Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story but Raye and Jessie.

--

-Chapter 1-

-Into the game-

"Stingers, Raye!"

"Thank you, Jess, I see them!"

"… obviously not since one just attacked you. One more hit and it's my turn."

"Tch. Doubt it." Raye said, smirking over at her friend. Black hair fell down just above her shoulders, framing a somewhat round, slightly tan face with high cheekbones that brought out bright cerulean eyes. Her smirk rested on thin, almost heart-shaped lips, and these rested below a pointed, elf-like nose. She was tall and thin, standing at 5'7" at sixteen. Even sitting, she was still almost a head taller than the girl next to her. "Besides, the meet only wore out my legs, not my hands. My button pushing abilities will not fail me."

There was a roar from the TV as Metal Kor snapped the sinewy ropes holding him aloft and began chasing after Jak. "And he's down! Heh, stupid-" Raye stopped as a laser-like beam zapped her from across the screen, and Jak fell down, dead. "What the hell?!"

"Oh yeah, he shoots lasers. Did I forget to tell you that?" Jess asked, smiling innocently with her full lips, revealing two rows of braces. Her honey-colored hair was chopped short, in an unruly and messy boy's cut. Violet-gray, almond shaped eyes gleamed mischievously above a just slightly too large nose. At only 4'11", the girl was practically a child compared to her friend. "Now gimme that controller."

Raye held it up over her head, pulling it out of the blonde's reach. "Not a chance, that's totally withholding information, which falls under the category of cheating. I get a redo."

Jess rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever. I'm getting more pizza."

"Bring the whole box, I want some too!" Raye called as she walked out. There was a thumbs up flashed in her direction as the tiny body disappeared out the door. Raye laughed as she turned back to the screen, which had blacked out. She blinked. "Huh, what the…?" Pushing a few buttons on the controller, she frowned at the screen. "Grr, stupid piece of junk." She smacked the PS2, yelping as her hand was shocked.

Standing up, she poked her head out the door. "Jess, your Playstation's a piece of shit!"

"It's secondhand, what d'you expect?" She said. "I'll be up in a sec. I have to wrestle one of the boxes into the trash can."

As her footsteps started up the stairs, a rumble shook the house. Behind her, Raye heard a roar, from… the TV? Thinking that the game had started back up again, she began to turn, letting out a startled gasp as something wrapped around her body. Looking down, she saw a dark, indigo blue, three fingered… claw(?) gripping her torso.

"I finally found you, child!" Red exploded in Raye's vision as the claw yanked her backwards, knocking the wind out of her. The red faded into black as a dark chuckle filled the air around her.

"Raye? I thought I heard Kor talking, is the PS2 working again? Turn it off, there's a huge storm out…" Jess stopped in the doorway of her room. "…side. Raye?"

--

"Oohhh…" Raye groaned as she sat up. "My head…" She winced as she touched her forehead, drawing her fingers back with something wet and warm on them. Opening her eyes slowly, she let out a little whine as light momentarily blinded her and made the intense throbbing in her head worse, trying to focus on the blurry shape of her hand in front of her face. On the tan blur that she could only assume was her skin there was red staining it and she could feel it leaking down her fingers. With a groan, she let her hand drop to the ground, her head lolling back onto the wall behind her.

'Wait, wall?' Her mind questioned, breaking through the fog in her head for a moment. Raye opened her eyes again, wincing as the light hit them but forcing them to stay open this time, and looked around. Iron greeted her from every view. 'This looks so familiar…' She thought, pushing herself up slightly.

Nausea rolled over her in a wave and she fell back to the ground on her side, heaving. "Unh… unh…" She clutched her stomach, though even with the heavy heaving nothing would vacate her stomach. A few minutes later, the sickness seemed to pass, and Raye stood up, leaning against the wall behind her for support.

Looking around again, she took a few shaky steps forward, stumbling and grabbing onto a cold metal pole to stay up. "Damn… what'd Jess put in my soda?" She chuckled darkly, raising her head and looking around again. 'So familiar looking.' Raye thought to herself again.

That's when it hit her; why the entire place looked so familiar. "Holy cookie." She gasped, sliding down to her knees. "No way. This can't be… this can't be happening. I'm not in Jessica's Jak 2 game. I am not in… Jessica's…" She put a hand over her eyes. "I'm in Jess's flipping Jak 2 game. Or having a mental breakdown. One of those. Reeeaallly hoping it's the second one." She said, raising her head and looking around.

With a sigh, she stood up. "Might as well find somewhere to go…" She looked up at the sky. "I guess it's pretty late. It'd sure explain the lack of people." Pausing, she laughed. "Though that never seemed to deter anyone in the game." Walking for a while longer, she passed a particularly shiny square of metal on the wall and froze.

"You've got. To be freaking. Kidding me." Raye groaned, reaching up to the side of her head where her ear was. She let out a frustrated huff. "Wunderbar." She muttered, glaring at her reflection. Her ears had elongated into a style similar to the game's characters, only instead of being shorter like most of the females', they were long and slim like Jak's.

Raye put a hand on the plate, feeling the cool, smooth metal under her palm. "I've got to be dreaming…" Reaching for her arm, she pinched herself, hard. "Ow!" She winced, rubbing the spot. "Or not…" Looking up at the plate again, she froze as she saw several red armored figures standing behind her.

"What are you doing out past curfew?" One growled, adjusting their grip on the gun in their hands.

Raye swallowed nervously. "I… I…"

"Hold, men." If Raye hadn't been nervous before, she certainly was now. Pushing through the Guards, a familiar, unarmored figure stepped to the front of the crowd.

"Commander?" The Guard who had questioned Raye asked.

Errol held a hand up to silence him. "Give me your arm, girl." Raye tried to send the command from her brain to her legs to run, but instead her arm rose in front of her. Errol gripped her wrist tightly, pulling something out of one of the pouches on his belt.

"Nn…" Raye winced as he pressed it against her wrist and something pricked her skin. When he pulled whatever it was back, Raye could see a dot of red welling up on her skin. She pulled her eyes from the prick mark to the object in Errol's hand. It looked like a metal bangle that had been chopped in half, the concave side covered in a long meter. Watching, the bars in the meter lit up starting from the bottom, stopping one from the top.

Errol smirked, looking down at her. "Well, well. It appears we have a channeler on our hands." He glanced at the bars again. "And a strong one at that. Baron Praxis will be quite pleased to see you."

Raye's eyes widened and she tugged uselessly against Errol's grip. He stepped to the side, and the Guard behind him raised his rifle up, bringing the butt down between Raye's eyes.

For the second time that day, red exploded in Raye's vision and she fell to the ground.

--

"You've got a new friend to keep you company, boy." Errol growled as the cell door opened. The occupant looked up as a pair of guards tossed a body inside carelessly. As soon as the door shut, the boy scrambled over to the figure. Gently, he turned them onto their back, his eyes widening. It was a girl about his age. Blood had dripped down from her temple, curving around the side of her face and into her hair, and a bruise was forming at the bridge of her nose, between her eyebrows.

Crawling over to the bowl of stagnant water sitting in the corner of the cell, he carried it over to the girl and pulled her head into his lap. Tearing off a piece of his shirt, he dipped it into the water and wiped the wound on her forehead slightly. He stopped as the girl winced, but she didn't wake up.

After he'd gotten the blood cleaned off, the boy slipped his arms under the girl's shoulders and knees and laid her on the makeshift pile of rags in the corner. Propping her head up on a small bundle, he retreated to the opposite corner and rested his head on his knees, falling asleep.

--

Raye hissed in pain as she sat up, the spot in between her eyes throbbing as if someone was stabbing her with a hot poker. Blinking away the tears in her eyes, she looked around. It was a change from the Industrial Section, that's for sure. Her gaze traveled over the metal walls, the reinforced looking door with the barred window and food slot near the bottom, and over to the corner in front of her, where a boy with spiked up, green-blonde hair and bright blue eyes watching her.

"Hi." She greeted, not knowing what else to say. She looked down underneath her to see the makeshift bed she was laying on. "Did… did you put me here?"

He nodded.

Raye blinked. "Why?"

He shrugged.

"Oh." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Well, thanks. I'm Raye." She knew that he couldn't reply, but it would be better for them both if she pretended not to know.

Jak drew something in the dirt on the floor. Raye crawled over to see what she thought was Precursor writing. 'Oh, it must be…' "Jak?" She asked, looking up at him. He smiled and nodded.

Raye looked over the boy in front of her. He looked roughed up, but not like someone who had been pumped full of dark eco. Not yet, anyway. 'He must've just been captured. I'm in the very beginning of the game.' She realized. "How long have you been here?"

Jak bit his lip. "You don't know, do you?" Raye asked gently. He shook his head, then began drawing- writing- in the dust more.

"I-" Jak looked up at her. Raye blushed slightly. "I don't read much of this language. Almost none, actually." She realized how stupid that must've made her sound, but she really didn't.

Jak blinked at her. "Yeah, I know. It's weird. Where I come from, we write in something totally different."

Both looked up as the cell door opened. Errol stepped in, flanked by two guards. "I hate to interrupt," He smirked down at them, obviously not caring in the slightest, "But you're coming with us." He pointed a finger at Jak, whose eyes widened fearfully. One of the guards tromped over to the boy and grabbed his arm, pulling him to his feet. Jak made a noise that could only be described as a fearful keening, and Raye was on her feet before she could stop herself.

"Let him go!" She yelled, grabbing the guard's wrist. The next thing she knew, she was back on the floor, blood dripping from a wound in her cheek where the armor had sliced through skin.

A pair of indigo boots stepped into her vision. "Apparently, this one is VERY eager to go first." Errol jerked his head toward Raye. The Krimzon Guard holding Jak's forearm tossed the elf to the ground and wrapped his hand around Raye's instead. The pain that was pulsing across the left half of her face and the reawakened pain between her eyes clouded her brain momentarily, the only viable way to tell she was moving was the distant feeling of her feet dragging across the ground and the heavy 'thunk'ing of the Krimzon Guards boots.

Though that might've just been her head.

Out of body experiences were not something that many people, well, experienced, but Raye figured that she was going through something pretty close. Faintly, she could feel the pain in her head, but it didn't seem to be pulling her mind out of its detached state.

"Well, what do we have here? Another subject?" Raye opened her eyes faintly, pain still lacing through her forehead. Metal gleamed faintly in the light before she groaned and closed her eyes, letting her head fall to the side.

"Yes sir." That was Errol.

"Doesn't look like much." The new voice 'hmph'ed. It sounded so familiar… why couldn't Raye put her finger on it?

There was a sound like someone was digging around in their pockets. "Her eco tolerance readings."

Silence for several moments. "We'll see. Start the beam. Let's see how long this one lasts. And it had better be longer than the last one you pulled off the streets, Commander."

"… yes, Baron Praxis."

'Praxis?' Raye questioned to herself. Then, 'Beam?'

The whirring noise of machinery charging up and gears chinking together, and then…

Raye was pulled quite forcefully back into her body as what felt like a sledgehammer slammed down her chest. Only the pain didn't stop; it spread like fire through her body, consuming every nerve in its path. A scream ripped out of her throat, tearing it raw within seconds. The scream stretched on and on, echoing off the cold metal walls like the wailing of a thousand damned spirits. Seconds, minutes, perhaps hours passed... occasionally Raye paused to strain for breath, but the sound always returned to the high, tormented shriek of utter pain.

Then, suddenly, the beam stopped. "Dark eco injection cycle complete." A female computer voice droned.

"Vitals status." Praxis ordered.

"Heart rate: high. Blood pressure: high. Stress levels: high."

Praxis looked down at the panting girl, a smirk on his face. "Thirty minutes and she's still alive. Good. This one isn't an utter disappointment, Errol. Now we'll just need to see if she can STAY alive. Bring out the boy."

Raye let out pained mewls as two hands dug into her arms and pulled her off the table. Something wet was dripping down from her forehead, but she couldn't concentrate on it. The throbbing pain that was coursing through her with every heartbeat was her only focus.

Or, at least, it was until she heard the screams start.

"Jak!" Her concerned cry made fire shoot through her lungs, and she gasped for air in painful gulps, but nonetheless craned her head over her shoulder to see the blonde boy arching off the metal chair, screaming in pain. It didn't even sound natural. It sounded… inhuman.

Then her view was rudely cut off by a sudden wave of red armor as Raye felt her body go into free fall… which was also rudely, and painfully, stopped when her left side slammed into a very solid wall. Tears joined the blood on her face as pain raced up her side and into her head and her vision whited out.

The pain woke her up again as something shook her shoulder lightly. She cracked an eye open to see a yellow-green blur. "Jak?" She asked, blinking suddenly. Her vision cleared up considerably and she could make out the still somewhat-fuzzy details of his face. She squinted, trying to rid Jak of the fuzzy glow around his body. When it didn't leave, she sat up. "You're glowing purple." She said, waving her hand through the haze.

Jak took her wrist gently, and moved her hand into her vision. The same faint purple aura surrounded it. "Me too, huh?" She whispered, not quite sure of what she was seeing. He nodded. She closed her eyes, exhaling heavily. "It's the eco, isn't it?" Another nod.

She growled and pushed herself, falling back painfully as her right elbow gave way. "Ow." She muttered, looking over at her arm. There were two large cuts on her wrist that were crusted with dried blood. Burns fanned out from between them, and followed the path of her veins up her arm. Glancing over at the other arm, she saw faint burns following the same patterns.

Then, darkness. "Lights out, scumbags." A male voice called.

Raye pushed herself back up, wincing as the blood on her wrists cracked. "C'mon, Jak, let's get some sleep." She sighed, scooting over to the rag-bed in the corner. After a moment, a body curled up against her back. Not able to hold in a small smile, she closed her eyes and felt her body give into sleep.

-Two years later…-

"Did you hear? Maggie died last night." Raye said quietly, leaning up against the gray wall behind her.

"Eco poisoning again." A husky, male voice replied from the other side of the wall. "When will Praxis stop this?"

Raye chuckled darkly. "You've been asking the same question since you learned to talk last year. You know, most people's first words are 'mom' or 'dad'. Not, 'I'll kill you'."

"Well I'm not exactly most people, now am I?"

"No, Jak. No you aren't." She said, looking down at her hands. "Hey, I'm not glowing."

There was a moment of silence. "Shit. That means they'll be here soon."

Raye sighed. "Yeah. Think it'll actually kill us this time?"

Jak paused. "They've been upping the doses. It might." He leant his head back, smirking. "We aren't that lucky. I never thought that anyone but Gol and Maya Acheron could survive being around so much dark eco, much less have it forced into their bodies." He held a hand up in front of his face. "It was destroying Gol's body, mutated both him and Maya. I'm just waiting for it to happen to us."

"I'm still holding out for the eco poisoning." Raye said bitterly. "I'd be more than happy to wake up in the middle of the night having my body eat itself from the inside out at this point."

Jak's head snapped up as the sound of a door hissing open reached his ears. "They're here."

Raye pushed herself onto her feet. "Joy. Wanna chance on who's going first?"

"After the shiner you gave Errol last week?" Jak asked, sarcasm clear in his voice. "I can guess."

The footsteps stopped in front of Raye's cell door. There was a slight beeping as the code to open it was entered. It slid open to show Errol standing in the doorway, four guards behind him. One to his left stepped forward, and raised their stun gun. Raye tensed, preparing to jump out of the way, when a movement diverted her attention to Errol's other side.

"Aaaahhhhhh!" The electricity coursing from the two guns brought Raye down to her knees, smoke rising from her shaking form. She winced, biting her lip as a pair of guards grabbed her forearms, dragging her out.

"Don't you ever get tired of fighting?" Errol asked, watching as Raye pulled against the restraints latched around her wrists and ankles. "You know you can't win."

Raye glared at him, smirking. "Then why don't you take off these restraints so we can see who'll win THAT fight, Commander?" Raye asked, her voice darkening with sarcasm at the last word.

The cool barrel of a gun pressed into the soft flesh underneath her chin, forcing her head back. "Don't tempt me, girl." Errol hissed.

"Two words, hotshot," Raye growled, "Breath. Mint."

A growl rose in the redheaded commander's throat and he pushed the gun harder into Raye's neck, choking her slightly, until the doors slid open. "Commander, what are you doing?"

"Nothing, Baron Praxis." Errol said, pulling his hand away and holstering his pistol, glaring at Raye all the while.

"Your master's calling. Go be a good lapdog and kiss his ass."

Errol's hand grabbed a fistful of her hair, pulling her up. "You won't always be useful, Raye. And when that day comes, I will take so much pleasure in killing you." He released her as Baron Praxis joined them on the platform, letting her head fall back against the metal with a dull thud.

"Shall we begin?" Praxis asked with a sneer. Errol slammed his fist down on the button without even answering, as if taking out his anger on the machine would somehow intensify the pain it caused.

Raye really couldn't say if it did or not.

Finally, the beam shut off. "Dark eco injection cycle complete. Bio readings nominal and unchanged."

Praxis growled down at Raye. She didn't have the strength to respond. "Useless. After two years, you should at least be dead." He hissed, putting his face close to hers. Raye cracked her eyes open and, glaring at him, spit in his robotic eye. Praxis let out a roar of fury and backhanded her. "Commander!" He yelled, wiping his face.

"Yes, sir?" Errol asked, stepping up to his side.

"Take this little wretch back to her cell and bring out the boy." Errol nodded sharply and motioned to two of the guards.

Raye barely paid attention to the sounds of Jak fighting in the cell next to her as she laid on the floor, enjoying the cold stone against her burning skin. She did wince slightly as she heard what could only be the sound of a guard punching Jak, and again as the screams started.

"Dark eco injection complete. Bio readings nominal and unchanged." Droned the computer again, the same phrase it had said for the past two years.

"Hmph. Nothing. You told me that these two would be different, Commander." Praxis growled, glaring at Errol.

"They are surprisingly more resistant to your… 'experiments' than the others were, Baron Praxis. I fear that the Dark Warrior Program has failed." Errol said, folding his hands behind his back.

Praxis growled and rounded on Jak with a roar, grabbing a fistful of his hair much like Errol had to Raye earlier. "You should at least be dead with all the dark eco I've pumped into you! Both of you!" He dropped Jak's head, who let out slight groan.

Errol stepped up to Praxis's side. "What now? Metal Head armies are pressing their attacks. Without a new weapon, my men cannot hold them off forever."

Praxis slammed his fists against the side of one of the control panels. "I will NOT be remember as the man who lost this city to those vile creatures!" He paused, breathing heavily for a few moments before turning to Errol. "Move forward with the final plan. And finish off these two… failures tonight."

"As you wish, Baron Praxis." Errol said with a sort of half bow. As Praxis walked past him, he leant toward Jak. "I'll be back later." He chuckled maliciously, straightening and following after Praxis.

Raye propped herself up on her elbows. "This is… it can't be." She murmured, using the wall to pull herself to her knees. "Can it?"

Ding, ding! Third floor, body chains, roach food, torture devices." Raye grabbed the edge of the window, pulling herself to her feet. Daxter was jumping onto Jak's chest. "Hey, buddy, you seen any heroes here?" He blinked suddenly, obviously shocked by Jak's new look. "Woah! What'd they do to you? Jak, wake up, it's me, Daxter!"

Jak opened his eyes slightly and attempted to lift his head, but flinched as a bolt of pain raced through the muscles and let it fall back to the table.

"Well that's a fine hello! I've been crawling around this place, risking my tail, literally," He unknowingly stepped down hard on Jak's stomach, making the blonde elf let out a small 'oof,' "To find you! I've been looking for you for two years!" He turned around to face Jak's head. "Say something, just this once!" Daxter pleaded, grabbing small fistfuls of Jak's shirt and shaking him slightly.

Raye frowned. The glow around Jak seemed stronger, and it looked like it was pulsing. Jak's head rose, and there was anger in his blue eyes as he looked at Daxter. "I'm gonna kill Praxis!" He roared.

Daxter clapped a hand over his mouth. "Shh! Right now, we gotta get you outta here." The Ottsel looked around, removing his hand and crawling down to Jak's left side. "Just let me figure out how to open the security locks for your chair…" He muttered, obviously not noticing the intensifying convulsions Jak's body seemed to be going through underneath him.

Jak let out a feral, animalistic roar as purple lightning crackled around his body and he ripped through the metal cuffs like they were paper, throwing Daxter to the ground. His skin had faded to pure white in the matter of seconds it took him, his hair was a shade darker and nearly gray, his normally blue eyes were an inky black, a pair of black horns were protruding from his forehead and his fingernails had elongated to black, talon-like claws. Dark Jak had never scared Raye when it was just a video game, but now… now it was terrifying beyond belief.

Daxter gulped, looking up at what he thought was still Jak. "Or, ahh, you could do it." The thing-known-as-Jak looked down at Daxter, his lips pulled back over his teeth in a snarl. "Easy now. Eaasssyyy, buddy. It's- it's your old pal Daxter, remember?" The Ottsel gulped as Jak advanced toward him. The elf raised a clawed hand as if to slice the small rodent into pieces, and Daxter curled up in a protective ball.

But Jak's attack came to an abrupt halt halfway to the quivering ball of orange fur, along with the animal-like snarl he had begun. "Daxter?" He asked before stumbling and falling back against the chair, Jak returned to normal with a shudder.

Daxter peeked out from under his arms and, after seeing that Jak was no longer going to attack him, stood up, putting his hands on his hips. "What the heck was that?! Sheesh, remind me not to piss you off! Come on, tall, dark, and gruesome. We're outta here!" He scampered over to the lift he had entered on and pulled a package over to Jak's feet. "I, uh, brought you some new threads. Put 'em on."

Raye turned and walked to the corner of the cell, away from the window, her face beet red. A few minutes later, she heard footsteps coming toward her cell.

"Jak, what are you doing? The exit is the OTHER WAY." Daxter said, quite loudly in fact, into the elf's ear.

Jak shushed him. "Helping out a friend of mine. Raye, you still alive in there?" He called, peering into the cell.

"Nope, I'm dead. Go away." She said sarcastically, stepping back so she could see through the barred window. "Of course I'm still alive. All that poison hasn't killed me yet, has it?"

Jak gave her a wry look, then moved his hand toward the keypad lock to the right of the door. "Problem. I don't know the code to open this thing."

Raye grinned at him. "One-one-oh-eight-nine-one. Some idiot was muttering to themselves as they typed it in."

He laughed and typed in the code. The door slid open easily and Raye stepped out. She frowned as she looked between Jak's new clothes and the rags she was wearing. "So not fair." She muttered under her breath.

Jak grinned as he heard her. "We'll get you some new ones as soon as we get out of this place. C'mon."

"Easy for you to say." Raye grumbled, following after him.

Daxter looked back at Raye before turning back to look down at Jak. "Hey, Jak. Who's the girl?"

"Daxter, Raye. Raye, Daxter." Jak said as way of introduction. "Daxter's an old friend of mine."

Raye nodded. "So you've told me." They stopped at the doors. "We need a card key." She muttered, examining the plate beside her. "Now what?"

Jak looked around, his eyes falling on a stack of boxes piled up in between two rows of cells. "This way."

--

SC: Okay, so here is the first redone chapter of Altered Reality. Hope everyone enjoys it!