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// Interlude: Important Discussions 
// Story: Jak and Daxter: Heirs of Mar 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Following the celebration that was for Jak and his sisters, plus their team, overcome Mizo's obstacles and winning the rest of the KGC, Jak and Rayn held a meeting inside the very chamber that they had listened to Krew's will in, though at this point he knew that there was more to the will than just winning the Championship, as Krew had used them to rat out Mizo and take him down, to secure the rest of Kras City's criminal business for himself and for Rayn so their family could be the only one in charge of things, or at least the leader of them all. Of course they weren't the only ones inside the chamber, as Damas and Praxis, the rulers of Sanctuary and Haven respectively, had gathered as well, at Rayn's request to be more exact, while most knew that in due time Jak would take over things in Haven City, as that was part of his birthright as Damas' heir, though it wasn't important at the moment, not in Rayn's eyes. One thing Rayn expected was for Jak's sisters to be present as well, as the three of them also seemed like they would be important to any and all discussions, though as she thought about that Starlight and Cozy walked in, the former mentioning that the chamber was now protected from eavesdroppers, meaning she must have a spell to do such a thing, while Cozy sat off in a chair that happened to be to the table's right, from Rayn's seat anyway, so she could stare at the door and stop any interlopers from bothering them. It made her curious as to where the last sister might be, since she also expected Twilight to walk in and separate into all of her other selves so they could do, well, whatever it was that they might be doing, though before Starlight took a seat she walked over to Jak and whispered a few words to him, something that made Rayn curious as to what it might be and figured that it had something to do with the missing sister, which was followed by her taking her seat as well.

"Jak, as you no doubt know at this point, being Krew's daughter means I have taken over the family business, and with the death of Mizo I have taken over his business as well," Rayn said, deciding that she might as well break the silence that was hanging in the air and speak to those who had assembled in this part of Kras City, though she had to admit that after all she had seen, of Jak and his sisters, she was a little fearful of him and his potent Eco abilities, especially after seeing what his sisters were capable of, which also meant she had to respect the other leaders, otherwise he'd likely treat her badly or something to make her see the light, "allow me to be frank: I am now the main leader of the shadow sector of Kras City, as the other minor crime lords will be reporting to my people from this point forward... one could say that, with my official position, I could be considered the 'Queen' or 'Baroness' of Kras City. I'm not going to beat around the bush with all of you, as we all have things to do and people to talk with, so I'll get to the point... I, along with the other officials of this city, would like to join the coalition of cities that are currently under your banner, to join Kras with Haven and Sanctuary."

"What brought about this decision?" Damas asked, as he was curious as to why Rayn would decide on something like that, after just gaining control of everything in the shadow sector of this city, especially when he considered the fact that both he and Praxis had, and failed, to convince anyone in Kras to ally with Haven so they could deal with Kor and his Tainted, even though they both knew that a change had been made to those who wanted to rule from the shadows, they knew that the two cities had several powerful individuals protecting them.

"I'm no fool, I've seen a sample of the power that Jak and his sisters are capable of using, which confirms the stories we've heard about them... I'd rather not be on the other side of that power," Rayn admitted, as well she was supposed to be the fearless leader of the Rogue Court, as she was going to call it and needed to inform the minor crime lords once this very meeting was over, she had to admit that there were things she didn't want to tangle with and that included four people who could fight and take down a Dark Maker Terraformer, before she turned her attention to Jak again, "I'd rather be on the side who has that power, so I don't have to worry about that power being turned against me and the people of Kras if, say, one of the minor crime lords did something that greatly offended one of you... say like joining with whatever remains of the Dark Makers and started up plans to take Kras for their own goals... not that such a thing is happening, mind you, otherwise I would have said something before this point in time."

"I believe you." Jak stated, as one thing he had picked up while learning from Praxis and his father, while being with all of his sisters, was an idea of when someone was lying to him, usually because someone, usually Daxter at times, figured out when someone told them a lie, though as he considered that he noticed Daxter off to his left, sitting with Tess as the pair watched what was going on right now, before turning his attention to Rayn again, "We would be honored to have you and Kras as part of our coalition, which protects Feolorath... that's the name of our planet, which we learned from speaking to the Precursor Oracles... from the dangers that threaten it or might threaten it. However, we all know that you likely have a few terms that you want to meet before agreeing to join us officially..."

"Indeed, though I will not speak of stamping out my empire... you wouldn't be speaking to me if that was your plan," Rayn continued, because she knew that if Jak and his sisters had come here to stamp out her father and Mizo's business, a feat she knew they could likely do given what she had seen of Midnight's abilities, they would have crushed her as soon as they had taken Mizo down and proclaimed her to be an enemy of either Kras or their coalition, so since that hadn't happened it was easy for her to see that they had been planning on inviting the city to join Haven and Sanctuary, "plus it would be an exercise in futility, as some minor crime lords might survive and go on to be thorns in your side, so it would be better for us to do a little reorganization to my Shadow Empire. The only term is simple, and yet very important: legitimacy... I work to keep Kras operating smoothly and keep you in the loop of anything that happens, even possibly opening doors for you in any other lands that we might do business in, while the existing systems and rules adapt to incorporate us, to the point where we might be seen as a respectful Guild."

"That's a very big term that you're laying on the table." Praxis stated, though while one might expect them to be opposed to such a thing, and a tiny bit of him was thinking that way when he considered everything Krew was allowed to get away with before the siblings brought ruin upon him, he and Damas could see that Rayn had thought about this since the day her father had died, almost as if she knew that she would come into contact with Jak and his sisters, and had prepared for whatever happened after the Championship was over.

"It is the only card I have to play, in the face of the power that could overwhelm me," Rayn explained, as she was sure that if it wasn't for Twilight and her sisters she would have considered some other terms before offering them to Jak, but with Haven and Sanctuary having a number of Sages, the most powerful Eco wielders in the world, a potent connection to the Precursors or their important Oracles, something unheard of, and beings capable of taking down a Dark Maker machine the size of a mountain, her options were limited and her plan was to prove herself before seeing if there were more terms that could be negotiated between them, before she glanced at Jak, "What do you say, Jak?"

Jak knew that Rayn was asking for a lot, even if it was one term, but she had seen how he and his sisters operated with the rest of their team, knew that they had been striving to uniting their world to prepare for whatever the future held, a fight with a demonic empire if what Eon and that odd cheetah being had told them, a fact they hadn't told her about yet since it seemed so weird, and that to stand against them would bring death to those who opposed them, just like what happened to her father, Errol, and now Mizo, plus he could see that everyone else seemed to approve of the idea.

"I say that we have a deal... and that it will be good to work with you more in the future." Jak replied, because after all the time he, his sisters, and their team spent in Kras City, with Rayn being their link to the officials so they knew exactly what had to be done to reach all of the Grand Prix races they had tackled, even if it was all a ruse to find and take out Mizo, he knew that working with her would be good for everyone.

Damas smiled as he watched his son interact with Rayn and make sure the current terms were acceptable, which he knew they were since Jak agreed to them, as he was going to have a good future as a King, once his training was done and both he and Praxis finally retired, leaving the cities in the hands of him and his sisters, before wondering where Twilight went, as it was unlike one of his daughters to not be with the others, but he had the feeling that she'd be back in time and they would find something else to take down, to which he focused on Jak and what he had created. 





While Jak, Starlight, Cozy, and the others were busy in Kras City, speaking with Rayn about the future, Twilight returned to Haven City, by herself since she left Alvin and her brothers in the care of her siblings, where she stood on the high wall of the Port for a few moments, allowing her to think about what she was going to do next and the individuals she had to talk with about what she discovered back in Kras. A few seconds later she summoned her magic, making sure not to overdo it since her body was reacting in a way that would likely worry Eon when he discovered what was happening to her, unless he already knew and happened to be coming up with a way to help her out, as she locked onto the area that she wanted to teleport to, since she wasn't going to fly all the way over to the Catacombs entrance and fly down to the platform that Eon and the other Precursors called home. One thing she knew, from a few of the previous conversations she had with Gol and Maia, was that the previous Dark Sages were planning on creating their own observation base somewhere that would allow them to overlook Haven, or maybe Sanctuary since Eon's base was below Haven, though she still hadn't figured out why Gol or Maia wanted to do such a thing, other than moving out once they were fully trained, but she focused her mind and stopped letting it wander like before. In the following moments she vanished from where she had been standing and quickly reappeared in the depths of the planet, on the edge of the Planetary Defense System to be exact, where she held her right arm for a moment as she waited for any potential side effects from using magic, especially after everything that had happened so far, but when nothing happened she breathed a sigh of relief and walked forward a little.

Sure enough she found that Eon, Gol, and Maia were working in the central chamber of the massive metallic Oracle that had spoken to them when she and her siblings came down here, back when they were racing to destroy the Dark Maker ship Errol had activated, while the other two Ottsels, Eon's assistants, were absent, likely either checking in with the other Precursor groups or checking something out before reporting back to their boss, but since they seemed to be talking she came to a stop and decided not to interrupt, even if they were turning to look in her direction.

"Ah, Twilight, this is an unexpected surprise. We thought you would be in Kras City, with your siblings..." Eon said, though he cut himself off as he, Gol, and Maia noticed something odd, Twilight was now wearing a long sleeved jacket and just so happened to be rubbing her right arm, making it look a lot like she had done something wrong and had been called up to a supervisor's office, as some of the youngsters apparently said, where he suspected it was about the education system or something, before turning his attention back to Twilight, just like what his companions did, "What's wrong? You seem like you are distracted by something."

"I, um, wanted to talk to you, Gol, and Maia about the Ottselification Process," Twilight replied, as she didn't want to reveal her condition just yet, because she was still coming to terms with what was happening to her body and her powers, even if she was sure that Daxter and possibly Tess had noticed something off about her, even though she had to stop rubbing her arm, to avoid giving them an idea of what was happening to her, "I'm only curious since you said that my sisters and I, at some point in time, would transform into Ottsels as well."

"You have to remember that what we said was only a theory, since you three are from another world," Gol stated, as that was the key piece of information that she seemed to be forgetting, even though he could see that Maia was interested in why this conversation was happening now, since they had explained most of it after Errol's defeat, before he sighed as he thought about the information that Twilight seemed to be after, "but generally when a Sage reaches the point where their body can no longer hold their own power, like what happened to Maia and I, their body will be engulfed in a flash of light and they'll transform into an Ottsel... Daxter's light was covered by all the Dark Eco he fell into, hence why you didn't see it happen, and I suspect that the power of the change propelled him out to where you and your siblings were standing, so he wasn't stuck in the pool forever. That's it, the only way to become an Ottsel is a flash of light that issues an instant change in one's being... there is no 'process' or long winded transformation involved, as we're positive you, Starlight, and Cozy will follow what has happened to all of the Sages that came before you."

"Really? Than how do you explain this?!" Twilight asked, where she wasted no time in shifting her stance as she removed the jacket and pulled the right racing glove off of her right hand, allowing the two articles of clothing to fall to the floor and revealed that she was wearing a light blue shirt with no sleeves below her jacket, though she found that Eon, Gol, and Maia were no staring at her with shock on their faces, as they could see that her right arm had orange Ottsel fur and that her right hand was that of an Ottsel, just sized to fit her current body.

Gol and Maia moved forward immediately, directing her to sit so they could study her body and see what in the world was happening to her, as there were no records of this happening to any of the other Sages that had come before her, and the pair were referring to Eon's entire race, though they were also surprised that the changes only covered her right arm and hand right now, even if it seemed to be waiting before it spread further.

"Twilight, when did this start?" Eon asked, figuring that he might as well allow Gol and Maia to continue their work, since this was something none of them had been expecting and it was vital that they understood what going happening before their eyes, especially since it could happen to Starlight and Cozy, as both were similar to their sister and might follow in her footsteps at some point.

"About a week ago, after a day of racing and testing my limits," Twilight replied, though she focused on Eon as the former Dark Sages took notes on her altered arm, and all of the fur that had replaced her normal coloration, knowing that they would be interested in figuring out why this was happening right now, especially after everything she and her siblings had been through during their adventures, and they even took a sample of her Ottsel fur for later, "I figured that this wouldn't happen for a number of years, given what you guys told us after we helped take down Errol and his Dark Terraformer, and when it first started I thought it was just a fluke... until, well, my entire arm changed into this."

"We weren't expecting something like this to happen, since the transformation is instantaneous," Maia commented, as it was what had happened to her and her brother when they reached this point in their lives, their bodies couldn't hold their Sage powers and eventually the change washed over both of them, allowing them to awaken new powers in the end, not to mention meeting up with Eon and his attendants, before she focused on Twilight once more, who was clearly worried about what her body was going through, "the fact that this is happening to you, and you weren't instantly turned into one of us, means there's something different about you... I mean, we knew that because of the magic that you and your sisters wield in battle, but it's odd to think that such a thing is disrupting the natural process like this."

"The problem is figuring out what that difference is, since you have a few that we have discovered," Gol added, as the first of those differences was the one all of them were familiar with, Twilight and her other selves, which had caused him and his sister to make the suggestion that Twilight was going to become six Ottsels, a fact that was slowly becoming a reality, before he sighed, as this event was going to make things harder on them, "there's something we missed, something that makes you different from your sisters and the Sages that have gone through this process in the past."

"What, like I came from another world or something, and that inhabitants of two worlds were sent here?" Twilight asked, though it was more in a joking manner, since she didn't believe that such a thing given how similar she was to Starlight and Cozy, as in her mind if they were from two different worlds she would have likely appeared in her true form or maybe that of a human, before she let out a sigh as she turned towards Eon, "Please tell me you have something... anything... to tell me that doesn't make me feel like a freak..."

"Twilight, you aren't a freak... something unnatural is happening, that's all." Eon replied, though it was a surprise to see the sudden change in Twilight, that the slow transformation into an Ottsel was causing some harm to her, mentally anyway, as it made her think of herself in another light and he knew that they needed to snap her out of it, or find something else for her to consider while they worked on a way to help her out, before he considered something, "Now the three of us have found, during one of our previous studies on you and your sisters, that your energy signature is different from the energy signatures of your sisters... we originally assumed that it was due to the fact that you technically have six souls inside your body, which are the other versions of you that represent the other types of Eco. My guess is that with your unique set of circumstances, with Midnight and the others being a apart of you, the natural evolution of a Precursor has been... altered, which is the best word I can use to describe what we're seeing right now, to the point where we are seeing something new happen, something different that changes how we'll see things in the future."

"What we do know, according to what you've told us, is that these changes react to your powers," Maia said, as that was one of the things they had been able to uncover while talking to Twilight, which had, in part, pointed to them thinking that this was tied to her magic, though there were all sorts of things they didn't know and needed to test so she, Gol, and Eon could figure things out, hopefully without causing pain to Twilight's body, hence why she gathered a bit of Dark Eco above her right hand, "if that's the case, nothing should happen when I..."

Before Maia could finish her statement she and the others watched as her small sphere of Dark Eco, which she pressed into Twilight's chest to see if something would happen if she used her own Eco powers on the Equestrian that was in front of them, simply disappeared and the Ottsel fur on her arm shuddered for a few seconds, a few bits reaching for the area that her collarbone was located in, even though it stopped after that happened.

"Okay, that's... unusual, to say the least," Gol remarked, though that was an understatement right now, as Twilight's body was now reacting to the limited Eco that was in the environment and any Eco that was used on her, where the former was similar to how he, Maia, and the other Ottsels operated, their states allowed them to interact with the Eco around them, before he considered what exactly had just happened, "however, this does confirm that your body is starting to both look and behave like ours, meaning that using any of your powers, be they magical or Eco in nature, will eventually cause more changes to wash over your body... until you become an Ottsel, like all of the Sages that came before you."

"So the only way for me to slow down this transformation is to stop using my powers?" Twilight inquired, because it was starting to sound like the only way she could remain in this state, without causing the changes to spread all over her body, was to stop using her powers, something that had been with her since the day she was born, causing a look of defeat to appear on her face as she sat there, "I'm not going to beat around the bush or lie to you, I'm not sure that I'll be able to do such a thing, given that I've been using both my magic and Eco powers for a long time, to the point where they're second nature to me... the transformation is going to overwhelm me..."

"Sadly, there is nothing we can do to assist you, as any Eco used on you, be it your own or someone else's, will cause more changes to wash over you," Eon replied, though he wished that there was something he could do to help Twilight, just like how he could tell that Gol and Maia were feeling the same way right now, and he suspected that even if there was a way for them to restrict her powers, like a device of some kind, it would have to be fueled by Eco and it might just cause her to progress at a more rapid pace than what they were seeing, to which he sighed, "but based on our calculations, if you were to abstain from using both your magic and Eco powers you might have a month, maybe two, before the rest of your body starts to change and follows what has happened to your right arm... I'm afraid that your time in our Sage state is almost over, and there's nothing we can do to stop what's coming up next."

Twilight sighed as she replaced her jacket and glove, as it felt like her life was spiraling out of control since there was no way for her to stop the changes and she had no control over anything, especially with the creeping transformation, which she had Eon, Gol, and Maia promise not to tell Jak and her sisters, as she wanted to do it when she was ready to embrace her soon to be true nature, before heading back to Haven, by using a Warp Gate and not her magic, and waiting to see what the future held for her and her siblings.