A/N: Hi, there folks! Today I bring to you a revised edition to the partial story originally written by WishUponAStar1015. I have permission to finish it as I really really do love this story! She had allowed me to re-do the first hand full of chapters she's already done and put my own twist to it. I also have her permission to write the rest of the story with my own imagination. Also, as gratefull as I am for her letting me do this, I have suggested I would forward each chapter to her for reviewing before I post it here. So, needless to say, if she approves what I have written, it will be posted for your viewing pleasure. :D On another note, she seems to be loving what I've done with it so far. Yay! So, with out further ado, here is the updated Prologue and Chapter One!

P.S. Since Return of the Jade Princess is already taken, WishUponAStar1015 and I have come to an agreement on a new title. I don't have to tell you what it is, do I? :P

~MK~AT~

I was floating in nothing but darkness, feeling weightless and without mass. The sounds of crashing and clanging of metal echoed around me. I tried to move my body, but to no avail. My body was completely limp. I felt panic surge through my veins as I desperately struggled to lift my eyelids from my unconscious state. Everything was dark and when I managed to actually lift my eyelids, the blinding light made everything worse. I was in a terrible amount of pain and all I wanted was to get down from this stinking wall!

Wait…

My eyes snapped open as I realized that I was actually strapped to a wall. How had I gotten there to begin with? When had I gotten there?

I struggled as hard as I could, but flinched when I suddenly heard cruel laughter next to my ear. I jerked my head to the left and saw a pair of dark, evil eyes boring right through mine. The eyes belonged to an elaborately dressed man, looking something like...a Warlord? He had hair as black as ebony that was held high in a knot at the top of his head, wrapped in an intricate gold hair piece.

I pushed my head far away from him and blinked in surprise when I saw a fruit being thrown at the man's head. It was kind of amusing. I looked up and felt myself smile, felt a calming warmth spread through my body. My savior was standing some feet behind whoever this creepy man was, arms folded, smiling and giggling childishly. Who was this man? He seemed so familiar to me, with white-blonde hair held up high in a ponytail, wearing a dark green tunic with brown leather boots, shoulder and arm bracers. I couldn't help but feel affection for this giggling stranger, and I smiled at him fondly.

I was about to call out for him, but stopped when I saw he was concentrating very hard on the battle. It was weird; I had never seen anyone so concentrated on something… unless...was I in danger? I didn't feel like I was in danger, but maybe he felt like I was. That was another thing. Why would a stranger work so hard to save me? I didn't know him...did I? Were we related? Friends? Or perhaps...lovers? Judging by his actions, the way he bounced from one wall to the next, giggling, swinging from the rafters, twirling his golden staff, he seemed to be a bit monkey-ish.

A Monkey King!

I felt like I would only get in his way seeing that he was in such a heated battle, so I kept my mouth shut. Suddenly, the Warlord suggested that they fight without weapons and without chi magic, for the Monkey King without his faithful staff would be useless. A lowly hermit, so the Warlord had called him. Sure, like the Monkey King would believe that…would he? Of course he would. He was so damn trusting! I wanted to cry out, to warn him, but I didn't want him lose his concentration either.

The Monkey King shoved his trusted metal staff down into the ground, and was about to take position, but stopped when he saw that the Warlord had hidden a knife in his sleeve. He was going to step forward but…no! It was too late; he had already flung the knife. I watched as it flipped through the air...and landing into my chest. I didn't feel much at first due to the shock of being stabbed, but the pain hit suddenly and forcefully.

I gasped as I felt a searing pain in my chest, pulsating with every beat of my heart. It was agonizing. I looked down in a sort of daze, not believing what I was seeing. Suddenly, the restraints were loosened and I fell to the ground in a shaking heap. I felt myself becoming weak. My hands flew up to the knife lodged in my chest as a pair of strong, yet gentle, arms wrapped around my shoulders. The Monkey King tried to lift me very gently, but each movement of my body was excruciating.

I looked up in a daze, looking up into the distraught eyes of the one I loved. Love? Yes, yes, I loved this man. It seemed cruely ironic that I would realize my feelings as I was assuredly looking death in the face. Life is but a cruel bitch. He lightly shook my shoulders, and gave a light cry as I collapsed in his arms. I just couldn't hold myself up any longer. He turned me over on my back and placed my head in his lap, lightly gripping the knife and tugging it from my chest.

Once the knife was dislodged from my chest, the blood could flow freely, causing his eyes to blur as tears began to form. I knew that I was going to die, just as he did, but he seemed to not want to face the truth. He was rocking me slightly now, craddling me, face buried in my silver hair, silently and shamelessly letting his tears fall from his face. He bunched up the tough material of his belt and pressed it to the grotesque wound, but it didn't help.

"Snowflake," I whispered ever so quietly, my voice shaky, raspy, the taste of blood in my mouth and dripping out the corner in a thin line. It was so quiet that only he was able to hear me. I brought one hand up to his face, cupping his cheek, and my eyes started to glaze with unshed tears. "Be happy…...for me. It's alright, I'm not...afraid to die...I got to have you. I love y-you." A strained, raspy, and choked whisper was I could do as a single tear streaming down my face. Then, everything went dark. There was no sound, no light…no anything.

Just as I was about to give into the darkness, a gentle, older voice came drifting through the darkness. The darkness shifted. I was no longer in the arms of my beloved. Instead, I was standing next to him, watching him sob into my lifeless form.

"My dear, sweet daughter," Cooed the gentle voice. Daughter? Suddenly I felt a warm presence behind me. I looked, but there was nothing there. I turned back to the weeping form of the Monkey King, stead fast refusing to let me go, and watched as the form of an old, white haired man appear out of thin air. His smile was gentle, and I couldn't help but smile back, though sadly, as he continued to speak, "The Monkey King wanted nothing more than to avenge your death, but he was tricked." The older man sighed. It was almost like he was disappointed over something. I watched as the white-blonde haired man – the Monkey King – stood and cast away two metal staffs that I know I had seen somewhere before. "In order to preserve his power and the power of his love, he cast away the staffs…but he also cast away a servant." The old man said. It was then that I saw the hair glinting against the metal of his staff.

I watched, horrified, as the Monkey King pointed a finger at the Warlord, and smiled a smile filled with unspoken promises that he would have his revenge, as he was turned to stone by the Warlord's chi magic. The scene shifted again, and I watched as the people of a place called the Jade Palace gave me a proper burial. They mourned my death, but what the older man said next really struck a nerve.

"My dearest…you are ready to come home. Only you and Jason have the power to free the Monkey King from his prison. Only then will you learn what you have forgotten. He said. Suddenly, it was like I was being shoved, and I felt myself falling…

~MK~AT~

I jumped, falling off of my bed as I jerked awake. I was dreaming. It wasn't the first time I'd had this dream, nor was it the second, or third. In fact, this dream seemed to dominate my sleep every night, reoccurring the second I closed my eyes. I had been having the same dream for the past six weeks. Every night it had been the same. The same people. The same message. The same sorrow. The same strange feeling I got in my chest at the sight of the Monkey King becoming trapped in stone.

It had been three years since the day I had gotten the phone call from Jason, my dear younger brother. Nothing could have made me happier than to have that bastard of a father arrested and convicted to several years in federal prison. It turns out he had been a drug dealer as well! What are the odds of that?

I got to my feet, a hand to my head and my other hand on the wall to help steady me. This was my routine every time I had this dream. I went to my desk and quietly opened the drawer. It squeaked quite a bit and Jason's room was right next to mine, so I needed to be as quiet as possible. I retrieved a small bottle, and Inside was a white hair. It wasn't just any white hair…it was the same kind of hair that floated in the wind against the staff in my dream.

Of course, this wasn't any substantial proof that my dream was real, only that I found a stray hair floating in my room that looked just like the one in my dream. But this wasn't the only source of proof that I had. I reached underneath my shirt to pull out a small jade leaf. It was beautifully carved, and a small, almost invisible, hole was drilled into the base of the leaf so that it could be made into a necklace. The small jade object had a black ribbon running through it, and I know that everything that I had been dreaming of was true, because I was wearing this exact same jade leaf in my dream, except I wore it around my head, like a circlet, and there was the letter that appeared out of thin air with a message from...my 'father'.

So, I had died, but I had died for the man I loved…even if I didn't remember him, and I knew that one thing was for certain. The time when I release him from his stone cage was drawing near...and the Jade Princess would be there by his side once again.