Disclaimer: I do not own Jak and Daxter or any of the characters used in this story, they belong to Naughty Dog
Tess, Sig and Torn all sat in the Naughty Ottsel conversing about the Praxis' latest movements when, all of the sudden, the door burst open revealing a small, orange and fuzzy creature. "Daxter!" Tess screamed at the sight of seeing him covered in sticky red blood. The three sitting in the bar realized that it wasn't his own blood by the sickly purple shade of the liquid. "Jak's in trouble he needs help now!" Nobody could argue with the unusually serious tone Daxter used. Torn leapt up from his seat and "Where is he?" he asked frantically, he didn't want to lose his best man, for mission purposes of course, or at least thats what he told himself. Daxter seemed so panicked that he could barely get the words out "He's just outside the bar he-.. he crashed his zoomer". Sig and Torn swiftly walked outside and were greeted by a horrifying sight. Jak was lying in a pool of quickly spreading blood, seemingly unconscious. Sig hooked his arms underneath Jak's armpits and Torn supported his lower body- Jak was a lot heavier than he looked due to the fact that he was sheer muscle. Tess watched as the two men walked back in with a limp bloody Jak. Her hands came up to her mouth and tears threatened to spill over her eyes. She had seen many underground men stumble through the doors barely conscious and bleeding, most didn't survive. She was particularly fond of Jak, though their relationship was somewhat of a brother/sister/comrade relation and she didn't know if she could stand to see him die. No she told herself He won't die- he can't- This is Jak and he's a survivor.
Daxter meanwhile was sitting by Jak's head stroking his hair and talking a mile a minute, anything to comfort Jak, to keep him alive. Daxter felt cold dread spread through him when he drew back his hand to see it covered in blood and dark eco. He hadn't realized it before but Jak bled the stuff. It was such part of his being that it ran through his veins and bled through his wounds. Shocked and revolted Daxter slowly backed away from the ever growing puddle of blood oozing from Jak's various wounds to allow Torn to begin treating him.
Torn returned from the back room with a bag of medical supplies just as Jak regained consciousness. His eyes slowly blinked open and he tried to sit up only to feel stabbing, searing pain come from various places on his body, mainly his abdomen. He gasped from the pain and realized he couldn't quite get enough air. He coughed and tasted blood in his mouth. He felt gentle pressure on his shoulder easing him back onto the floor. "Easy there Jak you're banged up pretty bad- don't panic." said Torn who was hovering above him holding a roll of gauze, his eyebrows creased together. Easy for you to say you aren't the one drowning in your own blood! thought Jak. He coughed up some more blood and no longer able to stay awake, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell unconscious once again.
Torn took out his curved knife from his jacket and cut Jak's shirt open. He pulled it off and dropped it to the ground beside him with a wet slap. "Oh man this is bad!" said Daxter worriedly assessing Jaks many wounds. There were various slashes, most likely from metal heads littering his arms, legs and back. But perhaps the worst of these wounds was the gaping hole in his stomach just slightly to the left of his bellybutton which was quite literally, spurting blood. "Daxter get over here and put some pressure on his wound!" Torn yelled, at this rate Jak was going to loose too much blood. Daxter ran over and obeyed Torn without question which was very unusual for him, usually he had some sarcastic comment to make at least
Jak's skin was becoming increasingly pale, but despite what the others thought he was still semi-conscious. He could hear life going on around him but more importantly he could feel. The pain was so intense he began to grow nauseous. Since when had he begun to breathe so hard? He could tell that his chest was heaving and his breath was coming ragged gasps but he still couldn't get enough air. Where were his eyes? why couldn't he open them?
Torn had pulled his arms away from his sides after bandaging his midsection, which was already beginning to stain red, and had Sig hold his arms splayed out in a cross position. Torn began to stitch up a nasty gash along his bicep when Jak began to behave strangely, it was almost like the teen was panicking. His eyes shot open wide and his back arched off the ground. He tried to thrash around in Sig and Torn's grip, struggling against them. Then he began to yell. "No stop it please... I'll do anything!.. Not this please not this" This was not a sound anyone could have ever imagined leaving the young renegades lips. Jak's broken tone spoke of torture and pain, rage and fear, it spoke of an experience so horrifying that one couldn't imagine it in their darkest, most twisted dreams.
While Tess, Sig, and Torn all looked at each other panicking slightly, Daxter was that first to spring into action. "LET GO OF HIM GOD DAMNIT" he screeched. Daxter hadn't ever wanted to see his friend that tortured again, but something about the particular position Jak was being held down in seemed to trigger this kind of reaction from him. Perhaps it was the similarity to the way he had once been restrained on the cold, hard metal chair in the depths of Haven's prison fortress. But whatever the case, Daxter wasn't just going to stand around and see his best friend in pain like this!
Daxter's yell snapped Sig and Torn out of their horrified trance and they released Jak from their grip. Jak immediately curled in upon himself. While he appeared to be conscious, it was obvious that he was not entirely coherent yet. The rest of the room breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing the most fearless man you knew shrieking with pain and terror was disturbing on many levels.
Jak hunched over on his hands and knees one hand clutching his stomach and another shaking arm attempting to hold himself up. Somehow in a brief lapse of incoherency he thought he was back in the Baron's prison being subjected to another torturous injection of dark eco. His breath was coming in ragged gasps laced with pain and fear. "Jak you had me worried there buddy, I thought you were loosin' it!" chirped Daxter trying, as always, to lighten the mood. Jak's eyes finally glanced up to see four nervous pairs staring back at him. During his moment of panic the pain and nausea had been forgotten but now it was returning full force. He turned away from his friends and promptly vomited the contents of his stomach all over the floor. He was shocked by the amount of blood he saw in the pile of sick. His entire body was trembling from a combination of dark eco withdrawals, blood loss, and dizzying nausea. He was just barely able to make sure he didn't roll in his own pile of sick before collapsing in a heap on the ground again.
Sig, who had been silent during this whole ordeal, couldn't hold back when he saw Jak turn away. There were pieces of metal shrapnel, presumably from when his zoomer had crashed, sticking out of his back at odd angles. This was even worse than he had feared. "Holy sh-" he began to say when Jak vomited a fountain of blood. He had seen many men injured before, but never like this, even the most resilient of men should have been dead by now. But not Jak, he was a fighter, and thats what they were all counting on.
Jak rolled over onto his newly bandaged abdomen and rasped "please... take them out... hurts" Torn slowly walked over to Jak and carefully knelt down beside him. Some of the metal pieces were no larger than a splinter but some of the other ones must have been four inches long and jagged. Tess and Torn got to work on removing the shrapnel while Daxter sat by his friends head stroking his hair and murmuring softly- anything to distract his best friend from the pain. Jak couldn't help but let out small cries as the larger pieces were removed from his flesh. He could tell that he was shaking but he wasn't sure if it was from the cold-cold? or from the the relentless eco still coursing through his system begging to be released. No Jak stubbornly told himself I will not let that happen I will not loose control.
Once every piece was removed and every wound bandaged and cleaned to the best of their ability Jak slowly raised himself from the floor. Three sets of hands shot out to steady him, as the stubbornly persistant eco pounded in his skull threatening to overtake him. His vision was hazy and glazed over with pain as he stumbled across the room to go sit down in one of the bar benches. He collapsed into one of them with the help of Torn and leaned his head back, closed his eyes and let out a long shuddering breath. "Ugh..." Jak groaned "Been one helluva day". "Yeah you mind telling us how exactly you got into this state?" Torn asked still somewhat curious as to what could have gotten Jak of all people to the brink of death.