Not a Word

Baron Praxis is bound and determined to wipe the smirk off Jak's face, but despite a grueling session of Dark Eco 'therapy,' he is sorely disappointed.

"Whatever happened today, see to it that it doesn't happen again," Praxis orders, sneering at his subordinate. "You're supposed to be breaking him, not cheering him up. His body will start resisting the treatments."

"Perhaps the Dark Warrior side of him is finally beginning to surface," Erol says, trying to placate the Baron, but with little success. "There was a civilian pursuing the prison zoomer, and the guards were throwing mines at the fool. Maybe he found it entertaining."

"You had better hope that that's the reason for his sudden mood swing," Praxis threatens him, and without waiting for an affirmation, he stalks from the chamber.

Erol is left with the apparently-bothersome task of returning Jak to his cell, and though he makes the short trip as uncomfortable as possible, the smirk never leaves the prisoner's features.

"You'll tell us eventually," Erol cajoles him, his eyes shining malevolently as he slams the thick metal door shut.

Jak doesn't hear a word of it.

His situation is grim as ever, and he knows it is only going to get worse, but even that knowledge cannot quell the one joy he has felt in the last two years:

Daxter is alive.

He could have picked out his friend's voice anywhere, even if they were in a crowd composed of the entire world's population. So when that voice hollered Jak's name in the middle of an empty street, his eyes had strained for a glimpse of orange.

And then he'd seen it, perched atop a yellow scooter. Daxter, barely big enough to operate the vehicle, was zipping along after the prison zoomer. His best friend was alive, and he was coming.

The guards driving the zoomer had noticed their pursuer as well, and started lobbing eco bombs at him. Jak's fists and teeth had clenched as his friend dodged every which way to avoid them, and he thought his heart might stop the couple of times that he lost sight of the scooter.

But Daxter was nothing if not persistent, and he'd followed the zoomer straight into the platoon of Krimzon Guards outside the prison. Jak had feared for his friend's life, but as they trained their guns on the ottsel, some nutcase in a two-seater had gone plowing into their midst, and Daxter got away during the confusion.

A weaker-willed person might have fallen into despair at the failed attempt at a rescue. But for Jak, it wasn't a failure.

For two years, Jak had been cloistered away from the world, having experiment upon painful experiment performed on him while he grappled internally with the prospect that he might never see Daxter, Keira, or Samos again – that they might all be dead.

But Daxter was alive. And with him, Jak found hope. Hope that Keira and Samos might also be alive. Hope that someday he might yet escape this torture. Hope…

…that they could go home.

Together.

'So bring on the Dark Eco, Praxis,' Jak thinks with newfound conviction, a vicious smile tugging at lips that have been downcast for far too long, 'because when Dax gets me out of here, I'm going to turn it all on you.'

Author's Notes: I'm late to this game, and in truth, I haven't actually beaten "Daxter" yet, but as soon as I played through this chase scene, I had to write Jak's POV. It would've been a little hard for him to ignore his captors heaving bombs into the street behind (in front of?) his cage, after all. XD

Hope you enjoyed it! Comments and criticism are welcomed.