Rating: T+ (for Violence, reference to sexual activities both forced and not and for self harm/mutilation)

Pairing: Clay/OC, Omi/OC, Rai/Kim, Dashi/Wuya (you'll see… wink)

Disclaimer: I do not own Xiaolin Showdown but I do own all of my ideas that have to do with the characters! Bwahaha! And the outfit designs of 1-7 Dan, Master, and Grand Master dragons!

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Shoku Warrior.

While it was an amazing title held by only one and it commanded respect… however, Raimundo never found any from his fellow dragons. Mission after mission he would tell them the plan and as soon as they went off, they would improvise. Omi would normally be the first to break the formation and run off ahead. But recently, Clay and Kimiko were known to do it.

The last mission was one of those.

Raimundo opened his eyes, seeing that he was still lying on the floor; his arm in a cast and his chest swathed in bandages, and sighed. He could hear the voices outside his door. It was Master Fung and one of the older monks. They were talking about how he had almost died because of his lack of leadership… that it was lucky any one of them had come back, that they couldn't trust one who had turned to the Haylin side before.

Rai made a face at the door, feeling his hair shift from the wind he kicked up in annoyance. Why didn't they bash on Omi then? He had almost brought darkness upon the world not only once… but twice! Maybe they had some sort of Shen Gon Wu that allowed the user to look inside one's heart…

The Brazilian rolled his eyes and sat up, muttering a stream of colorful Spanish curses under his breath as his chest throbbed. Chase Young had nearly ripped out his heart, after all, the pain was to be expected… but the longer Raimundo sat still, the more his wind picked up. He hated being cooped up and longed to just at least sit and heal outside where he could let his cramped element roam over the hills. He felt the element rattling the bars of the window and drew it back, folding the wind inside himself, blending it with his chi. He sometimes wondered if the others had an element like his. An element with a temperament of its own, an element that they had to carry inside of them, like he did… maybe it was just a Shoku Warrior thing… he didn't know.

Raimundo fingered the golden pendant with the spiral, so like Jack's and Wuya's, placed on the front. It had been a gift from his father… his real father. Not the creep who lived with his mother… the creep wh-

Rai shook his head to clear his thoughts. He had sworn to himself upon leaving that he would never think of his father and what he had done again.

He sighed.

They were never going to reach an agreement would they?

His green eyes rolled towards the paper door as it shifted slightly, before sliding open. In came three of the elder monks, those that made the decisions concerning the dragons, and Master Fung, looking irate and tired.

"How are you, young wind dragon," the first monk said, seeing that Rai was awake and sitting up, although leaning heavily against the wall behind him.

"Much better, thank you master," he said, bowing his head and staring at the guy's shoes. He always wondered why they made the slippers so thin… and if they hurt him, he wondered what they felt like to the old men.

"Keep your mind focused, young one," Master Fung said sternly and Rai look up and grinned lopsidedly, his own way of saying he was sorry.

"Why did this mission fail, Pedrosa?" the second of the elders asked as Rai winced at the use of his last name. No one had ever referred to him that way, not even his teachers.

"Because I didn't take care of the others as I should have. As my responsibility as their leader," he said, looking to his right, a gesture of humility and slight shame he had read about that was polite for speaking to The Elders.

A smile ghosted The Elders' lips for a second. The wind dragon always had a reputation for rebellion and laziness, yet this boy knew not only his showdown rules but also the traditional mannerisms of Xiaolin.

"Did you outline the plan for them?"

"Yes…"

"How many times?"

"Like… maybe ten or so?"

"Is that a question or an answer?"

"Answer… and it was ten."

"Who broke formation first Raimundo?" Master Fung asked from where he still stood behind the elders.

"What?"

"Someone had to have broken formation," the tallest elder said.

Rai closed his eyes and thought back. He decided to lie a little; so as to save Omi from the wrath that is Fung.

"No one broke formation, Master," Raimundo said quietly, forming his lie in his head. "I had underestimated Chase Young. He had Jack guarding the second gate and Wuya the first… I wasn't counting on Wuya having her powers back and it weakened us all."

"Is that so?" Fung asked, meeting Raimundo's eyes as they traveled upwards. That was the teen's fatal mistake. Almost at once Fung could see the dulled pain of having to lie in his eyes, however there wasn't a trace of guilt. He was lying to save someone's hide. "It was Omi wasn't it?"

Raimundo couldn't look away from Fung's face. There was something about the way his forehead was wrinkling that made the teen think that he was feeling empathy for him. He finally tore his eyes away and looked down to his left, focusing on his sleeve. A sign of resignation to everyone present.

"Sí…" he murmured, reverting to Spanish in his slight shame. He hated that look of pity in Fung's face… but he knew he deserved it right now.

"If you will excuse us, my apprentices and I are going to have a little talk. I will join you later in the main floor of the vault," the Elders bowed to Master Fung and he to them as Raimundo watched, lowering his head in respect only when the tallest elder's head reached his level. "Now, can you stand Raimundo?"

"Sure thing," the boy said, shrugging and hoisting himself to his feet, wincing as his chest throbbed. He muttered colorfully under his breath until Dojo ran up with a wheel chair, which he gratefully plopped down into. "How long until I fight again, Master?"

"With Dojo's remedy your wound will be safe to stress for training in about a week, two weeks until you lead the team again though," Master Fung said, taking the handles of the chair and wheeling Raimundo out to the dining room where he left the boy up to his own movement. "I will get the others and we will discuss this during dinner."

"Pero… Omi…"

"I will not be harsh on him as long as you refrain from slipping back to Spanish, Raimundo."

Rai grinned lopsidedly, knowing that the Master and Dojo didn't understand a word of his native tongue.

"Will do!"

"And Raimundo?"

"Yes Master Fung?"

"The Elders were very pleased with your behavior, young Shoku Warrior," Fung said, his eyes twinkling.

Raimundo was stunned as he watched his master's retreating back. He was never praised. He was the slacker, the evil one who would turn on you, the fluke fighter, as Omi tended to call him. After all, they still helped remind him that he was the last one to make apprentice.

Rai scowled as Omi ran in whooping at the sight of food and Dojo pushed him over to the table, crossing his legs as he put as much food as he thought he would be able to stomach on his plate. It wasn't much.

"Rai!" Kimiko chirped as she walked in the door. "You feeling better?"

"A little," he shrugged, his eyes closed as he waited for the inevitable.

"Your mission today," Master Fung said, silencing the chatter of his four apprentices. They looked down in shame, until only Raimundo was sitting staring straight ahead of him, his right hand limp in his lap. "Must have taught you something other than utter defeat."

"Oh, yes it did Master Fung!" Omi called, raising his hand with one finger pointing skyward as he nodded. Raimundo snorted slightly and Kimiko hid a grin. "It has taught me that Raimundo needs to work on his defense, Kimiko still has an anger problem, Clay is great defensively, and that my Lotus Prance was two steps off landing me slightly to the left."

"WHAT?" Raimundo seethed, a sudden up blast of wind blowing his hair straight up. As soon as his element appeared he reigned it back in and sat, eyebrow twitching, vein pulsing, and fist clenched.

"Omi, if that is all that it has taught you then you may not even be worthy of the rank of Wudai Warrior… let alone hope to someday become Shoku Warrior," Master Fung said, anger and disappointment in his voice. Omi seemed to shrink as his mouth hung open in shock. "What should have been learned here is to trust Raimundo's judgment. He has enough on his head already than to deal with your disrespect. If I ever hear of you directly disobeying Raimundo's orders again, Omi, you may just loose your spot as the Water Dragon. As for now, live with the knowledge that because of your mistake you almost cost Raimundo his life. I need to meditate now… pleasant dreams."

And with that outburst he was gone, leaving all five residents of the room in utter shock. Omi hung his head and sighed, seeming to completely deflate. Kimiko played with her food as Clay slowly ate his. Raimundo just sat there, staring into space.

"You ratted us out?" Kimiko asked slowly. Rai blinked once and raised an eyebrow.

"What?" he asked, his voice dripping venom.

Kimiko winced. She didn't mean to have it sound like that.

"Never mind," she muttered, still playing with her food, her expression back to blankness.

Rai glanced over at her, watching her, studying her.

"Do you really think that this is just a game?" he whispered, deadly in both voice and eyes.

"What?" Kimiko asked, fire dancing in her eyes. He had just crossed a line. "A game? Why would I think that?"

Rai held her gaze, knowing etched deep in his irises. Kimiko's fire slowly died as she studied the emotions dancing in his emerald eyes. Besides the knowing there was pain, sadness, fear, anger, and grief.

"What are you keeping from us?" the Japanese girl asked almost breathlessly.

Shock replaced the anger, quickly followed by mirth, the knowing intensified, and the knowing look grew.

"I was supposed to tell you this when I got your respect… but I believe the time may be coming," Raimundo said, leaning forward. Omi's head rose a little and Rai detected a bit of a shine in his eyes. He had everyone's attention. "Long ago… over 2,000 years ago in fact, there was a prophecy. Now, this prophecy came in many forms… but the main gist was the same. Haylin would rule as the heir to the moon arose. One of one.

"The prophesies were vague, but no one could pass on what the said was real for over a span of hundreds of years different cultures would have this prophesy revealed to them and soon, the entire world had a prophesy from each little section of it, all saying the same thing. It was in every language, it appeared in every form, and each prophesy appeared when the previous had been all but forgotten.

"Now, nearing the Haylin Moon, an entire month of heightened Haylin magic, something that happens every 5,000 years, the heir to the Haylin Prophesy will be chosen and he or she will bring one million years of darkness!"

"You just had to make it scary didn't you!" Dojo yelled from where he was trembling in Clay's shirt. "I'm starting to feel the evil… I have been for days now!"

"The Month starts in one week… I'm putting in a request with all the Master Monks for the use of the Sands of Time to go and train with Grand Master Dashi for about a year before coming back, who like the idea?"

Omi's face lit up as he jumped up onto the table and hug tackled Raimundo, causing him to yelp from pain.

"That is a most wondrous idea, Raimundo!" he squealed. "It will give us a lot of time to train and become as strong as a box or cows who move rocks!"

Silence fell as gears worked in the dragon's minds.

"You mean, strong as an ox, partner?" Clay ventured and Omi pointed at him.

"Yes! That is precisely what I said!"

"It wasn't even close, Ohm…" Raimundo said, rubbing his temples and sighing.

Kimiko just giggled.

AN: Just testing a little fic idea I have! I like how it started out, and I've been planning this for days! I even have a picture of a "Master Haylin Dragon" that I will try to upload if I get a scanner…. If I don't… then I will have to make it look nice with a digital camera! Yesh!