"You cannot kill me! I am your creator! Great, now I feel like I'm trapped in some sort of horror/sci-fi movie or something..." Sef mumbled to himself as death impeded upon him. Even down on the ground it seemed like the very earth was preparing to swallow him into the void.
"How amusing to see you reduce to this, begging for your own life from a very remnant of your being. It is a shame that the amulet was lost to this chi wizard Daolon Wong you spoke of considering what I could have done with it, though his exploits are greatly known in this dark realm and within all others. He has manipulated more than you ever could have imagined Sef, and even if somehow you did escape both me and the clutches of the Underworld, you still would be unable to defeat him, especially with this newfound power he has obtained through you," Dark Sef said, and while Sef knew all of this was more than likely true, he couldn't just bow to his darker half and allow him to obliterate him.
He took off running yet again, this time using every ounce of energy that could be spared without collapsing into an exhausted heap on the ground to do so. Dark Sef merely laughed once more and began to take chase by air, keeping himself all but hidden in the thickening shadows with only his two glaring red eyes to reveal where he was. Sef could feel the heat radiating from all around him like the breaths of summoned beasts preparing to devour him but continued, praying mentally that some creature didn't take it upon itself to try and consume him at this time as Dark Sef had taunted earlier. As a metaphysical being Dark Sef could easily rematerialize if such a thing ever happened; Sef couldn't exactly say the same for himself having never experimented with the abilities he may have gained here.
"Where exactly do you believe you are running Sef? The Underworld extends on and on for all of eternity, so you are going to need quite a bit of energy and motivation to continue this futile escape for much longer. I can already tell you are beginning to falter; the Underworld is not meant for frail and naïve beings such as yourself," Dark Sef mocked from above, but Sef was concentrating too hard on getting away from him to turn back and look for his location.
"Has ever told you before that you are really long-winded?" Sef spat in annoyance, beginning to climb the base of a blackened, active volcano he had finally managed to reach. His hands burnt against the scorching touch of the hardened stone, but he knew he had to continue. Dark Sef merely hovered up the side of it gracefully, his feet slack and just inches overtop the immense heat and pain.
"I am not going to let you harm me in any way; I need to get back and save Jade and possibly the entire world from Daolon Wong," Sef suddenly cried out wearily and seriously, falling back down a few ledges to a cliff he reached just moments before. He knew it wasn't the heat that was causing his blood to suddenly boil with the intervention of this unwelcome being. "Jade is my best friend, and I have to get back and help her using whatever means necessary, even if that means overcoming you!"
Sef suddenly lunged from the small overhang he was perched upon and dove headlong into Dark Sef, who let out a muffled yelp of surprise as they both plummeted towards the ground. Dark Sef slammed into it first, but Sef arms were woven around his waist where he had seized him to drag him back to the ground below. Sef let out a cry and was forced to pull away, looking fearfully at the jagged rocks now embedded into his bleeding auburn flesh, but Dark Sef was far worse off. His spine was lined with gashes and wounds, and the expression he had on his face was more frightening than any attack he could have brought against Sef at that moment.
"I will not tolerate this insolence any longer! I could have easily smite you from the moment you were banished here Sef Artaxerxes, but I took pity and mercy upon you because I felt that simply destroying would not be honorable for the very being that created me as you have pointed out so many times. But now I see you're nothing more than a idealistic little whelp, and that the only way I will ever be rid of your annoying sentiments and emotions is by annihilating you off the face of both these worlds!" Dark Sef suddenly raised his now cobalt hands into the air, conjuring what appeared to be dynamism that emerged from within his very presence, fueled by his hate and his determination to see Sef slain.
Sef could only resist the urge to cower, knowing that Dark Sef wouldn't indeed halt until he was gone, and he merely stood there, feeling so utterly helpless because he wouldn't be able to return home and help his friends. He could only imagine what Daolon Wong was doing to them even now, and if anything, Dark Sef's arranged end for him would at least relieve him of the absolute guilt he felt for having condemned the entire world to such a fate as he was facing now.
"I'm sorry Jade...I'm just not strong enough..." he whispered to himself, watching as Dark Sef brought back a single hand in aggression and prepared to lash out the force of the attack against him.
Suddenly what appeared to be a rift was cut over where Dark Sef hovered, but at first Sef believed this to be part of his onslaught, summoning energy from an entirely different realm to make sure that the execution was commenced properly, but when he saw the baffled look upon his adversary's face, he realized this was not of his doing. They both watched as it opened slowly but surely, a mixture of illusionary storms and twilight merging until suddenly a whirlwind oblivion appeared, and from it came several plummeting forms, all screaming in an eerie chorus as they poured forth from the unseen dominion.
Dark Sef didn't even have time to brace himself before the disembodied figures impacted him, and he was once again carried abruptly into the ground below beneath a shadowed gathering of the figures, of whom landed in the same unceremonious fashion. Sef was speechless and spellbound; could these strange creatures or spirits been drawn against his enemy thanks to a mingling of his fears and inherit abilities?
As the five figures stumbled out into the light, he was convinced of this.
"Jade!" he shouted, lunging at her with uncontrollable relief to see her, and she was sent flying backwards onto the ground with an equally relieved expression to see he wasn't now residing within the churning stomach of some monstrosity.
"Sef! You're all right! Well, close enough at least..." she said as the both of them got back onto their feet after his outburst of emotion, brushing themselves clean of ash and soot.
"Hey Sef, who's this weird-looking kid we just accidentally crushed?" Finn asked, his once white suit now obsidian as he observed the unmoving figure strewn on the ground.
"Is that...Dark Sef?" Jade said, immediately identifying him by the subtle resemblance he bore to the original Sef and remembering their previous encounter with him, and the Dark Hand members were able to make easy connections between the two considering the similarities between them both as well.
"You mean this kid is your evil twin or something?" Chow asked, shivering a bit already with this new development and wondering if he should be concerned with an evil incarnation of his own within this strange place.
"To make a long story short, he's my dark half, conjured by a Chi spell, banished here by Uncle, trying to kill me off out of vengeance, knocked unconscious by all of you as he prepared to carry this out," Sef said rapidly, watching in sufferable disappointment at the vortex through which they had arrived slowly closed up and vanished completely from sight. It seemed they would not be able to steal away from the Underworld via that route.
"I'm so glad the five of you came to save me from this horrible place. I was beginning to worry about what Daolon Wong was going to do to you Jade," Sef said, missing the presence once more of his amulet as he reached up and found only murky air to comfort him instead of the relic's presence.
Sef knew something was wrong when the nervous and somewhat humiliated smile came onto Jade's face, as though she had done something blundering once again. "Well, you see Sef. The Enforcers saved me from becoming one nasty graffiti mark on the concrete, but when we tried to unite the amulet with your body, Daolon Wong sort of got the amulet back and sent all the rest of us here," she said, and Sef signed and felt all hopes he had managed to retain drop through the ground below where they stood. So much for falling back onto whatever strategy they had concocted on freeing him. They hadn't even come here purposely in the first place.
"So, what exactly do we do now that we're all here? The world is going to be doomed if we don't do something quick," Finn said hastily, feeling equally nervous of their new and barbaric surroundings. Nearby, a geyser shot up spewing steam and startled Finn to the point where he leapt headlong into Ratso's arms with a childish yelp.
"Aw, and I didn't think you cared..." Ratso mocked as he dropped his comrade to the ground and stepped away so it didn't occur again.
So thus another brainstorming session was commenced between the five individuals, interrupted only by Dark Sef's anguished moans from having ended up on the wrong side of both Hak Foo and Ratso in their fall to the unstable earth.
"I just thought of something Sef," Jade suddenly said, reminiscing to before all this had happened. "Daolon Wong said that the only reason he's able to wield the amulet is because he sent your soul here right? A sort of really weird sacrifice."
"That's right, but what's that got to do with escaping and stopping him? My soul isn't too much good when it's being held captive in the deepest depths of all darkness," Sef said with sarcastic drama, feeling the weight of their predicament as the Enforcers engaged in listening to what Jade had to offer. None of them had managed to come up with anything but attempting to locate a fast-food restaurant somewhere within the Underworld to quiet their now rumbling stomachs.
"It's just all this business with Dark Sef; he sent your soul here to empower the amulet, but when you think about it it's only part of your spirit, because the evil was purged of it by the Chi spell like Uncle told us. I think that the only reason Daolon Wong is able to control Wepwawet's power is because he sacrificed a pure soul to the Underworld, not one with that in it too," Jade said, pointing down to where Dark Sef was lying on his side, coughing from the ashes and still slumbering restlessly.
"I never thought about that, I mean it wasn't until after we got rid of Dark Sef that Wepwawet was able to even channel his abilities through me. Maybe it was because the darkness once within me interfered with it," Sef said, seeing this foreign part of himself in a whole new light with regard to their situation.
"Exactly. If we somehow managed to get you and Dark Sef back into one spirit again, maybe it'll disrupt the power of the amulet and be able to stop Daolon Wong from using Wepwawet's abilities anymore," Jade said, and for a moment everyone considered this in silence, especially Sef, who found this almost too ironic for him to bear.
"This is a prime example of a Catch 22 if you ask me, but I guess there's no other choice, even if it means sacrificing who I was before now," Sef said sadly, realizing that the person whom he had been since he had first arrived only days before would soon be lost almost as quickly. "It's somewhat strange, in order to stop a terrible evil I have to reabsorb my own vice back into me."
"Don't worry Sef, the moment that we get the amulet back, we'll make sure that Uncle removes Dark Sef from you again, this time permanently," Jade said encouragingly placing a comforting arm around his shoulders though the very idea of this made her feel sorrowful as well. She was about to lose the Sef she had become friends with, and considering Dark Sef's almost immediate removal after he had arrived, who knew how different he would be with the villainous being placed back within him. They both sighed long and drawlingly, thinking about the consequences already with regret tearing at them.
"Just one problem with your theory Jade: how exactly do you think we're going to recombine two separated parts of a soul in the middle of the Underworld without a spell book or anything else to help us out," Finn argued logically in his usual immature tone of voice, cringing as Dark Sef mumbled something about torture in his forced sleep and tried to grab his foot uncoordinatedly.
"We're in the middle of the Underworld; surely there must be someone...or something...that can merge two parts of a soul back together again, and then we can at least test this idea of mine out. Let's face it guys; we don't have anything to lose at this point," Jade said with a faint grin to attempt to brighten the situation, and Sef couldn't help but feel utterly empty with these developments. He instantly feared for the worse, that he would never be able to return to this being he was here and now ever again, and this thought served to make him feel sickened and instinctively resistant.
But he knew what had to be done. If tainting his soul was the key to ruining the might of the amulet now in the hands of such evil, it was worth giving it up even permanently to save all the innocent lives he had jeopardized. He turned to Jade with a faint smile on his face in return of her own, then stared off into the rest of the Underworld with a look of repressed loss and uncertainty.
"I suppose it's time we begin searching..."
---------------------------------
Section 13 was unusually quiet today, a fact that left Jackie feeling endlessly nervous for some reason he couldn't explain. Uncle and Tohru had excused themselves to the main chamber where the talismans were being placed back to their original holders, the both of them lying down a fresh wave of spells as additional aid in keeping them safe. Jackie had been summoned to Augustus's office to finish the required paperwork in the aftermath of the demon's appearances and vanishings, and what actions would now have to be taken in order to locate and secure them once more in their proper realm. The thought of this left Jackie with a pit in his stomach of the efforts to put to recapture them, but he knew it had to be done, definitely sooner rather than later before they could do anything dangerous or threatening to human lives.
He realized what was bothering him the moment he passed an open window in the hallway; the sky was far too dark to be that of an early autumn's afternoon sky, especially considering not a cloud lied in the darkening atmosphere to take responsibility for this. It was almost like an eclipse was occurring over the earth, but from a darkness that had no physical form to be blamed. This caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand on end, but he continued, trying not to worry about anything else but the task at hand for them this day.
He was just about to reach corridor in which the officials' offices lied when suddenly a thundering jolt forced him backwards, shaking the entire foundation of the massive government building. He was instantly back onto his feet before the echoes had managed to flee, feeling the ground continuing to shiver fearfully beneath his shuffling feet, and keeping the echoes of his own footsteps low so he could hear whatever was going on in the distance. The utter silence that followed was far more unnerving than the event itself, as though time had come to a staggering stop around him.
He stumbled upon a security room but a moment later and entered, finding the guard assigned to it had been knocked unconscious by the unexplainable earthquake that had emerged and then died down from below. He walked up swiftly to the damaged, disrupted monitors, adjusting them so he could look for anything out of the ordinary that could have caused it, an explosion or demonic attack of some kind. The bouts of static and interference made it hard for him to see, only blank forms taking shape before him.
He searched the entire compound but found no signs of a visible enemy at all. He saw Tohru and Uncle still within the main chamber, Augustus standing somewhat spellbound and seemingly disoriented in his nearby office, and guards patrolling the vicinity probably in search of the cause as well. He gave up looking, considering there seemed to be nothing noticeable on the computer displays.
The moment he turned away and exited, the screens suddenly went out and revealed nothing more, but he was too distant now to take notice of their sudden demise.
Jackie knew he had to reach the security room and inform Uncle and Tohru of what had occurred, though he was sure with the massiveness of the convulsion that they had felt it as well. He was baffled to find the thick steel doors leading into the room open welcomingly, Tohru and Uncle standing before the talismans facing away from him.
"Tohru? Uncle? Did you feel that just now? What do you suppose could have caused such an quick earthquake to occur?" he asked, approaching them and resting his hand firmly on his Uncle's shoulder. Suddenly they both turned, and he yelped with surprise and tumbled backwards as fast as he could, halting only when he was safely away.
Their eyes weren't their own, the irises of the eyes turned crimson like drying blood and lacking in any emotion whatsoever. Their expressions held an apathy that Jackie could only associate with the murderous zombies in the horror movies he would sometimes catch Jade watching against his wishes. Their mouths hung open slightly, as though they had little control any longer over their own bodily functions.
"Come Jackie, it is far easier to join the darkness than resist it," they both said uniformly, their voices robotic and layered with another voice he recognized almost immediately. A quick look into the air revealed what he had feared, a menacing form hovering in the air above where the talismans had once dwelled, and now were clenched greedily in the hands of this new oppressor. The wall at the opposite end of the room had been completely torn off, the thick steel lying harmless on the ground and cut neatly from where it had once stood protectively. It seemed he had found the cause of the sudden movement, and the one responsible for it.
"I see you have discovered the fates of your Uncle and Tohru, Jackie Chan. It would be wise if you would just surrender your mind to me and declare your allegiance, unless you want this forced upon you. I wouldn't want to bestow upon you as well the punishment I wrought upon your niece and her little friend Sef, as well as those bumbling thieves that attempted to aid them," Daolon Wong spoke in a foreboding tone, weaving the talismans between his fingers like admiring exquisite treasures.
"What have you done with Jade and Sef?" Jackie shouted angrily, suddenly feeling the protective impulse leap up from within him, but by the sinister gleam in the eyes of his enemy, he could tell there was already nothing he could do to help them.
"Their souls now dwell in the land of shadows, the Underworld, and their bodies lie as useless ornaments of stone where they fell to me. And unless you wish to join them and share this destiny, I suggest you give yourself up before I lose my patience," Daolon Wong said, and Jackie answered by reaching over swiftly and lunging an ancient Chinese shield at him, once displayed in the walls of the room.
Daolon Wong cast it aside quickly, but in the second it took to do so Jackie Chan had disappeared from the room, fleeing as silently as possible through the hallowed walls of Section 13.
"Find him my slaves, and once you have bring him to me so I may keep my promise to have his soul removed for this resistance," Daolon Wong ordered in a hateful hiss, vanishing into a miasmic mist as both Uncle and Tohru did as he commanded and began their search alongside the countless other members of Section 13, who Jackie discovered soon enough were all under the control of the Chi wizard. Everyone was now his enemy, and all their eyes gleamed with the same implanted ferocity that Daolon Wong had placed into Uncle and Tohru to control them. He hid himself swiftly within an empty containment locker and attempted to organize his thoughts and strategy before he dared try anything, knowing the price to be paid for allowing one's fear and apprehension to get the better of them at times. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself and began to organize his counteractions before beginning to his opposition.
"First things first, I have to find some way to stop Daolon Wong, and then I must save Jade and Sef from wherever he has imprisoned them..."