Hey guys. KGBBP here. With the Jak collection out, its renwed my vigor for the series and I decided to re-read my old fics. While "May It Be" has aged fairly gracefully, "What If" certainly has not. i've improved ten-fold as a writer and wanted to revisit the project- Update it to current standards and correct alot of glaring plotholes that made me want to tear my own eyes out.

If you read the original "What If" and liked it, you may or may not like this. i can't make any promises as everyone has different opinions.

My main goals here are to make Sake less Mary Sue, Make the story far less Cliche, make it darker and more accurate to how things would really be.. I certainly hope you find it appealing.

Re-writing the chapters is a side project to me and is taking a backseat to my other stories which i've got chapters in progress for all the major ones at the moment. so sorry to those realy hoping for updates on those.

Time had a funny way of being obnoxious quite often. Whether it was being late to a movie with friends or missing the first few minutes of her favorite television series, time was always finding ways of biting her in the ass. Now it was taunting her, seconds ticking by like minutes and minutes crawling by like hours as she eagerly awaited the end of the day. Normally time was irrelevant and when she paid it no heed, time made the habit of flying by leaving her with no time to finish her work. Today however, time was kind of a big deal because it was a Friday and school would end in just five short minutes. She and her neighboring desk-prisoner and best friend Jess- whose full name was Jessica but hated it because it made her sound like a preppy chick so she preferred Jess- would rendezvous with her mother in the school's front parking lot and make way for the near by game store.

Her pencil rapped quickly against the faux wood desk top as she watched the clock. Just a couple more minutes, idly strolling by like they hadn't a care in the world, paying no heed to the fact that she wanted- No, NEEDED them to just hurry up and go by so she could spring into action. After all her things were already packed. Normally the teacher reprimanded any student who dared pack before the bell but it was a Friday and she didn't give assignments over the weekend.

It was like New Years, all eyes watching with held breath as the clock started to tick down to its final seconds. Ten, nine, eight.. Oh man so close. She couldn't contain herself and as the hand struck zero, right on time with the schools time, the bells rang throughout and students exploded from their desk as if fire had been lit beneath them. Sake and Jess both sprung up, bags flung around their shoulders as they were the first of the students to escape their educational imprisonment. Half running, both practically skipped down the front steps of the interior before half-tackling the front doors alongside the other early-birds that made the mad dash.

There it was, their chariot! Well, Maybe a Chevy wasn't much of a chariot but she couldn't care less. Both girls fumbled with the handles on the door, Sake hurdling herself into the front seat- her throne, while Jess gladly climbed in the back seat.

"I certainly hope your excitement didn't effect your school work today." said the driver, a woman roughly 25 years ahead of the girls, medium height in stature with shoulder length black hair. She took the vehicle out of park and cautiously navigated the sea of waiting cars as students poured into them.

"Can't make any promises, Mom." Sake returned, digging something from the center console. The treasure buried beneath was the key to their virtual salvation, forty dollars In cold hard cash that she'd spent the last few weeks doing manual labor for her adoring mother to earn. Allowance was in short supply and boy did her mother make her earn it, not like those stuck up rich snobs that had everything dropped in their laps.

"How about you Jess? Did you manage to contain yourself?" the woman said more into the rear-view mirror than to the blond haired girl behind her.

"I managed pretty well. Sake's the one about to twitch out of her own skin." Jess grinned through lip gloss, brushing a lock of bangs away. She was, by her peer's standards, a punk-rocker. Despite the school making dozens of complaints to her parents about her choice of hair styles, nothing stopped her from cutting it into a faux-hawk that hung in front of her eyes. Then again both girls were far too guilty of buying way too much of their wardrobe from the local alternative style store.

"Hey, take it easy. I've been waiting for this game for months." Sake countered, attempting to defend herself against the barrage of teasing. She was, by most nerd standards, a decent looking girl- Fair in the face, even skin, good figure despite being a heavy gamer(which to this day she hadn't the foggiest idea how she managed to avoid packing on the pounds), but she wasn't winning the school's beauty pageant any time soon, and it wasn't like she wanted to anyways. While Jess kept her hair shockingly short(and bleached), Sake liked it long and dark, bangs long since trained to rest on either side of her eyes so she only had to occasionally move them out of the way.

Their school and favorite game retailer hadn't been too far apart, a couple miles at best and the trio arrived in no time. Sake's mother pulled the car to a stop in an empty parking space before throwing the engine into idle. Just as they had flown out of school, so again did they practically explode out of the car, ignoring bags and other belongings in favor of digital appeasement. A bell rang on the door as they entered.

"Right on time. I'm impressed." A man stood at the counter. Well, not really a man. A boy really, a senior that only did half days. Scott was his name and Sake had to admit he was, kinda cute. "Only took you twelve minutes."

"You were counting? Kinda creepy." Sake fished her pocket for the cash which she had stowed prior to their arrival for safe keeping, counting it to double check.

"Think of it as a record. Also, its forty plus tax." He commented, watching as she made heads or tails of the fives, ten, and ones all mixed in. She stared despairingly at the bills, defeated. "Hey don't sweat it. I'll get the rest."

"Ah crap. Are you sure? I can totally bum my mom for a couple extra bucks.." Sake tried to hide the grin as Jess just smirked, staring eagerly at the shiny wall of brand new games behind the glass cases.

"No biggy. I know you've been dying for this game." Then Scott turned and used his magical Key of Power to unlock the case behind him and remove one of the shiny new cases from its row of identical siblings. "Here ya go. One copy of Jak 2." He watched as the girls exchanged a quick grin that threatened to split their faces clean in half before Sake slapped down the dough and half ripped the case from Scott's hands.

"Thanks!" Sake was already halfway out the door before Scott could say 'You're welcome'. He just laughed then turned to Jess.

"She always that way?" he leaned on the counter, fingering the cash before putting it, as well as a few dollars of his own, into the register and closing the drawer.

"Only when its a new game. It'll wear off in a few months once she's over the initial buzz. Anyways she'll have my head if I don't get out there. Later Scott." Jess raised her fist and Scott instinctively returned the favor, pounding knuckles as the two went about their business. The blond left the store, throwing herself into the back seat. To her amazement, Sake had already somehow torn the plastic of the case and was pouring through the usually useless booklet contained within.

Another fifteen minutes had passed and the trio was on the far side of town, stopped in front of a fairly nice home. Jess climbed out, grabbing her bag before saying her goodbyes, though not for long because there was no way she was letting Sake enjoy the game all by herself. Chores had doing and then she'd be back over at the Crazy One's home to enjoy the game alongside her.

The drive home was torture to Sake. Even still she had to wait for Jess to come to her house but neither parent was willing to budge on their typical after school duties- homework, chores, the usual BS, all of which Sake grudgingly did while waiting as impatiently for an expectant father. Finally it was just too much to take. During her time pacing(and subsequently wearing a wedge in the carpet, figuratively), she had transplanted the Holy Grail of satisfaction, the PlayStation, from her own bedroom and its tiny pathetic TV into the living room to connect it to the far larger LCD television. How her mother managed to afford it was beyond her but there weren't debt collectors calling and there was no Italian Mafia parked outside so no fucks were given.

She had grown increasingly impatient and decided that it was in her best interest to just start without Jess. Moments later the disc spun and the screen flashed vivid colors. Sake had foregone the couch in favor of a position on the floor that was likely far too close to the television as opening logos bled into the 'New Game' menu. She bit at her lip impatiently, waiting for the console to process the fury of inputs. They always said technology was fast but she begged to differ and when time finally decided to stop dragging itself by again, things loaded and the opening cut-scene began.

Elsewhere, her mother had been dicing meats and vegetables in preparation for that evening's meal. A flash caught her attention and she went to the window to investigate. The day's cloudless sunny sky had dulled and darkened with blue-grey clouds that loomed threateningly overhead. The wind had picked up, blowing in a somewhat cool yet fowl smell and she made haste to shut the window, mourning the loss of the summer's fresh warm air. From her position she could hear voices, conversations, mentions of rift gates and artifacts. Oh how that girl loved her games. Another flash tore across the sky.

"Sake, honey, you might wanna go shut down your computer. We have weather moving in." When she heard no response, she set down the knife and made her way into the living room where Sake sat before the Mind-Melter, half mesmerized by the apparent miracle in front of her. "Sake did you hear me?"

"Yeah, I heard you. Give me a sec, the cut scene's almost over." Sake protested but her mother only stared at the window worriedly.

"I really suggest you go do it now. Pause your game. Actually better yet. Makes sense to turn that off too." She crossed her arms authoritatively and Sake gave a discontented groan before hoisting herself up with the aid of the recliner and coffee table. Before doing so, she paused the game, the screen awash with a vortex of violet, pink and white as the characters trapped within stared in panic, likely at the 'Paused' prompt below. Then she trudged toward the staircase and ascended to her room.

"I'm also going to call Jessica's mom. I don't think its safe to be driving in this weather!" Sake's mother shouted up the stairwell, picking up the wireless receiver and dialing the number. "Yes, Hello, Betty? Yes its me Karen..."

Upstairs Sake was furling her eyebrows impatiently at the computer as it took its sweet time shutting down. The power supply shut off and the monitor went dark and just as she was about to leave, she recalled a friend's instruction to unplug the central tower during a storm. With that done she made haste from the room and down the stairs at a frightening speed before collapsing to her knees in the same spot as before, controller in hand as she mashed the Start button to unpause the game. But when she did so, the Paused prompt vanished and the screen's image changed. The vortex had centered itself on the screen, flowing almost sickeningly. For the first few seconds she thought it might be a part of the animation but when she proceeded to mash the buttons and the game failed to respond, she quickly grew frustrated.

"Mom I think this disc is messed up. We need to take it back and get it replaced or something." Sake shouted, hearing the sound of a phone being hung up. Her mother approached from behind, looking curiously at the screen.

"I told you you should have shut that thing off. This storm looks pretty bad. Weird too, I don't recall there being anything in the news this morning about storms. Oh well that's what we get for living in the south. Cloudy with a chance of Armageddon." She joked. Her mom used that joke a lot. "We'll get it fixed tomorrow. It looks like we're in for a nasty evening."

"Aww man. This sucks. No friend and no game. Heck of a Friday this is turning out to be." Sake grumbled, rising up just enough to crawl forward and reach for the backside of the console. Her mother left the room to continue preparing their dinner, disappointed that she was making so much since their third mouth to feed was going to be MIA that evening.

Outside the storm was beginning to pick up and trees were being blown this way and that. Rain pattered angrily on the roof and windows as violet bolts ripped across the sky threatening to tear it in half.

Sake's thin fingers traced the hard edges of the black rectangle that was the PlayStation and pressed the power switch. It flicked to the other side and in that fraction of a second she yelped, the whole room becoming bright as the sun and all around her suddenly tingled as light poured in through the windows. She yanked her hand back, only realizing a moment later that the device had electrocuted her. At the same time the entire house had gone dark, along with their neighbors' homes as well.

"Son of a... I'll be right back Sake, going to see if I can't trip the breaker." her mother shouted from the kitchen. Then Sake heard the sound of the garage door in the kitchen opening and closing as the beam of a flashlight passed through the house.

A few seconds passed as she nursed her finger, disapproving of the strange tingling sensation that seemed to crawl up and down her arm. The darkness of the home made the sky outside seem marginally brighter but there was no denying that the grey-blue clouds hanging over head were almost scary to behold. Other ill colors had mixed themselves in to the storm above, greens and violets giving the sky a sickly feel.

A sound caught her attention- a low subtle whirring noise like that of a motor or fan. Then she noticed the faint violet light being cast despite the lack of power. She turned back to face the television. The screen was filled still with the violet vortex, bright white at its epicenter. Curiously she stared down at the black box. Its power indication light was on and she reached back cautiously to feel for the power switch. Flicking it back and forth half a dozen times did nothing- the Television, and console, remained on.

She found herself vexed by the image before her. Its swirling void seemed almost inviting and the world around her grow darker. She sat still as a cat, eyes wide and glazing rapidly as she seemed to lose herself into that vortex.

The skies outside were alive with rage as spears of raw energy tore apart the heavens, webbing to and fro like far reaching fingers of some all powerful deity. Then all at once the bolts converged over the roof of the home and Sake shrieked as the television's screen burst forth in a magnificent fiery red ball of glass, pelting her as she felt herself being hurled back by some unknown force. The same force that acted to repel her suddenly yanked her back toward a wildly intense bright glow and it was then that she realized that her body lay still on the floor, glass imbedded in her skin with each wound bleeding profusely. She stared into her own eyes for what felt like an eternity, seeing the life fade.

"Oh god no SAKE!" She hard her mother's voice, shrill and desperate as she turned to face the terrified woman. She crumpled next to her body, tears streaming down her cheeks as the fumbled for the handset on the side table nearby. Sake tried to call out to her mother, but found her voice ineffective against the booming noise around her as everything grew brighter and brighter.

Then, Nothing.

Another reason for altering the story a bit is to finally remove someone from it that really.. has no place being in it now. So now that someone is replaced with another OC.

Hope you ejoyed Please RnR.

If you'd like to read the original, its still here in its entirety, just check my profile!