A/N: Oh my goodness, I am so sorry this is so late! College started this week and I'm already getting smacked in the face with work. But I finally managed to finish this! And this is the first time I've ever finished a story in my entire life! I'm so excited! Thank you, all of you, those who reviewed and who didn't. I honestly couldn't have finished this without you. ;u;

And to answer a question...I have no idea what the sequel's name will be. I probably won't know until I've written a few chapters. I'll start working on the sequel as soon as I update my poor, neglected baby on fictionpress, but I'll have updates about its status on my tumblr.

DISCLAIMER: Is in the first chapter. If Jak and Daxter were mine...well...I wouldn't be writing this fanfiction because this would have happened in the game.

Jak and Daxter: A Twist of Fate
by Jam

It had snowed in Sandover once, years ago. It had been an odd winter to begin with, one of the few where the weather had actually been downright chilly, and Jak had woken up one morning to find cold, white specks of sand spiraling down from the sky. He had known what snow was, in theory. His uncle had traveled to barren ice fields and wild, untamed expanses of tundra, and he had come home with all sorts of stories. But hearing about snow and actually seeing it for himself had been two very different things. The snow had melted before it had even reached the ground, but it had been beautiful and strange while it lasted. However, even that childhood memory proved insufficient for warning him what true snow was like.

High above the volcanic crater loomed the tallest mountains Jak had ever seen. Their peaks disappeared into the clouds while layers upon layers of ice and compacted snow hid away forgotten Precursor secrets. Lurkers lived up here, far removed from any elf village and well adapted to the cold. Here the white-furred Lurkers had constructed villages and fortresses out of wood and machines that could dig through ice. They clad themselves in carefully made wooden and metal armor rather than the scavenged bones used by their purple cousins. And there were creatures hidden in the snow that Jak had never seen before – strange icemen that had tried more than once to run him and Daxter off the side of the mountain. Usually, the silver-haired teen would be all for exploring new places, discovering things.

But no matter how beautiful the snow was, or how fun sliding on ice turned out to be, or how many hidden secrets there might be, nothing could quite distract Jak from the fact that his toes were about to fall off.

He and Daxter had been up here for what felt like hours scouring every crack and crevice of the mountain for Power Cells. A month had passed since they had defeated Gol and Maia Acheron and stopped them from flooding the world with Dark Eco, and the two boys had spent every day of it exploring the nooks and crannies of every strip of land from Sentinel Beach to the Acherons' citadel in search of Power Cells. Instead of work, though, it had felt very much like a vacation. Without the end of the world looming over their heads, he and Daxter didn't have to rush. Jak had always wanted to explore the world, entranced by his uncle's stories, and now here was his chance.

However, after a month of running through jungle, swamp, cold citadel, and dank cave, the pale teen itched to go home. Sure, with the warp gates all activated now, Sandover was never more than a few minutes away, but Jak wouldn't mind actually staying for a while. But Daxter had been like an elf possessed these past few weeks, more eager than any of them to find out what might lay behind the Precursor door. Daxter never said anything, but Jak knew his young friend hoped there was some magical cure for him hidden behind that door because Daxter knew that, under Jak's carefree smiles and bright attitude, he stilled struggled with this change, this Eco coursing just beneath his skin.

Rage and bloodlust still burned inside of him like embers waiting for the slightest spark. It would steadily grow, like an itch that needed to be scratched, until he inevitably snapped and lashed out. It wasn't so bad when it was just him and Daxter and some poor, unsuspecting Lurkers who just conveniently happened to stand between them and another Power Cell, but Jak worried about when the adventure really was over and there was no more reason to fight. How could he stay in Sandover knowing that he could snap at any moment? What if Daxter wasn't there to calm him down and the next person he attacked wasn't a fully fledged Eco Sage, but one of the villagers? His uncle? Keira?

Which was why, as soon as this was over, Jak planned to go to one of the Precursor Oracles and ask them to teach him how to control his powers. Despite everyone's hopes, he had a pretty strong hunch that whatever lay on the other side of that Precursor door wouldn't help him. That was okay. Jak could get used to this. He would adapt to it, with help. He had no other options. He wouldn't allow himself to degenerate into some kind of…bloodthirsty monster. He would never be the cause of Daxter's terror again. The younger boy seemed well enough at ease around Jak and never treated him any differently, even when the Eco-saturated teen went off the deep end, but Jak would never forget the look that had been in Daxter's eyes in the spider caves. The sooner they collected these Power Cells, the sooner the pale teen could take the first step toward preventing that from ever happening again.

Thankfully, he had just found the last Power Cell they would need to open that Precursor door. All the boys needed to do now was take the warp gate at the Red Sage's hut to Sandover and tell Keira and Samos the good news, but first he had to find Daxter. The two boys had split up to try and make finding the last Power Cell a little easier. After a month of traveling and all that they had been through together on their quest to stop Gol and Maia, Daxter had finally picked up some skill at fighting. The younger boy had even gone back to the swamp to get another stick, swearing left and right that the other one had saved his life. So Jak wasn't particularly worried that Daxter would get hurt, but getting lost…that was another matter entirely.

He had just resigned himself to the fact that he would have to go searching through every ice-filled tunnel in search of his friend when something cold and wet smacked him in the back of the head and exploded down his neck. He shuddered as snow began to melt down his back and spun around, claws bared and aura crackling, but nothing was there. Just mounds of snow and tufts of frozen grass. When nothing sprang out to attack him, Jak glanced suspiciously at the bowed branches of the trees above him. Maybe one of the branches had snapped under the weight of the snow…but if that were the case, he would have been hit fro-.

The next wad of snow hit Jak squarely in the face as he turned back around. He no longer had any doubts about his mysterious attacker. Even if Daxter had managed to dodge behind the tree fast enough to hide, his cackling would have given him away. So, that's how his friend wanted to play it? Well, Daxter had made a grave mistake. He should know better than to mess with the master.

Jak had been practicing manipulating his Eco aura over the past month. He couldn't really control it, not with any skill, but he could suppress it for a little while if he concentrated hard enough. And without bright purple lightning whipping and crackling around him, he blended in fairly well with his muted, snowy surroundings. When the pale teen ducked into a copse of trees, he practically disappeared altogether. His blue tunic stood out a bit, but for a just moment he didn't miss his shock of lemon-yellow hair. He didn't expect Daxter to come after him – his friend would be on to him already – but now he could sneak up on the other boy.

Jak missed this – something as simple as a game of hide and seek. Something without a goal that affected the fate of the entire world. Something as easily fulfilling as putting a smile on Daxter's face, and a fistful of snow down his tunic. The other boy was easy to find, his fiery orange hair and red tunic shining out like a beacon amongst the white blankness of the snow. If Daxter thought he was well protected, hiding behind a crop of rocks and surrounded by small evergreens, he was dead wrong. No place was safe from Jak. In fact, Daxter had made Jak's job easier for him by hiding where he had. It almost made him feel bad about what he planned to do, but not bad enough to stop. Pitch black claws made climbing the fir tree behind Daxter so much easier, and from there it only took a gentle shake to cause the branch above Daxter's head shudder and drop every single frosty inch of snow on the unsuspecting boy's head.

Daxter's yelp of surprise was swallowed up by the onslaught of snow. One minute he was there, and then the next he was gone, almost as if he hadn't even been there at all. A second later, a hand shot from the pile of snow and flailed helplessly, and Jak would have been content to laugh at his friend's misfortune if he wasn't worried that Daxter might not be able to breathe under all of that snow. But by the time he had leapt down from the tree, Daxter had managed to pry his upper half free and was shooting Jak one of the most disgusted glares he had ever seen.

"Very funny. You just had to go there, didn't you?" he snapped as he shook snow out of his hair and tried, in vain, to prevent it from sliding down the back of his tunic. The older boy shrugged helplessly at him, though he couldn't keep the satisfied smirk off of his face. Jak suppressed a snort as Daxter tried unsuccessfully to pry the rest of his body out of his frozen prison, but he couldn't push himself up when his hands kept burying themselves in the snow. "I'm goin' numb in places I didn't know I had!"

Jak didn't bother to hold back the next chuckle as Daxter folded his arms over his chest and glared up at him. He looked ridiculous half-buried in the snow as he was, and they both knew it. "A little help here, chuckles?"

A few sharp tugs and Daxter came flying out of the snow, only to land face-first when the momentum sent both boys crashing back into the snow. Jak braced himself for a tirade from Daxter, but it never came. The younger boy pushed himself to his knees, spat out a mouthful of snow, and calmly brushed chunks of snow off of his shoulders. He shook half-melted snow out of his tunic before fastidiously straightening it and smoothing out every wrinkle. Then he ran a hand through his hair to remove every errant snowflake and took a moment to readjust his goggles. Jak had expected Daxter to yell or complain or throw sarcastic remarks, but the younger boy didn't seem bothered at all.

"You know what, Jak?" he asked almost conversationally, but there was an undertone to his voice that Jak didn't like. He, too, sat up, tensed and ready to sprint at the slightest sign of danger. Alarm bells went off in the back of his mind, and even his purple lightning crackled with suspicion. "You're good, I'll give ya that. But you forget that I know your one weakness…"

Daxter launched himself at the taller boy so suddenly that Jak couldn't possibly dodge, and nimble fingers reached his ribs before he could stop them. A boy who had managed to take down a fifty-foot Lurker with his bare hands, who had destroyed a giant Precursor robot, who had wiped out an entire city's worth of Lurkers, was reduced to tears in a matter of seconds. It was so much worse with cold, wet snow slipping down his back with every helpless flail, but he didn't really mind. He hadn't realized it, but Jak hadn't laughed this hard in a long time. About a month, to be precise, ever since he had killed that Lurker rat and realized that he wasn't on any ordinary adventure. Freaking out over a rat seemed almost silly now compared to…all the blood that was on his hands. All the death had been weighing on him and it felt good to finally let go, if only for a short while.

Yes, Jak had missed being able to just fool around without having to worry. This adventure had, in a way, been both the best and worst experience of his young life, and he was ready to go home.

-x-

The view from the top of the Acheron's citadel was even more stunning during the day. The sun set the orange-hued metal aflame and bathed the land below in a warm, golden light. Growing up, Jak had never understood why his uncle was never home. He had partially developed his love of adventure from a desire to understand what waited beyond the craggy mountains and lush jungle that blocked his little village off from the rest of the world. He wanted to know what out there was so fascinating, and now he could see it all laid out before him as clearly as one of his uncle's maps. The world was huge, and Jak was just a small part of it. This adventure might be coming to an end, and maybe he planned a break, but this wouldn't be the end. There was no need to rush when he had his whole life to see what else was out there, to discover what lay beyond the edges of the map.

"Well, there's just one more Power Cell to install," Jak pried his eyes away from the view to see Keira smiling excitdely at him and holding out a single Power Cell. In front of them, the Precursor door y glowed with the combined light of one hundred Power Cells, tediously arranged in concentric circles in the grooves in the door's surface. "Would you like to do the honors?"

The pale teen took the Power Cell in his hand and stepped toward the door. He glanced to his left when Daxter padded up beside him. The younger boy was oddly quiet and biting his lip as he stared up at the door with wide, blue eyes. Behind them, Samos the Sage and his daughter shared look before also stepping forward. This was Jak's family. Samos, who had, in his own ornery way, been more of a father figure to him than his own uncle had been. Keira, who was like an older sister to him with the way she nagged at him and watched out for him and 'forced' him to try out all her inventions. And then there was Daxter…the one who understood him the best, who had been with him in his darkest moments and still stuck by him no matter what, who he would do anything for to protect…

Jak carefully placed the Power Cell in the final indent and took a step back. He almost expected this door to spiral open, like any other Precursor door, but this one was different. It suddenly split down the middle, and through the small gap shined a light so radiant that Jak thought that maybe the Precursors really had hidden Light Eco away here. But it wasn't Eco emanating that brilliant light. He…he wasn't sure what it was – Jak had never seen anything like it.

"Wooow!" For the first time in his young life, Daxter actually sounded awed by a Precursor artifact. "What is it?"

Keira's eyes were shining as she took in the scene behind the door, possibilities already running through her mind. "It's so beautiful…!"

"By the Precursors!" And Samos? Jak had a feeling Samos would be going on about the Precursors for months. He shot a sidelong glance at Daxter and grinned when he saw the other boy shooting him a slightly panicked look mixed with a heavy dose of resignation. Jak knew that look well. That was the same look his friend got whenever Jak wanted to explore the temple in the jungle, or do anything stupid and dangerous. It was the look Daxter had given Jak the night that he had convinced him to go to Misty Island. And maybe an expression like that shouldn't have filled Jak with warmth the way it did, but that look only meant one thing. It seemed like their next adventure together might be sooner than they'd thought.

I'll see you guys...someday! XD Thanks for everything.