Chapter 26

Moi-Moi: I am SO SORRY. This has been finished for literally weeks. I have no idea why I held on to it for so long. I got busy and had no idea that I hadn't posted this sooner.

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Every day, the Xiaolin monks went about their daily routine with an air of tension. They were always on alert, always waiting. Their plan had monumentally failed. The only positive that they had seen (aside from somehow making it out with their lives intact) had been that neither Wuya nor Hannibal had double crossed them. But still, Chase Young had accomplished his goal.

It was almost anticlimactic. They had waited for the skies to darken or volcanoes to erupt or cities to be annihilated. But none of it came. Instead, they had woken up the next day with aches, bruises, and the sun shining brightly in the sky. They'd been given a reprieve of their chores so that they could heal, but those days had been the most stressful. They had waited for the other shoe to drop, but still nothing happened.

When Dojo had come slithering in with a head cold and complained about a new Shen Gong Wu activating, the four Xiaolin monks had looked at each other with stunned expressions. Were they really supposed to go looking for Shen Gong Wu? Weren't there more important things to worry about right now? But Master Fung had shooed them off after the new Wu, so they'd left it at that.

They'd clashed with Jack Spicer and had trounced him with little difficulty, despite their healing wounds. But even beating Jack Spicer had felt strange. They'd been quiet on the fly back to the temple, still not able to believe the peaceful scenes of babbling brooks, small towns, and calm forests that they'd flown over. They'd almost expected to find that the world outside the temple had been utterly destroyed. At least that would have made everything a bit less surreal.

Eventually, they had healed and resumed their chores. They woke at dawn, started their chores, ate breakfast, trained with their Wudai weapons, ate lunch, meditated and completed their studies, ate dinner, and went to bed. It was abnormally normal.

One day, Clay had spoken up at breakfast. "I guess it makes sense. It's just a baby right now."

Omi, Raimundo, and Kimiko had looked at Clay before looking at each other. Raimundo hummed and pushed around the rice in his bowl. "How do we know it wasn't born as some weird lizard hybrid thing?" Raimundo muttered, but the others still heard him.

"How long does it take for lizards to become fully mature?" Omi asked no one in particular. Raimundo snickered softly. At the soft and hesitant sound, it was like the illusion had cracked slightly.

"Do... Do you think we're going to be okay? At least, for now?" Kimiko asked.

"I don't know," Raimundo replied.

"It's startin' to look that way," Clay said.

"Looks can be most deceiving," Omi reminded.

"So, what should we do? We can't face Chase again. We'd be going in blind," Kimiko reasoned.

"Trust me, I'm not in any rush to get my butt whooped by Chase Young again," Raimundo moaned.

"Should we just...keep collecting Wu?" Clay suggested. "The more Wu we got, the stronger we'll be. Right? I'm not sayin' we'll be Chase Young level just yet, but it would help tip the scales in our favor."

"Better the Wu is with us than with anyone on the Heylin side," Omi pointed out. Kimiko and Raimundo had nodded in agreement at that. After that, the topic was tentatively shelved.

It was just a baby right now.

No one wanted to think about what it would grow up to be like.

~:~

When Wuya finally started hunting Shen Gong Wu again, she wasn't surprised to see that it was her versus the Xiaolin monks versus Hannibal (versus Jack too she supposed). She knew that Hannibal was still making plans, still looking at all the possible ways that he could achieve his goal of kidnapping. Wuya wasn't sure if she could get away with a murder plot right now. She'd missed her chance.

While the Xiaolin monks were once again united, the Heylin side was a mess. It was every villain for themselves (which wasn't all that strange among a group of notorious betrayers and back stabbers). Wuya wasn't afraid of fighting any one she had to, now that she had her full magic powers back. But there was still the issue of Chase.

It was a miracle that Chase hadn't rained down his wrath upon them all for what they'd tried to do. Was he biding his time? Or had something gone wrong? Who's to say that a half-human, half-Heylin incarnate spawn was even viable? Wuya could only hope that she'd be so lucky that Chase's demon spawn would have died and saved her the trouble of hunting it down.

It really was a shame. Another addition to the Heylin side would ensure that those Xiaolin warriors would have no chance of tipping the balance in favor of good. But why'd it have to be Chase's spawn? Then again, Chase had always been about taking on an apprentice. Unfortunately, this time he'd found one who'd be completely loyal to him. That is, unless Hannibal had his way...

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Hannibal had cooked himself a mighty fine plan. He'd actually had the idea several months ago, but it was just an insurance policy back then. Chase Young's good chi was still locked away in the Ying-Yang World. The side of evil would take a major hit to lose Chase to the Xiaolin side. Hannibal grit his teeth at the loss of one of his crowning achievements. But what was good for Heylin side, wasn't always good for Hannibal.

Chase had yet to make any moves, but it was expected. The boy was clever and strategical. He never showed his hand until he was good and ready. But what was it that was keeping him so silent?

"Ying-Ying, I need you to run a little errand for me," Hannibal said to the bird.

~:~

Jack Spicer wasn't a boy genius for nothing. He may not have magical powers or centuries of experience like his fellow evil-doers, but Jack could read a situation. As a boy genius, he had to be good at observing, analyzing, and executing strategy. Even if it was something like knowing when to retreat or knowing when to show his hand, Jack had had to always be ready.

The current situation, however, was leaving him a little stumped. He'd first noticed that something was off when he'd fought those Xiaolin Losers for the Ninja Sash. The monks had managed to defeat him but they'd been acting off. It was almost like they were waiting for something. They were distracted and jumpy. The only reason they'd managed to beat him was because they're weird behavior had thrown Jack off his game. Yeah, that's right... And then Wuya and Hannibal had started hunting Wu again, but they weren't working together anymore.

Jack wasn't an idiot. He knew that this all had something to do with that baby- Chase Young's baby. It was still weird to think about. Since when did a baby make people act so weird? As far as Jack was concerned, Chase Young's kid was probably gonna be one of the baddest bad guys around. Obviously, not badder than Jack was. But still pretty bad. Another bad guy meant more competition for the Wu and world domination, but it also meant someone else was fighting against those Xiaolin Losers. Unlike Wuya and Hannibal, Jack was tentatively reserving judgement about the kid.

Jack had already let Chase know that he was on the Prince of Darkness' side in all this. He'd only said that. He didn't really mean it. Jack knew that every bad guy had to look out for themselves first. That was basic Bad Guy 101. But if he had to pick an ally, he'd definitely choose Chase over Wuya or Hannibal. Wuya had double crossed more people than he could keep track of. Definitely not good to have on your Potential Ally résumé. Hannibal may be one of the baddest guys around, but he'd lost to Chase Young plenty of times in the past. Always choose the horse with the better track record.

Jack was in the middle of soldering a circuit when his Xiaolin Loser alarm went off. Pushing his goggles up onto his head, he looked up at the monitor to see the Xiaolin monks flying away from the temple on the back of their dragon. He sent his mini jack bot after them while reaching for the keys to his newest hover jet. He didn't know what Wu had just activated, but it was better to have it than let those monks, Wuya or Hannibal get it.

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Chase couldn't remember the last time he'd felt pride in someone's accomplishments besides his own. But Yanagi was exceeding all of his expectations. He had spied on her private training sessions for the past few days and couldn't help but smirk at her progress. She only ever practiced late in the afternoon, when the shadows were longest. At first, he assumed that she had been training her tiger instincts.

She would meditate or practice her tai chi in the shadows- moving across the room as the shadows did... as if she were in tune with them. She had been in the middle of her meditation when she had suddenly disappeared from his sight. Chase had leaned in to get a better look, his senses stretching to try to detect her presence, but he hadn't been able to pick up any sign of her. And then suddenly she had popped out of another shadow across the room with a startled look on her face. It wasn't uncommon for a trained warrior to be able to disappear into the shadows, but to do it so efficiently and by accident...

Chase had vigilantly watched Yanagi experiment with the shadows in the room- touching them, meditating in them, and even resorting to hopping on them. He could hear her grunts as she jumped, her round face turning red in exertion as she jumped higher and stomped on the ground with more force. She had already managed to crack the tiles beneath her, but Chase hesitated to stop her. He was sure that this was something she had to learn for herself.

Hitomi had found him like this but hadn't questioned why he was watching their daughter stomp cracks into the tiles. It was after the fall of a particularly high jump when Yanagi had suddenly slipped into the shadows as if they were nothing but a puddle of black ink.

"Yanagi!?" Hitomi exclaimed and moved to leap over the railing. Chase was quick the grab the back of her robe to stop her, however. She had been ready to chew him out, but he only shook his head and refocused on the ground below. Hitomi stopped to watch and a few seconds later she could see her daughter literally walk out of another shadow across the room. "How...how long has she been doing that?" Hitomi whispered to him.

Chase smirked. "The better question is, how long until she masters it?" Chase asked and watched as Yanagi stuck her whole hand into a shadow on the ground and made it appear from a different shadow on the wall several feet away.