Pentagram
AJ Wonkette
Summary: A tale of twists, turns, choices, broken Spirits, and Children growing up. Jack-centric 5th dragon fic. You know you love it.
Disclaimer: I don't own it. If I did, you'd know. All I get out of this is sleep deprivation and giggles. I do own Jack's car, though. I let him borrow it on the condition that he fills it up before returning it.
A/N: I have no idea how well this is going to work. I will tell you now that updates will be sporadic, due to my ever-increasing schedule. I'm taking show-choir next semester so my already tiny sliver of time will be shrunk a little more. I'll do what I can, though.
Pairings: …This one is off the charts. I don't even know how it'll turn out. I just want to ask you not to judge the fic by who Kimiko seems to be with, 'cos she ends up with almost everyone at one point or another.
Feedback: Will stop the Jack-Bots from devouring your very essence. Not that they can do that or anything, it was just REALLY fun to say. They can, however, blast you to bits, so I'd move a little to the left if I were you. There you go.
Story:
Chapter One: Dragon of Spirit
The sinking sun over the Xiaolin Temple brought urgent yet amazing news. The inhabitants of the monastery were called into the meditation chamber. Moments later, the four Xiaolin Warriors were found sitting in a circle around Master Fung. They stared at him in utter disbelief. Dojo the dragon was perched on the old monk's shoulder, also staring at the man in something akin to surprise. The old master did not seem surprised at all, retaining his usual manner of absolute calm and tranquility.
"A fifth dragon?" the girl with black pigtails questioned, the PDA in her hands forgotten, a sure sign of true shock, as she very rarely stopped in the middle of an IM conversation for anything.
"Yes, Kimiko." Master Fung replied.
"But, Master Fung, there are only four elements. Fire, Earth, Air, and of course, Water!" Omi, the smallest warrior pointed out. The last element was named with more than a little pride, due to the fact that water was, naturally, his element.
"So we thought. It seems part of the ancient scrolls were missing. A fifth element has made itself known. Have you ever seen a pentagram?" Master Fung asked. Three blank stares answered his question. But the cowboy, of all people, nodded.
"It's a five pointed star." He said matter-of-factly. The other monks looked at him strangely, wondering why the generally down-to-earth cowboy would know something mystical like that for no particular reason.
"Precisely, Clay." The old monk praised. "It is a five pointed star. Each point represents an element. There are your four elements, and one more, the Element of Spirit. Five lines connect the points, uniting the elements as one. It is imperative to the Balance that all elements are united, which may explain the constant shift of good and evil in the past and present."
"So who is this Spirit Dragon anyway?" The fourth warrior asked, all other information clearly unimportant to the good-looking boy. "I hope it's a girl." The sentence insinuated much more than a simple matter of gender. No one in the room doubted how his ideal new teammate would look.
"Raimundo!" Kimiko smacked him on the arm, only half playfully. Raimundo grinned at her, winking flirtatiously. Master Fung cleared his throat, regaining their attention.
"I'm afraid I do not know the identity of the fifth Dragon. However, using the Compass of Shinabi, you will be able to locate him or her, which is your next quest. Go, my young monks. Find the fifth dragon and bring him or her to the temple. Only when you are all as one will good triumph." He said gravely, handing Raimundo the afore mentioned Shen Gong Wu. The four monks stood. Raimundo opened the compass.
"Compass of Shinabi! Find the Dragon of Spirit!" He commanded. The arrow glowed golden, then spun wildly, finally coming to rest pointing west. Dojo grew to his full size, allowing the four warriors to leap onto his back. They set off, the excitement of a new quest glowing in their faces.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, at an American university. . .
A boy stood in the middle of a crowded hallway, staring first at a sheet of paper, then at the doorway before him. He was tall and thin, though his face retained a sort of round shape that negated the sharpness of his body. His dark hair was tipped with red, hanging down into his eyes, which seemed to be crimson as well. He made a face at the paper, then walked into the classroom. He looked around somewhat uneasily. A girl with wild curls wearing a black tank top gave him a quick look over. He grinned at her, pleased when she grinned back. A woman dressed entirely in pink walked up to him and gave him an over-exaggerated smile.
"Hello, my name is Julia Chapel. And you are?" She asked pleasantly, handing him a colorful packet of papers held together with a staple.
"Jack Spicer, Ev-." He stopped and smiled to himself. "Jack Spicer." He repeated more firmly. She nodded and he took a seat next to the girl with the curls.
"Nice hair." She remarked. "So what were you going to say after Spicer?"
"What? Oh, nothing. It's just kind of. . .an old habit." Jack replied, shrugging. Jack Spicer, Evil Boy Genius! That was how he used to introduce himself. It surprised him how hard the old habit died. He hadn't used that title in almost two years. Being and evil villain had been fun when he was a kid, but he had decided it was time to grow out of it. He'd changed a lot since then. No longer did Jack Spicer dye his hair bright red, wear Halloween reject goggles, or paint strange marks on his face. He didn't build destructive robots or hunt for Shen Gong Wu. He traveled by black Sunfire instead of heli-bot. He was just a normal eighteen year old boy, going into his freshman year of college.
Little did he know he was an hour away from losing that status. He sat through the introduction to his English class with some interest. He flirted with the girl who had taken an interest in his hair, and began making his way to the campus center to grab a bite to eat before his next class. He was quite content with the way the day was turning out. A girl with short red hair grinned at him as he passed her. He grinned back, throwing in a wink. He sighed happily. Quite content indeed.
Dojo shrunk to normal size before they reached the campus. There was no need to cause a ruckus, which a giant dragon flying overhead certainly would. The four monks stood atop the hill, looking down at the large school before hem.
"So it must be someone at that place of learning." Omi said, looking interested. "Our new friend must be a scholar!" The large-headed boy seemed extremely pleased with this notion.
"Looks like it." Clay agreed. "C'mon. Let's get started. Tryin' to find the guy we need'll be like tryin' to find a white horse in a snowstorm." The others agreed, and they took off for the school, Raimundo and the mystical compass in the lead. He turned left, then right, then back the other direction, looking at the crowd of people around him.
"Ugh, I wish everyone would stop moving! The compass won't stop spinning!" he complained. Kimiko smiled.
"No problem." She said, pulling out a Shen Gong Wu of her own. "Golden Finger!" Every person on the campus save the four monks froze instantly.
"Good thinking, Kimiko." Raimundo said admiringly.
"We must hurry! The effects of the Golden Finger will not last long. We do not have a minute to save!" Omi reminded them. No one bothered to correct his mis-phrasing, as they were all quite used to his butchery of modern slang. Raimundo followed the compass to a tall lanky boy wearing a red hoodie pulled up over his head as protection from the light drizzle. The compass glowed in confirmation and closed itself. All of a sudden, the crowd continued their movements, as though they had never been frozen to begin with. The boy started to walk away.
"Hey, partner!" Clay called after him. Several people looked up and snickered, causing Clay to turn slightly red, but the boy in the hoodie froze at the sound of the cowboy's voice. He turned around slowly, eyes closed. He opened them as though expecting to see some sort of horror. His crimson gaze landed on the monks.
"Oh no. I was hoping it wasn't you." He groaned. "What are you doing here?" The four Xiaolin monks stared open-mouthed.
"Well I'll be." Clay murmured in awe.
"Jack Spicer!" Omi cried, shifting into a fighting stance reflexively.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Jack quickly held up his hands. "I really don't want to get in a fight right now. I'm clean, I don't have any Wu on me. I'm out of the biz now."
"We're not here about Shen Gong Wu." Kimiko informed him. Jack tilted his head suspiciously, lowering his hands.
"Okay. Then what do you want?" He asked. "And can we talk about it inside? It's wet out here." The four monks looked at each other. All eyes turned to Raimundo, seeing as he was the leader. He shrugged.
"All right. Lead the way, Spicer. And don't try anything funny." He warned menacingly. Jack rolled his eyes.
"I told you, I'm out of the business now!" he repeated, indicating for them to follow him. They began walking toward the building in the center of the campus.
"What business?" Omi asked, running to catch up to the once-villain, oblivious as ever.
"Evil." Jack replied simply, opening a door and throwing the bald monk a grin. The monks filed inside, looking around at the large, open room. A young man played a guitar on a slightly raised platform at one side of the room. Several tables were spread all over the place, groups of students cluttered at most of them. Jack led them to relatively quiet table in a corner by a window. After some slight bickering and the commandeering of a few extra chairs, they all sat down. Jack surveyed the monks with a look of distaste.
"Okay. Talk. What do you want with me?" he demanded, studying each of them in turn.
"You're supposed to come to the temple with us." Raimundo stated bluntly. Jack raised an eyebrow, his expression defiant.
"Yeah? Why would I want to do that?" he wanted to know, pushing back his hood. The monks all blinked in surprise. Jack stared back at them for a moment in confusion, then smirked. "Oh, what, you thought my hair was naturally firetruck red? You're dumber than I thought. And I thought you were pretty dumb."
"Um, what was I saying?" Raimundo said, faltering lamely. He was still staring at Spicer's semi-normal hair. Kimiko rolled her eyes at their "Fearless leader's" antics.
"He wanted to know why he should come to the temple with us." She informed her comrade. She turned to Jack. "And to answer your question, it turns out your kind of. . .One of us." Jack leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest.
"I'm not buying it." He said. "I've already tried the whole Xiaolin monk thing. It didn't work out too well, remember?" This was directed towards Omi, whose eyebrows drew together.
"Yes, but this time it is much different." He replied gravely. "This time, it is fate! You are a Xiaolin Dragon, Jack Spicer!" Jack snorted.
"Yeah right. I'm not that stupid. I know how it works. There's a dragon for every element right? Well all four elements are taken by you guys. Bam, no more dragons. Try again." He said.
"That's about what we thought." Clay remarked. "But there's another element nobody knew about. The element of Spirit."
"And you think I'm this spirit element?" Jack filled in skeptically, quirking an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah." Clay said incredulously.
"Okay, look, I don't know what you guys are going for, here, but it's not gonna work. I'm through with all of this magic balance-of-good-and-evil stuff. I don't care which Lin you are, count me out!" Jack said, his face darkening.
"Please, Jack Spicer! We can never triumph unless we are all as one! We need you to complete the pentagram!" Omi cried.
"Yeah. Right." Jack said. He stood up, suddenly angry. "Look, I've got a class in five minutes. You guys made me miss lunch with all your stupid crap. Thanks a lot! Would you just get out of here and leave me alone?" With that, he turned and stiffly strode away.
"Hey, wait!" Kimiko cried, jumping up and running after him. He didn't turn around. She grabbed his arm. That caused him to stop. When he turned to face her, his face held a look of darkness that she had never seen, even as his days as an evil boy genius.
"We really need you. Without you, the world will never fall into balance." Kimiko explained earnestly. For a moment, Jack seemed to be considering the offer. Then his face darkened once again.
"Maybe you should have thought of that," he said, almost in a growl, ripping his arm from her hand, "before you ridiculed me in front of my employers and role models, destroyed all my hard work, beat me up, and left me to fend for myself regularly back in the day!" Kimiko took a step back, her eyes wide.
"Jack…" she stammered, surprised by his vehemence.
"You have no idea what kind of crap I put up with from you guys. You made my life a living hell almost daily, and thought it was the funniest damn thing you ever saw! Now you want me to come be part of your big, happy family like none of that ever happened? Well forget that!" Jack spat, shaking his head and walking away, leaving Kimiko staring after him, completely dumbfounded. She turned and walked back to her fellow monks.
"So, I reckon he didn't change his mind?" Clay guessed mildly. Kimiko shook her head.
"Nope." She replied, still looking dazed.
"What will we do, now?" Omi asked, looking up at his friends. They all shrugged, looking grim. At that moment, Dojo rejoined the group, laden down with several plates of greasy-looking food.
"These college kids sure know how to eat! Yum!" He remarked happily, taking a big bite out of a slice of pizza. "So, where's the extra weight?"
End Chapter One.
A/N: And you thought it wouldn't end on a happy note. Muahaha! We'll see about chapter two, later.
Reviews? I'm just a poor college kid, you know!