She was back in the woods again.

Back with the girl from Providence.

"I warned you."

She held up her hands to show she still didn't have a weapon.

The white-hot burn of a blaster at point-blank range, and she was falling to the ground. Tasting dirt in her mouth. Choking on it.

I can't breathe!

Moist dirt turned to dry sand in her mouth. Sand that filled her lungs, too – as a stinging wind blasted her from every angle. Thousands of little needles stinging every inch of her as she lay helpless. Paralyzed.

Harsh sunlight blazed down on her. She was standing out in the middle of the desert again. Staring at the shimmering outline of an oasis on the horizon.

No. It's a mirage….

Worse than a mirage… it's a trap…

But her legs carried her there anyway, even as her mind kept screaming to run in any other direction.

Back at the well again. Drinking from the canteen – just as she had before. The woman hitting her in the face with the same canteen again. The other villagers joining in the attack.

It all hurt even worse than it had the first time. Every blow hit harder. She found herself spitting out blood and even a few teeth. She tried to scream for them to stop – but she had no voice.

The attack turned even more brutal. They pulled her hair out of its braid and began tearing handfuls out by the roots. They were tearing at her uniform, too – reducing it to tatters.

And this time when the man held her over the mouth of the well, he threw her down.

All the way down to the bottom, where there was no light or air.

But then she was standing at the edge of the shadows in Providence again. Watching the burning.

Only she wasn't the same as before. She was bloodied and bruised. The uniform she had worn so proudly was in shreds.

She wanted to back away into darkness – where nobody could see her. But her feet wouldn't move. They were… rooted in the ground somehow…

And then she heard the rumble of thunder and saw the flash of lightning. Everyone else began to scatter as the wind and the rain began to lash them all, but she still couldn't move. Couldn't do anything but endure the full wrath and fury of the storm. Would it be wind or flood that swept her away first?

Did it matter?

Something hit her in the back, forcing her down to her hands and knees. But she didn't land in water or mud.

Ashes and concrete. The heat of fire - and choking, acrid smoke.

Where am I?

She struggled to get to her feet. Her body was still bruised and broken – the remains of her uniform offering little to no protection from the fire.

Fires, she realized. Instead of one large bonfire, there were dozens of fires burning all around her.

She wasn't in Providence. Or Sand Town. This looked like… a military base…

Not one of Dread's – but it didn't look like any of the Resistance bases she'd seen on the monitors, either. This looked… completely alien, but oddly familiar at the same time.

"Youth Leader Chase," Steely words that matched the grip on both her shoulders. A Bio-Mech, spinning her around to face the voice who had called her name.

Overunit Wilson, who had praised her so highly for her conduct in Sand Town.

"No. You no longer deserve that honor." The Overunit's words were cold and clipped – and she found herself shivering again – even with those fires burning all around her.

"You don't even deserve to be addressed as Cadet Jennifer," the Overunit continued. "You have allowed yourself to be corrupted by those who oppose the will of the Machine. And so, you must be purged."

She was paralyzed again. Helpless as the Bio-Mech tossed her into the heart of the nearest fire.

It was only after she was surrounded by the fire that she could move again. But all she could do was thrash uselessly against flames she could never hope to extinguish.

And scream. And scream. And scream again.

"JENNIFER!"

She woke with a start to find the Captain – Jon- grasping her shoulders.

"It's all right, Jennifer. You're safe here, remember?"

"What…?" She was gasping for breath, her heart hammering in her chest as she looked up to see the others hovering close by. Jon was the only one in uniform. The others were in T-shirts and shorts.

"You had a nightmare." Jon's soft words brought her focus back to him.

"A nightmare…?" she echoed.

"A bad dream that frightened you. Haven't you ever had a nightmare before?"

She hesitated. She had had nightmares before – more than a few times over the years. But she'd never talked about them to anyone. Nobody talked about dreams – good or bad – in the Dread Youth. Talking about dreams, just admitting to having any sort of dream – good or bad – that was a sure way to get sent to the Psi-Techs for "re-conditioning." And no good cadet or Youth Leader ever wanted to experience that.

"Not like that…" she finally hedged. But wait – how did he know-

"How did you know that I had this… nightmare?" A horrifying thought struck her. "Can you read my mind?" She tried to pull away, but Jon held her fast.

"No, but nobody here had to. You were screaming."

"Screaming…?" she echoed again. She was certain she'd never done that in her sleep before.

"Loud enough for the rest of us to hear in our quarters." Hawk spoke up.
That's why we all came to help."

"To help…?"

"In case I couldn't get you to wake up."

"And it was looking really dicey for a moment there," Hawk added.

She realized that Jon still had both his hands on her shoulders. His grip on her wasn't tight enough to be painful, but it still reminded her too much of being in the grasp of the Bio-Mech. "Let go of me!"

"Promise me that you'll stay where you are, and I will."

She didn't want to, but every promise made with them had been honored so far, so she did.

"All right, then." He released her but didn't move away. "Now we need to talk about it – and about what to do if it happens again."

"If it happens again?!" She didn't think she could stand reliving that a second time… or more.

"I'm not saying it will happen again," Jon was speaking to her softly again. "But I can't promise you that it won't. I can only give you the best advice I can – which is talking to us about it. Talking about our fears and nightmares is a good way to release them from their hold on us."

That sounded too good to be true. "No. You just want to know so you have a weapon to use against me!"

Like the Overunits did in their interrogations. She wanted to run – or at least back as far away from him as she could – but her promise held her in place.

"I keep telling you - nobody here wants to hurt you in any way. We're just trying to keep you from hurting yourself – or anyone else."

It was only then that she noticed the blood trickling from his nose. Did I do that?

Hawk apparently noticed it at the same time she did. "Jon – your-"

"I know, Hawk-" Jon interrupted, bringing the back of one hand up to wipe away the red rivulet.

"It's not that bad. If it doesn't stop in a moment, I'll let you take over while I deal with it."

His eyes focused on hers again. "It wasn't just the screaming. You were thrashing around, too. Gave me a nasty little blow there just before I finally got you to wake up."

She barely managed not to cringe at that. In the Dread Youth, the only thing worse than the punishment that surely awaited her was cringing or flinching in expectation of the blow.

"I'm not going to punish you for that. And neither will anyone else here."

That definitely sounded too good to be true. "Why not?"

"Because you were still in the hold of that nightmare and didn't know what you were doing. No one here is ever going to fault you for something like that."

She could barely begin to comprehend that. Lack of intent didn't matter in the Dread Youth – whatever the injury or mistake was, punishment always followed.

"All I'm going to do is ask you what had you so frightened – to make you scream and struggle like that. Because I honestly think you'll feel better after telling us."

She hesitated.

"If you don't remember, that's okay, too. Sometimes people really don't remember what they dreamed after what's called a night terror…"

He was offering her a way out, and she was tempted to take it.

"But I have a feeling that you do remember, don't you?"

She found herself nodding.

"Tell us." The soft words weren't a command or a request. They were something oddly in-between.

It all came out easier and with fewer tears than she thought it would.

Not that it didn't hurt – or that she didn't cry. Or that she didn't sometimes struggle with finding the right words.

But it felt like something… released inside her somehow as she spoke and they all just listened – without interrupting or prodding her.

She started to realize that this was what feeling safe felt like. A far cry from the security of the life she had known in the Dread Youth

She got through the part about burning in the fire… "…and that's when you woke me up."

There was a moment of silence. Just enough for her to suddenly feel… what was the word?

Embarrassed.

She felt herself shrink back against the pillow… as far away as she could move from them without getting to her feet and running.

They just looked back at her with that expression she'd never seen on another person's face - until she met these men. Compassion… that was the word Jon had taught her earlier.

"Makes sense," Jon said.

"Makes a lot of sense," Hawk concurred.

So, she wasn't insane? Her mind wasn't weak or defective – in need of re-conditioning?

The questions sounded ridiculous the moment they tumbled out of her mouth, but nobody laughed at or mocked her in any way.

"No. You're just someone who's been through some intense and life-changing experiences in the last few days, and whose subconscious is reacting accordingly," Jon told her.

"And everyone else in this room has experienced something like that at some point in our lives," Hawk added.

"Even the big tough muscle here." Scout smiled as he elbowed Tank, and the big man cuffed him playfully on his ear.

She found herself chuckling at that without being entirely sure why. Was it just the idea that Tank had ever had nightmares or been afraid of anything? That was… funny… somehow, wasn't it?

"It's just one of the more difficult parts of being human," Jon told her. "But if you'll stick with us, I promise that you have so many better parts to learn and experience as well."

He hadn't broken a promise to her yet. Neither had any of the others.

Still, she had only known them a few days. And something about this new life still felt too good to be true…

"And I want you to remember one thing, every time you go to sleep."

"What?"

"You've already been through the fire and come out the other side."

Strange words. She wasn't entirely sure she believed them. And yet, they were oddly… soothing.

A new wave of fatigue washed over her. Why did she suddenly feel so tired again? Was it just still not having her strength back from the heatstroke?

She was sliding back down into the softness of sheets and pillow… vaguely hearing Jon say something about at least one of them staying there while she slept…

''… for as long as you need us to."