The Demon Within

By SweetSuicide41

dOMITUPSYK- you were my first reviewer! I'm glad you like that story Evil laugh yes, I am a sadist....he he he. I had to re-rent the game to freshen up on some of the scenes...sweatdrop... I really don't own Jak II. I just rent.

Kyrie Sanctus- Yes, Jak/Torn. Because there aren't enough....why aren't there more.....well, I hope I do them justice.

Jakcman's-Girl-Death to the Baron indeed....mwahahahaha....cough cough...cough..agh. Angst is my speciality.

Sabulana- Wrap him in cotton wool huh? Sounds good to me. Poor Jak...I'm sorry...but he's going to have to be a bit more traumatize...just a little. Maybe when I'm through you can wrap him up in cotton wool....but he has too much to do right now.

Chapter Two- Escape

Disclaimer: Me no own Jak....

I shivered as I stepped out into the cool streets of the city. I could tell that this place wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the Baron. I'm fairly secure in my ability to duck the guards in the ever-growing darkness, but nonetheless I decided to stop and rest for the night under a bridge. It took me a minute to think of a place where the Krimzon Guard wouldn't easily find me. I needed to recover from the final treatment, and the newest gun shot that decorated my torso. Now I had two on each side.

Final Treatment. It sounded so right, and so wrong at the same time. Final treatment as in last...meaning none ever againm, ever again. But in a way it was wrong because I never should have been subjected to it at all...no. The Baron was wrong to believe that living people could be made to undergo that sort of hell. That is why I'm going to kill him. Not particularly for the pain that he put me through, though that is a large part of it. No, I was going to kill him to save other people from going through that sort of thing as well.

"I'm sorry that I didn't come sooner Jak..." Daxter whispered in a sort of defeated and devastated tone. I could barely recognize his voice. I missed him.

"It's okay Daxter." I said, hoping that in time my rough voice would smooth out and not sound so...grating and scratchy. I could already tell that it was going to end up unnerving people. "You came, and that's what matters in the end."

I jumped under the bridge, and nestled the orange ottsel in the crook of my arm. After looking around for a moment I decided that the best place for us is between the two pipes jutting out from the dirt side of the steep embankment. In the end I just snugly situated myself between them so that we would not be seen by anyone passing above the bridge.

"Goodnight Jak."

I didn't say anything. I just wasn't used to speaking yet....not yet. Not by a long shot....One day though I know that I'll be able to carry out a side of a full conversation without wondering why I've been gifted speech, and why I was so afraid to use it at first. Maybe it's because I'm afraid I won't be able to anymore. It would be better for me not to speak and not to get Daxter's hopes up, because if all of a sudden I can't anymore, what then? And it makes me wonder, am I worried about getting Daxter's hopes up, or my own...?

Dream

"Ding Ding. Third floor, body chains, roach food, and torture devices."

I recognized that voice. Barely recognized, but still I recognized it. He had finally come to help me. After all this time he just popped out of a hatch to save me. It's like some sort of strange fairy tale. A dark fairy tale.

"Hey buddy, You seen any heroes around here," he asked with that familiar sort of comedy.

Yes, I see one, and it isn't me. It's you Daxter. You are the hero. You always were. I would have never been able to do anything without you, and this just proves it. In the end I would be nothing without you except dead, just like I almost am now.

"Whoa, what did they do to you!?" he exclaimed after finally getting a good look at me I guess.

They did whatever they could do to break me. Physically and mentally. They almost won on both counts...almost. You came in the nick of time and without you I think that I would have given up. I might have even decided to go out with a bang, with an escape plan that called for suicide, because it's been two years, and I can feel every second of it pressing down and slowly suffocating me.

"Jak, it's me, Daxter!" He yelled as he hopped up on top of my chest.

I flinched. He landed right on top of some of my worst bruises.

"Well that's a fine hello! I've been crawling around this place for two years risking my tail, literally to save you! Say something Jak, just this once!"

So I tried to say something. I was going to say something along the lines of "Hey Daxter." or "Thank you.", but that isn't what came out. Instead I said what I really felt. I just yelled out one of the first things that came out of my head. It happened to be "I'm gonna kill Praxis!"

Not what I was going for, but sufficient nonetheless.

Daxter clamped his hand over my mouth, and I had to resist the strong urge to bite his fingers. Not because I was so averted to have his hand there, but because it was just a reflex.

"Shhh. Right now we gotta get you outta here. Just let me figure out how to open the security locks for your chair."

I felt him taking over, and I was scared. I didn't want Daxter to see me like this. I wanted to be the person that he knew. I just wanted to be Jak.

I didn't fully lose consciousness. I could see what I was doing, and man could I feel it, but I couldn't do anything about it. All of a sudden I was out of my bonds, and advancing upon my childhood friend.

"Or ahh...you could do it." Daxter said kinda shakily. I felt my anger begin to focus on him, and that isn't where it belongs. I don't want to hurt Dax. I don't want to hurt Dax. I don't want to hurt Dax....

"Jak, easy now. Easy buddy, It's, it's your old pal Daxter remember?"

'Yes, I remember. I remember who left me here for two years to rot inside the Baron's prison. Why thank you Daxter for your kindness!' the demon said. He was silent though, and spoke only to me.

'NO! Daxter came for me, for us! Without him we wouldn't have a chance. The Baron would come back and kill us tonight,' I told the demon as I wrenched control back from him. He screamed aloud, and I said the only thing that I could,

"Aughh...Daxter?"

I sort of felt dizzy for a second, but soon regained my composure, what little of it I ever had, and looked at Daxter in the eye, wondering if he would play it off, or act like anyone else would.

"What the hell was that?!" he exclaimed, "Remind me not to piss you off!"

I know that I must have made a relieved sigh, Because he paused and looked at me for a moment. Sometimes I'm glad that Daxter can play stuff off as well as that. I guess being serious about things is overrated.

"Come on tall, dark, and gruesome. We're outta here. I uh brought you some new threads. Put em on."

Thank god. I would be more than happy to leave these prison clothes behind me. Leave the clothes, and the life.

We made our way out of the Baron's fortress/castle/factory/prison....whatever it was as quickly as we could. I ended up killing most of the guards. I guess I felt as if I were getting them back for what they undoubtedly had a part in doing to me. If they weren't there to take me to get my treatments, then they were there when I was captured, or were one of the guards that enjoyed stopping by during one of my torturous treatment times to watch me squirm and scream in pain.

I was almost out of the horrid place when I felt something graze my torso. It was another laser bullet. Before I killed that man as well I saw that Daxter was horrified. He looked as if I were about to die. At one time I might have at least passed out, but this one shot was not enough to kill me, or knock me unconscious from the pain. Not anymore. I just pressed my hand to the wound. The blood would stop soon enough. It always did. It always did.

And then I was out. I jumped out into a dark alley. I was free forever. Well, at least as long as I kept my wits about me, wich would hopefully be until we were back in Sandover. I missed being carefree like that.

I decided to hide for the night so that I would have a chance for the hole in my side to heal up a little. I ended up in between two pipes under a bridge. I jumped down and moved Daxter to the crook of my arm. Odd, he didn't make a sound. Oh well. It didn't matter right now. I was already asleep anyway.

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I woke up to a kick in my side, right where the lucky Guard shot me...but he really wasn't lucky since he went to the same place that his friends did in the end. I opened my eyes expecting one of the many people of the city trying to mess with the wrong person. I was startled to see the Baron's face standing over me holding a dead ottsel in his hand.

"This is a one of a kind animal. I think that I'll make a set of gloves out of him." Praxis said with a malicious grin. I know that grin. He was trying to bait me, trying to make me lunge forward and attack him so that he would have more fun when he captured me again.

I tried to tell myself not to take the bait, but the sight of the only person who cared about me here hanging dead from the Baron's hand made me go crazy. I lunged forward, and he drove something into my heart, It hurts like hell itself, and I know that I'm probably going to die for real this time, so it no longer matters if he kills me. I might as well kill him first. I tried to hit him, but as soon as my fist connected to his face I woke up.

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I knew I woke up for real this time because there was Daxter in the crook of my arm still....He was snoring. I seemed to remember that he used to snore. I was so tempted to roll back over and fall asleep, but I knew that I was subject to be found easier in the daylight hours, and I needed to get going. I would rather not spend the rest of my pitiful existence living under a bridge. It would be nice to once more have a home. To have a place that I could go back to whenever I felt like it.

Daxter was still snoring quite loudly, so I decided to just put him back up on my shoulder, and get going. He wouldn't mind if I woke him, but I think that he deserves the rest. He did risk life and limb yesterday to save me. I knew that he could be heroic when he wanted to be. When he needed to be....when he had to be.

I still feel awful about what happened back on Misty Island. I never meant for that to happen, and if you asked me before I had gone I never could have imagined that it would happen either. If I had just for once listened to Daxter then he would still be his old self....I guess that hindsight really is 20/20.

I never was good at planning ahead. Normally I just decide to do whatever my gut tells me. It's only led me wrong twice out of countless times, but both were slightly more drastic wrongs that I could have imagined. The first one with Daxter and the second one this. The thing is, that this one isn't over yet. I really don't know if I want to see it through to the end either.

I paused in my thoughts to look around for a moment, and discovered that I have absolutely no idea where I am. What's new? I couldn't have even subconsciously beleived that I would know where I was going. I mean I haven't seen anything outside of my little slice of hell inside the prison for two years. I guess I would have to wake Daxter up. He would never let me hear the end of it if I got us both caught again just because I happened to stumble upon something that he could have steered me clear of.

"Dax... Dax!"

"Huh...what is it honey....I promise I didn't leave the seat up...." he muttered. I don't even want to know what he was dreaming about.

"Daxter, wake up!" I yelled at him.

He shot up off of my shoulder, and I caught him before he hit the ground.

"What is it....? I'm up. I swear." He was looking around as if it were the Krimzon Guard who had prodded him with a stick until he woke up, not me.

"Look Daxter, I don't know my way around this city too well...actually at all. You've been around for two years, and the last time that I even saw this place was the day I got captured. I have no idea..."

"Let me guess," he cut me off, "You need good ol' Dax to show you the city ropes?"

It was more of a statement than a question, but it required an answer nonetheless, so yes I needed him again. It just proves who the hero here really is.

"Yes Dax, I need you to show me around the city." I conceded, making it look as if he had won a major point by me having to let him show me around. He liked it when he got to do those kinds of things for me. He liked being in charge almost as much as I hated it. If only our roles could have been switched, and I was the ottsel. Of course I don't mean that I would like him to have been captured by the baron...I wouldn't wish that on anyone...

"Jak! Hey Jak, are you listening to me?" Daxter asked. Apparently I wasn't, but I decided to humor him.

"Umm, yes."

"Alright then, go straight, then take the first left, then straight again, then the second right, and then another left."

"And then where will we be?" I asked him.

"At the sleaziest, and cheapest bar in town. That's where I learned how to sneak into the fortress, so I'm sure there'll be someone there who can help us," he told me in his most matter of fact voice.

I only nodded, and began to follow his directions. We never made it there though. An old man stopped us in the street, and I confess that I went a little bit into demon mode. I would have apologized, but the other side of me doesn't like to say that it's sorry, and who am I to argue with my other half?

"Hello strangers. My name is Kor. May I..." the old man began. I really shouldn't have gone half psycho on him, but I couldn't help it.

"You look like a reasonably smart man. I want information. Where the hell am I?"

Out of the corner of my eye I say Daxter talking to a little green haired kid who vaguely reminded me of someone. I couldn't quite put my finger on it though.

"Ahh...sorry. He's new to the whole conversation thing." Daxter told the kid.

The old man brushed himself off, and looked at me oddly before answering my rudely asked question.

"Well my angry young friend, you are a "guest" of his "majesty" the Baron Praxis, the ruler of "glorious" Haven City."

Guest indeed.

"I was just a "guest" in the good Baron's prison." I snarled.

"Inside a cell, or inside the city...walls surround us both. We are all his prisoners." He looked behind us for a moment. "Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'd move on if I were you."

I too looked in the direction the old man was, and discovered a small contingent of the Krimzon Guard marching forward.

"By order of his eminence the grand protector of Haven City, Baron Praxis, everyone in this section is hereby under arrest for suspicion of harboring underground fugitives. Surrender, and die."

That seemed odd. Surrender and die, surely that can't be right. Just like old times, Daxter voiced my opinions for me. I think that was one reason that we became such good friends. It didn't matter wether or not I could talk when Daxter was around. He always knew what I wanted to say.

"Ahh, excuse me sir, don't you mean surrender, or die!?" He exclaimed.

"Not in this city," the old man said with a sad twinge to his words. "Protect us from the guards, and I'll introduce you to someone who can help you."

I didn't even think about it. Instead I went immediately to work, plowing down all of the guards in my path. Soon though, there were to many of them for me to handle, and he took over. I didn't want him to, but I really didn't have a choice. He just took over, and in a few seconds the work was done.

He must have run out of juice, because a second later I was changing back into myself. Daxter was there as always to pick me back up.

"That was cool! Do it again!"

"Something's happening to me... Something he did...I can't control it."

It hurt like hell when I changed to and from the demon. It hurt a hundred times worse than any Dark Eco injection that the Baron had fed me.

"Very impressive," the white haired old man said with a mysterious air.

"Ehhh...you okay...Jak?" Daxter asked me, proving that I must look as bad as I felt.

"What you did was very brave. This child is very important."

Daxter jumped in with his customary argumentative tactics. "This kid? He looks kinda scruffy..."

He was cut off by a Krimzon Guard on a zoomer who flew up next to us. "You are in a restricted sector. Move along."

I don't want to get caught by anymore of the Guard incase they recognize my face. By tomorrow it will probably be plastered all over this pitiful city.

"Thank you for your help, but I must get this boy to safety," Kor said, but as the old man turned Daxter caught up with him on his earlier promise.

"Hey! What about us!?"

He looked back at us, appraising for a moment, then spoke.

"There is an underground group waging a war against the Baron Praxis. It's leader, the Shadow, could use fighters like you. Go to the slums. Find a dead end alley near the city wall. Ask for Torn. He can help you."

I watched in silence as he walked away, and wondered on the mysterious Torn and Shadow as Daxter and I tried to make our way as inconspicuously as possible to the dead end where this Torn fellow resided.

- - - - - - - -

Rather long I know, but I couldn't stop it anywhere else. Expect the next chapter out soon. I only hope that I can keep to my own deadline.

I hope that you liked this, becuase it took me forever to write. Partly because I couldn't remember the exact words, and sequence of the things that I wanted to change. I don't own the game, so I had to rent it again. Bummer. I plan on buying it soon though. cheers from all

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