Far Cry: The Elements of Insanity

The boat was silent, the only sound that could be heard was the stutter of the engine as it left the warm shores of Rook for the last time. Riley and Oliver were watching something on Riley's recovered video-phone, Daisy was tinkering with the rattling engine, and Keith and Liza were at the helm. Jason had kept some of the weapons he had earned on the island with the intent to sell them we he got home. He had the Bushman, Shadow, Shredder and his customized Z93 in a trunk at the back of the boat. His Tanto stayed at his hip though, he liked the design and planned to keep it as a souvenir of sorts.

His eyes traced over the Tatau that now covered his entire forearm. He never really questioned it before, but now that there was time, he wondered how the new additions even got there. Every once in a while after doing something big a new mark would just sear itself onto his arm. Magic? Nah, probably some chemicals or something. The times where Citra lead Jason on The Path where just educed by drugs. His absent gaze traveled over his hand and to where his ring-finger used to be.

"Fucking Hoyt..." He murmured. If only Vaas had been so easy. Vaas just stabbed Jason and ran off. Jason closed his eyes briefly and sighed. He wondered if things would ever go back to normal when they got home. Or if that was even possible. Just take a deep breath, get a soda from the kitchen and sit down to some South Park or Family Guy or whatever? He laughed at the thought. He couldn't, no matter how much time would pass, forget this last couple weeks.

He was a monster, a murderer, a beast, and he knew that. He knew, and he had the anger inside of him, always had. It was still there too. Just biding it's time. He was a killer...a legend, a true Rakyat Warrior. This anger fueled him all the way through Rook and he would never, ever let it go. He couldn't. It became him, it was him and he was it. He needed it. Without he was nothing. He sighed and swallowed hard before leaning off of the rail.

He stood, for a moment, just listening to what was around him.

"...And Rainbow Dash...Pinkie..."

"So what did he do?"

"I don't want to talk about it..."

"Hey, Jason, could you grab me a monkey wrench?"

"Jason?"

"Hello? Earth to Jason?"

Jason shook his head before turning to Daisy.

"I'm sorry, what did you need?" He asked the blond women.

"Could you pass me that monkey wrench? I need to tighten the bolts to the belt track." Daisy held her hand out. Jason nodded softly and grasped the metal tool sitting on the table. He handed it to Daisy and she went back to her work. He took a seat at the back of the boat and pulled Shadow, his customized M1911, out of the box and gazed over it. How many men had he killed? How many families had he torn apart? How many lives had he torn from people? It was easy not to think about when he doing it, but now...it was too much. Was it worth it? Of course it was.

He could have just fled the island in the first boat he found, but he didn't, he had to find his friends, and he did. He never gave up and would do the same ten times over again. He tightened the silencer and looked down the sights. How would he explain this to his parents?

'Hi mom, hi dad, sorry we're seven weeks late home and missing Grant? We were only held prisoner by a fucking psychopath and nearly killed on numerous occasions.' No, that wouldn't work. He would probably make some excuse like their flights kept getting delayed or something. No, Vaas and Hoyt both contacted their parents to try for ransom, they knew. But Jason's parents didn't know about what he had to do time and time again. He couldn't hide that from them, he'd have to tell them up front.

But how? 'Hey mom, dad, I sliced, blasted, blew up, and downright murdered hundreds of people. What's for dinner?' He'd have to think about that later. He was tired and desperately needed some sleep. He placed Shadow back into the trunk and locked it before heading inside the boat and plopping down on one of the dingy hammocks that littered the walls.

~The Next Morning~

"Aha, Jason! So good to see you again!" Jason was awoken by a familiar fast-paced accented voice.

"Tell me, did you think you just get rid of me so easily? Because if you did YOU ARE SORELY MISTAKEN!" Jason shot up and found he was staring down the barrel of a .44 held by none other than Vaas.

"They're all dead now, you know. Your friends, I mean. They even tried to fight back! The trunk at the back with your guns. It was locked and they couldn't get in! Ahaha! I castrated your brother before shooting him. His squeals were just hilarious. Oh and I personally had the two girls, what were their names? Liza and Flower or something fucking stupid like that. I had them raped and burned alive." Vaas explained with that omnipresent sadistic grin of his. Jason noticed him pull the hammer back.

"But I must say, getting my bitch sister killed? Fucking brilliant! I must thank you for that. Now, if you'd please, we've set up a little show for you! Please, to the deck. I said GET THE FUCK UP!" Vaas smacked Jason hard across the face with the barrel of his pistol. Jason clambered out of the hammock and was followed at gunpoint by Vaas to the deck. There, covered in blood, sat Oliver and Keith tied back-to-back.

"Light 'em up, boys!" Vaas cheered. Two pirates poured a large amount of gasoline over the two and another lit and tossed a match in the resulting puddle. Jason watched in shock and horror as their skin flaked and crackled, and their hair and clothes burned away while they kicked and struggled to get away to no avail. They screamed and Jason screamed with them. He couldn't do anything this time. He didn't have anything with him, no guns, no knives, anything.

"What's wrong Jason? Look at me. What's wrong?" Vaas repeatedly asked.

"I ASKED YOU A QUESTION! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG?" Jason was knocked to the ground after taking a gruesome elbow to the temple.

"ANSWER ME! ANSWER MY FUCKING QUESTION JASON!" Vaas kicked at Jason's face mercilessly, landing hit after hit.

"ARE YOU FUCKING ENJOYING THIS? IF YOU DON'T FUCKING ANSWER ME IN THREE SECONDS I'M GOING TO PUT A FUCKING BULLET IN YOUR DAMN HEAD!" Vaas landed one last vicious kick before pointing the .44 at Jason's beaten and bloodied face.

"ONE!" Vaas pulled back the hammer again.

"TWO!" He placed the barrel to Jason's temple.

"Please no! P-please!" Jason begged, finally catching his breath.

"I'll do anything! Just don't kill me!" He added. Vaas removed the barrel from Jason's temple.

"Good, you answered. It wasn't a relevant answer at all but I'll let it slide. I won't kill you." Vaas clapped.

"Oh thank go-" Jason was kicked again.

"Do NOT interrupt me! I won't kill you, but I'll still shoot you." Vaas laughed before firing once into Jason's knee. Jason screamed as the searing pain washed over him.

"Ah what the hell. Just to make sure you won't come after me again..." Vaas stomped on Jason's injured knee once before placing the barrel on his forehead again.

"Sleep well, hermano." Jason flinched before it all went dark.

And then he woke up.

His eyes shot open with a gasp. He clutched his chest and sat up. It all felt so real, the pain, the smell of gas and blood. The room was empty at the moment, the others were probably already up and about. He changed clothes before heading up to the deck.

"Jason! Could I talk to you for a minute?" Jason turned to see Liza walking up to him.

"Oh..yeah, sure." Jason shrugged. He followed Liza back to the cabin.

"Riley said he would take care of the boat while we slept, like make sure we kept on course. When I asked him what happened he said that he saw lights and steered towards them. After a while he said that the boat started steering itself, like something had it. I think he's going crazy. What should we do?" Liza explained.

"Where are we?" Jason asked.

"That's just it, I checked the GPS and we're near a continent I can't even recognize! It's like that 'Pangaea' we were taught about in science except much bigger." Liza then showed Jason the mobile GPS.

"I'll go talk to him. Just...don't worry about it for now." Jason went back up to the deck after putting the GPS away. He spotted Riley at the helm and went to go speak with him about what happened. He climbed the stairs and tapped his brother on the shoulder.

"Riley, Liza said you went off course?" Jason started.

"I thought we were near a city or something." Riley admitted. He notched up the throttle a little.

"But the lights and the boat thing isn't everything. There was a man on the boat last night. He wore a patched-suit and was talking nonsense. He asked what I was doing and I told him we were trying to get home. After that he just...poofed away. I don't know how we got here. We're in the middle of the ocean heading who-knows-where and-"

"GET DOWN!" Jason tackled Riley to the ground as a green beam passed over-head. Another beam struck the hull and exploded.

"What the fuck was that?!" Riley shouted. Jason watched in confusion as Riley pulled out a plain 6P9 from a small duffel-bag.

"Where did you get a gun?" Jason asked.

"The man in the patched-suit gave it to me!" Riley pulled the slide back.

"Cover me while I get to my trunk. I have my guns in it." Jason ordered.

"I'll try." Riley shook his head violently before popping up and firing multiple times. Jason lunged over a guard rail and slid behind a large rail seconds before a beam hit where he would of been.

"Oh FUCK!" Jason heard Riley shout. He fired again and Jason moved. He could see the trunk.

"Jason! What's going on?!" Daisy screamed.

"We're being attacked, don't ask who, I have no fucking clue." Jason grabbed the trunk and began to drag it behind cover. Once he was clear he smashed the lock off with the butt of his Tanto. The lock shattered and Jason reached inside. He pulled out the Z93 and climbed to the top of the boat. Looking down the scope, he spotted what was shooting the beams. It looked to be some sort of improved stone AA-Cannons. Jason noticed something that seemed like someone's head and fired at it. Blood and...feathers? splattered in all directions.

No time to question it. He fired until he emptied the magazine. He reloaded but was soon frozen in place.

"Jason, the man! The suited man is here!" He heard Riley shout. His struggles were fruitless; it was like someone was holding him in place. He could see the suited-man by Riley wave his hand at the cannons and a large explosion followed it. It was as if the man himself caused it. He could move again after the man disappeared. It was weird, but there was no time to question it. He strapped on all the holsters, bags, and containers he had worn while at Rook, after putting the Privateer uniform back on. It gave marginal resistance to projectiles at least. Next came the Wingsuit. Within seconds he was back in his 'normal' attire. His holsters were now filled by his weapons and his Tanto stuck to his belt.

The cannons had stopped, were they clear? Jason could only hope so.

~30 minutes later~

All was calm once more. They had found, er, crashed, into land a little while back and were assessing damages.

"Fuck...no no no!" Jason pried away some charred metal and found Liza impaled on a thick metal rod. Jason found that the rusted base of the rod was easy to break due to years of being eroded. He hefted Liza's unconscious form from the rubble and set her down inside the makeshift camp they'd improvised. He had some medical experience fixing himself up on Rook and was able to quickly improvise a tourniquet with the left sleeve of his outfit. There seemed to be some form of Arrowroot and Screwpine trees around that he could harvest.

After a salve was applied to the wound Jason went to go make sure everyone else was okay. Daisy had, of course, found her tools and began work on the boat again. Oliver and Riley were doing their own thing. But Keith was...Keith. Jason tightened Liza's tourniquet once more before heading over to the jarred man.

"Keith? You okay?" Jason asked, he could have sworn Keith jumped six feet.

"S-sorry, I'm just nervous. I can't calm down." Keith rubbed his arm.

"There's no need to be worried, I'm going to keep you all safe. I promise." Jason put his hand on on Keith's shoulder which caused him to jump again.

"Buck really messed with you, didn't he?" Jason sighed.

"I don't want to talk about Buck. Ever. Just drop it." Keith snarled before quivering. Jason sighed again and left Keith to his business.

"I'll be back in a couple hours, I'm going hunting. Riley, shoot ANYONE that isn't me if you think they'll cause harm." Jason ordered sternly, Riley nodded and checked his pistol. Jason jungle-ran his way through the bushes, the tatau had given him impeccable stealth skills. He mentally marked landmarks near himself and had to stop himself from going to look for relics.

After about twenty minutes he found some deer grazing by a stream that hadn't taken notice of him. Without missing a beat he drew The Bushman and nearly took off each of their heads. He gutted and stripped the good meat off of the carcasses as quickly as ever. A deep breath told him something smelled. Bad. Jason scrunched and covered his nose with a cough.

*Creeeeaaak*

"What the hell was that?" Jason asked himself. It sounded like a wooden joint under pressure. He poked his head up and was meet face-to-mouth by a wolf. Almost instinctively Jason slammed a hard hook into the side of the beast's head and fired a stream of bullets into into it's side. Instead of being splashed by blood he was being hailed by splinters, like shooting a log. He stopped shooting long enough to see what he was shooting and found just that, a wooden wolf. Someone had placed a decoy to distract him!

Nope.

No they didn't. It was easy to tell because about thirty more live wooden wolves were howling after him.

"Oh shit, fuck!" Jason cursed viciously as he swung the Tanto at the massed group of wooden creatures.

"Do I have one?!" Jason patted his waist and found what he was looking for, albeit he only had one. A grenade. He jumped back, pulled the pin, and tossed the metal ball into the snarling timber-pile.

Tick.

Tick.

Boom.

Wood flew in all directions, embers lit the grass and flowers, and it seemed like it was over.

"Oh, you have got to be FUCKING kidding me!" Jason shouted when he noticed all the wood pieces drifting together to form an enormous wolf.

"It's coming from over here!" Jason heard someone call from behind the wolf. He decided to just let this be their problem. When the mega-wolf was distracted he dove into a deep ditch behind him and quietly started making his way back to the camp.

~~~

Jason threw a sheet of metal on some stilts over the fire and threw the deer-meat on. Everyone sat around the fire in silence.

"Guys, I had a run in with something weird." Jason started.

"What was it?" Each of them asked.

"Wooden wolves. Not like hunting decoys, they were alive. I blew them all apart with a grenade but the grew together into some giant fucking wood-wolf!" Jason explained seriously.

"Wooden wolves?" Riley turned to Oliver

"You don't think?" Oliver whispered.

"Timberwolves?" They simultaneously.

"The hell is a Timberwolf?" Jason asked the two men.

"A wooden wolf!" Riley repeated. Jason pushed and flipped the meal around on the improvised grill while he listened.

~Two hours later~

They all ate and Jason fed Liza shredded pieces of the deer. He wasn't an expert at telling time by the sun or the moon or like that, but he was guessing it was around nine at night. Jason looked around once more before ordering lights out. Riley smothered the fire and crawled into the tent the had made in the damaged hull of the boat. They decided, well, Jason insisted, that Jason would take watch-duty while they slept.

"Sleep easy guys, I'll be here." Jason said to himself. Little did he know he would soon find an old enemy that missed him so dearly.