Chapter 1

Nia's POV

It was a normal day at the Xiaolin temple. The other warriors and I were training, using our Wudi wepons. We decided to fight in groups, Clay against Omi and Kimiko, and me against Raimundo.

"Blade of the Nebula!" Raimundo shouted, his wepon created a tornado of wind coming towards me. I quickly jumped out the way and used my Wudi wepon.

"Fans of Arc!" I opened the fans and spun around, bolts of lightning sprang out from them. Raimundo twirled the blade to shieled him from the lightning. Once the lighing had succeded, I closed the fans and threw them at him. They caught onto his robes and pinned him to a wall.

"Hey, no fair!" Raimundo said, struggling againgst the fans. I walked over to him, I stood in front of him, my face inches from his, and I plucked the fans out of his robes and let him fall to the ground.

"Game, set, match. I win again." I said, helping him up. Rai dusted himself off and bowed to me.

"Your skills are getting better. You even beat me, and I'm the Shoku Warrior!" Raimundo said impressed. I bowed to him and blushed. We walked over to the fountain and sat down to take a break and watch the others spar each other. After about half an hour, Master Fung called for us to the temple.

"Young monks," he started, "you are needed in the Temple at once."

When we entered the Temple, we saw a man and a women. The woman was wearing a green hijab. Her hair reddish-brown hair, the same color as mine, was hiddedn execpt for a small strand of hair over her striking grey eyes. The man, wearing a red turban looked over at me. I saw joy in his eyes, almost in tears like the woman.

"Oh my Induku," said the woman, "she has indeed grown into a beutiful young woman." They were talking about me.

"Yes, Imani, I have never seen a more beutiful girl in my whole life." Said Induku. He had a look of great pride on his face. I started getting nervous, you would too if two people you didn't know started talking about how pretty you are.

"Um, thank you. May I asked who you two are?" I asked.

Induku stepped forward. "I am Induku Aden, and this is my wife, Imani. We are from Mogadishu, Somalia." He said.

"That's weird, I was born there, and my last name is Aden. Hey maybe we're related!" I said exited. The only relitives I had were my aunty and uncle in Manhattan. I didn't know who my parents were, they gave me up when I was a baby. Imani had a smile on her face the size of one of Clay's hoggies, and that's pretty big.

"We are Nia." Said Induku.

Okay, now this is just plain weird. "How do you know my name?" I asked. Imani and Induku looked at each other, and then back at me. Imani stepped forward. I noticed that not only was she creeping me out by now, but she looked kind of like...me.

" We know your name because we are your mother and father, and we finally have found you!" She said with joy. Tears welled up in her eyes. I was shocked, confused and bewildered.

"You...you two are my...parents? B-But how can that be?"I asked. This was so much to take in, I haven't talked to my parents in the last, 14 years or so. I looked around to see my friends just as confused as me. I opened my mouth to say something, but I was cut off by Master Fung.

"Perhaps we should disscus this over tea." He suggested. He led us all to the dining room.

"You were such a beutiful baby when you were born," Imani started, "your beutiful brown skin, long, soft reddish-brown hair, and stunning grey eyes are just the half of it. You have a smile that light up the room, and a personality that is fit for a princess. We were so heart broken when we had to give you up." Imani said touching my hair.

"I don't understand, why did you have to give me up?" I asked. I looked up at Raimundo who was sitting across from me. He could sense that I was nervous and scared, he gave me a reasuring smile.

Induku took a sip of his tea. "Around the time you were a year old, war broke out in Somalia. During an invasion, we managed to escape Mogadishu so we could flee the country."

"We stayed with some friends of ours in Kenya, but then war broke out there too. So we finally decided to leave Africa and go live in New York with distant cousins. We tried to buy tickets for all of us, but we only had enough money for one ticket."

"Induku and I made the hardest decision of our lives: we decided that you would go one the plane with one of our friends who was leaving too, and go to Manhattan to live with my cousins until we could flee the county ourselves." Said Imani.

"But we never could leave, we had to struggle with money, and the war kept going. We were forced to stay in Somalia. So we could never see you. But now, we are reunited, and thats all that matters.

Their story really touched me. They didn't give me up because they didn't want me, they gave me up because they wanted to protect me. "You guys really are my Mama and Baba.I can't belive you went through all that trouble to save me." I said. Tears of joy welled in my eyes. I got up from my seat and hugged my parents, and they hugged me back. I finally had a family again.

But all of that was about to change.

Mama, was crying, not tears of joy, but tears of sarrow. "Mama, whats wrong?" I asked.

"There is a reason why we came here." She said. I looked to my Baba, he held his head in despare and shame.

"What's going on?" I asked. There was silence, only broken by my Mama's sobbing. Baba liffted his head, and reached for my small hand. He looked into my grey eyes.

"The other reason why we came here is because a weathly family from another villiage in Somalia came into our home one day. Their son, Taban, wanted a wife that was of 14 years of age. They knew that we had a daughter, and that she was a Xiaolin monk, training to be the Dragon of Lightning. Taban ordered us to show him a picture of you." Baba said, pulling out a picture of me with my long auburn hair past my waist. I was wearing my favoirte outfit: an off shoulder yellow shirt with purple straps, blue jean shorts, red convers high tops, and purple strip socks.

"He said that you were georgeous, and wanted to meet you right away. But we told him that we could not bring you to Somalia. Taban grew angrier, he said that if we did not bring you to Somalia, he would come here and kidnapp you, bring you to Somalia, and froce you to marry him." Mama said with a sob.

I looked down, I knew what this meant. "So in other words..."

"Yes Nia," said my Baba, "I am adraid that you have been forced into marriage." Raimundo jumped from his seat, "That's crazy!", he shouted, "You can't just force someone to marry you...can you?"

"It is a tradition Raimundo", said Mama, "We would stop this if we could, but, they threatened to kill us if Nia didn't agree to marry Taban." By this time Mama broke down crying in my Baba's arms.

I turned around and looked at my friends. Raimundo stepped forward. "You don't have to do this Nia." Raimundo said. What did he think i was gonna do? Abanndon my parents when they needed me?

"I have to do it Rai, they need me." I said in sarrow. I looked to my parents. "I'll do it. I'll marry Taban."

"We are so sorry baby, we tried everything we could to stop this." My Baba said, hugging me. I held back my tears, I couldn't let them see me cry. It would only make things worse for them.

"You can't do this Nia, you can't just bail out on us!" Raimundo shouted.

"Raimundo, it is the honorable thing to do." Omi said.

"Yeah Rai, besides we'll visit her, and she'll visit us.." Kimiko said, but was cut off by Raimundo.

"You know what, forget it! Leave, I don't care!" And he stormed off. I called after him but he ignored me. I felt my heart drop. Why was he taking this so hard? I'm the one getting married by force here! But this was only the begining of something worse.