Chapter Text
The first night they spent in the realm of the oni and dragons Jay could barely fall asleep.
Zane had offered to hold watch as he didn’t really need sleep, and had refused to let anyone join him.
He was probably thinking of Pixal, Jay thought as he looked into the nightsky. Because Jay was thinking of his own girlfriend. He just hoped Nya was still alive. She had to be… He couldn’t lose her a second time. But yet he did already, in some way. There was no way home, right? At least none they knew, they were stuck here, maybe forever.
He’d never felt more alone than right in this moment, staring at an unfamiliar nightsky, breathing air that had an unfamiliar smell and taste, in a place that was the furthest away from home he’d ever been.
Of course he was exhausted from the fight, but while his body was tired his mind refused to calm down. He sniffeled, trying not to cry. Trying not to think about how they all could be dead by now.
Nya, Lloyd, Misako, Pixal… He hoped they had made it to safety. He hoped they were alive to fight another day. He hoped, but there was no way to actually know. There was no way to know if he’d ever see Nya again, too, and that was what stung the most, barely healed wounds being ripped open just from the thoughts.
He should be wherever she was. He should be at her side, fighting back to back with her to protect Lloyd and save the world. But he wasn’t. He was here instead, and she watched the Bounty get destroyed, probably believing them all to have died.
It took pretty long, but eventually he did manage to calm his racing mind enough to finally fall asleep, just for his nightmares to return to torment him.
In his dreams he was back at Yang’s temple, fighting Nadakhan, He was back there, trying to save her, holding her as she died in his arms before he woke up, gasping for air because he was crying.
It wasn’t unusual that he woke up like this, crying, heart pounding and panicked. What was unusual though was that there was no way to reassure himself that it had only been a dream.
Usually when he had nightmares like this one he’d seek out Nya. If it wasn’t possible in person because they were on separate missions, he’d text her or call her, and she’d answer as soon as she could, and everything would be okay once he remembered that she was okay.
But now they were in different realms, so far away from each other that it was impossible to reach her. To make sure it actually had just been a dream.
Logically he knew it had been. Nadakhan was gone. Nadakhan had never happened to anyone but him and Nya and, for some reason, the temple of Yang.
But his heart didn’t believe his head, and all he could do was curl up and sob and try to get through this panic somehow.
The others were all asleep, more or less peacefully, as he did notice Kai was moving in his sleep. Cole was curled up with Little Wu, and Zane was still holding watch. He knew he could probably talk to Zane, but something inside of him didn’t want to do that. He hadn’t told anyone about Nadakhan - except Cole, but even he only knew roughly what happened.
But Zane did notice Jay being in distress and walked over to him. “Jay, you appear to me to be in quite a lot of distress. Can I do anything to help you,” he asked.
Jay uncurled himself a bit and looked at Zane before shaking his head, not trusting himself to speak.
“A nightmare?”, Zane asked, clearly concerned.
Jay nodded, still not trusting his voice. He felt that if he spoke now everything would spill out.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Zane asked.
Once again, Jay shook his head. He did not want to talk about it. If it was Cole who was asking him he possibly would. But while he loved Zane as his brother they weren’t as close. He probably also wouldn’t tell Kai. It wasn’t anything personal. He just didn’t want to give any context.
“Do you want some company? We don’t have to talk. But it appears to me that you should not be alone right now,” Zane asked, putting a hand on Jay’s shoulder.
This time, Jay nodded, gladly joining Zane in holding watch.