Chapter One

A New Life

"Kimiko, come here a moment."

I stopped in my tracks as I was trying to get past Mater Fung unnoticed; I was on my way to training and I was already late, braiding my long black hair as I went.

Ever try to sneak past a Xiaolin Master? Word of advice; don't.

I sighed and walked over to where he was standing with a small family, trying to finish my braid that was almost down to my stomach. I noticed that Dojo wasn't hanging around Master Fung's neck; obviously Master Fung didn't think that the kids' parents needed to meet our talking dragon.

"Kimiko, this is Jimmy and Emily. They are going to be new students here."

I nodded at him as I tossed my finished braid behind my shoulder. Looking at the two kids, I was skeptical that they would make good Xiaolin monks; neither of them was very young anymore, although that isn't an issue at our temple. The girl had short light brown hair that sat on her shoulders, a cell phone was in her hand and she clearly looked like the kind of girl that snuck out her house at night. Her brother didn't look much different; his hair almost sat on his shoulders as well, the difference was it was blond and laid flat, a contrast to his sister's brown hair. I could see an ear bud in one of his ears and it was attached to an iPod that was sticking only slightly from his pocket.

I must have forgotten my manners, because Master Fung cleared his throat. I looked back up and met their eyes, "Pleased to meet you, I'm Kimiko."

They both nodded at me and smiled. Their parents smiled at me too.

"So you've lived here for quite a long time? Master Fung was just telling us about you and your friends." Said their mother.

I raised my eye brow at Master Fung and he winked at me. I smiled and nodded, "Yeah, this is my home. You'll love it here."

I took a slow step away from them, "I would love to stay and talk but I really have to get going…"

"You're already late Kimiko, being a little bit later won't harm anyone."

I looked up at Master Fung and cringed, yeah, except me.

He smiled and placed a hand on my shoulder, "My Dragon Warriors are having their daily training right now, why don't we go and watch? You can get a feel of what your kids are going to be striving to become." The parents liked this idea and we all headed towards the back field.

As we got closer I could see Rai, Clay, and Omi already past warming up and were standing on top of the Balancing Poles; tall bamboo poles that stood a few hundred feet from the ground. I groaned quietly; Rai was not going to be happy that I was late…again.

Once we got to the edge of the field I got a running start and jumped my way up to the top of a pole, using the sides of the poles as push-off points. I heard the family's intake of breath when I jumped off the ground and made my way up, it made me smile to myself; I did like showing off. When I reached the top I stood still a moment and got my balance, then looked up and saw Rai standing on the pole in front of me. I smiled weakly.

"You're late."

I nodded, hearing Omi and Clay snickering behind me. "I wouldn't have been this late, but Master Fung stopped me and had me talk to that family."

His eyes narrowed at me and glanced down at the family that was watching us, when he looked back up his eyes weren't as hard as they were before; he could never stay mad at me for long. "Take responsibility for you own lateness, Kimi. Don't be late AGAIN."

I nodded and bowed gracefully, keeping my balance perfectly, "Yes, Raimundo."

He nodded, a gleam in his eye, and swiftly jumped from pole to pole back to his place at the tip of the star.

"Okay Dragons, pay attention. Now we have some spectators on ground floor and I think it would be a little fun to show off…a bit." He smiled that adorable smile that I fell for years ago and it made me laugh.

He winked at me and bent his knees, "Ready? Wudai Orion Formation!"

I waited a split second as Omi, Rai, and Clay got into their positions; Omi in the middle with Rai and Clay on each side, as soon as I saw Omi raise his arms I jumped and landing swiftly with my hands on his. As our hands clasped, an aura of color appeared surrounding us. Red surrounded me, blue surrounded Rai, green Clay, and white Omi.

As we waiting a second, our powers growing fast since we have no use for them anymore, Rai shifted his weight a fraction of an inch and Omi launched me into the air. I spun in a cartwheel fashion, fire surrounding me and spraying as I turned faster. Even though I couldn't see it, I knew that Clay was causing pillars of stone to rise up from the earth. I knew Omi was causing water from the lake to rise up into a tidal wave, and I knew Raimundo was flying in a tornado of wind close behind me.

We all landed on poles that sat on the other end of the field; as quiet as a mouse. I knew the family was probably talking to Master Keen about us by now, wondering what we were but as Rai smiled and laughed; I forgot all about the family watching us.

"That was perfect. Man…I miss doing that…"

Clay, Omi and I glanced at each other and nodded in agreement.

"I hear that partner. Life is far too boring around here now." Said Clay as he bent down to tie up his shoe.

I rolled my eyes, "Oh come on, and I of all people agree that life is way too boring now that we have no Wu to find, but are we really wishing that Wuya and Chase Young would be here? Or even Jack Spicer?"

Omi glanced at Clay and shook his head at me, "Well it would make things interesting…but no…"

I opened my mouth to speak but Rai beat me to it, "Look guys, I know life is boring right now, the four of us aren't exactly meant for a normal life. But I would give anything to keep it like this…I don't want to go back to going off to find a Wu and wondering if one of us wasn't going to be coming home…" he's eyes looked at me and bore a hole into my soul; I knew what he meant.

Clay and Omi hung their heads and nodded slowly. I looked at Rai and watched as his eyes filled with a fear and pain that would never go away. I carefully hopped my way over to him and stopped beside him, placing a hand on his chest I smiled at him. It took him a second, but he smiled back.

"Let's get back to training guys. No more showing off."

My smile grew as I looked up at him and he kissed my forehead, "Thank you."

I nodded and hopped my way back to my pole between Clay and Omi and the three of us bowed to our leader.

We were sitting under the big Bonsai tree in the courtyard of the Temple, it had become our place to sit and talk to play games; no one at the Temple really understood us, except Master Fung of course, so we liked being off on our own, together.

Clay and Omi were busy playing a game of sticks as Rai sat leaning against the tree. I was in my favorite place on one of the branches, but as I looked down at my boys I couldn't help but feel like we were pretending to be normal monks; that we weren't living the life we were supposed to be. I shook my head to rid my mind of these thoughts and swiftly jumped down, landing beside Raimundo. He smiled up at me and as I sat down beside him he put his arm around my shoulders and held me close.

"What's bothering you? I can tell something is."

I smiled against his shoulder, "It's nothing."

Clay and Omi looked up from their game with concerned eyes, "What is wrong Kimiko?" asked Omi.

I shook my head, "Nothing Omi, just play your game."

Clay sat up and looked at me, "You feel something, don't you?"

I looked down at the ground between us and I could feel Rai shift his weight so he could look at me.

"Kimi, do you feel something?"

I looked up and looked into each boy's eyes; each one suddenly filled with concern and maybe even excitement.

"I…"

"Dragons, I have a favor to ask of you."

Rai's eyes closed for a second and when they opened again they looked right at me; meaning we would talk about this later. He turned around and saw Master Fung standing with Emily and Jimmy.

"I was wondering if you would show these two around a bit, introduce them to some of the other students they will be training with."

Ray nodded, "Of course Master Fung. No problem."

He nodded and left us alone, heading towards his afternoon tea I'm sure.

Rai stood up and smiled at Emily and Jimmy, "Well, welcome to your new home."

Jimmy huffed, "Whatever." I rolled my eyes as I watched him walk past us and towards the Kio pond.

When I looked back Emily was smiling at Rai.

"This place is pretty incredible." Rai nodded, "yeah, this is definitely my favorite place anywhere in the world."

I narrowed my eyes at Rai's back and quickly stood up and went to his side. Taking his hand in mine I smiled at Emily, "Yeah, you'll love it here."

She glanced down at our clasped hands and then narrowed her eyes at me, "So what do you guys do around here for fun?"

I rolled my eyes and squeezed Rai's hand before I let go and walked over to the pond where Jimmy stood hunched over. When I got closer to him I realized why he was standing with his shoulders hung over.

"You have to get rid of that."

He turned around and glared at me, "I don't know what you're talking about."

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest, "Your iPod, it's not allowed here. You can have it sent to your parents but you can't have it here."

He kept glaring at me and stuffed is back into his tunic, "I saw you with a handheld computer earlier. And besides you're not Master Fung or my parents, so I think I'll just keep it thanks."

I clenched my fists against my chest as heat began to simmer in my palms, "There are exceptions to every rule, I use that computer for special reasons. You have…."

"Kimi."

I shut my mouth and turned to find Rai and others walking up to the pond. He nodded at me and I stepped back from Jimmy.

He walked up to him and looked at him, "Look, you're new here so I'll let this slide just this once. But some advice for you and your sister; First of all, we're Monks which means no technology and don't question why Master Fung allows Kimiko to use a computer; we have our reasons. Second, when Master Fung or any one of us tells you to do something, you do it. You can either do as your told, even if you don't want to, or you can argue which will cause you to end up with an extra training session or a day of fasting; depending on what you were arguing about. You're not in America any more, where everyone is free and whatever. Think of this a boarding school where there are rules, you disobey those rules and you get punished, simple as that. Do you understand?" he looked at Jimmy and then at Emily.

They both nodded, even though neither of them looked too happy about it.

"Good." He put his hand out in front of him and waited as Jimmy slowly put his iPod into his hand, "I'll make sure this gets sent to your parents."

As Rai turned his back on Jimmy and put the iPod into his pocket, Jimmy turned his attention back to me and his eyes tried to bore holes into my forehead.

I rolled my eyes and walked towards the Temple.

"You okay Kim?" asked Clay.

I turned around as I walked and nodded, "Just going to take a shower…or something….anything but sitting here with them."

As I walked towards the Temple, Rai leaned against the tree again and watched me; he was worried about me, I hadn't been acting myself lately and I was being unusually more unfriendly towards the new students than I usually was.

I almost reached the Temple steps when the ground beneath my feet began to shake violently; okay a hint, we don't get Earthquakes here.

I managed to turn around and face the garden as I lost my balance and fell onto my knees. Rai and the others were trying to make their way over to the Temple where I was crouched but it wasn't easy. They had just made it to the small bridge that stood over the stream when a giant thing came out of the ground close to my feet.

I heard Rai yell my name but I couldn't see him anymore, all I saw was a big metal drill of some kind; thinking back on it, it looked a lot like the Tunnel Armadillo.

The ground had finally stopped shaking and as I started to stand up a door on the top of the vehicle opened and a young man climbed out; one look at him, and my whole body went numb, he looked like Chase Young.

He looked around and then he smiled at me. Jumping down off of his vehicle he landed close to me and I took a tentative step back before I stood my ground.

"You must be Kimiko, heard a lot about you."

I crunched my eye brows together, "Really? 'cuz I have no idea who the hell you are."

He took another step closer to me and we were almost face to face, "You will…you will."

"Dude, back away from her."

We both looked as Rai, Clay and Omi came into view.

"And you're Raimundo, Clay, and Omi….I pictured you differently."

Rai walked right up to him and grabbing my arm pulled me so I stood behind him, "And who the hell are you?"

The mystery guy smiled, "Like I just told Kimiko. You'll know someday soon." He pulled a remote out of his jacket and with the click of a button his vehicle started up and drilled its way down below us again. With a smile he began to walk backwards; towards the Wu Vault. "It was nice to actually see you all today, although I still say that this was all entirely too easy."

Clay, Omi and I glanced at each other and took our places on either side Rai, waiting for a signal. But Rai didn't give it; he wanted to see what this guy was going to do first.

"If you haven't figured it out yet, which I have to say I really hope you have, I look an awful lot like my Uncle."

I honestly about puked right there, "Chase Young was your Uncle…?"

He smiled at me, "Very good little Kimiko, yeah he was. And you four killed him. Pardon me if I hold a grudge."

Rai took a slow step forward, his hands up in the universal signal of surrender, "Now take it easy, we had to do what we did…"

The guy's face changed, his eyes looked even redder than they had before. "We'll see who's sorry…"

And as if on cue, his vehicle came plowing into the surface in the center of the Vault; Shen Gong Wu went flying everywhere.

"Get the Wu!" yelled Rai and we all jumped at his voice.

I ran straight for the Eye of Dashi that had fallen to the ground amongst the rubble of the Vault. I grabbed it off the ground and looked around for more Wu; Rai had the Shroud of Shadows and Mantis Flip Coin in his hand and was scanning the ground for more that had fallen; Omi had found his favorite Orb of Tornami and was holding it close; Clay was holding the Black Hole Bag. As I looked around for more Wu I saw that they were starting to disappear; all the ones that were lying on the ground or stuck in trees seemed to just vanish. I turned around and saw the Sword of the Storm lying between some rubble and I sprinted for it; the idiot came out of nowhere, just as my hand touched the Sword, his hand was too.

I looked up as the Wu began to glow gold and he smiled at me, "You can call it."

I growled, "Like I would let you. I wager my Eye of Dashi and our Shroud of Shadows against your Third Arm Sash and Golden Tiger Claws."

He nodded, "First one to the top of the mountain wins. Let's go…Xiaolin Showdown!"

The earth began to shake again and the mountains that sat behind the Temple grounds grew bigger and bigger until the tips were hidden in the clouds. Smoke cleared and I stood on a large outcropping of rocks now wearing my deep blue Showdown uniform; part of it covering my face and my long braid was now encased in the fabric as well. I held on tight to the Eye of Dashi and made sure the Shroud was in my belt and wouldn't come out and then I looked across the way and saw the Chase Young look-alike.

Braking tradition I yelled, "What's your name? I like knowing who I'm fighting?"

I could see him smile from way over here, "Raphiel."

I nodded and getting ready to make a jumping start we both yelled, "Gong-yi-tenpai!"

I jumped off of my ledge and tried to get my footing on the cliff face, "Careful Kimiko!"

I turned my head and saw Omi standing with Rai, Clay and it seemed that the newbies must have been standing too close because they were there too.

I looked back at the task at hand and saw that Raphiel was already half way up the mountain, grinding my teeth and climbed to a place where I could get my footing and pulled the Eye out of my pocket. "Eye of Dashi!" lightning came streaming out of the Eye and crashed into the rock face in front of Raphiel, causing him to lose his footing and slide back down the mountain. I smiled and pocketing the Eye I again began to climb up the mountain as quick as I could.

I reached a middle marker as I heard a loud ripping noise and then I saw Raphiel climb out of a rip in the air caused by the Golden Tiger Clause. I growled and grabbed the Shroud, "Shroud of Shadows!" I became completely invisible and began to climb up the mountain, trying to not to make rocks fall that would give away my place.

I heard Raphiel laugh behind me, and before I had heard him say it something grabbed me around the waist and pulled, hard. I was ripped from the rock face and the Shroud of Shadows flew out of my hand and right into Raphiel's.

I struggled against the Third Arm Sash but I couldn't reach the Eye of Dashi because the Arm was holding my arms tight to my sides. Raphiel climbed to the top the mountain and set me down behind him, he turned his back on the Sword and looked at me.

"Now I'm going to be nice and try to give you a fair fight. Just don't think that I'll ever do it again."

I growled and ran at him, flipping in the air with my foot out; missing him by inches I landed on the ground in a role and when I looked up his foot clipped the side of my face and sent me flying into rock.

Rai stood beside his friends and cringed as I went flying into the rock. "She's not staying focused! She's getting angry!"

"Isn't it a good thing if she gets angry?" asked Emily.

Clay shook his head and never took his eyes off me, "No, Kimiko has a temper problem…goes along with her element…when she gets angry she loses her focus and then gets her ass kicked."

Clay was right; I was getting my ass kicked. I was a good fighter, could beat Omi on my worst days and he was one of the best fighters at the Temple but I was too angry to pay attention to what I was doing. I wiped blood off my lip and glared at Raphiel, "You fight just like him…"

He smiled and shrugged, "He taught me everything he knew."

I gritted my teeth and jumped, "Judalette Flip, Fire!" I was spinning super fast and fire was spraying all around me, but did that stop Raphiel…no way.

He grabbed my foot inches from his face and slammed me into the ground; I hit hard and grabbing my broken rib I stayed on the ground. He bent down to my face and brushed some hair that had come out of my braid out of my face, "You would be good Warrior on the Heylin side."

I spoke through my pain, "I've seen what the Heylin side has to offer….I will never join you…"

He shrugged, "Pity." Grabbing the Eye of Dashi out of my pocket he walked over to where the Sword of the Storm sat and the next thing I knew Rai and the others were running over to me.

"Kimi! No, don't move!" Rai grabbed my shoulders and gently pushed me back down; it didn't take much, I hadn't really gotten up that much.

We looked over to what used to be the Vault and Raphiel stood on top of his vehicle, "Thanks so much for the Wu. Catch you around the world as I look for more." And with that he jumped into his vehicle and they both vanished back into the earth.

I grinded my teeth and spoke, "How many Wu did he get…?"

"Not too sure, not many, most disappeared before he could grab them…of course, most disappeared before we could grab them too…"

I looked up at Clay and he shrugged.

"Don't worry about the Wu right now, Emily or Jimmy run and get Master Fung. He's probably in the courtyard trying to calm the younger kids." Someone ran at Rai's words but I had closed my eyes and leaned into his body as the pain seemed to get worse.