Kimiko drove her bike along the path towards the ruins of the temple that grass was now growing over. As she stopped she got off the bike and pulled off her helmet. She walked through into what used to be the main hall. All that was left was a few small brick walls that didn't even come up to her waste.
Kimiko looked around. There were still piles of ashes in several places. Nothing seemed to stand out. Why did the dream suddenly appear? Was it because she had seen Jack again? After all the times they had fought? Was a mind trick played by Wuya?
"What are you trying to tell me?" she asked.
She stepped over one of the small walls to where some of the walls of the building were still standing. She rubbed soot off the walls and saw the familiar stone underneath. She stared at it.
"Why did you show me all this?" she asked, "Why now?"
Kimiko turned and as she took a step forward she stepped on something hard. She knelt down and brushed the ash off the object. It was the shell shaped pendant that Raimundo always wore. She let a small smile escape her normally expressionless face. She picked it up and tied it around her neck.
Maybe the dream wasn't telling her that something was there, maybe it was telling her that she shouldn't keep trying to forget. Maybe the dreams were their way of saying that they didn't want to be forgotten.
"I just wish that..." began Kimiko, but then she heard a small laugh behind her.
She turned and saw a small person duck behind another wall. She walked over and looked around the corner, but the person had just ducked around the next wall. Kimiko turned and walked around in the opposite direction. The person who had been expecting her to follow, ran straight into her and fell down.
Kimiko stared down at the child in front of her. She was a young girl. About the same height as Kimiko had been when she first came to the temple and around the same age. She had short brown hair and hazel eyes.
Kimiko held out her hand and the girl eyed her suspiciously.
"I'm not going to hurt you," said Kimiko.
The girl still didn't take her hand, but got up on her own and looked up at her defiantly.
"What are you doing here?" asked Kimiko, "There isn't another village around for miles."
"I live here. In the ruins." said the girl, "I only go to the village when I have to."
"Where are your parents?" asked Kimiko, concerned.
"Don't have any," said the girl.
Kimiko stared at her. This girl was only just a teenager, if not younger and she was living on her own in the temple ruins.
"What's your name?" asked Kimiko.
"Tamara," said the girl, "What about you?"
"Kimiko." answered Kimiko, "Are you here alone?"
"No," said Tamara, "There are other kids around, but I think they went to the village early this morning so they should be back soon."
Tamara was suddenly staring at her suspiciously again.
"Why are you here?" asked the young girl.
"I...I used to live here with my friends and the monks." said Kimiko, "Back when it was still a temple."
"No one's lived here except us in years." said Tamara, "We've been here for about a year, but we don't live in the actual buildings. We set up tents around the back."
The girl's face suddenly lit up.
"We've found some stuff that we got out of the ruins, maybe you could tell us who it all belonged to!" said the girl, "We had no idea it used to be a temple. There are loads of kids stuff around in the ashes."
"I guess I didn't look closely enough when I took what I could find all those years ago." said Kimiko.
Kimiko followed Tamara around to the back off the ruins where five tents were set up. Tamara went into one of these tents and came out with a large box and when she took the lid off there were several items that Kimiko recognized instantly.
She picked up a charred hat that she recognized to be one of Clay's many hats.
"I can't believe I missed this." said Kimiko.
"Who's was it?" asked Tamara.
"It was Clay's," said Kimiko, "He was from Texas."
Kimiko looked into the box again and picked up a small folder with a small padlock on.
"We can't get it open," said Tamara.
"I can," said Kimiko.
She picked up a small box that was amongst the items and opened it. Inside were several keys. Kimiko picked one out instantly and unlocked the padlock. Inside the folder were photos of her friends and herself. She picked out one of everyone in the temple and showed it to Tamara.
"That's Clay there," said Kimiko, "And that's me."
"That's you?" asked Tamara, "But you look so young!"
"I was only about your age when I first came here," said Kimiko, sighing.
There was silence for a few seconds before a sudden shout sounded.
"Tamara! Guess what we..." started a boy, but he stopped when he saw Kimiko.
There were two more kids standing just behind him. One girl and another boy.
"Who's she?" asked the boy.
"Her name's Kimiko," said Tamara.
"What have I told you about talking to strange people!" said the boy.
"Cool down Vic," said Tamara, "She used to live here."
"How do you know she's not lying?" asked Vic, his green eyes blazing.
"Cause, she recognizes everything in that box. She even got that book open. It's a photo album." said Tamara.
"I'm sorry," said Kimiko, "I didn't mean to intrude. It's just that I used to live here before it burned down."
Vic obviously didn't trust her, but he shook her hand all the same. Tamara introduced the other two kids with them. They were Matt and Dani. Vic was the oldest and had blonde hair. Dani had long brown hair and she had brown, trusting eyes and Matt had black hair and black eyes.
"Kimiko," said Tamara, "Can you finish showing us the stuff in the box?"
Kimiko was surprised that they were that interested in what she could tell them. It turned out that they knew very little about their home and wanted to know where most of the items came from.
"This is Omi's training dog," said Kimiko, picking up the stuffed dog that had black burns down it.
"It's a stuffed animal." said Matt flatly.
"We used it for training." said Kimiko, flicking through the photo album.
She took a picture of Raimundo in the middle of a training ground. The stuffed dog was on a platform at the end.
"See," she showed him, "We had to try and get through the obstacle course and get the dog at the end."
"Seems pretty dumb," said Vic, "Going through all that for a stuffed dog."
"It was good training." said Kimiko.
Dani picked up the photo album and flicked through the pages and took out a photo of them all.
"Who are all these people?" she asked.
Kimiko took the picture and looked down at it. Her breath caught and she blinked. This picture had been taken the day before Wuya had attacked them.
"That's...us." said Kimiko, "The entire gang. There's me, then there's Clay, Master Fung, Omi, Dojo and Raimundo."
"You all look so happy," said Dani, "Where are they all now?"
Kimiko didn't answer. She stared down at the photo.
"Kimiko?" asked Matt.
"They're...dead." she said quietly, "Wuya killed them all when she attacked the temple. She was the one who set the temple on fire."
They were all silent for a few minutes before Vic spoke.
"Is Wuya..." he began and Kimiko looked up, "Isn't Wuya the one that's been destroying all the towns and villages and everything?"
"Yes," said Kimiko, "She started with us and then moved onto the rest of the world."
"Why you?" asked Tamara.
"We were the Xiaolin Dragons. We were chosen to collect the Shen-Gong-Wu and protect the world." said Kimiko.
"Shen-what's?" asked Matt.
Kimiko explained everything to them; Jack Spicer, Wuya, Xiaolin Showdowns, Shen-Gong-Wu, everything. Right up until she met Tamara. When she had stopped they all stared at her, mouths open.
"Whoa," said Vic, "You did all that?"
Kimiko nodded. They all stayed silent again until something struck her.
"How did you guys end up here?" she asked.
The kids all looked at each other.
"She told us," said Tamara, "We should tell her,"
They all looked at one another and then each of them explained how they had met the others. It turned out that they had all come from different villages that had been destroyed by Wuya and their parents had been killed or were missing. Vic had met Tamara in their foster home in another village that had been the next to be destroyed by Wuya. Then when they were leaving the village they met Matt and they joined him. They were traveling on their own to the village when they came across the ruins and decided to stay there instead. Not long after, Dani had been heading for the village and ran into them. They lived on what they could steal from the village.
"So I guess I'm not the only one who has a reason to want to stop Wuya," said Kimiko.
"So you're some sort of Dragon-warrior person and we're four orphans who want to get revenge." said Vic, "Seems like we'd make a good team!"
"No!" said Kimiko, standing up.
"Why not?" Tamara asked, "Can't you train us to be dragons too?"
Kimiko sighed.
"You have to be chosen," said Kimiko.
"Well," said Dani, "Can't you choose us?"
"It doesn't work..." started Kimiko, then she saw something in the box of items they had found in the ruins.
She picked it up and a small smile spread across her face. It was an apprentice sash. To be more precise it was Clay's sash, judging from the hot sauce stain on it. She looked from the sash to the four kids looking up at her.
At that moment the Xiaolin scroll reacted. Kimiko got it out of her bag and pulled it open. They all leaned it to see what it said.
"The silver flute," said Kimiko, watching the pictures move around, "Release a note that will confuse your enemies."
She pulled out her compass like Shen-Gong-Wu detector.
"It's pointing to in that direction," she said as the dial swung toward some mountains.
She got up and walked over to her bike.
"We're coming too!" said Vic.
"No you're not!" said Kimiko sharply, "How exactly do you think you're going to get there?"
"How do you think we get to the village and back everyday?" asked Vic.
Dani and Matt walked away and came back with two motor bikes.
"There is no way you're old enough to ride those!" said Kimiko.
"You don't have a license, so why should we need one?" asked Vic.
Kimiko groaned.
"Come on then."
