Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I'm just playing in Naughty Dog's sand box.

-Chapter Nineteen-

The pathway they were on arched in a semicircle around the statue on the wall, connected to the platform in front of it by the same bridge that broke off short of the door on the other side. Without any other obvious exit, Jak headed for that platform, intent on investigating the Precursor ring. If he could find a way to activate it, they might be able to escape. Beside him, the boy held tight to his hand, seemingly content to follow him wherever he wanted to go.

However, once they actually got to the ring, the boy let go and started gesturing excitedly.

And Jak got his first taste of just how frustrating his form of "speech" could be.

The ring. The statue. No, the hole in the statue's chest! He'd touched it, and whoosh!

Wait, what? Baffled, Jak shook his head and repeated the kid's gesture as best he could with one hand. Something had - flown? - into the ring?

Oh yes. The kid nodded enthusiastically. Whoosh! He climbed up the steps that led up to the hole in the statue's chest, then patted the air without actually touching the depression.

No, he wasn't talking about the hole or the statue. There had been something in the statue's chest, something that was no longer there.

The Metal Head took it. That was the only thing the boy could mean when he bared his teeth and clawed at the statue's empty chest as though prying something out.

Jak frowned, wishing he could ask for more details, but when neither he nor the child could really speak, it would take too long to communicate and make certain the other understood. When they were safe, he could ask about it again. Instead, he focused on the ring itself. Running his hand along the cool metal surface, he thought he could detect a faint thrum of power. So, it wasn't completely dead. But was there enough power to activate it? Somehow, Jak doubted it. It had taken a hundred power cells to get the other ring running. Still...

He concentrated, reaching for that innate talent of his to draw out eco. It was that power, he suspected, that Precursor artifacts responded to when he held them in his hands. He wasn't sure, as he'd never deliberately tried to activate an artifact like this. They'd always turned on at just a simple touch. But maybe their power hadn't been dormant. Maybe with this ring, the energy needed to be "woken up." He hoped... and reached...

And nothing.

With a sigh of defeat, he dropped his hand and let his forehead rest against the ring. Well, it was worth a try. When the boy's hand slipped into his again, he looked down and nodded. Yeah. Let's keep looking.

The next best place to investigate was the broken bridge itself. Jak went as close to the edge as he dared, carefully testing his weight each time he took a step, then stood there trying to gauge the distance. Could he jump that far? He bit his lip uncertainly. He thought that maybe, maybe he could jump far enough to grab onto the opposite ledge, but injured and with only one arm, he didn't think that he could pull himself up. On top of that, he couldn't leave the boy behind. With the boy on his back, there'd be no way he could make it across.

Darn it...

Something clacked in the distance. Jak's ears pricked up as they caught the sound and he looked around before exchanging a glance with the boy. The boy just blinked back at him. He didn't know what it was, either. The sound came again, and again, a rhythmic pattern that was drawing closer. Jak tensed, wondering if the Metal Head was coming back.

But instead of a giant monster, two hoary old heads popped into view, their owners coming up the steps on the other side of the door. "There you are!" one of them exclaimed as he caught sight of Jak and the boy. "Great Precursors, boy, I was beginning to think that Metal Head had eaten you!"

Of all the people... Samos! Jak's face lit up with joy and recognition, and at first he almost didn't notice the drastic differences. When he did, though, he faltered, blinking in confusion. Samos? He let go of the boy's hand and pointed hesitantly at the Green Sage's head. What happened to your log? That wasn't the only thing wrong, but it was the first that jumped out at him. Then it was the beard that wasn't there, the bird's egg instead of a bird, and the skin that wasn't quite as wrinkly. He was still Samos. There was no one in the world who looked like him, Jak was certain of that.

But what had happened?

Samos either didn't notice or just plain ignored the question, although he did at least look at Jak. His eyebrows lifted in surprise. "On the other hand, it looks like it tried to take a bite out of your friend. Young man, are you all right?"

Young man? Jak stared at him, then slowly shook his head. Something was off here. It was almost like Samos didn't recognize him. But that couldn't be right. He'd known the sage almost his whole life and they'd only been separated for a few days. It didn't make sense for Samos not to remember him.

"He looks a bit disoriented," the man with Samos commented. He had white hair and a beard that was even longer than Samos' had been and he was dressed in blue robes. Tucked underneath one arm, he held a large green stone that glowed with an inner light. "Probably from loss of blood, if I had to guess."

"Perhaps you should sit down," Samos suggested. "Away from the ledge."

Feeling more and more distressed, Jak stepped back, taking the kid's hand again and pulling him with him. The boy stared back and forth between Jak and the men on the other side of the broken bridge, but he didn't offer up any resistance.

Surprisingly, though, the robed man did. "I don't think that would be wise," he cautioned. "The Metal Head that brought us all here could still be lurking about. There's no time to rest. We need to escape before it comes back."

Samos frowned, but couldn't argue the sense of the other man's words. "Yes, I suppose you're right. Unfortunately..." He eyed the remains of the bridge. "I don't see a way for the boys to get across. Do you have any suggestions, Kor?"

Kor appeared to consider the problem for a moment, and his eyes swept the chamber as he took everything in. Then a slow smile crossed his face. "I don't believe that will be necessary," he said. Striding closer to the edge of the bridge, he gestured toward the Precursor ring with the staff in his hand. "If the boys can activate that transport ring, I'm sure it will take them someplace well beyond the Metal Head's reach."

"It's not active and there's no eco anywhere near here," Samos pointed out.

"Ah, but we do have this." Kor held up the green stone he'd been carrying, his eyes gleaming with triumph. "This Precursor stone is filled with power just waiting to be released - more than enough to activate a transport ring. If the boys can figure out how to tap its energy..."

An excited tugging on his hand pulled Jak's attention down to the boy he was holding. The boy looked up at Jak and pointed at the stone, then back at the ring - no, wait, the statue. Jak looked back at the statue, at the hole in the statue's chest...

Whoosh! The boy's hand zipped through the air.

It looked like just about the right size and shape. Jak's eyebrows lifted and he made the growl-and-claw motion that he and the boy both agreed meant "Metal Head." Is that what the Metal Head took?

The boy nodded vehemently and pointed at the green stone in Kor's hand. With his ears laid back, he clawed the air, pretending to snatch something away. Oh yes, that was definitely what the Metal Head had taken, and he'd seen it with his own eyes!

Jak closed his hand, then opened it, as though letting something go. Maybe it dropped it.

Something flickered in Samos' eyes as he watched the two boys communicate. The frown on his face etched deeper, sharpening with suspicion. "Young man, what did you say your name was?"

The teen flinched. He hadn't said his name - because Jak couldn't speak and because Samos should have known. With all the confirmation that he needed now that Samos didn't remember him, he lifted his hand to touch his throat. I can't.

Somehow, though, Samos didn't appear surprised. He looked at the boy again, then at Jak, seeming to compare the two. He pursed his lips. "Hmm. Are you...?" He didn't get to finish that sentence, though, because didn't Kor give him the chance.

"We can save the introductions for later," the old man said impatiently. "Boy, if I throw this to you, do you think you can catch it?"

Putting aside the issue of Samos' memory in favor of dealing with the more immediate problem, Jak eyed the stone, mentally judging its weight by how the other man lifted it. After a moment, he nodded. Yeah. I can handle that. Two hands would have been best, but he was pretty certain that he could make do with one. When Kor gently lobbed the thing across the pit, he was ready, grabbing hold of it just as it hit his chest.

A feeling like electricity shot through him the moment his skin touched the stone, startling him into nearly dropping it. Whoa! He wasn't kidding when he said it was full of power! There was so much energy swirling beneath the surface of the stone, it was amazing that it didn't leap free on its own. It might even, he thought with no small amount of hope, be enough to match a hundred power cells.

Only one way to find out.

Turning his back on the two old men, he headed straight to the other side of the chamber with the stone in hand. The boy trotted along beside him, apparently eager to see what was going to happen. Jak didn't see Samos' look of speculation, or the way Kor's smile widened as he watched them approach the ring.

All right. Let's try this again. He leaned against the ring so that both he and the stone were touching it at the same time, then closed his eyes, feeling out the energy. There was some sort of barrier that locked it inside the stone, something smooth and hard as glass. How do I get it out?

"Hurry, boy!" Kor called to him. "We haven't got much time!"

Jak's ear flicked with annoyance. He was doing this as fast as he could. Opening his eyes again, he stared into the depths of the stone. There had to be something, some method to releasing the energy. He could feel it humming beneath his hand. Why wasn't he able to touch it?

Almost without thinking, his eyes slid to the boy beside him. Whoosh. He'd touched the stone and whoosh. What exactly did that mean? Curious now, and with nothing else to go on, he knelt down and held the stone out. Can you show me what you did?

The kid hesitated. Some emotion - fear? uncertainty? nervousness? - drew his eyebrows together as he stared at the stone, then at Jak, and his hands unconsciously reached up to clutch at his amulet. Eventually, though, he took a deep, steadying breath before placing his hand on the stone. Jak watched intently, focusing every sense he had on what the boy was doing.

He felt it first, before he saw it, the way the energy seemed to collect near the boy's hand as though drawn by a magnet. It was like... like watching himself absorb eco, only in very slow motion. First one spark rose from the stone, then another, then like a dam had burst, a whole torrent of energy came rushing through, engulfing the child completely. The boy cried out, the first sound he'd made, and snatched his hand away. With something that was almost a whimper, he stuck his fingers in his mouth, staring at Jak with large, watery eyes. His other hand trembled as he waved it through the air.

Whoosh!

That was the answer. Jak's eyes were wide as he realized what had just happened. The stone was filled with pure eco, and this boy had channeled it. Or tried to, that is. He was too young to be handling anything on the order that Jak had just seen. Jak set the stone down and pulled the boy's hand from his mouth. He couldn't remember the first time he'd channeled eco, but he could remember the sting when he'd tried to absorb too much. He remembered, too, the words Damas had spoken to him in the chamber below Spargus.

He rubbed the boy's fingers. Just let it fade. He waited until the boy's eyes stopped watering, then smiled and patted him on the head before picking the stone back up. Thanks, he tried to convey. I think I know what I need to do.

What he needed to do, he realized, was treat the stone like it was eco and stop trying to let the energy out. It didn't need to go out - it needed to go through. He had to become the conduit between it and the ring. Standing up again so that he could lean against the ring, he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. Then, like he would with any other loose bit of eco, he reached out and tried to pull it in.

Pure, raw energy tore through his body, shocking him with its intensity. It was like Spargus all over again, red and blue, yellow and green, and white, so much white, all mixed into one, flooding him and spilling out when there was no more room. He would have staggered if he hadn't been leaning against the ring, it was that overwhelming. As it was, it was all he could do to keep standing, gasping as the eco roared through his veins before pouring into the waiting ring.

Then just as he thought he was going to pass out, the Precursor machine began to hum with life, the energy it had absorbed glowing brightly at its center. Jak hastily cut off the flow of eco, panting as though he'd run a marathon. I did it. Relief washed over, and he almost felt the urge to laugh. We did it. We can get out of here now. They could go back home and Jak could tell Damas about everything that had happened. Damas would want to know about the Metal Heads, and maybe he could help the little boy find his parents. And if he needed any help translating what the boy wanted to say, he'd have Jak and Daxter, the world's two best experts in silent communication. Daxter always knew what-

Reality hit him hard. He didn't even know if Daxter was alive, or Sig for that matter. The last he'd seen of them, they were being overrun by Metal Heads in the pass, and Daxter... He hadn't seen what happened, but he knew that Daxter had been hurt. He swallowed a lump that had formed in his throat. He's all right, he told himself. Sig's with him and they got the ring open. They'll be waiting when we get back to Spargus. He knew that might not be the case, but right now...

Right now, he had more than enough on his plate without adding things he couldn't do anything about.

"Good job, boys!" Samos praised them. "Now, be careful when you go through that ring. You don't know where it will take you. When you're on the other side, see if you can find a way to disable it so that the Metal Heads can't follow you. Kor and I will make our way to the entrance of this place and-"

Kor's laughter cut him off. "Fools!" he said. "You've done exactly what I wanted!" His laughter turned deeper, harsher, and just as Jak's head snapped up, wings sprouted from the man's back, shooting out in four directions. Then his whole body distorted, growing larger and losing all semblance of humanity. Within moments, Kor was gone, and in his place stood the Metal Head leader.

"You!" Samos gasped, stumbling backwards. "It was you this whole time!"

"Yes, me," the Metal Head mocked. "You fools are so easy to manipulate! When the young heir of Mar proved useless in channeling the stone's power, I knew I would need the other. And what better way to convince him to use the stone's power than to trap him and then present him with the stone as the only way to escape? Of course, I needed you to help gain their trust, Samos, as you were already familiar to the both of them and I, as Kor, was not."

Samos started in surprise. "Both?"

"But you never questioned why the Metal Head just happened to let you escape, now did you?" the Metal Head sneered, ignoring the question. "And now I need you no more!" With a powerful swing of his arm, he struck the man and sent him hurtling through the air. "Good riddance!"

Before Jak could even register what happened, Samos was gone. Whether by luck or the Metal Head's own design, his body had gone straight through the Precursor ring, disappearing in a flash of light. Appearing unconcerned, the Metal Head leaped across the pit to the walkway that circled the statue, then started lumbering towards them.

"All that is left," it commented, "is to kill the both of you. With the House of Mar gone, nothing, nothing will stand between me and the past!"

There was no time to figure out what it meant by that baffling statement. Even as the boy tried to latch onto his leg, Jak dropped the stone and grabbed onto him, swinging him by the arm up toward the ring. Go! he wanted to shout at the startled child. Find Samos on the other side! He'll take care of you! There was a soft clatter as something fell and hit the ground, then another flash of light.

And then Jak was alone with the Metal Head leader. Alone, injured, and unarmed - but he didn't care. There was one thing he knew he could do, and if he died doing it, then so be it. As the Metal Head approached him, he scooped the Precursor stone up off the ground and once again leaned against the ring.

The Metal Head laughed as it saw what Jak was up to. "Idiot boy," it said as it reached the intersection of the walkway and the bridge. "You cannot overload that Precursor ring! It was built to handle more power than you could ever hope to channel!"

Jak lifted his chin grimly. That's not what I intend to do. He reached again for the energy, ignoring how his nerves screamed - but this time it wasn't the stone he was reaching for. This time it was the ring. If I can channel energy out of the stone, I can channel it back in!

By the time the Metal Head realized what he was doing, it was already too late. He knew what he was doing now, how to get the energy to respond, and he knew what to expect when it raged through his body. He didn't have to pull it all back in, either - only enough to shut the ring down. Even as the Metal Head screeched in protest, the light in the ring winked out.

"No!"

Dizzy and staggering from the effort of channeling so much energy - and twice in the same day! - Jak didn't stand a chance of dodging when the furious Metal Head hurled itself across the remaining distance and slammed him into the ground. The Precursor stone slipped from his fingers and rolled a few feet before coming to a stop.

"I will not be thwarted again!"

Sharp claws sunk into him, raking across his skin. If Jak hadn't already been half stunned from hitting the ground, he would have cried out in pain. As it was, he could barely gasp as he tried to twist away. The effort proved futile, though, when a second set of claws pinned him down. Before he could blink, the Metal Head's huge, leering face was just inches from his own, its hot, rancid breath pouring down his neck.

"Open the Rift Gate, boy," it growled, "or I will rip you limb from limb."

Jak glared in defiance. Go to hell. Then, with as much liquid as his mouth could muster, he spit right in the monster's eye.

-End Chapter Nineteen-