Jessica woke from her daze, feeling a chill on her cheek. She raised a hand and wiped away her tears with her sleeve, trying not to look at the concerned gazes of the other three.
"Damn it, don't look at me like that, like I'm some helpless little girl! You damned men, don't treat me like I'm weak, and don't think you can control me again!" Jessica shouted. But soon, she covered her face again, parting her fingers to reveal her eyes. "Don't take it personally. I'm not talking about you. I mean that damned sadist, Purple Man."
"It's all right." Riley gently put an arm around her shoulders. "You're a victim. Breaking down and crying are perfectly normal. We understand completely, and you don't have to hide it."
Jessica's expression turned distant again, as though she had remembered something. Quill asked curiously, "Did you see him?"
"You mean that black sun?" Jessica pursed her lips and hesitated before saying, "If you mean those visions you see like dreams when you're asleep, then yes, I saw him."
"What did he say?"
"He didn't say anything. It seemed like he couldn't speak." Jessica shook her head, looking confused. "But I instinctively felt that I could trust him, so I told him my story, about..."
Jessica took a deep breath, still seeming unable to say the words properly. This had once been the pain buried deepest in her heart.
"About being kidnapped, abused mentally and physically, and everything I went through during the apocalypse... I said so much. I rambled like a soccer mom bragging about her kid. God, it's a good thing he couldn't talk. How else could he have endured all my complaining?"
Jessica covered her face, sounding as though she were blaming herself. "He was kind of like a