Chapter 1: Battle

Darkness, it seemed to be everywhere these days. The once beautiful landscape that had been filled with jungles, villages, and precursor junk, as Daxter once had called them. Jak felt the beast within himself. It wasn't as bad as it had once been all those months ago when Daxter had saved him and gotten him out of the Baron's prison. Back then the darkness had been eating his very soul. He had felt empty every time he couldn't control the beast within. He was certain that one day he'd go dark, as Daxter called it, and would not come back and if he did he would have killed everybody around himself; this of course included all of his friends. He was certain that one day he'd wake up from one of his nightmares and see that he'd have bloodstained orange and white fur on himself and find Daxter's body torn to bits; his body lifeless and eyes staring into the abyss. However none of that had happened. Keria and Samos may be apprehensive about being around him, but Daxter never was and for some unknown reason neither was the kid. That one child, who never ran from him, never screamed in fear and never seemed to judge him. To the little boy Jak was a friend, somebody who would protect him and keep the Baron's guards away from him. Jak couldn't understand why the child wasn't afraid of him, except that the boy didn't know how to fear him, but even that seemed highly illogical.

After the Tomb of Mar had been found and Praxis had gotten the Precursor Stone, Jak had gone back to the underground HQ hoping to find out how the Baron knew they were so close to taking the stone, only to hear from Torn that it had been him that had told Praxis because Ashelin's life had been on the line. It would seem that even the Baron's daughter wasn't exempt from her father's murderous rage. Once he and Daxter had gotten the underground members out of prison, plus a much older Samos, he had found that the boy; the heir of Haven City, was also missing. A piece of his very soul cracked at whatever horror that child was going through by the hands of Baron Praxis. He had redoubled his efforts in toppling the Baron, ignoring Daxter's pleas when he looked to be about to crash.

Exhaustion eventually won out. When he'd come to he found himself and a sleeping Daxter in the oracle house in the Water Slums. The oracle had helped him regain a piece of himself by helping him to learn how to control the dark beast inside. Once he had left, Dark, felt far away.

Then the metal head's had attacked the city, which brought the young hero to the present. Kor had lied. He and the underground members had been tricked by the old man façade. It turned out that Kor had been manipulating the underground leaders for years and now with the shield wall down, he could do with this city whatever he wanted.

Now with Praxis dead, the Precursor Stone in hand, Jak and Daxter went on one last mission; to kill Kor.

The elevator carried the two best friends upwards, and the elf looked out as they rose hundreds of feet into the air. Daxter, merely looked down, before gulping and clung to Jak's shoulder pad even harder than before. Still, he tried to look on the bright side, in the event that he did fall, at least there was no Dark Eco to fall into this time around and he wouldn't suffer for very long before he'd die. His thoughts were interrupted as the lift suddenly came to a halt with a lurch.

Jak then stepped off the elevator and onto a catwalk and quickly located what appeared to be a covered control console of some sort. He walked over to the controls, and typed a few commands in on the keyboard that was sheltered and out of the elements. The screen suddenly blazed to life, and several Precursorean runes flashed on it. Instantly, Jak translated the script. It was telling him to insert a power source. Upon locating a likely slot, withdrew and inserted the Precursor Stone into it. It shined for a brief moment, before turning a bright green color. Jak backed away, afraid for a moment that he had done something wrong. However, as the massive cannon hummed and more things on it started flashing, he realized that it was ready to fire.

Suddenly Jak heard an explosion off in the distance and realized that it was coming from Haven City. He prayed to whatever deity out that they'd protect Keira, Samos and even the lurker Brutter, but knowing that he really couldn't do much to help them from way out here, he turned his attention back to the control console, whose screen now showed exactly where the gun was aiming. Jak made a few minor corrections, and then smiled wickedly to himself.

"Stone…Gun…Nest." He growled, pressing the large button clearly marked Fire.

"Ha, ha, light er up, padre!" Daxter said, rubbing his hands together as he leaned forward on his perch on Jak's shoulder.

"HA! HA! HA! Eat this!" Jak laughed maniacally as the gun shot a huge green beam into the nest, drilling a path.

"That ought to wake 'em up!" The Ottsel grinned.

"Let's go take care of business!" The dark elf said a smile could be seen on his lips, though not for the first time since coming to the nest.

"What? You mean, go in there? Ahh, I'm right behind you!" Daxter gulped nervously as they began to descend on the lift.

For a while there was silence as the duo made their way to the metal head leader. The silence was disrupted by the roar of Metal Heads inside the nest; Jak immediately loaded his guns once again with several clips. They had easily made their way through the nest, leaving behind them a trail of dead Metal Head bodies. Jak was beginning to sweat as his muscles worked to keep them moving, shooting any Metal Head in sight. Jak could feel Dark inside him, demanding to be let out so he could feel the blood of the Metal Heads on his claws, but Jak pushed him aside with one word, No. he thought to the beast inside of him. He had a plan and in order for that plan to go accordingly he needed Dark to be at full strength. Finally they made it to a large, round area with a large, round pit in the middle, on the other side of the area, they saw the Rift Ring.

"Finally, you've decided to join us and you bought the Precursor Stone. Good." Kor appeared above the round pit and to Jak's surprise the little boy was alive, and seemed to asleep within an orb-like device. "The boy will now play his final part."

"Not this time," Jak growled his anger beginning to show. He was tired of people using this child. They had no right to do this to this kid, this innocent child.

"Oh, but this child is such a part of this! Such a part of you! Don't you recognize him?" The Metal Head laughed, "The boy is you, Jak! And this place... this is where you began, in the future!" Daxter gasped and noticed the similarities between the boy and Jak.

"But how...?" The dark elf growled.

"You were hidden in the past on the hope that you would gain the skills to face me today. But Onin was wrong!" Kor roared, "Now that you've been altered with dark eco, the stone will never open for you. Your younger self, however, still has the pure gift! He alone can awaken the Stone and the Precursor entity, which sleeps inside!"

"This stone is a Precursor?" Jak looked at the stone in his hand.

"The last Precursor egg! Mar was clever," the Metal Head lead hissed, "he covered his tracks well through time, hiding the last Precurosor egg from me, and building the shield and city to defend it! It has been a long siege. But today, I will finally feed on the last Precursor Life Force!"

"Ah, I think you're forgetting one little thing, Metalo-Maniac!" Daxter snorted, "We've got the Precursor Stone!"

"Not for long!" Kor roared as he charged up and launched an energy blast at them, hitting the ceiling above them and making the rocks fall onto them. The Metal Head watched the pile of rubble and growled when Dark burst out of the debris with the ottsel held in his protective arms. He set Daxter down and gave off his own howl as he was forced to let Jak take control.

Activating the peacemaker Jak shot at Kor, just as the Metal Head Leader had laid a dozen eggs. Jak watched in horror as those eggs began to hatch even as their leader screamed in pain from the electric charge of the peacemaker. Switching mods Jak began showing with the valcan mod, the machine gun like mod tore through the carapaces of the drones. As soon as the last one was dead Jak refocused back onto Kor, who had began producing more eggs and threw them down into the pit and onto the other side of the pit. Jak kept the vulcan mod on and began shooting at Kor until suddenly a bunch of the straps holding the metal head leader up suddenly snapped, causing Kor to roar in anger as he tried to right himself.

The Kor snarled in wounded pride, before throwing out a channeled attack of his own, Yellow Eco mixed with dark eco crackling over his taloned hands before he unleashed it upon Jak with a roar. The dark elf kicked it into overdrive, moving like a blur to get out of the blast range of the attack, which took out a good chunk of Kor's home. Jak was finally beginning to understand one thing though, Kor was far tougher than he had anticipated, and he was at last starting to realize how this guy had made a career out of finishing off one of the most powerful races in the universe. If the Precursors couldn't kill of this guy, what made him think he could?

Kor, on the other hand, was mildly impressed by the fight that Jak was putting up, and it seemed as though for the first time in centuries, he was actually going to be in a battle long enough for his adrenaline to get pumping. Still, he had every reason to believe that he was going to win this conflict. After all, he had never lost before, and he saw no reason why that should suddenly change. Kor gave a ferocious smile as Jak's ears suddenly picked up the sounds of a mechanical whirling sound.

Jak's eyes left Kor for a split second and his eyes widened as a dozen winged grunts and grunts using mechanical devices to fly began to take up formation. Okay. he thought towards the beast. Your turn. In an electrical storm of dark eco the beast came up from the deepest part of Jak's soul and took control. Once golden green hair, now was long and white. Skin that had been licked by the sun and turned a nice tan color now looked deathly pale. Finishing off the transformation claws as sharp as swords spouted where fingernails had once been, twin horns forced their way out of Jak's skull and twin dark orbs look out at its enemy with glee. A ferocious smile formed on its face revealing fangs long enough to pierce skin and do a healthy amount of damage.

Dark eco, in the form of lightning began to bounce across the walls and damage Kor's home, but not just damage the metal head leader's home, but also kill all of the flying, natural or mechanical, metal heads. Drones on the ground rushed at the monster that had come from the dark elf. Taking no mercy the creature began attacking everything and everything in sight.

Unbeknownst to Jak, during Dark's lightning blasts a large piece of the wall had fallen onto the orb that had the little boy in it. It had abruptly popped, causing the child inside to suddenly fall onto the dirty grungy ground that made up the metal head leaders home. Fear overtook the child for a moment at the being abruptly awaken, until he saw Dark. The moment he saw the creature his fear vanished and was replaced with curiosity as he spotted that orange creature that always accompanied his friend Jak. Looking around he didn't spot Jak, just the dark creature and the orange creature. 'Maybe he's somewhere else and these guys are helping. He suddenly thought and ran over to the orange creature and hid where the creature was hiding.

Daxter gave a suddenly yelp as two tiny hands went around him and pulled him closer. Turning his head he spotted the little boy. "Err…hey lil Jak." He joked.

A howl from Dark brought both Daxters and lil Jak's attention to the battle in front of them. Dark had heard Daxters yelp and had thought a metal head had gotten him. Because of the distraction a rather large metal head had come up behind him and had attacked him. Three long lines that went sideways went across his back. Blood seeping into the blue material of the tunic that Jak wore were able to be seen from where Daxter was. A grunt had taken the time as well to attack Jak's right leg and Kor's stinger slashed at his right arm. Daxter's ears went flat against his head.

Dark was pissed now. Jumping upwards into the air, thus knocking the remaining metal heads away from him, he gathered dark eco into his hands and flipped backwards and fell downwards to the ground. Daxter pushed lil Jak down onto his back and jumped onto the child's body covering it with his own as Dark landed with the dark bomb. The shockwave killed all of the metal heads in the area, leaving Kor panting. The metal head leader roared once again. Kor was tired of this cat and mouse game and jumped from the sling he was in, causing parts of the ceiling to fall in his wake.

However, that last attack had been the last of Dark's energy causing Jak to groan as he was brought back into the battle scene. Kor, thinking Jak was currently weak, went to plunge his stinger into Jak's stomach. Behind you! Jak heard Dark's voice in his mind. Dodging left he narrowly escaped death once again. Getting back to his feet Jak activated his hoverboard and flew off to the other side, away from Kor. Kor gave chase and after a few moments Kor stopped and gave another channeled attack, this one was nothing but pure dark eco made into a shockwave. Deactating the hoverboard Jak then jumped the attack and grabbed his gun, switched it to peacemaker mod and saw that he had three shots left on this mod. He lifted the gun and as Kor made a dash towards him, he let the energy fly off towards Kor, which hit the metal head leader in the face, causing the creature to howl in pain, but not deterred off from his enemy Kor ran towards Jak, which Jak took off once again on his board and got to the other side of the room. Once there Jak let another blast go from the peacemaker, this one cause Kor to get angrier and ignoring his pain he rushed at Jak. Dashing off on foot Jak narrowly missed another swipe from Kor's claws. Turning he let lose the final peacemaker blast; but missed.

Cursing Jak threw his board down and flew across the hole in the center of the room. He switched through his mods and found that his vulcan only had a few shots left, while his blaster was still completely full. Turning his head he saw Kor once again charging up another yellow and dark eco attack. Being quick on his feet, he dodged the blasts, and then began shooting with his blaster at the bastard.

In minutes Kor fell down into a heap onto the floor. The left side of his face was smoldering from taking a peacemaker blast to the face. On the right side of his face, the eyes suddenly opened. His wings came out from their sheaths on his back and he flapped them weakly. However his depth perception had been off and instead of safely going through the rift gate, he comically hit one of the rings. The energy from the rings caused his body to explode and his head landed where Daxter and lil Jak were hiding.

Lil Jak approached the forgotten Precursor Stone and was about to touch it when Jak gabbed the little boy's wrist and stopped him. "You, don't have to touch that." He said gently causing the little boy to look at him and cock his head at Jak, before smiling up at him and run to him and hug Jak tightly. At first Jak was shocked and then it was like everything that had ever happened to him caused ever emotion to come to the surface. Pulling the child into his arms Jak began to cry and in that instant he made up his mind. Nobody was taking his younger self away from him. He would protect him. That small part of himself that was still innocent needed to remain so. He didn't care if this meant that the timeline would be broken. He didn't give a fly fuck!

Lifting his head off of Lil Jak's he looked over at Daxter who was looking at the rift gate longingly and then in an instant was no longer looking at it and smiled at Jak. "We need to keep LJ safe." He stated a matter of factly.

Jak nodded. "Yeah." He looked back at the gate and then felt Dark's presence. What? He asked it.

Let me ensure no one can touch him. It stated. I will never harm those you love. In his mind he could see the creature leaning against a rock sharpening his claws against it and then looking behind him.

Looking behind himself and up a bit he saw what Dark was looking at. A large bolder was dangling precariously over the rift gate. Pushing Lil Jak away he felt dark eco rising in his bloodstream, like how it did when Dark took over, but instead of taking over Dark forced dark eco out into Jak's hand. Jak then threw the ball of dark energy towards the bolder, which caused every rock on that wall to become lose and fall towards the Precursorean rings. Grabbing both child and Daxter, who had grabbed the Precursor Stone; Jak ran for the opening of the cavern and when they were a safe distance away, they watched as suddenly the entire mountain of the metal head nest fell inward, burying the Rift Gate forever.

Upon hearing a whirling sound Jak and Daxter saw the lurker balloon land near them. Keira had tears streaming down her cheeks; both of the Samos' looked shocked. "What happened?" said the elder of the two, he looked mostly at Jak who held his younger self protectively in his arms.

Jak frowned at the older man. "Kor crashed into the rings. There was an electrical storm and I decided to grab everyone and run for it."

The elder nodded as he looked off in the distance at the ruined Metal Head Nest. They would have to find some way to unbury the rift gate and get Jak's younger self to old Sandover Village, and soon. He turned his head towards Jak who was smiling at the little boy in his arms who was giggling as Daxter was jumping on Jak's backpack trying to put something inside of it. "Got it, Dax?" Jak asked

"Yep." The former elf said with a smile. "Think Tessie poo will believe me if I tell her I helped?" he asked as Jak made his way back over to the lurker balloon.

"I don't see why she wouldn't." Jak said with a smile on his face as he placed his smaller self on the balloon and sat down next to him. Lil Jak climb back into his arms and yawned.

Samos smiled. There's always tomorrow. He thought as he turned away from the nest and climbed back onto the balloon to calm Keira down and began thinking about how this might change the future.

M-Angel: Okay, so this story is dedicated to Lady-Darkstreak on deviantart. Her picture entitled big Jak lil Jak inspired this story. It's also the story picture. here's the link to the picture. Just backspace when you copy this 'cause I had to put spaces in between stuff. I'll also put a link on my profile incase this doesn't work.

lady - darkstreak . deviantart dot com slash art / big - Jak - lil - Jak - 442294290