//------------------------------//
// Spargus: Danger and Secrets 
// Story: Jak and Daxter: Heirs of Mar 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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With Errol's assault on Spargus stopped, and the siblings were sure of it even though their father made sure to gift them the last piece of their Battle Amulet, along with what appeared to be the last piece of Mar's ancient armor, Jak, his sisters, and their Ottsel companions followed their father back to the Palace and used the lift to head up to the area that Damas ruled from, though he brought them and the Dark Sages to the dining area, as it was time for them to eat and rest before they figured out what to do next. Jak, Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy were glad to have some time off before returning to Haven and seeing what needed to be done to take down the other part of Errol's plans, as they were sure that Samos or one of the others might have some information for them before they even reached the city, and after everything they had been through having some food was a good thing, as it allowed all of them to regain most of their energy, though as that happened Starlight dismissed her orbs, knowing they could be called again when she needed them.

"Damas has told us a great deal about your previous and current adventures," Gol said, where the siblings found that he had lost the odd echo that had been attached to his voice, back when he and Maia first tapped into all of their powers and became corrupted by the Dark Eco they were studying, something that had been fixed thanks to Jak and his sisters doing everything in their power to beat some sense into them and stop them from ending the world, before he chuckled for a few seconds, "though that didn't prepare us for seeing the four of you, not to mention your dragon allies and Daxter, tear down the Dark Maker machines that were sent to wipe out Spargus."

"Trust me, I've seen and learned enough from these four to stop being a coward," Daxter replied, as he knew that those who knew him, before Jak, his sisters, and those who came from Sandover, were used to him doing nothing and simply complaining when he disliked something that was happening, but after some time he had grown used to the idea of being a warrior and fighting when his friends faced their enemies, reading the field and picking his enemies out with more of a strategy in mind, before he glanced over to Maia, "So, ugh, Maia... we're cool, right?"

"The Dark Eco clouded my mind, turning my simple dislike into pure hatred... and my brother and I have had years to think about things," Maia stated, her voice no longer harsh, rather she seemed far more understanding than when the siblings had last seen her and her brother, which had been before using the Rift Gate to travel to the future, meaning that she and Gol had definitely learned something since the last time they saw them, before she glanced over to Daxter again, all while plates were brought out so they could eat, "but yes, we are 'cool' with each other. Frankly, we're not even surprised by the fact that the four of you are the Four Sages that Seem told us about when we first met them, as they shared that piece of information with us since we knew more about the Precursors than anyone else, but they had us promise not to tell those around us, just in case it was a false prophecy... but even then, when we considered the power a Sage possesses, we had no idea that it meant four Prism Sages, the rarest and most powerful type in the entire world... nor did we even consider that you four might awaken some incredible, and frankly broken, powers."

"How are you two still so young?" Cozy asked, because that was something that was bothering her, as Gol and Maia looked like they hadn't aged a day since the last time she and her siblings had seen them, because three hundred years had gone by since they, Daxter, Samos, and Keira left Sandover Village and it looked like the Dark Sages were the same age, which was just odd to look at and made her wonder if Dark Eco might be the secret to immortality, though if it was she was sure that she and her siblings had gained enough to unlock that ability.

"We're... not at liberty to explain that yet..." Gol explained, something that surprised the siblings, as it sounded like there had to be something special they had learned over the years and it caused them to stop aging entirely, that or maybe the pair had found a Rift Gate of some kind and used it to skip forward, but since their father trusted them it meant they could trust that the pair had a good reason for not sharing this information with them, before he sighed, "suffice to say that we found a way to skip some time and arrived in Haven some time before you four arrived in the city, allowing us to become Advisors to Damas, when he was still King, and your caretakers, with the express purpose of teaching you how to control your powers, to give you the basics you had during your first adventure... or at least that was the plan, until Baron Praxis betrayed us and banished Damas to this place. At least you were able to discover the true reason for his treachery, that he was under the influence of the Metal Head Leader and freed him from that darkness..."

"You know, there is still one thing bothering me... why did you guys appear on the high wall of the Port, but not come into the city to check on us?" Twilight asked, because while she and her siblings knew that Damas had said that Gol and Maia had been elsewhere that day, when they celebrated their victory over Kor, she realized that it didn't make sense when she thought about it, as they were the only two people who had that level of control over Dark Eco, or at least that was true during the event in question, since she and her siblings made four more, before she focused that the pair seemed a little surprised by her question, "Back when we celebrated the defeat of the Metal Head Leader we spotted two robed figures, who had been wearing black at the time, who appeared on the high wall of Haven's Port and most of us had an immediate reaction after feeling the dark power they possessed... we just assumed it was you two, as you were the only two that we could think of who might cause such a reaction."

"Interesting. So that's what happened on that day." Maia commented, where she and Gol seemed to be thinking about the information that Twilight had just shared with them, though at the same time her words revealed that they must have, in some way, noticed the arrival of the pair that Jak and his sisters had seen, even though this was the first time the siblings had mentioned how their Eco powers had reacted, before she looked up for a moment, "Gol and I were busy with one of our studies, which we'll have to show you at some point in the near future, so whoever showed up on that wall was either a curious visitor who disappeared, or maybe some sort of observation system for the Dark Makers to study their enemies, before they arrive on whatever planet they're trying to take over."

As they talked about what they were going to do next, mostly figuring out how to get armor for Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy so all of them would be ready for the future, Twilight noticed something odd, none of them had told their father about the Dark Makers, as with everything going on that had slipped their mind, but Gol and Maia knew about this threat and likely had shared that information with Damas, as he didn't seem surprised by them talking about the Dark Makers, even if that might be due to him knowing they couldn't be beaten. Another thing she noted as the evening went on was that she was sure that both Dark Sages felt different than what she had felt in the past, which might be due to the fact that they had all this time to master their abilities and discover the benefits that they might gain from such a thing, but even as she thought about that she could have sworn that Gol and Maia felt more like Daxter at this point, though that might be due to the fact that it had been some time since their last rest and she decided to focus on it later. With the conversation done they took a few moments to go over what sort of armor the siblings wanted to wear, as while Jak had Mar's armor, given that all of the pieces had been recovered during this adventure, Twilight and her sisters were still wearing their desert gear, as none of them had felt the need to replace what they were wearing, though Starlight was the first one to make a suggestion as she switched to a light gray robe that had six yin yang markings around her neck area, each one representing the six types of Eco she had access to. Cozy didn't care much about armor, even though she was like a berserker in battle, and decided to just stick to creating some darkened silver bracers for her legs and arms, which also protected both her hands and hooves based on what they were seeing, though she kept most of her desert attire on, leaving Twilight to create a robe that just so happened to be half light blue and half deep purple, representing her and Midnight, though it seemed similar to what a priestess of some kind would wear, and given her powers it could likely switch to an armored state in seconds, meaning all of them didn't have to worry about her getting hurt.

Once that was done the group talked for some more before departing for their rooms, as Damas wanted his children to be well rested for when it came time to head back to Haven City, especially since they had no idea what would be waiting for them upon their return, something that Jak agreed with even though he suspected that Twilight and Midnight would be up all night studying all of the Dark Maker stuff they had collected so far, something he decided not to think about as he and the others feel asleep and got some well deserved rest.





When morning arrived Jak and his sisters found that the Communicator emerged while they were eating breakfast, which caused Gol and Maia to glance at it while Damas stopped what he was doing, showing that the others were interested in what sort of news they would be learning, to which the siblings stopped what they were doing and turned towards their Communicator, as whatever it said would determine how fast they returned to Haven, as it had to be Samos, Keira, Torn, or anyone else from the mainland.

We have a problem. the Communicator said, where they found that Samos was the one speaking to them, which told them that he must have discovered something bad while Jak and his sisters were aiding Spargus and Seem, though at the same time all of them knew that Errol must have had a hand in whatever might be happening, retaliation for everything they had done to him so far, but the silence caused Samos to continue talking, Readings indicate that Errol has somehow alerted and raised the dark ship's shields, meaning that even if we do manage to turn on the Planetary Defense System, as I'm sure you four will find it eventually, it may not have an effect on the terrible dark ship. I have a feeling the Astro-Viewer in Haven Forest does more than just look at stars, but you must be cautious, as dark creatures have taken over the forest, so it will be a battle just to reach the artifact now.

Jak, Twilight, Starlight, and Cozy said nothing as the device returned to their packs, where they finished off the rest of their breakfast before wishing their father and his advisors a good day, not to mention to call on them if Errol sent more foes to bother the city, though once that was done, and all of them were ready to go, the siblings headed outside the Palace and quickly made their way over to an area that was open enough for three dragons, something that caused Kleiver and the rest of the Wastelanders to move out of the way as they cheered for their heroes, allowing the siblings to depart with the cheers of an entire city fueling them. Thanks to Alvin, Simon, and Theodore it wasn't long before they were able to return to Haven City, where the Freedom League and the citizens cheered as they arrived, while one spoke to a Communicator to tell Torn and the others that they were back, before they headed over to where the Tainted resided, bypassing the twisted Metal Heads and landing in front of the Door Lock that lead to Haven City, even though they did find that the number of enemies in this sector had decreased since the last time they were here. After Alvin and his brothers switched back to their disguises they opened the door and headed into the section of Haven Forest that the Astro-Viewer was resting in, where it was easy for Jak and his sisters to see that an army of Dark Troopers had taken over and had set up turrets to take down anyone who dared to come to the pillars, meaning they couldn't actually destroy it, or maybe they needed it for later, as in when the Dark Maker ship made contact with this world. In the end it didn't matter as Jak and his sisters separated from each other and spread out, spitting the forest into four sections as they focused on taking down the enemies that were in front of them, even though this would tell Errol that they were onto his movements and that they were still coming to take him out, but for now they focused on the task at hand and less on what Errol was doing.

One thing they discovered was that there were a number of dark 'flowers' growing on the rocky walls of the area, ones that seemed to be spawning small flying devices that looked like corrupted flyers that Errol had made, only more menacing and dark than what Errol had created, though Daxter jumped off of Jak's shoulder, as he rushed forward at high speeds thanks to his combined powers, and stabbed one of the flyers, destroying it before leaping over to one of the flowers and poured a bit of his power into it over a few seconds, destroying it as he did so. While they did that Cozy rushed from point to point as she targeted the Dark Troopers, crushing them into either the ground or the piles of rocks that were around her, before landing near a Dark Flower and gathered her Eco into her right fist before smashing it into her target, her strength quickly shattering the rock and tearing her true target apart, though once that was done she flashed to the side and smashed the Dark Turret that tried to fire at her backside to pieces as she moved onto another target. Starlight floated around the area of the forest she took and swung her staff at whoever tried to get close to her, the staff doing serious damage to all of the Dark Troopers, far more than Jak and the others expected, while the orbs went flying at the enemies who were in the air, smashing them apart like they were nothing, and the Dark Flowers she targeted suffered greatly as they were broken into pieces by her orbs. Twilight, on the other hand, stood there and blasted her opponents with bursts of magical energy, the other thing that the Dark Troopers were apparently weak against, while at the same time Gaia appeared, wearing a green version of Twilight's attire, and used the roots of the trees to grab some of their enemies and crushed them like they were nothing, while none of the other versions appeared, meaning that they didn't need Midnight and the others this time, even if Jak suspected that Midnight didn't want to be bothered at all.

Once all of the Dark Troopers had been dealt with, and all of their machines and allies were smashed, Jak and his sisters paused for a few seconds, just to be sure that there was nothing else for them to worry about, before making their way up to the top of the Astro-Viewer, where Twilight produced the Time Map that they had recovered from Seem earlier and gave it to Jak, who placed it on top of the telescope that the other artifacts were floating around, and once that was done, and no immediate changes were clear to them, Jak raised an eye and peered through it again.

What happened next is that Jak seemed to struggle for a bit, something that caused his sisters to grab onto his shoulders and back before discovering that he was actually being linked into one of the constructs that were aboard the Dark Maker ship, one that looked like the Titan Suit with the twisted material all over it, so what they did was carefully channel a bit of their power into him to make sure nothing bad happened to him on this side of things, leaving Jak to wreck the ship and all of the enemies that happened to get in his way. Based on what Twilight and her sisters could see their brother was doing his best to make sure everything was broken and anyone who dared to get in his way was smashed into the walls, finding that all of them were rather sturdy and that he couldn't actually break them, not without going through a lot of effort on his part, but he seemed to be enjoying the chance to actually go all out, without fearing that civilians would get caught in the crossfire, and Daxter seemed to be smiling as well. While that happened Twilight did her best to send her magic out of Jak's Dark Titan and get a better understanding of the Dark Maker ship, as it just might give them a better chance of taking out the Day Star before it reached the planet, once Seem told them had to awaken the Planetary Defense System, but for now she focused on her part of helping Jak out while she studied everything that was around the twisted Titan Suit as her brother smashed his way through the ship. After a while the siblings had to wonder if this was going to allow them to smash the shield generator that was aboard the Dark Maker ship, which would cripple the main system that Errol had activated and would allow them to use whatever weapon rested in the depths of their planet to either take the ship out or do some serious damage and repel it, though no one said anything as Jak made his way through the ship and continued to break everything that was in his way.

Eventually Jak found a heart shaped device and used some explosives that were resting throughout the ship and blew the device to pieces, knocking him out of the Dark Titan and allowing him to return to his body, causing everyone to stop what they had been doing while he was connected to the twisted robot, though the Communicator came out for a moment and Samos informed them that the shield was done, meaning that the Astro-Viewer had done wonders for their chances to bring down the Dark Maker ship. With this task completed Jak and his sisters departed from Haven Forest and made their way back over to the new district of Haven City, focusing on the Freedom League HQ and nothing else, though something interesting happened when they found that their father, true to his word, had brought Sig and a number of Wastelanders to help turn the tide against all of the remaining enemies who were bothering the city, while Damas seemed to be heading in the same direction that the siblings were heading in. As such they caught up with him and their father smiled as he just used his zoomer to fall in behind them, even though he was likely more comfortable with a Leaper Lizard or a vehicle from Spargus' garage, though once more Jak found that the remaining robots were missing, meaning they must have fled once the Factory had been taken care of and might show up when they launched their assault on the terraformed tower that was at the end of the Tainted's section of the city. Of course that meant they were able to relax a little as they drove their zoomers through what was left of Haven City, allowing Damas to see just how wrecked things were and the fact that they had been making a brand new section in the old Water Slums area, before they eventually reached their destination and found that Sig had decided to follow after them, even if he had said nothing, to which everyone climbed off their vehicles and headed inside the building, finding Samos, Keira, and the others waiting for them to arrive.

"King Damas! It is good to see that you are doing well." Ashelin said, as while she and the other residents of Haven knew that the previous king had been living out in the Wasteland, given Sig's confirmation that Spargus existed and the fact that Jak and his sisters had spent some time wandering around the city in question, this was the first time that she and the rest of their allies had seen Damas since the day he was banished from the city, causing them to bow towards the previous King of Haven as he and his children came to a stop.

"Please, there is no need for you to bow towards me... my claim to Haven's throne is no more, but my children's claim is very much alive," Damas replied, not that everyone needed the reminder that Jak and his sisters were the heirs to the city, something even the Council understood since most of them, save for Veger, had been on their side since the very start of their third adventure, and the others who didn't care for Jak or his sisters were smart enough to remain silent, least they repeat Veger's punishment, or even banishment, on them, "I've also brought Sig and a number of Wastelanders with me, for the eventual final assault on the enemies who still hold the remaining sections of Haven City, especially since it does look like you have a number of Tainted hanging out near the Port."

"Speaking of which, am I correct in assuming that you guys came up with a plan for that dark tower?" Jak asked, because due to everything he and his sisters had done so far he knew that Ashelin and the others had more than enough time to come up with a plan of sorts to take down the last of Errol's strongholds, so they could focus on finding and turning on the Planetary Defense System and blow up the Dark Maker ship, once it had time to charge and anyway, since they had no idea what sort of weapon was down there.

"We do, though we aren't giving it to you four." Torn stated, where Jak and his sisters raised their eyebrows for a moment, as it seemed weird to them since they were usually the ones heading out and doing all sorts of things to make sure their forces could overcome their enemies, but they remained silent as they listened to the plan that Ashelin, Torn, and the rest of the team had come up with, "I'm going to be piloting one of the Eco Canister vehicle, like the one you recovered not too long ago, into the heart of the Tainted's section of Haven City, which Keira and Jinx have rigged with enough explosives to take out what we suspect might be the front entrance of the tower in question, though while we do that we're also sure it will draw the attention of the remaining Tainted and KG Robots, in an attempt to try and stop us. To that end Jinx will be in the vehicle following behind me, to make sure we don't lose the explosives, and we were planning on asking either one of you or Sig to be the pilot of that vehicle, while someone else uses the gun to take down whatever enemies might show up when we start this operation... of course the rest of you are free to follow along, as once the way is open we'll be asking all of you to head in and disrupt Errol's forces."

Jak paused for a moment and then nodded his head, as he understood that this was more about them defending the Eco vehicle and making sure none of them expanded their energy too much, as they could be ready for whatever was inside the dark tower that rested at the end of the Tainted's section of Haven City, and did nothing as he and his sisters waited for Torn to get ready for his part of this mission, while Sig joined Jinx and Keira in making sure the cruiser that they would be using was ready to go. It wasn't long before Torn informed everyone that he was ready, which was followed by Keira revealing that the cruiser was ready to go, to which the group that was going to be delivering the payload to the entrance of the dark tower departed from the HQ and quickly used the lift to head down to where both vehicles were waiting, while Twilight and her sisters floated behind the cruiser that Jak climbed into, taking the gunner position. Once they were ready to go Torn activated his vehicle and took off, where Sig and the others followed after him without delay while keeping a bit of separation between them, though as they started to leave the renovated section of the city Starlight, Twilight, Cozy, and Jak noticed that flying enemies started to move into the area in an attempt to take Torn down, leading to either Jak blasting them apart or one of his sisters smashing them. It didn't take them long to reach the barrier between the Slums and the area that the HQ rested in, where they found more of the KG Robots standing in their way, leading to Jak focusing on those that were nearby while his sisters tore into the other enemies that were nearby, though not even the Tainted that showed up stood much of a chance against their combined skills, something that put a smile on Sig's face as they smashed their way through all of the enemies that tried to take Torn down.

Thanks to all of their efforts it took them little effort to deliver the payload to their intended target, where Torn guided the vehicle towards what appeared to be the base of the dark and twisted tower, making sure to line it up so he didn't miss his mark, and then jumped off the vehicle, landing off to the left side of the area they were in, as the vehicle drove right into the entrance and exploded, tearing a large hole for Jak and his sisters to use.

"Oh yeah, they're hurting real bad now." Sig stated, where he pulled the cruiser in close to where the hole was located and stood up for a moment, with a big smile on his face as he imagined what had happened to the enemies that had been on the other side of the new opening, before he pulled out four interesting devices that looked like small missiles with tips on both sides, which had to be the newest and final Dark Eco modification for their weapons, "Move and groove chill peppers, you know what to do!"

Jak nodded as he jumped forward, catching his Super Nova and attaching it to his gun as he invaded the tower, while his sisters did the same thing as they flew by Sig, though the first thing they found was that there happened to be a Light Eco Vent inside Errol's second domain, one that likely stabilized the tower and allowed it to spread it's corruption throughout the surrounding area, though they paid it no mind as they advanced into the main structure and opened fire on the army of Dark Troopers and Dark Critters that were in front of them. Based on what they could see the Dark Critters were a mass of dark energy given form, forming an upper body and a lower body that moved similar to a crab, mostly due to the four limbs they had, plus there were a number of Dark Flyers moving through the air as well, though that didn't stop Jak and his sisters, or their Ottsels for that matter, from slashing, blasting, and tearing their way through the enemies that Errol sent to defeat them. One thing they discovered was that wiping out the enemies in an area caused some changes in the rest of their environment, like platforms moving into place, though as that happened Twilight noticed a number of enemies even further away and smiled as she raised her right hand for a moment, where she released a Super Nova charge and stood still as she, her siblings, and their companions waited to see what happened next, where her attack struck a Trooper that was part of a large group and detonated in a large explosion that made them cover their eyes for a moment. Once they opened their eyes they found that an entire group of enemies had been wiped out, meaning they wouldn't have to worry about them later on, causing Jak and his sisters to continue their assault as Daxter and the brothers, in their hybrid forms, slashed and tore into some of the other enemies that attempted to take them down, showing Errol that nothing he tried was going to slow them down.

In the end their combined powers allowed them to tear through the dark tower, breaking the Dark Army that stood in their way, where Jak was sure that Errol was cowering in his metallic feet as he witnessed them advancing through his domain, and sure enough they found the damaged cyborg standing at the peak of the tower, where he looked like he was terrified of Jak and his sisters, especially at the rapid pace they were evolving their powers and skills, to the point where not even an army like this could bring them down. Instead of saying anything Twilight smiled at Errol and held her hand out, where everyone paused for a second as the tower was torn out of the ground, roots and all, something that caused Starlight to do something new, she added her power to the mix and the tower started to crumble on itself, starting from the bottom of it all and headed for where they were standing. In that moment Errol glared at them, like he wanted to stand and fight, or say something to intimidate Jak and his sisters, but the display of power was more than enough for him to consider taking another loss, especially if he planned on taking the ultimate victory over them, though Cozy rushed up to him and tore his left arm right out of its socket, dragging the still damaged limp with her as she returned to her siblings. Once she did that Errol decided to flee for real and headed through another modified Warp Gate that was at the back of the room, though as soon as he was gone Jak collected a Dark Eco Crystal and deactivated the device, allowing him and his sisters to leave the tower through an opening that was behind them, though Twilight and Starlight made sure to finish the job as they crushed the rest of the tower into a small condensed sphere.

With that Jak chuckled as they headed back down to the ground so they could regroup with their shocked friends, as that display must have shocked them as well, before heading back to the HQ and figuring out what else needed to be done for their war effort, before they launched an assault on the Catacombs and brought this war to an end, one Jak was sure they were going to win and finally bring peace to their world once the Dark Makers were no longer a threat to them and those they fought to protect.