A/N: AND I'M BACK! Sorry, I did mean to write this earlier but tiredness and going out (a LOT prevailed). Also thanks to JKA for finally reviewing and thus unleashing this chapter ;P kidding, hun, I know you've been ill :) anyway! Read, review or no Chapter 14. And trust me, you WILL want Chapter 14...well, if you're into that kind of stuff. ;) ~ Mika
Jak sat back and narrowed his eyes whilst what Keira had just told him fed into his brain, which in turn tried to process it.
"Things...escalated from there," Keira tried to explain, her voice weak, her shoulders dropping. Long moments stretched and took off between them; that is, moments of very awkward silence, suddenly broken by one of the two small mute toddlers that lived in the Underground speeding in and colliding with Keira's knees.
She looked down to see an explosion of blonde hair.
"Hello Danny! Meet Mummy's knees. Mummy's knees, say hello to Danny – Oh, you did. Oh, baby, come here..." Picking her silently crying son up in her arms, her gaze fell on a steadily growing bruise on her son's slightly tanned forehead. "Oh, Danny. Let's rub it better!" She kissed his bruise gently before taking his little hand and making it rub the bruise. "There we are. All better?"
Her mute son nodded, thumb in his mouth uncertainly.
"Good boy." She kissed him on the cheek. "Where's your new friend?"
"He's here," the boy's still-unknowing father replied, stepping aside to let a small, green-haired child pass.
"Do you want to go and play whilst Da – Jak and I talk?" Keira bit the inside of her cheek, hoping that Jak didn't notice that slip-up. Glancing at him, she saw straightaway that he didn't, given the way he was staring at the two boys.
Her son nodded and once again, she put him down and he took off with his green-haired best friend.
"Get on like a house on fire, don't they?" Jak remarked as he observed the two children take off. "It's funny. They're both mute, both have green in their hair and blue eyes..." He shook his head. No. It couldn't be. The Kid don't have any family. "Anyway. So...that's how you ended up with Erol, huh. Don't blame ya, I suppose."
Keira stumbled back in shock. "You're not angry?"
"Why should I be?" The damaged man shrugged. "You're not my property...and...besides, it was late, you were tired, it was raining and you were...you were far from home. An hour..." He took a deep breath. "You say things escalated from there?" He suddenly grew angry, clenching his fists, making Keira instinctively recoil with fear. "Why the fuck am I not surprised? That bastard escalates everything he's involved in..."
"Including your t-temper," Keira stuttered, breathless. "Wait. How do you know him?"
"How do I know him?" Jak retorted bitterly. "Believe me, Keir, I know him and his cruelty almost as intimately as you,"
"Love to keep you lovebirds chattin' but Jak, Tattooed Wonder wants us," another voice suddenly butted in.
"Daxter?" Jak sounded very disappointed as he turned his attention onto his best friend. "Can it not wait?"
"Not when you got an Eco vehicle to reach," Daxter said dryly, raising an eyebrow. "Al thouggghh...waitwaitwait, lemme guess which point you're at right now. Is it the point where you wake – "
"YES DAXTER, IT IS, SO LET ME TELL HER!" Jak said very, very loudly and pointedly. "I'll be along in a sec, kay?"
"Whatever you say, buddy. Whateeeever...you...say."
"DAXTER!" Keira yelled, showing her characteristic assertiveness for the first time in two years. That display, Jak wasn't ashamed to admit, sent a chill of the good type up his spine. The ottsel quickly scurried off before he found out she had her tool belt on her and used an item from it on him.
"Anyway..." she chuckled, pushing her blue hair off her face, "what were you about to say before Daxter so rudely interrupted you?"
Jak allowed himself a little chuckle before continuing.
~x~
Two years earlier
The first sense that activated in Jak's head was triggered by pain radiating from his head as the bruise from a Guard's gun-butt made its presence known. The next was triggered by a still, cold atmosphere in...wherever he was. He didn't know. He also felt the cold, hard floor beneath him as he sat up, steadying himself.
The next sense awakened was sight, aided by pitch-blackness – or at least, it was until a hard, dull boom sent light flooding into his sensitive eyes. Throwing an arm across his eyes, his ears detected footsteps getting closer and closer to him as one – no, two – people approached.
People. Huh. Krimzon Guards are anything but.
"So, you're awake," came the oily, accented voice Jak, along with many other Haveners, knew so well. "Thought you would be. It took a lot to subdue you like that. You put up a fight – the first one to do so. Congratulations."
Anger controlling him, Jak threw himself at the bars, only for the accompanying Guard to use his expanded and extended Taser to throw him right at the back of the cell again. He grunted in pain, body convulsing as bolts of electricity shot through it.
The young man on the other side of the bars laughed. "If you think that was painful, just wait and see what we have in store for you. The Baron has long awaited the day where you would be under his control. You have been long hunted and now, now we have you!"
"Tell me somethin' I don't know," Jak replied, snorting. "And who says I'm under anyone's control?"
"Look at yourself, Jak," the Captain retorted, sneering the other man's name. "You're in a prison cell, defenceless and anonymous like any other prisoner. Only you're not just any other prisoner, are you?"
"What do you mean?" the young man replied, hackles truly raised in an animalistic fashion.
"You mean you don't know?" The other man's hard eyes gazed at him. "You haven't even guessed?" He sighed. "I suppose I'll have to tell you. Those Eco channelling abilities of yours? The first Havener in one hundred and fifty years to have them? Of course you're not just any other prisoner..."
Jak's blood ran cold as he made the connection. My powers. The Dark Warrior Programme.
Erol uttered a laugh, which was clearly in response to the look on Jak's face. "Well done. You're not as unintelligent as you look..."
The young man tried to contain the combination of his fear and his desire to grab Erol's face and rip it off his skull inside him, barely letting his body language convey what he really felt.
"Anyway, enough of this frivolity. The Baron will be here any second and I must get you prepared for the first treatment," the Captain said coldly before turning his attention to the other Guard. "Get him on that table."
The Guard nodded and unlocked the cell door, marching in and standing in front of the very pissed off young man. Jak leapt up in an attempt to attack the Guard, who simply clubbed him in the stomach with one of his many weapons, causing him to fall back, doubling over in pain. This momentary lowering of guard gave the red-clad being a chance to haul him up, gripping him tightly by the arm and half-dragging him over to the table. Still winded from the previous attack, Jak tried to fight back, but his efforts were weak, in vain, and he half-allowed himself to be strapped to the table, cursing himself as he did so.
He would do so forever.
Erol stood over him, an unwelcome smirk on his face.
"The balance of power has changed, Jak..."
"Erol!" a rough, more authoritative voice ordered. Jak watched with pleasure as the Captain straightened almost in terror to the new voice. "That's enough bantering with the prisoner. You, go." There were footsteps as the additional Guard left the torture chamber. Erol disappeared from sight, moving to some sort of panel.
"You...Boy..." The Baron appeared into view. The sight of him caused Jak to snarl, fighting his restraints. "You're finally in my hands." He looked at the Captain behind the control panel. "Erol. Now."
The nastily-sharp-looking points above Jak's chest descended and plunged into him as far as they would go. Suddenly, this pain was followed by a new sensation as Dark Eco poured down the needles, entering his body, flooding his veins with their burning cold, the viscous liquid winding its way through his system.
It was then Jak allowed himself to utter a scream that would not only make his throat raw, but reverberate around the walls of the chamber with alarming frequency over the coming years.