Not the only one

by: Miyoko Sanyu

chapter 3- Torns problems

Jak had set the girl down gently on the empty bunk, and then pulled the blanket to her chin. That was the first time Jak had seen her smile as she made herself comfortable.

Torn sighed. "Where to begin?" he said "It's all my fault... What happend to her... " Torn's voice trailed off. "How about at the bigining?" Daxter suggested, folding his arms. Jak walked closer so that he could hear him properly, because for a minute Jak thought he heard regret in Torn's voise.

Taking a deep breath, Torn began. "When I was a Krimzon Guard, about 2 years ago, I was given the task of shipping eco. Not dark eco, but five types of foreign eco. The foreigners called it 'elemental eco'; the elements of fire, lightning, water, wind, and earth." Torn was now looking up at Jak. Guilt seemed to stand out on his face. "I didn't know what it was for; I just shipped it in.... About a month before I quit The Guard, a group of prison guards came up to me..." Torn's voice trailed off again.

He looked at the small lump on the bed which was the girl, and began again with a little more confidence. "The guards wanted my signature, along with the Baron's, to 'dispose of a failed experament', as the note said...."

Torn looked at Jak; the ex-Guard's mood was hard to read. His eyes were hard and merciless, his voice had notes of regret in it, and his face was angry, but not at Jak or Daxter, or even the girl. It was more at himself, it seemed.

Torn began again, "At the time, the only experaments that I had knowledg of were tests on lurkers and... Well... Torture of Metal heads." Torn looked in the girl's direction and said, "I found out what I did when the same guards that came to me were talking about the 'fun' they had. when I asked them what they did, they told me they just got rid of '2E'." Now, Torn was looking at the floor.

"I asked them what '2E' was, and they said, 'Oh, just some girl the Baron has been expiramenting on with that odd foreign eco stuff', and then they went into... Sickening detail on what they did to her... How they cut her up, so they could see the bones... How they tried to break every bone in her poor, fragile body... How they dumped her into a ship that was headed to the garbage dump, while she was still alive! Hoping that some Metal Heads would pick her apart and eat her!!!" The girl stirred in her sleep. Torn was past mad now, at the decision he had made. Both of his hands were clenched into tight fists; his fingernails were breaking through the skin in the palm of his hands.

Torn unclnched his fists and looked at the palms, watching the small trickle of blood run down his wrist. In a more quiet tone, Torn said, "And it was all my fault... I quit after that. I didn't want any other deaths to be for something so pointless... The first letter from Reden didn't explain what the 'wepon' was..." Jak knew what Torn meant when he said 'wepon'.

"When Daxter gave me the letter from Reden... Well, it was a two year's worth of guilt and stress releif... It's hard to even think how she survived..." Torn looked at the girl again, and smiled and said, "You know, she's like you, Jak."

"And why do you say that?" Daxter asked. "Because, you idiot," Torn said, looking at Daxter, who was on the floor, about arm's reach away, standing arms folded, "they were both 'expiraments' for the Baron!"

Every one in the room (only Jak, Daxter and Torn) looked at the girl. She had rolled over in her sleep. "What's in the past is in the past," Jak said, a hint of bitterness in his voice, "There's nothing you can do about it, so just sleep on it." Jak went to the other side if the room and climbed into his bunk. Tryng to be quiet, Daxter fallowed him and jumped onto his pillow on the bed.

They're right, Torn thought. He got up, turned the lights off, and went to his own bunk. There's nothing I can do, he thought, Absolutly nothing...

A-Note - Plz tell me what you think

PLZ R&R