Alex closed his mouth, he'd probably had it open longer than he should have, but given the circumstances he felt it was understandable.

His pulse was rocketing through his blood vessels, he felt the familiar adrenaline buzz of an exercise, but rampped up to overdrive and pumped on dope.

Seconds before he'd almost steeled himself to die, which would have been a regretful outcome as Jessica had finally acquiesced and resigned herself to be healed.

He turned his eyes to Eian, he had been injured by that monster so that was his first concern, the second was this situation and given Sarah's red face there would be lots of yelling.

Alex felt what was perhaps the beginning of a migraine behind his eyes and forehead, he tiredly rubbed them as he sighed and let his blood cool.

"Eian man, lets see what that thing did to you." Alex waved him over.

"Some-what burns." Eian gruff-ed as he approached.

Sarah stood and looked at them both in silence, Jessica was stoney faced and was sitting in the ground.

A quick look heightened Alex's concern Eian's flesh was an unhealthy greying color and looked to be blackening as if visibly succumbing to a plague disease.

Alex quickly poured as much healing as he could to Eian's injury, Alex's frown deepened as he realized the injury was resisting to mend somewhat.

He focused and pouring more energy until the blackness stopped and slowly, piece by piece like thick syrup, begun to recede, sweat dripped down his cheek and trickled down his neck to his bare chest.

Black ooze seeped from Eian's skin the whole time, after a brief panic Eian wiped it and they noted the flesh beneath was hale and healthy.

Soon Alexander managed to push the blackness to a small area where his healing hit a metaphysical wall, A chilling thought passed through Alex, what if it couldn't heal properly?

Luckily his worries were unfounded, he breathed a sigh of relief when the resistance broke and more black ooze seeped out until Eian was hale and healthy.

"Thanks." Eian nodded and his muscles visibly relaxed, Alex gave him a brief nod of acceptance.

Alex quickly took a deep breathe, closed his eyes and exhaled, that was one problem down, now they had another.

Turning he looked towards an angry Sarah and a quiet neutral Jessica, was she okay with what was going on?

Alex could help but feel a little disappointed in Jess...ica, he'd have to get used to that, she was either hiding her emotions or wasn't giving the situation the gravity it deserved, neither of which were helping her cause, whatever that may be.

"Is he okay?" Sarah's question surprised him a bit, he thought she'd jump straight to it.

"Yes." Alex nodded and Eian said yeah at the same time.

"Good. Now you." Sarah's expression turned icy as she looked at Jessica, whom ignored them all with a small pout.

The tension in the air was palpable as Sarah glared at Jess-ica, Alex blinked.

"Do you have anything to say?......No? Well let's start with...what the hell you were thinking!" Sarah's voice erupted and she stomped the ground.

"Sarah not so loud." Alex frowned.

"Don't take her side!" Sarah yelled at him so hard he took a step back and raised both palms up defensively.

"That's not what I mean~" Alex started, but was cut off.

"Alex wake the fuck up! I almost died! Eian almost died!" Sarah was breathing heavily by now and her volume was going through the nonexistent roof.

"MonsterS! Sarah, there are monsters about, that's what I mean." Alex tried to placate her while waving his hands for her to lower her volume, he didn't want to attract any more of those shadow things.

"He's got a point Sarah. Monsters, bad." Eian nodded, he had a serious face on and was scanning the darkness, arms crossed, while sitting against a tree a few feet away.

"Whatever. I still think he's trying to butter her up. Hmf." Sarah huffed, turned to glare at Jessica again.

Alex saw Sarah close her eyes and breathe deeply several times and exhaling heavily until she was ready.

"Alright. Are you going to keep ignoring us, or will you talk?" Sarah questioned with a frown.

Alex refrained from saying anything that would set off Sarah, as uncomfortable as it felt, he'd realized this had to be done.

It was one thing when Jessica was defenseless and needed their help, this time she put them all in danger from her personal choice to not accept aid, brief though the hesitation may have been.

Still, she had a resigned face when he'd finally convinced her to accept healing, so she needed to concentrate on the groups well being faster.

He wasn't sure if Sarah or Eian had caught that she had relented after the brief encounter, Eian was busy distracting the monster and Sarah was helping him.

So it fell to him, Alex, to try to not let things escalate to an unfavorable outcome for the group nor an inhumane judgement but Sarah wasn't like that, he hoped.

There was a fine line between Justice and Vengeance after-all, but it was critical they not lose sight of it.

Their personal relationships were irrelevant when it came to their continued survival and cooperation, as much as he wished otherwise.

The silence stretched on for some time and Alex began to figit.

"Just, leave me alone." Jessica stared blankly as if not speaking to them.

Jessica's mask broke and curled up while sitting, she began to sob, Alex felt terrible as a pit formed in his gut.

"Really! Are you ten?! Do you want to die?" Sarah kept her voice at an acceptable volume.

"...Let's give her some time to calm down." Alex hoped Sarah didn't trip.

"Of course you'd say that...." Sarah rolled her eyes.

"Just!......Look at her. Can you honestly say she wants to talk?" Alex's kept his voice low, but he was getting pissed at Sarah's uncaring attitude.

"No, but she's wasting time." Sarah glared at him.

"Time for what exactly? It's dark and we're in the middle of no-where." Alex raised an eyebrow.

"...That monster can come back any second." Sarah pressed.

"Then I'll kill it. You can use healing magic too. Can't you? You made a big show of it." Alex shrugged.

"...You! you just want her to get off." Sarah glared at him.

Alex sighed and now she was redirecting her attitude on him.

"Look, I agree we have to talk to her, but yelling or in your case, an interrogation, will be a waste of time. In the state she's in, she's probably not even paying attention right now. Let's wait and talk to Eian and come up with a plan or something." Alex crossed his arms and set his foot down.

"...Fine." Sarah huffed and they walked over to Eian.

Alex spared Jessica as few glances and watched the shadows around her, he didn't want something to sneak up on her and kill her after-all.

"Guys, should we make a fire? Animals are afraid of fire right?" Eian asked.

"...Some of them yes. I'm not sure if all, and the animals here might be different, but given that something can sneak up on us, lets make some torches at least." Sarah's voice was cool, she might have calmed down.

Alex and Eian quickly cut a few limbs from one of the few small trees about, Sarah lit the torches and they formed a small perimeter of sorts from torches.

Alex made sure to keep Jessica in his sight, she had gone quiet but the occasional hiccup emerged from her.

Everyone sat there for a second, Alex tried to break the ice.

"At least we don't need to sleep man." Alex gave Eain a half-smile, it was all he could manage.

"What are we going to do about her? I'm through with how things are going. She's holding us back. Eian, what do you think? Alex's too soft." Sarah narrowed her eyes and cut to the heart of the matter.

Eian sat there, gave them both a brief look and seemed to retreat in his thoughts for a minute, they sat there waiting.

"...I think, she needs to start thinking about the group. She freaked, or something back there Alex, I didn't ask, but whatever kind of fight you two had, she can't put us in danger like back there. We need to find something for her to do also, she's stronger than she was before, but she's not using it much." Eian held a grim expression on his face.

"But, we agreed she was going to be like Sarah and use magic, right? I think that would suit her better man." Alex felt a bit somber, but he'd already accepted it, at least Eian was calmer about it.

"Does she even have death magic yet? You said she woke up screaming from her dream with her guide." Sarah scowled somewhat fierce, as she watched Alex like a hawk.

"She probably annoyed her guide or something, my one beats the living shit out of me any chance he gets." Strangely Eian rubbed his neck, before cracking it slightly.

"We can ask her, when she's better." Alex nodded, magic would suit Jess far better as she'd be out of direct danger.

"That doesn't fix what she did. Alex, she outright chose to put us in danger." Sarah's scowl deepened.

"What do you want me to do? She hesitated for a bit, we~~" Alex started to explain, but Sarah cut him off.

"That doesn't matter. She has to give the situation significance, and act responsibly. She's had it easy enough as is." Sarah pressed with an edge, Eian gave one slow nod.

"We'll work on it. I promise." Alex sighed and scratched the back of his neck.

"First you then, Eian's right, fix that problem you have with her at least well enough for us to work without problems. I'll probably kill her if I hear her voice right now." Sarah crossed her arms in displeasure.

"I'll try." Alex sighed.

The two seemed sated with that as Eian went back to impassively scanning the darkness and Sarah began brooding quietly.

Alex waited a while as he watched Jessica, she'd stopped crying and had her eyes fixed at the darkness.

In the flickering light of the fired up torches he thought he could see her lips moving silently though, that worried him, he hoped it was his imagination.

As he neared she went completely still and her eyes slowly turned in his direction, she wouldn't meet his eyes though.

"Hey....Um...Jess-ica. Are you,...look we have to talk." Alex's tongue fumbled words out, he wasn't ready for this.

Jessica gave a brief sigh, her chin rested on her knees as she hugged her legs.

"What do you all want?" Jessica still wouldn't meet his eyes, she stared at the ground despondently.

"...We want you to work with us as a team." As his words exited Alex's mouth he heard her snort.

"Fat chance. That's what you want. Sarah wants me to just die and Eian doesn't care one way or another." Jessica's eyes narrowed at the ground as if it beheld secrets to unearth.

"Eian didn't abandon us when Sarah told him to." Alex defended Eian, he'd gained his respect for that.

"Us? What us? There is no us." Jessica closed her eyes and muttered a few words he couldn't hear, but internally he cringed at her direct response.

"...That's not what I meant. I meant he had the chance to run and leave you to die and he didn't." Alex frowned, this might be harder than he originally thought.

"And by that you mean you didn't leave either. He likely decided not to leave you to die, your both all chummy after-all, he has no patience for people like me." Jessica had a dour mood.

"What happened to you? You woke up from that dream and 've been acting different since." Alex still couldn't puzzle out that.

Jessica sealed her eyes shut, she went silent for a second and Alex saw her tightening her eyelids heavily.

"Leave,me,alone! Shutup! Go.....Away!" Jessica's voice gained a shrill quality to it and she covered her ears.

Surprised Alex took a step back.

"I'm not leaving." Alex's frown deepened, they needed to at least be on working terms.

"...not you." Jessica opened her wild eyes.

"What?" Alex frowned, tilting his head, thoroughly confused now.

"Never mind." Jessica tightened her grip on her legs and was shaking.

"Are you alright?" Alex's frown turned to worry.

"Forget it, look, I'll do my part next time. Just leave me alone." Jessica held herself till she stopped shaking, Alex was now deeply concerned.

Alex stood there for a moment, then tried to add something, he was still worried for her, hell he'd be worried for anyone in her condition.

"Do you need some food or something. You need to keep your strength up." Alex tried to keep his voice straight.

"Go.Away...Now." Jessica growled out the words.

"Alright, I'll call you when we're leaving." Alex nodded, turned and walked away before she did something like attack him again.

Alex returned to Sarah and Eian shortly.

"Well looks like it could've gone better." Eian took one look at his face and shrugged.

"Well?" Sarah demanded, Alex's patience took a slight hit at her tone.

"She said she'll do her part next time." Alex spoke deadpanned, Sarah huffed.

"I doubt that, but given it's her I doubt we'll get anything better. Did she say anything about magic?" Sarah shook her head.

Alex remained silent and shook his head, Sarah sighed.

"I'm hungry. Let's eat." Eian changed topics, or he really was just hungry.

After their meal, Alex wrapped a bit of cooked food in one of the smaller packs, it had a rope to both tie it and as a strap.

"Eian man, can you give Jessica this? I don't think she wants to see me right now." Alex asked nicely, she accepted an axe from him so maybe she'd accept food too.

"...Fine. I just hope she doesn't throw it at my face or something." Eian sighed dramatically.

"Thanks." Alex smiled a bit, at least he could joke, then again Jessica might just do it.

He watched as Eian placed the food and told her it was food before quickly making his retreat.

She took the food, but didn't eat it, she slung it on her shoulder like a purse and Alex nodded, he hoped it was progress.

"We ready to keep moving? I don't like it here." Sarah asked.

"Yeah." Eian nodded.

"One sec, man." Alex nodded, but held up an open palm.

He turned to look at Jessica, he gave a quick shout, she got up and approached but kept a small distance still.

"Do better." Sarah seemed to glare at her.

"Let's go." Alex didn't want things to escalate and things were tense as is.

They got moving and about an hour later the forest turned in what seemed to be jungle, with dense shrubs, tall trees and millions of stupid mosquitoes.