Chapter 6: Precursors and a Tomb

Date: October 11, 3657

Location: Water Slums

Daxter looked at the pale skin of the dark creature in front of him; it'd been two days since the dark creature had taken control and had yet to relinquish it back to Jak. The entire time they'd been locked away in their home and the entire time she'd been whimpering in pain and trying to hide her head under the blankets. It was obvious that she was trying to hide herself from something, but for the life of him Daxter couldn't figure out what it was.

In the week and a half since Jak had come back into his life things had gotten weird. First the fact his best friend was no longer a dude, but a chick and hot one at that. Second he was feeling things that a dude should never feel towards his best friend. Third the dark creature and that was all he could say on that subject.

Daxter heard a crash up in the loft followed by a Mrr sound. He wasn't sure if the dark creature could talk or if that was the extent of the talking it had. Sighing he climbed up the ladder and saw what the dark creature had done and found that she'd moved the bed from going horizontal to vertical and that she'd pulled every single pelt blankets out of the basket that Jak had put them in and had made herself a nest of sorts. Her head was covered and she had one taloned hand over the pelt where her ear was.

"Yeesh!" he yelled, "Home décor is not yer thang girly." He watched as the hand over the pelt lifted said pelt and allowed him to see her face. Dark onyx eyes looked at him and a whine escaped her lips. "I don't get it, what's the hubbub about? Why 'er ya going all nutty on me?" She hissed and lowered the pelts. "Argh!" he yelled in frustration and with that he attacked the creature by jumping onto her head and literally ripping the pelts off of it. "No more hiding!" he poked his head down between her horns. "Ya have something ta say, say it!"

"Mrr?" she asked

"No more of that, talk!" he said pointing to her lips. "Form words, say something I can understand! Fer the sake of the Precursors!"

The creatures swallowed several times and it looked like she was going hurl when. "It….h..h..hur…tzzzzz." she said.

Daxter promptly fell into her lap. "Err…" he began as he righted himself. "What does?"

She swallowed more and licked her pale blue lips. "E…e..ea….rrrzzzz." she replied

"Why?" he asked excited that he finally was getting something out of her. This could be important damn it!

"Nah…..ooo…izzzzz." she said causing Daxter to look at her in confusion.

He sounded out what she was trying to say, ears laid back suddenly perked up. "Noise?" he asked causing her to nod. "What noise?" sounding just as confused as before. She pointed outside. "Show me?" she whimpered. "Come on!" he said sounding excited. "Yer the biggest baddest thing there is and yer scared of a little noise?" he looked outside through a hole in the wall that was usually covered by one of Jak's many tiny baskets. "Come on, its dark out. We can sneak to wherever this noise is and shut it the hell up!"

The female's ears perked and twitched. "k…ay." She purred as she grabbed Daxter and then the Tachi sword which was in its scrapboard and took off into the night after Daxter opened the door.

Its official, both Jak and his alter ego like to go fast and scare the shit outta me. Daxter thought as the dark creature leapt from another rooftop to another one and another one as they crossed the slums in record time and then they were doing the same thing through the industrial sector and he started to feel a bit nauseous. They then came to a stop in front of the palace and its fountains. Daxter looked around and found the place unusually quiet and desolate, not a single zoomer or person could be seen. His senses were on high alert as his companion climbed down and was still whimpering and keeping her head low as if the pain was almost too much for her.

They crossed the fountains and came to the structure that had Praxis' statue standing on it. She then pressed a slab and suddenly a hidden door showed itself, along with an elevator. When the lift stopped, the two approached a door, which suddenly opened without them trying to even open it. As soon as they entered Daxter felt the dark creature relax and sigh, just as the door behind them closed.

In moments suddenly dark released her grip on Jak and Daxter watched his best friend fall to her knees and noticed she was panting. "Are ya okay Jak baby?" he asked cocking his head at Jak, who was now laying on her back and looking up at Daxter, eyes closed though.

Baby blue eyes opened and looked at him. "Why do you call me that?" she asked he voice soft and gentle.

"Uh.."Daxter looked away. "Err…" he rubbed the back of his neck. "I-I, don't really know. It-"he stopped when suddenly every single lamp in the place suddenly shut off.

Jak slowly stood up and pulled the Tashi out from its scrapboard and prepared herself for a fight. Slowly the duo made their way down the winding staircase and down into the flooded area. The twin doors ahead of them were already open. As they went forward they saw an old man, and a child in front of them, the child passed out. The old man turned around and revealed himself to be Kor.

"Kor." Jak greeted the old man. "How'd you get in here?"

"The same way you did my angry friend." he chuckled darkly.

Uh-oh. Daxter thought as his ottsel senses began to scream at him that there was a larger and deadlier predator in the room and began looking around for said being, but only saw Kor and the kid. He frowned because something was not right here. "Oh!" Daxter said as he spotted the glowing crystal. "Pretty!"

"It's the Precursor Stone." Kor sighed, his voice etching longing as he went to move towards the bridge that lead towards it Jak watched as an invisible shield speared around it.

As Jak began to try and formulate a plan Daxter took notice that the doors to this place seemed to have been blasted open and then forced to open, which in the end forced them partially off their tracks. Something is really wrong here and I can't seem to see what it is! He mentally yelled at himself.

Jak then decided to see if the shields popped up if she approached the stone and low and behold it didn't. "That's odd." Kor muttered.

Daxter ran after Jak and smiled when he too got through the shield. "Cool, let's get the goods." He walked up to the statue when suddenly the stone began to pulsate faster and Jak was once again forced to go through a transformation. The dark female looked down at Daxter. "Huh?" she asked before looking at the stone.

"Grab it!" Kor yelled his hand holding his staff turning white before returning back. It was then that the child began to stir and woke up.

"Uh-oh." Daxter said as he spotted the boy suddenly running towards them and away from Kor and that was what made the old man snap.

The dark female and Daxter watched in horror as the once elvin old man turned into a creature out of their nightmares. Both Daxter and the dark female were suddenly taken back to the day that started all of this.

Date: April 7, 3256

Location: Sandover Village

Jak yawned as Samos went on and on about the dangers of the Precursor Rift Gate and how some Precursorean devices were so horribly dangerous that they should be stay clear of. "But sometimes they can be used for great good!" said a peppy voice next to him, causing him to look over at the aqua haired girl. Her name was Keira and was a bit naive when it came to some things, one of them being how much he cared for her. Whenever he tried to get close she'd pushed him away and Jak was almost to the limits of his patients end with her and the tease she was being. One minute she acted like she was interested in getting closer and then there were other moments it was like she didn't want him in the same village, let alone the same room as she was in.

Sighing he looked down at the little snorting ottsel next him. "Yo, Jak!" Daxter said waving his hand in front of his friend and then pointed at the Rift Gate rider and the buttons in front of them. Sighing Jak touched a large red gem, which activated the entire device. "Looks like Jak's still got the mojo." Daxter joked causing Jak to smile. Turning his attention to the rings in front of them he watched as they began spinning and a portal opened in front of them. It was so cool!

It was then that everything went from cool to bad very quickly. A dark and sinister voice came out of the portal. "Finally the final Rift Gate has been opened!" A creature with a large glowing gem on its head appeared. Its sharp dagger like claws seemed to trying to pull him through the portal and into their world. Upon noticing the claws Jak also noticed that this creature as seemed to have man legs and a tail like a scorpion. The creature was mammoth and it was going to kill them all if they didn't react soon!

"Do something, Jak!" Keira's voice snapped Jak out of his moment of shock, and the boy tore his gaze away from the strange monstrous thing that was trying to pull itself through the Precursor ring. Mind racing, he scanned the control board in front of him. This machine had opened the ring in the first place; maybe it could close it again; if he could just figure out how.

"What's this do? Or that! How 'bout this one!" Beside him Daxter started flipping switches and hitting anything that looked even remotely like it had a purpose. When nothing happened besides a few corresponding beeps, the ottsel practically screamed, "Everybody, press all the buttons!"

Good old Daxter. He thought with a grim smile. Panicky but quick-thinking. Jak grabbed the round steering wheel, his mouth formed a thin, determined line on his face and he slammed his foot down. The machine instantly sprang to life, launching itself forward with a smoothness and speed that surprised him. Within moments, they flew right off the platform and straight into the monster's face. Jak squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for the impact. But it never happened. Or at least it didn't feel like they hit anything. The blond cracked his eyes open, and then widened them in wonder. The entire world was nothing but a streaming mass of purple light.

"What was that thing?" Keira asked shakily. Wind whipped her aqua hair into her face and as she lifted a hand to push it back Jak could see fear etched across her face.

Jak shook his head. He didn't have an answer. His eyes sought out Samos, the oldest and most knowledgeable of them all, but before the Green Sage could say anything, the machine lurched wildly to the right. Jak gasped and fought to steady the controls, but it was like fighting a lurker. It bucked and swerved no matter what Jak did.

"Hang on everyone!" Following his own advice, Samos gripped the edge of the machine so tightly that his green knuckles almost turned white.

Daxter was nowhere near as calm. "Yaahh! I want off this thing!"

The machine rattled and shook even harder, but it held together and sailed on. To where, Jak had no idea, but so long as they made it in one piece, anything else could be worked out later. The light they were heading towards seemed to be getting closer. Jak tried not to hold his breath. Could it almost be over?

Then something struck the ship, Keira screamed, and the world exploded in white.

Jak's eyes widened and suddenly every memory that the dark female ever had was shared in an instant and with those memories came memories came memories that Jak hadn't thought of in years and finally it fit. She knew how she knew that child, because that child was her when she was very young.

The dark female raced forward and before the metal head could snag the child the dark female threw a dark eco orb right at it, causing the creature to dodge and miss the child. The little boy ran passed the dark eco infused female and ran behind the orange creature and tried to hide from the scary creature.

The dark female and the metal head stared at each other. "So, you are finally going to fight me," the monster said.

The female gave a toothy grin. "Yes." she spoke with confidence. "And you shall lose." She promised as she drew her sword.

Kor snarled as he sent a blast towards the elf, dark eco, in the form of lightning began to bounce across the walls and damage the tomb and headed towards the eco infused elf, who jumped backwards and began to catapult herself around the tomb by pushing herself off of walls when a lightning strike came too close. Putting the sword in her mouth she embedded her nails into the wall and began at lightning speeds to crawl across the walls too fast for the metal head to get her and suddenly she launched herself at the being and landed squarely on top of Kor's back. The metal head roared and began to buck.

Daxter began to laugh at the sight of his best friend on top of the metal head leaders back. Kor's bucks began to really get wild when the dark creature thrusted her sword into the back armor and plating on Kor's back and the metal head leader's roars turned pain filled and using gravity's momentum the dark female keeping hold of the sword which was still embedded into the leaders body and fell downwards, a long line created by the sword followed as the blade cut through armor muscle, tissue, nerves, and organs.

As she landed she dodged Kor's tail as he stabbed it towards the demon and screamed as parts of his body began to fall to the ground. Blood and guts fell out of the metal head leader as he rushed towards the dark elf. However she was faster than the injured metal head and dodged each one. It was then that Kor spread his wings, unfortunately he didn't know about her trick with her sword and suddenly the creature threw her sword and it spun around and sliced the wings of the metal head leader as he was in mid-air. She smirked as he partially fell into the dark pit below.

However one of his claws grabbed the side of the edge of the stone walkway and was trying to pull himself up when the dark elf called forth as much dark energy as she could into both hands and threw it down onto the metal head leader. Kor looked upwards just as the ball of dark energy landed upon his face, blinding half of his face and charring the whole left side of his body. Following the blast came the sword once again as it was thrown at him and cut the leg holding him onto the edge and all of the other three legs that were on his left side.

Kor gave a curse at his luck as he plummeted down into the darken abyss.

The dark female looked up when she heard the soft patter patter of feet on the stone and saw her host's younger self. Putting away the sword she got down on all four and purred at the child and tried to reassure it that she wasn't going to harm it.

The little boy came to a decision and smiled at the dark creature and hugged her neck, which caused the purr to gain momentum. Wrapping her arms around the child she picked him up and walked up to the statue. As she did so she returned power over this body to her host. It took Jak only a second to gain control, but there was no pause in her steps as she walked forward towards the Precursor Stone.

As soon as they were in the protective shield she heard a deep voice. "At last, our enemy has been defeated." It said the stone stopped pulsating. "We reward both you and your companion for your bravery."

"Can you change me back to a guy?" Jak asked, hoping that the statue could.

"We are sorry, but no." came his answer from the statue.

"Hey!" Daxter yelled. "Whadda about me?"

There was a pause. "Are you sure?" the statue asked.

"Duh!" he said, "Of course! We tried to the last adventure we had, but we had ta use the Light eco ta save damn world!"

"As you wish." It said as a beam of light was fired from the stone and shot towards Daxter who gasped as he was thrown a bit off balance and then dropped to the ground. The light expanded from a tiny form to a larger one until there was a slight pop sound and suddenly a red-orange haired young man was on the ground, his back to Jak. As he stood Jak's eyes widened and he grabbed the child and covered his eyes and promptly looked away from Daxter.

"Sweet mother of eco!" Daxter exclaimed with a beaming happiness and looked at his hands and arms and then stood up and looked towards Jak and noticed how she was adverting her eyes upwards. "Hey, what's wrong Jak?" he asked and then noticed that it was suddenly chilly. Upon looking down he cursed. "Shit!" he yelled as he tried to hide his sudden nakedness. "And I thought it was bad when I had no pants before!"

Jak looked down at her younger self who's suddenly found that her chest made a comfy pillow, Jak rolled her eyes at the statue. "Can't you give him clothes?" she asked in a hushed voice.

Suddenly a light beamed towards Daxter and when it diminished it revealed black combat boots, blue bootlegged jeans, a red silky shirt and a dark blue robe over Daxter's shoulders. Daxter lifted his head after looking at his new clothes and smiled at Jak. "Sweet." He said causing his lips to peel back over his slight overbite. The bucked teeth weren't as pronounced as they once had been, but they fit him, even the small amount of freckles that crossed over the bridge of his nose seemed to be a part of Daxter no matter what. His waist length red hair however, needed something done with it.

Jak sat the kid down on the ground as she looked at Daxter and suddenly found herself blushing and couldn't figure out why.

Suddenly the Precursor Stone cracked and fell from its post in the center of the statue and the statue itself went quiet. The stone rolled towards them and stopped at the kid's feet. Looking down the kid touched the center of the stone causing a bright light to erupt from it and a being of pure light energy floated upwards towards them.

"It is finished..." the being spoke, "Our ancient enemy is no more. Take hope brave one! The terrible darkness inside you is now balanced by a glorious light! We will meet again..." The light being flew out the door behind them and vanished.

"Now what?" Daxter asked when they both heard a cracking noise and looked down in time to watch the kid pick up a tiny being from inside the crystal. Bending down Daxter looked at what the kid was now holding, his eyes widening when he spotted the orange-yellow fur. "Ya know what," he said, "I don't wanna know nothin' about how that is possible or why or anything!" the kid looked up at Daxter and Jak smirked when she saw the tiny ottsel look up as well.

Looking down at the sleeping boy in her arms she sighed. "Let's go home." She said as she turned towards the entrance of the tomb.

Location: Fortress Prison

Samos once again was entering into another meditative state when suddenly the doors to his cell were opened and reveal none other than a young woman with aqua colored hair, a heart shaped face and her usually attire. "Daddy!" she yelled as she hugged the green sage and surprised him with a hug.

"K-Keira?" he questioned what he was seeing.

"Shhh." She hushed her father and pulled her comm. unit out. "Okay Vin, do it." she whispered as she ran over to the warp gate in the center of the room. Seconds ticked by and then the warp gate turned on. "Let's go!" she yelled at her father as he ran over to the warp gate and jumped in after his daughter and with a thought he wondered. What happened to Jak?

Location: Underground

Jak yawned as she laid her child-self down with the tiny ottsel in his arms and was barely listening to Daxter as he told Torn and Jinx about the battle and how he'd become an Elf again. Afterwards Torn walked over to the bunk she was sitting on. "Is what he says true?"

"Yeah, Kor was the metal head leader." She assured the man.

"Shit." he cursed.

"Damn and he had us fool!" Jinx yelled.

"Not anymore." said a voice that had both Jak and Daxter looking up. The man who'd spoken came out of a hidden room behind Torn's desk. "So you are the ones that have been causing trouble for the Baron. I am the Shadow, but you can call me Samos."

"Ah!" Daxter yelled as he spotted the older man. "Ya mean we've been being ordered around by grandpa green himself!" Torn and Samos both began to growl at the young man. "What happened to ya? Did ya get some nip and tuck while we were gone?"

"I don't know what kind of twigs you've been eating, but I've never seen you before in my life and I'd remember that ugly face if we had." Samos said as he pointed at Daxter.

"So it begins." Daxter grumbled.

Jak was about to put her two cents in when the door to the underground opened and revealed a young woman who she couldn't quite see. "Keira!" Daxter yelled at the woman, which caused Jak to stand up and look over at the woman. Sure enough it was her close friend and old love interest.

"Daxter!?" she sounded both happy to see him and confused how he'd shed his fur.

"Well this is a surprise." said a second voice that sounded more like the wise old Samos Jak had once known and looking around the corner of the bed she saw the old sage.

"AHHHHH!" Daxter screamed and ran over to Jak and hid behind her to add drama to his yell. "Jak, they're multiplying!" he sounded honest to god scared.

"Jak?" Keira asked as she looked at Jak and gaped at how her friend looked like a woman and not the handsome young man he had once been.

Samos on the other hand was speechless for the first time in his life. "Jak?" he questioned the young woman who gave a nod. "What happened to you my boy?" the sage was worried about how this transformation would change things and if it'd already changed too much.

"Boy?" Jinx asked as he looked at the aging sage. "I think you need new glasses old man. She's got tata's, not a humdinger."

"Keira, who is this man?" Torn asked the underground's mechanic.

"This is my father." She said as she cocked her hip and rested a hand on said hip. "He's the sage of green eco and-"

"Onin can explain things." The elder Samos said and then looked at Jak. "Hopefully." Shaking his head. "But for now all I can say is that I am the elder version of the Shadow of this time."

Daxter scratched his head. "So, you're him?" he pointed at the younger version they'd just met. "And he's you?" the red head groaned. "Why can't things be normal?" he asked as he hung his head and then leaned it against Jak's shoulder.

Jak chuckled. "I think normal went out the door around two years ago Dax." She softly spoke and then looked down at the sleeping little boy and then back at Samos who was staring at her. "What?"

"Nothing Jak," the sage sighed. "I'm just shocked is all." he then looked at the pyro. "And to answer your question Jak use to be a young man…something must've happened to change him to a her."

"It's called a sex change." Jinx said with a roll of his eye.

"Actually it was the dark eco." Jak said. "I didn't want to talk about it earlier and I still don't want to, but since everybody can't stop staring at me." she growled slightly. "The Baron experimented on me with dark eco and it changed me the first day. Something about a mutation. I don't know the whole thing because let's face it, the Baron isn't apt to tell his prisoners why or what he's experimenting with on his subjects." Jak walked around to Keira and Samos, left through the door.

"Hehe…" Daxter laughed nervously as everybody's eyes turned towards him, which caused his ears to fall flat against his head. "She's sensitive about this kind of thang." He explained as he shuffled from foot to foot.

Keira looked off towards where Jak had disappeared off to and decided to follow her. Upon exiting the underground she found Jak kicking the wall of the building across the alleyway. "You okay?" she asked as she leaned forward towards Jak.

Jak paused in her kicks and sighed. "Yeah." She said as she turned around and got a good look at Keira and smiled. She was wearing blue petal pusher jeans with blue-green straps hooked to them going over her shoulders and a dirty white belly shirt and a blue jean jacket. She still wore her goggles around her neck and a cloth headband over her head that held back her chin length hair and kept it out of her face.

"You look good Keira." She said causing Keira to giggle.

"You do too," she looked Jak over and giggled. "Even if you do look like a girl." She then inspected something on Jak's shirt and then smirked. "You're not wearing a bra, are you?" She laughed as Jak began sputtering and blushing just as Daxter walked out of the passageway and was totally clueless why Keira was laughing her head off while Jak was blushing to the point that her entire face was red and so were the tips of her ears.

M-Angel: Well this time it was my fault on the long wait. I've had this chapter written for weeks, but I've been procrastinating on sending it in to be edited by xoxoangii.

xoxoangii: And I did hold this chapter for a few days for some editing _ nothing too drastic but I wanted to be thorough this time around :)

M-Angel: So, this'll be last chapter until after Thanksgiving. I hope everybody has a great holiday! Don't forget to review! ^_^