Self Inflicted

Note: Takes place during early Jak II

The good ol' resistance hideout, oh yeah nothing beat coming back here after a long hard day of being shot at.

Torn looked up from his maps as we, well Jak, walked in; "How'd it go?"

I jumped down onto the table, trotting over the maps, I knew that pissed Torn off, but hey, no skin off my bones, "Oh, you know, another day, another ten or so near death experiences, how bout you?"

He brushed me away as always; the ass really needed to lighten up, "Not you rat, I was talking to your owner."

I rolled my eyes; not like I hadn't heard that one before a million times. Jak of course ignored it and went straight to business like the nutjob he had become.

"Good, blew up the turret nests without a problem." It should be noted that, unlike most sane people, to Jak, being shot at by upwards of fifty KG was not considered 'a problem'.

Torn didn't smile at what should have been great news to him. To be honest, I was pretty sure he was hoping me and Jak would get killed on one of these missions, so that he wouldn't have to deal with us anymore; he sure didn't seem to like either of us, that's for sure.

He grumbled in that voice of his that sounded like he had swallowed steel wool, the man needed some lozenges is what I'm saying, "I don't have anything left for you to do, go rest up for the night, come back tomorrow."

I looked about, scanning all the beds that lined the makeshift barracks, "So where do we sleep?"

Torn glared at me, "You can sleep outside, Jak can grab one of the bunks."

Oh, so we were going to play that game huh? Before I could say anything, Jak came to my defense, "Daxter's with me."

Torn snorted, "Fine you can both go sleep outside then, no way I'm having that thing sleep in here, I don't need to find out the hard way that some of my men are allergic to rat."

Okay, I'll admit that I took a lot of crap, I could be annoying I got that, but this was too much, "Excuse me! First of all I am an ottsel, 'OTT' 'SEL' get it right!"

Torn suddenly held a knife up to my face, "Secondly, you should be glad I didn't skin you the second you stepped in here."

Jak smashed his fist on the table, I swear I could hear the wood crack. "What the fuck is your problem?!"

Torn slid the knife away and glared at Jak, not backing down, "My problem? Well right now, my problem is a pair of idiots who seem to cause just as much trouble as they solve, and are only out to serve their own vendetta of revenge."

I noticed Jak's eyes; they were starting to change, and his skin was starting to get pale, this was going to head south fast if I didn't do something. I jumped off the table and began to pull him away, "Hey Jak, c'mon this jerk's not worth it, we can find someplace better than this dump anyway."

Jak didn't break eye contact with Torn as we left, glaring daggers at him till the door slid shut between them. As soon as that happened he swung out and punched the wall with a sickening crunch. "Precursors Jak!"

The idiot probably broke his hand and… "Shit dude, you broke the wall." What should have been broken and bloodied knuckles came away fine, the crunch had been from the new cracks in the wall. He must have been even closer to going dark mode than I thought.

"Whatever." He muttered as he began to walk off, I quickly leaping up onto his shoulder.

"You okay man?" I knew he wasn't obviously, but this was a good a time as any for him to vent.

"No, I- ! That guy's an asshole okay?!"

"Hey you don't have to tell me twice." I muttered.

"No, I mean it, it's one thing to be a dismissive dick to us all the time, but then he goes out of his way to treat you like shit, and…ugh!" He trailed off muttering in rage.

Now I was used to seeing Jak pissed off, over the past week since I found him, I… had to get used to it. But this was different, it wasn't the 'I want my revenge and kill murder kill!' anger I'd been dealing with, cause even then, Jak always had this kind of smirk going on, like he was okay with being pissed. But now, he actually seemed… upset. Then again, this was the first time we had talked about anything besides plans to kill Praxis

I tried to see if I could calm him down "Look, it's okay. I annoyed the guy, and hey, I imagine he has pretty crappy days-"

"No! Don't you go defending him, not after what he said to you, he doesn't deserve it."

Huh? "What he said to me?"

He looked at me like I was crazy, "Yes! You're my friend, and I'm sick of people treating you like some dumb animal all the time because of something I did!"

Wait, what? "Jak, buddy you're not seriously still blaming yoursellf…"

The look in his eyes said yes, yes he was, "Oh for Precursors sake! It was an accident that happened two years ago."

"And I could have fixed it!"

I threw my arms up in exasperation, "Yeah and doomed all of us in the process! You made the right choice. How the hell can you be still focused on this?!"

He sighed, "I guess, I just wonder sometimes if I could have done something differently."

I rolled my eyes, although secretly I was kinda glad, not about the whole Jak feeling guilty, but that for the first time in a week he was expressing an emotion besides rage, "Oh stop beating yourself up for precursors sake, I mean you forgave me for leaving you to rot in prison for two years, when you had every right to murder me for that."

"What?"

Oh no, I just said that out loud didn't I. I tried to brush it off, "Uh, nothing ya know I just… um…"

Jak facepalmed, "Daxter you didn't leave me in prison, you broke me out!"

"Yeah, after being a coward and running away as soon as those KG thugs came." I muttered, this was… an uncomfortable topic.

"They would have killed you!"

"So?!" I exclaimed, trying my best not to sound hysterical, likely failing "You wouldn't have run if the tables were turned! And you sure wouldn't have taken two years to bust me out!"

"Assuming that they were, and I did, they would have gunned me down. And the fact that you were able to break me out at all from that place is a miracle I'm still not sure how you pulled off." Jak pulled me off his shoulder, smiling at me sadly as he held me up face to face, "Don't beat yourself up over it."

"You- *sniff*" Oh man I was tearing up, wasn't I, great "You first."

Jak… hugged me? Oh man, this was getting pretty gay, but hell, I couldn't really complain. "Alright, I promise to stop blaming myself for turning you into an Ottsel, if you promise to stop blaming yourself for getting me in prison."

I nodded and quickly tried to wipe away the tears, "Deal."

Jak chuckled, "Now come on, we gotta find some place to stay for the night."

I climbed back on the shoulder pad, "Alright, I think I know a few places from staying in this dump for two years. Although I'll have to eliminate some of them for being a bit too Ottsel sized."