Disclaimer: I STILL REFUSE! (stuck in ~denial~)

What are they going to do to me! Jak thought, his mind barely coherent, and very, very, afraid. Who wouldn't be after they got knocked out and then woke strapped to a steel table with a group of needles facing you down? His nerves jumped nervously as he felt a darkness circumnavigate the chamber containing many cells.

"Activating Dark Warrior Program. Voice identification needed," a robotic female voice droned.

"Erol," said a strange voice said. Jak looked to his left and saw a young man about two years older than Jak standing there. He had tattoos on his face and cold eyes that radiated cruelty. Jak's pupil's dilated as his eyes began to dart, and his body struggle.

"Voice confirmed. Beginning injection," replied the robotic female.

"Hey Lilian, looks like you don't have to come out of that cell . . . yet," the male said. Jak was wondering who the man was talking to, but was brought to a complete stop as his mind became preoccupied with searing, unbearable pain in his neck.

It was as if someone was trying to slit his throat, and keep him alive to feel the pain. Bright, childish, blue eyes snapped shut, and his back arched up like a bow, but his body was held down by the chains on his ankles and wrist. He would have called out if he had the ability.

He barely heard a voice call out, "Shut the fuck up, asshole!" before he was lost in the pain, lost in his death.

And his monster's birth.

When he awoke once more, he was 'free'. The voice that had insulted the man he saw earlier swirled in his blurred mind, where another was trying to take shape.

"Wow, they got you pretty bad. You gonna die?"

Her voice was incredibly rough, and Jak's first thought was that she had never spoken before this moment. His mind tried to clear, and separate the dark from the light, as he slowly sat up, wincing at the pain in his neck. He saw a young girl about his age looking at him with grey eyes, that barley held a glimmer of worry. She dressed in prison garb, like him, but it was outrageously big on her tiny, unnaturally thin, frame, and it had to be tied around her waist to keep it up. A tan shoulder peeked from the sleeve that fell from it. Her dirtied face was surrounded by two matted walls of hair that was once a pure pristine white, but had now become a dirty grey, not dissimilar to her eyes. She gazed emotionlessly at him, with her lips pulled into a grim frown.

"Don't talk," she demanded, "You might end up dead. I don't like telling the KG's that another one's died."

Jak gave her a confused look, lost. He silently drew in on himself, trying to sort out what happened to him, and the warring fractions in his exhausted, hurt, mind.

She continued to speak, although it was more to herself. "Damn those bastards, capturing me, then demanding me to watch the new ones they caught. Who do they think they are? Telling me to watch some guy who had his neck sliced open and dark eco shoved in him, then saying I gotta try an' keep 'em alive! Fucking Krimzon Guard."

She turned with glinting eyes to the boy who had curled up into a ball. Sharp eyes suddenly became soft with compassion. With a sigh, she rested a hand on his shoulder, nudging him down. He laid there trustingly.

Her hand began to glow green as she placed it on his neck, calming him, as he felt the green eco heal him and ease the pain. The voice that was taking shape seemed to recoil at the gentle touch. As she was healing him, she let him hear her thoughts.

"You are are not a resident of Haven city or a wastelander, are you? You don't look like a wastelander, but you don't smell like Haven city. You smell like a beach. You also smell like power. Perhaps that is how you survived, by being able to chanel eco. Must be very good at it to survive an injection, I'm the only other one to survive them, and I can channel eco also." The girl fell silent as the green faded. Tired eyes looked curiously at Jak.

"What's your name?"

Jak sat up and looked at her sadly. He tapped his neck, trying to communicate that he couldn't speak.

"Try," she demanded quietly. He did. And it worked.

"How?" he asked in his stunned, teenage, voice.

"It's a blessing from the precursors!" She bit out sarcastically, scowling, yet letting her mouth corners curl up amusedly.

Jak gazed at her face impassively. "Jak."

A pair of lips turned up gently. "Lily."

The cell door slammed open, wiping away the smile, and the light in grey eyes. The young man that had subjected Jak to torture, stood there, proud. "Lily, it's your turn in the chair!" he smirked maliciously.

Gentle grey eyes, and relaxed pose shifted, transforming into that of a trapped wild animal's. A streak of hate, fear, anger, and defiance was lit on fire, as her voice tried to shout "GO TO HELL, EROL!" but it came out quiet, and broken, yet not lacking in strength.

"You seem to have more fire than usual Lilian. That can, and will, be fixed," the young man, Erol, stated, as he grabbed her short hair, and dragged her out of the room. "Oh, and boy? These walls are not sound proof, so you'll see how her pretty little voice got damaged!" he called from outside. With that, the door slammed shut, hiding the two faces, one that laughed in perverse joy, and one that screamed for mercy.

Jak sat there, stunned, as he stared at the spot that girl had been sitting at. He was pulled from his frozen state, as he heard a horrendous screech of agony pierce the silent air in the cell.

At that moment he realized two things:

One, her voice wasn't hoarse because she rarely spoke, it was because she had screamed every day since she arrived there. Every time she was taken from her sad little sanctum of four grey walls, a smelly cot, and a bulb hanging from a bare ceiling, her voice was ripped from her throat by darkness that invaded her once pure body.

Two, precursors did not exist. If they did exist, how could they so cruel as to let two teenagers go through this?

Oh, Lily, we can't tell Erol to go to hell, 'cause we are already there, and it seems the devil deemed us damned.

Edit 5/19/13

Hello, i am going to be editing the chapters, as my writing style as improved since i started this story. Please tell me if it is better, or worse.

~ikilledkid