A/N: Tajeri Lynn the Extremo Luchadore presents Session 3 of "Souls Between the Walls". "Jackie Chan Adventures" is brought to you by Kids WB and Sony Television Entertainment.

Extremo Luchadore will also branch out into the Digimon section, for he too respects the Tamers cast that is largely overlooked by most writers. It will be an adventure series, much like "The Life Before the Party", only with different conspiracies, more techno-madness, and no journeys into the Digital World.

Now that that's been said, let's propel into the story!

Souls Between the Walls

"What do you think you're doing here?"

As Seymour's face contorted into a bewildered state, time seemed to creak into an irreversible halt. The demon boy had rushed himself into a girl's restroom, and now, standing before him, was the mortal of his darkest, deepest dreams, the one who lived by two simple words; Jade Chan. Seymour felt defeat lingering across his human frame, jarring it for making his presence known before Jade in this way, in this secretive institution.

All that the helpless Seymour could do was gaze at Jade Chan's being. While taller and older than before, she kept her growth in lieu with her tomboyish self, and that further enticed the Sky Demon's fancy. Her face had changed little, except now her shadow-blue hair was kept in the confines of a ruby baseball cap.  Jade had slipped on an orange shirt and beige jeans, and both were two sizes too big for her lithe form, especially now that she was crossing her arms in anticipation of an answer. She even had an elongated belt to keep her attire from falling apart, its ends loosely jutting off her hips. It was as if she was concealing something priceless, and the desires lurking within Seymour's psyche told him that cache was his for the taking. Such it was, until those desires were repressed by the unending, unforgivable, unmistakable shadow of guilt.

"Hel-looo", Jade teased loudly as she waved her teenage hands in front of the comatose Sky Demon. "Anybody in there?" Receiving no response, she soundlessly raised her hand and shut all but the middle and index fingers. She then struck down the fingers onto Seymour's brow.

"Ow!" Seymour yelled and held both his palms on his brow. Jade had grown stronger than was first expected.

"Hey, if you hadn't gone all blank all of a sudden…This is the girls' restroom, you know. The boys' restroom's on the other side."

"Um..um.." Seymour slowly pulled the flannel shirt over his collar, setting it back on his torso. "I'm sorry. I-I don't know enough of this place. I've been lost for some time and…"

"Lost?" Jade was alerted. "Where are you from?"

"I can't remember. My mind can't…It's too painful. And still…too blurry. The streets…they're my refuge from whatever this pain is."

"Come on, you've got to remember something."

Seymour glumly bowed his head down on the floor, for both going along with this lie and feeling guilty he had to appear like this.

Jade lowered her collected self and frowned pitifully, and put a hand on Seymour's shoulder. "Look, you can't stay on the streets. Believe me, that life's not for you."

Seymour now felt beads of sweat collect within his spiked hair. He simply wasn't ready to build up the lies again. "I, uh, I better go. We just can't fit together."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Fit? Who said we had to fit for us to be friends? You seem…very lonely."

"Uh, yeah, lonely, isolated…call it whatever you want. Sometimes, that's the way to be, you know." Seymour began to leave, hoisting the camera's handle behind him, and straightening the leg of his prickly pants.

"W-wait," Jade beckoned softly. The flow of the tomboy's intonation disturbed the Sky Demon, as he began to quiver uneasily, as if another choice was about to take form. "I-I'm lonely too. No one wants to speak to me. They think I'm all wacko."

"W-why?" said Seymour. Please, don't speak of that. Don't speak of that.

"You wouldn't believe this, but lately, I've been fighting too, against some evil ninjas."

No. No. No-No-NO-NO-NO!!! the demon boy's aching mind rattled his skull. Now most youths would find her words fodder for sneering, but Seymour knew better. He rubbed his flannel-shirt collar as his visible reaction to her words. There was no confrontation to be fought, and already her words were hurting him, and she didn't know. She couldn't know. She CAN'T!

As if his life was at risk, he was concocting the best possible words, words that can loop over her emotions and still convince her he wasn't meant for this. No chi spell was going to help him through this ordeal. While he was idling towards the door and away from it, there was not a single sound between any of them. He looked up at Jade's golden eyes, which were reflecting the dying lights of the ceiling, as if the eyes were moistening from…Oh Gods, no. She wasn't, was she? Seymour felt the circulating heat of the restroom as it was a living Hell.

"Um…are you crying?" he uttered to her, trying not to tinge any of here emotions.

"Crying!? How could you think I'd do such a-" Jade outburst, before noticing a slight trickle, switching herself toward a wall and wiping her eyes with her oversized shirt arm. "...Thing," she finished as she turned around with eyes arched in their defiant, albeit solemn manner.

Seymour was holding where his heart was, fearing that it had may have slowed down from the awkward silence, and then he looked up at her sweet, sweet face. He was about to resign to those words, words that felt so bitter and jagged to his pride, but words that must be fulfilling ambrosia to Jade. His face sank into a frown, knowing he had to sacrifice his character as a demon sorcerer to safeguard her vibrancy for life.

"Do you want to be my friend? Because…if you want…I'd…like to be your friend."

"Really?!"

"Yeh. Of all the places I've wandered, it looks like I am here to stay."

"Then want to know more? I'll show you to my Uncle's house. Actually, it's my uncle's uncle, and it's more like a shop than a house. But being there is loads of fun."

Seymour's inners shook to the core. If Uncle was the cranky old chi wizard that he had been back in the previous life, the Sky Demon would make and break for his new life.

But Jade wanted a friend, and the demon boy wasn't ready to gamble her happiness away. If he was about to change his mind on his lust for Jade, he could at least try to sustain an empathy with her. He kept behind the girl, asserting to himself that no one was going to stab her in the back, not as long as he was there.

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"Aiyaa!" Uncle yelled at Tohru, waving a box up and down, spilling some of its contents. "What kind of an apprentice are you? These cards belong to the Yu-Gay-Oh section, not in Poke-My-Mon section."

Tohru groaned. "Isn't that Poke-" Whap Whap Whap! "Oh!"

"Do not defy me! My tri-fective is always effective!" Uncle stood rigid and pointed at the cards.

Jade and Seymour paced inside the shop, now dubbed "Uncle's Rare Finds, And Then Some". The demon boy had once sneaked in the shop and had noticed the dusty books, the disorganized pyramids of uncovered artifacts, and the hidden alcoves for the aging mystic of Asia. This time, as Seymour's mud brown eyes transfixed on every nook of the shop, there were square slices of thick paper ornamented in surreal paintings, latched behind prisms of glass.

"What is this place?"

"It's a trading card shop, duh! You play these cards against a friend and make sure you're the one who survives."

Seymour frowned solemnly. "You mean people die in these games?"

Jade's mouth quivered and she exploded in laughter, holding the loose ends of her baggy windbreaker and her denim as if to keep herself from falling off of her garments. The Sky Demon let out a small smile creep in his lips. For a rough tomboy, Jade became very soft when she wanted to really know you. The metamorphosis was startling.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just-hee hee-can't stop thinking about that. No, silly. It's just keeping your pride alive. I don't really like those games, but some people believe in their powers."

"Do they have magic?" Seymour said, without giving a hint of fright.

"Not magic, Seymour. You just imagine they do."

"Imagine? You mean it's never real? What in the world do mortals, PEOPLE, see in these cards?"

"Beats me. I guess they think magic isn't real, so they keep dreaming. It's never fun when the real world's got you down to earth. But you're right, there's hardly a spot of reality in them."

"Yeh, I know. I-I don't like those games either. I'm what you can call something of a reckless youth. I mean, it's not that I like to fight, but there are really bad people outside, and I don't want others to face what I do. Others…like you," Seymour bowed his head down to Jade, wondering how much of himself he had truly given away to Jade.

"That's so…cool of you," Jade observed as her face met up to Seymour's. Seymour, noticing the golden eyes and serene black dipped inside those perfect orbs, withdrew from the mesmerizing sight and deliberately turned to see Uncle, whom he still couldn't help but keep his eyes on for distrust.

"Huh? Jade, I see you brought someone along with you?" Uncle queried in a voice that scratched the Sky Demon's ears.

"This here is Seymour Hsiwoositz", Jade ecstatically raised her arms to point at Seymour, who on cue was pressing a mortal hand to his face not because of unabashed shyness but rather from reacting headstrong in his introduction, and conceding to Jade the words that reflected his persona. "Seymour, this is my uncle Jackie's uncle, but we all call him Uncle."

"Um, hello, Uncle", Seymour was all he said, not giving away any hand gestures that may resemble demonic behavior.

"Hah, not much for words, eh? Just like the customers. They think too much of magic and then they buy cards without ever knowing who's selling them."

"Sensei, you do know we're selling cards only to pay off the debts from not selling enough antiques," explained Tohru as he refurbished the cards on the stack. Whap! Whap! Whap! "Oh!"

"Am I alive, yes? Do I need to be reminded? NO!!!" Uncle bellowed at Tohru. The bellowing stirred the Sky Demon, as his feet began to retreat him toward the oak door.

Jade took notice of Seymour's emerging intentions, and clutched his arm gently, chiding to Uncle with a scowl, "Uncle, please don't be so loud!" Her face softened back to the confused Seymour. "You're scaring poor Seymour. He's been lost for maybe years, and I don't want to leave him back on the streets. He needs help."

"We should meet with an adoption center," resolved Tohru. "Perhaps the people there can help Seymour find his parents."

"But that could take weeks, Tohru. You know Seymour's not beside himself. I say we give the little guy a rest in the old Chan hotel, for just a couple of days."

Seymour gasped as those last few words entered his ears. Jade wanted him to stay close to her? This was to be his primal dream incarnate. And yet there were those lies he had built up again, feeding off of him. Those lies were all nightmares overlapping his dream, plummeting it down into that restless void called resent. Could his soul possibly survive?

Following these thoughts, his mind smacked itself, reverberating that no one else could remember the trials but him and The Shift, and The Shift said he was on his own accord, so he posed no obstacle. Seymour exhaled noisily in disheveled relief, shut tight his muddy eyes, and threw all his past memories to make way for the only memory that now mattered.

The memory that was…and always must be…Jade Chan.

To Be Continued….

A/N: Gah…Extremo Luchadore feared the fans were getting impatient with this one, so he took it upon himself to finally reveal the next chapter. No lemon, huh? Take it from Tajeri Lynn, but all of us don't want to go lemony without a story to be told. Keep in mind, I might be editing this story again. That's why it's still called a sneak preview.

Adios Amigos!