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Tracking down Jay had proved to be a difficult task, Kai and Nya had spent close to half a year with almost no leads. Despair had almost started to settle in when they heard a tale that had sounded promising. A villager who had traveled to sell his wares at the town Kai and Nya were staying at currently had told of a mysterious man that had visited his village and wielded lightning to slay a wild beast troubling the small village. The man wore a kasa hat and a mask to conceal his features. He gave no name and accepted food supplies as payment before departing without a stay.
“This has to be him,” Nya said to Kai once the villager had given them directions to his home village, “It’s the only lead that has come even close”.
“I agree,” Kai replied, “Who else could be using lighting.” This lead had given them a renewed sense of hope, but also raised a new problem that the two of them had previously avoided discussing. But Kai was going to bring it up now that they would have confront it.
“What are we going to do if it really is Jay.”
Nya stayed silent for a moment before replying, “We will bring him home.”
“Even if he’s unwilling.” Kai had heard about what went down between Nya and Jay when the two had met at the Tournament of the Sources. About Jays apparent amnesia and his shattered goodness. Kai wishes he could have been there, some foolish hope in him saying that he could have done something to make Jay come to his senses and end this nightmare before it even began.
A grim look passed over his sister’s face. “We will bring him home.” Nya repeated with a sense of finality.
Kai simply nodded. They would bring him home, no matter what.
…
The lead had proved to be more than credible, every village that Kai and Nya passed through after learning the direction of where the man had left from the original village told the same tale. About a man who arrived and gave no name and was described as wielding lightning with his bare hands. Kai and Nya felt their hope grow with each village where this tale was confirmed, but also their worry as more troubling things were revealed. From the original rumor they had assumed that Jay was performing services for pay, a wandering mercenary, but it appeared this was not wholly the case.
The fourth village that they visited told that the man had threatened to use violence unless his demands were met. The villagers, afraid of the lighting crackling about his body, had given into his threats and spoke about him with fear but also confusion as the man had not demanded any gold and only taken a few days supplies of food. From that village on the man’s tracks had started to include equal amounts of acts of benevolence and robbery. This only led to Kai and Nya intensifying their hunt, desperate to find Jay and stop whatever quest he was on before he did something he would truly regret once he gained his memories back. They slept only a few hours a night to catch up to Jay who seemingly had a few days lead on them but who seemed to move with great haste from place to place making closing the distance with him difficult.
In the seventh village they found what they had feared. The village elder showed them a recently dug grave with no markings and told them of how a stranger had arrived at their village and overheard the villagers complaining of highwaymen disrupting trade with the next village over. The man had wandered into the woods surrounding the village without a word and emerged a few hours later dragging a charred corpse with him. He threw the corpse on the ground at the center of the village and claimed him to be the leader of the bandit group and demanded his usual payment.
“You have to understand we made no such request of him,” The village elder pleaded “This violence was unnecessary and we were afraid of him so we gave him what he wanted to get rid of him as quickly as possible.”
After assuring the village elder that he was not in trouble Kai and Nya stood in front of the unmarked grave in silence.
“He can’t be blamed for his actions, he’s not in a right state of mind,” Nya said suddenly. “He needs help and only we can give it to him.”
Kai knew that these words were not meant to convince him but reassure herself and said nothing in return.
They departed the village in silence with a new and ironclad resolve.
…
A week later they arrived at another village where the panicked villagers told them that they had been the target of armed robbery by a strange man a couple of hours earlier. They pointed Kai and Nya to a nearby mountain range and told them the man had disappeared in its direction. They thanked the villagers Kai adding the village to the mental list of places that they would revisit later to pay for whatever damages Jay had caused in his rampage and departed in a haste.
Following Jay’s trail up the mountainside had proven easy; he must not have had any idea he was being followed and had not bothered to hide his path. In a few hours they saw a figure traversing up the mountain. Kai started to follow the same path that the figure ahead was using while Nya followed a different path to get ahead of Jay’s trail. While Kai was traversing the mountainside, dark clouds started to gather overhead, the weather was taking a turn for the worse, but it would be fine, for soon this would be over he thought.
At some point Jay had apparently seen Kai following him as he started to move faster and periodically glance behind himself towards Kai. Kai feared that Jay would try to get away, but he soon stopped in the middle of place where the path turned into a larger clearing on the shoulder of the mountain and stood with his arms crossed waiting for Kai. When Kai stepped onto the clearing Nya did the same on the opposite side closing Jay in with no way out in either direction. Jay seemed not surprised by Nya’s presence and must have seen her also from his higher vantage point at some point.
“Jay, we’ve come to help you,” Nya said, “We need you to come with us.”
Standing this close to the man they had been tracking for so long was a bizarre feeling, of course Kai knew it had to have been Jay the whole time but some part of him hoped that it wouldn’t be and that these acts were committed by a completely different person. But it was unmistakably Jay even through the kasa hat and mask Kai could tell but something was still off here, the last time Kai had seen Jay was before the merge and this Jay standing before him had a completely different air about him. Logically he knew from what he was told that Jay had changed but seeing him up close himself it was still jarring. Jay was standing now with his back towards the mountain with Kai to his left and Nya to his right in front of him. He was hard in the eyes with his back straight and his hand resting on the hilt of his katana. Little spasm of lightning traversed about his body indicating his readiness to strike, a coiled viper. Kai and Nya had discussed their plan weeks earlier, they would try to reason with Jay but if words came to nothing violence was not off the table. This was for his own good, they would bring him home.
“No,” Jay said simply, “I’m going to need you to leave.”
“You need help Jay, you’ve lost your memories and we can help you regain them,” Kai said. “We know you don’t believe us, but you need to trust us; we’re not going to hurt you.”
“I do believe you,” Jay said, “and I know why you came.”
Nya blinked in surprise, “You do? Then come with us Jay please,” she pleaded. “Ras has told you nothing but lies.”
“No,” Jay replied again. “Jay Walker is dead, you should leave. Your quest to save that man is over. It ended in failure a long time ago.”
“Huh?” Nya exclaimed, shocked by what Jay had said, “What are you talking about?”
“That man is gone, washed clean off the slate of my body and in his stead, I grew up. Like a lotus emerging from the murky water, clean and pristine.”
“Is this something Ras told you?” Kai said confused and frustrated at what Jay was saying. “You can’t trust him Jay he has told you nothing but lies.”
“Ras did lie to me, I know now to not place my trust in him,” Jay replied. “You were clearly acquainted with my past life, otherwise you would not be here. The Tournament is over and there would be no need for you to try to confuse me further. But this has nothing to do with Ras, he simply used me, and I used him in return.”
“Jay you're alive, stop saying these horrible things…,” Nya said before being cut off by Jay.
“Don’t call me by that name, that karma is settled, that debt repaid, those bonds severed! I said at the Tournament that I would hate you forever and that has not changed, I’m being extremely courteous right now. Leave and build a memorial for that dead man, lay him to rest like I have. Be done with it and leave me alone.”
Jay’s vitriol had completely stunned Nya.
Kai could not believe his ears; Jay thought his pre-merge self as some sort of separate entity from his current self. He was clearly off his rocker and in bigger need of help than they had realized.
“Listen to me Jay,” Kai said slowly trying to be as clear as possible, “your soul has been shattered, the wolf masks Ras made you wear…”
He couldn’t speak for long before Jay interrupted him, “Enlightened, not shattered. I’ve lived my whole life in a fugue, desperately trying to claw back some semblance of an identity, to reclaim some meaning and being used by others all the while. First by the Administration then by Ras. Until I put on the mask with the wolfs likeness and heard the gong. All my fear, doubt and hesitation crumbled leaving behind only a will and a desire. To finally become the master of my own destiny and no longer live in anyone's shadow. This is the enlightenment I gained from Ras. He used me, but I also used all he gave me and became more complete for it, in this exchange I think Ras is the loser and I the winner.”
Kai could only gape while Jay went on his insane spiel, but while Jay was monologuing, he noticed something glimmering on his chest.
“And here you are,” Jay continued, “the third devil come to use me, tame me and cage me to the shadow of a dead man. And I refuse, I won’t be controlled any longer!”
“If that’s what you really think then why are you wearing his initials?” Kai said pointing to two charms that were hanging off Jays chest with the letters J and W engraved on them.
Jay took his arm off the hilt of his katana and grasped the charms in hand, “It’s a memento to the honored dead. After all he died so I could be born, it’s the greatest sacrifice one can make, and I honor it.”
This finally caused Nya to snap out of her stupor. “Jay please, you are my yin…” she said in desperation. This caused Jay to pause in his ranting and release the charms from his clutch. Instead he pushed his kasa up and mask down to reveal his face for the first time since the conversation began. The face underneath was clearly Jay, but also not. His expression of completely seriousness was so unlike Jay, lips downturned without even a hint of mischief in his eyes.
“I need you to look at me,” Jay said, “and take me seriously when I say this, there is nothing left of that man, look at my face and tell me that this face and his face are the same. You wish to kill me to bring back someone who is departed, or worse for me to come with you to play some macabre theatre where I pretend to be someone I am not. That would be nothing but horror and would bring you no relief or closure. You’re here because Jay Walker meant a lot to you, he carved his name and his existence on the face of the world, such that he is remembered even after death. I will do the same, I will make a name for myself and carve a scar on the universe so I will never be forgotten.”
Kai steeled himself and said “Whether you want to come with us or not is out of your hands. You’ve proved to be a threat to the people around you and you need to be apprehended for that reason alone.” The time for talk seemed to be closing, and soon action would have to be taken.
“You’re talking about those villages? I simply took what I needed to survive because I have the strength to do so. This power is proof that heaven has blessed me, it speaks of my right to conquest. Why else would some be blessed with elemental powers and others spurned if they do not have the sanction to do as they will. And I will use this sanction to create my eternal name and not let you stop me,” Jay said as he pulled his mask back up and lowered his kasa.
Nya drew her trident from her back at the time as Kai did the same to his katana. “Jay you’re coming with us,” she said darkly.
“And now you show your true face, you could have saved a lot of time if you just attacked me right away,” Jay retorted.
Thunder rumbled overheard in the dark as the trio stood still for a moment before Jay made the first move by drawing his katana in flash and lunging for Nya. Nya quickly raised her trident to block the attack, but it was a feint as Jay struck at Kai instead. Kai blocked the surprise attack with his katana but failed to notice Jay lifting his hand up. Thunder rumbled as a bolt of lightning struck at the man engulfing him and Kai through their linked swords in flash of electricity. Kai fell to the ground spasming and convulsing. Jay quickly slipped past Kais convulsing body down the path as Nya yelled her brothers name in shock. She lunged to hold him through the aftereffects of the lightning strike. While holding her brothers spasming body she couldn’t help the frustration and anger from their failure from bubbling over. The scream she let out was drowned out by the intensifying wind and sounds of thunder.