Recollections of the Past and Present
Disclaimer: See first chapter.
A/N: Now I'm surprised. I'm typing up the next chapter.
I think I still have the timing for everything kind of screwed up. I update so infrequently, I tend to forget what I wrote. To clear some more things up about Raimundo's family timeline, Raimundo was two when his father got shot and died. His mother remarried almost immediately afterward, and had Miguel. Because the way I may have set it up before, Raimundo's mom would've been cheating on her husband.
'Thoughts'
Thoughts (haven't figured out which one to stick to) or Flashbacks
(OOO)
Chapter 8: Behind the Looking Glass
(OOO)
Surprises-life was full of it. Kimiko and Dojo had explained the burning temple fiasco as best as they could—considering they didn't have much knowledge on the situation themselves. There were a million questions and answers swimming in Raimundo's head at once, which made it difficult to understand what he was trying to figure out. He wanted to know if Kimiko was able to sort things out in Tokyo. He wanted to know why Kimiko was able to see what was going to happen to the Ming Xu Temple. He wanted to know what caused the Temple to burn down, and why it happened. He wanted to know why anything happened. Hell, he wanted to know why Life was so obsessed with dramatics. All this (and quite a bit more) drew Raimundo to one conclusion; he had a massive headache (again). On the other hand, the headache may have had something to do with the fact that the smoke in the air was getting thicker and denser—to the point of near asphyxiation. Why Dojo chose to fly into the forest, and not above it was beyond Raimundo's comprehension.
"Okay, we're almost there. At least, I think we are…I can't seem to see much." Dojo said, spotting bits of fire in the distance. "Try not to inhale too much of the smoke. Hold your breath or something..."
Dojo's commented merely initiated two simultaneous eye rolls.
(OOO)
The journey itself was uneventful, if not a little tense. The few conversations the group had weren't exactly notable either, but soon enough, the mass of flames were in view, and the damage it was doing was more than a little obvious. The Ming Xu Temple was almost completely set aflame. The inferno made it difficult to tell where the fire originated, and what part of the temple was more or lass damaged than the next. Pieces of burning roof, and walls would randomly drop, making anywhere within half a mile radius a hazard zone. The only positive aspect of the situation was that the fire was relatively isolated, burning only within close proximity of the temple, and failed to spread anywhere beyond the temple grounds, leaving most of the wilderness intact.
Dojo felt hot grass brush against his sensitive underside as he arrived at the designated location. Shrinking down to what can be described as a more "portable" Dojo, the dragon observed the surroundings, and what he saw could only be interpreted as madness. The thickness of the air easily contributed a feeling of foreboding, and the feeling that something else was not quite right. There was some order in the madness, as Clay was seen assisting some of the teachers with evacuating the temple. Omi, in typical Omi-like fashion, appeared to have taken immediate control as leader of the large faction that was trying to douse the flames. Dojo, Kimiko, and Raimundo only had one purpose at hand, and that was finding Master Fong. Dojo could tell the two Xiaolin warriors were eager to help, but dammit, he had to do what he was told. Now was not the time to fall apart from disorganization. It was a shame really, all Dojo wanted to do was cower in one of Raimundo's pant pockets. One could only imagine Dojo's delight when he saw a familiar and misshapen bald head.
Master Ghandolius William Fong (after various pronunciations of his first name began to surface, he very much preferred to be called "William", or "Fong" by his peers) looked solemnly at the Ming Xu Temple. The temple itself was defiantly refusing to be burned down completely, but was definitely damaged beyond repair. The Ming Xu Temple would have to relocate, and be rebuilt from scratch. The old Master wondered briefly if the Xiaolin temple would be forced to house some of the Ming Xu Temple's previous inhabitants. Although he would never say it out loud, he had a considerable amount of dislike for Hojo. Hojo was at least twenty years younger than Master Fong, and was one of Master Fong's students some fifteen years ago. Master Fong was teaching as a Magickal Theory professor at a well known magick establishment in the North. He once asked his class to write an essay on their opinion on where the line should be drawn on morally "correct" and "incorrect" utilization and extraction of Magick. Hojo's essay touched some aspects of magick that were, to put lightly, controversial. Master Fong shook his head. He would've further indulged himself these thoughts if he had not caught glimpse of Dojo calling out to him.
"I trust you all had a safe trip?" Master Fong said as he turned to face the three.
Three heads nodded in response.
"Good, that means we can get to the task at hand," turning to Dojo, Master Fong informed the dragon. "I know you would want nothing more than to hide under a rock, but I want you to help Clay evacuate the temple. We have reason to believe that some may still be trapped inside."
"B-but… I have this rash see, and I'm really getting old…" Dojo said, trying to protest.
"Dojo..."
The dragon grew a good twelve feet while grumbling something under his breath, which sounded suspiciously like, "No respect for elders…should've up for retirement when I had the chance…"
Master Fong sighed and beckoned Kimiko and Raimundo to follow him. They kept walking until they reached a more secluded part of the temple grounds.
Once again, Master Fong turned around and faced his pupils. "Kimiko, I need you to try and remember where you found the altar. I've been trying to locate it for the past forty minutes or so, without much success. It is vital that we find it. I believe whoever attacked this temple is after what's inside."
Kimiko scrunched her eyebrows together, "Well, there was a path, of charred grass…"
"I know that Kimiko, but I haven't been able to find any paths of the sort. I need you to tell me what part of the temple it may have been." Master Fong sighed.
At this, Kimiko got irritated, and whined, "But Master Fong! You can't expect me to remember every detail of a dream."
It was Raimundo's turn to sigh, "Well, this really isn't getting us anywhere. Why don't you just let Kimiko go off and try to find this altar on her own? She probably remembers more than she thinks she does, anyway. It'd be easier to just let her use her intuition."
"Stop talking about me as if I'm not here!" Kimiko huffed.
Master Fong shook his head, "I don't want Kimiko to go alone. The cloaked figures she dreamt of may be dangerous."
"Well, Raimundo can go with me," Kimiko suggested, a hint of irritation still lingering in her voice. "But you should know that I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."
Another sigh, "Kimiko, I am well aware that you are more than capable."
"Then I can go alone?" Kimiko questioned hopefully.
"No, it's still too dangerous." Master Fong said, before adding, "Raimundo, Kimiko, I want both of you to go and find the altar. Once you find it, send out a signal, and try to avoid a fight if possible."
"And if no one's there?" Raimundo asked.
Master Fong thought about this for a moment. He wasn't sure if he wanted the two to wait before investigating.
"If you can get inside, try to look for significant clues or anything that may be of importance." Master Fong concluded, "I would assist the two of you, but I'm afraid I should be of more help with the immediate danger. I don't suppose any of the elder monks are too fond of the way Omi is talking to them either…"
Raimundo laughed, "No worries Master Fong, Kimiko and I will take care of this altar business."
Master Fong nodded and ran back to the where Dojo first saw him.
"So, where to now, Kimiko?" Raimundo quipped while raising an eyebrow.
Kimiko's eyes caught a glimpse of familiar territory of in the distance, and smirked, "I think I may know where."
That said, Kimiko bolted with Raimundo trailing behind her.
(OOO)
"No! That is not the correct way to put out a fire!"
Clay looked worriedly at Omi. If the little guy kept bossing everyone around the way he was, he was sure that the older monks wouldn't hesitate to throw Omi into the fire and call it an accident. Hopefully, Master Fong would be back soon.
"Orb of Tornami! Water!"
Clay winced again. Omi's barrage of water made violent contact with the temple while putting out some of the flames. Naturally, Clay felt very unsafe being inside a burning temple, and Omi's contribution to the falling wooden pillars didn't help matters too much. In the past half hour Clay had learned that the life of a human being was a very important thing. He also learned that despite how very important life was, people inside a burning temple did not cooperate very well. Honestly, Clay only had the best intentions at heart, it did not help that people refused to budge when he tried to save their lives. Clay sighed. It seemed a lot of people were doing that lately. On a less philosophical level of learning, Clay learned that Omi was incredibly loud for such a small person. Omi's voice was somehow able to surpass the all the noises so often associated with chaos (screaming, shrieking, things falling, etc.)
"Hey Clay, do you think there're any more people left?" Dojo asked from around Clay's shirt collar. "It's getting' real stuffy in here, and I'm not too keen of having this place fall on my head…"
"Sorry, Dojo, but we're goin' to have to stay here a bit longer. You never know who or what you might miss."
Dojo groaned and buried himself deeper into Clay's shirt, not that the BO was any improvement from the smoke. The pair had been flying people out of the temple for God knows how long. Dojo couldn't wait to see how many burns he received. He was sure his pretty green scales were all charred and red and gross now. A loud piercing shriek caught both the cowboy's and dragon's attention.
"Well, Dojo, I guess we've got some savin' to do."
The pair followed the persistent screaming while carefully navigating the crumpling temple to avoid getting hit by something, or falling into some hole in the floor. Just as they found the kid, who turned out to be the same thirteen year old that ran into Master Hojo, one of the support beams came crashing down right in front of them.
"Aw, dang it. Why'd Omi had to take the Serpent's tail, he didn't even need it." Clay commented while digging in his pockets to try and find the Mantis Flip Coin.
Clay was still fumbling with his pockets when Dojo grabbed his head, forcing him to look up. To his (and quite possibly Dojo's) horror, he realized the kid hadn't been screaming because of all the fire, but because there was some strange hooded figure that had, at that moment, clamped its hands over the boy's mouth.
"Mantis Flip Coin!" Clay shouted, finally locating the blasted thing.
Clay's body was propelled in the air before landing of the hardwood floor. Dojo was surprised Clay's weight didn't puncture a hole in the already fragile flooring.
"Now hold it right there!" Clay shouted at the figure, "Who do you think you are? You can't go round' kidnappin' kids. It ain't right."
Dojo poked his head out of Clay's collar, and added, "Yeah, why don't you put down the kid, and nobody gets hurt."
The figure did nothing to implicate that it even heard what Dojo and Clay said, but instead proceeded to gag and tie the boy up.
"All right, that's it!" Clay had had enough of this man-woman-thing, and began to charge right at the figure.
Dojo's eyes widened in panic, "No, Clay! The ground's not stable!"
It was too late, Clay's foot sunk into the floor as the wood snapped. Clay cried out in agony, and tried to save his foot with Dojo's assistance. The cloaked figure still gave no indication as to whether or not it had seen or heard the pair. It was busy drawing a symbol of some sort on the part of the wall that hadn't been consumed by flames. Immediately, Dojo ceased his assistance to Clay, and carefully memorized each detail. Dojo couldn't do much to save the boy, as more of the room began to collapse, but if he could just remember what the symbol was, he could look it up later. Dojo's eyes followed the figures hands as the symbol was drawn out nearly flawlessly. Upon completion the symbol began to glow a bright blue, engulfing both the figure and the boy.
"Dammit, Dojo! Will ya quit starin' at the wall and help me get my foot out!"
Sighing, Dojo extended a good twelve feet, and yanked Clay out before throwing the cowboy onto his back. Disregarding the flames that were violently licking at his body, Dojo shot upwards, breaking through the ceiling and growing into his whole forty-foot self.
(OOO)
Kimiko caught a glimpse of the same odd rock formation she thought she saw in her dream. She wasn't really sure where to go, but her gut instinct told her to trust it. Raimundo was lagging behind when she first started running, but caught in no time. She never really noticed how big the Ming Xu Temple was until she had to run around like a deluded maniac trying to find something that might not even be there. Thunder cracked through the air, and Kimiko shuddered. It wasn't raining, but the random spurts of sound still made her jumpy. Looking to her left, she could see that the thunder wasn't bothering Raimundo in the least sense. In fact, he seemed to revel in it. Perhaps he just enjoyed the hunt—the search for the unknown. All Kimiko knew was that there was a passion that seemed engulfed his eyes when he was particularly enthusiastic about a mission, or was particularly engrossed by a good book. Kimiko started to frown and turned away when she caught herself staring.
"Hey, Kimiko?" Raimundo inquired, while coming to a halt. "This wouldn't happen to be the charred grass you were looking for, hmm?"
Sure enough, Raimundo was gesturing at what she had seen in her dream—the thickness of the air, the distinct odor of burning incense, the oddly shaped rock formation, and the strange air of quietness. No, it was more than just quiet; there was almost a sacred air to the surroundings. Then again, it was a tad too unholy to be sacred.
Raimundo caught up with Kimiko, and stood to the right of her. Smack dab in front of them was the path they were looking for. It was a mystery for Master Fong could've missed something as conspicuous as what lay before them.
"So I guess we follow it then." Raimundo commented as the two quietly trekked up the path that led further past the lake, and partially into the forest.
Almost expectedly, the air started to get continually foggier (though it did nothing to subdue the heat), making it difficult to see. Kimiko nearly jumped a mile when she felt a clammy hand grasp her wrist, only to realize it was just Raimundo.
"I don't want us to get separated." He explained logically.
In spite of the fog (which Kimiko did not remember to be a part of her dream), the charred grass remained nearly completely visible. Bring cautious, neither of them chose to talk, lest something unexpected jumped out at the two. As they reached the far end of the lake, the fog started to clear up, but the chanting Kimiko heard before wasn't present. In fact, it was eerily quiet. Raimundo released his grip on Kimiko's wrist, and started to jog away from the path, and towards some of the trees with shockingly think trunks. Kimiko opened her mouth to say something, but hushed up when Raimundo held a slender finger against his lips, signaling her to be quiet. He gesticulated for her to join him behind the tree. Raimundo had run pretty far up, so Kimiko had to squint to see him. Frowning, she saw that he was beginning to wave his arms around more frantically; panic doodled onto his normally passive face. She broke out into a run, and was panting by the time she got near the tree. Kimiko didn't think she ran so fast in her entire life.
"Jesus fucking Christ, Rai, you have better have a good reason—"
She never got to finish what she was saying because Raimundo grabbed her arm, and pulled her behind the tree. His hand was firmly clasped over her mouth, and his other arm was now around her waist, preventing her from any further movement. Of course, Kimiko hadn't failed to notice how close the two of them were. Her body was pressed firmly against his. She could feel his muscles, which were rather tense at the moment, against her back, and vaguely wondered if he could feel her vertebrae. Kimiko's eyebrows twitched in annoyance. If they were any closer, they would've been conjoined twins. In all honesty she felt mortified, and a blush was very quickly creeping up to her cheeks.
'I bet he's enjoying this.' Kimiko thought drably.
She was a bit aggravated as well. Really now, the nerve he had... She turned her head so that she could snap at him (after biting his fingers off of course), but as soon as she caught a look of urgency in his bright green eyes—which were looking to the left of the tree trunk. Kimiko turned her head to see what had caught his attention. Her eyes shot open. It was the altar—long double doors, burnt protective layer, creepy just-erupted-from-the-ground ground, the whole shebang. Only this time, instead of two shut doors the doors were thrown wide open and the hoard of suspicious looking cloaked figures were steadily moving out of the altar. Incense was wafting through the open doors, and the leader of the pact seemed to be holding some object of importance in its hand. The object glimmered gold and black, regardless of the dullness of the night that was due to the New Moon.
Kimiko frowned against Raimundo's hand. The cloaked figures sure were taking their sweet time. Was it just her, or were the things moving even more slowly than they were before? She would have really liked to just jump out and kick some freaking-cloaked ass, but they were grossly outnumbered. It was strange that Raimundo became the voice of reason. He was usually second only to her when it came to impulsive actions.
'The whole Wuya thing really changed him…I'm not too sure if that's a good or a bad thing…' she thought while her eyes stayed glued to the altar.
Finally, it seemed the last of the figures had left the altar, and to her disappointment, shut the two doors. What surprised her even more was that in a flash of blue light, the group was gone. They stayed silent and unmoving for a moment, until they were sure that the cloaked figures were all gone. Kimiko felt Raimundo's muscles relax, and he released his grip on her. A large part of her felt relieved from the release, but the smaller part of her sort of missed the feeling. She brushed the insignificant thought aside and ran towards the altar. It was exactly how she saw it in her dreams. She reached forward and grabbed the handles. Then she felt pain. It was the horridly excruciating pain of the soft flesh of her palm making contact with the hot metal doors. For the third time that day, Raimundo grabbed her wrists (a lot less forcefully this time). He inspected the burns before releasing her wrists.
Raimundo rolled his eyes while chuckling at her stupidity, "Honestly, Kim. I would've thought you were smart enough not to do that."
Kimiko frowned and stomped her foot. Ah, yes, foot stomping. It was her solution to everything. She watched with detached interest as Raimundo dug in his messenger bag.
'Did he always have that with him?' she thought, 'And is that the Sword of the Storm?'
The Sword of the Storm was secured to the front of the bag, and Raimundo pulled out some first aid supplies. He grabbed her hand again and started to wrap them with gauze. After he was done with both hands, he started to dig in the bag again. Kimiko was sure her cheeks were very pink now, and was annoyed that she was behaving so recklessly. Looking at Raimundo, she saw him pull out the Third Arm Sash before handing it to her.
"Well, why didn't you give it to me earlier!" Kimiko snapped, eliciting only a laugh from Raimundo.
"Third Arm Sash!"
Immediately, the sash arm grabbed a hold of one of the door handles before yanking it open. It did the same thing with the second door. Kimiko withdrew the arm, and was about to run inside when it occurred to her she needed to send out the signal for Master Fong. Standing where she would have a clear shot at the sky, she dispersed her fire element into the air in the shape of a large arrow. It sort reminded her of the large neon signs back home, and felt a bit home-sick.
"C'mon Kimiko, we've got some exploring to do." Raimundo said lightly.
She turned round and ran after him into the altar. It was strange, Raimundo seemed more cheerful than he was when the Xiaolin warriors first can back from their vacation, but something was still a little off.
(OOO)
The inside of the altar could most assuredly be described as demonic. Fancy and gothic looking incense holders adorned the two side walls, though the incense recently placed in it had all burned away. The floor was lined with dark red carpeting, and stale gold curtains were hanging illogically from the ceiling. The tall wooden cabinets that stood at each of the corners were also noteworthy, but what was most shocking was the large statue that stood in the end of the room. A magnificent form of the beast was made of hardened clay, and painted with various shades of red, as well as flecks of black, gold, green, and blue. The statue seemed to resemble a ghastly cross between a horse, bird, bat, human, and something from the underworld. It had the head (enforced with sharp teeth and a set of horns) and arms of a horse, a chest that looked very much like the stomach of a bird, and legs that seemed human. To add to its monstrosity, it had two mutilated bat wings protruding from its back.
To sum it up, the thing was painful to look at. At least that's what both Kimiko and Raimundo thought as they surveyed the room, looking for hints or clues.
"Hey, Rai, you wouldn't happen to know a way to open these stupid cabinets, do you?" Kimiko asked while trying very hard the pry one of the drawers open without yanking the knob off.
"Nope."
Kimiko groaned, "You're absolutely useless."
This only issued another laugh from Raimundo, who she noted, was digging through the only cabinet they actually managed to get open. The two of them had only been in the altar for about ten minutes, but the place was already starting to feel uninviting. Neither of them wanted to inspect the statue just yet, so they decided they would check that later. Looking over at Raimundo again, Kimiko saw him pull out a couple of scrolls and open them. Deciding that trying to read them would be pointless, he simply set them aside and continued digging. Kimiko sighed, she wasn't having much luck. Whoever these guys were, they were very clean when it came to going about their business. Raimundo coughed a few times, obviously bothered by the lingering incense.
Looking over at the statue, Kimiko sighed again, and mumbled, "Well, someone's got to do it…"
Approaching the ghastly thing, she started to run her hands across it, hoping to find some hidden compartment. No such luck. The thing's mouth was slightly open, but she wasn't about to stick her fingers in there. The statue was brilliantly crafted, down to the last ugly detail. The statue was set on several stands. Kimiko looked more closely at the positioning of the seemingly useless steps, and then reasoned with herself. Nothing in and altar is completely useless. And right there, just to the right of the creature's distorted bat wings, was an even more distorted step. Kimiko excitedly pushed against it, and like magic, the steps started to rearrange itself, revealing a very large, and very shattered mirror. The shifting must've caught Raimundo's attention as he dropped the scrolls and immediately rushed to Kimiko's side. Behind the looking glass, there was an intricately designed golden panel that had swirling patterns that moved inward towards the center. There, the two could see that something had been very violently ripped out. Parts of the wall lay crumbled on the floor behind the mirror. Still, there was faded writing that was scratched onto the wall behind all the gold.
"It appears the situation at hand is far graver than I initially thought."
Raimundo and Kimiko turned around and saw Master Fong standing by the entrance, equipped with Dojo, Omi, and Clay.
(OOO)
A/N: Dear God, I've updated. To those of you who are still reading this, you should really be thanking Veritas.Aequetas.Redemptio. Who I would like to personally thank for inspiring me to write this--even if I do have a ton of homework to do that I haven't finished.
Veritas.Aequetas.Redemptio.—Thank you, it was very nice of you to say that, and it's true, I never like to have unfinished writing.
Fiona-Well, the plot just sort of creates itself. I'm usually not quite inspired when I'm writing this, so I just make up the plot as I go along.
Diva of the opera- Wow, thanks for all those reviews. Um, sorry I wasn't creative enough, and typos are sort of bond to happen. I'm not too comfortable about revealing where I live…
Addicted to Perfection- Um, thanks. I know about the districts in Rio because a friend of mine happens to have a house or two down there, and I visit her every so often.
DeafLizgon- I'm not sure where you would've gotten that idea, but no.
dArkliTe-sPirit- I sort of explained who the cloaked figures were in this chapter.
Rave Slave- Raimundo's dad just isn't a very nice guy, not that he's too happy that his wife died either.
Priestess kurumi inu's sister- Well…what Kimiko said wasn't meant to be offensive, and no one in the story took it that way either. Raimundo was property and a trust fund left over from his deceased parents, but Kimiko's wealthier by far,
