Chapter 1
Welcome to Haven

For every age there is a time of trial.

Just outside of the bright, calm village of Sandover was the island upon which the hut of Samos the Sage was situated. And to the east of the large hut, a large wooden ramp had been built, leading up to a tall, shining gate suspended in the air. At the end of the ramp was a short man with faintly green skin, a long white beard, and long elf-like ears. A short section of a thick log was tied to his head, on which a small blue bird was perched. He wore a strange, mismatched set of spectacles, wore a green tunic, held a wooden staff in his hand, and walked around on tall wooden platform shoes. Samos, the Sage of Green Eco, looked up at the gate as he continued to think.

The rocks faced such a fire before they were the strength beneath our feet. The plants braved vast winds before their roots could give us life.

Samos turned around to see what was set up behind him. At the beginning of the ramp was a large, silver vehicle of sorts, with a gigantic cylindrical engine at the back of it. Three figures were situated on it. On the left was a tall young man wearing a blue outfit and a small amount of armor, who had bright yellow-green hair and blue eyes. Like everyone else in this world, he also had long, pointed, elf-like ears.

On the right was a green-haired young woman wearing a pair of goggles hanging around her neck, a white tank top, and blue denim pants. And then, napping on the front end of the vehicle, there was an orange-furred cross between an otter and a weasel (an Ottsel) wearing a pair of pilot's goggles on its furry head.

The Sage started walking toward the vehicle. As a sage of considerable years, I have known only one such great ordeal. But the hero it created was a champion for all time! Nodding to himself, he looked up at the youths and said, "Today's the big day, Jak. I hope you are prepared..." He paused, and took on a solemn look. "...for whatever happens."

With a contemplative look on her face, Samos's daughter, Keira, looked over at the bulk of the machine they were standing on. "I think I've figured out most of this machine. It interacts somehow with that large Precursor Ring." As she and Jak sat down beside each other in the vehicle, she added, "I just hope we didn't break anything moving it here to the lab..."

Suddenly, the orange Ottsel, Daxter, suddenly popped up between them with an angry look. "Easy for you to say!" Daxter snapped, gesturing at his friend Jak. "We did all the heavy lifting!"

Finally, Daxter settled into the seat and reached toward a hemispherical orange metal object on the confusing dashboard. But just as he was about to touch it, Samos shouted out, "Daxter!! Don't touch anything!" and the Ottsel flinched.

Samos glared at Daxter. "Though the Precursors vanished long ago," he lectured in an angry voice as Jak rolled his eyes, "the artifacts they left behind can still do great harm!"

Daxter rolled his eyes and scowled, sick and tired of Samos's lecturing on the Precursors. On the other side of him, Keira tried to lighten the mood by adding, "Or great good! If you figure out how to use them."

Samos sighed and settled into his seat. After a moment, he glanced over at Jak. "I've had some experience with such things. ...I know you can make it work."

Jak nodded silently, and leaned toward the controls with a smirk.

Alexander sat on the couch in his living room, holding the PS2 controller in his hands as he watched the opening scene of Jak II. In his mind, Joumae was trying to sort out all of the minuscule details. So... Jak's the hero, and he never talks?

"Yeah," Alex replied, pressing the Start button to pause the scene. "He's kinda like Crono in that way. I don't think he's mute; he probably just doesn't feel the need to talk."

Okay... And Daxter, he... He was a normal elf-type person at the beginning of the first game, but he got transformed?

"They're still called human, Joumae," Alex pointed out. "It's just the ears. And yes, Daxter fell into a pool of Dark Eco. The main quest of the first adventure was to try and change Daxter back, but... that kinda fell through, and they ended up saving the world instead.

Joumae chuckled. Heh. Suckers. ...And this "Eco" stuff...?

Alexander paused for a moment. "It's... the magic life force of the planet. And there are different types to it. Green Eco is healing, Red Eco is high-strength, Yellow Eco is ranged ability, Blue Eco is speed, and Dark Eco is harmful chaos. There's supposedly Light Eco too, but it's rarely ever seen until Jak 3."

Wow, Joumae remarked. You've apparently played it a lot, to know so freakin' much about it. ...Come to think of it, why haven't you entered the game yet?

Alex scowled. "Because the overall timeline of this story goes over the course of more than two years, and the gameplay starts after the end of the second year. I don't want to get stuck before that happens, so I'm waiting before I enter."

Gah... Coulda told me sooner.

"Couldn't you have just looked into my memories anyway?" Alex retorted, and pressed the Start button again to resume the scene.

Jak's hand automatically strayed toward a red ruby button, and – after a moment's hesitation – he slammed the button forward. Immediately, the round spherical object Daxter had tried to reach opened up, revealing a golden orb and a series of rings and spheres that encircled it in midair suspension.

Daxter grinned as they all reveled in this achievement. "Looks like Jak's still got the mojo!"

Keira studied the strange activity closely. "Interesting... It appears to be reading out some preset coordinates!"

Before anyone could ask how she'd been able to discern that, the strange device clamped shut again, and the ground started to shake as the device began to start moving. The disk behind their vehicle began to rotate, the points of it zapping the gate ahead of them with violet sparks, and a dark aura settled around the area.

After a few seconds, the gate began to rotate in midair as well, and it broke off its wooden supports as it settled itself at the end of the ramp in front of them. A violet-blue portal filled up the center of the rings.

Just about everyone was slack-jawed. "Wow..." Daxter gasped, "look at that!"

But the fun was about to end. Almost immediately, a dark, sinister voice boomed out from the direction of the gate: "Finally... the last Rift Gate has been opened!!" As soon as the statement was made, dark gray, metallic, insect-like creatures started pouring out of the gate, swarming the immediate area.

"Gyaah!" Daxter cried, and ducked under the dashboard in cowardice. "What are those things!?" But despite his query, no one could answer him.

However, Samos was looking around at this with a look of understanding. "So this is how it happened..."

Then, just as quickly, a gigantic metallic monster thrust forth from the Rift Gate and roared loudly, baring its lengthy jaws menacingly. Suspended by the gate, the monster then looked down at the vehicle and seemed to stare directly at one of them. "You cannot hide from me, boy!"

Keira, overcome with fear, looked over to the established hero and screamed, "Do something, Jak!"

Daxter looked over the controls frantically. "What's this do? Or that? How 'bout this one!? Everybody, press all the buttons!!"

In a flash of insight, Jak pressed the same button as before. In an instant, the vehicle was sent shooting forward, and they were moving right toward the huge monster...

But they managed to slip by under it, squeezing into the portal. Suddenly they found themselves zooming through a tunnel of violet light, with their vehicle shaking violently with all of the energy around them.

"What was that thing?" Keira demanded as she vainly tried to recover.

Everyone tried to resist the g-forces pulling them back, and Samos shouted, "Hang on, everyone!!"

"Yyaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!" Daxter screamed until his breath ran out. On his next breath, he looked to Jak and shouted, "I want off this thing!!"

At that moment, a particularly strong bolt of energy struck the shaking vehicle. It was enough force to send a series of explosions rattling through it, and the vehicle soon broke apart entirely. Jak, Daxter, Samos, and Keira were sent into the violet energy in all directions, with Jak and Daxter the only ones not getting separated.

"Find yourself, Jak!" Samos cried out before the bright light at the end of the portal overtook the protagonist.

As soon as the white light filled the whole screen, the light began to shine more brilliantly from the living room's television set, and soon Alexander had to shield his eyes.

At the last second, both the Interference and his counterpart realized what was happening. Oh, crap... CRAP!!

The next thing Alexander knew was pain. He slammed onto a harsh metal surface after a short fall, and he sprawled across the floor. Because of the impact, he wouldn't dare open his eyes for a few moments. But as soon as most of the pain passed, he quickly got back up and – holding his head to support himself – looked around.

The sight was spectacular. He was on a metal walkway suspended a long way up from the streets of the city below and around him. Tall, metal buildings surrounded him, with a gigantic tower in the distance held up by many support beams. Below, many people were driving around in what looked like floating cars and bikes. It was a sharp contrast to the simple village of Sandover.

He heard a metal clanging to the side, and Alex turned quickly to check the noise. Daxter, a few feet away, had still held on to a piece of the vehicle's handlebar, and had then thrown it away angrily. Jak was standing next to him, just now having gotten up to look around.

Daxter growled at the piece of metal. "Okay," he muttered. "I swear... that's the last time I ever – ever! – touch any stupid Precursor crap!"

By the time Daxter had finished speaking, the sound of many heavy footsteps could be heard approaching them. All three of them looked to both sides, only making eye contact with each other for a moment. Large, red-armored troopers bearing rifles were approaching them quickly and harshly. On Jak's side, there was a lean man in red and yellow armor with dark green stripes painted on his upper face and ears, wearing a sinister mask on top of his head that covered his spiky orange hair. This was apparently the leader of this group.

"There he is," a slightly statical voice came from one of the other troopers. A voice filter. The man in the middle on Jak's side made a "follow" motion, and the guard said, "Move in."

Jak, Daxter, and Alexander soon found themselves surrounded by troopers, staring down the barrels of the rifles. One of the troopers growled, "Step away from the animal!"

"Yaaahhhh!" Daxter shouted, ducking through the leader's legs as he ran away screaming. Alex just watched all this in horror, the fact of what was happening slowly dawning on him.

"Forget the rat!" the leader snapped when one of the guards turned to follow. Glaring at Jak, he sneered and said, "The Baron wants him!"

Jak stared wide-eyed and took a hesitant step back as one of the guards moved closer. The leader grinned evilly and said, "We've been waiting for you." At that moment, the guard held up the butt of his rifle and slammed it against Jak's head. The boy fell unconscious immediately, and slumped to the floor.

"Don't worry, Jak!" Daxter's faint voice could be heard before the Ottsel went out of sight. "I'll save ya before you know it!"

Suddenly the attention was now on Alexander, and the Interference froze up as the troopers all stared at him. The leader quirked an eyebrow and said, "Well, what do we have here?"

"What's up with the guy's ears?!" one of the guards asked incredulously. One of Alex's hands immediately strayed to his ear, and he realized for a moment that he was the one that looked strange in this world.

The leader scowled after a moment and said, "Hmph. Take him in, too."

An instant after it was said, Alexander felt a metal object slam into the back of his head, and he fell forward in incredible pain. His world almost went to black then and there, but he tried to recover. But the soldiers gave him no respite. Another heavy object slammed into his gut, and Alexander sprawled onto his back.

The last thing he saw was a metal boot being lifted over his head, before his world erupted into blinding pain.

It was hard to tell how much time had passed before he regained consciousness again. But at that particular moment, that wasn't on the mind. The only things that were of interest were that he was sore as heck, he was lying down on something cold and rough, and his clothes were... itchy?

Groaning, Alex slowly opened his eyes. He didn't see much at first, but after a while his vision began to clear. And even then, there wasn't much to see. Just a metal ceiling. So Alex sat up and got the full view.

He was inside a small prison cell. A wide set of steel bars kept him from the hallway outside. His cell seemed to be at the end of a long hall, and he could see many more cells on the way toward the entrance. He had been apparently placed at the end, because the few cells across and next to him were empty.

Still, many of those observations only crossed his mind sparingly. At the moment, the shock was becoming apparent. He was in prison! Not only that, but–

We got placed in here two years before the gameplay started!! Joumae screamed into Alex's mind, making his sore head ache even more. Your stupid heart connected with the game in the middle of this scene, and now we're stuck here! ...Wherever 'here' is!

Alex sighed – trying his very best not to panic – and closed his eyes. He mentally went through as much lore about their current situation as he needed so that Joumae could look over it. This was Haven City, a city established in the far future compared to Sandover. It was ruled by Baron Praxis, a militaristic autocrat whose Krimzon Guards helped keep the people repressed and under control.

The Interference opened his eyes again, and suddenly looked down at himself. He went wide-eyed. No wonder his clothes felt itchy! His magicked garments had been completely removed and had been replaced by a dirty brown prison tunic and trousers!

"Crap," he muttered, standing up. Upon doing so, he also realized that he had no shoes on to protect him from the cold metal floor. "This is a problem."

You're telling me, Joumae replied when he'd processed the information. Without the magic garments that you got from the Kingdom Hearts universe, you won't be able to recharge magic power automatically, and you won't be able to absorb damage so easily. So, whatever you're planning...

"Planning?" Alex replied quietly, shaking his head. His hair, no longer kept eternally spiky, threatened to block his sight. "I don't have a plan. Things have gotten so screwed up that I'm at a loss of what to do..."

Well, start thinking. We've got time.

"Don't remind me," he growled. At last, he took a deep breath to calm himself as he analyzed their situation. They were stuck two years before the game started. And since he wouldn't be able to leave until the game was finished... His heart sunk as he realized that he was stuck in this world for two whole years.

"Unless..." Alex muttered suddenly, his eyes widening again. He held out his hand and summoned the Time Fracture Lockshield from the darkness. "Chronos Warp!"

The Interference put all of his focus and energy into activating the time-warping technique. All the while, he kept concentrating on moving exactly two years forward. Space began to slightly warp around him... But then Alex suddenly dropped to the ground with labored breath, and the warping stopped. Why was it so hard to get a time warp going! It felt as if... he needed a hundred times more power in order to pull it off!

Gah... This world doesn't have any specific 'holes' in its timeline for you to just jump to. In Guardia it was convenient. But this world would probably require huge amounts of energy. Stopping time and creating small loops shouldn't be too much of a problem, but the actual warping would require much, much, much more power than you've got now.

"Auuugh!!" Alex screamed, and slammed against the wall in frustration. "We're stuck here!"

We've established that, Joumae muttered pointedly. Now, back to the planning...

Alex growled unintelligibly, but went back to his thoughts. By any guess, they were in the Fortress. The prison he'd seen in the game looked different and much more secure than this one, but perhaps that was a different section. Nonetheless, it wasn't a prison that would be especially difficult to escape from, especially with alchemy.

And heck, we might as well get out and try helping out if we're going to be stuck here for two years... You'd have to be an idiot to stay in prison when you have a good method of escape.

Alexander thought through his plan carefully. He didn't exactly know how he'd get out, but the use of alchemy would take care of any barriers, and enough time would allow him to get out. As soon as he was discovered, an alarm would most likely be set off, and the KG would be hunting him down. Any taken shots would do more damage than usual because of his lack of armor.

Transmute some armor.

"I'm not a tailor!" Alex growled. "I wouldn't be able to make anything that would fit me and not be cumbersome. At best, I could make some shoes..." He trailed off, and clapped his hands. He placed one hand on the wall next to him, which glowed with green sparks for a moment. A pair of sandals were formed from some of the wall's material, and he slipped them onto his feet. His concentration would be under enough stress without having to worry about that too.

Fair enough. Now, are we gonna get this started or what?

Alexander said nothing more, and simply clapped his hands once more. This time he transmuted the wall, but the sparks traveled from there to certain sections of the set of bars in front of him. When the sparks dissipated, Alex simply gave the bars a small push, sending the now-disconnected gate toppling to the ground. There was a lot of clanging that came from the impact, but no guards came rushing in a few moments after, so Alex figured that they were alright.

Alex started running down the hall, passing some of the occupied cells as he moved toward the door. Many of the prisoners looked at him with astonishment as he ran by, staring through their own bars. Some began to shake their cell walls and called out to him, demanding that he help them out of the prison as well.

The Interference stopped at the hall's door and looked back, wondering if he should help them out as well. Why not? Joumae suggested. Some of them might not have committed what you might call a crime, especially in a regime like this. And the extra chaos might aid the escape.

Alexander nodded and clapped his hands one more time. When he touched the wall, the green sparks traveled all over the hall, transforming the cell bars of each and every cell in just the slightest way. After a few seconds, the prisoners pushed their cells open and started running out, cheering and rioting. Many of them thanked Alex on their way out, though a few stared at his relatively short ears as they passed.

The boy would've felt proud if something hadn't interrupted the moment. A female, automated voice spoke from overhead, calmly saying, "Alert: Prisoner escape in progress."

The panic amongst the fellow prisoners went into overdrive, though Alex simply grimaced in response. "Great," he muttered. "Here come the cavalry."

Alexander ran out into the main hall and looked around. The path split up into two ways, each of which going toward a thick steel door. Both doors had been forced open by the rush of prisoners, but the right path was obviously a dead end. Alexander went through the left door.

The path then turned to the left, and down the hall – at a three-way junction – there was a gathering of many prisoners. It seemed that they'd encountered a patrol of three Krimzon Guards. Alexander ducked back behind the corner and watched carefully.

The KG at the front of the patrol glared at the group of prisoners menacingly. "How the hell did you guys get out?" he growled. "C'mon, back into your cells!"

At this, one of the prisoners panicked out of his mind and broke free of the group, dashing down the right path. All of the guards immediately turned and aimed their rifles at the prisoner. "Die, outlaw!" one of them shouted, and all three of the guards fired. Red blasts of energy were shot out of the barrel of the rifle, which struck the runaway with enough force to throw him about a foot into the air. The prisoner fell to the ground with a hoarse cry, and ceased to move. After a moment, the prisoner's body dissolved into violet energy which disappeared into the air.

Alexander gasped at this sight. The guards had killed that guy!

But Joumae wasn't so fazed by the prisoner's death, instead concerning himself with another detail. Hmm... Seems that people in this world simply dissolve into energy – Eco, perhaps – upon their deaths. Their clothes probably get caught up in the conversion too. Heh, certainly takes care of the corpse 'n' blood problem.

Alex didn't give this too much thought. He'd seen enough for now. He held out a hand toward the guards from his hiding spot and muttered, "Thundaga."

Suddenly, a large bolt of electricity struck the center Krimzon Guard and created a shockwave that zapped the other two guards as well. All three of them collapsed to the ground, completely knocked out. The prisoners remained still for a moment, but then started running around all over the place in another panic, eventually splitting up between the two forward paths.

Alexander ran toward the junction and looked down at the guards. Nice shot, Joumae remarked, but let's try to avoid summoning the Lockshield itself. We want to keep as much of the element of surprise as possible.

Alex nodded, but then saw a group of prisoners running past him from the left. One of them looked back at him and shouted, "Another dead end! That's the armory!"

The young man looked to the left. That way led to the armory, which meant that the Krimzon Guards' weapons would be stored there. Which meant that the KG would head this way first to arm themselves. Basically, it meant that Alex had to get moving in the other direction as quickly as possible.

Alex picked up the pace again. The path went through another large steel door, which opened up into another hallway. He ran to the next junction in the hall and looked around. Every path led to more splits in his possible routes. He was now in a labyrinthine section of the Fortress. There wouldn't be any one clear path to this. Beyond this, there were many doors lining the halls, which opened up many more possibilities.

As he was standing there simply looking around, many shots rang out through the halls, echoing as they made their way to Alex's ears. It seemed that the prisoners had broken up into too many small groups, and they were all being confronted – and killed – by the incoming KG.

The shots ceased firing, and a tense silence settled into the area. Deep in his heart, Alex knew that he was the only escapee left alive now. The guards were at their last resort: out to kill.

Alex looked around frantically, and finally saw one patrol of two guards emerge at the junction on his left. "Let's keep looking," one of the guards said. "There might be–"

"There's one!" his comrade shouted, cutting him off as he aimed his rifle at Alex. The boy let out a cry and ran, escaping around the corner as the guard let a shot off.

The noise had created attention; Alex could hear the heavy footsteps of more armored guards heading his way from almost all directions. Alexander ran as fast as he could, though he felt the first pangs of fatigue hitting his legs. Without his magicked garments, his health wasn't the only thing to worry about. Eventually, all the running would wear him out.

Which was why he had to find the exit, fast.

He tried running faster, but his Quick Run wouldn't kick in. It also seemed to have depended on wearing the magical garments. But then he brought himself to a halt as a large number of KG appeared at the other end of the hall he was currently in. Far too many for him to take out quickly. He tried doubling back, but the patrol from before was closing in.

Alex growled and strengthened his resolve. He dodged to the side as the two guards started firing at him. There was some time between each shot, and the red energy that they shot wasn't blindingly fast like his world's projectile weapons. Finally, he managed to get close enough to strike the guard...

Suddenly, his body was wracked in pain as the second guard shot a short arc of blue energy at him. Alexander's body convulsed as his body tried to deal with the electricity attacking his body, and his mind knew naught much else but pain.

At last, the shocking stopped, and Alex fell to his knees. The rest of the guards caught up with him behind him, and Alex knew with grim clarity that he'd been caught. There was no real way out of this. He just simply couldn't take them all out fast enough.

Hell, you can't take them out at all, Joumae pointed out. That Thundaga earlier didn't kill those three guards; it just stunned them. Understandable, since you never really needed an intent to kill before, but...

"What's going on here!?" a gruff voice shouted out, breaking Alex's concentration on his internal companion. The boy looked up, his body still shaking from the shocking, to see Erol walking toward them.

All of the guards seemed to salute at once. "All of the prisoners in the low-security cell block attempted an escape, Commander," one of them reported. "This is the last one of them."

Erol crossed his arms and glared down at Alexander. "Hmm... The freak from the day before. Interesting..."

"What do we do with him, sir?" another guard asked from the back of the group. His voice wasn't any more distinguishable from the first because of the voice filter.

"Well," Erol muttered, looking down at the weakened boy at his feet, "it seems we can't underestimate him again. However..." He reached down and grabbed one of Alex's short ears, and used it to painfully bring Alex up to his feet. Erol grinned sadistically at Alex's pain and finally let go, and the boy was grabbed by two nearby guards to keep him still.

Erol motioned for the guards to follow, and said, "The rest of you are dismissed. Back to your patrols."

The commander started walking back in the direction Alex had came from, and the guards accompanying him dragged Alex along by his arms. They walked all the way back to the second junction, but then walked toward the armory.

Alex weakly looked around as they entered the weapons storage room. It was filled to the brim with the standard rifles of the Krimzon Guards, but there were also some weapons he'd never seen before. There were grenades, launchers, turrets, and many things that were just plain unrecognizable.

But Erol led them to the back of the large storage room, and took what looked like two silver bracelets off hooks on the wall. The commander grinned as he held them up for Alex to see. On one side of each, there seemed to be a large crystal embedded in the thick bracelets, which was currently a dull gray color.

The guards suddenly moved Alex's arms forward, and Erol quickly snapped the thick bracelets onto Alex's wrists. The bracelets clamped shut tightly, and Alex was finally let go. Alex looked down at his wrists in confusion, and looked up at Erol.

The leader of the guards was holding what looked like a remote control with his grin still plastered to his face. With great aplomb, Erol pressed a large blue button on the remote.

Pain suddenly shot into Alex's body again, and Alex let out a scream as he fell to the ground, clutching at his wrists. It felt as if four tiny blades had stabbed into both wrists! And the fact was... Alex was right.

Erol let out a cruel laugh at Alex's pain. "These are called Shock-cuffs, outlaw. And you're about to see why." With another chuckle, he pressed the green button on the remote.

The crystals in the cuffs turned a bright blue color. The pain in Alex's body became a hundredfold as incredible amounts of electricity arced through his body, sending him into a large seizure. Erol kept the button held down for an excruciating three seconds, and then let go. The electricity stopped, and Alex slumped to the ground in complete unconsciousness.

The guards picked Alex's limp body back up, and Erol placed the remote back on the wall. "From here on out," he told the guards, "each guard is going to have that frequency at quick access. Those Shock-cuffs will be his chains to this place." He paused, and then shot a glare at the guards. "Throw him in a high-security cell!"

The guards left quickly, not wanting to suffer Erol's wrath for not having left sooner. Erol chuckled and then started walking out of the armory. "That boy is fascinating..." he muttered to himself. "You don't find many people who can unhinge a cell wall in a matter of seconds. He might become useful, once he's broken."

Disclaimer: Alexander, Joumae, the Lockshield, the overall concept of The Interference, and related concepts and characters are the intellectual property of Newbie-Spud. Kingdom Hearts, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Chrono Trigger and their characters and concepts belong to Square-Enix and its business partners. Jak and Daxter and related concepts and characters are the property of Naughty Dog, Inc.