A/N: The thing about regret, is that its a wound that cuts deep and never heals when its disturbed.
Omi's POV:
Omi never realized just how loud breathing can be until the moment his world went dead quiet. For him, the sound of his own rapid breathing was deafening, and the atmosphere around him was suffocating. In short, he felt like he may die in this room, with his possibly former ally beside him. Not how he pictured himself going, but then again, he never expected any of his current situation either.
"S-she was killed?" Omi breathed out finally, eyes casting down towards the glass heart, throat tightening up as he spoke.
His whole being felt like it was on fire, with a sudden dryness stinging his throat and large tears printing his eyes. In all his 7 years of life, he had seen death from age, and knew the risk of dying during a showdown, but he found that all that still didn't numb him. Especially in a case such as the murder of someone who had walked the same, once safe halls that he did...
"You sound surprised." Chase muttered, looking from the heart to Omi. "She was a resident of your temple.. I had assumed your dragon would've mentioned her at some point."
"No, he didn't..." Omi sighed, still trying to remember how to breathe correctly.
It was with that that the young monk was finally able to tear his gaze away from the heart and look up at the Heylin man, who for once seemed at a type of unease. What from, Omi could only guess. And he had a feeling that any of his guesses would be able to serve as the truth.
"Did yo-"
"No."
Well, it was just a feeling, after all...
"I have honestly never heard of her. I don't know what to ask-" Omi paused, finding that not only did he not know what to ask, but he also has no idea what to DO at this point.
Would it be wrong to just start running now? Or ask for a rundown?
No, that seemed a little on the 'wrong' side. Still, he wanted answers.
"Who was she?" He bit out finally. "If she was this important, then why hasn't-"
"I never said she was important." Chase corrected. "But she was a friend..."
"You never said she WASN'T important." Omi justified, frowning a little. "If she wasn't important and was just your friend, then why wonder why no one mentioned her at the temple?"
"She lived there, and she wasn't just my friend. She was a friend to everyone at the temple."
"That doesn't mean she should be remembered." Omi sighed.
"And yet you and your friends should be?" For once, Chase smirked a little from what actually looked to be sheer amusement.
"Well, yes! We are Xiaolin monks, and-" He paused, taking the other's smirk as a sign that he had walked right into something.
"You weren't the only ones." And there is was. "There were elemental dragons before you."
"I understand that-" Omi stopped once again, squinting up at the other curiously. "Are you going somewhere with this?"
"There's always been four elemental dragon's, Omi." Okay, so that seemed to take the conversation nowhere.
"I understand-"
"But there hasn't always been a society." Chase went on, ignoring Omi's interruption. "You seemed to think it was strange earlier, to think that there was a female monk almost 1500 years ago."
Omi went silent, taking a moment to process what spotted information he had been given. Of course, he knew that there had always been dragons, but what that had to do with society and things were done-
"She was an elemental dragon, but wasn't allowed to be a monk?" Omi guessed out loud. "Why didn't you just tell me that instead of being so passive intolerant about things!? Now I feel like I know even LESS about her!"
"Passive aggressive. And I did it that way because I always saw her differently than everyone else, and there are certain things I would never say about her out of respect." Chase mused, any earlier unease seemingly melt away into amusement over the little monk's reactions. "I'm giving you the chance to form your own opinion over her as your predecessor, little one."
...
"SHE WAS THE DRAGON OF WATER!? MY PREDECESSOR WAS A GIRL!?" Omi exclaimed, his eyes going wide in both shock and slight horror.
"Give or take a few generations, but yes."
"Please tell me her death was honorable at the very least..." This may have sounded cruel, but Omi was very tired.
"No."
And just like that, the whole world went silent again. Omi took a moment to regain his composure, quickly figuring that any hasty question would once again be answered by a well thought out statement that he was too frazzled to really pick through properly to understand it. Instead, he took that time to gather what he could from their talk.
"Your version of the story is different than others..." Omi figured, earning a nod from the other. "Any version could alter my own opinion."
"Yes. That would be correct."
"And I should form my own opinion by finding out for myself who Sunnu was!" Omi announced, gathering up the glass heart and taking off for the nearest exit.
If he had stayed long enough, he would have seen the other's amused face drop almost instantly, and was instead replaced by a look of stress and what could only be described as a possible physical or physiological pain.
Back at the Temple:
Omi found himself once again sneaking into the vault for the second time that night. The first being from his own guilt about lying to Dojo about putting the Inner Darkness Wu in the vault (so he stopped by so it wouldn't be a total lie) and the second being for what he was starting to believe was one of his craziest, but still more brilliant ideas. Quietly, he tugged open one very specific drawer, it's cold surface burning his fingers. Inside was the Time Turner wu, and he anxiously, albeit quietly and quickly, removed it from its drawer and closed it the same way. Taking a deep breath, he looked down at the Wu and felt a small smile tug at his face.