Have you ever had a moment when you've had to stop for a second and think; how did I get to this point?

This is one of my major ones. Hi there! My name is Lyra, and I'm not your average run of the mill girl. In fact no scratch that – I'm not your average run of the mill human. The reasons behind which will be explained in due course. Speaking of which, I think it's time to start telling. And I think the best place to start from is the beginning, so I will.

2nd July 2008

I liked today, it had been a good day – I had *re-purchased* a PS2, after I sold my last one to buy an X-box 360. I hadn't regretted it until a few months later, when I had realised how much I missed some of the exclusive games. One of these was part of my favourite trilogy – Jak II, part of the Jak and Daxter trilogy.

*By 're-purchased' I mean got another, not the same one month's later.*

I practically bounced back home after I had bought it, and spent as little time as possible getting from the door to my room once I got home. Yes! There's the start-up screen and… that's odd… it looks like there's some new additions to the wheel of the main menu. One in particular interested me: Warp portals. I scrolled across to the segment and selected it. A line of segments came up - a screen for in codes; as demonstrated by the line of text above them: Input code. I was disappointed for a second – I didn't have the code. Then I saw it inside the case. It was handwritten just inside the edge of the case, where it could be covered up by the manual. Oddly enough, the code was: Released. Satisfied again, I typed in the code and hit enter. Nothing happened for a second, and then the words; code accepted, flashed up on screen and a slight shimmer started to form in a circular shape in front of the T.V and above the PlayStation.

I did not expect this. At all. I mean, there was a warp portal right in front of me! What were you supposed to do in this sort of situation? I did the only insane thing possible – I stuck my hand in. But it wouldn't come back out… no matter how hard I pulled, my hand just wasn't coming back out. What would you have done at this point? I sat down on the floor for half an hour thinking about what to do. I eventually came to the conclusion that I would have to follow my hand. I ran through various places that I could end up. I didn't like most of them. But then I didn't have a choice, unless I was willing to lose my hand when the portal closed. And for a second I was tempted. But then I thought of everything I could change. For the better, and because I can be a massive pessimist – for the worse as well.

In the end it didn't matter anyway, because it wasn't up to me. So I took a deep breath. And pushed myself into the warp portal.

It was actually really pretty as I want through whatever it was you go through when you use a warp portal. It was a swirl of every colour that you could think of, along with some you couldn't… and nothing clashed! I was surprised by that – all those colours and none of them clashed with each other!

But my musing on the… warp tunnel? Yeah I'll call it warp tunnel, was cut short as I was spat out of the other side. A bit faster than I would have wanted to, to be honest because I flew straight into a wall… which was metal. So this was Jak II or later. Hopefully. Because if it was before Jak got here then I didn't know what would happen to me. Before I could dwell on that too much though, I noticed a commotion coming from over to my left. When I turned to look, Erol was striding toward me, gun in hand. Oh and he also had a squad of about 15 Krimson Guard behind him as well.

"There she is! Take her!" Hang on. Just let me take a quick look around… no… he is talking about me. Crap. Ah well, I'm not going down easy! So… step one… RUN! I twisted on my heel and took off away from the KG cock-bites. I barely heard the shout from behind me:

"By order of Baron Praxis, STOP!" This actually made me laugh so much I did stop. But only to shout back.

"Oh my god! Does that actually work on anyone? I mean, do some people stop just because of the name? You know what it makes me do? It makes me laugh and run faster! So I hopefully won't be seeing you later, now ta ta!" And with that I again just started running. Hmm… where was I? It looks like I'm in the red sector, but I could see water over there so I must be near the green sector, because I was nowhere near the port. If I could get near the stadium then I could lose myself in the crowds… hopefully. I changed my direction towards the water I could see. But just as I got to the top of a ramp leading up to a convenient raised walkway, I was full on tackled back off it from behind.

I managed to kick away my attacker on the way down and land properly, rolling to lessen the impact. I heard a thud behind me that indicated that my attacker hadn't landed as well, probably counting on me to cushion it – the bastard. I rolled away from them, simultaneously getting up at the same time. I caught a glimpse of who it was – Erol had apparently caught up to me. There was no point running then because if he had caught up once, he would do it again before I can reach the stadium. So I had little option but to fight and hope I can beat him and get away before his goons get here. Suddenly I was thankful for the beatings that I had got from my brother as he tried to teach me mixed martial arts, because it made me rather good at them.

I took a step closer and kicked his gun away as he reached for it, before lifting my foot out of the way of the swipe he made for my leg. I brought my foot back down on his wrist as it went by, pinning it. But that left me open to him grabbing it with his other hand and twisting it out from under me. I fell to the floor with a grunt of pain; Erol took this time to get to his feet, giving me time to do the same. He didn't bother taking a fighting stance and just rushed me snarling. I dodged his first swing and caught his second, taking the opportunity to slip beneath his guard and land a hard punch to his chest. Erol's breath huffed out of him and I followed up on my advantage by twisting the arm I held while delivering spin kick to his lower rib cage, he was lifted by me raising his arm as I span and then as I twisted his arm the kick propelled his body the other way; causing it to dislocate. Erol screamed as his arm popped out of its socket and collapsed to his knees.

I thought him done and dropped my guard. But he pivoted on his good arm and took my feet out from under me. By chance I happened to land next to Erol's pistol, which I then snatched up and rolled so it was pointing at him. He froze; I just stared at him trying to keep a neutral expression on my face because I know that if done right then it can be terrifying. I looked somewhere other than at him and saw to my surprise that a crowd had gathered around where Erol and I had been fighting, and holding them back, to my great surprise was the squad of Krimson Guard that had been chasing me. To my surprise they didn't move towards me, and judging from their body language they were more surprised than I was… why was that? Oh – one's shifting.

"Sir? Orders? What do you want us to do?" Oh I get it, they were either shocked I beat Erol, or they were just too scared to come near me. I wasn't too sure which one I liked more…

"Detain her you idiots! The Baron will be interested in this one!" I shifted my aim to the guard that moved. Hang on a second, why am I still on the floor? I got up – slowly, still keeping an eye on the guards surrounding me. But apparently it wasn't good enough, because Erol shifted to catch my attention, then while I was distracted I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head. As I fell I saw the Krimson Guard that had snuck up behind me. The last thing I saw was Erol standing over me holding a rifle in his good hand, the arm I dislocated still hanging uselessly by his side.

"I'm gonna enjoy seeing you suffer you bitch!" I just managed to roll my eyes at him before the rifle butt smashed into my face.

Erol's POV

Erol couldn't deny that the girl who was being loaded into the cruiser intrigued him, true he hated her for humiliating him but still; there was just too much that didn't add up about her… first came that taunt when one of the guards had told her to stop… true most people didn't stop when ordered, but that was because they were too scared of what they would do – not because they were laughing too hard to run… and then there was her endurance… he had really had to work, to push himself to catch her and then there was the most intriguing aspect of her – she could fight better than anyone he had met before, and no-one had ever beaten him. He couldn't really blame his troops for not wanting to go near her.

His eyes drifted out of focus for a second as he went back to the moment when she had picked up his gun; her blank face as she confidently held his gun in a casual grip… it was no wonder the guards had formed a perimeter rather that rushing straight in. Who knew what she was capable of?

And that last moment before he had knocked her out… no-one rolled their eyes before being arrested nobody…

In the end only one thought was circling his head about that girl: Who are you?

(A/N My opinion is who shall she become? And what do you want her to do once she and Jak get out of prison? Should Lyra go off on her own or should she stick with Jak? I already have romance options lined up for later for both options – they might surprise you, particularly if she stays with Jak. And I will admit I am leaning more toward Lyra staying with Jak.)

Ch 2

I groaned as I came out of the darkness of unconsciousness. Someone shifted over to my right, so I turned over to look at them as I opened my eyes. The first thing I noticed was a barred window in a metal wall. So I wasn't sure if I was in the same prison as Jak, because those cells didn't have any windows of any sort.

Then I noticed the person stood behind the bars. It took me a second of double checking before I was sure. But it had to be Jak – no-one else in the game had that look. Trust my luck to put me right next to the person I was looking for, and then for a way to talk to him in a supposedly windowless prison? It was almost too convenient. So I had a closer look at the bars – they shined. The rest of the cell was faded but the bars were new. Huh… looks like I had my first topic to talk to Jak about.

"So when did they put the bars in?" It was simple, but I didn't know if he could talk at this point; his hair was shorter, and not as dark as it was when Daxter rescued him. I guessed that we had maybe a year before he got here.

"Today." I froze for a second before relaxing. I honestly didn't expect him to speak, so I was a little surprised when he did. But then I recovered and raised an eyebrow.

"Interesting… I wonder why? Anything else new in your cell?" he shook his head. I got bored of sitting on the floor of the cell and got up to look at the bars closer. Jak backed up a bit as I stopped at the bars. "Hey, I'm not gonna bite you know. No need to be scared of me." I thought for a second. "Well at least you don't. Any guard that comes in that door however…" I trailed off as I jerked my thumb over my shoulder at the door. That got a smile out of him. I ran my fingers over the smooth metal, searching for any unusual bumps or dents.

"What are you doing?" now that I thought about it, Jak's voice sounded a bit scratchy. It was probably the first time he'd used it when he had answered me the first time.

"I'm looking for anything out of place." I answered a little cryptically. Aha! There it is! My fingers had found a small dent big enough to fit a finger-tip in. I got my finger nail into the small join that I had found and started levering it loose. It didn't take much effort before the cover of the secret compartment popped off.

Inside was a small microphone attached to what I suppose was a transmitter and battery. I grinned triumphantly at Jak.

"Got it!" I pulled the wires out of the sockets and took all the parts out of the little hollow. Then I noticed that what had to be the battery was making a small whining sound that was getting louder by the second. The bad feeling I got also got worse with each second. I shoved it back into the compartment I took it out form and shouted to Jak. "BACK UP!" and practically jumped over to the bed on the other side of the cell. Eventually I could hear the whining through the metal the bars were made of and with being over the other side of the cell. Shortly after that came the explosion that I was expecting. Thankfully it was smaller than I was expecting, but it was still big enough to blow a sizeable hole in the wall between mine and Jak's cells. Judging by the residue in the air that was a dark eco battery in there.

"Are you ok?" Jak's head appeared in the hole, with a concerned expression on his face. I chuckled a bit; he was the same old Jak.

"I'm fine thank you." I put on a puzzled expression for a second. "I just realised that I don't know your name…"

"I'm Jak." Huh… simple, to the point. Was that the Jak II Jak or the Jak and Daxter Jak? I don't know, I don't have any record to compare off. Oh wait – he's still waiting for my name.

"Nice to meet you Jak. I'm Lyra, although I wish I didn't meet you here." He nodded in understanding before speaking again.

"What did they get you for?" my laugh at that didn't have humour.

"Arriving. Or it might have been for beating up the guard captain when he tried to arrest me after that." Jak looked amused that I had beaten up Erol.

"You mean Erol? I've never heard of him losing before." I shrugged.

"I don't know. As I said – just got here." Then he noticed that my ears were still how I would consider normal. He looked disgusted.

"Umm… were your ears always like that? Or did they do something?"

"Umm… no my ears were always like this. Everyone's are where I come from." I laughed at the end because his face went from disgusted to incredulous. Then we both started as my cell door opened. Two Krimson Guards were stood there staring at the hole Jak stood in. I decided to not make them think Jak had done that with dark eco powers, like they were probably thinking now.

"You know, next time you plant a bug you might want to make the batteries a little less explosive." Jak just laughed and one of the guards hit him in the gut for it. This made me just a little mad. "HEY! Leave him alone! What had he done to deserve that?" one of the guards snorted with laughter.

"We do as we please in these walls! In this prison we are god and you do as your told!" I wonder if what I did to Erol as been kept quiet… probably – the guy has an obsession with winning so he wouldn't want it spread around that he was beaten. In that case…

"Come over here and say that to my face." I said pointing at the ground in front of my feet. Jak looked worried as the guard started to walk towards me. I decided that this guard wasn't going to be walking out of this cell, but I waited until he was in front of me before I acted.

The guard stopped walking and bent down so he was right in my face. But just before he started speaking I brought my knee up between his legs. I know, I know – it was a low blow, but it was a good start. As he started to fall I grabbed him and pivoted on my back foot, using his own weight to throw him into the wall behind me. His companion at the door stood where he was, probably out of shock.

"Get up. Come on, GET UP!" I yelled at the guard that I had floored. He shakily got to his feet and of all things tried to raise his gun that he had somehow managed to hang on to. I grabbed it and gave him a side-kick to the abdomen, forcing him to let go as he again slammed into the wall for the second time in under a minute. "Idiot…" I hissed as I slammed the butt of the rifle into his face. I set the gun down on the back wall beside me before I dragged the now unconscious guard back over to the door. Something prodded me in the back as I let go of the guard I had dragged. It turned out to be the guard's gun; it was one of the electro-shock ones so I backed up a bit before taunting him.

"You know that there is nothing you could do to stop me busting out right now don't you? And by extension Jak, and anyone else I could get?" the guard just laughed.

"Yeah, I can't stop you… but they can." They turned out to be a squad of… 18, 19 20. Yep – 20 guards… all because I beat up Erol. Cool. But it sent me into hysterics. Jak looked at me like he was concerned for my mental health, but he also looked a little amused.

"So… why are they here? Just to stop me breaking out?" I eventually managed to choke out.

"Na… you're pretty special, you know that? You've got the Baron coming to see you on your first day." THAT brought me up short. What was he coming for? Was it just to see me? To see whether I should be used for the Dark Warrior Program? Urgh – this was one visit I was NOT looking forward to.

Some time later…

"… I assure you Baron, that she is capable of taking the treatments! She is more than strong enough!" huh? Oh I fell asleep… and that sounds like Erol. Which means that the Baron's here. Ok. Time to shine… and by that I mean do as much damage as I could while he was watching.

I got up from where I had sat on the floor of my cell, noticing that the door was open as I did so. That just made this easier to do. Right, just walk over to the door… I don't believe it… the guard on the door is facing out… but there is another in Jak's cell on the other side of the hole; guess they haven't fixed it yet. Well dur! It's only been a few hours! Anyway… back to focusing on the guard in the cell doorway – this should be really easy by the way; he hasn't noticed I'm stood right behind him. So let's start this off simply shall we? I took one last step forward and twisted on my right heel, slamming my left foot into the small of the guard's back shoving him forward. The force of my kick caught him off guard (heh… caught the guard off guard, ahh… that's so lame…) and sent him flying instead of stumbling like I had planned… but it worked out a bit better anyway – the guard flew off the ledge that ran around the edge of the room and dropped down the incredibly dark hole in the centre. His scream of terror was a little chilling, but I had to shrug it off because it also made all the guards turn towards me. I tried to psyche a few out by grinning like a psychopath and acting like one too.

"Well then… shall we see if the Krimson Guards blood colour matches their armour?" knowing my occasional borderline psychopath-ness it was probably quite convincing. Or maybe this is one of those times when I become a psychopath… ah well; if it is then I'll just use it for my own ends.

Time to play….

I started walking towards the group of guards – that still hadn't moved, before speeding up into a jog and then into a run then into a dead sprint. I had a vicious smile on my face as I ran; it seemed to shock some of the guard into action as some raised their guns in my direction. It only made me focus on them first. I reached the first guard as he finished raising his gun and twisted it around just as he pulled the trigger causing the shot to hit the guard to my right, the shot hit him in the side of his ribcage, making him fall to the ground with a slight "Umph-ahhh" as he slid off the edge of the ledge. I followed up on the guard whose gun I had redirected by further using his gun to smack him on the side of his head and twisting it out of his grip. I didn't fire it though – that would be too easy and I was trying to create a reputation. So I span it around in my hands so the butt end was forward and, using all the frustration I had gathered from being in here all day, slammed it under the now unarmed guard's chin causing his head to snap back with a sickening *crunch*. He also dropped to the floor, from what I suspected was a shattered spine, ah well… it wasn't my concern unless he gets back up – time to move on.

I went through the next four KG without too much trouble as they only came at me one at a time. The next lot came at me in a group of three. It was much more challenging – and I loved a challenge. I ducked the first ones swing and came back with a haymaker, sending him to the floor. The next came from behind trying to surprise me. The fool tried to grab me, but I slid down, out of his grip and got one of his arms in a grip of my own. Then I took advantage of the smooth polished metal, along with my downward momentum to swing around the arm and land a double footed kick to his face. He predictably reeled from the force of the kick, putting him off balance, and if there was one thing the KG should have learned in the last 6 minutes it's that being off balance near me and a long drop was a bad idea. As this particular guard realised as he headed over the edge of said drop, I blocked out his scream of terror – I had heard too many by now to be bothered. The last guard in the group of three was snarling in rage as he ran at me, I realised that I was stood right at the edge of the ledge around the room – perfect for a classic move that should send me into hysterics if it works. In the end it was the simplest move ever – I stepped to the side and just for kicks, stuck my arm up at neck height. The classic clothes-line.

I heard the slap of flesh meeting flesh as the guard backflipped off the edge, but it didn't come from my arm, it was a facepalm from my current right hand side. I glanced over and saw Erol with his hand over his eyes while the figure beside him was looking down at the floor shaking his head slowly. I glanced back at where I had come from and saw Jak killing himself on the floor with laughing behind the guard that, from his body language, was about to faint. That set me off on a minor giggling fit, thankfully I didn't get any KG attacking me while it subsided.

The reason for that was revealed when I looked toward the figures of Erol and who had to be the Baron; they had reformed into two blocks – one of seven and one of five, I don't know why they didn't split down the middle into two groups of six but they didn't. Ah well – more fun for me.

I charged the group of seven as it was the front one, taking a run-up to make sure I was going fast enough for what I had in mind. I yelled out just before I got to the front rank of two (the KG can only fit two abreast on the ledge in their armour).

"YIPPY KI-YAY MOTHERFUCKERS!" And no – there is no point in asking why I said that because I just don't know… but it made them flinch enough for me to plough them all down as I cannoned into the front two. It was frigging hilarious – they went down like dominos. I decided it was just time to be fucking cold as I picked up one of the beam guns that had been dropped and proceeded to put one shot in the head of them all while they were trying to get up off the floor – except for the single guy who had been at the back. He had been pinned by the corpses of the guards in front of him; I strolled casually through my work kicking a couple of bodies off the edge to join the others at the bottom of the pit. The Krimson Guard who was pinned under the two bodies of his friends started struggling more violently as I got closer, right up until I put my foot on his chest plate and lowered the barrel to his face. I waited for a second before allowing a smile to creep across my face, and it wasn't a nice one – It was predatory. That was what it took for the guard to snap.

"NUH…" I pulled the trigger before he could finish screaming his last denial. Then I looked down at the gun in my hand in disgust.

"So uncivilised…" I said as I threw away said gun "Sorry, I got bored. Nothing to do in that cell you know… I had a build-up of energy so I had to get rid of it. Also your goons pissed me off while bringing me here so it was payback for that as well. Thinking of earlier… how's your arm Erol?" I noticed that the arm I dislocated was in a sling.

"Better now that your in here!" he snarled back at me. I pulled out a confused expression for show.

"But how can where I am affect how well your arm heals? Unless I have a previously unknown ability to affect the laws of physics…" I trailed off when Erol growled, I just smirked back.

"Enough! Erol you will not harm our new subject." Oh yeah – that sounded like the Baron from the game.

"You mean she will be in the program?" Erol voice had an unhealthy amount of enthusiasm in it as he said that… the problem was I didn't know who it would be unhealthy for. "When do we start?"

"Well… there is no time like the present…" the Baron signalled to one of the guards with an electro-gun. The last thing I remember is faintly hearing someone yelling for them to leave me alone.

I woke up strapped into the injector chair with the Baron to my right and Erol to my left. They were discussing my ears for some reason. They apparently weren't good enough for what they had in mind.

"Fetch the boy." Wait, what? Is that Jak? Why are they getting him? Yep that's Jak alright… struggling between two Krimson Guards as he's dragged over to the injector chair. Oh no – that is a VERY big needle that the Baron has there… he can't be about to do what I think he's gonna is he?

"Bring me the canister." Oh my god he is! The Baron stabbed the needle into Jak's neck and pulled back on the plunger. He filled it up to the half-way mark before stopping. "That should do for now… don't want you dying from blood loss now do we?" then he turned back to the guards holding Jak. "Keep him awake – I want him to watch this." Then he opened the top of the canister of dark eco and with a steady hand he injected Jak's blood into the eco which was to be injected into me… he is such a sicko… I'm so helping Jak kill him later.

I watched helpless as they loaded the canister into the injector, bracing myself for what was probably agony. I wasn't disappointed. I writhed my way through hours of being injected with dark eco.