Chapter 4: Future Unseen

Location: Bazaar

Darkness spread through the city like a disease spreads through one's body; once it took hold of the city it was hard to believe that it'd ever let go. Deep in the city, near its heart, was the Bazaar. Here there sat an old woman and her companion and familiar, a monkett named Pecker. The woman sat in meditation, like she did on nights like tonight, like the night before, this night was no different. There was a thickness hanging in the air, a voice screaming in the night and no one to sooth it. Looking within the twine of time, the old woman's unseeing white as milk eyes saw uncertainty in the future. Something had gone wrong. The hero that was supposed to be; wasn't found and she was worried because this hero was also the young Prince Mar grown up and she knew he had a grand destiny, but not finding him or seeing his destiny, it frightened her to her bones.

The angry young man that would escape the prison he'd been forced into and then saved from by his ottsel friend, was no more. She couldn't see him, hadn't seen him since he returned to the city two and a half years ago. He'd vanished from her meditative states.

Forcing herself out of the state of meditation she could sense her companion looking at her. Waving her hands at him she told him to go and get the Shadow, that it was time to tell him that she no longer saw Mar's elder self, and that something had happened and she wasn't sure what it was.

However, after she'd sent her familiar after the Underground leader she was suddenly forced into a trance and saw a young green and yellow haired woman screaming, not in pain, but from a nightmare or possibly a memory; but it wasn't the woman that caught her attention, it was her companion; the ottsel friend of the Prince and now she was curious, why was he with this woman and not trying to save the Prince from his death?

Location: Water Slums

Daxter was having the most wonderful dream of his life. He was an Elf again and was with a hot chick. How'd he know she was a hot chick? He just did. He never saw her face or heard her voice, but he just knew she was hot. After all, if she was with Orange Lightning, how could she not be hot?

He felt her lay her head on his shoulder and he laid a hand on her waist. The warm sun beat down them and he could hear the ocean nearby. The sun felt good on his freckled face and bare chest. "Dax-ter?" he heard his mystery woman say his name and when he went to look down suddenly his world flashed into a bright light and really loud screaming.

Daxter suddenly sat up and looked around for the hot chick and then remembered that he was an ottsel and that it had just been a dream. Damn you Precursors for this fate! he mentally cursed the Precursorean gods just as another scream broke the night's silence. Turning, he mentally cursed again and jumped up and began to shake Jak. She was having another bad dream or was it a memory? He didn't know and from the way his best friend was writhing on the bed he didn't want to know.

Gently shaking her didn't seem to work and just as he was going to yell for her to wake up dark eco lightning began shooting off of her body. "Shit!" he cursed as the pale skin and white hair began to appear and Jak's alter ego suddenly was laying where his perfectly normal friend had been seconds ago.

The dark creature snarled and looked about herself. Her dark onyx eyes that seemed to go straight to your soul, looked around for the reason her host was having a bad dream. It wasn't until her eyes landed onto Daxter that Daxter suddenly had a bad feeling. Throughout each of Jak's previous transformations the creature hadn't really tried to attack him, not since the first time it had appeared.

The creature cocked her head at him. "Mrr?" she purred at him, it was as if it was asking where the danger was and was a bit confused now that it saw that there was nothing around them to kill.

"Jak was have a nightmare." He said as he inched away from the creature as it suddenly moved closer to him. It was as the pelts moved away from her hips that Daxter groaned as he realized that Jak had removed her pants and was wearing nothing more than the boy shorts panties that they'd bought earlier. "It's okay babe," he said as his body was suddenly pressed against the metal wall as the dark creature continued to stalk him and suddenly he felt the creatures nose against his shoulder. "really, n-nothing to ta see here." He assured the creature and suddenly he was swooped up into large cold hands that had very lethal dagger-like fingernails and if he moved the wrong way he could nick himself on one or more of them.

Daxter was even more surprised as the dark creature pulled him to her chest and the purr returned as it curled around the small ottsel as if it was the best stuff croca dog in the world. The purring continued for more than an hour, the whole time he'd been awake and worried he was going to be food. It was when the creature's purr was cut off and suddenly; instead of a cold body curled around him, he felt Jak's warmth seep into him and looked up to see the green-blonde woman fast asleep, not a trace of the nightmare any longer on her face. Weird. he thought as he continued to look at his best friend. So…what? Did Darkie want a snuggle is all? he silently wondered as Jak's arm tightened around him and she snuggled deeper against his shoulder. This is just weird. he finally thought as sleep finally came back for round two.

Jak woke up feeling more refreshed than she had in years and for the life of her, couldn't figure out why. It was as she was snuggling into the pelts again that she realized that the pelt she was snuggling into was moving and slowly opened one eye, followed by the other and saw Daxter sprawled out next to her face. A blush suddenly crossed her face and very carefully she let the small twitching ottsel go. Why was Daxter laid out like that? Last she remembered he was on the other side of the bed curled up on the body pillow. Turning she saw the imprints of where his body had been, and then she found something else; pinprick holes in the mattress that led towards the corner of the foot of the left side of the bed that led towards the corner of the room. What the hell? she wondered as she looked at them. Groaning she looked back towards Daxter. If Daxter was sleeping like that, then nothing could've happened, right?

Moving closer to the left side and swinging her legs over the mattress, she leaned over and grabbed her pants and put them on under the covers. Slowly standing up and being careful of the ceiling that she was inches from hitting her head on, she put her socks and boots on and then carefully and quietly snuck down the ladder. Daxter's loud snores told her that she'd been successful in this.

After doing her morning routine, she went over to her new table that they'd gotten from a thrift store, that also had a bowl of fruit sitting on it, she grabbed one of the pieces of fruit. After eating it, she heard Daxter's groans and minutes later her best friend came down and did his own morning routine. When he came out of the bathroom she handed him a whole guava fruit and watched him use his front teeth to peel back the reddish green skin and reveal the pink meat inside before he just began devouring the piece of fruit like he hadn't eaten in days.

"What's on the calendar today babe?" he asked as he licked his fingers and looked up at her.

"Finding the underground?" she asked and continued to look at him to gauge his reaction.

"You want to join 'em?" he asked as he scratched his back. "Ack, I've heard the boss is a real pain in the ass." He jumped up on the table and grabbed a yellow and green fruit that had purple meat on the inside.

"Part of me wants revenge," she said as she went over to the faucet and sink and rinse her hands when suddenly the water stopped pumping. "What the-" she began as she turned the knobs both on and neither gave any water.

"Argh!" Daxter groaned as he waddled over towards the sink. "Did somebody forget to pay the water bill?"

Smiling at the poor joke Jak turned the knobs back off. "I think somebody turned the water off to the slums."

"The water slums or both?" Daxter asked as he starred up at his friend and hoped she didn't remember anything about last night, because that had been a bit weird. "The pumping station is just outside the walls down the street from us."

"Is that an invite for an adventure?" she kidded with a smile that said she wasn't kidding and her eyes had the same gleam in them as they had all those years ago when they'd gone to Misty Island.

"Okay, ground rule number two oh one," he said, "No jokes about adventures because our last one started with me getting ottselfied."

Jak laughed. "Well," she began, "this one starts with me as a girl, what's the diff?" Daxter starred at her with his jaw gapping. "What?"

"Okay, either the fates hate us," he said as he pointed upwards, "or they just have a sick sense of humor." he said this as he jumped up onto her shoulder.

"I'm betting for number two." Jak said as they headed out, she grabbed both her sword and backpack that had Daxter's weapons were in.

An hour later one could find both ottsel and woman back to back and surrounded by two or three dozen metal heads ranging from grunts and stingers to their two leaders a juice goon, which had a staff weapon that fired a red bolt of electricity that reminded Jak too much of the K.G. and their electric zap guns. "This is when we'd need a couple grenades." Daxter grumbled as his poison mist took out several stingers who'd gotten too close to them.

Suddenly remembering the grenades she'd taken off of the dead soldiers the day she'd escaped, Jak smiled. "Daxter," she said with a smile and reached into her backpack and sliced another grunt as it jumped on her, only to have its dark eco infected blood spray everywhere as it's gut was slashed from side to side and the body fell harmlessly in front of the young woman. "You're a genius." she said as she pulled one of two belts from her bag and grabbed one of the black balls and threw it after pulling the pin. Three of the dumber grunts were blown up; their body parts fell from the sky. The smarter ones ran for cover, which opened a path and allowed the duo to escape their enemies.

"Hey!" Daxter yelled as they ran down the walkway. "Why didn't tall, dark, and gruesome appear and attack them?"

"Tall, dark-" Jak began as she then realized who he was talking about. "Oh." She shook her head as they continued towards the pump that would turn the water back on. "I don't know."

The rest of the way was walked in silence until they came to the valve. "Ah, the valve." Daxter announced as he put his exterminator weapons down on the ground and strutted towards the pipe. "Allow me." he said as he jumped up onto the pipe and wheel that would turn and allow the valve to open. However the stupid valve wouldn't open for the small ottsel and not for the first time since his change he cursed his twenty-seven inch height. It sucked being so small and without the strength that he would've had, say if he was an Elf, the thing just wouldn't budge. That was until Jak gave the pipe a nice hard pounding with one fist and suddenly the wheel spun quickly and the pipe above him suddenly gave a sucking sound and he was being forced through pipes with water behind him pushing him through each curve. With each curve came a hit to the head as he hit each and every curve head on. That was until he came to a stop, the valve itself was a hole just big enough for his entire body to fit, but unfortunately it was turned off still.

"JAK!" he wailed and suddenly felt water under his chest. While his body could hold off the water and the pressure, some of it was making its way through the crakes in his fur and he whimpered. "Help…please….buddy?" By the time the water had made its way up to his neck he thought for sure that he was going to be walking up to the pearly gates. "Help?" he whimpered one more time and suddenly the pipe of the valve opened completely and the pressure behind him pushed him outwards. Head first he went flying out of the valve and its pipes. The wild ride was over when he landed on his back. "Don't…not even a chuckle." He said as he spied mirth in his friends eyes. "Next time…you turn the valve." He said this as he fell backwards, suddenly very exhausted.

Jak smiled. "Sure Dax." She said as she picked her friend up off of the ground. The tiny and lithe body was limp for a moment before ears perked up. Turning around Jak saw the dirty blonde haired man from the night before, this time he had a companion with him. Another tattooed man, who looked meaner, rougher and his eyes, seemed to show sadness.

"Hey blondie!" Jinx yelled as he spotted the woman as she stood up. He and Torn had decided to head out here and turn the water to the slums back on and when they'd arrived they'd expected to find metal heads galore. However the only thing they found was the young green-blonde haired woman bent over the valve and suddenly dirty thing had come to the forefront of Jinx's mind. He snickered at the wet animal in her arms. "Looks like we had the same idea."

Torn approached Jak and suddenly the two were having a stare down, however it wasn't either one that broke the stare, but it was Daxter's voice that brought them back to reality. "Hey Tattoo Wonder," Daxter began, "stop staring at her or else." Daxter growled as the man began to smirk at him.

"Or else what rat?" Torn asked, his gruff voice making Daxter snicker.

"Wow, and here I though yer face was ugly." He looked at Jak. "He sounds like he's been smokin' since he was ten, wait scratch that, since he was two." Daxter's snickering was cut off by Torn's growl.

Jinx suddenly had a newfound love of the rodent. Nobody could get under Torn's skin better than the Baron and Erol and in less than thirty seconds the talking rodent had gone from a curiosity to somebody he'd by a drink. "Awe, ain't that cute," Jinx laughed. "you made a new friend Torn." He snickered and began laughing out loud when the former soldier turned his annoyance towards him.

"So you're the one causing the Baron problems lately." He sized Jak up and couldn't see how this tiny woman could become such a fearsome weapon in mere minutes, but he'd seen it on the security cameras that Ashelin had given him.

Crossing her arms over her chest Jak leaned back on her right hip and looked straight at Torn, this caused Daxter to raise an eyebrow at the new stance. "So what if I am?" she said as Torn suddenly noticed the Tachi sword that was strapped to the lower part of her back, the hilt was on her left hip and waiting for her fingers to grab it and use it in a fight. He also noticed the decorative nature of the hilt and the many tiny dark eco crystals embedded into the hilt.

"We need warriors like yourself in our organization." He said. "We're losing this war with the Baron…"

"Give me a good reason to help you." She said, "Because the only reason I can see in helping you is revenge, and I don't want to lose myself to my anger and vengeance." She walked up to Torn's face and got into his personal bubble. "Give me a very good reason, and I'll consider your offer."

Torn's eyes widened as he looked into the woman's eyes, though they were a beautiful blue color, they held a darkness in them that made him shiver involuntarily. "For the thousands of innocent people who are being tortured and killed by Praxis, for the children who will grow up never knowing their parents because they'd been killed by either Erol, Praxis or the guards and for Prince Mar who lost both his parents, one to death and the other to the wastes; because Praxis wanted the power that the once royal family held over this city." He narrowed his eyes at her. "Are any of those good enough reasons?"

Jak smiled. "Yes, but you're forgetting one thing." She said smirking.

"What's that?" Torn growled

"Why should I give a fuck?" she snarled. "This city isn't mine. This city has done nothing but cause me pain, so why should I care if some Havenite kid grows up with a parent?" Daxter's eyes widened, he'd never heard Jak talk this way. Heck, he didn't think Jak ever thought this way. As a young teenage boy he'd always wanted to help somebody. So now that he was a girl, why would she change her mind?

"Because if people like you don't give a fuck," Jinx said as he took a puff of his newly lit cigar and then blew the smoke out. "then who will?"

The corner of Jak's lips lifted into a smirk. "That's a good reason." she said as she looked between the dirty blonde haired man and this red headed man named Torn. "I'll help."

"Great." Torn said with a roll of his eyes. "Report to-"

"Kor told me where to go." She interrupted him. "I think I can find my way."

"Good." Torn said and he and Jinx left Jak alone. Meanwhile Daxter was starting to believe that more than his best friend's sex and looks had changed during their two and a half years apart.

Date: October 9, 3657

Location: Slums

A week had passed since the duo had joined the underground movement and in that time they'd done a dozen or so jobs for the Tattoo Wonder, as Daxter liked to call the underground Commander. They currently had gone through the fortress and blown up the ammo dump. The shockwave from the explosion propelled the two of them out of the building through a large transport door. As they went sailing through it, Jak felt her back blister under the heat. However, any concerns that she might have had for that particular region for her body took secondary priority as she realized that they were being shot straight towards a building. That thought had just registered when her gut plowed into the side it.

The next thing she was aware of was a sensation of weightlessness, and the distinctive screaming of a certain orange critter. She was jolted back to full awareness when she hit the ground with a sickening thud. Shaking her head, and being certain to make sure that the red cloth of her scarf that Daxter had bought her was still covering her face, hiding her identity, she looked around. "Dax?" she called out in a hushed voice, being unable to see where her friend had landed.

As if on cue, she suddenly felt squirming underneath her butt, so lifting said butt allowed Daxter's head suddenly poked out from underneath. "This place has too much excitement." the former Elf said, panting for breath, "We need to move back to the country."

Jak chuckled and got to her feet, attempting to dust herself off in the process. Moments later, a slightly squashed Daxter was up on her shoulder again. Together, they slunk off through the shadows of the slum buildings, Jak smiling the whole time. Running over to a parked zoomer bike, Jak kickstarted it and for the first time since breaking free from the prison she was going to have a little bit of fun.

She whooped as she raced through the streets, her hair blowing through the wind as she sped the zoomer up and began switching hover modes. This was fun, a lot of fun! She suddenly had a newfound love of these zoomers, the thrill of being able to rush above the ground at high speeds, the adrenaline rush as she flew through the city, dodging this vehicle and that All the memories of torture and experiments were swept away by the feeling of the wind rushing through her hair and the teasing of the wind as it whipped her hair as she kicked the zoomer into a higher gear to go faster, though she was dimly aware of Daxter's screams as they rounded a corner, coming inches to crashing into the building near the corner.

However that happiness didn't last long as her thoughts were swept towards her lost friends. Daxter said that he had kept an eye out for them while he had tried to find a way to spring her from prison, but hadn't had much luck. Jak sighed sadly at the thought of Keira and Samos being lost somewhere in this hell of a city and her being unable to help them. If the past two years had taught her one thing, it was that Haven was anything but what its name implied it to be. Maybe once, long ago, but not anymore.

Then there were the thoughts of what she had found in Dead Town a week ago. Had the Rift Gate thrown them a hundred or two years into the future? Or had it been longer? She'd asked Jinx what year it was, only for the pyro to give her a strange look and then ask why. She hadn't been comfortable in continuing the conversation.

She came to a slow puttering stop as she pulled up to the alley of the hideout and was surprised to see Torn waiting with a package for her.

Samos Hagai, once known as the Green Sage of Sandover, sat quietly in his cell and waited. He knew that he'd be in here for another three months, if not longer. He also knew just about everything that would take place in the next several months; or so he use to think that; that was until his memories began to change on him. He no longer had memories of Jak fighting the metal head leader; instead a woman had replaced those memories, not of the fight but of other things and the battle with the metal head leader had all but vanished from his memories. However something else, besides his memories being scrambled like one scrambles eggs, was strange; he felt a deep unnerving power at work here. He couldn't sense where this power was coming from, but it was strong, stronger than anything he'd seen in all his years as a sage and for once, he was worried about what the future was about to bring.

-
M-Angel: Yes, they finally joined. I was really wrestling with the idea of having those two be rogue agents or something; but that this chapter was a good way for them to join the Underground.
xoxoangii: It's really interesting reading this and then going through what the actual storyline is for this game. I really like what we're doing here :D
M-Angel: As always reviews are welcome. I love to be critiqued! ^_^