//------------------------------//
// Interlude: The Precursor Door 
// Story: Jak and Daxter: Children of Eco 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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	After a few minutes of rest, after had been an intense battle with Gol and Maia's twisted Precursor Robot, Jak, Daxter, and Pinkie finally got back onto their feet. They were all excited by the fact that they had, quite literally, saved the world from total destruction, yet at the same time they wanted nothing more than to head back home and get some well deserved sleep. The trio climbed onto the platform that had brought them to the top of the Dark Eco Silo and allowed it to take them back up to the top of the citadel, where they spotted the four Sages, and Keira, waiting for them. They had been right in their assumptions that the Sages would be happy with what they had just done, because all four of them were smiling at the moment, while at the same time causing the trio to chuckle because Samos almost never smiled... though the rare times he did was usually over something that Keira did.

"Well, it looks as if I may have been too hard on the three of you!" Samos said, patting Jak and Pinkie on their backs as they climbed off of the platform they had been riding on, "You DO have what it takes to be heroes!"

"But, Daxter... now that Gol and Maia are gone we can't change you back." Keira pointed out, though she was surprised that Daxter hadn't taken a chance at grabbing one of the clusters of Light Eco that had been created during the battle with the robot.

"Don't worry about me, baby!" Daxter said, pointing to himself the entire time, as if he was the star of the show and not his friends, "You know what they say: Big things come in small packages!"

"Jak, Pinkie, the two of you have an incredible talent for channeling Eco!" the Blue Sage said, causing the two to blush for a moment, as they really weren't used to any sort of praise, "Samos, you may have been right about these two, after all!"

"And Keira, without your help and ingenuity none of this would have been possible." the Red Sage spoke up, to which he let out a chuckle as he looked at the two siblings, "Perhaps we've found a new pair of Sages now that Gol and Maia are lost."

"Yes, Gol and Maia..." Samos said, staring at the Dark Eco Silo for a moment, his mind focused on the two people who had delved too far into the Dark Eco and had paid the price, "the Dark Eco probably destroyed them. Probably..."

"Aaaah, who cares?!" Daxter declared, crossing his arms as he glared at the silo for a moment, as if challenging the two to emerge from the silo after their defeat, "Bring 'em on, we can take 'em again, right Jak?"

"If you say so Daxter," Jak said, though his tone indicated that he would rather have some rest and relaxation before inviting trouble to take another swing at them, especially when they had no idea if they could use the Light Eco again in such a situation.

Pinkie, on the other hand, walked over to the large Precursor Door that happened to be sitting at the top of the citadel, discovering that it was ancient and had numerous runes engraved in the metal, as if something important had been left here. Samos, Keira, Jak, and Daxter walked over to where she was standing, while the other three Sages took the platform down to the silo so they could see if anything could be learned from whatever Precursor runes they could find. From what she could see there were several indents in the door, though when she considered that everything had been powered by Power Cells so far she had to wonder if that was what they needed now.

"Wow! It's an ancient Precursor Door!" Keira said, approaching the door in question and studying it, along with the circular indents that were arranged around it, "I don't think we'll be able to open it until we fill all one hundred holes with Power Cells!"

"Holy Yakkow!" Samos declared, as if the thought of gathering that many Power Cells had never occurred to him before, "It will take some time to find additional Power Cells before we can open up that door."

"You may want to reconsider that statement," Daxter said, to which he turned towards Pinkie for a moment, because he knew that she had been keeping track of how many Power Cells they had grabbed so far, "Hey Pinkie, how many Power Cells do we actually have?"

Pinkie looked at Daxter for a moment, slightly grateful that he had asked the question, before reaching into her hair and removed the notepad she had been writing on for the entirety of their adventure. She had been making notes on how many Power Cells they needed in every village and how many they had collected from the various areas they had traveled through. It didn't take her very long to count up the exact number of Power Cells that they had acquired throughout their journey, though a slight smile appeared on her face the moment she finished counting them all up.

"We have a grand total of one hundred and one Power Cells," Pinkie finally declared, causing Jak, Daxter, and Keira to put smiles on their faces, because they were eager to figure out what was resting behind the door they were all standing in front of.

"R... Really?" Samos said, as if he actually couldn't believe that they had acquired the required amount necessary to open the door, before they even knew that they were going to need such an amount to begin with, "Very well then... go ahead and open it up."

Jak and Pinkie approached the door and carefully pulled out the Power Cells that they had acquired on their journey, to which the Eco between the Power Cells and the Door gently called the cells forward and put them in the proper location. The group stared at the door for a few seconds, waiting for some sort of response, though eventually a crack appeared down the middle of the door and the two halves swung forward slowly as it opened. Behind the door was a massive ring that was clearly made out of Precursor metal and a strangely configured vehicle, one that was large enough to seat four people, though the two items were surrounded by a glowing light that eventually faded.

Pinkie stared at the Precursor ring for a few seconds, her mind flashing back to the one dream she had when the younger version of herself, Jak, and Samos rode a machine, one that was identical to the one in front of them, into an identical ring that was resting in the middle of some nest. She recognized the ring anywhere, because she had been having dreams about it for as long as she could remember, but that made her question what it was doing here.

"Let's head back to Sandover Village and take a break from our adventure," Samos suddenly spoke up, causing Jak, Pinkie, Daxter, and Keira to turn towards him, "I promise that the ring will be here when we return... its not going to go anywhere anytime soon."





Pinkie stood in Samos' hut and stared at Misty Island, remembering the start of their adventure had begun when Daxter accidentally fell into a pit full of Dark Eco on that very island. Jak and Daxter were currently in the Rock Village with Keira, no doubt talking with the Blue, Red, and Yellow Sages as they told the villagers that the Sages had returned from their 'work'. She knew that they didn't want the villagers to know that the three Sages had been overpowered by Gol and his sister Maia, least someone else take on the power of Dark Eco and try to overthrow them or take over the world. Though her mind eventually returned to the Precursor ring they had left above the citadel, wondering what it was doing here and what they were going to do with it.

She was so caught up in thinking about what she had seen that day, and the dreams that kept rising to the surface, that she almost didn't hear Samos enter the room she was in until she heard the sound of his staff touching the floor.

"I knew that I would find you here," Samos commented, walking up to where Pinkie was standing and came to a stop beside her, though he kept his gaze locked on Misty Island as well, "I can tell that the ring is troubling you."

"Its the same one from my dreams," Pinkie stated, still not understanding how it could be here, as some sort of secret prize for them defeating Gol and Maia, "You, me, and Jak, all younger in my dreams, rode that strange vehicle through the ring... and yet here it is, as if my dreams have become reality. Samos, what is it doing here? What does all of this mean?"

Samos was quiet for a few seconds, as if he was mentally debating whether he should spill the beans or if he should keep silent, before he opened his mouth and started to answer the question as best he could.

"It means that soon your dreams will start to make sense," Samos replied, letting out a sigh as he turned his gaze to the night sky, while at the same time knowing that Pinkie wouldn't really understand what he was trying to tell her, "though soon you'll find that they are nothing more than nightmares. My advice is to ignore the ring for now and leave those matters to me and the other Sages, because soon our peaceful lives will be at an end... and an adventure that you and Jak aren't ready for will begin."

"I see," Pinkie said, though she was a little saddened by the fact that the ring was going to ruin their lives, if what Samos said was true, "How long until we actually use the ring?"

"It all depends on how long it takes Keira to get the vehicle and ring in working order," Samos replied, though he gave Pinkie a shrug, as he had no idea how long that could actually take, "Let me worry about the future... you should go join your brother and make sure that he doesn't get into anymore trouble."

Pinkie nodded and walked over to the warp gate, though as she did so she had the feeling that the easiest part of their journey had ended the moment they stopped Gol and Maia... and that the hard part was coming their way.