It took Jak, Twilight, Cozy, and Starlight some time to reach the area that the tower they were interested in was located in, the one that had the lift that would allow them to enter the Palace and spy on the Baron, to see if Praxis had anything that could be used against him when placed in Torn's hands, or the Shadow's hands depending on what they discovered, just to turn this war on it's head and see if the citizens of Haven City did anything other than turn a blind eye to everything that might happen inside the city. Twilight and Starlight made sure to use their magic to make the guards chase illusions and not focus on them at all, allowing the four of them to reach the outside of the tower and found that it had a Door Lock attached to it, one that opened up as soon as Jak walked over to it, even though Twilight and Starlight made sure to hide both of their zoomers with some magic so they could recover them without the guards finding them, before they stepped into the small passage and found a square shaped elevator waiting for them. As such they stepped onto the lift that was in front of them and waited for a few seconds, which was followed by it moving up as it took them straight towards their true destination, which was a little fast in their opinion despite the fact that none of them were bothered by the speed at all, until it came to a stop and the siblings noticed that they were inside an equal sized chamber to the one that had been just a few moments ago, down at the base of this tower, complete with a Door Lock that opened the moment Cozy walked up to it, revealing that they were high up in the air and that they were on one side of the metallic connection cable that was linked to part of the Palace. The strangest thing, in the eyes of the siblings, was that there were a number of traps and hazards resting between this area and their destination, like the Baron had set these up to make sure no one came at him from this angle or something, but it really didn't make any sense for there to be anything like this if the lift was attached to the B-Zone power grid, to which they sighed and started to walk forward, while being careful since this place had to be somewhat dangerous.
The first thing they had to get by were a pair of rotating electrical traps, which seemed to have three points that had a bit of power arcing along the edges and were offset so that while one might have a point that was in the upward direction the next one would be further along in the rotation, meaning that a pause was required so they could get through this area without sustaining any damage, as in they would have to take turns crossing through this area before facing whatever trap might be waiting for them after this, since it was hard to tell what the Baron installed in the past. As such Jak did it first and reached the other side of the rotating electrical traps within a couple of seconds, where he found that this trap was rather easy to get around and suspected that it might be trying to lure them into a false sense of security for whatever might be ahead of them, though he patiently waited for his sisters to make their way through the first set of traps before they even thought about turning their attention to the next section of this area. That was when all of them noticed that there were a pair of electric panels placed in the middle of their path, one set right in front of them and another further ahead of them, but beyond that rested a turret, much like those that were scattered throughout both the Slums and the Industrial Section of Haven City, which just seemed out of place and appeared to be something that might not be maintained all that much, given where it was located and that no one had used this tower for a long time, before they sighed as they did what they had done before, even though this time Twilight moved forward first. Based on looking at it Twilight could tell that using a bit of her magic would be the easiest path for them to take, form a couple of platforms above the panels for them to jump on and use to cross this area, and it would overcome anything that the Baron might have placed for a surprise, hence the reason why she formed a few platforms in the air and started to move, even though she had only landed on the second one as Jak moved forward, only he was heading down a couple of metallic platforms that seemed to form a path under the pipe that all of the traps and walkways were attached to.
She watched as Jak moved down some platforms and spun around a pair of poles that were sticking out of the side of the pipe to reach the other side of the first electrical trap, something that caused Twilight to rub the back of her head as both Starlight and Cozy followed their brother's lead, before she caught up with them, though to get around the second section of this trap all they had to do was jump along the platforms on the other side of the pipe, with Starlight making sure to use her Blaster to wipe out the turret before it could fire at her and her siblings.
"Note to self, magic isn't necessary at this time," Twilight remarked, as while she had felt that using her magical platforms had been the best course of action to get over the electrical panels that had been in front of them, given that she hadn't seen either of the side paths until Jak moved, she now knew that wasting her magic in this manner would only weaken her a bit and might impact her later, since they had no idea what was going to happen when they reached the Palace itself, to which she determined not to bother with her magic until it was absolutely necessary.
Jak said nothing to that as he nodded his head and they turned to face the next section of the path they were traversing at the moment, where they found six hexagon shaped platforms, which were rather thick and the width of one of them had to be half the height of a normal Human, that appeared to have five sides that were filled with sharp spikes and one side which was bare, meaning they had to jump onto the bare one when it arrived and then jump to the next bare one before the one they were standing on switched to a spikes section or they slipped and fell down towards Haven City. These were more dangerous than the last two types of traps that were resting along this long pipe, as one wrong move could send one of them down to their deaths, or that would be the consequences if Twilight and Starlight weren't in the group, and Cozy's powers weren't even being considered in that thought, since they had no idea if she could use her Dark Form to get back up here or not, before they focused on what was in front of them and what needed to be done to reach the next turret, or at least the next section of traps to bypass. As such Cozy tackled the new trap first, stepping onto the first bare panel the moment it showed up and braced herself for what was coming next, because the moment the next one turned she moved instantly and made sure she was on the second one before the first one got a chance to shift, where she repeated that for a few moments and eventually reached her destination, before she rushed through the air and smashed the turret which rested a few steps beyond the hexagon platforms to pieces, opening the way for her siblings to catch up with her, even if they had to go one at a time and take a few moments to wait for the path to be open for them. The next obstacle, as these were more like obstacles and less like traps now that Twilight had a good chance to look at what the Baron had placed in this area, was one of the rotating electrical devices they had seen earlier, at the start of this area, and there happened to be a path of platforms off to the right that allowed all of them to make their way under the length of the pipe, though as Jak and his sisters made their way under the pipe they noticed that there were some electrical obstacles on the other pipes that connected the various towers to the Palace.
Twilight was surprised by that, as it made her wonder why the Baron would bother if the towers were connected to the old power grid and not the new one everyone else used, which meant every tower was offline at the moment, since they had only gathered enough power to juice up the lift they had used to get here, before they moved around the other side of the pipe and returned to the path once more, allowing the four of them to take a few seconds to see what else rested between them and the Palace. That was when they found another hexagon shaped device and more of the electrical panels, which were right behind the hexagon, but since Daxter pointed out a path to the right of the panels that meant the siblings could simply wait for a couple of seconds and then use the bare section of the hexagon to jump to the side that held the path in question, allowing them to avoid the electrical panels entirely, meaning no damage for anyone as they went about doing that, even if it was one at a time. When Jak reached the end of the side path, however, he jumped onto the slim path that was on top of the pipe and found that two turrets, further in front of where they were standing, became active the instant he touched the slim walkway, though they were opposite from each other and seemed to fire when they were facing this path, meaning one was firing at a time and the other was resting before they switched positions, to which he decided not to wait for his sisters to catch up with him and rushed forward, heading right for the turrets and the path that was right behind the area they were positioned in. As such Twilight, Cozy, and Starlight watched him for a few seconds as Jak finally reached his destination and threw himself at the turrets, as in he reached forward with a hand and touched the side of the turret before it could reach the upper part of it's circle, allowing him to pull himself up over the weapon and reached the path that was behind it, to which he sighed for a moment and stood up as he waited for Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy to catch up to him, even though he knew that this was nothing for his sisters. Sure enough it didn't take them long to determine who was going to tackle this obstacle first and Twilight rushed at the area that was in front of Jak, avoiding the blasts from the turrets with her reflexes and not her magic, before she reached her brother and stopped as Starlight and Cozy took their turns overcoming what appeared to be the final obstacle that rested between them and the edge of the Palace.
Once everyone was resting on the other side of the final pair of turrets, and they made sure that no one was hurt, they headed up the couple of platforms that rested nearby and reached an opening in the furthest wall of the Palace and found a ramp that lead up to a glass dome of some kind, to which Jak carefully crouched nearby as his sisters and their Ottsels did the same thing, where they found that the room below them was the throne room and that the Baron was currently inside it, standing in front of the throne, with Errol standing nearby and a projection of the Metal Head Leader's head just floated in the air near them, to which Twilight quickly cast a spell to make sure any sound they made wasn't heard by their enemies as they listened to what was going on in the room below them.
"I've told you, I will have more Eco by week's end." the Baron stated, revealing that the conversation was nearing the end and that whatever he and the Metal Head Leader had been discussing was nearly over, meaning that there wasn't all that much information for the siblings to gain from listening to the pair of leaders, even though it appeared that the Baron did a moment that looked like he might be bowing to his enemy, either out of respect or it was hollow and designed to lure his foe into a false sense of security, "We'll transport it directly to your nest, as promised."
"A deal is of no value if you can't deliver, my dear Baron." the Metal Head Leader replied, his tone revealing that he had to be growing impatient with the Baron, which was understandable considering everything that the Baron had done in the short time that they had been inside the city, though they were also sure that the Baron might be growling without him showing his foe his face for a few seconds, "I grow impatient with your puny gestures. Give me the agreed upon Eco soon, or the deal is off, and your precious city will pay the price."
Jak and his sisters glanced at each other for a few seconds, as it was hard to know if the Baron would even uphold his end of the deal or if he would betray the Metal Head Leader at the critical moment and bring an end to the war, where each of them felt that the latter was the better option for everyone, before returning their attention to what was in front of them and watched as the hologram that the Leader of the Metal Heads was using disappeared, meaning the conversation was over and they had lost a chance to gain any valuable information for the Underground, though this confirmed the fact that the Baron had a deal with his sworn enemy.
"He's toying with us!" Errol stated, his tone revealing that he was overconfident in his skills and that he believed he was far better than anyone that was inside Haven City, even though the siblings felt that such a thing was a lie and that Keira just so happened to have a leg up on him in the mechanics department, with them being better fighters, not counting the fact that three of them had access to magic, before he turned and faced the Baron for a moment, "Let me lead an assault on the Nest before it's too late! I can take him!"
"Patience, Commander... no one has ever penetrated the Metal Head Nest, you know that." the Baron replied, which was an odd thing for him to say, since they were used to him being the type to let his emotions aid him in making the various decisions that came with being the leader of Haven City, even though he did raise a hand to the metallic side of his face for a few moments, revealing that he must have been hurt in such a raid on the Metal Head Nest, resulting in the metal being put on to save his life, before he focused on Errol once more, "I have personally seen what comes of such foolish plans. No, strength is their weakness. We play helpless, we train them to eat from our hands, and then... Move forward with the plan! Tell Ashelin to up her patrols... I want the Tomb of Mar found!"
"But your daughter has not been... agreeable." Errol commented, even though that information was worth gaining, as that gave Twilight and her siblings a last name to put to Ashelin, given that she was actually the Baron's daughter, but as they learned that information the four of them quickly determined it didn't matter if she was a Praxis or not, she was working with Torn, in a sense, and clearly didn't approve of her father's plans, so they might have an ally in her and it might be a matter of time until she saw the light and abandoned the Baron.
"I'll see to that problem, one way or another." the Baron stated, even though he groaned for a moment, like he knew that Ashelin was going to be difficult when it came to her missions and that he would need to speak with her for some time to convince her to do what was necessary to protect Haven City from their enemies, but that was when he seemed to think of something else and faced Errol once more, meaning there might be something else for the siblings to learn about, just before making their escape before they left the Palace, hopefully before the Baron figured out that they were spying on him and his secret conversations, "And find those children! If you'd spend half as much time looking for the little brats as you spend flirting with that mechanic girl, we would have pinned their royal asses to a wall long ago."
"As you wish. With enough persuasion, I'm sure our spy will... you know..." Errol replied, revealing something interesting to Jak and his sisters, where it was natural to assume that someone within the Underground might be working for the Baron, even though if that was the case they were doing a terrible job trying to topple the rebellion that was currently going on at the moment, though instead of completing his statement, like they were expecting, the Commander remained silent and it seemed to inform the Baron that he would act as he was ordered to, as the pair started to leave the throne room, which meant the conversation was over and that it was time for them to leave.
As such the siblings started to head down the path that was nearby, as in away from the path that had brought them here in the first place, though as they did that all of them paused for a moment as a machine, a mechanical suit of some kind, rose up over the edge that was near them and it became clear that the Baron was sitting in the command center of it all, meaning that meeting was either a recording, and if it was it happened to be very convincing, or he knew they were there and had rushed to get into the machine so he could meet them.
"So, we have a couple of rats in the walls, do we?" the Baron stated, where he stared at all of them for a few seconds as Jak and his sisters braced themselves, because now that their foe knew they were up here he was likely going to fight them or call some of the Krimzon Guards on them, to take them down before any of them were able to leave with the information they had gained from spying on his private conversation, though that was when he grinned as he focused on them, as out of the four of them Cozy was already in the middle of shifting into her Dark Form and Jak was thinking of doing the same thing to bring him down, "Errol was wrong, the Dark Warrior program was a success... even if we had a few hiccups along the way to this point, and now that you four are here, the four Gol and Maia wrote about in their journals, we can see now see how the remaining two take to the injections and if you survive the process."
"What makes you think that we'll willing go with you, after everything you've done to our siblings?" Starlight asked, as both Jak and Cozy had been tortured during their time in the Fortress and they still bared some scars from being trapped inside their cells, not to mention the fact that Cozy was probably traumatized by what had happened over the three years she had been forced to spend inside the place, especially hurting Twilight in the process, which was the reason that she took a moment to ready her magic as she lifted her gun, as each of them were showing the Baron that none of them were going to back down and that he needed to fight them to get what he wanted.
"Oh, I know none of you would be willing to listen to what I have to say," the Baron replied, though it was in that moment he tapped one of the controls in his machine and the ground below the siblings became active with electricity, shocking all four of them until each of them collapsed to their knees, and the same applied to Daxter and the Ottsel brothers, and they found that this contained a constant stream of electricity to keep them pinned to this area, even though Twilight could see that they had stopped on top of a hidden set of electrical panels, which their foe had activated by pressing something in his mechanical suit, before he grinned as part of the machine came undone and revealed a weapon that was currently in the middle of charging a sphere of electrical energy, "This won't be enough to kill any of you, not after everything I've seen you do since you left the Fortress, but it will knock you out for a few hours, maybe half a day at most, but when you come to you'll find yourselves restrained inside the cells of the Fortress, bound and unable to do anything as we start injecting each of you with more Dark Eco... either you'll die from it, like many that came before you, or you'll turn into monsters, like what happened to that one, which we will unleash upon the Underground and the Metal Head Nest."
Twilight forced a growl out as she heard that, as it looked like the Baron was just as cold-hearted as she originally thought when she first discovered what he was capable of, and that was before seeing what he did to Jak and Cozy, the latter being twisted into a berserk beast who could only be stopped by tasting blood for the first time, though all of this information made her realize something strange, she hated the Baron, as much as it shocked her to admit such a thing, and that this emotion must have been festering inside her since she and Starlight saved Jak and Cozy from the Fortress, since her body had been poisoned by Dark Eco thanks to Dark Cozy's claws. It had been slumbering inside her, silently gathering power as she absorbed the various scattered clusters of Dark Eco they had passed by, those that weren't taken by Jak or Cozy, just waiting for a chance to unleash the power it contained on those who angered her to the point where it's power had to be called upon, and due to everything that was happening to her and her siblings at the moment it was the only thing she had access to, hence why she called upon her slumbering power to remove the electricity that was below all of them and stop the Baron's incoming attack before it could hit them. Such a thing allowed her to do exactly what she had intended, every bit of electricity that was contained inside the panels vanished as her inner Dark Eco crippled them, allowing her to use her magic to teleport her siblings behind her, just in case there were consequences that came from what she was doing, even though that was followed by her raising a hand as the Baron fired his attack, where it stopped in the space that rested in the middle of them and the sphere vanished without a trace, but while all that happened Jak and his sisters took notice of something odd, Twilight was shaking as bits of dark mist emitted from her body. The Baron paused for a moment, which meant he wasn't expecting such a thing to happen either and seemed to glance down at his suit's weapon, as if blaming it for what had happened, though that was when the wind kicked up and the dark mist flared in response to whatever was going on, causing the amount of mist to rapidly increase before it started to wrap around the area that was right in front of Twilight's position, forming a sphere that looked like it was made out of a mixture of magic and Dark Eco.
Before anyone could do anything the mystical sphere expanded a bit as Twilight held her hands forward to stop it, as if it was dangerous or something, which was when it passed by her hands and paused for a few seconds, even though it was followed by it dragging her right into the core of the sphere, before Jak or her siblings could do anything to help her, and it remained still for a couple of moments, causing everyone to stand there in shock as a light emitted from the sphere for a time, though it didn't last long as the light faded a moment later and they found Twilight floating in the air. What Jak and his sisters found to be interesting was that instead of Twilight wearing her normal clothing, which helped her in her fights with the Krimzon Guards, she was now wearing an odd dress, a purple one with a light pinkish star design that was around her waist and had no sleeves or material covering the area around her neck, while it appeared that her eyes had taken on a brilliant mulberry coloration and her sclera was a pale grayish cyan color, which matched the odd energy glasses in front of her eyes, ones that looked like they might have wings at the tips, and she had a pair of gloves and leggings, which went from her ankles to below her knees, that were a shade or two darker than her skin color. In addition to all of that Jak and his sisters found that her tail had lost most of it's colors, as it remained a dark purple, while her hair took on a fiery design, even though there happened to be a black patch near her forehead, which happened to have a crystalline horn that had the same coloration as her sclera and her new glasses, and she even had a pair of wings on her back, feathery raven wings to be exact that had a deep violet coloration to them, which appeared to be open at the moment. Jak had no idea what in the world was going on, since this was the first time that something like this had happened to Twilight, but before he could say anything he noticed that the sky had darkened, either due to the time of the day or it was being effected by the sheer power that was coursing through Twilight's body right now, where he suspected that it had to be the latter since this was unlike anything they had seen before this point in time.
The Baron was the first one to react to what was going on and swung one of the arms of his suit right at Twilight, showing that he happened to be fine with attacking someone while they were distracted by something else, but before his attack could make contact a small dark portal appeared right in front of Twilight and his fist went right into the space, which was followed by another portal opening to the side of his compartment and the metallic arm of his suit emerged from it, only it struck the side of his suit and knocked him in the side, cracking the glass of his suit, and before he had a chance to pull his arm back Twilight shifted her hand for a second and the portal closed, severing the arm in question and dropped it on the floor that was in front of her, much to everyone's surprise.
"That's new," the Baron commented, his gaze switching between the severed limb that was on the floor and the part of his mech that it had been attached to just a few seconds ago, where he found that the latter had some sparks due to what the girl in front of him had done, though she lowered her hand and seemed to smile at him for a few moments, which made him wonder what in the world had happened when the Dark Eco surged to the surface and took control of her body, but it didn't stop him from allowing a grin to appear on his face, "Your Dark Form, as you and your siblings call it, is beyond even my wildest expectations, and I..."
"Actually, the name's Midnight Sparkle, not Twilight's 'Dark Form'," Twilight, or rather Midnight, replied, which caught Jak, Cozy, and Starlight off guard for a moment, since it seemed like whatever in the world had happened to Twilight had, in an odd way, brought forth something that had been slumbering inside her body, a personality of some kind that she hadn't told anyone about, especially since Jak was sure that none of them had been told about such a thing existing, though even as he thought about that he suspected this was his sister's magic combined with Dark Eco, giving rise to something that was totally different from what they were expecting, before she shrugged for a moment, "I mean, technically you aren't wrong about labeling me like that, since that's sort of what I am, but I have a name and it's not 'Dark Form'... also, none of your machines will work against me, so you might as well surrender before I get serious."
In response to that the Baron swung the right arm of his mech and punched Midnight right in the side of her face, where it was clear that he was expecting her to be sent flying by the attack, though what he and Jak's group discovered was rather shocking, as instead of being moved by the attack, like someone would expect, she remained still and her face hadn't even been damaged by her foe, and Starlight even verified that there were no barriers being used to stop the Baron's attacks in their tracks, meaning she had to be using a trick of some kind or her claim was correct, none of the machines that their foe might use were capable of hurting her. In the following moment she stepped forward and approached her foe, which was a surprise to the Baron since she was in her spot one second and then was right in front of him not even a second later, as if her speed had picked up and he couldn't tell if her wings had moved or not, before she shifted her stance and punched his mech right in the chest, where electricity coursed through the machine and Jak could see that some damage was being done to it, even breaking it in some places based on what he and the others were seeing, before she brought her arm back and kicked her target in the weakened area, breaking the mech suit into several pieces in seconds. That did cause the compartment that the Baron was resting in to separate from the rest of the mech, allowing the suit to fall to the floor not a few seconds later, before he growled at Midnight and started to move out of this area, showing that he didn't have a hope of winning this battle and that he wasn't about to let her take him down, especially given his plans to topple the Leader of the Metal Heads, though before that could happen his vessel stopped for a moment as he noticed what was going on, Midnight had extended her hand and the darkness had grabbed onto his vessel, forming a hand of some kind to do the deed. It almost looked like she was planning on crushing him and his escape vehicle before he could do anything, which would cripple the city and the Krimzon Guard before he had a chance to deal with the city's enemies, and Jak could see that there were cracks forming in the glass of the Baron's escape vehicle, before Midnight seemed to smile and let go of his vessel, allowing it to stagger through the air as their foe retreated for the time being, though now they knew that if they faced him again, and Midnight was nearby, it would be no contest between them.
A few seconds later, after making sure the Baron was gone, Midnight landed on the floor of the area that their foe's mech had been floating above when he revealed himself to her and her siblings, before she pulled out her Morph Gun for a few seconds and stared at it, something that was followed by Jak watching as the dark mist surrounded the weapon and it just broke apart before his eyes, transforming into a bracelet that was about as thick as one's finger and happened to have a set of stones in the silver metal, a red one and a yellow one, with possibly a green one as well, before Midnight shifted her stance and focused on them.
"Are you guys alright?" Midnight asked, though as she said that she walked over to them and checked the group out, as if she was making sure none of them had sustained any permanent damage from being shocked by the electrical panels the Baron had used after they witnessed his meeting with the Metal Head Leader, which were no longer functional, before she came to a stop in the spot she had started in, allowing Jak to see that, despite the fact that this was Twilight's Dark Form, a representation of her inner Dark Eco and magic being merged together, Midnight was definitely concerned and seemed a little worried that something might have happened to them.
"Yeah, just... processing what just happened." Daxter replied, as it was one thing for Twilight and her sisters to use magic to bring down their enemies, not to mention do incredible things that seemed to defy the rules of reality, something that remained true thanks to what Midnight did to Twilight's Morph Gun a few moments ago, in fact he was sure that, out of all of them, Keira would find this particular power very useful in whatever she was working on in the Stadium, while he took a moment to notice that Alvin and his brothers had no idea how to respond to this, given that they had spent three years helping Twilight, and later Starlight, find her siblings.
"Twilight, what about you? You're alright... right?" Jak inquired, because while he knew that Dark Cozy was a little different from Cozy, with many similarities based on everything he had seen so far, it was hard to tell if Twilight had changed due to her transformation into 'Midnight Sparkle', save for the name anyway, but one thing he could see was that her power was far greater than it had been before they had been shocked by the Baron, even if it made him wonder if Twilight could have done this before this point in time.
"Of course I'm fine... and like I said, the name's Midnight Sparkle now." Midnight answered, though even as she said that it was easy for Jak, Starlight, Cozy, Daxter, and the Ottsel brothers to see that she seemed a little hurt by Jak using Twilight's name and not the one she picked out, almost like Twilight's Dark Form was on an entirely different level and saw herself as a separate entity that had switched places with the main user of their body, before she sighed and shook her head for a few seconds as she turned away, even if she beckoned for them to follow a few moments later, "anyway, we had better get out of here, before the Krimzon Guard arrive, since we have some decent information to give Torn and the Shadow, and also a punishment given how this venture turned out."
Jak said nothing to that as he and his siblings followed after Midnight, as it seemed like he might have offended her due to using Twilight's name, but even then this new being seemed to have the same intensity that his sister had and made him wonder what in the world they were going to do with someone who was capable of reforming weapons and stopping the Baron's machines from hurting her, though he had the feeling that he and his sisters would figure out what in the world they were going on do in the very near future, once Torn knew what was going on.