Jak was always warm to Lily, who seemed to be thrown for a loop every time he was kind to her. She would sometimes forget where she was, and that he was a… person who felt her pain, and she would change, becoming a girl who was slightly warm, but super defensive. More often though, she would speak to herself, or a person in her head called Shadow, only stopping when Jak nudged her and told her what she was doing.
Lily was also the one witnessing the death of a child, the growth of a wounded soldier man, and the creation of a monster.
"Lily?" Jak asked as the rapidly maturing girl came around. Unfocused grey eyes cast their dull gaze to the male standing above her, while she rested on the single cot.
"Oh. Hello Jak. How long?" she asked blearily.
"You got thrown in at the second guard switch, and they switched a little bit ago," Jak answered, using their usual method of telling time, the changing of the guards. They had long ago lost track of both time and days. It was a sad fact of their lives.
Lily hummed quietly, and let her breathing even out, as she rested an exhausted hand on her new wound. Jak covered it gently, and hummed an old song Samos used to sing for him when he got sick or hurt as a child. It's rhythm followed the flow of green eco, and he had learned when he first began channeling said eco. The melody seemed to calm Lily.
He didn't stop, even as Lily's eyes became distant and unfocused, nor when she began to sing along in an unknown language. He would ask her when she returned what it meant, but for now, they rested, her lost in her broken mind, and he by her side.
"You were singing during one of your moments earlier."
Lily glanced over from the ceiling she was staring blankly at. "What?"
"A song," Jak replied. "In some language. It went along with the flow of green eco, and it sounded like the song a sage used to sing to me."
Lily suddenly smiled. "Oh, I know what your talking about, and yes I know the translation. Kilala taught me a long time ago. Would you like to hear it?"
"Well I got nothing better to do," Jak responded with a playful- yet still exhausted- grin.
Lily cleared her throat, and began to sing quietly in her gravelly voice.
"Hear my call to the trees of old~ I call to the elder bark and saplings too!
"Help me Fern! Help me Oak! I am hurt and I need you now!
"Mend my wounds, Heal thy hurt!
"Your power was a gift, I gave it to thy long ago~
"Now return it to me, return it to thy blessed~!
"While you hold tight to the earth with your roots
"Give up your life force, and give it to the world.
"Return it to that which we Gods and Goddesses created!"
Lily ended the song, but in it's place, a feeling of serenity, and power, remained. Jak sat down, leaning against the cell cot, as Lily rolled to her side, gazing at the back of his head. Silently, she reached forward, and began to run her hand through his green-blonde locks. Jak relaxed into her fingers, but began to tremble as the Voice returned.
You weak, pathetic HUMAN! it yelled in Jak's mind, making him tense under Lily's soothing fingers.
Look at you trapped in this pathetic cell. If you gave me control, I could get us out… all of us.
No! Nonononono! This is my body, and this is my mind, get out!
YOU THINK YOU CAN COMMAND ME!? YOU WEAKILING!
And with that, the struggle began, between the soldier boy and the dark creature, turning his mind into a battle field that had no end in sight.
Lily was curled into his side when he finally came round from his battle. She had obviously pulled him onto the small cot they had to share, then let her tiny self contort so that she could also sleep on it, and under their thin blanket. Jak simply scooted over, and curled around her to provide them more room. A glance at the door was managed before he sighed and slipped off into the darkness of sleep once more.
Jak awoke as he felt the weak appearing body beside him began to seize. Gasps of pain tore themselves from her throat, and that cute face twisted into an expression of utter pain. She began to screech only when an ark of black lightening launched out of her body.
Dark eco exploded from her, then swallowed her, sizzling as it burned away her clothes, dirt, and impurities. The eco cleared to show an unscarred body that was cloaked with a long sleeved dress that appeared to be obsidian turned silk, then heated to a burning temperature. Her body jerked wildly once more as white flames engulfed her, removing the daunting daring dress, and replacing it with an innocent white sundress, which instead conveyed comfort and warmth, as if she was inviting younglings to come and dance with her.
This was the third time Jak had seen this happen. He already knew he wouldn't be able to help her, lest he wanted grievous injuries from the eco leaping off her body, fighting with itself, while it left her to sit and cry out in pain. She tried to describe it to him, but he barely got the gist of it.
She described it as being burned again and again and again, while, at the same time, two armies dug trenches into her skin as they faced each other, both sides equal, as her mind served as the battle ground.
He asked her if she could explain it more.
She only told him it would hurt him if she were to tell him.
In the end, it took Jak only eight months to figure out how to deal with his darkness.
It took Lily a full year to finally suppress the light that kept hurting her, and form a deal with her darkness.
