Author's Note: Such friggin' foreign territory for me. The characterization is coming along slowly. I'm trying at least I guess. Chapter Two for all of ya and I hope that the story will pick up a bit more soon.

Chapter Two
Haunting

Jak turned onto his side roughly, dragging the blanket with him as he moved. His wild blond/green hair fell into his face and he drew up the sheets around his bare chest. His hands clenched the sheets tightly, almost as if he were hanging onto them for dear life. Gritting his teeth slightly, he curled up into a small ball and let a small shiver run down his body.

Across the room from his own Ottsel-sized bed, Daxter sat quietly, watching his best friend toss and turn in a restless slumber. The furry creature could not help but stare at Jak with a grave look upon his features. Jak never had issues sleeping like this before. It had gotten to the point where he had to move off the end of his friend's bed and over to the smaller area that Tess had put together for him. Dax did want to wake his friend to help stop what looked liked a painful dream. But, all he could do was sit there, hoping that he would give him some kind of clue to what was making him cringe so much.

'Come on Jak,' the little Ottsel thought to himself. He curled up in the small bed, his eyes still locked on the bed on the other side of the room. 'What's wrong? You haven't been yourself.' But before he could think anymore on the subject, exhaustion overcame Daxter and he fell fast asleep for the remainder of the night.

It was dark. The same darkness that clouded his senses and mind for the past few days had returned. There was no light, nor idea of which way was up or down. Jak sat on his knees, his breath heavy. His clothes were torn and his skin was covered in blood as he looked down at his hands, which trembled lightly.

'Mar,' a voice muttered through the darkness, causing Jak to raise his head up a bit. '…wake up.'

It was a deep voice, though very distorted and distant. Every night, it almost sounded as if it were getting closer to him. But, despite how it sounded, Jak could never find the strength to climb off his knees and head for the voice Somehow, it felt as if there was just not enough energy left in him to reach for whoever called him.

'Wake up?' he asked quietly, casting his eyes back to his blood-covered clothes and hands. Making fists, Jak slammed the ground in front of him, cracking open more cuts, causing him to bleed more.

'Mar…' the voice muttered out again. 'It's all your fault.'

'Who the hell are you out there?!' he raised his voice. 'WHO ARE YOU?!' Jak screamed.

And with his loud shout, he closed his eyes and fell..."

Jak sat up in bed with a start, gasping for a breath of air. Beads of chilled sweat dripped from his brow and chest as he panted heavily. His brilliant blue eyes were wide as he placed his face into his hands, trying to calm himself down. Jak's unkempt hair hung around his shoulders and hid his face as he took in his deep breaths. Around his trembling body, his blankets sat twisted and contorted into a huge mess.

Taking in one more final deep breath, Jak removed his hands from his face, letting his figures move through his long mane. As he did so, he let gravity take over and let him flop back again the pillow. For a moment, he lay there, looking up at the ceiling that he had gotten so familiar with. He couldn't help blink a few more times, making sure that he wasn't dreaming. Turning his head to the side a bit, Jak looked out into his room in the Naughty Ottsel.

It was a tiny little room up on the top floor of the building. If a person were to see it at first glance, it would have been described as meager. The contents of the room included a small desk, chair, chest of drawers and the two simple beds. Above the bed, a small window let some of the morning sun's rays flood onto the musty floorboards. Upon the desk sat stacks of papers that covered new blueprints for some gun upgrades, his jetboard, and some mission information. Nothing more was really needed.

Taking in another deep breath, Jak closed his eyes once more, "Just a dream…" he muttered aloud, relaxing his muscles.

"More like a nightmare," a familiar voice corrected from out of nowhere.

Sitting up quickly, Jak let his eyes dart about the room again, "Dax?" he called, question etched on his words. "Where are…?"

"Down here." The voice of his best friend cut him off. Glancing down over the edge of his bed, Jak was greeted with the orange, furry face of his partner. The small creature had his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised in question. His goggles were perched upon his brow as he stood there, tapping his toe a bit.

"Sorry Dax," Jak muttered as he fell back into bed, head colliding with his pillow once more. "Didn't see ya."

But the little Ottsel grumbled a bit under his breath and let his shoulders slump, "Story of my life." Shaking his head a bit, Dax jumped up onto his friend's chest in one swift motion. Watching as Jak threw his arm over his eyes, he re-crossed his arms, "Well, was it that nightmare again?"

Jak only nodded his head a bit. He had told Dax that he had been having a recurring nightmare. But he never went into to much detail about it. There was no point to try and explain something he himself did not understand. It had begun since they had retrieved the Ring of Mar from the tomb; one week ago. It was always the voice whispering that name over and over again. And he did not understand why it called him Mar.

Shaking his head a bit, Jak lifted his arm up a bit to look at his friend, "Why are you up so early anyways Dax? What's wrong?"

The furry creature snickered a bit, "Correction my friend. I'm not up early. You slept in. And when I say slept in, I mean it's one in the afternoon." He explained.

"What?" Jak asked, letting his eyes widen a bit in surprise. If anyone was going to be sleeping in, it was normally Dax. But he only ever did that if he was drinking the night before. "One o'clock on the afternoon?"

Daxter nodded at his words, "Yes indeed. And everyone is already downstairs waiting for you. I had to use my smooth talking to convince Torn not to come up here and throw you into the bay."

Rolling his eyes at his cocky companion, Jak moved to sit up. Daxter jumped off his chest as he swung his legs onto the wooden floorboards. Rising from his place in bed, he grabbed his clothes from the back of his desk chair. It was his normal outfit he always wore when they were going out to hunt down some metal heads. He placed his belts upon his legs and holsters across his back. Pulling on his gloves, Jak reached for his trademark goggles and placed them upon his head. Cracking his neck a bit, he slid his feet into his boots and tightened them around his legs.

"Come on Jak. Everyone is waiting," Daxter hurried, tapping his foot against the floorboards.

Looking himself over in the mirror once, Jak nodded a bit at his appearance. The same way he looked every day. There was nothing different, except for the unusually large bags under his eyes. But, sleep deprivation would do that to a man.

As he turned to face his friend, Jak suddenly stopped in his tracks. He felt something pulling at him. It was as if a small nagging voice was whispering in the back of his mind, telling him to open his top drawer. Turning back to face the mirror once again, Jak let his eyes cast down at the top drawer. All he could hear in his mind was the same thing over and over again: 'Take the necklace.'

Jak did not elaborate to the others, besides Keira and Daxter, about how the small child they had all fought to save was actually him. It was easier for them to stay completely in the dark on the plans laid out by the sage and his past counterpart. He kept the jewel he was given before his young self left hidden within his room in the Naughty Ottsel. There was no point in wearing such a thing. He already had enough attention being drawn to him because of everything; he didn't need to be found bearing the seal of Mar as well.

Pulling opened the drawer, Jak rummaged through a few of his positions, until he came to a small cloth at the bottom of the drawer. Grabbing hold of the small object, Jak quickly unwrapped it. It had been in his drawer since the night of Daxter's party. He placed the small pendent he had gained from his younger self around his neck. As soon as he let go of the chain, he let a small sigh escape him. Jak almost felt as if it was only right to wear it. It was just a reminder for what was back then. Before the experiments, torture, and loosing who he once was. Looking down at it, Jak ran his hand over it, studying the ying-yang design. He placed it under his shirt, hoping Daxter wouldn't question his actions.

Adjusting the bit of extra weight on his body, Jak turned to his partner. "Come on Dax. Let's get going." He said, outstretching his hand to the Ottsel.

"Right-o." Daxter chimed, scurrying upon his normal shoulder spot

Moving out into the narrow hallway, the duo made their way towards the small staircase. They could already hear the voice of Torn barking out orders and the game plan for the mission. Despite the war and uprising being over, he never seemed to get used to the fact that there was nothing else to really fight. So, when the opportunity came to crush metal heads, the underground leader wad the first one to run out the gates.

Jak hurried down the stairs, letting his heavy boots make their loud thudding noise as he moved quickly into the lower bar area. The Naughty Ottsel was never opened during the day to the public, except for the remains of the small resistance. As Jak entered the main bar area, he noticed the small group in the far back booth, talking loudly as always. Sig stood outside of the booth, waving his large hands in the air as if telling an epic story of one of his fights against the KG.

Turning from the group, Sig was the first to notice Jak's presence, "Well, looks like Sleepin' Beauty decided to join us after all today." He joked loudly, moving away from the table a bit. As Jak approached him quickly, the larger man gave him a swift pat on the back, almost making him loose his balance.

"Thanks for fitting us into your schedule," Torn growled in his normal tone. He stepped out of the booth, looking as grungy as ever, his normal frown and glare directed at the pair.

"Anytime pal," Daxter grinned, causing Torn to curl his lip in disgust.

Shaking his head a bit at the comments, Jak walked forward to the table. Glancing into the booth, he saw Keira andAshelin sitting there, sipping at drinks as they looked over the maps of the pumping station. Small red circles had been drawn in various areas throughout the area. Most of them had been drawn up on the higher cliffs around the waterfalls, noting where exactly where the larger numbers of metal heads were located. Glancing over it a few times, Jak turned to the resistance leader, "The pumping station again?" he asked, his normal attitude returning.

Ashelin was the first to speak at his comment, "Correct. The metal heads seem to be looking for something within this area. Though, what it is, we can't say for sure." She explained.

"They are moving in two large groups," Torn continued on, moving back into the conversation, "One is up on the higher cliffs and the other is lingering around the far right base. So, we're going to move in with two groups as well."

Jak placed his hand to his chin in thought, eyes locked on the map upon the table. "So, who will go where?" he questioned.

"You, the rat, Keira, and Sig will take the upper," Torn said flatly.

Looking up, Jak was met with Keira's green eyes looking right at him. She let a small smile slip from her lips as she took notice of Jak's stare. A few stray strains of hair fell into her face, causing her to franticly push them away. Keira had started on missions shortly after the fall of Kor. Her method behind everything was that if she had more battlefield experience, she could help develop technology that could prove to be more useful and effective. Even though he knew Torn was still speaking about the game plan, Jak tuned him out. It couldn't be help when he saw Keira. He always thought back to the first time he had met up with her in Haven. Despite not even seeing her face, there was something about her that made his face grow a bit redder and his concentration go flying out the window. He returned the smile to Keira, though making sure to make it unnoticeable to his partner and other companions.

"Let's move out then," Ashelin announced loudly, breaking Jak's thoughts. The woman moved to stand up from the table, eyeing Jak and Keira. She had somewhat of a smug look on her face. Standing up next to him, she tossed her hair a bit as Keira got to her feet as well.

"That is…if you two are done flirting." She muttered, causing Jak's face to turn a lovely shade of red. Ashelin found a small sense of joy in making the mighty hero of Haven turn the color of Krimzon Guard armor at his small flaws. Granted, she admitted for that a brief moment during it all, she did find the young man attractive. But, at the celebration party after it was all over and done with, she saw just how much Keira and Jak did care for one another. So, she decided to back off. Besides, Torn was more of her type.

Daxter's eyes darted a bit back and forth between the three elves, wondering what she meant. He leaned over a bit on his friend's shoulder, glaring a questionable stare in his direction, "Flirting? What is this flirting you're doing Jak?" he demanded.

Turning quickly from the small group, Jak made his way towards the exit at a quickened pace. He thought it better to ignore the small rambling creature. Focusing on the mission should be his top priority. Besides, at least thinking about the current situation allowed him to move away from the thoughts of the dream. Moving away from the table, the small group made their way towards the door and off to the pumping station.

Author's Notes: Okay...we're getting there. I'm looking for some kind of feedback, so please feel free to leave some comments. I would like to know how I could improve on characterizations.