"So how are we going to fight this guy?" Daxter asked, though he and his friends watched as the Baron's mech powered up and started drilling into the case that held the Precursor Stone, "And we had better beat him fast, otherwise he's going to take the Stone away from us."
"Don't worry about the Precursor Stone right now," the Baron said, to which he actually stepped out of the mech as it worked on the statue, though as he stood on the bridge he drew his sword as he looked at them, "by my estimates it will take ten to twenty minutes to break the legendary Stone free of its prison. That gives me plenty of time to deal with the two of you... even if I have to fight you both at the same time."
Jak opened his mouth to say something to that, about how the Baron couldn't fight both him and Pinkie at the same time, but before he could say anything the Baron tapped a Green Eco crystal on his belt and suddenly a second one of him phased into existence beside him. Pinkie had heard about this sort of experimental device that her father was trying to create, in order to make one man seem like an army, but it appeared that he was sort of successful in his endeavor. The clone appeared to be a perfect match to her father, save for the fact that it was green, though while it also seemed like a whole construct she was sure that a few well placed hits would destroy it.
Pinkie glanced over at Jak as the Baron and his clone came at them, though as the clone advanced towards Jak he pulled back and took the Green Eco version of the Baron away from where Pinkie and the real Baron was standing.
"It is a shame that you continue to choose to fight on the wrong side of this conflict," the Baron said, though at the same time he raised his weapon and stared at Pinkie, where she determined that her opponent was no longer afraid of her new form and her new weapon, "I'll just put an end to this now and blame your death on the trials that Mar put in his tomb... Ashelin will never know the difference."
Pinkie growled in annoyance, because she couldn't believe that her father would basically say that he was going to kill her and then blame her death on the tomb he had spent months searching for, to which she gripped the handle of her scythe and charged at the Baron. She raced towards the Baron and swung her weapon at him, to which he blocked the attack with his sword, though that involved using a Green Eco shield, hidden in his bracelet, to stop the head of the weapon from touching him. She then had to pull herself back before the Baron could cut into her with his sword, which was the final straw for her, as now she knew that he truly didn't care for her and was ready to cut her down.
The Baron followed her and the two of them allowed their weapons to touch each other once more, though as the sparks flew Pinkie realized that a scythe was not the best weapon she could be using, to which she accessed her Dark Eco and caused the shape of her weapon to revert to her Eco Blade. With her original weapon back Pinkie attacked the Baron again, though this time it was a more even fight between the two of them now that they had the exact same weapon. As the two of them fought Pinkie also noticed that Jak and the clone were also fighting each other, if the sparks flying were any indication of what was going on, but looking over at them served to be a distraction that allowed the Baron to slam his fist into her face and knock her to the ground.
At the same time her weapon fell out of her hand and clattered to the ground, though the Baron noticed it and picked it up with his spare hand, but as Pinkie glanced up at him the Baron tossed it to the side... to which the Eco Blade fell into the abyss that surrounded the walkway they were fighting on.
"I taught you much over the last four years," the Baron said, staring at his own blade for a moment, while at the same time Pinkie touched the nearby pillar and pulled herself up onto her feet, to which the Baron started walking over to her, "yet I never bothered to correct your bad habit, where you easily get distracted by something going on in the area around you and open yourself up to damage. Normally I would say something about how I failed you and increase your training, but we are on opposite sides of this conflict and there is only one thing I can offer you... a quick death."
Pinkie barely had time to react as the Baron's Eco Blade pierced her chest and came out of her back, though as that happened Raven growled and jumped at the Baron, who swatted him away with the side of his hand... before he ripped the blade out of her chest and pushed her back, casing her to stagger for a few seconds as she reached the edge of the walkway. Pinkie coughed up some blood as she started at her father... no, the evil Baron that she and her brother had sworn to defeat, before she realized that she had been beaten. Pinkie let out one last sigh as she staggered backwards once more, to which she fell backwards and began her descent into the abyss that surrounded them.
"Pinkie Pie, thank you for your sacrifice." the Baron commented, to which he sheathed his sword and started to walk over to the mech that was still digging into the statue, because he knew that his clone should be able to keep Jak distracted long enough so he could obtain the Precursor Stone.
"PINKIE!" Jak shouted, pain crossing his voice as he realized that the Baron, who was Pinkie's adoptive father, had stabbed his sister in the chest and pushed her off the edge of the walkway, to which he switched his weapon to the Vulcan mod and opened fire on the clone's chest, destroying it in a matter of seconds.
"You are too late Jak." the Baron called out, to which he was glad to see the mech tear the Stone from it's prison, where he climbed into the mech and closed the hatch, "I now possess the power to end all of my enemies, though once all of the Metal Heads are taken care of I will purge my city of the Underground Movement... though I will start with erasing you, just so Pinkie won't feel alone in whatever world comes after this one."
Jak opened his mouth to reply, as Daxter was getting ready to do the same thing, but the two of them stopped as they noticed that the shadows in the chamber had shifted for a moment. They watched as the shadows separated themselves from whatever they were attached to and moved towards where he and Daxter were standing, though they gathered to the left of him until there was a mass of shadows next to Jak. A few seconds later the mass of shadows expanded into what looked like a dark warp gate, though what stepped out of it was none other than Pinkie... but Jak's voice caught in his throat when he looked at his sister. She looked almost the same as she had been before the Baron stabbed her in the chest, though now her eye color had turned crimson red and was surrounded by a black color... though Jak also noticed that there appeared to be what looked like lines of blood going from her eyes and stopped passed the bottom of her jaw.
The thing that made Pinkie look darker than she had been all this time, since the Baron announced that she was worthless to him, was the fact that her fluffed up hair had gone straight... though now that straight hair was crimson red colored, as if reflected something deep inside Pinkie.
"Impossible. You should be dead!" the Baron said, though while Jak wanted to turn his Morph Gun on the man he knew that it was better to wait and see what Pinkie did, because he wanted to see what was different from the last time the Baron had caused a change in how Pinkie acted.
Pinkie, however, raised her hand and snapped her fingers, to which tendrils of purple energy, of Dark Eco as Jak soon discovered, erupted from the stonework beneath the mech and wrapped around the mech's legs, preventing it from leaving where it was resting. The Baron tried to pry himself free from Pinkie's hold, especially since he had no idea what she was doing, though that was followed by Pinkie grinning as she started to close her hand in a crushing motion, to which the legs of the mech started cracking as the tendrils tightened their hold on the mech. A few seconds later one of the legs was broken beyond repair and the shadowy tendril was sinking into the machine, trying to worm its way towards the Baron before he could escape... though before she could grab him, and secure his defeat, the Baron used the escape feature of his mech and the main pod came free, allowing him to fly through the air as he kept himself out of Pinkie's reach.
"Nice try, but the Precursor Stone is still mine!" the Baron declared, beckoning to the glowing stone that was trapped in the front section of his mech, "Don't worry, I will use the Stone to it's full potential as I promised... and soon Haven City will be singing praises about how I defeated the Metal Heads and secured lasting peace."
Before either Pinkie or Jak could stop him from leaving with the legendary stone, and causing untold harm to the actual Stone itself, the Baron drove the pod through the open door and left the group behind. Pinkie sighed as she waved her hand and sent the tendrils back to where she had summoned them from, to which she walked over to where Raven was picking himself up. The dark ottsel seemed surprised by Pinkie's new appearance, with the strange colored hair and the new colored eyes, but he seemed to know that this was still his friend... despite the fact that the Dark Eco inside of her must have turned her into a 'Dark Form', similar to the form Jak barely used.
"Pinkie... are you okay?" Jak asked, knowing that the answer would have to be no, as Pinkie had been stabbed in the chest and pushed into the abyss, but he had to wonder anyway.
"I have never felt better," Pinkie replied, to which she extended an arm over the abyss, where Jak watched as her Eco Blade returned to her hand and she sheathed it a moment later, though she did stop the moment her weapon was back where it belonged, "Oh, and there's no reach to use the shortened version of my name anymore... you can start calling me Pinkamena again. Now come on, we have to tell Torn the bad news and start coming up with a plan that involves rescuing everyone that was captured."
Jak knew that Pinkie hated her full name, as she had changed it to Pinkie Pie when she was younger and vowed never to use it again, which meant that this had to be some sort of 'Dark' Pinkie, like his own 'Dark Jak' form. The difference was that his Dark Form was basically a raging monster with incredible strength, where's Pinkie's Dark Form seemed to be like a completely different person. He also noticed that this version of his sister, Pinkamena he mentally corrected himself, was already eager to get into a real battle, which concerned him when he thought about the danger his sister would get in once they were back in the city.
Jak let out a sigh as he and Daxter followed after Pinkamena and Raven, knowing that the next few hours were going to be interesting... and potentially dangerous considering that they had no idea what abilities Pinkamena possessed. Together the group walked back to the ramp that brought them down to this level of the tomb and climbed back to the surface, to which they prepared themselves for anything and everything that might be waiting for them.