Hey, hey people. This is my first fanfic that I've written in over. Hn. I think three years? Yeah, three years sounds reasonable. Luckily, I've gotten a lot better at writing in those three years, so it shouldn't be half bad. Hey, I'm kind of proud of it. Although I'm not too pleased with how short this chapter is... The next one'll be longer, I promise!

Anyhow, it may not seem like it now, but this is meant to be a Chack kind of story. But with an actual story. It'll become quite yaoi-esque and very sexy after a couple of chapters, but we're not quite there yet. The rating will be edited accordingly when those chapters are submitted.

And on with the story.

Ruby Emerald

Purple clouds swirled across a featureless, black sky above him; scorched, black earth lay below him. From warped trees and red streams to mountains outlined in red – it was a messed up world he was in, and it was one he reluctantly found himself in all too often, especially lately.

"Chase!" called a voice so like his own behind him. The voice hardly surprised Chase, but it hardly pleased him either. Chase did not bother to turn and face the one speaking to him, but rather kept his eyes on the horizon before him; he did not want to face him.

"Chase." said Chase with a sterile, cutting tone. The figure behind him hardly reacted to the less than warm welcome; he simply folded has arms and appraised his other half with a look of patience. There they were – Chase as he had been before the soup, dressed in his old blue monk's robe and Chase as he was in the present in his rather dark armor.

It was all a dream, and it was a dream Chase had been dealing with for over fifteen hundred years. For, to the simple minded and easily contented, the soup erased what they were before; but Chase was hardly simple minded nor easily contented. Because of this, the other part of him was never really destroyed, simply repressed into a dark corner of his mind.

Chase almost wished he had been destroyed. Almost.

"I'm charmed. You've dreamt of me more often than you used to." said the one in blue. The other Chase didn't respond nor react to this statement, but simply looked on towards the bleak horizon. "You feel incomplete. That's why you're here, is it not?"

"I will not deny that statement. However, there is little you can do about it." stated Chase, turning to face the old version of himself. No more of this, thought Chase at the sight of himself. He wanted no further part in this dream; but before he could act on this desire, the other one hastily continued.

"The Ruby Emerald has activated, I know. But that might not be enough, particularly if you only end up with half the artifact." he stated, trying to capture Chase's attention and extend the dream. Despite the patient expression and pose, he was beginning to become desperate; over a millennium of trying this was far too long for his liking.

"Half? Why would I only come out with half?" asked Chase with a certain venom to his voice.

"Things have a way of not working out the way you want them to. It might turn out as planned." said the other, wearily regarding the real Chase. "…But it might not."

"Itwill turn out as planned." he growled. With a quick leap forward, Chase flipped into his reptilian form and charged for his other self. Just before the two would have collided, the dream world simply flickered out, much to the real Chase's relief.

[…[…[…

"I've really hit rock bottom this time." moaned Jack Spicer from his place on the cold, basement floor. "No jackbots, no money for jackbots, and Chase doesn't even think I'm good enough to be a man." At the last item, he cringed at the thought of his evil hero and role model thinking him too wimpy to make anything of himself. That one really hurt, even more than the lack of resources to build and work on his beloved robots.

With a sigh, Jack rolled over onto his stomach to stare blankly into the darkness in front of him. Only a single light was on in the entire basement – and that particular light happened to be the one swinging aimlessly above Jack. The rest of his lights were either destroyed or otherwise not functioning, and he was too afraid to venture out into the dark of his basement to fix anything. That was all right with him, though – he didn't feel up to doing much of anything. Well, anything except wallowing in the depression of the moment or trying to win Chase's appreciation. He was always up for doing the latter, and the former was an all too common theme lately.

"I'll show him he's wrong." Jack reached into his oh so cool trench coat to pull out a rather nondescript bottle from within the depths. A rather questionable red liquid sloshed around inside, and a vague scent of liquor precluded it. With a hum, Jack undid the cap on it and put it to his lips. A rather nervous expression played across his features with the thought of getting drunk before him. But then, rather anticlimactically, he drew the bottle away from his lips and replaced the cap.

"This just isn't working out." he said with a sigh, depositing the bottle back into a pocket in his coat. "Maybe Chase is right, maybe I'm not good enough to be a man." With that, he was back to staring at the featureless floor before him.

"You know, I'd give anything to have Chase like me. I mean, really, really like me." he mumbled at the darkness. "Anything, anything at all. Training with him and being on the same team with him would be the greatest."

Silence replied back to Jack. He mulled over his own statements and thought about Chase and a possible, quite evil partnership that they could have. But other questions found their way into the boy's head – other quite puzzling questions that he found himself wanting to know the answer to.

"Does he really even like anyone?" asked Jack with his prior sad and depressed expression replaced with a more inquisitive expression. He placed his index finger to his lips as he briefly mulled over his question. "Can he even like anyone?"

No sooner had he voiced his question was he answered; a piece of metal suddenly shot out from the dark and skittered just past Jack – coming to land just in front of his face right before the point where his small sphere of light gave out and faded into darkness.

Jack screamed his girly scream at that small disturbance. With a wide, teary eyed expression, Jack promptly curled up into a little ball so exposed in that little dome of light – trembling and shaking before the piece of metal that lay still before him.

"Please don't hurt me, please don't hurt me, oh please don't hurt me." he begged to the darkness with tears streaking down his albino face. From within the darkness, someone gave an amused snicker. This, however, only served to make Jack squint his eyes shut and tremble even more than before.

"Relax, Spicer." came a very familiar voice. With a gasp, Jack opened his eyes to peer just over his kneecaps at the now revealed figure at the edge of his little sphere of light. Jack's frown turned upside down and his eyes sparkled with a kind of joy at the very sight of the figure before him.

"Chase Young! I was just talking about you." Jack said most eagerly as he scooted on his belly over to Chase's form and stopped just short of his boots.

"So I heard." said Chase as he regarded the red head with a kind of curiosity. It has to have been a year, and he's still not tired of me, thought Chase to himself with a kind of amusement.

With a squeal, Jack wrapped his arms around Chase's ankles and rubbed his cheek up against them. "I'm so honored to have you in my basement. Can I do anything for you?"

"Yes. Stop touching me." replied Chase, shaking Jack off of him with a shake of a boot. But that didn't dampen Jack's spirits at all; he just stayed crumpled up at Chase's feet, staring up at Chase tirelessly. With an exasperated roll of his eyes, Chase chose to not comment on Jack's rather obsessive hero-worship. He would have either just laughed or kicked him, anyway – there were no words to describe what he felt towards it. "I have a proposition for you, Spicer. One that I believe you will be most interested in."

"A proposition? For me? Oh! Oh! Yes!" said Jack quite eagerly. A proposition for him? He'd definitely do anything Chase asked of him – anything at all.

"Calm yourself. You don't even know what it is I want you to do." advised Chase to the sparkly-eyed Jack staring up at him.

"Eh, I'm sure I can handle it." replied Jack without a trace of doubt in his lackluster abilities. Chase couldn't help but smirk at Jack's eagerness and confidence; to Chase, it was so ill-deserved that it was funny. Maybe he would just laugh instead of kick Spicer if he had to comment on what he thought of the kid.

"I'm sure you can. I suppose it is settled, then." said Chase, a smirk still upon his lips. He wasn't surprised at all to have Jack accept (and with such eagerness) – it was why he had decided to just simply ask Jack to tag along on a mission even he couldn't mess up. It was so perfect. "Oh, and you'll be staying with me for a little while."

Jack nearly cried at Chase's feet.