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// Interlude: Time Passes 
// Story: Jak and Daxter: Heirs of Mar 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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With the modified Precursor Robot destroyed, the Dark Eco Silo saved and a safer way to harness the Eco inside it had been revealed, and the large door on top of the Citadel had been opened, Samos decided that it was time to everyone to head home and get some rest, due to the fact that he and the other three Sages were exhausted from their ordeals, given that all of them had been kidnapped and had their powers drained, while Gol and Maia figured that they would need to reshape the inside of the Citadel, since they no longer needed the docking area for the robot or any of the other side sections that Jak and his sisters had seen during their adventure through the place. Keira was still surprised that Daxter didn't try to channel some of the Light Eco that the siblings had wielded, since that could have been the only time such a substance was available for them to use, but he simply brushed it off and informed her that stopping the robot and saving the world had been far more important at the time, even though it only prompted Gol, Maia, and Twilight to restate their interest in studying him and his new form, allowing the Dark Sages to learn that they called it his 'Ottsel' form, given what Twilight had called it back when he first fell into the Dark Eco vat. Of course the Dark Sages were a little disappointed that he, out of all the people in the continent they knew about, had been the one to evolve due to the Dark Eco, especially since they lacked some of the markers that Daxter had, but at the very least they knew that this was an opportunity to study something totally new, to see what sort of abilities or traits he had unlocked due to his evolution, and Twilight was more than willing to show them that she was interested in that sort of thing as well, something that made Daxter gulp since he knew this wasn't going to be a pleasant experience for him, especially if Twilight was involved in the process. The only good thing about the situation was that Twilight would be assisting Gol and Maia, so maybe he wouldn't have to worry about the extremes happening at all, but he guessed time would tell and focused on what he was going to do when they returned to Sandover Village, since there was nothing else they needed to do and could take some time off at long last, to recover from this adventure and prepare for the task of hauling the ring and the vessel down to Keira's workshop, so she could figure out how to get them to work and what sort of purpose they served.

Once they reached the bottom of the Citadel, which took a few minutes given how the inside had been set up, the group took a moment to use the Warp Gate and returned to the various huts and labs that they called home, as in the Red Sage returned to his house in Volcanic Crater, the Yellow Sage stayed outside the Citadel since part of his lab had been taken in by Gol and Maia, something they needed to fix as well, the Blue Sage headed back to Rock Village, and Samos returned to Sandover Village with his daughter and the heroic siblings who had saved the world from total destruction, which meant that the Sculptor would finally get his wish to make a statue of them, to capture their good deeds for future generations, even though it was mostly because of the fact that they saved his muse from danger.

Upon their return to Sandover Village the siblings discovered that it was nighttime, something they hadn't noticed during the battle with Gol and Maia's twisted Precursor Robot, as they had been preoccupied by trying to stop them from forcing open the Silo's seal, so what they did was have a quick bite to eat, since they hadn't eaten anything for a long time, before they headed to their beds and slipped into them so they could have a good night's sleep at long last, to recover from their adventure and prepare for whatever the future had for them, as none of them really knew what was going to happen now that they discovered the odd pair of Precursor artifacts. Twilight found that her dreams were full of the same thing, as in she visited the odd city that seemed to plague her dreams and continued to take it in, mostly because it was unlike any of the other settlements she and her siblings had seen, though one of the oddest things about these dreams, in her opinion anyway, was the fact that she was positive that the dreams, or maybe they were more like memories, they seemed to be from the perspective of a young child, where she saw the young versions of Jak, Starlight, and Cozy near her, and, at the same time, there were four adult beings that happened to be in most of her dreams. One of the adults reminded her of Jak, even though he seemed a little buffer and maybe angrier, there was someone who looked like an older version of her, another who looked like Starlight, and another that seemed to be Cozy, but due to how foggy some of her dreams were it was hard to tell how many of them were in each dream, rather all she knew was that the dreams seemed less like dreams and were more like memories, as she was positive that she wouldn't dream of something like this, not without seeing such a city in the first place, so they had to be slumbering memories that were slowly awakening. There was one thing clear to her as she relived those memories again, even if she was viewing these for the thousandth time, possibly more given how frequent these things were, and that was the fact that she and her siblings were constantly in danger, meaning they had to be in the middle of a rather dangerous adventure or mission of some kind, something that did make her wonder what the future would hold for her, her siblings, Keira, Samos, and Daxter, though as she thought about that she continued delving into her dreams and wondered what else they would show her, even if the meaning of said dreams would become known to her at some point in the future.

After that night Twilight and her siblings spent the next week carefully moving the Precursor Ring, as Keira called it, down from where it had been resting and moved it through Gol and Maia's Citadel, where both of the Dark Sages came and gave them some help since they were eager to see what in the world this pair of artifacts were supposed to do, and by making sure they reached their destination without suffering any damage they knew that Keira would be able to run her tests on both artifacts, to quickly determine what they had discovered and what sort of mystery the Precursors left for those that were able to open the large Precursor Door that required a hundred Power Cells to open. Of course Keira had tried to pry out one of the Power Cells from where it and the other ninety-nine were resting, though what she found was that all one of them were stuck in the slots that they had been put into, so it was impossible for her or the siblings to pull them out, even though she suspected either Twilight or the Dark Sages would find a way to pull them out of the door and use them for something else, as she knew that Gol and Maia could use them to power some of their machines, though as soon as that conclusion was reached Keira turned her attention to helping the siblings by directing them along the path that would allow them to safely move the Precursor Ring to Sandover Village. Instead of heading through the Lava Tubes, and risking damage to the ring or the rider, as all of them were convinced that the vehicle was something that a lot of people could ride on since it seemed to have enough room for about four or five people, six if they were lucky, so what they did was go around one of the side paths that Daxter would have complained about when Jak and his sisters first entered the area that was the Lava Tubes, as Keira had only suggested that route because it was the fastest of what was available, which meant enlisting the aid of the Yellow Sage as well, who was more than willing to help them out, especially since there was a path that cut through another part of the mountain the Red Sage lived in, one that had a number of metallic gates to, as he put it, control the flow of lava. Fortunately there was a path above all of the lava that he had carved out a long time ago and used to get provisions, for those who happened to be living near his hut, the Yellow Sage since they were neighbors in a sense, and for himself, and it was wide enough so they didn't have to worry about inflicting any damage to the ring and the rider along the way, which pleased Keira since she wanted everything intact, though it took them a day or two to actually reach the end of that passage and come out near Rock Village, where they were able to take a break and rest up for the next leg of their journey.

They also discovered that the Blue Sage, knowing that the Precursor Ring and rider would be arriving at some point, had joined forces with the Fisherman from Sandover Village and put together a decent sized ship that would be able to carry the pair to its final destination, even though they had to spend another day going around the part of the coast that rested between the two villages, mostly due to the speed of the ship and the fact that they didn't want the weight of the ring to suddenly shift, in the sense that it could cause them to sink along the way, though in the end they were able to reach their final destination and the sisters used their magic to lift the Precursor Ring up to Keira's workshop, positioning it near the right edge of Samos' hut, if one happened to be looking at it from the village itself, and made sure to lift the rider up to her workshop once the ring was in place.

Once the Precursor Ring and the rider were in place, and everyone had a good nights sleep after all the hard work that had been put into moving it into position, the Sages gathered together and threw a celebration party, something that just so happened to be a combination of celebrating their hard work in moving the ring to Sandover Village, the hard work they put into saving the provinces of the continent and saving the world, and the fact that their birthday had come up during the days they spent moving the artifacts to Sandover Village, making Jak and Daxter sixteen, Twilight and her sisters were fifteen, and Keira turned twelve, though for the most part they ignored the whole age part of the event and just relaxed as they enjoyed the celebration. There weren't any presents to be given, none of the siblings or Keira really needed anything and even if they did the Sages knew they would find something to make or use as the item in question, but Gol and Maia did set up a date where they and Twilight would get together and experiment, because they were interested in discovering what sort of limits the sisters had and, more importantly, they were hoping to take a closer look at Daxter, to see if they might have missed something or if being near the sisters and Jak might lead to him awakening some sort of power, maybe even leading to a way to revert him back to his prior form and keep the powers, even though that idea was likely one of the more impossible ones, not unless they found a Precursor and asked them about the possibility. Of course Daxter was still on the fence about all of this, given who would be performing the experiments and studies, but there wasn't much he could do since he figured that Twilight would stop him from running or the Dark Sages would intercept him if he tried to run away from them, so he just accepted it and focused on the celebration, mostly because it was more fun than listening to everything that the trio was talking about, even though he did notice that the rest of the Sages were discussing the fact that they might have found four more Sages to join their ranks, as in Jak and his sisters, as each of them could channel Eco in the same manner that Samos and the others could do, or at least that was their thoughts at the moment. In fact each of them praised Keira as well, knowing that without her inventions, which they also made sure Twilight got some credit for as well since she had assisted Keira in making several of the machines that had been used during the adventure, while taking a moment to wonder what else she might be able to make in the future, since most of the Sages realized that her devices might be important at some point in time.

In addition to all of that Jak and his sisters spent some of their free time practicing their melee attacks, as in the various fist leg attacks they had access to, mostly in an attempt to pull Twilight away from all of the studies that she happened to be burying herself in since the moment the adventure ended and they brought the Precursor Ring back to Samos' hut, which included the time that she spent with Gol and Maia, though he trusted the Dark Sages to not take her down the dark path that they had fallen down some time ago and had only been brought back from thanks to the Light Eco that they had used against them and their Precursor Robot. Based on what Jak could tell it didn't look like Daxter's evolution might have done anything for him at the moment, as he had no access to any of the powers and abilities that the three researchers knew he should have, and the reason Twilight was even included in that count was because she studied the notes that the pair of Dark Sages had written in the past, allowing her to catch up and understand what they knew, before they focused most of their attention on Daxter and what had happened to him, resulting in what Jak suspected when he noticed the frown on his friend's face when he left the area the researchers were currently working in. This also presented the sisters with the chance to practice using their magic as well, even though they did that inside the Citadel and not in Sandover Village, which was where they showed off what they were now capable of and, more importantly, Twilight also informed the Sages, as the rest of the Sages were there as well, how they were able to unlock a greater amount of power and do things that surprised Gol and Maia to no end, especially since it blew all of their thoughts on their abilities out of the water, though the Blue Sage was surprised that they had used his levitation machine and the helmet he had designed to unlock said abilities, which just made him wonder what else they might be able to unlock next, given the fact that he had several more idea for machines that were based on everything the sisters had done in the past and during their adventure, something that worried Daxter given what he had seen, but he couldn't stop it and said nothing. Of course one of the interesting things was that the three sisters had more magical reserves and it took them a lot longer to reach a fatigued state, where by experimenting with all of the components of the Citadel, mostly to rearrange it to be more suited for visitors and whatnot, Gol and Maia found that Twilight's new power was far stronger than they initially assumed when they scanned her and her sisters back in the Red Sage's hut, Starlight's happened to be a close second to her sister's, and Cozy, while having the weakest amount of magic inside her body, was still quite powerful and the Dark Sages determined that she would catch up to her sisters in the future.

Other than that the siblings spent their time helping Keira with whatever she needed, since she was spending her time on the Precursor Ring and the rider that came with it, making sure both artifacts were just fine and that no damage had been done to them, something she didn't have to worry about since the sisters had done everything in their power to ensure nothing bad happened to either artifact, though at one point she did have them and Jak set up a ramp near Samos' hut, as it involved attaching a number of wooden planks to the side of the area that the house had been built on, something that Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy focused on while Jak and Daxter either nailed them into place or wrapped rope around them to keep them in place, before eventually asking the sisters to move the ring out to the end of the new ramp, where they discovered it just floated in the air and waited for something to happen.





It took Keira another week of studying the Precursor Ring and the rider, from the day they brought it back to her father's hut and set it up inside part of her workshop, even if it had been too large to fit inside her room, before she informed Jak, Daxter, Twilight, Starlight, Cozy, and her father that she was done with her work and that the part of artifacts were ready, meaning she must have figured out what sort of use they had for the ancient beings who shaped their world, to which the siblings made sure they were well rested before the morning of their venture happened, something Daxter replicated as well while Samos made sure to inform the other Sages about what they were going to do, even if they were busy right now and wouldn't be able to witness what might happen next, hence why it was only them and no one else as they gathered just outside the hut and focused on the large ring.

"Today's the big day, everyone," Samos said, where he emerged from his hut, after making sure none of the other Sages would be able to come and witness whatever was going to happen when the Precursor Ring was activated, though he did find that Jak and Keira were standing next to each other while they and the sisters were waiting for him to come back from his venture, where he took a moment to think about the fact that Jak had spent a decent amount of time helping Keira in her workshop and they might have developed feelings for each other, before focusing on the matter at hand as he took a moment to focus on the Precursor Ring and the rider they would be climbing on soon, "I hope all of you are prepared... for whatever might happen today."

"After what happened during our first adventure, I'm positive that we're ready for anything," Jak confidently replied, as he was referring to him and his sisters, something that also included Daxter since he seemed ready to try helping them with whatever might be coming their way once the Precursor Ring was activated and they used the rider to do whatever it was supposed to do, though both he and Keira were smiling right now, mostly because he was sure that, at some point, they might form a relationship of some kind once they were done testing out these artifacts and returned to their simple lives for the foreseeable future.

One thing Twilight noticed, as Jak responded to the statement, was that Samos seemed preoccupied by something, like he might know something about the Precursor Ring and what might happen next, or maybe he was disappointed in what Jak had said in his response, like he thought that her brother, her sisters, and herself might not be ready for whatever was on the other side of the large ring, but before she could even say anything, and ask Samos if something was bothering him right now, Keira seemed to shift her stance for a few seconds and that caused everyone to focus on her, since that meant she might have something to say before they activated the pair of artifacts.

"I think I've figured out most of this machine." Keira commented, where she stared at the control panel that was attached to the front of the sitting area of the rider, as there happened to be a number of interesting pieces attached to it, some of which happened to be Precursor artifacts they hadn't seen before this point, as one seemed to be a red gem with some Precursor metal around it while another seemed to be an egg-shaped item that almost resembled an Orb, which was the moment she remembered that Daxter had a small pack containing the rest of the Orbs they had found during their quest to reach the Citadel, while the other parts of the panel seemed to be machines she had never seen before, screens that displayed some sort of information that was currently lost to her, "After everything I've seen, I'm positive that the rider is supposed to interact with the Precursor Ring... somehow, anyway, as I have been unable to actually test anything before today, so we'll be able to figure out what both artifacts do at the same time. I just hope we didn't break either of the artifacts when we moved them to the lab."

"Easy for you to day, Twilight and her sisters did all the heavy lifting!" Daxter stated, even though he had helped them put together the ramp that was in front of them, as there were some spaces where someone of his size worked best and that had allowed them to put this together in record time, so it was more a combination of what the sisters did, what Jak was able to do, and what effort he added to the mix, but after he said that everyone started to climb aboard the rider, which meant it was time for them to see what it did and if everything was junk, hence the reason he raised his hand to touch the odd egg-shaped artifact, all while sitting between Jak and Keira.

"Daxter! Don't touch anything!" Samos snapped, preventing Daxter from touching the egg-shaped artifact that he just so happened to be reaching for at the moment, who frowned for a moment when he heard that and pulled back so he could cross his arms once more, though even as that happened Twilight and her sisters noticed something interesting, because while it looked like Samos was annoyed with Daxter, which was perfectly normal given everything that had happened over the years, they also had to wonder if he might be afraid of whatever was coming up once they activated the rider that they were now sitting on, or at least that was what they thought at the moment, "Though the Precursors vanished long ago, for reasons we still do not understand, the artifacts they left behind can still do great harm!"

"We know, we did just take one down." Cozy remarked, referring to the modified Precursor Robot that Gol and Maia had made so they could get inside the Dark Eco Silo, not that it mattered since Twilight had figured out how to keep the seal of the structure from breaking and determined where a workshop to safely the Dark Eco rested, something that shocked the Dark Sages when they discovered the existence of such a place, but she figured that if they could do something like that, even if they had been aided by the mythical Light Eco and confirmed the existence of the sixth type of Eco, they could do it again if something bad happened with the Precursor Ring.

"Or they could do great good for our world... if you figure out how to use them." Keira admitted, as there were a number of Precursor artifacts out there and could be used for the betterment of their world, especially if someone figured out how they operated and wasn't focused on causing destruction or ruling everything that was around them, before she thought about something as everyone made sure they were positioned well on the rider, which forced Daxter to get up and take a seat on Jak's shoulder again, so the sisters could sit between Jak and her father, "Even you have to admit that what Gol and Maia are doing, by researching Dark Eco in the plasma state, has great potential for everyone, especially since they found out that it has the power to enhance the other four types of Eco that exist in the world, to amazing effects based on what Twilight's told me... that's as long as all of their experiments are under controlled conditions, of course."

"I've had some experience with such things." Samos stated, as if he were talking about the Precursor artifacts and not all of the research that Gol and Maia were currently doing, where he mentally reflected on it and knew that Keira was right, Gol and Maia were making strides with the workshop the Precursors left on the side of the Silo, and that was from two weeks of work so far, so while their research was still in its infancy, and they had only scratched the surface of what was possible with Dark Eco, he knew that their work might eventually benefit everyone, before he focused on what was in front of them and stared at the artifacts on the panel, almost as if he didn't want something specific to happen.

Jak paused for a moment as Samos said that, mostly to see if there was anything else he might have to say on the matter or if he wanted them to stop for a few more minutes, before activating the rider, but since he said nothing else, and they were sure that he was keeping his mouth closed, Jak reached forward and pressed the gleaming gemstone artifact, which seemed to act like a button of some kind since he felt it go into the panel a little bit, and it caused the egg-shaped artifact to pop open, revealing a spherical core with rings and orbs around it, items that seemed to be moving around as Twilight and Keira stared at them for a few seconds, while at the same time Daxter exclaimed that he 'still got it', even if he disliked most Precursor artifacts they came across.

"Interesting. It appears to be reading out some preset coordinates." Twilight commented, to which Keira nodded her head, to show that she agreed with Twilight's assessment on what they were seeing right now and that they could read the runes that were on the various pieces of the egg-shaped artifact, something that they had learned in record time thanks to what Gol and Maia had learned about the ancient language of the ancient Precursors, which only made both of them curious as to what the artifact was actually trying to tell them, before it slammed shut not a few seconds later and the device that was attached to the back of the rider started to move, causing them to brace themselves.

What happened next was that the four directional pieces of the device behind the rider loosed purple energy bolts at the Precursor Ring's top section and it opened up what appeared to be some sort of portal or something, like what they could see inside the center of the Warp Gates the Sages possessed, which caused part of the ramp to break away as every small object that was attached to the ring floated out of their holding places and started to float around the larger artifact, like all of them were stabilizing the rift that was opening before their eyes, even though it caused Samos to grip both his staff and the rail that was in front of him, something the rest of the group did as well. Of course that was when the sky darkened in a matter of seconds as a bunch of odd metallic monsters, ones that the sisters recognized from their odd dreams, flew out as a voice declared that the 'last rift gate' had been opened at long last, before a hulking monster, which appeared to be made out of metal, flesh, and had an odd head with a gleaming yellow stone in the forehead position, emerged from the rift and roared for a moment, even though Samos did make a nearly quiet remark about this being 'how it happened', or at least that was what the sisters assumed, even though they were more focused on what they were seeing. Not even a few seconds later the monster declared that someone couldn't hide from him, as it was male based on it's voice and it made mention of a boy, which could be anyone since they had no idea who the monster was looking for, but that caused Daxter to look at the controls of the rider as he openly wondered what each of them did and if they might be able to find a way to close the Precursor Ring before something else happened, where the sisters, Keira, and Jak helped him in his search, due to the fact that this left them as sitting ducks. It was Jak who did something as he pushed the controls forward, despite the fact that he had no idea what any of this was supposed to do with the rift opened, which caused the rider to fly forward not even a few moments later and they braced themselves as it raced up the ramp and flew right into the rift, right under the monster's body so they didn't intercept it, causing them to enter what appeared to be a massive tunnel of some kind, a light purple one to be exact, and for the most part no one could do anything as they moved through the space they had entered, even though Keira wondered what in the world that monster had been, since it was entirely new to them, while Samos told everyone to hold on as they flew towards what appeared to be the end of the tunnel.

As it turned out fate wouldn't allow them to reach the end intact, as not a few moments later a bolt of lightning, no doubt from the energy that was all around the rider, struck the rider and blew it to pieces, scattering everyone in the process, as Jak and Daxter were able to continue forward like nothing had happened to them besides being propelled forward, Keira and Samos seemed to be cast backwards from where the vessel had been resting, and the sisters were scattered to the sides and separated, which was the last time Twilight saw Starlight and Cozy as she fell through the veil of the tunnel and seemed to exit the passage entirely. What happened next was that she seemed to be falling out of the sky above an oddly familiar city, one that happened to be the same one from all of her dreams based on what she was able to tell, before she weaved her magic around her to make sure she didn't sustain any damage, forming a barrier around her, even though it was followed by the orb hitting the ground in what appeared to be a forest that was unlike what she had seen in the past, as it wasn't the Forbidden Jungle, and she did hit her head on the dome for a moment, but for the most part she was safe and she could rest before seeing where in the world she was located... even though she had the feeling that it would take her some time before she was able to found out what happened to Starlight, Cozy, Jak, Daxter, Keira, and Samos, and that this had to be the start of a strange and exciting adventure.