I would like to say, this is a non pairings fiction. I had someone ask (not here) and I just wanted to let you know that it isn't. Sorry Daxter\Keira fans.

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Staring at the ceiling, Daxter slowly came to.

He felt like he had been upside down for a long time, or underwater. It took a few moments after he regained consciousness for the feeling to go away, and to form enough coherency to realize where he was.

Sitting up, Daxter looked around Samos' hut. No one else was around, except for the plant in the corner that gave him the creeps for some reason. Thankfully, he was on the small bench and not the floor. Not that there was much of a difference, the thought was nice though.

Slowly rising to his feet, Daxter winced when his cloths scraped against him. His entire right side from his face down to his feet was encrusted with…mud?

How had that happened?

Thinking hard, Daxter realized that the last thing he remembered before waking up in Samos' hut was being in an overgrown green house. Perhaps that's where he got all muddy…some how. Skirting around the plant, Daxter made his way out of the door and down the ramps. He was going to jump in the ocean at Sentinel beach to wash this crap off.

Keira, who was in her garage like always, was shocked to see Daxter walking past.

"Hey! What are you doing up? Daddy said you would be out for a few hours at least!" She called out to him.

Daxter blinked, and turned towards her.

"What'cha talkin' bout sweet cheeks? Did moss-for-underpants drug me or something?"

"What? No! You tumbled through the warp gate last night, covered in blood and barely conscious! Don't you remember Daxter?"

Looking down at his stiff cloths with wide eyes, he examined them closer. There were tears in his shirt that were blood-encrusted at the edges, though he didn't seem to be wounded anywhere. Looking back at Keira, he asked promptly what the hell had happened.

"We were hoping you could tell us young man."

Samos came floating down from the sky in his usual fashion, though he looked more bewildered then angry. He had been out checking the eco lines, and to his astonishment, all of the caped blue eco vents were now active. How had Daxter done such a thing? Only a blue eco channeler could get into that temple…unless there was some secret way that he was unaware of? Yes, that must be it.

"…The last thing I remember is walking into an indoor jungle. Then waking up here…all cruddy an' stuff." He picked at his stiff clothing irritably. Couldn't have been to concerned if they just left him like this.

"An…indoor jungle?" what on Precuria was that boy babbling about?

"yeah, inside them ruins in the 'forbidden jungle'. Oh yeah! Keira, babe, you know that you're awesome, right?"

Keira raised an eyebrow at the sudden compliment, but didn't have a chance to say anything as Daxter pulled the EES from the pouch at his side.

"Not only is this baby a dream in the kitchen, it can activate all that precursor junk!"

"I never thought of using it that way, using an machine holding eco to activate precursor artifacts…Think of the mysteries we could unlock! Oh if only I had more materials." Keira had gotten pretty far on her own, with the occasional help from Jak's channeling powers, in unlocking the secrets of precursor technology. Now that Jak was…gone…she needed alternative means to those ends.

"It just so happens I have some precursor junk laying around. I was going to let you have it but now seeing on how you just left me like this" He gestured to his blood encrusted right side "I'm not so sure"

Keira's eyes narrowed in disbelief. [IDaxter[/I had precursor artifacts just laying around some where? Not likely, he would have used them ages ago to try and bribe her into going out with her. In a state of depression or not, Daxter was still a creep. Steadily becoming as useful as Jak had been, but a creep nonetheless.

"I see you don't believe me, your loss hot stuff." Putting the EES back into its place, his hand brushed against something. Grabbing that instead, he pulled it out to look at it. A single power cell glowed merrily in his hand. A sly grin crossed his face, the first since…since [IJak's death[/I as he held it out to Keira.

"A power cell to keep ya wondering. Now I need a bath, badly. Bye!" Running off before the Sage or his daughter could hassle him some more, Daxter didn't stop running until he collapsed into the shallow water of sentinel beach. Struggling to catch his breath, he reflected that running the entire way might not have been the best idea.

He had to get away from them though.

Daxter had seen right though their façade of actually caring about what happened to him. Everyone had been so nice to him since he had come back from Misty Island alone, except for Samos'. Then again Samos wasn't nice to anyone.

Letting the tide pull him into the deeper water, he berated himself for thinking that they were concerned for him…that Keira had really believed in him. That one look back at her garage had said it all. She had only been pitying him when he had rushed off in a blind rage the day before.

Scrubbing at his face angrily, Daxter watched the water cloud with blood out of one eye. There was so much of it, he had obviously been hurt somewhere, yet they just left him there while they went on with their business. They probably didn't even check him for injury. He also knew that there was no way Samos had healed him, according to Keira he was still conscious when they found him. Had Samos healed him, he wouldn't have fallen unconscious to begin with.

Peeling his tunic off, he scrubbed it in the water with furious motions. They were just [Iusing[/I him to get to the other sages. Other then Jak, Daxter was the only one who could move the Zoomer in more then just a straight line. Keria had only built the thing to impress Jak, and so that [Ihe[/I could take [Iher[/I around on it.

Jak…If only he were here, things would be different. Jak would never let them use him like this. Ever since the day Daxter had met him, Jak had stuck up for him, had been genuinely nice to him. As long as Jak was around, the adults left him alone. Didn't call him names or kick him around or, or…

Daxter sighed and looked at the sky wistfully, he missed his best friend. Tugging his wet tunic back over his head, Daxter waded back to shore dejectedly. The pouch at his side lurched violently as the communicator Keira had given him flew out of it to hover in front of his face.

"Daxter! Thanks to that last power cell you gave me, the heat shield for the zoomer is finally ready! Daddy wants to get in contact with the other sages as soon as possible, so meet me in fire canyon as soon as you can ok? Oh, and by the way, thanks for turning the blue eco vents back on."

Just as suddenly as it had come, the Communicator put its self away.

See? What had he just been brooding about was already under way. He had obviously been severely injured in the past twenty-four hours, and already they wanted him to fly through a flaming death trap?

Alright, fine.

They wanted a back up hero? They had one, but he was in this for himself. To prove to them that he wasn't just a toy to play with until it broke, and to prove that Jak's choice in a best friend was no error.

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A welcomed ice cold blast of air rushed over Daxter as he plowed through another cooling balloon, catching some major air time in the process. Angling the Zoomer so it landed on one of the precursor metal ramps that littered the canyon floor instead of the lava, Daxter wondered where Samos got his information. Hot enough to melt precursor metal his ass, the stuff was jutting out everywhere here.

Although, the fact that it wasn't hot enough to melt precursor metal could very well be the very thing keeping him from being nothing but ash right now. Yanking sharply on the handlebars to avoid the rocks that suddenly shot out from the ground, He shot into the air again on a particularly strong up draft.

Landing with a grunt, Daxter saw a wall of gray rock not far ahead. Either that was a dead end and he was doomed to burning failure, or this horrible hell of molten lava and random pit falls was coming to an end. Either way, he was ready to get out of the scalding heat.

Gunning the engine, Daxter caught air off of another ramp and sailed through the air, hitting another balloon in the process. Not a minute later saw him jumping off of the Zoomer and onto the ground beside it. Quite thankfully, the wall of rock had a gap in it with a conveniently placed Zoomer-telleporter-thingie.

Another thing Daxter decided not to question.

A short walk later saw Daxter in what he assumed was the Blue sages lab, judging by the dormant teleporter ring, and by the precursors was it a mess. Things over turned, paper everywhere, rock village being bombarded with flaming boulders…whoa wait, back up there.

Getting closer to the window, Daxter saw that Rock village was indeed being bombarded with over sized flaming rocks. He noticed most of them were landing in the ocean, but still. Making use of the convenient telescope next to him, He quickly spotted the problem. A giant lurker from the looks of it, was hurling them off the side of a cliff onto the village.

Disturbed by the thought, Daxter picked up one of the near by papers and started reading. He had gotten about two paragraphs down before his head started to hurt from all of the big words. Glancing back out the window, Daxter decided to go check out the village instead. They had to have at least some idea of what was going on here.

Daxter gave a final look over his shoulder at the dormant teleporter ring on his way out. Samos had told him to turn it on as soon as he got there so that he could take to the Blue sage. Smirking in a satisfied way, Daxter continued down to the village…with out turning it on.

The Blue Sage wasn't in right now anyway.