Chapter 12: Troubles

Date: February 10, 3658

Location: Palace

Jak laid on her back in her bed and sighed as she began flipping the amulet in her hand over her fingers over and over as she was in deep thought. Ever since the attack on the city security had tripled in the city and Ashelin was in constant fights with what was left of city council about security, about destroying the floating war factory that was floating over the bay since the end of her father's rule five months ago and of course about the rumors of the Dark Markers, which Mar; on numerous times had given her evidence that they were on the very edges of the solar system. "In a turn of events…" Jak tuned out the reporter on the holovision and looked over towards Daxter who was passed out next to her, his head propped up by three of the colorful green and blue silk pillows; his messy red hair coming out of its carefully put together braid and smirked as she caught sight of the amulet around his neck that he had made. It had the Mar family symbol with a single lightning bolt going through the center of it. The Amulet was made out of red and yellow eco crystals because as it turned out her boyfriend had an affinity for eco, though not as strong as hers use to be, it was still there; according to Mar, who told Jak that Daxter should start some training.

As her eyes traveled from his face she spotted the ottsel kid curled up on his chest, his right hand around the tiny creature. Going lower she smiled as she spotted the blue silk sheets crumpled around his waist and sighed. It'd been forever since they'd messed around. Either one of the other was too busy with something, either it was Torn sending her down into the sewers with Jinx or Daxter was racing off to his job with Tess at the newly renovated Naughty Ottsel, once known as the Hip Hog Saloon. Nobody had heard or seen the blimp of a mob boss, Krew, in months and it was thought that maybe he'd been killed by the metal heads or maybe even the wastelanders.

Thinking of the wastelanders made her think of her father, King Damas. Since that day at the metal head nest Jak had been trying to spend time with her father when he demanded it. She'd already passed the first of the city challenges, as had Daxter; but she had a feeling that Damas wanted her stay in Spargus where he could keep an eye on her; but because she was already nineteen he couldn't dictate her life and truth be told she kind of liked her freedom of having a choice of staying in Haven or Spargus; it made her feel as if she had some sort of normalcy when it came to a choice of staying somewhere.

"…Governor Ashelin said no comment at this time." the news caster said, which caused Jak to turn her head back towards the holo screen. "In following up in an earlier report Dana Jones tried to get another interview with the shadowy figure named Jak. Over to you Dana." The image of a black haired woman with a bright pink stripe of highlights on the tips of her hair appeared.

"Thank-you Joan." She said to the other broadcaster as a blurry image of Jak taken by a hovering camera appeared on the screen. Jak groaned as she took notice that it was of her the other night when she was sneaking back into Haven from being in Spargus for the last week with Daxter. She also noticed that the image of Daxter was highlighted. "It would seem our hero Jak was found sneaking in Haven City through the Haven Forest gateway a few nights ago and with her, like always, was her companion and entrepreneur Daxter, who co-owns the formally known bar the Hip Hog Saloon. My sources on the inside have told me that Jak and Daxter have been dating…" at that Jak slapped Daxter awake.

"Wha-" he suddenly said as he sat up and saw what was on the holovision.

"Also within the last month Daxter has been seen by himself, which brought on the rumors that the two were breaking up; but my sources have assured me that the quote unquote Demolition Duo are indeed still very much in love and are still dating, to the point that Daxter is often seen sneaking out of Jak's bedroom in the palace. Upon my questions on why Jak is in the Palace in the first place, my sources say that it's possible that it's because Jak is actually the former King Damas' biological daughter from another woman and since the young Prince Mar has been confirmed to have died years ago during the then General Praxis overthrow. This leads this reported and many others in to believing that the young Jak Mar is one day going to take over her long dead father's throne." She paused and smirked at the camera. "This of course leaves many politicians very nervous, especially with the rumor that the young Princess was experimented on by Baron Praxis. When asked of these rumors Governor Ashelin said she has no comment and that Jak's private life is her own the conduct. Back to you at the front desk."

"Ah hell." Daxter groaned as he laid back down. "I swear Babe, I had nothin' ta do wit' that bitch." He rolled his head towards her.

Jak's shoulders were slumped. "I'm not going to be able to go through the streets now without getting questioned by those people." She groaned as she threw back the sheets, revealing her nakedness under them and swung her feet over the side of the bed.

Daxter sat up and crossed over the large gap between them and leaned his forehead against the middle of her back and kissed a couple of her old scars. "It'll be a okay Babe." He said as he inhaled her scent and gently kissed her shoulder and pulled her close.

Jak leaned her head back against his shoulder as he pulled her close and sighed. She knew he was right, but sometimes she doubted it. She pulled away and got up, her hips swaying back and forth as she walked to the bathroom, a second later she peeked out from the doorway, her head the only thing Daxter would now see as he was still starring at her. "You coming?" she asked as she went back inside and began to turn on the shower.

Daxter grinned one of his mischievous grins that meant no good was about to happen. "Sure….Babe." he smiled as he threw the sheets off of himself and ran into the bathroom. As the sheets settled from being thrown across the bed the tiny ottsel untangled itself from the mess of linens and made its way on to the top of the bed and as it curled itself up once again moans could be heard from the shower as Daxter began to have his way with his girlfriend for the first time in months.

Jak walked through the tunnel system under Haven City next to her was Daxter with his blaster pistols pulled out; they were hunting metal heads that may have gotten into the tunnel systems that littered the city. She smiled as she spotted Daxter peeking into a tiny tunnel. He stopped, pulled his backpack off his shoulders and pulled out a tiny drone plane that Keira had given him. Walking up to him, she also pulled out the monitor from his pack and smiled as he began fiddling with the controller.

The two watched the drone buzz through the smaller tunnels on the monitor, when Jak's ear suddenly twitched. Turning her head away from the monitor she spotted a shadowy figure at the end of the tunnel on the wall that was approaching them. Pulling out her sword she ran ahead towards the shadow and as it turned towards them she pulled the sword back to kill whatever was coming when her attack was blocked by a staff weapon.

"Sig!" she yelled in surprise at seeing the wastelander in the sewer tunnels.

"Damn Cherry," he said with a smirk. "You always attack before seeing who yer enemy is?"

Jak laughed as she put her sword away and scratched the back of her neck. "Better that then regret it." she said as she suddenly noticed that Sig wasn't alone. The large wastelander turned slightly giving her a better view at the man behind him. 'Dad?" she questioned as she saw the wasteland king standing behind her friend. "What are you doing here?"

"Could ask you the same thing." He approached her and then spotted the red headed man a bit behind her playing with something in his hands.

"I'm doing my job." She stated and turned towards Daxter and walked back to him, upon reaching him she turned her attention back to the screen. However after a few moments she heard the sloshing of water and turned to see both men approaching her and Daxter, both giving her an odd look. "What?" she asked not knowing what they wanted now.

"What the heck are you doing Chillipepper?" Sig looked at the monitor over her shoulder.

"Shh…." Daxter shooshed them as the drone entered the last tunnel and everybody froze at the sight on the monitor. "Holy-"

"Shit." Jak cursed as she saw the hundreds of metal head eggs that lined the walls and were wiggling. The embryos were almost ready to hatch. "Where is this?" she asked

Daxter began to bring the drone back to them, once it was in his hands he began to move the monitors screen and brought them back to the marked area and zoomed out until it showed where on the map this tunnel system was and cursed. "It's the Western Markets and Farming District." His eyes were wide as he looked at her. "How the heck are there eggs down here?"

"Kor." Jak spat the metal head leaders name out like it was the foulest thing she'd ever said. "Before I killed him, he must've left some eggs down here. The sewers must not be protected by the shield wall and he must've been able ta get down here with no problems."

"Ya know," Daxter began, "this would be the time the Precursors could give us a break or somethin'."

Jak smirked at her companion. "Now Daxter, were would the fun be in that?" she winked at him as she suddenly dove head first into the tunnel system.

"Yer crazy!" he yelled after her as he saw her stand up on the other end and looked up to both Sig and Damas who were shocked she'd done that. "Ah hell." he groaned as he handed Sig his pack. "Give this back ta Keira at the bar would ya?" he asked as he followed Jak into the dark tunnel systems.

Sig chuckled as he and Damas continued to the airlock. Turning his head slightly he spoke. "Yer kid sure has no sense of self preservation."

Chuckling Damas looked over to his friend. "That's because she's too much like myself." The two men shared a laugh as the elevator to the sewer airlock came to a stop and opened up to the industrial district.

Location: Unknown

Walking along a catwalk within a Precursorean facility in an unknown region of Gaia, Mar began to turn the facilities reactors back on, one sector at a time. This of course had to be done manually because he had yet to turn on the facilities AI lifeforms. As he turned into the science sector of the facility he spotted the many AI cores. Out of the sixty-five million sapient beings that had once lived on his homeworld, twenty-seven had decided to go from living as organic to an AI, all of which were housed here. They had agreed to be reawakened only if and when the Dark Makers found Gaia and now when his people needed these wonderfully brilliant scientists, almost all were marked as rampant AI with a red dot flashing on the wall of AI cores.

Mar sighed as he walked around these and began to look for one that was still marked with a green light. It only took him a few moments to spot the one green light in the sea of red. He began the hard job of removing this one AI core from the wall and once he was sure that the core was intact after he'd scanned it a few times and ran several tests on it, he then placed it on the hovercart that he'd left out in the hall and made his way back to the central control center.

As Mar walked by a series of glass walls he looked out the window wall and smiled as he looked out at the virgin territory of the land before him. The mountains in the distance with their snowcaps went from white to brown to green as his eyes looked down at the valley below with its wildflowers, jungled area, and animals that had lived in the area for centuries and had been safe from being killed by the Hora Quan or metal heads as the Elves called them. This place was a utopia, a safe haven; at least one safer than Haven City was.

Turning his head back towards the end of the walkway he continued his way down the hall and entered the room which was pitch black. "Lights." He spoke causing the automatic lights to turn on. In the room ahead of him was a large wall with a single screen on it that covered the entire wall from one end to the other and from the floor to the ceiling. In the center of the room was a large circular table that was where the AI core would be place.

Walking up to the table Mar placed his hand in the center and pressed down, a small square button moved downward as he pressed it down. Removing his hand he heard the locks and gears begin to move and waited as the table lifted above his head. In front of him now was the area where the AI core went. Picking up the round crystal like orbs in which the AI was housed, he placed it into the slot where it went and then waiting for the gears to click it into place.

He only had to wait a few seconds and then waited as the table returned to the floor and clicked back into place. A whirling sound could be heard as the core began to boot up after centuries of being in a hybernative state.

The table then began to light up as it began to boot up its systems. Tiny holographic displays began to show up on the table that showed where there were cities in the neighboring area. Moving his hand across the surface the map began to change as he scanned the landscapes and came to a stop as he came to an area he familiar with and smiled at the details that began to show up as he looked over the image of his city, Haven City.

Removing his hand from the table the maps vanished and swirling of colors appeared in front of him that began to take up an Elvin form. It was a female, with chin length blue hair, blue eyes and her entire body was blue; she wore a tank top and shorts, a single pistol on her hip and combat boots on her feet; codes running up and down her entire body as she turned towards him and smiled. He smirked. "You've changed your avatar appearance, Kella." He said with a smirk.

The AI just smiled. "I decided that I needed a change." Her looked turned more serious. "I'm the only one left."

Mar sighed. "Yeah." He looked at her, her eyes were downcast as she pulled a piece of hair behind her left ear. "Are you okay?"

"Of course Mar." she cocked her head, squinted her eyes and smiled at him.

"Good, we have a lot of work to get to." He brought up the cryogenic tanks onto the screen. "I want to know how many of our warriors can fight and how many we've lost and-"

"There are only three left that are alive." She said with a sadness in her voice.

"Only three?" he asked as his eyes grew wide as Kella began to scan the other systems of the civilians that were in cryo and her eyes looked downward. "They've been asleep too long." He breathed. "Cloning options?"

"I'd have to get into the lunar base to tell if that's even possible." She said as she looked at him. "It's where we stored the cryo-frozen fetuses and children and all the blood samples of our people in case this very thing happened; however if the Dark Maker's are coming then…"

"We may have to leave the Epsolan system and leave this planet to them." He frowned. "I'll stay."

"Mar." she gasped. "No, you're our best champion!"

"I haven't been an Ottsel in centuries," he sighed as turned his back to her. "You'll gain full access of the Luna base and if and when it comes to it you'll board the ship in the base with all the children and restart our species on another planet, but I and the other warriors will stay here and fight for these people and this planet. I won't lose another world to Errol and his diseased people!" he growled as he turned towards the AI his eyes showing his determination. "It ends here!" The AI nodded as she vanished and began the de-cryozation of the three warriors who'd help Mar save this world from utter destruction.

M-Angel: Sorry for the long wait people! I know I've been lacking in chapter updates for a while. One: I've been on vacation. Two: I didn't have the Internet to post this. So now that I do, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter!
xoxoangii: Feels great to be back in FF! See you guys in the reviews :)