Chapter V: First Steps to Hell

LES: Jak's a talker now, remember? Just so you remember. The chapters will alternate from Jak and Keira for a bunch more chapters. And the torture is going to start in the next Jak chapter. There, I think I've answered the more pressing questions, now for the story.

"Your name?" Sorus asked, bewildered that the mute kid had just told him his name.

Jak stopped spitting out blood and his hands slapped to his mouth, as if he had just uttered a disgusting swear word. "I… can… speak?" Jak asked slowly.

"You can!" Sorus proclaimed. "It must've been the blow! Whatever was wrong, that blow must've fixed it!"

Jak clutched his throat. "Hurts…" He breathed.

"I'd be hurting too." Sorus said. "You just took a rifle butt to the throat! I've never seen someone go though that without losing consciousness!" Sorus spoke too soon, however, as Jak suddenly passed out.

(While later)

"Hey, Jak!" Sorus called though the bars of the cell. "Get up!" Jak slowly opened his eyes and he found Sorus staring at him though the bars. "Are you okay?"

Jak felt his throat, it still hurt… a little. He opened his mouth and uttered a single word in the slightly rusty voice that would become his. "Fine." He said, getting up off the hard floor.

Sorus sat on the ground by the bars. "So… now that you're talking. Everyone wants to know… how did you end up in a place like this?"

Jak paused. Could he answer fully? Talking was new to him, in all the time he could remember, he had never talked. Daxter could talk a lot, but never Jak. Jak took a deep breath. "I don't know. One minute… minding my own business. Then the next… here." Jak paused. "I didn't do anything."

"Ah, so you're one of the people who don't know why they are here?" Sorus asked, and Jak nodded, glad that he was understood. "Stupid Baron and Erol, picking random people off the streets and throwing them in prison!"

"You?" Jak asked, trying as hard as he can to get used to his new voice. He was still amazed to hear his mouth say what he wanted it to say… sort of. But, hey, he could work on that.

"Me?" Sorus asked. "I wish I could say what you can. But I know why I'm here and everyone, including me, knows I'm guilty."

"What… did you do?" Jak asked.

"Now… don't freak out, but I'm a murderer." Sorus said, and Jak gasped, he had never seen a murderer before. To deliberately take someone's life was… disgusting! Sure, he had killed Lurkers, but the dumb beasts were hardly self-aware, and that could hardly count as murder. Sorus noticed the look Jak was giving him, one of disgust. "Don't look at me like that, the bastard deserved it."

"What happened?" Jak asked, curious.

"Well… I used to be a Krimzon Guard, but I wasn't a regular or even an elite. I was an assassin, basically a master of death. I worked for the late Commander Locke. The stupid bastard wanted to test our loyalty, so he put hits on our families to see if we would put his orders before our own families." Sorus paused. "The sad thing is… some of my fellow assassins actually followed orders. But, rather than kill my family, I killed Commander Locke. But, I was caught. Because I was an assassin, I was deemed a dangerous weapon and given several life sentences…" Sorus paused. "How many was it?" He asked his other neighbor.

The other prisoner paused, thinking. "Three or four, give or take."

"Yes, three or four life sentences." Sorus said. "I'm going to die in here, but at least you might have your parents out there, fighting for your release!"

Jak hung his head. "No parents." He said. "My friends… they don't know I'm in here."

"Shut up!" A Guard, who was walking by, roared. "I've got a damn hangover and I won't stand for the noise!"

"A hangover?" Sorus asked. "And whose fault is that?" He laughed.

"Shut up, Sorus." The Guard growled. "Or I'll personally make sure your life sentences are upgraded to a death sentence!"

Sorus laughed to himself as the man walked away. "Life or Death, what does it matter? I'm going to die in here anyway."

(Palace, Three Months Later)

"My lord," Erol, the Krimzon Guard Commander and the Baron's right-hand man, said. "The Dark Warrior Project is now ready for human trials."

Baron Praxis smirked. "Excellent."

"May I inquire as to who you are going to test?" Erol asked.

"The criminals in the fortress Prison." Praxis answered without hesitation. "Most of them are violent to begin with, making them stronger and more dangerous. Besides, nobody gives a rat's ass about those criminals. Test every prisoner for Channeling abilities."

"Sir, not everyone will survive." Erol pointed out. "Thousands will die."

"Those that have no Channeling abilities are of no use to us. Let them die. The ones that do pass, however, will be put into the Dark Warrior Project immediately…" Praxis laughed at the thought of his Dark army. With that unstoppable force, he would be the one to destroy the Metal-Heads!

(Prison)

Jak dreamed fitfully.

Jak was backed up against a wall, and he was afraid. His friend, his mentor, was approaching him with anger blazing in his eyes. Jak couldn't quite see his face, but he saw the long sharp teeth and the glowing yellow eyes. A hand reached out and roughly grabbed his own. Jak tried to pull away, but he found he was not strong enough. In fact, he wasn't very strong at all; he was in a child's body.

The man-creature whispered to him. "So you are the great hope? You are pathetic!" Suddenly, the man transformed into the very creature Jak had seen coming out of the Ring, and Jak found himself in his regular body. "You can not hide from me, boy!" The monster roared. The creature brought its tail around and embedded itself in Jak's stomach.

Jak gasped as extreme pain blossomed from his stomach. He looked down in horror as the tail cut though his flesh as easily as a hot knife though butter. With a painful wrench, the tail pulled itself free, leaving a large hole in its wake. Jak put his hands over the hole in his stomach, trying desperately to keep his innards inside his body, but he was failing miserably. The pain grew to be too much and Jak fell to his knees.

"See? You can not win!" The monster roared. "You are weak!"

"No!" Jak cried out.

"What? What is it?" Someone asked.

Jak opened his eyes. The monster was gone. Jak looked down at his stomach, there was no wound, but he checked anyway. Patting himself down as if checking to see if everything was in order and his intestines were not all over the place. Once satisfied that he was okay, he sighed. "Nothing." He breathed, by now he had gotten used to his voice. "It was just a nightmare." Sorus, who was the one who had spoken, watched Jak with concern. Jak rolled over on the small cot and returned to a fitful sleep and the land of nightmares.

(Morning)

"Something's happening." Jak said quietly as he watched the Guards come in and lead a new prisoner away every few minutes.

"You're right." Sorus said after the man in the cell next to Jak was led away. "And did you notice that no one is returning?"

"That ass of a Baron is probably going genocide on us." A prisoner said.

"Genocide?" Jak asked, confused.

"Mass extermination." Sorus explained. "He's killing us all."

"Great… just great." Jak said, looking to the empty cell next to him. "I'm next."

"Hey, sometimes I wish I were put to death." Sorus said. "It's so damn boring! Consider yourself lucky that you only spent three months in here." Sorus paused. "There's only one thing I regret. That I didn't take Erol out while I was at it." Sorus sighed. "When you start a job, you should finish it. I killed a worm, only to have it replaced by a rat."

"I'll tell you what I regret." Another prisoner spoke up. "I never had a threesome." The man shook off Jak's confused looks. "Maybe when you are older, Kid."

"How much older am I going to get?" Jak asked.

"Not much, I guess." Sorus said, laughing. "But we're still not telling you, you are too young." Jak rolled his eyes. "So, what do you regret, Jak?"

Jak thought about this question. The answer was easy, really. "Well… there was this girl…" Jak paused. "There was definitely something there, but… I was a mute. I could never tell her how I felt."

"Get up off your ass, criminal." Jak looked up and saw the Guards standing at his cell door. Jak set his face with a neutral expression as he got up from the cot. "That's right. I'm opening the door, now. If you so much as look at me funny, I'll kill you right here." The door opened and weapons were leveled on Jak's chest, but Jak didn't make a move for them. He had toughened up on the outside out of necessity, but on the inside he was still the same boy, and that boy wasn't violent. The Guards put him in restraints, and Jak didn't fight.

Instead the Guards led him away, down the hall. Jak passed dozens of empty cells. Jak reached a door and the Guards stopped him. The door opened and three Guards came out, dragging a dead body. A single hand was hanging out from under the bloody sheets that covered the body. There were large wounds covering the hand, each one oozing Blue Eco. Jak may have been brought up in the country, but he wasn't stupid. He recognized Eco Poisoning when he saw it.

"Eco…" Jak gasped, but a Guard quickly silenced him with a blow to the back of the head.

"Shut the hell up, convict!" The Guard ordered.

So Jak finished his thought in his head. Eco? If they are trying to kill us with Eco Poisoning, I have nothing to worry about. Channelers don't get Eco Poisoning.

Jak was then led into the room and saw the evidence of hundreds of Eco Poisoning cases. Jak knew that Channelers were very rare. He figured that in the whole prison with over a thousand people, there'd be only ten or so. The smell of hundreds of people's bile hit Jak like a sledgehammer, and his own bile almost joined the others. He was forcefully sat down on a metal table in the middle of the room. A bunch of men were already there, wearing masks. Lucky them. Jak thought angrily. The smell was overpowering and Jak worked to keep his food down. The men set to work, attaching all sorts of probes to his body, but Jak didn't really care.

Without speaking to him, one man got out a needle filled with Blue Eco. Jak, who was clueless about needles, did not react until the needle was forcefully shoved into his arm. Jak swallowed a cry of surprise as the man began to shoot the Eco straight into his bloodstream. Within seconds, he was Channeling, and he felt the energy of Blue Eco move over his skin and though his body. It felt so familiar and it, in a way, reminded him of home.

"Holy fucking Yakkow!" One man exclaimed, watching the monitors. "Take a look at this!"

Another man joined him at the monitors. "Holy…"

"These Eco readings are off the charts!" The first man looked up at Jak though his mask. "This prisoner is top priority. If he isn't the one, no one is."

Jak was pushed off the table and led though a second door in the room, being careful to step over the puddles of sick. As he was led into the fresh air, or at least fresh compared to the air in the room he just left, he believed he was taking his first steps towards something better; but he was really taking his first steps to hell.

Jak was led into another room. There were four prisoners chained to chairs and at least three-dozen Krimzon Guards. Jak was sat down in a chair and restrained.

Jak sighed, and stared at the door. Sorus would've been right after him. Several minutes pasted in silence before the doors opened again. The Guards were leading Sorus in. Jak didn't say a word until Sorus was restrained in the chair next to him and the Guards left.

"You're a Channeler, huh?" Jak asked.

"I guess." Sorus said. "I didn't die, did I?" He paused. "So, you are a Channeler?"

"Yes, I've known since I was young." Jak said.

"So… they're finding Channelers?" Sorus asked no one. "This can't be good.

(Half A Day Later)

The fruit of the Krimzon Guard's search had paid off. Fifteen Channelers sat in the small room. Jak, by now, had lost all feeling in his body. He shifted, trying to get feeling back in his legs and backside. Jak's hands had been tingling for the past hour and it was driving him insane.

There was a whooshing sound and Jak looked up. There was a orange-haired man walking into the room. Jak recognized him as the man who had captured him. "Who is that?" Jak asked quietly.

"Him?" Sorus asked, gesturing toward the red-haired man with his head. "That's Commander Erol, the Tight-ass. He's the right-hand man to Baron Praxis and the leader of all the Krimzon Guards. He's the replacement of Commander Locke."

Jak was about to respond when Erol spoke up. "Fifteen." He said quietly, so that they could barely hear him. Then, a little louder, Erol began again. "Fifteen out of over a thousand prisoners. Only you posses the necessary qualities that we need. All fifteen of you have 'volunteered' to help the Grand Protector of Haven City, Baron Praxis, on a project that is a great hope for the final destruction of the Metal-Heads. If all goes well, it will be though you that our five hundred year long war will come to an end." Erol smiled in a way that made Jak disbelieve ever word that came out of his mouth. Jak looked over at Sorus, who was shaking his head. "The 'Project' begins tomorrow." Erol continued. "Rest up, it's going to be a 'big day' tomorrow." Erol grinned in an evil sort of way that made Jak slightly nervous.

Erol glared at each of them in turn, giving them an evil smile. When Erol grinned at Jak like that, Jak felt shivers run up his spine. Erol turned and left.

The Guard got the restrains off them and the fifteen Channelers got up slowly, (They had been sitting all day) and were led into a new section of the prison that no one had ever been to before.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Sorus said.

Jak shivered at the thought of Erol's smile. "You have no idea." Jak said.

LES: Whew. Long chapter. But everyone likes a long chapter. Just so you know, the rest of the prisoners aren't getting names until it is a manageable number. Meaning that I have to kill most of them off before they get names.