A/N: Sorry for the short delay in getting this chapter up, but here it is. I was thinking about redoing the last chapter but I think it's enough to keep the story moving so, I feel I should just leave it as it is.

This chapter is a bit longer than the others, but I don't think it's something to complain about, ne? This chapter is a bit... iffy. Bear with me.

Thank you's go out to:

Anonymous: Thanks! I'm updating as fast as I can.

Demyrie: Yeah I felt it went a little too fast, which I think is why I was hesitant to post it. And thanks always for the wonderful review

Von: Glad you liked it, and even gladder that drunk Dax wasn't a complete flop.

Yakow: Actually, there was a time I despised yaoi and swore to never write it. But somewhere along the line I read one and became immediately hooked.

Punk Rocker Yugi: Thanks for the review and puttin' my story as one of your favorites! I'm honored.

Disclaimer: If they were mine, there would be even more character torture in the game than there already is! But they are not mine, so I can only write fiction like this story here!! points down

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I was completely enveloped in darkness. Like it was grabbing me, pulling me, swallowing me. I couldn't see a thing, and it scared me. I could feel myself tugging and trying to free myself from whatever it was that was trying to take me, but I was weak.

And I was losing.

Where was Jak?

I was trying to look for him, regardless of the never-ending blackness. And no matter how hard or long I looked, I couldn't find him. I couldn't hear him. I have... no idea where he is.

I opened my mouth and shouted his name, only for my own voice to be muted. Confused, I tried for a second time, and again no sound escaped from my dry throat. I think a tear rolled down my cheek, I'm not sure... and I stopped fighting it. I accept the fact that I can't take care of myself.

I give up.

I give up to this stupid darkness and let myself be pulled into nothingness. I'm afraid, confused, and worst of all, I was alone.

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I woke up with a cold sweat drenching my orange fur. I lifted my gloved hands and hovered them above my face to find them shaking.

I never get used to this.

I sat up to calm myself down, but gasped and fell back down to the pillow beneath me.

"Wow," I muttered. "What a headache..."

At least I had gotten some sleep.

I began massaging my temples slowly, closing my eyes and focusing on nothing. I didn't notice Jak sitting next to me until the back of his hand rested upon my forehead. I groaned in both pain... and pleasure.

"How you feeling?" He asked.

I managed to opened my eyes and see his face. He looked sorry. He's been giving me a lot of that lately, it seems.

"I've been better," I told him honestly. "What happened?"

He smiled and even chuckled.

"You just had a little fun last night, is all," He answered. "And it looks like you got some sleep. But..."

He slid his hand under my back and gently helped me into a sitting position, leaving his hand there to keep me from falling back down again, and with his other hand, he grabbed my still shivering paw. Seeing this, my head spun and became hotter than it already was.

My gaze met his blue eyes and I jerked my hand out of his, and looked downwards at my feet as if they were suddenly the most interesting thing in the world.

Why, you ask?

Simple... By clasping my hand in his, he was pointing out the fact that I was shaking like a leaf again. He knew I had another nightmare. But I didn't want him to see me in such a pitiful and weak state. I shuffled my feet on the bed and had to use whatever strength I had in me to keep my eyes on them and only them.

"Daxter."

I flinched. I can't avoid him. Lifting my head, a mask was put upon my face and I smiled. Because...because I am Daxter. And Daxter doesn't get depressed. Daxter is always lively, loud and sarcastic. But Jak knows better...

"You should go back to sleep. We still have a little while before we have to leave."

For some reason, I couldn't think of anything to say. No chipper comment, no sassy remark, not even a 'yeah'. I nodded. His hand lowered me to the pillow and his fingers started to rub at my ears. I never knew how good that stuff felt until lately, heh. Closing my eyes, I let the darkness take me again. But this time, I knew where Jak was.

He was right beside me, and I had a feeling he was going to be there when I woke up.

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The next time I opened my lids, I had more sense. By that I mean, my headache was small now, and it allowed me to think about things more clearly. One of the questions that crossed my mind was what had happened last night, and more importantly, did I say anything that I shouldn't have? I kept reasoning with myself.

So I had a little bit to drink last night. Not too much, but my immune system isn't all too great and I must've gotten a little silly. Jak had to have known this; there is no way he couldn't have. So if I said anything, God forbid, he might not have taken it seriously. Unless of course he knows I'm an honest drunk. Oh man... If only I knew what I did and said last night. But it's not like I can just go up to Jak and ask him about it, he might get suspicious.

My shoulders sagged. Looks like it was going to stay a mystery. Jak didn't seem to be tense around me or anything, so I guess it was safe to assume everything was fine.

Ah...

Oops...

I'm thinking to myself again. I forgot that Jak was sitting right there, staring at me as I fought with the voices inside of my hard head. I can only be glad that I wasn't talking out loud.

Jak had already polished up his gun and was ready to get going. To where, I can't remember, and I don't intend on asking. I'm just gonna sit on his shoulder and let things take their course for a while.

I guess he's waiting on me right now, though.

An attempt to climb to my usual spot was failed miserably and Jak ended up having to pick me up and place me there himself. I was strong enough to balance and grip myself once I was there, and he started walking.

I had my eyes closed for what I estimated to be about a good ten minutes, enjoying the breeze that came with Jak walking, but just the smell of the air told me we were outside. When I finally looked, Jak was settling himself onto his zoomer and turning the keys.

This thing sounds like a piece of shit. It must be stolen. Either that or Jak had low charity for the zoomers that Keira took the time to make for him. Now that I think of it, I don't know if she even does anything else. Of course, no matter how much he banged these things up, she was always more than willing to fix something up for him. No matter how bad Jak treated these things, she never seemed to think twice about it. 'Course, if I just lean on one of her precious machines, she gives me a good kick.

And this thing was taking its precious time puttering around the streets. What a joke. Now, along all of our adventures, I've given Jak advice. Some obvious, some not so obvious. I give him tips and suggestions and now looked like a good time, even if I wasn't so thrilled to make the proposal.

"Hey Jak," I said, and he turned his head enough for me to see his perfect profile. As much as I loved it, I wish he would keep his eyes on the road, heh...

With a gesture of my paw, I pointed to his backpack where a part of his new Z-Board 580 was sticking out. As if on cue, the zoomer spat out a cloud of black smoke.

"Oh yeah," he laughed to himself, jumping off the zoomer and landing gracefully on the concrete ground, ignoring the fact that the vehicle kept going and ran straight into a building. As I stare in awe with my jaw halfway open where people were running and screaming from the sudden burst of flames, Jak hopped onto said board and dodged traffic, gaining more and more speed with every passing second. I sighed. Too bad that zoomer wasn't one of Keira's...

Only five minutes into the ride and I counted at least six people shaking their fist or a certain finger at us as we left them in the dust.

A little observation and I concluded we were heading to the docks. Only a few more minutes of riding had proven me right. With a jump and a kick, Jak grabbed his board out of the air and stuffed it into his bag. His hand reached into his tunic and he pulled out the piece of paper. It was all wrinkled and damp now, and he had to squint to make out certain parts of it.

Jak took a cautious step to the edge of one of the walkways, peering down into his reflection in the murky waters below.

"We aren't going for a swim in that, are we!?" I asked, my voice once again louder and more obnoxious than I would ever admit. I leaned over a bit, covering one side of my mouth with my paw and murmured into his ear. "I don't know about you, but I have a thing about bathing in a pool of dark liquid. You can't see anything, anyway!"

It seemed almost never-ending. I felt like if I went in there, I would never come back out.

He looked at the water with me and his reflection smirked at me. Of course the water was dark... It was night out and the cities pollution had to have killed it over the years. Who knew what was down there.

"Sorry, but we gotta get in," he said. My arms, that were crossed during this whole conversation, dropped to my sides and my jaw slightly dropped. I wasn't even going to try to argue with him, but I'm sure as hell gonna make it known that I wasn't too happy about it.

Jak waited for the right moment. When no one was around to see, he dangled himself over the edge and dropped himself into the water as slowly as he could, trying to be as silent as the water and his built frame would allow. I took a quick glance around to see if anyone was around, and jumped over the edge and onto Jak's shoulder. I smirked.

"Ha, I found a loophole," I boasted, running a hand over my still dry fur.

"We got to go under," Jak informed me, pointing down with his finger.

"What? No way, mister!" I shook my head violently and crossed my arms firmly, setting my weight onto his shoulder, trying to prove how serious I was.

It's hard to take people like me seriously.

Next thing I knew I was suckin' down freezing cold water, swimming rapidly to the surface, gasping for breath and shivering when I got there. Well, I'm more awake now.

With an evil glare on my face, I floated in the water and waited for Jak to resurface. When he did, I splashed him, and climbed onto his head, where the warm breeze combed my tattered fur.

"You lunk-head! You trying to drown me!?"

I think he did it just to spite me. He gets a real kick out of giving me a hard time.

But it was a fruitless battle. We were going under the water no matter what I did or said about it, and I figured the sooner I quit complaining and went down with him, the sooner it'd all be over with.

I took a breath and dove, and I could hear Jak dive in after me. I had to force my lids open in the murky waters, and I could see the silhouetted Jak swimming past me. Without a second thought I reached out and took a firm hold onto his foot.

It was a bumpy ride, but at least I wouldn't get lost. I even felt a little sick at a point because of the repeating up and down motion Jak's foot took to swim. I would keep my eyes tightly shut. It was so gross!! The water felt slimy and I have no idea how Jak was able to keep his eyes open down here...Or know where the hell he was going. Wherever it was, he better get there fast...

I'm running out of breath.

I started to panic, I'm sure Jak was, too. In fact, I'm sure of it, because his swimming increased speed.

I can feel my grip loosening.

I'm slipping.

Oh God, don't let me fall. I don't want to be left behind. I'm not so afraid of death, I'm more afraid of being away from my best friend.

I was right on the verge of blacking out when I felt a refreshing breeze hit my face and I took an instinctive gasp of breath the millisecond I knew we had submerged. Opening my eyes, fully now, I could see Jak struggling for his own air, and I pulled myself onto his shoulder where I sank against his cheek and wiped my forehead.

"Wow," I chirped, attempting to drain the water from my dropping ears. "That's going on my 'never do again' list."

That got another smirk out of him. Finding a near-by ledge, he gripped it with his hands and pulled himself up. He sat on the edge for a minute, getting the water out of his own ears and wringing dry his clothing. He even took off his scarf, dried it the best he could and gave it to me to dry myself off with.

It's the thought that counts.

After scrubbing for a good jiffy, I decided to see just where we were. Wouldn't you know it was more sewers...

But me and Jak have been through the sewers hundreds of times and almost knew the place like the back of our hands, thanks to missions given to us by Krew. We've had more than our share of dark tunnels, sickening water and creeping metal heads under the city. But this place..? I've never seen this place before. Of course Jak got up to go exploring.

"Uh, Jak?" Somehow I got a strange sense of deja vu just now. 'Cept, instead of wandering off to Misty Island against Samos' better judgment, we were exploring a new set of sewers against my better judgment. Just a little ironic...

"Just what are we looking for?"

He paused in his steps and side glanced at me.

"I'll fill you in as soon as I know. Just look for something out of the ordinary."

Out of the ordinary, eh? Why not just tell me to look around this dump and find something that stinks? I sighed inwardly and scanned the area with a bit of uneasiness.

I could hear Jak's feet squish into the gunk beneath us and it made me cringe. For a moment I was glad to be sitting on Jak's shoulder; I'd probably get stuck if I was walking in that crap. Heh... crap. Eugh.. Then I nearly gagged when I realized that Jak doesn't wear shoes....

The passage Jak was walking through seemed...endless. There were so many twists and turns I lost count. There would be times when he had to make a choice of which direction to take, at which he almost never hesitated. Sometimes I think we were just going in circles, 'coz a lot of the 'fork-in- the-roads' seemed familiar. I still kept my eyes peeled, though. Ottsel eyes can see things clearer in the dark than others. So I had to make sure Jak didn't pass anything up...

...Like that over there.

For a smelly old sewer, that corner over there looked pretty damn clean and well kept. Er... I mean more-so than the rest of the place.

"Hey, check it out," I said. "Looks like one persons trash is another person's treasure after all! Or in this case, someone else's home." I chuckled nervously. Then I scanned the area one more time, letting it sink into my uninterested mind. I would hate to meet whoever it was that was keeping this place in tact. They had to have smelled worse than Krew himself! (And he was currently dead and buried, with worms and other bugs eating at his large corpse. How's THAT for smell comparison?)

I hopped off from Jak's shoulder and slouched against the wall as he did his examination. I had to stifle a yawn. Yeah, so we found an area cleaner than the rest. Although suspicious, I don't think there's anything here that can help us. Snapping out of my drowsy state, I noticed Jak with his hands on his hips, shaking his head.

"I don't get it, Dax," He scratched the back of his neck in wonder, his head lifting to observe the area at a higher altitude. His hand rose to fondle with his goatee.

"What's there to get?" I shrugged. "There's nothing here!" As if I could somehow prove this point, I gave the wall I was leaning on a well-deserved kick. And before I could take another breath to complain about the new pain throbbing in my foot, the wall shifted and spun, and I found myself shifting with it. With a yelp I was tossed into darkness, on the other side of the wall completely.

"Well, that was unexpected..." I muttered as I shook my head and picked myself up from the slimy ground. My nose started to twist in disgust at the gnarly stench that surrounded me. It was worse than before! My eyes quickly adjusted to the dimmed room and I found myself sitting at the top of a long and spiraling stairway, lit by a burning torch every few steps. My ears twitched. It was eerily silent, except for the drips of water that loudly echoed whenever it dropped. I gulped, and it, too, echoed. It almost hurt my sensitive ears! My ottsel curiosity wanted to follow the stairs, but I was brought back into reality when I heard a pounding behind me.

"Daxter? Daxter!" I could hear Jak's greatly muffled voice from behind the wall, most likely feeling the wall for some possible switch.

"Jak!" I shouted back, just to let him know I was safe and unharmed. Then I began to pound at the wall myself. "I blame you!" After a few kicks and running into it with my shoulder, the wall rotated again, and Jak was thrown past me and landed with a thud on the concrete floor.

"Aw, what's that smell?" Was the first thing out of his mouth as he lifted himself to his feet. Jumping onto his shoulder and leaned against his head, I quirked a brow and smoothly answered.. "That, my friend, is the magnified stench of waste."

Whether he was rolling his eyes at my obviousness or the smell itself, I don't know, but he immediately noticed the downward staircase and cautiously made his way down. With each passing torch, I sank lower and lower, hunching my back defensively. Ottsel instincts made my fur stand on end. Although most of this was involuntary on my part, they made me wonder what we were getting ourselves into. What kinda guy was this that we were dealing with? Whoever it was, he was well informed. I may be annoying, oblivious and maybe even naive to some, but in reality, I can be pretty perceptive. My eyes, ears and intuition were good, and they only increased with each passing day living in Haven City.

And the reason I say this guy was well informed is because he knew about Jak and the things he's been doing in the city, thus, he asked for his help. Also, we received directions to this place by a piece of paper given to us by the lurkers we've been helping as of late. He knew that we would get it.

Eying Jak, I wondered if he concluded all of this, too.

The more we descended, the darker our surroundings became, and I almost believed that this staircase was never-ending and we were just wasting out precious time! But before I could say anything about it, Jak reached out and dislocated a torch from the wall. I could hear him muttering to himself.

"Someone has to be down here. Torches don't just light themselves."

I gulped as silently as I could, a lump getting temporarily caught in my throat and when it went down, I was left with a slight pain in my neck. My brows furrowed and finally arched in worry. This place gives me the creeps.

The stairs had finally broken off and we were left in a long hallway. It went on forever, or at least that's what it looked like. I mean, all hallways have to start and end somewhere, right? There were doors all over the place, all different colors. They ranged from the darkest of ebony to the most blinding of white. Some were decorated with life, while others were gloomy and held a dark aura to them. Jak ignored them all, and just continued straight down the forbidding hallway.

Some how... This hall, and these doors... it all made me uneasy. It would make anyone uneasy, don'tcha think? Besides Jak, I mean. He seemed unfazed and kept walking. Soon, the light from the torch showed us the end of the hallway, and another door. A normal, wooden door. And Jak reached out his hand and turned the knob, and the door creaked open. Our eyes wide, and our hearts pounding, we waiting to see what was about to be revealed behind this door. It better be good, it seems like we went through hell and back to get here.

It opened all the way and Jak held out his torch to expose the room's contents.

My shoulder drooped and my face deadpanned. My head creaked over to Jak and my finger pointed. My voice was flat.

"More stairs."

My head hung low as Jak continued his marched lower and lower...

"Just how far underground is this place?" I questioned aloud. What pisses me off more is the idea of having to go through this firggen' maze all over again to get out of here!

Luckily for my patience, which was wearing VERY thin, these stairs didn't last very long and we were facing another wooden door. There were two unlit torches on either side of it. Setting his own torch down on the ground, Jak knocked on the door. When no one answered, he tried to push it open. When that had no effect, he pulled.

Nothing.

Jak picked up his still lit torch and pondered.

"Daxter?"

"Like I know what to do," I sneered. "How about putting a little light on the situation!? It's dark and cold around here."

It seemed like the darker it got, the colder it became. Jak smirked and lit the two torches that surrounded the door. The second that second one was aflame, a loud and ever-annoying clicking sounded started and the door slowly opened.

"It better not be stairs," I growled, crossing my arms and breaking the revealing moment, as well as the tension as the door was only halfway opened. Just plain pissed off at its slow process I jumped from Jak's shoulder and gave the door a good shove and opened it all the way. To my relief, it was not stairs, but a room. Of course, like everything else we came across, it was dark, and Jak carried in his trusty torch. Once we were in, the door slammed shut behind us, the torch in Jak's hands blew out and I could hear the sound of it landing on the floor. The room suddenly lit itself, although dimly, and there was a solitary desk in the middle of the room, facing two chairs.

The desk and the small area surrounding it was darker than the rest of the room, but I could still make out a person sitting casually behind the desk.

"Welcome boys," Said a voice.

Imagine my surprise when the voice I heard was a feminine one. Jak took a seat in one of the chairs, and instead of me taking my place in the other chair that was obviously meant for me, I glued myself to Jak's shoulder, my claws gripping his clothing to make sure I was secure.

I really don't wanna be here.

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A/N: Sorry for the delay, folks. Another crappy chapter that I'm not all too proud of, but it gets the job done. As for the hideout, I thought it would be fun to mess with Daxter's tolerance for a little bit. I had a blast giving him more stairs to confront with, but I hope I didn't overdo it or lead you readers to boredom. Anyway, please Review, they are always welcome, as well as flames, as long as it's constructive criticism. "

C.V.