The next night, Jak laid in bed, unable to sleep. Daxter was snoozing on the pillow at the foot of the bed, mumbling something about Tess. Silently, Jak got up and pulled on his boots. Sneaking past the other bunk beds filled with sleeping Resistence members, Jak got to the entrance. The door slid open and into the night air, he stepped. It was still dark out, with pitch black clouds above. A gentle drizzle came down from the sky above, blanketing everything in a thin residue of water. Faintly, he could hear the soft rumble of thunder, or was than an explosion? Having long made up his mind, Jak walked to the area where he and the Dark Eco creature had fought. He moved slower than normal, thanks to his not quite healed injuries. Sighing softly, he rubbed the bridge of his nose. For some reason, the Dark Eco creature within his mind was excited, which was unusual. It wasn't angry, but…Curious? Maybe, Jak thought, it was because we both thought that we were the only ones like this.
The trail left by the creature's dark eco laced blood was easy to follow. Simply because the fluid had burned black pits into the ground. Jak stopped at a building where the trail led up the wall. Now how was he going to get up there? The answer came quickly enough. Dark seized control, or at least Jak thought he had. No, he was...In control? Normally he blacked out or he was shoved to the back of his mind and was a mere spectator to the carnage. Jabbing his claws into the building wall, he climbed up it. Once at the top of the building, he could see the trail led to the bell tower. A half smirk formed on his face. One of the missions Krew had sent him on had been to clear out the tower and get some sort of 'treasure'. Turned out, the treasure was some sort of foul smelling food that Krew had said was a delicacy. Jak felt his dark form turn back into his normal form. Strange, the normally rage and hatred filled being in his mind was content and eager to meet the other, as it called it. How unusual.
Jak walked across the building tops towards the tower; there he climbed up a battered metal ladder that had many rungs missing and was threatening to dump him back on the rooftop below. About half way up, he heard movement. Well, it seemed something was there. He continued climbing warily, however, no attack came. Pulling himself up onto the floor of the bell tower, Jak was almost shocked at what he saw. Almost. Strewn everywhere were bones that had been half chewed on, and off in the corner was the creature, still nursing it's injuries from the fight. Upon seeing him, it hissed warningly. It was a bluff and they both knew it. The creature was in no shape to fight.
Crouching down, Jak spoke softly. "It's alright; I'm not going to hurt you." How ironic, he thought, just two days ago I was sent to kill it. It watched him warily, growling softly. The creature moved a bit, seemingly calming down as Jak softly spoke. However, it had lulled Jak into lowering his guard. Unexpectedly, it leapt towards him; Dark snatched control and slammed his claws into the creature's chest, then flung it out of the bell tower. Jak quickly regained control in time to hear a dull thud followed by a yelp of pain below.
"Dammit!" He spat out as he slid down the ladder to the roof below and then leapt down onto a tarp that broke his fall to the ground. On the ground, there was a lot of blood, but no creature. Sighing softly, he then reluctantly decided that the creature was just that: a wild creature. It appeared that no shred of humanity was left.
There was a tingling feeling on the back of his neck, a feeling he always got when he was being watching. Instinctively, he pulled out his morph gun and set it to the blaster setting, then, he warily looked around for the being. He turned around, hearing something behind him, there, on the wall, was the creature. It hissed and the scrambled up out of sight. No doubt this wasn't the last that he would see of it, he was sure of that.
"I'll let you live…For now…" Jak said quietly after the being had left. Despite the fact that it had attacked him, and nearly killed him, he felt a sort of connection with it. In fact, he felt compassionate towards it. Slinging the gun back over his shoulder, he walked back towards the Resistance hiding place. By the time he got back, the sun was just peeking over the city's walls. Once inside the hideout, an almost panic-stricken Daxter and an infuriated Torn greeted him.
"Where were you!" Daxter demanded, pacing in front of him.
"For once, I agree with the rat." Torn commented, his voice low and as always, solemn.
Jak simply shrugged, and gave a plain, but ambiguous reply. "I went for a walk."
Torn scowled before moving to his desk. For once, he couldn't think of a mission to send the duo on. Grunting, he looked towards the two. "Get out of here." He looked down at his desk to begin to glance through an assortment of reports. His concentration was broken, however, by an orange annoyance.
"HEY! Tattooed wonder! Don't you have anything for us to do?"
"Get the hell off my desk!" Torn barked, "Before I skin you and use your hide for a knife sheath!"
Daxter's ears drooped and he immediately seemed paler, if that was possible because of his fur. With almost an audible whimper, he leapt off the desk and scrambled up onto Jak's shoulder.
Jak turned and left, chuckling softly under his breath.
"Not funny!"
"Well, you need to learn not to harass Torn." Jak replied, grinning. Daxter didn't reply, he simply grumbled under his breath. Shaking his head, Jak got onto a zoomer and headed off.
"Where are we going?"
"The stadium. I want Keira to look at my hover board."
"Uhhuh..." Daxter was just about to make a comment when the zoomer suddenly swerved. The ottsel took it as a sign not to comment.
