Once Keira and Jak disentangled themselves from each other and got control of themselves, Keira went back to the control panel. "A-alright," she stammered as she brushed a lock of hair back behind her ear, much to Shining's amusement. "I think I've got this. All we need is to give this panel a little juice..."
Jak stepped forward, staring at the panel. Without saying anything, he extended his hand towards it. Energy leapt out of his hand and into the panel, turning the red display to green.
"Bingo!" Daxter proclaimed as he shifted to under a faucet that extended from the console, holding up a container to catch the drop of liquid Light Eco that came out, encapsulating it before it could become corrupted by the environment.
"You did it," Jak praised Keira softly.
Keira smiled up at him as she took the capsule. "No...we did it."
"And now we need to get back to the ship," Shining offered. "Time's still running short, after all."
Jak let Keira head to her lab aboard ship ahead of the rest of the group as he took stock of himself. Accepting the darkness inside him had been a spur of the moment decision, even if it had been reached by logic...but having made the decision, everything seemed different now. The world was so much sharper, and he could see the Eco that floated about in the air around him, pouring off even those individuals who weren't Sages. He wanted to adjust to the world as he went, now that things were so different.
One major difference occurred as he stepped out of the hangar. Some of the pirates took one look at him and immediately fell flat on their faces, as though they'd found themselves suddenly in the presence of a god. Confused, he'd glanced in a nearby reflective surface...and saw why.
His staff now glimmered in the very metal with all colors, flowing into it from his hands, and his hair waved in the air over his head, Eco pouring off of it in all six colors he'd mastered. His eyes seemed to glow from within, and his entire body seemed...larger than it actually was. Blinking for a bit, he was able to return to normal vision where he couldn't see the Eco in the air, and most of the changes vanished...but the sense of something beyond what he could see was still there. Thinking back, he remembered those in Sandover had reacted much as these Pirates had to Samos whenever he was actively tapping his Sage powers, though not to that extreme. Was this what it meant...to be a fully realized Sage? A fully realized Prism Sage, at that?
Finally, he made his way up to Keira's lab, deciding to wait and ask Samos about that when they got back to Spargus. It wouldn't do to have another breakdown from thinking too much about things. He just had to get past this for now, and deal with it when he had time and leisure to do so.
Once at the lab, Keira held out another Mod for the staff. "I found something...disturbing in the lab while I was exploring," Keira explained. "It's...it's a Corrupted Green Eco gun."
"Corrupted?" Jak asked worriedly.
"How do you make a gun using Green Eco?" Daxter demanded in shock. "It's life force!"
"It's because pure Green Eco is incredibly hard to come by out here at the Brink, with how much Dark Eco is in the environment," Keira explained. "That's why Healing packs are few and far between. But tainted Green Eco...that's easy to get." She held out the Lobber mod. "That's how these work. Charges of Corrupted Green Eco...that leech the motive energy out of those exposed to it - whatever color of Eco they're running on - in an explosive blast."
Shining shuddered at the very thought. "That sounds...dirty..."
"It sounds like the ideal weapon mod to use alongside the Eco Constructs," Jak mused, taking the mod and attaching it. "First build a tower of green crystal...then blast it to turn it into a shrapnel bomb."
Keira nodded, looking up at Jak. "You're...you're better, Jak," she whispered softly, her voice throbbing. "I haven't seen you so at ease since before we left Sandover..."
"I'm not entirely better," Jak corrected. "The...issues that caused my breakdown...those don't magically go away just because I wave my staff and accept the Dark inside me. But...I can face them now, rather than keeping them bottled up inside until they consume me. It's a step in the right direction...but still only a step."
Keira smiled softly. "It's...it's still nice..." Reaching out, she touched his face. "To see this smile again. I thought...I might never see it again. The man you've grown into is wonderful and amazing...but it's good to see the happy boy I first fell in love with is still in there."
They gazed into each other's eyes for a time, only to be caught off guard as Daxter cleared his throat. "Lovely as it is to see you lovebirds getting along," he teased as Shining made playful smooching sounds, "perhaps it would be good to save that for after we save the world?"
"G-good point," Keira stammered, idly fixing her hair again. "So...maybe we should see what new abilities I can bring out in you?"
"Actually...I want to try something with that," Jak spoke up. "As you said, there's a lot of Dark Eco in the environment..." He held out his hands, them glowing with six colors of Eco.
Keira stretched her hands out, a Green Glow filling them as they interlaced their hands.
Daxter turned his gaze away as the entire room flared with light...but he could feel Darkness being drawn right out of the air, swirling as it filled the room and changed before becoming absorbed.
After a time, the light faded. Keira looked flushed. "W...wow..." she stammered out. "T-that was..."
Jak nodded softly. "D-did it work?"
Keira carefully examined Jak and Shining's aura. "...barring abilities Precursor Totems haven't granted you both yet...your abilities have been upgraded to their fullest potential."
"...wow..." Shining's words expressed everyone's reactions to the events that had just unfolded.
Jak didn't know whether to find it distressing or satisfying that Phoenix fell into his chair the moment he caught sight of Jak. Still, it meant he didn't say anything as Keira installed the encapsulated Light Eco into the Eco Seeker. As it unfolded, it projected an arrow pointing in three different directions. "So what does it mean?" Jak asked softly, knowing Keira was the machine expert.
"It's missing three parts," Keira deduced. "And it's telling us where to find them. Two of them seem to be near Far Drop...but one's close by and in the other direction..." Turning, she smiled at Jak. "So where to first?"