Chapter Two:

Sweet Freedom

Jak tried desperately to regain control of his breathing. He lay out fully on the floor, the steel was cool and brought relief to his burning skin. His breath came in trembling gasps. Jak brought his hands to his face, wiping the sweat from his forehead. The shock still ripped through his mind. What he had become terrified him beyond words. He tried unsuccessfully to keep his hands from shaking.

The Baron had gotten his wish. He had created a monstrous man to lead the Krimson Guard into battle against the Metal Head armies. And once he discovered his experiment was a success he would continue on more innocent people. Perhaps even exhausting the entire populace of Haven City with his mad lust for an undefeatable army.

The Baron made Jak sick to his stomach. How could someone do that to his or her own people? It made him sick, sick and angry…

Jak had finally regained his breath. He got to his feet, gritting his teeth at the pain, and went to his cell door. He couldn't help but notice that he was getting quite good at shrugging off soreness. Understandable, considering all the pain he was forced to endure.

He looked out into the Eco Injection Chamber to be meet with the deep brown eyes of his fellow prisoner. Erin was holding on to the small bars to her door, her eyes showed that she was worried for him.

"Are you alright?"

Her voice echoed the concern in her eyes.

His heart raced, he didn't know what to say. What was he supposed to say? How could he explain what happened to him? And if he did, how would she react? She would most likely be terrified, but he couldn't blame her if she was. He was terrified, how could he expect her not to be? She might even completely avoid him because of her fear.

His heart ached at the thought of losing the only semblance of a friend he had. So Jak was selfish and held the whole truth from her.

"I had another nightmare." He prayed that was explanation enough for her.

"Another? You've had them before?"

Jak had never liked the idea of showing weakness to anybody. But because they had seen each other in terrible pain many times over the two months she had been here, he felt like they had a small bond, or understanding of each other, so he told her a little about the nightmares.

"Yeah, they started about four months ago."

Erin nodded her head softly, sadly. She still had her eyes on him. She was still worried about him, but she didn't push questions that he didn't wish to go into detail about. His heart thanked her for that.

Jak's heart gave a sudden jump. Erin was well on her way to becoming the same as him, an uncontrollable monster that emerged from within to unleash a wrath of destruction. His dreams seemed to have heralded this change in him. His nightmares hadn't started until he was in prison for about eight months. He hadn't changed until about six months after the dreams started, but would it be different for her? Would her body take differently to the dark eco? Had her nightmares started already? Jak knew that he could ask, but he didn't wish to worry her more than he needed to.

Suddenly the lights flashed on. Jak and Erin each pulled their heads back into their dark cells instinctively. Erol's boots gave a clatter that announced his arrival. His two guards were two steps behind. Erol had made the experiments into clockwork over the past few months. Erol went to the machine as the guards went for Jak, as they did every day.

The guards had long ago given up trying to drag Jak to the machine with their bare hands. Instead they shot blindly into his cell until an electrical bolt from their guns stunned him and then they would drag him to the machine, Jak being unable to fight back. Jak dodged a few gun charges before they had managed to sedate him. Within minutes they had him secured on that horrid table.

After all this time Erol had even gotten sick of tormenting Jak with insults, ironies, etc. He was behind the controls and setting the parameters for the machine. The machine whirred and hummed as it always did. It lowered down to above Jak's chest at Erol's command from the controls. Jak had a fleeting thought, would he change back into that monster if he touched the dark eco?

The machine started to power-up but then lost momentum. Erol's hated laugh cut across the buzzing from the machine.

"By the way, the Baron has decided to up your dosage again."

Jak's eyes shot to the capsules hanging above him. And sure enough there was an extra one, which added up to nine total. Jak looked at Erol and was meet with his malevolent grin.

"I'm surprised that he entrusts a dimwit such as yourself with such a job." Jak couldn't seem to hold his tongue, but he sure didn't regret saying it at his reaction.

Erol's grin disappeared instantly at Jak's comment, which gave Jak a small amount of satisfaction. Jak could see the fire ignite in Erol's eyes as he rounded the control panel towards his restrained body. Erol's hand grabbed a handful of Jak's blonde-green hair and tore his head from resting on the table. A vicious snarl was plastered across his face. Ohhh…if looks could kill…

A fake-pleasant grin slowly covered Erol's face, but Jak could still see the enraged look plainly in his eyes.

"What a surprise… you can talk," Erol seemed to be fighting for control of his voice. "I was under the impression that you were brainless."

Erol's attempt to bait him just made Jak laugh, which in turn made Erol livid.

Erol used Jak's hair to slam his head back on the table. Then he turned and made his way back to the controls.

While watching Erol's path Jak noticed that Erin was looking out of her cell at him. The black steel bars framed her sad face. They made her skin look unnaturally pale as he looked at her. What would the Baron do to them when he found out about the changing? Jak didn't know and he didn't want to find out. As the machine powered up he swore he would do anything he could to prevent the Baron from finding out, to save him and Erin from what Praxis had planed for them. Anything…

The purple-tinted electricity tore through Jak's body, but this time he could feel the strange anger grow inside. It felt as if some monster was trying to rip through his skin, trying feverishly to escape the prison that was his body. Jak clenched his teeth, trying to keep the darkness inside him under control. The monster inside thrashed at his senses. It was then that Jak had to make a decision, would he hold on to his pride and not give Erol the satisfaction of hearing him scream? Or would he save himself and Erin from further, perhaps even worse, experiments from the Baron?

Jak used what little control he had over his body and glanced at Erin's cell. She was still watching him. Her hand was over her mouth holding back sobs, her cheeks wet from tears. She was so scared, who else would save her? Or even could save her?

He turned back to the unholy machine above him that was still pumping energy into him. He had to face his enemy. He had made his decision.

Jak through up mental defenses that shut out the physical world, he blocked out everything, the pain, even the light in his eyes. He concentrated his entire mind on keeping the darkness held up inside. He refused to let it out; there was no other option. He gave himself no other option. He wasn't aware of anything outside his body. He had left his body to react on instinct, and the body's instinctive reaction to pain is to yell.

And he did yell, his screams echoed in the room, seeming to magnify them. He wasn't aware that he had broken his vow of silence…

Erin quickly turned her back on the horrors occurring in the adjacent room. Jak's screams had pushed her to the limit that she could take. Her sobs came, there seemed to be nothing she could do to prevent them. She leaned her back to the door for support. His screams cut through her, had she sounded like that? She could never really recall screaming, she could only remember the pain.

Her legs didn't seem to want to hold her anymore. She slid along the steel door to the floor. She was an emotional mess and she hated herself for it. Why couldn't she be stronger? She wished wistfully that she were stronger; she had to be strong if she was going to get out of this prison. She brought her knees up and rested her face on them and wrapped her arms around her legs, hoping that it would muffle her crying.

Erin had thought that she had had it easier than Jak up until this point. She had never had to hear the screams of others. It was just Jak and she. Jak had never screamed…until now. And his yells terrified her. He had seemed so strong, and now he was just over a year of being experimented on and he had given up.

Well…it seemed like he had given up to her.

Every hope she had of getting out of the prison vanished. Jak had been here a lot longer than her, he had told her in the few short conversations that they had. He had now given up hope. So what hope was left?

She cried even more desperately into her knees. She knew now that she was going to die in this place. There wasn't any hope and she was crushed by the reality of it. Dieing wouldn't be so bad, but there was so much she would never get to experience. She would never get married; maybe have a family when she was older. She was sixteen and she had never been kissed. She sobbed even more emotionally into her legs. She didn't know many girls her age that had never been kissed. She had never met anyone that she had wanted to kiss. She had seen her friends with boyfriends, but she was always alone, she was always too shy. Now she wished that she had followed her mothers advise. 'Live life to the fullest, because it is too short.' It looked as if she would never get the chance, her life wouldn't last much longer…

Her sobs were masked by Jak's screams.

Erin's life did last. She held on to her life for months. Through every dark eco injection and through all of Jak's screams, she held on. Her life was all that she had that was valuable to her, the only thing she had left to hold on to.

Eight months later…

The Baron has Erin exposed to eight dark eco capsules per cycle, Jak is at ten now. Erin's nightmares have just started in the last month or so…she wakes up crying after the horrifying visions. Jak can hear her crying, but can't offer any comfort.

Erin has been in the Baron's prison for ten months, just shy of a year. Jak has been is prison just under two years now, the Baron is getting irritated that his experiments are failing, or so he thinks. Jak had held on for the last eight months, Erol had no inclination that Jak has been changing. Somehow Jak manages to hold his demon inside, until the late hours of the night when he needs to release the dark eco that has built up inside him, so he can prepare for the next days dark eco injection. He also managed to keep his secret from Erin.

She is terrified that the dark eco is having an appalling effect on Jak because he beats viciously on the walls of his cell at night.

But on this day Jak was in for a change of procedure. The Baron's patience was at an end. Today he has decided to oversee the injections personally. Time to make, or break, his plans…

Jak was strapped to the holding table as Erol and the Baron discussed him as if he wasn't there. Jak's two most hated enemies were here in the very same room, so close to him, but he couldn't get to them. Many nights Jak had dreamt of his hands around each of their throats, watching as the life left their bodies. They didn't deserve to live. They had killed dozens of their own people in the worst way possible and felt no remorse for their actions. They had turned him into a monster, and Erin was starting on the path to becoming one. No, they didn't deserve to live…

"Up the dosage," the Barons' voice cut through Jak's thoughts of revenge.

Erol was only too happy to answer to the Barons' orders. He glowered at Jak as he loaded the capsules into the machine. Jak mentally counted as they slid into place.

One…two…

"What if nothing happens?"

…Five…

Erol seemed unsure that the upped dosage would make a difference.

Seven…eight…

"First we will see what happens," Praxis answered.

Eleven…

Erol just nodded.

Thirteen…fourteen.

Erol slid the last capsule into place.

Fifteen.

Fifteen. The total was five more capsules than he had previously been exposed to. The capsule gave a final thud as it hit the other capsules that were aligned in the machine. Jak was terrified that he couldn't hold in his dark side for that long. Then the last eight months of fighting it would have been in vain…

Jak gathered up his strength and pride, he would need them both if he was going to get through this injection. Jak set up his mental barriers as the machine powered-up.

It seemed like hours he was under the lights of the holding table. Each capsule brought the pain he was accustomed to. But the length of the treatment strained on his mental barriors. By the last capsule he was at the end of his strength, he was terrified that at any moment his dark side would emerge—

"Dark eco injection cycle complete, Bio reading nominal and unchanged."

His relief had come, but Erol and Praxis were still in the room. He knew he couldn't hold on much longer.

Jak heard the Baron give a snort of suppressed anger. "Nothing… I was informed that this one might be different."

"He is surprisingly resistant to your…experiments Baron Praxis." Erol's irritating voice cut through Jak's delirium. "But I'm afraid that the Dark Warrior Program has failed…"

The Baron turned to Jak in his anger. "You should at least be dead with all the dark eco I've pumped into you!" He grabbed Jak's raggedy shirt and pulled him slightly from the table, as if it was Jak's fault the experiments had 'failed'.

Praxis let Jak fall back onto the table in a dismissive gesture.

"What now? Metal Head armies are pressing their attacks, without a new weapon my men can't hold them off forever!"

The Baron had his back to Erol. He seemed to be looking past the walls as he thought.

"I will NOT be remembered as the man who lost this city to those vile creatures!" He turned back to Erol. "Move forward with the final plan. And finish this…" He gestured at Jak, "…thing off tonight."

Erol nodded, "As you wish, but what about the girl?"

"I don't care! You can have her, kill her for all I care, just keep her out of the way!"

The Baron then turned and left the chamber, tailing behind were Erol's two guards.

Once they had left the chamber Erol turned to Jak.

"I'll be back later! For you…and the girl." His merciless laugh echoed through the room until he had exited.

Jak felt like he could sleep for years, or maybe even just lie down and die. He was so exhausted that he didn't even think of revenge at Erol's harsh, uncaring words. He just wanted to fall into a dark hole.

Jak lie there in silence, was he ever going to get out of this damned prison? It seemed a lifetime since he had seen the sun, felt a cool breeze, or even had a decent meal.

Abruptly Jak became aware of a voice near by. At first he thought that he had just gone crazy.

"Ding dong… third floor…body chains… roach food… torture devises…"

A small orange creature appeared on his chest.

"Hey buddy, you seen any heroes around here?" The Ottsel finally took a look at Jak. "Whoa! What did they do to you? Jak?" A small amount of concern filled Daxter's voice when he didn't respond in any way. "It's me, Daxter…"

Jak was too drained to give a response.

"Well that's a fine hello!" Daxter was just about to keep rambling on when a voice cut across his.

"There's a switch to the arm and leg binds on that control panel."

Daxter jerked his head to the voice.

Erin was pointing at a nearby panel.

Dax didn't give up any opportunity to 'woo' any young lady in any situation, and this was no exception…

"Why, milady!" His orange, furry head dipped in a bow and then he plopped on the floor in her direction. He continued to walk closer to her cell as he talked in a 'medieval court' voice. "Allow me, Sir Daxter, to rescue you from your peril!" His arms flailed comically to emphasize his words.

Erin shook her head dubiously, this orange…rat...couldn't be serious. They were in a highly dangerous situation, and he had the audacity to use the time they could be escaping to flirt with her!

"Of all the—" Erin stopped in mid sentence. It was then that she noticed there was something wrong with Jak, very wrong.

Jak thrashed against the restraints, a small yelp escaped his lips. He couldn't hold it back any longer…

Jak's back arched as his muscles grew within seconds. His skin pale against the sudden blackness his eyes had taken.

Erin flinched in fear as a vicious growl erupted from his lips. By the Precursors, what happened to him?

Jak was fighting fully against the irons around his wrists and ankles. His snarl grew even angrier until the final satisfying snap filled the air. He was free. Erin found that to be one of the most terrifying aspects in her life. That…thing was free, and it wasn't Jak anymore…

And it was heading strait for her cell.

Small purple volts touched anything that came near as he headed for her cell. Daxter was just on the other side of her door trying to talk sense into the Dark Jak.

"Jak? Easy now. Easy, buddy. It's your old pal Daxter, remember?"

He had proceeded his way until he was hovering just above Daxter. Daxter gradually retreated as Jak approached him until his back was pressed up against the cell door. Jak had his clawed hand raised, about to deal death to one of his best friends…

Suddenly the darkness receded in Jak's eyes, his skin returned to normal. His claws and horns disappeared.

Jak dropped to one knee, totally exhausted. And totally disgusted at what he had become. He had just about killed his best friend, that truth haunted him.

Jak couldn't force himself to look into Daxter's, or Erin's, eyes.

"What the heck was that? Sheesh…Remind me not to piss you off." Jak was slightly comforted that the last two years hadn't changed Daxter's attitude any. But he was still wary to see Erin's reaction, now that she knew what he was.

Jak solemnly reached for the release for her cell. His palm rested over the button. He took a deep breath and pressed.

The door slid up, no longer a barrier between them. Then Jak tore his gaze from the uninteresting floor, he made himself look at her.

Erin jumped back from the empty door in blind fear as she stared at him.

"Why…why didn't you tell me?" Her voice was shuddering.

Jak turned his back to her accusing eyes. "I didn't know how to tell you…" was all he could say.

She obviously thought him a monster, he was a monster, but how could he explain that it only happened after continued exposure to dark eco? He felt almost completely normal after he drained the dark eco from his system. But would she ever believe him? Could she ever—?

Jak was surprised to feel a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to meet Erin's piercing gaze. She seemed to be reading him, looking for an answer in his eyes. Would she find a satisfactory answer?

She continued to search. She finally broke the silence, "It is you, isn't it?"

Jak's heart took flight with hope; she was giving him a second chance.

"I'll explain everything…I promise."

She just nodded her head and dropped her hand from his shoulder. This discussion would have to wait for later. They were in the middle of a prison break after all…

They both turned and looked expectantly at Daxter, who seemed positively thrilled that all attention had returned to him. "Follow me…!"

He jogged down between two rows of cells, and pointed.

Erin and Jak both shook their heads, "You've got to be joking…"

Erin and Jak were both crammed into a small air duct, while Daxter trotted along comfortably leading the way. Jak could hardly lift his head without hitting the roof of the small tunnel, while Daxter could walk at full height. Apparently being short has some advantages.

It took a lot of effort just to move because of the cramped space. Jak continued to scuttle along, Erin right behind him. Their ears were scraping along the sides of the tight tunnel, their abdomens getting pulled along the floor. Crawling through the tunnel was tiring work.

They both were getting irritated at Daxter, did he even know were he was going? He seemed to randomly choose a direction in the maze of tunnels. Jak thought that they had wasted enough time.

"Dax, do you—"

A high blaring siren filled all of their ears; they all covered their ears as it screeched, echoing in the channels. Apparently someone had noticed their absence, or they were near the outside world.

Jak looked to Dax for an answer. Dax seemed to be yelling to Jak, but he couldn't hear him over the incessant alarm. Dax just waved for them to follow and continued to lead the way.

Jak scrambled around the corner after him, which led him into a dead drop. Jak fell about ten feet and his back slammed into the tunnel as it abruptly changed direction again.

"DAX!" Jak could hear himself again, the siren was farther away now.

Jak turned back over to his stomach, but Dax was nowhere to be found. When I find him…

All thoughts of payback were lost as he noticed a smell, one of the most wonderful smells he could imagine…fresh air. Jak crawled the last few feet to a small faceplate that was between him and his freedom. He pushed up the bars and breathed in the sweet air. After two years of living in a box filled with stagnant air, you miss the things you took advantage of, or appreciate what you thought you would never be without.

Jak heard the thump as Erin fell in behind him.

"Damn it!"

Her cursing seemed quite comical considering he had never heard her cuss, even through her entire time in prison. Jak couldn't help but laugh, they were practically free by now, and he was feeling optimistic for the first time in two years. Jak looked down to the inviting dirt of freedom, it was about three feet away. Dax was waiting as patiently as he was able, which wasn't much.

Jak lowered himself from the tube until his hands rested on the reassuring ground and pulled himself out. Erin climbed out right after him.

Sweet, sweet freedom!

This was no time to risk it; they had been free for less than a minute. Jak looked over the area they were in. They appeared to have come out in a dead end alley that was in a poor state. Not a soul was around, definitely a plus. Jak knew they had to move quickly. It was just a matter of time until they had Guards after them.

Jak lead the way to the only exit to the alley. When they turned the corner they saw a huge metropolis, zoomers were everywhere. Many civilians living their normal lives. Jak had no idea where to head.

He turned to Erin, "Do you know where we are?"

Erin seemed amazed by the number of zoomers flying above them. It took her a minute to even understand what he had said. Erin didn't even look at him; she just shook her head negatively.

Jak was mystified by her answer. From what he gathered from the guards in the prison over the last two years was that they were in Haven City. A huge deadly desert guarded the city's flank, while it faced into the sea. All communication between the other cities had been cut by the Baron when he had taken control many years ago. Transportation to a neighboring city was suicide due to the growth of the Metal Head armies. The far spaced cities had been cut from each other for about twenty years. If she wasn't from Haven City, then where did she come from?

Authors notes: Well that was the second chapter, I would have posted it sooner but I had Semester tests last week and a fifteen page report I was worried about. Next chapter soon...

If anyone is interested to see what Erin looks like, I had a good friend of mine draw up what she thought that she looks like. Just go to my profile page and click on the link in my story notes to see it, it is SWEET!