A Matter of Time - Chapter Twenty
Oct. 29th, 2009 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lithic_runeTitle: A Matter of Time
Fandom: Jak and Daxter
Rating: PG13
Summary: When Jak first landed in Haven City, Erol wasn't the one to find him. Now he must face a future he is ill prepared for, and even with help from Sig and Damas, there's no guarantee that he'll survive.
Main characters: Jak, Sig, Damas
Ships: Genfic
Spoilers: Jak 1, Jak 2, and Jak 3
First chapter.
Previous chapter.
Next chapter.
As always, comments/suggestions/criticism welcome.
-Chapter Twenty-
The door that should only have opened in the presence of an heir of Mar was completely destroyed. Damas grimly picked his way through the rubble, which thankfully did not extend to the walkway just beyond the door. If that had been damaged, it would have made things infinitely more difficult.
"Be ready when we reach the bottom," he cautioned Sig, keeping his voice low. "This chamber is partially flooded with water, and the fish that live within it are aggressive."
Sig nodded, his eyes already casing the dimly lit room. "Which way are we headed?"
Under normal circumstances, Damas would have pointed to one of the platforms on either side of the room, knowing that the door to the Precursor stone would not open until the tomb's trials had been completed. However, these were hardly normal circumstances. His eyes went to the far end of the room, half-expecting to see that door smashed as well. He wasn't disappointed.
"Through the door on the other side," Damas said, pulling the scarf from around his head. In this place there was no need to disguise himself and he didn't want his vision obscured in the least. "That is where-"
A shriek of outrage cut him off. "No! I will not be thwarted again!"
Both Wastelanders stiffened, but it was only confirmation of what they already knew: the Metal Heads had accessed Mar's tomb. But what it also meant was that the Metal Heads were still here. It might not be too late to stop them - especially, it sounded, since something or someone else was getting in their way.
Without a moment's hesitation, Damas stepped off the walkway and into the shallow water on the floor. Water splashed softly as their feet swept through it, but that could hardly be avoided. Nor, he knew, was there any way to avoid alerting the fish to their presence. They'd only made it a few feet into the water before the first creature surfaced with a growl. Damas almost didn't hear it over the sudden snarl that echoed from across the chamber.
"Open the Rift Gate, boy..."
The rest was lost to Damas' ears, his attention too focused on the threat at hand. Lifting his staff with both hands, he aimed the butt of it straight for the slimy head. The sharp sound of blaster fire accompanied the sickening crunch as the blow connected, and the thing was dead before its body even sunk below the water. Damas glanced at Sig, earning a wry shrug from the dark-skinned man. The king smiled humorlessly. It was good to know that they both had quick reflexes. They might need them in the coming confrontation.
The relative silence of the chamber was broken again by a screech that tore through the chamber. "Wrong answer!" the Metal Head roared.
And then there was nothing but screams.
Damas' blood ran cold, especially when he realized how young that voice was. Galvanized into action, he threw caution to the wind and raced across the chamber, regardless of the fish that chased after him. Behind him, Sig sprinted to keep up, cursing under his breath. Scream after scream ripped through the air.
Knowing better than to burst in without taking stock of the situation, the two pulled up just short of the door and took advantage of the cover the broken pieces provided. Slowly, cautiously, they raised their heads over the edge. The Metal Head in the room was easily spotted and its back was to them as it crouched over something it had pinned to the floor in front of the statue. That something, Damas realized, was the person who was screaming, his form writhing in torment as the Metal Head dragged eco-laden claws across his chest. Jak. Though he wasn't particularly surprised, Damas' jaw clenched when he recognized the teen.
"I can make this stop, boy," the Metal Head promised. As though to demonstrate, the dark eco stopped sparking around its fingers and it lifted its hand just enough so that it was no longer shredding skin. Jak's screams tapered off into breathless gasps, though his face was still tight with pain. Immediately, his hand went up to try to pry away the claws that held him down. For a moment, the Metal Head just watched him with sadistic amusement. "Or," it said almost conversationally as it moved its claws down, down so that they hovered right above the lowest of Jak's blood-soaked bandages. "I can make it worse!" With a surge of dark eco, the Metal Head plunged its claws into the boy's side, and once again the air shattered with the sound of Jak's screams.
Biting back a curse, Damas ducked back down and gestured at Sig. With a wordless nod, the other man grimly handed him Jak's gun, then pulled his Peacemaker off his back. This was not a fight where a staff would be useful, especially when their enemy was on the other side of a broken bridge. Damas set his staff aside and held up his hand. On my signal.
"It's your choice, boy," the Metal Head said. "All you have to do is open the Gate and this will all be over."
Damas waited only long enough for Jak's screams to die down - a sign that the Metal Head no longer had its claws in him - then dropped his hand to the barrel of his gun. Now! He and Sig rose as one, their guns blazing the moment they cleared the door. The monster screeched and reared back under the assault, then whirled around to face them faster than Damas would have thought possible. Bright light gathered around its forehead and blasted straight for them before it had even finished moving. Damas threw himself to the side just in time to avoid the wave of black and purple destruction, while Sig was able to use the broken doors for cover.
Then the Metal Head's eyes fell on him and its wrath was diminished by surprise. "What? You!" Dropping back down to stand on all six legs, it eyed the king, not seeming to care that he was still shooting. "Damas of the House of Mar, you are supposed to be dead."
Damas grunted in disgust at his weapon's performance, but it was never meant to go up against a Metal Head of this size. The best he could hope to do with it would be to distract his enemy while Sig charged his Peacemaker or hope that he could land a shot in a particularly sensitive place. Either way, it would keep the monster's attention off of Jak, who was clutching his side in agony as he tried to crawl away. The trail of blood he left behind was more than a little disturbing.
"The rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated," Damas said dryly as he aimed. "Praxis made certain of that."
The Metal Head swatted aside the blaster's next shot, then, surprisingly, it burst out laughing. "Yes, the man has been known to lie. Still, this works out perfectly for me." Bending down suddenly, it wrapped its hand around Jak's stomach before the boy had made it very far, then held him up so that Damas could see him clearly. Jak struggled against its grip, kicking and clawing at the monster's hand as he tried to twist free, but it was to no avail - especially once the monster put its claws to his throat.
"Tell me, Damas," it said, its eyes glinting with malicious intent. "What would you do to save your son?"
What? Damas' hands stilled, and not just because Jak was now being held hostage. The question had caught him off guard, and what it implied... He narrowed his eyes. "My son is not here. Do not think to fool me with your lies, Metal Head."
"Oh, but he is," the Metal Head countered slyly. Its claws slid up Jak's neck, then forced him to tilt his chin, sinking in just deep enough to leave bright spots of blood in their wake. When the boy tried to pull away, the Metal Head only pushed its claws deeper, trapping Jak's head against its chest. The boy choked back a sound of pain. "He's right here, Damas. Don't you recognize him?"
Damas shook his head, ignoring Jak's very wide eyes. What it was suggesting was impossible. His voice was flat when he responded. "Jak is not my son. He is far too old."
The Metal Head laughed again. "Only a few minutes ago, just before you showed up, your son went through a Rift Gate that took him to the past. But now he's come back, all grown up, and I ask you again: don't you recognize him?"
Damas' eyes narrowed. It's lying. It is saying whatever it thinks will put me off balance the most.
And yet, against his will, he saw again the similarities between Jak and his son. With sun and age, Mar's rebellious green hair could easily become Jak's shade of yellow, and even as young as his son was the last time he'd seen him, he could still tell that the boy would take after his mother in terms of size and build. He would be short and thin and wiry... just like Jak. And they could both channel eco...
He angrily derailed these thoughts. "You expect me to believe that time travel is possible?"
"How else do you explain how I knew where Mar's tomb is?" Letting go of Jak's chin, the Metal Head began exploring a wound on his shoulder, its claws slicing through the bandages that had been wrapped around it. Jak gasped when the first sharp tip slipped inside and started digging in, bringing forth a fresh new flow of blood. His hand desperately came up and tried to pull the claw away. "And why," the Metal Head said, ignoring his effort, "would I go to all this effort, bringing together a Rift Gate, an heir of Mar, and the Precursor stone, if I did not expect to have something to gain? Why not just take that Precursor egg and feast on its power instead?"
From the corner of his eye, Damas noticed a slight movement from Sig - a nod and a jerk of his head. His Peacemaker was charged again. All he needed was Damas' command. But with Jak in the Metal Head's hands, there would be no opportunity to use it without putting the boy in danger. They needed to get the Metal Head to put him down. But how?
"I'll tell you why!" the Metal Head went on without giving him a chance to respond. "In the last loop of time, I chased this boy when he went through the Rift Gate, only to be trapped when the gate closed before I made it through. That version of me waited until the boy opened the gate again, but again the boy eluded my grasp. However, though he was injured by the machine that boy used to knock him through the gate, my other self survived long enough to warn me of what was about to happen. In doing so, he changed history..." Its fingers tightened their grip on Jak and its face split into a grin when the boy arched his back with a cry of pain. "And now I intend to change it again."
Damas' hands clenched as he watched. Jak was not in good condition. He was covered in blood and his struggles were beginning to weaken. Then, too, there was the disturbing factor of hearing the boy scream when he'd been all but silent for as long as the king had known him. He cannot take much more of this.
Even as he came to this conclusion, the Metal Head leaned in and began to nuzzle and lick at its victim's wounds, seeming to relish the strangled choking Jak made each time its tongue slid over savagely parted flesh. The boy twisted in the creature's hand, trying to push it away with his one good arm, but the Metal Head just laughed and captured both his arms, then adjusted its lower grip to bare the boy's stomach. "Your son's blood is very sweet, Damas," it said as it poised its teeth over Jak's exposed flesh. "Are you certain you do not want to save him?"
Damas didn't believe the Metal Head's story, not for one minute. It was too convenient and too far fetched. But Jak did not have time for his skepticism. He needed to act fast. "What is it that you want?" he demanded. He didn't have to fake the glare that he shot at the leering creature.
Apparently, this was the exact reaction the Metal Head was hoping for. It laughed again, this time with a note of triumph, and released Jak's legs so that it could pick up the green stone that had been lying at its feet. "Channel the energy in this stone and open this gate. Do anything else and I will rip this boy's entrails out without a second thought."
The Precursor stone. Damas recognized it from the last time he'd been to this place. Do not touch it without reason, his father had warned him. It is powerful and dangerous. There is a reason why Mar hid it within his tomb. Even so, Damas set his gun aside and nodded his acceptance of the Metal Head's terms. He did not look at Sig, though he gestured subtly with his fingers. Wait for the opportunity. The Metal Head had not said anything to or about the other man, leaving Damas to wonder if the creature had even seen him before he'd ducked back down. If it hadn't, that could definitely be used to their advantage.
Satisfied with Damas' gesture of submission, the Metal Head set the stone back down right in front of the Precursor ring before returning its claws to Jak's stomach, ready to fulfill its promise if Damas did not do as it said. The boy's face was already screwed up tight with pain, the injuries in his shoulder and arm being done no favors by hanging from the monster's grip on his arms. Still, he managed to meet Damas' eyes, and he shook his head frantically. Don't do it!
Damas kept his face impassive. It was admirable that Jak was willing to die to thwart the Metal Head's plan, but it would not be necessary. Trust me, he tried to communicate. The boy should know that he was not one to be taken advantage of so easily.
Eyeing the gap in the bridge for only a moment to gauge the distance, Damas took off at a dead run, his feet pounding the short distance to the first ledge and timed just so that the last step hit the edge before propelling him into a powerful leap. Even with the added momentum, though, he barely managed to grab onto the other broken side. His legs swung and dangled above the yawning pit, and the flap of his cloak whispered to him just how close that jump had been. He ignored it in favor of pulling himself up. The Metal Head's eyes glittered as it watched him.
Once he had solid ground under his feet again, the king strode as calmly as his screaming instincts would allow. He had never come this close to a Metal Head so large without a weapon in hand, and his muscles tensed with every step that brought him that much closer to the Metal Head's reach. The Metal Head hunched down like a spider in its trap, but it didn't attack him even when he stepped off onto the platform.
Somehow, that made the feeling of wrongness worse.
Even so, Damas forced himself to keep going, heading straight for the Precursor stone despite the threat that loomed only a few feet away. Dropping to one knee, he let the tips of his fingers brush the stone, absorbing the first shock of power before scooping it up with one hand. His skin tingled and prickled, but he ignored the feeling and stood up. His other hand lifted to touch the Precursor ring.
Jak's voice croaked desperately. In spite of himself, Damas glanced at the boy, surprised by the words he almost thought he'd heard. The vowels were all wrong, sounding scraped and raw, but the consonants... Jak immediately caught his eyes and shook his head again, his mouth opening to try to repeat the warning.
But the Metal Head viciously bit into the thickest part of his leg, turning his attempted speech into another cry of pain. Damas stiffened, but before he could even think to act, the Metal Head's jaws released their hold, leaving Jak gritting his teeth in agony. Blood quickly soaked his now-tattered pants and he looked like he was having trouble even holding his head up. He was probably this close to passing out.
The Metal Head didn't seem to care. "Open the Rift Gate, Damas," it growled. "And no more delays. I grow tired of waiting." It didn't need to state its threat to make it clear.
The muscles in Damas' jaw clenched and he glared right back, but he knew there was nothing he could do at the moment without putting his plan in jeopardy. Even so, his voice was laced with steel when he responded. "If you kill him, I will have no reason to cooperate, Metal Head."
"Then I would just have to kill you and settle for devouring that Precursor egg," the Metal Head shot back. "Either way, I stand to gain. Now do as I say or there won't be any chance of your son living to see another day!"
It grated on him to back down, even in pretense, but with a snarl, Damas turned his attention back to the green stone in his hand. Power pulsed in response, his long experience with channeling eco making it easy to draw it out. Green-white lightning coursed through his limbs, racing through his blood and nerves like a creature possessed, then passed through his fingers into the Precursor ring. A low hum started to fill the air.
Then Damas cut it off with a stagger that had him leaning against the ring for support. Gasping for breath, he dropped to his knees, his nerveless fingers almost losing their grip. "I... can't..."
The Metal Head reared up and slammed its front feet down in a fit of rage, making the whole platform shake. "You can!" it insisted. "Do not think you can lie to me, Damas! Your son was more than capable of performing this task, and he is barely into adolescence!"
"I do not have his talent for channeling eco!" Damas snapped. "If you want this gate open, I will need his help." And there it was, the bid he'd been trying to make this whole time. He had to force himself not to hold his breath while he waited for the Metal Head to react.
At first, the creature said nothing, its eyes boring into him suspiciously as it considered what he was asking. Damas lifted his chin, as though determined not to show any weakness, but he let his breath come out ragged and uneven to undermine this image. He even went so far as to allow his limbs to tremble from exhaustion. It was important that the Metal Head think him unable to do this by himself.
Finally, the Metal Head snorted with contempt and unceremoniously dropped its captive. Jak's body crumpled the moment it hit the ground. "Very well," the Metal Head sneered, using its tail to shove the teenager forward. "Though I do not see how much help he can possibly be." Indeed, Damas wasn't certain that the shock of hitting the ground hadn't knocked the boy out.
It didn't matter. Under the pretense of checking on the boy's condition, he pulled Jak into his arms and away from the looming creature. The blood that slicked his body made it difficult to get a firm grip, and there were so many wounds to avoid, but soon Damas held him, shielding him, with the Precursor stone sandwiched uncomfortably between, and he raised his hand to signal Sig.
Now!
Electric blue light blazed through the room almost before Damas had lifted his hand, and the air shattered with an unholy shriek as the attack slammed into the Metal Head's chest. It wasn't enough to kill it, nor was it enough to knock it off of the ledge, but with a new and very deadly threat to focus on, the monster completely ignored both him and Jak. Without a moment's hesitation, Damas reached for the energy of the stone-
-only to find that eco was already crackling around Jak's broken body. The boy's eyes were open in a glare of determination and pain that was aimed straight at the Metal Head's back. Damas nearly swore out loud as more and more energy poured into the child's body, more than he could possibly handle safely, but though Jak's breath came harsh and rapid, he continued to draw the eco in.
"No!" Damas' hand clamped down on Jak's which had somehow found its way up to the stone. Eco danced across his skin, jumping back and forth between the two of them until Damas managed to catch the energy and hold it in his body. He glared angrily down into the boy's blue eyes. "You will not do this alone!"
Black and purple light flared overhead as the Metal Head shot back at Sig and something exploded, but Damas refused to look away from the stupid, reckless, incredibly stubborn boy in his arms. Jak's eyes widened briefly.
Then something flickered in his expression and he nodded, relinquishing some of his control over the Precursor stone's energy. Damas readily took over, pulling in eco even as he twined what he had with the power that Jak continued to hold. The energy reverberated between them, growing in intensity until it raged around them like storm, until all it needed was a gesture from Damas' hand before it leaped out straight for a target it couldn't miss.
It was like watching lightning strike a scorpion in the desert - only this scorpion was much larger and could scream as it fried and scrabbled and thrashed. Its tail whipped around and crashed into the Precursor ring, denting the thing badly enough that the metal actually cracked, but its efforts to maintain its balance were blown to pieces when another blast from Sig's Peacemaker slammed into its devastated body. With another screech, the Metal Head staggered.
But there was no ground where it tried to place its feet, and its scream echoed and echoed as it fell into the abyss. It was several long moments before there was silence.
Then Sig whooped with victory as he finally strode into the room. "Hell, yeah! And that's why you don't mess with Wastelanders!"
-End Chapter Twenty-
Next chapter.
Fandom: Jak and Daxter
Rating: PG13
Summary: When Jak first landed in Haven City, Erol wasn't the one to find him. Now he must face a future he is ill prepared for, and even with help from Sig and Damas, there's no guarantee that he'll survive.
Main characters: Jak, Sig, Damas
Ships: Genfic
Spoilers: Jak 1, Jak 2, and Jak 3
First chapter.
Previous chapter.
Next chapter.
As always, comments/suggestions/criticism welcome.
The door that should only have opened in the presence of an heir of Mar was completely destroyed. Damas grimly picked his way through the rubble, which thankfully did not extend to the walkway just beyond the door. If that had been damaged, it would have made things infinitely more difficult.
"Be ready when we reach the bottom," he cautioned Sig, keeping his voice low. "This chamber is partially flooded with water, and the fish that live within it are aggressive."
Sig nodded, his eyes already casing the dimly lit room. "Which way are we headed?"
Under normal circumstances, Damas would have pointed to one of the platforms on either side of the room, knowing that the door to the Precursor stone would not open until the tomb's trials had been completed. However, these were hardly normal circumstances. His eyes went to the far end of the room, half-expecting to see that door smashed as well. He wasn't disappointed.
"Through the door on the other side," Damas said, pulling the scarf from around his head. In this place there was no need to disguise himself and he didn't want his vision obscured in the least. "That is where-"
A shriek of outrage cut him off. "No! I will not be thwarted again!"
Both Wastelanders stiffened, but it was only confirmation of what they already knew: the Metal Heads had accessed Mar's tomb. But what it also meant was that the Metal Heads were still here. It might not be too late to stop them - especially, it sounded, since something or someone else was getting in their way.
Without a moment's hesitation, Damas stepped off the walkway and into the shallow water on the floor. Water splashed softly as their feet swept through it, but that could hardly be avoided. Nor, he knew, was there any way to avoid alerting the fish to their presence. They'd only made it a few feet into the water before the first creature surfaced with a growl. Damas almost didn't hear it over the sudden snarl that echoed from across the chamber.
"Open the Rift Gate, boy..."
The rest was lost to Damas' ears, his attention too focused on the threat at hand. Lifting his staff with both hands, he aimed the butt of it straight for the slimy head. The sharp sound of blaster fire accompanied the sickening crunch as the blow connected, and the thing was dead before its body even sunk below the water. Damas glanced at Sig, earning a wry shrug from the dark-skinned man. The king smiled humorlessly. It was good to know that they both had quick reflexes. They might need them in the coming confrontation.
The relative silence of the chamber was broken again by a screech that tore through the chamber. "Wrong answer!" the Metal Head roared.
And then there was nothing but screams.
Damas' blood ran cold, especially when he realized how young that voice was. Galvanized into action, he threw caution to the wind and raced across the chamber, regardless of the fish that chased after him. Behind him, Sig sprinted to keep up, cursing under his breath. Scream after scream ripped through the air.
Knowing better than to burst in without taking stock of the situation, the two pulled up just short of the door and took advantage of the cover the broken pieces provided. Slowly, cautiously, they raised their heads over the edge. The Metal Head in the room was easily spotted and its back was to them as it crouched over something it had pinned to the floor in front of the statue. That something, Damas realized, was the person who was screaming, his form writhing in torment as the Metal Head dragged eco-laden claws across his chest. Jak. Though he wasn't particularly surprised, Damas' jaw clenched when he recognized the teen.
"I can make this stop, boy," the Metal Head promised. As though to demonstrate, the dark eco stopped sparking around its fingers and it lifted its hand just enough so that it was no longer shredding skin. Jak's screams tapered off into breathless gasps, though his face was still tight with pain. Immediately, his hand went up to try to pry away the claws that held him down. For a moment, the Metal Head just watched him with sadistic amusement. "Or," it said almost conversationally as it moved its claws down, down so that they hovered right above the lowest of Jak's blood-soaked bandages. "I can make it worse!" With a surge of dark eco, the Metal Head plunged its claws into the boy's side, and once again the air shattered with the sound of Jak's screams.
Biting back a curse, Damas ducked back down and gestured at Sig. With a wordless nod, the other man grimly handed him Jak's gun, then pulled his Peacemaker off his back. This was not a fight where a staff would be useful, especially when their enemy was on the other side of a broken bridge. Damas set his staff aside and held up his hand. On my signal.
"It's your choice, boy," the Metal Head said. "All you have to do is open the Gate and this will all be over."
Damas waited only long enough for Jak's screams to die down - a sign that the Metal Head no longer had its claws in him - then dropped his hand to the barrel of his gun. Now! He and Sig rose as one, their guns blazing the moment they cleared the door. The monster screeched and reared back under the assault, then whirled around to face them faster than Damas would have thought possible. Bright light gathered around its forehead and blasted straight for them before it had even finished moving. Damas threw himself to the side just in time to avoid the wave of black and purple destruction, while Sig was able to use the broken doors for cover.
Then the Metal Head's eyes fell on him and its wrath was diminished by surprise. "What? You!" Dropping back down to stand on all six legs, it eyed the king, not seeming to care that he was still shooting. "Damas of the House of Mar, you are supposed to be dead."
Damas grunted in disgust at his weapon's performance, but it was never meant to go up against a Metal Head of this size. The best he could hope to do with it would be to distract his enemy while Sig charged his Peacemaker or hope that he could land a shot in a particularly sensitive place. Either way, it would keep the monster's attention off of Jak, who was clutching his side in agony as he tried to crawl away. The trail of blood he left behind was more than a little disturbing.
"The rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated," Damas said dryly as he aimed. "Praxis made certain of that."
The Metal Head swatted aside the blaster's next shot, then, surprisingly, it burst out laughing. "Yes, the man has been known to lie. Still, this works out perfectly for me." Bending down suddenly, it wrapped its hand around Jak's stomach before the boy had made it very far, then held him up so that Damas could see him clearly. Jak struggled against its grip, kicking and clawing at the monster's hand as he tried to twist free, but it was to no avail - especially once the monster put its claws to his throat.
"Tell me, Damas," it said, its eyes glinting with malicious intent. "What would you do to save your son?"
What? Damas' hands stilled, and not just because Jak was now being held hostage. The question had caught him off guard, and what it implied... He narrowed his eyes. "My son is not here. Do not think to fool me with your lies, Metal Head."
"Oh, but he is," the Metal Head countered slyly. Its claws slid up Jak's neck, then forced him to tilt his chin, sinking in just deep enough to leave bright spots of blood in their wake. When the boy tried to pull away, the Metal Head only pushed its claws deeper, trapping Jak's head against its chest. The boy choked back a sound of pain. "He's right here, Damas. Don't you recognize him?"
Damas shook his head, ignoring Jak's very wide eyes. What it was suggesting was impossible. His voice was flat when he responded. "Jak is not my son. He is far too old."
The Metal Head laughed again. "Only a few minutes ago, just before you showed up, your son went through a Rift Gate that took him to the past. But now he's come back, all grown up, and I ask you again: don't you recognize him?"
Damas' eyes narrowed. It's lying. It is saying whatever it thinks will put me off balance the most.
And yet, against his will, he saw again the similarities between Jak and his son. With sun and age, Mar's rebellious green hair could easily become Jak's shade of yellow, and even as young as his son was the last time he'd seen him, he could still tell that the boy would take after his mother in terms of size and build. He would be short and thin and wiry... just like Jak. And they could both channel eco...
He angrily derailed these thoughts. "You expect me to believe that time travel is possible?"
"How else do you explain how I knew where Mar's tomb is?" Letting go of Jak's chin, the Metal Head began exploring a wound on his shoulder, its claws slicing through the bandages that had been wrapped around it. Jak gasped when the first sharp tip slipped inside and started digging in, bringing forth a fresh new flow of blood. His hand desperately came up and tried to pull the claw away. "And why," the Metal Head said, ignoring his effort, "would I go to all this effort, bringing together a Rift Gate, an heir of Mar, and the Precursor stone, if I did not expect to have something to gain? Why not just take that Precursor egg and feast on its power instead?"
From the corner of his eye, Damas noticed a slight movement from Sig - a nod and a jerk of his head. His Peacemaker was charged again. All he needed was Damas' command. But with Jak in the Metal Head's hands, there would be no opportunity to use it without putting the boy in danger. They needed to get the Metal Head to put him down. But how?
"I'll tell you why!" the Metal Head went on without giving him a chance to respond. "In the last loop of time, I chased this boy when he went through the Rift Gate, only to be trapped when the gate closed before I made it through. That version of me waited until the boy opened the gate again, but again the boy eluded my grasp. However, though he was injured by the machine that boy used to knock him through the gate, my other self survived long enough to warn me of what was about to happen. In doing so, he changed history..." Its fingers tightened their grip on Jak and its face split into a grin when the boy arched his back with a cry of pain. "And now I intend to change it again."
Damas' hands clenched as he watched. Jak was not in good condition. He was covered in blood and his struggles were beginning to weaken. Then, too, there was the disturbing factor of hearing the boy scream when he'd been all but silent for as long as the king had known him. He cannot take much more of this.
Even as he came to this conclusion, the Metal Head leaned in and began to nuzzle and lick at its victim's wounds, seeming to relish the strangled choking Jak made each time its tongue slid over savagely parted flesh. The boy twisted in the creature's hand, trying to push it away with his one good arm, but the Metal Head just laughed and captured both his arms, then adjusted its lower grip to bare the boy's stomach. "Your son's blood is very sweet, Damas," it said as it poised its teeth over Jak's exposed flesh. "Are you certain you do not want to save him?"
Damas didn't believe the Metal Head's story, not for one minute. It was too convenient and too far fetched. But Jak did not have time for his skepticism. He needed to act fast. "What is it that you want?" he demanded. He didn't have to fake the glare that he shot at the leering creature.
Apparently, this was the exact reaction the Metal Head was hoping for. It laughed again, this time with a note of triumph, and released Jak's legs so that it could pick up the green stone that had been lying at its feet. "Channel the energy in this stone and open this gate. Do anything else and I will rip this boy's entrails out without a second thought."
The Precursor stone. Damas recognized it from the last time he'd been to this place. Do not touch it without reason, his father had warned him. It is powerful and dangerous. There is a reason why Mar hid it within his tomb. Even so, Damas set his gun aside and nodded his acceptance of the Metal Head's terms. He did not look at Sig, though he gestured subtly with his fingers. Wait for the opportunity. The Metal Head had not said anything to or about the other man, leaving Damas to wonder if the creature had even seen him before he'd ducked back down. If it hadn't, that could definitely be used to their advantage.
Satisfied with Damas' gesture of submission, the Metal Head set the stone back down right in front of the Precursor ring before returning its claws to Jak's stomach, ready to fulfill its promise if Damas did not do as it said. The boy's face was already screwed up tight with pain, the injuries in his shoulder and arm being done no favors by hanging from the monster's grip on his arms. Still, he managed to meet Damas' eyes, and he shook his head frantically. Don't do it!
Damas kept his face impassive. It was admirable that Jak was willing to die to thwart the Metal Head's plan, but it would not be necessary. Trust me, he tried to communicate. The boy should know that he was not one to be taken advantage of so easily.
Eyeing the gap in the bridge for only a moment to gauge the distance, Damas took off at a dead run, his feet pounding the short distance to the first ledge and timed just so that the last step hit the edge before propelling him into a powerful leap. Even with the added momentum, though, he barely managed to grab onto the other broken side. His legs swung and dangled above the yawning pit, and the flap of his cloak whispered to him just how close that jump had been. He ignored it in favor of pulling himself up. The Metal Head's eyes glittered as it watched him.
Once he had solid ground under his feet again, the king strode as calmly as his screaming instincts would allow. He had never come this close to a Metal Head so large without a weapon in hand, and his muscles tensed with every step that brought him that much closer to the Metal Head's reach. The Metal Head hunched down like a spider in its trap, but it didn't attack him even when he stepped off onto the platform.
Somehow, that made the feeling of wrongness worse.
Even so, Damas forced himself to keep going, heading straight for the Precursor stone despite the threat that loomed only a few feet away. Dropping to one knee, he let the tips of his fingers brush the stone, absorbing the first shock of power before scooping it up with one hand. His skin tingled and prickled, but he ignored the feeling and stood up. His other hand lifted to touch the Precursor ring.
Jak's voice croaked desperately. In spite of himself, Damas glanced at the boy, surprised by the words he almost thought he'd heard. The vowels were all wrong, sounding scraped and raw, but the consonants... Jak immediately caught his eyes and shook his head again, his mouth opening to try to repeat the warning.
But the Metal Head viciously bit into the thickest part of his leg, turning his attempted speech into another cry of pain. Damas stiffened, but before he could even think to act, the Metal Head's jaws released their hold, leaving Jak gritting his teeth in agony. Blood quickly soaked his now-tattered pants and he looked like he was having trouble even holding his head up. He was probably this close to passing out.
The Metal Head didn't seem to care. "Open the Rift Gate, Damas," it growled. "And no more delays. I grow tired of waiting." It didn't need to state its threat to make it clear.
The muscles in Damas' jaw clenched and he glared right back, but he knew there was nothing he could do at the moment without putting his plan in jeopardy. Even so, his voice was laced with steel when he responded. "If you kill him, I will have no reason to cooperate, Metal Head."
"Then I would just have to kill you and settle for devouring that Precursor egg," the Metal Head shot back. "Either way, I stand to gain. Now do as I say or there won't be any chance of your son living to see another day!"
It grated on him to back down, even in pretense, but with a snarl, Damas turned his attention back to the green stone in his hand. Power pulsed in response, his long experience with channeling eco making it easy to draw it out. Green-white lightning coursed through his limbs, racing through his blood and nerves like a creature possessed, then passed through his fingers into the Precursor ring. A low hum started to fill the air.
Then Damas cut it off with a stagger that had him leaning against the ring for support. Gasping for breath, he dropped to his knees, his nerveless fingers almost losing their grip. "I... can't..."
The Metal Head reared up and slammed its front feet down in a fit of rage, making the whole platform shake. "You can!" it insisted. "Do not think you can lie to me, Damas! Your son was more than capable of performing this task, and he is barely into adolescence!"
"I do not have his talent for channeling eco!" Damas snapped. "If you want this gate open, I will need his help." And there it was, the bid he'd been trying to make this whole time. He had to force himself not to hold his breath while he waited for the Metal Head to react.
At first, the creature said nothing, its eyes boring into him suspiciously as it considered what he was asking. Damas lifted his chin, as though determined not to show any weakness, but he let his breath come out ragged and uneven to undermine this image. He even went so far as to allow his limbs to tremble from exhaustion. It was important that the Metal Head think him unable to do this by himself.
Finally, the Metal Head snorted with contempt and unceremoniously dropped its captive. Jak's body crumpled the moment it hit the ground. "Very well," the Metal Head sneered, using its tail to shove the teenager forward. "Though I do not see how much help he can possibly be." Indeed, Damas wasn't certain that the shock of hitting the ground hadn't knocked the boy out.
It didn't matter. Under the pretense of checking on the boy's condition, he pulled Jak into his arms and away from the looming creature. The blood that slicked his body made it difficult to get a firm grip, and there were so many wounds to avoid, but soon Damas held him, shielding him, with the Precursor stone sandwiched uncomfortably between, and he raised his hand to signal Sig.
Now!
Electric blue light blazed through the room almost before Damas had lifted his hand, and the air shattered with an unholy shriek as the attack slammed into the Metal Head's chest. It wasn't enough to kill it, nor was it enough to knock it off of the ledge, but with a new and very deadly threat to focus on, the monster completely ignored both him and Jak. Without a moment's hesitation, Damas reached for the energy of the stone-
-only to find that eco was already crackling around Jak's broken body. The boy's eyes were open in a glare of determination and pain that was aimed straight at the Metal Head's back. Damas nearly swore out loud as more and more energy poured into the child's body, more than he could possibly handle safely, but though Jak's breath came harsh and rapid, he continued to draw the eco in.
"No!" Damas' hand clamped down on Jak's which had somehow found its way up to the stone. Eco danced across his skin, jumping back and forth between the two of them until Damas managed to catch the energy and hold it in his body. He glared angrily down into the boy's blue eyes. "You will not do this alone!"
Black and purple light flared overhead as the Metal Head shot back at Sig and something exploded, but Damas refused to look away from the stupid, reckless, incredibly stubborn boy in his arms. Jak's eyes widened briefly.
Then something flickered in his expression and he nodded, relinquishing some of his control over the Precursor stone's energy. Damas readily took over, pulling in eco even as he twined what he had with the power that Jak continued to hold. The energy reverberated between them, growing in intensity until it raged around them like storm, until all it needed was a gesture from Damas' hand before it leaped out straight for a target it couldn't miss.
It was like watching lightning strike a scorpion in the desert - only this scorpion was much larger and could scream as it fried and scrabbled and thrashed. Its tail whipped around and crashed into the Precursor ring, denting the thing badly enough that the metal actually cracked, but its efforts to maintain its balance were blown to pieces when another blast from Sig's Peacemaker slammed into its devastated body. With another screech, the Metal Head staggered.
But there was no ground where it tried to place its feet, and its scream echoed and echoed as it fell into the abyss. It was several long moments before there was silence.
Then Sig whooped with victory as he finally strode into the room. "Hell, yeah! And that's why you don't mess with Wastelanders!"
Next chapter.
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no subject
Date: 2010-03-12 05:12 am (UTC)Jak is so admirable. If /I/ were all torn up and MY nerves were fried, I'd be unconscious. Yet he still managed to gather enough energy to fry that damn Metal Head! With Damas' help, of course.
I'm gonna recommend this to a girl I know on DeviantArt 'cause I wanna see if she'll draw that scene with Jak cradled in his father's arms as they're absorbing the power of the Precursor Orb. <3 T'would be cool to see.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-12 11:01 am (UTC)But thank you for dropping this note, and for recommending it to someone else! That's a really high compliment right there. And if your friend feels inclined to draw anything from the story, I would love to see it.