Chapter 37: Beginning of the End

Here we go! Getting close to the end. Let's get on with this chapter.

Special thanks to SunDragon27, Sunshine5643, and darkshadowblazeable for reviewing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Xiaolin Showdown...AT ALL.

"What do you mean he's still alive?" Raimundo yelled. "We hit him with our strongest attack! That should have been it!" The young monks were shocked to hear that Liang was still alive. All, but one.

"Well, it didn't work." Dashi calmly said. "But that should've been enough to kill him. I don't know what happened."

"What went wrong then?" Kimiko wondered. Tim looked away, knowing what caused the attack to fail. He feared that this would be the outcome. He was angry at himself for the mistake.

"It is my fault." Everyone turned to him.

"What do you mean, Tim?" Mai asked.

"It is my fault that Liang survived the attack." He went on to explain. "When we were prompted to summon our elements to strengthen the attack, I held back nearly all of my energy." Raimundo suddenly grabbed Tim by the collar of his monk robes and pinned him against the wall.

"Why would you do that?" He shouted. Tim looked away in shame. Raimundo formed a fist and was about to punch his fellow monk.

"What's with all the yelling in here!" Dojo shouted, slithering into the room. He saw the situation in the council room and stopped. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need me." He said as he slowly backed out of the room.

"Rai!" Kimiko, Mai, and Clay grabbed his arm, trying to hold him back. Raimundo let go and watched as Tim slowly rose to his feet.

"Tell me, why did you do that?" He asked.

"It's because of the seal I placed on him a few weeks back." Dashi said. The Grand Master saw that the monks were confused by his answer and began to explain. "When the demon inside Tim was released, I had to create another seal, but when I saw the stage of the demon's growth, I was forced to hurry."

"The result was a weaker seal." Master Fung said. "It is able to keep the demon at bay, but it cannot put it to rest." The old monk explained. "Because of this, he is forced to hold back much of his powers in order to keep the demon from taking over again."

"So that means Tim was afraid of the demon taking over?" Xing asked.

"Yes." Tim replied.

"Tim." Mai said, kneeling down next to him. Raimundo groaned in frustration, slamming his fists on the council room table.

"Now what are we supposed to do?" He asked. "Liang's still alive and he's probably recovered from the fight by now."

"Yes. Liang must be beginning to launch an attack against us." Omi said. Dashi cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.

"Look, we can't worry about trivial matters now. We have to get ready to attack Liang." A smile appeared on his face. "I don't know about you, but I'm getting sick of this whole war. So why don't we put an end to it now?"

"Grand Master Dashi's right. We gotta end this once and for all." Clay said. The others nodded in agreement and turned to Dashi.

"So how long will it take for us to get everyone ready for the battle?" Lee asked. Suddenly, the wall behind Dashi, Master Fung, and Master Monk Guan collapsed, revealing the entire Xiaolin Army and Military forces from around the world ready for combat. Dashi grinned and walked out while Master Monk Guan and Master Fung shook their heads at the carelessness of the Grand Master Dragon.

"Whoa." The monks said in unison. All were bewildered by the large amount of people ready to risk their lives for the world. They ran out to see Dashi with Chase Young, Wuya, Shang, and Shu.

"I have done as you commanded Grand Master Dashi. We are all ready to take down Liang." Shu said. Dashi nodded his head.

"Good. Is the portal ready?" Shu nodded. Dashi turned around to the monks. "Go to your quarters and put on the armor I prepared for you. They'll be in your rooms. Hurry." Dashi said to them. They all did as they were told and ran off to their rooms. After twenty minutes or so, they all emerged from their living quarters with their armor on.

"Are you all ready?" Grand Master Dashi asked. The monks nodded. "Good. Everyone's begun leaving through the portal. We're going soon." He said to them before leaving through the portal.

"Guess we should get going too." Kimiko said before she, Mai, Ling, and Kai walked through the portal. Clay, Omi, Xing, and Lee soon followed, leaving Tim and Raimundo to go through. Just as they were about to leave, Raimundo spoke.

"Look, I'm sorry about earlier." Tim stopped to hear what the Dragon of Wind had to say. "I was a jerk. It's just that I was mad after hearing that he's still alive."

"It is fine, Raimundo. It does not matter anymore. All that matters now is putting an end to Liang. As the gods intended."

"I hope you're right." Raimundo said as he continued for the portal. "Let's go so we don't fall behind."

"I do hope you are not forgetting about me, young monk." Master Fung said. Raimundo and Tim stopped after hearing the old monk's words.

"Master Fung, you can't be serious about this." Raimundo said. His master smiled.

"Just because I am elderly does not mean I cannot keep up with my own students."

"I guess I shouldn't argue then." Raimundo smiled, scratching the back of his neck. "We should hurry and catch up with the rest of 'em." Raimundo said before jumping through the portal with Master Fung and Tim.

The entire area surrounding the Heylin Palace was silent. The sky grew dark and red as both the Xiaolin and the Heylin forces gathered on opposites sides of the battlefield. The Heylin were all gathered in front of the palace, ready to give their lives for Liang. They numbered in the tens of thousands, but were still outnumbered by the Xiaolin. The Xiaolin and their allies were about one kilometer away from the palace. The monks were at the front, along with Dashi, Shu, Master Monk Guan, and Master Fung.

The monks had quickly come up with a plan for the battle and were ready to go. After a silent moment, a loud roar was heard from the Heylin and their army began their charge. The Xiaolin soon followed suit, charging forward with the various military forces accompanying them.

"Attack! This is the end of Liang! All units, attack!" Shu shouted at the top of his lungs. In an instant, both forces clashed and the battle began.

"The Xiaolin have arrived, Master." 3 said. Liang rose from his throne and headed for a large door at the back of the room. When he opened the door, it revealed a large staircase leading to the top of the palace. He stopped at the first step.

"Begin the plan. The Dragons will be arriving soon." He said to his Elite Guards before heading up the stairway. As he left, the eight guards disappeared to their planned areas to wait for the monks.

Raimundo jumped over three soldiers and killed them with a slash of his blades. Four soldiers ran toward him, but were stopped by Master Fung. One of them aimed his sword right for Master Fung's chest, but the old monk easily knocked the weapon out of his hands. Before he could react, he was knocked unconscious by a swift kick from Master Fung. The three others attacked with their weapons. Master Fung quickly picked up the sword and parried each strike before dispatching his opponents with one slash.

"Whoa." Raimundo said, clearly in awe of the skill of his master.

"Raimundo!" Dashi said as he landed beside him. "Now's the time for the plan! The others are ready!" Raimundo nodded and ran over to the others.

"We're ready!" Kimiko shouted.

"Ready, Dojo!" On Dashi's command, the green dragon crawled out from under Clay's hat and transformed into his 40 foot form.

"Hop on!" The monks, Shang, Dashi, and Chase quickly jumped onto Dojo's back as a crowd of Heylin began to surround them.

"Now would be a good time, Dojo!" Clay shouted. With that, Dojo darted into the sky and towards the palace. As soon as they reached the palace, they spotted a familiar man standing at the top.

"Liang!" Raimundo said. "Dojo, hurry!"

"Got it!" Dojo sped up and they were nearly there, but Liang had other plans for them. He held up two fingers and began chanting. As soon as he finished, a large, black portal opened in the sky above the palace. At first, it seemed like nothing was happening, but after a moment, hundreds of small winged creatures flew down towards the Earth.

There were hundreds of them and there were more on the way. Several surrounded Dojo and began clawing at him and the people on-board. The monks quickly took action and attacked, but there were too much. Dojo began to fly all over the sky near the palace walls.

"Dojo, change of plans!" Dashi shouted. "Clay, I need you to break open the wall so we could land inside!"

"I'm on it!" Clay adjusted his hat and jumped off of Dojo towards the palace. "Earth!" The big Texan smashed into the wall and landed inside unharmed. "It's clear!"

"Okay! Dojo, there!" Dojo, not wanting to get clawed at any longer, flew inside and landed next to Clay. Everyone dismounted the dragon and turned back to see that the wall had begun to slowly close. But before it closed, the monks saw several portals open in the sky above the battlefield. As the wall finally closed, they heard loud roars that could only be made by very large creatures.

The monks were all standing there, hearing the loud roars coming from the outside. The Earth was shaking, which meant that the Heylin have summoned their war beasts. The Heylin now had an advantage against the Xiaolin and the battle would only get worse from there.

"This way." Dashi said, motioning for the monks to follow him. Dojo quickly hid himself in Dashi's shirt as they ran down the hallway. Chase Young took in the familiar surroundings and shook off any feelings of nostalgia he may have. Shang clutched his head as a sharp pain came over him. Chase noticed this and asked if he would be okay. To which Shang replied, "You need not worry about me, Master."

After a few minutes, they all arrived in a circular room with twelve hallways. They all stopped here, wondering where to go next.

"Master Dashi, you have been here before. Do you know which way to go?" Tim asked. Dashi began thinking.

"It's hard to remember, but I think it's this way." He answered, pointing to the northeast hallway. "But I do remember something happening here."

"Like what?" Kimiko asked.

"We were separated from each other." Chase answered.

"How?" Lee asked. Suddenly, a strange force pushed each of them into a separate hallway.

"That's how." Dashi groaned. Before they could all get back up, walls shot up from the ground, separating everyone from each other. They were all separated. Raimundo in one hallway, Dashi in another, etc.

"Raimundo!"

"Kimiko!" Raimundo banged hist fist against the hard wall, trying to break it down.

"It's no use, Rai! Even I can't break this wall!" Clay informed him from his hallway.

"Crap!"

"Rai, don't worry! We'll meet up later!" Kimiko assured him. "I'll be fine on my own!" Raimundo sighed.

"Okay. Just don't get hurt."

"No need to worry." Kimiko said.

"Enough with the lovey-dovey crap! Just go, we'll all get through this!"

"Lee's right! Just keep on moving. If I remember these hallways correctly, then we'll all end up in the same place." Dashi said.

"Then let's get moving!" Kai shouted.

"Right!" The others shouted in unison and with that, they all left.

"Tim!" Mai called. She was afraid to move on. She didn't want to, without Tim with her. Tim heard her and knew what she was feeling.

"Mai. Do not worry. You will be fine, I know you can make it through this. You are strong, I know it." Tim said, trying to comfort her. "Please, you must." After a moment of silence, Mai answered.

"Okay. I will."

"Be careful, Mai."

"You too." And with that, they separated, running down the halls.

"The monks are separated. The plan begins now." Liang said. From throughout the palace, his guards heard him. "Kill them all." He said. "But leave the Dragon of Wind and the Guardian of Darkness to me."

The final battle had finally begun.

Argh! My hands are cramping up! I've been trying to get this chapter right for hours, but I don't think I can accomplish that. Whatever, I hope you liked this. Go ahead and review.