Chapter Four:

The Inner Darkness

Erin batted the hair irritably out of her face as the breeze created from the countless a-grav zoomers that passed overhead. She made her way to the hideout through the crowded streets, alone.

Just after they had left the Fortress Jak grew distant, no doubt his own anger frightened him. Erin couldn't deny that inside she felt an intense anger at seeing Erol again, but mostly she felt a fear that kept her anger in check. Jak, on the other hand, had almost lost control. She noticed that his skin paled considerably when he gritted his teeth in anger when he watched Erol, Erin had feared that Jak would change into that monster again. But, somehow, he managed to control it, but his anger inside took it out on his hands. She had noticed him bleeding profusely as the metal cut into his palms; the strength of his anger warping the steel floor between his fingers. It had terrified her that he hadn't even noticed the pain. What intense anger was consuming him?

When they had finished the mission and blew up the ammo (while avoiding another tank that was protecting it) Jak turned to Erin as if he were in a trance and told her to tell Torn what they had witnessed. Without another word he turned from her, stole a zoomer, and flew off in the opposite direction.

Jak was acting stranger by the minute, and it was both irritating her and frightening her. It wouldn't be too long until she followed him down the path to inner darkness; her dreams were proof of that.

The dream that she had had the night before was unsettling, she was starting to feel the darkness that had started to grow since she had first been experimented on. How long would it be before she changed? She didn't know...all she knew was that it was coming; whether she liked it or not.

Since the dream has woken her from her sleep early in the morning--was it only this morning?--, she had been trying desperately to think of a way to stop her inevitable transformation. But throughout the reach of her knowledge she couldn't think of any way to reverse the affect of the dark eco. Normally people would die instantly when they so much as touched dark eco, and in extremely rare cases in history the eco just transformed the individual. Whatever the Baron had done to the eco, it hadn't transformed them, at least not instantly. Had they somehow lowered the strength of the dark eco so that it wouldn't kill as easily? Why were Jak and her the only two that were being experimented on?

Due to the fact that she knew nobody in this strange place, she didn't have the slightest idea of where to start looking for the answers, or who to find that could give her the answers. She was lost in a strange land and alone.

The part of her that was still the terrified little girl in the prison cell came through. She felt the aching loneliness tug at her heart. The feeling of complete defeat clouded her mind. She was alone, and soon she would be a mindless monster.

Then the part of her mind that was born from the cell awakened. Her heart that wouldn't just lie down and die. She told herself that she would find the answer; she wouldn't let the darkness win. She would find a way, for what other choice did she have?

Erin continued down the filthy street, forcing herself to forget her doubts, with a determination that she didn't know that she possessed.

Jak dropped the zoomer to ground level, right above the slightly polluted water that this part of the city was build on. He left the zoomer and climbed up on the poorly built wooden walkway. The wood creaked loudly under his boots as he followed where ever his feet took him, but he paid no attention. He continued to walk past many plain, wore-down buildings that stood up off of the water on ridiculous wooden pikes, it was amazing this part of the city managed to stay above the water. Jak knew that he should report back to Torn about what they had seen, but after seeing Erol again Jak felt that he needed some time alone to think. Though he wasn't technically alone, Daxter was always there, but his friend knew he wished to think. So, miraculously, Daxter managed to keep his mouth shut.

Even the slightest thought of Erol or the Baron caused Jak to clench his jaw in anger. Jak would give anything to make sure that they paid for what they did to him, and Erin, and countless other people. But when his anger almost destroys a mission, it becomes a burden. When would his anger stop? Would he go as far as get himself killed just to see they received their justice?

Jak gave a brief thought to his lost friends. He hoped that he would see them again someday. But where were they? Jak didn't see them fall out of the rift gate with them. Did they get pushed out of the rift gate back to Sandover village, were they save? Or did they get transported to an even stranger, and dangerous, world then they fell out of the gate? Jak thought it possible that he would never see them again. Keira and Samos were the only family that he knew, except for Daxter.

The first day that they had meet they had become friends. Jak couldn't remember talking--ever--, or even why he didn't. He remembered as far back as he could that he was teased by some of the kids his age, and when he met Daxter that all changed. Daxter, being the loud-mouth that he is, gave the other kids what-for, and continued to talk for Jak from that day forward. It was good to have his old friend back.

Jak continued to walk and think on the wooden walkway, having no concept of a destination. He just walked to ease his mind.

He stopped in his tracks as he noticed that there wasn't any walkway left to walk on. He looked around to realize that his feet had carried him to a dead-end near the city security wall. He almost turned around and walked back down the path he had come down when he noticed a strange building.

Well, it wasn't strange per se, but the building itself was the only one in this area of the Water Slums. Jak thought it peculiar that this one building was so far away from all the others.

Jak walked up to the building to investigate, the building itself looked just like every other in the Slums. It was in the final stages of decay, the water in the area made the wood rot where it was. There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary...

When he took a step closer to the door it opened for him. The only doors that were automated in the whole city were the government buildings, an automated door on a civilian building was definitely out of the ordinary.

Careful in case it was a trap, Jak edged toward the door and glanced inside.

Hundreds of candles lit the one room that made up the small building. Strange old tapestries hung on the wall, and at the far edge of the room was an ancient Precursor Oracle. Both Jak and Daxter felt a ping of recognition. Finally they had found a tie between this world and theirs!

Jak vaguely heard Daxter mumble something about 'more Precursor crap' but ignored it as he stepped into the room.

Silently the doors slid shut as they entered the room. The eyes of the Precursor Oracle lit with light as they approached and it sensed them.

"Greetings great warrior," a voice echoed from the depths of the ancient statue.

Jak stepped closer as the Oracle continued. "I sense there is a dark rage burning within you, and, in time, it will destroy you with its madness. Only the last power of the Precursors can save you. Destroy my enemies, those creatures you call the Metal Heads and bring me twenty five of their skull gems, and I will teach you to control these powers."

Without another word the statue's eyes flickered and the light extinguished. The statue stood dormant once again.

"Wait!" Jak yelled at the silent statue. He had questions that he needed answered. "How do I get home! Where are my friends!"

When the statue didn't see fit to respond, Jak lost it. Within a second his anger surfaced, he could feel the dark part of him take over. The pale skinned monster was in place of the Jak that Daxter knew. Daxter quickly jumped from his friends shoulder as Dark Jak took out his anger on anything in sight.

Daxter watched in a fearful awe as Dark Jak flipped the tables that held the candles. But strangely the candles' flames extinguished just before they hit the carpeted floor, preventing any fires.

The sane part of Jak knew that the dark eco inside of him was starting to disappear as he continued to demolish the room; tearing at the fabric on the walls. Slowly he felt the anger subside, but since he wasn't hurting anybody Jak just let the darkness continue its destruction until he turned back to normal on his own.

When the darkness had used up all the dark eco in his system, the normal Jak returned to the surface. He hoped that since he let all the dark eco drain from his system that it would be a longer time until he changed again. And now that his mind was clear of the evil voice in his mind he had time to think over what the Oracle had said.

'Eventually it will destroy you with its madness' is what the Oracle had said. After everything that he had been through, the dark eco was still killing him. But instead of instant death, it was killing him slowly, or was it just taking over and he would be a mindless monster? Up until that point Jak thought that maybe there was some way for him to live a normal life. There had to be a way to stop his changing, wasn't there?

According to what the Oracle had hinted, there was no way to stop it. And if he didn't find a way to control the dark powers, he would die.

Erin had just told Torn what they had seen at the Fortress with the KG and the Metal Heads. He didn't even try to hide his interest in what she had seen. He was so interested that he gave her another mission, and while she was on the mission she was to pump a guy named Krew for information about the Baron and the Metal Heads.

She walked out the door to the zoomer with the eco ore package strapped to the back, mounted it, and took off slowly to the Hip Hog Heaven saloon at the docks. It took her some time to get used to the feel of the one person craft, but once she did she found that it was easier to maneuver than the larger models.

Erin was sure to take her time making her way to the saloon, she didn't want to draw unwanted attention.

She continued to try and blend in with all the other traffic in the city, and she avoided any KG's that crossed her path. But every time she avoided one KG, another appeared in her path. After some time she figured that she was being followed.

The first chance she got, Erin pulled into a side street, and sure enough two Guards on zoomers followed her. She pulled her zoomer near the wall and ripped her torn sleeve off and wrapped it into a headband to keep her hair out of her face. She knew that she would have to run for it.

Slowly the two shady Krimson Guards inched their way closer to her. She waited until the last minute to gun the zoomer at full speed. When she tore past the Guards, she side-swiped one of them, knocking him off of his zoomer to the ground below. She lowered her zoomer to ground level and tried to out run the Guard that was left by weaving in and out of the crowded street, and at the same time trying to calm the beating of her heart. Some time passed and she thought that she had lost him, until she came into view of a whole troop of KG's blocking the road that led to the saloon, with several Hellcat zoomers guarding the high hover zone. The instant she came into view they started in her direction, all of them had their weapons' on her.

"We have you surrounded, you have no choice but to surrender."

She put her hands up in surrender. It seemed that she had no choice…

Just when she thought that she was screwed, shots rang out from behind her.

Erin looked back over her shoulder to see Jak on another zoomer, and he was shooting at the Krimson Guards.

"You all go after him!" The leading KG hollered. "This girl might be a decoy!"

Without a word over half of the KG's ran to their own zoomers and took off after Jak. Now there were only three KG's on the ground, and one Hellcat in the air. Thank you Jak!

"Put your hands on your head!"

Erin did as she was told. She noticed in each of the Guards eyes' that they were sure they were taking her in. The leader advanced with a pair of cuffs. They were underestimating her, just because she was a girl! Where they in for a surprise.

Just as the Guard reached out for her wrist, Erin turned the zoomer until it was facing them and hit the accelerator. With a blast of speed Erin plowed over the KG's, and sped under the flying Hellcat. She managed to miss any citizens on the ground AND avoid the shots from the Hellcat. About the time she hit the Docks she had lost the slower moving Hellcat.

Just to be safe, Erin ditched the zoomer and decided to walk the rest of the way. She made her way to the Hip Hog, trying to stay inconspicuous with her large, and heavy, package of eco.

Erin made it to the glowing sign of the saloon and hadn't managed to drop the eco, which surprised her. She had never known how heavy eco was when it was in its raw ore form.

Just as she reached the door and was struggling to press the entrance button, Jak appeared on his zoomer. He dismounted and headed for her.

Erin just had to ask, "What are you doing here?"

Jak paused for a second, "Well, Torn heard over the KG scanners that they knew about the shipment you were delivering, so he sent me to help keep the Krimson Guards off of your tail."

Erin didn't really know what to say but: "Thank you, I was in some deep trouble back there."

"No problem," he answered. For some reason they fell into an uncomfortable silence.

"Do you…uh…need any help?" He asked when he noticed the large package she was carrying, and to end the strange silence that came between them. He almost seemed shy when he said it, which kind of struck Erin as unusual. She couldn't ever remembering him being shy.

"Thanks."

He took the heavy package from her, while she opened the door. The door opened soundlessly as a world of scents reached her nose as the air from the saloon hit her. Thick smoke and strong drink filled her nostrils until she had the urge to cough. Jak entered first, with Daxter on his shoulder, followed closely by Erin.

"Let me handle this, Jak. Watch my finesse and style."

"Don't forget to ask about--" Daxter ignored Jak and jumped from his shoulder, heading for the large man standing near the bar.

"Everything's cool, nobody panic," he walked right up to the large, muscle-y man. "Hey big guy."

At that instant a huge man flew down from the rafters on a hover chair to face Daxter. For once in his life Daxter was left speechless…if only for a moment.

"Uhhh…..you Krew?" If the man indeed was Krew, he made no inclination that he was. Daxter just decided to continue.

"Well, we shook the heat and your shipment is in primo condition."

"That's good, ey. Because a cargo of rare eco ore is worth more than ten of your lives. Mmmmm…and of course I'd be forced to collect…" Krew hovered closer to Erin, "…slowly." The strong stench of his breath made her want to desperately cover her mouth and nose. But she thought it better to suffer through it, she wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of a crime boss.

Krew backed (technically hovered back) so that he could get a better look at the trio. He made a quick assessment. "The Underground will take anybody with a pulse these days." He hovered closer to Erin. "And what do we have here? The Shadows calendar-babe of the month?"

Erin quickly put her hand on her pistol, she didn't like being talked to like a pretty, but worthless, girl. She was not going to be referred to a an object. But she thought better than to draw it out, though. He was a crime lord, after all.

Krew just laughed, "Sig, this girl has got some fire in her! She would be a good addition to our mud-wrestling night, ey?"

Daxter came to her rescue, trying to get back to the point. "Listen, tons of fun," at the glare that Krew gave him Dax started to stutter. "Uh…anyone can see that you…and I have the real juice in this burg. We're both players, right? We're both looking for a piece of the action, right? I think we can do business, …right?" The last part of his little speech had almost turned into a plea.

This time it was Jak's turn to rescue Dax. "We did you a favor, now it's your turn. Why is the Baron giving eco to Metal Heads?"

Obviously Krew didn't like the stern and demanding tone Jak had taken with him. "Questions like that could get a person killed, ey! Sig, pay 'el captain' and his friend a bonus."

By the tone in Krew's voice they had pushed him to the end of his patience. The large man named Sig advanced on them. Carrying some large weapons. Erin and Jak each backed up a step, but Sig just handed the guns to them. Jak got a large, heavy-duty morph-gun, and Erin received a lighter version of the morph-gun.

"If you want to see what those babies can do, try the gun course outside. If each of you show me some skill with that hardware, I might hire you for a job or two, ey."

Erin woke from her sleep, yet again, from the terrible nightmares. The dark part of her was growing, she knew that when she had almost pulled her pistol out on Krew yesterday. But now the nightmares were getting even worse. So much worse; more blood, more killing, more terrible thoughts. She wondered if she would ever get a full night of sleep again as long as she lived.

She got down from her bunk as quietly as she could, so no to wake up anybody in the nearby bunks, and made her way to the common room.

She was exhausted, yesterday had been long. Her and Jak had to prove their shooting skills to Krew. Once they had, Krew gave them a mission with Sig. They had to crawl around the pumping station and collect Metal Heads for trophies. Not to mention Sig kept calling her 'cherry' and 'chili pepper' all the time, which got irritating after a while. The silly, childish part of her thought that it might have made Jak jealous, but that was just absurd, wasn't it?

Erin just shook the thought from her mind. She hardly knew Jak, after all. Erin walked to the large table, sat down, and laid her tired head down on a stack of papers in front of her. She was exhausted, but she was also afraid of going to sleep.

She found Krew to be a very shady character, she disliked him instantly. He was sly when he spoke, he even managed to avoid the question that they had gone to ask of him. He maneuvered around answering the question of why the Baron was giving eco to the metal heads. He was a crude and disgusting individual, but he was a crime lord. A crime lord had to know everything about a city, so that they could make profit from anything and everything. The only reason she had decided to work for his was that he may know of some Precursor artifacts that could take her home, because it was Precursor technology that had brought her to this strange place, after all.

"Are you alright?"

A voice startled her out of her thoughts. She should have figured that Torn would be around here somewhere, but she didn't hear him sneak up on her.

She lifted her head from the stack of papers on the table to where the voice came from. "Yeah, I'm fine." She looked over to find that it wasn't Torn, it was Jak.

A silence took over again. Erin couldn't help but wonder why it always got quiet between them.

After a few more minutes of uncomfortable silence, Jak spoke up. "You mind if I join you?"

For some reason Erin's heart skipped a beat. "Yeah, go ahead." Erin just looked down at her hands. Then a thought crossed her mind. "I didn't wake you up, did I?"

Jak couldn't help but smile. She was having a terrible time trying to sleep, but she was still concerned with others. "No, you didn't. I just don't sleep much anymore."

Another silence filled the light conversation. Erin decided that she hated the quiet, but she didn't know what to say. She just stared down at her hands as if they were interesting, feeling foolish in the silence. They both knew why they couldn't sleep, but it was a topic that neither of them felt comfortable discussing.

Erin's voice had comforted him when they were in the prison, though he never told her that. She was the first person he had ever talked to, but he didn't know why he talked to her. Every once in a while he felt as if he knew her from somewhere, but didn't have the slightest idea of where, or when. Jak wished that he could remember how he knew her.

Jak decided that he would at least try to comfort her.

"Are you already having nightmares?"

Erin finally looked up from her hands to Jak, but quickly looked back down. She answered him with a weak "yes".

Jak noticed that she was just rubbing her hands together in her lap, not looking at him. Another silence ensued. Jak was at a loss at how to comfort her.

Erin had a question on her mind, but she was afraid of the answer. At first she had hoped that the darkness wouldn't take over her body, that she wasn't exposed to the dark eco long enough to get the change. But after the scary dreams had started she had lost hope that she would be spared the anguish. She remembered in prison when Jak had briefly told her about the nightmares. Now that she was having them she knew that she would turn into a monster, just like she had seen Jak turn into one. She was afraid that what she feared would be coming soon, that she would change.

She gathered up every ounce of strength that she possessed, bit the bullet, and asked. "How long was it before you first changed?"

Jak could easily tell that she was afraid of the answer, but he couldn't lie to her because it was just a matter of time until she did change to her darker self. He wouldn't be doing her a favor if he lied. "It was about a year before I started having the nightmares, two months after that is when I first…turned." It felt really awkward talking about himself being a monster.

"What!" Erin looked up with terror in her eyes. "It only took me eight months to start having the nightmares!"

Jak stood up and moved closer to her, hoping that he could comfort her. "I know, but the dark eco would have a different affect on you. Every body reacts differently to it." Most just die; a fact that he left out.

Jak put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and noticed that she was shaking. He ignored the dark part of him that was angry for showing compassion, and continued to try and comfort her.

Erin turned and looked up to him standing beside her, tears were starting to form in her eyes. "Does that mean that I could change at any moment?"

Jak sat down in the seat next to her, rubbing his hand on her back to try and calm her. But how could you be calm when you know you are becoming a monster?

He just sighed, "I don't know what it means." He wished that he could give her a REAL answer. But he didn't know, no one could possibly know.

The uncertainty in his voice cut her to the heart. She was just a ticking time bomb, and no one could tell when she would blow. And that terrified her beyond words. What if she changed in a crowded area, killed a group of helpless people? She couldn't live with herself if it came to that.

Jak watched her torment in silence, what could he say to her? He felt as if he was letting her down, and it left a pain in his heart that he couldn't help her. And then her tears started to fall. Erin quickly brought her hands to her face, trying to keep back the tears that she knew that she couldn't control. She remembered when she had seen Jak change in the prison, he had almost killed Daxter. What if she turned and tried to kill Jak? He was the only friend she had. It wouldn't be long till she hurt somebody. She knew that she had to leave so that wouldn't happen.

Erin stood from her chair and tried to cross the room to the exit. But Jak's hands gently grabbed her arms and turned her around. She looked in his eyes, he was genuinely worried about her. That only seemed to make it worse, she had to leave.

"Erin? What are--?"

"I've got to leave," her voice was hoarse with emotion. "I've got to get out of here!"

It broke Jak's heart to see her practically sobbing, her eyes were red and wet from fighting back tears.

"No, Erin. You don't--"

"Yes I do!" Her voice was higher than normal from trying not to cry. "What if I turn into a monster? I could hurt somebody… or even kill them! I couldn't live with myself if I hurt you."

Jak looked down into her eyes. Suddenly she realized what she had just said, and it made her blush, which only made the tears come out harder. She felt like a complete fool.

She had to get out of there. She made another attempt to break free of Jak's grip. She got away for an instant, but he grabbed her again and pulled her to him. He wrapped his arms around her until she settled down. Erin reluctantly gave up trying to get away. She sobbed into Jak's shoulder as he rubbed her back reassuringly.

"I don't want to be a monster," Erin choked out between sobs into his shoulder.

Jak just continued to hold her in his arms. "I know. We'll get through this somehow."

Erin felt her heart skip a beat when he said 'we'. "You promise?" She asked, her voice a little calmer now.

"Yes, I think I already found a way to control the dark part of us."

Finally Erin moved her head from his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. "How?"

Jak looked back into her eyes, she had stopped crying, but they were still red. "I found a Precursor Oracle. It said that it would help me control my dark powers if I bring it twenty-five Metal Head skull gems."

Jak noticed as her eyes lit up with a small amount of hope. "I'll take you to it after you first change," he reassured her.

"Thanks," he noticed that her eyes lit up. He hadn't noticed until now that she had beautiful eyes. He also noticed how close together their bodies were. If he just leaned forward their lips would be touching…

"Sorry to interrupt, but we do have work to do."

Both Erin and Jak snapped their heads to the direction of the voice. Torn was leaning against the door frame, his arms crossed, and looking more than a little amused. Shame and embarrassment flushed both their faces as they quickly pulled away from each other. They both made a point not to look at each other or their faces would have changed to a deeper shade of red.

"I need you both to get that information from Krew, today."

A/N: ok here it is! For those of you that don't know, I added a Prologue at the begining of ch 1, you should go check it out!