Jak and Pinkie were silent as they rode towards the security gate that would allow them to access the ancient Precursor Temple and Haven Forest, where they had encountered the Neo Metal Heads. The reason behind them being silent was because they were trying to think about where the ancient Tomb of Mar was actually located, as they were sure that it wasn't in the Dig like Kor had suggested. They were sure that the resting place was either inside the city, in an area where no one would even think to look, or somewhere outside the city, no doubt protected by whatever traps and seals Mar could have created before his demise.
Just thinking about the potential traps that could be inside Mar's tomb worried them a little bit, because if the Precursors could make these buildings that stood for ages, and remained standing for years after their disappearance with all the traps still working.
When they reached the security gate they climbed out of the zoomer and headed to the other side of the wall, to which they used the warp gate to reach the cliff that would take them into the forest if they desired. Instead of going back there, and seeing if there was one of the Neo Metal Heads lurking around the area, they turned to the right and snapped the lone platform back into place, where they crossed over to the elevator. The moment they were on the other side they walked onto the elevator platform and let it bring them towards the ground level, where they had used the three existing paths at the time to move around the ancient temple... though instead using any of those paths they turned towards the locked door.
Jak stared at it for a few seconds before he pulled out the completed Seal of Mar, to which it floated into the middle of the locked door and remained there for a few seconds, where it opened the door and revealed the path that they had to take... though at the same time Jak pocketed the Seal of Mar in case there was something else they needed to use it on.
The path they uncovered was a short passage that brought them to another door, though before they could reach the door they had to cross over some pipes that required them using the jetboard to get across the gap. Jak went first, as he was the most skilled in using the gadget, though before he could have Raven come over to grab it, however, Pinkie smiled as she sent some Dark Eco at the wall to her right. She stared at the swirling mass for a few seconds before she stepped through it, to which she literally stepped out of Jak's shadow, which happened to be resting on one of the rock walls he was standing near... much to both his and Daxter's surprise.
"I shouldn't be surprised by what you can do," Daxter commented, though at the same time the swirling mass on the other side of the gap disappeared, but that did nothing to ease the emotions that he was feeling at the moment, "but every time you do something new it freaks me out!"
"It just means that we have one more move we can use against our enemies," Jak said, though as he spoke both he and Pinkie made their way to the second door that was resting in front of them, which had to be the one that would take them to the location of the Light Tower.
They passed through the already opened gate and followed the path that was in front of them, where they rounded a corner and found themselves in a large area that appeared to be filled with some ancient machinery that could only have been made during Mar's time. Jak took note of the three machines that rested in front of them, as he immediately noticed that one had a slot that the gear they found could fit into, one had a slot for the glowing crystal, and the third had a slot for the glass lens they had grabbed. He reached into his pack and pulled out the gear, which he passed into Daxter's hand and indicated to the machine that it had to be put into, to which Daxter nodded and ran over to it. Once Daxter was in place, and waiting to put his part of the machine in place, he tossed the crystal over to Pinkie, who walked over to the machine on their right... while at the same time he moved towards the furthest machine.
The moment Jak was in place he gestured to Pinkie, who beckoned to Daxter for a second, and he heard the sound of the gear being put into the machine it was supposed to go into, as the gears in the wall behind it started spinning. The instant the gears started spinning Jak tossed the glass lens into his machine and backed away, allowing the entire construct to rise out of the ground and ascend towards the sky. That's was Pinkie's cue to put the crystal into her machine, which drew the crystal into the main section of the machine and fired four small beams of energy into it, where a larger blue beam went flying up to the top of the Light Tower... where it struck the lens and was fired off into another direction.
The group waited for a few seconds as the machinery powered down, having used everything it had for the purpose they had just fulfilled, though someone contacted them not soon after that... to which they learned, from Pecker no less, that the Tomb of Mar was hidden inside the city, right under the Baron's nose the entire time. Pinkie immediately guessed that Pecker was talking about the large statue of her father that was resting in front of the Palace, to which Pecker confirmed that the Tomb had been hiding under the area that the statue had been built on top of. Despite living under the Baron's roof for four years, and being treated like a part of the family, which she was when she thought about it, she always hated that statue... so she smiled as she and Jak returned to the warp gate and headed back into the city.
It didn't take them long to return to the area that the Tomb was supposed to be located in, though Pinkie kept her smile on her face as she realized that the fallen head of her father's statue had crashed into the base it had been built on and revealed the hidden door that would take them to the Tomb of Mar. As they passed through the double set of doors, which looked more modern than what they were expecting, they also discovered an elevator, which looked slightly older than the doors, before they were transported deep into the Earth. When the elevator finally reached it's destination they discovered a large room that had a massive sculpture of a Precursor Oracle surmounting a massive door, while noticing that the Shadow and Kor, along with the younger versions of themselves, were waiting for their arrival.
It appeared that the Shadow must have had some ideas where the Tomb had been resting, as that was the only way he and Kor could have beaten them to the Tomb... though Jak and Pinkie remained silent as they approached the group in front of them.
"You did it, Jak!" the Shadow marveled, staring at all of the work that had gone into making the door that was resting in front of them, while at the same time wondering what was waiting on the other side, "You actually found Mar's Tomb!"
"That's great considering what's supposed to be inside the Tomb, but we have a problem," Jak said, to which he placed a hand on the shoulder of the younger version of himself, wondering if this was one memory that he had forgotten, "this guy doesn't have the strength, the skill, or the training needed to make it through the trials that are inside the Tomb."
"But you and your sister do." the young boy commented, surprising Jak for a moment, as he actually hadn't been expecting the boy to speak, though his short statement told him that the younger version of himself had been watching him and Pinkie fight whenever they were around.
"How I have long awaited for this day," Kor spoke up, to which Pinkie noticed that the old man seemed to be off in his own world, as if he was finally realizing some forgotten dream that was becoming a reality at long last, "to finally hold the fabled Precursor Stone in my hands!"
As the Shadow started to tell the young boy to be brave, and that the trials ahead would test everything he knew, along with what he had picked up from watching both Jak and Pinkie fight, the Precursor Oracle awoke from its ancient slumber and spoke to them. It welcomed the heir of Mar and said that it had been long awaiting for this day to arrive, to which the door started to open before their very eyes, though at the same time Jak and Pinkie knew something was going to happen soon. Not a few seconds after they thought about something happening the ancient Oracle proclaimed that the young boy was too young to face the tests and immediately started to close the half opened door, to which both the Shadow and Kor asked Jak and Pinkie to do something.
Pinkie and Jak were already on the move before either of the men could tell them what to do, as they both raced towards the closing door and rolled under it, though Raven, on the other hand, tackled Daxter and rolled the two of them after their friends... to which the door slammed shut behind the four of them.
"Are you out of your minds!?" Daxter exclaimed, though at the same time Raven let go of him and ran over to Pinkie, who was dusting herself off at the moment, and climbed back up to his perch on her shoulder, leaving Daxter to do the same thing with Jak, "I know that those two kids out there are likely this timeline's versions of yourselves, but that doesn't mean that we can just waltz in her and claim the Precursor Stone!"
"Well, we had a choice to make in the span of a few seconds," Jak replied, to which he noticed that Pinkie was nodding her agreement to what he was starting to say, "We could have stayed with the others and left the Precursor Stone in here for when the Baron finds out that we've uncovered the Tome of Mar, or we could have come in here, face whatever trials my younger version would have had to go through, and likely grab the Stone before the Baron arrived to steal it. At the time I made the decision it seemed pretty clear to me... and Pinkie agrees with me."
"...fair enough..." Daxter said, silently admitting defeat as he climbed onto Jak's shoulder and claimed his perch once more, to which the group turned around and looked at the area that was the Tomb, "Wow, this place is massive!"
The area in front of them was indeed massive, though one would have assumed that there would be more than two tests for them to face in such an important place. Jak and Pinkie could tell that there were two tests because there were only two available paths, two Precursor statues that were facing the massive door at the back of the chamber, and what appeared to be two exit areas for the tests, complete with buttons they needed to press. In front of them rested a walkway that would take them down into the chamber below them, which happened to have some water over the floor, but neither Jak or Pinkie was too worried about what they were seeing at the moment.
Once they reached the area between the two open paths, which would take them down the tests they needed to complete, Jak and Pinkie faced each other for a moment.
"I'll deal with the path on the left," Jak stated, gesturing to the open path behind him, which was the open door that rested on the left side of the door they had entered through.
"That's fine with me," Pinkie replied, to which she started moving towards the right path, though she paused before tossing some of the ammunition she had been collecting over to her brother, "and I think you'll be needing those more than I will... especially with my weapon."
Jak glanced at the scythe that his sister carried when they left the city, or under the city as the case was this time, and knew that she wouldn't be needing guns where she was going. He knew that the weapon looked too normal, despite the fact that it had been made out of Dark Eco, but he suspected that there was more to it than what he was seeing. He and Daxter also caught the ammunition containers that Pinkie tossed over to them, which they stuffed into Jak's pack in case he actually needed them, before he wished his sister well and walked through the door of his chosen test... which closed behind him a few seconds later.
Pinkie, on the other hand, turned towards the test that she and Raven were going to take on and approached the door, to which she discovered a path of ledges and jumps that brought her to a second smaller door, though on the other side of that she found a room that had some other doorways, which were locked, some statues, and a button close to the middle of the chamber. As she walked into the chamber itself she heard the voice of the Precursor Oracle tell her that she wasn't allowed to use weapons in this challenge, which told her that this was a mind game she would be playing, though as she pressed the button she noticed a fair number of large beetles fall from the ceiling... and that three of them had red markings on their bellies.
Pinkie, despite her anger towards her father, had to smile as she realized how easy this sort of puzzle was, because all she did was memorize where the three beetles with the markings were and waited for them to turn over... so once they were all walking around she approached them and pushed them, where they flew towards the door that was across from the one she had used to enter the chamber. On the other side of the passage she found a water passage that had electricity moving over the top of the water, which meant that she had to wait for the electricity to disappear before she could jump into the water and start swimming. She also noticed that the electricity came and went, which meant that she would have to hold her breath when she jumped into the water, though when the opening revealed itself she moved into the water and started swimming.
A few moments later she and Raven were on the other side of the passage and were drying themselves off to the best of their ability, though while they did that Pinkie had to punch little spiders off the ledge that was to the right of them. When they turned the corner she noticed another water passage, to which she sighed as she studied the pattern of the electricity before she moved forward. A few seconds later she stood on the other end of the passage and paused so they could shake themselves clean to the best of their ability, before she and Raven approached the next room... where she spotted an abyss resting between where she was standing, the platform across from her, and the door she needed to walk though.
When she pressed the button in front of her she noticed a bunch of colored tiles rise up and fill the area around her, though a red tile glowed for a second, before being followed by a green one and a yellow one. She immediately knew that this was another mind game and followed the colors, though when she reached the last tile in the sequence the rest of them fell back into the abyss, save for the one she was on. She jumped over to the platform she had been heading towards and tapped the second button, where the next sequence was blue, red, green, and then yellow. She carefully followed the exact tiles that had glowed and the door opened for her, to which she crossed onto solid ground and move on to whatever the next part of the test was.
Pinkie passed through another water passage before finding the door to another chamber, one that had her repeat the beetle test she had done earlier, but she was able to complete it in a matter of seconds. She then passed though yet another water passage before coming to an abyss that had two platforms between her and the door on the other side of the area they were in. The first sequence of tiles took her to the platform on the left of the entrance, where the second one allowed her to go back to the second platform, though that was followed by the third sequence allowed her to pass through the door she needed to pass through.
She then had to pass thought yet another water passage, which she was honestly getting sick of at this point, before she climbed out of it a few moments later and walked into another room that had what she assumed were graves, though when she touched one of them it made a unique sound.
"How odd," Raven commented, to which he jumped off of Pinkie's shoulder and landed near a second grave, where he tapped it and produced a second unique sound, "I think we should test all of these, just to see if there are two of a certain sound... and maybe figure out what the trick is."
As it turned out there were twelve graves in the room and six unique sounds, to which Pinkie and Raven carefully memorized which ones made which sounds before pairing them up, allowing them to sink into the floor... until all six pairs were in the floor and the door opened. The door revealed one of the buttons they had seen when they entered the Tomb, though across the way she spotted the second button that Jak would arrive at, whenever he was finished with whatever was on his side of the tests. Pinkie stretched her arms as she stood near the button, intending to wait for Jak to finish his side of the Tomb before she even bothered to push the button.
A few moments later she noticed that Jak's door opened and her brother walked up to where the button was located, minus Daxter oddly enough, but she smiled as Jak activated his button. That was followed by a beam of energy being loosed from a statue and surged towards the large door at the back of the Tomb, though Jak smiled when he noticed that Pinkie was done as well. Once Jak was done with his side, and used a platform to reach the water area, Pinkie did the same time and activated the second energy beam, though as she and Raven rode down to where Jak was waiting they noticed that the door opened before their eyes.
"So where is Daxter?" Pinkie asked, as she knew that Jak would have been devastated if something happened to his best friend, so seeing how he wasn't in that state of mind at the moment she guessed that something else had happened to the other ottsel.
"Right here," a voice said, to which Jak, Pinkie, and Raven noticed that Daxter was standing on the other side of where the large door used to be, "I was chased by a massive spider and I eventually lost him, though I ended up trapping myself in this room... so I waited by the door and knew that the two of you would unlock it for me. Besides, the time alone allowed me to stare at the large statue in this room and gaze upon the glory of the Precursor Stone that everyone is so interested in."
Jak and Pinkie glanced at the large statue that Daxter was referring to and noticed the green stone that appeared to be lodged into the statue's chest, one that they both swear had the feeling of Eco attached to it. Raven seemed to be glaring at the stone, as if he wanted the Stone for himself, but the two of them knew that the Neo Metal Head would likely use the Stone for the benefit of his hive. Daxter tapped Raven on the shoulder and stirred him, to which the two of them climbed back up to their perches and allowed Jak and Pinkie to walk over the bridge that would allow them to approach the large statue.
"Welcome young warrior," the statue proclaimed, though Pinkie knew that it was referring to Jak and not her, as she guessed that Jak was supposed to have done this alone and it was ignoring her completely, "Eons have passed since our hope burned so brightly. Today you have proven yourself worthy to receive Mar's legacy. What you are about to receive contains grave power, and with it comes grave responsibility. Eons ago, the Precursors waged a terrible war with the Hora-quan, those terrible creatures you refer to as Metal Heads. Driven by their dark leader, the Metal Head legions destroyed our great civilization, and now they swarm the universe unopposed, looking for the last relics of our power."
"Look, not all of them are the horrible creatures that waged war with you!" Raven fired back, not liking the tone that the Precursor statue had used, though he was considering just morphing and showing the statue his true form.
"Agreed." the statue said, though while it spoke the group crossed over the bridge and stepped onto the midpoint area between it and the door, "You are familiar, yet different at the same time..."
"You fools!" a voice proclaimed, to which the Baron, in a new mech, flew into the area and landed in between them and the statue, preventing them from even getting to the Stone, "You've brought me right to the Stone! Your pitiful Underground friends were no match for my guards above... and now that I have the Precursor Stone I can crush all of my enemies. I really must thank you, my darling little Pinkie, because you have delivered to me the leader of the Underground movement and the legendary Precursor Stone... though it is a shame that you have now outlived your usefulness to me."
Pinkie growled as she held her hand out and her scythe materialized in front of her, to which she made sure that the head of the weapon was facing the mech, and the man that was responsible for all the terrible things that had happened to her since she arrived in this time period. Jak pulled out his Morph Gun and pointed it at the Baron as well, indicating that they were going to fight the Baron and make sure that he didn't take the Precursor Stone... or die trying.