Here's the next major chapter of the Jayden Arc! For this arc, I'm setting up a constant stream of surprises and twists that I'm sure will keep you intrigued. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!

April 4, X791

Spiral, Sakura, Kagura and Flora were all shocked when Jason told them he doesn't remember them.

"What do you mean 'you don't remember anything'?" Kagura asked.

"I… I can't remember anything beyond this morning." Jason said.

Sakura started sniffing Jason which made him feel uncomfortable.

"Uh… Could you not do that, please?" Jason asked.

"You don't smell like Jason." Sakura said. "Spiral, you're a human lie detector. Is he an imposter?"

"He's been telling the truth the whole time." Spiral said.

"Check again!" Sakura said. "He has to be lying! He can't be Jason!"

"But I am Jason!" Jason shouted.

"Sakura, he's telling the truth!" Spiral said. "Maybe your nose isn't working!"

"Maybe YOU'RE not working!" Sakura said. "Have you ever considered that?"

"Will you two stop it?" Kagura demanded.

Sakura and Spiral fell silent and turned their attention to Kagura.

"Something clearly isn't right here." Kagura said. "You say he doesn't smell like Jason." Kagura pointed at Sakura, then at Spiral. "And you say that he thinks he is Jason. Don't either of you find this a little odd?"

"Now that you mention it, this IS really odd." Spiral said, placing his fingers over his chin. "Let's head back outside. I think I have an idea."

Sakura let go of Jason and she, Kagura, Spiral and Flora jumped out the second-story window. The four of them quickly hid within the hedge maze in the backyard so they wouldn't be spotted by possible guards.

"Sorry we had to take a sudden leave." Spiral said. "But I think the Lexus's are hiding something."

"I have a hunch that this probably involves Jason's great grandfather." Kagura surmised.

"If there's one thing being a guild wizard has taught me, it's that rich people always keep their secrets close." Spiral said. "Close enough to be able to keep their eyes on it at all times."

Spiral stomped his foot against the ground and he felt the sonic wave reverberate throughout the entirety of the estate's property.

"… There's some sort of underground bunker." Spiral said. "And the entrance is at the center of this hedge maze."

Spiral ran off through the hedge maze with the girls following his lead.

They arrived at the center of the hedge maze, but there appeared to be nothing out of the ordinary in sight. It just looked like a simple garden with a birdbath and a sundial pedestal in the middle of it.

"Where is the entrance?" Flora asked.

Spiral walked over to the sundial and punched the pedestal, using his magic to amplify the force. This pushed the sundial to reveal a stairway leading underground.

"Found it." Spiral said.

The four of them walked down the stairs and as they got deeper underground, the darker it got within the stairwell. Sakura took out a light stick, which is a magic device that does exactly as it says, and lit it up so the group could see what was in front of them. They kept moving forward until they hit a wooden door with a lock on it.

"Stand back." Kagura said as she stepped in front of them.

With one swipe of her sheathed sword, the lock broke and she opened the door. What they found inside appeared to be some kind of laboratory with monitors showing the footage from the security lacrima placed all around the house.

"Um, guys?" Flora pointed toward one end of the lab.

The others looked over and saw several pods, one of them containing what looked like a nude Jason floating in some sort of fluid.

"What the hell is this?" Spiral asked under his breath.

Sakura sniffed the pod for a couple of seconds. "He smells just like that other Jason."

Spiral turned his attention toward a dark hallway. "Hold on, there's someone in here with us."

Spiral, Sakura and Kagura readied themselves for a fight.

"… Is someone there?" A familiar-sounding voice asked. "Please, get me out of here!"

"That sounds like Jason." Kagura said.

"Whoever it is, they're telling the truth." Spiral said. "It's not a trap."

The three of them walked into the dark hallway with Sakura lighting it up with her light stick. They kept passing by empty prison cells until they arrived at the only one with a live person in it.

"Wait, what's going on here?!" Sakura exclaimed.

The person in the cell looked a lot like Jason only slightly older and his dark hair looked like it hadn't been cut in years. He was also only wearing a brown rag that covered his torso and pelvic regions and he looked like he hadn't had a bath in years.

"This isn't Jason either." Sakura said.

"Wait, 'Jason'?" The man asked.

"Do you know Jason?" Kagura asked.

"W-wow, u-um…" The man blushed at the sight of Kagura. "I-I've never met another woman before, so, um…"

"Focus!" Sakura said as she snapped her fingers. "How do you know Jason?"

"You might as well sit down because this is a long story." The man said. "My name is Jayden and this 'Jason' person is me."

"What?" Flora asked.

"This story is so complicated I don't even know where to begin." Jayden said. "From what I've heard of my parents, they were pirates who one day fell in love. Not long after I was born, they took me on one of their voyages and we got caught in a storm. Everyone on that ship lost their lives and I would've been among them if it weren't for the Water Dragon, Oceari."

"Wait, Jason mentioned something about a Water Dragon of that name when we went to that library." Spiral said.

"Let me continue." Jayden said. "Oceari took me in and she taught me magic."

"Wait, so that means-" Sakura said.

"Yes." Jayden nodded. "I'm the Water Dragon Slayer. Since I didn't know anything about my old parents except for what Oceari told me, she was the closest thing I had to a mother in my life… Until the year X776, when Alexander Lexus came and captured me and Oceari."

"How could he have been able to capture a dragon?!" Sakura questioned.

"He took me hostage, knowing Oceari would never allow any harm to come to me." Jayden said as a tear fell down his eye at the mere thought of that horrible memory. "He used us for experiments."

"What was he researching exactly?" Spiral asked.

"Magic." Jayden answered. "Magic of any kind, forbidden magic, ancient spells, Lost Magic, anything to fuel his obsession with the subject. One year later, he conducted an experiment in which I was forced to claim Oceari's life and absorb her lacrima."

Even though Jayden kept his head down, they could all tell that it was extremely painful for him to remember what happened.

"And he didn't stop with Oceari." Jayden continued. "He did the exact same thing to the Ice Dragon, Chrysalis. Though from what I've heard, the Dragon Slayer she took under her wing managed to escape."

"You must be talking about Frost!" Sakura said.

"Is she okay?" Jayden asked.

"She's fine." Sakura answered. "She's actually in our guild."

"I also heard rumors that Alexander managed to defeat the Lightning Dragon, Albion, all on his own somehow." Jayden said.

"So, he even got to Lionel's dragon." Spiral muttered.

"Anyway, this is where your friend Jason comes in." Jayden said. "Apparently, the Lexus family hasn't been able to produce any magic-wielding offspring over the last several generations and the most recent suffered a miscarriage that the public wasn't aware of. So Alexander then used me to perform magic outlawed by the Magic Council, Cloning Magic."

"What's Cloning Magic?" Sakura asked.

"Exactly as it suggests." Jayden answered. "It allows a person to create clones of any living being. The user can even alter physical traits such as age and gender. Their memories can even be changed. It was declared forbidden for interfering with the natural order of life, but there's also another reason it was outlawed. For one, should the clones make physical contact with the original then the original will absorb the clone and gain their magical abilities. Also, if the original dies, so does the clone. That's one of the reasons Alexander had to keep me alive. Anyway, Alexander cloned me and created Jason to pose as the Lexus heir while I remained locked up to be used in Alexander's science experiments."

"Can't you just break yourself out?" Sakura asked. "It doesn't seem like this cell is-"

Sakura tapped the bars and a strange force sent her crashing into the wall behind her.

"… That's why." Jayden said.

"Anyway, do you know what happened to OUR Jason?" Kagura asked.

Jayden looked down toward the ground. "He came back this morning and Alexander was furious with him. Alexander knew that even though Jason willingly gave himself up, there was no way he would be able to produce offspring in his depressed state. So he was killed."

"Jason… died?" Kagura asked, who looked like she was about to cry, but was clearly keeping herself restrained.

"He had another clone on standby, so he deemed that Jason outlived his usefulness." Jayden said. "And when a clone is killed, they return to their original state as magic energy. In other words, there's no body to prove his death."

"That's why I couldn't find his scent." Sakura said.

"And that Jason we saw in that container is probably a clone as well." Flora said.

"So, are you guys going to help break me out of here?" Jayden asked.

"We might not know YOU very well, but you're sincere, I'll give you that." Spiral replied. "And it sounds like Alexander needs to be stopped."

"Wait, are Jason's parents aware of this?" Kagura asked.

"Alexander seems to be working alone on this." Jayden answered. "I doubt the other members of the Lexus family even know about this."

Kagura sighed with relief. "That's good to hear. Katelyn and Nathan are good people."

"You're the woman Jason posed as his girlfriend?" Jayden asked. "I'm surprised he hasn't tried to make a move on you."

Kagura just looked at Jayden, her face stoic and expressionless.

"So, do you know how we can unlock this cell?" Spiral asked.

"Alexander ended up creating four clones of me." Jayden replied. "One of them was the Jason you knew, the other was the Jason you met earlier as a backup, the one in the container that's the new backup and then there's one other that acts as a prison guard. He has the keys to the cell."

"I really should've killed you guys back at the entrance." A voice spoke from where they entered.

They all looked over and saw a man that looked like Jason approaching them with his arms surrounded in gusts of wind.

"While I don't particularly care for you kids, I'm a little disappointed I have to kill someone as hot as you." The clone said, specifically to Kagura. "All those months spying on you… Damn, I don't know how Jason didn't want to fuck your brains out!"

Kagura leered at the clone.

"What an asshole!" Sakura shouted. "Let me at him!"

Before Sakura could charge in, Kagura held out her sheathed sword and stopped her.

"I'll take care of him." Kagura said.

"Ha, you think you can beat me?" The clone laughed.

Spiral looked at Kagura, who shifted her eyes between him and the clone. Spiral examined the clone and saw the cell keys dangling on his belt.

*I get ya.* Spiral thought, giving Kagura a smirk.

Kagura smirked back and then gave her full attention to the clone.

"Are you ready, clone?" Kagura asked.

"This is gonna be fun!" The clone said.

Both Kagura and the clone charged at each other.

A/N: Wow, I got this chapter done a lot faster than I thought! Anyway, since Thanksgiving hasn't come by yet, I'll also tell you guys that I hope you all have a nice holiday… until your relatives leave for the Black Friday sales that now start on Thanksgiving night. Also, my birthday actually falls on Thanksgiving this year. With that out of the way, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Stay tuned for next time!