Kiri: Finally, after battling another case of writers block, CHAPTER 29! Be prepared for something... strange... near the end, too.

Chapter 29

"F…father…" I stuttered at hardly a whisper. Daxter had told me that dad was in bad condition, but I didn't imagine it would be THIS bad! He was lying on a small bench on his back, shirtless, scars and cuts all over him, along with several big nasty looking bruises that signified cracked or broken ribs. His skin was pale… probably from blood loss and lack of sun. His hair was much longer now; it reached his shoulder blades, and some was slightly stained red, I guess from head wounds. His expression was what hurt me the most… he looked in pain, afraid, sad, and furious all at once.

"I told you he wasn't doing to well," Daxter suddenly spoke up, pulling me from my train of thought and back to our present situation. Daxter leapt onto my dad's chest and tried to wake him up. "Hey, Jak! Wake up!" Nothing… well, he's definitely still as lazy as I remember… "Jak! Come on! It's me, Daxter!"

My heart stopped when I watched dad open his blue eyes halfway, and his lips twitch into a very, very small smile at the sight of his best friend. I opened my mouth to call him, but the words got stuck in my throat. I don't know why Dawn didn't speak up and get his attention for me… maybe it was because she was as stunned as I was… or maybe because she just wanted to keep her distance so we could have our reunion.

"You ok, buddy?" Daxter asked.

"Not really," was his reply. His voice was slightly hoarse and raspy, and it cracked, but it wasn't too bad… The second her spoke, my voice suddenly came back and I just blurted out what I wanted to say.

"Dad…!" He immediately looked at me, paused for only a second, then sprang up and embraced me tightly, and muttered my name several names. It was clear that he was on he verge of sobbing. I felt several tears hit my shoulder, but like I cared at the time. I was finally back in my dads arms, where I belonged.

"Jakie… I thought I'd never see you again…" he whispered.

"Me too…" I whispered back, "I thought you were dead." We released each other and made eye contact. I've never seen such joy and relief in his eyes before… another silver tear ran down his cheek, but he wiped it away quickly.

"I was worried half to death about you… are you alright?" I nodded once.

"I'm perfect."

"Good." Then I felt his fingers tracing over the scars on my cheek from when I'd battled Dark Jak in Haven City. "I remember giving you these… I can't believe you went though so much just to save me." Yeah, I blushed, even though I'd heard that same comment three times now. I would've loved to stay and catch up with you, pop, but first things first!

"Dad, we really have to get out of here before Vegar discovers that I've broken in. Do you know where the controls for the other cells are?" he thought for a second.

"I think so," he replied.

"Excellent. Now lets get the hell out of here!" Dawn exclaimed. She and Daxter started running out of the cell, when I heard Dawn scream suddenly.

"Dawn!" I cried in surprise, "what's wrong?" I saw Daxter poke his head in the door.

"Jakie, if you have some magnificent back up plan in mind… now is the time to use it," he said simply. Uh oh… that was not a good sign… Dad and I looked at each other, gave each other a confirming nod, and stepped out of the cell.

Sure enough, my suspicions were confirmed. There was Count Vegar, in all his glory, accompanied by nearly an entire army of death bots.

"Just as I expected. The Mar brat comes right to me and walked right into a trap," he mused with his typical cocky 'I'm-smarter-and-better-than-you-in-every-possible-aspect-imaginable' voice. I snorted.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Vulgar," I answered, purposely mispronouncing his name just to piss him off.

"It's Vegar! Vegar, you idiot!"

"Whatever," I replied.

"Seize them!" Vegar barked. The bots started to move in, but I threateningly snatched my sword from its resting place.

"You can try!" I said in as dark a tone as I could. They stopped again. "I doubt it would get you very far. I'm deadly with this blade. And since I know how to power it up with dark eco now, I wouldn't do anything stupid." Well, it's obvious that didn't work. They still seized us. Vegar, with his typical snotty attitude got right in my face.

"Don't worry, Jakie. This experiment won't be as painful as the dark eco injections. And besides, you've just saved a lot of necks by coming after your eco freak father," he hissed. That did it. Despite the grip that his goons had on me, I lunged forward and sank my teeth into the side of his neck. He screamed bloody murder, and the guards immediately tried to pull me away, but it only ended up in me tearing a good sized chunk out of Vegars throat. Dad, Daxter and dawn seemed satisfied by my actions, of course, even though they were looking at the whole thing like they were going to be sick.

"You crazy little brat!" Vegar cried after I spit out the chunk of his neck I'd bitten off. I smirked at him. "I'll have you hobbled for this!" Then he smacked me. Hard. Going to have a big bruise there later on… But I still had an ace up my sleeve… time to use it.

"You know, Vegar… it wouldn't be a smart thing to piss one of us off enough to lose control. Because our dark sides… are a lot nastier than dad and I are," I taunted. I must have a freaking death wish. But I kept going, despite how much my common sense was screaming at me. I glanced at dad to see if he was catching on, and from what I could see, he knew exactly what I meant.

Kiri: Ooooooh! Dark Jak Strikes again! Anyways... for those of you that don't know what hobbling is, it's when they take a sludge hammer and shatter your ankle joints and you never walk again. Yikes. o.o hope you guys liked this chapter, and that little... vampiric bit I threw in there because I hate Vegar. lol.