AN: I've been rewatching GX recently and felt that, there was no way that after one duel Jaden would be alright, that he could come to terms with and move on from everything that happened while he was the Supreme King. Those events are traumatizing and going to linger on for a long time in his mind.
Edit: Made a few edits at the prompting of a review.
It wasn't the first time Jaden had woken up in tears, a scream dying in his throat as he clenched the bed sheets in a death grip, his body soaked in sweat and trembling from the night terrors. It was just the first time that Jesse had born witness to one.
It was the shuffling and rustling of sheets that first roused him from his sleep, followed shortly but the soft, unintelligible mumblings.
"Jay?" he asked, rubbing an eye sleepily as he sat up. "You ok over there? Jay?" A soft coo came from beside Jaden's head as Winged Kuriboh materialized, looking down at Jaden with sad eyes, then back at Jesse, as if asking him to help Jaden.
Jaden's face was twisted in pain, tears streaking down his cheeks as he held the sheets tightly. He shifted around, twisting and writhing in his sleep. "No, no." His voice was strained and laced with pain and fear. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
Jesse felt his stomach knot as he looked at him, he'd never seen Jaden like this before, of course, Jaden was always good at hiding things too. "Jaden, Jaden wake up," he said as he grabbed his shoulder, shaking him gently. "Come on Jay wake up."
The brown haired boy gave a strangled cry as it eyes flew opened, flailing against the sheets in a blind panic.
"Easy Jay easy, it's just me. Just me." He kept his voice soft and gentle as he held Jaden's shoulder, easing him into a sitting position once he was calm.
Winged Kuriboh materialized again next to Jaden, chirping comfortingly as it snuggled against his cheek and shortly thereafter Ruby Carbuncle joined him, purring softly as she wove around him.
For a few minutes Jaden sat there, staring at his hands as he held the edge of the sheets, heart hammering in his chest, the look of fear still plastered on his face. Slowly he looked up at Jesse, who looked at him with a worried expression.
"What happened?" he asked after a moment.
"I-" A lump formed in his throat as he tried to speak and it took several long moments to force it out so he could speak again. "I can still hear them Jesse, all the screams of everyone I-" he was cut off by a choked sob as he gripped the sheets tighter, tears blurring his vision. "All those people, everyone I hurt, all the people I k-killed. I can still hear them."
Jesse's eyes widened slowly as he listened to Jaden, this was the first he'd heard about all this. "Jay how-how long has this been happenin?"
"Ever since I got free from, that," he said. "I thought, I thought I was passed this, that I'd gotten over all this. But I'm not." His hands shook violently and tears splashed onto the sheets in front of him.
"Aw Jay, why didn't ya ever tell me?" asked Jesse, moving to hook an arm around Jaden's shoulder.
His shoulders hunched as he bowed his head, "I thought, I thought it would make me look weak. And I was afraid that if you knew, if you knew you'd hate me."
"Now tha's just not true, ah could never hate you Jaden you know that," he said, rubbing his shoulder gently. "An I'd never think yer weak, even with all this. Yer one of the strongest people ah know. You've fought through more than most people will in their entire lives. This ain't weakness." He placed his other hand on Jaden's to calm his trembling, slipping a few fingers between his carefully.
"But it's all my fault, I caused so much pain and death, and now I can't stop reliving it. Every night I relive it."
"But that wasn't you, not this you anyways, that was the Supreme King. He did all those things not you."
"That's still me, two sides of the same coin remember? He's me and I'm him. I let it take me and didn't even try to fight back. And then it used me to do all those horrible things, to hurt all those people, to hurt my friends." He shook his head, "How-how could they forgive me so easily?"
"Because they are your friends Jay, an they know you, that's why. An, that's how I know that you aren't like that any more, that you're different from then."
Jaden looked up at him with bleary eyes, "What do you mean?"
A soft smile graced Jesse's lips and he raised a hand to brush away the tears from Jaden's cheeks. "Because, you feel guilty, and you feel regret for everything that happened. The other you wouldn'ta felt any of that. I wasn't there so I don't rightly know everything that happened, but I know you're the one in control now and that you'd never do anything like that again. You're a good person Jay, don't you forget that." He hooked his arms around Jaden and pulled him close to his chest, stroking his back gently. He knew the events had weighed heavily upon Jaden, but he'd never known just how heavily; every time he asked, Jaden insisted he was fine and brushed aside the topic. In hindsight that should have been a give away that something was wrong, but it had always been a sore spot so he never pressed the subject in case he pressed to far.
He pressed a kiss to his forehead before Jaden's head came to rest on the crook of his neck. "Just please, don't hide stuff like this from me. I wanna help you, but only if ya let me. I want to help you, just like you want to help everyone else. It doesn't have to be a one way street, you deserve help as much as anyone else in this world. You've given so much, I think it's about time you let the world give back to you."
Jaden's fingers moved to grip Jesse's shirt tightly as he sobbed, still trembling in his arms. "I'm s-sorry Jesse," he stuttered.
The small duel spirits snuggled closer to Jaden, cooing and chirping happily in comforting tones, trying their best to make him feel better.
He rubbed Jaden's back softly as he held him close, letting the boy sob into his shoulder and cling to him tightly. "It'll be ok Jay, I promise it will."