Me: (eyebrow twitched) I can't believe I nearly forget about Disclaimer in the last chapter! Well, Disclaimer: I do not own Xiaolin Showdown and its characters… I only own my muses and my own wu(s). And of course, it's all confusing thing in a story, thanks to spirits, were-creatures, and other semi-demons. (roll eyes)
Everyone: (seem offended by me) HEY!
Me: Anyway, back to story!
Chapter Nine – The Dreams
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The Void of the Dreams….As darkness eventually took over and the drifter slipped into a dark abyss, he could only think of one thing.
The eyes… Ramon thought closing his eyes and then he reopened them, blinking confusedly at the blackness void. Those eyes… They are the same as mine, but so icy and no emotions in them…
He was amazed at how little emotion the duplicated person had in his voice. His expression was stone cold and dead serious. Ramon wondered how many times he's done this before. Probably thousands, I'd bet.
Lycan…
Zhai called out the duplicated person's name in accusing tone…
But, that's my name, right? Ramon thought, quietly searching in his mind for something he can't remember. Ramon… is my name, not Lycan. But… Every time I heard that name… I remember…
The memories ran through his mind…
((With a powerful roar, the general hurled the creature off him and rushed over to the dying figure on the ground but the same creature tackled him away from the dying body.
"ARG! Damn you! Aren't you supposed to be a second balance!" Yanji howled as the two enemies locked their claws at each other and rolling over each other down the hill.
Suddenly, Yanji finally kicked the creature off him and scattered to get the sword as at same the creature leaped upon him with its deadly poisoning claws and the general turned around.
The white flashed all over and the blood flew upward into the air and then it splashed onto the ground as the creature fell onto the ground dead.
Standing over the dead balance, he panted heavy before he turned running to the dying body. "Lycan!" He yelled in horror when he barely caught the body but it vanished into the souls and disappeared out of his hands. "Lycan…"
He watched the souls disappeared into the sky and fall on his knees, gripping on the grass. "I don't understand… at all… What do you mean that you're had nothing to shed any tears…? Just like years ago when you killed your pap…" He whispered to himself, gritting his teeth in silent rage.
Suddenly, he coughed covering his mouth and stumped backward, lying on his back against the grass and glazed at the sky. "Damn… That damn Balance… poisoned me with a silver liquid…" He gasped a little and coughed, the blood dripping from his lips as he gritted his teeth again.
"Huh… Silver…" He chuckled weakly, "Heh… So I'm dying… I suppose."))
Ramon stared quietly at his hands. "Another vision again…" He whispered to himself as he curling his hand into fists tightly. "That voice… was same as Lobo… Calling for someone…"
He looked up at the void again. "Who is Lycan? Who am I?" He asked to the void, knowing he had no answers to his questions.
"Wait…"
((All three of them ran out of the Xiaolin Temple and then they stopped when they saw someone on the roof. Widening his eyes at the sight of the familiar looking stranger, Ramon realized that person who looked the same as him.
"Who in the hell are you!" He growled after recovering over the shock at the sight of the unknown invader.
The shadowed man suddenly smirked at Ramon. "You surely don't recognize who I am, do you?" He said in his mocking tone. "Oh wait, you got a amnesia. That would be explaining why you don't remember me."))
"But how? He knows me… and I don't." Ramon whispered. "Even though I had those unclear visions when I first meet Yamato…"
(("Hello, I'm Ramon Shishido. You are…?" He replied smiling at the boy.
"Hn." The boy narrowed his red-brown eyes sharply at Ramon. "Just take the ball and go away."
Still smiling at the boy, Ramon sweat dropped. Heh. No wonder he doesn't have many friends if he kept his attitude that way…
"Well…" Ramon mumbled as he walked to the stair and sit on it next to the boy. "I don't want the ball. Ran can get it himself."
"Then what do you want!" The boy growled, switched his glare away from Ramon to the road. "I'm not interested in what you want. Just go away."
Ramon winced. "I'm not surprised. You looked like someone I know…"
"Hn?" The boy's eyes blinked as he heard Ramon's mumbling, "Someone you know…?" He asked.
"Oh nothing." Ramon smiled sadly. "He just died long ago. Hey…" He reached his back pocket jean. "Do you like to play a deck of cards, eh?"
"Cards…? Uh, yeah." The boy replied with a frown at Ramon. "I don't play with cards… They are just for fools."
Ramon winced for second time. "No. Even more than you think, buddy." With a grin, he lifted his cards. "Just for the life and death game."))
"More I think about it…" He ran his fingers thought his raven hair with a sigh. "More I'm confusing again… I swear that someone up in there like to messing with my head."
Silence… He despised the silence and it's making him uncomfortable.
The eyes…
"No matter how much I tried to not remember his eyes. But…"
Almost as if he had seen something cruel and horrible in the rest of his life…
"Something drawn me to him… like there is a missing inside him for me to become a part of him…"
He looked at me and smiled knowingly, as if he knew something secret that I don't… He doesn't let me get closer to him. If I do, I'll get killed…
"But…there's also something stop me from remembering my past and him…He knew it and do nothing about it, simply let it do the work." He shook his head. "But that's impossible. I'm Ramon… He's not me and I'm not him…"
"Ramon…"
He blinked. What…who…?
"Ramon…"
The door suddenly appeared before him as slowly it swung opened and the light comes out blinding him. The loner shield his eyes with the back of his hand, looking confused at the light.
"Ramon… wake up…"
The wolf-eared boy stared at the light behind the opened door and then he stepped into…
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Ramon yelped as he fell to the floor, blood now rapidly flowing from his chest. The pain jolted through every nerve in his brain. He winced at the hot-burning pain flooded with poison working its way through his blood vein in rapidly speed.
Burn
He shut his eyes tightly before opening them again in an attempt to shake off the threat of falling asleep. He can't afford to fall asleep again while he was slowly dying in the crimson puddle of his own blood with that damn silver poison.
Pain
The sound of the footsteps approaching to him as he glanced up in a pained daze and manage to recognize the mountain cat in a human form. Zhai…
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In the spirited lake where Zalo, the spirited ancestor, pushed Yamato, his reincarnated youth, into the water to faced his phobia.
His emotions began to shift from depression to anger, to pain, to relief, to fear as he continued falling into the darkness of ocean.
Shutting his eyelids tightly, he could feel the water swirling around him smoothed his fear as much as he hated to admit it was working. He doesn't want to open his eyes to see the faces of death all over again. Stupid old man!
Wait…
His eyebrows knotted in confusion and puzzling when he realized something. He can breathing in the water!?
He was no water-bender like that cue-ball brain monk or wind-bender like the idiot happy-go-luck rebellious athlete.
As a metal-bender, he sunk like rock… but how can he not sunk if he's still floating under the water and breathing at same time?! Suddenly, in his blind panic as his arms and his legs flailing wildly while he needs to do something to grab on.
"Whoah! Calm down you dim-witted metal-brain human!" The voice startled him, laughing like an ice chilled through his blood. "You are in spirit world, sheesh! Are all the mortals that idiots or what?"
Yamato hastily stopped his motion and opened his eyes, staring in surprise at the female spiritual who stared back at him. "What? Is something on my face?" She asked worriedly, touching her face.
"Nothing." He snapped barely holding back a snarl at her, feeling embarrassing by gapping at the spirit like an idiot. "And what did you mean that "spirit world"? I'm not in this world, am I?" He narrowed his eyes. "Wench, by the way I'm NOT A HUMAN!!"
The spirit raised an eyebrow. "Really? Humor me then. You're obviously a human I can tell from what you look like and your aura."
Yamato was stunned. "But that's impossible! How can I am human if I'm a carrier of a cursed demon's blood ran through my vein!"
"You lose your demon blood by through the wounds you have there. I assumed the cause of your demon blood is the poisoned silver Roki left his mark on you." The spirit smirked. "Heh. How amusing. Silver purified the blood of sinful evil in your human blood."
The angst teenager growled at her. "And then what about Chase Young!" He snapped. "He fought the werewolves! Even with that silver weapon!"
The spirit narrowed her silver eyes. "Chase Young is dead. That day his human side was slain and also the same day he turned into a cursed sinful demon. In other word, his soul is gone… only that leaves his lifeless shell of a human being alone." She barked back, there was venom dripped in her voice. "What a foolish mortal he was, beside being a best friend of Dashi."
Frowning at her, the Metal of Tiger narrowed his brown-red eyes and his lips curled into a silent snarl. "You didn't know him like I was, wench. Tell me how to get my demon side back!"
The spirit raises an eyebrow at the youth metal-bender and then she crossed her arms across her chest. "Do you know that you are in spirit world, mortal?"
"So?"
The spirit let out a sad sigh. "This is the road between the heaven and the hell. To get your demon side back is only one way… is the left road that will lead you to the Hell. It might… get too dangerous for you, being a human after all."
Yamato scoffed. "No one stop me before. I'm the Heylin Tiger of Metal after all!"
"…There is one rule in the spirit world, Yamato, is you can't willed any elemental power you have."
The youth stared disbelief at her. "…Meaning…?"
Sparkling in the silver eyes as the spirit smirked coolly at him. "Meaning you're no longer a Metal-bender, only a human with no elemental powers."
He blinks.
He blinks twice.
The silence in the air surround him and the female spirit…until after fifteen minutes passed as a not so male loud cry pierced through the water-like spirit world, startling other spirits.
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"
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In the cursed temple
He finally found it. The entrance of the cursed temple where the beginning to the end in the cycle stood before him, the Heylin Tiger of Darkness, and he wanted to know why and how all the cycle starts and ended.
And also the reason why he was the darkness, not the hybrid of wind and lightning like his cousin was.
Narrowed his amethyst eyes at the ancient statues, he silently remembered how his ancestor, Xuan, died without having an heir. Maybe there will a explanation about all elemental warriors and their life records…
Something sparkles caught his eyes; he suddenly halted his track through the ancient hall and stared at the direction of his attention. A shape of orb…it reminded him of a water-shape shard. It was rested on the palm of the ancient statue.
"Khu…"
His companion whispered hesitatingly, blinking at the new magical object Khu was looking at. He wished he could sense the object's aura like his idiot brother was. Where are you, Dojo? I didn't know what it is, but I can tell it's a shard that Master Dashi create if I recalled correctly…
"Khu…" The black dragon whispered staring at the new magical object sat on the old statue's palm. "Is that the Shard of Dreams…?"
The amethyst-eyed boy reached for the shard and touched it as the white light took over the room, blinding their eyes. "Khu!" All he heard the panicking voice of his brother before he realized his body hit the ground.
Marcus…?
That's when he knew his world turned into swirling in the darkness as he fell in the warm embracing of unconscious.
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He senses the feline's eyes on the back of his neck while he unconsciously holding his wounded chest. "I'm fine… really…"
Everyone suddenly stopped and his or her eyes widened over his shoulder, the werewolf turned around…
The familiar were-cat stood in the doorway before them, looking directly at Ramon with something stirred in her feline eyes when she recognized him.
"…Lycan…?"
Ramon gawked at her, not knowing what to do and he doesn't know the strange were-cat. Suddenly, a name rung echoed through his semi-awaken brain and the sound of his lip escaped before he could stop it.
"…Sekhmet…?"
Everyone, including Zhai and except Chase Young, stared confusedly at Sekhmet and then at Ramon and then back to Sekhmet.
"Wait, wait, wait, WAIT!" Dojo cried, semi-waving his tiny arms and make a sign of "T" by his tiny claws. "TIME OUT! Ramon's not Lycan, miss pussy-kat…" He ignored the angry hiss from the were-feline and turned to Ramon. "And how did you know her?"
Everyone turned his or her heads to Ramon, staring at him.
Quickly taken back at the suddenly, unexpected reactions from the warriors, Ramon shook his head and shrugged his shoulders helplessly at them. "I do not know her… Lady, I assume you that I am not Lycan." He stated, switching his attention away from the warriors to the female were-cat.
Sekhmet narrowed her eyes at Ramon and stalked toward him almost graceful like a true cat like she was until she stopped at few inched away from the werewolf. "The three marks…" She pointed at Ramon's scars on the left side of his face. "Are from me, Lycan, one or two thousand years ago… I recognized them no matter whoever you are, reincarnated or not."
Frowning even deepened at her, Ramon shook his head. "I'm not Lycan, girl. I'm Ramon." He stated almost hastily, "And I'm no damn reincarnation of that bastard as far as I know."
Seeing confusion in the were-cat's eyes, the wanderer had a stab of sympathy for her. "I'm sorry."
Pausing for a moment before she looked up from studying at the floor and her eyes lit up in sudden relief or something Ramon can't tell which. "So, it's true…"
Ramon and Zhai looked at each other in confusion and then they both glanced at Sekhmet. "What did you mean, Lady Sekhmet?" Zhai politely asked, frowning.
"What I meant…" Sekhmet grinned at them, knowing it caused them more confused and puzzled. "He's the same Lycan I once knew in my life, not the bastard Lycan he turned out to be after killing his father."
She turned back to where she came from with a determine smirk. "Ramon, was it?" She nodded acknowledging him. "Then I can relay a message from the High Order…You are the only one that can kill your dark counterpart. I believe there's an powerful evil coming when there is an solar eclipse."
Zhai looked up curiously at her, shifted from standing to the cat-stance sit on the stair of the entrance. "An powerful evil? An solar eclipse?" He said in disbelief, not believing that there is another evil than Lycan.
"…I believe the one who Great General Yanji killed is still alive…somewhere and also the first Balance is alive as well…" The were-cat stated, her eyes flashed with hidden rage swirling in them. "As rumor that Lycan and the evil are the same one which I find it impossible."
Ramon stepped forward. "Then we will find him…and the children." He said softly, thinking of the child Kobo. "I got a bad feeling something will happened to them soon or later."
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"Ah, here we are!"
Kobo snapped his head up, staring at the cursed temple that chilled through his blood. Clutching the mirror to his chest, he silently wished his brother were with him as long as he was safe.
But…now he was with Lycan, he does not feel safe any more.
Lycan grinned sickly at him, "Trembling in joy of seeing the familiar temple, eh? It was the creation of the First Demon."
The First Demon…? Kobo thought in puzzled confusion. I thought it was Ariko, the first demon after the dark Archangel.
"Who…?"
Lycan let out a cold chuckle, which it made Kobo shuddered in fear. "No…" He slowly smiled, knowing whom Kobo had thought of. "Not ArikoBut Luce..."
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End of the Chapter Nine
Me: (continue stabbing the painful assignments she receiving from her teachers) Stupid assignments! Stupid Exams! Stupid Tests! Stupid computer! (Gave a final stab) STUPID BOYS! (No offense, UXD and Kosmic.) Argh! I can't take it!
Yamato: (sweatdrop) Wow. Angst so much?
Me: (shot a death glare at Yamato)
Yamato: Eep!
Khu: (shake his head) After what I saw of her, I do feel sorry for three boys (her brother, her two friends fought each other over her). Ok, time for sneak peek about upcoming Next chapter: "The Cursed Temple"
"Something wrong with Khu! He's trashing like a wild animal!"
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His body collided another, both of them falling to the ground. He looked up and his eyes widened at the sight of what he feared for.
The wraith in front of him, staring hungrily what was in front and grinned revealing the blood-tainted fangs. "I smell the ancestor's blood ran in your vein, little one."
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"Huh? Who's Luce?"
The jade eyes moved away from the beautiful scene of the sunset and stared at him. "I believe he is someone you wouldn't want to see."
Please review this story and thank you.