A/N: Yes! I got people to review on my last chapter! But sorry it takes me at least a month to update this fic. I'm having trouble ending it. But I'm still going to do a sequel that might not be as long as this one even though I would want it to. And sorry if Daxter might be a bit OOC in this chapter. I just don't know how he would react to having someone like Akki die. Here is your chapter! Please R&R! Thanks!

Disclaimer: Um…yeah you get the picture. Don't own the game.

Chapter 35

Erol paused outside Merlander's room in the palace. His mind was arguing about going in or not. He winced while he finally knocked on the door. Emotions were always getting in the way of things. There was no answer, but Erol had expected this. He came in anyway after a slight hesitation.

The room was small with one bed and desk. A bathroom was attached off to the side and a wide window let Erol see the big city at night outside way below. Merlander was nowhere to be seen. Erol knew where he was, though.

"Mer, why do you have to be so weird?" he said finally after standing in the middle of the room with second thoughts about what he was doing. There was no answer. Erol bent down and looked under the bed with a slight smile on his face. Merlander was there on his back staring up at the bottom of the bed with his face blank.

"What are you doing here?" Merlander finally asked him without looking to the Elf.

"To talk," Erol said while slipping next to Merlander under the bed. It reminded Erol of the time they hid from Merlander's mom to get out of the job of washing dirty dishes. There was a long silence that both did not mind at all. Both were thinking of the same childhood memories.

"I'm guessing that you are here to give me a fake encouragement so I can feel better to come out of this room to please the Baron," Merlander finally said.

"No," Erol said simply. "Just to talk."

"I don't like bull, Erol," Merlander said with some anger in his voice.

"Stuff it, Mer," Erol snapped back at him. "I don't like what your uncle is doing to you. But I can't stop it. He did not tell me any of his plans for you till just a few days ago. Mer, I don't want to see you change."

"I'm touched."

"Listen to me, Mer!" Erol pleaded with Merlander. "You were my only and best friend. Maybe we can't go back there, but I'm agreeing with what you said. That friendship was a big thing and I don't want it to end this way."

"Then how are we going to end it?" Merlander asked him with a cold glare.

"I'm going to try to get Praxis to send you to the Wasteland," Erol said. "I don't care if you come back to Haven City if that happens. I can't just sit here watching you suffer."

"Don't expect a thank you," Merlander muttered.

"Never did," Erol said while getting up and heading for the door with a sad frown on his face. Where had the Merlander he had known so well gone?

He was about to tap in a code on the door panel when he suddenly heard Merlander cry out, "Erol!"

The Elf paused as the door opened. He looked to the floor as his mind was mixed with different thoughts and emotions. With pain in his eyes he turned around to face Merlander. The other Elf stood by the bed with his face still such a mystery. "Yeah?" he finally asked.

"Thanks," Merlander said with a weak smile.

"You're welcome, Mer," Erol said quietly with a nod. He then left the room.

The alarm had ended his hell on earth. He could faintly hear the sound blast into his ears as he was dragged out of the torture chair by two strong Krimson Guards. He was on the brink of passing out and he was welcoming the feeling of complete darkness.

Jak was shoved into his prison cell and he slammed into the far wall with a small wince. He slumped to the cold floor with his eyes closed and his breathing in short gasps. His whole body was shaking slightly because of the last dark eco injection. His body should have been fighting it off, but Jak knew that his body was different somehow. He was soaking it all up and storing it somewhere. He was afraid of the day it would be let loose.

Around an hour later some Krimson Guards came down with a girl in their hands. They put this knocked out girl into the cell next to Jak's then left quickly. For some reason Jak forced himself to stand on his two unsteady feet and slowly walked over to the door of his cell that were a bunch of metal bars. They were only wide enough to stick your hand through.

He could hear the girl wake up. Anyone could. She pretty much panicked and had a heart attack. "Holy freaking crap!" she yelled loud enough for the whole world to hear. "Where the hell am I?" Jak smiled. Her reaction reminded him of Daxter.

Jak knocked lightly on the wall that was a wall for her cell too. "Hey!" the girl shouted with cheer in her voice. "Who's there?"

Figures! Jak thought while folding his arms in front of him. I can't answer that question! I'm stupid to even try to communicate to her while I'm a mute.

"Dude! You're mute?" the girl's voice echoed around into Jak's head suddenly. He gave a silent gasp of surprise. He waited for it again. "And you have some weird vibe thingy. Ouch! Talking to you as a Mind Speaker hurts! What is your problem?"

Dark eco, Jak thought just to test it out. She knew he was mute and had somehow read his mind and could talk to him. Simon could not do that to him because of the dark eco in Jak's body. This girl was different somehow.

"Sweet! I mean that in a cool way, but it must not be cool for you. Okay, I'll stop now because I'm just messing everything up. But one question. Where am I and what happened to my friends?"

That was two, Jak thought with a smirk on his face.

"Okay, I'm hurting myself talking to you through your head, mystery person," the girl said out loud. "It is easy to read your thoughts, so I'll just do that."

For the first time in my life I can finally be heard! Jak thought to himself with an overwhelming joy.

"Yeah," the girl said with a chuckle. "I can hear everything you think, dude. Just heard your last thought."

Jak blushed a little. You're in the Baron's prison and I have no idea where your friends are. You came here alone just a few minutes ago.

"Really?" the girl asked more herself than Jak. "I need to get out of here! I have to save them!"

It looks like you're the one who needs to be saved at the moment, Jak said with a smile chuckle. Unless you have a great plan already to get your butt out of here, you're not getting out your cell in a long time. Best thing to do is wait.

"Crap!" the girl shouted as he kicked the bars to her cell door. "Ouch! Stupid door!" she yelled in pain and Jak laughed silently at her actions. She was definitely new to this kind of life. Hopefully she would be in there for a shorter amount of time Jak had been there. She was the kind of person that would kill herself if she had to stay locked up anywhere. But for now all they could do was what Jak had said. They waited.

The small red headed Human sat in the giant library of Baron Praxis' Palace. Her lab was in the prison, but it was in high alert at the moment and she could not think straight when the alarm is going off and Krimson Guards are running around like crazy.

She was of much value to the Baron, so he had given her a small room in his palace to sleep every night. Of course she had to wear the wristband when she was there, but she rarely ever got excited about anything, so it did not bug her.

Right now Bo was pulling her fourth all-nighter in the huge beloved library. Books lined every wall and it was like a dream come true for the Human girl. She had found a new interest with her readings. They had a lot of old Earth books here that she had discovered with much joy. If she ever got the chance to escape from here she would have to come back to steal these books. The Baron for sure would not miss them one bit.

"Miss," Bo's personal Krimson Guard asked her from where he stood by the door. He had been assigned to watch the Human's every move. She was smart and dangerous, so she had to have someone to look after her at all times. He had been the lucky man to do so.

Bo's head was deep in her book. She had refused to sit at a desk or in a chair. She liked to sit crossed legged on the rug floor with around twenty books opened and spread out around her. A small coffee cup was next to her along with a magnifying glass just incase if she happened upon small words. The title of the Elf book she was reading said in gold letters The Laws of Alchemy.

"Um…Miss?" the sleepy Krimson Guard asked her again.

"Hm?" Bo tilted her head to the side to tell the guy she had heard. Her eyes still flew across the page of the old Elf book that was very similar to some of the old Earth books she had dug up.

"Are you going to sleep anytime soon?" the guard asked her with a yawn.

"Nope," Bo said after a sip of her coffee. "You can."

Before the guard had anytime to say something to her, the door flew open with a high commanding Krimson Guard in the lead. The one by the door backed away when two other lower rank guards came in carrying a cage with an annoying orange Osttel in it.

"What is this all about?" Bo asked them with anger deep in her voice. She liked her peaceful and quiet nights. When she spotted Daxter she got up while narrowing her eyes at him. It was a hint to be quiet and he seemed to get it. She took over the situation quickly.

"This animal broke into the prison a few hours ago," the leader said. "There was a debate over what we had to do with him. We concluded that we should give it to you for experiments."

Bo looked at Daxter and frowned. She had been wondering why the prison's alarm had gone off. She now had her answer staring back at her with wide eyes of worry. "I'll take the thing," Bo said as she grabbed the cage.

"Good luck with it," the leader muttered to her. "Figure a way to make it stop talking."

"I have a name!" Daxter shouted at the Elf.

"We should have sent him to the kitchens," one of the guards said as the three left the room. "Osttel on a stick sounds really good right now." Bo smiled wickedly at the comment as Daxter grumbled a few swears under his breath.

"Be quiet while I read," Bo told Daxter as she sat down again. Daxter nodded as he curled up in a fuzzy ball to get some sleep. His dreams were only nightmares of Akki's death. The hours past by slowly. The guard at the door finally feel asleep at around two in the morning.

When the guards snoring became loud enough for the Human to hear from across the room, Bo smiled wickedly as she put her book down. She shook Daxter's cage to wake him up. His ears perked up when waking. He gave a sleepy yawn and waited for her to ask something. He would have to break the news of Akki's death sometime.

"Okay, tell me what happened, Dax," she whispered with much excitement in her voice. She gave a giggle at her actions and said, "I feel like a little kid again." That wonderful smile fell when Daxter said nothing at first and only looked up at her with pain in his eyes.

Her world came crashing down around her as her mind realized that something was terribly wrong. "No," she whispered as her feelings protested against her quick mind. She shook her head as tears formed in her bright blue eyes. "Not again!" she whispered to herself with so much pain in that small voice.

Daxter could not say anything to her. She had seen so many deaths of people she knew at such a young age. She might only be twelve years old in Human years, but she had always carried herself in a very mature matter. That adult she always tried to portray was now being broken apart once again with the death of another close one. And this one was Akki. She had known him for all her life. How was Daxter going to tell her this news?

The news had to be heard now, though. Daxter hated to be the one to tell it. He took a deep breath and said quietly to the Human, "It…it was Akki." He saw Bo look down to the ground from where she was sitting cross legged next to his cage. Her hands balled into fists as the news hit her full force.

"How?" she finally asked with a voice that had no emotion in it whatsoever.

"Roxie, Akki, and I came in last night to rescue all of you," Daxter said slowly and nervously. "To make a long story short, Simon tricked us into thinking he would shoot Merlander, but at the last second he aimed at Akki and no one had time to react. Roxie had been knocked out and sent to the prison while Merlander was dragged off to the palace. I was put into this cage and the guards debated over where I should be sent. And you pretty much know the rest."

There was complete silence for a few seconds. The only sound to be heard was the guard's loud snoring from the door. The silence was broken when Bo swore quietly to herself. A single hot tear fell to the ground as she tried to fight against the bombardment of emotions swelling up inside of her.

Suddenly the door opened up and a head popped into the room. The Elf's violet eyes fell on Bo and Daxter and he quickly pulled the rest of himself into the room. Bo was still looking to the ground with her eyes closed, but Daxter had seen Merlander come into the room.

Merlander rubbed his wrist with a wince. He had taken a lot of risks coming down to the library to see if Bo was there. He had only done it two times in the few months he had been held captive. But his heart rate always went up when doing it, so the wristband would snap into gear and give him a great deal of pain. But right now Bo needed someone. The guards outside his room were talking about an orange animal they gave the Human girl. Daxter would have told her the news by the time he got to her. And he had been right.

"I could have done something," Bo said. Her body was trying hard to hold back the mix of anger and sadness. "I could have prevented all of this!"

"Yeah right!" Daxter yelled at her. "Only if you had some supernatural powers and somehow directed that bullet to another path you could have saved him. But don't go beating yourself up for the death of Akki. Only someone stupid would do that, and you're not stupid!"

"You don't understand, Dax!" Bo whispered harshly to the orange animal. "I knew how to set Merlander, Flash, Rose, and I free three day ago. But I was stupid and thought that I should have the plan of escape perfect before I did anything. I could have done it that night and prevented all this crap from happening."

Merlander was behind the girl with so much sadness in his eyes that were staring at the poor girl curled up on the floor. Tears formed in his eyes as he watched her suffer. He had gone through that much pain just a few hours ago. Now he had to watch another person go through the same thing. For her it was worse. She knew Akki better than he did. He could not imagine what she was going through right now.

"All because of one stupid mistake in my perfectionist mind!" Bo said. "Sometimes I can't believe that I'm a Human because I make so many mistakes!"

"Look!" Daxter yelled at her. He did not want this girl to freak out so much that she could never pull herself together. He had to knock some sense into her to get her going. "Nobody is perfect! Smart people make mistakes too. But Akki is dead and you can never bring him back or turn back time to save him! He's dead! You have two choices now. Have your pity party and live in the past, or you can pick yourself up and go on with your life. What's it going to be?"

Bo looked up at him with wonder. She listened to every word with her whole heart. It was the first and maybe the only time she took in the animal's words seriously. He was so right! She had been selfish to blame the thing on herself. But right now she just needed time to get through the death of one of her best friends.

The tears finally came. They rushed down her face as she let her emotions free. Daxter was not the comforting type and let Merlander step in. The Elf bent down next to Bo and wrapped his arms around her with a long sigh as he fought off his own emotions.

Bo was surprised to see Merlander suddenly there. She was just thankful that he had come in at just the right time. She rested her forehead on his chest and sobbed. After a few minutes she pulled herself together and smiled weakly up to Merlander and he did the same to her. She saw Merlander as her older brother and loved him so much. What would she do without him?

"I can't believe that he is gone," she said quietly. She looked over to Daxter with a wide grin. "Don't worry, Dax, I'll be fine. It is not like I'll get all psycho on you."

"Let's hope so," Daxter muttered. "Because you are the one with the key to my cage."

Merlander gave a small chuckle as Bo smiled. There was a long silence as each was left alone with their own thoughts. The death of Akki was pretty much the main thought.

"How is Roxie going to take this?" Daxter said with some worry in his voice. They all looked at each other with some panic on each face. "This world is doomed," Daxter said. "It will give her a really big excuse to blow the whole city to pieces."

"We need to know where Roxie is first," Merlander said with a melancholy sigh. Daxter noticed that Merlander's head was somewhere else at the moment. Something strange was going on with him. "But right now we all need some sleep," Merlander said while getting up with Bo.

"But you don't sleep," Daxter pointed out to the Elf as Bo picked up his cage.

Merlander shrugged and said, "For the first time in my life I feel very, very tiered. I will get some sleep tonight." He walked to the door and said behind his shoulder, "Meet me here tomorrow morning at one." He then left as silently as he came.

Bo picked up the book she had been reading and slipped it into her handbag. "What book are you reading?" Daxter asked her with his ears perking up with interest.

"Nothing big," Bo said while shrugging her shoulders. "It is just a science book from the very first Elf years. I was just curious because I found a Human one just like it. Once I'm done with this book I might be able to fully understand the science."

"What will you be able to do if you 'fully understand the science'?" Daxter asked her mockingly.

She took it serious and said, "I might be able to change the elements into whatever I wish."

A/N: Sorry if chapter was short. I kind of broke down today because one of my really good friend's dad died just a few days ago. Today it finally sunk in that this man who I had been talking and interacting with was just…gone. I would never be able to see or speak to him ever again till I died myself. I just saw the friend today at church as they prayed for her and her family of six. My friend is only 15 and her dad just suddenly dies! I put myself in her shoes and asked myself how I would react. All I can say is that God works in mysterious ways that sometimes I just can't understand. Please pray for my friend.

I dedicate this chapter to my friend, Naomi Anderton. She lost her dad on the 24th of August of the year 2005. I will always remember him. And I hope Naomi will someday see and understand why God did this in her life. He has a plan for all of us. Just some are shorter than others. I love you as a really good friend, Naomi! If you need a shoulder to cry or hold onto I'm here.