Disclaimer: I do not own Xiaolin Showdown and its characters… But I own my characters and wu(s).

Me: (watching Lobo running around like a wild dog, being chased by Yamato with a huge sword with help of his girl. While Lobo's beloved trying to protecting him from being skinned and used as a wolf furred coat.)

Lobo: HELP! (howling in fear as he ran past me)

Me: ¬ ¬ Hmm... Probably I shouldn't tell Yamato he can go skin him. I would lost my precious wolf as seeing his turn in the fourth Arc in the future if Yamato did skin 'im. Hmm...

Lobo: HEEEEELLLLPPPPP!

Me: (sigh a huge cloud) Yamato, you can stop now. (Seeing Yamato wouldn't listen) Khu if you would please?

Khu: Yes Ma'am. (as the sound of the sword unsheathed and a sharp flash of the blade through the air)

Suddenly, the sound of two familiar cries torn through the air and then silence.

Lobo & Yamato: (had both lumps on their heads, throbbing in pain) THAT HURTS! WHAT IF YOU KILLED ME WITH THOSE SHARP BLADE!

Khu: It was just the hilt I hit you two. By the way, that was uncorrupted Shadow Blade that cannot kill a mere living being so why should I kill you with it? (deadpan look) Perhaps should I do this...? (pulling a familiar-looking sword)

Lobo & Yamato: NOT THAT DRAGON'S FANG BLADE! KNOWN AS DARK BLADE! (clings each other in horror at the cursed sword)

Khu: Good. (smug look) Here the new chapter of Lady Lizgon's third Arc: The Cursed Heart of Steel! Please read and review, thank you readers!

Me: O_o (...)

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Look in the mirror, what do you see?

Do you see white building so high,

To touch the bright, blue sky?

Or do you see black ocean with fill of rubbles in ruin,

To feel despair and loneliness?

Look in the mirror, what do you see?

Do you see that butterfly?

Soar across the lake?

Or do you see the snake with its feral eyes,

Watching you in the looking through glass?

A mirror in my hand, what do I see?

Maybe everything I desire to see

Or maybe nothing at all.

((Previous Chapter))

The Beast grinned, slowly rising his hand in the air, as he was amused when his host flinched at his tiny movement. He grinned, slowly rolling his fist and tilted, his thumb sticking out downward at something below them.

Blinking at him, Yamato looked down with a frown on his face and his eyes suddenly widened when he saw a hole that looking like a water whirlpool appeared under his feet, his face become pale in fear. "BWUAAAAAAAAGH!"

As he disappeared into the black water whirlpool and that was the last thing he heard before his vision went dark.

"I will be waiting when you are ready to face me, my little host!" The Beast called out with a roar of evil laughing.

((Current Chapter))

The Cursed Heart of Steel

Arc 3

— The Five Stages of the Mind —

Chapter VIII

"BWUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-oof!"

Landing on the soft thing, Yamato blinked and blinked sprawling over on the soft cotton-like thing he fell on. He stared blankly at the now bright sky with clear blue and white clouds drifting by. Wait, those aren't clouds! That sort of... Wait, an ancient-looking car floated by? All of those non-animated and animated objects from the ancient time to modern time floating all way in the sky around him.

"What the...?" He whispered quietly, a dumbfounded look appeared on his face. Jumping off the soft thing and landed on the green-bluish grass, he turned around to see what was just thing he landed on. That was just...

...a giant cat plushy toy?

"What in the world...?" Yamato asked in a deadpan tone, glaring evilly at the giant toy. Looking around, he only saw nothing but the floating games he used to play in the past and there is a random and side-way castle in the distance that stick out of the ground like a sore thumb.

"Want a pizza? Sprite?" A sudden male voice spoke as the crimson-eyed boy jumped in startle and whirled around, staring blankly at the blond man in white suit holding the box of pizza with mushrooms and sausages on one hand and another hand was holding the giant can of sprite toward him.

"Uhh... Sure?" Yamato grabbed his favorite drink and was about to drink it, the thing suddenly popped out of the can and that turned out it was a bunch of colored balloons stalked upward in the sky. "BWUAH!" As he reacted, dropping the sprite drink in a shock surprise.

"What was that for, you bas... huh?" Yamato whirled around with a angry look on his face, but when he turned around there was no man in white suit and instead of it was a place of his suppose to be new house he was once...

...with his parents before they died...

"What is going on...? Surely this is my mind... But what is the meaning of all things like that?" Yamato exclaimed in confusedly, glaring at a giant toy-looking dinosaur roaming through the random city to his left side while the cliff near the ocean, the cat plush toy stood with its hand shaded its head under the sunlight in a dramatic effect to his right side. "This is not right!"

"Indeed, this is not right. Obviously, there is something serious wrong with you, kid. "

Yamato yelped at the sudden voice that was not belong to which one he knew in his life and that was a voice he heard during that time when he was fought against tea-loving bastard as he turned sharply, his crimson eyes narrowed in new annoyance at the new appearance of the owner of the voice in his mind and he suddenly remembered.

"YOU!"

"Ah, me." The man with long and dark purple hair in the pony tail, dressed in the ancient-looking black robe with crimson armor and he had two red marks on each of his cheek under his bright crimson eyes. No hint of demonic power in his eyes nor any trace of his skins.

"It took so long time than ten years since I ever met you in the past when you were nearly drown. And that time when you lost your demon powers at that river." He looked down at the young boy with an amused smile.

"You threw me in that river! You knew I can't swim, you bastard!" Yamato snapped, as he stormed angrily toward the older man lazing on the oversized stone with a jug of sake. "I know that's a damn necessary to get my demon powers back, but that's not how you did by throwing me like that!"

The man smirked in smug at him, drinking the jug of sake. "Even I knew you can do it. Beside, it's only way to overcome your fear of drowning in the water."

Yamato scoffed, plopping on the rock next to the man. "Now I think about it, who the hell are you?"

"You forgot?" The man asked in deadpan, stopping the jug and give a odd look at the boy. "Need I remind you?"

Flashback in Arc 2: What's Beyond the Light?

A shadowed over his wounded body as he continued limping through the forest, he choked as another puddle of blood falls on the old road he was walking on. He wouldn't give up like this; he was sick back then before he met Chase Young in his youth life.

"Can't anything get this worse?" Yamato snarled under his breath as if the gods answered to his question.

KA-BOOOM!

An annoyed looks on his face, as he was very soaked to bones under the heavy rain. "It's not what I meant, damn you!" He roared at the sky, shaking his fist furiously. "I bet you guys laughing your ass off at me!"

And he got his response with a lightning bolt stuck the tree beside him and the poor tree was burned to ash. "Eh… Never mind…" The Tiger of Metal chuckled nervously, scooting away from the pieces of ash. He knew in his blood, he would get stuck by a lightning like that if he's a tiger of steel.

Metal-type items are attracting to the lightning like the moths attracted to a light.

As the ill-tempered warrior of metal sulked angrily under the black clouds, glaring through his soaked dark amethyst bangs at nothing.

Until he passed the strange-looking man who looked a lot like him and he suddenly stopped his track as he glanced over his shoulder and stared at the man.

"Huh…?"

The man polished his precious blade – a rare color of aqua with a symbol of Chinese "forever" on the center of a blade. As if he felt he was watching by a boy, the man glanced up at him. "What are you staring at for?" He asked with faint accent of ancient Chinese and Japanese, his eyes showed a familiar color…

That what it caught the boy's attention as his eyes widened in confusion and awe at the man's eyes. It was the same color as his eyes…

"Who… who are you…?" Yamato meekly asked, nearly off balance and to stop himself from falling over by pressing his hand against the bark of an oak. "Tell me damnit!"

The man stared at him silently, a something flashed across his eyes and then suddenly he smirked.

"Who am I?"

Yamato stared at him in confusion, running his fingers through his dark soaked amethyst hair as he silently wanting to yell or demanded him about why that man looked lot like him. "You… You looked lot like me… except for that long hair… Wait…" As he recalled Ramon teased him by calling him a long hair because of his name. "Aren't you…" He began.

"I am the one that died here…" The man continued ignoring Yamato. "I was once fought a sea-snake demon and died of drowning in his first grave. Heh, I don't even get a chance to fighting my eternal rival."

What he is saying…? The boy thought stepped backward in one time, staring disbelief at the man. Why he's talking as if he's already dead?

The man chuckled darkly, moving a lone bang away from his face with his right hand and smirked at the boy. "How ironic… I fear the sea yet I fought it and sea is my grave. That bastard's kid brother died of defending a grand master monk he got respected and even a grave stone for him…and what I did deserve from him? Nothing. Even nothing at all…not a hint of appreciation from them after I did it sparing his life."

He turned his head and staring at the river by and a lip twitched into a half-smile on his pale face. "Zhai used to say a risk for my life to save all but one… yet killing all but one. I do not understand his damn riddle. He sometimes to can be all wise-ass I care but I sometime to think about what he say. Heh. I realized it was too late to change that as if I was alive in that time."

Zhai…? Does it mean he… Yamato thought to himself, eyes went wide as saucer-like size. "You're the former Tiger of Metal, aren't you?"

The man turned his head back to the boy and smirking so widely at him. "Is that so then?" He replied with a sly chuckle. "If I wasn't, then what if I'm your death grim I could take your life away." And then he laughed at the boy's reaction. "You better to defend your life against me."

As the haunting wind blew through their blood tainted red hair, the man and the boy stared at each other. The one with a smirk and another with a frown…

"Remember, you have to think careful first…" Yamato remembered Khu's warning to him before he entered his room. "Or you'd be late for your own funeral."

A funeral… His teeth gritted at the thought of two empty gravestones of his dead parents as he glared at the man. Ha, I'll cheated death once again as like I did in age ago.

A hidden smile behind the man's smirk, knowing what went through the boy's thought. It's your last judgment, little yama.

The boy thought stepped backward in one time, staring disbelief at the man and then returned to the strange blade. It does looked like one of the sword sheng-gong-wu(s). It had all same shape and also same symbol on it. Except…

He frowned. The blade's aura is all wrong and strange… Like it had either no soul or no aura. Only dull and hollow inside he sense in the small sword.

"This is a Blade of Aqua," The ghost ancestor stated as he tossed it gently upward and downward on his palm. "A brother of Shadow Blade and the Sword of Storm. Whoever held it cannot obeyed its wielder's command… unless the blade believe the wielder is worth to wield it with a pure aura."

Yamato miffed at this. "A pure aura? Then it's useless to me now." He turned around and he was about to take a forward step when the man's voice halted him.

"Is that so, Zendi?" Zalo asked smiling emptily at the boy's back. "You may sense it was completely useless now… because it had been sealed in my grave…"

He turned halfway toward the lake and pointed at it. "You have to go to it and see it yourself." He replied with a smirk.

Yamato stared incredulity at the ghost ancestor and yelled angrily, "Go to the lake and see it myself? ARE YOU INSANE-" He stopped and take a breath in, calming his temper down. "Alright, I believe you're just a nothing but moron. Take a side note, buddy, I. CAN'T. SWIM!" He cried waving his arms wildly, as if anyone saw him acting like a fool like that.

The ancestor ghost kept widening smirk even more, much to Yamato's upset. "Are you sure? Can't swim…" He titled his head to left side and still smiling at the boy. "Or… won't swim?"

The boy's odd action suddenly stopped. The ancestor knew it coming soon.

"…" The boy painfully paused as his brown-red eyes nervously darted to the lake and then to the ground. "I… I just… I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SWIM, JUST QUIT SMILING AT ME ALREADY!" The ex-beast growled at Zalo as he stepped backward away from him.

His smile suddenly turned to line, the ghost stepped toward the boy and the boy unconsciously stepped backward. "You don't remember who saved your life from drowning?" He asked curiously, a mystery glint in his dark crimson eyes. "Of course you can't. You're just only five."

Yamato stopped and blinked once as the foggy memories returning to him.

Then next thing he saw was the white light flashed at him and his family before he feels suddenly being thrown around in his seat belt like a lifeless toy.

He shut his eyes tightly, clutching his seat in fear and feels the cold and wet harshly hit him. Took him a minute to realize he was in the freezing water and opened his eyes to see his parents in front of him.

Hanging there lifeless and limping like a lifeless Chinese doll in the ocean. A cold reality hit him like a pound of brick, he was in the ocean and he can't swim very well.

And running out of his air too!

He choked widened his fearful red eyes, clawing helplessly at his seat belt. And next thing he noticed in front of him and it was red ink floating from his parents. He realized it was not a red ink… it was a real blood!

He cried out in horror, not caring that he was losing his precious air and gripped his mom's hand. To his surprise, his mom's hand wasn't warm and gently... it was only deadly cold and icily...

…Like dead…

He may be a young kid but he wasn't stupid enough to realize that his dad and mom are dead. His visions suddenly started to blur and he was slowly losing his air, luring himself into the state of sleep.

He feels so cold...feel so dead...His heart slowly beating quietly and his eyes closed gently. At least he knows he will join with his mom and dad forever.

But he did not know that his life had been spared.

All he saw the shadow swimming toward him and his vision went darkness…

"…It can't be… You're just a ghost." Yamato muttered disbelief, refusing to believe what he saw when he was a child. "Ghost only touch nothing but a wind… I'm leaving now." He snarled turning around and started to leave.

"A coward… Fool!" Zalo said with a snarl cry as he ran toward the boy and pushed him toward the lake. "You will face your fear and your own judgment! Your life is held within the lake now. It's up to you to decide…"

SPLAAAAASH!

Unconsciously he shut his eyes tightly, feeling the painful sting of cold water against his skin and his lung hurts. He tried to swim back to the land but something pulls him down and refused to let him go…

He gasped for air but more water in his throat sent him had a choking fit. No! Nonononono! I don't want to die! Mom! Dad!

Helplessly, he imaged the faces of his parents and reached for them but as soon as his fingers touched them, they disappeared as he was swallowed into the darkness.

All he remembered was someone who always had a spotlight, not him. The one who always fought him and saved his life…

Damn it…

Flashback End.

As he remembered, pulling the familiar-looking dagger and held it in his hands as he stared at it. "I remembered all of it now. You threw me there and I went to the underworld in order to get my demon powers back." He looked up at the man. "But one thing I didn't remember you... was that you didn't even tell me your name."

The man blinked in surprise and then he threw his head back laughing in bellow. "Alright kid. My name is Zaiji Kousei. Everyone called me Zalo." He introduced himself, standing up on the rock as his crimson armor reflected the light in a reminder of the fact he was a Heylin Tiger in the past.

Yamato's crimson cat-like eyes widened in surprise as the memories rushed through his mind. "Those memories when I went through suffering as I was in the underworld... Those memories that belong to you!"

"..." Zalo nodded in grim, putting his jug of sake down on the rock and leaped off the rock to the ground with a silent thump. "Yes, unfortunately, a side-effect of being reincarnated to next life."

Narrowing his crimson eyes at his ancestor spirit, Yamato jolted slightly as he remembered one memory that didn't belong to him and that was a very sad one. "... Who's Kyo..."

Zalo flinched with a startle look, and then he glanced at him for a second before he looked away to the scenery. "...He's my best friend I ever had since in my life.." He whispered, looking at the mix of winter time and autumn time through the forest.

"He was the son of Shu, the bodyguard to the King and I was the son of Zhigure, the metalsmith in my village... He..."

He grimaced in disgust and anger. "Everything went chaos at moment when my father refused the request from the king for selling all spears he made in his shop. He sent an army to my village and cause an death upon them... I..."

Closing his eyes tightly, he crossed his arms across his chest feeling the familiar of being hopeless in the first time as he remembered the smelling of fire smoking, the screaming of the villagers, and the dying voice of his best friend.

"... I... accidentally activated my power of metal upon them and my powers were so out of control and I don't know what to do... Even I killed my best friend with those very spears I used to love... His name was Kyou Zousa."

Yamato stared at the man in shock. He thought he was only one with his out of control powers the first time at moment when the bullies mistreating him in the past.

The former Heylin of Steel spirit turned his head back to Yamato and smiled softly. "If it weren't for that stupid brothers of the Pedrosa clan, I would be a heartless monster that only lives to stealing and killing for the rest of my life. I wouldn't have meet all fellow warriors at the temple at that time."

Yamato shocked at the mention of his hated rival's last name and he gritted his teeth. No wonder when I first laid my eyes on him, I felt a sudden hatred for him and an urge to kill him on the spot. Especially an strong urge of wanting to fight him!

"Kid, what do you know the meaning of the five stages of the mind?"

The current warrior of metal snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of his ancestor's voice and then he stared at him with a dazed look. "EH?"

The cat plush toy floated away in the air, with an innocent smile on its feline face.

—

In the green-bluish mountain in the white mist, the lone creature was seen stalking through the bushes with two glowing golden pairs of eyes in the darkness. It stepped its large dark paw on the soft ground as it went in silent to the hidden cave, only a noble creature like this one would know the true location of the hidden place. Only it knows enough to not reveal the hidden location to its beloved master.

"Why are you come?"

The creature lifted its feline head to looked at the shadowy figure sat on the stone chair, there is hardly to see what the person look like but only pale blue eyes visible in the dark.

"The time has come now." The creature said sternly, its eyes glaring coldly at the shady figure on the chair. "I could sense it. I'm certain my master knows as well."

"...Ah, that seem he had finally meet the demon within his soul..." The shadowy figure smiled, gesturing hands as that appears the shape of a shadow figure sitting on the stone chair is a male. "Your master will be unable to aid his precious student. Nor all his apprentices... Especially the reincarnated traitor."

The creature snarled. "Do not insult him! He is no longer the same. Same element, yes. But different souls... Different memories. Different names."

The shadowy figure raised an eyebrow at this and regarded the creature before him with dark amusement. "It isn't his true name means Assassin, is it? Same for the traitor's true name, it means the peaceful, mythical place... Ironically, because it is also refers the place as a prison."

Stiffened at the tone of the figure sat in the chair before him, the creature felt its dark and silky fur stood in anger.

"They are both discarded their true names and made a new name for themselves at the moment when their precious loved one born to this world." The creature replied in icy tone, stepped one forward with its dark paw as the pale light hit its now light brown furred face, revealing the familiar-looking red moon symbol with a red dot on its forehead while two red slit-like marks on each of its cheeks. It was a cougar.

"You are only one I can trust when it comes to my master's pupil under my care. When he receive the blood from my master, you tamed the demon within him and sealed it to the deepest part of his inner world. He will be awakening soon..."

The figure in the chair frowned as he knotted his fingers together and supported his chin in thought with his pale eyes now sharpened as he looked down at the large cat. "It seem he is now in a coma after his battle with a rouge Xiaolin. He's already in the inner world... Then that means, in order to restore his mind, he must to complete the five stages of a human mind."

"The five stages of a human mind?" The cougar asked in confusion, narrowing its glowing golden eyes.

"Yes, he must go alone on his journey to through all five stages of his mind: the Kshipta, the Mudha, the Vikshipta, the Ekagarata, and the Niruddha. After completing all stages, he will face the truth in the end of the final stage, whether he likes it or not."

The cougar curled its lip in disapprovingly and he seem almost worried, "What if he didn't complete them?"

The dark figure tilted his head to the side, a cruel smile grew on his shadowed face as his pale blue eyes almost glowing in the darkness. "...He'll knock on the death's door, no one will interfere his fate."

The cat looked up to look at the figure's eyes and his eyes become steel. "Don't underestimate my nephew, Lyndon. I'll coming back again once a certain wu is activated." As he turned around, his long tail flickered in dismiss and he headed back to the entrance of the hidden cave hallway to the exit.

"Is that so, I wonder?" The figure now known as Lyndon muttered with a smile. "Darastrix Litrix was one of the dangerous Tools of Gods that idiot monk created is the one that shouldn't be exist. Your beloved nephew which isn't of the same kin... he'll be end up in the same fate as the Lose Cause..."

He closed his pale eyes as he faded into the darkness. I wonder... that boy will be able to stop the fate of chain from being placed upon on his neck?

—

Meanwhile, back to the inner world...

"THAT BASTARD!"

Yamato yelled, gesturing his hands wildly in shock and anger. "That smug bastard! He did something to me with the weird powers of his in my mind! Physio or something like that!"

"Actually, it's a Psyche. It's a pure energy of the chi for the mind." The spirit answered dryly, taking one or two chugs of his jug of sake and then he realized the young boy made a face at the mention of "chi".

He let out a lazy sigh. "Chi (also spelled Qi) translates roughly to vital energy in Chinese. It refers to the life force that flows through all plants, animals and human beings. Chi is that bio-electricity or energy in the body which makes us alive. It is also that life giving energy that permeates our universe." He picked up the pebble and held in his palm.

"For an example, Dashi used his chi to transform this pebble into a puzzle box that used to trap the witch. He did with Shen-Gong-Wu as well for his so called experiments." With that memory of the experiments, he grimaced in pain and he tossed the pebble over his shoulder.

And then he pokes his thumb toward his chest. "And this Ki is what we use for our elements to summon from the chi within our bodies that allow us to perform our techniques for centuries."

Yamato stared blankly at the spirit and sighed heavily, gestures his hands in confusion with his crimson eyes closed. "I didn't get it at all." With this, he reopened his eyes and glared at him. "I don't understand what the hell are you talking about... But I do understand one thing..."

He pointed at himself rudely, with his lips pulling in a snarl. "If my mind is shattered and scatters all over this inner world...Then I'll have to find them together and get back at that bastard who did this to me!"

And then he slashed the air with his hand, his eyes shined in determination. "Even if you say I have to complete all five stages in order to get outta of here, then so be it!"

The spirit grinned in delight. "Very well, then here you goes!" With what he said, he tossed a sparkling item to the Heylin as the boy caught it with his hands with a surprised yelp. And that revealed it was an strange-looking shape of a golden key.

"What the...?" Yamato stared in confusion at the golden key and then glanced up at the spirit. "What does it do?"

"You'll know when you reached the end." The spirit simply replied and then he turned slightly, looking over his shoulder with a small smile.

Looking at him confusedly, Yamato turned his head to where the spirit was looking at and there is a worn-looking old brown door with a hint of a crack in the small window appeared out of no where on the hill before the current Heylin and the dead Heylin warriors. "Where did that door comes from?" He asked gawking at the door as he wondered where did he had seen it before.

"That door is the first stage of the butterfly mind known as the Kshipta, which is the source of your childhood memories." Zalo said softly, looking back to Yamato with a stern look. "You must remember you are not in the past, you are already in the present. If you falter for a second, you'll be in a deep trouble."

Yamato grinned. "No problem! I'll be right back, after all I'm the man of steel!" At this last comment, the spirit rolled his eyes in response. As he watched the boy walked to the door, grabbing the old wooded knob and turned it, opening the door.

"...Good luck, boy..." The ancestor of the metal element said with his red eyes softened as the door slowly closed, blocking his view of his reincarnation.

He looked up at the sky. "Do you think he'll be ready for to face you once he completed all the stages?" He spoked looking upward, his eyes didn't even waver when his question was suddenly answered back.

"Is that so? If he's a man of steel, a strong one with a hard heart. Then I'll be a man of war in this dream, the one will make sure his journey will be long."

"...I see..." The ancestor looked down to the door and then he closed his eyes, as he was slowly fading to nowhere. "...Don't underestimate him. He'll surprise you."

As his voice vanished, leaving the inner world in silence.

— If you said look to the right,

I'll look to the left.

If you said to jump,

I'll duck.

If you nod your head,

I'll shake my head.

I will not listen to your advices. —

TO BE CONTINUE…

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End of the Chapter VIII

Me: Ah, here we goes! Yamato will be swimming in the memories of his childhood life as we already got few glimpses of his past more than we had of Khu! Maybe we will know who the mysterious person was called Lyndon is when our beloved Zhai talked to him. Time for sneak peek about upcoming Next chapter: "The Kshipta Stage"

Yamato blinked his crimson eyes and his eyes widened in shock, as the cards flying with the wind.

"It's been in a while, Long Hair!"

As he gawked at the familiar child with yellow eyes and familiar-looking scar-like claw marks on his left cheek who should be in adult and should be dead stood before him.

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