So assuming from the lack of reviews...the last chapter pretty much sucked. I'm sorry...I guess I'm too much of a romantic; I'll add some action.
Chapter 14:
Jak and Keira returned back to Haven soon enough, and it wasn't too long before new issues in need of Jak's guidance appeared. Once again, there was a metal-head infestation in Haven forest that needed taken care of.
Feeling a little restless from the lack of gun-use as it was, Jak volunteered much to Keira and his advisors' consternation. But, it was one of the few arguments the stubborn youth won, and he contently readied himself along with Torn in the armory.
Speaking of Jak and Torn, their new connection of being half-brothers seemed to be settling down comfortably between them. It was like some kind of unspoken agreement.
Together, the two took a small outfit of newer recruits so as to give them some real battle experience. This time, Jak knew from first hand scout reports that the metal-heads they would be facing were very normal, as well as very dumb; nothing two veterans and a few newbies couldn't handle.
In an orderly fashion, the group unloaded off of the KG transport and cocked their guns. Jak took the head of the group, naturally, and took in the scenic and familiar surroundings.
Torn was the first to spot the force of metal-heads at a two o'clock position from his spot in the bushes.. Jak girded the oncoming enemy with a warm-up shot for their apparent 'leader'; a commonly sighted metal-head that ran on four legs, just a tad larger than the rest.
The shot made contact with its shoulder, slowing its pace down slightly. Jak flashed a menacing grin and signaled to Torn and a few snipers that were hidden in the brush to their left.
It was like a game to Jak, a dangerous one at that; toying with the enemy to his liking. This was going to be fun.
With their lack of experience against a live foe, the recruits' aim was a little off, leaving Jak to pick off the brunt of them on his own.
Even before the metal-heads were within six yards of Jak's outfit, only half of their number remained, mostly thanks to Torn and his snipers as well as Jak.
Around ten minutes into the small skirmish, Jak's temples began to ache and he felt his focus wane. He would have been tackled by an oncoming brute if it hadn't been for a sleek dagger flying from the brush and into the un-armored flesh of the beast.
He felt arms pull him backwards as scenes flashed in front of his eyes. The youth could see himself holding Trajan and smiling; everything seemed to radiate an odd glow. Again, he began to hear the beatific voices, only they seemed to be more persistent and had an eerie sense of urgency.
Then, as if someone had just pushed the fast-forward button, everything suddenly threw him into the present. What the hell is happening to me?
Torn stood in front of Jak, his back facing him as he kicked a carcass with content. No casualties on their side and only two injured. It was a good fight in his book. But what was up with Jak now? It seemed that if he wasn't going through one problem, he was having another. His younger brother seemed dazed and disoriented, like someone had thumped him over the head. However, Torn wasn't one to show concern and knew Jak always ended up fine anyways.
"Load up!" Torn shouted to the rogue elves who wandered and prodded at the dead beasts.
On the way back to the Palace, silence awkwardly filled Jak and Torn's private carrier.
Jak mused to himself on his unusual recent experiences while Torn distracted himself with other things, like Ashelin, and where exactly they were headed.
Keira, with Trajan and Ashelin excitedly greeted their returned significant others. The new wife fussed over her new hubby, looking him over for any sign of a scratch or bruise. And, once satisfied that there were none, planted a loving kiss on his lips.
Jak reached out for Trajan and Keira eyed curiously as she handed her son to him.
"Something wrong, Jak?"
"Nope. I'm fine," Jak shrugged, trying to put the disturbing voices out of his thoughts. He cradled his son snugly against his chest and pressed his mouth against the infant's fuzzy green head, silently hoping against hope that the voices and what they said wasn't real.
Two weeks passed and things continued on much as they had. Jak continued to have more of the dreams and 'visions', but refused to tell anyone. Being King meant people depended on him, on his judgment; and he would not lead anyone to believe that he was crazy.
The stressed father spent more and more time with Trajan, becoming more protective and anti-social than usual. Keira would disregard it as a phase and work in her shop as Jak would play with their baby, fruitlessly trying to teach him out to play with the toy sword that had been his not too long ago.
"Good jo- Ouch!" Jak half laughed and half winced while he held Trajan up in a standing position and the baby kicked his foot in his daddy's groin.
Daxter waltzed into the Throne room where Jak currently was and snorted unenthusiastically to make his presence known.
"You think you can fit me into your schedule, big daddy?" Daxter placed his furry paws on his hips, shooting Jak an offended look.
"Sorry, Dax...I've just been-"
"Busy. Yeah I know. Even Keira and ol' log-in-the-head found time to visit me and Tessy last weekend..." the rodent shuffled his feet and looked at the floor, looking quite sad.
"You're right. I'm sorry," Jak said, truly meaning it, and then an idea came to mind, "Hey...Do you want to come with me to the Arena at Spargus on Saturday? Damas invited me, and Keira has some kind of thing planned with Samos..."
"Yeah! Just you and me...The great Jak and Daxter-" Daxter began to get excited.
"And Baby," Jak added.
"Doesn't quite roll of the tongue...But anyways! ...World Famous Demolition Duo hanging out once again...!" As always, the hyperactive orange ottsel continued rambling,
The blonde haired King just grinned, Taking care of a whole city is nothing compared to keeping all your friends and family happy at once!
Keira kissed Jak lightly on his jaw line, "Have fun in Spargus...Sorry I can't come..."
"Its okay. Dax is excited about it being 'just the boys' anyways," Jak smiled and Keira left the throne room with Samos.
"Are you and junior ready to go?" Daxter replaced Keira's place wearing a pair of oversized sunglasses.
Jak rolled his eyes at the comical sight of his friend and looked down at Trajan who was currently sleeping contently in his arms.
"Yup," Jak grabbed a bag of baby necessities and headed for the Palace's rooftop, from where they would be transported to Spargus.
Damas greeted them happily when they landed, but Jak could see his disappointment at Torn's choosing not to join them.
"Come with me. We don't want to be late," the elder King spoke and put on a show smile.
Jak offered a weak smile and silently followed his father, Daxter bounding happily at his feet.
As they neared the entrance to the arena, Jak could hear the roar of the crowd and sensed the feelings of fear and excitement that hung in the air tug at his enhanced senses. All in all, the whole place gave him a rush.
Their seating arrangements were on a large platform that overlooked the whole of the arena and held two throne-like chairs. Damas motioned for Jak to take the seat next to him and Daxter clambered his way to the large arm rest.
Since the event had yet to begin, Jak decided he might as well feed his steadily fussing son awhile. As he propped a bottle in Trajan's mouth, he looked to Damas on his right.
"So what exactly are we going to be watching?"
"Ah...You see, we caught some of those bastard Marauders roaming around the old city ruins; stragglers. We also managed to capture a view rather large specimens of desert metal-heads. It should be interesting..." Damas grinned.
Jak smiled too and thought, This will be interesting then...
Within the next five minutes, around nine dazed Marauders were pushed onto the main rectangular platform of the arena and held their single allowed blade tightly.
Damas let them wallow in confusion for several minutes before he signaled for one medium-sized and heinous-looking monster to be released. The creature let out a squawking roar and charged one fear-stricken Marauder. Seemingly not noticing, the biped beast squashed the small foe under its strong legs without a second thought.
Jak let out a whoop that faded into the noise of the blood-lusting crowd, mentally goading on the metal-head. He had seen one once in the Wasteland and had made a point not to meet one face to face.
The excitement of the crowd grew as another metal-head was released, larger than the first. Jak positioned his tiny, look-alike son on his shoulders, and held him there with one hand. The young father and King suddenly had an urge to be down there, fighting the kidnapping Marauders with his bare hands and ripping them to pieces with the rage he felt against them.
Luckily, a giggle and tug at his hair by 14 week-old Trajan, who was currently gumming on his lopsided crown snapped Jak out of his growing anger.
Ignoring the intensifying fight below for a moment, Jak took his son off his shoulders and back into his lap, holding him close. Every inch of his body was suddenly telling him something was about to go wrong. And looking around, no one else seemed to have the same feeling.
"Damas-" Jak began, but was interrupted by a deafening, high pitched sound. Everyone tried to cover their ears and block out the sound to no use while staring at where the noise came from.
A large, distorted and circular 'rift' had appeared in the middle of the arena before Jak and Damas.
Note: Think Donnie Darko portal thingys!
Daxter jumped down with a yelp onto the platform and hid behind Jak's leg as Damas stood up to meet the mysterious intruder.
From the rift, a bright white glow forced Jak to shield his eyes with one hand and grip Trajan tighter with the other. Three figures seemed to materialize from the light and one levitated within seven feet of Jak, pointing towards him.
The glowing being spoke with a loud, but angelic voice, "We have come for you."
The voices. It was them. "Wha-? Why?" Jak cried out, standing up and going as close to the Precursor that the platform would allow. "Don't I deserve to live the rest of my life in peace!?"
The Precursor did not answer his questions, it only shook its facial-feature-less head from side to side, "Your son..."
"Trajan? No! Nothing will ever take him from me again!" Jak yelled as he felt an icy fear take over.
"He must come with us, Jak...he was born of Dark and Light, a mixture of which has never occurred before...He will be better off in our care..." another Precursor spoke, holding out its arms as if Jak would hand over his baby.
"I will not let you take him!" I am his father; he has a mother, a family here! Trajan is my son!" Jak was getting panicky now and the Precursors seemed to be closing in around him. What match am I against a Precursor?
The omnipotent figures seemed to be trying to put him under control, but Jak's will was stronger than most.
On his shoulder, Jak felt a firm hand grip him and pull him backwards. Damas pushed Jak behind him and stood before the Great Precursors.
"If anything, you owe Jak for the countless times he's saved this place, these people, in the past and now! How can the 'all-knowing', 'all-powerful', and 'all merciful' Precursors even consider taking something so dear to someone as good as Jak?!" Damas boomed, pointing accusingly at his makers.
The radiant figures were evidently taken aback by Damas's powerful words.
A third Precursor approached grandfather, father, and son, "You make a wise point, Desert King, but this infant holds a power that could match our own, how can we leave that go unchecked?"
For this, Damas had no answer, and turned to his son.
"Take the 'power' then. Just don't take him..." Jak said softly, but firm, holding back his weakening emotions.
The Precursors turned to each other and began to discuss with one another.
After a few moments of their deliberation and Jak's heart rate rapidly increasing until it was practically the only thing he could here, the first figure turned to Jak and was suddenly one foot in front of his face. I could never stop them if they took him...
"We didn't expect this from you, Jak."
"What?"
"The way you recovered from your tortured darkness, the impregnable bonds of love and friendship that you were able to form in spite of everything that fell into your destiny...Between yourself and your son, Keira...and now, your father and mother...Such connections should never be broken. A mistake has been made on our part..."
"So...You...You're not taking him away?" Jak asked like a child asking its mother.
"No, Jak. You will live in peace now. The world will call on you no more..."
The three Precursors drifted back to the rift from which they had sprung and with a flash of bright blue light, disappeared.
Jak fell to his knees in overwhelming relief and thankfulness. The crowd of over two thousand was silent, as was the Marauder/ metal-head fight below. They were all staring up at their King and Jak, not believe that they had just seen the ancient Precursors, the makers of their world.
"Holy-..." Daxter said, running up to Jak who was hunched over his cooing baby. "I think this would be a good time to call Keira..." the orange ottsel carefully snatched Jak's communicator from his pack and dialed Keira's number.
A half-hour later...
Damas, Jak, Daxter and Trajan were joined in the Palace of Spargus by a very worried Keira and practically everyone they knew.
By Daxter's vague details of the situation over the communicator, everyone thought that Jak had been killed or something of that nature.
Keira all but tackled Jak when she saw that he was physically unharmed and sitting on the ground, his feet hanging in the cool water.
She gripped his blank face in her hands and stared at him, "Jak, what happened?"
"They tried to take him, but I wouldn't let them..." he replied almost dreamily.
"What? Who tried to take who?"
"Honey, it's a long, confusing, and pretty much unbelievable story, and Jakkie here is barely coherent from the whole experience," Daxter obnoxiously butted in.
"He just needs you and Trajan right now, Keira," Damas added comfortingly, leading everyone else down the elevator.
"Oh, Jak, will you never find a moment of normalcy?" Keira pulled him gently into a hug, careful not to squish their son between them.
"I did find it. With you and Trajan," he mumbled, forming a weak smile and hugging Keira back lovingly.
Holy crapola! 9 pages! Sorry it took SO long...Spanish 3 and grad project has been dragging me down lately, pretty much just school in general.
So I hope this was a fitting ending to this, it only took me FOREVER to make this ending sound right. Please tell me what you think!!
Oh, and sorry I left a few things like Torn and Ashelin's issues hanging...if you really need closure let me know, I might add an epilogue or something. Thanks for reading!