Chapter 2
Prison Life

High-Security Prisoner #0074 – 02D 21h 57m

Slowly, light started to come through. Alexander blinked once, and then shut his eyes and groaned. His vision was blurry for the moment, so all he could see was bright light. With his sense of sight disabled for the moment, his other senses started to kick in. Specifically, his sense of touch.

Alex winced, and flexed his hands a little bit. The movement of muscle only brought him more pain, and he let out a little shout. The Shock-cuffs that were stabbing into his wrists made movement painful. Now that he could feel it a bit more, Alex could guess that the flesh around the blades were a little tender from the shocking – only slightly more so than the rest of his body.

Rise and shine, buddy.

Alex opened his eyes slightly and rolled them. This was not the time to rise and shine. He was almost completely physically incapable of doing that.

Ah, c'mon. It's not like you were brought to the brink of death or anything. Joumae paused a little, and then said, If you must know, you've been out for about a day since you were last shocked. It's about... say, nine or ten in the evening by now.

Alexander nodded, and thought about getting up to look around. Joumae caught the thought and quickly stated, Oh, no you don't. You need those wounds in your wrists to heal first. ...Those Shock-cuffs are clever; they stabbed in positions where the muscle would be able to heal around it. But it'll take a while. So I suggest using your hands as little as possible, or else it'll take longer and with more pain.

The boy winced, but then looked around at his surroundings with his head. All there was to see was a small stone room with a thick metal door to one side. He was currently settled down on a stone cot sticking out of the wall. He sighed and looked back up at the ceiling, and at the single covered lamp that supplied the light in the room.

But then, all of a sudden, the light went out. There had been no flickering or anything – the light had simply been turned off. Hmm, must be lights-out at ten around here.

Alexander became determined to move now, and he started with his legs. He could feel that they were a bit sore, but that was alright. But his torso and arms had to follow, and pain shooting through his hands and wrists accompanied the movement as the blades of the Shock-cuffs dug slightly further into his flesh.

Gah, thanks for ignoring my advice. I appreciate it. ...Hey, don't give me that! I kinda hafta care about your well-being, y'know. If you die, I die too! And there's plenty of opportunities for you to get yourself killed in this place, believe me.

At last, Alexander was sitting upright on the cot. He groaned as he got to his feet, which immediately sent sensations of cold and unevenness to his brain. But these were consciously ignored, and Alex walked over to the door of his cell. There was a tiny barred window in the higher part of the door, and Alex looked through it.

Beyond his cell door, there was a large dark room. Along the sides were more cells just like his own, and he could see that each cell had a keypad mechanism on the walls in front of them. There was a large steel double-door on the right side of the room.

And in the center of the room was a platform... in the middle of a deep pit. There was a thin bridge with no handlebars heading to the platform, but the platform itself contained what looked like a torture chair of some sort with a gigantic conic machine dangling above it, which pointed sickly-looking tools at the chair.

Alex recognized this place. This was the section of the prison that was in the first scene of the game! He immediately reasoned that this must be a higher-security prison, and that the one he was in had to be really low security. Apparently, he'd been seen as enough of a threat that...

Suddenly, the large door to the right slowly began to slide open, grabbing Alexander's attention. As soon as the door was open, he watched as Erol stepped in through to the large chamber. Right behind him were two Krimzon Guards, carrying a long-eared, unrecognizable person between them. And right behind them was a large, heavy-armored man with a thick mustache, a goatee, and a metal-plated cap enveloping his entire cranium and covering his right eye. There was also a sword at his belt, which his hand seemed to stray to from time to time.

Ah, Baron Praxis in person, huh?

The five people quickly crossed the bridge over to the morbid platform, and the two KGs strapped the stranger to the chair with metal binds around the wrists and ankles. The man remained unconscious. Erol and the Baron stood to the side, and one of the guards walked down a short flight of stairs nearby to a little side platform that had a control interface.

The guard pressed a series of buttons. An automated female voice calmly stated, "Commencing Dark Eco injection cycle." All of a sudden, violet electric energy shot out of the instruments hanging above the chair and into the stranger. The man was immediately brought to consciousness, beginning to scream in agony and thrash against his bonds to no avail. All of the others remained silent as this treatment wore on for a couple of minutes.

Alex couldn't tear his eyes off it. As horrible as it was, it was so frightening that he couldn't summon the willpower to look away. Finally, the man's screams were layered on by a sickening gurgling sound, and the cries soon ceased altogether. Only the sound of the man's thrashing body remained.

"Cut it off," Praxis growled.

The guard at the controls pressed another button. The violet energy disappeared, and the man's body finally fell limp. "Dark Eco injection cycle canceled. Bio readings indicate subject termination."

Erol sighed. "Another one... Alright, just dump him out somewhere." As the Krimzon Guards began to remove the dead man from the chair, Erol looked up at the Baron and said, "So far, the Dark Warrior Program doesn't have a whole lot of success, sir."

Praxis scowled. "Hmph. Ask me if I'm surprised." He paused as the Krimzon Guards took the man away, and then said, "But we still have one subject left for today."

Erol's dismay vanished. "Ah, yes," he agreed. "I've been looking forward to this."

As the Krimzon Guards carried out the dead man through the door leading out of the chamber, another pair of guards walked in carrying another unconscious prisoner.

It was Jak!

Alexander's breath caught in his throat, and he suddenly began to feel disoriented. Watching a man die and seeing the protagonist get dragged to torture was beginning to be too much for his weakened mind and body. Slowly, he managed to turn away and start walking back to his cot.

But he blacked out before he got there.

Sissy.

08D 12h 01m

Life in solitary confinement was rough, to put it nicely. Every day was spent doing hardly anything but sitting around, slowly going insane. At the proper times, a Krimzon Guard would open the door and bring in a small tray of... stuff that was supposed to be consumed, along with some water. But then the doors would close again, and it was back to the silence. Fortunately, after some searching, he'd found a hidden bathroom behind a secret section of the cell wall.

Alex had tried escaping during one of those mealtimes by rushing the guard. But he hadn't made it four feet beyond the door before someone sent out the signal to activate the Shock-cuffs. They denied him lunch and dinner that day, but Alex had been unconscious for most of it anyway.

Eating meals was difficult in the first place, on account that his hands wouldn't work too well. They hurt when he tried to move his hands, which was more often than he should've. But they slowly began to heal over the course of the week.

Most of the time he spent in that silence was passed by talking with Joumae. Usually it was just arguments and teasing, but sometimes they had interesting discussions. Today turned out to be one of those lucky days.

As soon as you get your hands back, we can start to make this place a little more comfortable for us. There's probably many, many cubic yards of simple earthen material all around us that you can transmute. At the very least, we could use a mattress!

Alex rolled over onto his side and muttered, "Not that it's easy to sleep anyway." The Baron went through several subjects for his Dark Warrior Program every night, and Jak was always on the roster. Everyone else just got horribly mutated, only to die the next night – if they didn't die the first time.

Well, I suppose it shows that you're already clinically insane. Or, at the very least, desensitized beyond belief. You're taking all this horrible stuff too well.

Alex mentally scoffed. The first two or three nights had been hell for him. He couldn't stand any of it. It was only after being in the same place for a whole week that he'd learned to try getting used to it. After all, at this rate, he would be spending another year, eleven months, and three weeks in the same spot.

The intruding sound of moving machinery broke into his thoughts, and Alex sat up from his cot to see his cell door opening up. And the sound was more intense than usual, so it almost seemed like all the other cells were opening too! This was strange, simply because it definitely wasn't mealtime yet. It was probably getting close, but...

Alexander stopped his thoughts short and focused on the Krimzon Guard that entered his cell. Gesturing with his rifle, the guard said, "On your feet, convict. Come with me."

Confused, Alex got up from the bed carefully – with little use of his arms – and followed the guard out of the cell. Looking around, he noticed some other people being similarly led out of the neighboring cells. He didn't recognize any of them.

Just before they were led out the door, Alex noticed that one cell had actually been left closed, and in there a green-haired individual could be seen watching their departure.

They were led by the guards into a wide, well-lit room with many long tables in it. The guards stopped in the center of the room and turned around to face the prisoners, who all stopped in place. Many of the prisoners - about twenty in all - began to form a line stretching across the room, and Alexander awkwardly filled in once he realized what was going on.

Alex looked around at the room. There was only one other exit to the side, and a couple more Krimzon Guards were stationed there. In the back, there seemed to be a... row of windows, with people standing on the other side of them. As one could imagine, this remedied his confusion no end.

"Alright," one of the guards growled through his helmet, "any newbies here?"

Alexander would've raised his hand if it weren't for the Shock-cuffs, so he simply stepped forward. He looked around, and a couple of other people in the line followed his example and stepped out as well. He looked up and down the line to view the rest of the people. To judge by appearance and height, he was the youngest one in the group.

The guard who asked nodded and gestured over to the left side of the far wall. "Line up there." Under fear of more torture, the prisoners - including Alexander - rushed over to the far side. Alex ended up first in line. As soon as they were done, the rest of the prisoners filed into the single file line behind them.

Alex found himself standing at the first window, and he was given a plate. With that small gesture, he instantly realized what was happening.

I'll be damned, Joumae remarked in his mind. It's a cafeteria! Ha!

Alexander moved down the line, and the people at the windows there placed food on his plate that was, at first glance, marginally better than the stuff that he'd been fed over the rest of the week. As soon as he'd moved down the line, he found a seat at a table on the far side of the room and spent a few moments watching the other people.

It was a rather sad sight. A great number of them were completely expressionless, following through their actions like mindless automatons. Even when they sat down and began to eat, they did so without hardly even looking at their food, and taking the exact same motions with each bite. And most of the rest, including all of his fellow newcomers to the high-security division, were looking scared and uncomfortable in everything they did.

Of course, you completely calmed down when you realized this was a cafeteria, didn't you? You have just enough experience in a similar place to follow along without worrying.

Alex broke away from his gaze on the long-eared prisoners and tried his best to ignore the stares at his relatively short ones. He then informed Joumae that schools and prisons were two very different things.

Hey, they're both institutions.

Alex sighed and finally looked down at his plate. There was some raw broccoli, a rather sloppy serving of mashed potatoes, and something that looked like a half-cooked steak. He'd also received a hefty glass of water with his meal. Oh well, at least you recognize it.

Alex took a bite of each. It tasted just like it looked; it was only marginally better than his regular meals. The difference was the taste versus bland.

He downed some of the water, and then decided to sit around for a while. There was no one else at his table, and he could guess why as he listened around at the few conversations. He was a natural eavesdropper, and he had to admit that school had given him some experience in this. Thoughts of home crept into his mind, but he shoved them away so that he wouldn't break down.

The talk was mostly about him, strangely enough. Mainly because of his ears, but there was also mention of the cuffs stabbing into his wrists. And the fact that he had two of them.

Hmm, so they're not unheard of... Joumae reasoned for him, but apparently they don't see why you'd need two of them. Rightly so, I guess, 'cause one would be enough on a normal guy.

Alexander pondered this. Why would Erol give a prisoner two Shock-cuffs for the first time in the prison's recent history?

I'll betcha anything a camera noticed all of the cells falling over. You should've taken that into account in your escape too, y'know. But possibly Erol suspects that you have special abilities, and gave ya the extra special treatment.

Alex clenched a hand into a fist, and immediately winced in pain. He would eventually try to use alchemy to get those cuffs off. But alchemy without a circle wouldn't be readily feasible unless he had perfect control of his hands, so he'd have to wait.

Suddenly, a voice called out, "Hey, short-ears!"

The boy looked over to the source of the voice: a middle-aged man sitting at the table on the opposite corner of the room with a bunch of other people. The man was gesturing for Alex to join him. Feeling suddenly awkward, Alex slowly grabbed his plate and weaved through the tables to go over there.

When he arrived, the man moved aside to allow him a seat, which Alex took. All of the other people at the table was looking intently at him, so Alex said, "Uh... so, what's up?"

A tall, lean man at the table grinned at him. "Just wanna get to know ya, kid. Start talkin'."

Alexander was confused for a moment, but he finally sighed and said, "Well, my name's Alexander. Alex for short." The others nodded but remained silent, so Alex rather awkwardly continued. "Er... I'm in here because... well, I tried to stop a, uh, friend of mine from getting arrested. Then I, well... led a prison break of an entire low-security cell block."

This surprised the others to varying degrees. A big, burly man with short, spiky hair at the other end of the table let out a low whistle. "Wow. So that's why they gotcha on two leashes. An entire block?"

Alex nodded. The same man nodded back and said, "Well, I'm Azelas. I broke out of low-sec by myself, and ended up takin' out a couple of guards on my way before they finally caught me."

A shorter man with a crew cut and a wide face smirked at him and said, "My name's Jinx. I was a demo man for some... well, influential people, but our friend in high places brought us in the instant my crew came to town. Our reputation had preceded us."

Alex held a straight face, but he did recognize this guy. He was in the main canon of the Jak and Daxter series, particularly in Jak 3.

Jinx scowled and looked around at the rest of the people. "See that guy over there?" he asked, pointing at a man sitting at a table behind Alex. The boy looked, and saw one of the guys that seemed lifeless and automatic. "He's the last guy who was on my team that's still livin'. Well, partially. He's movin', but not up top if you know what I mean."

Alexander gulped. Solitary confinement did nasty things to people.

The man who invited him over tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. Alex took in his appearance - a man of average build with brown eyes and blond hair of moderate length. He also had two silver earrings piercing his left pointed ear. "Balke. I... well, I kinda screwed up the delivery of an Eco shipment. Badly. So the Baron threw me in here."

Joumae expressed a small question at this, and Alex explained that the people of Haven City used generic Eco for power, rather than generating electricity. And during the events of the game, Eco was in a shortage, which was bad because they had to power the shield wall that kept monsters out of the city. So losing a lot of Eco was most likely worthy of being thrown into high-security prison so that you wouldn't screw up again.

The last man at the table was the tall, lean man. His eyes were different colors - one blue, one brown. He had short brown hair and a small goatee on his chin. "I'm Seth. I was once a member of the Underground - you know, the resistance movement. I got lucky; I was one of the first to get stuck here." He paused to deliberately leave Alex confused for a moment, and then added, "I hear these days the Baron doesn't even bother with throwing Underground agents in the slammer anymore."

Before Alex could elaborate, he felt something collide against his left side. He felt glass shatter on the impact, and suddenly he felt cold and in pain.

Someone had just thrown his glass of water at him.

Immediately, everyone's attention was on Alex. The boy looked down at his side, and saw that his tunic and a part of his pants was completely wet. But worse yet, some of the glass had stabbed into his tunic. He quickly pulled the two shards of glass that were embedded there. One of them came out with little pain; it had only gone as far as the threads. But the second left behind a fair amount of pain, and the feeling of an open wound. No flowing blood, but that wasn't allowed in a game universe.

Azelas and the others stood up and looked in the direction the projectile was thrown from. Alex looked over at him, and realized that Azelas also had a Shock-cuff on his left wrist. It had been obscured before because he'd been sitting on the other side of Balke.

Alex looked as well. An older man was standing up from the table to the side of him. At that table, the other newbies he'd stood in line with were holding back grins. The upright man had long brown hair and a full beard that was strangely tinged with green, and there was a crazy grin on his face.

Seth groaned and advanced on the man. "Dammit, Zach," he spat, "can't you stop harassing people for just one second!?"

The man called Zach glared back. "You seen this kid?" he shouted back, pointing at Alexander. "Them ears, it ain't natural! He doesn't even belong in this world, see?!" Desperately, he looked back to the other newbies and said, "Ain't I right, fellas?"

The young men at the table nodded awkwardly at first, but with steadily increasing vigor. Balke grimaced and whispered to Alex, "Looks like he's tried to gain some supporters. Zach's gone crazy lately with the higher security; he wants to kill anything that's out of place."

"And look!!" Zach screamed, pushing past Seth and grabbing one of Alex's wrists, causing Alex pain as the old man held it up. "He has not one, but two Shockers!! They want him to die, so why not just do it now?!"

Azelas quickly intervened, pulling Zach away from Alexander and arguing, "He's only a kid, Zach. Cut him some slack."

But the old man wouldn't have any of it. "Kill!" he insisted. "Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Alexander was horrified as the younger prisoners in the room began to chant, "Kill! Kill!" along with him. Just about everyone got up and pushed the tables and benches to the sides of the room. The Krimzon Guards in the room, bored for the past half hour, were now watching with eager intrigue. Everyone was forced out of their seats, and a ring of spectators was formed.

Alex just stood there, clutching his side as Zach and the three newbies stood on the other side of this makeshift arena that had been formed. Azelas, Jinx, Seth, and Balke were standing next to him. Azelas scowled and looked down at Alex. "They want to fight you to the death, kid. Don't worry, we'll take care of them for you."

The four men took places in front of Alex, who just watched for a few seconds. Then he said, "So... I'd have to kill them if I fight?"

"Don't worry about it," Jinx insisted as he got into a makeshift fighting stance. "No need to get your hands dirty, kid."

Alex shook his head, and removed his hand from his side. "No, no, I can... I can do this on my own. I want to end this myself."

Everyone looked at him as if he was stupid. "Are you crazy!?" Balke demanded in a hushed tone. "Can't you see that it's four on one here? You'd be dead in no time!"

But Azelas placed a large hand on his shoulder. "Hold it," he said. The group fell silent, and Azelas stared intensely at Alex for a few moments. Alex felt somewhat uncomfortable, but his resolve remained.

Finally, Azelas started walking toward the sidelines. "If things start getting messy, we're gonna come out and help you."

Seth gaped at Azelas for a moment, but then shut his mouth and joined him. Jinx shrugged and quickly followed suit. Balke looked back at Zach, and then said, "Good luck, kid."

Alex was left alone to face the group, while Joumae remarked, Okay... if you say so. But I wouldn't suggest throwing any punches. Your arms still need to heal, and they've already been under enough unusual stress for now.

As Alex stood up straight, he informed Joumae that he'd already taken that into account. Oh, so you were planning to take care of it that way? ...Well, just don't summon the Lockshield. The less we reveal in this fight, the better.

The boy closed his eyes for a moment, and took in a deep breath. He hoped he didn't need to kill someone today, but he'd destroyed someone once before. Someone very close to him. And he'd done it without an immediate qualm. Besides, this was self-preservation; no one else would let him out of this alive until they were dead.

Zach put on another crazy grin, and the whole group of four slowly advanced on Alexander. They took a few slow steps forward, and then suddenly rushed Alexander all at once.

Alex opened his eyes suddenly, held out a hand toward the attackers, and shouted, "Firaga!" A huge ring of flames suddenly encircled him, and the three newbies cried out as they found themselves in the middle of it. The flames burned them for a few seconds, and then dissipated. The three men, their clothes and skin scorched by the intense fire, collapsed right in front of Alexander.

Zach (and everyone else, for that matter) was wide-eyed. The chants of "Kill! Kill!" absolutely ceased, and a tangible silence filled the room. Then Zach began to tremble, and shakily took a few steps backward. "Y-You..."

Alexander started walking forward. Zach cried out in fear and moved back even further. The crowd on his side of the room shuffled out of the way as Zach found himself cornered against the wall. "P-Please... don't...!"

But Alex simply held out a hand to him and muttered, "Blizzaga." A large blast of ice crystals rammed into the old man's abdomen and froze there, pinning him to the wall and knocking him out for a second.

At that moment, some shouting came from the side entrance. "What's going on now!?" a gruff voice shouted from outside the crowd. People started getting pushed out of the way as someone apparently began to shove his way into the fighting area.

Alexander turned around to see a tall man shove through the crowd. He had brown hair in dreadlocks, and there were dark green tattoos all over his face not unlike Erol's. The man wore a lighter and darker color armor, and his face seemed to be permanently set in a scowl.

Alex's hand simply dropped. What the hell was Torn, of all people, doing here!?

Torn didn't look any less surprised. "What the hell...!?" he muttered, staring wide-eyed at the man held up by the huge block of ice. Slowly he walked toward it, and then suddenly noticed Alexander in just the right spot. "Huh? What the... Did you do this!?" he demanded, still flabbergasted by the phenomenon. "How...!?"

Alex thought for a moment, but then just shrugged. "Magic, to be honest. And he was threatening to kill me."

Torn was about to respond, but the spell chose that moment to wear off. The ice melted in almost an instant, drenching Zach's lower body, and he fell down into a large puddle of water. Torn sighed and looked down at him, then at the scorched newbies on the ground behind them. "Damn. Zach again, huh...?"

He looked down at Alexander. "I guess the description in the report was accurate. A freak." Torn then walked into the center of the room and spoke much louder, saying, "Listen up! I do not want to hear about any more of these death matches!! I don't like disposing bodies, so don't make me!" He then looked back to one of the entrances and barked, "Guards!"

The few guards there pushed their way to the inside of the group. "Er, yes Commander?" one of them asked meekly.

Torn folded his arms and scowled at them. "I was lucky I heard the chanting. It's a shame that I didn't get called in as soon as it started to happen."

The guards flinched. The one who spoke up said, after a moment, "...Sewer patrol?"

"Damn right, sewers," Torn growled. "You'll get your assignments next week."

At that moment, Zach quickly got up and lunged at Torn, grabbing the sharp, curved knife from the sheath strapped to Torn's back. The old man then swung around...

...but Torn managed to grab his hand just as it was about to drive the blade into Alex's chest. Torn then pushed Zach's hand back so that the old man was holding the blade against the side of his own neck. "Nice try, wise-ass," Torn muttered.

Zach snarled and struggled against Torn's grip. "Let go of me, ya bastard."

Torn smirked. "Only if you want me to." With that, he stopped giving resistance. The position of the blade being where it was, and the force Zach was pushing with being what it was, Torn effectively allowed the man to slice his own neck.

The Krimzon Guard Commander smoothly took the knife from the dying man's hand and placed it into his sheath. Zach dropped down to the ground and ceased to move. Torn looked over to the guards and ordered, "Take this trash out of here." Two of the guards picked up Zach and carried him out of the room.

Torn then surveyed the room once more. The three burnt prisoners were finally starting to come back around. "Alright, everyone," he said to the whole group of prisoners, "back to your cells in ten minutes. Clean this place up!"

With a strange efficiency, the tables and benches were soon back in their place, and the groups resumed to their usual places. Back at Alex's table, his new acquaintances were full of questions. He did his best to convince them that it really was magic, and it finally struck home when they could come up with no other plausible explanation.

"Does that explain your ears, buddy?" Azelas remarked.

"Huh?" Alex mumbled. He thought about how he should respond, but then said, "Well, not really... but it is a part of it."

"Alright!" Torn barked. "Back to your cells!"

The prisoners all got up and walked out the way they came in. Balke waved back at him as he went on ahead, shouting, "See ya next week!"

Trailing behind, as Alex passed Torn by the entrance, the KG Commander remarked, "Don't think your tricks went unnoticed." Alex gave the character a glance, but didn't say anything. He lightly held his side, waiting for his solitude so that he could cast Curaga on his wound.

For once, you follow my advice. I applaud you.

Disclaimer: Alexander, Joumae, the Lockshield, the overall concept of The Interference, and related concepts and characters are the intellectual property of Newbie-Spud. Kingdom Hearts, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Chrono Trigger and their characters and concepts belong to Square-Enix and its business partners. Jak and Daxter and related concepts and characters are the property of Naughty Dog, Inc.