Author's Note: To my reviewers, thank you! For taking the time out of your lives to write a note to someone you've never heard of, I do appreciate it. More story for you.

2 - In Darkness

The cell door opened with not a hint of dramatic flair. For a few seconds, there was total darkness before the ceiling light flickered lazily into action, bathing the cell in a dim and uneven fluorescent glow.

Jak took a step forward into the cell and immediately stopped as his foot splashed in a shallow puddle. He looked down. Dark eco. He cursed under his breath.

Daxter obviously saw it too. He spoke up, breaking the tense silence with his distinctive voice.

"...Torn?"

Light didn't quite reach the far corner of the cell, and it was dark there, so dark it seemed almost as if it were reaching into an endless abyss. From the darkness, purple eyes stared outwards.

It was Torn. His once lean frame had become gaunt and emaciated. Dark eco was dripping from his pale skin, tinted with the eco's colour. Strands of pale hair clung to his face and tattoos, which seemed somehow even blacker than the black shadows he hid himself inside. Coiled around him were thick purple tendrils of dark eco which had sprouted from his back, some of them stunted and broken. They twitched like the wings of a dying insect and dripped more eco into the growing pool on the floor.

Torn was silent save his pained, shallow breathing. He shrank further back into the shadow, his expression an unreadable mask.

Jak took a moment to register the situation, so alien and surreal. Had they tortured him with dark eco to get the information they wanted? How had he survived? What were they trying to do?

"Torn... Torn, it's me, Jak. It's okay."

He moved into the cell, bringing himself into the weak light. A twinge of recognition crossed Torn's face and, slowly, the purple began to fade from his eyes like a windblown mist. The eco receded and soon, a weakened, more recognisable Torn sat in the pool of dark eco, clutching the sides of his tattered prison uniform. He seemed barely alive.

The plan had been for them to just walk out of there at this point, but it didn't look like Torn was going to be able to move in the state he was in. Jak edged closer, ever cautious, kneeling down to try and meet the other's steel-blue gaze.

Something glinted in the light – a thin, round-edged collar around Torn's neck that Jak had failed to notice until now. The distinctive bronze gold colour of Precursor metal, so rare in this time, contrasted against pale skin. At a certain angle, darker symbols could be made out, carefully inscribed on the collar's outer surface by an ancient hand. They seemed to call out to him, and Jak reached out to touch it, trying to decipher the meaning of the text.

As Jak's finger's brushed the cool metal, Torn gave a stifled cry of protest, pulling himself away. Almost immediately, the exertion started him in a bout of pained coughing. Flecks of dark eco stained his lips and ran in small drops from the corner of his mouth.

"OK," Daxter announced, "so, don't touch that."

Daxter's familiar voice pulled Jak out of his reverie. He snapped into action. "Torn, we don't have much time left. We've got to get you out of here. Guards will be here any second."

Torn glared at the duo for a moment before he began to bring himself to his feet, supporting himself against the wall and growling lowly at Jak's outstretched hand. Once he was standing, it became obvious that he wasn't going to get any further without assistance. All of the ears in the room perked as the sound of KG steel-tipped boots marching became noticeable in the distance. They were out of time.

To little resistance, Jak pulled Torn's arm over his shoulder and practically carried him out of the cell. They could hear the guard's radios crackling just over their shoulders now as they half-limped, half-sprinted to the cell-room's control centre.

Right on cue, the warp gate powered up. It had been hacked by Vin to fling them off to a random location in the city, so their whereabouts couldn't be traced. Without thinking twice, Jak threw Torn into it, jumping in after him with Daxter clinging to his shoulder. The warp gate immediately powered off, leaving the entering KG with a hauntingly empty cell room.

Just like that, they were gone.

If you're wondering about the cliffhangers, they are there literally because that is all that I have written. I am making this up as I go, I have no idea what is going to happen.