Helloooooooooooooooo! I absolutely love it when you guys write reviews and every comment makes my day no matter how many tests I'm unprepared for! By the way, I'm planning on updating every weekend or so. I'm glad all of you enjoy it!

I also love the fact that you keep on asking me to update and I'm really happy that you like my story, JAY FAN, but I would rather give you guys longer chapters every week than write little chapters every two days or so.

Chapter 14: A Disappointment

POV: Third-person-view Arin (idk why, don't ask)

A disappointment.

That was all he was right now.

'Oh, come on, give us a chance,' he had said.

'This is our chance to prove that we're capable of handling situations ourselves,' he had said.

'Pleeeeeease,' he had said.

The first– and probably the last– chance he got, and he blew it.

Beautifully.

Do-a-backflip-and-land-on-your-face beautifully.

Just awesome.

Perfect.

All he had proven was how badly he could 'handle situations.'

How badly he could fail.

The threat was gone, and he still couldn't free himself.

He just had to wait for the ninjas to come and save him.

From a rope.

Yep. Just the way to prove how useless he can be.

How much of a disappointment he can be.

He couldn't even begin to clean up the mess he made before the ninjas got here because he was still bound by a rope.

He knew all of the ninjas had gone through worse situations than this and still freed themselves even with danger lurking around every corner– not to mention never getting caught in the first place.

But no.

He was bested by. A. Rope.

He was a sad excuse for a ninja.

A disappointment.

The ninjas had trusted him– Lloyd had trusted him– to protect the people, their headquarters, their home, and he just let their entire base be bombarded by agents looking for the greatest dragon power in the world– and to think that they would have actually taken them if the Dragon Cores were in the monastery was horrifying.

They would have lost before they even got a say in the matter because of him.

Because they trusted him to be able to hold the base.

A disappointment.

And all he could do was wait.

POV: Lloyd

I could quite literally hear the snap of Kai's patience before he jumped onto his feet and yelled, "WHEN ARE WE GETTING OUT OF HERE?!"

I would have chastised him for blowing up like that, but even I was sick and tired of waiting. It's been three hours! And, whether you might want to believe it or not, being the Elemental Master of Energy means you're quite… well, energetic. I wanted to get up and do something as much as Kai did, but having the desire to jump and run about didn't mean I had any less patience– because I certainly had more than Kai at the moment.

"Kai, I'm sure they're going to come out soon and let us leave. Calm yourself," I said half-heartedly, secretly wishing he would lash out more so we could get out of here!

"YOU SAID THAT TWO HOURS AGO!"

That… wasn't not-true, I technically did say that–

"I am inclined to agree with Kai; it is highly unusual for a problem such as a few rebels to stretch this far, and we are wasting valuable time," Zane cut off my thoughts.

"WE'RE NINJAS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! WE'VE GOT STUFF TO DO AND A COUPLE OF REBELS SHOULDN'T MAKE US WAIT FOR THREE HOURS!"

Sitting in silence for three hours really struck a chord with Kai. I haven't seen him this mad since Jay and I used his hair gel for a prank.

That immediately turned my moods sour.

Would he even want to play pranks anymore? What if he's too far gone? Will he ever be the same?

"Kai, your frustrations are understandable, but unless you want to lose your title as an 'honored guest,' I suggest toning it down a little before you upset the people working hard to deal with a problem we caused," I heard Zane's calm voice shake me out of my trance.

"All the more reason to HANDLE IT OURSELVES!" Kai retorted.

I chose to steer my attention to what Zane had said previously, "Why is this taking so long?"

Zane turned to me to give a well-calculated answer before he was beaten to it,

"If it's taking this long, their only excuse is to have millions of gunned rebels surrounding the area," Kai said in a reasonable volume (thankfully) with a bitter tone.

Zane turned back to Kai as he said, "I find that highly unlikely, though it is the only possible explanation I could think of," he paused as if struck by a sudden realization, his eyes widening, "Unless–"

"Unless this isn't just a normal rebellion."

Everyone turned to Nya who had been quiet the whole time with perplexed expressions other than Zane, who just looked grim.

Having gotten everyone's attention, Nya continued, "Think about it; word got out that the only original ninjas remaining at the monastery left to Imperium, leaving the ninjas-in-training to guard the monastery, and suddenly we're denied to leave by an unusually strong rebellion. If people think that the Dragons Cores are still in the monastery…" Nya lifted her head to turn her gaze from her lap to us, eyes wide and filled with a look that said 'We done messed up.'

"Shit."

No one had the energy to glare at Kai for cussing, because whether my mom liked it or not, it was the perfect description for the situation we were in.

It took another half an hour to find and convince The Council, along with many apologies for our waiting and an explanation about them not wanting us to leave in a hated manner, to allow us to shove our way through to leave, (because fighting citizens who didn't like our presence would look really bad,) and once we were ready along with a couple of extra guards behind us, the picture we saw behind the thick entrance doors as they were reluctantly opened was not pretty. Everyone was fighting with whatever objects they deemed good enough, (some throwing food and trash, for example,) and the guards were doing their best in trying to push the people out of the way in a civilized manner, as unnecessary bad treatment to protestors from an already-criticized government would just make things worse.

The guards pushed the protestors out of the way while we hustled, (and sometimes dogged from oncoming food,) to where our vehicles were parked, only to see them in pieces.

…

I sighed loudly and frustratedly as a couple of the guards shifted awkwardly in the background.

This is going to be a looong day.

It took another hour to go back to the Council Hall, get some Imperium clothing for disguise purposes, get new Imperium motorcycles, go back outside and through the crowd, (while carrying motorcycles, might I remind you,) have the guards clear us a pathway to safely drive our motorcycles out of the city, (though Kai muttered under his breath that he would have no problem running over the citizens, to which thankfully the guards didn't hear,) and finally be on our way to the monastery.

To say it had been a busy and frustrating day would be an understatement.

The whole ride to the monastery was tense, with no one daring to make a comment and just focusing on getting there as fast as possible to perhaps get involved in the fight before it escalated, though I could tell everyone doubted that; we had just sat in silence for three hours– they should've been done with whatever they were planning by now.

Once we reached the monastery, we were expectantly shocked, concerned, and angry; some of the walls were clipped and cracked, and one of the doors was lying on the ground– and that was just what we could see from the outside.

I hope the kids are okay.

POV: Arin

Sora tried to make some small talk to pull me out of my thoughts, but, though I appreciated her attempts, they were futile. After a little while, they all just fell asleep with nothing to do, all of us coming to terms with the fact that we just couldn't escape after wiggling and jumping and straining for almost an hour. Being lost in my self-hating thoughts, I didn't really keep track of time, though from where the sun was perched up in the sky, I could only assume it was around 6 in the evening.

I was snapped from my moping when I heard footsteps and 'woah's.

The moment I had been expecting and dreading for:

The ninjas had arrived.

I reluctantly lifted my head to see Lloyd and the others looking around before making a beeline for us. I nudged Sora and the others to wake up, not wanting to be alone when they eventually lashed out for being such a disappointment.

The first thing I expected Lloyd to say was 'What happened,' or 'What did you do,' but instead, I was greeted with an 'Are you guys okay?'

I blinked in response, not having foreseen this at all, while Sora requested them to free us; as all of us had been getting quite sore from sitting in the same uncomfortable position for half the day.

Wasn't he mad?

We all stood up after being released from the suffocating chains, though my gaze never left Lloyd's.

"Aren't you mad?" I voiced my loudest thought.

Lloyd then blinked at me the way I had blinked at him, seeming as if my response was the stupidest answer possible. After an awkward and anxious silence, Lloyd just smiled and said,

"I know you did as best you could, Arin. We all lose sometimes. Besides, none of us were expecting a direct attack, and, by just looking at the damage," I tried and ultimately failed to hide my grimace there, "there was probably a good amount of them. You can't blame yourself for everything that goes wrong with you involved in it–"

"Says the guy who moped over a piece of Halloween candy for a full week complaining about how it never got the tasting it deserved and that it was your fault you tripped and dropped it in the river," Kai interjected, smirking.

Wait– he what now?

Face a little pink, Lloyd turned to Kai with a scowl and said, "I was twelve!"

Everyone chuckled and laughed at the story, while Nya just had a sad smile on her face. After the heat died down, Kai asked the question I was dreading.

"So, what the heck happened here?"

What was worse was that, with Sora, Wyldfyre, and Mr. Frohicky not knowing Jay, I had to be the one to break the news.

Nya's going to eat me alive!

"Well, these guys with weird suits and sunglasses showed up at our doorstep and 'requested' the Dragon Cores– though, I think Arin recognized one," Sora turned to me as she said the last part.

Couldn't she have just skipped that part?

"O-oh, w-well, you s-see, they all moved to show their leader agent a-and… w-well," I stammered through my explanation when, surprisingly, it was Nya who ended my suffering.

"It was Jay, wasn't it," it was more of a statement than an answer, which just surprised me more.

"H-How'd you know?"

I looked around to see Sora shocked, Wyldfyre confused as to why it was so important as though she hadn't been listening to our plan, and Mr. Frohicky just as confused, though he had an actual reason, not being a ninja and all, while the others had a dreaded and enlightened look on their faces.

Instead of an explanation, Nya replied with a determined look on her face, "We are going to get him back, and we are going to make him remember."

While everyone succumbed to silence as they absorbed the new information, I thought about Lloyd's reaction.

He didn't even get mad! He didn't think I was a disappointment! He didn't even say he regretted leaving us alone!

Smiling would be rather inappropriate in this situation, so I mentally partied.

Thinking that Lloyd would ever say such a mean thing would be to betray him. How could I ever think Lloyd would say something like that?

I'm not a disappointment! Sure, I got bested by a rope, and maybe I could have done better– but I tried my best!

While my admiration for Lloyd and the ninjas grew, Sora suddenly looked up and said, "I think I should also mention that he sort of kidnapped Cole."

Oh. Right. I forgot about that.

The ninjas lifted their heads to look at Sora, who fidgeted under their gaze. After another moment of silence, it was Kai who spoke first,

"What."