Over the course of three days, Anastasia had officially settled into Jack's mansion. He had a cozy bedroom, extra sets of clothing, and her favorite books all gathered and prepared before she took a step over the threshold. The small backpack of travelling clothes Anastasia had taken with her was paled in comparison by the army of luggage the JackBots were carrying from Moscow. It was the evening of the third day when all the luggage accumulated on her new bed, ready to be worn and folded. Anastasia stared at it, unsure of how to go about unpacking.
She reached for the black duffel, knowing it would conceal the most objects. When she unzipped it, she internally gasped. Sitting atop folded clothing and some toiletries was a large, hard cover book with twine crisscrossing the binding.
Picking it up with mild ease, Anastasia traced her fingers over the cover. It was rough like sandpaper, but weak as a newborn baby. It was dark green, with folded edges brown and worn. It was a bit heavy, due to its size perhaps. What in the Hell is this thing? Anastasia thought to herself. Why did her mother pack this in for her?
Looking over her shoulder, she checked the door to the hallway to make sure no one was watching. She placed the book back into the bag, walked across the soft carpet and shut the door quietly. Then, taking a deep breath, she rushed back to the book and opened it. The first page was void of markings of any kind, but the paper was strangely akin to papyrus, yellowed and frayed somewhat. Anastasia timidly turned the page again, and this time was alarmed to see blots of black decorating the page. At first, she thought it might be ink. After all, it was a book. But she pressed the page to her nose and took a deep sniff.
It didn't smell much like ink. Sophie used ink a lot to paint and write in scriptures. Anastasia would succumb to the heavy scent of it in the night, only to wake up with a poison-induced hangover. This smelled different. Mixed with the smell of dust and paper, she couldn't tell right away.
She walked over to the brass floor lamp next to the empty bookshelf and held the page beneath the pale, warm light. Anastasia gasped.
It was red. Blood red.
Nearly dropping the book in sheer horror, Anastasia stared at the blood. Why? Why would Sophie give her a book of blood? Feeling dizzy, she turned the page, bearing mind to separate each page delicately. The next one had more blood markings on it. The same thing appeared on the next page, and the next, and the next.
Finally giving in to her fears, Anastasia screeched and tossed the book onto the bed, where it landed with a cushioned thud. Her heart was pounding wildly. She held her hands to her face and tried to sort out the mess in her mind. Was Sophie insane? Anastasia knew her mother was into strange things, but this was completely out of character for her.
As if it couldn't get any worse, the sound of thundering footsteps nearing her door scared Anastasia senseless. It was Jack, no doubt. Those overgrown bricks he called boots could cause an avalanche if he ran fast enough. Diving to her bed without a moment to spare, Anastasia hurriedly shoved the book back into the duffel and sealed it tight. There was no need to involve Jack in this. The bloody pages may have been creepy but they didn't scream "magic".
Jack's voice reached her from behind the door. "Anna?" He yelled, pounding against the door. "You OK?"
Trying to calm herself so she wouldn't alarm anyone else, she called out in a fairly shaky breath, "Yes, I'm fine! Just…" she bit her lip thinking up an excuse, "…just stubbed my toe."
There was a pause behind the mahogany structured door, causing Anastasia to believe Jack was thinking. She sighed in relief when he finally replied, "Yeah, I hate that. Heads up, wear shoes everywhere unless you're in bed. This furniture could kill ya one day."
Anna exhaled softly upon hearing his clunky boots stomp away. That was close, she thought, glaring at the duffel. Whatever that thing was, she didn't need neither Jack nor Wuya getting their hands on it. She looked around the room, surveying the best place to hide the book. The bed was massive, laden with comfortable linen and lined with satin. There was no space to hide anything under the bed though, for drawers and a jewelry box took up all the room. Against the warm burgundy walls were countless potential hiding places: a polished woden dresser with drawers inside the drawers, picture frames with hidden safes, even a closet with a key hanging out of the door handle. It was too easy.
She'd figure out where to put it. But right now, she needed to get her supplies unpacked, then go to bed. Tomorrow Wuya promised to start her "training". Something told her she'd need every ounce of energy for that.
Anastasia awoke to the darkness of her bedroom, dazed and confused. She sat straight up in bed, unable to understand what happened. Was she just asleep? Was she in present time? Time seemed to stop altogether at that moment. Had she dreamed of something, perhaps?
The first thought occurring to her was to open the blinds, to shed some light on the situation. Maybe seeing the sky could clear her mind. However, the moment she stepped out of bed, she was hit with a tremendous numbing pain in the center of her forehead. The pain hit her with such impact that she groaned and fell to her knees, clutching her face.
This sensation was not from an external force, like being struck with a hammer. It was like her brain was attacking itself. It pulsated in her head for a while, making her think the blood was being concentrated to that one place. The numbness seemed to get louder, more intense, more painful. Just when she thought her head would explode, Anastasia felt something burst. Whatever power had overtaken her seemed to vanish into thin air.
Anastasia rubbed her forehead, breathing heavily. What the Hell was that? Slowly, and careful not to induce a panic attack, she arose from the floor and pool of blankets from her ankles. Even though it was still dark, she figured she might as well go downstairs.
After taking a quick detour to the bathroom, she descended the twirling and shallow steps. It reminded her of her own home, the sheer grandeur and wealth displayed there for all to see. But like her home, it was quiet and eerily empty. Jack was an only child as well, and from the looks of it, he was lonely much too often. His mother, Anastasia's estranged aunt, was a business mogul. Serena was much too busy making deals to shower Jack with the kind of love she'd gotten. And according to Jack, his father was a lawyer. Whatever happened to Mr. Spicer a long time ago made him an unresponsive, absent alcoholic. Jack's only choice was to make his own companions, dishing up the unconditional loyalty he never experienced in childhood.
Her presence here must have meant the world to him, even if he didn't show it.
She turned a corner and found herself at the threshold of the kitchen. The ceiling lights illuminated the room, and the scent of coffee hit her like a ton of bricks. Anastasia raised her brows as the sight of Jack and Wuya seated at the clear table.
Her male counterpart spotted her first and smirked. "Hey, Frankenstein!" He greeted.
Anastasia tried to smile back but she still hadn't recovered from her shock. Jack's messy pale blond hair was sticking out in different directions, instead of slicked back as usual. Void of all his black leather, eye liner, and goggles, Jack looked normal. He was in a gray t-shirt and blue basketball shorts. He was holding a steaming mug of coffee the width of an ostrich egg.
Wuya threw her head back, showing Anastasia a full face of makeup and bright eyes. Did she ever sleep? The ancient grinned, saying, "You get off on the wrong side of the bed, Annie of Green Gables?"
"Like you wouldn't believe," Anastasia responded drowsily. She took a step in and noticed the JackBot at the counter. It looked hysterical with an apron and oven mitts on. It was levitating in front of a waffle iron.
"Huh," was all Anastasia could manage.
Jack craned his neck to the chair adjacent to his. "Sit, Anna. The bot will get you some java."
As if nudged with a sharp stick, the bot at the waffle iron rushed to her with a large yellow cup of coffee. Still dazed, Anastasia took to the mug from the android and plopped down in the seat beside Jack. She sniffed, rubbed her nose and looked up at the two deviants before her.
"So, how'd ya sleep?" Jack asked, taking a large gulp from his red mug. Anastasia could see his Adam's apple bob up and down as he swallowed.
Anastasia yawned and replied, "Alright. But I woke up with an awful migraine."
Wuya and Jack exchanged mysterious smirks, prompting Anastasia to quirk an eyebrow and ask, "What?"
A throaty chuckle from the witch sparked a stab of fear in her heart. Jack snorted and took a sip from his coffee before pursing his lips and confessing, "You know what a blinding spell is, Anastasia?"
"Vaguely, yes," Anastasia replied, still not following. Her mother had mentioned it in passing a couple of times, but she didn't really know its purpose.
The ancient witch folded her arms over her chest and added, "This something you'll be taught later in your training, but while you were asleep, I cast a blinding spell on you. It causes the victim to first be incredibly confused of their whereabouts, thereby freezing them in an 'out-of-mind' state. You'll have no sense of direction, time, or space. And then the pain sets in, and it becomes so intense that you cannot function. It completely incapacitates you, making you the perfect target in battle."
Anastasia's jaw dropped. So Wuya caused that terrible inconvenience? She mentally slapped herself. Of course she would! Wuya was a sinister and ancient witch with a vendetta against nearly everything. This was just like her.
Anastasia would just have to learn to protect her mind from Wuya's tricks was all.
"Oh, don't worry, child. I'll teach you a spell to deflect it sooner or later. I just wanted to give you a taste of what you'll be up against in the near future," the crinkly-haired being explained.
Jack shrugged and responded, "We don't know she'll face witchcraft. Definitely some Wu, though."
Wuya nodded, replying, "Of course she'll have to protect herself from the Wu. The Xiaolin brats are getting stronger, too. But our biggest concern is still Shadow. She's an expert in fighting and magic."
The albino sat there, awestruck by her realization. She was being served up as some kind of martyr for the Heylin cause. She would learn some mediocre magic and be pushed into battle, only to be sliced up by this Shadow woman, or the formidable Chase Young himself. Wuya and Jack had only briefly discussed the general points of their ideas with her, but now that it was all unfolding, she didn't know if she could go through with it.
The JackBot suddenly floated towards them with three steaming waffle plates in its robotic arms. He placed them on the table. Anastasia nodded at the impressive job it'd done. The waffle was a perfect golden brown color, its width like a saucer, and it's anterior topped with butter, berries, and syrup.
Anastasia joked, "Breakfast this early in the morning?"
Wuya raised an eyebrow, replying, "It's five AM. It's not that early."
"Not for you, at least," Jack replied, frowning as he picked at his waffle. "Miss 'Immortal'." He eyed her plate hungrily and asked, "You gonna eat that?"
The witch pried her plate away from the table and Jack's face. "You glutton! You have your own food still!"
"But you don't need to eat, Wuya! Dammit, quit being stingy!" Jack whined.
Anastasia decided to take a bite of her own food. If Jack and Wuya were going to fight about it, then it must've been good. As she chewed delicately, she asked Jack, "What are we going to do today?"
The witch popped a ripe blueberry in her mouth and rejoined, "We're going to give you a tour of the Temple ruins and an extensive history lesson on the war between the Heylin and the Xiaolin."
Jack nodded and took another gulp of coffee before continuing, "The more you know about the conflict, the better."
"Alright," Anastasia responded. Having food in her belly gave her a strange sense of hope. "When do we start?"
Jabbing a thumb in the witch's direction, Jack replied coldly, "When her Majesty finishes chowin' down."
Wuya harrumphed and took another bite, chewing slowly. Anastasia took a glimpse of Jack's plate and noticed that he'd finished his waffle in near minutes. How could he possibly have eaten so fast? Her own breakfast was still only halfway finished.
"I know what you're thinking," Wuya said, an amused look on her face. "How could a scrawny worm like Jack eat so much and remain so tiny? It remains a mystery. But one thing we know for certain is that Jack is a freak of nature."
Anastasia's brows shot up at Wuya's statement. Jack simply rolled his eyes at her, picked up his plate, placed it in the dishwasher and stated, "I'm going to get dressed. Anna, we're going to the mountains. Bring a jacket."
With that, he sulked out of the kitchen. When she was sure he was gone, Anastasia leaned forward and growled, "Did you have to say that?"
She expected Wuya to act innocent, blink her perfectly made up eyes and justify her actions to some degree. But the ancient woman simply "tsked" and retorted, "Oh, Jack is a resilient boy. He's suffered far worse. You ever see those scars on his arms? Look for them next time you get a chance. I talked him out of that," she lifted her chin proudly, "He knows I mean well."
Anastasia wanted to say more, but she'd only known Jack and Wuya for a few days. They'd known each other for years. It would be out of her place to comment on their relationship. Even so, it made her heartstrings itch to hear such awful things about Jack. He was her family, after all.
With a sigh, she pulled herself up from the chair and made her way out of the kitchen. Behind her, she could hear Wuya screeching, "Wear something flattering, girl! You never know who might be watching!" And she started to cackle.
Anastasia shivered. If anyone was a freak of nature, it was Wuya.
The plane ride to the Temple ruins was unsurprisingly shorter than the journey from Moscow to China. It was also louder, what with Wuya and Jack bickering incessantly. Anastasia patiently sat behind the witch, quietly listening to their argument, trying to soak in whatever background information about them, especially Wuya. If the witch was going to keep shooting cannons at her cousin, Anastasia would need her own weapons of destruction against her.
They landed on the side of a grassy, clear green hill. After they safely climbed out, Wuya started sauntering up the hill, humming and swaying her hips exaggeratedly back and forth. Jack followed close behind, hands shoved into the pockets of his windbreaker. Anastasia struggled a bit, not knowing they'd be walking in actual grass. Her boots were knee-length, and had small heels to add to her height. She wasn't exactly lacking in it, but Wuya did say to look good. Anastasia did her best, dressing in a knit sweater the color of her pale skin, skinny purple pants and the black boots. But she started to regret it as they began encountering debris and misplaced pieces of what the Temple once was. What if she tripped and got her clothing dirty?
She started to skitter to catch up with them. Anastasia found herself walking beside her cousin and asked, "About this Temple…what happened?"
Wuya must have heard because she slowed down enough for the cousins to catch up and said, "Chase Young happened."
The albino girl sighed, "What does that mean exactly?"
Just then, they reached the top of the cliff, and Wuya looked ahead with a sinister grin folding her skin. She spread her bony arms out to her sides, the ends of the sleeves of her ragged black dress falling to the ground, and shouted, "THIS is what it means!"
Anastasia cautiously approached the cliff's edge, looked down, and gasped.
She never would have even guessed that the remains of this structure used to be a grand temple. The walls, sans a few weakened and blackened brick structures, were reduced to a heap of rubble and debris. Rocks and wood were jutting out of the heap in dangerous angles. Dead plants scattered around the destruction. If there was a roof to the Temple, it was destroyed completely. An abandoned, mostly demolished fountain sat a few yards away.
"Oh my God," Anastasia breathed, shaking.
"Indeed," Wuya replied, rubbing her papery palms together.
Anastasia tried to calm herself by joking, "Now I know why Chase Young is such an asset."
Jack came up behind her and replied, "Yep. He's capable of more than that, even. The dude is not to be screwed with."
His cousin nodded, still alarmed. "When this happened…were there people in there?"
Wuya snorted, "Most definitely. This wretched place was full of old farts, praying and reading and gods know what else."
Anastasia's eyes widened, heart pounding and head spinning. If Chase Young were capable of such a thing, then she'd never stand a chance—oh forget that, he could kill her on the spot if he wanted to.
Jack must have noticed her distress, because as they descended the hill and entered the Temple grounds, he explained, "Chase is a cruel, calculating guy, but he doesn't just go on killing rampages. He's more intelligent than that. He's like an awesome Bond villain."
"What's awesome," Wuya included, "is his power. You saw that destruction. He must have only used one swipe, if that. I bet he wasn't even in his true form when this happened."
"True form?" Anastasia echoed.
Jack wrapped his windbreaker tighter around himself and responded nonchalantly, "The dragon form he sold his soul for."
"…H-how?" His cousin replied, obviously not understanding the circumstances fully.
Wuya took a detour around one large boulder and responded as she rounded past it, "There's a lot of that in this story, dear. You better stop acting so surprised."
Groaning, Jack rolled his eyes and reprimanded, "Go a little easy on her, will ya?" Then he glanced kindly at Anastasia and explained, "Chase Young is really just a victim of the Heylin. I can't say for sure when it all started, but Wuya plays a big role."
A proud snort came from the witch's direction, and Anastasia gave her a fleeting look of annoyance. "Anyways," Jack said. "Wuya was using her magic to take over Asia, and was steadily winning. She probably slaughtered and plundered and looted even more than the Huns and Genghis Khan put together."
"Genghis Khan was a weakling!" Wuya called. "He gave up his winning streak for religion!" She made a face. "Weak," she repeated.
Jack exhaled impatiently, "Moving on, she was closing in on the Great Wall, when her yang showed up."
"Yang?" Anastasia repeated, "Like yin and yang?"
Nodding, Jack replied, "Exactly. There was this extremely reputable Xiaolin monk named Grand Master Dashi on Wuya's tail. Dashi was a badass, fighting Heylin day and night and keeping the Temple running was his specialty. Everyone in China adored him, even considered ranking him as a god. He retained the power of air and wind and used it to cram the bitch in a magic trick box. It was a bloody battle, too. Wuya was killed by being shoved in that box. She came out a ghost."
"Huh," his counterpart replied. So Wuya really was a formidable foe back in the day? But she if she was rammed into a trick box, how did she get out? Jack stopped at the abandoned fountain and kicked a misplaced bucket. Wuya climbed into it and traced the burnt edges with her scrawny fingers.
Then Jack explained further, "Now, people thought with Wuya gone they could sleep soundly, but there was another threat coming in from the West. His name is Hannibal Roy Bean. He's literally a sentient legume, but he has powers beyond our comprehension. Bean only pops up every few years, and every time he does appear, serious shit goes down."
Resting against a tall rock, Anastasia asked, "Is this where Chase Young comes in?"
This time, Wuya butted in and declared, "Ah, yes. Chase's story starts here, and it's a whopper. Bean and I had a special arrangement going at the time, a business contract if you will, and when he found out I'd…perished, he sought out revenge against the temple. But cunning as he was, Bean didn't go right for Dashi. There was another monk he was interested in, one of Dashi's best students and an elemental Dragon. Bean surrounded the monk and made him an offer he couldn't refuse: 'everlasting strength and youth for his soul and his alliance'. The deal was sealed. The monk became the ruthless, intelligent fighting machine we know now as Chase Young. Chase betrayed Bean and defeated him for what he thought was once and for all. Then he flattened the Temple, looted and plundered as I did until he became the wealthiest Heylin we know. "
"Wait," the Russian girl said. "You said he was an elemental Dragon? Like Dashi and that girl Kimiko? What element was he?"
Wuya replied nonchalantly, checking out her obscenely long nails, "Fire. He's a total pyromaniac, that one."
Anastasia took another awed look at the ruins, "I believe it."
Jack warned, "But he's cool under fire and self reserved. He's probably going to make you shit your pants just by talking to you. Either that or make you hot and heavy like this one." He smirked and pointed at Wuya.
The witch lifted her nose to the air and replied, "I'm not embarrassed to say I'm attracted to him. He's quite the eye candy."
"So….when do I meet him?" Anastasia asked.
Jack and Wuya exchanged looks and started to chuckle. A hot blush rose to Anastasia's cheeks and it made her duck her head. What did she say wrong?
"One doesn't simply 'meet' Chase Young," Jack explained once he'd calmed down. "You might see him in passing during a Xiaolin showdown, fight against his attackers and gain his temporary trust, but you don't just go up to him and grovel."
Anastasia replied, "You sound like you know this from experience."
Wuya snickered, "Jack was an expert grovel-er."
Jack narrowed his eyes at her and retorted venomously, "At least I know when to stop trying! How many times did you go back on your stupid tendrils and beg him to take you in? At least I had something to offer."
Anastasia knew where this was going and stepped in just before they started to shout. "I get it! It's hard to impress this man. But we were talking about this Temple? What about the monks inside? Was the current Dragon of Fire one of them? How'd she survive this?"
Taking another gaze at the ruins, Jack spoke almost nostalgically. "Kimiko is part of the elite Xiaolin Dragons: the Shoku Warriors. Raimundo, Clay and Omi are also part of the team and this runt of theirs, Ping Pong, is their apprentice. They all survived the attack, except for their master. According to Kim, he still appears in spirit from time to time."
Anastasia caught the glint in his eyes and smirked. "You seem kind of close to them. Aren't you Heylin?"
A sound of displeasure came from Wuya's direction. Jack shrugged and crossed his arms over his lanky frame. He replied, "Not exactly. I used to really want to dominate the world and use Heylin powers to do it, but honestly…I'm not so interested in that anymore. I'd rather there just be balance between the Xiaolin and Heylin. Sometimes the good ones win, and sometimes the bad ones win. I think it's better that way."
Anastasia smiled genuinely for the first time in what felt like weeks. "That's actually quite noble of you, Jack."
Jack met her eyes with his own red ones and returned the smile. Wuya made a mock-vomiting noise and said, "While I don't agree with Jack's despicable musings, I agree that the Heylin should lose a little more, to flatten the inflated heads of Chase and his lackey. If Shadow becomes more powerful than Chase, she can easily plunge the world into a thousand years of despair. That's my dream, and she's not allowed to steal it from me!"
"Chill out, hag, we'll dispose of Shadow soon enough. But whether or not you'll be more powerful than Chase is still a mystery at this stage," the boy genius responded.
Wuya pouted and rushed to where Jack parked the plane. "I'm getting sick of this place. It's still pure ground and I can feel my human form waning."
Anastasia made a thoughtful noise. Things were starting to make more and more sense. Now she understood the conflict between the sides. And even though the idea of Chase and Shadow was still a mystery, she knew why Shadow needed to go down. Chase was capable of annihilating a country in a single blow. If Shadow was absorbing his powers then the world wouldn't stand a fighting chance. If it meant putting her life on the line, then so be it.
Author's Note: Hi, readers! Long time no see, eh? Anyways, I'm proud to finally have this wretched chapter up. I had finals and registration for my next semester so it's been a hectic few months, but I'm pushing through!
And to add a few things, some people were confused about the plot of this story and how closely it followed the canon of Xiaolin Showdown. I'm trying to keep it all together, but Xiaolin Chronicles (the sequel aired in Canada) is making it harder to do that. I feel like that show is just a big mess of "what-ifs" eccentric fan fiction writers came up with.
As for the characters, I love writing Wuya. My inspiration for her right now is Jessica Lange in "American Horror Story". She's a freaking goddess, and I just really like her. As for Jack, I try to write him as a mature, selfless young man with more realistic goals in mind. While it is still possible that he could dominate the globe, his past experiences with the Xiaolin have left him feeling hope for humanity. So I might push him towards the Xiaolin side a little more.
But that's just an idea.