Jak attempts to track the siblings down, and Maia's in another one of her prickly moods (two things that are bad for Gol). Let's see if Jak can find them without having to stop for directions.

Chapter 21: A Meeting

When the robot's weapons and shields had suddenly stopped working, Gol had no choice left to him but to make a quick retreat. The city was already in shambles, and their army numbered in the millions, which lessened the impact of this most disagreeable of situations at least a little. But, they would have had the city either surrendering or utterly annihilated by morning if the blasted thing had kept working!

"What happened? What's wrong with this stupid thing?" Maia slammed her fists down on the console.

"I haven't figured that out yet, but hitting it isn't going to solve anything!" They needed to get back to the citadel as soon as possible so they could solve the problem and finish Haven City off.

"Even before it stopped working, the guns started to get weaker. Didn't you notice, dear brother? Our old robot didn't run out of power."

"Our old robot blew up, dear sister. And what do you expect me to do about it right now?"

Maia's grumbling continued as they sped across the desert. Gol had installed into the robot night vision (thank the Precursors this and the boosters were still functional!) so they could see around without any obvious headlights. What had caused the robot's weaponry and defenses to suddenly shut down, though? He had neglected to include any sort of warning system into its design, so there had been no indication anything was wrong (aside from Maia's observation just now, which came much too late). It was quite a shame, too. Watching Haven City burn and disintegrate before them had been a most joyous sight. Those fools were nothing compared to them. He felt like he could squish them with one thumb, like ants. At least, before the robot had failed.

After some time, a familiar shape came into view. He slowed the robot as they neared the citadel and guided it back into its storage room. As the door in the ceiling closed, he went about checking the robot's diagnostics. The level of Eco powering the robot was fine. It had sustained minimal damage. But, what was this? The temperature within various parts of the robot was much too high. It had overheated. What a pathetic machine! And the most intense heat appeared to be coming from the Dark Eco cannon.

The Sage opened the door and glided outside, taking a quick detour to gather a few tools from the table below before floating over to the robot's offending appendage.

"What? What is it?" Maia was leaning out of the doorway, glaring down at him.

"Give me a chance to look!" He fiddled around with the casing of the cannon until it popped open and had to move quickly to shield his face from the sudden release of heat. Turning back to it, he noticed that the Dark Eco crystal within was glowing. And then it began to flash. "Get back!" Gol said, as he flew to his sister and pulled her away, shortly before the crystal blew up, sending the Dark Eco cannon spinning across the room. The robot started to rock back, almost too slowly to see at first, and then it fell backwards with a great deal of creaking before crashing into the floor. Gol winced and Maia swore.

"Maia!"

"Oh, shut up!" She released a most unladylike snarl. "We were just about to finish them off, and—"

"We'll make another crystal and repair the robot. With a few modifications, I can make sure it doesn't overheat again." He started to float closer to the downed robot, inspecting it with a hand to his chin. It shouldn't have sustained too much damage from the fall.

"But, how long is that going to take?" She zipped around in front of him, fists planted on her hips. "You should have checked this before!"

"I hope you're not blaming me for our predicament, dear sister."

She moved in closer. "Who should I blame, then? It's certainly not my fault!"

"I never said it was. Now are you going to help me or not?"

"Hmmph!" She crossed her arms, not about to budge, and he turned away. She could do as she pleased, then. She was the one anxious to start the assault on Haven City as early as possible. He could have done more testing if he had been permitted. But, why should he be surprised at her reaction? She always had to blame him. It was his fault she got chicken pox (even though she got it first), and he was sure it would also be his fault if the green star in the sky suddenly decided to come crashing down and wipe out their citadel.

Gol chose to get the robot upright again first, as much from necessity as a way to escape from Maia for a short while. He could feel her abominable attitude just from being near her. Fortunately, his task was easier than he expected it to be, as the required functions of the robot were still working just fine. With a bit of maneuvering, it was back on its feet again.

He then left the robot to find Maia watching him with her eyebrows raised, back to her usual hands-on-her-hips stance (oh, how obnoxious she could be!). He didn't even try to hold back a grimace at her as she continued to stare with her most unjustified indignity, before flying to the far end of the room to retrieve the cannon. Even in this state, it was still heavy, but he began to roll it back across the room, no matter how much effort it took. And he wasn't asking for help, either. He'd snap his back in half before he requested any assistance from her. Nevertheless, after no doubt enjoying his obvious struggling with the blasted machine, his sister finally began to fly over.

"I am perfectly capable on my own!" he said.

"Oh, shut up, old man."

His eyes grew wide. Old man! Old man? After dealing with her attitude on the entire flight back here, she now had the nerve to call him names.

Likely in response to his expression and the fact that he was now beginning to wheeze even more loudly than usual, she added, "Oh, come now, dear brother. You really think you can move this by yourself? It's several times your size, you skinny, old thing."

He growled at her, but remained silent, otherwise. She simply smiled and began working to roll the cannon back to its intended location. Finding it a better use of his efforts to return his attention to the cannon, he added his strength to hers, only because this thing was indeed heavy and because he didn't possess the same terrible disposition that she did. She was lucky.

Jak continued to head off in the direction he thought the robot had gone, going as fast as the Hellcat cruiser could manage, but he was starting to wonder if he had misjudged the direction it had taken. For all he knew, they had passed it without even noticing. The pinpoints of white that were the stars, the large green one that had just recently come over the horizon, and the headlights of the cruiser were the only things lighting his way. And none of them were very good for seeing very far out in this endless darkness. All he could make out was that they had long since entered the Wasteland and nothing else.

"You sure it went this way, Jak?" Daxter said, shivering on the man's shoulder.

"It definitely went in this general direction." Which was only so helpful, and only if they hadn't veered off course.

"How does the Wasteland get so cold at night? During the day, it's like it's trying to make me into roast ottsel, and then at night, bam! Freezing! And I even got fur on. You must be real cold, Jak. Don't expect us to snuggle or nothin', though."

Jak raised an eyebrow. Still no sign of the robot, and it felt like they had been flying a good hour now. Maybe he went the wrong way. Or it hadn't gone in a straight line and had turned at some point. With more doubts growing in his head, Dark Jak started to creep back into his subconscious.

Well, know-it-all, Jak thought, don't tell me you know where I'm supposed to go.

As a matter of fact…

What was he doing, talking to it! It was just a voice and nothing more.

Getting hot…

Shut up! No, don't respond to it.

"I don't know, Dax. I think we lost it."

"How hard can it be to find a giant robot?" Daxter asked.

"Pretty hard, apparently."

"Come on, Jak, we gotta find this thing. I'm gettin' all determined and stuff. No way did I get stuck bein' bored all this time for nothin'." Daxter stood up and thrust a hand out ahead of him, finger pointing. "Onward, Jak!"

Jak grinned. "You're right, Dax. We're not about to start letting giant killer robots get away with anything, are we? We'll fight it on its own turf if we have to."

"Uh…well, I don't know about that… Hey, Jak, what's that?"

"What?" All he could see was the same blackness ahead as usual. A large mass did seem to be looming up ahead, though.

"That. There's a building up ahead, on that mountain. You think that's anything?" Apparently Daxter's keen ottsel eyes had caught something Jak's couldn't. He peered ahead, straining his eyes. There it was. There was definitely something man-made on the mountain ahead of them.

"Think you found it," Jak said.

"I know, I'm good, huh? Well, I did my part. You can pay me back by fightin' the robot."

They sped towards the structure, a large, seemingly abandoned place. It was possibly an old monk temple, not unlike the one they had visited several years ago. Jak landed nearby and jumped out, gun ready.

The place was absolutely silent, but the fading stench of Dark Eco was here. It was actually quite similar to the smell of those creatures, now that he thought of it. He crept forward, on the alert for any sign of danger, boots crunching on the sand and rubble beneath his feet. He stopped, but nothing stirred in response to his footsteps.

He continued over a collapsed wall into what was once a small room, above which hung the crumbling remains of upper floors, like someone had sliced right through the building in order to analyze a cross section of it. He then went through a doorway to the inside. It was even colder in here and darker, as well. He held his gun in one hand and felt along the wall with another. He stubbed his foot on objects left on the floor, likely fallen debris from the decaying temple, several times before he noticed a light ahead. He quickened his pace, tripping over a few more things until he reached a stairwell, lit by candles. In addition to that, some kind of large pipe snaked down the stairs.

Jak went down the curving staircase, constantly ready for whatever might be waiting beyond the next bend. Past here was a large room. The pipe headed down a hallway, and he followed. After a short distance, he started to notice hoses attached to the pipe, leading off into other passageways that seemed to go on forever into the distance. Unsure of where each would take him in this maze of a place, he settled for following the pipe itself further into the temple.

The pipe went quite a distance, and Jak began to run alongside it. What could be inside this thing? He didn't like the smell.

Just as he arrived in a large hall, ceiling high above held up there by grand pillars lining the walls on either side of him, he heard a gasp of surprise from across the room and stopped, skidding a short ways on the loose pebbles on the floor.

"Dear brother, you must come and see this."

Uh-oh, Jak... Please review.