Yes, yes, the only things I own are Julie, the Soul Scepter, and in this chapter…the Vase of Viscous Visions! (though I did have a little help naming it).
Jack and Dojo…now that is a weird combination. For this section, I gave Dojo a much different personality…it seems he's changed a lot in the last 30 years… and I really wanted him in a more "wise and mysterious old dragon" role. And I know…I'm not the first person to think of what happens at the end of this chapter. I didn't steal the idea from anyone; I came up with it myself, and then saw that other people had had the same idea… so I'm sorry if it seems copied and unoriginal. Here goes nothing! Oh, and the "Vase" in "Vase of Viscous Visions" is pronounced "VAHZ", otherwise, it sounds weird… I know the "in darkness" part near the beginning is weird, but try to think about it in a metaphoric sense.
Thanks for all the wonderful reviews! I've actually never gotten so many reviews for a chapter! I need to give a thank you to those I didn't thank before- SpicerFreak and DerryBabe. And everyone else, too. I'll give everyone a personalized thank you at the end. Yeah, I upped the rating because of last chapter. I know it was a little…intense, but I'm trying to show the epitome of evil here. After this chapter, you'll know what it was all leading up to. And, yes, here's a relief: last chapter was probably the darkest out of the entire story. Except maybe 7, where there's a little bit of blood. I know it's unusual that I'm dong all this intense stuff with Jack, who is normally more of a comic relief character, but…it's just my twisted mind. I'm always so tragic and depressing. I think I'll go join Jack in the goth-ness…
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Chapter 6: True Destiny
In a much different time and place, on the other side of the shifted particles of matter, it was a calm and peaceful day in the Xiaolin Temple. It was too early for the young dragons-in-training to be up yet, so only Master Fung and Dojo were out, strolling the deep, inner room of the temple, where the dragons were forbidden to go.
"It's just like old times, huh Dojo?" the wise old master addressed his minimized dragon companion.
"A little too much like old times," Dojo replied. He hunched closer to his friend's shoulder as tingles shot down his scaly spine.
"Is it…?" Master Fung asked in alarm. Dojo nodded, painfully.
The old temple master looked worriedly up at a stained glass painting embedded in the window above their heads. A young woman stood amidst a raging, destructive world, with a silvery glow surrounding her. The temple stood underneath her feet, also engulfed in her protective shield.
"Marylyn…" Master Fung slowly spoke up again. He stared deeply into the face of the redheaded girl. "If your will be in the world today, let it rise and join its place, to find its own identity and embrace its true destiny…"
---
Cold…so cold…so cold and dark…pitch-black…blindness…death… I have no hands…no feet…no body…I don't exist. There was only one reasonable option. And that was to curl up in a little ball and try to hide, waiting for whatever was beyond that endless black curtain to utterly destroy him. Somehow, this feels familiar…just lying here…waiting for my doom. I should get up again, and do what I always do…carry on. Like what I did in the Facist's cell.
Looking a little bit up from his scabbed knees, Jack once again tried to permeate this darkness with his eyes. Needless to say, it wasn't working. He knew basically what he needed to do…why was it so hard this time to do it? That was because it required a little more than a determined mindset to drive this away.
The cool, shivering caverns, if those were what they were, only made him shrivel further into the back of the corner, nestling closer into his own world, not separated from the one around him. I can't stay here forever… Someday, I'm going to be killed, or I'm going to starve to death, or die from dehydration… If I get up and try to find an exit…an outlet…then that eliminates two of the future possibilities, doesn't it?
Slowly and hesitantly, Jack uncurled himself and got to his knees. He didn't want to leave; he didn't want to venture blindly into the darkness, but it was the only thing he could do now to save his soul. It took everything in his newly enhanced powers to take the next step. It was so difficult not to take the easy way out, but to reach inside himself and embrace what he truly wanted to do. Finally, fostering that strange, yet undoubtedly true feeling, Jack took the plunge into the cold, dark unknown.
This was impossible. There was no way he could make it out of the darkness alone. He needed someone to guide him along. "…Help…" his weak, whispery voice faltered forward. His trembling, scratched-up hand slowly raised itself, reaching forward, searching for a support. Reaching out…trying to find someone to aid him.
A few minutes later, he chanced to open his eyes again, and try to see if the world had changed at all as a result of this action. His own battered, barely gloved hand swelled into view in front of him. There was a strange sort of glow emanating from the other side of it. Slowly, the rest of his body began to appear once again, piece by piece, out of the darkness.
"…What?" Jack whispered in wonderment. A magical stream of fire was somehow swirling around his body, though it wasn't harming him. The little globes of flame illuminated the area, hanging in midair peacefully.
Something else was now materializing from that strange glow under his hand. It was greenish-blue…and suspiciously scaly. Jack trembled in his now nonexistent boots as the looming, colossal, hard face of Dojo Kanojo Cho the dragon, leered down at him, his already frightening face silhouetted by the flaming orange "beard" around his jaw.
His immediate though was to run for his life, but he stopped those thoughts, realizing that Dojo actually was the one that had lit up the area for him. He could possibly owe his life to this raging monster. "D-Do…jo…"
The monstrous dragon moved his head in a bit closer to him, until his forehead was touching Jack's hand, still extended in front of him. His arm seemed to be frozen in that position. Te dark red voids of Dojo's eyes glared back up at him. Then, finally, the dragon receded, standing up a bit taller to reach over the frozen hand.
Jack's body couldn't stop trembling as the evil, mythical creature moved his maw even closer to his head. Oh my God…he realized. He's going to try to eat me! Yet, he knew he shouldn't move. Well, I can never find the end of this darkness; I'm doomed to die anyway. If I stay here, then…"
Finally, Dojo lowered his front body down, to touch against his head, nudging him in a sweet, teasing manner.
Jack laughed, partly from the surprise of the fierce creature's ironic actions and partly from the release of the fear and tension gripping his body. "Ha…haha…stop it, you big mangy dragon! Hahahaha, that tickles! Get your beard or whatever out of my face!"
The giant dragon slowly pulled away from his face, a slight smile fading onto his large greenish lips.
"Dojo…" he slowly chanced asking, being very careful not to say anything too harshly to the super-power dragon guardian. "…Are you the one that came to help me?"
The wise old creature at last nodded his head, Obviously, in this terrible torture and abuse from the new king of the planet, Dojo had lost his ability to speak.
"I'm…I'm…I'm sorry, Dojo…" Jack slowly and hesitantly admitted. "I never meant for all this to happen. I always figured that if I ruled the world, everything would just basically be the same…except everyone would have to respect me. …I killed my own father, half the planet's population, and possibly my own daughter too…" He glanced down at the ground, and took a deep breath, forcing himself to continue. "…I just wish I could get back out of here…so I could do something about it…before I die…"
At the sound of his truly heartfelt confession, the gargantuan dragon slithered his long, scaly body around, glancing back, expectantly.
"Are you…" Jack asked in awe, "…offering to let me ride on your back?"
The suddenly kindly guardian nodded a second time in agreement. He turned his large, narrowing head back to the front as he approached, and glanced around the blackened area, looking for an escape route. His flame could usually make it through the grated ceiling, but…
Jack hesitantly lowered himself onto the rough, scaly skin of the Xiaolins' former temple guardian and Shen-Gong-Wu locator. He'd had bad experiences in the past on the back of this very dragon, but the magical golden glow outlining the creature calmed and comforted his fears.
Dojo began to lift off, straight up, slicing through the endless blackness…until suddenly, with a suction force and a wind noise, it at last obliterated, and the two plunged into the clear, hopeful blue sky.
The shaken Hilltown villagers below screeched in alarm at the sight of the terrorizing dragon streaming through their skies. Some of them rushed into their houses to gather their families into the basement. These families even had an "emergency dragon escape plan". The protesting teenagers held up banners reading, "the end is nigh!" and the newsstand owners snapped away at the two of them, looking to make front-page news tomorrow.
"That way," Jack commanded, pointing out towards the great expanse in the distance, spreading out towards the horizon. "Let's get out of this place. What do you say, Dojo?"
The former guardian dragon nodded, and shifted directions, turning his long body towards the endless landscape. It was a bit difficult to navigate through the puffy, swirling spiral of dark clouds, just like it had been on the Silver Manta Ray the day the Facists had taken him to the electric plant, but Dojo's keen eyesight enabled him to see much better than the Facist men ever could. He was faster than the manta ray as well, and only a few minutes later, they burst from the pressed cloud cover, and out into the freedom of the new open range.
Jack couldn't help himself when he saw the long, spreading land below them, and let out a happy shout at the sight of it. Dojo glanced back, noticing his anxiousness to be away from the castle again, and sped up a little. After a few more bumpy minutes of flying, Dojo at last landed gracefully on the flat, open, dry land ahead.
"Yes!" Jack cried, slipping from the dragon's smooth scales. "Now we could just fly back to China, and everything will get back to normal!"
Dojo stared blankly back at him, and motioned with his claw as if to scratch his head.
"You know where China is, right?"
More confused staring.
"Oh, come on! You live in China! You've always lived in China! You were born and raised in China, for crying out loud!" Jack motioned frustratingly at the large, clueless dragon in front of him.
Dojo just continued to stare, and glance around him in puzzlement.
"Geez…" Jack said, talking to himself, since his reptilian companion suddenly couldn't understand him. He turned away from the mythical beast and put his head in his hands in concentration. "I finally decide to do something good for a change…I'm trying to save the planet here! And I still can't get the job done. I have no idea how to get back home, and there's nothing I can do to help now…"
Suddenly, Jack stopped right after that sentence. There's nothing I can do to help now… That wasn't entirely true. He had helped the tortured prisoners escape, hadn't he? He'd helped save Julie's life back in the throne room just by being there… What am I talking about? Jack asked himself. I'm not "useless" without my gadgets and my Shen-Gong-Wu. Look how much I've done right now without their help. Thinking about this now with a positive outlook, he looked down into the distance, and saw the gathering swirls of storm clouds, spiraling ominously behind Dojo's head. Just under them was the same coal black castle, as small as a postage stamp now in the distance, outlined by the insignificant brown spot of Hilltown.
"So…" he slowly spoke up, staring at what was now considered the world. "That's just…it. All this space, and there's just nothing for thousands of miles… It seems like such a waste. Everything's just gone…except for the Hill, and Hilltown, that is. I probably only kept Hilltown in operation so I'd have something to rule over, huh? But it took all this destruction to climb the ladder…seems pretty pointless…"
Dojo stared back at Jack, lifting his neck straighter upright, as if on edge.
"I need to go back there," Jack firmly decided. "I can't just walk away from everything like this. If I never find a portal back home, this is what I'm going to have to deal with. It's not like I can't change the future while still in the future, right?" He smiled back up at Dojo, and slowly began to hear a low, comforting voice reverberating in his head.
"Now that's the spirit."
Jack looked back up at Dojo in amazement. "Did…you just say that? I figured you couldn't talk anymore…"
"No, I'm not speaking," the voice came again, and it was true, the dragon's lips remained pasted together. "This is my thought wavelength. I'm projecting my thoughts to you. I haven't been able to speak to humans for about twenty-three years."
"Why?" Jack continued to pry for answers. If he knew a little bit more of how his new world worked, then maybe he could find a way to change it. "I know it's got something to do with your imprisonment…"
"I was so angry when they locked me up in that power plant…slowly, I began to retreat from the human world altogether. I figured that all hope in the world was lost, and only hatred filled the planet. I never thought that you'd be the one to do something like this…it's more fitting of Wuya, but I guess the path you were on combined with her aura power… Well, at least now, your…" Dojo abruptly cut his thoughts off and turned his head back away from him. "Never mind. I got a little off-topic there. You don't need to know about all that… C'mon, climb on."
Jack stared at the curving, serpent-like body of the dragon with a slightly puzzled expression. Somehow, he thought Dojo was hiding something from him, and that whatever he was going to say had been something he needed to know…but, why argue with your mode of transportation? He gently slipped his body back on top of the large coils and wrapped his arms around Dojo's neck for balance. Dojo zoomed back off into the sky, slicing like a jet plane through the air currents with his slender body.
The view from this height was amazing. How had he not noticed this wonder before? Well, of course it was a much different view riding trunk… The foreboding blackness of the Hill Castle was growing closer in the distance, now about the size of an index card. Then, a terrible dread feeling began to build in his chest again, thinking about the tasks that lay before him in that imposing building.
"We've got to get back to the castle…" Jack said, softly into the lizard's bumpy skin. "I don't know…if…what they've done with Julie…"
"No," the gentle, commanding voice of Dojo wavered out again. "Not right now. It's getting really dark."
"Yeah, but who knows what has happened!"
"Exactly. Who knows? She could be perfectly fine." The large, flying dragon slowed to a complete stop underneath a giant, shady tree. "I think we both need to get some rest."
"So you're telling me you can't fly anymore, is that it?" Jack snapped back. "Well then, fine. I'll just walk the rest of the way myself!" He slipped his limp body forward, towards the rounded end of the slippery scales. As soon as he did, the long, hard, fleshy tail of the ancient lizard slammed into his flat chest.
"Don't be stupid," the wise inner voice of the dragon told him. "You'd collapse somewhere in town and die of starvation. Either that, or the Hilltown Facist patrol will just arrest you and bring us back to the electric plant…"
"Yeah…I guess you're right," Jack slowly admitted. "But who's to say they won't find us here, just lying around under a tree…how can they miss a huge dragon like you? Couldn't you do that shrinking thing?"
"Shrinking thing?" the dragon asked, wrinkling his already wrinkly green forehead.
"Yeah…" Jack replied, as if it were supposed to be obvious. "Actually, you usually remained in your shrunken form, but used this form to fly the Xiaolin Warriors around. You remember? I threw up when I had to ride on your back the first time."
"Really?"Dojo replied, chuckling amusedly.
"But not now," Jack quickly added. "I'm a little more used to it now, and besides, the electric plant…"
Dojo nodded, in friendly understanding. "That's precisely why we need to stop and rest now. You're worn out from that mistreatment."
"I thought you just didn't feel like flying the rest of the way."
"Oh, no. We dragons can go for a while without sleep…but you're very weak, I can feel it in you…"
Jack glared back up, just about to object, but realized that the logical old reptile was right again.
"It's okay to stop and rest," that comforting voice began again. "And don't worry about being found, because I have the ability to become invisible. …Managed to snag the Shroud of Shadows from one of those Facist guys…" Just then, the dragon winked happily at him, a bit of his old recognizable personality surfacing.
"You know…" Jack commented as he lied back against the green dragon skin. "Everything's so different here. You're a lot different now…you don't seem like Dojo."
"Well, you're a lot different too," Dojo replied. "You don't seem like Jack Spicer." He smiled mysteriously, and handed a long black cloth to him. "Here. I can't use this since I can't speak…"
Jack held the sheet up and called, "Shroud of Shadows!" Then, tossing the expanding cloth over Dojo, they both disappeared into the scenery of this new, changing Earth.
---
It was happening again. At least this dream had a category: flashbacks, though that didn't make it any easier to bear. The normally soothing coolness of the metal plate against his back now filled him with dread, creating a very real sense of the world around him. It was a rare occurrence, but it did happen every now and then, and thankfully, Jack's critical sorceress partner was absent at the time of this breakdown.
The gray, concrete walls of the second-floor abode couldn't provide any of the support he needed, and he'd slipped down into the soil in an effort to escape. However, a security lock had sprung up in its place. There was no escaping now. Jack stared up into the metal-plated ceiling, thinking of everything that could be going on just on the other side.
It was a fierce combination that hadn't risen its ugly head in a few years, but… There was something missing; there was an empty hole that just couldn't be filled in, even though he tried to mask it with pieces of tarp, or disguise it with a fake ground cover. It was a random day that came out of nowhere…when everything just felt wrong.
Jack closed his eyes and tried to make everything in his clouded mind disappear. He didn't need this now! He had plans to make, machines to create, countries to conquer… Instead, he was lying around on a working table, soaking in his own misery. For some reason, he longed to be just like every other boy his age- to spend time happily playing games, going on trips, or doing other activities together with a family…any family…any friends. As much as he always believed that he didn't need people to live and be happy, it was very difficult to actually go on like this. Traveling around the planet, he had always observed the same thing- happy families, and groups of schoolmate buddies on a casual expedition.
Slowly, and almost painfully, a small tear forced itself from his white powdered eyelid cages. No! Jack scolded himself. I'm a guy, an evil guy, and the future ruler of the planet; I don't cry!!! He immediately curled his body into a defensive, fetal position and tried to hide the fact. It was impossible to hide something from a prying, gaseous purple witch, but for the moment, Jack didn't even care if she floated in at the moment and saw his pathetic weeping. However, it was even harder to hide it from his own mind.
Slowly, as he lied at the center of the room, trying to work out his feelings, something strange permeated through the dense, oil-scented air. As Jack trembled, trying to withhold his pent up frustration and longing, a dull scraping sound arose from the various cabinets and closets lining the water-proofed rock walls.
Large, hulking pieces of plating began emerging out of the darkness. Everything that he had strived to create, once a dream, an idea that had crawled into his crazy mind, slowly stepped or hovered up, approaching their own central focal point. And the one thing that bound them all together towards the platform was Jack. They didn't really know what they were doing, and where they were going, but it seemed that something in their composition innately drew them to that point. From the ceiling-dwelling wormy shooters, to the armor-plated patrol guards, and even the shape-shifting, free-thinking lizard replica. They crept up on their creator, without even knowing why.
Jack, hidden in the dual cloaks of darkness in an effort to mask his inner emotions, trembled and at last attempted to pull himself up. It was the same feeling that he had gotten in the dragon's darkened lair. I can't stay here forever… Unfortunately, in his own desolate state, he failed to notice the odd energy perimeter gathering over the area.
When Jack finally opened his glassy eyes, he managed to recognize a blurry bronze figure growing closer to his cot. He reached out for balance, and instinctively, the Jack-bot reached out an extending wire arm for Jack to rest his hand against. To add to the obscurity of this whole experience, the presence of the robot, essentially his child, was now strangely comforting to him. His eyes began to dry up again, and the world came into better focus around him as a second Jack-bot pressed up against his chest. They seemed to somehow understand that this was their father- the one that had brought them into the world, and right now he needed their help. It was unusual that what he had never realized before…an uncanny fondness for these machines began growing inside of him. This was what having friends and caring family members was like. If only they were real people…
"Jack!!!" a raspy female voice suddenly yelled, and the magical aura, as well as the peace and serenity, disappeared into thin air.
Jack quickly wiped his face on his sleeve and pretended to be checking on the robots around him as Wuya came flying into the room. But there was no way he could ever have the things he really wanted if he had to keep in hiding the rest of his life…
---
Dojo felt as the boy tucked within his spiraling tail began to tremble, at last waking out of his disrupted slumber. The dragon guardian had been keeping close watch over his passenger all night when Jack had started tossing about, restlessly. He must be having a nightmare of some sort, Dojo had surmised, so he was very relieved when the tattered boy began to stretch and awaken. "Good morning." He projected at him.
Jack stared, dazedly at the gentle giant reptile, getting a feel for this world and what had really happened. "Oh…Dojo. That's right…" He shook his head a little, remembering the unusual feelings of those dreams, and tried to put it into words. "Uh, Dojo? I've been having these weird dreams lately…where I see things that have happened to other people…and suddenly it's happening to me…and then, I don't want it to happen to them…"
Dojo turned around and cracked a small smile at him. "That's called compassion Jack," he thought to him. "And I know it's a new concept to you, so these dreams would be completely normal."
Suddenly, Jack lit up once again, realizing their original mission. "We've got to get back to the Hill Palace! Julie might not really be dead yet…" Julie…as he pronounced the precious name, he realized just what she was once again. He'd just had that flashback dream, feeling that his robot minions were like his children…but Julie really was his child.
"Hold up," Dojo thought-projected to him. "You can't just wake up and go without having anything to eat." The kindly dragon reached up with his yellow-plumed tail and plucked a few round fruits resembling melons from the green long-leaved tree above their heads. He handed one to Jack, and tossed the other into his own jaws, breaking it open with one mighty bite.
Jack stared in amazement at the light green fruit in his hands. It had been so long since anyone had given him food, especially of this size, and especially after attempting to rescue his father and steal the Facists' Shen-Gong-Wu. He snapped into recognition at last, and began ravenously gnawing on the melon-like fruit.
"Don't eat too fast," Dojo advised him. "Especially after…"
"I know, I know," Jack replied, glancing back up at his reptilian partner as he broke away from the melon for a moment. "You know, this probably wasn't a good idea. …You might regret it later."
At last, flickers of the past were coming through Dojo's mind again, and he thought he remembered something like this happening in a distant past, almost like a different lifetime.
They waited a few minutes, staring up at the rising sun, fighting to rise above the dirty smog of Hilltown. Dojo bent his majestic head to the reddish-yellow blaze, bowing before the edge of the planet itself. Then finally, he turned his head and smiled, mysteriously back at Jack. "Okay, are you ready?"
Jack slowly nodded and flipped back around, wrapping his arms around the dragon's long body. It felt unusually comfortable pressing against those scales, and as Dojo began to lift up into the sky, he felt an internal sense of necessity take hold of him. There was something here he needed to do; there was a reason why he had been sent to this twisted, oppressed future world, and he still wasn't sure of what that purpose really was.
The dark blob of Hilltown grew closer and closer, and soon the whole world seemed to pass from the bright, blazing sunbeams of the endless landscape of the outside to the dark gloom and misery of the Hill Community.
"Okay, we're getting closer to the castle, and the guards, so we need to be very cautious," Dojo thought to him.
Jack took the hint and pulled out their magical cloth again. "Shroud of Shadows!" Both the long, stately dragon and the ragged goth boy disappeared into thin air just before they passed over the grayish brown blob of Hilltown. As they swept through the polluted clouds, Jack looked down to see all the small dot-sized people milling around. They looked like a white sea of dust particles or blood cells, congregating here and there, and then scattering to different corner of the village. But, a few minutes later he had to stop since watching the activity down below was beginning to make him feel sick, and he forced his eyes to stare straight ahead of Dojo's bobbing head.
"This is quite a thick cloud cover," Dojo was thinking to himself. "I bet this was created to reduce air traffic and discourage flying escape routes…"
"You're right," Jack affirmed from behind. "The Facists said the exact same thing."
Dojo gritted his large fang-like teeth. "I can't believe this! It's one thing to rule over all the people in the planet, and have complete control over their lives, but it's even more despicable to control the weather, the climate…control nature like some kind of god…"
Jack shivered when the pointed, coal-black castle appeared at last out of the fog, its menacing towers trying to overbear him. It didn't help matters that it happened to emerge just as Dojo finished his rant on the Ultimate Master's policy. Looking up into those glowing red windows, where women screamed, people died, and lives were destroyed, Jack only wanted to turn his living airplane around and get as far away from this place as possible…but, he couldn't. There was something waiting for him in the castle, his purpose was somehow connected with it, and he couldn't turn his back on his own fate.
"Here we are," Dojo commented, slowing his flight and gently lowering to the burnt-up grass on the lawn of the Hill Castle. Jack gulped nervously and slipped from the back of what was now his guardian dragon. Dojo removed the Shroud of Shadows from around his body, and handed it gently to Jack.
Receiving the magical, legendary item, Jack glanced around in a panic. "What are you doing?!" he hissed at the giant reptile. "This place is loaded with guards! If you take this off, you'll be spotted and captured again!" He reached up to slip the fabric back on, but Dojo immediately pushed it back over his shoulders.
"Relax," he commented. "You see, if I get caught, I can fight them off… I'm more worried about you. With no weapons or items…"
"…I'm useless," Jack finished, with a sigh.
"Well, I was going to say you have less of a chance of escaping, but…" At last, Dojo gestured to the large drawbridge door of the castle, as if urging him on. "Alright now. You slip in and just grab the princess. If I haven't been captured, I'll be waiting for the two of you just outside. Try to be quick."
Jack gathered his breath, in a no doubt useless attempt to muster up some courage, and at last nodded to his guardian. Finally, he secured the Shroud of Shadows around his body and forced himself forward, bolting into the Hill Castle, straight past a half-asleep doorman. Dojo poked his large maw out for a moment to watch and then quickly hid himself in the shadows again.
Unfortunately, the Shroud of Shadows didn't have the power to make him go through walls, and Jack ended up barging in on another chanting ritual in the central chamber. A few of the Jack-monks glanced over at the unusual sight of the door opening all by itself, but were obliged to keep on chanting no matter what happened, and ignored the presence.
Jack quickly glanced around and tracked the direction of the throne room stairs, recalling their chase through the corridors on that day when Julie had tried to save her mother. He glanced down the hall towards the direction he remembered. As he flew, mindlessly over the smooth stone flooring, he thought that he should probably stop, run back to Julie's room, and grab his HeliPack. Just as he was seriously considering it, a small group of workers holding trays passed right in front of him. Jack had to lunge out of the way so he didn't bump into them and raise suspicions.
"What's the word?" the one on the left whispered to his companion.
"They took her up to be evaluated. Finally. It took them long enough, eh? I think the Master was trying to get something before he tried her, but he can't hold it off for any longer. It's already been two months…"
Two months…so that was how long it had been. As vague as their descriptions were, Jack needed no clarification in order to understand their statement. Julie had been taken to the Hill Palace dungeons, and kept there two months, while his future self tried to get himself a son. When nothing happened, he had no choice but to at last take Julie up to the throne room to evaluate her social and moral condition. She was still alive! There was a tiny sliver of hope left, but now, that hope could be snatched out from underneath him in an instant.
Jack quickly glanced back down the hall that lead to Julie's room and his HeliPack, but quickly snapped back forward. There was no time! Julie could be dying now for all he knew.
Suddenly, Jack thought of how strange it was how much he suddenly cared. Julie was his future daughter, but he felt he'd never cared about anyone so much before in his entire life. As the gray stone of the Hill Palace's dismal walls flashed past his face, other, very different visions flashed through his mind, as clearly as the walls on the side. The familiar girl appeared in front of him once again. Her long, shiny black hair cascaded over her shoulders, and her face burst into rosy color as a smile crept onto it. She was spinning around, illuminated in a sort of holy luminescence from the candles surrounding them. Then, there was her true face, as her own tears swept away the terrifying white mask, instituted to hide that beautiful truth.
Jack shook his head and focused on the task sitting in front of him. He couldn't try to blot out this connection, as he did with all others. Julie was the closest thing to his own spirit. It was only natural that he cared about her above all others.
When he looked down one corridor, he thought he saw the familiar spiral staircase, so he mindlessly flew down that one. Unfortunately, a few minutes later, he realized that it wasn't the right way at all. Jack found himself in an unfamiliar, darkened room.
Well, at least now I can take the Shroud of Shadows off… He glanced around, curiously as he reappeared in this mysterious location. There wasn't much time left…but something innately drew him to the back of the room, where something was sitting, expectantly on a pedestal, glowing faintly.
As Jack drew closer, he realized that it was a vase of some kind. It was a watery blue color and almost seemed to make ripples in the air around it. Various square designs lined the outside, but a large image of an eye stared straight at him on the front. "What is that thing?" he whispered to himself. "And what is it doing in a room all by itself like this?"
The illusionary decorative piece was beckoning him, and slowly he complied, stepping forward and fitting his hands around its arching handles. As soon as he did, a vision, a memory of some sort popped out from nowhere. Jack saw…himself. He was standing in the stone hall of his own house, clutching the very same pot.
"There it is…" he heard his own voice speaking. "The Vase of Viscous Visions…"
"The Vase of Viscous Visions?" Jack said, popping back out into this world he was in. Instantly, the blue vase began to react. He looked down to see something swirling up inside of it.
"That was the one that stored memories, right?" his voice spoke up again from the vision.
"Stores…memories?" he repeated in fascination. The iridescent bubble was swelling over the clay, potted lips of the container. Shining, crystalline shades of blue and purple misted through the quivering globe. The swelling began growing, and Jack knew that if he even touched the gentle structure, it would probably pop and spill the memories all through the room.
The fluffy particles of multicolored substances grew closer and closer, and somehow, he couldn't take his eyes off of them. At last, a cold, wet feeling washed over his body, and the fibrous, multicolored clouds slowly morphed into people, walls, furniture, and other paraphernalia.
There was his ultimate future form again, goatee and all, leering sinisterly down at another person, standing defiantly at the base of the dais. His flickering vermillion eyes narrowed further as they painfully let in that despicable creature before him.
Julie, was the first thing that Jack thought, but when he looked out at the rebellious woman, noticed her contradictory blonde, highlighted hair. She wore a tattered brown dress, exposing her forearms and legs, which were painted stark white, of course, along with the black lines under her eyes.
"What do you want, kid?" Ultimate Master Jack spoke up in a deep, malevolent voice.
"Don't move," the blonde woman commanded in a hard, determined tone. "Or I'll shoot this thing." She suddenly aimed a long weapon with one bulbous container on the end straight towards future Jack's face.
The global monarch suddenly exploded in raucous laughter. "Oh, please. Don't waste my time. You really think you can 'overthrow' me with that stupid little swarm of hornets? I really thought you would have gotten a clue by now…"
"No," the lady shot back. "I don't believe I can defeat you with this…"
Looking into her flashing blue-black eyes, and pouting, similar shaped face, Jack at last realized who she was, and heard a familiar, complaining little female voice in the back of his head. "…Meagan?" he slowly guessed, incredulously.
"…We can defeat you with this!" a second, deeper, more hardened female voice yelled from above. Ultimate Master Jack looked casually up behind him at the source of the sound. A second blonde woman, this one a bit older, and in a shimmering cat suit, came flying downwards from a hatch in the ceiling, extending a foot in a karate kick.
"Ashley?" Jack guessed again, completely on target.
The older Ashley, still Katnappe, came flying down, but the future Jack simply held out his staff, preventing her foot from slamming into him. "Aaaugh!" she screamed as he proceeded to toss her to the ground from the end of his staff.
Meagan immediately activated a HeliPack strapped onto her back, and desperately tried to fly away. Unfortunately, she didn't really know how to control the device, and couldn't fly away in time.
The Ultimate Master thrust out an arm, ordering the palace Facist patrol to capture Katnappe. She had no face paint, though Jack hadn't noticed it before. The black-and-white men came and swarmed upon the fallen catwoman imposter, streaming from every door in the throne room.
Meagan, from up in the sky, heard hers screams, and finally gained control of the HeliPack, whooshing downward through the air, trying to save her new partner. Just then, the Facists surrounding her reached up, capturing Meagan as well. And there was himself…his future self, standing on his lofty perch, smirking satisfactorily at it all.
The runny vision began to merge and change, in a backdrop of white and black before Jack's eyes. The swirling colors once again morphed into new things, rearranging and setting up the memory scene. Meagan and Ashley were before him again, except this time they were sitting inside a metal chamber, dressed in tattered, peasant clothes, even Ashley, now out of her snazzy cat suit.
"I'm sorry…" Meagan softly spoke up, wiping a tear from her eye. "I shouldn't have tried to take off like that so soon…"
"No, no," Ashley retaliated. "It's my fault. I should have seen that staff trick coming… I've gotten a bit rusty over the years… And remember how it used to be…we were always the ones in control…"
"I don't want control…" Meagan replied, her voice trembling. "I just…want to live and be myself… But that's impossible." She slowly slid across the smooth metallic floor and wrapped her arms around Ashley. It was strange to see the two grown women acting this way, but they had a very good reason. "I'm afraid…"
"Don't worry," Ashley assured her younger friend. "We're always together. As much as we used to deceive everyone…I always told everyone that I was a "friend of the family."
"That's right," Meagan agreed, looking a little upwards, and straight into the pointy flame jet on the side of the wall. "We're the Mustards sisters…"
And slowly, together, they began to chant, "Mustards sisters, come together, akin to the grand descendants, Mustards assistance, come together…eternal power, united forever…"
Mustards…? Jack asked himself. So, all this time, Ashley was really Meagan's sister…and my cousin?! They're my aunt's children…the Mustards… Just as he realized it, Meagan and Ashley clutched each other, as the metal wall of their little chamber slid into place… Jack then realized what was happening.
No…no, not again… As he thought about the slow, agonizing death again, the cool, protective aura of the Vase of Viscous Visions suddenly disappeared, and he found himself back inside the dark reality of the room inside the Hill Palace.
Again… he slowly acknowledged. Again, I painfully slaughtered the ones closest to me…first, my father, and then my cousins… I never really liked either of them…but I never hated them that much… He looked sadly up from the new mysterious Shen-Gong-Wu, and at last snapping out of his trance, he again realized that he needed to get back to saving Julie.
Jack, though slightly shaken from the experience, said, "Shroud of Shadows!" and draped it back over his shoulders. At last, after emerging from the darkened Shen-Gong-Wu storage room, he believed he was headed in the right direction again.
As he flew down the halls, he noticed a few flaming torches on the wall. Perhaps he should grab one of the torches out of its holder, so he would have something to defend himself with. That idea was quickly shot down, when he realized that a floating torch would be a lot more suspicious than a door moving on its own. In order to take the torch with him, he'd have to remove the Shroud of Shadows and put it back on again, with the torch in his hand. It would take too much time to find a secure place where he wouldn't be seen or heard, so he could take the Shen-Gong-Wu off and then not he heard when he said "Shroud of Shadows" once again. That meant he'd have to go in there defenseless. He'd have to only trust his bare abilities…which were altogether nonexistent.
At last, Jack arrived at the flickering red scanning beam, the barrier between the dull, dead world of civilization, and the everlasting extravagance of his. This hadn't occurred to him in his frantic struggle to save his daughter. How would he ever be able to get past that barrier without being detected by the Palace guards, and being thrown back to the Facists? The Shroud of Shadows wouldn't be enough, since his mass would still be detected.
Remembering the other time when Julie rushed up to save Kimiko, he crouched down and examined the device more closely. There had been some slot she'd thrown a card into, right? At last, he noticed the slot, and noticed that the card was actually still wedged inside of it.
Jack grabbed the thin edge of the object and yanked it from its tight position. The laminated cardboard snapped when it finally popped out. When he got a look at what was printed on it, a laugh welled up in his chest, while another chill started in a nearby area. It was a simple playing card. A Jack of Hearts. Coincidence, he quickly brushed it off, it's not my fault my name is so darn common. He quickly tried inserting the card again to deactivate the sensors. Thankfully his attempt worked, and the red, flame-like barrier dissolved into the air.
With no more thoughts on the subject, Jack barreled up the long spiral staircase. He tried to focus entirely on the rescue ahead of him. He'd need some strategic planning if he even hoped to be able to save his daughter from his own clutches. The problem was, he found himself strangely unable to think of this, and all he kept repeating in his mind was a familiar children's nursery rhyme.
"Jack and Jill went up the Hill/ To fetch a pail of water/ Jack fell down and broke his crown/ And Jill came tumbling after." He tried to shake this out of his head, knowing that this had nothing to do with the conflict ahead, but in fact, it had everything to do with it.
There was no way to stop the golden halls from appearing now. Their grand magnificence opened out from nowhere, and Jack suddenly felt out of breath, though he hadn't before. It had taken a lot of effort to get here with no HeliPack to aid him.
As soon as his presence was detected, his future turned and stared him, balefully in the face. "How dare you…" future Jack responded, in a voice that reminded him deeply of his own.
Julie, standing not far in front of him, hopefully jerked her body around. She was a bit ragged herself, bits of her dress torn off, and her normally smooth hair frazzled. But the smile that appeared on her true, peachy face overlooked any of her appearance's miniscule flaws. "…Jack?!" she cried, and it was a sound like the trumpet of angels.
"That's right," Jack at last managed to say, halfway trying to buy himself some time before the brawl truly began. "I'm still here. I've always still been here. Julie, I won't let you die just for being who you are. …I realized that it's okay to do that now."
"Oh really?" future Jack spoke up, stepping a little backwards and crossing his arms, in a superior fashion. "I've always been who I am, too. This is who I am!" The king suddenly and unexpectedly released a blast of dark power from his extended hand. The attack zoomed mercilessly towards Julie.
The young teenage girl shrieked as the power slammed full force into the front of her body. The Palace's Facist regime had obviously tied up her arms and legs, allowing her to stand, but do nothing more.
Jack looked down at her crumpled body in sympathy and appall. His gaze then fell back upon his future physical appearance. "Why?" he slowly asked the different ideals of his future. "Why do you want to kill your own daughter so badly? I know you want a son, and consider her useless to you…but she's a part of you; she's just like you!"
"She is nothing like me," future Jack gravely responded. "I made sure of that a long time ago. She is much more than what she appears, and I am only a simple mentor to the almighty power of her lineage. When she realizes this, perhaps a little switcheroo can be arranged…"
Jack furrowed his thick eyebrows. "You know, sometimes I just don't understand myself."
"Oooh, good one," the Ultimate Master said, sarcastically. He moved closer and prepared to attack the helpless girl once again.
Jack bravely stepped out in front of Julie, without even knowing why at first. If he had no weapons, and no methods of fighting…he could always use his own life, right?
"No…" Julie tried to explain, reaching at his ankles from her position on the carpeted floor. "Jack, don't…you don't really know what you're doing…"
"I know exactly what I'm doing," Jack retaliated, glancing back down at her. "Don't argue with someone who's tying to save your life." Julie looked a bit sad and afraid, but couldn't stop him from trying to save her.
"Get out of the way," Ultimate Master Jack snarled, building the ball of dark power within his hands.
"I'm not moving," Jack firmly decided.
His future counterpart shook his head, disgustedly. "This can't be true. I think I know myself pretty well, and I would never really do something like this. Do you realize that you're about to die?"
Jack gritted his teeth and stared himself straight in the face. "Yes. Even if I die, I have power. I can go on. It looks like I'm not entirely useless after all, because even if I can't do anything, I can still save a life, and make the biggest impact anyone could ever make…"
"Fine, fine," the Ultimate Master replied, flipping the enormous black bubble, casually around in his hands. "You want to die? I always wanted to destroy my past, anyway. I loathe my past life…"
"Jack…" Julie softly spoke up, her light, chirpy voice pleading for his life. "Don't do this…"
But Jack disregarded her words. He needed to save her. If he died, she might be born to a different man in the future, but at least she would have a chance to live past the age of thirteen. Maybe… he slowly realized. This is what I came here to do…
At that critical moment, Ultimate Master Jack finally released his concentration of evil energy, and as the flickering dark material grew closer and closer, Jack began to see things again, the same as he had seen Julie's face before venturing into this dreaded chamber.
The refined face of Mr. Spicer appeared first, in its present form, giving him a familiar lecture. "No. You must fight harder against this force than you have ever fought before. Do not let it get out! Stop it with all your might!"
Then, a different time melted into existence within his mind. "You must never use your powers. Those are the destructive powers of our ancestors, and will one day destroy the world…"
Jack concentrated with everything he had to block out these feelings. His body began to tremble as a dark aura began to grow around him.
Then, there was his father a second time, only the sickly, dilapidated one he knew from the Facist's camp. "How could I not have realized my own forthcomings! What I have been fostering this entire time… To feed the bank of my own destruction!"
That dreadful "compassion" feeling surged into him again, as the flames once again danced, threateningly around his body.
Next, visions of Kimiko's dull, zombie-like stare and the other Xiaolin Jesters… The aura grew a bit stronger. The Jack-bots and their understanding of his situation…his creations, helping their creator… At last, Julie appeared again, her face smiling and streaked with tears. "We don't have to keep in hiding…anymore…" " I will carry on. I have a purpose here…"
The visions of the Mustards sisters, clutching each other desperately, knowing that death was inevitable as soon as the workers closed their doors…that heart-wrenching scream… A few tears broke from Jack's eyelids and slipped down his speckled cheeks from the raging battle of the opposing wills.
"Go on," Ulimate Master Jack's voice said from within. "What am I?"
"You're…evil…" Jack slowly whispered to himself, finally coming to terms with his own identity. "I…don't want all of this to happen. I don't…want to be you. I don't…want…to be…evil."
At last, a different, unfamiliar voice resounded from out of the plain air. "There are five eternal forces, that each reflect their own characteristics… This one reflexive, volatile, indecisive, and easily molded. If its assistance be necessary, it will rise up in our favor… Its main power…is the power to continue on for as long as it wishes. To move on…"
Jack's tear-streaked cheeks at last lifted, his now glassy vermillion eyes sparkling as they embraced this beautiful, unidentifiable aura. No…it took a long time to figure it out, but…I do have power. I have the power to change this… I must change this…for the world…and everyone living it. Dad, the Mustards, Dojo, Kimiko, Julie…
At last, Jack broke through all the resistance, breaking into the atmosphere as if releasing a thousand pounds from his shoulders. Everything felt back to normal now…he could make it normal. As his own black matter continued to zoom towards him, his lips began stumbling themselves along, without his aid or consent.
"Mmmm…" Closer now…flashes of people's faces, people's lives were whirling through Jack's mind…he had to stop this… "Mmmm-mme…muhhh…"
At last, Jack's trembling body flew up, and formed itself into a perfect position, one hand extended out to the side, and another bent inwards towards his chest. As if in agony with himself and the world around him, the word at last burst from his mouth, from his body, and from his soul, all at the same time. "…METAL!!!"
Julie, still lying against the fuzzy red carpet, struggled upwards to get a look at this amazing phenomenon.
A sparkling backdrop of a sheet of silvery metal sprang up behind Jack, a different shaded yin-yang symbol etched into its center. Giant pointy spears of metal burst from the ground, and with surprising force, drove Ultimate Master Jack's amoeba of dark energy back at its creator.
The surprised dictator jumped back out of the way. He looked almost…afraid, for a moment, and then snapped back into his usual sinister sneer. "It doesn't matter!" he yelled, partly to himself. "This is a different world, a different dimension. Whatever happens here will not always be true in other worlds…"
Julie, stunned and inspired behind him, at last managed to summon her powers. "Comet Blaze, Meltdown!" she yelled, and the ropes around her burst into ashes. She immediately broke into a run, kneeling worriedly next to Jack. "A-Are you…okay, Jack?" she slowly asked, nudging him upwards.
Jack panted and began to struggle to his knees again. "What…was that?" he rasped, eyes still wide.
Julie smiled as she took his hands and helped him up. "You attacked him," she explained, "And saved both our lives. I never would have guessed, but now I know where I got my powers from…" Jack blinked back at her in confusion, so she took a breath again to clarify. "You don't recognize yet…you're the fifth elemental Xiaolin warrior- the Dragon of Metal! That's how I got my powers; though "Meltdown" isn't an element, it's my Mom's fire powers mixed with your metal powers!"
Jack never got a chance for this new revelation to truly register in his mind, because his future self was at it again.
"Yes," Ultimate Master Jack admitted, throwing his long cape over his shoulder, dramatically. "I am…or was supposed to be the legendary Dragon of Metal, but that is what enables me to do this!" He grabbed the Soul Scepter, glittering dangerously within his hands, and thrust it out in front of him, directly at Julie. She gave off a scream, and looked frantically around for an escape route. It was too late…
"Soul Scepter, Metal!!!" the world's ruler yelled, and the orb at its head began to light up.
Jack took a stance and once again tried to access his new powers, but things like this took time…which he had none of. He closed his eyes, and prepared for the end of the world, and slowly, a force gathered over his body, pulling at every point of his skin… Pretty soon, it would tear his soul from it, and trap it forever in the confined little red crystal…but somehow, he knew everything would be okay…and that he would still carry on…
