A/N: Greetings. For all of you who need to know, this isn't my first time writing an XS fanfiction – only my first time writing one in this site. I truly adored XS from the very first time I watched it. Despite that all good things must come to an end, I wasn't very satisfied with how the show ended. I mean, sure we get to see who actually gotten to be the Shoku Warrior at the end. However, there were still a few loose ends that still needed to be explaining in the show. Even though we actually got a sequel, it doesn't really help that. Only to lead some confusions (for me, at least) about the franchise. With that said, here's a fanfiction where all answers will be explained, chapter by chapter. Note that this is only my headcanon and isn't actually official from the show. So if you ever asked me where I got all these "false ideas" from, I will assume that you haven't read my Author's Note and would instruct you to read it first. Carry on now.

"When I wake up, I'm afraid that somebody else might end up being me."

From the Beginning

Long ago, in the great land of China, once lived a lovely royal couple – an emperor and his empress consort – along with their playful young prince. They were once great rulers of their rising nation, as they were determined to not let any threat disturb the peace they had pledged to protect. Because of their good leadership and unrequited love for the land, their people adored and worshiped them gods. Everyone had believed that with them at the top, nothing bad would ever happen upon them.

Only if they knew that the empress had a dark secret she hid under her sleeves – or to be more precise; under her skin.

The empress wasn't from a royal family at first. In fact, she couldn't even remember if she ever had a family to begin with. All of her memories from the earliest years she was born seemed to be a blur, as she had a hard time figuring out what happened to her before. The only thing she could remember was a big flash, right before she woke up in a strange room, where she found the clothes she worn were torn and her appearance was quite unusual. But those weren't the worst things she had discovered that day.

As she almost got attacked by notorious men after she fled from the room, she had discovered something sinister that crawled under her skin. With that discovery, it scared the men away, frightened by what they had witnessed – even the empress herself was in shock as well. She had these metallic chains that were attached to her body, as if they were parts of her body that cannot be removed that easily. At first glance, she knew what those chains were made out of: magic. The one thing the people of China feared the most.

Everyone believed that magic and witchcraft served nothing but chaos upon the world because of how they could not understand their true nature. So they had decided to treat those who dared to be involved with such strange matters as outcasts in their great land. That was the reason why the empress was afraid of. She was afraid to be fated as an outcast and to be treated harshly by those around her.

Ever since then, she had decided to keep a low profile of herself, tried to blend into the crowd (despite her appearance was quite appealing), minimized her contact with people, and so much more. She knew that to keep her secret from the world, she had to disconnect herself from it.

Until one day, she met up with the emperor and both of them fell in love with each other. Both of them never knew why, but their hearts would always skip a beat every time they were next to one another. It was as if they were meant to be together without any questions asked. After months and months of getting to know one another, they went to beautiful garden nearby the emperor's palace, where his majesty had proposed to her under a blooming cherry blossom. Without hesitation, she accepted his majesty's proposal and became an empress consort the next matter of days.

But even though they vowed to never keep secrecy from each other during their wedding, the empress didn't had the slightest thought of coming out the emperor about her dark secret. Yes, they have loved each other from the beginning regardless of knowing their flaws. However, the empress knew that their romance wouldn't have ignited if she had told his majesty about the matter.

The emperor wasn't fond of sorcery at all, as he was the one who strictly declared the rule of banishing the use of magic upon the land. He would even eliminate his own family if they were found guilty of breaking that one rule. That's why the empress never felt bad about keeping it a secret from her own husband.

She thought that maybe – just maybe – her old routine of living the same miserable life would finally come to an end. No more of her struggles of trying to live; no more of her afraid of connecting with the world; no more of her being alone without anyone to comfort her. With that said, she knew that she made the right choice.

Until he showed up.

On the anniversary of the royal couple's marriage, appeared a small, talking red bean at their doorstep to ruin the celebration. At first, they hardly thought of the bean as a threat, due to the fact that there weren't any beans that actually hurt anyone before. But as he opened his big mouth and accused the empress of having "bad intentions" with the emperor, the empress was angered and ordered the palace guards to slay the foul thing at once.

As soon as the guards tried to lay a finger on him, they didn't realize that the bean had the skills of a master martial artist. He attacked the guards so swiftly with perfect timing and techniques. The royal family along with a few of their people who witnessed the action were astonished, but not as much as they feared the bean as well.

It finally came to empress' mind that the bean wasn't an easy foe to deal with and could affect her people's safety, which meant that she needed to use the metallic chains she had kept hidden for so long in order to stop him. But how could she possibly reveal her true self in front of everyone who had loved her because of her earnest? How could she tell her family that she broke the vow of never to keep secrecy from one another? How could she face her husband, knowing that his majesty would kill her if she told him?

"No, there's no need to reveal the truth," the empress had thought. "I can defeat this demonic bean without those cursed chains! For the sake of my family and my people!"

The empress wasn't afraid to face the bean, as she was taught the most advanced techniques of self-defense when she became royalty – even the emperor was impressed by how a fast leaner she was. She fought the bean with crucial observation of his every counter-of-attack, making them as advantages for her. She was about to win the match, until the bean played an awful, dirty trick on her.

With the speed and strength the bean had, he managed to pick of a sword dropped by one of the fainted guards and aimed it at the young prince – causing the death of the royal couple's one and only child. Extremely enraged and grimaced by the bean's unforgivable action, the empress had lost control of herself, which caused her to reveal her true self in front of everyone – including her husband.

The empress easily dealt the bean, making him fled from the battle. But what was left was the destruction of half of the palace caused by the empress' dreadful metallic chains – which made everyone quaver in fear. No one could blame them for being scared after witnessing how she became a dangerous brute with those chains. Ashamed by his majesty had discovered his wife's secrecy and betrayal; the emperor gave out an order to his soldier to vanquish her at once.

Heart-broken by how her once faithful paramour had turned against her, the empress immediately ran away from the area and entered a deep, dark forest that no one dared to set foot on – probably because there were rumors of vicious predators roaming around; the reason why she chose to hide there. She had thought that it was better to be eaten by an animal than to die of a broken heart.

As she was on her knees and gazed upon the clouded sky above her, she started to question the world through her thoughts: Why? Why was she here in the first place? How come it had to be her to suffer? Why did she ever exist if she was meant to be slayed? Why did God bothered to bring her here? Did God even exist as well?

Her endless dark thoughts were interrupted when she heard a sudden noise rustling in the bushes – the empress had thought that it was the sound of starving dwellers that had come to feast on her flesh. So she closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable to come.

Suddenly, she heard a crooked voice that called out to her. She recognized it, as it was the same voice that had a strange accent she had just encountered before; back at the palace, she had heard it. She knew that when she opened her eyes, the red bean was back again, with his smirk taunting the miserable empress who was 'lost' in the woods.

The empress was ready to charge at the foul thing that had ruined her wonderful life forever. But the bean managed to delay her attacks as he said certain things that caught her attention.

The bean had offered her to join the dark side – Heylin, as the bean preferred to call it – and be the ruler of her own empire, where she wouldn't have to fear of judgment from others; she would finally safe of being who she really is; she would never have to endure such great pain by the ones she had loved before; most importantly, she would finally have a turn to play god herself.

At first, the bean's offering seemed so tempting for the empress to believe them all. But then again, what else she could possibly lose once more? With everything said and done, she accepted the bean's offer without even thinking much about it.

The response that she gave were music to the bean's ears, making him grinned wildly as he thought about all of his achievements that he would accomplished with her by his side.

From that fateful day onward, the Heylin Empress was born – along with the darkness that grew within her.

On the next chapter: Stillness in Woe

After 6 months of inactivity after Raimundo was chosen, the Xiaolin Dragons decide to go have "a walk in the woods" to have some excitement for once. Hours later, Master Fung appeared to tell them about something serious.