Chapter 4: Meeting
Jack stayed next to Lilly until it was dark. He kept checking on her to make sure that she was alright, but the fact that she was hurt bothered him the most. He didn't understand why she kept trying to protect him even though he didn't need protecting. He looked up at the full moon, starting to frown again. Then he noticed an aurora borealis shimmer across the sky. He smiled faintly and stood up, knowing exactly what that meant. Then he glanced back at Lilly, he knew he couldn't leave her. So instead he gently picked her up, making sure to keep a firm grip on his staff, and took off.
It didn't take him long to reach where he was going, he focused in on the solitary building that had been built at the North Pole and quickly entered. He followed the sounds of an argument and quickly found the rest of the people that had gathered.
"Ah so you are here Jack" A big burly man with a Russian accent commented as he finally took notice of Jack's presence.
"Yeah, well who is he carrying?" Another voice chimed in, this one with an Australian accent.
"Her name's Lilly, Bunny." Jack shot back at the 7 foot tall Jackrabbit that was glaring at him. "She got hurt North, I need you to help her." Jack quickly replied, addressing the man with the Russian accent.
"Hm… I'll have one of the Yetis bandage her up." North quickly walked over to Jack and tried to take Lilly out of his arms, but Jack backed up a step.
"I can carry her myself North." Jack firmly stated.
"Now Jack, we have other matters to discuss." North quietly replied as he reached for Lilly again only to have Jack back up and hold Lilly a little closer to his chest.
"North, I'm telling you that I can carry her myself. Alright? I don't trust your Yeti's not to drop her." Jack frowned.
North scoffed, looking a little hurt. "You don't trust my Yeti's? Enough of this foolishness Jack, she will be just fine."
Jack continued to frown, but reluctantly let one of the Yetis that had been standing near him to take Lilly out of his arms. He tried to follow but was stopped by North.
"Now onto to other matters, I called you all here because there have been some strange occurrences." North started. Jack tried to bypass North again, only to be stopped another time.
"You mean like Jack walking in here carrying an injured girl?" Snorted Bunny.
"What's it to you kangaroo?" Jack wheeled around and retorted. "And for your information she actually helped me, and I'm repaying the favor."
"Can we get back to the subject?" North asked with a sigh.
"Yes, please continue North." A small female voice chimed.
"Thank you Tooth, now as I was saying…" North started again.
"How did she help you? What did you do? And I am NOT a kangaroo!" Bunny yelled at Jack, interrupting North once again.
"We got attacked, and would you prefer I called you cottontail!?" Jack yelled back in reply.
"No, I would not prefer you call me cottontail!" Bunny growled.
"What am I going to do with these two…?" North muttered, rubbing his temples. "Now what was this about being attacked, Jack?"
"Yeah, we were, I don't know how to explain what we were attacked by though, Lilly called it a hollow I think." Jack muttered.
"A hollow?" North asked.
"Well that's what she called it. It was a horrible creature…" Jack started but was interrupted by a shrill shriek. He immediately spun around and darted toward where Lilly had been taken, leaving the rest of the group to follow him. He saw her holding her sword, and backing away from an approaching yeti. She darted toward him and almost ran into North. Jack watched Lilly's eyes become wide with fear as she backed up quickly, backing into a wall. She put the still sheathed sword in front of her and kept a hand on the hilt, threatening to draw it. Jack then noticed that both North and Bunny had already drawn their weapons. Jack frowned and put himself between Lilly and the rest of the group. "She's just scared, back off a bit and she'll calm down."
North reluctantly nodded and stepped back, motioning for the rest of the group to follow. "Come on. Let me tell you why I gathered you all here, while Jack calms down our guest." North started to walk away, followed reluctantly by Bunny and the other two members of the group.
"Sorry about that." Jack turned around to face Lilly, taking notice of her now trembling hands. "You're ok, don't worry about them, they aren't as scary as they seem." He smiled at her.
With a heavy sigh Lilly dropped her guard. "I didn't mean to panic. I just didn't know where I was."
Jack chuckled. "I would have had the same reaction if I had woken up to one of those yetis hanging over me. How are you doing though?"
"I'm alright, but my shoulder still hurts a little." Lilly quietly replied, as she was looking around. "Where are we exactly?"
"We're at the North Pole." Jack said as he started leading Lilly along. "Specifically, in North's workshop, that was the big guy you almost ran into."
Lilly stuck close to Jack's side as he was walking, looking around in amazement of all the things that she was seeing. "Why did you bring me here?"
"Well, I was summoned, and I couldn't just leave you. So I carried you here." Jack smiled again.
"Why were you summoned?" Lilly quietly asked.
"Well like I told you before, I'm the guardian of fun, the rest of the spirits here, their guardians as well. North, who was the big fellow with the Russian accent, is the guardian of wonder. Bunny, well he is the guardian of hope. Tooth, that was the flittering girl you saw, she guards the good memories of childhood. Lastly Sandman you can guess who he is, he brings and guards the good dreams that you have. Together we protect and watch over the children of the world." Jack explained as he stopped in front of an enormous globe. "Each one of the lights on there is a child who believes."
As Lilly looked up at the globe the hard expression on her face began to soften. "Then my sisters should be up there. They've always believed the things from stories. I was never one to believe them though. I guess that just after a while I gave up believing. I mean, I don't have too many good memories from when I was little, and the ones that I do have I wouldn't let anyone keep for me. Holidays were ok, but I was alone. My mom had to work, and the kids at school weren't nice to me, and excluded me whenever they could." She sighed and looked down.
Jack frowned hearing about what she had gone through. "That's harsh, but you can see us. So then you have to believe in us a little bit."
Lilly shook her head. "I don't believe in any of you and I never have. I think the only reason I see you is because I exist on the same plane of reality as you. No one can see me because I'm a Soul Reaper, so I've already died and am a spirit."
Jack couldn't help staring at her. "Wait, you're already dead? B-But how can you have sisters? You talk as if their still living, but you're not?"
With a sight Lilly muttered. "It's a long story."
"It's always a long story with you! Why don't you stop avoiding my questions and give me a straight answer!" Jack snapped at her, his statement becoming a little harsher than he had intended.
"You want a straight answer? Alright, I'll give you a straight answer. My name is Lilly Greenscale. I'm the Captain of Squad Five of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads of the Soul Society. I've been a Captain for roughly a year and grew up in the human world with my adoptive mother. Is there anything else you want to know?" Lilly snapped back.
Jack stared at her, not sure how to respond. Finally, he frowned. "You say that you are a Captain? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, why would anyone let a kid into anything related to military, especially one that can't even make up a convincing lie. If your trying to make fun of the idea of being dead, you're sure not doing a good job. Grow up already and stop making up stories, if you didn't want to tell me you're back story that's fine, you could have just said so, instead of making up some wild stupid story!"
Lilly scoffed. "You're calling me a liar?!" She couldn't help raising her voice. "I wouldn't lie about my past! You haven't had to live half the life I have, and if you had, you wouldn't go around calling others stupid!"
"Hold on a second, I NEVER called you stupid!" Jack yelled back.
"Oh really?! Well it sure SEEMED like you did! After all you said I couldn't make up a convincing lie!" She balled her hands into fists.
"Well you DIDN'T, it really was a stupid lie!" Jack was fuming now, he didn't understand why she kept clinging to her story, it was so unbelievable it couldn't have been true.
Lilly growled and spun around, storming away. "FINE! DON'T BELIEVE ME YOU JERK! SEE IF I CARE!"
Jack blinked at her walking away. "HEY!" He followed her and grabbed her right shoulder, spinning her around. She yelped and instinctively took a swing at him, not even realizing what she was doing, or that she was using her bad arm. Jack jumped back to avoid the swing. The sudden jarring motion of Lilly's bad shoulder caused her to moan and start to fall forward as the severe pain made her dizzy. Jack immediately reached out to catch her, and then steadied her. "Hey, are you ok? He frowned slightly.
Lilly growled and shook Jack off. "Yeah, yeah, just fine. Stop worrying about me."
"Enough with the attitude! Jeez, you are the single most stubborn person on the planet!" Jack huffed.
Lilly glared at him. "Just leave me alone…." Her words came out so soft that Jack could barely hear her.
"Hey look, I'm not out to get you, I just want the truth." Jack quietly replied back.
"I already told you the truth. What more do you want?" Lilly backed up, her frown deepening.
Jack sighed. "Alright, if you say you're telling the truth, then I'll believe you."
Lilly scoffed quietly and muttered. "Now who's the liar…"
Jack frowned. "What was that?"
"Nothing." Lilly quickly replied, eager to change the subject. She noticed North and the others staring at them and looked away quickly, feeling her cheeks redden slightly. "Um, Jack, we might want to go join the rest of your group now."
Jack tilted his head. "What, why?" He turned around to look at the group. "Oh, yeah, we should go." He smiled nervously and patted Lilly's shoulder. "No hard feelings. Ok?" He started walking, making sure she was following.
"Yeah… no hard feelings." Lilly weakly smiled back. "So how much of that little tiff do you think they heard?"
Jack chuckled. "Knowing them, all of it."
"Oh great…" Lilly sighed.
"Don't worry about it." Jack continued to smile, even though he still had a lot on his mind. "So North, could you fill the two of us in on what exactly happened." Jack asked.
North nodded. "Yes, as you may well know, there seems to be monsters attacking believers. No one has been hurt yet, and moreover, none of the children seem to see them, but the monsters are a danger none the less."
Lilly tilted her head, listening quietly as the group started talking amongst themselves. She sighed, watching how they didn't seem to pay to much attention to her. "Typical… I'm being ignored now. Oh well, it can't be helped." She thought to herself as she tried to put the pieces of the puzzle together on her own. Suddenly something clicked. She opened her mouth to talk, then shut it again, feeling the insecurity she always felt in groups. Finally she worked up the nerve to talk. She turned to North to address him. "So let me make sure I have this right, the kids can't see the monsters attacking them, but the monsters attack anyway?"
North blinked and turned to Lilly, as if suddenly remembering that she was actually there. "Yes, that is correct. Why?" The rest of the group quieted down to listen.
Lilly furrowed her eyebrows, a look of disdain starting to appear on her face. "It sounds like typical hollow behavior, but yet, a hollow wouldn't attack someone unless they had spiritual powers or potential for them." Lilly shifted from foot to foot, and then let out a short gasp. "Unless they were changed somehow!" She immediately started fidgeting with her necklace, as if the thought made her nervous. "That would be the only logical explanation."
"Wait, wait. What are hollows?" Bunny quickly asked.
"They are creatures that devour souls. It's my job to kill them if they get near humans or souls." Lilly replied, shifting the strap of her sword on her back.
Bunny stared at her. "Are we honestly going to believe her? For all we know she could be what is controlling the 'hollows'." He looked around at the rest of the guardians for approval of his thoughts.
Lilly glared at him and opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Jack. "Bunny! If that were true a hollow wouldn't have tried to kill the both of us." Jack glanced at Lilly and saw she was still glaring.
"That doesn't mean a thing mate. She could have just done it for effect, a way to gain our trust. I mean really, it's much too coincidental that she happens to appear just as these monsters appear." Bunny sighed, ignoring the glare from Lilly.
Lilly blinked, and then stepped back, the implications of what Bunny was saying finally dawning on her. "Are you saying that I came here to cause trouble?" She looked down, letting out a low growl. "You know, it wasn't my idea to come here! I WOKE UP HERE!" She yelled as she spun around. She started to stomp away, but was stopped by Jack placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, you have to calm down. I know you don't like people questioning you, but you have to understand where we are coming from. Put yourself in our shoes, we don't know what's going on, and we don't know how to handle this, so someone randomly showing up at the exact same time is a little suspicious." Jack quietly told Lilly, trying to prevent her from causing any more trouble for herself. "And you have to admit, you're not doing yourself any favors by storming off like this."
Lilly slapped his hand off of her shoulder. "At the moment I really don't care!" She spat back at him, continuing to walk away. "I don't like being around people who jump to conclusions." She was stopped again by Tooth flying in front of her.
"Please, I know you don't want to stay, but at least stay long enough for us to ask Manny what to do." Tooth smiled gently at Lilly.
Lilly stumbled back, not used to having someone fly up to her to stop her. "Manny? Who is that?"
Jack walked up next to her. "Manny is the nickname we use for the Man in the Moon."
"Man in the Moon? And you all think I'm crazy?" Lilly laughed. "You have got to be kidding me. That's nothing but a story you tell little kids."
"Lilly, please." Jack put as much warning into his words as he could.
Bunny glared at Lilly. "Oh so you don't believe in any of us. Well this is just great."
Lilly spun around. "So what if I don't! It's not like it affects you any!" She crossed her arms across her chest and muttered. "Besides, its not like I go running around telling kids not to believe in you, in fact I always tell my sisters stories about all of you." She shrugged her shoulders glancing at every one of them. "I might not believe in you, but I know better that to ruin a kid's childhood by taking all the hope, wonder, and faith out of it." She looked down, studying the floor.
Jack finally understood why Lilly seemed to not believe in any of them, everything she was trying to share with the other children were the things that she didn't have. He couldn't help smiling a little. "Well for now, let's just keep the peace between all of us for the sake of getting to the bottom of this mystery. We can all argue about who's done what later."
