Heylin Dragon
By: Aubrie1234
Senshi yawned and stretched as he woke. It would take a while for Datamon to finish and so he had a lot of time to learn more about Jack before they tried out the program. He looked around, surprised that Wakebot hadn't woken him. The angry little robot was still prowling the house, waking up any who dared to fall asleep or who weren't awake at the proper time. Senshi could attest to that. The digimon padded out of the room and to the bathroom, but as he did so, he noticed something strange. He did a double-take as he passed a window and frowned. Outside, there were no Jackbots. This made Senshi tense. Ignoring the bathroom, he made his way down the stairs and to the lab. He grew even more worried when there were no Jackbots guarding the room. Cautiously, he opened the door. Inside was Jack, but as he sniffed the air, he frowned.
"Hey Sen. You're up late." said Jack. Senshi narrowed his eyes.
"You're not Jack."
"What do you-"
"Katana Attack!" Jack grabbed the katana with surprising speed. Senshi growled.
"Who are you and what have you done with Jack?" Fake!Jack smiled, throwing the katana away.
"Thought you would've noticed this was a dream if you noticed I wasn't Jack so very very quickly." Senshi stumbled as the ground shuddered and all parts of the lab dissolved into a swirling gray/blue area filled with fog. Fake!Jack was there with him but suddenly, he began to transform, melting from Jack to a small red bean, which seemed to carry a two-part shield.
"Hannibal Roy Bean. Seems you've got quite a lot of fears hidden here, dragon." He grinned crookedly. Senshi stiffened.
"How are you here?"
"The Shadow of Fear." A statue of a bronze eagle/hawk materialized in the bean's vines, "Jack Spicer wasn't the only one stealing from the vault that night. It's because of him I know about you."
"And you wanna try blackmailing me?" Senshi snapped.
"Perhaps, but not now." Hannibal rubbed his chin, or what he seemed to consider a chin, "I could ask you if everything about Al-"
"Finish that and I will kick you out of this dream right now." Senshi hissed, "You may have the ability to control nightmares but this is still my dream."
"If you think so. Just know that I can 'spill the beans' any time I want, and then you'll have an angry Jack on your hands, won't ya?" Senshi closed his eyes as a flash came from the Shadow of Fear and suddenly, he found himself on the floor, having rolled off the bed. It was still dark outside.
"Mfgh..." Jack groaned, "Senshi..?"
"I'm okay." He climbed back onto the bed. Jack was rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"What happened?"
"Just fell off the bed."
"Nightmare?" Senshi glanced away for a brief moment.
"Yeah. Really bad one."
"Well, if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask." Jack rolled over and fell asleep. Senshi curled up on the pillow but his eyes were wide open. He wasn't going back to sleep again that night.
"I know you said I was better off not knowing, but who is Hannibal?" Senshi asked as they ate breakfast together that morning.
"And why are you asking this so early in the day?"
"I'm curious." Jack was skeptical about the reasoning but let it slide.
"Before I tell you anything, just let it be known that he holds no power over anyone. We're only scared of him because we fear him and what he can do. Even though I'm afraid of him, I realize that it's only the fear that makes him powerful. Now, as for who he is, you already know he's the one that changed Chase to the Heylin side. He's also very good at manipulating others and getting what he wants, even though he's a literal bean. Even Chase is uneasy with him and that's saying something. He's like the most evil guy ever."
"Can he change form at all?"
"Used to with the Moby Morpher, but the Xiaolin have it. Why?" Jack frowned, "Did something happen?"
"No."
"You responded too quickly." Jack said, "He came into your dreams last night, didn't he."
"...Yes." Senshi slowly nodded.
"Must have the Shadow of Fear, too." Jack rubbed his face, "If he knows about you, then we're screwed. What else does he know?"
"He knows things I would rather keep hidden."
"But you know-"
"Yeah, he holds no power over me if I don't fear him. I don't fear him, Jack, I only fear him spreading my secrets. He probably knows secrets I don't even want you knowing."
"He's a bastard like that." said Jack.
"What are we gonna do?"
"Remember what I said about how the others were playing a game with us? If you don't want Hannibal to share those secrets, then play his game, even if he asks you to do things you hate. But if you don't care about those secrets, then let him do what he wants and ignore him."
"How are you so sure that'll work?" Senshi asked, a touch of sadness in his voice. Jack softened and scratched the digimon under the chin, causing the dragon to close his eyes in contentment.
"I know because I've done it. He can talk people into things, Senshi, and he tried to do it to me. He tried to talk me into something but I ignored him."
"How?"
"I can't tell you how to ignore him. You have to find that out for yourself." Senshi opened his eyes and stepped away from the petting.
"Could you help me with that, at least?"
"I can try." Jack nodded.
"Thanks."
"Master Jack?" A Jackbot came up to them, claws together.
"Yeah, JB-13?" If it had legs, the robot would've shifted nervously.
"We wanted to ask you something."
"Go ahead."
"We're grateful for the new emotion ship, of course, but do you think it's really a good idea?"
"Of course I do. I mean, even though we had a setback with JB-19, I think giving you guys the emotion ships was great."
"I suppose." The robot nodded, "Thank you, sir." JB-13 left them alone.
"I saw what happened." Senshi winced, "At least you're rebuilding JB-19, but why give them emotion chips? Do you want them to feel like friends besides their robotic attributes?"
"Yeah, kinda. The last time I tried this, it didn't end well, but I think I did better this time because I'm not using a volatile Wu."
"And what Wu would that be?"
"The Heart of Jong. It gives life to whatever contains it." Jack glanced away, "I thought putting it in a robot would give me a good friend, but Dudebot didn't want it. That was...a really huge blow for me. I mean, Dudebot hadn't been around long, but being one of my robots, I still had a connection." He leaned into his crossed arms, "It was definitely the Warriors' fault for causing him to throw away his life. All he wanted was friends."
"And you think that, using chips instead of Wu, the Jackbots will actually act more like human beings and be the friends you need?"
"...Saying it makes it sound pathetic." Jack ran a hand through his hair, "Maybe I'll take them out later."
"You don't have to. I mean, having more friends than me is great, but..." Senshi shrugged, "Robots are good friends. You made them. I just don't think they would fulfill what you want. It's just my opinion, though."
"Well, you certainly have a better opinion than Wuya, at least."
"Wuya?"
"She used to live with me." Jack stood, "I don't really wanna talk about it. We've gotta figure out how to fight Hannibal, if you want. I don't suggest it, but it's your secrets, so your choice."
"I think… I don't know. I don't wanna do anything bad, but I don't want him sharing my secrets." Senshi hopped down to follow Jack to the lab.
"Until he does anything, I don't think we can do much." Jack admitted, "For now, ignore it."
"Easy for you to say."
Senshi listened to the headphones as Chlorine played. Jack was asleep but Senshi refused to do so, afraid Hannibal would come back, so Jack leant the digimon some headphones (they tried earbuds until they realized the buds wouldn't fit under the helmet and Jack had no idea where Senshi's ears were) and his phone (plugged in, of course) so that the digimon could try to stay up all night. Jack doubted that Hannibal would make a move that night but Senshi wasn't having any of it, so the albino had no choice but to give in and try to help his friend. Senshi also couldn't spend the night talking with Datamon because one, the stronger digimon wasn't done and two, he was afraid of being tracked down.
When the song finished, Senshi paused the album and played with the phone for a second, trying to go to YouTube. Jack had explained it to him once and the digimon hoped that watching some videos would help keep him up. When the site was on the screen, there were several videos 'Recommended for You.' They were likely patterned after what Jack watched and Senshi thought he might was well try some of them. He quickly discovered a show called The Big Bang Theory and proceeded to binge-watch it as much as he could. The only things that disturbed him were when Jackbots went by and when the sun began to come up, which consequently woke Jack.
"Mmfgh..." Jack rolled over and pulled the covers up to his head.
"Wake up, sleepyhead." Senshi said, giving a yawn. He pulled off the headphones after pausing the video and stared at Jack. When the human didn't move, Senshi proceeded to literally kick Jack out of bed.
"Oof!" Jack blinked bearily at the ceiling, "What was that for?"
"If you didn't get any sleep you'd be grumpy too." There was a hiss and they both looked over to find Wakebot poking its head in from the hallway. It gave a satisfactory nod before crawling back out.
"Don't know what he's happy about." Jack pushed himself to his feet and gave the digimon a glare. Senshi stared back blankly.
"Did you know that I don't give a damn about your piddly-ass problems? Because I really fucking don't."
"You've been watching Big Bang Theory, huh?" Jack turned to go in the bathroom, "Can you sing the theme song with me?"
"Not right now." Senshi hopped off the bed and followed Jack, "Your hair's lighter than before."
"Yeah, I have to dye it again." Jack opened one of the cabinets and inside were bottles and bottles of red hair-dye. He took one and closed the cabinet.
"Dye it? What do you do?" Senshi hopped onto the counter to watch. Jack gave him a look.
"Since you didn't get any sleep I don't know if you'd understand this but I'll try to explain." Senshi nodded along as Jack told him what dyeing was and what he was doing with his hair, concluding with, "I keep doing this to keep up appearances. A few know that I'm albino but no one seems to have used it against me yet, so that's good."
"How could they use it against you?" Jack paused.
"Well, not a lot of people like others who aren't like them. For a long time, albinos like myself were thought of as freaks or fragile, but we're not. Sure, I can't stay out in the sun too long, but I'm not fragile nor am I the Devil." The teenage genius rolled his eyes.
"How do they think you're 'the Devil?' And what's the Devil?"
"Oh boy..." Jack explained to Senshi about eye colors and somewhat about religion.
"I see other digimon with red eyes all the time. It's not a bad thing." said the dragon in response.
"For you, maybe, but red is not a natural eye color, like I said. Neither is yellow or pink or even black, though some get really close to that. And some have amber-colored eyes, but that's really rare."
"So people used to think albinos were evil because of their eye color, which they had no control over."
"And you see how I've had a crappy childhood." Jack quipped.
"That's not fair."
"Life's not fair, especially not to me." Jack was now finished with his dyeing and double-checked himself in the mirror. Senshi sniffed his hands.
"Why are they still red?"
"That's the dye. Won't come out for a while. Makes me look like I murdered someone, huh?" Jack's face fell a little after he said it. Senshi gave a humming sound.
"Don't feel bad. It doesn't look like you murdered someone. At least, if I knew what 'murder' meant I don't think it'd apply here." Jack smiled again.
"You're the best, you know that?" He rubbed the dragon's head, "Now that it's daytime, why don't you try to get some sleep? He won't be after you, I promise." Senshi gave him a skeptical look, "Just trust me, okay?"
"...Fine." Senshi hopped back to the bed and curled up in Jack's empty spot. In seconds the digimon was out and Jack smiled. He went over and tugged the covers on top of Senshi to keep him warm, just in case.
When he woke up, the house still had Jackbots, but there was no sign of Jack, only a note. Senshi, of course, was convinced this was another play by Hannibal to trick him and so tried biting himself, only to be interrupted by one of the Jackbots, who was both worried about Senshi and told by Jack to keep an eye on him. Seeing that the worry wasn't fake, Senshi conceded that he wasn't dreaming and so went back down to the lab to read the note.
'Senshi, a Wu activated and I'm going to get it. Stay here and stay safe. - Jack'
"I could've helped him again if he just woke me up." Senshi grumbled. But then he smelled something in the air and stiffened. He jumped on the table and growled at the darkness.
"I have been here three times and you still do not trust me." said Chase, "How wise of you."
"If you came to convince me-"
"Not this time." Chase took a seat in the chair in front of the computer, "I only question why you stay in Jack's care."
"Because he actually cares about and is nice to me?"
"Yes, he has. He wishes to be evil, but it seems he cannot accomplish that, if his care for you is any indication."
"Jack said people can be evil and nice at the same time. He says you're nice. The only nice thing you've done that I've seen is be polite."
"Be lucky that I have been. You are an unpredictable being and, until I know more about you, I would like you not to get angry at me."
"Understandable." Senshi paced the table, not taking his eyes off Chase, "But really, why are you here?"
"As I said, I question why you stay with Jack when there is no benefit for you."
"The only benefit I have is friendship and that is enough." Chase rolled his eyes.
"Like the Xiaolin Warriors, you think friendship is everything. It will not get you anywhere if, say, you get thrown to a dinosaur. Like what I did to Jack." Senshi blinked, then snarled. He knew several dinosaur-like digimon and didn't like what he was coming up with.
"A dinosaur?! Why would you throw him to a dinosaur?!" Senshi was disgusted, "You really are evil, Young."
"How nice of you to point that out."
"Why doesn't Jack hate you for that? I would!" Chase shrugged.
"I have no idea myself. If he was as smart as he said, then he would get the idea that I do not wish to pay him any mind and he would leave me be."
"Well, he still thinks he has a chance at being your apprentice and I can't understand that." Senshi shook his head.
"He would not care about you if he was actually evil."
"You're right about that, at least. He's not pure evil, not like you. I doubt you could ever learn to love, but Jack can. If he can take care of something, like me, then he isn't pure evil."
"And caring is a weakness." said Chase.
"Only if you think it is." Senshi and Chase looked up when they heard the whine of the jet as it approached, "I've heard from Jack about how you're still honorable, even if you are evil. That doesn't mean you're good, but your honor still makes you do good things sometimes. Everyone's gotta have a balance of some sort, you have it in your honor, and Jack has it even though I don't know what the balance is."
"Well, you are upsetting his balance." Chase stood, "He is becoming somewhat good because of you and I find that depressing. He had so much potential, only to waste it as he becomes friends with you."
"He's not wasting it, nor is he becoming good. You know how I helped him steal some Wu." Senshi cocked his head, "Or are you making excuses because you're jealous?"
"An immortal like myself has nothing to be jealous of, Senshi. Goodbye." Chase disappeared just as Jack pulled in.
"You left awfully fast for someone not being jealous..." the digimon murmured to himself.
"Had a good nap?" Jack called.
"Yeah, no thanks to you." Senshi stuck his tongue out at Jack. The human did the same and they shared a laugh, "You're in good spirits. Grab another Wu?"
"Yep." Jack held up a small dog-like contraption, "I think it's one of the transportation Wus. Looks kinda cool, doesn't it?"
"If you think so." Senshi looked away, thinking, You said caring is a weakness, Chase, yet you've come over here three times in the past few weeks to talk and two of them weren't about anything to do with being evil. I think you might need to look at yourself for once.
"Something wrong?"
"Hm? No, just thinking." Senshi hopped off the table and walked around Jack's legs like a dog, happy that his friend was back.
Notes:
The Fifi-Xiaogo is a dog-like transportation Wu and, like the Genie Moo, was supposed to be in Season 4 before the cancellation.
Like Twenty One Pilots, I imagine that Jack also likes The Big Bang Theory somewhat.
Yes, I am somewhat of a Chack shipper, so there might be hints of it in here or it might expand. I'm not sure where the story will take me concerning relationships with the exception of the definite RaiKim and that might only be hinted at as well.
Jack admitting that he refused Hannibal's offer is not made up. Over on TVTropes, in the Awesome section on Xiaolin Showdown, it said that Jack had an Offscreen Moment of Awesome where he, of all people, didn't take Hannibal's offer. For all the Butt-Monkey the show makes him out to be, Jack has some serious hidden depths.
I will admit that Hannibal might be a bit OOC, as it has been a LONG time since I watched the entirety of the show, especially with him. If you have any suggestions to help, I'll take them and try to make his character better.