Chapter VII: The Gates of Hell.

LES: Sorry about the long wait, but here is the next chapter. I have a thing with 'Hell' chapters, don't I? Anyway, "When we cannot change a situation, resolution comes though the way we choose to handle it within ourselves." Gerald Coffee said that.

Muse: What does that have to do with anything?

LES: I thought Jak would like to remember that quote during this chapter…

Jak: Great, I'll be sure to remember it while you put me though indescribable pain!

LES: Oh, I wouldn't say 'indescribable.' I'm certainly going to do it! Warning, this chapter contains graphic torture scenes and bloody, messy, and downright gross deaths. If you have weak stomachs… be sure not to puke on the computer, it is your friend… and so am I. On with the story!

Fans: Finally!

Jak, Sorus, and the thirteen other men were put in a single containment cell. The cell seemed like it was built to handle no more than ten prisoners, so fifteen prisoners were very squashed. What was worse, the cell was defiantly behind in the current health standards. The skeleton of an elf, left to rot in a corner, was proof of that.

The fifteen Channelers sat on the floor, trying to get as much personal space as possible, which was harder because nobody wanted to be near the skeleton.

After several moments of silence, one man who Jak had never met spoke up. "What do you think the Baron is going to do to us?" He asked.

"I don't know, but if that guy is any clue…" Sorus pointed at the skeleton. "It can't be good."

(Next Day)

Jak woke up screaming. He had another repeat of the nightmare that had haunted him since he first stepped into the now-dreaded walls of the fortress prison. The monster had mocked his weakness before disemboweling him with its tail. Jak just barely managed to remember that it was a nightmare before screaming his head off.

"Jak? You alright?" Sorus looked up suddenly.

Jak took several deep, calming breaths before he dared to answer. "I'm fine." He said shortly. Jak then noticed that there were dark circles under Sorus' eyes. "Have you been up all night?"

"Yes." Sorus answered. "I've been trying to figure out what the Baron wants with us. He can only use Channelers, so it has to do with Eco… that's all I've got."

"You've been thinking all night and that's all you've got?" Jak asked.

"Well, I don't have a lot of information." Sorus pointed out.

Sorus fell silent. Everything was peaceful and silent for almost twenty minutes. Then, the sound of heavy boots made themselves heard. The prisoners were awake instantly. Commander Erol and several Krimzon Guard stopped in front of the cell.

"Six A.M." Erol said softly, looking around the small cell. His eyes came to rest on the man who was sitting just to the left of Jak, and Erol grinned that creepy grin that sent shivers down Jak's spine. "Him." Erol said, pointing that the man he grinned at. The Guards opened the door, weapons raised, while two Guards grabbed the man in question. They led the man swiftly away, taking special care to make sure that the door was locked after them. The man was led away while the other prisoners sat in uncomfortable silence.

No one said or did anything for several minutes, waiting for some clue as to what was going to happen to them.

Quite suddenly, a horrible scream split the still, prison air. The prisoners stiffened as the sound increased in volume and anguish. Slowly, the sound died away to nothing. The silence in the prison was absolute for at least thirty seconds before Jak spoke up. "What was that?" He asked, still spooked by the terrible sound.

Everyone was silent for almost a minute, before Sorus replied to Jak's question. "That is the sound of ultimate suffering." Sorus said, grimly.

There was the sound of a body being forcefully dragged back to the cell. All fourteen prisoners got up and put their faces against the bars. Suddenly, Sorus yelled, "Stand back!" Without question, everyone leapt back from the bars. The Guards came, dragging a body. They opened the door and tossed in the man, and walked away.

Everyone stared at the body and gasped when the arm moved, it was working to get the man's face off the ground. Jak was the first to see the man's face, as he was kneeling down. Jak gasped. "Oh my God!"

"Help… me…" The poor man gasped as he vomited all over the ground, a mixture of blood and… Dark Eco! Jak knew this was Eco Poisoning, but at it's worst. This was Dark Eco Poisoning, something that Jak had never witness, and personally would've been happier if he never had to, yet here he was. The poor man began to choke as the Dark Eco began to run out of his mouth, down his chin, and stained the front of his prison outfit. "Help… me…" He gasped. His eyes glazed over and rolled up into his head, so much so that you couldn't even see the color of his eyes anymore. Dark Eco bubbled in the corners of his mouth, giving him the look of a rabid dog. Finally, he fell face down on the ground, his body went still. A puddle of blood and Dark Eco slowly spread out from his body.

"Oh my God!" Jak repeated.

"He's dead." Sorus breathed.

"Dark Eco!" Jak gasped. "I've never seen anything like this! It's… unheard of! Where I come from, everyone went out of his or her way to avoid Dark Eco! I've never seen someone with Dark Eco Poisoning before."

"Dark Eco?" Someone panicked, "We're all going to die!"

"Shut up!" Sorus ordered. "The Baron obviously doesn't want us all to die!"

"How do you know?" Someone demanded.

"Because the Baron has a million and one easier ways to kill us." Sorus reasoned. "Dark Eco is hard to come by, so I doubt he would waste it to kill off lowly prisoners." Sorus paused. "He wants something…"

Jak blanked, the memory of two extremely pale faces flashed though his memory. "You were wrong, Samos." The male, Gol, said. "Dark Eco can be controlled!"

Controlling Dark Eco? Was it even possible? Jak knew that messing around with Dark Eco was a very bad thing, and to get it in your system, like the Dark twins, could make you go insane, like the Dark twins.

Before Jak could finish his thought, some more Guards came and led another man away. No one said anything as the screaming started, and no one spoke as the screaming stopped. The man was dragged back to the cell like the other one and thrown in. The man lay where he was tossed limply, everyone watched him, holding their breath.

Slowly the man got up, opened his mouth and… "Son of a bitch, that hurt!"

"You're alive!" Sorus exclaimed.

"Barely." The man groaned.

"What did they do to you?" Sorus asked.

"They…" The man gasped. "Needle… Dark Eco… They… want some sort of… mutation…" The man swiftly passed out, but didn't die.

"Well," Sorus said. "At least we know its possible to live."

"Only…" Jak said. "If you happen to live."

(Half a day later)

Half a day later, ten had gone for their treatments. Five were dead, five had lived, and five were still waiting their turn. All five who had lived was unconscious. Jak and Sorus were among the five left, along with three other men. These five watched with increasing nervousness as the Guards came once more and, to Jak's horror, they grabbed onto his arms and began to lead him away.

"Be strong." Sorus whispered.

Jak didn't bother to answer. He knew that it was going to take more then strength to overcome Dark Eco.

The Guards led Jak down a long and featureless hallway. Well… at least it felt long to Jak. For one of the first times in his life, Jak felt truly afraid. He remembered the number of times he had accidentally hit a Dark Eco Box during his last adventure. He had been sore for hours. Those boxes didn't contain a lot of Eco to begin with, possibly not even an E-unit. He didn't know how much Eco he would be subjected to.

The group reached a door to another part of the prison where Jak had never been. Just how big is this prison? Jak wondered. He was escorted though the door and immediately took in his surroundings. He was in a large room lit with green lights. The room was lined with prison cells, and in the center was a large, bottomless pit. On a platform in the center, there was a metal chair with a large, scary looking machine hovering above it. Several men were working on this machine and it didn't seem to be completed yet. Jak's eyes were caught by a hole in the wall. A means of escape? Jak wondered to himself. The hole seemed to lead into some type of ventilation system. Jak made a note of it in the back of his brain as a possible means of escape. There were two men standing in the corner, one was Commander Erol, and the other was a large man that Jak had never seen before. They were both studying a file.

"Number 11." Commander Erol said. "Apparently the scientists believe that it will become the Dark Warrior. It got the highest Eco Score." Jak was slightly amazed at what Erol was calling him. 'It.' It was like they didn't want him to be seen as a person. But, then again, perhaps it made everyone's job easier, seeing as they were killing people.

"I find it hard to believe that this… thing would get the highest score." The taller one said. This man had half of his face made of metal, like he has his face ripped off at one point. Jak immediately decided that this place, wherever that was, was no place for weaklings.

"What amount do you suggest for this one?" Erol asked a green-faced scientist.

"Uh… considering the high Eco Score, I'd suggest… twenty CC's." The scientist said.

"Fine." The metal-faced man said. "Twenty CC's it is."

"Yes, Baron Praxis." Erol said to the metal-faced man, who apparently was this 'Baron Praxis.' Erol then motioned to a nearby scientist. He pulled out a large needle and a large bottle filled with an evil, primordial substance, which was commonly called Dark Eco.

Without warning, three Guards grabbed Jak and threw him into a metal chair, not the one under the machine, and restrained his arms and legs. Jak tried vainly to get up, but he was strapped down tight. He couldn't get up even if he wanted to. The scientist filled the needle up as far as it would go and Jak knew it was far more than he had ever dealt with.

"Number Eleven is restrained." One Guard reported in a cold, hard voice. "He's not going anywhere."

Baron Praxis nodded his head, the only command he gave to begin the unimaginable torture that would commence.

The head scientist plunged the needle straight into Jak's carotid artery and began to pump the evil substance right into Jak's bloodstream.

The pain started immediately. He tried with all his might not to cry out, but the Dark Eco rushed though his body like a wild-fire, twisting everything it came in contact with. He screamed louder as he had the feeling of being ripped into a million pieces. The very universe seemed to be ripping apart and every creature in it was screaming in pain. Jak was lost in a dark oblivion. An oblivion where nothing existed but the pain that was consuming his soul.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the pain died away and Jak slumped in the chair. Jak lay there on the table, twitching occasionally as stray Dark Eco volts ran though his body. His entire body burned in the after effects of the treatment. Jak's breathing was shallow and ragged as he attempted to recover from the horrible torture he just endured.

"Well?" Praxis roar, his loud voice was like a hammer-blow to Jak's pounding head and he flinched. "Is there any change?"

The lead scientist ran a small scanner over Jak's body. Jak didn't care as he was still wallowing in pain. "Minimal physical change, mostly the same type of cellular mutations you usually see in Dark Eco related cases, nothing to speak of."

"It's a start." Praxis sighed. "We'll repeat tomorrow." At these words, Jak's eyes shot open. Tomorrow? The Guards took off the restraints. Jak tried to fight them, but the after-effects of the torture were still burning though him. This left him weak, too weak to be fighting trained soldiers. The Guards quickly beat him into submission and dragged him bodily back to his cell. There, they practically threw him back in the cell, where Jak lay on the ground, lacking the strength or the will power to pick himself up.

"You all right, Jak?" Sorus asked.

"I'm not dying." Jak moaned." But…" Then Jak joined the rank of the other survivors and passed out.

LES: There are two things I'm fond of writing: romance and gore. This story has both! I could scream for joy!