Soon enough the two creatures had slammed into each other and were falling back towards the ground, both growling and biting each other fiercely, Jak had so far scratched and bitten the mysterious beast mostly on it's face a stomach, the creature he was facing seemed almost stronger than himself and he could feel himself loosing his energy.

The fight lasted for an hour and a half before the unknown creature had Jak on his back groaning in agony from a large cut across his back, he was an easy target for the creature, it advanced on Jak meaning to swipe his head from his shoulders just before a huge roar came out of nowhere and the vile creature was struck to the ground by what seemed to be a big brown blur.

Another roar emitted from the new creatures mouth and then everyone found that the animal was in fact another lion, with dark brown fur and darker thick brown mane. The lion brought his head up, bared his teeth then with all the strength the lion could muster he brought his head back down for the kill…

… only to bite into nothing but soil, he got up wrenching his teeth out of the ground and looked around, the creature was no where to be seen!

Then he turned around and looked at Jak, the younger lion was stood next to his two young and his newfound friends protectively, he bared his teeth and growled deeply in the back of his throat.

"Come near my children and die." Jak growled, he had completely forgotten about the fact that he was weak and wounded badly. The new lion stayed exactly where he was and muttered coolly.

"I never knew you were THAT protective of the little hairballs!" Jak roared fiercely at the comment and then stopped. The lion's voice sounded familiar; incredibly rough, then Jak noticed the animal looked somewhat like Torn, only with fur and a tail!

"Torn? Is that you? Or is there a poor lion just as ugly as yourself?" Jak screwed his face up.

"Humph, I thought I was rather attractive myself," At that point everyone burst into laughter, "What!"

Jak was the first to stop laughing and he checked himself over, the wounds would definitely take some time to fully heal and he was lucky to even be alive, but despite the deep cuts in his flesh the only other trouble was one of his back teeth which had been whacked out of place after a rather hard punch in the jaw, but he'd have a vet look at that later.

Jak had many questions to ask Torn, like how he'd become a lion, but when he saw metal heads appearing behind rocks, he signalled for everyone to walk away slowly and quietly. After Errol's defeat the remaining metal heads had become a bit less ferocious. They only attacked if they were hungry or creatures or humans were invading their territory for a long period of time.

By the time they were out of the forest it was early evening and by the time they reached the Naughty Ottsel it was eight O'clock and little Jakob had fallen to sleep. Jak was now carrying the young cub in his mouth.

Once they were in Keira took the children – including Kai – and made them comfortable in the small basket next to her and Jak's. Torn had to explain his whole situation to everybody and once he'd finished everyone had pretty sore heads thinking about the subject.

Finally it was time for dinner; the children had all fallen to sleep so Jak, Keira, Torn and Comet all dug in to their own share of meat.

As the evening rolled into night Torn found a sudden interest in Keira, he'd never been like this around her when she was a human, he didn't have a clue what was going on! But he shuffled closer to her and even slipped the lioness a few pieces of his meat.

But this was to end badly, Jak didn't notice anything wrong at first but when he saw Torn trying place one of his paws onto Keira's; Jak leapt to his feet and let out a huge roar. All the children woke up and Tess and Daxter stopped talking and stared at Jak, the lion was fuming.

Torn got up too but he wasn't prepared for any roaring or type of violence, he simply bowed his head, by this time, Keira had shuffled back towards Tess and Daxter ears low and head hung. And Jak was still as angry as ever, he lunged at Torn and bit the older lion on the ear, Torn yelped in pain and withdrew towards Tess and Daxter like Keira, he laid low near the couch Tess was sitting on but Jak carried on advancing towards him.

And then, without warning, Jak pounced towards Torn, mouth wide open, huge sharp teeth bared then he felt something in his mouth, he didn't care what it was he simply brought his mouth down and in a split second his teeth sunk into something.

Unfortunately, it wasn't Torn, Jak had closed his eyes during the pounce in case Torn decided to swipe him in the eyes, the lion opened his eyes to see that his teeth were fastened tightly around Tess' left hand. The blond woman was staring down at Jak tears in her eyes, but not from the sheer pain she was going through, but from fear.

Jak slowly let Tess' hand go and she clutched it tightly to her stomach, she didn't care that blood was staining her t-shirt, the pain was even more intense now that Jak had taken his teeth away.

Daxter was the first to shake his head and call for an ambulance, Jakob was sobbing from exhaustion and the blood, which he was not, accustomed to seeing. Keira placed a paw around his tiny body and calmed him down as best she could.

Jak sat next to Tess and Torn, ears back his tail between his legs, he panted heavily trying to get the taste of blood out of his mouth, but it wouldn't go.

Soon enough the doctor arrived and when he saw what had happened he called for a vet straight away. Jak had badly bitten Tess' hand and it would take weeks before she could write with it but the doctor simply placed a bandage around her palm and left just as the vet walked in.

Sadly for Jak, it was the same vet he had scratched a while back, he frowned down at the lion and then opened a large briefcase and took out a syringe and a muzzle. The vet explained that Jak would be temperamental around other male lions due to them being in his territory and around his lioness and young. The injection Jak was getting was to calm his nerves and the muzzle was to stop him biting anybody else.

Jak allowed the vet to slip the muzzle on without a fuss, then the syringe went in, the vet squeezed the liquid inside into his blood stream and then things went very blurry.

Slowly and painfully, the syringe began to take its toll on the poor lion's body. He felt like he was being ripped apart limb by limb as he sank into eternal darkness. Loud noises faded away almost as if he was falling. He felt lightheaded and dizzy, but he didn't care.

It was soothing.

Suddenly, a dark image took form in the confines of his mind. Its clawed hands were soaked in blood, and its cold, white eyes could pierce through one's soul instantly.

The black smog swirled around the cat's body, suffocating it. It stung at his thick skin; a pain backed up by two long, agonizing years in the Baron's cold, damp prison.

He wanted the pain to end...once and for all.

"HEEEEELLLLPPPP!"

Just then, the dark figure backed away, and took shape of another creature. It glared at the big cat with golden, yellow eyes and tentacles shaped around its head like a mane similar to Jak's. A skull gem oozed out of the monster's head and through its skull.

The monster gave a horrible roar that shook the heavens and flapped its dragon-fly like wings furiously and floated in the black sky, almost completely lost in the shadows.

"Who are you?" Jak growled at the unwelcome visitor.

The creature just laughed and shook its giant head in disgust. The tentacles flapped against its leather skin loosely.

How soon we forget...

The blonde maned cat stepped back a bit, but held his position...just in case. Suddenly, the monster dissapeared and Jak was left all alone in the cold darkness.

The lion felt a cold sensation swept over its furred body and it shivered in response; he felt like he was dying all over again. Unfortunately, the searing pain returned once again, and Jak collapsed in the dark nothingness.

"H-help...please..."

The lion weakly looked up and saw a blinding light that grew brighter and brighter. The pain grew stronger and stronger, but the lion heard one last, echoing voice.

Beware of the dark light...

Jak slowly opened his torquoise eyes and tiredly adjusted to the blinding light. As soon as his mind finally connected with the rest of his body, the orange lion realized where he had been taken.

Other mussled animals laid in dirty, wet cages, but didn't bother to even glance at the new cat. Rusted bars surrounded the dark cages and sewer rats scattered in and out of cracks in the ground.

A pound.

Why was he taken here? What did he do wrong? The lion looked at the muddy ground, mindlessly looking for answers. He remembered going home after his fight, relaxing with his cubs and-

Torn!

Jak growled quietly at the thought of his 'friend' snuggling up by his wife. How dare he betray him! The former Precursor busted his ass trying to help that traitor, and this is how he repays him?

It wasn't right.

If it wasn't for Jak, Torn would've died long ago.

The lion opened its mouth in an attempt to rip open the mussle, but to no avail. The mussle was made of pure Yakow leather, the strongest type of leather possible. Plus, the syringe was still in effect, so he didn't have much strength to speak of.

Jak whimpered hopelessly and sank back down onto the wet concrete. He left his children alone with that monster, Torn. What would happen to them? Are they safe? Are they ALIVE? These thoughts raced through the tortured Precursor-lion's mind.

If he ever escaped his prison, his first initial reaction would be to go after Torn. He would pay...dearly.

Creeeeeeaaaakkkk...

The lion's train of thought was intruppted by the opening of the pound's barred door. A small, orange figure walked up to the cat carefully, almost as if it was afraid.

"Jak?" Its small, mousy voice was music to Jak's ears.

"Mmp.." Jak muttered with the mussle still tightly attached to his short snout.

The ottsel scratched the back to its head nervously. "Yer not gonna bite me, are ya?"

The lion shook its head sadly and slumped down, away from the little ottsel. Daxter knew he didn't want to be bothered, he could tell, but he wanted answers.

"Why'd ya attack Tess? Wha'd she do to you?" Daxter asked.

"I wasn't aiming for her..." Jak replied in disgust.

"Then who?" Daxter moved a little closer to the lion.

Jak turned back to the ottsel, his eyes flaring with pure anger.

"Torn."

"Torn? Why?" Daxter was obviously oblivious to what had happened.

Jak sighed, then growled. "He tried to take Keira away from me. He snuggled up next to her. But when he placed his paw on hers, that was the last straw."

"Oh." The ottsel replied, taking in this new information. "Well, don't worry. We won't let him get away with this, right Jak?"

Jak smiled back at his rodent friend and replied "damn straight!"

Far away, Shadow's ears perked up inquisitively.

"Perfect." He said to himself. "Exactly as planned."