Chapter 1: Prison Break!
Music: Polly by Nirvana

"Polly says her back hurts,
She's just as bored as me,
She caught me off my guard,
Amazes me the will of instinct"

Mood: Bored…
Disclaimer: Writers lie, just like your parents.

We were shot into a purple warp pit, and I was terrified. I was scared of what was behind us, and I was scared of what was in front of us.

Suddenly, the Rift Rider started to shake, and a bolt of blue light hit it, and it exploded. We were all launched in different directions, and I screamed. I felt a hand grab mine and looked up to see Jak looking at me.

I took a deep shuddering breath – which didn't feel too good in a warp tunnel - I may add – and looked around. Kiera and Samos weren't with us. Turning my head around, I saw them both branching off into a different tunnel.

"Maddy, Jak! Find yourselves!" I faintly heard Samos say as I watched in horror as the two disappeared.

I felt a subtle tug on my hand – Jak pulling me back - and realized I had been drifting off. The tunnel had been pulling me in a different direction. Then there was a tug in my navel pulling me to the right of the direction Jak and Daxter were going in. It got stronger, becoming almost unbearable to the point of pain. Jak seemed to realize what was happening and started pulling my hand harder, but it was slipping.

The pain in my navel had become excruciatingly strong, and I was debating on letting go of Jak's hand just to rid of it. Jak jerked my hand in his direction. I screeched, a sound lost the the tunnel. The pain was so intense I thought I was going to pass out. He gave me an apologetic look and yanked my hand again. The pain got worse, for a second. And then it was gone.

A let out a deep relieved sigh, but I had nothing to be sighing about.

We were about to go through the warp hole that would pull us into a different time. Suddenly, Jak pulled me so that I was in front of him with his back to the warp gate. I wondered what he was doing then I realized that he was shielding me – from what I don't know.

Then we landed on concrete and Jak's body took the brunt of the fall, and I heard him let out a light gasp.

I looked around in awe at the city we were now in; Haven City. It looked impressive but I knew just how badly it was run.

"Okay, I swear that's the last time I ever, EVER, touch any stupid Precursor crap!" Daxter said before I tuned him out. I looked at Jak and he seriously looked hurt. He took all that pain for me.

I heard approaching footsteps, but I ignored it, intent on Jak

I pulled Jak to his feet, ignoring whatever Daxter was saying. It could wait. I knew what to do, so I put my hand on Jak's chest and channeled Green Eco into his body. He had a green glow for a second, and then it was gone. This whole storing Eco thing was really nice.

I looked up, I had a feeling I was being watched. We were surrounded by soldiers dressed in red – Crimzon Guard – and Erol. I realized I should have listened to Daxter. I had been hoping to escape without them knowing I was a channeler, but by the way that they were looking at me, they had seen it.

"There's two of them. The Baron will be happy. Move in." Erol ordered. The KG stepped closer, packing the circle around us tighter.

"Step away from the animal!" One of the soldiers said. Daxter screamed and ran through Jak's legs and away from everything that was happening.

"Forget the rat!" Erol yelled, "The Baron wants him. And I'm sure he wants her." He leered at me and I shuddered.

Two soldiers brought their guns up, and before I could realize what they were doing they had smacked us both in the head. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Jak falling next to me, his blue eyes closing. I knew then that that was going to be the last time I would ever see those eyes. My own eye lids fluttered closed, but not before I heard Daxter yell, "Don't worry! I'll save you two before you know it!"

_Two Years Later _

Jak and I were once again on the two torturing devices and being injected with Eco. It was a pain beyond all pain, and it happened every day.

I had been right when I had thought I didn't want them to know I was a channeler. Ever since then they had been dragging us into this torture room and strapping us on to these devices and injecting us with so much Eco that our bodies couldn't take it.

You would think that Eco wouldn't hurt a body but when it's injected into your body continually – not just in small doses – it hurts. A lot.

Jak's cries of pain still gave me nightmares. The first night here was the worst. I had no idea what was going to happen. They had us strapped to these machines, and I knew what they were going to do to Jak, and I was assuming that they were going to inject me with Dark Eco also, but I was wrong. I wish I had been right.

At first they injected me with Blue Eco. I remember almost laughing at how stupid it was. Didn't they know I was a channeler? I could take in vast amounts of Eco.

That was before the burning began. After incessantly injecting the Eco into my body, I was fully charged with Blue Eco. That's about when you would step out of Blue Eco, right? No, they kept pumping it into my body for hours, and I couldn't take it. I was screaming my head off. It felt like the Blue Eco was eating away my insides, burning away everything it touched.

Then it stopped.

I could hear Jak's screams reverberating throughout the room, so I correctly assumed that they weren't done with me yet. I couldn't get the sound of Jak screaming out of my head. It was a horrible sound. It was completely animalistic, and full of pain. He sounded like he was dying. Over and over. It was a sound I would never forget.

They had given me a few seconds to relax before the Yellow Eco started. If I had thought that Blue was bad, I was very incorrect.

The Yellow Eco was more of a shock then a burn. Like lightning was zapping all over my body. Like I was being struck by lightning over and over. It was completely and utterly unbearable.

I was thrashing at the binding holding me down, but I couldn't move my head. It seemed that the device was focused on my head, but the rest of my body was getting it equally as bad.

I was completely convinced that if I looked down my body would be a pile of blackened ash.

This whole process went on with Red and Green Eco. Red had been like pulling at every limb I had, stretching me, peeling the muscles from my bones. They did Green last, and I was hoping it would not be as painful. I was wrong, again. It was like I was being stabbed over with tiny pins. It wasn't as much painful as it was uncomfortable. Then they took it up a notch. The pins turned into spikes, and I was positive that if I wasn't ash I would be full of holes.

I remember thinking I would be human Swiss cheese. I thought I was going insane.

I thought they were done. They weren't.

They started injecting me with all four Ecos at once, and I was thrashing so much that I broke the straps holding my head down. I looked at Jak first, and saw his face scrunched up in pain, and a purple aura around his body. Dark Eco. I was filled with so much worry for Jak right then that I completely forgot about the pain. My screams quieted and my thrashing stopped.

Then, Jak let out a scream and started thrashing about like I had been. It was completely horrifying to watch and I ashamedly turned my head to the left.

Baron and Erol seemed to take my silence as a confirmation that they weren't putting enough Eco in me, and they doubled it. I felt the pain twofold and screeched again, my body arching of the stone table high into the air.

That was a horrible experience that I would never want to live out again. Even though the pain was still the same now, maybe even worse, it wasn't as bad as the first night. I still couldn't not scream, or not move; I knew that this gave Erol immense satisfaction.

Once or twice when the pain had become minimal enough to think I had seen Erol looking at me, staring at my body as it arched up, my shirt riding up. It was disgusting.

Then I heard a computerized voice say, "Eco injection cycle complete. Bio readings nominal and unchanged"

"Hhhppp. Nothing! I was informed that this one might be different!" Praxis yelled. I had really come to hate this man.

"They are both surp-" I heard before I blacked out. The pain was unbearable.

It wasn't really a black out, it was more like drifting in and out of consciousness. I heard different snippets of conversation from the two men. I didn't know if Jak was awake or not.

I heard, "-Program has failed."

"-Be dead with all the Eco-"

"- Metal Head Armies are-"

"-Finish these 'things' off tonight." That was about when I came back into full consciousness. I let my eye lids open just a tiny bit. Just enough for me to see what was going on, but not for them to know I was awake.

"As you wish," I heard Erol say. I minutely turned my head and saw Erol lean towards Jak, "I'll be back later." I saw Jak's eye lids open and close, so I knew that he was awake.

The two started walking away, and just as soon as they were out of hearing range, I heard a voice that I hadn't heard in two years say, "Ding, ding... Third floor... Body chains, roach food, torture devices."

If I had had the strength I would have screamed in joy. As I was in my present condition, I couldn't even squeak.

Daxter jumped onto Jak, and said, "Hey buddy! Seen any heroes around here?" He looked around and saw me, and then looked at Jak. "WHOA! What'd they do to you two?" He looks around and then jumps towards me. He landed squarely on my chest, and the small amount of pressure was enough for me to have to close my eyes, which had barely been open anyway. "Maddy. It's me, Daxter." He whined.

I let my eyelids open a little bit, but I flinched when I noticed how close he was. It was surprising.

He jumped over to Jak, "Jak! It's me. Come on." Jak's eyes fluttered open. He looked at Daxter for a second, and then closed his eyes again.

"Well that's a fine hello. I've been crawling around in this place, risking my tail – literally," he held up his tail. Just then, he jumped off of Jak and onto me. I noticed that when he jumped Jak flinched. It seems he was in as much pain as me. I hadn't actually talked to Jak in the two years we had been here. We had both been put into separate cells and dragged in and out of this horrific room at different times.

"Maddy! You can talk! Come on!" He jumped off of me; using my stomach as a spring, and Precursors did it hurt. "Jak! Please, talk. Just this once." Daxter said desperately. "Maddy, Jak, please say something!"

"I'm going to kill Praxis." Jak and I both said it at the same time.

"Shhhhhh!" Daxter said, covering Jak's mouth. "Right now we gotta get you two out of here!" Then I felt it coming. The Power Surges that came along with being in the program. It was immense evil building in me, and to let it out - I let a monster out. So far they had prevented these from happening but there was no one to stop me now. I was thrilled but scared.

My breathing became heavier, and I felt Daxter jump over to my chair, "Just let me figure out how to open the security locks to your chairs… soo" he was cut off by my snarl and Jak's growl. This was not going to turn out well.

I saw sparks of coloured Eco shoot off of me and I saw Jak with Dark Eco surrounding him He was a truly scary sight, he had paled considerably, and his dark blond hair had turned gray. His eyes had turned all black, and his nails turned into long black claws. There was Dark Eco shooting off of him. If that's what he looked like, I couldn't even begin to imagine what I looked like.

I lost all conscious thought then, just letting the monster in me takeover.

"Or, Ahhh, you two could do it." Who is this? Why is he here? "Jak?" The little orange rodent asked, "Maddy?" How does he know my name? Who is he? "Easy guys. Easy. It's your old pal, Daxter, remember?" The name rang a bell, but I still didn't know who it was.

I snarled and the man next to me growled. I should be scared of him, but I can tell he's on my side. He has no idea who this rodent is either. He, like me, has one command- to kill.

'Daxter' started backing up like he was scared. I came to a halt in my advances, noticing that Jak did, too. Wait, Jak… Who's Jak? Memories assaulted me, we were sitting on the roof of a hutt, we were fighting snakes, riding a Zoomer, fighting a monster, taking a ride through the Warp Gate.

I felt all the Eco drain from me, all the evil leave, and I was me again. I was Maddy.

I gasped. I had almost hurt Daxter. What had come over me? I hung my head in shame, letting my dull, matted hair hang in front of my face.

"Daxter?" Jak questioned, and I watched the evil leave from him. Daxter, noticing I was looking at Jak tore his eyes away from my now normal ones to looks at his buddy. Jak's claws retracted in, his skin gained colour – as did his hair – and his eyes returned to normal. Well, not normal. His eyes will never be the same again. His eyes now were a deep indigo, full of hate and spite. I wondered briefly what my eyes looked like

"What the heck was that? Sheesh. Remind me not to piss you two off." He paused and looked both of us over. I could only imagine what the two of us must look like. "Come one tall, dark, and gruesome, and uhh . . . short, dark, and gruesome. Let's get out of here.

A/N: Hullo, here's chapter one :D Enjoy, and let me hear your thoughts, lovelies.

xMonster