Chapter 3 - Lesson from the Past

Alrighty then! The third installment of `Oblivion's Grip' is here! Yeah! Throw confetti, throw streamers! Eat the streamers! Eat the party hats too! Ha! Joking. I just want to thank everyone and anyone who's read this because it makes me feel…I don't know…happy. Thanks anyway and keep reading please!



Chapter 3: Lesson from the Past



A cool breeze whipped through the night air, tossing Torn's borrowed Wastelander cloak around his legs and almost tripping him. But there was little he could do about it seeing as he wasn't about to walk down Haven Cities streets at night with his arm exposed to the citizens.

Even if most of the city was sleeping, there were a few ruffians, thieves, and gangs that stayed up this late.

Torn didn't trust his arm to hold a gun at this moment in time and his left arm was just as numb from squeezing his pained arm. But what was really making the ex-Kg furious was that he had to have `body guards'. Jak, Ashelin, and even Keira had him surrounded in a semi circle, leading the way to Onin's, and he saw little need for it but he was in to much pain to really give an argument.

“Hello?” Daxter, having leaped off Jak's shoulder and raced ahead, stepping into the dark interior of the old Freedom Guard Head Quarters, “Hey is anybody home!?”

There was an ear splitting `SQWAUK!' and Daxter howled in rage as he rolled around in the dirt with a brightly colored monkaw; which had flung itself from the open door, each throwing insults at the other.

“Cut it out!” Keira grabbed Daxter by the tail and yanked him away from the struggling monkaw. Daxter hung upside down in the air with his arms crossed and Torn just couldn't help but grin at the absolute stupidity he put up with.

“Is Onin about?” Torn glared at the ottsel that Keira had set back on Jak's shoulder.

“Squawk!” Pecker brushed off his feathers and took to the air, “She is and you owe me, Rat-Boy, for disturbing my nap!”

“And you owe me for disturbing my life!” Daxter grumbled and Jak hid a smile. Ashelin glanced at Torn who cocked his head, indicating that she should go first, and then followed the rest of the group inside.

Old computers hummed and illuminated the room with an eerie glow that merged with the light of the Blue Eco that Onin used to talk through Pecker.

“Onin says it is nice to meet you again-blah, blah, blah, blah! She says that you are troubled by something.”

“Troubled isn't even the right word…” Ashelin muttered and stepped closer to Torn who felt his arm twinge and fingers twitch and slid away to perch himself on the old, shattered communications table.

“Onin also says that-what's that supposed to mean!?” The monkaw leaned forward in the bowl he was perched in on Onin's head, “Well!? Squawk! Onin says that there is a dark power in the room…!”

Jak opened his mouth to retort in his usual way when people brought up the subject of the Dark Eco inside him but Onin shook her head and pointed to Torn.

“You got that right…” Torn reached up to undo the fastening around his neck with his left hand. His right, however, had other things in mind. It reached up and yanked the cloak off, tearing it to pieces, and nearly strangling the poor ex-Krimzon Guard. A spasm of coughs racked his throat and blood splattered the floor.

“Torn!” Ashelin practically flew across the floor and crouched down to Torn, who was on his hands and knees gasping against the coughs that tore blood from him, “Torn…?!”

“A…Ashelin!” More blood; Keira grabbed Jak's arm but he shoved her away gently and advanced upon Torn, body glowing with his White Eco powers, “Ashelin…get away!”

Stand back…” Light Jak's translucent wings whispered as they brushed the tile floor, “This one will rid the darkness that rages in the human's blood. This one can heal him. Do not fear, young child, you do not understand what you fear.”

Ashelin made a half mocking, half apologetic look at the White Eco man but stood up and backed away to stand with Keira.

A snarl of pain raced past Torn's red-stained lips in fury, chasing the comforting words of Light Jak away. The translucent body that was Jak shimmered with suppressed anger as Torn coughed up more blood and clutched his arm, which was bulging like a swelling balloon. Daxter and Pecker were even clutching at each other, the same thought on their minds; was that arm going to explode? Keira looked at Ashelin but Ashelin just shook her head and looked away, she didn't have an answer either. Onin was the only one who was watching Torn intently with blind eyes.

“This one cannot release your darkness if you will not allow this one to touch you!” Light Jak snapped, reaching out to Torn again only to have a spark fly from the latter's skin and onto his fingers; Light Jak's crisp, echoing voice changed to light snarl, “This one cannot hold back the Dark One much longer if you continue to be a nuisance! UHHHHG!”

Glowing blue blood splattered onto the floor and mixed with what had come spewing from Torn's mouth. Now, the cursed arm had its fist through Light Jak and it was twitching violently, as if feeling around inside the translucent skin for a beating heart.

“J…J…Jak? JAK!?” Torn managed to rip his limb from his respected pal but little else than a scream reached past his lips then because his swelling arm had exploded. A thousand-no, a zillion-sparkling lights, hovered in the air around Torn's real arm and time itself seemed to freeze.

“It's…beautiful…” Keira whispered and even Torn had to agree with her. The rest of the light looked as though it had been dragged from the room and shoved into these tiny balls of light that had been the arm.

Then, the lights began to move. They swirled in an odd pattern around Torn's arm and then settled themselves along his limb like glowing beads of dew catching the early morning sun.

Then the metal blades burst forth; larger this time, scattering the beads; and the twisting metal bands followed, twining around the glassy-eyed man's body as snakes seeking to crush their prey would. His fingernails stretched into one inch claws, his tattoos along the right side of his body faded, replaced by the metal bands, and another blade ripped the skin around his left shoulder, two metal bands curling out from under it like a miniature wing. Light Jak became Jak again in a swirl of White Eco and stepped back from Torn, eyes wide. Keira was had her wrench in her hand, knuckles white.

“What?” Torn blinked and his eyes refocused. He looked down at his arm and his face flew into a flurry of emotions, all read able since the ex-KG had let down his wall of crap a year before. Confusion, pain, fear, anger, and the look of a lost soul.

Onin began to make motions with her hands, Blue Eco sparkling in her wake.

“Onin says that you've been bitten by a-squawk-Shade; an ancient, half Precursor, half Metalhead whose bite transferred power to its victims.”

“So Torn's a vampire!?” Daxter screeched, clutching Jak's ear having reclaimed his perch.

“Don't be stupid!” Keira said shakily, tapping her wrench in her hand, “He's a…um…Ashelin?”

Ashelin shook her head again,

“If I knew what he was I wouldn't be standing here wondering.”

“He's a Precursor…” Jak said coolly, a trace of curiosity lacing his voice, “Well, at least a little bit.”

Torn looked down his arm and traced the metal strands around his face and ear. Oh well, there was a little sliver of light among this depression; at least he didn't look like Daxter. Torn smirked, despite his pain, and turned to Onin.

“How can I get rid of this…thing?” He asked, part of him wondering if he should even bother. The war was over and he needed the rest but there was always that part of him that longed to be in the middle of the action. Now he was the action.

More motions, more Blue Eco.

“Squawk! Onin says to go deep into the Wasteland, where not even the bravest go and search for a rock-squawk-that has carvings engraved on it. Stuff like, Metalhead wars and fire over coming water or something like that. She says-squawk-that if you go under the rock you will find a Sage who might be able to help you out. Now go, you're taking out of my fiesta time!”

The group looked at one another.

“We all can't go.” Ashelin said, “It would be too risky. Torn has to go but he should have at least one companion in case he has another transformation. Someone who can stand to be around him and survive in the Wasteland.”

Everyone looked at Jak. The lanky youth rolled his eyes and sighed.

“The hero never gets a rest. Come on, Dax, we've got a long road ahead…”



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Sorry about that whole thing with Light Jak talking like `this one' and that stuff but that's how I always thought of him talking if he were ever to talk. Okay, referring to his Dark Eco self as `the Dark One' might have been a little over dramatic but I like the way it turned out all the same. Anyway, who's this Sage? What can they do to help? Yes, I know, the rock part is lame but it's supper time and I'm hungry so I'll see you next time! *<:3 Party Kitties! Now onto the fan fiction! `Oblivion's Grip, Episode 4: Torn, Captured!' No, not really…I watch to much FMA…...

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