"Do the prisoners here scream in their sleep often?"... She sighed and bit into the fruit. The juice dripped down her throat, surprisingly, making it feel better. When she was finished with it she curled up on the floor. She wasn't sure she wanted to sleep again, but with what Praxis had said she wasn't sure if she would survive without sleep. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep again. If she thought today was bad, she had no idea that tomorrow would be the worst...

The rest of her night was spent in short patches of troubled sleep, and she usually woke to find her throat raspy. The first few times she looked through her cell bars to see Jak, but he was sleeping again. She figured that after being here for so long that he was used to prisoners screaming. After the first few times of waking up, she would just drink some water and then try to fall back asleep.

Once morning finally came, Kaida only knew that it was morning because of the loud bang as guards began opening the huge doors that were shut at night. The bang would have woken her up if it hadn't been for the fact that she was already awake.

She pulled one of the fruits that she had saved out of her pocket and began eating it. As some a couple of guards passed by her door she caught a snippet of their conversation. They were talking about how they had gotten up so early that the sun was only just rising as they arrived. She sighed.

Kaida had only been here for about 3 days and already she missed the sight of the sun. She sighed and waited for the sound of the two voices that would signal the start of her torture for the day. Not long after those thoughts had drifted through her mind, she heard the clunk of steel toed boots and heavy foot steps on the floor.

'After my torture I will not sulk around my cell all day. I will get up and move.' she promised herself. 'And' she added, 'I will give a couple of those guards a black eye and a bloody nose.'

She was trying hard not to admit to herself that she was afraid, afraid of what Erol and the Baron had said, afraid that she would be stuck here, afraid that she would never get home. Soon the tell-tale thud of several pairs of heavy boots noted to her that it was her turn to be 'worked on'. She did move even as the guards swung the door open. They came over and forcibly picked her up and dragged her out of the cell.

Once they were clear of the confined space she began to thrash. She yanked out the grasp of ne of the guards and swung her fist into his face. She felt the crunch as she smashed his nose. One guard grabbed her from behind, so she began to thrash harder, and her foot collided with the stomach of the guard next to her causing him to bend over. She swung her foot again, this time catching him in the face. She didn't know what she hit, all she knew was that it hurt him. She managed to smash two more guards before she felt the all too familiar smack of a gun butt connected with her head. She sank to the ground as she waited for her vision to clear. Two guards, who hadn't been injured, proceeded to drag her to the table. The familiar blinding light and cold metal feel greeted her as she was strapped down.

"We believe that we have found a way to make some changes to you." came the cold deep drawl of Baron Praxis,"But should this experiment fail, I am sure we can find another freak."

She tried to put on a brave face but simply the sound of Praxis or Erol's voice for some reason made her tremble. Probably because those voices meant pain and suffering. Some where off to the side the sound of Erol's quiet laughter pulled her out of her train of thought.

Even through the blinding light she could see the glow of the vile of dark eco that would soon be loaded into the machine. But the sound of the vile being loaded didn't come, instead she heard the unmistakable sound of a cell door being opened and the sound of a small scuffle. The series of sounds repeated themselves a few more times before the stomp of guard boots could be heard coming closer. The muffed sound of something being half dragged, half carried also came to her attention.

"Bring spare restraints." came the cynical voice of Erol. The guards dropped the thing against the side of the table and tied it with leather restraints. She craned her neck to try and see what they were doing, and caught a glint of metal as Erol moved towards the prone figure. She realized in a moment what they had been doing with the doors and prisoners; the metal thing was large needle and syringe. They had been collecting blood. But the syringe was only one third of the way filled, that meant that the person they had tied up would be filling it up.

The figure made a groan in pain as Erol stuck the needle in it's shoulder. She recognized the voice as Jak.

'B-but this didn't happen in the game...!" she cried in her head. 'What is going on?! Why is this happening?!'

When they had drawn enough blood, to her horror, Erol inserted the needle to the vile of dark eco and added blood to the mixture.

"We thought, since it'll be his turn next, we may as well bring him out here so he can hear you scream, and it makes it so much easier to collect the blood." She heard Praxis say, then came the familiar click of the vile being loaded. She took a deep breath ready to curse him, but the machine had started and all that came out was an incoherent scream.

The pain was different this time. It seemed almost like she could feel the cumulative pain of the victims who's blood was now twisting in her body. It was unbelievable, and indescribable, and to Kaida it felt like it went on forever. When it was over and they unbuckled her she simply slipped to the floor, she couldn't have stopped herself if she tried. As they had before, the guards simply picked her up and dragged her to her cell. As they towed her away she managed to roll her head to the side to see who the poor unfortunate person was next on the table, and who's blood they had taken the most of. If she had the strength to be slightly shocked she would have been.

Jak was slumped against the table glaring death at the guards around. She let her neck relax and shut her eyes. She was taken back to her cell as normal as usual and put her in.

Once there, her body lay slack in the room. She had said that she wouldn't just sit there all day and sulk, but the truth was; even if she wanted to move her body was to weak to move at the moment. She heard sometime later, she had no idea how long, the sounds of Jak screaming, then the thud of his body being put back into his cell. Later she could hear the sounds of the guards bringing food and water, and only for this did she move. The guards opened the door and she sat up and glared at them. She gave them such a glare that there came no rude comments today, they just put her food down and left. She moved towards her food like a hungry animal and ate quickly. The night before she had not eaten much in her depression.

Once she had devoured the nasty meal she slumped against the side of the cell and stared up at the ceiling. Her vision was a little out of focus but she figured that was from not blinking for a while. Sometime later she heard a shuffling from Jak's cell, and she got the feeling that someone was looking at her, so she glanced up at her window, to see Jak looking through the bars at her. They both remained silent for a few moments. Kaida noticed that he seemed to have a sad, almost apologetic look in his eyes. She unconsciously tilted her head slightly while wondering what could cause him to have such a look in his eyes.

"I am sorry." He stated simply. His voice was deep like she had heard it on the game, but now it sounded grated and raspy from lack of use, except for screaming. 'For what?' she wondered. She voiced her opinion while still remaining on the floor looking at him.

"For my blood in the eco." even thought the sentence was short, it still sounded as if it hurt to speak. She gave a small smile and a shrug, "Its not your fault." He smiled slightly back, and nodded. He soon disappeared from the cell window and she shut her eyes hoping to get some sleep.

Sorry it took so long to update this time. the reason is that a few weeks ago I broke a few fingers, so typing became very difficult. I am hoping to now be able to update faster. Thank you for all your patience! Mavericksoldier