Jesse sighed as he walked around the Duel Academy looking for Jaden. It had been nearly a month since the Yubel incident that took place in the other dimension and the dark dimension. Since Jaden had returned, by a shooting star as Syrus has told them. Ever since Jaden had returned he had been avoiding everyone. All he had been doing since he got back was stay in his room. Have his door locked, window closed and curtains shut, so no one could try and sneak a peak of him. He would not come out to see anyone, he even wouldn't come out to eat. Though that didn't stop them from trying to talk to him. Syrus would try to take some food up for Jaden, the door was always locked. He would stay outside the door for about 10 minutes before giving up and leaving the food outside the door. When Alexis tries to talk to him, the food is gone but the door was still locked.
However today was different. Chazz was into a bad mood. A very bad mood. Refusing to put up with this nonsense with Jaden he went storming over to Jaden's door, the gang all behind him trying to calm him down. Chazz kept on banging on the door, yelling to Jaden to get over himself and man up, but there was no answer. Getting even madder Chazz went to break down the door but Hassleberry quickly moved in and was able to easily open the door by turning the door handle, making Chazz fall over. To everyone's surprise, Jaden was not in to room. Everyone then became suddenly panicked and decided to look for him.
And now half an hour has gone by and Jesse still hasn't found Jaden. He tried the place where he dueled Axel, the docks, the duel arena, you name it. He was coming close to give up and head back when he suddenly thought of one more place to check. 'Of course! How did I not think of that before?!' The rooftop of Duel Academy when he and Jaden first met. He quickly went into a sprint and ran back towards the academy.
Three minutes later he found himself where he was around one year ago. On the roof of duel academy. He, breathing heavily he started to look around to see if his hunch was correct. To his surprise he was. There was Jaden, except he wasn't lying on the floor in the middle of the roof, like he was a year ago. This time he was sitting at the edge of the roof, his right leg kneeling up with his right arm swung over it.
Jesse started to make his way over there when Jaden spoke. "I would keep you distance if I were you." He said calmly, but serious at the same time, not making a move to look at Jesse.
This shocked Jesse, 'That's the first time I've heard him speak since we got back'.
"Anyone that gets close to me only ever get hurt some how." Jaden said as he looked out into the distance of the island and ocean.
Jesse smiled, "Since when do I ever listen?" He said as he began to make his way over to Jaden. Jaden then turned his head to Jesse. Jesse sat down opposite to him, just like how Jaden is sat only has his left leg up and his left arm swung over it.
"The other's know that you're here?" Jaden asked with a down voice, as he looked down slightly.
"No. They're all properly regrouping now wondering where I've disappeared to." Jesse said with a little laugh at the end of his sentence. Jaden looked up.
"Regrouping?" Jaden said wondering what Jesse meant.
Jesse nodded, "Chazz went mad earlier about you not getting out of the room. He went to break your door down to talked to sense into ya."
"Well, there was no need to break it down, the door was un-" Jaden started to say.
"-unlocked, yeah, Hassleberry opened it before Chazz could break it down." Jesse said finishing Jaden's sentence. "Anyway, when we all saw that you weren't in your room everyone started to panic and we all fanned out looking for ya. And looks like I found you first." Jesse smiled.
Jaden looked away back into the distance, "No you didn't." Jesse suddenly looked confused. "Syrus and Hassleberry came up here looking so I hid."
"Why did you hide?" Jesse asked.
"I didn't want to face them. They were to busy arguing to have a proper look around." Jaden said still not looking at Jesse.
"Why didn't you want to face them?" Jesse asked Jaden.
"After everything I put them through, who would want to see me?" Jaden said as he stood up and began to walk away.
Jesse quickly stood up, "Jay, I don't think you realise how much they want to see you." This made Jaden stop walking but did not make his turn around. "Blair never really got a chance to really thank you for help get the medicine for her, Alexis is barley been paying attention in class cause she's so worried about ya, Syrus and Hassleberry won't stop arguing as to who can get you to talk first and Axel and Jim-" Jaden quickly turned his head slightly around and interrupted.
"What about Axel and Jim?" he said with a almost nervous voice.
Jesse took a moment to talk, "They just want to talk about what happened in the other dimensions, as do I."
"I don't want to talk about it." Jaden said and started to walk away again. Jesse quickly walked over and went to grab his shoulder.
"We all know that you think that what happened in both of the dimensions was you fault." Jaden then quickly turned around, shoving Jesse's hand of his shoulder, and started yelling.
"Yeah that's because it is!" Jesse was taken back by his sudden outburst. "Everything that happened to Blair, Atticus, Alexis, Hasselberry, Syrus, Chazz, Axel, Jim and you was my fault! Everything that happened to you guys was my fault!"
"Explain to me Jaden, explain to me how it was all your fault!" Jesse yelled back.
"BECAUSE IF I HAD NEVER SENT YUBEL OF TO SPACE IN THE FIRST PLACE, NO OF THIS WOULDN'T OF HAPPENED!" Jaden screamed back. "YUBEL WOULD NEVER OF USED VIPER TO GET TO ME, WHICH INSTEAD ENDED UP GETTING YOU HURT! THAT NEVER WOULD OF CAUSED US TO GO TO THE DARK DIMENSION WHERE I NEARLY GOT ALL MY FRIENDS KILLED! TWO OF WHICH BY MY OWN HAND! I COULD NEVER FACE ANY OF THEM AFTER WHAT I DID TO THEM, ESPECIALLY AXEL AND JIM! I PRACTICALLY KILLED THEM!" To this point Jaden's eyes started to fill up with tears. "I ended up killing numbers of people because I let my anger get the better and turn me into a monster!"
"How can you even call yourself that?!" Jesse yelled.
"Because that us what I am! You don't know what I did back then! Everything that happened is going to haunt me for the rest of my life! Being around everyone, who I ended up hurting, is only going to remind me of what i did!" Jaden breath began to shake slightly as he took deep breaths. Jesse stood in shock to hear what Jaden had just said. He knew that Jaden had a rough time in the Dark Dimension but he didn't know he was this bad. It pained him to see his friend like this. Jaden took in another breath before looking down. "You know Viper was right back then, I am weak."
That was it, Jesse grabbed hold of Jaden's shoulders and started yelling at him, "Okay now that's it Jaden! Don't you dare ever call yourself weak, you HEAR ME?! You are one of the strongest people I have ever me in my life! After everything, EVERYTHING, you have done for this school how can you call yourself weak, huh?!" Now Jesse was getting mad. "Non of that was your fault. You had no control over what you did back then, I know what happened and you can't keep on blaming yourself. You need to start seeing all the good you have done for your friends and for this school. You need to realise that you could not have predicted these things were going to happen, could have you?" Jaden looked to the ground again and shook his head.
Jesse sighed and put his arms around Jaden. Jaden did not hug him back, which Jesse did expect, "We're are not going anywhere Jaden, no matter how far you try and push us. We will always come bouncing back." Jaden let out a little laugh which brought Jesse some relief. Suddenly he felt two strong arms wrap round his back. Jaden was hugging him. Jesse smiled, happy to have his friend back, no partner back.
After about a minute of hugging the two let go of each other. Jaden's eyes where red from the tears. Jesse looked at him, "So you ready to see the others?"
Jaden sighed, "On the condition you have Chazz restrained." Jesse laughed and nodded his head. The two then walked of the Duel Academy roof with their arms around each others shoulders.