⚡~~~~⚡

"I'm sorry, sir," said the butler. "To whom do you wish to speak?"

Jay bit his lip nervously, wanting now to disappear more than ever. He tried again. "Like I said before, I'm here to see Cliff Gordon."

"But he isn't expecting any visitors."

"I know he isn't but please just take me to him."

The butler looked irritated at that. Never before had a random person just demanded from him a meeting with Mr. Gordon and here was a common boy asking him to lead him to his master.

"Look here, boy," he said angrily, "I don't know who you think you are but Cliff Gordon is a celebrity. He doesn't just talk to any city boy that comes waltzing up to his front gates."

The Master of Lightning scowled at the man before relaxing a little. "I'm sure that if you let me see him, this will all make sense. Gordon knows me, I can assure you that."

The man raised an eyebrow as he observed the blue ninja dubiously. "Are you the head of his fanclub?"

Jay snorted. "Not really," he said, chuckling, "but one of my friends does have the potential to be."

Jay was pretty sure that if he could get his father to make Lloyd the head of his fanclub, arrange for him a backstage meet 'n' greet with Fritz Donnegan and personally sign all of Lloyd's Starfarer comics, the blonde munchkin would agree to do Jay's chores for a year. Maybe even two or three!

The butler, however, wasn't a big fan of vague references and didn't know who Jay was talking about. He simply resumed scowling at the boy, preventing him from entering the property. They bickered for a few minutes, leading the Lightning Ninja to finally initiate deal-striking.

Usually, his anxious side would pray thankfully to the heaven for making him unable to stroll Cliff Gordon's piece of land as if it were his father's property (as a matter of fact, it was). He could quickly scurry back home and "complain" to the others of how rude the butler had been resulting in his banishment from the premises.

But something inside him rose against the "crybaby Jay" side and said, "No! No more hiding away and wondering for the rest of your life about what really happened. It's time to be a man! It's time to grab Cliff by the collar and make him spit out the truth!"

This "daredevil Jay" side was new to him but it felt right. It made him feel strong. Independent. It made little sparks of electricity flow through him and all of his doubtful thoughts cowered in front of it.

Who was he? The Master of Lightning! What did that mean? The Master of Impulsiveness! Though not completely spontaneous and careless like Kai but still unpredictable yet wondrous to the onlooker.

That's what lightning was, what his birth mother used to be and what he will be. He would prove to the world that he could accept the truth whether it was harsh or not.

No. More. Hiding.

"I'll make you a deal," Jay proposed, holding up his hands as if to calm down the butler who looked ready to scream hysterically until the Ninjago S.W.A.T team came crashing through the windows – which wouldn't make sense since they were outside and there weren't supposed to be windows floating in mid-air.

He noticed the butler's rage-ridden face ease a little at the curiosity of what this city "hoodlum" had in mind. He stood straight, raising his head expectantly, waiting for Jay to continue.

Jay decided to all-out (not all all-out) disclose the pressure that he had been subjected to bear so that the British servant may take pity on him and let him enter. He fidgeted with his fingers as he began his "tale of woe".

"You see," he spoke, praying all the while that it would work. "I have this friend group back home who are either hoping for an update on things," here, he gestured at his phone, "or are waiting for me to get back."

He paused to see if this comment brought about any change in the disposition of the butler's unammused frown. No such luck. He went on, regardless.

"And if I don't do this then they are willing to kill me and hide my body in the pile of leaves they raked this morning," he muttered, ignoring the horrified look creeping up onto his listener's face.

"After my cold-blooded assassination, they will move far away and will change their identities to form a teenage hobo league so that they don't get arrested for first degree murder before their twenty-first birthdays."

Jay stopped his rather unusual rant, the aftereffect of which grew to nothing more than a petrified and panicked grimace on the poor butler's wrinkled features. Jay pressed his mouth into a thin line and tried to appear innocent.

Time to get ready for the pitying looks.

However, the longer he stood staring hopefully at the horrified man, the more he realized that he had made things worse. Maybe he shouldn't have amplified the unsettling death threat his friends had given him lest he failed.

"Look, I know I sound like a raving lunatic who just escaped from the clutches of colorful Among Us imposters but I really, really need to see Cliff Gordon," he asserted, not sure if it was convincing or not. The butler still looked like he was going to faint from the overdose of nonsense.

Jay carried on, nonetheless. He was running out of time and he needed to make sure that his father didn't have an appointment with his studio or whatever. "The deal is that you let me in so that I can talk to Cliff and if he tells me to leave, you can do the honours of boot-kicking me out of the house. Deal?"

The auburn haired boy held up his hand through the wrought iron bars of the gate, aiming for a handshake to make their deal official. The older man's gaze went down to the raised appendage but instead of shaking it, he opened his mouth to protest.

Before he could utter a single word, a loud call from inside the house deviated his attention from the boy. He didn't respond right away since the wordings were unclear but soon they were repeated.

"Cedric? Cedric, where are my reading glasses?"

Jay's breath caught in his throat as he recognized the disembodied voice echoing from inside. Who wouldn't recognize the voice of their favourite movie star, especially after hearing them on TV for most of their leisure time.

The butler, or Cedric as Jay made the connection, yelled back, "Just a moment, sir!" before facing the Master of Lightning once more. He sighed at the suddenly appearing worried and nervous look on the boy's face and gave in. His master could deal with him on his own terms.

"Alright, you can come in," he muttered, his accent sounding thicker and more prominent now that his tone was an annoyed one. "But I promise you, Mr. Gordon's not going to like this at all."

Jay didn't know about that but he was pretty sure that Mr. Gordon was going to need therapeutic treatment after an uneasy encounter with his estranged son. Not that Jay himself wasn't in the need for it.

He remembered everything from the lawn to the terrace the last time he had been here with Nya and the others. It was here that they had discovered that the key to kill the pirate genie was the venom of an enormous Tiger Widow.

He said a quick prayer as he stepped into the house that was rightfully his to own once Cliff left for the afterlife. He quietly followed Cedric through the hall, stopping when the butler rushed into a room and grabbed a pair of glasses.

A smile tugged at his lips as he noticed various Fritz Donnegan items and merchandise adorning every possible corner of the room. Clearly, his father was a big fan of his own work.

Jay wouldn't call it egotistic since it wasn't wrong to appreciate oneself. It was a habit that should be encouraged especially for teens of today who insulted themselves more than the "bullies" and "mean girls" the books are always mentioning.

"This way," Cedric mumbled, walking over to the door that led to the study. Of course, Jay had explored every inch of the house when he had come here. When his father had . . . died. He knew where every room was located, where every door led – except for what every button or switch did. He still needed to remember those.

Jay felt his hands shaking as his "barriers of calm" came crashing down. He fidgeted nervously with his fingers while Cedric knocked on the door to the study. This was it. The moment he and his friends – mostly his friends – had been waiting for.

If he died in his birth father's house from over-anxiety, he promised himself that he would return from the Departed Realm and haunt the juice out of the other Ninja for putting him in this position.

He inhaled deeply and quietly mumbled the song his parents used to sing to him in order to help him relax. After he told Nya about it, she sang it to him every time he would have a panic attack. Her voice made it sound ten times soothing.

"My love, how I'm pained,
To leave you here alone,
You'll suffer at the hands of those,
Who'd rather burn you than see you grow."

After getting permission, Cedric turned the handle of the door and opened it just a crack as if to shield Jay from his purpose. The butler turned around and mouthed at him to wait here before stepping in and softly closing the door behind him.

Jay was left alone in the hall, free to raise his voice just a little bit, his frantic nerves settling down by the effect of those words.

"One more moment,
One more chance,
To see your face again.

One more second,
One more kiss,
You are loved remember this."

⚡~~~~⚡

"Come in, Cedric," Cliff muttered as the older man entered the study, the case containing the glasses tight in his grasp. The actor himself was seated at his desk, a piece of paper in his hand.

He looked exhausted and drained and Cedric almost suggested that he take a break. He didn't, though. He knew his master would simply tell him that his job was more important than his own health. The argument would never continue on longer than that.

"Your glasses, sir," the butler stated, shifting to place said item on the desk littered with stationery and papers.

"Thank you, Cedric," his master uttered distractedly. He gestured to an empty plate on the desk, ordering Cedric to take it with him to which the servant obliged.

In his peripheral vision, Cliff could see the butler still standing there, tapping on the plate and no doubt waiting for him to be noticed. Sighing, Cliff raised his eyes to meet Cedric's, his eyebrow arched. "Yes, Cedric? Is anything wrong?"

"Actually," began the servant, his gaze shifting to the door before resting back on his master. "There's someone outside who wants to meet you."

Cliff furrowed his eyebrows, his forehead lined with creases. He set aside the paper in his hand, straightening his pencils as well. "Really? Who is it?"

"I do not know," Cedric replied truthfully, his hands behind his back as he explained. "Some boy in his late teenage years. He says it is important to see you. Put up quite an argument at the gates."

The actor resumed the silent reading of the movie script he had been contemplating earlier, a chuckle escaping his lips. "Maybe just a fan here for an autograph. Send him in."

Cedric huffed haughtily as he nodded and went to let the "hoodlum" in. He was hoping that Mr. Gordon might reject meeting the boy so that he could do the boot-kicking but sometimes things don't go the way you want.

Cliff's lips moved without a sound as he memorized every line in the script, his reading glasses now perched on his nose. There was the creaking of the door, some rustling and inaudible words from Cedric before silence resumed it's control.

Cliff ran a hand through his black locks, getting up from his chair and twisting around to face the newcomer. As Cedric had mentioned, the boy looked to be in his late teens.

He was not exceedingly tall but was only a few inches short from Cliff, auburn hair adorned his head, clothes hung from body in varying shades of blue, freckles dotted his cheeks and nose and bright, electrifying blue eyes peered back at him with a . . . scared expression?

"Hello there," Cliff spoke up, breaking up the silence, a friendly smile decorating his tired face and an amusing twinkle in his gray eyes. "It seems you have disturbed my usually calm and conserved butler."

It was impossible to remain uneasy in Cliff's presence when he spoke reassuringly to everyone as if they were all scared little children lost to the horrors of the world.

So, even though Jay knew that this was the man who had abandoned him and he had just politely scolded him of irritating his servant, he managed a small smile. "I'm sorry–" he began but was cut off.

"Oh, no need," Cliff muttered, flapping his dismissively, his smile increasing to a grin. "Cedric needed a little disruption in his straight forward life anyway."

"Humph!" came the butler's reply from the door who had taken into his head that he wasn't going to leave till this city boy left his master alone in peace.

Jay chuckled, not because of the joke on Cedric but because of the similarities he could see in his father and himself. His nose was pointed like his, his face shape was also the same, his joking smile and way of speaking was no different either.

Jay wondered why no one had commented before on how similar he looked to Cliff Gordon. Maybe no one thought that him being the world famous actor's son was even a possibility.

"What's your name, kid?"

The Master of Lightning hesitated before revealing his name as Jay, his own smile widening to match his father's grin. However, it dropped as soon as he saw that something was wrong.

The actor's sunny disposition vanished, replaced by a face twisted in confusion. Anxiety came raining down on Jay as all the warmth packed its bags and left. His hands felt clammy, his lip-biting habit on full display and his voice wavering.

"You're . . . different," Cliff mumbled, his finger rubbing his chin as he slowly advanced towards the boy. "I don't know why but you remind me of someone."

Jay couldn't tell if he should be excited or terrified that things were already taking a turn to the purpose he was here for. "What do you mean?" he mumbled, wanting to delay his confession.

Cliff was now face to face with Jay, completely oblivious of the fact that his son was right there in front of him. The irony was putting Jay on edge as he repeated the two words in his head.

It's me.

It's me.

It's me.

If he had been any other person, he would've been creeped out by the way Cliff Gordon was trying peer into his soul. But he knew what the matter was. He knew it perfectly. And it's true: everything is so exciting when you know more.

Cliff shook his head when he couldn't make the connection, a sheepish look on his face. "I'm sorry to make this awkward, pal," he said, clapping Jay on the shoulder. "Your face just rings a bell."

Maybe he did succeed in recalling someone. He just didn't want to show it. Jay could tell because of the disappearance of the amused shine in his father's eyes.

"I almost thought that you were . . ." Cliff mumbled, not wanting Jay to really hear his words. He trailed off as if he found it unimportant and not worth discussion. "Anyway," he announced, trying to redirect the topic to something else. "I'm sure you would like an autograph otherwise I see no reason–"

"You almost thought that I was who?" Jay whispered in a monotone voice, not wanting his only chance of disclosing the truth to slip away.

"No one," Cliff smiled, preventing the awkward conversation from proceeding any further. "Forget about it." He tore off a piece of paper from a writing pad, running his pen over it in a signature.

Jay wasn't going to quit, however. He could feel the impatient movement of Cedric behind him and was worried the butler might go overboard with kicking him out of the house later on.

"You almost thought that I was . . . Jayden?"

There. He had said it. The rest was up to fate. He couldn't help but cringe as Cliff turned to stone mid-way in signing the paper as if all his senses had frozen. He slowly raised his head, giving Jay a glance that made him nervous all over again.

"Sir?" Cedric called out, his tone laced with worry.

"How . . . how do you know about Jayden?" Cliff whispered, his voice shaking and Jay almost felt sorry for him. He removed his glasses with a trembling hand, looking wide-eyed at the boy who was now responsible for his increased heart rate.

Jay gave an almost unnoticeable nod, his face expressionless. "I am Jayden."

Okay, okay, okay. Give the poor man a smile. He looks like he's having a heart attack. Let's hope Cedric doesn't smash the dang plate on my head. Say something, Jay. Say something!

"Hi, Dad," Jay mustered up the strength to say, wincing as the plate behind him didn't attack his head but went crashing down to the floor followed by Cedric's horrified gasp.

⚡~~~~⚡

Before anything else, the song in this chapter is One More Moment by Reinaeiry. She's awesome!!!!!

Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter. I still don't know why y'all even read this junk that I call my writing.

Have some candy! 🍭🍬🍭🍬