Yeah, back story time. This should be fun. Although I would like to know why I always feel the need to give characters such sad pasts. Oh, and because it sounds cool, Tian is pronounced kinda like Tchien.
Normal text is what Hsi Wu is telling to the xiaolin monks, italicized is his memories.
"As you guys already know, 1500 years ago Dashi, Chase, and Guan were the Xiaolin monks of the time." Hsi Wu begins, "They battled all kinds of evil like you guys do, but when Wuya came along they quickly realized that their skills weren't powerful enough to defeat her magic. Magic is the only thing that can defeat magic, and while they all knew some magic, they didn't study it enough to defeat a witch like Wuya. They did, however, know a young boy who did study magic. That boy was me, Tian."
Nineteen year old Tian sat in the shade of a tree, not doing anything much. He was just whistling a tune of sorts and messing around with his magic, making a blue orb of fire appear in his hands and play with it's size. The boy didn't even notice that he was being watched. Chase Young wasn't trying to sneak up on him, but Tian was so preoccupied with what he was doing that he hadn't heard Chase come. Chase watched him for a minute before revealing himself.
"Tian, what are you doing over here?" Chase asks. Tian reacted just as he knew he would. The boy jumped slightly, stopped whistling, closed his fist around the flame, putting it out, and pretended that he hadn't been doing anything.
"Chase, don't do that." Tian says, embarrassed that Chase had snuck up on him...again. Huo, a young calico cat that followed Chase everywhere, brushed against Tian's hand, asking to be pet.
"Please, don't stop on my account." Chase says as he sits next to Tian and strokes Huo's head. "That song you were whistling was nice, but you know it sounds best when played on the flute." Chase looked expectantly at Tian until the boy rolled his eyes and reached into his sorcerers cloak. He brought out a worn wooden flute and a set of reed pipes. He handed the wooden recorder to Chase, keeping the pan flute for himself.
"Why do you make me carry these around?" Tian asks, "You're better."
"I'm only better because I've had seven more years of experience than you have," Chase says, "And you get to carry them around, because you're the one always wearing the cloak that has room for them." Chase brought the recorder to his mouth and begun to play the same tune that Tian had been whistling a moment before. After a minute of just listening to him, Tian joined in with his pan flute. The two of them sat together for a while, harmonizing with their wind instruments, making an almost haunting tune.
"That's some song you guys have going on there." Someone says from behind the two of them.
"Dashi, I thought you were busy trying to figure out what we were going to do about Wuya." Chase says somewhat slyly.
"Actually, that's what I'm here for." Dashi says to Chase, but he then turned his eyes to Tian. "You know about Wuya, right kid?"
"How could I possibly not know about her?" Tian replies. The Heylin witch had been causing all kinds of trouble, what, with her having conquered the world and all. Dashi, Guan, Chase, and other Xiaolin warriors had been trying to figure out how to stop her, but it wasn't very easy. How are you supposed to defeat one of the most powerful witches in history? Dashi finally figured it out. How else are you supposed to defeat someone who uses magic than to use magic yourself?
"I was wondering if you'd be willing to help us out with this." Dashi says to Tian.
"The best way to use magic the way that Dashi needed to was to use an object of sorts to harness and control the magic." Hsi Wu explains to the four young monks. "As you know, with the help of the Shen Gong Wu he was able to defeat Wuya. However, shortly after that Hannibal Bean came around and tricked Chase into selling his soul and becoming a monster. That's when things got really tough for me."
Tian didn't really understand it. Chase had been acting really strange lately, especially when he was around Guan. Why though? The two of them were best friends. Tian didn't like not knowing what was wrong with Chase. The two of them were close, they didn't hide things from each other...at least, not till now.
One day Tian just happened to see Chase walking off, and he was acting very suspiciously. Tian only hesitated a minute before he followed, careful not to be noticed. When Chase finally stopped, he looked very nervous about what he was about to do, but determined too. When Tian looked carefully he could see that Chase wasn't alone. There was a strange bean thing with him, talking to him.
The bean was holding up a bowl of some kind of strange soup. Tian wasn't sure exactly what the soup did, but he knew it wouldn't be good, he could just sense the dark evil in it. The bean seemed to be tempting Chase to drink it, which, unfortunately, he did. Tian was horrified to see the effects of the soup, how Chase got turned into a lizard like demon, and he no longer had the aura of goodness around him, now all Tian could sense was pure evil.
Tian was frozen where he stood for a minute, but then he got his thoughts together, or one thought in particular. Dashi had to know about this. Careful not to be seen, the boy ran back to the village where Dashi was. The Xiaolin master wasn't hard to find, ever since he had defeated Wuya and then hidden all the Shen Gong Wu around the world, he had taken to just lounging around, doing nothing. He figured he deserved a break from saving the world for a while. Sadly, breaks are not meant to last forever.
"Dashi, we have a problem." A panicked and out of breath Tian says as he comes up to the grand master.
"Whoa, kid, slow down, what's wrong?" Dashi asks. Dashi could tell, just by looking in Tian's eyes, that whatever had happened was bad.
"It's Chase." Tian says, "He's been acting strange lately, so I followed him and saw him talking to a bean, and-"
"Wait a second," Dashi interrupted, "This bean, do you mean Hannibal Roy Bean?"
"I don't know," Tian admits.
"Alright, so what did the bean say to him." Dashi asks.
"I'm not sure," Tian says, "But it did give Chase a soup which, when he drank it, turned him into a lizard demon."
Okay, so the news wasn't just bad, it was really bad. Dashi had heard about Hannibal Roy Bean, and he really didn't want to have to deal with another Heylin being there to upset the balance of things. Then there was Chase. Dashi didn't know for sure what had happened to his friend, but from how upset Tian seemed, it wasn't good. Tian and Chase were close, and the younger boy had never been afraid of Chase before. Now though, he looked terrified.
"Tian, I'm going to go find Guan, we need to figure out what to do about this." Dashi says, "You just...just stay here, and don't get in any trouble."
"But what about Chase?" Tian asks as Dashi begins to walk away. Dashi turns to see that the kid was looking at him defiantly. Yes, he still looked scared, but now Dashi could see that he wasn't scared of Chase, he was scared for him.
"I don't know what we're going to do about Chase." Dashi says as he walks back to Tian, "But I do know one thing." Dashi puts his hands on Tian's shoulders and looks him in the eyes. "You can't go near Chase anymore."
"But-" Tian begins to protest.
"No." Dashi says firmly, "We don't know how much he's changed. It's too dangerous. Trust me, I don't like it any better than you do, but this is just how we need to do things right now, alright?" Tian opened his mouth to protest, but after seeing how serious Dashi was about this, changed his mind. He cast his eyes down and nodded, agreeing to what Dashi had told him.
"Good." Dashi says, standing up straight again. "Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." He then left without another word. Tian tried to do what Dashi had said, but a few days later he saw Chase looking like a human again. Tian would be happy about this, but he still sensed darkness from him. Chase didn't seem to be up to something, and he looked like he was alone, but he was heading somewhere, so Tian decided to follow, to see where.
Chase wasn't really heading anywhere special, he just went to the tree that he and Tian had sat under so often. Tian thought that this was his chance to talk to Chase, so he approached him.
"Chase, what are you doing?" Tian asks.
"Currently I'm just standing here." Chase says, "There's no need for me to ask what you're doing, because I know you're just following me."
"Chase, this is serious, why did you do it?" Tian asks. "What did the bean tell you?"
"Just as it is your destiny to become a great sorcerer, it is mine to be a great warrior, the greatest warrior." Chase Young answers without hesitation. "And the only way I can do that is to be on the Heylin side."
"And you know this because the bean told you?" Tian asks, "Chase, do you realise how ridiculous that sounds?"
"He merely helped me to see the truth." Chase says impatiently, "How can I be the greatest warrior if I have to compete with Guan and Dashi? Now, I have something the two of them don't. Immortality."
"You're doing this for power?" Tian asks, not believing his ears. "Chase, Guan and Dashi are your friends. You shouldn't have to turn your backs to them to achieve your destiny."
"It was them who turned their backs on me!" Chase shouts. Tian was silent for a minute, he was shocked that Chase had actually shouted. Chase wasn't the kind of person to shout or yell, ever.
"Chase, whatever that idiotic bean told you, he's lying." Tian says, "And I'm sorry, but even with all your power, Dashi is still stronger."
"That may be, for now." Hannibal Bean says, joining in their private conversation. The bean jumped onto Chase's shoulder and sneered at Tian. "Don't worry though, we're gonna take care of that."
Tian's face paled. "What are you going to do?"
"The same thing you do to any competition," Hannibal Bean says. "Eliminate him."
"Eliminate? Chase, you can't listen to this thing, he's wrong." Tian argues.
Hannibal Bean was starting to get annoyed by this kid. He could be troublesome later on. Looks like Dashi wasn't the only person he needed to knock out of the picture.
"Chase, you've been wanting to see just what you're capable of now that you're stronger." Hannibal Bean says manipulatively. "Here's your chance." Hannibal whispered into Chase's ear what to do, and the new Heylin warrior was more than happy to try it.
Dashi was starting to get worried. He knew that Tian had left to try to talk to Chase. That kid really was too stubborn for his own good. Dashi just hoped that he would be okay. Dashi was pulled out of his thoughts quite abruptly when a flying bat imp thing came barreling into him.
"I just can't get a break, can I?" Dashi asks to himself as he steadies himself and faces the bat demon. Dashi was used to fighting demons, it's what came with being a xiaolin dragon, he didn't think that this demon would be any different. But after taking just one look at the demon Dashi realized that he was wrong. It may have looked like your everyday ugly demon, yet Dashi could somehow recognize who it was.
"Tian, what happened to you?" Dashi asks. The demon didn't respond at all other then screeching at him. So Tian didn't recognize him, that wasn't going to make things easy. What made things even harder was that the demon was looking at him with a cold hard look in his red eyes, and Dashi knew that he was here for just one thing.
His life.
Dashi knew that he was right when the demon lunged forward to attack him again. Dashi was able to jump out of the way, but Tian just kept on coming. Dashi couldn't keep fighting him off defensively, and he refused to attack the kid when he was clearly not acting for himself. Dashi knew what he could do, but it would cost him.
Dashi needed to get Tian close to him, close enough to do a spell. Unfortunately, the only way that would work was if he let the demon do what it had been sent here to do. So Dashi let down his defenses down, giving the demon an opening, which it took. The bat demon flew quickly toward Dashi, his claw ready for the attack. Dashi concentrated, focus his magic to accomplish what he needed to. The demon and the Xiaolin master struck at the same time, both succeeding in their attacks. Unfortunately, both accomplished what they had been trying to do.
Dashi's spell had worked, as much as it could have. Chase Young had turned Tian into a demon, but had also taken his will, replacing it with his own. Tian had been just a demon slave of Chase's. What Dashi's spell had done was given Tian back his own will. He was still a demon, but at least he could act like himself now.
When Tian realized what he had done, what Chase had made him do, he was devastated and wracked with guilt. Dashi was his friend, and he had...How could he have done that?
"It-it's not your fault, you know." Dojo says. Tian jumped and looked at the dragon, he hadn't realized that Dojo had been there the whole time.
"What do you mean it's not my fault?" Tian asks, "I just killed Dashi."
"Dashi knew what he was doing, believe it or not." Dojo says. The dragon climbed onto Tian's shoulder. "Hannibal Bean and Chase are still out there. If you didn't succeed in getting rid of Dashi, they would have eventually. Dashi gave his life now so he could get you back to your old self."
"But why?" Tian asks.
"Partly because Dashi cared about you, and felt responsible for you." Dojo says, "But also because he knew you could help with the whole Chase problem."
"What am I supposed to do?" Tian asks, "Chase is immortal now, and he's stronger than me."
"But Guan is just as strong as Chase is, except for the immortal thing." Dojo says. "That's where you come in."
"What, you think I can make Guan immortal?" Tian asks, "Please tell me you're not serious. That would take a very powerful sorcerer, not an apprentice."
"Chase being turned into a demon made him stronger at what he's already good at," Dojo pointed out, "Why wouldn't it do the same thing for you?"
"It's worth a shot, I guess." Tian says hesitantly. "Fine, let's go find Guan." Tian looked back one more time at Dashi's body.
"I'm sorry." Tian mutters before he flies away.
"Chase turned me into a demon slave, like his jungle cats that he uses now." Hsi Wu says, his voice tightening a bit. "Dashi helped me get my will back, but died shortly after." Hsi Wu didn't tell the monks that he had killed Dashi, that wasn't something they needed to know. And why would they trust him if they knew?
"I was able to turn Master Monk Guan immortal and enhance his strength, much like Chase's. Chase obviously wasn't very happy with me helping his enemy like that, and he's been after my hide ever since." Hsi Wu says. "I was able to use one of the dimension diamonds to escape this world into a demon realm, which is a whole other story."
The four monks looked at Hsi Wu in awe for a minute after he had finished telling his story. Raimundo finally breaks the silence.
"It sounds like you and Chase were pretty close." Raimundo says.
"Yeah, we were." Hsi Wu sighs. "Enough about that though, we need to figure out what we're going to do now."
Oh my gosh, very stinking long chapter. Seriously. See, this is why I don't really do long chapters, they take so long to write. It's okay every once and a while, but not for a normal occurrence, I have other stories that I need to work on too, I can't spend all my time working on this one.
