"..."speaking
'...' Thoughts
Disclaimer: Me no own, you no sue.
Dedicated to: Lavaman
Chapter 1: I'm Gonna Kill Praxis
My take on the prison scene at the start of Jak, and why Jak tries to kill Daxter before he realises who he is.
Artificial light flickered and sparked from the old eco bulb outside the cell. No not even that, to call it a cell would indicate at least some sense of humanity, and this, this cage had no humanity. Merely a small metal box, barely enough room for the young occupant to crouch in, let alone stand up.
The rancid mattress that covered most of the cages tiny floor, soaked with blood, eco and who knows what, squirmed and rustled as its young occupant turn fitfully in his delirious sleep. He hadn't slept properly for over a year and this was no different. Back slamming into the hard ferra-steel wall as nightmares of his torture and dark fantasies of blood and vengeance twist their insidious forms in the tortured once innocent mind of the broken channeler.
Two azure eyes slowly opened at the sound of the cage's door being opened before two pairs of armoured hands reached in and yanked the occupant out. Armoured red fists smashed into the already broken body of the prisoner as the guards slammed him into the opposite wall and began to beat him to a pulp. Fists, knees and rifle buts all left their marks on the emancipated form of the once happy boy. The floor splattered with a horrid red black as the boy choked, splashing from his mouth and trickling from the gashes that soak his rags.
Dragging the now only semi conscious elf behind them the two Krimzon Guards dragged the battered form behind them, blood and a sickly black substance leaking from the wounds as they began to heal at an accelerated rate.
"Ah, good I see you brought him in a timely fashion this time. Did he cause much trouble hmm?" Inquired a wipe coated scientist pushing his glasses back up his nose.
"No Doctor Malikov." The slightly larger of the two KG grunted as they heaved the still dazed elf on to the experiment rack, cuffing his arms and legs down in a spread eagled position.
"Excellent." The doctor replied in his maniacal accent and clipped voice."Shall we begin oh Baron?" he inquired his voice filled with a sick glee as he faced his master.
"Proceed." The scar faced and armoured Baron grunted.
"Wait!" said a violent orange haired man, a face mask pushed back upon his brow. The yellow and blue jumpsuit he wore beneath red chest and shoulder plates rustling as he stepped forward and slapped the recombinant elf in the face. "We wouldn't want him to be unconscious before the treatment even began." he said slapping the elf again and again to bring him round.
Groaning the prisoner opened his twin blue eyes that had, once filled with innocence and laughter now broken by two years of torture and torment. Filmed with pain they sharpened to hateful glare as they beheld the man standing above him.
"Now you may begin." Errol smirked at seeing his quarry was now conscious.
The doctor simply smiled and turned to the other to scientists who at least had the decency to look uncomfortable with what they were doing, motioning for them to begin.
The green/blond haired elf strapped to the table jerked and spasmed at the sudden lances of dark purple lightning began to pierce his body while a smooth female computer generated voice intoned "Subject number 213; Dark Eco injection cycle commencing."
He struggled not to scream, not to give his tormentors that pleasure, not give him ,the one who captured him, the one who so delighted in his pain, had seen to it personally so often, the pleasure of hearing his pain as well as seeing it.
Each moment seemed to stretch on for an eternity as he felt the Dark Eco throb and coil within his body contaminating his organs and corrupt his body. He could feel his body dying, each cell seeming to cry for release from this coil. The eco burned with razor edged fire as it surged and pulsed within the twisting frame. It was agony beyond agony, pain beyond pain as the darkness seared him from the inside out.
Unable to contain it any longer he screamed, his voice breaking with the force of his pain. He screamed and screamed as he writhed and thrashed trying to free himself in vain from his metal restraints.
The Baron watched impassively as the boy writhed in what appeared to be his death throws. His screams falling on death ears. How often had he watched this before, how many had he seen die on that wretched table? Failures all of them. This one was supposed to be different, a channeler, such a rare gift now as to be almost non-existent, someone who could master the eco and become the ultimate weapon, a weapon he could use against the metal heads, to tip the tide back in their favour in these dark times.
Errol watched a smile of utter glee fixed upon the sociopaths face. No matter how many times he heard it he always loved to hear that boy scream. Wasn't that why he attend every one of these treatments? Wasn't that why he had seen to the boy's conditioning personally? Of course it was. He delighted in the other elf's suffering; he loved to seem his squirm to hear him shriek. He would have loved for him to beg for mercy but the boy never said a word, well nothing beyond a cry or groan and perhaps a shriek of pain. He enjoyed playing with him, it was amazing all the things you could do with a simple knife. And when the boy had started to regenerate faster and faster, Errol thought all his yuletides had come early as he could do oh so much more and far more often to his hapless victim. Fire and knifes were just the beginning; soon it became scalpels and needles filled with neuro-toxins to stimulate pain receptors, increase sensitivity and hundreds of over twisted uses. But no matter what else he tried he still found a knife worked best, it was so simple yet that was it's elegance.
The two assistant scientists left the room unable to take the sight or agonized screams of the horrendous treatment they had inflicted upon the subject. Even doctor Malikov felt a tab queasy, they had upped the dosage yet again but after just over two years there had been no change. He found it disturbing in a way, whilst he didn't mind causing torment he wondered why he didn't die in the first treatment like so many others or in the first few days after like all others had. It was the idea of living with the knowledge of what was to come and the fact that the only escape would be death. Well it was enough to even affect his depraved mind.
"Excuse me dear Baron but there is another matter to which I must attend." Malikov said eager to depart the scene.
The Baron waved him away; after all, the computer ran the process from here, so he was no longer needed.
He watched impassively for the remaining half hour as Errol walked around the table smirking with a sick triumphant expression on his face.
Finally the eco bolts ceased, the treatment over. "Dark eco injection cycle complete, bio-readings nominal and unchanged."
"Gah, I was informed this one might be different!" the Barron growled in frustration at another failure.
"He is remarkably resistant to your... experiments... Baron Praxis. I fear The Dark Warrior program has failed." Errol stated, becoming serious at the look on his superiors face.
"Yaarhh, you should at least be dead with of the Dark Eco I've pumped into you!" the Baron snarled grabbing the hair of the tortured elf yanking his head up with it and dropped it back with a thud onto the hard, cold terra-steel rack.
"What now? Metal head armies are pressing their attacks. Without a new weapon my men cannot hold off forever." Errol said
"I will not be remembered as the man who lost this city to those vial creatures!!" Barron Praxis roared. "Move forward with the final plan and finish of this... thing... tonight." He continued in a quieter voice with a grimace, indicating the now barely conscious elf on the experiment rack.
"As you wish." Errol said bowing as his superior left the experiment platform to head back through the prison to his awaiting transport back to the palace. He'd been promised some results this time which was hwy he had come when he usually didn't bother with such things. It had been a failure though. And it was now more important than ever to locate both that wretched child and the accursed tomb of a long dead hero. 'Always have a plan B; just where is that accursed tomb?!'
"I'll be back later." Errol hissed leaning over the dazed elf as his eyes fluttered open as he grabbed the front of rags he wore.
The elf slumped back. His vision and hearing was always warped for about an hour after each treatment. He lay back and faded in and out of consciousness on the hard metal table for an indeterminate amount of time.
Suddenly there was a slight whiz as a grav lift swooped up next to the platform.
"Ding ding, third floor; body chains, roach food, torture devices." The elf heard the voice say as a thud sounded indicating the lift's occupant had stepped on to the platform. It sounded familiar somehow despite the distortion.
Suddenly he felt a pressure on his chest, almost like that of a hand but not, different somehow.
"Woah what they do to you?" that strange voice said again all tone and lost through the waves of nausea.
'Yeah right like you don't know you bastards.' The hate filled thought slithered through the dark recesses of the elf's tortured mind.
"Jak it's me Daxter."
He cracked open his eyes, half blinded by the light. He saw a shock of orange through the blur. 'Daxter? I can't, I can't remember that name but it sounds so, so familiar. Whatever it's just Errol, he messing with me again. I hate him, I just wish, just wish he'd kill me already, end this nightmare.'
"Well that's a fine hello the voice said again as the pressure on his chest shifted and a some was placed on his crotch, the pain not even registering compared to the mortal agony his existence had become.
"I've been crawling around in this place, risking my tail, literally, to save you."
'Save me hah, save me?! You're the one who put me in here. You're the one who tortured me. You, I'll kill you, I'll kill them all, I'll kill Praxis!'
"Say something just this once!" the voice cried again sounding strangely familiar as the hand shook the front of his rags.
'He wants me to beg for mercy? My first and only words to be pleading for my life? No, NO! I'll show him, I'll show him, I'll make them all pay. I'll make them dead, I'm gonna kill Praxis!'
"I'M GONNA KILL PRAXIS!!" He screamed gazing up into the orange blur where he guessed Errol's face to be.
"Shhhsh! Right now we got to get you outa here.'" the voice said sounding frightened as the distortion began to fade. 'Frightened because he doesn't want the other prisoners to hear my defiance!' A hand slapping over his mouth as he began to draw ragged breaths. 'Now he doesn't even want to hear me speak? After he's dreamt of it so long?! How dare he try to stop me from talking for the first time?! How DARE he!! He expects me to come quietly and simply roll over and die? Never, never, NEVER!!'
"Just let me figure out how to open the security locks on this chair so we can..." the voice spoke again, he recognised it now but from where he couldn't remember. 'It doesn't matter now I can feel it, my anger, my pain, my hate. This darkness, this power, I love it! I kill him with it, I'll kill them all, I'll kill them all, I'll DESTROY them with it!!'
Daxter jumped off the security lock as he saw the pale skin, from lack of sun, turn a sickly pale blue that should have belonged to a week old corpse. A spatter of blood and 'Dark Eco?' Daxter puzzled, as the long black talons sliced through the skin they were anchored to as they extended,sprouting from his finger tips.
As he leap off the bindings seem to explode, shattering beneath the strength of the monster they tried to contain.
"Or ah, you could do it." Daxter said as he watched the sickly monster staggered to its feet, leaning against the table, still woozy from the experiment. Daxter gazed with fear at the ebony eye's pupils dilated till they covered the entire eye, ashen hair that swept up unnaturally and the great black horns that dripped blood and eco onto the hair beneath.
The beast stumbled as it stepped forward on legs numb from being tied down so long.
'This is as it should be Errol, nothing more than a cowering rat! And me, me his death, death with my claws and my fangs!'
Daxter gulped as what had been his best friend smiled revealing large impossibly sharp fangs, tongue flicking out to lick the tip of one. It pulled a hand back, 15cm long claws preparing to strike.
"Jak? Easy now, easy buddy."Daxter said backing away as the behemoth staggered towards him. "It's your old pal Daxter remember!" he cried in fear as the weaponised hand scythed through the air towards him.
'Daxter?' memories of a young red haired elf, different from Errol, flashed through his mind. Of him falling into a pool of Dark Eco and becoming an orange fur ball called an ottsel, how they had gone on their quest to change him back and Keria, Samos, all the people of Sandover, his home. A brief sentence caught his attention out of the well of memories "Don't worry Jak, I'll save ya before you know it." A voice just like the belonging to the person before him cried, Daxter. Daxter. This was Daxter before him, not Errol?'
"Daxter?" Jak inquired as he stared down at his best friend. A wave of nausea that made Jak double over, knees crashing on the floor, one hand bracing himself the other clutching his stomach. He heave up a foul pool of dark eco whilst changing back to his normal self.
"What the heck was that?!" Daxter demanded as Jak finished retching. "Sheesh remind me not piss you off!"
Jak smiled for the first time in two years as his diminutive friend just brushed off his attempt to kill him with a joke. 'Thanks buddy.' Jak thought watching Daxter head back to the grav lift wear a bundle waited.
"Come on tall, dark and gruesome. Where out of here. I brought you some new threads, put em on." Daxter said dragging the bundle over.
Jak had never been so pleased to see someone in his whole life as he struggled out of his prison rags into the new clothes Daxter had brought him, he'd even managed to save his chest ring, shoulder pad and goggles somehow.
Jak stood slipping the last blue leather gauntlet on and Daxter jumped up onto his shoulder pauldron. 'just like old times.' Jak another smile breaking across his face as he headed for an open air duct and freedom.
Hey people, Major Session here, I hope you enjoyed that, just my take on why Jak's good old torture and reunion with Daxter, explains why Jak nearly shish kebabed Daxter.
This is going to be the first chapter in my own personal take on Jak 2 through to the end of Jak 3. Jak 2 will be reasonably canon but with quite a few more twists and turns. Then things will really start to go downhill for Jak when he get's thrown out. To see where this is going to lead, read my fic Blood Bath.
Special thanks to Lavaman who reviewed this first and my other Jak and Daxter one-shot. You were the one who encouraged me to turn my two one-shots into a full fic and I thank you for that. But all well. On with the tuned or simply subscribe for more updates in the near future.I warn all potential readers however: this will be a long fic and will take a while to finish. But There be plenty of plot, action, gore and lime later. So enjoy for now and check back in the next before christams.
Till then please review.
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The Beast Revealed by Merrypaws
Keira wants to understand every aspect of Jak, but there are some things he'd rather not show her.
This is a truly great fic with interaction between Keira and Dark Jak, could be considered fluff but I really liked it. Go red it and Blood bath. NOW.