Jakar awoke with a bright light in his face. He also came to several conclusions at once. One, he wasn't dead, yet. Two, he wasn't in the ocean waiting for sharks to finish him off. And three, he was strapped down onto some kind of chair. As his groggy brain finally started to surface from sleep he also realized he had been drugged. His eyesight still remained blurry but his hearing functioned and he could hear several men talking quietly.

"His respiration is starting to speed up, heartbeat increasing again, it appears like he is coming out of it now," said an older man's voice. And from the educated tone of it he was either a scientist or a doctor. Maybe both.

"Yeah, should we begin with the experiment?" a younger man's voice said. He was obviously the assistant.

"No," said the last man in the room. And he also had a voice that Jakar knew well. President Gorran. He felt someone leaning over him very closely.

"How are you feeling, Project Mage?" the president asked.

"Well," Jakar told him in a raspy voice deprived of water for a few days, "Not bad considering I can't see at all, I can barely feel my body, and there is something sticking in my back."

Gorran laughed and quickly the two other men joined in with him. "Ah my dear Nerak, you still haven't lost your sense of humor have you? No I didn't expect you to have. We have been looking for you for a long time you know. Now we finally have you again," Then Gorran's voice became very hard, "And now we will make your life, or at least what is left of it, a living nightmare."

Jakar smiled weakly at this. "Well, since my worst nightmare is of my current girl leaving me...." He never finished the sentence for Gorran hit him across the mouth with his iron walking stick.

"Do not get smart with me Jakar," he said in a cruel voice, "If it were up to me to run this experiment it would not be a pleasant one. But since you have wasted five years of your limited life, we have to have the best doctors and medical equipment to keep you alive. So just shut your trap, and maybe I won't kill you, though you may wish I had before long." With this President Gorran stomped out of the room and Jakar heard a pressure door being activated. Then it closed again. When the electronic security lock activated Jakar took a breath.

"Oh well we might as get one with it Siat. Rotate him to vertical position."

"Yes Doctor Okaim."

Doctor Okaim!! Oh no! Not him, anyone but him! Thought Jakar in horror. Doctor Okaim had been very famous for his research into gene manipulation, physical research of human beings, and overall brilliance in the field of biology. Jakar had also heard that he was notoriously tough on his specimens, and they rarely survived his experiments. Jakar felt a quiet whir near his head, a needle pierced his neck and he screamed before he once again surrendered to the darkness that awaited him.

A scream pierced the darkness once again. Lyta jumped off of her cell bed for about the twentieth time. Ever since she woke up, screams like that had been constantly re-occurring. This time however, the voice sounded familiar. Though she was far from the sounds, she could make out that one. It sounded like Jakar in extreme pain.

Lyta sighed and sat back down on her bed. Leaning her head back on the wall, she closed her eyes remembering everything that had happened before the attack on Seabird's Flight. She and Jakar had been growing closer in their friendship. Lyta and Jakar might be described as close friends, but it could go farther than that should the right circumstances come along. The problem was that Lyta was scared to have a relationship with anyone.

It had been only eight months since she started traveling with Dacota. But, she had to admit; it had been the best eight months of her life. Even though she had had to work extremely hard at times, it had been good for her. Like the time she had swam and tried to race some dolphins, or in the early mornings when she and Jakar used to go up on deck before anyone was awake and look out over the sea and talk. One time they saw some whales playing and swimming in the distance. She missed Jakar now more then ever.

Just then another scream reached her, and in a few moments the lights went out with a shower of sparks. Immediately she knew who it was. Duncaan. Groaning, she also started to remember Duncaan.

She had what one could call a crush on him. It had started the first time she saw him fight a match. She thought of him as tall, well built (which probably attracted every girl that saw him), having a handsome face, and a great sense of humor. He knew exactly when the right time was to be serious, to laugh, and to cry.

Before she knew it she had started to compare the two of them. Duncaan definitely beat Jakar in a comparison of strength and height. It was hard to decide on looks. While Duncaan seemed like the picture perfect guy, Jakar had a mysterious handsomeness about him. As for humor they were a lot alike. Especially since they met on the ship. Jakar had finally started to put down his emotional walls. But then he had to put them up again. She liked what little she knew about his personality, but getting to know him more had been so difficult.

Then there was Duncaan. The one thing that had really started the crush going full blast was when a beam had started to fall on her. Duncaan had dived for her and pulled her to safety. Afterwards Lyta had thought that she was in love with him, and perhaps that she still was. Who knows though... Maybe neither one's for me in the end. If only someone could find a crystal ball with an eye in the future. It's just so frustrating waiting it all out sometimes.

Lyta opened her eyes to find the lights were out. Well, darkness was good for two things. Sleeping and thinking. And right now sleeping was last on her list of things to do.

A door slamming behind him. Some voices cursing him and something hitting him in the side again. These were about the only things Duncaan was perceiving at this moment. Two PSI soldiers, or something like that, were dragging him down a corridor. Their gloves under his armpits kept digging into him and it hurt. But his whole body was numb, for the most part. Dr. Okaim had not been gentle with him at all.

Ever since Duncaan had broken loose the first time and killed Okaim's substitute lab assistant, Okaim had never been crueler to an experiment. Or Project Mage as he called Duncaan. The tenet to do no harm was a sign of weakness in Okaim's eyes. Duncaan smiled at this and immediately winced for his cracked lip hurt badly.

As the guards turned the corner, Duncaan's foot hit the edge of it. Immediately a bolt of electricity lanced out and hit the wall. A guard said something, probably a curse, and smacked him across the head. Duncaan's head wound opened up again and he started to bleed. Sighing, the guards finally reached his cell. One of them pushed a button and the door slammed open. They threw him in and locked the door behind him.

Duncaan sat up after landing on his face. He slowly crawled over to his small bunk, and wiped the blood out of his eye. He looked around but nothing had changed. A small bed was in one corner and a window on the far wall. A small door led to the very small bathroom. His sink was in his room as was a small table to eat on. How long had he been here?

He tried to remember the day. It started out with him being escorted to Okaim's lab. He had gotten Siat back. Okaim had told him first of all not to blindfold Duncaan. Then Okaim went on to proceed with the experiment for the day. Many things they had done to him to stimulate his electrical powers. Once he even let out so much power it tripped their light breakers. Sometime during the day they raised his bed and he stared into the face of President Gorran.

"Hmm… Mr. Keriador, correct?"

"Yeah, you got me. Took you awhile to pay me a visit, I expected you the first time I came here," he had said.

"Ah, well I was busy with other things. But I have watched both of you."

"Both of us?"

"Oh yes, you didn't know about your little friend also being a Mage did you?" Duncaan felt his jaw drop. Jakar is a Mage? But how could this be? Surely I would have known. Duncaan couldn't believe it. He shook his head, "No never. Jakar never could be a Mage," he told him.

"Oh, but he is. He has already succumbed to our will, and this is only his fifth day here. True, we had to resort to somewhat... extreme measures, but he responded beautifully."

Ever since Duncaan had come here they had been trying to brainwash him with some kind of vid-unit that showed propaganda of all kinds of PSI and the empires' other activities. "No, I don't believe it!" he screamed.

"Oh yes, Keriador. He has. Siat please show Mr. Keriador the special video."

"Yes President," Siat said. It was only then that Duncaan noticed Siat in the room also. Okaim was watching behind some kind of window.

A small vid-unit came down and stopped right in front of him. It came on and the first image he saw was a small village. All the villagers were outside with some small swords and wood axes. A few had hunting rifles. But in the picture there were no PSI troops, no small tanks or aircraft. Only Jakar stood on the hill. And his eyes glowed rock-gray. Finally he just pointed his hand out and small spires started to jut out of the ground. Several villagers were impaled before they started to run at him. A few fired their pistols but small stones appeared out of nowhere to deflect them. When they finally got to him, he transformed himself into a person of solid rock. The rest of the video ended with Jakar rushing the villagers. Then the screen blanked out.

"Well Duncaan, what do you think now?" Back in his cage, Duncaan felt rage boil up inside of him at the memory. He threw back his head and screamed. A great discharge of electricity flew out of him. And the lights went out again.

Elsewhere, a youing man in black crawling down a vent jerked in surprise at the scream. The lights flickered and went off. "Hold on Duncaan, just hold on!"