A/N: Salutations, my little dokis! I know this isn't really much, but I thought I should post something to make things a little less empty over here. So, here's a one-shot I did for a challenge on Tumblr. It's a little old so it's probably not the same as my usual writing, but I hope it's of decent quality regardless. C: Enjoy.

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It had only been in a matter of seconds, the world fading in and out and consciousness beginning to float in and out of reach.

Someone else was there, but at this point it was nearing inaudibility as the ringing of agony chimed repeatedly in his head, filling his skull and pushing it to the verge of cracking open, to the point he barely could make out the words being thrown at him as they turned into high-pitched pleads.

"Sa…something….just this once!"

He did say something this time. For the first time, ever since two years of suffering had dropped upon him.

"I'M GONNA KILL PRAXIS!"

Voices that he would usually call familiar.

A face he would welcome fading in and out, in and out.

The world turned purple, yet he saw scarlet red.

Jak's fists clenched, his nails digging into the flesh until it nearly bled. What one could only describe as a heavy breath and a growl escaped his lips, one after the other, getting more rapid each time.

The chains snapped open like a noose falling from the pole of the gallows, oh by the Precursors how badly it would burn if he gripped onto that power.

But how bad it would burn, even worse actually, if he chose to resist further. It had called one too many times, the pounding in the head of the supposed 'eco-freak'.

It was banging like a drum and screeching in his mind, every waking moment. Every moment of resistance made him weaker, yet not resisting would do the same.

What other options remained? Take it now, and live?

Or refuse it, and wake up hours later to his own demise at the barrel of a gun? And that would only be if he was lucky.

There was no other choice.

His teeth gritted together hard enough he was expecting them to break just as the chains did, his insides reeled as they completely ignited. The Dark Eco flowed and sparked in his blood, electrifying his whole body; like a thousand needles had been shot through his body. Jak spoke again.

No, he did not speak.

He didn't even scream.

It was an unnatural roar that echoed through the now lone chamber, reaching his feet as power flowed through him; that sense of power…it was enough for him to continue to cling onto it.

But just barely.

It almost came as a surprise that the substance, that evil substance…the one he now needed, and could never be rid of; didn't even rip through his flesh as it sparked around his body. As he finally got back onto his feet, for a split second and in a brief and near desperate hesitation, he clutched his head in a desire to go back.

All the while wondering if there was a way back; if he even had a chance to go back.

But it didn't last long.

He rounded the metal of that damned Dark Eco chair, anything familiar instead becoming another target, anything from the days of before becoming desperately thin in his head. Even if he didn't acknowledge it, the power and the agony sparked from his body.

Down the aching scars.

Down the marks of the chains.

Yet every part of his body felt like it was pulsing, on the verge of exploding there and then. It was like that power was about to overflow at any moment, tear every part of him to tiny pieces and leave nothing left but the freak he had become.

No, not a freak. A monster.

Just like he had been told, over and over again.

The claws were the first part that overflowed as he had thought they inevitably would, that chaos erupted sporadically all over as he went for the attack.

Went for the kill.

Every single drop of fury, of despair, of sorrow, of hatred, it formed together and removed all reservations or restrictions.

If you were like this - what reason was there to have a regret to lug around with you as a needless weight?

None of it mattered anymore, he was so certain; even if he wanted it to, as his body had yielded completely and screeched in agony all the while.

Even as the face before him distorted, he could see the terror and the fear. It was almost familiar now - but he was liberated, free of regret or concern.

Only to realize the burning once again; his chest felt like it was about to collapse in on itself as he would fall to his death and into the abyss below. That dark lightning surrounding Jak's body began to die, that power being torn from his reach. He didn't resist it once he realized who that familiar voice was.

There was a way out, a face he knew.

A face he didn't just know from the mocking he'd hear from beyond the bars of the cells.