Chapter 6: The Temple

The elevator suddenly came to a stop and this allowed Jak to looked at the familiar holographics that seemed to dance on the walls before he turned down a corridor that would lead to the power source of the entire building ."This is where the power for the village comes from." Jak explained as he and Mar began to walk around the corridors of the Precursor made temple that he knew now was not a temple, but a blue eco power plant.

"I've seen Precursor temple before," Mar began, "mostly in the wasteland that's beyond the mountains." Jak nodded. "However none ever looked like this. I know there is one temple in the wastes that connects to a large cavernous canyon that's not too far from here." Jak smiled as he realized that this was probably the same wasteland temple that he'd visited not too long ago with his father. The monk Seem had seemed a bit wise for her or his age. He still couldn't tell if Seem was female or male and it annoyed not only him; but -. He shook himself out of his thoughts, not ready to think about his best friend who'd died as soon as they'd arrived back home. His heart throbbed in pain and he hated that there'd been nothing he could do to save his best friend from his fiery death.

"So," Jak started to say as they entered another elevator that would take them down into the deeper parts of temple that Jak had never been in. "where do you come from?"

Mar looked at him with a twinkle in his blue eyes that Jak knew as mischief. "You'd never believe me." he said smirking as he turned away from him.

Jak laughed. "Try me." he dared the young man.

"Past the wastes is the sea and past the sea is the brink." He smiled as he continued. "and past the brink is a massive continent. That's where I'm from." He crossed his arms over his chest. "When I began this journey of mine I was ten, an orphan, and knew nobody who'd care about me. Now? I'm almost twenty, I have skills I never dreamed I'd have, I know more people than I thought I would and I'm not so much of an orphan as I use to be."

"How so?" Jak asked as they turned down the only corridor that seemed to be on this floor.

"Well, I can't be an orphan anymore because I know so many people who now care about me, including a few women here and there." He winked at Jak which caused Jak to roll his eyes at Mar. "Then there's the fact that I'm too old to be one anymore. Oh and the fact that I found out that my father had an affair with a lady here in part of the world and that she gave birth to a little red haired boy years ago. It's the main reason I came to Sandover. They lived there. She supposedly got married to some fisherman before she had the baby. The kid probably doesn't even know who his biological dad is and thinks it's the fisherman; but…" Mar shrugged. "I just wanted to meet them."

Jak nodded and then paused. "Red haired kid?" Jak snorted. "Could only be a few of those around."

Mar nodded as they turned to a door with a blue symbol on it. He touched the blue eco valve, glowed slightly and the door opened. "He'd be either sixteen or seventeen right now."Jak froze and suddenly knew who he was talking about. A red haired, sixteen year old Daxter popped into his mind. Daxter was the only red haired boy that would be that age or would've been that age had he not aged four years in Haven City three hundred and some years. Mar turned and looked at Jak when he noticed that his companion had stopped walking next to him. "What?" Mar asked.

Jak scratched the back of his next. "I think I may know who you're talking about."

Mar blinked and then smiled as he stopped Jak from moving forward by lifting his hand in the stop motion. "Who is he?" his eyes begged for the answer.

Jak sighed sadly. "I'm only guessing here, but it's possible that he's my best friend." he paused a second. "Daxter."

Mar's smile vanished. "The young man who burned up in that contraption?" he asked only gaining a simple nod from Jak. "Oh." Mar's arm fell back to his side. "Figures. I always come too late." He shook his head. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Jak spoke as he took the lead by brushing past Mar. It was times like these that he hated being around people and just wanted to be alone. As they entered a large cavernous room Jak's eyes widened at all of the Precursorean computers everywhere. It looked exactly like the power station back in Haven City. As they stepped further into the room suddenly the door slammed down and locked causing both to turn quickly towards the noise of the slamming door. "Shit!" Jak cursed as he put a hand to his head. Why hadn't I thought of there being booby traps? He silently wondered when there was a whirling sound behind both men. Upon turning they saw a large holographic in the center of the room that had looked like a Precursor Robot now looked like an Elvin female with purple hair and purple eyes. The rest of her was blue with number running up and down her body. She wore what looked like a scientists garb; like what Vin use to wear until he had become an AI.

"You are not authorized to be in here!" she yelled and suddenly went from glowing blue to red. That was when there was a clinking noise, as if gears were being turned. Looking upwards both men saw weapons being lowered and pointed right at them.

The same thought came to both men at the same time. They were in trouble and nobody knew exactly where they were.

Location: Sandover – Young Jak

The night they'd seen the Lurker Ape Jak and Daxter had rushed across the Sentinel Beaches as fast as they could, after Daxter had snatched his treasure that is. Now they were in their hut, safe and telling Mama and Papa what had happened and where they'd gone on the beaches. Both parents seemed concerned with the thought of Lurker's being nearby, which could only spell out trouble.

After having told both of their parents, they awaited any punishment that was coming to them. "Are we in trouble?" Daxter asked, his bucked teeth sticking out as he looked up at his father, baby blues looking like they were about to shed tears.

"For now," his father began as he ran a hand through his dark brown locks. "no." he looked over to his wife, whose blue eyes looked frightened. "I'll go to the mayor and see about callin' a meetin' about this."

Teresa looked down at both boys and sighed as they looked at each other and smiled before she spotted what Daxter was trying to hide under a dirty old rag. "What is that, that you're holding Daxter?" she asked her son whose eyes shown with renewed curiosity that matched Jak's own.

"Treasure!" he shouted with a loud voice as he pulled the rag off and lifted his hands up and showed his mother what they'd found.

"Treasure?" she asked as she looked at the round piece of precursor metal that was floating above her son's hand. "Do you know what you're treasure is called?" Both boys shook their heads no. "It's called a Precursor Power Cell." She held out her hand and showed them out to deactivate it. They boy's eyes widened as the pieces floating around the larger orb suddenly fell into tiny slots on the orb and the chiming bell-like sound stopped. Teresa then handed the now deactivate power cell back to Daxter.

"Cool!" the red haired buck tooth youth yelled out and turned towards Jak. "Did ya see what Jak? Did ya?"

Jak's bright blue eyes were wide with wonderment as he nodded. "Whoa." He muttered as he then looked up at his adoptive mother. "Do it again?" he asked.

"Yeah!" Daxter yelled as he handed the orb back to his mother who laughed.

"Later boys." She said as she stood up from her seated position next to the table and picked up at basket filled with snap beans. "I want both of you to go take a bath…" Daxter groaned only to get the eye from his mother that told him to stop. "and then I want you boys to help me finish dinner and after dinner I have a surprise for both of you."

"Is it cake?" Daxter asked as happiness returned to his eyes and decided that maybe taking a bath in return of a piece of cake wouldn't be too bad.

"No." was the answer which automatically made Daxter's smile vanished. "No go wash up." Teresa said she turned both boys around and gave them a gentle shove towards the bathroom.

Daniel watched as more and more of the villagers began to fill the mayor's hut. The fat bellied mayor had already found a seat at the head of the room and was waiting for the villager's to settle down. Daniel sat next to the mayor, being that he was the one that called this meeting. At last Samos as his cousin came into the room with her little girl in tow. The mayor cleared his throat as everybody finally settled down. "I'll have everyone settled before we begin." He looked towards the Sage who was still standing. Samos waved him to go on. "Very well. Now Daniel has shared something very disturbing with me and I'll let him be the one to tell you what's happened."

Daniel slowly stood up and towered over the people of Sandover, most of whom were old enough to be his parents or grandparents. There were so few young men in the crowd and even fewer who'd be able to protect the small village from what he feared was coming. So clearing his throat he began. "This afternoon my son Daxter and Teresa and my newly adopted son, Jak were on Sentinel Beach playing around when they spotted a Lurker Ape. Now as everybody knows, Lurker Apes only come near our villages when their food source is low or if they're scouting ahead of a big fight." The people began to murmur with each other as fear began to spread. "Now, I don't know which it is because my sons couldn't describe the Lurker Ape very good. All I know is that it was a purple furred Ape, which means it could be either." He paused. "I believe it's time we begin preparing for an attack. It may be from this Lurker Ape and its fellows; or it could be from the next one. Either way we're defenseless and we have children here in this village that have lost families to these beasts before and I wouldn't want another attack to take out whatever is left, my family including." He could see that he was getting through to the older generation, but the younger ones looked bored as if they didn't really believe the threat was real, however there were those who'd been through this before and knew of the threat; having lost somebody to those ferocious beasts.

"I agree." came Samos' voice through the murmuring crowd. "I've seen what happens to a city or a village that's not prepared for an attack. It's destructive and many people die."

Daniel watched his cousin stand up. "I've come from the wastes and there I've seen frightening creatures and while I hate to step on peoples toes I agree with your Sage here. Without better protection you're just asking for some kind of monstrosity to come and destroy this village. You need warriors or at the very least you need young men who know how to fight." She then looked down at her daughter. "I want my daughter to grow up with her mother, not having to become an orphan because there wasn't any protection from the men of her village."

The mayor suddenly stood up. "So what is the plan?" he asked as he fidgeted with his hands and looked a little more frightened than he normally was.

"There's a man in Rock Village known as the Hero." Daniel stated. "I'm going to ask him to come down here and help train our men and any of the women who are interested." Once again murmurs in the crowd began and this time it was louder.

The little girl that had come into the room with her mother suddenly looked up at her mother and tugged on her white and blue floor length dress. Upon looking down at her daughter the woman smiled. "Go across the way Keira." She said. "I'll join you at Cousin Daniel's place afterwards." The aqua haired girl smiled and ran off and out into the late evening to go to the hut across from the Mayors hut.

Location: Sandover – Older Daxter

Daxter yawned as he stretched out from his nightly sleep. The young man slowly opened his eyes and noticed he was on his back for once. Above him were the familiar bands of Jak's old bunk bed from their time in Sandover. He suddenly groaned as everything from the day before came crashing down upon him. "Damn it." he groaned, he'd really thought that all had been a dream; a really bad one at that, but no, the gods couldn't be that merciful upon him. Sighing he slowly sat up and looked out the window next to the bed and smiled slightly. Well it ain't that bad. he thought as he looked out at the village. Sandover residents were already up and about, already going about their day and their daily doings. The closest thing they had to this village back home was Spargus and that was just a violent version of Sandover.

Looking out at everybody from his window he spotted a familiar face amongst them that he hadn't seen in years. Sure his face had a few more wrinkles in it then when he'd seen the man the last time when he was little, but the dark and grey hair was cut the same as it had always been in. Jumping out the window wasn't as easy as it had been the last time he and Jak had shared the room years ago, but he still did it and run up behind the man. "Dad?" he questioned, the man froze and turned around slightly towards Daxter.

"Daxter?" he questioned what he was seeing in front of him. Daxter's hip length hair was tied back into a messy braid, he wore worn out sandals, a tattered red and black sleeveless shirt and brown pants that had holes in them above both knees, one on the left was bigger that the right. Daxter was no longer the tiny miscreant of a child that he'd been when his father had left Sandover; he was now a muscled young man that was tall and skinny.

"Yeah." He said as he scratched the back of his head.

His father suddenly grabbed him and brought him into a hug. "I thought you were dead." His father said as tears began to collect in the man's eyes.

"Not quite." He joked as he pulled away from his father and then began to look around. "Have ya seen Jak around pops?"

Daniel coughed at the name his son just called him. "No." he smirked as he watched his son look around himself for his brother and friend. "But I heard he'd taken a young man with him into the jungle to some temple."

"Temple?" Daxter returned his attention to his father. "Which one?" he demanded as he grabbed his father by his shoulders, frantic to get the answers out of him. There were a lot of temples out there, but if it was the one he was thinking about; the blue eco one, then Jak may need his assistance.

"The one that powers this village son." His father answered not quite sure why his son was acting this way.

"I've gotta go help him." Daxter said as he turned to leave.

"Why?" Daniel asked, "You could help the villager's son. That's what you should do."

"If I go to help Jak, I will be helping the villager's Dad." He said. "Ya see, Jak's one of the village hero's. I'm another one; but without Jak we can't protect this village like we should." He suddenly paused at vaguely remembering that Sig was here too. "If ya run into a big guy named Sig tell him I've gone off ta find Jak. "Kay? See ya!" with that Daxter ran off to find Jak in the Forbidden Jungle, his nerves telling him that Jak was in serious trouble and was needing his sidekick to come and save his ass.

M-Angel: Sorry for the long delay in this story. The holiday's had me really busy, plus I got really sick and I'm still getting over it. If you have any questions about my other stories go check out my profile.