A Second Chance

Part 13 - Can I help you?

Mini-Summary: Jay faces criticism for letting Senator Red die and learns about an even bigger terror coming to the city. To prepare for the terror, he starts by getting a new ally.

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I woke up, feeling the day's warmth hit me. 

It's supposed to be weird feeling this good when I failed an important mission yesterday. It's true, I still feel guilt over what happened, but I learned to take failure as opportunity, not a form of lament. I almost left the city and came to the conclusion that the ninja were right, but Mark pulled me away from that train of thought. 

Speaking of Mark, I owned my life to him because he pulled me away from the darkness. He affirmed that the ninja are in the wrong, and none of my actions would change that. He also helped point me to the right direction: I was the only one who could move on, meaning that it was all up to me. 

He also said something about someone else that could be sharing my same thoughts, my same weaknesses, my same detachment - just a different backstory. Maybe I'll find that person and their story. Maybe that person will turn out to be a great ally. After all, two minds is always better than one, given that the minds can help each other...

Come to think of it, this moment is worthy of going in my journal. 

Day 28,

Can you believe it? Almost a month has passed since I arrived in the city. Time flies.

I've had my fair share of victories, defeating the fighters ranked 17th and 14th in The Vipers. But it hasn't come without a cost...I ended up causing the deaths of my SWAT Team and an important Senator. 

If it wasn't for Mark, I would have left the city just like I left Ninjago, but I chose not to. I almost thought that the ninja were right, but luckily, I didn't stray from my path and beliefs. No matter what I do, they're always going to be in the wrong.

I know not to take failures as setbacks, but rather opportunities to improve. Next time, I'll try to finish the fight as fast as possible so that nobody dies. 

This journal is going to be short...this may not be important to the reader, but it's important to me. I've learned that failure isn't losing, it's quitting, and I've never quit until this point: I almost made a big mistake by thinking about leaving the city, but I didn't - huge thanks for Mark for that.

Oh, and I have another rally where I'm going to have to discuss the failure to the public. I'm not exactly sure what to say, but wish me luck!

Sincerely, Jay Walker

Mark walked into the room. 

"You ready?"

"Yeah, no," 

To be honest, I was feeling extremely stressed about the upcoming backlash. Senator Red was well-liked, and his death was sure to cause public outrage.

"Look, you need to brush off the claims, like you did in Ninjago back when you were a ninja and had trouble with your missions," Mark said, trying to cheer me up. 

Right...I shared some of my past missions with him when I stayed in his mansion for a week after he found me. Obviously, I didn't share about the trial back then, but I needed to give him some sort of background about me, so that he knew who he was working with.

I specifically talked about the encounters with The Overlord, Nadhakhan, and Unagami, which I considered to be the most significant events. I also mentioned the Never-Realm, as the idea of traveling to another realm and saving it from a great reign of terror seemed incredibly unrealistic, yet impressive.