The Emergence of Evil and the Hidden Good Within
Note: A Xiaolin Showdown fan-fiction focusing on Jack's parents, Gwendolyn and Thomas Spicer, how they met and how eventually Jack was born.
"Why do you keep following me around ?"—Ayumu to Hiono
"That's rather easy. Strange things happen wherever you go !"—Hiono, Spiral
Chapter 1—The Intellectuals Meet
Gwendolyn Annabelle Harper was an emerald eyed, ginger haired goddess that everyone on campus seemed to be in love with. Her personality was easy-going and she had a congenial smile upon her sweet face and a song upon her lips. She was top of the class in her fields of art, architecture and history. She hadn't had much time to date, though she did have a social life and many friends, but she had never actively looked for love, let alone worry about it.
Little did she know that one day, it would come out of nowhere and knock her practically off her feet.
Thomas Spicer was a constant scientist. Despite the fact that his complexion was quite pale, he was full of life and lust for knowledge and wisdom. His hazel eyes sparkled when he smiled and laughed, particularly when he was debating theorems with his colleagues. One day while speaking to them about a theory that had been troubling him, he noticed Gwendolyn walking by. She was wearing a rather lovely dress and her ginger hair was tied in a bow. He had been stopped in the middle of his equation only because the arrow of love had struck him in the heart.
"Who is that metaphysical manifestation ?", he questioned his best friend Glenn.
"That's Gwendolyn Harper. Don't bother pursuing her. It's not worth the unnecessary heartache that will follow. I'm warning you ahead of time, Tom. Please reconsider your actions.", Glenn Chung said as his face grew more tightened with worry and encroaching fear.
"There comes a time where a man must ignore logic and go with his gut feeling. My gut is telling me to go for it. I may never have a chance like this ever again.", Tom said as he started walking toward her. His white lab coat floated back in the wind slightly as he picked up speed and met her face to face.
"Salutations !", Tom said with a rather large grin. Then the realization hit him. She would definitely take him for a nerd now. Yet he didn't let this mistake and awkward behavior make him look foolish.
"Greetings. I noticed you were working on an equation here. Care if I take a look at it ?", she asked, approaching the blackboard. The rest of the eggheads were astonished as she looked at the problem and seemed to solve in no time. He was simply missing one element, and she saw his slight error.
"Granted, we're only human. This should prove your theory works.", Gwen said, with a satisfied look upon her face. He had fallen even more in love with her then.
"You are a genius, and you're ethereal. Please tell me what heavenly body you have ascended from and take me back with you !", Tom said, breathlessly. Gwen hadn't laughed in a long time since her last outing with her friends, but she let out a laugh that came from the tips of her toes straight to her mouth. It was sincere and hearty, making her sides hurt a bit.
"I will walk with you, if that is what you wish. What is your name, though ? You must forgive my rudeness, we weren't appropriately acclimated.", Gwen said. Thomas introduced himself and told Gwen he already knew about her. She felt an usual warmth within her chest that she hadn't felt before. Her cheeks had turned red in color and she couldn't stop giggling in his presence. Without knowing it herself, she had become quite smitten with the spiky-raven haired, hazel eyed, lab-coat wearing philosopher, Thomas Spicer.
Chapter 2—Evil Is Born
Before long after a few years of dating, Gwen and Tom decided to get married. It wasn't long after the Spicer couple had their honeymoon in Bermuda and upon returning to their newly-bought mansion that Gwen had made the announcement that she was expecting a baby. She had a feeling the child would be a boy only because she had been having dreams that the child would be male. It was nothing more than her intuition and heart that had told her this, but Tom had a feeling that Gwen's prediction was accurate.
It seemed a whirlwind of events occurred during the birth of Jack. There had been an awful snowstorm and Gwen and Tom had been confined to the road within a few hours of the nearest hospital. Tom held his wife's hand and calmed her as much as she could, reminding her to breathe and stay rational about all of this. Somehow his tender voice had soothed her and kept her heart-rate low just in time for him to carry her into the hospital.
Gwen was soon wheeled away from Tom by one of the nurses and he followed quickly after her. He felt the tight grip of her hand as she gave birth to little Jack. It was slightly painful, but the birthing had been relatively easy and Jack's cries came out clear as a bell.
The little boy had a shock of fiery red hair and pale skin, but was perfectly healthy.
"Isn't he handsome ?", Gwen said, nuzzling the crying baby lovingly. Tom, overcome with emotion, was crying happily as he held little Jack within his arms. He tickled the little one under the arms gently and little Jack giggled, but soon yawned.
"Welcome to the world, Jack. My precious son.", Tom said, kissing his forehead. Little did either of the parents know that their little boy was quite evil. Even despite all of their love and affection and disciplining, they wouldn't be able to stop Jack from his want of power and control.
As Jack grew, he knew he loved his parents dearly, but even they didn't understand him. To find some solace in his everyday existence, he started transforming the basement into a sanctuary where he could invent and escape from the doldrums of the every day. It wasn't before long that his life was changed when he met his first "friend", the witch Wuya.
Chapter 3—No Earthly Friends
Since Jack had experienced trouble getting friends considering he had advanced quickly from one class to the next. There was one shy little boy named Nathan Bassman who played with him from time to time, but unfortunately, Nathan had to move to another city and Jack never saw him again. He didn't mention Nathan much, but in his subconscious he never forgot his sometime playmate. He wasn't aware that Nathan would come back into his life later, but at this time, it didn't really matter.
Jack often kept himself occupied with his inventions and always felt a sense of accomplishment when the inventions functioned correctly. Of course, like any good inventor, he learned from mistakes and past failures and didn't make the same mistakes again. He was constantly formulating or creating something and for the most part, found himself completely happy. But something was missing. He would often go to different social events with his parents, dressed properly and behaving as a gentleman would, but he never felt he fit in even though everyone praised him as a genius. It still wasn't enough. He wanted more than just praise. It then occurred to him he wanted the world on a silver platter, and people's respect.
He had never gotten respect from anyone else other than his loving parents. Sometimes, respect was earned, but he thought perhaps it could be forced from people. He sighed, wondering if there was any possible way to make this ominous vision come true. Sighing, thinking there was no earthly method of having his dream realized, he retreated to his sanctuary and began what would become his lesions of Jack-bots.
After returning home from a typical trip to the junkyard, Jack had hauled some "treasures" home in a wheelbarrow. It was a rather hot day, so his trench-coat was unnecessary. He was wearing black shorts, a ragged red t-shirt with a Frankenstein face and of course, his trademark gloves. While rummaging through the refuse, he found a box with odd markings on it. It looked ancient, as if it had come from China. Things from Asia had always intrigued him, but he couldn't make anything out from the markings or from the calligraphy on the bottom. What that was happened to be a seal, which he broke, unaware of what he was releasing. Before he knew it, a gaseous ghost came to float towards him, revealing her true nature. At first, he was terrified of her, but the more she spoke, the more he had a feeling that his dreams were about to be fulfilled. At the time, Jack didn't realize that world domination wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.
Chapter 4—You Go Back, Jack, Do It Again
After countless times of being winning, losing and ultimately failing, Jack was becoming weary of being defeated. His only friends were his enemies who had recently been successful in beating him in another Xiaolin showdown. He had witnessed the death, resurrection and the final death of his Sensei, Chase Young by the hands of the Xiaolin monks. But it had been because of the fifth monk, Audrey Rose Phoenix that such an event occurred. Wuya too, had been imprisoned within a new puzzle box, and her usual banter hadn't been heard by Jack in a long while. To be honest, he missed it a little bit, but to be honest, he was relieved not to be the puppet of darkness any longer.
As usual, Jack found himself piddling around his basement and sighed. He had enjoyed going to the high school dance with Kimiko but he still hadn't found the courage to tell her he actually liked her. He feared that if he told her how he truly felt, she would shut him down and he would be alone for the rest of his life. But after he had saved her from possible death, his perspective had been changed. He remembered his words to him,
"You know, you're not so 'evil' really. I mean, if you were truly evil, you wouldn't have saved me like you just did.", he could hear her voice saying to him as he received the first of many kisses to his cheek that he would never forget. He felt a blush rushing to his cheeks as he reminisced on how petal-soft Kimiko's lips were and how he longed to kiss her deeply, but again came that fear of rejection.
He couldn't think about anything else now but inventing. It was the only thing that kept him sane. This time, he was working on a machine that launched flavored shaved ice snowballs. He lowered his goggles to finish assembling a launching shaved ice maker that worked perfectly on first run.
"Yes ! It works ! Mmm, blue raspberry ! Perfecto !", Jack said upon tasting the snowball that landed in his mouth without any trouble. The trajectory was just right so it didn't hit his mouth too quickly and hurt him, nor too slowly so it would melt before entry. Also the roundness and size of the snowball wouldn't choke him.
Jack sighed, feeling rather bored. He thought he would garner up his courage and call Kimiko. After all, after high school was over, he and she would be moving in different directions.
He didn't wish to be too far from her. He was in love with her, and he couldn't deny that.
"Hello ? Is Kimiko there ?", Jack questioned, his throat feeling slightly parched. Why was it so difficult to talk to the delicate Lotus flower he had come to cherish so deeply ?
"Hi ! Is that you, Jack ? I was really hoping you'd call. It's been a while. I meant to IM you, you know…I miss you.", she said, sweetly. Her voice was music to his ears. It made his heart melt. He couldn't believe he was actually feeling this way, but he savored every moment of it. It was like the end result of an invention well made: pure ecstasy.
"Yeah, it's me, Kim. It's alright. We've both been busy considering graduation is close. I missed you too. I was thinking maybe we could hang out at the skate park, maybe the arcade tomorrow, since it's the weekend. I don't know what you want to do. Whatever your choice is.", Jack said, a dreamy look in his ruby eyes.
"Actually your idea sounds kickin'. I'll be looking forward to that.", Kim said. They talked for a few more hours, catching up and ending their conversation with a few "I love yous".
After Jack's mother had made dinner, she made a batch of cookies, knowing how they usually cheered him right up. Her intuition had told her Jack wasn't feeling as happy as he usually was, and the remedy was so very simple: chocolate chip cookies. Thomas was awful when it came to eating too many of the cookies, though he never gained any weight after eating about half of a tray once Gwen had pulled them out of the oven. It didn't matter how hot they were, Tom wasn't bothered by that. He was a bit of a chocoholic, and nothing could tear him away from mass consumption of cookies.
"Oh, honey…these are even better than the last batch you made. I swear, every time you make these, I fall in love with you all over again.", he said, getting up from the table and embracing her from behind, kissing her neck. Jack, not caring, had consumed quite a few cookies himself but was feeling tired. It had become late, so Jack decided he would call it a night. Saying goodnight in about five different languages, they also bade him a good night as well as he clapped off his lights in his room, threw himself into bed and fell into a deep, restful slumber.
Chapter 5—The Mark of Black Lipstick
As the two friends enjoyed their date, Kimiko was astonished with Jack's video gaming skills. She wondered why he never capitalized upon this talent in the past and joined in gaming competitions for cash, but then she remembered, he had been under Wuya's influence for quite some time and never would've thought of doing something like that.
"That's the 30th time you've beaten me. Jeez, you're good.", Kimiko complimented, noticing how cool, confident and smooth Jack was. Jack had a slight arch to one of his eyebrows and said rather sultrily,
"Actually, my dear it's the 31st time, and yes, I have been keeping count." She punched him lightly in the arm. In the past, this would've made him flinch, but she noticed he had bulked up since they had been together. She usually was wowed more by brains than brawn, but Jack had both, and he had let his hair down, tying it in a ponytail. Though he looked like a wannabe metal rocker, she had to admit, he was handsome. Though, the black lipstick was an odd but nice touch.
After playing video games for a few hours at the arcade, Kimiko sped the pace up by taking Jack to the local skate park. She was impressed that he knew how skate, even though he was using old-school roller-skates and she was skateboarding. His maneuvers were rather impressive. He seemed to almost glide as if the floor was non-existent. Suddenly, she felt the familiar touch of Jack's fingers, wrapped around her waist and she couldn't help but giggle.
Her midsection was the most ticklish part of her body.
"No fair catching me off guard, Jack.", she said, turning around and embracing him.
She was kissed passionately and lost within the moment. She had forgotten how tender Jack was. He winked at her playfully and then said,
"Top that, cutie."
The date ended, and the two kissed before Jack had to say his farewells. The thoughts of graduation loomed eerily in the back of both of their minds. Of course, they would keep in touch, but neither of them knew how far away they would be from one another. This date was probably one of the last ones they would have. At least they had gotten photos from a photo-booth to commemorate the event. Both of them would always cherish that, even the cute peck on the cheek in the booth would be remembered for quite some time. And still, Kimiko had a black lipstick mark on her cheek from where Jack had pecked her, and she smiled and sighed rapturously.
Chapter 6—Present Day
The training grounds were still open though Master Fung had no need of them. All the Shen Gong Wu had been locked away, lest the hands of evil wish to use them wrongly. The prophecy had said nothing about the Wu being used again, but he could never be too careful. That is why he left the sanctuary open to the monks should they return.
As for Jack, he had since graduated Magna Cum Laude in Robotics and Science, having a minor in computers. He spent most of his time making robots for companies and directing indie films when he wasn't busy in the lab. He was a star pupil and had excelled in everything he had done. His parents were indeed very proud of him, and were also surprised he had married such a beautiful young woman. His best friend from long ago, Nathan Bassman, was also astonished he had managed to impress such a fair maiden. Bassman had played at Spicer's wedding as well as being the best man, and believe it or not, the Xiaolin monks had been there to support him. Omi was the shortest groomsman there, but he was happy for his "enemy now turned friend". The monks were in a celebrative mood, and they were delighted that their once nemesis had finally turned his heart over to good. It just goes to show, not all Goths are evil, nor do they always wear black and strange makeup all the time.
Jack's first child, Aori is about nine years of age, and she is like her daddy's shadow. She's always poking around his rather large tool shed, seeing if she can build or invent something new. Even for her tender age, she is quite the prodigy, but Jack didn't want her to be alone. Jack and Kimiko knew that with Aori's brilliant mind, she might be misunderstood and singled out as someone who is "unusual", but they both knew she was anything but that. Only recently had they discovered that they were going to become parents again and Aori couldn't wait to become a sibling to a younger brother or sister.
Epilogue
Kimiko and Jack had one more child after little Akito was born. Akito, like his name suggests, was born in November, and then soon after, Keiko followed. Akito took after his mother, inheriting everything from her, and Keiko looked more-so like her eldest sister Aori.
Akito was the shyest in the bunch, but he too, loved all things scientific. He was more in his element mixing different chemicals together to see what the result would be, and often times the product would be explosive. Luckily, the Spicer insurance covered for any rouge explosions but like his father, Akito learned from his mistakes. He had a hidden talent for music like both his parents did and learned to play piano by ear without having had to have lessons. He would often join his father with guitar and his mother oddly, played the Japanese koto. Now, the youngest, Keiko, also loves science, but loves shopping like her mom. Needless to say, with all these different personalities in the Spicer home, life can be a bit hectic and chaotic but Jack and Kimiko live a very harmonious life.
The Spicer children have grown up hearing about their father's exploits before he turned to the side of good, and they often wondered whatever happened to the dragons now that peace existed within the land. They also wondered whatever happened to Dojo, whom oddly enough, Jack could also understand.
"Why was that ? Were you also a Dragon and unaware of it ?", the youngest Spicer questioned during an evening meal with her family.
"At one point and time after I had saved your mother during a dangerous Xiaolin Showdown and being exiled from working with Chase did I seek the advice of Grand Master Fung. You see, the witch I had been working for had been entrapped by Grand Master Daishi yet again and I had nowhere to go. He spoke to me and revealed that I was indeed the Dragon of Metal. Raymundo, the Dragon of Wind, wasn't so welcoming when the one monk who knew I had good within me welcomed me with open arms.", Jack said, waxing nostalgic. He recalled that Omi had trusted him and knew he had good within him since the battle of truth and lies so very long ago. The one monk, Audrey Phoenix, who had inadvertently been responsible for Chase's death, apologized to him for what she had done, but Jack understood. He wasn't at all upset with her, and had befriended her as well. Now there were six elements, fighting against evil. There was one final Xiaolin Showdown: a Battle Royal. This had only happened after Chase was finally defeated and the other members of the Heylin wanted revenge. They all fell, one by one, each losing their Shen Gong Wu.
"Did you ever find you had any abilities ?", Aori questioned, between bites.
"Don't talk with your mouth-full, sweetie !", Kimiko said, reproving her. Aori excused herself and ate more slowly. She often became excitable when her beloved father told his stories from many years past.
"Actually yes. I would cry 'Metal' and these spikes would shoot from the earth. I believe that if evil were indeed to appear again, this ability would be reawakened in me. If I try it now, nothing will happen.", Jack said, taking another drink of milk.
"What about Dojo ? Whatever happened to him ?", Akito questioned, curiously. All the children were rapt with wonder as Jack responded.
"He is still with Master Fung. Hey, if you want to meet him, I can introduce you.", Jack said.
"We both could, honey.", Kimiko added, with a sweet and slightly sassy grin. Jack often felt his heart flip when she had smiled like that.
"Oh really ? Aw, sweet !", Akito said, triumphantly.
"Awesome !", Aori said as well.
"Mom, dad…you rock !", Keiko added.
And indeed, the little Spicers did get to meet Dojo, Master Fung and the Xiaolin Monks. The monks had since grown, and they were married and had children of their own. Clay had wed the monk with heart, Audrey. Raimundo was married to a beautiful Brazilian by the name of Marcella. Omi had found a companion in a youthful Chinese girl named Ping. Even Germaine, the monk of sound, had his wife Toni and children with him. It had been a while since they had seen Germaine, but he was one of the lesser elements. Yet united with all the others, they all made an exceptional team.
The children were wide-eyed as they listened to the Dragons tell their stories of days gone by and how they would always remain Dragons if the time called for it.
"That's why we all stay in shape.", Omi added at the end of the lengthy yarn.
The Spicer kids wished to hear more, but it had grown late. Thus, everyone had said their goodbyes and went their different ways. But they would not be separated for long. They still communicated frequently and reunited when they had free time. Even the young Dragons would gather and play together as children often do. The world was quiet and peaceful. Evil was defeated, but if it ever emerged again, the Chosen Ones would fight against it. Hopefully the young Dragons would never have to know battles and Showdowns as their parents did, but if they had to, that is why the temple was still there, Dojo could lend wisdom and Omi and his teacher, Master Fung could teach them all they were required to know.
The End