Title: Why Now?
Dedication: For SilentSniper
&o&o&
Why Now?
It was a question that many could have asked when Guan's betrayal was revealed, the 'why' of Guan's waiting over one thousand years to retrieve his Spear from Chase. But the monks had been too preoccupied with Dojo and their new enemy, and Chase Young simply didn't care. The man had been there for all of the defining moments of Guan's life, but it had been so long (one thousand, five hundred and six years, five months) since they had been close friends; since the day that his Chase had died. Perhaps it had just taken that long to mourn.
Chase had been the root of Guan's present and eternal disease, just as he had been the root of his life, pleasure and pain since they had first set eyes upon each other. Chase had brought him into the world of good verses evil verses less-than-evil, and had shown him just how much more he could be.
They had grown up in the times when monsters roamed the earth and were defeated by heroes, and Guan had met his first of each on the same day. Arriving minutes after the creature had attacked, and seconds after Guan's home was a wreckage, Chase saved Guan's life. Guan had leapt at the creature almost immediately, attacking with the fire-axe and intending only to buy his family time to run. The creature was much stronger, of course, and the axe broke on its skin, leaving Guan defenceless, or so he had thought. The Warrior Monk in-training had arrived then and tossed him the Spear, calling for him to not give up, and preparing to fight alongside him.
Chase had believed in Guan, and was the first one to do so. Guan believed in Chase like he had never believed in anyone else, and he'd believed in the Spear that Chase had given him. He hadn't believed in himself, not for a long time, and he never fully understood what it was that made a hero a hero.
It had been a hard fight, and their winning was a close thing. When they had chased the creature away and defeated it, Guan didn't return to the village where he had been so lonely; instead he followed Chase, who smiled, declared them to be friends, and showed him the secret path to his own home. Not only had he trusted Guan in the fight, he trusted him with his secrets - he may not have been good enough to inherit the smithy from his father, but he was good enough to be Chase's closest friend.
They arrived at the precariously-balanced hidden temple after a day of travelling, but it was not as peaceful as Guan expected a temple to be. No sooner than Chase had stepped off of the wooden bridge that connected the temple to one of the more central peaks across the lake, a bear-like master had descended upon them to berate Chase for his disregard of his (the master's) order to stay and let the evil beast go. Master Shea, as he was called by those who feared him, turned out to be in charge of the temple and everyone in it.
Guan had wondered at the motivation for such an order, but Chase wearily told him that it was the way of the Heylin to leave alone the problems that could not be solved by taking control. He joked that he himself might be more suited to the more universally helpful creed of the Xiaolin Temple, and regaled a fascinated Guan with tales and folklore from both traditions. There would be a day when both would travel to Mount Song, but that day was far in the future from that first night, when they began to get to know each other.
Over the years that followed, Guan seemed to become more confident in his abilities. Only Chase saw how tightly he gripped the Spear when he was afraid.
Fighting Evil had begun their friendship but ultimately, fighting Evil had also ended it. Wuya had not been Guan's fight, and nor was it Chase's. Dashi had called upon Chase as an 'old friend' and Guan had followed, but it was not the simple fight promised. There was an unknown, non-omniscient force betting on the outcome, and the eventual defeat of Wuya had forced its hand - it needed to create a new Evil, and now there were three strong monks in its sights.
It was, and continues to be, the way of Evil to offer the potential defector a choice: a lifetime of struggling to catch up, or an eternity of being better. As far as he knew, Guan was the only one to choose the former. Hannibal had come to him an hour after Chase had turned - hoping to complete the set - and he had immediately rejected it, more than content with the place he had at Chase's side. What did it matter if one was better? They were friends - of the eternally loyal sort, no matter what.
He only found out later, when the lizard-like form attacked him, that Chase had accepted the red demon's offer. Shock turned to desperation when Chase- No, Chase Young repeated the demon's toxic persuasive words - how could anyone have thought that Chase would ever fall into Guan's shadow, let alone Chase himself? It was an inversion of everything that Guan thought he knew. And so, when Chase Young had snarled and stalked away, Guan went in search of the demon again.
He could have asked Dashi for aid, as Dashi had asked Chase, but something stuck in his mind - Chase had told him that Dashi and Wuya had once been close, maybe even as close as he and Guan were. But Dashi had remained Good, and Guan did not want him to be there if the germinating seed of a plan turned out to be his only hope for keeping his friend. His own allegiance was to Chase only and not some arbitrary Good or Evil, and the side that he took wouldn't really influence anything anyway, but Dashi would still see it as a third betrayal if he took the potion too.
It turned out not to matter; the demon laughed in his face. Phrases like 'once in a lifetime opportunities don't come around twice' were tossed out among the derisive chuckles, but Guan remained standing and quietly repeated his offer. Eventually the demon agreed to a compromise - if Guan won in a fight against his Champion, he would become a minion of Evil under Chase; but if he lost, he would be doomed to an eternity. An eternity of what was never specified, and Guan had not asked for fear of the terrible offer being withdrawn.
Chase took the Spear with him after winning their battle; a final rejection. He had known what it represented for Guan, and the withdrawal of the Spear symbolised the withdrawal of his confidence and love.
Guan returned to the former Heylin temple on Mount Hua, the temple at which he and Chase had trained, and just continued there. He succeeded Shea as Master; life outside went on without him, uncaring; the secret paths faded out of local knowledge and, as the years passed, Guan became more and more alone. Apprentices - and there had never been many - travelled to the more distant Xiaolin Temple for a while, but it seemed that there was a void to be filled on that Splendid Mountain, as more temples and monasteries appeared around (but unaware of) Guan's. There would be the odd adventurer that would re-discover the secret paths, but very few stayed as he did.
He discovered the true weight of his forfeit - the eternity was simply what it professed to be, and the bitter centuries passed with no respite. He travelled, watching and training around the world in the hopes that one day it would make a difference, his hope fading like the sunset. In the early years, before his self-imposed exile, he had sought out skilled weapon-makers, charging them with the task of creating a Guan Dao just like the one Chase had had. There had been perfectly functional copies, but he wasn't looking for a weapon. They had all ended up in a storeroom, collecting dust and restoring none of his courage.
Things in his world stayed much the same for the fifteen hundred years after his becoming Master of the Temple, but then the change was abrupt and devastating. Darkness covered the sky, and the Heylin symbol was painted on the sun and on the moon. But how? Dashi's efforts meant that anyone who had used that symbol was now unable to use it (in one way or another), and as a result the Heylin arts were all but extinct in the modern world. There was only one other.
Chase.
Guan left his sanctuary, taking nothing with him, and went in search of Chase Young. The darkness went away shortly with no intervention on his part, making him wonder at the source, but that thought just made him double his efforts to find what had become of his old friend. The quest had been started and he didn't want to stop - he had realised it when the darkness had covered the world: he was responsible for his own place in the fight of good and evil and less-than-evil; not Chase. And there was only one way he could regain the knowledge and ability to determine it.
He found Chase Young after only two short months of searching and, when he arrived he was expected there. The wily, secretive smirk was nothing like the smile that his Chase had habitually worn, but the resemblance was still strong enough to let him map this new Chase upon his memories, to tentatively embrace the possibility of... something. Redemption? Forgiveness? To start again from where they had ended? Perhaps one, perhaps all of them, and the imposter had let him believe it.
Until Guan's purpose had been fulfilled. He had met the children, gained their trust - made easier by the reputation that he hadn't known he had - and persuaded the Dragon to return with him. Once that was done, Chase Young dropped all pretense and tossed the Spear away with Guan like a meaningless relic. And when Guan caught it, he found that was just what it was - a relic. He left and began the journey back to his home with no words, feeling small and hollow.
The Spear didn't feel the same in his hand. It was undoubtedly the real thing, but something inside, something important had changed. It had been given differently - the first time, Chase had decided that Guan needed it more, but this time there was no purpose to the exchange. It wasn't even a gesture.
He was still pondering the difference when the children caught up to him. Somehow, Omi's absolute confidence had an effect. Dawn came. Perhaps... Perhaps he had been a hero, once, with and without the Spear. Perhaps he still could be. But there was only one way to find out.
His terms with Chase Young were the inverse of those Hannibal Bean had offered. Freedom against servitude, the same, but with following Chase being the forfeit rather than the reward. The old Chase would never have had to win Guan's loyalty - he had had it unconditionally. But - and he knew this now - Chase Young was not the old Chase. And Master Monk Guan was no longer the same Guan that had sought out a demon in his grief.
When he picked himself up from under the clawed foot, he put the Spear aside before continuing to fight. And when Chase Young began to cheat, he knew, and could no longer be afraid.