My lengthy imprisonment, the Dark Eco torture sessions... It was all a test of my will and the faith I hold in my friends. They spoke to me during my hallucinations, comforting and familiar, urging me not to lose hope. Were it not for them, I would have surrendered to the darkness long ago.
I knew they would come for me. It was just a matter of when. My torturers found they could not break my spirit, because I never stopped trying to escape. How could I possibly sit still and do nothing when I knew my friends were risking their very lives to free me? My constant attempts at overtaking the guards kept them on their toes and heightened security to the maximum, but the injuries meant that at any given point there would certainly be a rookie on the team. A weak spot. An opportunity for my saviors. And even with my attacks, the guards never once changed their schedule or adjusted their training. They were utterly predictable. Another weakness.
The worst times of all were the injections. The excruciating pain screamed through my mind, drowning out the voices of my friends, sapping my strength and letting the darkness take root. I would pray for oblivion, an end to it all, straining to hear the whispers of my loved ones as my very being shrieked with agony.
And then it would be over. Once the injections stopped, the hallucinations would return tenfold and my friends seemed solid, real, close enough to touch. Most of all, him... Sometimes as an Ottsel, mostly as a human, Daxter would smile at me, worry and hope swirling in his eyes, offering his hand to pull me out of the darkness. My torturers never did understand why I smiled so earnestly through the tears once they were finished with me. I was not smiling because my pain had ceased. I was smiling because I was not alone.
---
The celebrations are over, now. The city is free, although the populace isn't finding that freedom easy to deal with. It's no wonder. Fear has been chiseled into the heart of every person in Haven City, and it will take a long time before they truly wake up from the nightmare that was once their reality. My own mind is beginning to clear. I can feel the changes that brilliant flash of Precursor light has made to my soul. I am in balance. Even though it is as painful as ever, my mind is no longer lost during my transformation into Dark Jak.
With both their Nest and leader lost, the Metalheads' numbers are dwindling. No longer freedom fighters, my friends and I are now exterminators. That's okay, though. The Krimzon Guard are horribly incompetent when it comes to Metalheads, and it has kept us busy.
Despite all this, I'm not yet satisfied. There is one thing that bothers me still.
"Well, what's up next, buddy?" Daxter jumps, shivering, onto my shoulder. The only thing threatening Haven City right now is Old Man Winter, and even Dax's Ottsel fur isn't doing much in the way of insulation. Apparently it's quite cold today- he hasn't even wasted enough energy for a single complaint.
Mindful not to knock him from his perch, I unwrap the scarf from around my neck and hand it to him. "Bundle up. It'll do us no good if your feet freeze to my shoulder guard."
Daxter throws me a sour look, and I laugh. It's so much easier to laugh these days, now that I'm in control of myself again.
"Well? What's next? Pleeeeease, let's got to the dig! The lava there is so WARM and I'm SURE the Metalheads will be thinking the same thing and-"
"Nope. We've got a different mission." I smile at him. He's covered himself in the scarf so completely that only his nose is poking out.
He sighs, and the air is so chilled that the sigh is visible. "Great. The sewers. Again."
"Nope."
"We've been EVERYWHERE!" Daxter snaps. He doesn't like the killing, even the extermination of the Metalheads, or the look of the gun in my hand. Truth be told, I don't like it much either. Not anymore.
"No more Metalheads, Dax. There are so few left that Sig alone can handle 'em. We've got to get out of this city. The Blue Eco supplies here are nearly drained, and I haven't seen any Green, Yellow or Red Eco since we left Sandover."
"Great. Another noble, heroic mission for a noble, heroic guy," he mutters sarcastically. Yup, he's warming up, both in body and in 'wit'.
"Well, without the other colors of Eco we can't possibly make White Eco, now can we?"
I keep looking forward as Dax's face snaps in surprise towards mine. "Huh? What'd we need White Eco for? I thought that tooth-fairy Precursor fruit said you were fine now!"
He always thinks about me first. I smile again, letting it spread slowly until it reaches my eyes, and when it does I look directly into his. I can see the pain, the suffering, the darkness lurking behind his confused expression. I know why it is there. I know what I must do.
I am going to fix it.
---
Fin