you want this Dark Eco Freak..." Jak had wondered when Vegar would bring up his abnormality. "...contaminating the hollowed halls of our glorious Precursors?" Vegar paused just long enough to glare at Jak, as though the very air around him was a poisonous fume. "I should lead the expedition myself."

Ashelin frowned. "We're tired of your scheming, Vegar."

"Now, Governess, don't be too hasty. You see, you have no idea how much danger we all all in. My Precursor monks have given me the knowledge for this world's redemption. If you beg me to give it to you..."

Suddenly, Keira spoke. "Jak's always gotten us through thick and thin!" Vegar looked up at her in surprise and Jak noticed how his face flushed with fear. He wondered why that was. "I'm with him!" She smiled fiercely at him.

"Hear! Hear!" Samos concurred.

"You're washed up, Vegan!" Daxter said, mispronouncing his name once again.

Vegar rounded on Daxter. "Vegar! It's Vegar, you idiot!" He yelled.

"Count Vegar..." Ashelin began. "I hereby dissolve the City Council as it is, and strip you of all command, title, and privileges!" Jak enjoyed the look on Vegar's face as Ashelin tore his life down around his ears. "Now get out of my sight!" She turned her back on him in disgust.

"What? You can't do that!" Vegar protested.

"Sorry, Vulgar, but I think she just... uh... did." Daxter said.

Vegar roared in anger. "You have all brought this upon yourselves! I offered you mercy, and this is what I get in return? Now, you will all burn in the Precursor fires of creation! I swear it!" Vegar spun around on his heel and stormed out.

Suddenly, to everyone's surprise, Jak laughed. "So, we're all gonna burn, huh?" He asked. "I think we all know that I'm going to hell anyway."

"A tainted, Dark Eco Freak abomination like you? How could you not?" Daxter joined in on the joking.

And then Jak turned to face Keira. "Why was he so scared at the sight of you?"

Keira suddenly blushed. "Oh... that..." Ashelin and Torn laughed as they remembered what had happened. "Well... he was saying all sorts of horrible stuff about you so I..." A pause. "I punched him."

Jak stared. "You're kidding?"

"No, she's not." Torn laughed. "She punched him right in the head."

"Oh God, that's great!" Jak exclaimed. "I would face the Metal-Head Leader again just to see that!"

"Seriously, Keira actually socked Vegar in the face?" Daxter said as he turned to Keira. "It seems you and Jak have more in common than we all thought. I thought it was just opposites attract!"

"Excuse me..." Ashelin said to catch everyone's attention. "Can we get back to the matter at hand?"

"Yes." Torn said. "Is there a way into the Catacombs?"

Ashelin brought up a newer map of that section of the City with a push of a button. "No foreseeable way. Even Jak couldn't get past some of the obstacles. The gaps in the path are just to big for Jak to jump."

"How big are the holes?" Jak asked.

"The smaller ones are fifty feet wide." Ashelin said.

"Okay, there's no way I could jump fifty feet. Scratch that plan, then." Jak said.

"Okay, so that Catacomb plan must be put on hold until we have a way to get you there." Samos said.

"Which leaves the War Factory." The hologram changed to one of the War Factory as Ashelin continued her briefing. "It is guarded at all times by a fleet of zoomer-like robots and security tanks... not to mention the place is crawling with Death Bots. There are gate codes on all access points." Ashelin paused. "All the old KG door cyphers were kept hidden in the system at the Power Station. If we get that cypher, then we will be able to unlock that War Factory."

"So... to recap... you want me to go to the Power Station, find this door cypher, and somehow break into the War Factory, which is guarded by thousands of Death Bots?" Jak asked.

"And destroy it." Ashelin reminded him.

"Great." Jak said. "All in a day's work, I guess."

"Well, Jakkie-Boy, looks like we're off to the old Power Station." Daxter said.

Jak gave one last look at Keira, a look that said 'I love you and I'll return as soon as I can.' Unfortunately, the irony gods chose at that moment to frown on the young lovers, for at that moment, a plot was at work to tear them apart.

Unaware of this, Jak turned and left the building.


A short, crazy, war-ridden ride later, and Jak drove up to the Power Station in South Town. He got off the zoomer, Daxter on his shoulder and walked into the Power Station reverently.

Reverently because it was once the workplace of Vin, a man who know more about the Eco grid than any other. However, he had disappeared shorty after the Metal-Head's first attack on the City months ago. A cowardly man... Vin probably didn't survive.

"Remember this place?" Daxter asked as they walked into the mostly blue-lit room. Jak nodded. "I sure miss good old Vin."

"Yeah, he was a good guy." Jak said, and then he added: "A bit crazy, though..."

Suddenly, a new voice rang through the room. "Hey! You are you calling crazy? I can't help it if the world is out to get me!" It sounded like Vin, but not at the same time. Jak looked around for the source of the voice, but it seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"Vin!" Daxter exclaimed. "Wait a minute... is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me." Vin's voice said. Suddenly, a strange hologram of Vin appeared. "Well, actually, no it's not. I'm a multilayer, bio-mimic, super-clock, mega-memory construct, baby!"

Jak and Daxter blinked. "Did you understand anything he just said?" Daxter asked. Jak shook his head.

"Look." Vin said. "When the Metal-Heads broke into the City, I dumped my brain into the Eco grid. Everything's great now. Those monsters can't get me in here! Or... can they?"

"Listen, Vin, I'm glad you're... whatever you are." Jak said. "But, right now, I've got to get into the War Factory, but the doors are sealed. We think the code to open the doors are hidden in the system."

"It is." Vin said instantly.

"Really?" Daxter asked.

"Positive." Vin answered.

"Well... can you get it for us?" Daxter asked hopefully.

"Negative." Vin answered.

"Why not?" Daxter asked.

"Well, if you had half a brain-cycle, you'd know that those codes are guarded by the Central System... ancient, nasty circuits in there! Even we bit brains can't fool around there without getting our butts erased for good!" Vin said.

"Just get us close, then." Jak said.

"Yeah, right, it's your death!" Vin said. "If you fail, I could always use a companion in here. Oh, the fun we'll have!"

"Let's hope... Oh God, let's hope... it doesn't come to that." Daxter said.

"When I put you into the system, the main security will slam down hard. It will be up to you to beat the system, get out, or be Eco-zapped for good. You check-sum?"

"Okay, Vin-baby! 'Jak' me in!" Daxter said. Jak rolled his eyes. Will the 'Jak' puns never end?

Vin looked at the screen. "Wait for it... wait for it... okay! Input!"


After beating the system, the cypher popped out of the system. Jak caught it deftly. "Got the cypher." He said out loud.

A hologram of Torn appeared. Vin stared at it in interest. "Great job. That cypher will open the War Factory doors. Bring it here, and we'll begin to decode the doors." Torn's figure disappeared.

"We've got places to go, Vin." Jak said. "But we'll keep in touch, I promise." He walked out with Daxter on his shoulder.


After Jak went back to HQ and passed off the cypher to Torn, Torn hurried off to begin cracking the codes that guarded the War Factory doors, leaving Jak alone in the room with Daxter, when suddenly...

Greetings, Great Warrior.

Jak knew instantly that it was Tiatin. Not only by the traditional greeting, but because Daxter was the only one in the room with him, and his alter egos had been shut up in a dark corner of his mind for some time now. The Precursor was obviously communicating directly into his mind.

You guess correctly. Tiatin said. Have you finalized your decision to help me?

No. Jak thought back. You told me to wait until I knew the full extent of my decision.

Very good. Come to the forest. Tiatin said. Bring the artifacts with you. It is time for you to learn what you are up against.

You were the one who told Torn to get those artifacts, aren't you? Jak asked.

You are very astute. Yes, it was I. I merely made Torn believe that he was speaking to the Green Sage. Tiatin said. Forgive me for the deception, but those artifacts are of vital importance. Please come alone... for what is to be said is for you only.

Fine. Jak thought back. I'll be there.

The Precursor's presence disappeared and Jak hurried over to where he had left the bag of artifacts the day before and picked it up. He began to head towards the door.

Daxter looked up in surprise. "And where do you think you're going?"

"I'll be gone for a while." Jak answered simply. "Don't send anyone after me. I'll be fine." He walked out without another word.


LES: I know the order of the stuff isn't right. But I made an executive decision to remove the Planetary defense system from the plot. I just felt it made it too complicated. See, this story's already complicated enough. Hopefully, it will become clearer to you in the next chapter, which is, what I like to call, the 'Big Reveal'!