//------------------------------// // Brink: Sector Zero // Story: Jak and Daxter: Heirs of Mar // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// While Twilight was resting in the room Phoenix provided for her, as she needed it after everything she had been through since they came to this place, Jak, Starlight, Cozy, and Keira got some useful information from Naomi, where she disliked Duke Skyheed, far more than a pirate normally would, due to the fact that her crew were currently prisoners in Aeropa, hence why she had been so interested in forming a new crew to get them back. She freely admitted that there was only so much she knew about being a Sage, especially the Sage of Blue Eco, so she was more like Keira, meaning she happened to be in the training stages of her power and that it would take some time before she reached the level that the siblings were at, or at least the level that one could reach with her type, as she honestly felt that reaching Twilight's level would be next to impossible for her. Naomi then went on to explain that two of her crew, those who served as her fellow captains no less, despite them referring to her whenever decisions needed to be made, were her sisters, in bond and not in blood, Augusta, who just so happened to be the Red Sage, and Evelyn, the Yellow Sage as Daxter correctly guessed, not that it was hard since Keira was the Green Sage. Part of her mission was to track down where Skyheed was holding her crew, break them out and recover their ships, and then declare war on him once more, because they had sworn to do everything to protect their world and not put themselves above it, which made Jak and his sisters wonder if they might have come into contact with Gol and Maia at some point, since those two seemed to travel the world while Eon worked with his assistants, due to the fact that their father had them as his advisors for some time. The funny thing was that Naomi informed them that she was a descendant of the Blue Sage from their days in Sandover, Augusta was the same for the Red Sage, and Evelyn, as the group predicted, happened to be a descendant of the Yellow Sage, though when she asked why it was funny it was Keira's turn to tell her that she was the daughter of Samos, who had been the Green Sage at the same time as the three Sages in question. "So the stories about you coming from the past are true." Naomi remarked, though even as she said that one thing she understood was that Jak and his sisters were capable of far more than one would expect of people from the past, hence why she quickly figured out why people assumed they had been hiding in the shadows until they were ready to take down all of the enemies that stood in their way. "Yeah, but we're most known for saving Haven, Sanctuary, and the rest of the world," Daxter said, which was the truth of the matter, that the vast majority of the people preferred to think about everything they had done since emerging from Praxis' facility a long time ago, which was just a bit of confirmation that their time in Sandover was lost to history, save for those who came from that time period, before he shrugged, "Don't worry, you'll get used to it." "So... what's happening to Twilight? Because that's not normal." Naomi asked, showing that, while she was surprised by all the information that had been shared with her, she was worried about Twilight and the changes that were overtaking her body, which was understandable when Jak considered the sheer amount of pain she had been in earlier, like her body was breaking and reforming or something. "...we're not totally sure..." Jak replied, as while they did have some idea what was going on, thanks to Eon's information on the matter, this was far beyond anything that he and his sisters had been expecting, so it was safe to say that Starlight and Cozy would likely be experiencing this at some point in time, even if he hoped that such a thing never happened to them, not after seeing what was happening to Twilight, "All we have been able to figure out is that she is unique, even among all of us, and that her body can no longer handle her great power... had we thought she would battle you in her current state, and draw in so much power to show you that she couldn't be beaten, one of us would have stepped in, especially given all the pain she was in earlier." As Naomi nodded Jak glanced over to Keira for a moment, as he also shared her position on not liking to lie to their brand new allies about things, though the Precursor evolution was something that was better left unexplained, as if people knew the truth it would break the illusion that Eon and the others had been weaving, though at the same time he knew that it was only a matter of time until it was broken, especially given Twilight's transformation. While he and his sisters thought about that, and considered what to do about Twilight's condition, Keira revealed something interesting as she finished her studies of the second Coordinate Sphere and the Eco Seeker, the second sphere happened to be masking the presence of the third sphere, hence why it had been so hard for them to track it down until this point in time. She also informed them that the signal in question was weak, far more than anything they had experienced so far, which either meant the artifact was running low on Eco again or the last sphere was in danger of being lost forever, to which Jak got up and headed to the control section of the Phantom Blade, setting a course for their next destination, an area that seemed to be back in the direction of Skyheed's research station. The problem, in Phoenix's eyes, was that it might actually be in the Vortex, part of Sector Zero, an area beyond the Brink that had been totally destroyed by the Vortex, meaning it was something Jak and the others would have to keep an eye out for when they reached whatever area happened to be their destination, even if Jak knew this was more of a mission for their Hellcat if it was inside the mass Phoenix had mentioned. Sure enough the Eco Seeker brought them to Sector Zero, a massive dark green colored area that had twisted rock spires growing out all over the place, making Jak and his sisters wonder if this place was more like a bleeding wound and that all of this was Green Eco, like something had punctured one of the Spirits who called this place home, but they discovered that Twilight was up and ready to go, so she joined her siblings as they departed in the Hellcat. "Hopefully when we fix the Eco Core this place gets fixed as well," Twilight commented, staring at the destruction that was all around them, no doubt caused by rampant energy of some manner at some point in the past, Eco possibly being mixed with part of Feolorath's own power, before she focused on their mission and the Vortex that happened to be in front of them, which Jak was focused on, "Keria's sure that the Coordinate Sphere is down there..." "Of course it would be down there." Jak replied, though that was mostly due to the fact that it seemed like a good place to hide something, instead of it being the only place around here that seemed like a good hiding spot, especially since there wasn't much landmass in this place, to which he sighed as he flew over the rest of Sector Zero and zeroed in on the Vortex that was at the heart of it, "Hang on guys, this is going to be tricky." As Jak descended into the Vortex they found that it was more like a tunnel after some time, one that was full of fragments from a number of ships that must have come here seeking treasure, or they were from whatever this place had been, just before the Vortex tore everything apart, so Jak made sure to avoid the debris while he followed the signal of the last piece of the puzzle they needed to track down the Eco Core, or whatever the Eco Seeker was pointing to. What surprised them all was that a number of ghost ships, which were transparent based on what they were seeing, appeared while they flew down the passage, something that caused Daxter and Tess to open fire on their new enemies when they were fired upon first, mostly since they wanted to be sure the ghost ships were enemies before tearing them apart. One thing they noticed was that when a ghost ship was destroyed a bunch of Green Eco was released, or a gas version of Green Eco as Twilight studied what was going on, though such a thing meant that the energy that gave them a second life should return to this font of energy, or at least it should as she watched one ship's power break out as Daxter wrecked it's form and it headed down the passage for a time before reforming. Such a thing meant that if they wanted to break the curse of this area, all to break whatever curse happened to be placed on this part of the Brink, it was either going to be after they dealt with the Eco Core or one of them was going to have to do something about the Vortex, like seize control of the energy and direct it in a more positive manner, but Twilight knew if she did that it would be the final straw in her transformation. Despite her thoughts on the matter, and what they could do at some point in the future, Jak reached what had to be the very bottom of the Vortex and claimed the Coordinate Sphere that happened to be down there, though with it in hand he turned around and headed back to the surface with as much speed as he could muster, especially when he called ahead to tell Keira that they had been successful. Jak, girls, I'm afraid we have some bad news, something big just appeared on the radar Keira said, though they had a feeling they knew what was going on, hence why Jak focused on getting out of the Vortex as his sisters got ready for the fight that would happen once they were no longer traveling through the passage that lead to the third Coordinate Sphere, especially when they considered what had happened since they came to the Brink, Oh no, it's the Behemoth! "Great, and now Skyheed is here," Starlight remarked, because none of them were happy to hear that they had company, much less someone who willingly twisted his people into mutants that were supposed to be Dark Warriors, a program that was basically a total failure unless the individual in question happened to be a Sage, as anyone else either died or where driven mad with insanity, at least during Praxis' dark days until Kor's influence. Sure enough when they burst out of the Vortex Jak and his sisters found that the Behemoth finished warping into the area and that it seemed ready to do battle with whoever happened to be in the area, even if next to no one remained in this ruined sector of the Brink, hence the reason it seemed to open fire on both their Hellcat and the Phantom Blade, showing them that Skyheed wanted to eliminate all enemies before resuming his foul quest. "I... I don't feel many people aboard the Behemoth," Twilight commented, because if Skyheed was here she assumed that both Augusta and Evelyn would be nearby, so he could keep an eye on them and secure their powers before they tried to do anything, but she didn't feel any Sages aboard the massive ship, in fact there weren't many Eco signatures to begin with when she thought about it, meaning the Behemoth was either a massive drone or their enemy had a way to hide himself and everyone else who had Eco inside them, where she assumed the former was correct. "Good, then we don't have to hold back." Cozy stated, where she wasted no time in tapping into her power, this time going all the way and calling all six colors to the surface for the first time in a long time, where Twilight watched as her hair and tail transformed into a rainbow flame, sort of like what happened when her sister took on her Dark Form, and the power she was channeling seemed to be that of a fully realized Prism Sage, this time without being in pain, while she also seemed to have a unicorn's horn now. Twilight had to assume that part of what they were seeing was due to her own transformation, that Cozy didn't want her to be in any additional pain after giving so much of herself to help them, before she stepped outside and burst into the air in a matter of seconds, allowing her to focus on the Behemoth, though she found that Starlight also decided to help her out, stepping outside as she focused on her powers, this time, against all odds, manifesting the same state that her sister had right now. Jak chuckled as he saw that, as it seemed like all the pain Twilight had been in, and all the trouble Skyheed was responsible for, had convinced their sisters to do everything in their power to bring down their enemy, which seemed to also unlock the last fragments of Cozy and Starlight's powers, where Daxter and Tess found that Starlight also had her own pair of pegasus wings, the feathers having a rainbow sheen to them, like Cozy's had. As the pair headed towards the ship, so they could take down all of Skyheed's drones, Jak put the Hellcat in a hover state before climbing out so he could stand on it's left wing, allowing him to watch and see what happened, before he closed his eyes as well as he thought about what his sisters must have done, that they had fully accepted their own powers before fully manifesting their Prism natures, as it seemed like Eon had been able to only them access to a vast majority of their powers and didn't have the time to bring all of it out, otherwise they would have beaten Eon without this world's aid. In that moment Twilight found that her brother was also changing, his hair taking on a rainbow sheen as well, like he was finally embracing his powers as well, and had to wonder if this was all her fault, because she had tired to shoulder so much to make sure none of them were in pain during this adventure, though at the same time this meant they were truly the four Prism Sages everyone knew about. Cozy focused her efforts on attacking the Behemoth, smashing into the power nodes that happened to be outside, as that would stop Skyheed in his tracks, while also flying over to some drones that were flying out to attack them, slicing them to bits with her claws, even if they were no longer dark and evil looking, they seemed more like what an angelic defender might use against their enemies. While she did that Starlight, despite not understanding how to fly with wings, flew around the ship as well as she found beams of dark energy rushing out to all of the smaller ships that were part of the graveyard that was around this sector, to which she tapped into that power and overrode whatever Skyheed was doing, reviving the armada that was resting here as an army of ships that opened fire on the Behemoth and the drones it possessed. Jak and Twilight, not to mention Daxter and Tess, stared at them in shock for a time as they witnessed what was going on right in front of them, even though Jak seemed to be keeping track of their foe and tapped his staff on the Hellcat's wing when he noticed that Skyheed was fleeing, calling his sisters back as Starlight dismissed her fleet, allowing them to return to their rest without having to worry about people like Skyheed bothering them. With that done the sisters returned to Jak, finding that when they released their powers their new alterations remained, informing Twilight that their kind likely had another state between Sage and Ottsel, the Alicorn state, meaning that the clock had started to tick for her sisters, though it would likely be a few years before they reached her level and started turning into Ottsels, unless there was another state that she skipped or something. As soon as everyone was back on the ship, and they were sure that the Behemoth was gone, they headed back towards the Phantom Blade, so they could give Keira the last of the Coordinate Spheres and figure out what the next step in this quest was, because if Skyheed was showing up now it meant they had to be close to the Eco Core and that they had to be careful moving forward from this point forward.