Jak and Daxter: Legacy
Chapter 2: Dark Blooming
Sandover's beach and the crescent of ocean at its side shone silver beneath the moonlight. Jak shielded his eyes against the harsh light and stared down from atop the jungle's ridge, wondering if Keira was still watching him from their hut's crow's nest, now only a speck in the distance.
Jak hated leaving her behind, but he planned on making this venture a short and simple one. Get into the ruins, look around, get out, and make it back to the hut by dawn. He'd be dead tired the next day, but as he turned around to look at the ruins looming behind him, all thoughts of consequences dissipated from his mind. Rabid curiosity took their place.
He slid down from the ridge, weaving between the tree trunks and shadows of the jungle, to a ravine deep enough for him to crouch and hide in. Jak came to these jungle woods on occasion to gather herbs or explore with Keira, but he'd never been closer than this to these ruins. They laid beyond the overgrown clearing ahead.
The vines, gnarled roots, and moss smothering the fortress looked as if they were trying to hold back and bury it; green and brown chains over a brass metal monster. Smooth walls spanned a wide distance from the center. They resembled two shining shoulders supporting a wedge-shaped head in the middle, dull yellow eyes for windows, and a hollow, pitch black mouth for a door.
It was that same mouth that stole Jak's attention. For a moment, he forgot the sound of the crickets and distant waves, and instead focused on the wind that moaned out from within the ruins. There, in the stirring grass before the doorway's brass lip, was where he'd been found.
Samos' words replayed in his head:
"Imagine my surprise when I crossed over the stream, only to find a bundle of red by the ruins' entrance. I first wondered what kind of trick the demons might be playing. What manner of otherworldly beast might be tempting me forward?"
Jak took his first step into the clearing with a grimace, as if the villagers' rumors might be true, and a horde of demons might spill forth at the touch of his toe to the dirt. Nothing happened. He took another step. Then another. His reluctant pace ceased when he was halfway to the entrance.
"Even when I gathered enough courage to near, I thought the bundle would evaporate or turn into a monster at the slightest touch. With a shaking hand, I turned it over… and found you staring back."
Jak stopped at the very same spot. He put a palm to the dewy earth there, picturing an infant in red crying atop the dirt. There was a worn path rightways through the trees, where traders often rolled their wagons down to Sandover to sell their wares. Was Keira right? Had his mother traveled on that same dusty road and left him nearby in the jungle? But for what reason? Who could just leave a child in a wood alone? Perhaps she knew Samos was near, and waited to see if he'd find him? Or perhaps…
Jak turned his attention to the ruins' entrance a few unnerving feet away. It sighed out the scent of wet earth and rust at him. He pulled his palm back from the ground and closed both hands into fists, stood, and faced the great darkness with a grim glare.
I have to find an answer.
The metal floor of the entrance was icy against his bare feet as he entered. He channeled green eco and used it to fend off the shadows. In this part, there was only a wide tunnel with no decoration save for a braid of copper pipes leaking cool water above. As he walked, twisting and turning and glancing around, the tunnel continually descended until he half-believed he might soon meet the planet's core.
There can't be nothing down here, Jak thought. I'm sure it's just a bit further-
Thump! Jak recoiled, having walked into something large and solid. His eco snapped out. He frantically channeled some more, then reached out a trembling hand to let the jade light illuminate the object.
A plaque. Or a record of some sort. It was covered in the Precursors' language; letters that resembled a series of swerving channels and round islands in a sepia sea. Jak knew how to read a little, thanks to Samos' tutelage, but he could only make out the title at the top due to wear:
PROJECT: LEGACY
The paragraphs below were too small and faded to translate. Above them sat a strange symbol like two comets swirling around in an endless dance, their tails wrapped around the other's head. Jak racked his memory for stories or myths Samos had told him that would explain such an image. But he recalled none.
With a shrug, he walked around the plaque and found another doorway. Beyond it, a room larger than his eco could reveal in its entirety. He tried to increase his eco output, but after having used it so long without pause, he was stuck with not much more than a candle-sized glow.
A little doubt began to nibble at the back of his mind as he navigated the room within the bubble of light his eco carved out for him. He hadn't found much in the way of anything that could have produced a human child, be it ancient god spirits with magic or a device, but he wasn't sure he wanted to venture further. As reluctant as he was to fully believe folklore, a part of him still felt like this was all wrong. After all, if the tales were true, a demon could emerge and eat his soul at any moment.
Jak was about to listen to his doubts, but a small mechanical whirring started to hum. It spread from the far end of the room to the metal beneath his feet. He scurried back, wondering what horrific nightmare was about to be let loose, but instead there was only a blue light. Then another. And more. Soon the whole floor's perimeter was alive with cerulean glow. He peered through the painful blue and found that the room was filled to the brim with ancient brass devices. They looked like desks and metal tombstones, all lined in circles and rows. Some had buttons atop them. Others emitted great walls of flickering, dying text.
He let his eco go out and rounded the room slowly, arms limp and mouth agape.
"Did you go inside, Samos?"
"Inside!? Why would I have gone inside?"
"You found a baby just outside a ruin and… you didn't investigate?"
Jak hovered his hand over one of the devices. Vibrations hummed against his palm.
"Jak, it's forbidden. And besides, I already knew everything I needed to. You were alone, hungry, and your name was Jakan Kur, or so the small parchment left with you claimed. I asked many of the other sages across the continent about that family name. So many letters, Jak. None returned with answers."
"But weren't you at least a little curious?"
"The ruins are the Precursors', and the Precursors' alone. They are empty, haunted places of no value except as warnings. They tell us a story all should know: technology gets you nowhere, but dead and gone."
Should he touch the machine? He glanced up at its screen. Some of the words read 'end', 'centuries', and 'retaliation'. The others, he couldn't tell. What had the Precursors used these things – and this place – for?
"Have you even been in them before? How do you know?"
"Jak, I don't know how you got there. You either were put there by a wandering, desperate mother, or the Precursors' spirits placed you there for me to find, the latter of which I highly doubt. They may be gods, but they don't meddle much in our world. They simply observe, Jak."
He finally coaxed himself to touch his fingers to the machine. He winced and shut his eyes. Then he cracked them open again as nothing had happened. It was cold and dead and silent.
"So… that's it, then?"
"That's it," Jak repeated Samos' answer aloud in the present.
Frustration burned in his core. He ripped his hand away from the device, then walked to the end on the far side of the room. There was a round groove, perhaps a door, but there seemed to be no way of opening it.
"Well," his next words stung as he said them, "This was an utter waste of time."
He turned around. The whirring and lights of the machines rambled and glittered on. Perhaps he could come back here in the future and slowly decipher their words? That might give him some answers. But until then, he was still the originless, parentless, ignorant orphan with no tethers to tie him to anything but a mystery he'd likely never solve. He was to his parents as their world was to the Precursors: abandoned. He gritted his teeth.
"You know what?" he called to the room. "You're useless!"
No answer, save for echoes resounding endlessly against the bronze walls. Of course. He doubted the Precursors' spirits were listening, much less still existed here. But he had some grievances he boldly wanted to air, in the off chance that the gods' ears might catch them. Head tilted towards the ceiling, he walked down the steps back to the main floor.
"Do you know how long it took me to get here? How long I haven't known? Nineteen years. Nine. Teen. I've been raised on stories about you. How you shaped the world. How you created us. I've been told about your power, your wisdom, and how you watch over us day after day. I've been diligent. I've said my prayers. I've given you offerings. I've even healed people in your name."
More whirring. More glittering. More humming.
"But you know what? I'm sick of it. I'm sick of you. You placed us here and then you left. And the worst part is, is that I'm not even supposed to ask any questions. I don't even know who you are!"
Jak hoped he'd be answered, but like always, he wasn't. He sighed, then glared at the floor, arms dropping to his sides. "And now I'll never know who I am."
Shoulders and head drooping, he headed back towards the plaque and looked at it one last time. The symbol was now aglow with the same light that the machines gave off. Jak put his hand to it. It had warmth and a hum to it like the device he'd touched earlier.
"'Project Legacy'? You call leaving nothing behind a lega- ow!"
The symbol sparked. He pulled his hand back, pain prickling his skin. He could hardly gather his thoughts as the floor itself lit up with a white path that swerved towards the opening at the back, which squealed open as the line of new light struck its edge. Jak stared, forgetting his hand, drawn towards the round doorway.
"Welcome to PROJECT: LEGACY. This facility was last entered exactly six thousand, nine hundred and thirty-five days – or nineteen years - ago."
Jak forgot his terror at hearing a voice emanating from the ceiling when he heard the words 'nineteen' and 'years'. Awed, almost salivating at the thought of answers, he jumped into the next hall and ran as he followed the white path of light leading ahead, his heart thumping louder and his grin growing wider than he thought they ever could.
"Because of the nature of this facility, there are likely no resident staff here to assist you as you make your way to the eco chambers. Please follow the white line and wait for further instruction when you arrive."
You don't have to tell me twice, Jak thought as he hurried on. But what are eco chambers?
The hall began to curve, then descended to a huge central room where three doorways faced him from the round walls. The white line he'd been told to follow ended in the middle, where a small podium rose from the floor. When he got closer, the top slid open to reveal what looked to be a large glass eye. He leaned over, peering into its crystal depths, only to have a bright red light flash back. He flinched and covered his eyes while it extended, washing more light over him in flickering rays.
Was it… watching him, in some way? He dared peek out from behind his raised arm and found that – when he did – it sounded a loud beep.
"Identity confirmed. Test subject number three of PROJECT: LEGACY. Name: Jakan. Category: Kur. Age: Nineteen. Species: Achariyth. Gender: Male."
"You know who I am!?" Jak asked, shaking the "eye" in desperation. "Please, tell me everything!"
"Please enter the door to your left."
On that cue, it opened. Jak stared; yet another dark mouth with secrets trapped behind. The "eye" ripped itself from his grip and shot out another red light. It jerked up and down, watching, analyzing every fiber of his skin.
"Your reluctance to enter has been noted. Please feel assured that, even though eco introduction is an incredibly painful process, this procedure has been deemed necessary for PROJECT: LEGACY to meet fruition."
"Look, I just wanted to figure out where I'm from. Can you tell me who my parents are?"
Another scan.
"Your continued reluctance to enter has been noted. While we recognize your free will as a sentient being, we are now booting a synthetic assistant to help you make your way to the testing chambers. You are highly encouraged to comply."
"Synthetic assistant?"
There came a piercing screech. A hole next to the podium yawned open in the floor. A copper tube with a humanoid figure inside emerged. There was a jolt. Then a click! The glass peeled back to reveal a brass metal man draped in shadow, save for its single eye, the light of which beamed yellow against its corroded face and chest.
Jak gawked in horror as it came to life, steam pouring from two spouts on its shoulders and its head jerking towards him. Rust and dust sprinkled onto the floor as it moved its bird-like legs, ripped itself from the tube, and stepped out.
Jak backed away, but was too slow to avoid getting his wrist caught by its three-fingered hand. He was yanked into the air, dangling useless and yelping as it headed towards the door. He tried kicking out its hip, breaking its hand, pounding his fist down on its arm, but the mechanical construct stared intently on, as if only a harmless fly had been bouncing against it.
As a village boy whose only exposure to robots had been the simple brassbeetles used on their farms, this one seemed an impossibility. He'd heard that the Precursors had advanced tech, and the small machines Keira had secretly worked on at home certainly proved so, but Jak had never seen anything like this before.
The robot took them inside the next room, metal feet clanking against the floor in even beats. Jak gave up trying to free himself and instead focused on what horrors lay ahead as they continued. They passed so many rooms and halls that they all became a brass and neon blur.
After what felt like a century to Jak, the robot lurched into one last section with an open doorway at its end. The walls sputtered into life with holographic screens printing off line upon line of text in glitching colors. Jak tried to read them, but only caught a few words as the bot brought him to the doorway; something about the "Hora-Quan", a term Jak had never heard before nor could translate to anything that made sense.
"Welcome to the eco introduction testing chamber. Your synthetic assistant will now gently place-"
Jak didn't hear the rest as the robot tossed him into the last room. He scraped himself off the cold floor and rushed to get back out, but the door squealed shut just as he reached it.
"Wait!" Jak pounded his fists against the door. "Let me out!"
The robot's footsteps faded away, its job complete. Jak turned around, crumpled like a puppet with cut strings, and covered his face with his hands, heart tremoring as he wondered what he'd gotten himself into.
I just wanted to know the truth. Samos is going to kill me if I'm trapped in here for too long. If I even make it out of here, that is.
Jak took in this new room through the gaps in his tense fingers. In the center was a strange chair, overshadowed by a bizarre contraption that hung from the ceiling by a steel pole. There were two of those same button-covered desks to the left, and large glass containers to the right, each connected to the hanging machine by winding tubes.
As Jak watched the energy within them churn about, he realized they must have contained some kind of eco he didn't recognize. It resembled smoky shadows, furling and twisting within itself like writhing black and purple snakes.
Eco. Eco introduction chamber. A chair. A machine with… Jak peered through the otherworldly glow at the ceiling and realized there were needles on the end of some of its legs.
Thin, gleaming, precise.
Jak burst to his feet and pushed his back as hard as he could against the door, though he knew he was powerless to open it.
"Hey, uh… voice? Machine? Precursors?" Jak scrunched his eyes closed as he continued, "Anyone?"
"Do you have any questions before we begin testing?" the hollow voice answered.
"Can I leave?"
"We are sorry. An answer for that does not exist within our database. If you have no further questions, please sit in the chair so that we may begin the procedure."
"Look, I don't know who you are, or what you want. If, by some small chance, you're the Precursors, I humbly apologize for ranting at you back there. If you let me go, I'll just go back to my village, spread the word of your, ah-" He paused, flinching as the contraption began to steam into life. "-charming hospitality, and live out my life in reverent ignorance. Is that okay?"
There was a long pause.
"We are sorry. An answer for that does not exist within our database. If you have no further questions, please sit in the chair so that we may begin the procedure."
Jak groaned. He supposed he could just sit there and wait it out. How long would this thing keep him here? It might be hours, or even days… He wondered if he'd ever see natural light again?
Or Samos and Keira. How long had he been gone? He shuddered when he thought about the suns rising and Samos trying to rouse him and Keira like he did every morning, only to find Jak's bed empty; the betrayal he'd feel after realizing that Jak had broken his promise.
"You were right…" he murmured aloud, guilt numbing him. "Like always."
"We have realized that you have not seated yourself."
"And it's going to stay that way," Jak spat back.
"Now initiating forced procedure."
"Forced procedu-?"
One of the machine's non-needled arms shot out and grabbed him by the waist. It jerked up, backwards, then down, slamming him into the chair. Metal cuffs emerged from the arms and legs and clamped down tight and freezing over his wrists and ankles. A floodgate of terror opened within Jak. He wrestled against the restraints as alarms began to blare and flash, bathing the room in angry red light. The rest of the contraption above started to lower like a spider spinning down to its prey.
"Running third test trial for PROJECT: LEGACY, version unknown. Please relax as-"
"How the hell am I supposed to relax!?"
"We are sorry. An answer for that does not exist within our database."
The machine jerked to a stop. One arm burst forward, covering his mouth with a metal half-mask and slamming his head into the chair's back. A sharp ache pierced his skull from the impact, but Jak hardly noticed it after another arm – one with a needle about the length of a finger – jolted forward. It paused just before his chest. He opened his eyes to see the needle there, gleaming in the red light, so very, very close to piercing his skin. What was going on? Had there been a malfunction in whatever horrible machine this was?
Please let me out. Please let me out, Jak mentally begged, tears threatening to break over his eyelids. Let me go, let me go, let me go…
Sweat cascaded down his temples. Still no movement from the needle. It prickled at his shirt if he inhaled deep enough. Another minute passed and nothing happened. Was this some kind of joke? A nightmare? Was it broken? Was he… safe?
Then a click. A whirring back to life. A strange dark fog – likely the same purplish eco from the glass tubes – started to pour from the needle, billowing and enveloping him like searing mist.
The needle slid in. One moment, he was fine. The next, a pain worse than anything else he'd ever experienced knocked the breath out of him. It spread slowly, striking lines of fire from his heart down through his torso and arms as it followed the labyrinthine path of his veins and arteries, eventually poisoning his head, fingers, and legs. Even his tears felt like lava as they streamed down over his cheekbones, past the half-mask, and down his throat and chest beneath his shirt, sizzling into steam as they hit the needle.
His thoughts numbed as the torture continued. All he could think of was his broiling hot veins, his rush to fight for air, and the furious racing of his heartbeat as it drummed at a pace he never thought possible. But there was something deeper than all that that was starting to emerge. At first, he barely recognized it. Then the feeling grew and grew, until it was fighting against the pain for dominance over his mind.
And in that moment, when agony and anger slid into perfect eclipse, the room turned from a cruel torture machine into an enemy that must be crushed. Inhuman strength flooded his muscles. Blind rage clouded his thoughts. His blue eyes snapped open, cold and clear, pupils constricting to mere pinpricks in the ice as he lost all control.
Jak broke free.
The restraints clattered uselessly against the walls. He jerked up and pulled the mask from his mouth, ripped its whole arm from its socket above, and flung it hard at the spidery injection device. It collapsed to the floor before him, sparking and hissing, eco spilling from its tube veins. He then grasped the needle arm still wedged in his chest and tore it out in a spray of red and purple.
A black blossom of eco-tainted blood bloomed across his jade shirt. But there was no pain. Only anger. Raw, unceasing anger, jerking him along on a leash as he took the needle arm and stabbed it repeatedly into the button-covered machines along the wall. The holographic screens blinked on and off until their core was so damaged that they never came back again.
The red alarms died. The shadowy substance ceased billowing from the injection machine and broken tubes. Jak stood there amongst the wreck and sparks and eco and smoke, lungs heaving in delicious air. Half of him was ready to collapse and die. The other half felt ready to tear the rest of the ruins apart, bit by little brass bit. But the eclipse ended, and his rage soon passed. All that was left was a burning agony like a sun, melting him down as he fell back into sanity and his humanity again.
Jak burst from the room, coughing, holding a trembling hand to the wound in his chest. The injection hadn't killed him, but he feared his attempt to escape might. He passed the endless halls, the main chamber where the robot now stood, motionless and dead, then crossed the first room of whirring machines and half stumbled, half crawled up the entrance tunnel, a long snake of crimson and violet trailing close behind.
Losing... too much blood, he thought as he emerged.
He reached the clearing just outside the ruins, but as soon as his feet hit the dirt, he collapsed. A voice called up ahead, warm and familiar. A gentle pressure pressed on his wound. The soothing voice caressed his ear, repeating like a record stuck on his name. Then there was blinding light. Either he was dying, or one of the villagers had found him.
As Jak laid there before the ruins' mouth, swaddled in a growing circle of red, he wasn't sure which he feared more.