Chapter 42: We're Getting There.

Seriously, this fic just kept getting longer and longer and more and more detailed the more I wrote it. Did you know that this all came from a oneshot I wrote 10 years ago? Back when I was in college? Seriously, it was just a self-indulgent AU I never posted, and then it spiraled into...this.

Thanks for reading!

Jak and Daxter made it up to the Monk Temple first, their speed-boosted JetBoard taking them over the path with ease. Sig kept in contact with them over the communicator.

"Our buggies gotta pick up some speed before we can make those jumps," he said. "Get up there fast and hold down the fort. See what we're dealing with."

The outside of the Monk Temple was oddly quiet. It seemed like even the desert fauna had scurried off to hide. Jak packed the JetBoard away and cautiously approached the entryway, gun at the ready.

The moment the stone doors opened, a Dark Maker rushed them. Jak shot twice with the scatter gun, which only made the Dark Maker growl in rage and hurl a ball of dark eco at him. He ducked and made a flying leap off to the side.

"Watch out!" Daxter shrieked. Jak stood upright, finger on the trigger, as another Dark Maker lumbered over to them.

Before he could pull the trigger, a spark of darkness flashed in front of their eyes. With a snarl, the Dark Maker's skeletal body crystalized and shattered. As shards of purple dark eco rained down around them, Jak looked around wildly.

"You need to be more careful, hero, or you just might get hurt."

He glanced over to see Seem, dark eco coursing along her fingers and hands. Jak stood up quickly, ready for another Dark Maker. He aimed for one of them and shot, the electricity arcing out and hitting another.

"Hey! You were the one who called us for help!" Daxter swung to Jak's other shoulder, clinging to the armor plate for dear life. "You don't get to be sassy about this!"

"Sig and Damas are on their way for back up!" Jak leapt behind a stone pillar, poking his head out to take pot shots at the Dark Makers. "Is anyone hurt?"

"All the other monks are safe." Seem ducked behind the pillar beside him. "But I don't know for how long. The Dark Makers seem to be throwing everything they have at us."

That made sense, now that Jak thought about it. He and Daxter hadn't seen a single one of them in the Wasteland; they all must have been here. He took aim and fired a blast at another Dark Maker.

"I'll bet that hunk 'o scrap metal's behind this!" Daxter howled indignantly. "Lousy son of a—!"

Seem leaned out from behind the pillar. She turned her hand elegantly and a stream of dark eco twisted around one of the Dark Makers. It crystalized and, with a clench of her fist, exploded in a shower of purple shards, taking the monster with it.

"How come I'm the only one without cool dark eco powers?!" Daxter shouted. Jak threw another Peacemaker blast from behind his cover. "I wanna make stuff explode!"

"Then here!" Jak pressed the morph gun into his friend's paws. Before Daxter could protest, Jak ran out from his cover, pulling on the light eco he had stored.

He flung himself at the nearest Dark Maker, channeling red eco to his fist. It fell quickly, and another ran to its defense. Jak brought up his shield, and to his surprise, the Dark Maker disintegrated when it touched it. He blinked in surprise, but didn't bother to question it; the Dark Makers seemed to have identified him as the main threat, closing in on him.

"Eat this!" The heat of a scatter shot tickled Jak's back through his armor. Daxter laughed maniacally behind him, then shot again. The Dark Maker skidded back a few feet, far enough for Seem to catch it. She threw a bomb of dark eco at it, exploding it on contact.

"Ha! That's why you don't mess with Orange Lightning!" Daxter switched to the grenade launcher. "Take some o' this, too!"

Jak took advantage of their distraction as Daxter shot at them, running by each with his shield up. This, he realized, was the best way to go: it didn't take all his energy, but the Dark Makers were definitely weak to light eco.

Unfortunately, Jak also recognized the downside of his strategy. He had to get close to the Dark Makers to destroy them, and that made him an easy target. They kept bombarding him with dark eco blasts, trying to break the shield. He kept having to duck backwards to avoid their attacks once they succeeded.

The third time this happened, he stumbled back, narrowly avoiding the glistening claws of a Dark Maker. Seem blasted it away as he ducked behind the stone pillars of the temple's entryway.

And slammed right into Damas.

Damas gripped Jak's shoulders to steady him. "Keep your wits about you, youngling," he said sternly. He surveyed the hall and narrowed his eyes. "Sig, you and Jak keep fighting them with Seem. I'm going to take Daxter and get to a higher vantage point."

Jak barely had time to marvel at how quickly Damas assessed the situation, before Sig said, "Got it," and hustled over to Seem's side.

"Why are you taking Daxter?" he demanded. Damas gave him an imperious look.

"He has your morph gun," Damas answered. "If he switches to the long range blaster or the Peacemaker, then he'll have a better shot from above."

"Oh." Jak felt a bit foolish, not having considered that. "Got it."

Damas ran and seized Daxter around the middle, ignoring his complaints as he leapt onto a ledge above them. For someone who spent most of his time on a throne, the king was pretty agile. He hopped across rocky ledges and flipped over iron bars easily, landing deftly and taking off again. Daxter was shouting, but Jak couldn't make out his words from this far away.

As Damas began to take aim at the Dark Makers, Jak sprang back into action. He transformed into his light form and blasted one of them. Sig whistled. "Nice job, rookie. You've come a long way from that first time at the Pumping Station."

With Sig and Damas, taking out the rest of the Dark Makers was quick work. Damas and Daxter provided cover from above, while the three on the ground took them out one by one. When the entrance hall was empty, Damas leapt down to the ground, Daxter on his shoulder.

"I don't suppose they were alone," he said as Daxter scrambled off his shoulder. Jak took back his morph gun, switching it to the blaster. "Are there more in the temple?"

Seem brushed off her armor. "Yes. The Atrium is sealed, but they made it through the rest of the temple."

"They want the Eco Sphere, right?" Jak rubbed his chin. "Then they're probably headed for that huge oracle near the catacombs."

"We need to move quickly." Damas shouldered his rifle and put a hand on his hip. "Seem, lead the way through here. ."

"Yeah!" Daxter crowed. "Let's knock their ugly faces in!"

Seem nodded and turned towards the doorway that led deeper into the temple. "Onward, then."

Ashelin hadn't known, exactly, what she had expected from Veger. After all, she and Torn hadn't hidden the fact that they were investigating him. They'd spoken to every KG who'd had contact with Veger, trying to dig up some kind of dirt on him.

Nothing. Whatever Veger had paid them, it was enough to buy their silence.

"There has to be someone who wants to talk," Ashelin said, frowning at the monitor. "If Veger really did destroy the Palace, he killed hundreds of people. Don't these people have any kind of empathy?"

Torn snorted. "Don't be naive, Ash. With enough money, you can be as apathetic as you need to be. Besides, he probably promised to get their family and friends to safety."

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "We need to do something. Veger is trying to make us out to be just like my father. We need to prove that he's worse."

"...Speak of the devil." Torn clicked a button on one of the blue panels. The security camera brought up the elevator entrance. "He's coming up for a visit."

"Dammit." Ashelin folded her arms. "What does he even want?"

"Probably to make us go insane," Torn muttered. "Little does he know, I've been going nuts for the past year."

The elevator light glowed blue as the doors opened. Veger walked in, his nose turned up in vague distain and haughty annoyance. His eyes met Ashelin's and his lips grew into a cold smile.

"So," he said silkily, "I hear that you two are nosing around in my business. Something about some papers you found?"

"Chemical formulas," Torn said. "For gunpowder."

"You destroyed the palace, Veger," Ashelin accused. "You even admitted it to Jak and Daxter."

"I did? I don't recall." Veger's voice oozed slimy arrogance as he casually walked around the room. "Of course, your little friends could be lying to you. We all know how much honesty it takes to be a criminal."

"Jak wouldn't lie to me." Ashelin was confident about that, at least. Even if he was putting some space between himself and Haven City, he wasn't a liar. "And those papers back up what he said."

"Hmm. I see." Veger smirked at her. "So, your evidence is a few sheets of papers, incomprehensiblly written, from a council member to a Freedom League member."

"They're proof," she shot back. "Proof that you were building a weapon, just like the one that destroyed the Palace."

"Interesting. Is my name on any of these papers?" He feigned surprise when neither of them answered him. "Of course not! Why, it's entirely possible another council member had this treacherous conspiracy planned from the very beginning."

"Then can you explain how they got in your apartment?" Torn snapped.

"Can you explain how you did?" Veger replied. "As far as I recall, isn't breaking and entering illegal?"

He paced around the two of them, smug as he circled like a vulture. "In fact," he added, "I don't think I've seen these papers before in my life. Isn't it odd that they suddenly appear, gifted by the Governor herself, just in time for the citizens to question her integrity? Why, it's almost as if it was…planned."

Ashelin froze. "...Are you blaming me for the Palace?"

"I would never!" Veger laughed menacingly. "But…it does look suspicious. Some members of the council might jump to certain conclusions."

"Get the hell out here," Ashelin seethed. "I don't have to listen to this crap."

"Gladly." Veger practically flounced out of the room and into the elevator. "I certainly don't want to be associated with you two any further."

Once he left, Torn and Ashelin stared at each other in stunned silence. "We played right into his hands," she said quietly. "Now we look like the ones who are lying and framing people."

Torn folded his arms. "This sucks," he said bluntly. Ashelin glared at him, and he shrugged. "What? It's true. Veger outplayed us."

She exhaled slowly. "...Any ideas?" she asked. "The citizens trust you a lot more than they trust me."

Torn gave a rough bark of laughter. "That's not saying much. As far as citizens go, I'm still a scary Underground leader."

"Yeah, well, I'm still Praxis' daughter in their eyes," she replied darkly. "I guess we're both bad at this."

"..." Torn rubbed his temples. "I need another drink."

When Ionna found Damas, she thought he was dead. There was so much blood around him, the sands had been stained red with it. She dropped to his side, light eco already at her fingertips, praying she wasn't too late.

She wasn't. She felt a heartbeat, a pulse of life, and through the blood, she could tell he was alive.

The blood was still wet and sticky. Whatever had attacked Damas, it had done so recently. Very recently. He was lucky, really, that nothing worse had found him.

She pulled him upright, his head lolling to the side. Blood streaked down his face from a wound on the side of his head. She healed it, though the wound didn't quite close completely. It still seeped blood, and when she pressed a rag to it, Damas groaned in pain.

His eyes opened, glazed and unfocused. He opened and closed his mouth, trying to speak. She shushed him.

"I've got you," she murmured. "You'll be okay, just relax."

"...You look weird…" He was half-conscious, his words slurring as he spoke. "…Like an old lady…"

Ionna ignored him. She instead healed him again, letting the light eco flow through his body. She had to be careful that she didn't overdo it; after all, light eco was dangerous.

When she was satisfied that Damas wasn't going to bleed to death, she pulled out bandages and started to administer first aid. She was careful as she wrapped his head, tilting it this way and that. Sometime in the process, Damas muttered, "What happened…?"

"I don't know," she told him, amused. "You're going to have to tell me."

He grunted in pain as she tied off the bandages. "I don't…remember. I…was in Spargus…I remember Antwon…"

Ionna pressed her hand against his wound and he yelped. "Good. Nerves are still working great, and you haven't gone into shock." Damas frowned in concentration, so she gently added, "You had some kind of head injury. You probably won't remember what happened for a little while."

That only seemed to bother Damas more. "I…I don't think…I came out here alone."

He squinted in the sun. Ionna sighed and handed him her canteen. "Here. Drink. We should get going soon."

Damas could barely stand, so Ionna was forced to half-drag him along the sand. She offered to carry him, but he refused.

"I might need it later." He stumbled his way alongside her, his arm slung over her shoulder. "But I can walk for now."

Barely, she thought, but she didn't argue. Damas was stubborn on his best days, and this was not one of them.

The walk through the desert wasn't a pleasant one.

After about an hour, as the sun went down, Damas muttered, "Do you want to fly and get help?"

Ionna shifted to keep him upright. "No. First of all, if I leave you alone here, you're probably going to be eaten by metal heads. Second, I used a lot of light eco to heal you. I'd like to keep some stored up, just in case."

They stopped in the ruins of an old city when it got dark. It wasn't safe to travel after sundown; that was when metalheads hunted. But they would be safe here. With a fire going and Ionna's powers, nothing would bother them.

She hoped.

"We're almost there." Ionna settled him down against a broken wall and sat beside him. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm not bleeding to death," Damas told her cheerfully. "So, better than I was a few hours ago."

She smiled in spite of herself. "You're lucky. It looks like a bullet wound. Did you go chasing Marauders again?"

Damas was quiet for a moment. He took a sip of water from the canteen, then he said under his breath, "It wasn't Marauders."

"What?"

"It wasn't Marauders," he repeated, louder this time. "Another Wastelander shot me. Kiran."

"What?!" Ionna didn't live in Spargus, didn't know all their laws and mores; but betrayal stayed the same all over the map. "On purpose?"

Damas nodded. Hesitantly, Ionna asked, "What are you going to do?"

"...I don't know," he admitted. "I have to do something."

They were quiet for a moment, before Damas continued, "Praxis would probably tell me to haul him out for all to see and have him shot."

"Maybe don't take advice from the man who banished you," Ionna teased lightly. Damas smirked, but his mind was still on Kiran. "Do you really want to be a ruler like Praxis?"

"...No. No, I don't." He sighed and rubbed his bandage. "But I can't just let him get away with it. I mean…he intended to kill me. This was planned."

"You could banish him," Ionna suggested. "That's what they do to monks who go against the Precursors. They're stripped of all titles and any ceremonial garb, and banished from the temple."

They were silent again, before Damas slowly asked, "Ionna? What happened to your hood?"

"..." She didn't answer, just lifting her head up to the sky. Damas narrowed his eyes.

"Ionna. What ha—?"

"Did you know," she interrupted, "that light eco sages are connected to the stars?"

Damas waited. Finally, he asked, "Why is that?"

"Stars are tied to fate in all the Precursorian legends," she explained. "According to the stories, stars represent birth and new life, so they're tied to light eco, the one that all others come from."

"What are the dark sages connected to?" he asked curiously.

"The moon. Dark eco signifies an ending." She closed her eyes, as if remembering some long-lost memory. "Green eco is connected to the earth, blue eco to storms, yellow eco to animals, and red eco to the sun."

Damas vaguely remembered being told this before. "I think my father may have told me stories like that when I was a child."

"It shows up a lot in stories about Mar and his monks. When the first eco sages learned to control their chosen eco, they had to commune with it. It took those forms, so the first light eco sage is said to have spoken to the stars themselves."

It was quiet for a moment, before Ionna tilted her head up.

"I could never see all the stars in the city," she continued, lying back in the sand. "I always felt like I was…muted. Disconnected. But when I came out here, it was like…I'd finally broken through, and I wasn't disconnected anymore."

Damas scooted over and leaned back so he was lying beside her. "It's pretty incredible," he told her. "I never knew there were so many of them. You think you know the night sky, but now…it's like you're seeing an entirely different map of it."

"...I like this sky better."

"Me too."

They grew quiet after that. Eventually, Damas fell asleep, snoring lightly. Ionna, however, stayed awake, staring at the stars.