As exhausted as she was, Jade's night was far from restful. She lay on the large bed of soft vines and moss that sprouted from the base of what Juniper had called her birth tree, surrounded by her new companions. It was surprisingly comfortable, not unlike an especially soft and squishy mattress. Although she lacked a blanket the jungle was pleasantly cool at night. Physically, she had no complaints.

Comfort wasn't the issue. Violence, blood, and death plagued Jade's dreams. Her mind was assaulted by images of groups of ravenous goblins chasing her down dark, ominous passages, cornering her again and again. Each time they did, she fought her way out, stabbing them in the neck the same way she had slain that first goblin in the junkyard. Her twisted dreams put his face on every goblin she saw, and each made the same awful, nightmarish gurgle as she cut them down. This happened again and again, blood staining Jade's clothes, her arms, her face, and everything else. When she looked down at herself, she saw not a woman, but a monster. A vicious demon with clawed hands and leathery wings, a creature of lust and death. It was too much, it-!

"Jade… Jade!"

Jade started, her eyes snapping open. Someone had a hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently. The hand withdrew as she jerked, twisting over onto her side to see who was there. It was Naomi. The dark haired woman was staring at her with concern and… wariness? It was hard to tell in the darkness. The only light came from a distant moon high above. It cast a strange orange glow upon the land, a not so subtle reminder of how far from home they truly were.

Jade realized she was panting, her brow covered in a cold sweat. She took a deep breath, calming herself, her nightmares slipping away like water into sand as lucid thought returned to her.

"Naomi…" She murmured, not wanting to disturb anyone who may still be asleep. "What…?"

"You were thrashing in your sleep." She whispered back, kneeling next to her. "Are you…"

"I'm fine." She said, cutting her off.

Naomi sighed, frustrated.

"No, you're not." Her voice was quiet, but forceful. She crossed her arms. "None of us are. It would be scary if we were."

"It was just a bad dream." Jade said, looking away. There was an anxious pit in her stomach, a tight knot that was making her nauseas. But she couldn't voice it. She couldn't expose her weakness. That just made it worse.

"Me too." Naomi said, surprising Jade.

"What?" She asked. Jade glanced back at her, noticing for the first time how pale Naomi looked. Even in the dim moonlight, she could see that her color was off.

"I had a bad dream too. About…" Naomi shuddered, then tried again. "About the goblins I… I killed. Was it the same for you?"

Jade shrugged, unable to bring herself to lie, but equally unwilling to confide in her. Naomi seemed to take that as a yes anyway.

"Jade, you don't have to hide that you're hurting, or scared." She said, still firm but slightly more gentle than before. She sank into a crouch beside Jade, settling beside her.

"Yes, I do." She murmured. "It's a weakness. If you show it, people will exploit it."

"That's bullshit." Naomi hissed, the softness evaporating from her words. Again, Jade was surprised. Her impression of Naomi was that of a soft spoken woman. Right now, though, her eyes were bright and fierce. Her gaze bore into her, pinning her in place.

"We only just met, but right now we're a team. Working together is the only way we're going to get out of this, and teammates rely on each other. I can tell you're a strong person, Jade, you're adapting to this place a lot better than I am. But you can't do it alone, and you don't have to. That won't do you any good, and it won't do us any good."

Jade opened her mouth to say something, but stopped. Naomi's words had stirred a memory, dredging it up from the depths of her mind. Christina, the former captain of her gymnastics team, had said much the same to her when she'd made the cut at University.

"You're good, Jade. Really good." Christina had told her in the locker room, not long after the start of her first season. "But you act like you're the only person on the floor. This is a team sport. You might do your set by yourself, but your score isn't the only one that matters. When you nail it, the team will cheer for you. When you fuck up, the team will get you back on your feet. And you've got to do the same for them, or you don't belong on my team."

On that team, she'd found for the first time in her life a group of people she could rely on. A group of people who cared about her. Then, she'd lost it all. Jade closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Christina had been talking about a sport, where the stakes were whether or not you would take home the championship at an event. The Labyrinth was different. The stakes here were life and death. Naomi had a point. The same point Christina had hammered into her two years ago. Only now, it was more important than ever.

"Look, I get it." Naomi said softly, continuing when Jade didn't reply. "You're a tough girl. That's probably a good thing here. But let's try supporting each other a little, ok?"

Jade sighed. She glanced at the other end of the vine bed where Luis and Siora were both sound asleep, then back at the woman kneeling beside her.

"Ok." She said, slightly ashamed of herself. "I'm… Not good with people. Sorry."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Well, I am." Naomi said, shifting to sit down properly beside her. "I just don't like dealing with them."

Despite herself, Jade snorted in amusement. Naomi gave her a wry smile.

"So? What's bothering you?"

----------------------------------------

"So? What's bothering you?"

Naomi wasn't sure exactly how to feel about Jade. Luis seemed to trust her, but she'd only just met the both of them. He was one thing, as straightforward a guy as she'd ever known, but Jade worried her a little. Setting aside the fact that she had been transformed into a demon, something Naomi was still having difficulty believing was a real thing, she had an array of rather insidious abilities that the bard wasn't quite comfortable with. Even if she wasn't the best at using them yet, that would surely change with time. The succubus's attitude didn't do much to allay her concerns either, Naomi had seen how brutal and unhesitating Jade could be in a fight. She seemed unfazed by the insanity unfolding around them.

At least, that's what she had thought. The woman in front of her now was sitting with her shoulders slumped, her head propped up on one arm. Even in the dim moonlight Naomi could see the sweat beading on Jade's brow. For the first time since she'd met her, she looked anxious.

"What isn't…?" Jade sighed. She scooted away from their sleeping companions, keeping her voice low. "I just want to go home. To see my brother. To get away from this…"

"Me too." Naomi said, settling next to her. "Are… you scared too?"

Jade gave her a dour glance. "What do you think?"

"I think we all are." Naomi said. "But you just seem so calm about all of this."

"I'm trying to be calm. Panicking won't get us home safely. But yeah, I'm pretty far from ok."

"I wish I was better at that." Now it was Naomi's turn to sigh. "I've never been good at handling pressure."

"I thought you were trying to join a pop group." Jade said. "Isn't that all about performing under pressure?"

"Yeah, well, I pretty much panic every time I get on stage." Naomi admitted, feeling embarassed. "But I keep doing it anyway, because I love it. Fighting, though? Not so much."

Jade shrugged, leaning back against the Dryad's birth tree. The conversation lapsed, and Naomi found herself awkwardly sitting next to her, unsure of what to say. She still had some uneasy feelings regarding the succubus, but knowing that Jade actually was struggling with all of this too helped her feel a little more at ease with her. A part of her had been worrying that her sudden transformation had affected how she'd thought, that maybe turning into a demon had flipped off some mental switch that regulated emotional processing. The more she spoke to her, though, the more Naomi was coming to realize that Luis was probably right. Jade was an intense person, but that didn't have anything to do with the changes she'd recently undergone.

"If you have something you want to ask me, just say it. I don't bite." Jade said. Naomi realized she'd been staring at her intensely and looked away, embarrassed. "Not yet, at least. Maybe that's another power I'll get to choose." She added.

Naomi couldn't tell if that was a joke or not. She hesitated. Should she voice what was on her mind? Would Jade get offended? But no, if they were going to work together as a team, they had to trust each other. She took a deep breath, and plowed on ahead.

"It's your powers." She said finally. "Your powers to influence other people. I… They're a little scary, Jade."

Jade crossed her arms, looking out across the forest. Naomi saw her in profile, the orange tinted moonlight illuminating half of her face. The light spilled across her hair, giving it a mesmerizing glitter. The effect was so pronounced that Naomi wondered if some sort of succubus racial feature affected how people perceived Jade, passively making her more appealing to the eye. That thought didn't make her feel any better about her manipulative abilities.

"I didn't have much of a choice." Jade said after a lengthy pause. "They came with the race, and I was forced to pick it."

"I know." Naomi said, looking away. Part of her felt guilty for interrogating a companion who, so far, had done nothing but help her. But the sooner they got this out of the way, the better.

"Are you worried that I'll use them on you?" Jade asked.

"I don't know." Naomi admitted. "I haven't known you for very long, but I don't think you're the kind of person who would use that power casually."

Jade grunted. "But it worries you anyway?"

"Wouldn't you be worried?"

"Probably." Jade admitted. "But you were just talking about us being a team. We have to trust each other at some level. Especially if we're going to fight together."

"We do." Naomi agreed. She knew that there wasn't a good solution to this. Jade was right, she hadn't chosen her powers. None of them had, for the most part. "And you haven't done anything to make me distrust you. I… I just had to say it, I guess."

Jade's shoulders slumped. "Is this going to be the reaction I get from everyone, from now on?"

Naomi didn't have a good answer to that. The ability to influence people's thoughts and behavior was simply unnerving. She was new to magic, but she had a feeling most people would view it similarly.

"Look." Jade said, after Naomi failed to respond. "How about this. When we're somewhere safe, I'll use my power on you for a few moments, or at least try to. Then you'll know how it feels. And hopefully, then you'll be able to tell if similar powers are used on you in the future. Would that make you feel better?"

She spent a few moments considering that.

"Maybe… Yeah…" She said, leaning against the tree beside Jade and giving her a thoughtful look. "I mean, I don't like the thought of it. But, better the devil you know than the one you don't, right?"

"Or the demon you know, in this case."

Now it was Naomi's turn to snort.

"Thanks, Jade. I think I feel better now."

Jade shrugged, something that she seemed to do a lot of.

"Yeah, well, thanks for talking to me about it. And not just judging me."

"You've more than earned some benefit of the doubt." Naomi said, squeezing her shoulder gently. "I don't think Luis and I would still be here, if not for you. I still have to pay you back for that."

"I'm sure we'll have plenty of chances to pay each other back before we're through this." Jade said. "But thanks."

"I'm sure." Naomi agreed. Weariness was starting to overtake her again. Her conversation with Jade had helped push her nightmares out of her mind, and she had alleviated some of her concerns. At least for the moment. Naomi shifted back into the vine bed, settling down to try and rest.

"It was the same as yours." Jade said softly, still sitting with her back against the massive tree.

"Huh?" Naomi asked, sleepily.

"My dream." Jade clarified, looking up at the moon. "It was the same as yours. The killing."

Naomi rolled over, looking back at her. Without a word, she reached out and lay a hand on Jade's. It was a gesture of companionship, a reminder that she wasn't alone. In Jade's eyes, Naomi saw the same regret and fear she herself held deep within her. Together, they had been thrust into a world of madness and conflict. A world where magic and adventure mingled with death and danger. It was as terrifying as it was exhilarating. They had only just arrived in this land, and already Naomi had experienced pain and fear unlike anything she had ever known. What she saw in Jade's face, in that moment, told her that it was the same for her. Naomi couldn't think of anything that she could say to help. Instead, she simply squeezed her hand. A reassurance that they weren't alone. That someone else understood.

The pair settled down for the night, letting sleep take them once more. This time, it was free of nightmares.