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She was so tired.
Her head was pounding, her body ached, and all she could see was darkness.
She felt hot.
She felt cold.
The previous events that had played out were all a blur to her, like a freshly painted watercolor piece drenched by a spill, the colors smudging and blending to form an incoherent, watery mess.
Jax remembered wandering off to her room and falling asleep, ending up trapped in her own unpleasant memories and feelings. She remembered Pomni eventually finding her, despite all odds. She couldn’t remember what they talked about or what either of them said, but she remembered feeling sad and scared and feeling less sad and scared when she and Pomni shared a tender embrace.
Jax squirmed a bit, sensing another body radiating its warmth against hers.
Were they still hugging? She could’ve sworn they were pulled apart, or maybe she was misremembering?
“...ax? Jax?” a jester's voice called out.
Jax barely managed to open her eyes, her muscles feeling like cinder blocks. Her vision was clouded, but she could make out blurry blobs of red and blue.
“...Pomni?”
Jax spoke so low that even she had a hard time hearing what she had just said.
“Oh, thank god!”
She felt Pomni holding her body closer to hers. A couple of days ago, Jax would have probably shoved away in horror, complementing the action with a snide comment.
Today, she did not have the energy to reject such affection even if she wanted to.
It wasn’t long till she began hearing a cacophony of distressed voices coming closer to her and Pomni. Jax turned her head as much as she could, seeing an array of new colorful blurs enter her vision. While her eyesight was still clouded, she knew exactly who those colors belonged to. That wasn’t the part that confused her.
What confused her was why they were all fussing over her. She didn’t end up abstracting. Sure, she felt like utter hell, and it was a miracle she was able to stay half awake, but she was alive.
They didn’t have to stay; after how she’d treated them, they shouldn’t care about her.
Why did they care?
“...why… are you all here?” she whispered weakly.
“We already told you,” Zooble’s voice came from above, “we’re all in this together.”
Jax didn’t respond, but her face grew warm. She didn’t realize she was crying until she felt Pomni wipe away a tear running down her cheek with her thumb.
Jax let her eyes flutter shut and her body relax against Pomni’s. She just didn’t have the energy to stay awake. She hadn’t felt this tired in a long time. Sure, she’d been emotionally and mentally drained throughout her time in this digital hellhole, but this felt different. This was actual physical exhaustion, which shouldn’t have been possible; they didn’t need to sleep here.
Maybe this was another anomaly caused by Caine’s absence.
She felt another pair of hands attempt to help Pomni support her resting form.
“We gotta be gentle, his body’s already been through a major trauma,” she heard Kinger say through the darkness.
She felt their grip on her tighten as they slowly lifted her. Jax let out a small groan as she felt her position shakily change.
“Careful, Pomni!”
“I’m trying; he’s twice my size.”
“Hang on, let me help.”
“Good idea. Gangle and Ragatha, would you lead us to the common area?”
“Wouldn’t he be a bit more comfortable in his bedroom?”
“It’ll be easier to watch over him in the common area.”
“Ah, I suppose you have a point. C’mon Gangle.”
They all spoke about her as if she weren’t really there, though in a way she wasn’t. Her body was there, being carried and moved by the others, but she was floating in and out of consciousness, only being able to tell what was happening through sound and touch. Jax couldn’t respond, and there was very little she could physically do in her situation, both of which added to her growing anxiety in the back of her mind.
A chill ran through her body, like the ones she used to get when she had a fever, but that didn’t make sense; they couldn’t get sick here. At least she never thought they could. She shivered, frowning at the unpleasant sensation.
“Almost there,” she heard Pomni softly whisper.
At some point, they stopped moving, though Jax could sense she was still being carried. The sound of something soft being thrown onto a surface filled her ears.
“Now do we…?” she could hear Zooble trail off.
Jax heard no verbal response from any of them. Instead, she felt her body being lowered onto a soft surface. Whatever it was, it was much more comfortable than being spilled over Pomni’s body as they sat on the hard floors of the circus. Her head was the last to be lowered. She did not need to open her eyes to recognize that a pillow was now supporting it. The tenseness held in her body steadily ebbed away as she eased into her new resting space.
She felt something being gently tossed over her body. She squirmed a little before recognizing the object as a blanket, and relaxed once more, curling into the soft fabric.
Jax could hear the others whispering to one another, and at some point, someone placed their hand on her forehead as if to check for a temperature.
“Is he okay?”
She could instantly tell that was Gangle’s voice.
“His code is very damaged right now; he’s gonna need a lot of rest, but he’ll recover. It’s a good thing Pomni got to him when she did.” Kinger replied calmly.
Damaged code… that totally didn’t sound terrifying at all. Jax managed to open her eyes just a tad, the colorful blurs returning once more. They were all glancing at one another, but quickly faced her when they realized she was staring at them, or trying to at least.
The Pomni blob scooted closer to her and gently held one of her hands.
“You can go back to sleep, Jax.” The jester spoke softly, “You don’t have to worry, you’re in good hands.”
Jax did not respond, verbally or non-verbally. She had a hard time believing Pomni’s words at first. What if she almost abstracted again? What if she fell asleep and never woke back up? What if her code was more damaged than Kinger thought and caused something even worse to happen to her? She felt hot tears prick the corners of her eyes. Her fever-like symptoms were not helping the matter, only intensifying her negative emotions.
It wasn't until Pomni gave her hand a firm squeeze that she began to calm down. Despite her clouded vision, she could tell everyone was calmly waiting for her to fall back asleep and get some well-deserved rest.
Jax relaxed once again, shutting her eyes, and letting go of the tenseness of her body. There was a lot she’d have to face when she woke up, but she could worry about that when the time came.
Right now, she was safe.