Disclaimer: Naughty Dog owns the characters. Duh.

Jak was running again. He did this often, but now it was different. There was something within him that had changed, snapped. He had been talking to some idiot police officer that wanted him to put up more streetlights to prevent vehicle crashes, and suddenly he became aware that all of the things that people were asking him to do were trivial, and they had nothing whatsoever to do with him. He had fought for the freedom of the city, yes, but it was only to get revenge on Baron Praxis for what he had been put through in the prison. Now, when he simply wanted to be left alone, the people wanted him as their king because he had saved them and because he was the rightful air to the throne.

He had rushed out of the meeting room. The air in there was smothering him with the scent of cheap cleaning supplies. Rage bubbled within him, and he began to run.

Now he was here, in the dead remains of what was once the richest community in the city. East Town was laid to ruin.

He hadgone on for probably ten miles. Because his body was unused to this kind of physical exertion his chest was tight and he struggled for breath. His thighs burned, and his feet in their thin leather shoes ached, but still he was full of energy and ready to run however long it took. Anything to escape the hell that everyone was turning his life into. Samos was always trying to get him to go to Pecker and Onin, because Onin wanted to try some channeling stuff on him. Like anyone would want to go back to that little tent, with the air hot and thick with incense and Pecker smarting off and Onin muttering mystical mumbo-jumbo. Also, Daxter was putting constant pressure on Jak to take the throne of Haven City and become King. Dax said that he only did this because he wanted to see "his sidekick" become great, but Jak (and everyone else) had a suspicion that Dax only wanted Jak as king so that Daxter could be second in command.

Keira was the worst. She wouldn't even acknowledge his presence much less speak with him. If only she could see the pain she put him through, and the burning desire that sprang up in his heart every time he saw her. If only she could know he still loved her with all of his heart.

He heard a crack behind him, and the soft crumbling of a stone wall. He whirled around.

Twelve small, weird-looking Goobers where hopping straight at him. He effortlessly punched them all out, and then turned to resume his running.

Jak felt tiny, sharp pains in his back like red-hot needles jabbing into him. The Dark Eco left from the monsters was gravitating toward him. But this wasn't supposed to happen! When he killed the Metal Head leader, the Precursor Entity had said that the Darkness in Jak's soul was now balanced by Light. Samos had said that the Entity's powers had made it so that Jak couldn't transform anymore, and Samos was never wrong. Was he?

His throat tightened and he slowed his pace, gasping in air as quickly as he could. He felt like dying right there as he stumbled desperately back to the city gate.

Once in the slums, he went to his home, a small, two-room apartment that he rented from a farmer who had moved closer to the agriculture district. Jak barely made it into his main room before he collapsed onto the couch.

On the outside, his body was writhing in spasms, but inside his mind was racing. He could not move, and he felt sure that he was going to die. Samos had been wrong. Jak had not absorbed any Eco for so long that his body was no longer used to it. Therefore he was obviously going into some type of shock from being hit so suddenly by that much Eco. A dozen Goobers gave off a lot, even if they were small.

Then the pain came. At first it was a dull ache, starting at the bottoms of his feet and slowly going upward. It became worse and worse until it felt like his whole body was exploding with the agony of it.

Keira slowly trudged down the road in the slums, kicking smelly trash aside as she went. She was afraid of Jak. When he had first entered her garage and pulled back the green curtain, she had been delighted to see him, a familiar face in a sea of enemies. But he was not really familiar. Not anymore. He was so different from the young boy she loved in Sandover. Now he was angry, vindictive, hateful, and local rumors said that he turned into a terrible monster when he got angry.

But it wasn't his entire fault, she knew. She had taken pleasure in tormenting him. Hadn't she made fun of him, and made him look foolish in front of Errol? And, as much as she denied it and lied to herself, she had never really tried to find him. Not after she met Errol.

But now he refused to look at her. When they had to be in the same room together, he look right through her, and he would always get out of there as quickly as possible.

She had once loved him, long ago, and she had given him her whole heart. But now she wasn't sure she had feelings for him at all. And she was certain he didn't care about her. Look at how he treated her.

She wouldn't have even been doing what she was doing right now if her father hadn't insisted that she carry a message to Jak. She had a feeling that Samos just wanted to force them to speak to each other, because if he really wanted to give Jak a message he could have just used the communicator.

Keira turned up Jak's street. How strange. The door was open a crack and his Morph Gun was lying haphazardly on the street near the door.

"That's weird," she muttered, picking up the gun. Then she heard the sounds issuing from the house. It was a horrible type of screaming; long, and airless.

She knew that it was Jak. She had heard him scream before, once, about five years ago, before he and Daxter had gone to Misty Island. Jak had fallen off the dock, and his foot had gotten caught on a piece of wood. It nearly tore his toe off.

But this time it was different. She didn't know quite how, but something here was much worse. She ran into the main room, following his screams, then stopped in horror at what she saw.

He was on the floor, in torment, writhing and still screaming that awful scream. He lay in a pool of vomit streaked with blood. His eyes were rolling in their sockets as he lay, racked by an aura of darkness that surrounded him.

Keira stifled a cry as all of her years of experience with Eco kicked in. He had to have some health restoration somewhere here.

He screamed again, and Keira trembled and paused in her search. She looked over at him, and for once all her fear and hatred toward him melted away. She had been so selfish, to think of only herself and never realize how much he too had suffered in the years that they were apart. He had had it much worse than her, and she still had dismissed him as someone who never bothered to speak to her. Maybe he couldn't. Maybe it simply pained him too much.

She began to look again for health restoration, this time with more vigor. At last she found a small container of green Eco in the other room. She came back in and was afraid again. He had transformed. His eyes were black, cold, and awful. His skin was pallid, and he was still screaming although he had stopped rolling around. She knelt next to him.

From far away Jak could see a blurry image of her, as if he were seeing her from underwater. He reached for her; she was the only one who could help him...

She screamed, and blood flowed out of her arm as his razor-sharp, claw-like fingernails raked her skin. "Jak," she whispered, pouring the substance onto his body, "Come back."