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Chapter Three

Kim's POV

After aimlessly searching for a while, we decided to split up. No one really wanted me to go by myself and Rai was more than happy to offer to go with me, but I convinced them that I was fine before I disappeared over a giant dust mound. I appreciated the silence and hot air to let me cool down and clear my mind. I forgot what I was looking for after a while and was just walking around, looking up at the sky, when I rammed into something. I fell back on my butt and squinted to look up at the object I just ran into. Chase Young.

I crawled backwards and scrambled up into a poor fighter stance. "What the hell do you want?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"Oh nothing in particular…" He started circling me, like I was prey. He was toying with me. "I was just wondering how your day was going. Anything interesting been happening?"

My mind began to swim with a million thoughts. Why was he acting so casual with me? Never had he ever directly talked to me before. My heart began beating faster and I think he could sense that. A cruel smile began to form on his lips. I swallowed back the lump in my throat and tried to act confident.

"Just fine, thank you." I pursed my lips and held my head high, even though on the inside I was shaking all the way down to my core.

"Oh really? Nothing interesting happened today?" His smile turned into an evil smirk that made my heart stopped cold. I glared into his topaz eyes and gritted my teeth.

"Just spit it out Chase, what do you want?"

"I think you know exactly what I want," He moved closer to me and my heart skipped a beat. I blinked and he was gone, but all I could do was stare ahead. Then I felt warm breath on my neck, and a dark voice whispered in my ear, "Little fire princess." My knees gave out and I collapsed to the ground.

"Kimiko!" I heard Omi scream in the distance. Every time he screamed my name though, it seemed like he was getting farther and farther away. The ringing in my ears was all I could hear, and everything began to look fuzzy. I heard Chase's words repeat over and over in my head before I blacked out.

Rai's POV

"That's right Spicer! Don't mess with us!" I laughed and held the three shiny objects in my hands. It felt great to win. I now not only had the Ring of Silence, but the Star Hinaubi and the new Sheng Gong Wu, the Secret Serpent. I beamed at my teammates, but noticed one of them was missing. The scenery changed back to normal and I looked around everywhere. "Hey guys, where's Kim?" They all looked around and shrugged. I got a knot in my stomach before we all took off running.

After a while Dojo said he thought he could smell her perfume and tried to follow it. It was the only lead we had. Eventually we made it over a sand dune and saw two figures in the distance. I squinted and saw that it was Kimiko! But there was some man beside her…

Chase Young. I took off in a dead sprint towards them, when all of a sudden I saw her collapse and she was all by herself. I was too infuriated to yell, I simply used my wind power to make me go faster.

"Kimiko!" I heard Omi yell from not too far behind me. I saw the look in her eyes before she slipped into unconsciousness, and it wasn't good. She looked… gone.

Dojo immediately supersized as I scooped her up in my arms, we hopped on and took off into the sky. The ride was silent once again, except for the ragged sound of her breathing. I stroked her cheek and looked down at her. What's happening to you Kimiko? What did Chase do to you? Suddenly I was enraged. What the hell did he do to her!

We landed in the temple courtyard and Master Fung was already waiting for us. How did he know this kind of stuff? Does he sense it? Weird Monk stuff I would never understand. I flew off and gently laid her in Master Fung's arms. "Do you know what's wrong with her?" My eyes never left her as I spoke to him.

"No harm was done to her, she simply fainted. What exactly happened?"

"Raimundo here had jus' won the showdown when we noticed Kimiko wasn't anywhere around. We went lookin' for her an' when we found her, Chase was there. Within a few seconds she was on the ground an' he was gone. Thas all we know." Clay tipped his hat and took a step closer to Kim. He looked just as worried as the rest of us. I never realized how close we all were to her; she was so special to us.

"I will take her to the medical wing. The rest of you may take the rest of the day off, but stay on your guard; for Kimiko's sake." The old man turned and walked off with Kimiko hanging limp in his arms. I paced back and forth, unsure of what to do. Omi and Clay sat solemnly on the edge of the water fountain, not sure of what to do either. As I wore a path in the ground, Omi and Clay eventually disappeared to their cubicles. I couldn't sit still though. What was happening to her? It was killing me to not know.

I decided to go over all the facts in my head. Kimiko used a weird move during a showdown yesterday that she was never taught. It gave her unimaginable strength and probably saved her life. She wasn't strong enough to withstand it for very long though. After a few seconds of burning she passed out. Last night she was mumbling something about being controlled, and a monster. She was sobbing and talking to herself, and tried to act like nothing happened afterwards. Today she lost control of her anger and again tried to act like nothing happened. But how does that explain the grey fire? Yeah, we all saw it. It was pretty creepy. She screamed for it to stop… like she was telling herself to stop. But for some odd reason it seemed like she wasn't even yelling at herself. It was more like someone, or something else.

After I gathered all the facts in my head, I knew something had to be done. I had to talk to her or something. I found myself already headed down the narrow hallway to the medical wing. I poked my head through the curtain to see the frail girl passed out on the rectangular bed. I sighed and hung my head. I knew she wouldn't be awake for a while, but I needed to talk to her now.

Suddenly something clicked in my head. The New Sheng Gong Wu; the Secret Serpent! It would tell me her biggest secret would be revealed to me. Surely she knew what was going on and was going through great lengths to hide it. Surely this was her deepest darkest secret. I retreated from the room and snuck down the hall to the vault. I chimed the bells in the correct order and retrieved the Wu I had won just hours ago. I was excited to use it, but scared of what I might discover. As I made my way back to the medical wing, something didn't feel right. The hallway felt more drafty than normal, and the smell of metal was in the air. I picked up my pace and turned the corner. I stopped dead in my tracks right in front of a giant gaping hole in the wall.

Kimiko was gone.