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Chapter Theme/Jak's Theme: New Born-Muse
The love for what you hide
The bitterness inside
Is growing like the new born…
PART 1: Power Surge
Jak felt it again, the blinding pain, the dark energy ripping through his body. Looking around, he saw claws thrusting themselves out of his fingers, his skin turning a deathly, pale gray. The Dark Eco infusion didn't hurt so damn much anymore. Drinking in the dark energy heightened his senses, strength, and speed. He felt the pain ebb, the Eco stop arcing from the needles to his body. Jak saw the spare Gun Course targets leaning against the wall of the cube, painted like Metal Heads.
Using his enhanced strength, Jak ripped the metal cuffs that held him down off of the infusion chair. His swift, silent run was that of a hunter. The vision of Dark Jak painted targets on Metal Heads and other enemies, the bull's eyes on their weak armor and vulnerable areas. Jak grabbed the cutout by its arms, the claws ripping right through it. He sank his Dark-granted fangs into its neck, snapping the head right off the target.
Dark was testing the potency of his powers; he had been taking infusions since the Death Bots and Metal Heads inside the city were getting wiser to Jak's gadgets and guns. Since then, he had improved in all categories-except anger management, and Light powers. They had begun to recede from disuse.
Jak's long ears, enhanced by the Dark Eco, heard footsteps coming down the hall, about fifteen feet from his steel cube of an infusion room. He snapped back to reality and began to force the dark powers back down, to become himself again.
It was harder than it had ever been before. Jak found the small rationally-thinking part of his mind and forced the dark powers inside that part, while bringing out his balanced self again. After a struggle, Jak finally felt the Dark Eco retreat into the corners of his mind. Yanking out his Blaster, he stood against one wall and fired at the targets on the other, trying to make him look like he had been going for target practice the whole time.
Thirty seconds later, Keira opened the thick door and came inside. "You look tired," she noted right away. "You should get some sleep. You've been up longer than anyone else."
"I will, Keira," promised Jak, putting away his gun and kissing her. Then, he walked away.
For a second, Jak heard a hissing voice from inside his mind. Come back to me… it whispered. It was so quiet, Jak didn't even know if he had really heard it. "Just imagining things," he convinced himself. "I really should get some rest."